for-profit Scrooge

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The purpose of for-profit prisons is to make money, and many contracts with states stipulate that if the prison population goes below a certain number, the state which contracted with the prison company must pay the difference.

Since that figure is high, it becomes important that states fill the cells by any means necessary.

Many years ago when I lived in a Western state, one major city which had one of the county jails received money from the county according to its population on a specific number of days. As a result, on Thursdays, beginning in the afternoon, anyone with a warrant was gathered up, and the number of arrests for questionable reasons increased, and many were guilty of nothing more than some minor infraction, homelessness (sleeping on a beach could constitute loitering), or simply looking suspicious.

Granted, some people in the jail were there for serious infractions, and the population was divided so that one wing of the building housed those who were there for actual crimes, while the other was just those waiting until Monday or Tuesday, depending on how swiftly the court proceedings went.

Each person was worth $45 per day while they were in the jail, and as the food they were given was extremely basic (Breakfast was a cup of coffee and a donut, lunch a bowl of beans, a piece of bread, and a cup of juice, and supper a hotdog, a piece of bread, a cup of juice, and a piece of cake)most o I went o he city as profit.

The following Monday all those brought in were adjudicated with most receiving a judgment of “time served” and released.

Each “weekender” garnered close to $200 for the city.

Although slavery has been unconstitutional for quite a few years, some prisons hire out their inmates to do certain types of jobs (some being the ones that used to be done by slaves) for extremely low wages which on one level gives the prisoners something to do besides walking in large circles in the prison yard, and on another allows companies to keep more of the money charged to those who hired them as little goes to the wages of the workers.

Obviously, it is imperative to keep the prisons filled, not because of the purpose of rehabilitation and re-education for a better future, but for monetary reasons.

And at this Christmas season let us not forget this conversation from A Christmas Carol:

“At this festive season of the year, Mr Scrooge,” said the gentleman, taking up a pen, “it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.”

“Are there no prisons?” asked Scrooge.

“Plenty of prisons,” said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.

“And the Union workhouses?” demanded Scrooge. “Are they still in operation?”

“They are. Still,” returned the gentleman, “ I wish I could say they were not.”

“The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?” said Scrooge.
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“Both very busy, sir.”

“Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,” said Scrooge. “I’m very glad to hear it.”

“Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude,” returned the gentleman, “a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?”

“Nothing!” Scrooge replied.

“You wish to be anonymous?”

“I wish to be left alone,” said Scrooge. “Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don’t make merry myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there.”

“Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.”

“If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. Besides — excuse me — I don’t know that.”

“But you might know it,” observed the gentleman.

“It’s not my business,” Scrooge returned. “It’s enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people’s. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!”

 

 

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Stop using the kids

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Because it is generally assumed that senior citizens are naturally cranky, or are so because of an assumed level of dementia, I am choosing to write about something that drives me absolutely insane, a person’s use of their child to their advantage while at the same time transferring any responsibility for that child onto others.

As I live just three blocks from the clinic where my doctors and specialists have their offices, I walked there yesterday afternoon and observed one of my major pet peeves, mothers who use their children to stop traffic.

I witnessed, as I have done before, a mother pushing a stroller and upon reaching the curb and wanting to cross the street  and needing to stop traffic to do so, pushed the stroller out into the street to accomplish that.

In spite of good driving, there may be circumstances that prevent a driver stopping as quickly as these mothers assume they will.

It was down town, so there were a lot of distractions, one of which was the other cars pulling in and out of parking spaces, or going from one side of the wide street to the other to get a parking space, or anticipating a turn which called for a driver’s attention to be on them, and not looking for something about to be pushed into the street below eye level from between parked cars.  After a day of rain the night before, and with the temperature having dropped to below twenty degrees there were patches of ice that could have prevented any attempt to come to a screeching halt on a dime.

There were also some old cars whose levels of disrepair could have meant one, at least, might have been in need of a brake adjustment.

Needless to say, although the desired effect was to have traffic stop, there was the possibility that it wouldn’t, and besides not having gotten what was desired, there would have been a child in a stroller struck by a car which would obviously result in injury or death,  a court case, a financial payout, and a negative effect on the psyche of the driver who was not given much warning about needing to come to a stop and who would have to live with the guilt of causing harm to a baby, or worse, death.

Rather than put the responsibility of the child’s safety on some unknown driver, the mother should have either left the stroller on the curb as she stepped forward, and when traffic stopped reached back to get it, or walked the few steps from the curb keeping the stroller next to her but on the side protected from oncoming traffic by her body.

This reassignment of responsibility calls to mind my other pet peeve, the soccer mom vans that have those yellow “baby on board” signs in the rear or driver side back window that seem to transfer any responsibility for the on board baby’s safety from the person driving the vehicle to everyone else on the road required to drive so that it plays to the advantage of the van as it swerves in and out of lanes on the interstate, or pulls out from side streets into oncoming traffic.

If you have one of those signs, it is the responsibility of the parent to drive in such a way as to preserve the safety of the baby, not assign that to everyone else.

And while I am at it, let me also throw in that business of a parent not disciplining the child in a store, preferring to tell the child they need to behave because the person behind the counter will yell at them.

As I told a child once during my short time in retail, “No young lady, I will not yell at you. That is your mother’s job. However, you may see me yell at her if she does not do her job.”
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And, finally as I said, I had walked to the nearby clinic as I intended to refill a prescription.

Because the clinic has various departments with entrances at various locations of its half block façade, to get to the pharmacy you simply pull open the correct glass door, turn immediately to your right, and you either walk up to the counter if it’s free, or get in the back of any line that is there.

I was at the back of the line when I noticed a woman who was pushing a large stroller having difficulty pulling the enter door open, and so, filled with the spirit of Christian charity, I took a step or two back and opened the door for her and held it as she entered. However, rather than standing to the side as I retook my place in line, she walked straight to the line taking the spot that had been mine so that I was once again last.

She neither acknowledged my kindness, nor acknowledged my existence, but, instead, took out a cell phone, and as she dialed it, turned the stroller at such an angle that if it had been my intention to regain my rightful place in line, I was barred from doing so by her newly created barrier.

One lady used her child to stop traffic and another to cut in line.

It’s not that I have anything against babies, but I do have something against mothers who use their babies as tools, especially as doing so puts the responsibility on others that should remain that of the parent.

There. I’m done.

 

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Isn’t he a little Dickens

SCROOGE IS VISITED BY CHRISTMAS YET TO COME

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Real charity

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“And say besides that in Aleppo once,Where a malignant and a turbaned Turk Beat a Venetian and traduced the state, I took by the throat the circumcisèd dog, And smote him, thus.”

 

While teaching was still allowed, I used to show my students Shakespeare’s Othello. Then it became all about testing and watching a play became verboten. I often wonder how many of those students have made the connection between current events in Syria and the mention of Aleppo in the play.

A friend of mine goes to Honduras at least once a year to render medical aid to the locals. She has explained that the drugs go through that country heading North, the money makes the return trip, and some of it greases the palms of those in authority while none reaches the masses, who have to endure whatever dangers and mayhem the trafficking brings to their towns. They have no healthcare, so her annual trip is necessary.

But that is not the extent of her charity.

In a few weeks she will be heading to Italy and then Greece to render medical aid to refugees whose cities are being obliterated in a war not of their choosing and not for their benefit.

During previous trips she has had to deal with children who have seen death, and not the quiet giving up the ghost kind, but the kind that often involves beheadings.

The children arrive with only part of the families they began the trip with, and that is only if they can make it past one country’s military that shoots at the inflatable boats so they sink before reaching land, which is intended to reduce the number of those who make it ashore, and who arrest life guards who attempt rescues.

She, herself, faces possible arrest for helping those refugees who actually do make it ashore.

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The other day I listened to a news program on the radio with one person who opposes accepting and aiding the refugees because, as he claimed, the good conditions at refugee camps were attractive enough to entice people to leave their homes and seek false political refuge, while the refugee on the panel pointed out that he had been a surgeon who lived in comfortable home in a better section of Aleppo.

But, according to the critic, he obviously was exaggerating his past life to get to one of those posh camps.

The opponent of refugees was basing his opinion, not on having been to the camps, but on pictures he had seen.

My fiend has been there and has seen things as they are.

One side of the conflict, politely so named, is from one version of Islam, the other side from the other, and the outsiders who encourage the death and destruction know that there is oil for the taking if those they back prevail.

The people my friend has, and will be once again helping, are simply in the way of what others might gain, and the people to whose country they are fleeing seem to blame them for their condition while not addressing those who are causing it.

If they don’t want the refugees coming to them, a good approach might be getting involved to end that which forces them to flee.

I wish my friend success knowing that whatever she does, even if it is untimely interrupted, is of great importance, benefit, and consolation to those who have lost so much and make landfall.

 

sad day in Simi Valley

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True motives

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Who knows the middle class better than this plucky band?

??????????????

The middle class needs help and it voted for the person who as president they thought would make things right.

So he has assembled a crack team of oil companies and billionaires knowing there is no one else who so closely identifies with the little guy that they, and they alone, can do them justice

Who are these champions of the middle class?

The head of Exxon Mobile will be Secretary of State and will benefit from the lifting of any sanctions on Russia, especially the one that deals with oil;

the head of a fast food company is to lead the labor department;

the head of Goldman Sachs, the evil company the president elect had spoken against during his campaign, will head up the Treasury Department so he can straighten out the mess made by Wall Street;

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a person who wants to do away with public education will be in charge of the department that works for public education;

the Small Business Administration will be turned over to someone who ran a fake wrestling association;

and  the person who made a  fortune on other people’s bankruptcies will be in charge of Commerce.

All of them CEOs and members of the 1%

They are The Just Us League.

 

Conservatives bringing the old jobs back

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More loyalty repaid

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During the presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton had proposed, realistically, that as the coal industry was slowly dying and renewable energy development would replace it, coal miners should be retrained so they would be on the forefront of an emerging industry as opposed the losing end of an old and dying one.

But it was all about the winning, obviously from Donald Trump’s constantly proclaiming how many votes he got in the Electoral College and how many people adore him while still refusing to speak about issues and his agenda.

He was able to convince people that what was actually a proactive and beneficial plan was a condemnation of the coal industry, and rather than help the workers, Hillary wanted to kill the industry and the coal miners with it.

It worked as people who supported coal mining blindly voted for those who make the big bucks from the work of the miners who are not paid in proportion to their work.

And how are these miners being repaid for their votes?

The party the pro-coal people chose to support, Republican Party, plans to take away coal miners’ pensions and their healthcare.

Because of the United Mine Workers of America fund from the1940s, Miners who survive long careers and are often plagued by chronic diseases, like Black Lung, not only get a pension, but also have health care.

But that benefit will expire at the end of this year, and will need the senate to vote the funds to keep it alive beyond that deadline.

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Meanwhile Senate Democrats are trying to pass the Miners Protection Act that would take funds from a federal abandoned-mine-reclamation program and apply it to the miners’ pensions and healthcare now and in the future.

So, not only did the Republicans and Donald Trump through their self-serving, vote getting claims to want to save the coal industry and their misrepresenting Clinton’s proposal to retrain those working in a dying industry as her hatred of the industry and a desire to harm the miners who bought that, get those votes, but now they are working to take away benefits their supporters have worked for.

The death of an industry and the miners who work for it, while amassing fortunes before the industry dies, is the preferred approach for those who see the handwriting on the wall, but choose not to read it because they are selfish and in cahoots with each other and have no loyalty to the workers whose loyalty they abused.

The betrayals just keep piling up.

 

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You should have listened

 

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Back in the 1980s, although the attitude that the people furthest away from the classroom knew everything about what was needed there while the teachers who interacted daily with students who were people they knew and not impersonal numbers or statistics was not new, there was a new manifestation of that which was referred to as the Self Esteem Movement.

Basically anything perceived as negative, perceived being the controlling word with the perception of those not in the classroom having precedence over the knowledge of those who were working in it, had to be avoided at all cost so that students would not be seen by themselves or others as being unable to succeed.

To that end a wrong answer to a question was no longer wrong, but not as correct as it could be, and if a student did not study for a test or simply chose not to do an assignment and should have failed, substitute tests and assignments had to be offered becoming progressively less challenging until it became impossible not to get a passing grade, and students learned that they neither had to prepare for a test or complete an assignment as it would be the teacher’s burden to design easier and easier tests and assignments until the student would simply pass by existing.

Students learned that they did not have to study or work as it only meant more work for the teacher not themselves,and that guessing had its advantages

This lack of learning from failure and not having to work to excel is best exemplified by the participation trophy that is blamed on coaches when no real coach ever advocated for that, but had to participate in that or face discipline for ignoring school district procedures.

Somewhere along the line the non-classroom “experts” decided that all students had to go to college, and that to acknowledge a student had a skill that could be nurtured for their success without having to attend college was tantamount to telling a student he or she was not smart enough to attend one.

This resulted in students who could have excelled as carpenters being forced to become low achieving and frustrated college students who may very well drop out without the skill they could have had to get gainful employment as school districts, on the advice of the “experts” and consultants who made money by convincing elected school boards who needed to appear remediating a problem that did not exist, closed shop classes to eliminate the trades as an option.

The theory was that having shop classes would attract students toward the trades and not college, and students whose talent was encouraged in that direction were being told the were not smart enough to get a degree.

Teachers fought this foolishness, but were ignored.

Now after a generation of students has been subjected to this foolish experimentation that resulted in an emphasis on testing, which eliminated thinking skills in favor of parroting back enough information to give the appearance of achievement, and all students being told they were qualified to attend college and needed to turn their backs on their innate skills and aptitudes, as people discuss bringing back jobs to the United States they are lamenting the lack of skilled laborers and bemoaning the exclusionary emphasis on college and the liberal arts.

Sadly, and ironically, those loudest in their lamentations are historically those who ignored the teachers, and who conveniently  used the Phrase “our schools” so that teachers, who were ignored, are lumped in with those, the politicians, elected school boards, the people who dislike the working people, who do not want do now have accept their responsibility for creating a problem to appear as though they, and only they, could fix it, when in reality they cannot control their monster.

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It wasn’t “our Schools”. It was those who  who played politics and ignored the teachers, the real experts, to create that which they now condemn.

And they will saddle the teachers with one remedy after another as if they are to blame.

They, the public should have listened to the teachers.

I personally would prefer a plumber who can fix my toilet to a lousy plumber who could discuss Marcel Proust.

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