The Republican Congress’ Furtive Moves to Give Away “America’s Birthright”

Heather Hansman The Guardian
Republican lawmakers have quietly laid the foundation for the bargain basement transfer of Americans’ birthright, 640 million acres of national land, to private hands, notably oil, mining, and development interests. In a single line of changes to the rules for the House of Representatives, Republicans have stealthily eased the path to disposing of federal property, even if doing so loses money for the government and provides no demonstrable compensation to U.S. citizens.

School Privatizer to Head US Department of Education

Bob Peterson Education in Crisis
While it is doubtful that US President-elect Donald Trump ever read George Orwell's 1984, Trump's cabinet choices appear to come right out of the doublethink that ruled Orwell's dystopian society. In Orwell's book, the Ministry of Plenty rationed essentials while the Ministry of Truth manufactured falsehoods. Trump's choice for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, is perhaps the most extreme of Trump's cabinet nominees.

Tidbits - January 19, 2017 - Reader Comments: Rearming Germany; Now Commute Leonard Peltier Sentence; Obama's Farewell Address; Meryl Streep; Privatization Articles; Rodrigo Duterte; Announcements; and more...

Portside
Reader Comments: Rearming Germany; Martin Luther King Today; Obama Commutes Sentences of Oscar Lopez Rivera and Chelsea Manning - Now Commute Leonard Peltier Sentence; Obama's Farewell Address; Meryl Streep; Cuban Medical Internationalism; Privatization Articles; Puzder Confirmation as Labor Secretary Pushed Back; Rodrigo Duterte - Readers Disagree; Announcements: Whitney Museum - Free Inauguration Day `Diversity' Show; Trumpism: How Should the Left Respond?; more...

labor

Millions of Indian Workers Strike for Better Wages

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera
Tens of millions of public sector workers have gone on a day-long strike across India, protesting against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's economic policies, particularly his plans to push for greater privatization. Thousands of state-run banks, government offices and factories were closed on Friday, and public transport disrupted, in the strike called by 10 trade unions.

labor

Uber and Lyft Want to Replace Public Buses

Joshua Brustein Chicago Tribune
In Uber's early days, it said it wanted to be "everyone's private driver." Now the company and its main U.S. competitor, Lyft, are playing around with the idea of becoming the bus driver, too.

labor

State Terrorism and Education, the New Speculative Sector in the Stock Market

Renata Bessi and Santiago Navarro F. El Enemigo Común
(Orginally published in Spanish on SubVersiones, see links at the end.) If the national teachers movement in Mexico manages to bring down the educational reform, there will be a path to bringing down all the structural reforms that are occurring in the country’s strategic sectors, such as the energy sector. This is the assessment that teachers are making. This is precisely the fear of the federal government.

tv

Why Are The Guards On Strike On 'Orange Is The New Black'? Privatization Got To Them

Mariella Mosthof Romper
One of Orange Is the New Black's greatest accomplishments in Season 3 was exploring the Litchfield guards' inner lives just as deeply, richly, and with just as much complexity as it has the inmates' lives. Rather than set up a false dichotomy where the prisoners are the "good guys" who just got themselves into a bad situation and the guards are the monsters, Season 3 shows us that the guards have it tough, too. So tough, in fact, that they decide to unionize.

School Solutions and Turnarounds

Bobbi Murray & Bill Raden Capital and Main
California has become ground zero for the national battle over charter school expansion. Some of America’s richest individuals and largest foundations are pouring resources into what critics view as the privatization of public education. Based on six months of reporting and interviews with experts, elected officials, educators and advocates on both sides of the debate, “Failing the Test” is a comprehensive portrait of how charter schools are changing public education.
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