Privileged Policy Cla$$e$

50 years ago, George Wallace ran against pointy headed bureaucrats. 40 years ago, that lying fascist motherf'ker Ronnie Ray-Gun ran to destroy the community, and we the Pee-On$ still living with the consequences of his success. Anyone in the bottom 80% of household income notice how well The t_Rump took care of the Pee-On$? 

Make Stuff, Make Shit, Make Society WORK. MAKE SHTUF WORK? 

Where are the living wages, the affordable and humane housing in a community, the NOT bank account ruining health care, the thriving education systems, the infrastructure, the justice systems for all instead of for the rich, the voting systems which just work, the unemployment & retraining systems? 

MAKE SHTUF WORK.  

How are We The People ever going to have a government by the people, for the people, and of the people, when the Policy Big $hot$ who run community services are out of touch? Why are the Policy Big $hot$ so out of touch, and, so incompetent? 

We are hamstrung by the apex of the truly Privileged Policy Cla$$e$. These Cla$$e$ have hit the Privilege Trifecta.  They are financially privileged in family net wealth, in current household income, and they work in positions which are far removed from the actual on the ground realities of the policies they fabricate.

Privilege = $ub$idie$, By The Thou$and$

Supporting the Privileged are the groveling hordes with 1 or 2 of the Privy Trifecta tic boxes in their Power Point Credentials. In the hordes, NOTHING is more important than fitting in with the cool kids of the Privileged Trifecta.  

Remember the cool cliques of 6th, 7th grade, 12 grade? Who was in? Who was out? Who didn't have a chance? YAWN. It is scary how many adult life pecking orders are similar.

In the arithmetically challenged world of the Privileged Trifecta and the groveling hordes, society's failings will cease when we are ALL in the top 10% of personal income, household income, and household wealth. We'll ALL be doing the work of higher order thinking, and, like Rodin's "The Thinker", we'll all be sitting around on rocks, emanating, illuminating, ruminating, thinking deeply and profoundly. This model has been spectacularly successful for the Privileged, and, few others. 

In some aspects of life, the Privileged & the groveling hordes are a perfect fit with Roman Empire Patricians, British Aristocrats, and Antebellum Southern Plantation Owners.  They live and breath in an ether of complete contempt, disdain and scorn for those who do the actual work of making society actually work. It is Jan. 2021 at the time of this posting - how well have the essentially disposable working stiffs been doing since Covid started in March 2020? We know that the Privileged Big $hot$ are doing great! 

Someday, to be running an organization you're going to have to excel at making SHTUF work!?

While I may be mistaken in a few minor cases, in my 15+ years of teaching high school math, I honestly can't recall ever seeing any Great Ideas! presented by the Privileged such that there are ball park estimates of the steps required to accomplish the Great Idea! 

Given that there are few or no steps for executing The Great Idea!, there are no or few details about staff and time needed to execute the steps.  With no ballpark time estimates for how long staff will have to spend on the missing steps, who needs a budget for The Great Idea! Actual budget is vacuumed up by the self dealing Privileged Cla$$e$, with a few crumbs thrown to the beat down working stiffs, too few of whom are earning family wage pay.  

There are some constants with these Great Ideas! In education, those of us in the building are blamed for systemic failures which we have little to no control over. The Privileged, off in their Ivory ether, use their mountain of power points to tout their phake accomplishments, thereby justifing their self dealing existence, ultimately leading to a higher paying position within the district or elsewhere. 

When I consider the skill of the Privileged Cla$$ with jargon, with self promotion, with spouting virtue signaling platitudes, with doublethink and doublespeak worthy of Robert McNamara's Defense Department, I suppose they've earned their positions in the Privileged Policy Cla$$ of Para$ite$ ?  

+++++

Numbers from October, 2020. 

-- Individual Income Percentile - 2020

https://dqydj.com/income-percentile-calculator/

Top 5% at or above $174,000. 

=> appx. 8.883 million out of appx. 176.666 million individuals with income. 

Top 20% above $85,950.  => 80%, appx. 141.332 million BELOW 

-- Household Income Percentile

https://dqydj.com/household-income-percentile-calculator/

Top 5% Above $270,358. appx. 6.421 million out of 128.421 million households 

Top 20% Above $142,400.

=> 80%, appx. 102.736 million household BELOW.

-- Household Wealth Percentiles

https://dqydj.com/net-worth-percentile-calculator-united-states/

Top 5% Above $2,584,000.  Appx. 6.421 million out of 128.421 million households

BOTTOM 50%, Less Than $121,411. 

=> appx. 64.210 million households. 

Privilege = $ub$idie$, By The Thou$and$

It is March 2020, and I have been a high school math teacher for 15 years in the Great State of Wishy Warshy, Pacified Northwest. 14 of those teaching years have been in Seattle. This is career #3, after about 25 years spent working out in that vibrant! private sector rat race.

'Privilege' is a topic education people love to discuss, to explore, to ruminate over, to pontificate about.  I've rarely been around or seen much effort spent analyzing the money $ide of Privilege.

Privilege helps you to be and allows you to be clueless about the live$ of people not from Privilege. For most of the Privileged, you get to be clueless about the security you had in your background because it is culturally critical to be ignorant of money. Given your money ignorance, you get to ignore that your background is from the top 50% or 25% or 10% of household income. You sure as hell won't or can't count those Thou$and$ of $ub$idie$ the make the security that makes the Privilege!

The following list has some examples of how people get their $ub$idie$.

EDUCATION: – After graduation, are you under the median in student loan indebtedness for your degree? Could you afford to work at unpaid internships?

HOUSING – after high school or college, did you get or will you get support for moving, for down payments, for security deposits, … for rent or mortgages? 

TRANSPORTATION – after school or during school, did you get a reliable family car hand-me-down for free or low monthly payments? Did you get help with down payments to buy a reliable car? 

HEALTH CARE ACCESS – after schooling, are you able to NOT go to the poor people’s clinics? Can you NOT rely on the poor people's health 'care' of ... Cross Your Fingers?

CLOTHING AND VACATIONS – can you afford to present well, so, you’re a ‘good fit’? During the 'casual' parts of interviews, can you chatter about the right kind of vacation$?

What about you?! 

How many Thou$and$ of $ubsidie$ are you NOT counting ??? 

+++++

Numbers from October, 2020. 

-- Individual Income Percentile - 2020

https://dqydj.com/income-percentile-calculator/

Top 5% at or above $174,000. 

=> appx. 8.883 million out of appx. 176.666 million individuals with income. 

Top 20% above $85,950.  => 80%, appx. 141.332 million BELOW 

-- Household Income Percentile

https://dqydj.com/household-income-percentile-calculator/

Top 5% Above $270,358. appx. 6.421 million out of 128.421 million households 

Top 20% Above $142,400.

=> 80%, appx. 102.736 million household BELOW.

-- Household Wealth Percentiles

https://dqydj.com/net-worth-percentile-calculator-united-states/

Top 5% Above $2,584,000.  Appx. 6.421 million out of 128.421 million households

BOTTOM 50%, Less Than $121,411. 

=> appx. 64.210 million households. 

Factions - Working WITH Each Other, Not FOR.

Factions - from The Federalist #10, James Madison, November 1787.

"a number of citizens, whether amounting to a minority or majority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community".

I've just turned 60, I grew up in Massachusetts in a family always discussing politics. Who remembers the acrimony in the Democratic Party when Kennedy challenged Carter? When Dukakis won in 1988? When Clinton won in 1992, or Gore in 2000, or Kerry in 2004, or Obama vs. Hillary in 2008? Anyone notice happening now against Bernie Sanders? 

I've been active in various ways in the SEA from the 2009 bargain until 2018. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard 1 faction or another disparage another faction for a lack of solidarity or unity, I'd have a full paycheck!

HOW do we actually work WITH each other? In the current model the winners basically step on the toes of the losers, insult the losers as being anti-Solidarity and anti-Unity, and insist the losers work FOR the winners. When we look at General Assembly attendance, when we look at voting participation in Seattle Education Association elections, the current model is a failure. 

We need to change. 

MEETINGS, AGENDAS, ABBREVIATED ROBERT'S RULES - ONLINE AND OPEN

https://organizingteacherswa.blogspot.com/2014/06/meetings-agendas-abbreviated-roberts.html

Rah Rah At Franklin High for Statewide $13.50 Minimum Wage & Sick Leave - I 1433

WHEN 

FRIDAY, 4 November 2016

4:00 pm. to ... 6?

WHERE

Franklin's Corner - MLK & Rainier

WHO

Franklin teachers ... Citizens ... Seattle Teachers ...

WHAT

Sign Waving Rah - Rah for Initiative 1433

http://www.raiseupwa.com/

HOW

Wave Signs - Drink Cocoa in the cold ... chat with people ... Wave Signs ...

Seattle City Council - Step Up On Secure Scheduling.

Dear Seattle City Council Members, 

Please adopt rules or regulations, or whatever they're called, for secure scheduling. 

30 years ago in 1986 I was cooking at the Boston Four Seasons Hotel, and I worked weird, non standard non 9 - 5 hours, BUT, they were predictably weird. My coworkers also worked predictable weird hours. They could watch the kids before work or after work, take care of batty Aunty Betty or doddering Grandpa Don, or get a part time job, or take classes. After the Four Seasons, I cooked at the Boston Sheraton for a year and had predictable weird schedules. I then cooked at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston from '88 to '89, and it was the first time I had some weekends off in 9 years. With a predictable weird schedule, a secure schedule, employers were not interfering with MY free time. 

Today's schedules have your days off changing, every week. They have the time you go to work changing within the week. Some days you start at 5:00 a.m. and some days at 3:00 p.m., and those days change from week to week. Time is Money. Unpredictable schedules = stealing MY free time, and stealing my time is theft of opportunity.

Want to sleep poorly, eat irregularly & too much, not have any established exercise patterns, gain weight, gain chronic weight related ailments, ..., sleep poorly? Try a modern screw-the-employee schedule. Want to have little or no time for friends and family or participating in the community because your schedule is constantly changing? Try a modern screw-the-employee schedule. 

Would Boeing allow Microsoft to dump the cost of Microsoft's employees onto Boeing's payroll? Does the hospital industry want to pay the property leases and rents and mortgages of the restaurant industry?  Why are companies allowed to wreck the health of community members, and dump the cost of the resultant health and social problems onto the families of the community, and consequently onto the community?

Before the Four Seasons, I had worked at smaller food services. I had been grill cook for the summer of 1985 at a hotel on Martha's Vineyard. I had cooked at a very upscale Creole place for 1.5 years before that job, and I had worked at 2 very busy ...family?... kind of places from '81 to '83. I had worked graveyard in a bakery for over a year. At ALL these jobs, I worked non standard, "weird" hours, but they were predictable. When it comes to flexibility, in all those years, stuff comes up, and schedules change, unexpectedly - we're adults, we adjust.

Time is Money. Unpredictable schedules = stealing MY free time, and stealing my time is theft of opportunity. Adopt Secure Scheduling. 

Thank you, 
Bob Murphy
North Seattle, District 5. 

Friedrichs Is A Smaller Threat To Unions Than Insider Potemkin Democracy

Below is a leaflet I handed out at the annual meeting of the Washington Education Association (WEA) on Thurs. 21 Apr. 2011.  Since this is a cut and paste, some of the points are out of date.  
Over the last 5 plus years I've attempted to get some traction with some of these ideas. The efforts at getting daylight for these ideas, or similar ideas with different people, have been staggeringly futile. What has been most interesting is just how deep is the resistance to change.
When the 'democratic' processes of an organization are all stacked to insure that the entrenched and unaccountable get to stay in charge of the cookie jar, people walk away. I wish I had a dollar for every time I've heard some leader or leader wannabe of the Seattle Education Association (SEA), WEA, or National Education Association blame working members for not participating in last minute processes in which working members had little or no visibility to, and little or no input to. 
The leaflet is below. 

++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++

3 Must Do’s

I. It is too hard to participate.  II. Too often participation is demanded / extorted / guilted in such a way that people participate in ways which they aren’t interested in. Eventually, their participation goes from limited to non-existent.  III. The union does a lousy job at keeping people interested in participating.

I.  WE MUST DO ORGANIZING ONLINE

+++++ My Statement.
Volunteers need to be able to self-organize on the web. Volunteers should NEVER have to waste time the questions of WHAT, WHERE, WHO, WHEN, HOW for the campaign or issue they’re working on.  Volunteers should just be able to go to 1 website and get the following information for whatever community event or campaign they’re going to work with:  

+++++ My Proposal.
1.  WHAT are we going to do?  Doorbelling, phone bank, rah rah, mailings, leafleting, informational tabling at community events, letter to editor / blog writing, contacting legislators…
2.  WHERE is the WHAT going to happen?  The corner of Main and 6th, the Law Office of SaveEm & SueEm, the statue of the pig…
3.  WHO are we doing WHAT with? WHO is the coordinator making sure the ingredients of HOW happen.
4. WHEN are we doing WHAT? Every Friday night, Just Sat the 6th …
5. HOW are we going to do WHAT? Post as many instructions on the web as possible, so workers are less dependent on any coordinator.

II.  WE MUST LET PEOPLE DO WHAT INTERESTS THEM OR,
LET PEOPLE DO WHAT THEY CAN STOMACH

+++++ My Statement.
People SHOULD participate in a way which interests them the most. Campaigns typically try to get everyone to only doorbell on this day or phone bank on that day – AND – how does that entice people who don’t want to phone bank or don’t want to doorbell or WANT to leaflet? IF it were easy to organize online, it would be easier for people to participate in a way which is comfortable and with people they want to participate with.
Below is a sample printed email I handed out at my high school, soliciting participation. It took me several hours to put this together (in Google Docs) and get it printed and get it back to school and hand it out and and and … this is something the UNION should be doing, electronically, and it should be tied to the online organizing.  

+++++ My Proposal & Model.
How You Can Help and How Can You Help
Which Political Activity Interests You The Most, or, which is the least odious?

Which Community Organizing Activity Interests You The Most? *PICK ONLY 1
•      Phone banking for an issue or candidate.
•      Doorbelling - going door to door and chatting with people about an issue or candidate.
•      Visibility - Sign Waving & Rah Rah in public spaces or at public events for an issue or candidate.
•      Leafleting and /or Informational Table at some Community event (farmer's markets, public meetings...)
•      Writing Letters to the Editor / Responding to media articles about an issue or candidate.
•      Hosting Get Togethers / Coffee Hours with Friends / Neighbors about an issue or candidate.
•      Helping a Host.
•      Being an organizer for 1 of the above.
•      Participate in civil disobedience !!!
•      Other:  

IF all 80,000 WEA members do 4 Political Activities a year, for only 2 hours at a time, THEN WEA members will do 320,000 Political Activities a year for a total of 640,000 hours. When would you prefer to participate?
•      I could only manage in the summer.
•      I could do it over the course of the year.
•      I’d prefer to participate during primary and general campaign season.
•      I’d prefer to participate when the legislature is in session.

III.  MESSAGING FROM WEA MUST BE BETTER

+++++ My Statement.
My wife’s mother was told in 1949 at Bates College by her English professor in the nursing program that written communication had to be: Clear, Concise, Concrete, Consistent.
We do NOT have consistent information, even with the internet. I typically know more about what is happening from Blogs like Publicola, Save Seattle Schools http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/ , Seattle Education http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/ , and the Olympian than I get from my union.

 +++++ My Ideas.
    Through email and the web, there should be a specific time that messages are sent out. For example, people should know that every … Thursday at 5:00 the union tells us what is up with what. (Look at the Washington State Labor Council’s messaging!) When things are busy, the messaging should be more frequent AND should tell us when the next update will happen.

IV.  Solidarity & Civility – The Myth, Trap and Lie

+++++ My Statement & My Ideas.
Let’s think about something – WHEN will 2 or more people ever agree on anything for longer than a week or a month, ESPECIALLY something like - which candidate or which campaign to support, AND, which political activities are the best ways to support the candidate or campaign?

The “Solidarity” thing becomes a trap EVERY fall. The CON$ultant$ get in charge of the campaigns and start with their grand stratergeries which ALWAYS boil down to: IF we all do what we’re told for the top of the ticket, the out pouring will trickle down the rest of the ballot. These grand $erve the intere$t$ of the CON$ultant cla$$ who've lead us to defeat after defeat for the la$t 30+ year$, under the banner of "don't scare the middle, or we'll lose." How has that worked out in Indiana, Florida, Wisconsin...? On Wall Street with casino pensions? With energy independence? With ha ha ha "heath care"?

Every time I hear “Solidarity” I wonder … huh? “Solidarity” is a cute myth, and when it is the basis for political strategy it is frequently childish. We really have to turn off the Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood romanticism and get out of the unrealistic trap it creates. We need to recognize that no one agrees on much for very long, and to concentrate on getting people involved!  

Seattle Educators - 8 for 4 School Board Candidates!

EACH of us needs to reach out to 8 friends and family to recommend the following 4 school board members. EACH of us needs to email or to talk in person or to phone call 8 Seattle voter people who trust us on this school stuff. 

Hello out there in working teacher & working educator world! Remember starting the school year on strike! Why were we on picket lines instead of in our buildings and our classrooms, with our kids?

Do you remember Superintendent Nyland's bargaining team ignoring our bargaining team from May until August 17, when they rejected everything? Do you remember the hardball from the district? Do you remember that the Seattle Public School School Board voted to give Mr. Nyland authority to take us to court for exercising a human right to organize and to petition for redress of grievance? (except for Sue Peters and Betty Patu)? Do you remember that this was the school board which hired Mr. Nyland last November, at the last minute, with an announcement of a key meeting on the Wed. before Thanksgiving weekend?

EACH of us needs to reach out to 8 friends and family to recommend the following 4 school board members. EACH of us needs to email or to talk in person or to phone call 8 Seattle voter people who trust us on this school stuff.  

IF we don't participate, THEN elected officials patronize us. They have less incentive to help us help our kids, and more incentive to do what they've been doing for years - pat us on the heads and tell us what we want to hear.

Jill Geary in District 3:  http://www.jillforschoolboard.com/  

Leslie Harris in District 6:  http://harrisforschoolboard.com/ 

Rich Burke in District 2:  http://www.rickburke4schools.com/ 

Scott Pinkham in District 1:  https://www.facebook.com/pinkhamforseatleschools

Sunday, October 18, 2015
Crucial Voting for Seattle School Board
http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/2015/10/crucial-voting-for-seattle-school-board.html