Learing Senters, run by and for our teachers unions

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The Most Public School Thing Ever

David Strom:

Public schools—really, they should be called "government schools"—long ago gave up the idea that they existed solely to educate children. 

I really can't say exactly when, if there is a definitive "when," this transformation occurred. I suspect it happened in much the same way that bankruptcy does: slowly, then all at once. 

>>>>

Case in point: the successful fight to turn May Day, the communist holiday on which the old Soviet Union paraded, into a "Day of Civic Action," on which students participate in political protests along with socialists. They make signs, protest against capitalism, and presumably work toward the day when the Bolsheviks take over America. 

Chicago is hardly unique in this approach to what makes government-run education systems so destructive. Teachers around the country are building up a movement to duplicate the curricular shift. 

The goal is simple: to make students as ignorant and pliant as possible, and to form the ground troops for the coming anti-colonial revolution. 

Can't run a factory or heat a home on feel-good vibes, but the chumps don’t believe that, yet. Gives new meaning to “huddled masses”.

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By Don Surber. He’s writing about Illinois, but as his headline suggests, this is occurring throughout blue state country: NY, New England, and wherever weak minds are found.

Even electricity is leaving blues states

New York state’s tax policy is exiling millionaires to Florida. California’s craziness is banishing billionaires. 

But Illinois has them beat with its climate change laws that are forcing two-thirds of an electric plant in Elwood to take the advice of Suzy Bogguss and drive South with the one they love.

Reddy Kilowatt packed its power plant and headed for Texas, which welcomes gas-powered electric plants. The company that owns two-thirds of that plant is hauling away the equipment that will generate 900 megawatts of power for Texans.

This is the reaction to the 2021 Climate & Equitable Jobs Act, which the Chicago Tribune called “one of Gov. JB Pritzker’s signature accomplishments, requires Illinois to phase out the burning of fossil fuels for electricity by 2045 and sets an earlier 2030 deadline for closing certain gas-fired plants.”

Elwood was among the plants that Democrat gave the arbitrary death penalty. 

One year after the governor signed the law, the Chicago Tribune proudly endorsed Pritzker’s re-election.

Much to its surprise, the editorial board discovered the evil Elwood plant is shutting down ahead of schedule.

On Friday, the newspaper ran an editorial, “Owner of massive Elwood Energy plant isn’t waiting for Illinois closure deadlines. They’re literally moving the plant to Texas.”

The editorial said, “Imagine that an entire nuclear reactor were shutting down for good in northern Illinois. The move at Elwood Energy is the equivalent.”

Democrats already are shuttering nuclear power plants.

Democrats used the global cooling/global warming/climate change argument to get this law passed. That was stated goal.

But now the real goal of ending cheap energy is being revealed in real time—and peddled as an unintentional consequence. There are no unintended consequences in politics, just undisclosed real purposes.

Only now do the unwashed elitist masses in the Fourth Estate realize saving the world will hit utility customers hardest as Democrats seek to bring equality of income in which everyone is poor.

Except the politicians, of course.

The newspaper acted surprised that plant, which were told to shut down, is doing just that—but on its own schedule, not the state’s. Rather take the loss, Elwood Energy sold the plant with Hull Street buying two-thirds of the operation. Now Hull Street is relocating them rather than let them rust out.

The Tribune said, “This startling development should raise alarm bells in Springfield, which already has heard warnings from experts that power capacity could fall short of what’s needed in Illinois within the next five years.”

The alarm went off 5 years ago when the bill was debated.

The move by Hull Street means Illinois won’t put the generator out of commission and save the world. The move means all Illinois accomplished was moving 900 megawatts of power out of state.

The newspaper said, “So not only will there be no reduction in overall emissions due to CEJA, the Chicago area will lose 900 megawatts of power that had been critical to meeting peak demand and helped dampen prices during those peak periods.

“Here’s some context on just how much juice that is. Just down the road from Elwood is Morris, home to Constellation Energy’s Dresden nuclear station, where two reactors combine to generate up to 1,845 megawatts. The six Elwood gas turbines that are heading south are the equivalent of one of Dresden’s reactors in terms of capacity.”

Very Much Related:

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/04/18/cracks-appear-in-climate-consensus-as-germanys-energy-minister-admits-renewable-energy-is-ruining-the-country/

Cracks Appear in Climate Consensus as Germany’s Energy Minister Admits Renewable Energy is Ruining the Country

1 day ago

When Simon Wakter, Political Adviser to Sweden’s Minister for Energy, posted on X last Wednesday with a simple “Wow, incredible article” and a clapping emoji, he captured the shock rippling through Europe’s energy commentariat. The target of his applause was not some fringe sceptic but Germany’s own Economy and Energy Minister, Katherina Reiche.

In a guest column for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Reiche delivered a verdict that would have been career-ending heresy only a year ago: “One fact has been concealed for too long: an energy transition that ignores system costs will ruin the country it claims to save.” To anyone who has watched Germany’s Energiewende — that totemic experiment in decarbonisation-by-decree — unfold like a slow-motion train wreck, Reiche’s words land like a thunderclap from the Establishment itself.

Here is a senior CDU Minister in Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Government openly admitting that two decades of Green-inspired fantasy have saddled the continent’s industrial powerhouse with hidden costs now running, according to estimates she cites, at €36 billion a year and climbing towards €90 billion. Grid expansions, backup power for intermittent wind and solar and the sheer inefficiency of trying to run a modern economy on the weather: all of it, she says, must stop being airbrushed out of the official narrative. The self-deception, she warns, is over.

This is not mere technocratic tinkering. It is the first major public crack in the ideological edifice that has dominated German — and by extension European — energy policy since the anti-nuclear, beatnik ’68ers’ generation seized the cultural high ground. Rupert Darwall chronicled the phenomenon with great precision in Green Tyranny: how a handful of German Greens, personified by the sneaker-wearing Joschka Fischer swearing in as Hesse’s environment minister in 1985, exported their peculiar red-green blend of anti-capitalist zeal and romantic environmentalism across the continent and beyond.

The previous post notwithstanding, it' s still possible to overprice your listing

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Case in point, 9 Walnut Street, Cos Cob. Owner paid $1.020 million for it in July, tore down the existing house, leaving a one-bedroom cottage, and put it back up for sale in October at $1.575 million. Apparently other builders haven’t shared the owner’s belief that he’d lucked into a prime, underpriced building lot, because today that price was dropped to $1.495.

Keep going.

Out of Irving Picard's reach

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Mark Madoff’s former house at 411 Stanwich Road, which he sold for $5.750 million back in 2001 as part of the divorce from his first wife, was further renovated and expanded by those buyers and put up for sale this past September for $13.750 million. Under contract by December, it sold yesterday for $11 million.

Buyers have a Palm Beach ZIP Code, but that’s no guarantee that they intend to make Greenwich their primary residence; in fact, given what’s being planned for Greenwich by the Hartford Democrats, they’d be fools to do do.

Wants are endless; money is not

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Mamdani rolls out $2.3M day care pilot for NYC workers with hefty $60K cost per kid

“On average, day care costs in the city for infants come in at $26,000 and $23,400 for toddlers, according to the city comptroller’s office. 

City Hall didn’t respond to questions about the soaring cost to the city compared to private center-based programs.”

No matter how much billionaires’ wealth is confiscated, there will never be enough to pay for things like this.

‘Free’ day care isn’t what you think it is

John Stossel:

Child care got expensive — more than $13,000 per child, per year. [And far more than that in NYC — see above - ED]

So many people want government to pay for it.

My state just agreed. New York will fund free child care. Yay!

But wait … what government does isn’t free. Taxpayers pay.

And taxpayers pay more because “government rules have unintended consequences,” says Carrie Lukas of the Independent Women’s Forum.

Washington, DC, day-care teachers must have a degree in Early Childhood Education. That can take two years and cost $22,000.

“Of course you’re going to have to pay a lot more,” says Lukas, “when you’ve asked people to invest tens of thousands of dollars in degrees.”

Many government rules are just dumb. 

Illinois says providers must offer coins for pay phones.

Providers must have “one crib with mattress, sheet, and blanket per infant” — but wait! Illinois also says, “Soft bedding . . . shall not be used.”

Which is it?!

Illinois bureaucrats told us their rules are “being updated.”

Red states have dumb rules, too.

Oklahoma’s regulations specify the exact number of items providers must have: two nesting, stacking and interlocking toys per one to two kids, two toddler pounding toys, two support pillows, three squeaky toys, two knobbed puzzles, three wrist or ankle bells . . .

Really. Oklahoma’s regulations go on for 180 pages!

“Policymakers talk about the lack of affordable care,” says Lukas, “yet here they are layering on regulations that make it impossible for people to come and fill that need. This pushes good people out of the industry.”

It also stops good people from providing in-home care.

“In-home day care is often what parents want most,” says Lucas. “Places that most replicate that comfortable, family-supportive environment.”

In-home care used to be the most common form of child care, but not anymore.

“Regulations make it really hard for someone who has their own kids, who’s already going to be staying at home, to invite other kids to that home,” says Lucas. 

Michigan requires a license to take care of even one other child.

Getting that license can take six months and requires CPR training, infectious-disease training, child abuse training, a six-hour orientation, an environmental-health inspection . . .

“Those rules don’t help kids as much as raise costs,” says Lucas. “Fewer people enter the market, and parents are left with fewer options.”

Lukas is raising five kids, but she says the rules would discourage her from ever trying to offer home care.

“There are things that no family would ever comply with. I would have to go into my cabinets and find every cereal box and make sure it was in a sealed container . . . “

Delaware’s regulations say: “Food must be stored in closed or sealed containers . . . ” 

Also, endless government rules don’t guarantee safety. Missouri’s Adventure Learning Center had a license. Teachers there were caught telling 3-year-olds to fight. 

Real crooks ignore government rules altogether, as Minnesota’s day-care scandal showed. Incompetent government rarely checks.

“Here they were,” says Lukas, driving the law-abiding centers out of the day-care market, but in the meantime, “funneling millions of taxpayer dollars . . . letting money flow to those who weren’t providing any care at all.”

“There should be no regulations?” I ask.

“A background check for a day-care provider is a reasonable requirement, but other than that, I think we really should be trusting parents, not government, to make the decision on what makes sense for their child . . . . Parents, not government, care the most about kids.”

Activists and politicians always think more rules make things better.

More often than not, they make things worse.


Joyce Carol Oates has not aged well

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Old Whine (r)

I read her 4-volume “Wonderland Quartet” back in 1975 in a BC English class; they were pretty good reads — the sort of stuff you’d expect to read in a college English class — but when I tried one of her later works a couple of years out of school and realized I was done with her.

Done, that is, until today, when I see that the 36-year-old author of Wonderland is now an addled 87-year-old whackjob.

Sad.

Joyce Carol Oates: Trump Likely Embarrassed Because His Assassination Attempt ‘Looked So Amateurish’

"… wrong, not least that it looked so awkward, amateurish.)"

Oates make no mention of Corey Compertore (shot dead); David Dutch (damage to liver and broken ribs, numerous surgeries); and James Copenhaver, (wounded, unspecified injuries), as some of those “things that went wrong”, probably because (a) they were Trump supporters and (b) she’s embarrassed to — it completely undercuts her unhinged rant.

While it's true that proper progressives don't care about the human citizens of countries invaded by migrants, surely PETA ought to be screaming in pain over this outrage

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when women and small boys can’t be found, needs must

The Great Replacement Chronicles: The Sheepening of Europe

Via Remix News (emphasis added):
 A 19-year-old Afghan national has been arrested and charged following a series of brutal sexual attacks on goats and sheep in Pennes-Mirabeau, a municipality in Bouches-du-Rhône, near Marseille.

The suspect was taken into custody by the anti-crime brigade (BAC) on the night of April 9-10, 2026, after local sheep and goat owners alerted police. Since early 2026, several owners had discovered their animals injured, with incidents reported in both February and March. The animals had their legs tied and showed clear signs of rape, according to French newspaper La Provence.

After multiple similar episodes, the owners installed motion-sensor cameras on their properties in an attempt to identify the perpetrator. The footage revealed the silhouette of a young man visiting their livestock at night, and the images were handed over to police, who were eventually able to identify a matching suspect.

Related: Germany: Gang Rapes Hit Record High, Up to Half Committed by Migrants

It’s not just the sheep without a shepherd — literal or metaphorical — on duty to protect them.

The ponies also get it.

Last year in Germany, a shocking case has emerged from the beautiful town of Oberneufnach in Bavaria, which involved a 52-year-old Turkish asylum seeker allegedly breaking into a stable and sexually abusing ponies.

The man, who is from a refugee shelter in the nearby town of Anhofen, was arrested after he was caught on surveillance video.

The man broke into the horse farm at 6:45 p.m. while the family was having dinner. They heard the dog barking and then looked on surveillance monitors, where they saw the man in the stable with his pants down on top of one of the animals.

The boyfriend then ran to the stables to chase down the man, but he had already fled the scene. He continued his pursuit of the suspect though and eventually caught him. Police arrived and placed the man under arrest.

In 2023, a 27-year-old suspect was arrested after he was caught on a surveillance camera raping a pony at a stable south of Hamburg. The 18-year-old pony, which is named “Carrie,” was abused by the man at 1 a.m., with footage showing the man calmly walking onto the property and starting to attack the defenseless animal…

Even the petting zoo at the park has not been safe. In 2017, a Syrian migrant raped a pony there in front of children.

“My babysitter was out with our son in Görlitzer Park. They witnessed the man sexually assault the pony,” one woman told Berliner Morgenpost at the time. The babysitter took a photo of the man as he raped the pony and provided it to police. The migrant was banned from the petting zoo in response, but it is unclear if he was ever charged by police.

Benjamin Bartee:

Curiously enough, try as I might, I have not been able to find any denunciation of the migrant rape of farm animal phenomenon in Europe by PETA, the world’s preeminent animal rights organization.

Surely that oversight can’t have been a political calculation.