Monday, November 23, 2020

LIVE BLOGGING FROM MULGREW NOVEMBER TOWN HALL (Unedited)

President Michael Mulgrew said it was going to be the strangest Thanksgiving ever. Make sure you follow the guidance of the medical people. College kids are getting tested before leaving college and when arriving home.

We are in remote full time now. We came up with a plan in the summer on when to close. We didn't want to deal with what happened in March. Cleaning, PPE social distancing keeping schools safe. No safe plan until we pushed it. State didn't have a plan until October. State and city have different plans that both use 3% as a number. State has a lag and private tests. It comes down to how many tests are given and how many are positive. Two different numbers. State lags. Trying to get state and city to get one number. State lower now but was higher a month ago. Will we move from the 3%? That is the mayor's number. Epidemiologists we work with said that a small number of districts could shut the whole system. Mulgrew likes the state plan. State closed 200 schools in NYC. We like the yellow, orange, red zones. Yellow gets more testing. Orange goes all remote. Red zone has a problem. Nothing is working and numbers still going up. Two plans look ridiculous to the public. Members: some want to stay open if their area doesn't have much Covid-19. Others want to have closed earlier. Do we have to stay with the city plan? We wanted a geographic plan in the summer, not a citywide plan. If we have a problem in an area, we put that area in remote. We are not in control of individuals' behavior. Teachers and other staff following guidelines. Neighborhoods not safe. Doctors clear that if Covid positivity keeps rising, schools will not stay safe. There will be other challenges. We wish the city would have listened to us in August and done a geographic approach. Six or seven districts have caused us to go all remote. Yellow, orange, red is state law so that will continue. Half of Staten Island under that plan would have been remote. Decisions have to be made based on what keeps us safe. Vaccines getting better and better. Timelines moving up. 

When will we reopen? Met with doctors who volunteer for us. With travel for Thanksgiving, we expect NYC to be an orange zone. How do we contemplate opening, until we get numbers down. When we get numbers down, we can get back inside schools. Mulgrew conversations with mayor, we tell him that testing has to be mandated which is not being done. UFT position is nobody goes back without a consent form to be tested. As we see a path to an end, we don't want mistakes to cause people to be harmed. We want everyone and their families to be safe. 3% plan should not move. When we get closer to the springtime when the vaccine will be there, we have to microtarget. State plan targets problems in their infancy. All should be looking at one plan. Over 6% positivity in western New York. Schools closing all over the place. We are averaging over 10,000 tests per day. Mulgrew thanks people in the schools. Schools were safe because of our work. We can put a guidebook together on how to open schools in a pandemic. We will get reopened. Numbers will tell whether we reopen. We will follow the numbers and what independent doctors tell us.

Medical accommodations: DOE recognizing medical accommodations moving forward except for pregnancy related documentations. They want medical documentation for pregnancy related. It would be hard to get appointments exept for teledocs.

200 operational issues resolved. Team came up with a menu on how to resolve them. Chapter leaders meet with a UFT rep and a DOE rep to resolve issues. Many resolved once we came up with a menu. Some misinformation out there. Superintendents do not reinterpret things. We are all in remote and we don't know for how long. 

When Mulgrew looks at social media, we are our own world. There is nothing easy about what we are doing. We opened up. We fought for a plan. The work at home and at school is not easy. When I see people sending animosity toward other UFT members because of what they do, it gets me upset. We live in a world where we just saw a presidential election like we've never seen. We have to have civility. 12 years ago teachers were bashed for a week on NBC. We won that battle in the end. We can't let that happen. It's not easy with the oversize classes remote or coming into building and wearing a mask. We need basic respect for each other. Other mayors used to say we hate the kids. We fought through all of that. We try to do the best we can. We got medical accommodations and accommodations for caregivers. We can't do to each other what others do to us. This is for this school year. By September 2021, we go back to buildings. We have changed. Every teacher can set up electronic classrooms. We must respect each other.

Evaluations: State said it's a collective bargaining issue at the local level. We will be putting a team together to work on this. We are expecting all standardized tests to be canceled this year. Standardized tests need to be given at the same time with a licensed teacher. Administration can come in to digital classrooms. Don't waste our time filling out checklists. If it is written up, let the district rep know. There is no agreement now on evaluations. 

Budget: We worked with Comptroller Stringer to refinance debt. All unions negotiating something. Thank God we have the no layoff clause for the rest of the school year. We are in remote. People are losing their jobs in remote settings. The budget is a mess. We see no help coming from federal government until probably late January or February. We are going to have bad years. Will it be three bad years or ten bad years? It depends on how the next administration does things. Unemployment going up. Food banks are running out of food. We are looking at a horrendous winter. Teacher Center folks are working to be there with the community. We are hoping this is the last major challenge. We are expecting a vaccine mandate to work in a school but we will cross that bridge when we come to it. Hopefully, we will get back when it's safe. Attendance is low. We're thinking that it is less than 350,000 students who have opted to go to school this year.

Last week we were told the teachers union wouldn't move the 3% number. The city submitted a plan. Media is so frustrating at times. Repeats that only those with a consent form get into schools. We have to respect each other. Some families going into a horrendous winter. Seeing lines and lines of people trying to get food. There is pain. We will be there to help. It's Thanksgiving, give thanks to your families and each other. We don't know how long this all remote time will last. It was expected to last a few weeks in the spring. We don't want the city to tell us on Sunday that buildings will open Monday. Hopefully, by next September, we can have a big party before schools open.

Questions;

Question: Wishes Mulgrew Happy Thanksgiving. If people have not received a confirmation email, what should they do?

Answer from Mike Sill is DOE system only allows emails to go out on a rolling way. They are going out in alphabetical order. Nobody should be concerned. Except for those who are pregnant, everyone should get it. Mulgrew interjects that they can apply for family leave. Mulgrew suggests if no email comes by Monday, December 7, contact the UFT. Sill concurs.

Sill goes on to add that those who have remote programs for primary caregivers are also being extended. 

 Question: Up for tenure, what happens?

Answer: Nobody can be harmed because of Covid. That was governor's order last year. We are waiting for that to be official for this year. We will work on evaluation agreement so those up for tenure can be observed.

Question: Chapter leader beyond frustrated. Oversize class complaint filed on September 13. She has spent hours coming up with proposals. Only offer is to pay dpod teachers more money. They feel it is insulting.

Answer: You are District 3. What would you want? Hire more teachers. 

Questioner responds we should go to two cohorts. Monday should be a full remote day for everyone. Teachers have suggested picking up kids and going on remote. The principal and superintendent won't listen and labor people at DOE are downright rude.

Mulgrew Answer: We will take this up at consultation with chancellor tomorrow. No opt-in so schools should reprogram since we know how many students will be in the building. Kids are taking in-person and remote spots.

Question:  Praises Mulgrew's interviewing skills. Admires what he is doing. Proud to be a union member with him leading. 27 years and 52, hoping for a buyout. Anything in works?

Answer: It's easy when teachers do what we do. Early retirement bills in Albany. We now have an early retirement piece of legislation that we like. Many unions involved. City will save money. The legislation has to get through in Albany and then the city has to agree to implement it. Early retirement incentive makes sense. We are concerned that we won't have enough teachers and counselors but we are pushing for the early retirement incentive.

Question: Chapter leader asks since we are remote, can teachers teach remotely from buildings?

Answer: Probably no. Why would people want to do that? Questioner answer: Home environment isn't the best. When the state does remote, wants the custodian only in building. We have process when people need to pick something up. Operational people have been great. They are doing cleaning. We will ask.

Elementary schools vs high schools. High schools travel all over the city. Big difference, can that be taken into account?

Answer: We have kids going from Bronx to Staten Island. Attendance not good in high schools. District 75 and elementary schools should be open first. That is the mayor's decision. Mayor mentioned this today. Doctors would agree. D75 amount of PPE to make sure it's safe, our people have done great work. Students not hugging. PPE is the most important thing. 

Question: What happened to virtual content specialists?

Answer: We just finished it. Posting in August. DOE wanted to change it. Posting going out shortly. $12,500 stipend. Mike Sill expects it to go out tomorrow.   

Question: All should be required to test particularly with schools with high Covid positivity. What happens particularly with pre-K?

Answer: Doctors said it would be okay not to test Pre-k students. We're okay with that. We said first month it would be okay not to have consent forms. We were patient, but reports from the field that consent forms weren't coming in and kids not being sent home. That can't happen any longer when we reopen. The consent form has to be there. We should do weekly testing. Situation Room is working. Testing team from the city is really good.  Way over 500 schools shut down before we went remote. If contact tracing wasn't completed, the school shut down. Mandate means mandate. Must have a consent form to enter school. Trying to get testing weekly. New spit test has much higher validity. The minute we make a decision, there may be problems but we keep moving forward.

Question: DOE device issue, people waiting since September. Can this be addressed tomorrow?

Answer: Wrote an oped on this. DOE didn't put orders in until requests were made. On the agenda for tomorrow.

Question: 8 period day schools now 7 period days. Is there C6?

Answer: Prep was moved to the end of the day. It is still an 8 period day unless you have an SBO. Prep at the end of the day but doesn't have to be in the building. 

Question: Students in a precarious situation at home or don't have homes. How can we pressure the mayor to get permanent housing for our kids?

Answer: We have a lot of work on our hands. End of December, national non-eviction sunset. We will go to ABNY to help with food and housing. We will do great advocacy for Federal package. Next year we will have to repair social emotional damage that's been done to so many of our students, their families and ourselves. Member Assistance Program growing. We and the city have a big challenge. There are folks in our union who tell us to just do the union stuff but we are tied into the community as a teacher union. We are in this profession because children are dear to us. Our members hurting as are the students and their families.

Question: Students who never received Learning Bridge Placement. Are more being accepted?

  Answer: Yes, and we also have to consider opening up Regional Enrichment Centers which opened in the spring and stayed open right until schools opened in September. Learning Bridges has been frustrating. 

Question: Mulgrew is her superman, a rock star. This caller lost her father and others and got great support. Virtual class sizes will increase and in-person will have even lower class sizes. It took two months with over 40 students to get class cut in half. Teacher is a certified Google trainer, interested in learning specialist.

Answer: Mulgrew still has to take out the garbage. We should reprogram everything. Some schools may be able to have five day learning. Fully remote can get be fully remote then if not worrying about blended. Weakest part of DOE is instructional plan. That is a mess. DOE screwed up instructional part of reopening. They couldn't get out of their way as far as not telling schools what to do. Mayor's race, we will roll out a political action plan. The question to any candidate is how are you going to blow up the bureaucracy so schools are supported. Reprogram schools and that should take care of most problems.

Question:  Why can't we tell people school buildings will be closed through new years?

Answer: Following numbers now, we over 3% and going up steadily. Should a decision be made to keep schools remote until January? I think we should make that call as soon as possible. If we are above 4% a week after Thanksgiving, that decision has to be made. We can't open up for a day or two and then close again. Told mayor and governor that. Number is probably not going to go down. It doesn't make sense that bars and restaurants are open and schools are not. We will try to get information out there. What the questioner said makes sense. 

Question: Coming to holiday season, saving two hours a day. Blood center is low on blood. 75% of blood donations through school drives. If you have free time, donate blood. Saved my daughter's life getting blood.

Answer: You are 100% right. Nurses dealing with COVID cases rising. Blood issue is real. People are uncomfortable but it is the right thing to do to give blood. 

We will help on food; we helped with coats. We are doing what we normally do. Work with homeless coalition. Wishes everyone a great Thanksgiving. Be safe, be safe, be safe. Take care of each other; respect each other. It's tough and frustrating but we have been there taking care of each other throughout this. Thanks, be well and God bless. 

165 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, right. This guy is a fool, telling us to not have animosity. What a lowlife. When does he respect us? Poor excuse for a uft president. He sits in a million dollar house in Staten Island and at 52 Broadway on our backs while we suffer. Where is his day being locked in an infected school building? Every place strikes but us.

Anonymous said...

We get stepped on because of mulgrew, this was long before the pandemic. If I dropped dead, he wouldn't flinch.

Anonymous said...

"He isnt gonna let anyone disrespect us. Hello no." What a fucking idiot.

Anonymous said...

We agreed, we wanted...Who the fuck is we?

What teacher wanted any of this shit he serves us?

Anonymous said...

He has a lot of excuses. What was the excuse in 2005 and 2014 and 2018 and...

Anonymous said...

Wow, mulgrew said testing was a "wink, wink." No care about our health. And you guys pay dues. Oh, now we cant have it anymore. What a schmuck.

Anonymous said...

After the rock star question, I just about lost my lunch. I am still getting over that bullshit-fest.

Anonymous said...

If we dropped dead he would flinch to go in our pockets to get one more union dues payment out of us. We need to vote him out.

Anonymous said...

Mulgrew's message was to not have animosity amongst each other. There is too much of that. Beautiful message especially now during Thanksgiving. Don't agree with everything that is going on, but that particular message was nice to hear.

Anonymous said...

Tell him to do his job.

Anonymous said...

I have a different view.

1. He's doing fine, when asked 1000909090 times 2. He's somebody's Superman and hero 3. He stutters when asked pointed questions 4. He NEVER gives a straight answer 5. He wants us to respect one another. 6. There's a MOLE among us 7. He will NEVER make an EXECUTIVE decision 8. DONATE BLOOD 9. A WHOLE LOT OF BROWN NOSERS 10. This Further validates that these TOWN HALLS HAVE BEEN A WASTE OF ALL OUR GD TIME!!

Anonymous said...

Spring break pay?

Anonymous said...

Most of the animosity is caused by administrators and young teachers that kiss the admins. butts.

Anonymous said...

Defund the @UFT

Anonymous said...

Mulgrew thinks he knows why the schools were safe - but he didn't mention that schools were less than 10% capacity each day. Most people stayed home. That's what kept numbers low.

TJL said...

A "vaccine mandate" should be an absolutely non-negotiable. No employee needs any vaccination of any kind and we absolutely should never relinquish that right.

Anonymous said...

Mayor Bill de Blasio
Now’s the time to be bold — legalize marijuana and ensure the wealthiest New Yorkers pay their fair share for a real, equitable recovery for our city and state.

Awesome, students will be sure to improve...

Anonymous said...

Vax mandate coming. That was pretty clear.

Anonymous said...

Bald autocratic sellout

Anonymous said...

Don't you talk that way about my superman.

Anonymous said...

So, at this point, if such an approach would work, we should have the data to support it. But, the “micro-closure” approach didn’t seem to stop anything in recent weeks. What are we missing? From here it looked like whack-a-mole before a bonfire.

Anonymous said...

The vac mandate is very troubling to me. That crosses a line as no employee legally needs any vaccine for any other disease, but I guess mulgrew has money to be made, why not let adults get a long term untested vaccine forced upon them.

Anonymous said...

Stopping COPE and UNION DUES is the best thing. We should be represented by a different union head who puts teachers first.

Bronx ATR said...

“Thank God we have the no layoff clause for the rest of the school year.” Mulgrew traded half our retro for a promise from a guy who broke his written contract concerning our retro. I don’t understand this type of logic. If the money disappears deBlasio will have no choice and renege on a signed agreement again. I don’t know why teachers don’t just take out a vote of no confidence. Mulgrew will be trading your jobs for something else in the spring and then you’ll be shaking your heads thinking you should’ve done something about him last fall. Don’t put your trust in deBlasio or Mulgrew or Weingarten or Cuomo or anyone else who decides what’s best for you without asking. They all do what’s best for them - and what’s best for them is usually not what’s best for us.

Bronx ATR said...

This is an interesting article from today’s Times. Take note of Mulgrew’s forward and backwards thinking and comment that he would fight mayoral control, not for a school board but for mayoral control with more educator input (!) Another potential disaster in the making from the very man who’s paid to thwart them.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/24/nyregion/deblasio-school-reopening.html

Anonymous said...

If you don't want to take the vaccine after is approved by FDA, then go on an unpaid leave. We are going to eradicate this virus.

Erica said...

Since there's so much leadership included in this email, perhaps you can assist.

Perhaps Mr. Holden can continue looking for grade fraud.

I say a student can't pass if they are never in class, or hardly in class.

DOE says I can't do that.

My supervisors say I can't do that.

Then, I get an email from my principal asking why attendance is low.

Huh?

Then, the principal further states that a student who is never in class is complaining that they don't understand my work.

I should speak to the student privately, outside of class time, so they can understand, but they don't have to come to class.

Get all that?

Anonymous said...

RE: NO LAYOFF CLAUSE. What folks don't seem to understand is that this layoff clause is just of this school year. In other words, pink slips are more than likely coming this June.

James Eterno said...

No layoff goes to next school year too with a federal stimulus. Layoffs are not legal at this time of year, if I read the law correctly, without a fiscal emergency. There is no emergency now. In fact, city is doing better than expected although still not in good shape.

Anonymous said...

Don't visit friends & family for Thanksgiving for dinner - it could be deadly!
But then GET BACK TO WORK in NYC schools ASAP!
So, Bdb & Gov'nor say I should sacrifice holidays w/my fam but keep risking my life for school breakfast & lunch 5 days a week?
They can kiss my ass.

Anonymous said...

Lol Erica. Typical doe. Why bother?

Anonymous said...

130 days left. Nicely done.

Anonymous said...

The people like Mulgrew, Cuomo, DeBlasio, Biden with a long history of screwing nyc teachers would never ever screw us AGAIN, would they? Nah, not THEM. They’ve changed I tell ya, they’ve changed. But this time if you keep paying them and keep voting for them....THIS time will be different. Pinky finger swear. Defund the UFT.

Anonymous said...

Erica,

Where the fuck is guidance?

It is your job to live teacher 45 minutes x 5 classes and then when you are not teaching you should be reaching out to all the no shows? What is guidance doing all day?

Get the fuck outta here. How about telling the kid who is no showing to drop dead?

JP said...

I'm confused.

State rule is no more than 10 people in the household...But I can be with hundreds in the subway, train and in a school building.

Mr. Mulgrew, what school buildings have you spent entire days in? With students taking off masks, refusing to be tested, sneezing, coughing, eating, etc?

By the way, I find it quite funny that you say there should be no animosity and people are going to have a difficult winter. What about those who needed the retro, who will now be waiting for 12 years with no interest or it? Do you think those people have bills, mortgage, rent, car payment, need clothes for their children, college bills, food, etc? Since we had a contractual agreement, why not demand the money on time? Another free faver for the city.

Go down the block to Wall Street and ask them about 12 years with no interest on top of 10% over 7.5 years...

Anonymous said...

We have a milestone. DOW JONES HITS 30K. Congrats everyone.

Anonymous said...

On March 23rd, the Dow hit 18,213

A 12 thousand point rally from the low.

UN

REAL

Anonymous said...

James: The no layoff clause is for this school year which ends in June. If there is no stimulus, layoffs will more than likely happen over the summer.

James Eterno said...

Have you seen the election results? Biden won. Mitch McConnell is not going to stop stimulus. Democratic House of Reps.and President Biden will agree on a huge package. The Republicans will come to the table and cut it down a little but there will be pressure for relief quickly. I predict Republicans will get their coronavirus liability shield and lots of pork and Democrats will get direct payments to individuals, state and local bailouts and lots of pork of their own. Trump being gone in my opinion will lead to some short term cooperation in DC on stimulus.

I will be surprised, not shocked, if there are no state and local bailouts by early February.

Anonymous said...

Dems don't do pork? Lol.

Anonymous said...

We are in Dark days now. Our leaders couldnt found themselves out of a shoebox.They say schools are safe. Of course they are with little or no students. Whats not safe is all the assholes who dont believe in masks and are going to partys and diners. They give it to their kids and then we get it. I cant have ten people or more in my house. Ok I get it but I can go to home depot where their is lots of people shopping.We are all hanging on by a thread. We need to ask ourselves what is important. These dumbass leaders have all forgotten what has gotten them here. We the people. So when their terms are up lets send them a loud message. We are not voting for them anymore. We did it for trump and now its time to send milldew out, Cuomo out. Dumbo we dont have to worry about. He is out next year. These leaders need to work together to give much needed relief. All these years our country sends trillions of dollars to other countrys which is ok by me. But they cant approve a stimulus package because the Micky Mouse senator from Kentucky thinks its too much money. Easy to say when your making over 250,000 thousand dollars a year. I dont think it matters who you voted for now. What matters is that we come together and rebuild this country ourselves. Have a great thanksgiving.

Anon2323 said...

@ JP feel your money frustrations especially since I am out 30,000 in coaching and have no idea how to recoup that money for taxes even though I found a part-time tennis job for 45 an hour.

My wife came off leave and her checks are a mess she did not even get her retro, never-ending DOE bullshit. My brother works at a charter school in the Bronx and they are not going back until February 1st. WE MUST have a competent moderate type mayor here, this state should have trillions in surplus the endless waste on spending irresponsibly has to end. Nice to get a republican mayor in 2022 or soooner.

Anon2323 said...

James the only reason the stimulus did not happen is because of Pelosi, not Mcconnell. Pelosi using the pandemic for her own selfish reasons like 25 million for Kennedy center or all these bailouts for dem cities. Like our DOE giving kids free passing grades and diplomas. She does not give a fuck about her constituents or American people just her own selfish needs and power.

Shelley said...

The Yellen selection tips Biden's hand; we now know that the fairy godmother of the markets (Yellen's Wall Street nickname when she was Fed Chair) will be Treasury Secretary. She's known for her dashboards, a complex view of the traditional Phillip's Curve *, a dashboard Powell has inherited and has been focused on too . . . bottom-line, inflation will be run hot to counter unemployment, not headline unemployment but the complex kinds measured by Yellen's dashboard view. This is not MMT or any European or socialist Bernie Sanders project but will provide cover for the Republicans, and, if there be any left, Ryan-type fiscal hawks who hated Trump's cut tax and spend "voodoo economics" and are peddling deficit politics to their constituency. These days, of course, the Republicans, having abandoned their nonsense about the relationship of deficits and growth are focused on their old standards, racism, demagoguery, and xenophobia-- not the invention of the populist president who hijacked their grand old party--but politics is a crooked stream that gives the lie to the old saw that you can't step in the same shit twice.

I agree that we will see state and city bailouts and that NY and NYC will get a big chunk. But we will also see huge givebacks and concessions from unions. 7% pension and TDA are not sustainable. The defined pension is on the blocks in NY and NYC.




* The Phillips curve is an economic concept developed by A. W. Phillips stating that inflation and unemployment have a stable and inverse relationship. The theory claims that with economic growth comes inflation, which in turn should lead to more jobs and less unemployment.

Anonymous said...

Pelosi is a cunt. McConnell is a dick. Os that the bipartisan respect Mulgrew wants us all to agree on?

Anonymous said...

I am the 40 year old who is soon resigning shortly. It isn't about making them fire me. I must get away from this. I already own a home in another state on the other side of the country. I will not be working after I resign. I will live off savings and investments.

Anonymous said...

Wow, thanks. Which infected school is he going into?

@UFT President Michael Mulgrew tells
@BrianLehrer that the city should adopt the state’s geographic strategy of targeting local coronavirus infection rates so that city public schools in low-infection neighborhoods can safely reopen in the future.

Anonymous said...

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they short you, then you hit 30k.”

- Dow Jones

I hope teachers are smart enough...This is what you should be focused on.

Anonymous said...

How many years you got in?

Ed said...

This is my 19th. 40 years old.

Anonymous said...

From AOC twitter:

If you want to know why COVID relief is tied up in Congress, one key reason is that Republicans are demanding legal immunity for corporations so they can expose their workers to COVID without repercussions.

Dems don’t want you to die for a check. That’s what we’re fighting over.

Anonymous said...

Pelosi was doing the same thing republicans do too. She threw it in knowing she wouldnt get it. Democrates wanted to give more money which we need. Mitch was having a hard time giving 1200.

Anonymous said...

You mean how Mulgrew and the DOE are willingly exposing us to Covid?

Bronx ATR said...

I heard Cuomo’s up for an Emmy for his nauseating daily performances, but I’d like to nominate Michael Mulgrew for his two YouTube performances rationalizing the theft and trade of our retro. As horrifying as Cuomo is, Mulgrew beats him by a mile.

Shelley said...

Dear 40 years young with 19 years in. Again, I don't recommend seeking career/retirement/financial advice online. We would need to know so much about your finances to begin giving you even general suggestions and you don't want to tell us and that is smart and understandable.

We don't even know what pension(s) you are eligible for. Are you a TRSNYC member? If so, you can get lots of good information and answers to a lot of your questions from TRSNYC.

If you have 19 years, a pension consultant at UFT would probably show you the table below so that you can calculate the difference in pension at 19 and 20 years.

https://www.trsnyc.org/memberportal/WebContent/publications/brochures/Brochure72

Good Luck and congratulations, you've obviously done well for yourself and have options.





Anonymous said...

I don’t care what the dems want to put in, who the fuck is Mitch “turkey” McConnell to say fuck the worker to protect corporations and that 1200 is too much!? Come on, the republicans who agree with Mitch are shit bags.

Anon2323 said...

ED def finish your 20th year to get the pension multiplier. You guys can go to chazblog page and still find a treasure trove of info on tda and any DOE sewer shit you have to deal with. No disrespect to James who equally has amazing info.

James Eterno said...

Chaz was my friend and colleague at Jamaica. We never saw each other as rivals as bloggers. We had different perspectives but we had much in common.

Ed said...

Shelley, do you have an email?

I know exactly what the difference would be between 19 and 20 years completed. I'm considering hanging on till June 2022 for that reason.

I'm worth about $2 million right now.

Anonymous said...

Ed - I would hang in till 2022. 2 million is good but it’s not 10-15 million and hopefully you’ve got a lot of retirement years ahead.

Anonymous said...

On the townhall otherwise known as the "Mulgrew is a hero!" shitshow.

Jesus, you'd think these Unity shills would be embarrassed to have their tongues that far up his ass, but nope. No Dear Leader praise is too good for Mulgrew and the UFT.

James Eterno said...

Ed, If you are worth $2 million, then you have to be smart enough to not seek financial advice from some anonymous commenters on the internet. Get in touch with someone who is qualified, please. I say that with all due respect to our commenters who are knowledgeable people for the most part. Still, I recommend a pro.

Ed said...

Was just looking for a teacher perspective. I already know...I've already decided. I didn't do all this to stay in the most pathetic job in the world a day longer than I have to.

Anonymous said...

New article in the Post saying how Mulgrew is going to push for an end to mayoral control for 2022. I still don't see how that will make things better except that they could replace the chancellor.

Anonymous said...

The democrats want to save us? Hahahahahaha. That is truly the funniest and yet saddest thing I’ve ever heard. Don’t stop believing.... no matter how often and how hard they screw us. This time will be different....

Anon2323 said...

I find it hilarious with the best economy, no wars, north korea oberying, sanctions on china and russia, incredible low unemployment, social justice reform, better lives for Spanish and African Americans, incredible trade deals including USMCA.

The dems are so arrogant and really lost they think they can come in with these swamp picks with an Obama 2.0 staff and do better??? LIke show me.

Way I see it gas prices will be 3.50 and energy costs off the charts in next 2 years.

Anonymous said...

And then there is that pandemic. Funny, no mention of that 2323.

Anonymous said...

Economy was good when handed over to Trump. We had no wars. And pretty much everything was rolling along. So what has Trump really done? Big deal he’s friendly with world dictators. Is that something to be proud of? I don’t think so.

Anonymous said...

Also have to remember, if you have 400k in tda now at 40, in 19 years, at 7%, that is 1.4M.

Anonymous said...

Yeah 2323 you forgot how we got a vaccine in record breaking time and how the President accurately pointed the finger at China again and again. It’s going to suck paying $3.50 for gas but it’s worth it knowing Biden voters will be paying too.

Anonymous said...

Those two German scientists who did the Pfeizer vaccine were all because of Trump. This thing is raging out of control and Trump is whining about losing. His response when we needed real leadership has been awful. That's why he lost.

Anonymous said...

Trump wins election if not for his shitty response to the pandemic. How could he provide no leadership now when so many are dying?

Anon2323 said...

You blame his entire presidency on covid, he gained 10 million more voters and there was a major red wave. How horrified would you be if thousands of ballots just were marked for Donald Trump and nothing else, well that is what could be 100,000 ballots have for Joe Biden only.


@8:59 the pandemic the dems politicized and used to steal election? TRumps fault? Not China, response closing border was bad back in Janaury? He got a vaccine faster than anyone ever with 3 different companies. 2 million predicted by media outlets would die lost 250,000 including my great uncle. Less people have died this year than last year.

Here is Fauci everyone's hero saying not to wear masks, trump had him advise and he got it wrong like all scientists. Why? The WHO and china are in cahoots and the communists gave misinformation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6pEcgDmEUk

Anonymous said...

Also with tda, use the above example, 1.4M at 59-60 years old, if you pull out 100k to spend every year, at 7% you will replenish the 100k and be left with the same 1.4M.

Anonymous said...

Alejandro Mayorkas was found by Barack Obama’s Inspector General to be guilty of selling Green Cards to Chinese nationals on behalf of rich, democratic donors.

He is disqualified from leading the Department of Homeland Security.

Not ready to Die said...

12:04
How can you support a president that said grab them by the pussy ? Caught on a hot mic by Billy Bush.

Faucci said not to wear a mask before more information was learned that supported mask wearing.

Trump has his whole family including he x wife on federal payroll. He charges the federal government for hotel rooms that his security detail stays in when he travels to his golf courses .

You say give him credit for the vaccine ?
He said drink bleach or bask in a bright light to kill the virus. Why don’t you move to the Texas so you can be like all of the idiots that walk around with no masks on.

This clown brought the greatest country in the world to its knees by ineffectively handing the pandemic.

Believe in science. Not BULL SHIT

James Eterno said...

Major red wave? Republicans lost a Senate seat and gained a few House seats but Pelosi is still the Speaker of the House so I would hardly call that a wave.

Do you really believe in that widespread fraud? The Rudy clown show is not convincing any judges of mass fraud. Trump is now down by over 6 million votes nationally and by 74 electors in the electoral college. He is losing by an electoral landslide by his own 2016 definition and voter suppression is a Republican, not Democratic thing. Like it or not, Trump lost. Even Fox News is starting to move on.

No pandemic, Trump probably wins. People have reached their verdict: He messed up the response to COVID-19 royally. We needed to get tough and have a national lockdown in early March, not just state-by state measures and Trump not telling us what he knew but telling Bob Woodward the scope of the problem in February led to his eventual downfall. If Trump would have closed the borders and stopped flights from Europe when he did the China semi flight ban, it just may have worked. Instead, he downplayed coronavirus over and over instead of fully mobilizing country. He would have been wrongfully criticized by the left if he shut down early but had he acted strong, the public would have probably supported him. They were looking for a strongman (see Cuomo Emmy). Unfortunately, Trump preferred being a bullshitter and played down the virus to put the economy ahead of lives and the economy went down and deaths soared. Those tragic deaths speak for themselves and cost him the election. Dr. Fauci was wrong on masks but changed when evidence showed they helped. Trump resisted and made masks political. That cost more lives and middle of the road votes. Reopening too fast has also proved to be deadly.

I don't know why he did not call Pelosi's bluff on Heroes Act (second stimulus) and force Senator McConnell to be the bad guy. Another round of checks and he would still have lost the popular vote but he may have gotten enough states for an electoral college win.

The hard part of debating the election is we don't speak from the same set of facts that we all accept as givens.

Anonymous said...

Black Lives Matter activist who helped lead Louisville marches shot dead https://trib.al/TVadzfe

Anon2323 said...

James, I do and would bet my life on the widespread fraud that has been planned for years. Republicans flipped 8 seats and have the closest margin to take house since WW2. Republicans should win 1/2 if not both runoffs in Georgia (if dems don't cheat again to have control of senate). 2022 Pelosi will be gone Mccarthy will win the speaker and republicans will have the house and senate and possibly TRump if these lawsuits overturn georgia and Penn. CNN and all mainstream media would have the lawsuits live on tv, schumer and everyone panicking, to heck every vote. Media blindly not showing or even acknowledging the obvious fraud. Thousands of affidavits and hunter biden laptop, meanwhile you were hoodwinked with the fake russia with no evidence. Your brother is a cop you need to investigate like he would. Smartmatic is such a problem

DONT BELIEVE ME WATCH 4 MIN LINK LOU DOBBS ON CNN IN 2006 TALKING ABOUT SMARTMATIC!

https://youtu.be/-s9PkuiIw2Q

600,000 votes to biden and 3,200 for Trump in PEnn ballot dump, give me a break that's impossible!

Anonymous said...

Just as a reference, I'm 40 years old with $386K in TDA.

James Eterno said...

From Ballotpedia:
Updated 12:00 p.m. ET on November 24, 2020

Democrats maintained a majority in the U.S. House as a result of the 2020 elections. By this point, 426 of the 435 races had been called. Democrats had won 222 seats to Republicans' 204. Democrats had flipped three seats and Republicans had flipped eleven, including one held by a Libertarian in 2020.

Not exactly a wave.

On Senate, it was 53R-47D. Now 50R-48D with 2Ga pending. No wave there either.

Federal judiciary is mostly Republican. Rudy loses over and over. Even Rush and Laura Ingraham are giving up. Are they in on it too?

Marc said...

Let it just play out. I highly doubt Trump wins the court case. I think we should be more focused on the pathetic union and going into infected buildings and grade fraud and no discipline code and retro held for 12 years with no interest.

Anonymous said...

It's readily apparent to everyone besides Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and [campaign senior legal advisor] Jenna Ellis that this election is over and that Joe Biden won resoundingly," said Bob Bauer, the Biden campaign's senior legal advisor.
Biden campaign

"Trump did everything he could to disenfranchise voters and stop the results from being certified in Pennsylvania, including filing over 15 unsuccessful lawsuits — most recently producing one of the more embarrassing courtroom performances of all time, with the judge in the case ruling that their arguments were 'without merit' and 'unsupported by evidence,'" Bauer said.

Everyone but Anon2323,Giuliani and Trump have given up.

Anonymous said...

LOL.

NYC launches ‘Parent University’ for families to build academic, social skills during remote learning

The new Education Department website will offer city parents online classes in everything from how to help their kids through math lessons to tips for decompressing and managing stress.
nydailynews.com

James Eterno said...


Documented Votes Not counted.

The nasty little secret of America’s elections is that we don’t count all the ballots. In the 2016 election, the United States Elections Assistance Commission reported that 1,913,369 votes, almost 2 million ballots, were cast and rejected, never counted. And who doesn’t count?

According to studies by the MIT-Caltech voting project, the chance your vote won’t get counted is 300% higher if you’re black or Hispanic or Asian American than if you’re white...If you’re American Native, the chance your ballot will not be counted for some technical reason is approximately 1200% higher than if you’re White.

Greg Palast

James Eterno said...

More from Greg Palast. This time on Georgia.

As Secretary of State since 2010, [Kemp] had eight years to winnow the electorate to his liking before November 2018, and did so by purging 1.4 million voters from the rolls, placing thousands of registrations on hold, and overseeing the closure or relocation of nearly half of the state’s precincts and polling sites. The unstated goal — though it was clear to anyone watching similar efforts by Republicans across the South — was to reduce the voting power of unfavorable constituencies: black people, poor people, students and others.

Anonymous said...

MICHIGAN

"Biden achieved 97% of all additional new votes above 2016 election total & achieved 151% more new votes than... new registrations..."

These statistical anomalies would keep political scientists up at night if it were against any president *not* named Trump

James Eterno said...

USA Today

WASHINGTON – An affidavit from President Donald Trump’s legal team that claimed to prove widespread voter fraud confused two "M" states: Michigan and Minnesota.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/11/20/trump-lawsuit-mixes-up-red-flags-michigan-minnesota/6362056002/

James Eterno said...

How many more court cases does Trump have to lose before these commenters move on? Trump appointed judge today: "Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here."

ABC News

The U.S. Third Circuit Court has rejected the Trump campaign’s appeal of a federal lawsuit filed in Pennsylvania that challenged the outcome of the 2020 elections, denying the request with a blistering opinion authored by a Trump-appointed judge declaring: "Voters, not lawyers, choose the President."

"Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy," said the unanimous opinion from a three-judge panel, which was signed by Judge Stephanos Bibas. "Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here."

"Voters, not lawyers, choose the President," the court writes. "Ballots, not briefs, decide elections."

Anonymous said...

How many more pieces of proof do you need before you admit who causes problems in schools and why?

Anonymous said...

Here’s how I look at the election fraud issue. Republicans were barred from observing the opening of absentee ballots. This was the only time a signature could be verified. If the democrats in charge of the election site had nothing to hide, why not let observers observe? The opportunity for massive fraud was available under these circumstances. So dems had motive and opportunity. I don’t trust the results because of the way dems conducted themselves. Nothing to see? Then why didn’t you let anyone watch? Why didn’t you let Republican observers observe? Maybe there was nothing to see but the dems’ actions were not actions people with nothing to hide take. Dem actions are the cause of the mistrust in our elections, not Rudy’s, not Trump’s actions. Here in NY one only has to look at the information disclosed in court and what the judge said in the Tenney vs Brindidi race to see there is a problem with vote counting right here in NY. Election integrity must be self evident in order for an election to be valid. So far there are way too many instances of a lack of self evident integrity for me to accept any election results.

James Eterno said...

13 vote difference in this election. Not 6 million or tens of thousands in swing states like Trump-Biden.

Brindisi, a Utica Democrat, called the judicial review “fair, open, honest and transparent” in a tweet Wednesday. A follow-up Tweet from the first-term congressman expressed confidence he would prevail.

“In January I will be sworn in and continue to work with both parties and stand up to anyone on behalf of all of New York’s 22nd district,” Brindisi said.

Anonymous said...

An affadavit is as much proof as saying Bigfoot exists because people saw him and you have pictures of footprints.

Anonymous said...

President Trump's push to overturn the election results suffered another in a series of defeats on Friday — this time in Wisconsin, where officials in the state's most populous county announced that a recount had added to President-elect Joe Biden's lead. Albeit slightly: Out of the roughly 460,000 ballots cast in Milwaukee County, Biden made a net gain of 132 votes on review.

Anonymous said...

Either democrats blocked republicans from observing or they did not. If they did, then they had both motive and opportunity. By providing themselves opportunity (if they did in fact block observers), they have created a situation that blocks the necessary self evident integrity for the election to be valid. It raises doubt that wouldn’t exist but for their blocking the observers from observing. What the judge said in Oswego was there’s a “problem” because the contested ballots were missing explanations as to why they were being contested. Instead of writing the basis of the contest on the back of the ballot as the protocol requires, the geniuses wrote them on Post-its that fell off. And when the judge asked if these contested ballots were already part of the count tally, no one could say one way or another. They lost count of the count in addition to losing track of the reasons for contesting each ballot. As of yesterday 13 ballots was what separated the winner from the loser. The number of Pennsylvania ballots that separated Trump and Biden is 80,000. If Pennsylvania democrats block observers while they counted hundreds of thousands of votes, it matters. How do we know how many they counted without observers? We don’t yet. As far as Bigfoot is concerned, let’s be consistent. The “Trump” affidavits weren’t from random citizens, they were from poll workers/ observers. if there were hundreds of affidavits of people who worked in the Forrest that said Big Foot exists and there was a Big Foot looking footprint, I’d want some experts studying that footprint and any dna that’s part of it etc... Rudy’s got evidence. The credibility of that evidence can’t be determined without it going through the court process. Don’t tell me there’s no Big Foot until the experts study the footprint. If the dems didn’t want to create doubt, they should have allowed republicans to watch exactly what was going on. This doubt is all on them.

Anonymous said...

Every court sided with Al Gore... until the Supreme Court didn’t and Bush became president. It doesn’t look too good for Trump but it ain’t over.

James Eterno said...

Politifact


By Bill McCarthy
November 12, 2020
Trump’s wrong claim that election observers were barred in Pennsylvania, Michigan
Republican election observers have been allowed to observe the canvassing of ballots in both Pennsylvania and Michigan, state officials said.

A Trump campaign attorney conceded in court that the campaign had a "non-zero number" of election observers in Philadelphia. Another federal lawsuit the campaign filed in Michigan includes hundreds of pages of affidavits from people who served as election observers.


Get us something that they didn't back away from when in court if you want to be taken seriously.

James Eterno said...

Al Gore was fighting over 537 votes in one state, not tens of thousands in 5 states. It's over.Move on. Biden won.

Anonymous said...

One quick google search and found Daryl Brooks poll watcher in PA who says otherwise. There are people who were there who say wrongdoing took place. I’m not dismissing them easily. In case you haven’t noticed I haven’t been insisting the election was stolen. I’m insisting that the democrats created doubt with their behavior. Court is a process. Contesting an election is a process. Let the process play out exactly as our system is designed to. We had to listen about Russia for 3 years until the process was complete. Now you have to listen about election fraud until the process is complete. Don’t worry, it’s almost over.

James Eterno said...

Both Russia and this fraud are bs.

Anonymous said...

Then why did dems do the Russian thing for years?

Two facts stand out in the House races. 1. Not a single GOP incumbent lost. 2. There were 27 “tossup” races, and Republicans won them all.

Anon2323 said...

JAMES when it comes to having a cop mindset and politics you are so blinded that the corruption was so blatant. 80 million votes! Trump wins nearly every county except these 5 democratic strongholds. This was a landslide win, the dems couldn't believe how many votes Trump got and you will see how sloppy they got. Cannot wait to see you and the dems see the truth.

Again roles reversed EVERYYYYYY network would be frantically covering and saying trump cheated and go to court etc etc, but Biden wins perfectttttt election nothing to seeee here!!!! mediaaaa shhhhhhhhhh let's completely continuing to manipulate the population with fear mongering, disinformation, and an agenda-driven bias.

James Eterno said...

I said much of the Russia thing is bs. When you can call out your side on for example, voter suppression, we can have a real conversation.

Those swing district House races and the states show this was not as much of a pro-Biden as it was an anti-Trump election. Biden, by the way, underperformed compared to Hillary Clinton in major urban areas but he picked up and won the suburbs.

Anonymous said...

IOWA

ANOTHER GOP House win! By the slimmest of margins.

Republican Miller-Meeks defeated Democrat Hart in IA-2 by an astounding *SIX VOTES.*

Anonymous said...

The suburbs of Philly, Detroit, Atlanta, Milwaukee? I have another name for those areas.

James Eterno said...

Those real liberals like Rush are in on the Dem conspiracy too.

On Monday, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh criticized the re-election campaign legal team of President Donald Trump for not delivering its promised "massive bombshells" of alleged voter fraud that swung the election in favor of President-elect Joe Biden.


"They promised blockbuster stuff, and then nothing happened," Limbaugh said of the days following the legal team's much-discussed November 19 press conference. "And that's just, that's not—well, it's not good."

"You call a gigantic press conference like that, one that lasts an hour," Limbaugh said, "and you announce massive bombshells, then you better have some bombshells, there better be something at that press conference other than what we got."

Then, there is that other renowned left winger Tucker Carlson:

"She never demonstrated that a single actual vote was moved illegitimately by software from one candidate to another. Not one," Carlson said on the Friday installment of his program.

Fox News is now too liberal for you guys?

James Eterno said...

Have you been to Georgia lately?

WaPo

Asian American turnout helped Biden win Ga. Will it help flip the Senate?
Joe Biden won rapidly diversifying Georgia partly because Asian Americans mobilized to an unprecedented degree. With two critical Senate runoffs approaching, these voters could also boost Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.

James Eterno said...

Despite efforts to overturn the election results, many officials in the state legislature have not wavered and don't plan on shifting positions in choosing electors. "Our position on the seating of electors has not changed, and we don't have a role," House GOP spokesperson Jason Gottesman told the York Dispatch.

Anonymous said...

James there were poll watchers for both parties. However, due to Covid they were stationed anywhere from 6-250 feet away. What are you going to see that far away. Let’s be real here both parties do shady things involving elections and I will readily admit republican malfeasance as well. That being said, why not try to make elections more fair and open? To that end why not investigate the election and make sure it was on the up and up. That would benefit Biden as well. I didn’t vote for Clinton or Biden but I also didn’t vote for George W twice. I voted for McCain and third party 2012. And bill Clinton twice. So I have voted about equally democrat and republican. It doesn’t pass the smell test to say observers had a real chance to question the mail in ballots from at least 6 feet away and most of the time more. I also blame the trump campaign and the RNCC for not making more of an issue apiut of this before the election. The number of mail in ballots were unprecedented and there should have been clear rules in all states for them. Instead we had courts changing the rules 3 days, 7 days before the election. This was not the purview of courts, the power belonged to the state legislatures. The bungling of the case by trumps lawyers does not mean there were not improprieties. We should all want free and fair elections. Just telling people to “get over it” and “move on” is exactly the kind of elitist response that got 74 million people to vote for trump in the first place. Not all trump voters love trump. But they do recognize their is an elite in our country that loves looking their noses down at the middle and working classes. ( and they are in both the republican and democratic parties, the “never trumpers” and the neocons and the chamber of commerce republicans.).

James Eterno said...

I have observed several UFT elections. You need to start asking questions right at the start. If the Trump campaign had real solid evidence, it would have been presented in court. This shit is just to make excuses on why Trump lost. Plenty on the left who laughed at Russiagate are laughing at the Giuliani cases. If there is something, tell the judges, not the iceblog.

James Eterno said...

Look up Roy Cohn and Joseph McCarthy to understand the Trump campaign playbook. Same old shit, different day.

Anonymous said...

Agreed I made that criticism in my post about starting from beginning. Big mistake by them. I don’t need to look up Joseph McCarthy I am a history teacher please don’t talk down to me. Please address the point that I made about this being a completely different election. There should be procedures set up so every vote is counted equally. Voter id, signature matching, etc are important steps towards doing thAt. The reason we need an investigation is for the NEXT election. For instance, could Pennsylvania produce the envelopes from the mail in ballots? Did they save them? Do they have a chain of oevidence? If not why not? I am not saying that it’s fraud necessarily just as likely incompetence/malfeasance. It can’t hurt to have an investigation as a previous poster said they soent three years on russia hoax I think our election is at least as important.

Anonymous said...

Not one evidentiary hearing has taken place in any courtroom. Olivia Jane Winters registered democrat poll watcher claims she was threatened to be quiet while voicing concerns over irregularities in Philadelphia. These people deserve to be heard and the dems deserve to be able to cross examine. Americans deserve the opportunity to see and hear all evidence and cross examinations. Then we make up our own mind. We don’t need liberal elites or fake news to tell us what to think. Read 1984, that’s the dem/media playbook. Trump gets to use any playbook he wants to give dems a taste of their own Russian medicine.

Anonymous said...

We don’t need Rush Limbaugh to tell us what to think either.

James Eterno said...

If you are a history teacher, then you know they are using the Roy Cohn playbook. By calling Biden's victory into question and providing flimsy evidence that judges reject again and again, the idea is to question his legitimacy and fundraise. It's payback for Russiagate. I agree there. That said, it is funny how only states Biden won are crooked and only in his direction and usually in majority, minority areas. Nobody on the Republican side will address voter suppression because it does not help your side so yes, this is just partisan politics. Since Trump has been tossed out of court over 30 times, he more than likely hasn't much of a case. Keep putting out unsubstantiated claims like Newt Gingrich did yesterday, it raises lots of money and poisons Biden's presidency to the OAN-Drudge crowd. Even Fox is getting off that train.

On the issue of mail-in ballots, I haven't seen evidence that mail in ballots are less secure and in one direction. Republicans agreed to the rules. Maybe Trump telling his supporters to vote in person was not such a smart move. We do mail in ballots for UFT elections. I never accused Unity of stuffing the ballots. They just have more people to get votes out. Even when people collect ballots at school and mail them back, it is still the intent of the voter to vote one way or the other. Because we did a huge get out the vote drive in 2016 in Queens High Schools so Queens turnout was off the charts compared to other boroughs (almost 3 times more than the Bronx), does that make our win in the high schools any less legitimate? We showed it could be done.

I still don't see anyone on the Trump side addressing voter suppression. Greg Palast does this full time. Minority votes are not counted at an alarming rate in the US. That does not concern the Trump crowd.

In the end, Republican judges, some right wing Trump supporters, international observers, and most of the country know Biden won. When you are down to where are the outer envelopes of the mail in ballots, you are reaching. As I stated earlier, I have observed counts of mail-in elections. The amount of work and secrecy that would go into knowing who didn't vote and then filling out a ballot and outer envelope, signing it, and putting it in and then getting rid of real ballots to prevent thousands from voting twice would be a huge undertaking that Democrats are not capable of. Or, did they open the envelopes and have thousands of Biden ballots ready to replace them? Nobody found those Trump votes in the garbage.

Anonymous said...

And yet Trump supporters ain't buying it. Must drive the establishment nuts, no matter what they and their message enablers say, there are at least 70 million people refusing to listen. And many asians Americans in CA voted republicans. They rejected the woke morons who sought to keep Asian kids out of elite schools because too many Asian kids were successful. Georgia asians will wake up too when they realize the dems are screwing their kids....like the asians in NYC. #RealWokeism.

Anon2323 said...

omg James you are lost in the brain. Projectionist too. The last time I checked the Obamas spied on the TRump campaign. Obama with Clinton set up this fake russian dossier to hide the email from Clinton and make TRump an illegitimate president from the start which is what they did for 4 years James wake up man. Russia lies, the constant smears from media, it is disgusting how they treated Trump. Obama accomplished 1/4 of what trump did be hailing him as greatest ever.

He was in basement for months! NO REAL MOVEMENT AT ALL! If this was Trump vs Obama you can make a case for possibly getting 80 million. All the dumps that went all for Biden, open your eyes man. THis was an organized effort from 1000 plus people. Kemp is in on it too in Georgia with Abrams and the bribes. Go watch plenty of videos online of burning trump votes etc. 90,000 just marked biden with nothing else, its a sham election, wake up!

Watch Joe Freudian slip 15 seconds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGRnhBmHYN0

James Eterno said...

Fact checked again. It is getting to be a waste of time debunking all the unsubstantiated nonsense to people whose minds are made up and don't want reasoned argument.

TRUMP LOST by 6 million votes nationally and by over 40,000 in Wisconsin, Arizona and Georgia combined and 80,000 in PA.

Kemp is in on it? Now, I have heard it all. Republican voter suppression governor and former Secretary of State who purged minority voters from lists. That Kemp?

Trump lost the suburbs. Are they in on it too? Trump f***ed up the pandemic response so people don't want to deal with his bs any longer. He was very beatable. His approval rating in right wing polls still didn't get to majority territory. Over half the country had enough. It was a Trump yes or no election. Majority said no.

On the video, Biden is taken out of context. This is from factcheck.org:

When Biden used the phrase “voter fraud organization,” he was referring to the systems put into place to help people who have trouble voting. He wasn’t admitting to voter fraud.

https://www.factcheck.org/2020/10/viral-posts-take-biden-quote-on-voter-fraud-out-of-context/

Enjoy your Sunday and cut this out, please. I would rather spend my limited blogging time on something new. Do this somewhere else.

Reply

Anonymous said...

Fake news reporting Indefinitely combined voters in Wisconsin that Trump objecting to are not enough to swing Wisconsin. It’s fake news because they’re only counting the IC votes in Wayne county and leaving out the other counties that have IC objections. Fake news lies by omission. Just another example of why 70 million people don’t believe anything they report.

James Eterno said...

Isn't Wayne County in Michigan? Is there a Wayne County in Wisconsin?

Please argue this somewhere else. I want to write new material but will not let so much nonsense go without a response.

James Eterno said...

Unforced Trump errors too, WaPo:

Trump also was given several presentations by his campaign advisers about the likely surge in mail-in ballots — in part because many Americans felt safer during the pandemic voting by mail than in person — and was told they would go overwhelmingly against him, according to a former campaign official.

Advisers and allies, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), encouraged Trump to try to close the gap in mail-in voting, arguing that he would need some of his voters, primarily seniors, to vote early by mail. But Trump instead exhorted his supporters not to vote by mail, claiming they could not trust that their ballots would be counted.

“It was sort of insane,” the former campaign official said.

James Eterno said...

More from WaPo:

“You really have to understand Trump’s psychology,” said Anthony Scaramucci, a longtime Trump associate and former White House communications director who is now estranged from the president. “The classic symptoms of an outsider is, there has to be a conspiracy. It’s not my shortcomings, but there’s a cabal against me. That’s why he’s prone to these conspiracy theories.”

James Eterno said...

This fall, deputy campaign manager Justin Clark, Republican National Committee counsel Justin Riemer and others laid plans for post-election litigation, lining up law firms across the country for possible recounts and ballot challenges, people familiar with the work said. This was the kind of preparatory work presidential campaigns typically do before elections. Giuliani, Ellis and Powell were not involved.

This team had some wins in court against Democrats in a flurry of lawsuits in the months leading up to the election, on issues ranging from absentee ballot deadlines to signature-matching rules.

But Trump’s success rate in court would change considerably after Nov. 3. The arguments that began pouring in from Giuliani and others on Trump’s post-election legal team left federal judges befuddled. In one Pennsylvania case, some lawyers left the Trump team before Giuliani argued the case to a judge. Giuliani had met with the lawyers and wanted to make arguments they were uncomfortable making, campaign advisers said.

For example, the Trump campaign argued in federal court in Philadelphia two days after the election to stop the count because Republican observers had been barred. Under sharp questioning from Judge Paul S. Diamond, however, campaign lawyers conceded that Trump in fact had “a nonzero number of people in the room,” leaving Diamond audibly exasperated.

“I’m sorry, then what’s your problem?” Diamond asked.

Anonymous said...

Sorry....meant to say Milwaukee County. Was also reading about Dane County Wisconsin which probably why Wayne popped into my head as typing.

Anonymous said...

You know James, the reason why I respond is same as yours... can’t let nonsense go unchallenged. Quoting the Washington Post is like telling me the garden fairies say it’s true.

James Eterno said...

Brad Raffensperger Georgia Republican Secretary of State in WaPo:

affensperger said Republicans were only harming themselves by questioning the integrity of the Dominion machines. He warned that these kinds of baseless allegations could discourage Republicans from voting in the Senate runoffs. “People need to get a grip on reality,” he said.

More troubling to Raffensperger were the many threats he and his wife, Tricia, have received over the past few weeks — and a break-in at another family member’s home. All of it has prompted him to accept a state security detail.

“If Republicans don’t start condemning this stuff, then I think they’re really complicit in it,” he said. “It’s time to stand up and be counted. Are you going to stand for righteousness? Are you going to stand for integrity? Or are you going to stand for the wild mob? You wanted to condemn the wild mob when it’s on the left side. What are you going to do when it’s on our side?”

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
johnny said...

Trump lost, fair and square. People who who spout lame, ridiculous, conspiracy theory rhetoric are not worth your time. And thanks for the time and effort you put in here working for teachers.

Anonymous said...

The wild mob is here in the comments all the time. They are the mirror image of what they despise on the left.

Anonymous said...

We are not a mob for questioning validity of mail in ballots. This is the first and only time about half our country voted by mail. It was unprecedented, so to say that there may have been fraud or malfeasance with this brand new system of large scale voting is not a conspiracy theory. I agree that voter suppression in ALL cases should be investigate James. The uft election cannot be compared to an election with 160 million votes. It’s not even close to the same. Sorry. Not saying there was fraud or malfeasance, but it can’t hurt to see the evidence, and then judge for ourselves. It’s important to get it right for future elections. I agree that every citizen should have equal access to the vote, but why not require voter id in every state? Or get the mail in ballots notarized? It should not be easier to vote for president of the United States than it is to get a drivers license. The election is much more important.

James Eterno said...

Notarized ballot? Please. And why shouldn't we have a literacy test or poll tax or next you will want a grandfather clause. Maybe a property requirement. A Republican secretary of state who has had his family threatened called it a right wing mob. What would you call that? Integrity matters. I am glad some Republicans still have some integrity. States like Oregon and others have done mass mail in ballots for years. Bottom line, TRUMP LOST! Biden has a majority of the votes.

Anonymous said...

Agreed. I am no longer talking about this election. It’s about getting it right for the next one. I hope when you taught you didn’t teach your students to answer a point made with “please”.

Anonymous said...

Because a poll tax and the grandfather clause and literacy tests were racist. And unconstitutional. Asking for a notarized ballot to make sure that mail in vote doesn’t count any more than my in person vote is not. That’s the difference.

James Eterno said...

Voter suppression is voter suppression no matter how it is done.

Anonymous said...

Isn't there reasonable ground between notarized and accept any ballot that no citizen requested be mailed to them? I listened to PA poll watchers alleging irregularities and fraud speak. They seem sincere and credible. Let's fairly investigate their claims. Why would anyone want to ignore poll workers alleging that proper protocols weren't followed? The Washington Post is not unbiased journalism. I don't care what they say. I do care what the regular citizens who claim they witnessed improprieties have to say. Let them be questioned and cross examined in a court room instead of just screaming "conspiracy theory" because you don't like what they say. Those who've disagreed with James on this have not behaved like a mob. Mob behavior includes attacking someone to silence them. It's what the left does. Half the country has no faith in the election results. Mocking us kind of makes me think the left is afraid of what would be found if we carefully looked. As for other types of voter suppression, go for it. If y'all can make that case, do it. Bring witnesses forth and make your case. No one is stopping the left from doing that. Have any of you listened to these PA witnesses? Or are you just listening to the Washington Post's version? Watch the video, skip the senators, Rudy and Jenna Ellis if you want but listen to the people who were there on the ground. I found them credible enough to proceed to a courtroom where they can be cross examined. You're dismissing people you haven't even listened to.

Anon2323 said...

Just like media suppression of the news hence liberal morons brainwashed.

https://epochtimes.today/nearly-a-tenth-of-biden-voters-in-key-states-would-not-have-voted-for-him-had-they-known-about-hunter-biden-scandal/


The polls which are trying to suppress votes Trump 17 point dog in Wisconsin lol, polls are a travesty and a joke. James is trying so hard to find examples using scarmacucci the rat who turned on trump. 30% dems find this to be illegitimate and 70% republicans yet you want to pretend this ain't happening. Problem is James IMO you and many dems have been so hoodwinked, you believed the russia hoax, most liberals believed the Kavanaugh BS and the impeachent. There is no credibility for millions of dems who have been wrong. You are a smart man whom I respect, never see eye to eye on politics which is fine, to turn almost a blind eye to the cheating the dems are so good at is sad. Stacey Abarms harvesting 850,000 votes is a joke too.

waitingforsupport said...

Biden and Harris will be your president and vp for the next four years. Period. End of discussion. It's over. Trump's message did not resonate more than Biden's.

James Eterno said...

I was quoting a Republican secretary of state from WaPo on integrity. DOD WaPo make up the death threats against him?

A Trump appointed appeals court judge wrote decision on Pa. I think he said there weren't even allegations of fraud. You need real evidence in court. They had basically none.

Scott Walker, yes that union busting Republican, has given up the Wisconsin ship.

I find it very funny that when right wingers point to cities that you say engage in fraud, it is cities with huge Black populations. The not so subtle racism in these baseless allegations is there for all to see. I am not saying anyone here specifically making these arguments is a racist.

Biden is a swamp creature. I already see conflicts of interest as the revolving door between defense contractors and defense jobs in government is carrying on. We badly need ethics reform.

Russia tries to interfere in our elections. Duh. However, Russia had pretty much nothing to do with Hillary losing and Russiagate was mostly a nnothingburger.That said, Trump is still ethically challenged too.

Trump didn't drain the swamp. He governed as a standard issue Republican. Cut corporate taxes and regulations, conservative judges, throw money at defense. If he would have been a Jesse Ventura type independent, who knows what happens?

As I stated yesterday, we aren't going to resolve this here. I would rather move on back to schools. At some point, we have to decide who gets the last word and end this.

Anonymous said...

It's about the ESTABLISMENT James. The republican and democrat establishment. You guys backed an establishment candidate that sent jobs to Mexico, China and elsewhere killing the working guy and who chose a vp who made her bones locking up black men and black moms with truant children. The infuriating part for me is you guys think you're morally superior for backing these swampy establishment candidates. And ws4.... we get it. Biden will most likely be inaugurated. That has nothing to do with what we're saying about election fraud. Save your AOC tweet-like mean girl comments for someone else. Some of us were actually debating thoughtfully and respectfully before you came back with your usual snark. Those I know who voted for Trump don't love or worship Trump. He's not our hero. We agree with more of his policies. There's evidence of election fraud that needs a closer examination and Biden sitting in the Oval doesn't make that need go away.

James Eterno said...

Alas, we've made progress.

"And ws4.... we get it. Biden will most likely be inaugurated."

Anonymous said...

Not progress James. When Biden supporters listen to the tedious hearings in PA and AZ, real progress will be made. I don't think anyone said In their comment that Biden wouldn't be inaugurated. We're saying we're not going to ignore evidence of voter fraud. I can live with Biden in the Oval, can't live with the idea that our elections aren't as secure as we thought. The only way to know is to get in the weeds with it and look around.

waitingforsupport said...

@3:40pm...
Sometimes I'm a bottom line queen.
Snarky? Aoc?
"You guys"...
W4s comments and the name callers attack.

waitingforsupport said...

In my opinion it's one thing to say let's look for "weeds" in all of the fields
It's another thing to say let's look for "weeds" only in this section of these fields.
Trump is yelling the latter. Smells tah me

Anonymous said...

Fine so look everywhere. Goal is to reform elections and the way the ballots are certified/checked.

Anonymous said...

Goal is voter suppression so those horrible Black and Brown people don't vote.

waitingforsupport said...

@637 pm

Nope. Nada.
Trump is claiming that he KNOWS fraud has occurred and that he KNOWS that he won the election. He sounds as sure as his birther claim. Remember that? It was Trump's effort to delegitimize President Obama. So many people bought into that too. They said, "maybe it's true". Trump is what some folks call a punk. He talks a lot of s&%t but whines, bit#%es, and cries if someone talks s&%t about him. He yells no fair when it's time for his dose of medicine.
When your drunk uncle starts telling tall tales, don't encourage him. Tuck that uncle into bed and call it a night.

Anonymous said...

Not about Trump. I have plenty of reasons to be disgusted by Obama. Don’t care where he was born. Assume he was American born. (For the record I never wanted to see his birth certificate) It’s not the drunk uncle I’m listening to. It’s actual witnesses to potential fraud. Real people who seem credible. I’d like all those people to be heard and cross examined. Trump being a whiner has nothing to do with it. Again, no one I know who voted for Trump is blinded by him. He’s a narcissist and a bit of a dick. We voted policy not personality. Absolutely nothing about Trump changes the fact that there are witnesses who seem credible. If the dems want to look in other weeds in other fields, what’s stopping them? Have a look. When they have evidence/witnesses, I’ll listen to them too. Why does the left think we care when they hurl personal insults at Trump? Curious. He’s not our dad or our drunk uncle. Call him all the names you want. I still want to get to the bottom of exactly how secure or unsecured our elections are. I know you want your guy in the Oval. Ok. Let him get settled in. But then do yourself a favor and listen to witnesses. I think there is evidence that cheating at the least CAN take place on a wide scale in either democrat or republican controlled precincts. If that’s the case I have to believe even leftists would want that fixed. Whether it already happened is debatable, but the potential seems completely plausible at this point in time. No one in mainstream media covered anything the witnesses in PA said. If you didn’t actually hear them speak, you can’t just call bullshit on what they said. How credible are they? I don’t know. They weren’t cross examined. Have a look. Listen. Judge for yourselves.

waitingforsupport said...


@5:36
Oops i hit reply b4 finishing my comment
Coincidentally now that Trump is definitively saying he won the election people want to question every tom dick harry karen betty and bubba who claims they witnessed 80 million people committing fraud.
It's over. "You were played".

Anonymous said...

You proved my point about dismissing people you haven't even listen to. i haven't been played. I've heard people speak who seem credible. How credible they are I can't determine without cross examination. There are none so deaf as those who refuse to hear.

Anonymous said...

The certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victories in the battleground states of Arizona and Wisconsin dealt a fresh blow to President Trump’s quest to overturn results as a chorus of Republicans and Democrats offered support for the election’s integrity.

Maybe the evidence of fraud is coming soon.

waitingforsupport said...

@9:38 am...
I can be dismissive. I don't listen to Rudy. I don't listen to DTrump Jr. I don't listen to the fella standing on the corner arguing with the lamp post. Erick Erickson said, trump supporters "have been played".
80 million votes. It's a wrap. At this point, I'm just trying to figure out which dip to have for my inaugural party. No shade

waitingforsupport said...

@9:38 am...
I can be dismissive. I don't listen to Rudy. I don't listen to DTrump Jr. I don't listen to the fella standing on the corner arguing with the lamp post. Erick Erickson said, trump supporters "have been played".
80 million votes. It's a wrap. At this point, I'm just trying to figure out which dip to have for my inaugural party. No shade

waitingforsupport said...

@938...
I agree,
"There are none so deaf as those who refuse to hear".

Anonymous said...

951 maybe you need to go on YouTube, watch the PA and AZ hearings that main steam media refuses to show and see the evidence for yourself. I’ve seen and heard it. It exists. It’s amount of credibility can’t be determined without cross examination but evidence and witnesses exist. Denial doesn’t erase the evidence.

James Eterno said...

If the evidence exists, then why not present it to judges, some who Trump appointed I believe Trump is now 1-39 in court.

waitingforsupport said...

Anddd Barr announced what many have known-- there is no evidence of voter fraud. Back alley rudy will need to pedal that miracle drug someplace else. Clam or French onion? Any suggestions

Anonymous said...

Every lower court sided with Al Gore. Like it or not the fraud story is picking up steam in alternative media whose ratings are sky rocketing. You’re just choosing not to pay attention.

James Eterno said...

Conspiracy theory nonsense is very dangerous for our country. The Florida Supreme Court voted 4-3 for Gore. Appeals court unanimously rejected Trump. The US Supreme Court will not be partisan enough to touch this.

waitingforsupport said...

@4:50 pm... im not surprised that it's picking up steam. His followers. The curious. Just because I don't buy it doesn't mean I'm not paying attention. You're choosing to believe it. That's America. However the courts and Trump's own DOJ says No fraud.

James Eterno said...

Is this what Trump supporters here condone? This from Politico covering a press conference by a Georgia election official.

Mr. President, it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia,” Sterling said later in the press conference. “Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone is going to get hurt, someone is going to get shot, someone is going to get killed. And it’s not right.”

Sterling noted that both he and Raffensperger, along with Raffensperger’s wife, have also received threats. Sterling also brought up Joe DiGenova, an attorney for the president, calling for Chris Krebs to be shot. Krebs was fired by Trump from leading the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency after saying the election was secure, and DiGenova later tried to portray his comment as a hyperbole.

Anonymous said...

Another defeat for the Trump legal team.

Wisconsin Supreme Court declines to hear Trump campaign challenge to election results
Wisconsin's high court ruled Thursday that under state law, President Trump's campaign should have sought a hearing first in a lower-level court.

Trump’s campaign could still seek to challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s more than 20,000-vote lead in Wisconsin circuit court. But the refusal of the state’s highest court to consider the petition is a new blow to Trump’s floundering efforts to overturn the election — and a particularly stinging rebuke, given that conservatives hold a 4-to-3 majority on the elected panel.

Anonymous said...

I watched the entire hearing in Georgia that took place Dec 3rd. I challenge Biden supporters to listen to every single witness who spoke in Georgia. I found the video on a YouTube channel called NTD. Video title is Trump Legal team presents case at Georgia senate hearing (Dec.3). I watched all but the last 30 min so far....hours and hours long video. I don’t care what’s reported in the press. I’m watching real people tell about violation after violation of Georgia election law. People who were there on the ground.Democrats questioned them too. Some of these witnesses also described the bureaucracy they faced trying to report these if allegations. No one wanted to hear them. Except for one who seemed like a kook, they were credible. If you haven’t listened to them, how can you form an opinion on what they said. And I’ll say this again. Every lower court sided with Al Gore. It doesn’t mean shit. The Trump campaign has only filed 3 suits thus far. Stories of other cases are reported as Trump losses. Not accurate reporting. Let Biden have the Oval. I don’t fucking care. But for any citizen to dismiss these people outright undermines our elections. These witnesses’ allegations should be investigated properly.

Anonymous said...

There were 2 hearings in Georgia yesterday dec 3rd. I was referring to second hearing.

James Eterno said...

I didn't watch Georgia but I watched some YouTube on Michigan. I didn't see anything that looked like real evidence.

Is AG Bill Barr in on the conspiracy too. The Justice Department didn't see any widespread fraud that would change the results.

Oh, and now as most mail in ballots have been counted it is closer to a 7 million vote Biden lead. Did his people stuff 7 million more ballots than Trump but managed to keep it secret?

Anonymous said...

As I am interested in the early retirement option, I was happy to learn that an agreed upon Bill is pending in Albany. I have also since learned that the 2021 session begins on January 6. Does anyone know if this retirement Bill is on the agenda for this session? Various early retirement options have been rumored for years. Could it really be happening?