Wednesday, November 6, 2013 California State University, Dominguez Hills Good Morning: Thank you for holding this public forum. We are honored to have you on our campus. My name is Kate Fawver and I am Professor and Chair of the Department of History here at CSU Dominguez Hills. I come before you today speaking as…
When John Kasich was elected governor of Ohio in 2010, one of the centerpieces of his economic plans was to privatize the state’s economic development agency. The reasoning went something like this: the public sector is too bureaucratized to be as responsive to changing economic conditions as the private sector demands, and so a privatized…
Our media has conditioned us to focus on the moment, on the immediate situation. It is very seldom that the media encourages us to take a longer perspective. And in those few instances in which a longer view is attempted, very often the immediate situation is simply projected outward–multiplied as if the current conditions will…
One of my posts this past week was on John Kasich’s appointment of Gordon Gee to explore ways of increasing affordability at Ohio’s public universities. Given Gee’s continuing status as the highest paid administrator at any public university in the United States, I expressed my skepticism about the appointment, a skepticism based in part on…
The following is excerpted from a Columbus Dispatch article by Charlie Boss and Jennifer Smith Richards. The article is titled “Education Roundup: Retired Gee’s Wit Still Working Overtime,” and it briefly surveys a series of stories from around Ohio. _________________________ E. Gordon Gee might not be in the daily spotlight since retiring as president of…
On Monday, the Columbus Dispatch reported that Governor Kasich has appointed Gordon Gee, President Emeritus of Ohio State University, to “lead a study looking for ways to make college more affordable and relevant for Ohio students.” More specifically, Gee will “spend the next year working with other college presidents, K-12 education leaders, and the business…
Most Progressives, especially in the “Rust Belt” states, have had much reason to regret the failure of the national Democratic Party to generate voter turnout in 2010. During that census year, Republicans secured the governorships and large legislative majorities in many of those states and then gerrymandered districts that have allowed them to maintain 2:1…
The first item is from Newsmax, a Far-Right news service: _________________________ Dear Newsmax Reader, On October 1st, the first major milestone of ObamaCare began. So-called “health exchanges” are now open across the United States. In the past your employer would handle your coverage, or you could deal directly with a private insurer. Not anymore. Millions…
As the federal government has shut down because the President and the Senate Democrats would not accede to the demand by Tea-Party House Republicans that the Affordable Care Act be defunded on the eve of the enactment of its last major provisions, it is helpful, I think, to put this whole absurdly contrived melodrama into…
All summer, various Far-Right organizations have been making money hand over fist by selling bumper stickers, t-shirts, coffee mugs, and all sorts of other paraphernalia usually associated with political campaigns but, in this instance, promoting three delusional political causes: (1) the impending impeachment of President Obama; (2) the impending confiscation of all guns from all…