Educators From The United States

"The more Trump’s tyranny is exposed, the stronger the resistance. The worse it gets, the larger the backlash. The crueler and more vicious his regime becomes, the more powerful the alliances being formed at every level of society to stop him. We will sweep vulnerable Republican lawmakers out of office in 2026 or before. We will support groups like the ACLU that are taking Trump to court. We will spread the truth. Tyrants cannot succeed where people refuse to submit to them. We will not submit. We will emerge from this stronger than we were before, and more committed to the common good. Be safe. Be strong. Hug your loved ones."

"I thought I couldn’t be more shocked and sickened than I already was, but what’s happened this week is truly horrifying. In the Oval Office, before cameras and journalists, Trump openly lied to the president of South Africa about alleged violence against white South Africans. The Trump regime has also granted refuge to white South Africans while continuing to bar or deport people of color who desperately need refuge. The regime told Harvard it can no longer enroll foreign students and that its existing foreign students must transfer to another university or lose their legal status in the United States. Trump auctioned off a personal dinner to foreigners who poured money into his own crypto business. He has also accepted Qatar’s gift of a $400 million “flying palace” (it’s also just for him — no other president in future years can use it). At Trump’s insistence, House Republicans have passed a giant bill that would, if enacted, be the largest redistribution of income and wealth in American history — from the poor and working class to the rich and super-rich. The bill includes a poison pill that eliminates the power of courts to hold officials in contempt for disregarding court orders."

"The mistakes made at one point in time have an eerie way of reemerging two generations later, as memories fade."

"History shows there are no "one day" dictatorships. When democracies fall, they typically fall completely."

"I’m Jewish. I detest Hamas. I know what it’s like to have family members murdered brazenly because of their beliefs and ethnicity. Which is why I take social justice and human rights so seriously. And why I, like millions of others, am committed to a ceasefire in and humanitarian aid for Gaza. [...] Where is the moral clarity? Where is the moral authority? Why aren't we doing everything possible to stop the deaths? It's time for all of us who care about human rights to demand a ceasefire. Now."

"But Trump is not a brainless buffoon. He’s a cunning marketer, a diabolic manipulator of the public, a sly producer of his own daily reality show. His lead in the GOP’s presidential sweepstakes has grown. He will almost certainly be the Republican candidate for president next year — even if he’s in jail. How to debate a symbol? How to take on an image? How should Biden and the Democrats, and everyone who cares deeply about this country, respond to a demagogue who obsesses over what he projects rather than what he stands for? How to deal with a fascist who doesn’t want followers to think but only to feel rage? Expose him for who he is."

"Trump’s lackeys fell in line, expressing the defiance Trump projected in his mug shot. On Newsmax, Sarah Palin called for civil war. Fox’s Laura Ingraham told viewers that Trump’s arrest was proof that government officials are trying to “take them out.” Fox’s Sean Hannity said the Department of Justice will target Republicans “until there’s nothing left of the party.” All brainless bile. Last Thursday, Trump complained that Fox News “purposely show the absolutely worst pictures of me, especially the big ‘orange’ one with my chin pulled way back. They think they are getting away with something, they’re not. Just like 2016 all over again … And then they want me to debate!” Of course he’s angry. For the man who’s all symbol and image and without substance, a photo like the following conveys a brainless buffoon. It must drive him crazy."

"I want to talk about symbols, images, and fascism. Here is Trump’s mug shot from his arraignment yesterday in Georgia. It’s a look of defiance — which I’m sure he practiced repeatedly beforehand — intended to make his supporters and his Republican base feel defiant, too. If a picture is worth a thousand words, this is Trump’s thousand-word response to Wednesday night’s Republican debate, which he declined to attend. He timed his arraignment in Georgia for yesterday so that it — and this photo — would dominate Thursday’s and Friday’s news, rather than anything or anyone emerging from the debate. But a defiant photograph isn’t “news.” It’s a symbol, an image. Which is exactly what Donald Trump is. He has no political platform, no specific policy agenda, no new ideas, and no plan for what he’ll do if he gets a second term. He exists as a symbol for the anger, discontent, bigotry, and vindictiveness he has unleashed in America. He is as close as America has come to a fascist leader, who doesn’t want his followers to think or analyze. He wants them only to feel."

"Last night I deleted a tweet because it was widely misinterpreted and distorted by conservative media. "Back of the hand" is an idiom for rebuke. I wholeheartedly condemn violence against women."

"Every company in America should require all workers to be vaccinated, period."

"Please, for the love of god, do not rush an unsafe vaccine for political purposes."

"20,000,000 Americans are at risk of being evicted by September 30."

"So let me get this straight: Extending additional unemployment benefits to out-of-work Americans during a pandemic will make them lazy and lead to socialism, but trillions in bailouts to Wall St. bankers and corporate execs is good for the economy?"

"As the pandemic surges back, Trump and his lackeys have:"

"Your reminder that America's richest 1 percent now own half the value of the U.S. stock market. The richest 10 percent own 92 percent. So when Trump says the stock market is the economy, know who he's really talking about."

"The rich know that as long as racial animosity exists, white and black Americans are less likely to look upward and see where the wealth and power really has gone."

"The oligarchy understands that a “divide-and-conquer” strategy gives them more room to get what they want without opposition... oligarchies cannot hold on to power forever... When a vast majority of people come to view an oligarchy as illegitimate and an obstacle to their wellbeing, oligarchies become vulnerable. As bad as it looks right now, the great strength of this country is our resilience. We bounce back. We have before. We will again. In order for real change to occur – in order to reverse the vicious cycle in which we now find ourselves – the locus of power in the system will have to change. The challenge we face is large and complex, but we are well suited for the fight ahead. Together, we will dismantle the oligarchy. Together, we will fix the system."

"The coronavirus has starkly revealed what most of us already knew: The concentration of wealth in America has created a health care system in which the wealthy can buy care others can't. It's also created an education system in which the super-rich can buy admission to college for their children, a political system in which they can buy Congress and the presidency, and a justice system in which they can buy their way out of jail... The system is rigged. But we can fix it... The great divide in American politics isn't between right and left. The underlying contest is between a small minority who have gained power over the system, and the vast majority who have little or none. Forget politics as you've come to see it – as contests between Democrats and Republicans. The real divide is between democracy and oligarchy."

"Amid the coronavirus outbreak and financial crisis, older voters are backing Biden. He may be boring but at least he’s familiar and safe. Since 24 February, with the lethal coronavirus spreading around the world, middle-aged and older Americans – not only most vulnerable to the disease but also accounting for most retirement savings – have been fleeing stocks for the relative safety of US government bonds."

"Wealthy corporations and their enablers have spread 5 big lies about unions in order to stop workers from organizing... Know the truth and spread the truth. Lie #1: Labor unions are bad for workers. Wrong. Unions are good for all workers – even those who are not unionized... Lie #2: Unions hurt the economy. Wrong again. When workers are unionized they can negotiate better wages, which in turn spreads the economic gains more evenly and strengthens the middle class... Lie #3: Labor unions are as powerful as big business. No way. Labor union membership in 2018 accounted for 10.5 percent of the American workforce, while large corporations account for almost three-quarters of the entire American economy... most economic gains have been going to executives and shareholders rather than workers... Lie #4: Most unionized workers are in industries like steel and auto manufacturing. Untrue... the largest part of the unionized workforce is workers in the professional and service sectors – retail, restaurant, hotel, hospital, teachers–which comprise 59% of all workers represented by a union... In 2018, unionized service workers earned a median wage of 802 dollars a week. Non-unionized service workers made on average, $261 less... Lie #5: Most unionized workers are white, male, and middle-aged. Some unionized workers are, of course, but most newly-unionized workers are not... Today’s unions are growing, expanding, and boosting the wages and economic prospects of those who need them most."

"Trump and his Republican enablers are now reversing regulations put in place to stop Wall Street's excessively risky lending. But Trump's real contributions to the next crash are his sabotage of the Affordable Care Act, rollback of overtime pay, burdens on labor organizing, tax reductions for corporations and the wealthy but not for most workers, cuts in programs for the poor, and proposed cuts in Medicare and Medicaid—all of which put more stress on the paychecks of most Americans."

"Almost 80 percent of Americans are now living paycheck to paycheck.... 40 percent of Americans said they wouldn't be able to pay their bills if faced with a $400 emergency. The underlying problem isn't that Americans have been living beyond their means. It's that their means haven't been keeping up with the growing economy. Most gains have gone to the top..."

"The U.S. economy crashes when it becomes too top heavy because the economy depends on consumer spending to keep it going... For a time, the middle class and poor can keep the economy going nonetheless by borrowing. But, as in 1929 and 2008, debt bubbles eventually burst. We're getting dangerously close. By the first quarter of this year, household debt was at an all-time high of $13.2 trillion."

"The critical things to watch out for aren't the rare big events, such as the 2008 bailout of [Wall] Street itself, but the ongoing multitude of small rule changes that continuously alter the economic game. ... The "free market" is a myth that prevents us from examining these rule changes and asking whom they serve. The myth is therefore highly useful to those who do not wish such an examination to be undertaken."

"Those who argue for "less government" are really arguing for a different government—often one that favors them or their patrons."

"Government doesn’t "intrude" on the "free market." It creates the market."

"ONE QUESTION I - Why?"

"Shadows...bring softness to every thing. An object and its shadow are softness and hardness."

"Art is internal and external. The repose a person feels in aesthetic creation comes from his, for the time, feeling he is what he is and also what he is not. Ego and otherness don't fight for the while. The artist feels he has reached form in the deepest places of his personality, because things outside himself have been see courageously, truly, respectfully by him."

"Aesthetics is the one fundamental means a person has of liking himself."

"Aesthetics is related to every particular conflict; to everyday conflict."

"All art puts separateness and togetherness together. All selves want to do this."

"All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves."

"In reality opposites are one; art shows this."

"According to Aesthetic Realism, the greatest sin that a person can have is the desire for contempt. Because as soon as you have contempt, as soon as you don't want to see another person as having the fulness that you have, you can rob that person, hurt that person, kill that person."

"Wrongfully to be contemptuous of other human beings is inviting mental unhealth for oneself."

"The artist created; the owner possessed."

"The world should be owned by the people living in it. Every person should be seen as living in a world truly his. All persons should be seen as living in a world truly theirs."

"So we are alone in our blood and bones and our thoughts. It seems we are separate if we want to feel that way. And yet we can look out."

"A person is separate from all other things and together with all other things. To understand opposites in a self, the meaning of together and separate must be seen (this meaning is like that of same and different)."

"There is a deep and "dialectic" duality facing every human being, which can be put this way: How is he to be entirely himself, and yet be fair to that world which he does not see as himself?"

"There is a disposition in every person to think he will be for himself by making less of the outside world."

"Every person in order to respect himself has to see the world as beautiful or good or acceptable."

"Children are really desperate to see the world as pleasing; and their desperateness is part of a wise hope."

"No self can truly know itself and be ashamed."

"When truth is divided, errors multiply."

"To ourselves we are always being introduced."

"A friend is a person who takes care of himself by being friendly to you."

"An unsure person, when truth makes a point, is too often stabbed, not inspired."

"If you like yourself for the wrong reason, you will dislike yourself for the right reason."