Are the Oil Barons Brainwashing your Children?
By louisehartmann
The environment is screwed. Big oil and coal want to brainwash your children. The Center for American Progress obtained a secret document produced by the Heartland Institute – a right wing, global warming-denying think tank funded by the Koch brothers – to teach children in K through 12th grade that global warming is a “major scientific controversy.”
The document includes secret plans to re-write environmental curricula to downplay the effects of global warming. The man in charge of writing the new curricula is named Dr. David Wojick - who also works as a coal industry consultant. The Heartland Institute defended its reeducation effort by saying, “We hope that our efforts will restore sound science to climate change education and discourage the political propaganda that too often passes as ‘education.’” In other words – they think big oil should be teaching kids – and not the scientific community.
This is exactly the sort of stuff that former Supreme Court justice Lewis Powell called for in his infamous 1971 memo to the Chamber of Commerce when he suggested rewriting school textbooks to advance more business-friendly attitudes. The billionaires are continuing their campaign of good old-fashioned brainwashing.
Comments
#2
Nobel Prize winning physicist Ivar Giaever, publicly resigned from the American Physical Society (APS) with a letter that begins: "I did not renew because I cannot live with the staements: "the evidence is incontrovertible: global warming is occurring. If no mitigating actions are taken, significant disruptions in the Earths's physicial and ecological systems, social systems, security and human health are likey to occur. the evidence of global warming is incontrovertible."
#3
Isn't it also largely from the same ilk that wants to marginalize Darwinism into a "major scientific controversy" the aim of which, of course, is to detract from the scientific and historical significance of the scientific fact of natural selection? Oh, excuse me, this is not just a small-minded and shadows-on-the-wall-of-the-cave deception of a few wealthy troglodytes that use their non-sense to corral the ignorant masses. I guess you don't have to be right wing Republicant to fall for that. So let's belittle, by all means, the Kochs for trying to brainwash our kids with such clap-trap but let's also realize that many people have drunk the cool-aide on other issues that are parallel in their farcical fanaticism.
And by the way, I noticed that many people feel very threatened to use the N word.....Nazi that is...and so they have to speak in code when referring to what our nation is becoming....using such words and phrases as ...."in another country".."during the era of my grandparents" which is all a non-commital of saying "Nazi Germany" without actually blatantly saying "Nazi Germany". But, code or not, Thom is correct.
Just wait till the Neocon Nazis start putting us in concentration camps..and Obama won't stop them...in fact he may very well be holding open the doors. They are already breaking all the rules of our constitution and have been for at least since Bush II and it is getting worse under Obama. I listened to the news earlier today and they are feeding us their propaganda...getting us ready for full scale subjugation...emphasizing that they are expecting "the lone wolf" (ie: one of us?) to be acting undetected as the next terrorist.
They are psyching us into being very afraid of yet another unknowable unknown boogyman that is plotting at this very moment that will jump out with a suitcase nuke, or something biological maybe, that will kill lots of people. But then again...maybe they will use an Iranian Patsy in order to be an excuse to bomb Iran? They already tried this with that Texas Iranian Used Car Salesman.
They are getting to be very good at what they do...in freaking people out in order to control them...take away any modicum of freedom they think they have now. I wonder who the next "patsy" will be. An inside CIA agent, or FBI agent who believes he/she is working to infiltrate a group or person just to be shocked that he/she is the named suspect....the patsy. Remember Oswald? Remember McVeigh and Nichols? Remember the 19 911 hijackers? How about Osama?
Police gangs, and it will soon be the military, are now roaming the streets and doing illegal searches of random citizens on the street. They are already spying on us and analyzing what we say on the internet and on the phone all without court orders...they justify it in the name of Homeland Security. They use violence in trying to suppress our right to demonstrate while hypocritically egging on the dissidents in other countries. Just wait till they are no longer satisfied in the time it takes to kill off a sizable portion of the population consisting of poor people and old people who may be getting social security or other assistance....and they begin to take more direct methods of dealing with "the problem".
And if you think voting for Obama is better than the alternatives, you haven't been paying attention to what Obama has and hasn't done...compared to the hyperbole and lies he used to get elected. You can't blame it all on an unyielding and obstreperous Congress. Obama had his chances and just blew it. Did he blow it or was it intentional? Was he weak and inexperienced or is he just another charismatic blowhard Trojan Horse that says one thing and does another? Obama has worked against the people who actually voted for him the first time because it is Wall Street he has worked for. And he'll continue to work for Wall Street if he is reelected. If you keep voting for the turncoat that stabbed his constituency in their backs then nothing will change. It will be more of the same.
Our economy has become the casino ♣ ♥ ♦ ♠ economy of rich people who know that they can bet other people's money and because they are "too big to fail"..they will get bailed out by the tax payers..all of the unwealthy people that get stuck with the taxes. Until they change the laws and enforce them..throwing banksters in jail...history will repeat itself. The too big to fail will be the blackmail and coercion that will keep the Godfather's boots on our necks.
#4
http://m.youtube.com/?rdm=4pf3n22ta&reload=3#/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch...
Thom here is a 2 min video of Utah senate majority leader saying screw the troops.
#5
Will they get away with it?....... My wife who teaches grade school flat-out says NO! She believes most teachers will know the difference between corporate propaganda and true science. She added that just last month the student's Weekly Reader had a nice article about climate change and the effect it's having on polar wildlife. It was also quickly pointed out to me that 97% of climate science experts agree humans are causing global warming.
#6
Palindromedary: I'm really angry about everything too, but seriously, who is a better "realistic" alternative to President Obama?....... Senator Sanders refuses to run!
#7
Speaking of Heartland, anyone remember how that screaming Republicon artist Peter Ferrara (an analyst with Heartland) exhibited his stubborness on the show?
Thom Hartmann vs. Peter Ferrara: America's Ticking Bankruptcy Bomb
Thom Hartmann vs Peter Ferrara; Is Shared Sacrifice Socialism?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq0qaADM57o
Then this more recent one with another Heartland lawyer, this one advocating for voter ID laws.
#8
speaking of which, Thom should try to get one of the heartland representatives (not Ferrara please, at least someone behind the memos) on and debate the GW issue.
#9
And I'd much prefer Obama rather than a Republican as well (and may even vote for him again just to tick off the damn Republicans)...but I seriously doubt that Obama is going to make much of a difference. I know I rant and rave a lot about Obama...but it is not just Obama....it is many of the damn Democrats who are corrupt lying bastards as well. Many have been just as greedy, deceitful, and criminal as the Republicans in participating in inside trading and rigging it so they will get rich by making laws that benefit them and their bribesters.
There are still a few good ones. If anyone has watched the Jon Stewart show tonight they saw and heard one very good Democrat...Sen. Slaughter of New York. Much of what was said on that show just enforces what I, and I suspect many people, believe about just how corrupt, vain, and downright criminal many in our Congress have become. And Senator Slaughter is trying to fight to stop the special privilege that the Congress people have given themselves. Everyone else would go to jail, and have, for what they do in Congress. Congress should not be exempt.
Would it not be likely that, if a Republican...(Mitt?) is our next president that the people would finally do what I think it is going to take to make a real change when they have the guts to do what many Arab nations have done already? Things have to get really nasty before people will be moved to do what may well be the only thing left and a Republican in office may be what is needed to push many to finally take action.
Maybe a Republican president would be the trigger to make it happen. With Obama, the people (that still have an iota of naive hope) will be more hesitant to be more active. It's like frogs in a pot of water... slowly increasing the temperature of the water.. the frogs will be lulled into a steady and gentle demise not even knowing what hit them. But if the water temperature is rapidly increased the frogs will desperately try to jump out. We are all on our way to being boiling frogs.
Obama is the delusion that will keep many people from doing what is necessary....and the ruling elite knows it....which is why Obama is so well funded by Wall Street. I suspect that if McCain/Palin had won...having to preside over the bailout that Bush started...that we would have revolted by now. No one wants to see a Syria-like scenario but the rich are sure not going to give in. And since they have rigged the system in their favor...giving us a smoke-and-mirrors, false-hope criminal election system...we will keep going down.
You also have to remember that there are many very wealthy people that like to call themselves Democrats as well...some even part of the ruling elite 1%...or close to it. They will talk the talk but laugh all the way to their banks while the rest of us die of poverty. They also have a vested interest in keeping Obama in power to keep the people ever hopeful of change...which they will get without a doubt...but it will be a spiral downwards deeper into that boiling pot.
The longer the inevitable is put off...the harder it will be to change things to our favor. And another thing in favor of totally trashing Obama and those criminals in Congress is that it is turning up the heat, however slight, on them. If you go along with their program and just wander off to the polls, like sheep, and play their crooked game it tends to support the lies and criminal deeds of these politicians. Even Obama, early in his Presidency, said that we, the people, have to "force him to work in our favor" (not an exact quote). Of course, later, when his constituents tried to follow that course...Obama reviled them for showing their distress. That's a politician for you.
Wouldn't it be a big shock if, after all of the dopey Republican candidates go through their histrionics, the Republicans sneak in a last minute, well respected (by Republicans anyway) and widely popular candidate that has not even made any pretensions to the throne? Especially if that person was not totally disliked by many Democrats? There wouldn't even be time to scrutinize any potential skeletons!
#10
Quote louisehartmann:good old-fashioned brainwashingIs that what happened to him?
Quote mauiman58:FDR is much closer to the Antichrist than he is to Jesus ChristWhat the heck did they do to his brains?!
Found here:
http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2012/01/indiana-new-front-line-war-working-class#comment-115943
#11
This is a controversy like smoking being bad for your health. At least with smoking it was the people who smoked (or were close by) that suffer the ill effects. Now all of us will suffer.
#12
This is mainly a southern issue, it won't ever effect progressive states.
I had a pretty close friend in Tennessee, whom to discuss with was like communicating with the middle ages -- homeschooled Baptist. She was brainwashed alright. Finally I was so fed up, I dumped her and told her she was allowed to contact me again in case she would come to senses. But frankly, I haven't any hope she ever will.
In this minute I decided to keep out of southern affairs. I will never understand that mentality. All I can do is tone down this comment, which sounded pretty tough this morning.
#13
Quote Palindromedary:Obama rather than a Republican as well (and may even vote for him again just to tick off the damn Republicans)...Looks like I literally was the bull in the china shop............
Probably I should say: "Noooooooooo, you won't vote for O...!!!"
By the way, I got answer from East Chicago on YouTube: Humes & Berg still manufacture there.
#14
Rockin' good news! Glad I ordered a rare American made product. Haven't got it yet...maybe tomorrow or Monday. BirdlandMusic seems to be a little slow at getting out their shipments..ordered it on the 8th and got a notice that they shipped it on the 13th. I found out that they are a one man operation. The owner runs it. So much for a glitzy web page.
Yeah, I really don't know what the heck I'm going to do about O....I like him but....??? Not like the world is hinging on my decision anyway. The world will either continue to exist long after I do...don't know what state it will be in...Kansas likely! "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtains!" Oh, well, I have been playing some of my old Swing music and my lips are getting better. I think I'll find my "We're off to see the Wizard" sheet music.
#15
Be careful what you say about Heartland. On their website--the Heartland Institute says it will SUE anyone who damages their reputation. So much for free speech--I guess only the 1% can afford it.
#16
The right-wingers already seem to own our bodies and decide contraception or not. Now they own our brains too? And if we say we don't wanna have our brains washed they sue us or what?
They should send their curricula to those who have been homeschooled. They already got a brainwash and are used to that kinda nonsense.
#17
Quote Palindromedary:....I like him but....???....he lost quite some of his innocent charme, since he has to deal with the evildoers.
Kansas?! ..... Well, at least you will have a lot to post then here and it might be very interesting....
I met an African-American on YouTube who lives in the south. He's mainly home-recording and I have to add improvisations. But he complained some about politics down there too and I'm going to use of those facts here....
#18
This may be old news for some but it looks like documents have been leaked in February of 2012...
Read Leaked Documents at the bottom of this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Heartland_Institute
"Leaked documents
Documents surreptitiously obtained from the Heartland Institute and leaked to public websites in February 2012 disclosed that the organization would be advocating school curricula designed to challenge the mainstream scientific view that "fossil fuel emissions endanger the long-term welfare of the planet". [10]
Mark McCaffrey, a programs and policy director for the U.S. National Center for Science Education, which has in the past contributed to the accurate teaching of evolution in schools and now advocates the teaching of mainstream climate change science, stated that the leaked Heartland documents shows that “they continue to promote confusion, doubt and debate where there really is none.”[10]
The leaked documents also disclosed Heartland's plans for “Operation Angry Badger”, to be allocated $612,000 "to influence the outcome of [Wisconsin's] recall elections" in apparent violation of Federal tax laws that nonprofit organizations must follow.[10]"
#19
Kansas? Interesting? Scary! Not going there! Might see the wicked witch of the yeast! Melting! Melting!
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let the bastards get away with it... it will hasten the revolution.