Page 4 - Dinuba Sentinel 2-15-18 E-edition

Opinion
A4 | Thursday, February 15, 2018
In My Opinion
Media bias continues through Winter Olympics
Fred Hall
wise—are right here in Central California. Visalia ranks number two in the nation and Fresno is a solid number five.
The “tax-stressed” index ranks those cities where its citizens owe the most for additional
Fred Hall - Publisher
It would be a huge overstatement if I were to tell you that I eagerly anticipate the Winter Olympics
every four years, but it is true that these are traditionally enjoyable athletic events. They are a pleasant meld of athletic skills with artistic presentation.
As with all athletic competitions on an international level it seems that they can't be allowed to pass without politics being interjected into an otherwise pleasant meeting of dedicated young competitors.
One can't help but notice the glorification of North Korean
leader Kim Jong Un's sister by the media for her appearance at The Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Hatred of the Trump Administration apparently knows
no bounds by the major players in American media. The New York Times, Washington Post and others have virtually nominated this woman for a Nobel Peace Prize all at the expense of our own Vice President. The word I would use is “shameful.”
We all know that there have traditionally been some really strange recipients of that award but to feel that a member of the world's most oppressive regime should be considered for such a honor when her subjects are starving and have absolutely no rights is disgusting.
Some may blame our President for the undermining of the credibility of American media but that wound has been self inflicted by many of those who report the news and interpret its meaning for all of among the great unwashed. This “free press”, which is a constitutionally mandated by our forefathers, has completely gone off the rails! Just report the news and we'll figure out what it means.
******
With the current California political culture of tax and spend—then go back to the taxpayer for more—it should surprise no one that some of the cities that the most stressed citizens—tax
Guest Column
Teachers need stable work and Ostudents need stable teachers
taxation at year's end. It should surprise no one that four of the top ten locations nationwide are right here in the Central Valley, especially when those folks in Sacramento don't seem to give a damn!
There are, indeed, two states
of California, at least in terms of economics. Those living the sheltered, liberal lives along our coast have no idea of what the hell it takes to support a household one hundred miles inland—nor do they seem to care.
The dystopian existence displayed in Sacramento is all the proof one needs.
Making a mockery of the entire Democrat mess at the State House is the recently released notification that the State of California has so much money on hand that spending it all has become a problem. Take my word for it, the task of wasting taxpayer money on pet projects has never been a problem for those folks. Right now, some of my favorite government officials are getting newly remodeled offices, complete with bloated staffs, new carpet and new furniture just
to make sure they are completely comfortable. There is nothing—as
far as I know—against a refund to taxpayers of the excess money which has been extracted from the paychecks of hard-working Californians. Remember that a lot of them live right here in The Valley. That might even be more of an incentive than lavishly remodeling offices for state workers at our expense.
But, as always, that's only one man's opinion.
Fred Hall is publisher of the Sentinel
Guest Column
No love for working families this Valentine’s Day
L
and confections to communicate our affection.
for Ryan — who, just days after the Trump tax cuts became law, accepted $500,000 from Charles Koch for his fundraising committee. If it looks like corruption, smells like corruption, and tastes like corruption... Well, you get the idea.
The author and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel taught us, “The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference.” What
ove is in the air. Or so the marketers want us to believe, as Valentine’s Day ads sweep the nation into a frenzy of buying flowers, greeting cards,
Washington is less forthcoming with the adoration, especially for working people.
You’re probably tired of hearing about the tax plan passed by Congress late last year. If not, just wait for the media barrage coming your way from the Republican donor class, which is guaranteed to make the Super Bowl Tide ads look like child’s play.
In case you missed it, Republicans jammed through a comprehensive reform of the tax code in December without a single congressional hearing or Democratic vote. The plan was a massive gift to the ultra-wealthy — a money grab by any measure, with just a few peanuts tossed to the rest of us.
Next, Republican lawmakers and their backers announced plans to spend tens of millions of dollars promoting said peanuts, to distract from the huge windfalls going to millionaires and billionaires.
They’ve got their work cut out for them in promoting the most unpopular legislation in recent history.
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan took to Twitter to celebrate the reported tax savings of a secretary in Pennsylvania resulting from the Trump tax cuts. Her take of the $1.5 trillion cut? A whopping $1.50 per week added to her paycheck, Ryan boasted.
It’s safe to say this PR effort is off to poor start.
Ryan didn’t explain why he quickly deleted his tweet shortly after posting it. I suspect it had something to do with the Twitter users who pointed out that the billionaire Koch brothers stand to gain as much as $1.4 billion annually, according to Americans for Tax Fairness.
That’s $1.50 a week for the secretary in Pennsylvania, versus about $27 million per week for the Koch brothers.
The Koch brothers jab might’ve hit a bit close to home
Josh Hoxie
n Friday, January 26, I It doesn’t help the was in a good mood. I was students either. about to start teaching for Adjuncts have
we’ve witnessed from Ryan and his billionaire backers, as well as Trump, is complete and utter indifference to the needs of working families.
The $1.50 tweet is indicative of just how out of touch Washington has become with ordinary families. The only group that matters is the wealthy. They get the love, the adoration, and the huge handouts.
Meanwhile, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will expire without re-authorization this year. SNAP, sometimes called food stamps, serves one in seven low-income Americans, over 20 million households.
This is just one of many vitally important programs on the chopping block of Trump’s proposed budget. Given the rhetoric coming from the Republican majority in Congress, prospects look dim.
Maybe this Valentine’s Day, Cupid’s arrow will strike our greedy Koch brothers as they sit in their private jets looking down on the working families for whom they hold such deep disdain. Maybe they’ll find a little love and compassion for the less-well off and stop doing everything they can to make themselves richer and everyone else poorer.
Maybe.
Josh Hoxie directs the Project on Taxation and Opportunity at the Institute for Policy Studies. Distributed by OtherWords.org.
the spring semester on Monday. I had set everything up online, and my syllabus was ready. I’d even emailed my students to let them know which textbook to buy.
Then I got a phone call from my boss: Two of my classes were canceled because too few students had signed up for them.
Minutes later, I checked my email to find out that my third class was canceled too.
Suddenly, I’m unemployed.
You might think that getting a master’s degree or even a doctorate is a route to getting a good job. You might assume that college professors have cushy jobs and steady pay. Sadly, that’s not the case for many.
Even as college tuitions have skyrocketed in recent years, colleges and universities have found a clever way to cut labor costs.
I knew going into graduate school that I would spend years as a poorly paid teaching assistant while attending school. I thought once I had my degree, life would get better.
Well, it hasn’t yet.
Colleges and universities have
two classes of professors: full-time permanent employees and part-time adjuncts.
Full-timers get stable employment, good pay, and benefits. Not adjuncts.
Full-timers can get tenure. Not adjuncts.
Each semester, colleges count the number of classes they need taught, and hire just enough people to teach them. After filling up the full-timers’ schedules, they begin giving work to adjuncts.
Already, this is rough for adjuncts. Each semester you have no guarantee of work. Your pay is low and your benefits non-existent.
More infuriatingly, you don’t actually have a secure job until classes actually start. It doesn’t matter how many classes you were hired to teach, because they might be canceled.
Jill Richardson
to take on heavy teaching loads — if they can get them — just to make ends meet. That means less time per student. Some schools don’t pay
adjuncts for office hours, which means students get less help from professors outside of class.
I was lucky to get hired the first semester after receiving my master’s degree. One college hired me to teach three classes. It wasn’t enough to live on but, I told myself, I was getting my foot in the door.
The next semester I applied everywhere, again. I was fortunate enough to get interviews at three schools and offers at two.
I was headed into the semester with three classes to teach and not quite enough money to live on.
I’m simultaneously working on
my doctorate, so I was going to be financially stressed and overworked even before losing my classes last minute.
That’s bad for me, but it’s also bad for my students. They’re paying and working hard for an education. They deserve professors who are fully present and classes that aren’t pulled away suddenly.
I get why this is financially advantageous for schools, but it’s an entirely unacceptable condition for employees. Especially when tuitions are climbing and university presidents and athletic coaches are pulling in six or seven figures.
Seems like there’s lots of fat
that could be cut without hurting vulnerable teachers and the students who need them.
OtherWords columnist Jill Richardson is the author of Recipe for America: Why Our Food System Is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It. Distributed by OtherWords.org
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