Sunday, July 12, 2015

How Rigged Was The AFT Endorsement Process?

Gadfly on the Wall:

The manner in which this endorsement was reached is somewhat mysterious.

This much seems certain:

1) The AFT executive board invited all of the candidates to meet with them and submit to an interview. No Republican candidates responded.

2) Democrats including Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley and Clinton were interviewed in private.

3) The executive committee voted to endorse Clinton.

4) NOW the interviews are scheduled to be released to the public.

This is a perplexing timetable. Why would the AFT endorse BEFORE releasing the interviews? Ostensibly, the executive council used these interviews to help make its decision. Shouldn’t that same information have been available to rank and file members of the union before an endorsement was made?

Nahh - because given Randi Weingarten's relationship with Bonnie and Clyde, er, Bill and Hillary, the endorsement was always going to be Hillary Clinton.

The interviews were a sham, the polling the AFT claims to have conducted around the endorsement was a sham, the timetable was a sham and the endorsement was a sham.

AFT leaders just happened to make it even more of a sham by announcing the endorsement so far out.

More from Gadfly:

Which polls produced which results? The press release says AFT members prefer Clinton 3-1. But even if Clinton came out on top consistently, surely the results weren’t identical on every poll. Maybe she got 75% on one and 65% on another.

The AFT hasn’t released everything, but the organization’s website gives us a memo about ONE of these phone surveys. This national survey of membership planning to vote in Democratic primaries found 67% picked Clinton. However, only 1,150 members participated! That’s a far cry from the more than 1 million cited in the press release.

...

But that’s only one survey. Where is the rest of the data? Where is the raw information from this survey? Where is the data from all these other outreach attempts and on-line activities? How many took phone surveys? How many took on-line surveys? And what were the results in each case?

If union members really did endorse Clinton, that’s fine. But many of us would like to see the proof.

There is no other data - the union conducted one poll, geared the questions to an outcome they had already decided upon, and used this as "proof" that 1.6 million AFT members wanted Hillary Clinton endorsed.

The process was rigged for an outcome Weingarten wanted.

The Hillary Clinton endorsement 16 months out from the actual election is just the latest example of how the AFT is a sham union run by sham union leaders who see the union as a vehicle for their own ambitions, aggrandizement, and financial benefit.

15 comments:

  1. I have always hoped that, and still do although the hope is gradually dimming, that the day would come when "leadership" would eventually come to the realization that it's decisions which were both purposely and "accidentally" geared against the people would start to be reversed. Over time, after much suffering from the criminally negligent and fraudulent actions by this faux leadership, it would be exposed under the spotlight for all to see the naked and perverse crimes committed, and that the day would come when it says "enough is enough" and that "we cannot get away with this any longer".

    But after this latest snipe at the American people, it is clear that Randi Weingarten has not learned, nor does she have any intention to protect the people she is supposed to. Ms Weingarten demonstrates her homily and tribute to her task masters once again, this time more flagrant than ever before.

    I sincerely hoped, and still do in my heart, that the nightmare that the American people have been forced to endure would come to an end through the processes and actions of democratic and peaceful movements across our nation.

    But, after this latest travesty committed by Weingarten, I fear that peaceful movements by Americans to protect their rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" may be needed to be secured through other means rather than peaceful ones.

    I love this nation, and have always looked at it as "God's Greatest Gift" to the world...

    But now I am concerned that the methods that the American people have been using may not be enough.

    Those like Weingarten have no second thoughts about starving, bleeding, and crushing the American people.

    We are headed for revolutionary times because of criminal actions, such as the "mock" vote that Weingarten runs to the news waving fake results for all to swallow.

    Revolutions however, do harm the people, but they also harm those that have declared war, the "leadership" that is often out of touch, enacting harmful policies against the citizens, and failing to realize when their actions have pushed people past the breaking point.

    Once the American people have come to the understanding that their civil actions only result in more crimes against them, civil action will be thrown out the window for other alternatives.

    Those like Weingarten are poor students of history. They fail to understand what their actions provoke...it is based on shortsightedness, on power, on greed, and the "pleasures of the day". What they fail to see is where their actions drive a nation...

    I hope that Weingarten is eventually removed, and a person who demonstrates human qualities places her. Not just the Weingartens...but the Mulgrews, and Cuomos, and Rhees, and Moscowitz that trod over our children, our citizens, and the 250 year old experiment that has always served as a guiding light for humanity that we call our home, the United States of America.

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  2. I, nor any of the other dozens of teachers that I know in three states received ANY questions regarding endorsing a candidate for president. Did any readers of this this blog get asked about who to endorse?

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    1. There are 1.6 million members of the AFT.....you know a few dozen. The "you Decide" poll was online.

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  3. It was all done behind closed doors and under the table.

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  4. Weingarten used Common Core math to come up with her numbers.

    Now she must show ALL of her steps to prove to the American people how she came up with her findings.

    It's an amazing time we live in...an absolute disgrace!

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  5. I want out of the Weingarten/Mulgrew regime. Members views and rights are always an afterthought. Remember the Soviet Union!

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  6. Stop. RANDI WILL CONTINUE TO BE THE LEADER OF THE AFT, WILL CONTINUE TO BE FOISTED ABOUT AS THE FACE AND VOICE OF ORGANIZED TEACHERS AND WILL CONTINUE TO SELL US OUT. Why? Because she knows that teachers don't have what it takes to remove her. And we don't. She has F'd us soooooo many times and what did we do (besides complain)? Yup. Nothing. Same goes for NYSUT. We had an RA this year. Not a peep. Turns out teachers were only a strong and formidable political force when it was easy...when leadership was loud and we weren't so removed from the labor movement's origins....an
    d when we didn't face existential threats. We are going to lose it all. Period. Full stop. We cant even get our unions on our side. We don't have what it takes
    Sorry folks. We kind of suck. We don't even know what a rampart is, let alone know how to storm one. This is what it looks like when a generation or two don't meet the challenge of their time.
    Weingarten/NYSUT/etc....they are all just symptoms. I know many of you fancy yourselves as "activists" and perhaps some of you are....but there aren't enough.
    This stuff isn't so complicated....but we managed to be too smart or to dumb to do what it takes.
    Couldn't be more disheartened.
    I quit.

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  7. F Hillary and F Whinegarten.

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  8. Thanks for referencing my blog, Perdido. I've admired your work for years. Glad I could help make sense of this issue.

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  9. I wonder which candidate Kathy Hochul endorses? Hey Randi, hit that speed dial and let us know ok?

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  10. We need to break with the afl-cio and organize a new union with the IWW. If we do not this bs will keep happening.

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  11. Nicely, Slate has picked up on the stench of something rotten in the state of the AFT:

    http://www.slate.com/blogs/schooled/2015/07/13/aft_hillary_clinton_endorsement_not_everyone_s_pleased_with_the_early_pick.html?wpsrc=sh_all_dt_tw_bot

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  12. Nicely, Slate has picked up on the stench of something rotten in the state of the AFT:

    http://www.slate.com/blogs/schooled/2015/07/13/aft_hillary_clinton_endorsement_not_everyone_s_pleased_with_the_early_pick.html?wpsrc=sh_all_dt_tw_bot

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    Replies
    1. RESEARCH...it is all outlined online...the townhall meetings, the Online pooling....look it up.

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