Who Will Common Core Take Down Next in 2016? Governors.

Posted on January 19, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

Despite debates barely covering education at all, Common Core IS a hot election issue.

It took down Walker. It took down Kasich. It took down Jeb.

All of these Presidential candidates would deny it, but Common Core and the army of moms fighting it had a big part in sinking down.

Who is next? The Governors.

I’m looking at you, Governor McCrory:

North Carolina was one of the many states to adopt the Common Core State Standards in 2010. Similar to other states, implementation in North Carolina occurred with little to no training or resources the following year.  

When Common Core first came on the scene in the state, Governor Pat McCrory had not yet been elected. Former Governor Beverly Perdue was in the Governor’s mansion at the time and it is her signature that was on the Race To The Top application a full six months before Common Core was even released, much less adopted by North Carolina.

After being elected in fall of 2011, Governor McCrory took up Perdue’s mantle on Common Core. In various engagements, McCrory praised the standards and regularly delivered some of the now familiar Common Core talking points.  

Read the rest at The Pulse 2016: North Carolina’s Governor and Common Core.

 

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Common Core, ELECTIONS, Pat McCrory, POLITICS NC | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Heartland Article: Report: IRS Spending Millions on Redundant Tech Systems

Posted on January 18, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

heartland iconView my latest piece at Heartland —  Report: IRS Spending Millions on Redundant Tech Systems

Excerpt:

A recent report from the U.S. Department of the Treasury says the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is spending millions of taxpayer dollars on needlessly redundant information technology systems used to verify tax data.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report says the IRS’ inability to decide between two report verification systems, the obsolete Electronic Fraud Detection System and the newer Return Review System, costs taxpayers about $1.5 million every month.

Read the whole thing at Heartland Institute.

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Government | Comments Off on Heartland Article: Report: IRS Spending Millions on Redundant Tech Systems

Grange Common Core Aligns Herself with Educrats, GOPe- #NC20 #NCpol

Posted on January 18, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

It’s official folks, if you want a representative in NC-20 that stands with the establishment that are protecting Common Core in North Carolina, look no further than Holly Grange.

Apparently June Atkinson’s Common Core defending pal, Bill Cobey, will be stumping for Ms. Grange at what looks to be a very posh and pricey fundraising event.

Grange - Cobey Fundraiser

There you have it, folks.

If a gal who is aligning herself with the GOP establishment AND cronies of Democrat June Atkinson along with her Common Core zombies is your idea of a quality candidate, then by all means vote for Holly Grange.

Grange, from what I’ve researched, has zero experience with education and hasn’t renounced Common Core. Heck, she hasn’t even said the words ‘Common Core’. So, of course it makes perfect sense one of the top Educrats in the state would come stump for her.

It will be interesting to see if Grange’s husband’s name pops up in any more Clinton emails on Benghazi now that a new cache of emails has been miraculously located by the State Department.

For those of you asking, ‘wait, back up a second, who is Bill Cobey?’, let me enlighten you.

Atkinson & Cobery 1

Atkinson & Cobey – BESTIES!

He’s generally a nice guy and certainly he seems to have good intentions,  but unfortunately he seems to suffer from the problem of being in over his head a lot and subsequently doing whatever he’s told.

Cobey chairs the State board of Education and was about  as useful as a pickle in a peanut butter sandwich on the Academic Standards Review Commission (ASRC).

From the get-go, Cobey seems to have been put on the ASRC to nod his head and defend Common Core in any way possible — mission accomplished!

Quite frankly, neither Cobey nor Olivia Oxendine should have been on the ASRC since they both sit on the State Board of Ed and as such would have an active part in determining the ultimate fate of Common Core in NC.

It’s apparently well-known in certain circles that Mr. Cobey sincerely dislikes Tammy Covil, who was the first to throw her hat in the ring for the NC-20 seat.

Covil served as the ASRC Co-chair and was very effective in highlighting the issues with the standards, as well as pointing out the big money pulling the strings behind the scenes.

Mr. Cobey apparently didn’t like that and is now campaigning for Covil’s opposition.

Related Reading

NC Governor McCrory Unveils Operation Rebrand For Common Core (Video)

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Common Core, EDUCATION, ELECTIONS, EXCLUSIVE | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Facebook Tried to Force Me To Download A Program

Posted on January 17, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

Apparently my Co-Blogger isn’t the only one having issues with Facebook pulling an account access stunt.

Close to two weeks ago, Facebook pulled a rather insidious little move by trying to force me to download an anti-malware program.  In fact, as of the publishing of this article, Facebook is still trying to force me to download an anti-malware program – but only under certain circumstances.

Let me explain what happened.

I logged on to Facebook with no issue and returned 30 minutes later to the first screen below, “Your Computer needs to Be Cleaned”.

Curious, I clicked ‘Get started’ and was sent to the second screen below.

FB Malware Scam

First, understand that I was being funneled through a ‘check point‘,  which demanded I download a given malware application.  There was no ‘skip’ option, either I downloaded this thing or I didn’t get access.

Well, I’m not stupid, so I didn’t download the application. Instead, I ran both of my anti-malware programs and Windows defender. All three came up with next to nothing but some suspect cookies, which I deleted.

I went back to Facebook and tried to log in again. No dice. Same message.

I dumped all my of cached files, history, c0okies and temp files and tried to log on yet again but got the same message.

I then decided to test a few things and attempted to log in to Facebook while logged into a particular Gmail account.  To clarify, I use Google Chrome and have two Gmail accounts; One is my personal, family related account and the other is my blog/free lance writing account.  For the sake of brevity in this article, I’ll call them PG and BG, for personal and blog gmails respectively.

At first, Facebook attempted to force both accounts to download the malware application.

After several days and multiple letters written to Facebook support, I was finally able to get into Facebook, but only when I was logged into my PG account. I was also limited to what I could post, though. I could post no links whatsoever in status messages or direct messages. So, I started another round of letter writing to Facebook.

I did a little experiment with a close friend and had them log into my account. They received the same malware message — but their computer is located multiple states away and they don’t use the same browser, nor do they use Gmail.

After that experiment, it became crystal clear:  Facebook had flagged my account.

As it stands right now, I can log into Facebook and interact normally so long as I have my PG account in use. The moment I switch identities to the BG account, I get the malware screens.

So why did this happen?

Maybe their rather creepy Data Policy parameters logged my activity and decided to shut me down? Maybe another Facebook user got together with friends and reported my activity as spam?

Who knows what the reason was, because Facebook sure isn’t telling me. Anyone who has had this happen to them, and/or  watches Person of Interest, might wonder if Facebook is really Samaritan.

Whatever the reason, what is key here is the fact that Facebook was trying to (and still is) force me to download a product. That’s not only flat-out ridiculously creepy it’s also arguably a violation of their own TOS.

Side note: Some folks who had similar experiences reached out to me on Twitter.
Read their stories below:

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), EXCLUSIVE | Tagged | 6 Comments

A Case Study In NC Media Bias

Posted on January 17, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

Mediabias

Last week, I reported on the McCrory camp nailing WRAL’s bias to the wall in an email exchange.  I also just recently pointed out that the Lt. Governor wasn’t going to take the media spin lying down either.

This week, it’s far Left groups feeding media outlets entire stories.
For anyone doubting media bias is real in North Carolina, consider the case of WNCT reported, Jessica Jewell reporting nearly verbatim material supplied to her by far Left outfit, Progress NC.

I asked the question:

The fellow ‘Logan’ mentioned about is Logan Smith, the communications director for Progress NC that I’ve called out for false narratives in NC education.. I’ve already point out how math challenged Mr. Smith is.

This is the answer I received:

So, the reporter admits Progress NC gave her the material. As Dr. Stoops  points out, the reports by Jewell and Progress NC are nearly verbatim.

I then replied, stating the obvious:

I also asked a very relevant question — who did she ‘verify’ the information with?

So far, no response.

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), BlueprintNC, EDUCATION, Media Bias | Tagged | Comments Off on A Case Study In NC Media Bias

You Will Be Made To Care: Trans Edition [Video]

Posted on January 16, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

I’ve been covering the ongoing transgender bathroom fight both nationally and in the state of North Carolina.

See my prior articles at Civitas on this topic for reference:
Will NC Students Have to Share Bathrooms, Locker Rooms with Other Sex?
McCrory Steps up to Protect NC Schools

I decided to cover this issue because of the intense use of targeted lawfare by federal agencies like the U.S. Dept. of Education, combined with the favorite weapon of social justice warriors — shaming.  It’s a potent combination that has the potential to kill free speech and violate civil rights of the majority of students and parents nationwide.

Personally, I could care less what any one person ‘identifies’ as.  However, if a dude in skirt dropped down in the stall next to me in the ladies room or was changing in the locker room at the gym next to me — yeah, I’ve got an issue with that.

A guy is a guy.  FULL STOP.
A guy has guy parts and, at the juncture of being in a bathroom with me, I don’t give a damn what they “identify” as in their blessed little head – no pun intended. Every fiber in my being is yelling,  “IT’S A DUDE… IN MY PERSONAL SPACE”. 

Now apply that scenario to your  however old child at school.  Feeling good about that? No?
Well, if  you don’t nod your head and go along with what is a basic substitution of actual reality for that of a ‘self-identified’ reality, you get labeled a bully and are smeared in the media these days.  Good times!

My own coverage overlaps in these key areas with that of a video recently put out by Brandon Morse.  You might remember Brandon from the early days of Misfit Politics or his work at Reveal Politics in Colorado.

At any rate, his video called ‘Trans’ pretty much hits multiple nails on the head, especially the message to SJW’s or ‘trans’ people out there employing the ‘you will be made to care’ method. (Warning: the content is probably a little on the NSFW side.)

Watch:

Posted in Poltical Correctness, Social Justice, Video | Tagged | Comments Off on You Will Be Made To Care: Trans Edition [Video]