Joe Gerth's 9 Lies About Johnathan Masters

by Johnathan Masters

Geoffrey M. Young, the only Democratic Gubernatorial candidate, and I have passed the threshold for having enough newspapers in different regions covering us for the KET Debates. Now all we need is $100,000 in donations for Kentucky's State-run Media to cover us. The Sierra Club has the exact same threshold.

The media coverage wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but it covers a KET prerequisite.

Here is Joe Gerth:

A Turd Alert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTgRhEWD6uQ

Whenever the masses sees a Joe Gerth, immediately, cat calls of “turd alert” from passersby Gerth mistakenly takes as complimentary, and the attention he's getting engrosses him, and makes him feel the star he wishes himself to be.

Joe Gerth is a lying corporate whore. 

I had friended Gerth on facebook for quite some time. I invited Gerth to the LMPD Police Brutality Trial a few years back, but being that I was just a working class nobody, he decided against giving me some much needed attention on a huge breach of injustice that happened to me because of Joel Casse and Aaron Browning. That case is currently pending. But there was no mention of that in Gerth's hit/hatchet job on me. When I was just a student, going to college in Louisville, I was nobody to print up a story of some horrendous thing that had happened to me, because Gerth protects those in power. He's not a real journalist.

I also had the displeasure of meeting Gerth at the Realtor's Forum on February 3, 2015. He was an unsavory creature, a creepy Gollum blob, and after quoting Frederick Douglass to him, “Those who deprives one to speak also deprives the listeners”, he snidely said something about Young and I being a good pair. That's particularly odd because Adam Beam of the Associated Press, who writes their articles without attaching his name on it, and Beam and Gerth have a partnership, where they pass each other stories, was standing next to Gerth. Beam and Berth make quite a team. Beam was telling me that a dead body wouldn't make the newspapers, and yet, if it bleeds, it leads; if it's gory, then it's a story. The media is focused on the superficial; the actual issues, like Bevin threatening to take away Medicaid from Kentuckians should be making headlines everywhere. That's an issue that will affect 600,000 Kentuckians. That's literally death panels that Bevin is talking about, solemnly.

My unfortunate run-ins with assholes doesn't change much about the landscape of Kentucky, unless Criminal Justice Reform is on the table... for my position on the issues do reflect my struggles, they are one and the same. Just like when Jack Conway or Will T. Scott cover up for their family so they aren't held accountable for dealing drugs, or being entrapped by the police.

Did the right-wing corporate media print any of this?

Gerth's narrative is that Young is a no-count... so then... why the coverage on me? Gerth has to force his narrative on the Kentucky people. He knows very little about politics. Gerth is a liar, a fool, and biased as hell. He's a 5 alarm drama queen gossip columnist. He's no journalist. And he's certainly no expert in anything remotely considered politics.

Gerth should make up his mind... are we important enough to cover, or not?

The media did their damnedest to Gatewood.... what they did to Gatewood is abominable. And Gatewood was even leading the polls. Young is polling at 13% at the starting gate. That's not bad. It's better than Nader ever got.

Kentucky's media is to blame for Mitch McConnell, and all of her poor statistics.

Joseph P. Gerth wrote lots of horse crap about me. Here's a list of Joe Gerth's 7 lies about me:

1. “He has a problem with administrators.” Not true. I have an aversion to assholes.

2. “He was supposed to be at a pre-trial hearing...” Not true. I wasn't supposed to be there. Delahanty wanted so very badly to arrest me on the Breckinridge County “secret” warrant he had recently discovered. My public attorney told me not to be there. I have been going to these pre-trial hearings for about a year now, nearly 6 to 8 times. I've gone. It was continued. Then the last time, in January I believe, my public attorney told me that I didn't need to be at the next pre-trial hearing, so I wasn't there. As I was told.

3. “Haynes said he asked me to leave because he hadn't conducted a criminal background check on me.” Haynes just made this up. Haynes lied the day before about doing surveys on Civics and Democracy, and he lied the next day about the teachers not wanting to do the surveys. Now add this new lie to Haynes long laundry list of lies. Keith P. Haynes of Ohio County is a certified pathological liar.

4. I didn't deny any “altercation” with Haynes. We had an argument, and I thought it was over right where it happened. Clearly Haynes wants to do me harm. I denied knowing about the warrant, not Haynes her way. I was told differently by Breckinridge County officials regarding the warrant. Plus, my address is on my Driver's License, and the warrant was never served to me for two months. It was served to me when I went to the courthouse myself.

5. Josef P. Gerth creates a mythical “clash” that me and Julie Chancellor never had. Julie and I never clashed. Well, she clashed into me. And was a bullied me for 3 days. Not one time did she “co-teach” with me. On the 3^rd day, I wanted to give a lecture about the 1855 Know-Nothing Riots, and Julie said, no way, absolutely not, and when I asked “Why not?”, she lost her mind, and wanted to tell Spalding University that it wasn't working out. I could work with the Nazi, but the Nazi couldn't work with me. When she was calling Spalding University, I casually gathered my things, and left. As I got to the door, I told Julie that I wasn't her slave. And that was it. There was no yelling. No cussing. I just left. She clearly had issues with me, and never made me feel comfortable there. It was a poor placement decision by the Spalding University's Education Administration. That was the “clash” that Gerth invented.

6. Gerth printed that a warrant was issued for me, on Wednesday, by Judge Sean Delahanty, my ole LMPD-covering-up Judge buddy, but that wasn't true. Gerth wrote that there was a warrant on me on Wednesday, even though it wasn't true at the time. Then, Delahanty issued a bench warrant on me on Friday, because I was late getting to Louisville, since I was handling the Breckinridge County charges in Hardinsburg that morning (since it was the first day Breckinridge County's courthouse was opened since the Snowpocalypse 2015). I was issued a bench warrant on Friday in Louisville, but I was able to make it to the courthouse in the afternoon, hoping to catch the Judge hard at work, pulling a regular 9-5 job, but instead, he had gone home. So I just re-docketed my case to Monday, and that was that. Then on Monday, I appeared before Judge Sean Delahanty who was disappointed that he couldn't order his bailiff to arrest me. He was very disappointed that didn't happen in the LMPD Police Brutality case against me too. He's got a thing for me, I think. Delahanty hates innocent folks who stand up for their rights, and demands a jury trial and due process against the criminal and malicious accusations, including 3 misdemeanor enhancement charges, and one assaulting a police officer charge, which carried a maximum sentence of 5 years in jail attached to it. For Sean Delahanty, this isn't life; this is all just a fun little game he gets to play. All before him are guilty, just admit it, and let the Judge take care of you... if you just comply nicely, submit politely, this all will go so much quicker and smoother...

7. Gerth wrote that the Breckinridge County Attorney had denied that a warrant even existed... and then explained the discrepancy by saying a warrant doesn't become legal until it's served. Really? So if a man robs a bank, and a Circuit Court Judge issues a warrant... that warrant doesn't become legal until it's served? Bullshit. It's legal as soon as the warrant is issued.
8. Joe Gerth forgot to mention that I'm presumed innocent until proven guilty. I told him that I was "Not guilty of all accusations", and of course, that didn't get printed. Omission is one way to lie.
9. Also, since the piece was a hitjob piece, he mentioned charges I had to endure from 2009... but he never mentioned the current federal lawsuit against the LMPD pending. He mentioned the "menacing" part, but not the civil lawsuit. He wrote it with one intention: to be an asshole.

The truth is, Gerth doesn't know what he's talking about. He quotes whatever crap comes out of the official's mouths as gospel truth, defending the oppressors, and attacking the victims. Some official said a warrant isn't legalized until it's served, and Joe believed them. He's not a lawyer. Nor does he understand the law. Or Kentucky. He's a corporate whore.

On February 15, 2015, at 10:15pm, Gerth finally concluded his tall tales, and stopped updating his hit piece on me.

Gerth's Lies Explained in Greater Detail:

Joe Gerth Lie #1: “He has a problem with school administrators” said Tim McCauley, assisstant Jefferson County Attorney...

I'm nice to you if you're nice to me. I've worked with many school administrators with no problem. Tim McCauley is just talking shit, but it's a hit piece, so Gerth gleefully reprints his lies.

Gerth Lie #2: Gerth prints that I was supposed to be at the Pre-trial hearing on Wednesday, February 11, 2015, but that was a lie.

I was told by my attorney to not be there, and so I wasn't there. But Sean Delahanty was itching to throw me in jail, ever since he wasn't able to get the chance to do so in the LMPD Police Brutality case he presided over. At the end of the LMPD Police Brutality Trial, Delahanty admits that he wanted me to go to jail, and that he thinks that I deserved the $30,000 in medical damages Joel Casse and Aaron Browning put on me for absolutely no reason, whatsoever.

So Delahanty and Gerth comes across this warrant, which unbeknownst to me existed, since I contacted the courthouse, and they said it didn't exist, and wanted to throw me in jail over it. They were salivating over it. Delahanty seemed pissed off on Monday when I showed up for court, and he wasn't able to arrest me right then and there. Delahanty's got some issues. He seems to want to convict anybody who comes into his courtroom, accused of any ole thing. He also started talking about Muhammad on the Mountain, but I'm not exactly sure what he's talking about. You're guilty until proven innocent to Delahanty, and proving one's innocence is nearly impossible. Have plenty of alibis, I guess. What's to prevent folks from accusing folks of crimes they did not commit? Dragging me to court over bullshit is already a punishment, so already, I'm feeling the pangs of the Kentucky “justice” system.

I did not know about the warrant pending for me, since I had called the Courthouse, was told that no such warrant existed. Keith Haynes and I did get into an argument in December 2014. This is two months later. My address is printed on my Driver's License. I've been in the same crappy house the whole time. I've not fled, nor did anybody arrest me. Perhaps those who were supposed to serve the warrant thought the issue wasn't serious either.

Gerth Lie #3:

Gerth said that I denied knowing anything about Keith Haynes. That's not true. I know exactly what he's talking about. But I didn't know about the warrant.

Joe Gerth Lie #4: “During the brief phone call, Masters denied any altercation with Haynes.”

Keith Haynes claims that he told me to leave the building because they hadn't done a criminal background check on me. That's a lie, and the way Gerthy wrote it up, made the lie into truth. Gerth wrote, “When Haynes told Masters that because he hadn't gone through a background check, he couldn't be on campus, “he became agitated and started shouting.””

Keith Haynes didn't tell me that. He said he couldn't get the teachers to listen to him, and that none of them wanted to do the survey. That sounded like a lie to me, so I asked him how do teachers tell the Principal “no”? That's when Keith Haynes lost his mind. He was out of control. He intended me harm then, and clearly with these charges, still intends me harm. Keith Haynes threatened me. Keith Haynes yelled at me. Keith Haynes was the belligerent one. I was cool, calm, and collected. Haynes was not.

Joe Gerth Lie #5: “It appears Masters was dropped from the program after he clashed with a Jefferson County public school teacher who was overseeing Masters' participation in an internship-type program.”

Gerth only talked to me for about a minute. I said I'd call him back, but I wouldn't have anything nice to say to him had I called him back. Gerth was writing a hit piece on me. It was easy to tell that Gerth was writing a hit piece on me because of the way he was asking me the questions. The questions were leading questions... he thought he was being clever... he's into ambush journalism... that's how these pigs operate.

Gerth Lie #6: Gerth said that I had a bench warrant out for me. When it was written on Friday, I did not have a bench warrant out for me. Snowpocalypse prevented me from going to the Wednesday meeting, even though my attorney did relay the message that Delahanty was calling for me to appear.

Gerth Lie #7: Gerth printed that the Breckinridge County Attorney denied that there was a warrant... which seems odd... like a secret warrant? But the County Attorney told me that he said that he could neither confirm nor deny if I had a warrant issued, so again, Gerth lies.

Then Gerth prints up all of his lies, and then many corporate “news” outlets parrot his lies, verbatim. All based on his terse 1 minute interview with me. None of these sources verified any of their information with me, even though my phone number is registered with the Secretary of State, and is public, and can be found easily online. Also, I have an email address, a facebook page, twitter, youtube, etc, so there's many avenues for any of these “news” organizations had to verify any of their lies.

Also, I asked Gerth two questions, which he never printed.

I asked how the media was responsible for Mitch McConnell get re-elected in Kentucky. Gerth went silent over that.

When I asked Gerth about how he covered Gatewood Galbraith, Gerth defensively said, “I covered him”... as if Gatewood should have been bowled over with excitement that a turd alert had covered him. Gerth did cover him, and even did a hit job piece on Gatewood after his death, pointing out his mistakes on the campaign trail. Gerth failed to point to his own criminal involvement with discrediting Gatewood. The media's job is to inform, not dictate, the information. Gerth doesn't know the difference. He's into Gonzo journalism, where he inserts himself into the story... such as Lie #7.

Gerth's 7^th lie was one that eventually became true, but wasn't true when Gerth printed it. It's a self-fulfilling prophesy. Eventually, Delahanty did issue a bench warrant on me, and on that same day, I had the case easily re-docketed, and showed up in Courtroom 204 in Louisville, Kentucky.

Gerth is very unprofessional, but perhaps it shouldn't be surprising, considering the Courier-Urinal was founded by a Confederate, who rode along with Nathan Bedford Forrest, the founder of the KKK. Henry Watterson even has an expressway named in his honor. Perhaps it's my anti-racist fervor that gets under Gerth's crawl. Or maybe, it's because I'm an everyman, a regular Joe, standing up, taking my licks, and adding my desperately needed voice in Kentucky's regressive political show... that probably pisses a soulless heartless immoral corporate stooge off to no end, seeing somebody with principled convictions.

Gerth should just go back underneath the rock he came from, and just like the Wattersons of yesterday, disappear into the white trash dustbowl bins of history.

Xxx

WHAS11 used some footage that never got aired when it was first taken January 27, 2015, when I registered for Lieutenant Governor with Geoffrey M. Young. http://www.whas11.com/videos/news/local/2015/02/16/lt-governor-candidate-facing-charges/23527599/

xxx

Here's Gerth's hit job piece on me, in it's entirety:

“Johnathan Masters, a candidate for lieutenant governor on a Democratic ticket with retired state engineer Geoff Young, is facing charges in Jefferson District Court that he harassed an associate dean at Spalding University.

Masters also has a warrant pending for his arrest in Breckinridge County, where he is accused of screaming at a school principal and threatening to harm him during a verbal altercation in December, according to Jefferson District Judge Sean Delahanty.

"He has a problem with school administrators," Assistant Jefferson County Attorney Tim McCauley told Delahanty during a pretrial hearing on Wednesday, which Masters was supposed to attend but did not.

Masters, who has had previous run-ins with the law, is accused of making profanity-laced calls to former Spalding Associate Dean Elizabeth Lodge Rogers demanding that she return money to him after he was kicked out of the school's Master of Arts in Teaching program, according to court records.

He also made profane videos that he posted on YouTube that criticized Rogers and Spalding University after he was dismissed. In one video, he said, "Are you looking to be a bossy, untalented, unethical, immoral, authoritarian, totalitarian, fascist, Nazi, piece of ----, come to Spalding University."

Reached by telephone, Masters didn't deny the charges in Jefferson County but said that Spalding committed "breach of contract" when it threw him out of the program. "They stole $50,000 from me," he said.

When asked about that figure and how he came to it, Masters said only that it was "federal money," before he ended a short conversation.

Masters, a 33-year-old from Hudson, was a last-minute replacement on Young's slate after Young's first running mate backed out. Young said he knew about the earlier transgressions with the law but didn't know about the charges in Jefferson County or the warrant in Breckinridge County.

He also said he wasn't aware that Masters had missed a court appearance on Wednesday. "We'll have to talk about that," Young said.

In swearing out a warrant, Rogers said she was concerned that the situation would escalate. In an interview, she said she also hoped that it would help Masters get the help that she believes he needs.

According to the complaint she filed against Masters, he "has a history of explosive anger management issues and of being verbally abusive at Spalding."

From the voice mails left on Rogers' phone, it appears Masters was dropped from the program after he clashed with a Jefferson County public school teacher who was overseeing Masters' participation in an internship-type program. Rogers wouldn't comment on the reason for Masters' dismissal.

In a letter to Masters dated last Feb. 24, Richard Hudson, Spalding's dean of students, told Masters that he was "Persona Non Grata at Spalding University" and told him to stay away from campus or risk arrest and not to have any contact with any of the school's employees.

Despite that and a request from Rogers to stop calling her, according to court records, Masters continued to call Rogers and to leave profane messages on her voice mail until she filed a complaint against him last May and he was ordered by a judge to have no contact with her.

Since then, Rogers said, Masters has not bothered her.

The situation in Breckinridge County also involves allegations of an angry outburst against a school administrator, according to a warrant Delahanty read during open court on Wednesday. That warrant, which is not a public record because Masters hasn't yet been served with it, describes a situation not unlike the one with Rogers, however.

According to Delahanty, Masters is accused of shouting curse words at Keith Haynes, a principal in the Cloverport Independent School District, last Dec. 17, and urging him to "come out here so I can kick your ass."

Haynes said that Masters came to the small school campus, which has 450 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, wanting to conduct a survey about democracy for a project he was doing as a student at the University of the Cumberlands. When Haynes told Masters that because he hadn't gone through a background check, he couldn't be on campus, "he became agitated and started shouting."

Haynes said he had never seen Masters before that and hasn't seen him since.

During the brief phone call, Masters denied any altercation with Haynes.

Breckinridge County Attorney Bradley Butler said in an interview that he couldn't confirm the existence of the warrant against Masters and that such warrants only become public record once they are served.

A spokeswoman at the University of the Cumberlands confirmed that a Johnathan D. Masters is enrolled in the school's Master of Arts in Education and Teaching program.

Rogers said in an interview that Masters shouldn't hold any office. "I think this young man has some significant personal issues that are far from resolved. It would be unconscionable for this gentlemen to hold a public office and be in a position to make decisions on behalf of the good people of Kentucky," she said.

State Democratic Party Chairman Patrick Hughes said the charges against Masters further marginalize an already marginal slate.

"It's abundantly clear that Jack Conway and Sannie Overly are the Democratic nominees for governor and lieutenant governor. The other guys don't have a snowball's chance. ... And I think these recent disclosures speak for themselves," he said.

Mark Riddle, a spokesman for Conway's campaign, declined to comment.

Young, 58, of Lexington, defended his choice of Masters, saying "I stand behind him."

Under state law, Young can't replace Masters on his slate; therefore, if he decided that Masters wasn't qualified to run with him, Young, too, would have to drop out.

Delahanty set another hearing for next week and told Rania Attum, an assistant public defender representing Masters, to try and make sure that Masters attends. Attum said she last spoke with Masters by email about a month ago.

Young, in defending his choice of Masters, noted that Conway supported the Iraq War in 2002, which he said makes Masters "vastly more moral than Jack Conway … to support the invasion of Iraq is a totally unprincipled act."

Masters' previous run-ins with law enforcement include a December 2012 incident in which he was charged with resisting arrest, assault, menacing and disorderly conduct following an incident in which he allegedly charged at a Louisville Metro Police officer and struck him in the face.

Masters was ultimately convicted of menacing, a misdemeanor, and ordered to pay $385 in fines and court costs.

In 2013 he was convicted in Henry County of possessing drug paraphernalia and ordered to pay a $150 fine.

And in 2009, he was charged in Gallatin County with assault of his father and harassing communications, and had a domestic violence order sworn out against him. He pleaded guilty to harassing communications and was ordered to pay court costs of $153 and a $300 fine, which was discharged as long as he didn't violate the domestic violence order.

Reporter Joseph Gerth can be reached at (502) 582-4702. Follow him on Twitter at@Joe_Gerth.

xxx

The drug paraphernalia charge was over a marijuana glass pipe that the KSP found after catching me speeding 85mph in a 55 zone 2 years ago. I was trying to get home quick, after dropping a friend off back in Owen County, which was a small hike from Louisville, and back. I can buy a glass pipe at a store, but it's “drug paraphernalia” when I put it into my car? And drug paraphernalia sounds so big... like it could be anything. No. Not meth. Not crack. Not herion. Not Krocodile or Devil's Breathe. A small 3 inch green marijuana glass smoke pipe. It also could have been my friend's. They didn't know. But it didn't matter to them. The Judge never offered a “no contest” option to plea, and said that I could get it expunged, which I thought meant immediately, but nope... 5 years later. It's odd that if I had been caught with marijuana, then I could have gone through a diversionary program, but since it wasn't marijuana, it was just the glass pipe, now it's on my record for 5 years. After 5 years, I can get it expunged. Actually, I was wanting to take my criminal record history, and use it as a jumping off point for my autobiography. But that's for after the campaign.

Both courts, Louisville and Breckinridge County, ordered that their respective cases be continued.

Civics Surveys

My Educational Policy

by Johnathan Masters

Nearly 50% of Frankfort's budget goes towards K-12 spending, and college. 50%. And yet, 2 outta 5 Kentuckians read at a Kindergarten level.

All of the Republican candidates are talking about austerity measures; they are talking about cutting government spending, which will go after Medicaid, K-12, and College spending.

My policy would be to keep all spending levels for K-12 and college, and Medicaid as well, the exact same. We must protect our educational and healthcare institutions.

While public education can be better, I believe in universal education. It's the 100% compliance principle that needs to change. And if Vouchers and Charter Schools can force general Public Education to up their game, I do not see a problem with that.

Also, by allowing a pathway for Charter Schools to develop, we would get more funds from the federal government's Race to the Top competition. To get millions more, all Kentucky is just a pathway for charter schools. And vouchers is where the parents get the check directly from the government, and they can choose to spend that voucher at any educational institution they please.

Right now, poor schools, like Barbourville, get $8-9,000 per pupil, and rich schools, like Anchorage, get $18-19,000 in spending. Many private schools operate only on $1-2,000, and even democratic schools, like Sudbury Model Schools, only cost about $5,000. The state would save money, and vouchers would increase parental choice for their children. This increased competition would force public schools to up their game, or else, lose students, and therefore, state money.

SO... Education was historically considered a great equalizer in American society, capable of lifting less advantaged children and improving their chances for success as adults.

But many studies are showing how American public education doesn't help the poor, at all.

This is class warfare.

The best indication of your success in life is primarily based on how rich your parents are, and how strong of a family you have, and not the education you get.

A massive study publish in the Summer 2014 by John Hopkins University shows that the kids who got a better start — because their parents were married and working — ended up better off. Most of the poor kids from single-parent families stayed poor.

The John Hopkins University study was a massive study. They followed nearly 800 kids in Baltimore — from first grade until their late-20s. Just 33 children — out of nearly 800 — moved from the low-income to high-income bracket. And a similarly small number born into low-income families had college degrees by the time they turned 28

Now, in analyses of long-term data published in recent months, researchers are finding that while the achievement gap between white and black students has narrowed significantly over the past few decades, the gap between rich and poor students has grown substantially during the same period.

Another study that found that the gap in standardized test scores between affluent and low-income students had grown by about 40 percent since the 1960s, and is now double the testing gap between blacks and whites. In another study, by researchers from the University of Michigan, the imbalance between rich and poor children in college completion — the single most important predictor of success in the work force — has grown by about 50 percent since the late 1980s.

The data from most of these studies end in 2007 and 2008, before the recession’s full impact was felt. Researchers said that based on experiences during past recessions, the recent downturn was likely to have aggravated the trend.

Links about parents wealth and family being a better indicator of success than educational attainment:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2014/08/07/335285098/rich-kid-poor-kid-for-30-years-baltimore-study-tracked-who-gets-ahead

http://cepa.stanford.edu/content/widening-academic-achievement-gap-between-rich-and-poor-new-evidence-and-possible-explanations

http://cepa.stanford.edu/content/widening-academic-achievement-gap-between-rich-and-poor-new-evidence-and-possible-explanations

http://www.nber.org/papers/w17633.pdf

According to the 2007 "American Dream Report" study, "by some measurements"—relative mobility between generations -- "we are actually a less mobile society than many other nations, including Canada, France, Germany and most Scandinavian countries. This challenges the notion of America as the land of opportunity." Other research places the U.S. among the least economically mobile countries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_mobility

The children of the rich perform better in school, on average, than children from middle-class or poor families. Students growing up in richer families have better grades and higher standardized test scores, on average, than poorer students; they also have higher rates of participation in extracurricular activities and school leadership positions, higher graduation rates and higher rates of college enrollment and completion.

One way to see this is to look at the scores of rich and poor students on standardized math and reading tests over the last 50 years. When an author of an article I found online did this using information from a dozen large national studies conducted between 1960 and 2010, they found out that the rich-poor gap in test scores is about 40 percent larger now than it was 30 years ago.

That is twice the gap between black and white students.

To make this trend concrete, consider two children, one from a family with income of $165,000 and one from a family with income of $15,000. These incomes are at the 90th and 10th percentiles of the income distribution nationally, meaning that 10 percent of children today grow up in families with incomes below $15,000 and 10 percent grow up in families with incomes above $165,000.

In the 1980s, on an 800-point SAT-type test scale, the average difference in test scores between two such children would have been about 90 points; today it is 125 points. This is almost twice as large as the 70-point test score gap between white and black children.

Family income is now, in 2015, a better predictor of children’s success in school than race. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/27/no-rich-child-left-behind/

The children of the wealthy are pulling away from their lower-class peers -- the same way their parents are pulling away from their peers' parents. When it comes to college completion rates, the rich-poor gulf has grown by 50% since the 1980s. Upper income families are also spending vastly more on their children compared to the poor than they did 40 years ago, and spending more time as parents cultivating their intellectual development.

The differences start early in a child's life, then linger. Reardon notes another study which found that the rich-poor achievement gap between students is already big when they start kindergarten, and doesn't change much over time.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/02/occupy-kindergarten-the-rich-poor-divide-starts-with-education/252914/

An American child's fate is in many ways fixed at birth — determined by family strength and the parents' financial status. The children of the rich end up better educated, and more likely to succeed, simply because they're children of the rich.

What the studies have figured out... is why?

xxx

Maslow's Hierarchy:

Maslow's Hierarchy shows everything that a human being needs in order to survive and do well. It starts out with...

[explain Maslow's Hierarchy]

Many poor kids aren't in a position to learn, because they don't have their essential human needs.

A homeless 12 year old kid in Louisville was killed in late 2014. His name was Ray Allen Etheridge. http://www.wave3.com/story/26677476/lmpd-family-not-suspected-in-murder-of-boy-found-hurt-in-cherokee-park

The School expected Ray Allen Etheridge to be obedient, to raise his hand all of the way up, and to all the things they required of him. But they didn't care about him. He was living on the streets, and after doing what his teachers told him to do, Algebra, American History, English grammar, and Science, he went back to living unbearable squalor.

JCPS was expecting him to be Self-Actualized before he had all of his base needs, which are required prequisities before learning the material.

Schools, since they are usually in the center of the community, should be responsible for helping lifting that entire community up, and they should be held accountable for the success of their students after they leave the school. If education isn't helping us, then why waste 19 years on it.

Just scrolling through my facebook feed in a few minutes, I get a better education than anything Spalding University ever taught me.

And that's how Graduate schools are treating full grown adults, who already know themselves, and have some kind of agency. If they're treating the adults like that, children don't have a chance in hell to break free.

Education should be for liberation, not oppression.

There's currently 10,000 homeless children in Louisville. 1 out of every 4 children in Kentucky are poor. Kentucky is one of the poorest states in the nation. Poverty has plagued Kentucky since it's inception.

xxx

Young people have the capability of being leaders today, starting right now, and when a young person has been practicing being independent, and being in leadership roles, they have been prepared perfectly for when they become adults. They are ready for the real world.

Right now, we ask our students to raise their hands all of the way up, just in order to go to the bathroom. Their humanity is being micromanaged out of existence, and then we expect them to sign large college loans, or to go off, and die in wars for Empire, Conquest, and Oil.

Jack Andraka, who is now 18 years old, is an American inventor, scientist and cancer researcher. He is known for his work in developing a new, rapid, inexpensive, and patent pending[1] method to detect an increase of a protein that indicates the presence of pancreatic, ovarian, and lung cancer during their early stages. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Andraka

11 year old Boffin Ramarni Wilfred scored higher on his IQ exam than Professor Stephen Hawking and Microsoft's Bill Gates, and Albert Einstein in August 2014. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/britains-smartest-schoolboy-11-year-old-boy-4056609

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Another reason, is because education isn't designed to strengthen one to be the best they can be. It was designed in order for citizens to be compliant to the state.

Currently, America has a 3 tiered Prussian Industrial Educational System, which was started by Horace Mann, the Father of American Education, the Father of American Common Schools.

Horace Mann went to Prussia, and adopted all of the education system for America.

Right now, America's education is based on the Prussian model.

The Prussian model of education is that all students of Prussia must love Prussia, and they must be obedient to civil servants, and to the King, as soldiers or as servants. 80% of the population will learn a rudimentary education, just reading, writing, arithmetic, and that's it. And obedience. And that's all will be expected of them. That's Volkschulen.

For 19% of them, we need engineers, doctors, scientists, etc, which is awarded to the very bright, and the obedient.

For 99.5% of the population, school in Prussia was designed strictly for patriotism: Prussia is the mother country, and we all love her.

But for the top 1/2%, they actually need to know what is going on. They will be the captains of industry, and the Kings, and rulers of all the rest. For the top 1/2%, they will read much, debate, argue points, and will discover knowledge, and what interests them the most. They will be educated with the best of the best, in order to become the best Oppressors the world has ever seen. For the top 1/2%, they are educated for real.

And then when one adds the influence of the industrial model, where schools are highly regimented by bells, time constraints, and obedience, the point of schools were to prepare young Americans to work in the factories. With America's industrial base slipping, we're in need of something better...

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Today's American public schools have been indoctrinated with the 3-tiered Prussian Industrial Educational model, and one of the most important principles that newly minted teachers learn in Normal Schools, aka Teacher Training Schools, is Classroom Management, and the sacred Principle of 100% Compliance.

In order to “Teach Like a Champion”, a popular textbook for current and soon-to-be teachers in American teacher training schools, Doug Lemov advocates 100% compliance (Lemov, 2010).

[video clip]

Even Lemov himself writes in his book that his own 100% compliance as the “draconian” “power-hungry plan” of a “battle of wills” against the students for precisely what it is. Nothing else will be tolerated in a properly classroom managed American classroom but an “obedience-obsessed” classroom with a “grinding discipline” that's expected for all. Lemov barely qualifies these expectations by saying that the “culture of compliance” should be a “positive” one, and “most importantly, invisible” (Lemov, 2010). Not only does Lemov demand a sneaky and somehow “positive” 100% compliance, but Doug Lemov's micromanaging tyranny includes that all students to never have even

their elbows on their desks, and Lemov will even get the teachers of America to complain if an educator's students

only raise their hands up halfway (Lemov, 2010). For Doug Lemov, only 100% compliance is acceptable behavior.

Not even Adolf Hitler got 100% compliance, and thank god for that. If August Landmesser was my relation, I'd be a proud man. He did right, when everybody else was doing wrong. Conforming to a sick society is not a sign of progress.

[August Landmesser picture]

To oppress somebody dehumanizes the Oppressed, and taking away one's freedom is taking away their humanity. For slaves with their humanity foregone, also gone are their consciences, morals and ethics, ability to empathize, democratic virtues, spirit and soul, ability to make autonomous decisions, sense of justice and wonder, curiosity, ambition, experiences, history, thoughts, heart, body, and brain. What was once a man or woman is now a beast, an ox to be used to plow the fields, not a person with consciousness, to be respected and reconciled with, to have conversations with, to build culture with. Frederick Douglass says: “Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. In the light of these ideas, Negroes will be hunted at the North and held and flogged at the South so long as they submit to those devilish outrages and make no resistance, either moral or physical. Men may not get all they pay for in this world, but they must certainly pay for all they get. If we ever get free from the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and if needs be, by our lives and the lives of others.”

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So what's the solution?

It's simple. Freedom and Democracy. Civics.

By recognizing that children have rights, American rights, not adult rights, but children's rights, we then have to chose a format to educate them. In a room the respects the freedom of the individual, the only form of government that makes logical sense, is a democracy. Instead of having autocratic dictators, and the slave masses obeying, we can try democracy. By teaching children to stake a claim in their own education, and by teaching democratic forms and functions, in a democratic society, we learn to tolerate opinions we disagree with, as well as how to debate, argue, and defend our points. We learn that the minority get their say, and the majority get their way.

If our schools do not teach democratic practices and forms, where do Americans learn about how to behave in a democracy? At a fast food corporation? In the military, where they are required to not ask why, but to do and die?

Schools are the proper place to learn democracy, and if the administration and the teachers are practicing democratic values themselves, that virtue can easier be transferable.

Sugata Mitra's Hole in the Wall experiment shows us that learning is self-organizing and self-emergent. Sugata Mitra put a computer in a wall in a poor area of New Delhi, India, and a dropout kid, a huckleberry finn type of young man, was curious, and started to figure out how to use the computer. Then other kids became interested. In a weeks' time, poor children who didn't know English, never seen a computer, or understand the Internet, all had email accounts, had learned enough English words to figure out how to google, and other rudimentary ways of using the Internet. They were self-taught novices in computers, and they learned it all themselves.

This implies that education is self-organizing and self-emergent and that the teachers just need to get out of the way.

[The Learning Pyramid]

Explain the Learning Pyramid.

Lastly, this brings us to John Green and Salmon Khan.

John Green's Crash Course:

With John Green, a US History teacher could just make the students watch all of his videos, and they'd get the same education in a traditional sit and get lecture classroom. By putting his lectures online, never again will John Green have to lecture those same points. It's there for the world to see. Instead of saving notes, and repeating oneself over and over again, now folks can educate themselves, and self-education is the most powerful form of education.

Salmon Khan of Khan's Academy uses the same principle as John Green, only Salmon Khan covers so much more. Khan dabbles in history, but mostly, engineering, and mathematical principles. STEM, Science Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics in America are slipping. We're no longer #1 in the world. We're like 37. But with Khan's Academy, anybody at anytime, can master Engineering or Calculus, or any other thing they are curious about. With the Internet, we have the capacity for completely changing education, to where one can learn the concepts prior to a classroom, and while in the classroom, use those other forms of educational tactics on the bottom of the Learning Pyramid. They can argue, debate, and present their argument for their ideas.

Jean Jacques Rousseau says that by making our children strong, they will be good.

By doing this, we'll be teaching our children like the Prussians taught the top 1/2%, and what a great lesson. We're all Kings and Queens. We're all Princes and Princesses. Now we have common poverty, but we should have common wealth. We're all Kentuckians. We're all Americans. So let's start acting like it.

It turns out, Pink Floyd was right.

[Pink Floyd clip]

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A Literature Review on Popular Education in America: http://thefreedomskool.blogspot.com/2014/11/democracy-in-america-where-literature.html

My Manifesto on Education, Life, and Morality: http://thefreedomskool.blogspot.com/2014/10/a-dissertation-for-liberation-and.html

A video primer for My Manifesto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN2nqYOua9s

Transcript of Tyler Brockman Update 3

by Johnathan Masters

The murder of Samantha Ramsey should have been Jack Conway's most important case. Jack Conway is the chief prosecutor statewide, and this should have been his most important case.

But Jack Conway is in favor of the death penalty. He wanted Ralph Baze to die for self-defense. Jack Conway was in favor of executing 1 million Iraqi civilians for the Saudi Arabian 9-11 terrorists. Jack Conway also allowed Tyler Brockman to be judge, jury, and executioner of Samantha Ramsey.

How close all the public officials in Northern Kentucky is appalling. A recent article pointed that much corruption in Kentucky comes from the road departments, and from the police.

Tyler Brockman's father in law, his wife's father, is the chief of police in Elsmere, KY.

Linda Tally Smith is married to Boone County District Judge Jeff Smith... which means that Linda Tally Smith should never be able to prosecute anybody in Jeff Smith's court, since she could talk to him about a case she's prosecuting, that he's judging, while they're at home. There's clear conflicts of interests there.

John M Crawford, the Prosecuting attorney who presided over the Grand Jury that allowed Tyler Brockman to get away with cold blooded point blank murder, since Brockman did say, he was face to face with Samantha Ramsey, use to work for Linda Tally Smith in Grant County.

John M Crawford used to work for Linda Tally Smith in Grant County.

It's not a big surprise that they intentionally waited until the after the election before failing to indict a cold blooded psychopathic murderer.

They are all friends on Facebook.

Before Tyler Brockman made his FB private (Brockman Ty), Linda Tally Smith praised him highly, as if he was the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, MLK, or Ghandi himself.

Steve Beshear's office said that Steve doesn't get involved with police matters, which is particularly odd, considering Steve is the one who appoints the Commissioner of the Kentucky State Police, and pays his budget, and that of his men. BTW, it's Rodney Brewer, not Brewster... I wanted to make that correction.

Rodney Brewer is the Chief Sheriff in Kentucky, the Commissioner of the KSP. It's weird how Steve Beshear says he doesn't get involved with police matters, since Kentucky has a strong Governor system, which dominates over 50 departments, including the KSP.

I think that's where all the county cops get their paychecks too.

Steve Beshear is the one who appointed Rodney Brewer, and pays him, and his men, and all of the other cops in Kentucky. Steve Beshear is the Commander in Chief of Kentucky. He controls the National Guard too. If Tennesse ever decided to invade Kentucky, it would be Steve Beshear would be the leading the war against Tennessee.

Kentucky's US Senators Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell never said a word about the Tyler Brockman shooting, even though they were bombarded with thousands of emails.

Tyler Brockman had taken Xanax within 8 hours of shooting Samantha Ramsey. Kentucky is well known for her pillbillies.

Tyler Brockman was Judge Jury and Executioner of Samantha Ramsey. The last person who was executed in Kentucky had slit two children's throats. Samantha's supposed crimes, not following orders, wasn't even close to being worthy of the death penalty. It took like a year to execute Marco Chapman, in a very complicated, and lengthy process.

That's what Brockman did to Samantha Ramsey. Murdered her like she was Marco Chapman. It's weird arguing with folks about Samantha Ramsey's death, because they want to paint her up as a criminal, and then turn around, and say she's in Heaven... well, which is it? Is she a war bent criminal... or is she an Angel?

You already know the truth. Look in your hearts. You know what he did was wrong.

I hope Samantha Ramsey's estate makes $5 million dollars by suing the fuck outta the State. Even though OJ Simpson never got convicted of murdering those two people, in the Civil Suit, the jury awarded the victim's estate $25 million dollars.

How much is a life worth? A life is priceless, and a dollar amount can't be tacked onto it, but if the jury came back and awarded Ramsey's estate $25 million dollars, I'd feel a bit better about it. At least some type of justice prevailed.

Constitutional Convention:

Kentuckians are currently living with an 1891 Constitution. It's Kentucky's 4^th Constitution.

1891 was many years ago. 1891 was 124 years ago, 91 years before my birthday.

1891 was during the Gilded Age, with the rise of the Industrial Revolution. It's Gilded because some folks got really wealthy, but many poor children also had to work many hours for the Industrialists then. While the Industrial Revolution was going, there was massive protest, and outrage at how Industry is going to change their lives, and so there was backlash.

The 1891 Constitution was partially written by William Justus Goebel, a German-Kentuckian, who lived in Kenton County, and who father had fought for the Union.

1891 is 12 years after my Gripshover ancestors got to America.

Here's a few events that happened in 1891:

-The paying of old age pensions, kind of like Social Security, only better, begins in Germany.

Liliuokalani is proclaimed Queen of Hawaii.

-The Portuguese republican revolution breaks out in the northern city of Porto.

-The Tobacco Protest begins in Iran.

-Jesse W. Reno patents the first escalator at Coney Beach.

-Troops fire on a workers' May Day demonstration in support of the 8-hour workday in Fourmies, -France, killing 9 and wounding 30.

The Music Hall in New York (now known as Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening and first public performance, with maestro Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor.

-The first long-distance transmission of alternating current happened, by the Ames power plant near Telluride, Colorado, by Lucien and Paul Nunn.

-Arthur Conan Doyle's detective Sherlock Holmes appears in The Strand Magazine for the first time, in the issue dated July.

-In California, Stanford University opens its doors.

-Nikola Tesla invents the Tesla coil.

-Mine explosion kills 109 at Mount Pleasant Pennsylvania.

-1st world weightlifting championship held.

-Nebraska introduces 8 hour work day.

-Jews are expelled from Moscow Russia.

-17th Kentucky Derby: Isaac Murphy aboard Kingman wins in 2:52.25.

-Boxers Peter Jackson & Jim Corbett fight to a draw in 61 rounds.
-1st motion picture shown to Natl Federation of Women's Clubs

-France annexes Tahiti.

-61°F, highest temp for July 1891, in Baltimore & Phila

-US National Forest Service organized
-Jun 29th - Street railway in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, commences operation.
-Jul 5th - Hail kills 6 horses in Rapid City, SD

-Hurricane hits Martinique, about 700 die

-Cotton pickers organize union & stage strike in Texas

-The first gasoline-powered car debuts in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States.

-James Naismith creates the game of basketball

-P. T. Barnum, American showman, dies.

Before 1891, calls for a Constitutional Convention failed in Kentucky, in the years 1875, 1879, 1881, 1883, and 1885.

Since Constitutional Conventions are so hard to get passed by the voters, instead, Frankfort legislatures have taken to changing the Constitution by way of Amendment. It's a parliamentary procedure trick, but it's been good for the elite politicians in power.

Sections 125-141, and Section 143, have been wiped out.

The Railroad Commission has been wiped out.

William Justus Goebel put provisions in the 1891 Constitution to combat the rise of concentrated power called Corporations. Kentucky's Constitution does much to legislate the Corporations. At least, it used to.

Now, 41 of Kentucky's 263 Sections have been amended. 22 have been eviscerated, vanquished, completely.

By having a Constitutional Convention, we can rewrite Kentucky's laws to cut out the corruption, and to have one single document that all Kentucky children can learn and memorize, so everybody is on the same page with to how we're all supposed to behave. Without that single document, everybody is making up as they go along. Nobody is on the same page as anybody else. Private pocket tyrannies are scattered throughout the entire state. Usually the courthouse clique.

A Constitutional Convention can happen in Kentucky when:

1 - A majority of all the members of each of the two chambers of the state legislature agree to place a question before the state's voters about whether to have a constitutional convention... two years in a row.

So if Frankfort's Legislature, the General Ass, decided today to have a People's Vote on a Constitutional Convention, they would have to decide to do it again next year.

And then the People's Vote would take place that would ultimately decide the outcome. The People's Vote would have to be a majority, and the total number of voters would have to equal one-fourth of the number of qualified voters who voted in the Governor's 2015 Election. Since 2016 would be a Presidential Election, there would be easily enough voters to pass the Constitutional Convention up.

Here's my write up a Constitutional Convention: http://thefreedomskool.blogspot.com/2014/10/a-resolution-for-peoples-vote-for.html

Robert Stivers introduced a Bill to Senate 4 days ago, for Kentucky to push for a Constitutional Convention to rewrite the American Constitution in the Frankfort legislature.

My Recommendations for Better Police in Kentucky:

Body Cameras on them all.

On May 14, 2014, 3 weeks after Sam Ramsey was shot, Boone County received Federal Funds for Body Cameras, which haven't been put to use yet.

The criminal terrorist organization, the LMPD, had roughly $150,000 set aside for 75 cameras and related costs in the department's budget for the fiscal year that ended June 30. That amount was based on preliminary storage costs for the camera program that later approached $1 million a year, police said.

But unfortunately the youth violence at the Waterfront Park and downtown led to calls for increased surveillance. Police then shifted the body-camera funds to help buy stuff that interprets data from cameras at Waterfront Park's Big Four Bridge.

We need more Serpicos. If there were good cops in Kentucky, they would protest the bad ones, but they don't ever do that. Only those police who speak out against Tyler Brockman are the good cops.

Police shouldn't escalate situations; they should de-escalate situations.

To guarantee Police Accountability, we need:

A. Bill of Rights Testing should be implemented

B. We need to Criminalize Enhancement Charges

C. We should establish Citizen's Complaint Authority Boards, to take complaints about police brutality.

D. We should legislature Statewide “Shop With A Cop” Programs as being mandatory.

E. We should Codify Proper Procedure for Cop Watch Programs

F. All Public Surveillance Cameras Accessible to the Public

G. All police officers should be equipped with body cameras.

Campaign Finance Form for Ky Politicians + Mailers Sent to Breckinridge County, Late 2014

Whereas Federal Elections have SuperPACs that allow unlimited funds going to politicians (since the Citizens United decision determined that "money is speech"), in Kentucky, the Campaign Finance laws are still in place. I'd be in favor of having Campaign Finance Reform to where all candidates get equal airtime, equal access to debates, and the Kentucky people get to see all of their possible candidates, and make the best choice from there. Instead of being bombarded with politicians constantly asking you for money (which they'll save somehow by cutting taxes later on?), this "welfare for politicians" levels the playing field, for Democrats and Republicans, as well as Independents. 

If my friend wanted to chip in $5 for my campaign, in Kentucky, they'd have to fill out the form above. They would have to write down their name, address, occupation, and employer, AND their spouse's name, address, occupation, and employer. 

The questionnaire above, printed by the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance Staff, asks Kentucky citizens who donate money, to also answer the questions: 

"Have you made any other contributions this election?" 

and

"How many people will be coming to the fundraiser?