An Excerpt of What Seditious Trump Said to His Insurrectionists on January 6, 2021

Trump at his rally:

“…All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by emboldened radical left Democrats, which is what they’re doing and stolen by the fake news media. That’s what they’ve done and what they’re doing. We will never give up. We will never concede, it doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved…

“We’re going to have to fight much harder and Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us. If he doesn’t, that will be a sad day for our country because you’re sworn to uphold our constitution.

“Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. After this, we’re going to walk down and I’ll be there with you. We’re going to walk down. We’re going to walk down any one you want, but I think right here. We’re going walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women. We’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong…”

Trump, hours later after the mayhem began:

“I know your pain. I know you’re hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election, and everyone knows it, especially the other side. But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. We have to respect our great people in law and order. We don’t want anybody hurt.

“It’s a very tough period of time. There’s never been a time like this where such a thing happened where they could take it away from all of us, from me, from you, from our country. This was a fraudulent election. But we can’t play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You’re very special. You’ve seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home and go home in peace.”

Trump on Twitter before they locked him out:

“These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!”

TRUMP INCITES AN INSURRECTION (30 Photographs)

A Letter from a Nurse in LA County

Today we have become Italy at their height of the pandemic. LA county has been instructed NOT to transport people with a low likelihood of survival if they have COVID. We have been forced to choose who lives and who dies because we are stretched that thin. And we haven’t even seen whatever post Xmas and New Year will bring.

I am convinced, based on what we have seen in other countries, that this is due to the myriad of misguided selfish people who think this virus is a hoax, who refuse to be compliant about basic, proven infection control procedures (distancing, masking up), who refuse the vaccine based on pretty much no scientific data whatsoever and who support leaders who advocate to “live your life” and who downplay the severity of the worst pandemic since 1918.

I’m done imploring people to do what’s best. We healthcare providers have been asking for months to no avail. I’m done arguing with people who support leadership that doesn’t take this seriously. No data or reasoning will work with you; you are a waste of my limited energy and time.

Understand that we are at the point that you may not be transported to the hospital if you get sick. LA county is on the border of rationing oxygen, another horrible triage step. This is likely to happen beyond my state, especially if we don’t stick with protocols until the vaccine is more prevalent.

I pray for all the poor people who receive a death sentence and for those who have to ration care. It’s a horrible feeling to have to tell people there’s nothing more we can do; I’ve been there many times. It’s an even more horrible feeling to know you’ve lost someone and their death could have been prevented. God help us all through these next few months.

-Steve Lisowski

New research suggests COVID-19 may leave lingering heart damage

 

“Two studies published July 27 in JAMA Cardiology looked at how COVID-19 may impact the heart”
 
LOS ANGELES – “In a study published in September, researchers from Ohio State University found that out of more than two dozen athletes from the university who tested positive for COVID-19, 30% had cellular heart damage and 15% showed signs of heart inflammation caused by a condition known as myocarditis.
 
“After mapping the hearts of 26 Ohio State University athletes using a process known as cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR), researchers found that not only 15% of students exhibited the rare heart condition but 30% showed cellular damage. ‘Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging has the potential to identify a high-risk cohort for adverse outcomes and may, importantly, risk-stratify athletes for safe participation,’ study authors wrote. ‘Recent studies have raised concerns of myocardial inflammation after recovery from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), even in asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic patients.’

“According to researchers, ‘myocarditis is a significant cause of sudden cardiac death in competitive athletes.’ According to the Mayo Clinic, myocarditis is typically caused by a viral infection with symptoms ranging from chest pain, fatigue, shortness of breath, to a negative impact on heart rate and rhythm as seen in conditions such as arrhythmias.

“The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tweeted on Sept. 17, ‘Heart conditions like myocarditis are associated with some cases of #COVID19. Severe cardiac damage is rare but has occurred, even in young, healthy people.’ Medical experts have previously warned the public of links between the novel coronavirus and heart damage, especially in young people. 
 
“The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health explained that while COVID-19 most commonly impacts the lungs as it is a respiratory illness, damage to the lungs can lead to serious heart complications. Because the heart needs oxygen to function properly, COVID-19 can damage the lungs, preventing enough oxygen from reaching the heart muscle and further restricting oxygen from reaching other important tissues in the body. 
 
“A separate report by a group of U.S. doctors published in the medical journal JACC warned of the potential of heart damage to children from the novel coronavirus. The report detailed the case of a 2-month-old infant diagnosed with COVID-19 who experienced a myocardial injury as well as a type of heart failure most commonly seen in adults. ‘Most children with Covid-19 are either asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, but our case shows the potential for reversible myocardial (heart) injury in infants,’ said Dr. Madhu Sharma, the report’s lead author. 

“In a news release published on Dec. 2, the group of doctors said the infant recovered with normal heart function and was eventually discharged with no heart failure medications. ‘The presentation and clinical course of this patient mirrors four case reports of acute myocardial injury reported in adult patients with COVID-19,’ said Sharma.
 
“Another study published on June 25 in the journal Cell Reports Medicine found that COVID-19 has also been known to instigate inflammatory responses in the body which can negatively affect the function of one’s heart and brain. According to the study, researchers observed SARS-CoV-2 infecting human heart cells that were grown from stem cells in a lab. Within 72 hours of infection, the virus managed to spread and replicate, killing the heart cells.
 
“The researchers brought up the particularly alarming possibility that if COVID-19 can infect the heart cells in a laboratory setting, it could possibly infect those specific organs, prompting the need for a ‘cardiac-specific antiviral drug screen program’” (Fox6now.com). 
 

17 Posts from My Heart and Spirit

Reflections on a Philosophy of Teaching and Learning (March 11, 2011)
…With a fundamental commitment to human rights, founded on philosophical principles and ideals, I challenge my students—through literature, philosophy, history, psychology, poetry and science, and through their own writing—to pursue a life based on logic, reason, critical thinking, selflessness, compassion, empathy, humility, integrity, dignity, political and social justice, responsibility, self-restraint, mutual respect, and life-long learning… For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2011/03/in-my-classroom-students-learn-that-i.html
 
Illinois Pension Reform Is Without Legal and Moral Justification (May 29, 2012)
…What is at stake right now is not a potential adjudication of claims that public employees will have against policymakers who want changes to public employees’ benefits and rights, but to respect the public employees’ contractual and constitutional promises because they are legitimate rights and moral concerns not only for public employees, but for every citizen in Illinois: for any unwarranted act of stealing a person’s guaranteed rights and compensation will violate interests in morality and ethics and the basic principles of both the State and United States Constitutions that protect every one of us… For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2012/05/sb-1673-is-without-legal-and-moral.html
 
Illinois Pension Reform: My address to members of the State Universities Annuitants Association (April 26, 2013)
…Instead of protecting public pension rights and benefits, which have a legal basis under Illinois State Law; instead of restructuring the state’s revenue base to pay for the state’s growth in expenditures and its recklessly-accumulated debts and obligations, current policymakers have chosen to diminish the public employees’ constitutional rights and their benefits, even though revenue restructuring and pension debt re-amortization are the best legal and moral solutions... For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2013/04/illinois-pension-reform-my-address-to.html
 
The So-Called Advanced Placement Student at the University or What Is the Value of AP Courses and Tests Anyway? (May 5, 2014)
…Though taking a rigorous AP class can be a positive academic experience, many AP classes are not a true measure of high quality, and there is simply no way to determine the value of the high-stakes test scores.  Many students come from high schools that do not have competent and challenging programs. These students are entering colleges and universities without time management, study and note-taking skills and aptitudes for critical thinking, writing and analysis. To make matters worse, high schools across the nation are allowing more and more students - who are often apathetic and unprepared - to enroll in these AP classes for the wrong reasons as well: to assuage parental demands, to save college tuition, to avoid taking essential Freshman courses, and to impress college admissions… For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-so-called-advanced-placement.html
 
The Pension Protection Clause and the State of Illinois’ “Reserved Sovereign Powers” (June 12, 2014)
…The Illinois General Assembly does not possess "reserved sovereign powers" to diminish a constitutionally-protected pension. The state's chronic underfunding of its public pension systems for decades cannot warrant the impairment or diminishment of public employees' and retirees' pension benefits and rights… For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-contract-clause-and-state-of.html
 
An Examination of the Illinois “Pension Protection Clause,” or What Part of These Words Do Some Politicians Not Understand? (July 13, 2014)
…If there is anything else, we might examine regarding the Pension Protection Clause and its relationship to a reality that reveals repeated attempts by the wealthy elite, their politicians and the media to steal constitutionally-guaranteed pension benefits and rights, perhaps we should also dispute the relentless attacks on the very intelligibility of the English language by these liars and thieves. We know the Pension Protection Clause is valid because it is understood to be a contractual right and guarantee that public employees have earned… For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2014/07/another-examination-of-illinois-pension.html
 
Though it is the Anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, we have a very different country “worth saving” today (November 19, 2014)
…We live in a country where breaking a constitutional contract with retirees and public employees is deemed morally and legally justifiable by legislative liars and thieves; where public employees and retirees are victims of plutocratic, concentrated economic privilege and power that accommodates and reinforces an enormous inequality of organizational resources for corporate self-seekers; where public schools are for sale; where public school teachers have been assaulted by a barrage of attacks on their autonomy, dignity and self-respect; where labor unions have lost political power and influence; where there is no pay equity or job security for college adjunct faculty, and where “memories of the university as a citadel of democratic learning have been replaced by a university eager to define itself largely as an adjunct of corporate power.”… For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2014/11/though-it-is-151st-anniversary-of.html
 
Illinois Supreme Court Rules Against Legislative Theft! (May 8, 2015)
…Today we celebrate a legal and moral victory. We can believe in the Illinois Constitution for protection and believe in the sanctity of contracts once again. We can believe the Pension Protection Clause “confers additional, independent protection for public retirement benefits separate and distinct from the protection afforded by the Contract Clause” (Brief of ISEA, RSEA, Heaton and Harrison, Plaintiffs-Appellees, 22). We can believe the Pension Protection Clause decisively has no reference to “subject to police power.” We can believe Illinois legislators “may not rewrite the Pension Protection Clause to include restrictions and limitations that the drafters did not express and the citizens of Illinois did not approve” (32). We can believe “no reserved power allows a state legislature to sidestep the plain prohibitions set out in its own constitution” (41) at least for now… For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2015/05/illinois-supreme-court-rules-against.html
 
ILLINOIS PENSION THEFT: 100 LINKS TO MORAL AND LEGAL ANALYSES, COMMENTARIES, AND ARGUMENTS FOR PROTECTING PUBLIC PENSIONS (May 8, 2016) For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2016/05/illinois-pension-theft-93-links-to.html
 
To the Sponsors of House Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 18: An Unconstitutional Attempt to Amend the Pension Protection Clause (March 6, 2017)
…To anyone attempting to amend the Pension Protection Clause: my response to you is to read Article XIII, Section 5: “Pension and Retirement Rights” of the Illinois Constitution. Read Article 1, Section 16: “Ex Post Facto Laws and Impairing Contracts” of the Illinois Constitution. Read Article I, Section 15: “Right of Eminent Domain” (the Takings Clause) of the Illinois Constitution.  Read Article I, Section 2: “Due Process and Equal Protection” of the Illinois Constitution. Read Article 1, Section 10 of the United States Constitution: “No State shall… pass any… ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts…” Read Amendment V, Section 1 of the United States Constitution: “No person shall be... deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” Read Amendment XIV, Section 1 of the United States Constitution: “Due Process and Equal Protection.” To ignore the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution and change laws that protect one group of people is to ignore due process and equal protection of the laws that guarantee contractual agreements as well. Finally, read the Illinois Supreme Court ruling… For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2017/03/to-sponsors-of-house-joint-resolution.html
 
The Continuing Demoralization of University and College Adjunct Faculty (November 1, 2017)
…There are no due process protections for adjunct faculty. There is no equal pay for equal work. There is no professional advancement. There is no equity in the lack of health insurance and retirement benefits available for adjunct faculty. There is little to no inclusion in the way higher education’s formal decision-making procedures and structures are made. Indeed, adjunct faculty are simply part-time contractors, “lecturers,” or non-essential “marginalized” hires who are disenfranchised from high-level governance and required to carry out most of the responsibilities of the full-time faculty (and sometimes at multiple institutions), but for less than one-fifth of the salary of the full-time faculty and without meaningful job security from one semester to another… For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-continuing-demoralization-of.html
 
America and Guns (February 19, 2018)
…Instead of gun control laws that will affect law-abiding responsible citizens who own reasonable self-defense weapons for protection and may conceal and carry those weapons; instead of more political party accusations and useless prayers for the victims, legislators should focus upon and address the causes of violent crimes: domestic white nationalism, racism, bigotry (power, hatred, revenge, anger, notoriety), religious fundamentalism, economic injustice, poverty, unemployment, gang activity, drug trafficking, inefficient law enforcement in high-crime areas, suicide, mental illness, media's perpetuation of fear, and Trump's demagoguery and xenophobia… For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2018/02/america-and-guns.html
 
Why I Do Not Trust the Illinois Education Association’s Leadership, Especially Their Endorsement of Michael Connelly (October 28, 2018)
…Do you remember the IEA leadership had agreed to diminish and impair current teachers’ and retirees’ constitutionally-guaranteed benefits that had been protected by previous Illinois Supreme Court rulings, because the IEA leadership believed SB 2404 would thwart any further attacks on our Pension Protection Clause? Do you remember that Senate Bill 2404 in May, 2013, a unilateral reduction of pension rights, was declared unconstitutional in May 2015?... The IEA has apparently forgotten that Connelly voted to diminish and impair public employees' and retirees' constitutionally-guaranteed pension on December 2, 2013. He was one of 30 unethical Illinois senators to do so... For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2018/10/why-i-do-not-trust-illinois-education.html
 
Why Donald Trump Is a Threat to Our Democracy and Unfit to be President of the United States of America (August 24, 2019)
…Because most of us live as social, rational human beings, we have implicitly consented to moral and social contracts that have been devised. It is because we understand why moral precepts are beneficial for all of us; that we have the Rule of Law, established in the U.S. Constitution; that we have a shared set of moral and legal expectations for our conduct that makes it imperative to appeal to a public sense of justice regardless of political party affiliation. It is by virtue of our moral and constitutional obligations, "and not upon the niceties of a narrow [criminal] jurisprudence but upon the enlarged and solid principles of morality," that Donald Trump must be removed from the highest and most respected office in America… For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2019/08/when-are-we-going-to-do-it.html
 
What Really Matters (January 6, 2020)
…What really matters is how we live our lives each day with or without a belief in God; that we accept one another's beliefs (or non-beliefs) as long as they do not advocate terrorism. What really matters is how we live with the most significant questions unanswered or unknowable; that we pursue a life based on logic, reason, critical thinking, justice, solidarity, intellectual honesty and life-long learning; that we live our lives peacefully and with tolerance and mutual respect, and with compassion and love for one another, and that we oppose hatred, racism, bigotry, subjugation, misogyny, xenophobia, hypocrisy and indifference... because "like a boil that can never be cured... but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured" (King), for we are responsible for what happens in our lives, and for what happens in the lives of others. For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2020/01/what-really-matters.html
 
His Dangerous Ignorance: This Other Virus Plaguing America (March 21, 2020)
THIS A RECORD OF A COUNTRY BESIEGED BY A CORONAVIRUS AND A CHRONICLE OF THE FAILURES OF A PATHOLOGICAL AND MALIGNANT NARCISSIST AND LIAR… For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2020/03/dangerous-ignorance.html
 
This Retired Teacher's Concerns (August 1, 2020)
…Until this country has a unified and coherent federal, state and local strategy; until the federal government increases its funding for health and safety for all schools across this nation; until there is federal funding for parents to assist with their at-home childcare and technology and federal funding to feed disadvantaged children; until business entrepreneurs and the Trump administration (and not the schools!) solve the false choice they have created for parents of school-age children—all schools and universities across this nation should open only on online this fall and not until this pandemic is totally under control! Furthermore, until the morons among us stop spreading misinformation and conspiracies because of their own gullibility and ignorance; until the Creons among us cease their stubbornness and spitefulness; until the pathological narcissists among us end their gas-lighting, this unabated coronavirus will continue to proliferate, and thousands of Americans will die. For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2020/08/this-retired-teachers-concerns.html
 
 

2020

 

So, what was posted on this blog during 2020? A few highlights:

Burning Australia, Trump's dangerous ignorance and revenge, Illinois public pension debt, Alzheimer’s research, climate change, Trump's impeachment... 

Covid-19: pandemic deniers, panic buying, the ineptitude of the Trump administration, business and school shutdowns, teaching during the pandemic, anti-mask protests, herd immunity, vaccines... 

The murders of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, racism, Black Lives Matter, rioting and looting, Confederate statues, John Lewis, Ruth Bader Ginsburg...

Conspiracy theories, political polarization, the election: mail-in voting, mail sabotage, schadenfreude, morons and egotists, Republican hypocrisy and treason…

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When Children Return to School by Teresa Thayer Snyder

 Dear Friends and Colleagues:

 I am writing today about the children of this pandemic. After a lifetime of working among the young, I feel compelled to address the concerns that are being expressed by so many of my peers about the deficits the children will demonstrate when they finally return to school.

 My goodness, what a disconcerting thing to be concerned about in the face of a pandemic which is affecting millions of people around the country and the world. It speaks to one of my biggest fears for the children when they return. In our determination to “catch them up,” I fear that we will lose who they are and what they have learned during this unprecedented era.

 What on earth are we trying to catch them up on? The models no longer apply, the benchmarks are no longer valid, the trend analyses have been interrupted. We must not forget that those arbitrary measures were established by people, not ordained by God. We can make those invalid measures as obsolete as a crank up telephone! They simply do not apply.

When the children return to school, they will have returned with a new history that we will need to help them identify and make sense of. When the children return to school, we will need to listen to them. Let their stories be told. They have endured a year that has no parallel in modern times. There is no assessment that applies to who they are or what they have learned.

Remember, their brains did not go into hibernation during this year. Their brains may not have been focused on traditional school material, but they did not stop either. Their brains may have been focused on where their next meal is coming from, or how to care for a younger sibling, or how to deal with missing grandma, or how it feels to have to surrender a beloved pet, or how to deal with death. Our job is to welcome them back and help them write that history.

I sincerely plead with my colleagues, to surrender the artificial constructs that measure achievement and greet the children where they are, not where we think they “should be.” Greet them with art supplies and writing materials, and music and dance and so many other avenues to help them express what has happened to them in their lives during this horrific year.

Greet them with stories and books that will help them make sense of an upside-down world. They missed you. They did not miss the test prep. They did not miss the worksheets. They did not miss the reading groups. They did not miss the homework. They missed you.

Resist the pressure from whatever ‘powers that be’ who are in a hurry to “fix” kids and make up for the “lost” time. The time was not lost, it was invested in surviving an historic period of time in their lives—in our lives. The children do not need to be fixed. They are not broken. They need to be heard. They need be given as many tools as we can provide to nurture resilience and help them adjust to a post pandemic world.

Being a teacher is an essential connection between what is and what can be. Please, let what can be demonstrate that our children have so much to share about the world they live in and in helping them make sense of what, for all of us has been unimaginable. This will help them– and us– achieve a lot more than can be measured by any assessment tool ever devised. Peace to all who work with the children!

-Teresa Thayer Snyder was superintendent of the Voorheesville district in upstate New York