Thread .... 👇👇👇

“Those schools who try to do everything they would do in a face to face context in a remote context are going to come unstuck” Darren Northcott .....

“Worst workload is in schools that are reinventing the wheel rather than using resources like @OakNational “ ....

“Teachers are still being required to do triple and double marking, hand in daily and weekly lesson plans, and some schools are hanging onto flight paths and half term data drops AND now add remote learning to it”

“There is no evidence that one form of remote learning is better than another”

“There are schools with really effective remote learning that don’t use live streaming at all”

Apropos Ike, one of the biggest mistakes in analyzing the right is thinking that the right ever became 100% liberal, centrist, conservative, populist under Ike, Nixon, Reagan, &c.

This is especially so under Ike, who people think tag-teamed with Rocky to basically crush anyone who wasn't part of the old NE establishment. It's a nice story, but it's not really true.

Ike was very popular afterward, but he did not sweep the GOP primary in 1952. He instead ran neck and neck with Old Righty Robert Taft and had to play all sorts of backroom deals to get a majority of delegates.

He spent much of the primary "playing to the base" in a way that Goldwater fans would like and at least rhetorically was pro-smaller government.

Even so, many R Senators and Congressmen were not Ike men, and they often gave him trouble or killed reform ideas he had. National politics is not just the President.

It was commonplace experience growing up in Ashraf-majority village to hear slurs like "musalman hai to kia hua, hai to badzaat hi nh". once I heard someone say "jis gaon me Syed hota, us gaon k aas paas koi shaitan nhi aa sakta". But the most flagrant but less obvious ways

Casteism is perpetuated, I have witnessed and continue to, is via religious gatherings-Juma khutba, Milaad, Jalsa etc- where Ashraf Maulvis indulge in direct casteist slurs like "badzaat"(while referring to lower caste muslims) and not so direct like-

Ek "Ahmaq(idiot) dhobi", "Nafarmani Julaha", Bedeeni qasab" etc as part of their anecdotes/quips(Notice here the particular quality of individual is not his quality it represents "caste quality"). And how one Awliya/Buzurg (of course Ashrafs) rescued/saved those Ahmaq/Bedeen...

Here again saviourship is estblshd as "caste quality" of Ashrafs). In Ashraf Maulvis' sermons, casteism peppered anecdotes abound where inferiority of lower caste muslims(badzaat, badmaash, bezaat, Bedeen etc) and corresponding superiority of upper caste muslims(wherein They

would refer certain upper caste individual past or present in grandiose and patronising tone and tiltle eg Auliya, Murshid, ek Buzurg, Sahab-e-qalam etc.)is very skillfully estblshd.This work of normalising casteism in two-way traffic has very real cnsequences. I heard once my

1/ The “No Surprises Act” is deeply flawed. It should not advance in its current form. Work must continue to reach a meaningful remedy to “surprise medical bills” #SMB that keeps patients out of the middle and provides balance.

Here are several concerns w/ the current proposal:

2/ The proposal should require that the initial “interim payment” made by the insurer for out-of-network services be considered the plan’s offer for IDR, to incentivize the insurer to pay a fair initial reimbursement.

But, the proposal does not.

3/ The proposal should allow the IDR process to consider UCR and an independent charge-based database. Lest it be a form of price-fixing by insurers since the qualifying payment is indexed to the insurer-set in-network median rate (w/CPIU adjustment).

But, the proposal does not.

4/ The proposal should avoid a complex administrative burden that threatens practice viability and leads to consolidation and higher healthcare costs for patients. Cost effective independent physician practice provides patients choice.

But, the proposal does not.

5/ The proposal should explicitly prohibit the IDR process from considering Medicare, Medicaid, and other public payer rates. These are well known to be below the cost of providing care and these programs are not implicated by the #SMB provisions.

But, the proposal does not.

Dear Sydney: some tips for wearing masks....

* Invest in finding the right mask for your face. Some material may be irritating, some designs may be the wrong shape for your head, some ties may hurt your years. If you’re going to be wearing a mask every day have a think about what works best for you

* Get the seal tight to your face: it shouldn’t be bagging around your chin or cheeks.

* You can stop glasses fogging up by making sure the seal of the mask is close to your skin of your nose or using a little cloth tape to stick it down

* Brush your teeth before leaving the house. Chew gum or suck on a mint. Don’t eat anchovies and onion just before putting a mask on

On the issue of access to information for adopted persons #knowyouridentity, there are others who have more expertise in this than me but since I didn't get time to make all the points I would have liked to on @morningireland earlier, here are some thoughts (Thread ⬇️)

The previous AG advised that it would be unconst to provide an unlimited right to access info in leg - reasons were not given but we can presume this opinion is based on the result in the IOT vB case, which is a misreading of that case, while privacy was prioritised in that case

The SC indicated that this was an issue which should properly be dealt with by the Oir, which is entitled to conduct a balancing exercise and decide that one right should prevail over the other. The only prob would be if one set of rights was completely disregarded

Also, the weight of law and legal opinion is on the side of the right to know your identity, a CoA judgmnt last feb identified a right right to have your identity correctly recognised by the State and that was said to encompass a right to have a birth certificate and a passport.

The ECHR has recognised identity rights in respect of a variety of adoption information context & under EU law a person’s name is their personal data to which they have a right & personal data can lawfully be restricted only if there is clear legislation that allows for it

I posted this elsewhere on social media today. Sharing here because I think there are many ppl who relate, and bc having gotten pushback again today, I have found further reason for hope in some of the support I’ve gotten (thread): 1/11

In all of the pushback I’ve gotten over the past yr in statements I’ve made about politics & the white evangelical church, notably a lot has been not about the substance of my message but a continual refrain of “why do you have to say ‘white’ Christians?” 2/11

I’ll share a little to explain why this stands out to me. I’m Indian-American, loosely defined. My dad is from India and my mom is white. I have enjoyed all the privilege of living as a white American, to be clear (lots to unpack there, but have to save that for another day) 3/11

My entire life I’ve been asked to explain myself. “Where are you from?” “Ohio.” “But where are you *really* from?” Or worse, “what *are* you?” I grew up in the 80s and 90s and this is my lived experience. I now know it’s a common one for others like me. 4/11

Again, much more to unpack here, but the point is: I was always “other” because I wasn’t white.

White is just assumed as this default that we have lived with in America, and everyone else has then of course had to be named as something else: black, Hispanic, brown, etc 5/11

CW Nightmare

In the torn out belly of an old, sprawling hotel, I found myself investigating strange happenings in the fledgling restaurant that sprouted in the blasted ruin.

Swarthy men gutted the collapse, using every nail & timber to build the eatery and it's long tables.
1🧵

I swear to have seen a spider, large as a dinner plate, with an ape-like face and twitching human fingers for legs, ground down to bloody points. But only a flash witnessed in a broken pane of glass. The bike thing was some illusion. A twisting of light and color, nothing more.

It was then , in the darkening hours of the day, that six young travelers entered, seating themselves at the single large feast table. Colorful, happy, bawdy souls in all, they seemed unaffected by the haze of terror that lingered among the workmen.
3🧵

I found no sign of mold or damp, gas or chemical, any phenomenon to explain the various sightings.
The matron, dutiful and mild in manner, brought the travelers beer, soft pretzels, and honey butter - leaving them to chitter and indulge.
4 🧵

The workmen, in the growing dark, left as quickly as a flock of larks, in one writing mass at the foreman's whistle. Unashamed in their obvious terror. Each man nodded to me, the stranger, in quiet gratitude and sorrowful fancy, as I dared to remain after dark.
5 🧵

I don’t know if anyone else out there is feeling this, but the more I think about the whole Phil Spector situation — and the more I read about his abusive behavior — the more enraged and depressed I become. If you’re feeling this way too, I just want you to know you’re not alone.

I’m no expert on this topic. But from the little I have read in the past 24 hours—mostly from digging into previous reports, and not the obituaries—Spector “surprised” his wife, Ronnie, with two adopted children as a “Christmas gift.” He reportedly imprisoned them, and Ronnie...

..and two of Spector’s three adopted sons have accused him of sexual abuse.

“Donte Spector, 33, said he was forced to perform simulated intercourse with his father's girlfriend. When he was 9, he was handcuffed and blindfolded for her amusement, he

From the same story:

“I was blindfolded and sexually molested," said Gary Spector, 36. “Dad would say, 'You're going to meet someone,' and it would be a 'learning experience.’”

There are many details that have been reported about Phil Spector’s abuse of Ronnie. His total control over her life — over her career, her contacts with the outside world. He even hid her shoes, so that when she finally did manage to flee, she did so barefoot. And years later...

Me: “Ugh, I really need to clear this area but there’s so much shit on it that all needs to be put 40 different places. This too much.”

Adderall Me: “I ain’t got time for this shit.” *Uses arm to knock everything not breakable onto the floor* “Clear.” 🤣🤣🤣 #ADDcheckin

Now for someone who doesn’t have #ADHD you might find what I did odd. All I did was move the mess from one spot to another.

And you’re right.

But my brain *really* wants to organize this area. So because of that I will actually do it. I can tackle the mess later... #ADDcheckin

I’ve learned one particular hack for my brain but it still needs adderall to kick it off. Once the feeling overwhelms you of focus—a need to get shit done—I don’t let my indecisiveness slow me down. Non-adderall me will try to brainstorm a solution for 6 weeks & get nothing done.

When I was young one of the reasons why I was berated & called lazy so often was because on occasion I would do some Herculean feat w/ ease but wouldn’t do my homework or clean my room for weeks.

Because I didn’t *WANT* to. It’s a key issue in the ADD brain. A want is needed.

And to the uninitiated all that sounds like is “You just wanna do what you wanna do. You aint slick.”

But its not that simple. We can desperately want to get something done, know we need to & still can’t do it. Maybe under extreme pressure of a deadline but often not even.

1/n

I am working on a paper on why interest rates and yields are as low as they are. I will share some preliminary results here.

2/n

What I will share are some of the output from a simple model for US 10-year Treasury bond yields.

3/n

It is key to me that the model not only is statistically significantly, but is also economically significant. We need to understand economic developments within economic theory.

4/n

I have estimated a model for the US 10-year bond yield based on the following fundamental variables.

5/n

1) Nominal GDP growth (per capita).

under article 3, not 2...so the SCOTUS will be forced to listen.....

He now has the DNI report.

Barr stepped down and can now be a witness.....he did his job.

Durham is special counsel and can prosecute, in any state....

Some thoughts: The great paradox of 1/6 is that so much of the planning happened out in the open (both in the immediate run-up and over the past 4+ years), which actually made it less effective. There were too many disparate and undisciplined groups, effectively tourists.

This part of Trumpism will continue. To the extent the Trump family is able to operate in the open, they will become the Grateful Dead of right-wing politics, which Trump rallies already embody, and followers will go on tour, chanting "Lock Her Up" for the coming decades.

The key question is whether the Far Right will break from this. Some indications show that Trump's efforts at self-preservation by weak denunciation will fuel a break and also further a pervasive "stabbed-in-the-back" narrative that the Far Right uses everywhere.

What made 1/6 more effective was the obvious underpreparation by the Capitol police, in coordination with DOJ and DOD. Some indiv officers assented but some did their job a little too effectively--incl. by shooting the woman in the bldg as much as not shooting entrants at first.

It's clear that some people entered the Capitol with the intent to kidnap/lynch specific members of Congress (you can figure out who), and some of those people basically fantasized about doing that for the likes while live-streaming (insert analogy to Zetas/ISIS/whatevs).

𝔻𝟝 ℂ𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕤

1/

@stormypatriot21

As we celebrate the end of this difficult year and welcome 2021, I’d like to take an opportunity to review the past year in our 35th Ward. Thread🧵👇🏽

We started this year by passing our 606 demolition moratorium, which has helped preserve our built environment, promote environmentally sustainable building practices, and protect affordable two- and three-flat apartment buildings near the 606 trail.

In January, we also amended Chicago’s sanctuary city ordinance to require our police department to report any requests they receive from ICE. This was a major step forward for accountability, transparency, and immigrant protections.

In February, we continued our work to address displacement and win housing justice for all Chicagoans by advocating for Just Cause for Eviction legislation.

We also continued to advocate to close the loopholes in our sanctuary city ordinance.