Timothy O’Brien, a biographer of Trump, wrote the following at Bloomberg News:
Now that Donald Trump’s administration has allowed Joe Biden’s team to formally begin its transition into the White House, the president is running out of overt ways to disrupt an election he clearly lost 18 days ago.
His flimsy and misbegotten lawsuits challenging the vote are all but deflated and he’s been less activethan usual on TV and Twitter. Perhaps he’ll make his traditional visit to Mar-a-Lago for the Christmas holidays and then stay put, preferring to endure his humiliation over Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration outside the capital.
Out of sight shouldn’t mean out of mind, however. Even if he’s off sulking, Trump has ample opportunity over the next two months to abuse his powers or throw sand in the federal machinery Biden will inherit. In this context, Trump loyalists overseeing the bureaucracy, including Attorney General William Barr, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and senior adviser Stephen Miller, may be just as important to watch as the president.
Trump’s clemency powers enable him to issue potentially undeserved pardons at the last minute (think back on the 176 pardons Bill Clinton issued just two hours before exiting the White House in 2001). Seven of Trump’s political advisers have been charged with crimes since his own inauguration, and he’s already commuted the sentence of one them, Roger Stone. Trump is also mired in ongoing civil and criminal probes, and he’ll undoubtedly be tempted to pardon himselfand family members for potential federal crimes, such as obstruction of justice. (His pardoning power doesn’t extend to the possible state charges he faces in New York.)
Trump also can deploy executive orders, which he has already used to great effect to roll backenvironmental regulations and change immigration rules. In June, he signed an order instructing federal agencies to drop environmental laws that slow approvals for oil pipelines, mines, highways and other projects in protected areas. That same month, Trump issued an order suspending new work visas for foreigners and their dependents — making it impossible for American companies to hire skilled immigrants. His administration is now reportedly considering an order meant to end birthright citizenship and challenging whether it’s protected by the 14th Amendment.
A couple of weeks ago, Trump moved to lock down his tough trade stance toward China through an order banning U.S. investments in companies linked to China’s military. The day after Election Day, the Health and Human Services Department introduced a new rule that would suspend thousands of its own regulations automatically after granular reviews — a move the New York Times reported was likely meant “to tie the hands of the next administration.”
Last week, the Treasury Department successfully clawed back $455 billion in Covid-19 relief funds from the Federal Reserve, a move it said was designed to sunset unused rescue programs. But it also gave the incoming Biden administration less flexibility and resources to combat any further economic downturns stemming from the pandemic. On Tuesday, Mnuchin placed the fundsin an account that his likely successor, Janet Yellen, can’t access without approval from Congress.
Trump still holds the nuclear weapons codes (try not to think about that one) and also has the latitude to pursue covert special operations and military confrontations overseas. Christopher Miller, the interim defense secretary Trump installed after canning Mark Esper recently, has been rushing policy changes that will be thorny for Biden to manage — including a Jan. 15 troop drawdown in Afghanistan. On Nov. 12, Trump reportedly asked senior advisers, including Miller and Pompeo, about options for a military strike against Iran. (The group advised against it.)
Shortly after Election Day, Barr gave Justice Department prosecutors the authority to probe Trump’s claims of voting fraud, a move that roiled the agency and broke with longstanding federal policies aimed at keeping law enforcement authorities from influencing election outcomes. Given his track record running interference for Trump in the Mueller probe and other matters, it’s possible that Barr could use his agency’s Office of Legal Counsel to draft memos in coming weeks that protect Trump from future Biden administration investigations.
What about recordkeeping? I imagine Barr and others in the executive branch might tell the West Wing that, despite the legal perils, it’s well within the president’s rights to shred or retain files that outsiders, such as law enforcement officials, journalists and historians, might otherwise want preserved.
Executive orders can be unwound, of course, and policies eventually can be retrofitted by the Biden team, but some of Trump’s personnel moves may be longer-lasting. For all of its complaints about a “deep state” of civil servants set against it in the federal bureaucracy, the Trump White House has been determined to leave an indelible imprint on the federal workforce. It has hollowed out agencies such as the State Department and Justice Department, and spread Trump loyalists across the rest of the government and federal judiciary — some of whom may prove hard for Biden to ignore, much less dislodge.
Trump has nominated or installed supporters on such government panels as the Federal Election Commission, the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission who will enjoy lengthy terms that may outlast Biden’s presidency.
In October, Trump issued an executive ordermaking it easier to fire civil servants critical of the president, stripping them of protections meant to guard against partisan meddling. Ronald Sanders, a Trump appointee who oversaw a government panel that sets compensation for civil servants, quit after the order was issued.
The order was “nothing more than a smokescreen for what is clearly an attempt to require the political loyalty of those who advise the President,” Sanders wrote in his resignation letter. “I simply cannot be part of an Administration that seeks to do so, to replace apolitical expertise with political obeisance.”
The House of Representatives temporarily blockedthe order, so for now Trump can’t use his remaining time in office to purge naysayers. But would he have liked to? You bet. And does he want to make life as hard as possible for his successor? You bet.
Some of this isn’t new. Herbert Hoover went out of his way to stymie Franklin D. Roosevelt’s policies before they traded places in the White House in 1933. But as with all things in the Trump era, the wrecking ball is now swinging with far more force. What began with Trump’s efforts to overturn a presidential election will end in a flood of policy and personnel decisions grounded in resentment and retribution.
Based on my comment on the previous post, this seems appropriate:
Trump is a self-centered narcissist that places his mean spirited self above the interests of the country. When George Bush left the White House, he was most gracious to incoming President Obama. He willingly held a luncheon with all the former presidents for in incoming president so Obama could receive their counsel. “One message that I have and I think we all share is that we want you to succeed,” the outgoing president said. Bush, for all his shortcomings, was a patriot, not a small-minded, vengeful infant that believes the sun rises and sets only on him. Bush made sure there was a smooth transition between his administration and the Obama administration, even though the two presidents were of different political parties.
cx: for the incoming president
I do agree with one aspect of what Trump is doing. He is making the H1 B visas for “high dollar” employees. Silicon Valley has abused the H1 B program by importing cheap foreign labor for routine networking and coding jobs. Then, Americans that previously held the job get fired. The H1 B Visas should be for a waiver when companies cannot find a qualified American for the job. It should not be used as a way to undermine American workers of similar skill level. https://www.stltoday.com/opinion/columnists/silicon-valley-is-using-h-1b-visas-to-crowd-out-american-minorities/article_2c3ac63c-360a-5c79-88b2-729d8673aa28.html
Years ago, when I was in my late teens, I went to visit my evangelical Christian uncle, a fellow whose views I found reactionary and repulsive. The subject of the outsourcing of American jobs came up in our conversation. I made the usual sounds about how awful this was. I will never forget what he said to me: “Well, Bob, I reckon those people in India and China need jobs, too.” What we need are not restrictions on those waivers but on what the sorts of people who make these sorts of decisions can earn–how much they can take of the value of the labor of others.
And Hillary conceded with a phone call to Trump the night of the election even though it was much closer than 2020. She didn’t ask for any recounts.
Any candidate unhappy with the results in recent history is far more gracious than the pouting toddler in the White House. Some people have pointed at Stacey Abrams as being a “sore loser.” Unlike Trump she was fighting against the anti-democratic practice of voter suppression and voter roll purging rampant in Georgia. She was a crusader, not a sore loser.
Hillary won the popular vote, so there was no recount that. 🤓
Hillary has spent the last four years reminding everyone of her Electoral College Vote loss, via interviews and book. 😐
She, Al Gore and their supporters never said “Let’s have an investigation on the Electoral College Electors who chose Bush and Trump.” ☹️
The question we need to keep asking is —
Who is XLV working for when he works to cripple the Federal Government?
Hint. The same group Reagan was working for when he began the process so long ago.
Exactly. He is just a puppet . . . as much as he seems as though he is “in control” . . . . of a much larger network.
Mitch and the other Repugnicans have had a field day with The Idiot in office. They could get away with anything on the wish lists of their fat cat donors. As I am typing these words, the demonic task force of the Trump maladministration is pushing through last-minute changes to environmental regulations to ensure that corporations can indulge in the maximum generation of negative externalities. A group of state attorneys general has joined together to track these via the Midnight Watch Project, here: https://www.law.nyu.edu/centers/state-impact/midnight-watch
Trump is a vandal. But he’s merely the instrument, as Jon says. He’s the Useful Idiot.
Which can be reversed with bold action. Perhaps Andrew McCabe for FBI Director , Andrew Weissmann and Peter Strzok for Attorney General and Assistant Attorney General. John Brennan for CIA director, need I go on. Of course one needs the Senate for that and everything else.
The Trump administration “allowed” the incoming administration to begin the transition? Pardon me, but where in our Constitution does it say that Trump has the power to decide when the new administration should be given permission by him as to when they are “allowed” to begin their transition?
Sara,
My thoughts … exactly.
Trump is America’s National Security Threat.
Spot on!!
Trump himself isn’t cooperating with the transition. ☹️
How Mitch McConnell’s Do Nothing Republicans Are Killing You
By Robert Reich, Robert Reich’s Blog
28 November 20
The Senate adjourned and left town without even trying to pass a COVID disaster relief bill. By the time they return on November 30, based on current trends, an additional estimated 16,000 Americans will have died from COVID-19.
We pay these elected officials to keep us safe, and they’ve failed us. To them I ask: How much death and suffering must the American people endure before you act?
Remember: House Democrats passed a comprehensive relief bill all the way back in May.
You, Mitch McConnell, have refused to lift a finger for months, and Senate Republicans have been happy to follow your lead.
Countless Americans are now paying the price for your malicious inaction.
You should have learned lessons about COVID during its first horrific wave last spring.
First, there’s no tradeoff between COVID and the economy, and no way to get the economy back until COVID is under control. As the virus surges and more shutdowns loom, the millions of jobs we’ve added since April are about to disappear again. I’ve said this since March and I’ll say it again: The only way to get our economy back to full strength is to control the virus.
Second, more shutdowns are necessary. Businesses like Tesla in Alameda County, California, and Tyson meat packing plants in Iowa remained open during previous shutdowns, and both companies suffered COVID outbreaks. No exceptions this time around.
Third, and most importantly, shutdowns are only viable if accompanied by disaster relief so Americans can survive financially. So pass disaster relief…
https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/66457-how-mitch-mcconnells-do-nothing-republicans-are-killing-you
These are dangerous people who Trump brought into government and he has used social media to delude many Americans to no longer care about democratic institutions. Our democratic government is still in danger. Liberal freedoms are still very much in danger. They are doing all they can to make sure Biden fails so they can take over again and complete the job this time. The next Republican elected to president may be the last elected president. I am a pessimist because 70 million Americans would be willing to end our democracy for the freedom to discriminate and to impose their religious beliefs on everyone else. From this point onward, we must work harder to educate our children to think critically–especially when they have to deal with information from social medial We have to teach children, teens and young adults in college to break apart an article or meme in social media. Where did it come from? Is what it says true? What is its sources? Who is financing the site? Additionally, we who believe in what America truly stands for must ALWAYS vote in vast numbers because there is more of us than them. If we do not vote, Anti-democratic forces will gain control.
I LOVE good news.
…………………….
Trump’s $3 Million Recount in Milwaukee Only Increased Biden’s Lead
Blake Montgomery Reporter
Published Nov. 27, 2020 8:39PM ET
Ben Brewer/Reuters
The recount of votes cast in the Nov. 3 presidential election in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin ended Friday with President-elect Joe Biden winning the district again, this time by 132 more votes than before. President Donald Trump’s campaign had paid roughly $3 million for the re-tallying of the county’s 460,000 votes, as well as those of Dane County. The final count was 317,527 votes for Biden and 134,482 for Trump. The recount was part of Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the election, which have been almost entirely unsuccessful and in some cases resulted in massive public embarrassments. Biden won Wisconsin overall.
Read it at Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
No surprise here. Trump has proven he can lose money with the best of businessmen.
Amazingly comprehensive information! Thanks, Diane. Great to have it and I hope all the members of your list put it to good use, as I will!
From a medical website: Tonya Harding and the gangsters had it right. Take out the kneecaps, and you eliminate your opponent. Injuries to the kneecap—also called the patella or patella femoral joint— heal poorly, if at all.
Trump is looking for targets to injure Biden and Democrats. He has a need to hurt anyone who offends and expects 100% loyalty from this base. He has said “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and wouldn’t lose any voters, okay?” He said this while mimicking the act of holding a gun and firing it.
He intends to as much harm to Democrats as may be possible BEORE AND AFTER he leaves office, aided by his loyalists, especially Bill Barr.
Trump has called Democrats, “treasonous,” “un-American,” “Fascists,” “thugs,” his “opponents,” “enemies,” and more. Trump’s destructive mindset is reinforced by Bill Barr’s unfounded accusations that voting by mail is inherently fraudulent and even more in Barr’s mealy-mouthed memo on Nov. 9, authorizing federal investigations of suspected frauds before the election results are certified. …https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20403380-barrelectionmemo110920
According to Politico, over 1200 lawyers have signed an open letter calling for an end to baseless claims by the Trump campaign that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent. The letter calls out Trump and Bill Barr for filing court cases intended to stop ballots from being counted on the ground that there has been widespread ballot fraud. It calls out Trump’s sons for criticizing Republicans who are not backing their father’s claims. The letter calls out Senators Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, both attorneys, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy who have echoed the President’s allegations of fraud. https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2020/11/24/cmd-joins-legal-community-call-to-end-baseless-claims-of-election-fraud/
I think this letter is spot on, but not much more than an exercise soon to be forgotten.
Other news drowns the message. For example, Trump supporters are now trying to offer payment to people who will sign affidavits that offer “proof” of voter fraud.https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2020/11/13/coming-up-short-in-hunt-for-voter-fraud-desperate-republicans-try-to-pay-for-evidence/
On top of these immediate events, it is now known that the next Congress will be thick with Charles Koch’s financially backed political candidates– new Senators (15) and new Representatives (129). The next big political investment of the Charles Koch billionaire network is an effort to elect Georgia’s two Republican Senate candidates, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. At stake is control of the Senate. That is also why Trump has announced he will go to Georgia. He hopes of boost their prospect of winning.
On Thanksgiving day, Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (a Republican) “an enemy of the people.” Why? Apparently because he had not stopped Stacey Abrams from helping to register over 800,000 voters. At the Thanksgiving day rant, not a press conference, Trump said: “I read this morning where Stacey Abrams has 850,000 ballots accumulated. That’s called harvesting. You’re not allowed to harvest, but I understand the Secretary of State who was really — he’s an enemy of the people. Trump is not a reader and in this case he has hopelessly conflated voter registrations with ballot harvesting.
I among the many who are exhausted by four years of Trump and his cult-like supporters. I believe he will continue to hamper the efforts of Biden’s administration to change course.
not BEORE intended BEFORE
From RenewedRight.com [Or it can be called BS from the Right]
………………………….
The voter fraud lawsuit Donald Trump was waiting for finally hit the courts
Donald Trump’s challenges to the results in several states are reaching their end game.
The biggest fight was saved for last.
And the voter fraud lawsuit Donald Trump was waiting for finally hit the courts.
Attorney Sidney Powell finally filed her much-promised lawsuit outlining her case of massive voter fraud that cost Donald Trump the election.
Powell filed her suit in Georgia and Michigan claiming faulty software led to massive fraud that swung the states to Joe Biden.
In Georgia, Powell argued that “Mathematical and statistical anomalies rising to the level of impossibilities, as shown by affidavits of multiple witnesses, documentation, and expert testimony evince this scheme across the state of Georgia. Especially egregious conduct arose in Forsyth, Paulding, Cherokee, Hall, and Barrow County. This scheme and artifice to defraud affected tens of thousands of votes in Georgia alone and ‘rigged’ the election in Georgia for Joe Biden.”
Powell claimed in Michigan that “especially egregious range of conduct in Wayne County and the City of Detroit, though this conduct occurred throughout the State at the direction of Michigan state election officials.”
The lawsuit traced all of this fraud back to Dominion Voting System software that Powell claimed was vulnerable to hacks and set up to allow ballot stuffing.
Powell has promised this lawsuit for weeks claiming she would “unleash the kraken.”
Her critics attacked her as a kook and a conspiracy theorist while Trump supporters pointed to her successful fight to force the Justice Department to withdraw Michael Flynn’s guilty plea as evidence she was a top flight attorney.
Now that her lawsuit is in a court of law, a judge can finally address the merits of her claims of widespread voter fraud and irregularity.
Renewed Right will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
https://www.law.nyu.edu/centers/state-impact/midnight-watch
The environmental destruction that the Trump Maladministration is trying to push through during the lame duck session.
Biden is going to face a monumental clean-up job, and the attorneys general tracking this vandalism are going to be an enormous help to him.
Please take a moment to visit this page and scan the list of destructive acts that these vandals are undertaking RIGHT NOW. It’s breathtaking, an all-out assault on the environment, something like war.
https://www.law.nyu.edu/centers/state-impact/midnight-watch
You will be shocked by the scope of this stuff and by how consequential it is. It’s completely unprecedented. Total war on the environment.
Yes, Trump will do exactly what we expect him to do, attempt to destroy our federal government as the clock ticks down to his being flushed out of the White House as if he was brown diarrhea filling a toilet.
But, most if not all of what he and his administration do during those days will be challenged in courts all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.
With that said, Trump and his loyalists, traitorous administration have not done well in the courts in the last few years, and the Biden Administration will not be alone in court.
“The Institute for Policy Integrity tracks the outcomes of litigation over the Trump administration’s use of agencies to deregulate as well as to implement its other policies. This Roundup includes litigation over agency actions such as regulations, guidance documents, and agency memoranda.”
Trump won 27 but lost 133.
https://policyintegrity.org/trump-court-roundup
“The untold story of the Trump administration’s agenda to unwind environmental protections is that it’s losing.
“In three years, Earthjustice has filed more than a hundred lawsuits to defend environmental and health protections. (Read the special report analyzing the legal fights over those years.)
“Rulings on the merits of 50 of the lawsuits have now been decided. Earthjustice has won 41 of the battles — more than 80% of the legal challenges decided thus far.
“In one court ruling after another, federal courts have blocked the administration’s attempts to reverse environmental protections.
https://earthjustice.org/features/environmental-lawsuits-trump-administration
One of the issues that I’ve worried about in a Biden presidency is that he has a long history of trying to use the penal system and police interdiction to combat the drug problem. But there are very encouraging signs now. He is putting public health people in charge of drug policy. This is extraordinarily important and really good news.
Dealing with the drug problem as a criminal issue is (to use an often misused Shakespeare line correctly), “more honoured in the breach than the observance.”
“His administration is now reportedly considering an order meant to end birthright citizenship and challenging whether it’s protected by the 14th Amendment.”
Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Is it something that is considered a measure to “cripple the federal government”? If so, why?
Is it a true blue enforcement of the Amendment, given it historical genesis, or an overreach of it?
Please help me to understand this, as I have not yet formed an option and am reading up on the subject.
Are you being serious or am I missing the sarcasm because I’m not 100% aware?
This comment disturbs me greatly if it is meant to be serious. Michael Tomasky, in his short biography of Bill Clinton, not that in those year, “conservative training and leadership institutes popped up to advance conservative reinterpretations of what had previously been settled history.” The meaning of the 13th, 14, and 15th amendments are settled history. They have only come into question through the efforts of xenophobic “think tanks” and their racist tools. We should not aid them–using contrived terms like “birthright citizenship, for example–by questioning unquestionable concepts. Nor is there anything nebulous about “due process [and] equal protection of the laws.”
Trump and Stephen Miller want to end the Constitutional guarantee that anyone born in the US is entitled to citizenship.
Miller is a monster.
Imagine, Robert, an immigrant here, who has a child. Let’s call this child Angela. Angela, like any other child born here, has U.S. friends, goes to U.S. school, is crazy about American Girl dolls and Disney’s Frozen, and learns English as her primary language. Are we to tell this child, sorry, we’re shipping you to Cambodia?
That would be sick and cruel and stupid in the extreme.
And, of course, there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in the law to suggest that the Constitution be rewritten by white racists to exclude some persons born here.
We are an immigrant nation. And Trump and Miller and Sessions and Bannon deserve to be indicted by the International Court of Criminal Justice for Crimes against Humanity.
I agree. Trump and many in his administration should be tried and thrown in jail.
Yes, I know we live in the USA and of course, and we have our Constitution. I thought, from an academic POV, that this was really interesting:
https://www.loc.gov/law/help/citizenship-birth-country/index.php#skip_menu
I won’t even get into Switzerland, which is way out there.
awake…although some might say I’m not aware
The recount in Wisconsin verified Biden win. Cost to Trump campaign: $3 million.
Today’s Washington Post:
“The recount of presidential ballots in Wisconsin’s two largest counties finished Sunday, reconfirming that President-elect Joe Biden defeated President Trump in the key swing state by more than 20,000 votes.
After Milwaukee County completed its tally Friday and Dane County concluded its count Sunday, there was little change in the final breakdown of the more than 800,000 ballots that had been cast in the two jurisdictions. As a result of the recount, Biden’s lead over Trump in Wisconsin grew by 87 votes.
Under Wisconsin law, Trump was required to foot the bill for the partial recount — meaning his campaign paid $3 million only to see Biden’s lead expand.”
Pennsylvania’s highest court threw out latest Trump effort to cancel all mail-in ballots. Why didn’t they sue a year ago, when the Republican legislature passed the law they now object to, making mail-in ballots legal.
Another humiliating defeat for Trump’s self-named “elite strike force” of lawyers.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/28/politics/pennsylvania-state-supreme-court-election-case/index.html
No court is throwing out or cancelling ballots. ☹️
This will be the ed reform echo chamber position on support for public schools in the pandemic:
“Then there’s the next Covid-19 relief bill. Here, it’s the Republicans who should show some flexibility, giving the green light to more spending than they might typically support—especially for children and young Americans. Priorities include dollars to aid in reopening schools, high-dosage tutoring to address learning loss, broadband access for the millions of American families still living without it, and targeted student loan forgiveness for unemployed young adults and those doing public service, including teachers in high-needs areas. Republicans should certainly fight to make sure all these funds reach private schools and charter schools, too; if that condition is met, they should be willing to open their (er, our) wallets.”
Meet the demands of ed reformers on charters and vouchers and only then should public schools get support.
I would urge people not to support this. This is the approach ed reform takes at the state level and public schools always, always end up on the losing end.
In Ohio, state lawmakers and the governor have met every single ed reform demand on charters and vouchers and public schools have gotten nothing out of the deals they made.
Ed reformers are lousy advocates for public school students. If we allow public school students to once again be the dead last priority at the federal level our students will get nothing when the final deal is brokered. It was true for Bush, it was true for Obama, it was true for Trump and it will be true for Biden.
Public school students need real, effective advocates in DC. Expecting the charter and voucher cheerleading squad to advocate on behalf of public school students is not fair to public school students. They will get screwed. They always do.
I hope that he finds out that being in prison will not help Trump’s claim of having won the election.
…………………………
The Hill:
Trump on election claims: ‘My mind will not change in six months’
President Trump on Sunday indicated that nothing will dissuade him from his belief that he won November’s election, even as his lawsuits fall flat and he fails to produce evidence of widespread fraud in the contest President-elect Joe Biden won.
“It’s not like you’re going to change my mind. In other words, my mind will not change in six months. There was tremendous cheating here,” Trump told Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures” in his first television interview since Election Day.
His mind will not change because he is hostile to facts and evidence. He is a LOSER.
Ha. Exactly.
NYC back to face to face!!!!!!
Are they kidding?
NYC schools are planning to ditch the hybrid model for elementary and high-needs students, in favor of full-time school.
I know most commenters here disagree with this (in some cases intensely), but I’m very glad to hear it. Credit to de Blasio on this.
FLERP!,
I really think that you misunderstand the comments here (or perhaps I do).
The concern is when the decision to open schools is done without any thought, to make some political point. I don’t think the commenters are demanding that schools remain closed indefinitely, but that they are not re-opened without careful attention to safety (which frankly means that it’s good that lots of students chose the all-remote option, since that would be impossible with 100% in-person attendance).
I thought de Blasio made a well-intentioned decision in the spring that turned out to be a huge mistake. He left schools open too long and COVID-19 exploded and caused great harm and grief. At the time there was huge anger and outrage that de Blasio delayed the closing and it seemed to me he felt genuinely chastened and felt responsible.
It always seemed to me that the one word that guided de Blasio’s school policy from that point on was “caution”. He did want to re-open based on the reasons you often mention — the impact on the most vulnerable students. But he also wanted to be cautious and make sure it didn’t lead to another explosion of cases. It was a fine line to walk and I am often shocked at how little credit de Blasio gets as he has done a lot more for low-income and middle class New Yorkers than the 20 year regime of Giuliani/Bloomberg. And that is despite the attacks from all sides at how inept he supposedly is because everyone hates him!
I thought the fact that NYC was the only large public school system to offer any hybrid option was admirable and yet de Blasio was again attacked from both sides (should be open sooner, should be closed!)
So this decision seems in keeping with de Blasio trying to do the right thing at a time when no one knows what the “right thing” is and no matter what he decides to do will mean that everyone hates him. I’m glad he still tries, even when his decisions turn out wrong. I have a lot more sympathy for politicians who are willing to do things that make people hate them for the right reasons. Even if those things don’t always turn out perfectly. Running a big city means every decision is a balancing act between competing needs and someone is going to be unhappy.
I like the idea of full-time school for the most vulnerable! I am positive there will be many unhappy parents who don’t like some aspect of this (because those who chose remote can’t change their minds).
Again, I hope parents realize that in order to make this work for the most vulnerable students, it means that the least vulnerable students who have been dealing with all-remote need to remain all-remote. Even if it is not ideal, it is a good compromise that prioritizes the needs of those who should be prioritized.
It’s my definite impression. But people can chime in and speak for themselves if they agree with this plan.
A backlash is already beginning, including from the UFT’s MORE caucus, partly on safety grounds, and partly on the ground that too many of the students who opted in to the hybrid learning are white.
Obama made the mistake of trying to reach out to the Republicans. It didn’t work for him.
………………………………………..
Biden wants to extend an olive branch to Republicans. He shouldn’t
Joshua Craze and Ainsley LeSure
Thu 26 Nov 2020 09.50 EST
Biden must choose whether to build a post-white America – or to placate the white supremacist project of the Republican party
Shortly after Biden was declared president-elect, he announced that he would reach a hand across the aisle. “We must stop,” he said, “treating our opponents as enemies. We are not enemies. We are Americans.” This is the Biden playbook at work, honed through years of compromises made with the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell: appealing to the Republican elite in office, while trying to appeal to moderate Republicans on the ground.
Having stretched out its hand to the Republicans, the center of the Democratic party then turned to its real enemy – the left that it blames for its poor showing in the election. Virginia congresswoman Abigail Spanberger led the charge, contending that “no one should ever say ‘defund the police’ ever again”. Despite the fact that progressive candidates did well across the ticket, and Biden ran a campaign modelled on Hilary Clinton’s neoliberal program, centrist Democrats blamed the core demand of the Black Lives Matter movement for alienating moderates. In centrist Democrats’ telling, the problem is the left – and the answer is to reach out to that poor soul, the moderate Republican.
The moderate Republican is a myth. For all the Lincoln Project’s assertions that it would peel away Republican voters, the president actually secured a larger share of the Republican vote than he did in 2016. Some 94% of Republicans looked back on the debacles and racism of the last four years and concluded that they wanted more. This is not a delusion; it is the core of the Republican party. Biden would like to frame his presidency as a return to normality after the Trumpian exception. The reality, however, is that Trump doesn’t represent something new; it emerges from the long shadow that white supremacy cast over American history…
When Biden reaches across the aisle, it is likely his hand will be met by turned backs; most Republicans haven’t even acknowledged the election result yet. There is little for the Republican establishment to gain from working with Biden. With the Senate liable to remain in Republican hands, and the Democrats seemingly more worried about appealing to Republicans that taking substantive action over the economic crisis brought about by Covid-19, Mitch McConnell can rub his hands together at the thought of the 2022 mid-terms…
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/26/why-biden-shouldnt-extend-an-olive-branch-to-republicans?CMP=share_btn_link
This is an interesting article, but I don’t think Obama’s mistake was extending the olive branch. Obama’s mistake was what he did AFTER the olive branch was rebuffed. He gave in. He didn’t fight.
What I would love is for Biden to extend an olive branch but when it is rebuffed, he and every single democrat should be repeating these words over and over again and say nothing else so that the media is FORCED to report this in every story instead of the right wing version.
“President Biden tried so hard to offer an olive branch but the Republicans just told Americans that they would rather have them die or starve because they care only about pleasing their big billionaires funders who only want federal policies that put money in THEIR pockets, and don’t care what happens to regular Americans. We have tried so hard to work with the Republicans, but the Republicans don’t care about you regular Americans.”
Joe Biden then needs to go on a bully pulpit traveling tour to states with Republican Senators exhorting Americans to vote out the Republicans who refuse to do anything that doesn’t help their billionaire funders. Tell them to call their Republican Senators and ask why they care about Mitch McConnell getting a lot richer more than they care about the people who elected them.
Obama’s problem wasn’t extending the olive branch – it was that he refused to fight for the important things and use his bully pulpit to pressure Republican Senators.
Now that you have made this very clear, the question is why Obama did not bother to fight . . . . That, in my mind, is an important and fascinating question.
Maybe I can ask him during one of his meetings at Netflix headquarters, where he negotiated a multi-milliion dollar executive producer contract . . . or in one of the two mansions Penny Pritzker helped him to finance . . . Or in the office of the realtor he and Michelle are using to snap up a Hamptons residence out on the east end of Long Island . . .
A lot of hand-wringing here, trying to convince us it45 will haunt us from the grave via policy & personnel decisions. From what I’ve noticed, that only works if the next guy doubles down—as Obama did w/Bush ed policy—otherwise the opp party has to wait its turn to dredge them up again. Of more concern is what “it” does offstage to keep its base riled for 2024. “it” will be like a monarch in exile, usually only a muted & distant threat but sometimes a contender. Will depend a lot on how people feel after a few yrs of DC sans sturm & drang—with luck, bolstered by a round of stimulus, then post-vaccine economic bounce-back. We are not in precisely the same spot as post-Obama. There are enough similarities to give pause, but I’m thinking if covid is turned around, the stink of it may cling to bungling predecessor.
Biden has always been a pro-business, somewhat right of center fellow, and Obama was a LOT more right wing that some people seem to think on a great many issues. Here’s my worry: that Biden will leave in place a lot of really bad Trump regulatory changes because business interests like them. I’m hoping that Biden has grown. He seems, for example, to have a more progressive stance on drug policy now. In the past, he was a major hawk in the utterly failed “War on Drugs.” Will this last? We shall see.
BTW, Biden was the author of the bill that made MDMA, aka Molly or Ecstasy, a Schedule 1 substance and unleashed the US police and legal juggernaut on it. The primary argument for the bill was a major study, published in Science, that showed that MDMA caused “severe dopaminergic neurotoxicity in primates,” brain damage leading to severe depression. However, the authors of that study RETRACTED IT when they found that their supplier of MDMA had actually been giving them methamphetamine. It was bogus science. The actual major issue with recreational use of this turns out to be dehydration.
But the bill was a done deal, it was never retracted, and years after the retraction of the study, the DEA still had the retracted study up on its website. And, ofc, the classification of this as a Schedule 1 drug made it difficult for researchers to get permission to do science using it. After long battles for approvals for limited studies, it turns out to have major positive effects for treating a number of debilitating psychological conditions, including PSTD.
The US is given to these kinds of ridiculous moral panics. In the 1990s, police around the country were getting trainings related to a supposed epidemic of violent Satanic worship among teenagers. This was another moral panic–a sensational falsehood, like the Salem witch scare.
I should note that several studies have found that what is sold as MDMA in clubs often isn’t and, in fact, contains very dangerous compounds. So, don’t, emphatically don’t, use it recreationally.
Spot on, Robert Rendo! & just WHERE were those “marching shoes” he had pledged to get out & join those out there protesting (e.g., WI Capitol Rotunda–teachers)? Oh…I guess he never had any. Funny, he sure could afford them!
&, Bob: yeah, he “was a LOT more right wing than some people seem to think on a great many issues.” Education, for example. &–fool us once–Arne Duncan–then fool us twice–John King! 8–count ’em–8
horrible years of suffering for public schools–more testing, less funding (just because mo$t $$$$ went to te$ting, te$ting & more te$ting). IMO, what is the worst thing a government to do to its people (w/the exception of starting a nuclear war, perhaps)? Cripple their democratic system of education–the worst.
Congratulations, Obama & Arne. You made ALEC & Charles Koch very happy.
BTW–Once again, Arne is featured in an article in Chicagoland’s Better Magazine: he’s named one of the 2020 “six extraordinary Chicagoans who have been forces for positive change.” Of course, the other 5 have a 1-page article. 4 pages are devoted to an “Arne” article:
“Chicago has a problem w/gun violence. ARNE DUNCAN has a solution. How CHICAGO CRED is working w/shooters to STOP THE SHOOTINGS.
I know, Diane, can’t stand him either.
I’m sure that the educational problems listed as happening in Illinois are happening in every state. There will be very severe teacher shortages, much worse that pre-pandemic, if schools don’t receive monetary and emotional support from our leaders.
…………………………….
Illinois teachers say COVID-19 struggles are mounting and they’re ‘acutely worried about the safety and well-being’ of students
By KAREN ANN CULLOTTA
CHICAGO TRIBUNE |
NOV 29, 2020 AT 5:00 AM
The escalating COVID-19 crisis is placing enormous burdens on Illinois teachers that could worsen an already critical teacher shortage in Illinois, public policy experts say.
The warning was based on a recent report from a researcher with the University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs, who found that teachers and administrators across the state are struggling on the job and at home because of COVID-19 stressors, which officials say could hurt teacher retention.
“The work of teachers and schools was significantly altered by the pandemic,” Meghan Kessler, an assistant professor of teacher education at the University of Illinois at Springfield and the author of the report, said in a Tuesday statement.
“Many of those changes, and the uncertainty that comes with them, will persist for the foreseeable future,” Kessler said. “In addition to intense professional challenges, teachers are coping with the stress that all families face during this pandemic around access to child care, maintaining their health and finding time for their loved ones. As the state faces significant budget shortfalls, teachers also fear that the resources they need to do their jobs will be reduced.”
According to feedback Kessler received from educators, teachers have been asked to adapt quickly during the pandemic to teach students in entirely new ways, with some reporting they had to adjust to delivering “virtual learning on the spot.”
Some teachers who are back in the classroom with students reported that they are “coping with the additional precautions it brings and fears for their personal safety,” while also juggling the demands of a heavier workload as they teach both online and in person.
The IGPA report also found teachers citing that “interpersonal connections and relationships with students, which are some of the most gratifying and meaningful elements of teachers’ jobs, have diminished under all three models” of instruction during the pandemic.
Teachers also reported that even though they are working longer hours, they fear they are not offering educational experiences that are as “engaging and rigorous” as those that accompany traditional, full-time in-person teaching, Kessler said.
In addition to teachers reporting they feel “exhausted,” Kessler said educators also are “acutely worried about the safety and well-being of their students, especially in cases where the students might be exposed to abuse or neglect while away from school for prolonged periods.”
One educator from southern Illinois told Kessler: “If we haven’t already, I can say with all certainty that we will see an increase in trauma and anxiety among our students.”
While the educator told Kessler her school had provided meals and other services to families who are at risk, she said “not being able to see our kids and our kids not being able to see us, that’s really tough. Especially for those kids who are most vulnerable.”
Indeed, the steep challenges in recruiting teachers was evident even before the pandemic, with Illinois and states across the U.S. grappling to fill teacher vacancies, especially in fields such as special education and at schools in high-poverty districts, Kessler said.
“As a profession grounded in care for students and communities, Illinois educators are ready and willing to take on the challenges presented by the pandemic, but they cannot do it alone,” Kessler said. “Our schools now require a significant infusion of financial and moral support from state leaders and community members.”.
Among the short-term solutions officials are recommending is allowing for flexibility in accountability mandates, such as student testing and teacher evaluations.
Kessler also suggests “prioritizing COVID-19 testing and contact tracing for students and school employees, and investing in training and resources focused on social and emotional needs.”
The IGPA report arrives in the wake of a recent Illinois Education Association survey, which found that more than a third of Illinois teachers surveyed said they’ve considered leaving the profession amid the safety concerns and stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
An exodus from Illinois classrooms would arrive at a critical time, coinciding with teacher shortages at many school districts across the state and a surge in teacher retirements.
kcullotta@chicagotribune.com
https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct-covid-illinois-teacher-stress-20201129-qbm3jszalrhdrmxhwwrutweirm-story.html
Where is this money coming from? Much better to spend money on a wall than do anything to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Right?
Trump is proving once again to be a disgusting disaster of a person.
Some of the construction would go over Indian burial grounds [that is a no-NO] and has no concern about endangered species. Waiving dozens of important laws that protect is Trump at his best.
……………………………………..
A Rush to Expand the Border Wall That Many Fear Is Here to Stay
Nov. 28, 2020
Despite the president-elect’s vow to halt the project, the Trump administration is expanding the wall at a breakneck pace.
…Customs and Border Protection officials are still rushing to meet Mr. Trump’s mandate of 450 miles of new wall construction during his term, nearly doubling the rate of construction since the start of the year. The administration had built 402 miles of wall as of Nov. 13.
Of that, about 25 miles had no barrier before Mr. Trump took office. The rest replaced much smaller, dilapidated sections of wall, or sections that had only vehicle barriers, which border officials say did not deter migrants crossing on foot.
Some of the costliest and most invasive construction is unfolding this month in Guadalupe Canyon, an oasis-like habitat for rare species of birds like the buff-collared nightjar and tropical kingbird.
Until the blasting crews showed up this year, the canyon was so remote — about 30 miles outside of Douglas, the closest town, on largely dirt roads — that ranchers in the area say illegal crossings by migrants were extraordinarily infrequent.
Now parts of the canyon resemble an open-air mining operation. Work crews are blasting cliff sides on a daily basis to build the wall and access roads to it in one of the costliest portions of construction anywhere on the border.
Jay Field, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, cited the canyon’s “4.7 miles of challenging, rugged and steep terrain” in a statement explaining that the cost per mile for this segment is about $41 million, roughly double the border wall’s estimated average cost per mile laid out in a 2020 C.B.P. status report.
“This isn’t just heartbreaking but totally pointless,” said Diana Hadley, a historian whose family’s ranch includes much of Guadalupe Canyon. She said natural barriers had long served as a deterrent against crossings in the remote area…
The border agency has thus far concentrated construction in areas owned by the federal government, much of it in areas with terrain that already impedes migration, such as some of the stretches of border in Arizona where work crews are blasting. The government has accelerated construction in some of these places by waiving dozens of laws, including measures protecting Native American burial sites and endangered species.
Rodney Scott, chief of the Border Patrol, said last month that the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, an area with historically high illegal crossings, was a higher priority for the agency. But the construction there has been slow going because the planned path for the wall runs through privately owned land….
While few miles of border wall have been constructed in South Texas, it has had immense impact on landowners there. The administration has filed more than 117 lawsuits against landowners this year to survey, seize or potentially begin construction on property, an increase from 27 lawsuits filed in 2019, according to the Texas Civil Rights Project.
Richard Drawe, a 70-year-old landowner in the area near Progreso, Texas, voluntarily signed over his land to the administration to avoid facing the government in court, conceding that the administration could eventually use its eminent domain authority to take the land anyway…
COVID-19:
In coming weeks, deaths seem almost certain to rise, perhaps sharply. The run-up in cases during November suggests that daily deaths may approach 3,000 in December. The previous one-day high was 2,752, in April, and the previous high in the seven-day average was 2,232, also in April.
Already, the U.S. death toll in recent weeks has exceeded one victim every minute of every day — 1,462 deaths per day in the two weeks before Thanksgiving. Barring a major surprise, that toll is about to get even worse. And January is looking worrisome, as well.
Patients tend to be at their most infectious for about seven days — two days before they first show symptoms and five days after — according to a new analysis. The C.D.C. has recommended that infected people isolate themselves for at least 10 days, but is considering shortening that period.
‘My Frustration Turned Into Anger.’ Some Americans Who Lost Family Members to COVID-19 Have Turned Against Donald Trump
BY ABIGAIL ABRAMS
NOVEMBER 19, 2020 4:35 PM EST
When Barbara Zeman logs on every day to check in with her Facebook support groups for people who have lost loved ones to COVID-19, she often sees a raft of new names joining the ranks. “It’s astounding,” she says from her house in Orange County, New York. Every new face is a reminder, she says, not only of the pandemic’s ever-increasing death toll, but also of the United States government’s abject failure to bring the coronavirus under control.
Like many of the people in her Facebook support groups, Zeman’s personal grief at losing her father, Agustin Gomez, a former U.S. Army colonel, in May catalyzed a political transformation as well. Until this spring, Zeman was, she says, “fully aligned” with President Donald Trump. Not any more. As a medical writer with a PhD in molecular biology, Zeman says her break from the President was gradual. She felt uncomfortable as she watched Trump downplay the threat of a coronavirus outbreak and question public health officials, but her father’s death was the final straw…
In interviews with nearly a dozen people who lost family members to COVID, all told TIME that their personal experiences this year have made them into unlikely political activists. Some said the COVID-19 issue spurred them vote for the first time. Others said the experience made them switch political parties, challenge long-held assumptions, question their faith, or find it in new ways as they pushed for policy actions to address the problems they were witnessing.
As a third surge of COVID-19 bears down on the country, these families fear what happens next, as tens of millions of their fellow Americans appear not to take seriously the threat and the need to make decisions that protect one another’s health. Cases are rising in nearly every state. Hospitalizations are setting new records. Nursing homes and other care facilities are still struggling to maintain adequate levels of personal protective equipment (PPE). And if nothing changes soon, estimates project the number of families mourning loved ones could double over the course of this winter…
https://time.com/5913055/covid-19-grief-politics-trump/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-share-article&utm-term=politics_covid-19
Sadly what excuse was there to support him from the day he announced in Trump Tower. That she now has finally decided after a personnel loss ,says to me that had she not had that loss she would still support him. Which is revolting to me as an American. . As large as the loss of life is . It is a small percentage of the population and even smaller percentage of the population that supported Trump .
The Pandemic was a winning issue for him . He received millions more votes than in 2016. His supporters viewed the virus as affecting minorities and residents of Blue States and Cities. That dynamic has only changed in the last few months as the virus increased spread in Rural America. Increased with deaths lagging infections by multiple weeks after the election.
Fortunately more Americans by a sizable majority rejected Trump.
The conventional wisdom is the BLM demonstrations caused a backlash for Trump. It is also possible that they motivated the Black and youth vote for Biden in Obama like numbers.
Joel Herman (@jwherman11): “That she now has finally decided after a personnel loss ,says to me that had she not had that loss she would still support him.”
Good comment. I guess Trump lovers will have to experience loved ones being killed before they question him. However, that might not even work. I have a Trump lover whose husband died from COVID-19 in a nursing home. She watches Fox and believes everyone should wear a mask.
It doesn’t seem to enter her mind that the reason so many don’t wear masks is because of Trump.
The U.S. should lock down but won’t. The number of cases will continue to rise, especially after the family get-togethers for Thanksgiving.
………………………………………
After weeks of lockdown, cases in England drop 30 percent.
By the end of the third week of England’s second national lockdown, which began early this month in a bid to stem a second wave of coronavirus infections, the number of new cases has fallen 30 percent, according to new data.
Some parts of northern England, which had been hit particularly hard by the new outbreak, experienced an even greater drop, the latest interim findings from Imperial College London’s React study showed.
But Matt Hancock, the British health secretary, warned that the data, while promising, showed the country could not “take our foot off the pedal just yet,” according to the BBC. In a post on Twitter late Sunday, Mr. Hancock cautioned that “we mustn’t waste our progress now we can see light at the end of the tunnel” with mass testing and promising coronavirus vaccine candidates on the horizon.
England’s current lockdown is set to end just after midnight Wednesday. But the lifting of restrictions will be different across the country, as regions move into one of three tiers based on their current rate of infection. Britain is still grappling with the highest number of Covid-19 deaths in Europe and its deepest recession on record, with experts warning that the knock-on effects of the pandemic could last for years.
Trump has to work really fast to destroy as much as possible. He doesn’t care about killing ecosystems. What corporation will willingly take steps to preserve the environment if there is no penalty?
…………………………
BIRD’S THE WORD: The Trump administration on Friday advanced its plans to cut federal protections that critics argue will be severely detrimental to the U.S. bird population.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Friday released its Final Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed change to the implementation of the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act that would no longer penalize companies for actions that, incidentally or accidentally, kill migratory birds.
The act was passed to prevent the unregulated killing of or other harm to migratory birds.
Under the proposed change, the government would no longer penalize companies for incidents in which birds may be killed such as electrocution on power lines, wind turbines that knock them from the air and oil field waste pits where landing birds can die in toxic water.
The environmental impact statement acknowledged that more birds may be killed under its proposal because companies may not take steps to protect birds if they won’t face penalties for accidentally killing them.
The analysis found that the change will likely negatively impact migratory birds for this reason, and will also likely harm ecosystems and other habitats as well as cultural resources like native religious traditions.
Some industries stand to benefit, as the analysis found its proposed change may reduce costs for companies as they decide not to take steps to reduce migratory bird deaths.
According to the Fish and Wildlife Service and recent studies, industry operations kill an estimated 450 million to 1.1 billion birds annually, out of approximately 7 billion birds in North America.
A federal judge in New York in August rejected a 2017 legal opinion justifying the proposed change, although the agency has pushed forward with the change regardless.
Some people read this garbage. 70-80% of Republicans think Trump won the election. He is busy destroying everything possible before he leaves the WH. Prison is waiting for this con man with no ability to care about anything except himself.
There is NO evidence of fraud but stuff like this makes people think it is happening. Once Trump’s lawyers present their evidence they will prove fraud? Hostile judges are keeping poor Trump from getting the votes he deserves? HA.
RenewedRight.com
Donald Trump won a major voter fraud court case in this key state
The Fake News Media and Democrats have falsely claimed President Trump has no evidence of voter fraud.
That lie just collapsed.
And that’s because Donald Trump won a major voter fraud court case in this key state.
Joe Biden supposedly won the state of Nevada’s six Electoral College votes by about 30,000 votes.
But the Trump campaign alleged widespread fraud and irregularities centered on Nevada’s shady scheme to mail out unsolicited ballots to every voter on the rolls.
On Wednesday, the Trump campaign won a major victory allowing the Trump campaign to present evidence and depose witnesses to make its case to prove voter fraud in Nevada.
President Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows announced the good news.
President Trump’s campaign alleged voters not living in Nevada voted, dead people voted and others voted multiple times.
The campaign’s lawyers claim once they can present their evidence, the results in Nevada will be overturned and Nevada placed in President Trump’s column.
Many in the Fake News Media dismissed the President’s lawsuits claiming the President’s lawyers never presented any evidence of voter fraud.
But in many of these cases, hostile judges threw out the lawsuits in order to prevent the campaign from making their case about voter fraud.
On December 3, the American people will get their first chance in court to see the Trump campaign’s evidence of fraud.
Renewed Right will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
Three other states where the Trump campaign and its allies have tried to overturn the results — Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania — have also certified their results.
Glad I don’t have to teach in this horrible environment.
…………………..
Teaching in the Pandemic: ‘This Is Not Sustainable’
Teacher burnout could erode instructional quality, stymie working parents and hinder the reopening of the economy.
…A pandemic teacher exodus is not hypothetical. In Minnesota, the number of teachers applying for retirement benefits increased by 35 percent this August and September compared with the same period in 2019. In Pennsylvania, the increase in retirement-benefit applications among school employees, including administrators and bus drivers, was even higher — 60 percent over the same time period.
In a survey in Indiana this fall, 72 percent of school districts said the pandemic had worsened school staffing problems.
“We’ve seen teachers start the school year and then back out because of the workload, or because of the bouncing back and forth” with school openings and closings, said Terry McDaniel, a professor of educational leadership at Indiana State University in Terre Haute who led the survey.
To express their concerns, unnamed educators have turned to “An Anonymous Teacher Speaks,” a discussion site started last month by Mx. Martin. It has quickly become a collective cry for help, with demoralized teachers saying they felt “defeated,” “overloaded,” “terrified,” “ignored and frustrated” and on the brink of quitting. A few even disclosed having suicidal thoughts.
“I work until midnight each night trying to lock and load all my links, lessons, etc. I never get ahead,” one anonymous educator wrote. “Emails, endless email. Parents blaming me because their kids chose to stay in bed, on phones, on video games instead of doing work.”…
Looks like schools are having a tough time saying open. This is news from Indiana but I’m sure the same is everywhere. How long will teachers endure this horror?
……………………..
Tuesday, December 01, 2020 1:00 am
Students returning to school at FWCS
Elementaries, middle schools back, high schools still remote
ASHLEY SLOBODA | The Journal Gazette
Some Fort Wayne Community Schools classrooms temporarily shuttered because of staff shortages are expected to reopen today as planned.
The district told elementary and middle school students to stay home two days last week and Monday because a severe staff shortage in the transportation office affected FWCS’ ability to safely operate buses.
A separate but similar staffing issue – employee illnesses and quarantines – prompted high schools to switch to remote lessons earlier. That adjustment let FWCS assign its limited number of substitute teachers to elementary and middle schools. High school classes will remain remote through at least Friday, the district said.
Many of the transportation absences were due to coronavirus illness or quarantine, and enough employees returned to work Monday to resume in-person classes today, district spokeswoman Krista Stockman said…
https://journalgazette.net/news/local/schools/20201201/students-returning-to-school-at-fwcs
Indiana teacher, substitute shortage worsened by COVID-19
by: Associated Press
Posted: Nov 29, 2020 / 02:26 PM EST / Updated: Nov 29, 2020 / 02:31 PM EST
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Dozens of Indiana schools are struggling to stay open as growing numbers of coronavirus infections and related quarantines exacerbate a preexisting statewide teacher and substitute shortage.
As of last Monday, 1,755 schools across the state have reported at least one positive case of COVID-19, according to the Indiana State Department of Health’s weekly data update. That brings the statewide total to more than 15,000 students, teachers and staff who have tested positive for the coronavirus.
While some schools have elected to close their doors entirely, others are asking teachers to continue with in-person instruction. Oftentimes, that means taking on more classes and duties to compensate for those out sick or in quarantine. In other instances, that’s also meant teachers are asked to keep working even after they’ve been exposed to COVID-19.
That’s been the case in Shelbyville Central Schools, 30 miles southwest of Indianapolis, where the staffing shortage has become so dire that district leadership are allowing teachers who were exposed to COVID-19 to keep working without the 14-day quarantine recommended for close contacts by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention….
https://fox59.com/news/coronavirus/indiana-teacher-substitute-shortage-worsened-by-covid-19/