Texas: A Message from My Brother

By dianeravitch | Image

March 4, 2021 //

Categories Health, Science, Stupid, Texas

57 Comments Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL

speduktr says:

March 4, 2021 at 1:48 pm

Ought to be on billboards.

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- Laura H. Chapman says:
  
  March 4, 2021 at 1:53 pm
  
  Yes, and my niece in San Antonio would agree.
  
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GregB says:

March 4, 2021 at 1:56 pm

No nuthin’!

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moeone2015 says:

March 4, 2021 at 2:02 pm

The people of Texas voted these fools into office knowing fully well who they are and what the current leadership value in life. Clearly it is not taking care of the people they swore to support when they took their oaths of office.
Shame on all of them.
But, I imagine the voters of Texas will put the current leadership back in office again. People refuse to learn.

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- retired teacher says:
  
  March 4, 2021 at 2:16 pm
  
  Many people in red states are brainwashed. They are the type of person that would wear a T-shirt that reads, “I’d rather be Russian than a Democrat.”
  
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  - dianeravitch says:
    
    March 4, 2021 at 2:36 pm
    
    How I wish people who wear those T-shirts would move to Russia.
    
    They used to wear T-shirts that said “Better Dead Than Red.”
    
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  - Robert Rendo, Educator says:
    
    March 4, 2021 at 11:29 pm
    
    Perish the people who don’t wear a mask; they will strengthen the herd.
    
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- dianeravitch says:
  
  March 4, 2021 at 2:36 pm
  
  Hard to cure stupid.
  Harder to cure venal.
  
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- Bob Shepherd says:
  
  March 4, 2021 at 2:43 pm
  
  I suspect that people are going to have long memories about the electrical and water failures and about Cancun Cruz. There are many of these states where the margin for the Trumplings is very narrow–Texas, Florida, Georgia, Arizona. It will be interesting to see what happens.
  
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- Christine Langhoff says:
  
  March 4, 2021 at 8:04 pm
  
  Well yes, but no. Texas voting districts are ridiculously gerrymandered. It’s nearly impossible for non-GOP candidates to get elected. The Republicans’ policies aren’t supported by the electorate. They’ve realized they can only win by cheating.
  
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retired teacher says:

March 4, 2021 at 2:08 pm

Texas can join Florida in being a libertarian dystopia. When people vote for these free market fools, they can expect their needs and safety will take a back seat to the awesome economy. Florida has never really shut down, and DeSantis refused to issue a mask mandate. The only mask mandates came from local communities and businesses. Texas reluctantly closed in some of the cities and issued a mask mandate. Mississippi decided to abandon mask wearing shortly after the Texas’ decision. Scientists argue that it is far too early to take off masks as we need 75 to 85% of a vaccinated population before we can safely take them off.

When states and communities put radical right wing politicians in positions of leadership, they can expect the common good to be demolished and essential services privatized. They do not want to invest in infrastructure or social services. Many more people will die from a lack of access to health care as these leaders refuse to expand Medicaid in their states. Voters need to understand what they are voting for when they select a so-called conservative. Today many Republicans are very different from conservatives of yesteryear.

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- Bob Shepherd says:
  
  March 4, 2021 at 2:45 pm
  
  The horrific thing is that DeSantis is no fool–he’s a highly educated man–Yale, Harvard. He knows full well what would be right to do, but he has been willing to follow the Trump lead to appeal to his base base.
  
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  - Christine Langhoff says:
    
    March 4, 2021 at 8:05 pm
    
    Harvard and Yale have a lot to answer for, IMO.
    
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  - SomeDAM Poet says:
    
    March 4, 2021 at 8:47 pm
    
    Some would say that being Harvard , Yale or Princeton educated actually makes it more — not less — likely that you are a fool.
    
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  - dianeravitch says:
    
    March 4, 2021 at 10:06 pm
    
    Harvard, Yale, and Princeton forgot to indoctrinate Cruz, Hawley, and DeSantis.
    
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  - SomeDAM Poet says:
    
    March 4, 2021 at 8:55 pm
    
    Like DeSantis, Ted Cruz also got the double whammy, as did George Dumbya Bush, Brett “I like Beer” K and Michelle “I’ll get you my pretty — and your little dog too!” Rhee.
    
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  - Robert Rendo, Educator says:
    
    March 4, 2021 at 11:31 pm
    
    Being highly educated is never foolproof for being highly moral.
    
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  - speduktr says:
    
    March 4, 2021 at 11:52 pm
    
    I’m not at all sure morality has much to do with intelligence. One of the most moral people I ever met was a young man who was cognitively delayed. Sometimes I think intelligence just provides more ways for us to rationalize our immorality.
    
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  - SomeDAM Poet says:
    
    March 5, 2021 at 6:32 am
    
    The fact that people with Cruz’s and DeSantis’ obvious lack of thinking ability get degrees from places like Harvard and Yale reflects very poorly on those institutions.
    
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  - SomeDAM poet says:
    
    March 5, 2021 at 6:33 am
    
    And particularly on the departments and schools from which they got their degrees.
    
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  - Linda says:
    
    March 5, 2021 at 8:56 am
    
    How many individuals who possessed the rare combination of being Black and also champions of the rich, found themselves on Harvard’s fast track to professorial promotion, say, in places like the School of Education?
    
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  - Christine Langhoff says:
    
    March 5, 2021 at 10:32 am
    
    Roland “Two-Tier”Fryer, for one; he was also a member of MA’s board of education until he resigned under charges of sexual harassment. The Two-Tier moniker comes from his broacast remarks that his own children, schooled in an affluent suburb, needed time to enjoy Shakespeare and other intellectual delights, but that the kids in Boston’s schools needed to be tested everyday.
    
    Tenured at 30 as an economics professor, he ran Harvard’s Education Innovation Laboratory. No idea why an economist would know anything about education, but here we are.
    
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  - Linda says:
    
    March 5, 2021 at 5:53 pm
    
    Was Glenn Loury a mentor to Roland Fryer?
    
    A quote from Loury, “I think of charter schools. I think of vouchers. I think of choice.” From 2-28-2020, Glenn Loury and Ian Rowe- “The case for charter schools”. Loury self describes as a neoliberal. He’s part of the 1776 Unities group that drafted curriculum to counter the 1619 project.
    
    Was Chetty youngest, first, whatever in his academic career at an Ivy League?
    
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  - Linda says:
    
    March 5, 2021 at 6:48 pm
    
    Poet-
    Why’d you leave Brown University out?
    
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  - SomeDAM Poet says:
    
    March 6, 2021 at 1:24 pm
    
    I’m waiting for the econ department at Harvard to give tenure to a two year old just so they can impress everyone with how brilliant their professors are.
    
    Cuz , you know, the younger you are when you get tenure, the more Einsteinian you are.
    
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  - Máté Wierdl says:
    
    March 6, 2021 at 2:33 pm
    
    Though Einstein was no prodigy.
    
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  - Bob Shepherd says:
    
    March 7, 2021 at 3:19 pm
    
    lol
    
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- retired teacher says:
  
  March 4, 2021 at 3:34 pm
  
  DeSantis did open up the vaccines to all school staff members. His first order was for school staff over the age of 50. Some younger teachers and staff were going to Alabama to get a vaccination. This is the only way to open up safely if the entire staff is included.
  
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  - bethree5 says:
    
    March 4, 2021 at 6:32 pm
    
    In fact FL’s vaccine rollout was a h of a lot better than NJ’s. The 4 people I know well down there all had had both shots over a month before we got our 1st one (Monday). Anyone I know up here who’s gotten their 1st one managed it thro!ugh connections or drove a long way. We only got ours now because our son walked us through signing up for a ‘Twitter bot’
    
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  - retired teacher says:
    
    March 5, 2021 at 7:44 am
    
    North Florida with a less dense population had an easier time than south Florida where people waited in lines overnight. It could also be that the panhandle, a conservative area, got more vaccine in relation to the number of people. DeSantis is also being accused of playing favorites to donors, and there will be an investigation that will likely amount to nothing. We did start earlier in Florida than my NY, NJ friends reported.
    
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  - speduktr says:
    
    March 5, 2021 at 2:11 pm
    
    Just read in the Chicago Trib that our former hedge fund (billionaire?)governor got his vaccine courtesy of DeSantis as did the rest of the wealthy oldsters at Ocean Reef. Gave his “thanks” with a $250,000 campaign donation.
    
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  - Máté Wierdl says:
    
    March 6, 2021 at 6:53 am
    
    Well, that’s how it goes. Here is an actionpacked video about it
    
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  - bethree5 says:
    
    March 6, 2021 at 12:38 am
    
    Retired teacher, as far as I know, there were no opportunities in NJ to “wait in lines overnight,” that’s what I’m talking about. We just didn’t get the same kind of massive doses onboard [tho they’re increasing now]. My first thought after hearing from FL friends in January was that Trump’s Operation Warp Speed was geared to get biggest quantities to MAGA states, & proportionately fewer to densely-populated blue states. But maybe that’s paranoid.
    
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Bob Shepherd says:

March 4, 2021 at 2:32 pm

Meanwhile, here in Flor-uh-duh, Governor DeSatan is well along with his Vaccinating Rich White People program.

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Bob Shepherd says:

March 4, 2021 at 2:41 pm

My son is out and about here in Tampa–wearing a mask, but he reports to me that everywhere he goes, there are crowds of people milling about maskless. Insane.

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- retired teacher says:
  
  March 4, 2021 at 2:54 pm
  
  Here in north Florida most of the older people continue to wear masks, but the younger crowd refuses to do it. Spring break will be another super-spreader event, I fear.
  
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  - SomeDAM poet says:
    
    March 4, 2021 at 8:50 pm
    
    Just in time for the variant strains.
    
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- beachteach says:
  
  March 4, 2021 at 8:25 pm
  
  So interesting because I have relatives in a city in Florida that had a mask mandate. They see Florida (and Desantis) as doing the right thing. When they visited New England this summer and saw a few people walking on the street without masks they were “shocked” because “in Florida everyone was wearing a mask.” Tunnel vision – only looking at their neighborhood and surrounding area.
  
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- SomeDAM Poet says:
  
  March 6, 2021 at 2:13 pm
  
  “everywhere he goes, there are crowds of people milling about ~~maskless~~brainless
  
  Fixed
  
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Jon Awbrey says:

March 4, 2021 at 2:56 pm

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Lloyd Lofthouse says:

March 4, 2021 at 2:59 pm

The same people will be responsible for the shortage of body bags, too.

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Susan Lee Schwartz says:

March 4, 2021 at 3:21 pm

And no public education for millions of children.

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Reteach 4 America says:

March 4, 2021 at 5:01 pm

And no heat during a snowstorm, which windmill energy and other Green policies got blamed for, and then there was that TX mayor who told people that they had to fend for themselves, as if they were being irresponsible by wanting help with basic survival from their government…

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ShiraDest says:

March 4, 2021 at 6:26 pm

One hopes that Texans will indeed learn from this experience, as it appears that it is first hand experience that most human beings need, to learn.
But we can also continue to keep trying to help folks educate themselves, so that they don’t have to learn the hard way.
No?

Stay safe, and thank you, Diane, for posting this unfortunately needed reminder.
-Shira

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Montana teacher says:

March 5, 2021 at 1:01 am

Different story, but I thought I would share:

Montana’s head of schools Elsie Arntzen is very right-wing. I can’t believe I agree with her and disagree with Biden on this issue of Montana’s request for a testing waiver:

Testing back on the schedule

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- bethree5 says:
  
  March 6, 2021 at 12:55 am
  
  Yes, good statement from Arntzen. This is a time for locals to take the lead. District accommodation to covid is of necessity based on local stats, & determined in conjunction w/ disteict families.
  
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Máté Wierdl says:

March 5, 2021 at 6:38 am

Texas is finally free; free from masks, running water and electricity. Yay.

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- moeone2015 says:
  
  March 5, 2021 at 10:51 am
  
  This is funny but the joke is on the people of Texas. The clowns Texans have for leadership really do not understand taking care of the people they swore to support when they took their oaths of office. The clowns do not really care about the suffering of the people. Just the profit and loss statements
  
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  - Máté Wierdl says:
    
    March 5, 2021 at 11:21 am
    
    We have to see if Texans will realize what the cause of their problems is. Like
    
    https://youtu.be/Ya7UsTYivLk
    
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  - bethree5 says:
    
    March 6, 2021 at 1:00 am
    
    It’s not like the elected officials fooled Texans by taking that oath, they ran on platforms promising to charge as little as possible in exchange for doing as little as possible for the people. Texans figured they could go it alone, & fooled themselves.
    
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- SomeDAM Poet says:
  
  March 6, 2021 at 1:28 pm
  
  Free from intelligence too.
  
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  - SomeDAM Poet says:
    
    March 6, 2021 at 1:31 pm
    
    Thats why it called The Lone Neuron State.
    
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  - SomeDAM Poet says:
    
    March 6, 2021 at 1:33 pm
    
    Looks like a star, right?
    
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  - SomeDAM Poet says:
    
    March 6, 2021 at 1:36 pm
    
    Question, if a neuron fires and there are no other neurons around to get the signal, does it make a thought?
    
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markstextterminal says:

March 5, 2021 at 7:18 am

Hahahahahahahahaha!

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Jon Awbrey says:

March 6, 2021 at 9:00 am

I grew up in Texas … well, you know, much as anyone can … went North to college … then came Reaganomics, tanking the job market for anyone with a degree or two … long story short … my wife, my youngest brother, and I found ourselves driving a convoy of 3 cars from Michigan to Houston in the Blizzard of ’89, driving 35 mph all the way. By the time we got to Oklahoma trucks were falling off the ramps and overpasses left and right — Down South they build the grades too steep for any ice at all, and no salt on the roads. When we got to our new home in Clear Lake there was no water for a week — unless you like yours green and slimy — someone panicked when the power went brown and shut down the purification plant first. We ended up with the worst cases of flu we’ve had before or since almost didn’t make it to our new jobs in Galveston …

That was not my first “100 year storm” in Texas … and it wasn’t my last …

I have vague memories of driving by the Enron HQ … energy markets were the Next Big Thing back then — So Who Could Have Predicted The Things To Come? — well, maybe Marx — but they didn’t learn from Enron … apparently none of us did … and I reckon they won’t learn from Ercot — the question is, Will We ???

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Jon Awbrey says:

March 7, 2021 at 8:40 am

Einstein was a prodigy, he just wasn’t a child prodigy …

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