Posts Tagged ‘datechguy's magnificent seven’

Governor Charlie Baker is placing all of his state under double secret probation

Posted: August 13, 2020 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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After a very modest and short lived increase in the number of Coronavirus cases in the state of Massachusetts, Governor Baker took a hissie fit.  He held a press conference where he harangued all of us for our bad behavior and announced that he is putting an indefinite halt to his painfully slow reopening process.  We are now stuck at part 1 of phase 3 of his plan and will not move on to part 2 of phase 3 until he gives it his personal approval.  In the mean time, thanks to his so expertly crafted reopening plan, Massachusetts is stuck with the nation’s highest unemployment rate. 

This WHDH News article discusses a very troubling new wrinkle to Governor Baker’s  Coronovirus response plans, a wrinkle that totalitarian dictators have used a great many times.  Our law enforcement agencies will now monitor us to make sure our behavior meets the standards of conduct laid down by our imperious leader, the great and terrible Governor Baker.

Baker also announced the formation of a an enforcement and intervention team, which will be tasked with ramping up enforcement in key communities and evaluating rising trends such as new positive cases and the percentage of positive tests.

Public safety officials, including state and local law enforcement, now have the jurisdiction to enforce safety orders and crack down on events hosted in violation of the orders, according to Baker.

“These teams will coordinate an increased enforcement effort across the state to assure businesses and residents are aware of and are following the COVID-19 orders,” Baker said. “By authorizing state and local police to enforce these orders, we can not only increase the number of people who will be out there to enforce these measures but also ensure that are penalties for those who refuse to make the adjustments that so many people in Massachusetts have made and continue to make.

Those who fail to comply with the orders will be subject to fines or cease and desist orders

Taking another page from totalitarian leaders Governor Baker announced  travel ban

Gov. Charlie Baker on Friday announced a new order mandating a 14-day quarantine for anyone who travels into Massachusetts from a high-risk state in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Beginning on Aug. 1, high-risk travelers who come into the Bay State will need to quarantine for 14 days or produce a negative coronavirus test, according to Baker.

Our right to travel where ever we wish to is one of our most important rights, interfering with it is a major injustice.  Living our lives free of government snooping and government interference has always been something that sets the citizens of the US apart from the citizens of totalitarian nations.  That has all changed with this Coronavirus pandemic thanks to terrible governors such as Charlie Baker.  I am shocked and saddened at all of the people in my state who blindly submit to this type of injustice.

Report from Louisiana: Phase 2, Hybrid School

Posted: August 10, 2020 by Pat Austin in Uncategorized
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By:  Pat Austin

SHREVEPORT – Louisiana is number 1 in cases per capita in the nation for Covid-19.  Governor John Bel Edwards has implemented a mask mandate across the state, closed bars, and continues to limit occupancy in restaurants. We are in Phase 2 of reopening for a few more weeks.

Meanwhile, schools are opening. This model looks very different from parish to parish. Most districts have delayed opening of school by a few days or a couple of weeks. Some districts are going virtual only for a period of time while others are using a hybrid model.

I’ve written a great deal about teacher anxiety, and maybe I need to just step away from the computer and the news for a while, because the anxiety is very real to me. What is intolerable to me, however, is the condescension I get over this. How dare anyone judge my feelings and fears. There are several factors that contribute to my fears of bringing Covid home from school to my family; absolutely nobody has the right to judge me for that.

There is a great deal of pressure on teachers right now to be silent about those anxieties, even to the point of reprimand from their administrators. This has not happened to me, but it has happened to someone I know. As teachers, we are expected to put on an enthusiastic face, all optimism and excitement, in order to quell the fears and anxieties of our students. I understand this, and it makes sense (well, not the reprimand). Teachers should never cause anxiety for their students on something like this! As professionals, we know this. Still, it doesn’t mean that in our personal and private lives, we don’t have that fear.

My district is one that is going to try the hybrid model. My day will begin at 6:55 in the classroom receiving students for breakfast, which will be delivered from the cafeteria. When they leave to go to their first class at 7:30, I will have to clean and sanitize the desks. I will have to clean and sanitize desks and computers between each class change throughout the day, as well as any high touch surfaces like door handles, pencil sharpeners, etc. I’ll need to ensure that students sit in the appropriate A/B desk assigned to them for the purpose of contact tracing should someone become infected. Students will eat lunch in my room, and we will have to sanitize desks after that, too.  I’ll have to leave my room by 2:30 everyday (school ends at 2:15) so that the room can be cleaned and sanitized by the custodial staff with the foggers.

In between all of this cleaning, sanitizing, and care, I’ll have to somehow teach the standards of my ELA curriculum, and prepare and upload virtual lessons for the “at home” kids who will be in class the next day. At this point, that almost seems secondary, doesn’t it?

My plan is to do all work 100% digital; I’m going to avoid touching paper and passing papers around. We will do the majority of our work in Google Classroom. When I come home, I’ll leave my shoes outside, shower and change clothes immediately. Overreaction? Maybe. Maybe not. I’d rather be sure.

Louisiana, all across the state, has a very high community spread – it’s anywhere from 94% to 98%, depending on the day. Under the mask mandate, we do seem to be leveling off a bit and hospitalizations are down slightly. The trend is good. There are many, many people who oppose the mask mandate and simply refuse to do it; you’ll see them with masks hanging from one ear, pulled below the nose, under the chin….you’ve seen them. Maybe you ARE them. Whether you believe they work or don’t, just do it. Wear the mask. See if it helps.

As schools across the country have opened, Covid exposures are being reported. Sometimes as “outbreaks” when only a couple of kids have been exposed and are just fine, really. I mean, you have to read these things and make your own judgments. In the Atlanta school with the crowded halls and few kids wearing masks we all saw in that viral photo is reporting nine exposures. The school is closed for two days and is doing virtual instruction. There was no mask mandate in place for that district.

I personally know two teachers who have retired or resigned from our district because of fear of Covid. I am certain there are more. I’ve seen the comments on social media: “Good! Make room for younger teachers!”  Well, no. One of these people IS a young, very gifted STEM teacher. The other is an experienced math teacher who is regarded as one of the top math teachers in our parish. These resignations are a loss to our profession.

So, going forward, I think the point is this. We need to be tolerant of each other’s fears and anxieties. This is all unprecedented and people have heath issues about which you may not be aware and are in no position to judge. We need to be a little patient with teachers too. Yes, it’s true that workers have been out there doing their jobs since March: law enforcement, heath care professionals, store clerks, etc., but as I’ve said before, teachers are a little different in that we are in a closed, unventilated room with up to thirty-three (sometimes more) students. Multiply that by however many classes, three in my case, and we are exposed to nearly 100 kids a day in close contact. It’s daunting.

Be patient with us teachers. Be kind. Be helpful. If your kids are sick or exposed, keep them home.

Pat Austin blogs at And So it Goes in Shreveport and is the author of Cane River Bohemia: Cammie Henry and her Circle at Melrose Plantation. Follow her on Instagram @patbecker25 and Twitter @paustin110.

Thanks to the private sector the US is a space faring nation again

Posted: August 6, 2020 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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Like so many in this great nation I was glued to my TV this past Sunday afternoon watching the SpaceX’s Dragon capsule successfully splash down off the coast of Pensacola Florida.  While I was watching  the live coverage for several hours I was filled with tremendous pride because the United States is once again a space faring nation, something we have not been since President Obama canceled the Space Shuttle ten years ago.

What impressed me the most about this particular space flight was the fact that SpaceX is a private company rather than a government agency.  The free market has always been the engine that propelled the United States into becoming the most prosperous nation in the history of the world yet almost the entire US space program was placed in the hands of the federal government.  As a believer in free market capitalism I always considered this to be a mistake.  This article John Stossel: The private space race and the successful mission that concluded Sunday proved me right.

This week, American astronauts returned to Earth. Their trip to the space station was the first manned launch from the U.S. in 10 years.

By NASA? No. Of course, not.

This space flight happened because government was not in charge.

An Obama administration committee had concluded that launching such a vehicle would take 12 years and cost $36 billion.

But this rocket was finished in half that time — for less than $1 billion (1/36th the predicted cost).

That’s because it was built by Elon Musk’s private company, Space X. He does things faster and cheaper because he spends his own money

All during the SpaceX mission the commentators discussed the numerous innovations that were built into the Falcon Rocket and the Dragon capsule.   These innovations were swiftly and cheaply brought about because SpaceX is a private company. The John Stossel article documents how and why this type of innovation was rarely produced by NASA, a government agency. 

When I read the following quote in the article I was completely surprised.

Fortunately, President Obama gave private companies permission to compete in space, saying, “We can’t keep doing the same old things as before.”

Competition then cut the cost of space travel to a fraction of what it was.

I had no idea that President Obama was the person that opened up the US space program to private sector competition.  It is something that was completely out of character for him considering how far to the political left he is.

This quote from a Milton Friedman interview that took place on the Phil Donahue show perfectly sums up the overwhelmingly positive benefits produced by the free market.   A record that has never come close to being matched by any government entity of any kind.

Well first of all, tell me: Is there some society you know that doesn’t run on greed? You think Russia doesn’t run on greed? You think China doesn’t run on greed? What is greed? Of course, none of us are greedy, it’s only the other fellow who’s greedy. The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn’t construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn’t revolutionize the automobile industry that way. In the only cases in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty you’re talking about, the only cases in recorded history, are where they have had capitalism and largely free trade. If you want to know where the masses are worse off, worst off, it’s exactly in the kinds of societies that depart from that. So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear, that there is no alternative way so far discovered of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by the free-enterprise system.

Report from Louisiana: I’m armed with a spray bottle and a rag.

Posted: August 3, 2020 by Pat Austin in Uncategorized
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By:  Pat Austin

SHREVEPORT – Admittedly, I am more than a little obsessed with reading about coronavirus and learning everything I can about mitigating the spread in my classroom as I prepare to return to in-person classes soon. The medical and research community is learning so much about the virus, how it spreads, and how we treat it every single day. What we thought we knew in May or June is already out of date.

I’ve been increasingly alarmed about returning to the classroom as regular readers of my posts know. My classroom usually holds 27 kids, it has no ventilation, and the windows don’t open. There is one door. It is a small room, as classrooms go, and so 25 kids in there is a wall to wall, but we always push those limits. I am told this year, as long as Louisiana is in Phase 2, there will be no more than ten students in the room at a time.

Every teacher will be supplied with one spray bottle of HALT, a hospital grade cleaner and disinfectant, and one microfiber rag. We are to use this rag to clean desks between classes, for the entire week, then the rag will be washed.

Every teacher will be provided with a cloth mask, and disposable masks will be available to students who do not have a mask. Masks will be mandatory for all, but “flexibility is expected,” assumingly for students with asthma and other medical conditions.

And pretty much, that’s it.  Good luck.

I’m honestly not sure how long we will be in school; as schools across the country are beginning to open up it does not seem to be going well. In Indiana, there was an issue on Day One at Greenfield Central when an infected student came to school. Also in Indiana, Elwood Senior High School is closing for one week because a staff member was positive for Covid.

White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said on Sunday that “areas with high caseloads and active community spread should ‘distance learn at this moment so we can get this epidemic under control.’” In Louisiana, our community spread rate has been in the upper 90% consistently.

So, I’m kind of resigned at this point; I’ll go back into my classroom which will in no way resemble the normal classroom that everyone wants to return to. It will be distance learning in person. I won’t be able to consult one on one with kids who need help because I can’t get that close to them.  I won’t be able to walk through the room to monitor work or behavior. There can be no fun group projects or activities.

And then someone will get sick; I hope it’s not the teacher on the third floor who has been doing chemo. I hope it’s not the teacher who gets pneumonia every year and struggles with respiratory issues. I hope it’s not the teacher with an auto-immune disease on my floor. I hope it’s not any of the students. I hope it’s not me. I hope none of us bring it home to at-risk family members.

And you know, there are these people who say that teachers are griping and worrying for nothing, that we are lazy and just don’t want to go to work. They point out that retail workers and grocery workers, hospital workers and law enforcement, have been working all along. This is true. They have. And thank goodness for that.

But which of them works in a small, unventilated room enclosed with 10 to 25 people, for six hours a day, for 60 to 90 minutes at a time? Not to take away from what other groups are doing at all, but what we are about to ask of teachers is unprecedented.

So. Armed with my spray bottle, my mask, and my microfiber rag, I’m expected to do what Major League Baseball can’t even do: protect my charges from a pandemic. With all of their money, and all of their resources, MLB can’t protect their million dollar investments.

But me and my spray bottle will try.

Pat Austin blogs at And So it Goes in Shreveport and is the author of Cane River Bohemia: Cammie Henry and her Circle at Melrose Plantation. Follow her on Instagram @patbecker25 and Twitter @paustin110.

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