I am over the moon excited for this:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/29/us/politics/michigan-congressional-maps.html
My favorite line is the first one:
One of the country’s most gerrymandered political maps has suddenly been replaced by one of the fairest.
Yeah I'm really excited despite everyone telling me just how strenuous and stressful the job can be, there's alot of pessimism in the field atm .one thing I learned fairly early was to stay away from the teachers lounge lol. My previous job was in logistics, which I would tell everyone that it was extremely toxic because you would be expected and encouraged to "lie, cheat and steal". So this this profession comes as a welcomed change. I think you're right, you have to be a special kind of person to dedicate your life to elementary school kids, I am not that person. You have these kids who technically don't know how to think or function and somehow you're supposed to retain their attention to teach them basic people skills. My hat goes off that that group of special teacher folks. Thank you btw and I'm aiming to be a good teacher to these kids. The last few months has been eye opening for me in understanding how teaching works. So it's fair to say that I'm not going in blind.
@blackandwhite if you first pay attention to their social emotional needs, you can teach them to do anything. It’s the thing I considered my biggest strength when I was in the classroom :-)
pick up the book Social Emotional Learning and the Brain. It’s the only tool you need and that book will fill your toolbox!
2021 had issues, obviously, but there were also a lot of good things that happened. Even if we're not where we want to be yet, we have made progress, and we're getting there. Here's a Twitter thread from Aja Raden that shows that 2021 wasn't as bad as it's being portrayed:
Saw this just now: Since January 6, the pro-trump Internet has descended into infighting over money and followers.
So sad, too bad.
"Pro-Trump and QAnon influencers have squabbled bitterly over online audiences in the year since Trump left office. They’re “desperate for money” and there’s only so many “people you can fleece,” says one researcher...."
My belief is it’s the pig farmer, Ron Whatkins. He is now running for CongressNow I wouldn’t be surprised if some folks put him up to it who know better (psyops)Does anyone have a sense about who Q is? Russia? I would think the FBI would have figured it out by now?
Love & Light, Dracaena
According to HBO’s show Q: Into the Storm, the investigators were pretty sure it is Ron Watkins, but they don’t have absolute proof. (Probably because Q is based on nothing but lies). QAnon evolved on a far right hate program named 8chan. LA Times has an interesting piece about the investigation.
I saw a headline today that read, "Real Accountability in the U.S. for January 6 requires Political Reform." Okay, fair enough. But for me, real accountability begins making truth a thing again, which means making it a requirement in the media.
Twitter took the right step when it permanently banned the former guy(TFG) for inciting violence against the U.S. government, and yesterday Marjorie Taylor Greene for lying about Covid. They gave these liars a number of chances. Twitter was transparent and neither capricious or politically biased in their actions. Then they took their platform away from these dangerous people once and for all.
Facebook, however, only suspended The Former Guy temporarily, okay, for two years, but that's not enough, given his history of lying and violence, and for MTG, just for 24 hours! Facebook is in my mind one of the greatest purvayer of lies in our time. They have enabled groups to win elections on lies. They have broadcast lies about the pandemic, the vaccine, the elections, and so much more. Their platform has caused the death of millions, and has threatened democracies. Mark Zuckerberg is one of the Darth Vaders of our age. He cares about making money above all else. He worries about being usurped by another social media platform if he bans powerful people who draw clicks. His soul must be so young and so lost.
I did but I always felt that this (all of the Trump administration's many, many crimes) combined with his fan boys embedded in the Justice Department would take at least a year or more to unravel this. I know we all want quick justice but this is beyond anything anyone has seen before. I also believe that as these crimes are laid out (especially related to Jan 6) combined with the passage of the voting rights bill in some form, that the Dems will hold both the House and the Senate. Once that happens it's "Katie bar the door".
@theungamer I found comfort in AG Garlands speech. It was just what I've been saying for months, he just needed to reafirm that the DOJ is indeed taking things seriously. I know that investigation like this always start at the bottom, easy to prove alagations and work thier way up the the "big fish". I feel much more confident that the DOJ is back on the job. Things should get very interesting as summer approches.
So I was just watching the Amazon production of the Wheel of Time series, a fantasy series based on on a saga of 13 main and one prequel book (said books are awesome by the way, and I highly recommend them for those who might like the series!). No spoilers but in the series there is a great Wheel with seven spokes, each an age, and with time as a circle with no beginnings and ends but in time the age will come again. The Wheel, reality itself, is powered by the Source as laid down by the Creator at the dawn.
Within the world there are beings called Channelers, men and women who can use the Source, through the lens of the One Power, which itself has a male and a female half, and which also flows as five powers as one (Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and Spirit).
In the Second Age, with the 'current' period of the story being the Third Age, the channelers were called the Aes Sedai - which meant servants of all in the Old Tongue. The thing that gets to me is that for all their cosmic power - and they have that - they were given honor and glory by working to better the world. That service brought power.
One of the elements of the story's backstory is that our world, that is the world right now, is considered the First Age. In said Age there was no understanding or use of the One Power. The discovery, and then the use of it, is what brought about the end of the age and the start of the what would become a unified and glorious Second Age.
Now, obviously, I am not saying its real or realistic or that it doesn't have its issues - lol - but there is something interesting to me about the idea. About humanity tapping into an energy field and because of that maturing as a species.
Anyway, just wanted to share the element and the thought and whatnot.
PS. I put this here because I couldn't help but think of 'the great turning' as 'the turning of the wheel'. hehe
@herukane I've read the books and watched the series, what has been released so far, and it is fantastic. I am impressed with how they have kept to the store line given the amount of time alloted. I was reading it in 2019-2020 and had to stop for awhile because some of the story line was to close to home. The wheel turns as the wheel wills. Looking forward to our next age, a more peaceful time.
Something right, just and noteworthy happened in the world today. The 3 men found guilty of murdering Ahmaud Arbery were sentenced to life in prison, 2 without parol.
https://www.npr.org/2022/01/07/1070618256/ahmaud-arbery-killers-sentence
This paragraph out of this chapter I'm reading today for my Post Graduate degree really stuck out to me as relevant as part of the great turning. And I don't need my third eye to see a leader right now who is doing his best to "cultivate" it :-)