My name is Tim Johnson from California and I have been a preschool lead teacher and a substitute elementary teacher for the past several years. Recently https://gtasanapk.com/ I got a job doing in home preschool instruction. It's all new, so wish me luck!
What this man represents is far more dangerous than just a guy that can't tell the truth. Can you imagine the encounter between our Founding Fathers and Mr. Santos? On 12-16-1773 there would have been more than tea leaves dumped into Boston Harbor. The people of this country need to have a respectable level of trust in their elected officials. By letting people like Santos enter the political theater we open the doors for a flood of Trump wannabes to enter the fray. It's like drinking a test tube filled with the Polo virus and wondering if down the road there will be any ill effects. We have to find a way to rid ourselves of this trash. Trump was bad enough but ad in Santos and our political system will suffer a horrendous step backward that will take a miracle to affect a cure. MAGA members will see an opportunity to gain entrance to a political system that offers wealth and power to anyone that can tell a lie. We need to initiate a vetting process where candidates are placed under oath while being screened. The penalties surrounding perjury might dissuade Santos copycats from trying to lie their way past the voting public. The Republican party is suffering because of the lack of professionalism seen in its members. As it stands today it's easier to clean up the mess in hand before it develops into a catastrophe caused by a group of claustrophobic hoarders. An occasion will present itself when the necessity to remove a festering scab is the only way to extract the puss offending the ability of the site to heal. The Rolling Stones said something to the effect of "letting it Bleed."
If possible, let's discuss more "what can we do about" whatever problems are highlighted. Yes, we can vote. Every election. Every time. Yet, even that "right" is now, and, it seems, constantly challenged. What can we do besides donating money to voting rights rights' groups, such as Stacey Abrams'? We can help register or re-register voters in our communities. Those among us with physical and/or aging challenges perhaps could write postcards to others, encouraging them to take action of a specific nature. In the long view, identifying problems is step one. Understanding those issues is step two. Positive, specific action to address and soften or alleviate identified problems is the all-important step three.
Thanking you, Mr. Rather and your compadre, for all you do to educate and make OUR country a place in which we're proud to live and hopeful for an ever brighter reality for future generations. I will remain a paid subscriber to "Steady" for as long as I am able.
PS Professor Robert Reich of UC Berkeley (Public Policy) also has a valuable newletter which, as yours, I follow religiously. I view both your newsletters as intelligent alternatives to the super-hyped, frenetic "mainstream media" with all its pharmaceutical, automotive, insurance, etcetera underwriters.
Thank you Dan, Elliot, and all others who contribute to Steady! I read the news every day, including (indeed, mostly) opinion columnists - on both the left and (non-Trump) right - from the NYT and WaPo, but the most thoughtful, meaningful, and heartfelt commentary I see is found right here. And the Steady community is incredible!
Since we retired 4 1/2 years ago, my wife and I have spent about half of our time based in the Hill Country west of Austin, and the other half based in an apartment on the Mediterranean in Spain. There are a few, but not many, Americans here, and so our regular contacts and ability to understand what’s happening in our home country are especially valued. And Dan, your voice, which I’ve been hearing since Hurricane Carla (when I was 5 and living in Baytown), is especially important to me. Again, thank you for all of the good sense and thoughtful insight you bring to this space.
In my younger days, I spent time working for a plumbing company that operated in conjunction with a fire suppression company. The sprinkler systems the branch company installed had one vital element that had to be in place in order for the final OK to be given by the head inspector. This device was called a "detector check." Its main function was to alert the local fire department in the event of a system failure that would cause the dispensing of water to any location within the building. Under normal conditions, an alarm would sound signaling a fire somewhere within the structure, and personnel from the fire department would be dispatched post hast. This device was like a sleeping guard that would awaken in the event of an emergency. The other day 5 uniformed police officers beat a man and the injuries he sustained from the encounter eventually led to his death. Tyre Nickols was stopped for what was reported to be a reckless driving violation. The officers that apprehended Mr. Nickols had no active leader within the group, so I've been led to understand. This apparent lack of leadership was directly related to the unrestrained beating of a man that deserved little more than a traffic ticket for his indiscretion. I understand Mr. Nickols attempted to evade the police but in earnest, I feel he ran due to an overwhelming impulse of self-preservation. The fact that the officers on site had no actual leader that could turn up or shut down the physical abuse Mr. Nickols was being subjected to, directly led to the array of injuries suffered by Tyre Nickols during the confrontation which lasted 3 non-stop, incomprehensible minutes.
On-site, there was no central figure of authority the group could turn to for direction, like the fire suppression system without a detector check the group reverted to a gang mentality. Among the members a subconscious need for leadership would emerge, this is a common equation where the most dominant personality would eventually raise to take control. They repeatedly beat Mr. Nickols as they waited for a member to signal enough is enough. If all personalities housed the same levels of depravity Tyre Nickols never stood a chance. In every instance of operation, a group needs a leader to act as a detector check, giving the body a sense of public decency and professionalism. The "Tennessee 5" failed in all aspects of proper police behavior. Gang mentality took precedence over accepted police procedures and a man died because of a lack of leadership that was due to the absence of a simple detector check being in place. Sad!
Thank you Dan and Elliot! When my day feels fractured by fear, sadness and impending doom, I turn to Steady for a beacon of light and encouragement in a world that has become so hostile..... Then again, maybe it's always been hostile but now technology has dropped us in a 24 hour information loop giving us an up close and personal view of all the world's atrocities. Even more reason to be thankful for "Steady".....
You are our voice of reason. Thank you for never lowering the bar to tempt money, untruths, or misinformation. Thank you for being our guiding light in these dark times. You always make my day!
Thank you @Dan Rather for creating this forum, and for continuing to be a commentator on current events in our country. It's good to hear from a seasoned, professional journalist in today's world of social media where facts and opinions are often confused. Continued health & success to you & Steady!
Steady has been a good resource for me as we navigate through ever more hateful rhetoric and division among US politicians. Hearing Mr. Rather's thoughts, as someone who has been on the frontline of many major cultural shifts for many decades, gives me a balanced perspective of our place in history, and the potential for positive changes if we are patient and persistent -- and steady.
Dan Rather, you have shown me that it’s never too late to start something new. That sometimes from the hardest fall, we can come back up so much higher than we ever were before. Your voice Dan, is the Steady one we ALL need right now.
Traveling back in time to a period where I spent several eventful years in the 1st and 2nd grades. The school was a little-known edifice called Vetal elementary, sadly due to declining enrolment, my first school was closed in 2012. I went there through the years 1954 to 1955 before moving to a different school district. This memory dealt with my 1st-grade experience and a teacher that should have been teaching high school, Mrs. Slicteen. A brut of a woman that installed fear in every last one of us, little people, her name should have been Mrs. Strict-teen. It was a rather small class of about 20 socially lost children. Part of our daily routine was to enhance the development of our latent artistic ability. We drew pictures, made small items from modeling clay, and then fired them in a kiln to preserve our effort for prosperity, oddly enough I still have the ashtray I made for my mother even after all these years. In our small room, we also had a 50-gallon cardboard drum filled with a powdery stuff we added water to, and then we made things from the mushy material. This drum was about 4 feet tall, we had to stand on a step stool in order to fill our coffee cans with the gray powder that was always floating in the air like dust as we worked. At times when the drum was getting low on the medium we had to have one of our class mated hold our legs as we leaned over in an effort to fill our can. Once the can had the measured amount of powder we added water until the mixture was like a thick gray mud. On one occasion we were making puppets, Mrs. Slicteen asked us to bring a light bulb from home. Back then Detroit Edison had outlet stores all over the city, they gave light bulbs away for free all you had to do was bring in the metal base from the burnt-out bulb and you were given a new one. We took the old bulbs and covered them with the mud we had just cooked up in our coffee cans. Gently we formed the poop, as we called it, all over the outside of the glass bulb until we made a face. Eyes a nose and a mouth with nice lips, they looked like something Rod Serling would have appreciated. Once complete we put them aside to dry, which took several days. The next step was done by the teacher, for obvious reasons. She took the dried heads and gave them a good smack on the counter breaking the bulbs inside. The metal base and the broken glass was removed, this left us with a nice puppet head that needed a little paint and a skirt as a finishing touch. My end product was rather scary, at least to me. We spent the year, day in and day out, making stuff from the endless supply of gray powder. I look back on that time with mixed feelings, it was at that time when I met Sally Rhing, she had long dark hair and beautiful big curls that framed her pretty face. I would walk her home every day, weather permitting. Her father had a fish tank in the living room with a Cooley Loach that magically captured my imagination for the remainder of my adult life. Why the tale you may ask, the 50-gallon drum was filled with something I never forgot once we were told the name of its contents. Mrs. Slicteen was so very proud of her 50-gallon drum filled with "Powered Asbestos." What did Puck say about mortals? Or was that just a segment from one of my Mid-Summer Night's Dreams?
Gail--No medical problems as of yet, fingers crossed although X-rays show nodules of an unknown origin in my lungs. Cooley Loach is a small tropical fish that resembles a worm, it's a bottom feeder brightly colored with bands of pink and purple throughout its length, never exceeding a length of about 2 inches.
PS. Mexico has far better text books in their schools. One teacher I know brought a whole set of them from Mexico for teaching the Spanish speaking kids she had in L.A. I saw them. Excellent books!
The issue of the United States sending Mi-Abrams tanks to Ukraine leaves me questioning the negatives. The Mi-Abrams has a gross weight of 55 tons whereas the German counterpart, the Leopard 2s, posts a gross weight of 70 tons. Why are the experts stating our tanks are too heavy to function in that part of the world? I think there is more going on here than meets the eye. The export version of our main tank is different from the one we keep for our own use. Why? We are being told the Abrams are difficult to maintain and it eats fuel, two negatives that would spell a crushing blow to the use of our tanks altogether. I find this hard to fathom. Why would our military mass-produce a tank with these negatives built into its framework? I don't think they did. I think our tanks are so sophisticated and the systems within them are so secret our government doesn't want to place them in that part of the world for other countries to copy and learn from. We have the most advanced military in the world to think we would make a front-line attack vehicle that had integral problems on the battlefield is absurd. What we have, we don't want to share.
Ask that schools in your area use the "Open Court" reading plan. Illiteracy will be prevented, almost 100%. I've taught over 70,000 children in my 24 years as an on-demand Certificated teacher. Open Court IS the answer to reading deficiencies. Teachers teach largely from the textbooks bought by the school districts. Most texts are so boring they can't be given away at garage sales. (That is so they will be replaced every 3 years. Big $$$!)
I absolutely love Steady. I have a hard time keeping up with my readings and sometimes I read about a topic that has been updated by events a little late. But...I still enjoy the thought process. There is a lot of thought involved in today’s world.
If I could have one addition...more memories of Mr. Rather’s past. My grandfathers passed before I was born. It was after my great-aunt’s passing that I realized she went to school on the back of a milk wagon and I remember her driving from store to store looking for the best deal. Horse drawn milk wagon to driving a car...unimaginable! She lived to be 100.
We think the past was more of a simple life. But...it was way more complicated. You couldn’t order food on a phone and have it delivered...you earned your meal from prepping, baking and cooking...after a day of hard work.
I am a Gen-Xer...the bridge generation from the past to the present. We had our own difficulties of being latch-key kids, watching reruns of now classic tv shows while cooking the first process foods that led to America’s obesity (rice-a-roni...hamburger helper) My generation is the generation that made life more complicated.
We are addicted to time. The older I get...the more I want to learn about the past. So Grandpa Dan (not old enough to be my grandpa)...I want more of What Unites Us.
Hi
My name is Tim Johnson from California and I have been a preschool lead teacher and a substitute elementary teacher for the past several years. Recently https://gtasanapk.com/ I got a job doing in home preschool instruction. It's all new, so wish me luck!
Nice to "meet" everyone!
Santos.
Donald Hodgins <silencenotbad@gmail.com>
9:34 AM (0 minutes ago)
What this man represents is far more dangerous than just a guy that can't tell the truth. Can you imagine the encounter between our Founding Fathers and Mr. Santos? On 12-16-1773 there would have been more than tea leaves dumped into Boston Harbor. The people of this country need to have a respectable level of trust in their elected officials. By letting people like Santos enter the political theater we open the doors for a flood of Trump wannabes to enter the fray. It's like drinking a test tube filled with the Polo virus and wondering if down the road there will be any ill effects. We have to find a way to rid ourselves of this trash. Trump was bad enough but ad in Santos and our political system will suffer a horrendous step backward that will take a miracle to affect a cure. MAGA members will see an opportunity to gain entrance to a political system that offers wealth and power to anyone that can tell a lie. We need to initiate a vetting process where candidates are placed under oath while being screened. The penalties surrounding perjury might dissuade Santos copycats from trying to lie their way past the voting public. The Republican party is suffering because of the lack of professionalism seen in its members. As it stands today it's easier to clean up the mess in hand before it develops into a catastrophe caused by a group of claustrophobic hoarders. An occasion will present itself when the necessity to remove a festering scab is the only way to extract the puss offending the ability of the site to heal. The Rolling Stones said something to the effect of "letting it Bleed."
If possible, let's discuss more "what can we do about" whatever problems are highlighted. Yes, we can vote. Every election. Every time. Yet, even that "right" is now, and, it seems, constantly challenged. What can we do besides donating money to voting rights rights' groups, such as Stacey Abrams'? We can help register or re-register voters in our communities. Those among us with physical and/or aging challenges perhaps could write postcards to others, encouraging them to take action of a specific nature. In the long view, identifying problems is step one. Understanding those issues is step two. Positive, specific action to address and soften or alleviate identified problems is the all-important step three.
Thanking you, Mr. Rather and your compadre, for all you do to educate and make OUR country a place in which we're proud to live and hopeful for an ever brighter reality for future generations. I will remain a paid subscriber to "Steady" for as long as I am able.
PS Professor Robert Reich of UC Berkeley (Public Policy) also has a valuable newletter which, as yours, I follow religiously. I view both your newsletters as intelligent alternatives to the super-hyped, frenetic "mainstream media" with all its pharmaceutical, automotive, insurance, etcetera underwriters.
Thank you Dan, Elliot, and all others who contribute to Steady! I read the news every day, including (indeed, mostly) opinion columnists - on both the left and (non-Trump) right - from the NYT and WaPo, but the most thoughtful, meaningful, and heartfelt commentary I see is found right here. And the Steady community is incredible!
Since we retired 4 1/2 years ago, my wife and I have spent about half of our time based in the Hill Country west of Austin, and the other half based in an apartment on the Mediterranean in Spain. There are a few, but not many, Americans here, and so our regular contacts and ability to understand what’s happening in our home country are especially valued. And Dan, your voice, which I’ve been hearing since Hurricane Carla (when I was 5 and living in Baytown), is especially important to me. Again, thank you for all of the good sense and thoughtful insight you bring to this space.
Detector check.
Donald Hodgins <silencenotbad@gmail.com>
11:51 AM (0 minutes ago)
to
In my younger days, I spent time working for a plumbing company that operated in conjunction with a fire suppression company. The sprinkler systems the branch company installed had one vital element that had to be in place in order for the final OK to be given by the head inspector. This device was called a "detector check." Its main function was to alert the local fire department in the event of a system failure that would cause the dispensing of water to any location within the building. Under normal conditions, an alarm would sound signaling a fire somewhere within the structure, and personnel from the fire department would be dispatched post hast. This device was like a sleeping guard that would awaken in the event of an emergency. The other day 5 uniformed police officers beat a man and the injuries he sustained from the encounter eventually led to his death. Tyre Nickols was stopped for what was reported to be a reckless driving violation. The officers that apprehended Mr. Nickols had no active leader within the group, so I've been led to understand. This apparent lack of leadership was directly related to the unrestrained beating of a man that deserved little more than a traffic ticket for his indiscretion. I understand Mr. Nickols attempted to evade the police but in earnest, I feel he ran due to an overwhelming impulse of self-preservation. The fact that the officers on site had no actual leader that could turn up or shut down the physical abuse Mr. Nickols was being subjected to, directly led to the array of injuries suffered by Tyre Nickols during the confrontation which lasted 3 non-stop, incomprehensible minutes.
On-site, there was no central figure of authority the group could turn to for direction, like the fire suppression system without a detector check the group reverted to a gang mentality. Among the members a subconscious need for leadership would emerge, this is a common equation where the most dominant personality would eventually raise to take control. They repeatedly beat Mr. Nickols as they waited for a member to signal enough is enough. If all personalities housed the same levels of depravity Tyre Nickols never stood a chance. In every instance of operation, a group needs a leader to act as a detector check, giving the body a sense of public decency and professionalism. The "Tennessee 5" failed in all aspects of proper police behavior. Gang mentality took precedence over accepted police procedures and a man died because of a lack of leadership that was due to the absence of a simple detector check being in place. Sad!
Thank you Dan and Elliot! When my day feels fractured by fear, sadness and impending doom, I turn to Steady for a beacon of light and encouragement in a world that has become so hostile..... Then again, maybe it's always been hostile but now technology has dropped us in a 24 hour information loop giving us an up close and personal view of all the world's atrocities. Even more reason to be thankful for "Steady".....
You are our voice of reason. Thank you for never lowering the bar to tempt money, untruths, or misinformation. Thank you for being our guiding light in these dark times. You always make my day!
Thank you. Just... thank you for what you do. You are a treasure.
Thank you @Dan Rather for creating this forum, and for continuing to be a commentator on current events in our country. It's good to hear from a seasoned, professional journalist in today's world of social media where facts and opinions are often confused. Continued health & success to you & Steady!
Steady has been a good resource for me as we navigate through ever more hateful rhetoric and division among US politicians. Hearing Mr. Rather's thoughts, as someone who has been on the frontline of many major cultural shifts for many decades, gives me a balanced perspective of our place in history, and the potential for positive changes if we are patient and persistent -- and steady.
Dan Rather, you have shown me that it’s never too late to start something new. That sometimes from the hardest fall, we can come back up so much higher than we ever were before. Your voice Dan, is the Steady one we ALL need right now.
Thank YOU for being the voice of reason in this country!
You are much more than welcome.
Little did they know.
Donald Hodgins <silencenotbad@gmail.com>
9:47 PM (0 minutes ago)
to
Traveling back in time to a period where I spent several eventful years in the 1st and 2nd grades. The school was a little-known edifice called Vetal elementary, sadly due to declining enrolment, my first school was closed in 2012. I went there through the years 1954 to 1955 before moving to a different school district. This memory dealt with my 1st-grade experience and a teacher that should have been teaching high school, Mrs. Slicteen. A brut of a woman that installed fear in every last one of us, little people, her name should have been Mrs. Strict-teen. It was a rather small class of about 20 socially lost children. Part of our daily routine was to enhance the development of our latent artistic ability. We drew pictures, made small items from modeling clay, and then fired them in a kiln to preserve our effort for prosperity, oddly enough I still have the ashtray I made for my mother even after all these years. In our small room, we also had a 50-gallon cardboard drum filled with a powdery stuff we added water to, and then we made things from the mushy material. This drum was about 4 feet tall, we had to stand on a step stool in order to fill our coffee cans with the gray powder that was always floating in the air like dust as we worked. At times when the drum was getting low on the medium we had to have one of our class mated hold our legs as we leaned over in an effort to fill our can. Once the can had the measured amount of powder we added water until the mixture was like a thick gray mud. On one occasion we were making puppets, Mrs. Slicteen asked us to bring a light bulb from home. Back then Detroit Edison had outlet stores all over the city, they gave light bulbs away for free all you had to do was bring in the metal base from the burnt-out bulb and you were given a new one. We took the old bulbs and covered them with the mud we had just cooked up in our coffee cans. Gently we formed the poop, as we called it, all over the outside of the glass bulb until we made a face. Eyes a nose and a mouth with nice lips, they looked like something Rod Serling would have appreciated. Once complete we put them aside to dry, which took several days. The next step was done by the teacher, for obvious reasons. She took the dried heads and gave them a good smack on the counter breaking the bulbs inside. The metal base and the broken glass was removed, this left us with a nice puppet head that needed a little paint and a skirt as a finishing touch. My end product was rather scary, at least to me. We spent the year, day in and day out, making stuff from the endless supply of gray powder. I look back on that time with mixed feelings, it was at that time when I met Sally Rhing, she had long dark hair and beautiful big curls that framed her pretty face. I would walk her home every day, weather permitting. Her father had a fish tank in the living room with a Cooley Loach that magically captured my imagination for the remainder of my adult life. Why the tale you may ask, the 50-gallon drum was filled with something I never forgot once we were told the name of its contents. Mrs. Slicteen was so very proud of her 50-gallon drum filled with "Powered Asbestos." What did Puck say about mortals? Or was that just a segment from one of my Mid-Summer Night's Dreams?
What a story! Do you have medical problems associated with asbestos? What's a Cooley Loach?
Gail--No medical problems as of yet, fingers crossed although X-rays show nodules of an unknown origin in my lungs. Cooley Loach is a small tropical fish that resembles a worm, it's a bottom feeder brightly colored with bands of pink and purple throughout its length, never exceeding a length of about 2 inches.
I absolutely love Steady! It's a breath of fresh air, after all the divisiveness that's been happening since 2015, it's much needed to keep me sane.
I'm a fan of The Big Interview, and would love to hear more about what brought you to interviewing musicians, which you are most excellent at doing.
PS. Mexico has far better text books in their schools. One teacher I know brought a whole set of them from Mexico for teaching the Spanish speaking kids she had in L.A. I saw them. Excellent books!
Tanks a lot.
Donald Hodgins <silencenotbad@gmail.com>
11:43 AM (3 minutes ago)
to
The issue of the United States sending Mi-Abrams tanks to Ukraine leaves me questioning the negatives. The Mi-Abrams has a gross weight of 55 tons whereas the German counterpart, the Leopard 2s, posts a gross weight of 70 tons. Why are the experts stating our tanks are too heavy to function in that part of the world? I think there is more going on here than meets the eye. The export version of our main tank is different from the one we keep for our own use. Why? We are being told the Abrams are difficult to maintain and it eats fuel, two negatives that would spell a crushing blow to the use of our tanks altogether. I find this hard to fathom. Why would our military mass-produce a tank with these negatives built into its framework? I don't think they did. I think our tanks are so sophisticated and the systems within them are so secret our government doesn't want to place them in that part of the world for other countries to copy and learn from. We have the most advanced military in the world to think we would make a front-line attack vehicle that had integral problems on the battlefield is absurd. What we have, we don't want to share.
Ask that schools in your area use the "Open Court" reading plan. Illiteracy will be prevented, almost 100%. I've taught over 70,000 children in my 24 years as an on-demand Certificated teacher. Open Court IS the answer to reading deficiencies. Teachers teach largely from the textbooks bought by the school districts. Most texts are so boring they can't be given away at garage sales. (That is so they will be replaced every 3 years. Big $$$!)
OPEN COURT. ASK FOR IT.
I absolutely love Steady. I have a hard time keeping up with my readings and sometimes I read about a topic that has been updated by events a little late. But...I still enjoy the thought process. There is a lot of thought involved in today’s world.
If I could have one addition...more memories of Mr. Rather’s past. My grandfathers passed before I was born. It was after my great-aunt’s passing that I realized she went to school on the back of a milk wagon and I remember her driving from store to store looking for the best deal. Horse drawn milk wagon to driving a car...unimaginable! She lived to be 100.
We think the past was more of a simple life. But...it was way more complicated. You couldn’t order food on a phone and have it delivered...you earned your meal from prepping, baking and cooking...after a day of hard work.
I am a Gen-Xer...the bridge generation from the past to the present. We had our own difficulties of being latch-key kids, watching reruns of now classic tv shows while cooking the first process foods that led to America’s obesity (rice-a-roni...hamburger helper) My generation is the generation that made life more complicated.
We are addicted to time. The older I get...the more I want to learn about the past. So Grandpa Dan (not old enough to be my grandpa)...I want more of What Unites Us.
Tell me a story.