Walz downplayed the unique nature of the Holocaust in his thesis 👀
"Schools are teaching about the Jewish Holocaust, but the way it is traditionally being taught is not leading to increased knowledge of the causes of genocide in all parts of the world"
jta.org/2024/08/06/pol…
There is a lot of dialogue about what this means, but I teach Holocaust-related material as well and have researched it heavily and minimizing or extrapolating the particularity of the experience as unique to Jews is classic minimization.
My jaw is on the floor... (more)...
Dec 9, 2023 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
When I was a child, "white" meant your family came over on the Mayflower. Everyone knows whose families had, and the rest of us were Jews, Puerto Ricans, or Italians.
Because I was a Jew, and the smallest kid in my grade, and in a "Gifted program," I was beaten up daily... 🧵
...on the blacktop, walking to my bus in the 4th grade.
I am a girl, but both girls and boys would trip me, call me a "kike," and then beat me bloody for the sin of being "a Jew." Truth be told, my family was not especially religious and I can otherwise pass for white, easily..
May 27, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
This cadre of doctors and co. believe anyone who signed #GreatBarringtonDeclaration are worthy of scorn, even if a strong left-liberal Professor/sometimes Administrator, program coordinator, rationalist, and global do-gooder, invested in human and civil rights & the Humanities.
It's sad to see such stereotyping from people who also support going outside of normal legal or other usual institutional University protocols and procedures to punch down at graduate students in medicine with whom they disagree.
That's shameful.
Apr 29, 2023 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Four days ago in California.
COVID sniffing dogs will be detecting the virus in K-12?
Where exactly are these calm new positions and reflections that are supposedly being taken?
mercurynews.com/2023/04/25/cov…
And if you aren't sniffing around for COVID in classrooms, public health is looking for it in California's massive deer population:
My cynical read on this is that they are entering an election cycle and this has been totally damaging to Democrats in particular (although plenty of condemnation to go around, especially to Trump too), and that while they are saying better things, it's rings mainly hollow...
..so I don't find it moving or reassuring; I see low self-reflection, the US border is still closed, & until @CDCgov recommends against their most damaging policies (masks, remote school/work, hypervigilence, over-testing before routine events, vax mandates), these will continue.
Apr 27, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Fauci now says the US needs to "move on" from the COVID virus, yet countless restrictions and changes to our normal lives remain in regions like California.
Many people on Team Reality are not in those impacted areas and indeed are moving on... 🧵
news.google.com/articles/CBMid…
...but by not maintaining a coalition of resistance and information sharing, when there is ZERO assurance that restrictions & absurdities will not reoccur - in other people's areas or mine, plus all of the fallout still in place - we are sitting ducks.
So I will keep speaking.
Mar 23, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
You recall the countless times I have blamed University administration, not faculty, for the pandemic restrictions.
Administrative bloat and backhanded deals with funders, often in Govt, not the opinions of some Geology Prof, have caused the most harm.
@NCM4Ever this whole thread is great, especially if you read up to the top.
Mar 23, 2023 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
The last thing I heard from my spouse today as he walked out the door was, "I don't care what you think, but a lot of younger people did in fact die from COVID, including recently."
I hadn't said a word. I was just sitting there grading. We hadn't talked about COVID in weeks. 🤷
Am I indicting him? No. I just am impressed by his deeply ideological commitment to talking to whatever newspaper article had just set him off and to that level of shadowboxing. He isn't even a coronaphobe.
He was probably pissed off that Trump wasn't arrested.
Mar 22, 2023 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Just thought this was worth a pull quote (and how much did Pfizer make? I know, I know! $37+ billion in 2022 alone):
"Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., noted that Moderna has made more than $20 billion in profits over the past two years"
This IS huge: it opens the door for kids with significant learning disabilities who were not reasonably accommodated during remote schooling for potential recourse, as is appropriate.
Not a lawyer but ruling slaps down public schools not addressing kids' different needs.
"The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday for a deaf student who sued his public school system for providing an inadequate education. The case is significant for other disabled students who allege they were failed by school officials."
Mar 16, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
There comes a time when you stand up and say, okay so you think I am some racist, fascist, nazi, pro-eugenics secret Trump supporting bot from a Russian troll farm who is out to kill grandmas by way of two-year old vectors.
So what? No I don't care. No there is/isn't evidence...
...but all it boils down to really is that people are filled with mangled thinking, biases, wish fulfillment, neurosis.
And maybe - just maybe - one need not care about other's judgments at all. They can all go scream on and on if they want to be irrational, anxious knock jobs.
Mar 16, 2023 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
Three years ago today, my county went into lockdown.
Extremely emotional day here. It was a whirlwind; I tried to get to the airport to leave the country, but by the time I could go (48 hours later) - unsure where to fly - the airport had stopped all but repatriation flights.
The claustrophobia of that was terrifying. It felt like wartime. I had never experienced anything like it.
And I didn't even know which country would be most likely to remain open. I sensed I might be gone for awhile and was leaving family behind, but it was intolerable...
Mar 11, 2023 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
What haunts me today is a detail I had overlooked: in Sara Cody's 2006 co-authored pandemic plan for "novel influenza," which seems to be the blueprint for the Bay Area COVID lockdowns, contained info about the society-wide PTSD the response (not pandemic) would cause -- a 🧵
First, the actual points made in the document, which include "Increased length of time spent in isolation/quarantine has been associated with increased symptoms of PTSD."
Yet many Bay Area counties required "non-essential single workers" to stay home, recommending food delivery.
Mar 11, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
@davidzweig's "A Society of Snitches" practically defines some of the worst parts of the pandemic experience. My county was quick to embrace snitch lines and threaten people for gathering.
In fact, late in summer, the huge trees that overhang my road, adjacent to...
...my small back yard, suddenly broke off several massive tree limbs that fell across the road and into mine and my neighbors' yards, probably wounded by past lightning, and landing about 10' from my house wall.
It was a massive crashing sound. I ran outside and found...
Mar 7, 2023 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
Extremely important thread about technology in universities, pre-COVID. The push for remote learning was a battle for + a decade: admin easily profit from it (less overhead), & many politicians have major investments in Big EduTech.
Question? How much money does @GavinNewsom have invested in remote learning and Big EduTech? How much did he make from these investments due to the pandemic? And how many campus Boards does he have ex oficio, or other, status on?
This is a FUN question!
Mar 5, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
If you read one thing today, read @davidzweig explaining how Santa Clara County, under the edicts of Sara Cody, turned to selective surveillance:
"Much of Santa Clara’s restrictions early on were tied to state requirements, which were harsher on churches than stores..." ...
California now threatening to pull funds from 7 public Unis due to underenrollment, a very complex chain of events to untangle, but one directly related to @GavinNewsom's overwrought, over-long pandemic response, and of course he is now the one likewise making the threats.
calmatters.org/education/high…
I can explain how this happened due to pandemic response specifically, but it's fairly complicated and definitely multifaceted.
Jan 28, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
"The FDA pulled Evusheld because it is not effective against 95% of the omicron subvariants circulating in the U.S."
Those recommended for Evusheld were truly immunocompromised, such as leukemia & chemo patients, people w/advanced HIV, organ transplants.
cnbc.com/2023/01/27/cov…
Not included were many people who believed they were eligible or needed Evusheld due to other immune issues, like autoimmune disorders, poor immune systems, hypochondriasis, etc.
Jan 28, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Conducted whole work day coughing head off with flu, unmasked. No one seemed concerned because I let them know I was COVID - (as is required to go to work with the flu).
Also, they seemed to trust their surgical masks to keep them from getting the flu.
Public health's fault.
I did my best to caution people that I could give them the flu. It's wiped me out since last weekend now. I pulled a stomach muscle coughing last night and had a 103 fever earlier in the week.
No one seemed concerned though once satisfied I didn't have COVID.
I was in...
Jan 13, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Whatever is claimed in little liberal bubbles like mine, rest assured that lockdowns and mandates drove a huge number of people to actively flee their countries in anger and disgust. All Europeans on this tiny island in the Gulf of Thailand universally left over restrictions.
Many had jobs or even houses. Those who could retire did. Some dropped out of college. Some are working class -- I spent my day with a German girl who worked at a real estate firm until COVID rules left her buying a one way ticket to Sri Lanka. Everyone here has a story like this
