Okay, very good morning is Monday the 14th of October. Hope you're well and had a good weekend and Having a look then Monday as we normally do for the week ahead this calendar here comprising of economic data Government and central bank speakers. We've also got corporate earnings in the US really starts to pick up a little bit of pace this week And then there's other things to be aware of as well Like there's a Columbus Day holiday in the US not a market closure But might have a bit of an impact on the market volumes for the session ahead in today specifically the plan is for me to go through an update on the trade war situation What was this partial deal that was struck between the US and China at the end of last week? I'm also going to have a look at Brexit What is the latest developments as we go into quite a pivotal week for whether or not a deal can be delivered or does Boris Johnson? Indeed Pen a letter to Brussels in request for an extension. We'll find out this week in the coming days That's some Chinese data overnight Again showing further weakness generally or we can expect it at least in their trade data and imports and exports And then there's a few other things I can talk about as well to prepare you best for the week ahead No, Sam. Unfortunately this morning, however, he is in the office But what I'm going to do is just base this briefing all around the fundamentals I'm going to write the weekly strategy report a bit later Well, I'll include technical setups for all of the charts, but I'm going to leave that for them I'm just going to get you briefed for what you need to know from a news perspective for this morning Starting off then with the actual overall charts and the general market sentiment. It's fairly muted at the open Largely given the fact that there is that US kind of non-market holiday today In respect to markets open the following is might be a touch lower than normal The trade deal in itself obviously was already kind of known toward the end of last week So there's no kind of massive gap in markets or anything like that this morning I'd say potentially one that looks a little bit more interesting is the fact that the The British pound has been weakening from where we were was such a Powerful move that was seen last week, of course as it looked like perhaps Boris Johnson could broker a deal which was surprising and we saw a move from around the 122 handle all the way up in excess of 127 however Overnight the Asia Pacific session kind of given back a good 70 80 pips or so and we do reside in the futures at least at the moment below the pivot level as It looks like there's still quite a bit of work to do in order for them to be able to strike a deal Both from Europe being satisfied But also from the likes of the DUP as well And the opposition party voting through a deal because don't forget as much as he might be able to strike a deal with Brussels He still needs to get it through Parliament as well, which is going to provide some obstacles So let's go back into the calendar and have a look at things then and perhaps I'll start with before we go through the line by line day by day what's coming We'll start with the trade deal and get you up to speed of what exactly has happened here and so US-China they they reached a partial trade deal after what was actually at the end of last week the 13th round of talks Now a couple of important points here that have happened China will purchase between 40 and 50 billion dollars worth of us agricultural products It will also address intellectual property and financial services concerns according to the US president donald trump Um analysts though have said that the deal hardly touches on the real sticking points sticking points, of course Being those that we know which is technology transfer and intellectual property theft The two kind of big ones that again has led analysts to believe that really this is addressing in this partial deal What they've been terming the low hanging fruit things that can be easily done, but doesn't really address the bigger issues at play A couple of other things then that are important with this deal And that does shape or change the shape a little bit for the week ahead Is that the US has agreed to suspend a tariff increase on at least 250 billion dollars worth In chinese goods to 30 from 25 percent which would have otherwise have taken place on tuesday So that remember in in the kind of mid september time they delayed that first of october tariff increase to What was then going to be this tuesday on the The 15th however now that has been put off The only thing is though trump has not made the decision yet on the tariffs that were subject to going to effect in december He's just delayed the ones that were due to kick in This week. So if anything it almost feels like this is just more of a temporary deal than a partial deal in my opinion And and it's almost like we've just moved the goalposts further out down the line the same same underlying key Issues are still yet to be really resolved or confronted that being particularly on intellectual property theft but for the moment Delaying of tariffs in addition to the commitment for china to buy large 40 to 50 billion dollars worth of more agricultural goods Certainly will come as a a little bit of light relief But as you can see from the the equity index futures this morning, there's been really little impact The one thing though, I guess if you start looking at the s&p is don't forget we are You know when we talk about where are we in the greater context of things We are not that far off of course the all-time highs I mean this is looking at the chart of the s&p over the last two years and We are trading at 71 and that's 29 71 and a quarter this morning the all-time high of course is only up at around 30 29 or so So, you know, we're only talking about 50 60 points and we're back at all-time highs again Obviously the nearer term level of resistance to keep an eye on would be To start with initial resistance that was seen already At around the kind of 3000 level 29 95 would have been that area Of resistance on the daily chart going back to the beginning of the month above there You've then got the highs that were seen kind of mid that double top in mid september at 30 22 before you get up to that point Whether we can or not. I mean it's yet to be seen We've already I mean a lot of this movement here If I just put in the lips around it to make it a bit more clear A lot of this was on the premise that some kind of partial deal was going to get done So I think a lot of what this news I've just discussed has been largely priced in And one thing that's coming out going forward now is earning season really gets underway and I don't think earning season Although I'm not looking for it to be a real Definitive market mover in a sense of it's going to be the dominant macro theme It certainly isn't going to be particularly positive reading And so by default then not so much supportive of really Reigniting a firm rally and equity market So I'm a little bit pessimistic on whether or not we'll get up there anytime soon In terms of record higher territory, but this should provide this deal At least in the short term a bit of reprieve for the moment Okay, I'm going to quickly Well start talking about us and china jump over to chinese data that came out overnight Chinese imports and exports Were both worse than expected in the month of september import slump signals weak domestic demand ahead of gdp data There's a lot of important chinese economic data coming out this week This is the first of that and really goes some way to show Why china really is willing to cut a deal at least a partial one at this moment with the us Remember, obviously this data is backward looking So it's already showing the kind of distress of which their local economy is under and the necessity then To try and secure some kind of deal To at least stop the stop the rot so to speak I mean, this is what we're looking at when On a chart looking at the white line, which is exports The blue line imports and so they've stabilised if anything But the problem here is that it is in negative percentage territory on a year on year basis And so nothing's really changed too much here I wouldn't say this is really a signal to become overall pessimistic on the market and to start selling So to speak because this is really a continuation of what we have been seeing And ultimately it's about the data now going forward If this deal has been done and this kind of delays then the pressure cooker That is the threat of the implication of a deterioration in trade wars now to december That gives a bit of breathing room perhaps for the economy to see a bit of recovery of sorts At least from these very lower based levels Moving back then to to brexit and let's talk about Boris Johnson and where we're at at the moment as I just showed you on the charts a few moments ago Sterling saw a phenomenal rally the best in several months in fact last week on the premise of perhaps Surprisingly, well kind of a combination really of could he get a deal And the lowering prospects then of the risk of a no deal brexit because either now it seems as though We're going down one of two paths either a deal can be brokered Or we do in fact delay brexit into a later date Now what's happened over the weekend who's saying what well despite the optimism of Boris Johnson The european union warned that talks were still a long way from a breakthrough Spokesman for the british prime minister said there's quote still significant work needed to be done before a deal can be done Just so you're aware uk parliament of course gets reopened today by the queen It's going to happen later on And then talks over in brussels are said to be continuing with both sides ongoing at the moment and today seen as potentially the kind of Getting close to the last chance saloon now for some kind of breakthrough to happen Otherwise time as we're going to look at on the timetable is quickly running out Now what about some of the other particularly important political People said in regards to what's happening at the moment Well, obviously at the moment without a general election happening The conservative party is still very much dependent on support of the northern irish d up And their deputy leader nigel dodd As told the italian press on saturday that the party would reject any solution that would weaken northern ireland's Custom ties to the uk so The d up have kind of been flip-flopping at the moment or whether that was in fact They want to or not support the plans of the prime minister But i'd say this one is a little bit more negative than perhaps where we were at the end of last week And then the opposition party leader jeremy corbin said yesterday that he was unlikely to support any deal agreed by the prime minister All of this then means that some of the reports have been reading this morning Suggest that diplomats have said the slow pace of progress in these talks Has imperiled the possibility of a deal being brokered by the 17th 18th of this week now Why are those dates being put around and that's because of course we have the eu summit happening These are the kind of brexit dates to be aware of So the state opening of parliament and the queen's speech happens today The talks in brussels are also ongoing between the two parties Negotiating brexit then the 17th and 18th So thursday and friday of this week was supposed to be when potentially a deal could have been ratified if agreed Either at the weekend or today Then we have super saturday. That's that additional parliament holding a special sitting I think that's only the fourth time I could be wrong if my history is right since 1932 That parliament has had a special sitting on a saturday So it's only ever happened really when war is broken out in the second world war in the late 1930s It's very unusual but goes to show the commitment on all sides to try and get some kind of idea Or deal done and best way to progress with this brexit situation A core priority for mr. Johnson of course is to be able to get a deal done by those dates because he's had that strong message of of do or die getting a deal By the 31st or the threat of a no deal brexit This has though increased the likelihood potentially and this would not be unusual at all Of increased likelihood of an extra summit being held close to the end of the month October 29th and 30th has been As possible dates and obviously that would come literally Two and one day ahead of the symbolic kind of day as it stands at the moment, which is the 31st of october So lots more to come. I would say This week will be particularly telling Particularly, I'd say the next couple of days Whether or not something can be broken. There's kind of what we were discussing last week There's still much to be done and therefore there's going to be lots more tweets from various journalists lots more source comments Lots more political kind of movement happening on both sides both in the uk and europe So I'd say there's still likelihood of multiple point moves to come from the pounds throughout this week Would I really want to commit to something right off the bat this morning? Probably not want to be more a little bit more reactive to see how things play out I'd say the the bigger kind of trade at the moment though would be given the Elevation of cable last week. There's definitely room for a pullback of a significant nature If in fact a deal is not able to be done The only thing here and the reason why I think though the pound overall might well stay supported Is that it's almost like no deal is off the table now despite what boris johnson might have you believe And so therefore by default It's not a case of the pound just collapses if he doesn't broker a deal because at the end of the day comes saturday He then unless he wants to play A very legal line He has to write a letter to brussels asking for an extension As per the bend bill that passed a couple of weeks ago And so therefore we just extend brexit and again no deal then is completely off the table. So Any pullback I think of a of a Magnitude to get back down to where we were I think maybe unlikely I guess a key level I'd say on any pullback if we're looking at the intro day as far as today is concerned that 125 handle looks pretty interesting 125 you've also got here The s1 on the daily pivots You've also got the initial run on the move higher when some of the positivity was coming through about getting a deal done The resistance levels before then the more aggressive break that came on the morning of the 11th So any pullback down to that level I think could be quite interesting as a strong level of support or in fact Potentially then if it's a point lower than where we are Depending on what happens. Is it a potential another point to get long again on the idea that Either a deal or a delay happens and therefore it's not as if brexit is resolved It's just kind of relief if anything that no deal definitely is off the table now Um, any any further push on the upside though medium terms go back on the daily Then your next kind of level of of significance would come up at around the 128 2830 if you're looking at the futures that starts to encapsulate the high and mid june and the low point of support Around what we're looking at in feb of 2019 We had a test briefly on the day of large fluctuations on the 21st of may as well Could be an upside target in that respect for the slightly longer time horizon Um talking of the uk one final thing to mention on that point is if I go back to here This is a tweet that I did Earlier this morning you might might not have seen but alongside the actual brexit dates There's a few other things to be aware of and one is you've got a lot of bank of england speakers You've got john cunliffe speaking today You've got flago and carney speaking on tuesday appearing before the parliament committee on tuesday You've then got carney speaking again. I believe it's at the i m f annual meeting that will be on thursday Lay it in with that not only you've got the politics and the bank of england speakers You've also got uk jobs data on tuesday uk cpi ppi rpi inflation metrics on wednesday and uk retail sales on thursday So quite a busy week overall on all three different facets there both economic political In that respect so Going back then to The calendar of what to look out for and just to run through finally a summary of everything here and where I feel Some of the potential kind of pivot points could be for overall sentiment and direction for the week Today is relatively quiet I'd say if anything it's more about digestion Of the partial trade deal struck at the end of last week and how does the market overall feel about this I would say still despite the columbus day holiday be interested to see how the us really want to Take that and the perception of that deal whether it is valid enough to help support markets at this point Or in fact, is it just literally as I said low hanging fruit? And if anything it's a disappointment and doesn't address the key issues I think as much as that might be a possibility. I think overall given that the next Tariffs to kick in and not until december that's quite a way off So I think it'll be enough at least to sustain some degree of of common one of more neutral sentiment rather than turn into a negative On tuesday and in terms of major us data, you've got new york empire state manufacturing That's on tuesday and then the other big us reading comes on wednesday, which is us retail sales On the 16th now a lot of people were looking at that because of the idea of Trying to get an insight as to how the us consumer is faring Because that has been the relative sweet spot in comparison to the more kind of manufacturing metrics that we've been seeing out of the US which have been Much more slowing down in a disconnect between what has been a relatively robust consumer at least so far And so the retail sale metric and empire state manufacturing, of course With philly fed coming on thursday will be key components as to ascertain then The likelihood of a october cut from the federal reserve and with that in mind Let's just have a look at the fed watch and see what The pricing in of that probability remains at 75 percent for a rate cut in october with at the end of the year If we just have a look the likelihood is now for just one one more cut So again, it's the shifting of the timing rather than the idea that the cuts are running out in that respect But certainly if that trade war is pushed off now until december That certainly takes a little bit of pressure off the fed Because if you think about last week only a few days ago The market was pricing in two rate hikes that we'd be down in a one and a quarter to one and a half percent range by the end Of the year that's now moved back to just an october cut and then that's it for the moment all the time being otherwise outside of the The data front you've got a lot of corporate earnings coming out now This is really the commencement of the bigger names I think there's four percent Of the entire s and p 500 has reported so fast and not that many companies But this week there's nothing coming out today given that holiday in america But Tuesday pre-market you get the kind of the unofficial commencement If you like of earning season where we get jp morgan city goldmans You've got johnson and johnson as well pre-market. So that will all you know, there's big Top tier banking names will come out remember That usually it's the first of those companies from each respective sector to report which can carry more of an ability to Influence overall index futures if you're trading them Once the first ones come out the rest tend to then follow suit irrespective of the fact that there could be some nuances between You know how they generate Revenue their product mix and different things so Really it's those first couple that will be interesting and johnson johnson obviously a pretty big firm as well That would be on tuesday uh wednesday Probably the most interesting ones are going to be aftermarket. You've got ibm Particularly large market capitalization But then also you get one of the fang names netflix Which their their share price typically is not unsurprising to see double digit percentage moves These kind of growth tech related firms which tend to out and underperform the market and see large swings in price activity Could be quite an interesting one to just get a gauge of sentiment around those associated names And then on thursday morgan stanley honeywell Probably a couple of the bigger names that stand out and then on friday coca-cola amex schlumberger As well we'll see off the week so Next week will be much more busy with earnings But if you are Looking for these top names then they are all included within this calendar that i distributed on sunday You can access this calendar if you need it on my twitter account, which is just here below my name just search awm chung you'll be able to find it and then finally from a chinese point of view You have the trade balance already out, but this time tomorrow will have the latest cpi inflation numbers from china And then at the end of the week you'll get chinese gdp industrial production retail sales unemployment rate fixed asset investments So definitely the full health check if you like of how the chinese economy is performing Will know by the end of the week Okay, that is it from me as i said i'm going to issue the weekly strategy Shortly i'll include all of the technical charts within that, but otherwise I wish you a great day and week ahead. Thank you very much guys


My next long-term review is going to feature Artix Linux and the only reason it was really on the pole in the first place was because several people Asked me to take a look at it and I thought well, you know, I just throw it on the pole Frankly, I thought open Suza would win and it came close But Artix ended up being the victor and I'm going to spend some time in Artix links I'm already started taking a look at it that video will come out in the next couple weeks or so But I what I didn't want to do in that video was take a long time talking about system Instead in that video I will talk about my experiences with running up distro that doesn't have system D Instead in this video today, I'm going to talk about the problems people seem to have with system D itself Now this is a topic that is very widely covered But if I feel like It's a topic that just keeps coming up and coming up because people for whatever reason just don't like system D Or at least a lot of people don't like system D The poll that I put up had 17% of the people Answer that system D was bloated another 52% said it was bloated, but they didn't care so a vast majority people think the system D is bad for one reason or another So what I thought I'd do today is talk about the three arguments people seem to have against system D And then I will try to kind of counter them or say if I agree with them or whatever So let's go ahead and jump in So the first argument is the biggest argument and that is that system D is bloated Frankly this argument is Not a good argument at all because system D is not a single program saying system D is bloated is saying like Linux is bloated now you can make a good argument that Linux is bloated, but Linux is not a singular program GNU slash Linux is a huge collection of many many programs that enable the operating system to run System D is similar in that because it's a collection of Programs that do many different things. There's a huge misconception out there saying that system D isn't in its system That's not correct system D just happens to have an in its system contained within it There's several other things that system D does from enabling system connectivity to Replacing grub to several other High-level and low-level functions that enable your system to run system D is a huge suite of Software it's not just an in its system. You can't really say system D itself is bloated because it's not just one thing It's in an umbrella over several smaller programs many smaller programs. I should say it's just not a very good argument Now if you were arguing this the init system inside system D is bloated I don't really see how you could argue with that because it's just one of the programs It's not I can't tell you how many lines the init system part of system D actually has compared to something like open RC or run it But I wouldn't be surprised if they're fairly comparable because they're just in its systems System D just happens to have other things that it also does that Open RC and run it and similar init systems don't actually do because those are meant to be just in its systems The next argument that I saw in the comments of that poll was that system D enables lock-in to a service So basically the argument is this Because it's so popular It's become a standard which means that Linux itself is so reliant on it It would be hard to move away from now if you ask me. This is the best argument against system D I'm not saying it's a good argument, but it's definitely better than system D is bloated Definitely because system D is the most used system to initialize programs among many other things Linux does rely on it The vast majority of Linux distros out there be they desktop Linux or server Linux distros Reliant system D for various services throughout the system that enable it to run and It would be really hard if for whatever reason the people behind system D decided to make a huge change to system D And everybody hated it. It'd be really hard for each of those distros to find something else, but My argument against this one is that other init systems do exist So just because we happen to rely on a standard similar to what we do with like Xorg or Pulse audio doesn't mean that we can't switch to something else We've proven that we can do that as a community. We can move to something else We either move to Wayland or we're moving to pipe wire and if system D happens to become Horrible or the developers abandon it or it becomes a security problem We'll move on to something different. We've proven nimble enough as a community to do that now That leads us to The last argument and it's kind of similar is that system D is controlled by a major corporation and this is true the system D Development is vastly funded by red hat and in this case probably IBM as well because they now own red hat and My argument against this is that yeah, so what? Does that make a boom too bad because it's backed by a major corporation? Does it make fedora bad because it's backed by a major corporation? Just because something is backed by a major corporation doesn't necessarily Automatically make it evil. There's this sense in the open source community that if you have the back of a major corporation or a major corporation has control over your development that it's automatically makes that product or project bad That's just not automatically the case Now if it was Google having control over system D we could have a different conversation But I don't think that we you can argue that red hat is inherently evil and bad just because they're a major corporation Or even because they're owned by a major corporation I think that it's actually a good thing for the most part because if we want Linux to succeed even on a such a small scale as it currently is Linux needs those major corporate backers who are invested not only in funding Linux projects But also developing them because developers don't work for free so if we want developers to put their effort into developing things like system D or GNOME or KDE or whatever a Lot of those projects that I just named have major corporate backing now You can argue that because system B is controlled by a major corporation It's vastly developed by a major corporation that that is different than having just a backing of a major corporation You could argue that and I can see that point of view but my argument against that is that it's open source if red hat decided to go through and And Completely ruined system D like they did with sent OS. Let's just say they did I don't think they will but let's say they did The community could as people did with sent OS fork it and come out with a you know system E You know whatever, you know That's the nature of open source if that scenario came to pass System D would be forked almost immediately and it would probably be forked by a company that had the resources To actually do things with it, you know similar to what sent to us happened with sent sent to us So those are the three arguments against system D There are probably a few more out there that I just haven't heard about because people seem to really hate system D for whatever reason and The best thing about Linux is that there are other in it systems out there that you can use now in my opinion And from my brief experience so far with Artix They're not as good as system D simply because they don't do as much But that'll be a topic for my next video when I talk about Artix itself. So if you Like this video make sure you hit the like and subscribe button. You can follow me on Twitter at the Linux cast You can support me on patreon at patreon.com slash Linux cast Before I go I'd like to take a moment to thank my current patrons Devon Chris east coast web gen 2 is fun to Marcus Megalyn spend Jackson knife and tool Joshua Lee Mitchell arts in America Can't mr. Fox. Thanks everybody for watching. I'll see you next time


This week's IonMPI is Towglass. Towglass, yes. This is a really cool Irish company that makes a lot of antennas. In fact, you've probably used their antennas. I have before they make ones for GPS and Wi-Fi and cellular and all sorts of stuff, but this week in particular we are highlighting their multi-band SMT antennas.  This one in particular the PA760 wideband is 600 to 6000 megahertz which covers a wide number of bands as shown here basically 4G, 5G, 3G and 2G including Wi-Fi as well. I mean basically kind of anything really between 600 and 6000 and you need this because and I was wondering like why do you need so many bands? Well, I'm used to cellular stuff you know when I was first designing cellular stuff with the CIM 800 this is a GSM GPRS module. So GSM otherwise known as 2G covered the whole world with basically quad band although honestly it's really dual band because you know 850 and 900 megahertz and 1800 and 1900 megahertz are pretty much the same frequencies and they're also multiples of two. So you know getting an antenna that could cover those two bands basically 900 and 1900 megahertz was not too bad. You know we have one in the store that's that's very inexpensive that covers both and has I think two DBI gain and that was wonderful and great except that 2G is no longer used in North America and a lot of parts of Europe. Instead we have you know I'm skipping ahead to LTE which you know you're probably familiar with because your phone is a LTE phone well guess what there is like you know basically 100 bands available for all of the different speeds and bandwidths and ranges that people are expected to use. 100 bands? It's wireless Palooza. I know so you know a lot of this is you know go through all of these some of these of course more popular than others but countries have different bands available and also depending on a category of LTE you know there's there's categories zero category 1M up to category I think four or five the higher the category number the usually the higher the frequency and the higher the bandwidth is for you know transmitting video audio you know high-speed internet whereas the lower categories category zero category one those are used for machine to machine stuff and you know with the low-cost 2G network used to do when you just wanted to send temperature data over cellular or you wanted to you know have a credit card processing machine that just sent authorizations over cellular you don't have to have a very good quality high-speed connection because it's only connecting very rarely it connects to the cell you know the cell network verifies the credit card and then disconnects so for that you might want a less expensive lower power cellular module that uses the LTE network and you might want something that has better range because you know it's it's okay if your fancy cell phone maybe doesn't work in you know a basement eatery but we've been to restaurants where when you go downstairs there's no cell phone service but you know if you if you have a alarm system or a fire you know detection system or a credit card processing system that uses cellular well it needs to work everywhere and so those categories zero and category one bands might use something as low as 900 megahertz 600 megahertz to get really good penetration through walls and through wood and through you know even some thin concrete but again you know it's lower frequency you're not going to be able to carry as much data but you will be able to carry it a lot farther also good for rural areas so this is an example also of you know I looked at another SIMCOM module it's an LTE module that gave that I've you know views before and it's LTE but also has GSM fallback and that's pretty common too so even if you're not necessarily if you're expecting to use LTE you know in some countries there might be GSM as a fallback capability especially in some rural areas that still have GSM or 2G that's another reason why you might want to have multiple bands so this is the antenna or a very similar version of this antenna as an example on a dev board by TauGlass and so this is actually kind of like an IoT all-in-one edge sensor platform thingy and you can see that you know having an SMT antenna is quite nice because first off it's not that large compared to I mean it's big but it's not that large compared to the cellular module and it allows you to have like a weatherproof design or an enclosed design without like this like jangly antenna sticking off of it this could be you know so what I thought was interesting is you know if you have and a cellular module that can do cat zero cat 1m up to you know and as well as looks like maybe they have Wi-Fi or Bluetooth as well this could be handy for some projects some of the projects that they had as an example was if you have a horse farm so let's say you have a horse farm and you're in you know the Irish countryside and you want to track the location of your horses because their horses they run they run very fast they run very far but maybe you want to kind of know where they are sort of on your property so you have a GPS module you need to get that GPS tracking data back to you but again you're in a rural area so you might want to use a cat 1m or you might want to use GSM to get the best range but then also when they're closer to the farmhouse you might switch over to Wi-Fi where you don't have to pay for roaming charges and that's where you know a multi-band antenna could also come in handy if you could switch you have an antenna switch and you switch between cellular and Wi-Fi or maybe you also have Laura Wann and you have a horse mesh network all sorts of ideas sometimes you have to keep track of the temperature of the horses their heart rate there's a lot of things you have to keep track of yeah so they do have they actually did a horse monitor project which I think is a great example of IOT your wild horses yeah so so that edge where I think this is the same board as we showed before and this was used for a project called horse pal with with a company that I think makes horse blankets I mean there's nothing there's really nothing quite more romantic than than having horses in the Irish countryside and you're you're riding them and caring for them and then monitoring them with LTE Cat 1M modules so yeah these modules you know they would slip into the horse blanket and you could use them to locate your horses and also just make sure that they're all doing okay and they're moving fine and here is right sir I love my horse and I keep track of my horse this is the co-CEO of Towglass and I think the blue thing he's holding is is the module I think you know one has the battery on one side and the other side is the edge module you see it's in case in silicone to keep it waterproof because horses you know they are they can roll around in the mud so you have to make something that is not going to get dirty or you can't have like an SMA connector word which could come loose which is why it's handy to have your antenna embedded inside so if you are excited for an SMT mount antenna well you're in luck because there's quite a few models that have them are currently in stock at Digi-Key, Velbel Digi-Key, including the PA 7760, that's right, she's also called the Warrior X wideband, at the time of this screenshot in 2,576, the band of frequencies is as wide as a horses butt yeah and there's a little horse video but you know I have to be careful with some of these sales videos because they use music so we're just gonna we're just gonna show you the video so this is the you know doot-doot-doot this is the music this is the logo okay and then this is the horse and then there was just like drum horse for that's the name of it yeah and it wasn't there was no horse sounds it was just music so I decided yeah you're not losing out on anything with with horses okay well there you go so Taglas thank you so much for inspiring you know I always go to the videos of the company and sometimes I just like to pick the coolest one not necessarily like exactly the video about the antenna but it there was an antenna in that horse blanket so it's it counts okay and that's I on MPI


Okay, we're back for the 3 o'clock block. And this is History Lens. I'm Jay Fidel. And to my left is John Davidan. He is the progenitor of History Lens. He's a professor of history at White Pacific University. And to his right, my brother Gene Fidel, who teaches law at Yale Law School. What a combination. Anyway, so what leads me to this discussion? This is like a pepperoni, half pepperoni and half mushroom pizza. Which is a mushroom pizza. Which is a pepperoni. I like pepperoni actually. Actually, we're going to do the whole show about pizza. Change the title. The title is The History of Presidential Power. And it's dramatic, inexorable expansion over the years. What makes us think of this is, of course, Trump and the national emergency and other gambits that he has used in his administration to enhance and expand his own presidential power and become more authoritarian all the time. And it's very scary. A lot of people are worried about that. So we need to study this, John. But the thing is, some scholars have argued that Trump actually pulled back a little bit on presidential power. And when he determined that the DACA declaration that Obama did, which was an executive order, was unconstitutional and then abandoned that, some scholars have argued, well, he actually took back some presidential power. But then he made his own declarations, didn't he? Well, he's, you know, in distinction to his position on the original DACA executive order. He made his own executive orders. I mean, that's the fear, right? The fear of the left and of Democrats is that Trump is accumulating all this power. And what will he do with it, right? I read an article in The Atlantic recently, which suggested, well, Trump could, with a national emergency declaration, send troops into the polling places on the day of the election just to make sure that there's no violence associated with it, which could, you know, provide enough intimidation on the part of voters that they might actually, you know, voters might not show up and boom, Trump wins re-election. It's like reconstruction all over again. Seriously, sending federal troops into and insured Democrats? Well, that's true, right. I mean, that's, and of course... What's chilling about it is Michael Cohen's closing remarks this week about how if Trump loses the election in 2020, there will not be a peaceful transition of power. That's a great concern. He'd still be president. He'd still theoretically have the right to, you know, supervise the military. But let's go back. We go back to the beginning. What did the founders intend here and how far off base have we gone? What do you call an executive creep? Yeah, well, I mean, there's a sense in which creep. There's a Nixon era. Exactly, right. Executive, the creeping authority of the executive branch or the chief executive. So let me toss a few ideas out. Yeah, sure, go. And then you can, if you can assemble these in a way that makes some sense for viewers, that would be great. I'll just, I'll toss out a few things. We have seen the function of the cabinet ebb and flow. Right. At the moment, I would say it's at low. Yes. The power of the cabinet. The power of the cabinet, the quality of the cabinet appointees, those who are not yet in jail. So you have that you have an expanded role for the president under the theory of the unitary executive. In other words, that all article two powers vest ultimately in the president and the implications of that. So that's the second thing. The third is the morphing of the foreign relations power, which is a classic executive power and coupled with that, the atrophying of senatorial ratification of treaties because we've largely gone out of the business of negotiating classic treaties. Instead, we have all these international agreements that may or may not ever require bicameral or even unicameral approval. And then you have the growth of the sort of inferior officers for purposes of the appointments clause so that people don't have to ever come before Congress before the Senate for confirmation. And finally, where is the sort of energy source in terms of new executive branch initiatives. So I guess that my question for you, that's all sort of preliminary. My question for you is, have we drifted too far from the shore? Right. So I think we certainly have. Take a minute. Yes. But so yeah, I mean, so if we go back a very long way to the to the writing of the Constitution, of course, you had several different ideas of what the presidency should be. And, and, you know, while the Jeffersonians thought the president should have various circumscribed powers, the Hamiltonians believe that the president should have great power. Alexander Hamilton believed that a president should be elected and then serve for life. Yeah.  But, you know, he wanted, he was, he was thinking about what should, how should the Congress refer to me.  He'd been in London. That's right. He'd been exposed to the British Royal Court. So he knew what it looked like with a powerful executive. One of the Jeffersonian, you know, and this was a time period in the 1790s when political combat was open and it was visceral. It was a very nasty time period. Fist fights on the floor of the Congress. The sedition in Alien Acts, which then provoked Jefferson to argue that actually secession was constitutional. So it's, it's a, it's a nasty time period.  So there's always an issue then, even from the outset. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And the president believed that we were, we were sliding towards a monarchy very rapidly under the atom's presence. And some of the, you know, it's like a pointless painting. There are little data points along the way. Yeah. And this is the way things grow when they assemble enough into a pattern. So an early issue was at one point, President Washington thought, well, I'll go up to the Hill and testify in person. He said, no, no, no, no, no, no. Not a good idea. Right. It was about, I think, an Indian treaty maybe or something like that. Right, right, right. Yeah. So, you know, and that's the way the sort of norms of executive. Working out a relationship between the branches. That's, you work it out. Yeah. And it's over particular issues. It's like in a relationship, in a domestic relationship. Yeah.   Yeah. It's easy at my house, never mind. For another time. Different show. Yeah. So, I mean, Washington did actually act unilaterally. I mean, he acted to declare that we would be neutral in the conflict between France and Britain in the 1790s. And not everybody liked that. The Jeffersonians thought, hey, you don't have the right to say that. We think the United States should be on the side of France. So Washington actually established a little bit of kind of unitary action on the part of the president. But it's also part of it is that it depends upon how compliant Congress is. Whether, you know, you've got the opposition in Congress or whether they've got your own party in Congress. There have always been times. If I ask you a question.  The Louisiana Purchase. Right. Did Congress approve that in advance? Not in advance. But they ultimately did because they had to appropriate that. That's correct. Jefferson negotiated it. Jefferson administration negotiated it. And then Congress came back in approve. Was that wrong under the law at the time? Well, there's, again, there's debate. As you pointed out, there's debate about what the Constitution actually dictates in terms of presidential powers. There's leeway. There's wiggle room in Article 2 of the Constitution.  I mean, Jefferson, who was the limited power guy when he was out of power, when he became president, then he did the Louisiana Purchase without prior approval of Congress. He sent ships out to defeat the Barbary pirates, and he didn't ask Congress for approval of that. So, I think if you can see it as something that has, I would say, before the Roosevelt administration, something that really changes with the administration and the Congress. But after, during Franklin Delano Roosevelt's administration, then Roosevelt accumulated quite a bit more power to his administration. And as I mentioned beforehand, in 1939, he asked Congress for the power to establish lots of executive offices, agencies, offices in the White House that were not a part of the federal bureaucracy, but were connected directly to the president. And these have just exploded since Roosevelt's time. It changes the nature of government, doesn't it? It reminds me of the Enabling Act of 1933 in Germany. Hitler didn't just do that by fiat. He asked the Reichstag to pass statutes. I mean, to pass at both houses, and they passed at both houses, and now he was in charge. So they gave it up willingly. And the same thing for Roosevelt. Roosevelt could have asked Congress to establish each one of these commissions separately. It could have been. But Congress gave up that discretion. Sometimes that kind of change where things, a bit of power flows from column A to column B. Sometimes it may be, on the spur of the moment, a sort of microaggression between branches. An example is committing the country to war. Combat operations. Wasn't it a combat operation in Libya? What was going on? What is going on in Syria? Under the Obama administration, who we like. In Africa. All over Africa involves in combat operations right now. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went to the Congress and said, look, we don't need your approval. And she actually said it. Because it was a part of, they would have made some, you know, some specious arguments about, well, the mission is a part of NATO. It's actually not an American mission. So we don't need congressional approval. Does anybody question this stuff? Does anybody come along? Sure, the Republicans did at that point. And there's a Supreme Court opined on this sort of thing? Yes, the Supreme Court has. Yes, the Supreme Court has. Yes, so it's talking about a lot of things. It's complex and it's changed over time. But typically when the Supreme Court gets involved, and I want to mention one other thing about courts, but when the Supreme Court gets involved, it's usually after the fact. And the crisis has passed. World War II, Japanese relocation and so forth. That's conveniently after the problem is over. The other thing that, you know, in talking about the long trajectory here is the evolution of the federal courts. That's the scope of their jurisdiction. And they're willing this to exercise it. And that ebbs and flows as well. Where the court has, I'll say, lurched to the right over time. And we're currently in a lurch. That's going to have an impact on the other two prongs of the stool, the other two legs of the stool. Right, but the current court is filled with strict constructionists. So, this is the weird thing about it. It's like, okay, look, it's very clear that the Congress must declare war. That's clear. That's crystal clear in the Constitution. Well, these strict constructionists, I bet, would fold in a second if Trump declared a war. So the politics of this is really intense. And the strict constructionists, I think, have always given way when their party is in power and they want the president to succeed. So, you know, politics are deeply embedded in this. Well, you know, one question I have, and I'm not as into it as either of you guys, but so if you keep on creeping and giving the executive more power and letting him be more of an authoritarian, more of even a dictator and do things without consent by anybody, are you threatening the democracy?  Are you threatening the Constitution going forward? Do we have that now? Well, I think we have a serious problem. Let me mention lawyers, I think, have a particular responsibility to be up on this. I've been involved in forming a new organization called Lawyers Defending American Democracy. We've issued an open letter hundreds of lawyers have signed on and the purpose is not to be partisan and cold balls and strikes about particular things that the president hasn't done, but to talk about the systemic issues, the issues concerning the basic values of the American Democratic Project. And so that really is a concern that I think people have to have in mind regardless of who happens to occupy the White House. One other thing and I'd be interested in your thought on this, we always think about a kind of trajectory and it's kind of, you know, what is it, like a pendulum, that it'll swing back. And I think the better understanding now is that it is not necessarily the case that the laws of physics that cause a pendulum to swing back apply where you're talking about political evolutions. And you don't know whether it's going to work like that or whether it's going to do curl-acuse or some combination. But it all moves forward. Everything is on the record. Well, I'm reminded of a guest we had from Yale Law School, Jack Balkan. Wonderful colleague. It was during the Trump administration, I'm sorry, during the Bush administration, W. Bush. And we had a show, he was on it. And I asked him, I said, well, when Bush is finished, there's no word before. Can we just, you know, just reverse all the things that we are offended by during his administration? And what he says is, J, it's all on the record. It all moves forward. Everything that happens in the future. Right, no, that's right. It becomes in a way precedent. Except if you have what I'll say is a radical occupation of the White House, a radical non-subscriber to the basic norms of the American political culture, which is what we currently are seeing. That's true. That's what we have right now. So the thing is it's not, the pendulum theory is not a good theory for describing history in general, much less this particular. It's like a swing in a children's playground. And you're on the swing swinging back and forth. Every once in a while. You'll lose one. I mean, why? Jimmie catapulted off into space. I sense this possibility of that right now. Yeah, it's possible. So Arthur Schlesinger Jr. wrote a book in 1973 at the height of the crisis over Nixon, which was really a constitutional crisis. And it was a crisis about the presidency as well, and then of course impeachment proceedings began to be designed. But Schlesinger wrote this book and I think he wrote it to kind of wake up the American people that's like, hey, you've got to be aware that this presidency is gaining a lot more power. He called it the imperial presidency. And he identified a lot of things historically in which there had been a kind of creeping power accumulating to the president. But honestly, it does wax and wane. Lincoln, of course, we go back to the Civil War, and by the way, wars are a moment where the president seems to accrete a lot of power, to get a lot of power. You look at the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War. That's a case where the president never asked for approval to send troops into Korea. It created a new normal about wars. But if you go back to the Lincoln era, Lincoln, of course, Lincoln was quite open about the fact that he was during the Civil War, once the Civil War starts. He said, I'm not going to run things according to the Constitution. I can't in order to win this war. And so I'm going to do things as commander in chief. And, well, of course, there's a constitutional prerogative there for the executive as the commander in chief. But Lincoln said, I'm going to do this stuff and it's probably going to be beyond the Constitution in many cases. But I'm going to do this to win the war. And he said, after the war is over, it's all done. I will back off of all of that. So the martial law declaration in Washington, D.C., the suspension of the habeas corpus, you know, the anyway, the whole lot of it, there was a lot of things that Lincoln did, especially in Washington, D.C., because it was a haven for Confederate spies. And that border in the North and South was really porous. And Lincoln locked up a lot of people who he suspected were spies for the Confederacy. And he was right in about 90% of the cases. Does that make him a dictator? Well, he did say I'm going to get out of this. I'm not going to do this. This is not going to become permanent. Well, he found a strange way of getting out of it. No, I mean, Congress ultimately ratified what he did. But there was a time there. There was a window where he was out in front and he defended it by saying something like because he had violated the suspension clause of the Constitution, the one that permits under narrow circumstances suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. He said, should all the laws be set aside just so we honor this one? In other words, if I honor the letter of the suspension clause, the whole rest of the government crumbles. Who's what responsible public official would do that? Okay, we get that. The question is what is that a loaded gun to use Justice Jackson's term for any future president? Right. The answer is yes. The answer is yes. And the national emergency issue right now is the same thing. Be careful who you vote for and make sure you have a functioning check in Congress. Right. It's back and forth and it's up and down. It's a sign curve. Right. But I feel that if you look from the time the beginning when we were sorting things out until now, there has been a visible creeping, a visible expansion of presidential power. I think Schlesinger understood that exact thing when he wrote the book in 1973 because he went back and he created this narrative which really stops at Roosevelt and says, look, this is where presidential power doesn't return to what it was. Okay, previous president said if I'm taking more power I'm going to return it later. Roosevelt doesn't... Roosevelt does say that but he dies, of course, and Roosevelt just accumulates a lot of power to himself in Congress' response to that by putting in term limits in a couple of other things but there's not enough there and actually what you see after Roosevelt is a pretty rapid accumulation of power by presidents. You've got the Korean War and then of course you have the 1960s and 70s with Nixon and a dramatic increase in power at that point. Nixon does all kinds of stuff that's not constitutional unless you assume the president has any power that's not prescribed to the Congress and but then there's a reaction against that. Also it's not a one-way street there are, and maybe this is the exception that proves the rule, but desegregation Congress didn't desegregate anything. It was the Supreme Court that kicked off desegregation with Brown against Board of Education and it was Dwight Eisenhower who was willing to commit the executive branch namely the U.S. Army to enforcing the writ of the federal courts. That was the right way. Well, that was what to do because Congress was missing in action. They had a toothless civil rights act and it was because of the Dixie Crats it was impossible to get anything through Congress until well into the 60s when President Johnson was willing to make the kind of strong commitments and put his stars on the table and he did it. In other words, there are complications and there are times when this readjustment or malleable power can be exercised in a way that sort of normatively we would say oh, that's a good thing. But the question is, is it a good thing institutionally because Congress actually we permitted Congress to basically go in and out. That's an earlier gene and something you said way earlier too you're talking about the speed at which government works and sometimes it doesn't work quickly enough where the executive, he sees the issue he can act immediately, that is something but it goes back to something that you and I discussed 20 years ago and it's this, it's a military you weren't in that conversation but it's memorable. So back in the what, the 17th century, the 18th century commander of the ship, you know took off, he had a sealed packet of orders, you remember what I'm talking about? He opened the packet of orders once at sea and he followed those orders and they were not necessarily that detailed. But he had complete control of that ship while we were out there because there was no way the admiral could talk to him. Fast forward to modern times, the 21st century the admiralty can talk to him all the time, continually. So his discretion is really very limited because he may have to check back with them, they're going to change their minds he's got levels of bureaucracy he's not really the master of his ship. And that's because we have high speed technology we have events moving at a much faster pace around the world and so I suggest to you that that speed of events, speed of communication really affects this. Congress is stuck in something that can't act Supreme Court can't act the president can act. Well, just to react to that we are we're a very conservative country we've had a really an amazingly stable set of governmental arrangements I mean the big breakpoint once the Civil War was over that was really a challenge to the integrity of the country obviously but then the 14th amendment which was basically a second revolution that changed the operating system the social operating system what I think what I think we're experiencing now is a combination of factors number one an individual who happens to be occupying the highest office in the land at the moment has tremendous power attached to it by any standard, you know whatever your standards are. So you have a person who is unmoored from all of the cultural norms that we've been discussing and that you teach and have written about at the same time we are in a pivotal moment regardless of who was in the White House and why is that? World War II I would say let's say ended basically when conscription ended in about 1973 when you think about it Jay and I were both on active duty roughly the same time here where I was stationed the ships were World War II ships in many instances the whole framework the social norms within the military were World War II vintage many of the people had served in World War II towards the tail end then what happened was we wrapped up the Vietnam we wrapped up conscription and the next big thing that happens really is the collapse of the Soviet Union and we then enter the growth of Europe obviously whatever is happening there that's another show but at the time it was pretty positive but the point is it's a major change and the new World War II Europe really ripened still fragile as we know and who knows what it looked like in six months and then at the same time you see that quickening as a result of instantaneous communications the internet space travel space weapons a nuclear era that seems to have receded for the moment but who knows North Korea but we're now at a point where a new equilibrium which may be a fragile equilibrium may be emerging and I think that's what makes the current uncertainty about the values and orientation of the president so and the sort of enemy within Congress so unsettling to those of us of our age you're a young man but you know J's old you know but it makes it unsettling when we realize that this world that was basically organized and orderly and predictable is now not necessarily any of those and that is a very unsettling moment so when you add enhanced presidential power to that recipe you get it's troubling so you really have a minute left and I'd like to ask you to sort of put this all together so the thing about Slesinger's work the imperial presidency is that Congress did pass a couple of laws in the 1970's that pulled back on presidential power they passed the national emergency act in 1976 and they passed the war powers act in 1973 now there's been presidential creep presidential power creep since that time but on the other hand Congress pulled those powers back to a point where there's actually a legal framework and presidents are supposed to work within that legal framework of course but it didn't begin to violate it and then Bush both Bush and Obama violated probably violated the war powers act do you think the war powers act is constitutional? well there's that debate as well and honestly I'm not qualified to answer that question but it seems to make sense that Congress should be involved because of what the Constitution says that Congress is the one who actually declares war not the commander but the chief prosecutes war Congress declares war so I think we're in a situation where exactly we need a new equilibrium and I guess positive side maybe a Congress where there are a lot of Republicans who are limited government Republicans a Congress like that and Democrats who don't like Trump maybe at some point will actually get their act together again pull on the reins pull Trump back barring that maybe the Supreme Court will get a good ruling on the Trump's national emergency out in the Supreme Court because that national emergency law has been tested a couple times in the courts but not a lot not a big time not a lot and they changed some of the provisions of it but so tests of that can the government be successful if we're going back a little bit I think there's some interest in that there's of course a great deal of fear of what Trump will do but you know we'll have to wait and see last thoughts Jane I'm concerned I don't feel that I have the ability to peer through the fog as much as I would like and I'm concerned about the developments that combined with the political developments that we've talked about and I'm thinking here about the media the emptying out of newsrooms the dying off of many newspapers and the budgets for the major networks and news coverage when you sprinkle that in to our pepperoni half mushroom it's a really dangerous time it is and of course rampant globalization and communication globalization where you foreign powers can very easily influence what you're doing and then AI right well I can't even say that let me ask but I'm hopeful that in the future it chips off the lawyer's letter that you described as my own view is Congress may not be well educated enough to deal with this I'm sorry a good part of the electorate same thing you know so and presidents can be elected on the basis of other than competence as we know so you know who is responsible in this country in this democracy who is the best arbiter of how you follow the rule of law and how you remain faithful to the notions of the Constitution it's the lawyers and they have a duty to do this now is the time they have to step up and see a letter is so important well I think that's right although and I do believe that lawyers are uniquely positioned because of the when you add everything up the number of insults to the principle of the rule of law it's just far too many in recent times but I also think that the academy has special responsibility I think academic leaders the presidents of universities for example should be speaking out just as the presidents of bar association should be speaking out those are sources of of insight and wisdom that have not been brought to bear in any event the further settlement of where we are the balance that you spoke of really depends not only on the institutions involved and the political officials involved but on people who are mindful of this and have the ability to speak on it a civil democracy including a civil society and I think that the potential for that to reemerge is actually there right now but we don't have a moment to lose we have to move quickly and thinking of that we don't have a moment left on the show good way to end Jay thank you Gene Feijer thank you so much it used to be a part of this


Welcome to another episode of the Learning Loop podcast where we talk all about education. I'm your host, Chris, and I'm thrilled to have with us today a very special guest, Megan. Megan is an assistant principal in Fulton County, Georgia. She is going to share some incredible insights with us about family engagement. In today's show, we'll be digging into important questions that will help you to deepen your family partnerships from day one of school. You won't want to miss this valuable discussion about bringing families into the Learning Loop. So settle in and let's get started. Megan, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you for having me. Very excited to be here. Of course. I want to start with a pretty easy question. How does family involvement in your children and your children's education, how does that impact student achievement and success? Great question. I mean, that's a big question. I think that the thing to remember is that really education should be a way to involve all stakeholders. It's not really just about the teacher with the student or even just the parent with the administrator. It's everybody digging in together to make that community really effective and to get really a picture of the whole child, right? Because we want to know everything we can about the child's learning, about their well-being and just their successes. And the only way to do that is to hear from each individual stakeholder how those connections can be really tricky. Absolutely. And I think what we've learned coming out of the pandemic and other things is that there is much more to an education for a child than just academics. There's so many things around social emotional growth and just development around friendships. And I appreciate that you guys are being mindful of that as you're thinking about what does success look like as far as our connections with our families. How do you help your families feel connected in your school events and provide opportunities for them to participate even though you're in a virtual environment? What are some ways that you found to be successful? Yeah, definitely. So, you know, I think that that's the fun part is the virtual environment, you know, kind of taking down those digital walls, if you will, and finding ways to bring us together. And one thing that we started doing over at our school where we're year two, we're starting year three now of just opening our brand new school. And so every year we're learning something new. We're the most valuable year of learning and building community. That was our big focus was how do we build community and bringing in opportunities for meeting face to face. So we have things where we still meet virtually. We have our online town hall meetings where we can have a casual way of meeting with parents. So instead of having a, you know, a strict online presentation ready for parents, it's more of that casual ask some questions, get some answers, you know, give the parent the floor to share things and ask questions and dig deeper. But we also decided to involve in-person community events. So we're a very large district. I'm sure if anyone has known anything about Fulton County, it's pretty huge. So it spans over like 70 plus miles. And so bringing us together, we have to be very creative about where we meet, how we meet and the purpose and the attention of the meeting. So we're not just having meetings for meetings. We found the way to get buy-in, of course, and to get people to come out is really to have those opportunities where it's a little more fun. You know, it's about relationship building. It's about having the opportunity to sit one-on-one with a parent to give the little ones a hug. You know, an actual physical hug, right? We haven't been able to do things like that. In your virtual environment, you can do your Air High 5 so it's not quite the same. And so getting the opportunity to do the fun things. You know, we make our own spirit wear. We have a screen printing station where they get to get hands on, build their own spirit wear. We're right there in the mix with them. We're building, we're laughing, we're cutting up. We're building that connection so that later, whenever there are difficult conversations, we're kind of overcoming that because we're real people now. We're not just, you know, a name and an email. We're real people.  Again, I think that's my biggest thing you're going to hear me talk about today is two-way conversation instead of one way. Instead of just giving an email or sending a graphic, it is more of that opportunity to open the floor so that you have your stakeholders be able to, you know, build the connections, ask the questions they need to ask, get the answers they need to get. My favorite thing you said there was intentionality. You know, we can always say, we're going to go do this connection. We're going to do this fun, you know, next new thing. But if you don't have a purpose and intentionality around building that connection on the back end, then, you know, you might be missing an opportunity there to actually, you know, create and deepen that connection as well. So I just love how you're being purposeful about that and making sure that the steps you're taking are all leading to the right path you want to carve forward. Speaking of kind of leading this path, we're thinking about back to school and this is on top of mind to a lot of different people of, you know, what do we want to make sure we do and how do we really start our year right? What are things that you do at the start of your year to just get to know your families, get to know your students, get to know their home lives, their culture, and how do you start to really bridge that gap and start to collaborate with those parents from the start of your school year? Yeah, that's a great question. So one of the things that we do, you know, seems traditional in a normal building where you actually will bring, you know, parents into the school building to have an opportunity to meet and connect with you. But we do that too. We have an actual in-person meeting. But one of the things that we're adding to our little mix this year, again, something new, because we're growing, we're new, is having an opportunity to have kind of a parent workshop built in.  So they'll come in and they'll learn about specific tools that they'll need to be accessing throughout the school year. You know, how to be a good learning coach online. If the teacher's not there to sit in the room, they'd like they would in a teacher's desk where they would walk around the classroom and circulate and you've got that proximity, you know, the power of proximity. You don't really have that in this online environment. So the parents are key players. They are a learning coach. They are their partners in education. And so we really want them to feel like they have the tools and the resources they need to be a partner. And so having that one-on-one kind of workshop, not really a tutorial, you know, we don't want to make them, we want to empower them to feel like they're a definitely a part and they understand if we ask them to go and use a specific spot or go to a certain, you know, place to access the content, they know where to go and how to do that. So I think that that is something new we're going to add. And I'm hoping that also again, we'll take down a wall or a barrier for parents who might be a little nervous about technology and feel comfortable in coming and asking us, knowing that again, we're partners in this together. And I think that that hopefully this little welcome back partnership will be fruitful. Absolutely. I'm sure it will. I'm sure it will. I know there are parents, like you were saying, who might be apprehensive about what does this mean for me when my child is here in the virtual school and what kind of job do I have to play at home and being there to open your doors and literally have them come in and get all those questions answered is not only going to kind of remove that anxiety, but also really allow you to coach them and to really like empower them to be those coaches at home and to really be that teacher right next to those children, even though you can't physically be there, they can still be there for you. And so I think that's an awesome step to take just to make sure that your students have the most support possible. What are some of the biggest challenges that schools face when it comes to getting families engaged and how can these challenges be overcome? These can be challenges that you have felt and seen and experienced or challenges that you're starting to see around you. What kind of things are out there and how can we start to overcome them? Sure. No, that's a great one. And I could speak from different lenses, of course, because I too am a parent and in the same school system and I can see just from my own peers some of the common things. And I think the biggest is really getting families to feel engaged with the community enough to involve themselves. And that comes from volunteer work. I feel like that's the biggest thing and that's an area of great need. We need a lot of parent involvement and this is in virtual life. This is in face-to-face life. This is in Cub Scouts. This is in all of the places that you go and getting people to feel that need or the call to duty, if you will, to volunteer maybe and to support and be an active member of that community. I see, especially since COVID times, there has been a little bit of a slow go to get back into the groove of what that's like in our daily normal because I think we got really comfortable in staying in our own space, in our own lane and doing our things. So I think finding ways to get that community to be more engaged has been our biggest challenge to conquer. And I think one of the things that we've done really to do that is to overcome that is to scaffold a little bit of what does that volunteer work look like. So instead of giving an exhaustive list of things that will really overwhelm the person, I know even me as a parent, if I'm looking, someone needs help and there's this huge exhaustive list, I might be a little hesitant to want to go dig in on all of the things. So I think that really prioritizing what the need is and then figuring out who are the different groups or parties inside of your school building that can really help you with that work. So for example, your PTA, your PTO, they might be able to help you find some of the volunteers that you need. We've got our big device distribution day coming up, but our teachers need training and they need to be able to prepare and they need to be able to plan so we can't really lean on them. So we were able to recently reach out to our group and say, hey, we need a couple extra hands to help us out with some of these welcome back events and they're able to reach out to their network and then really help support that. So that networking piece, the scaffolding, the prioritizing, what it is you need to get people involved and get them excited about helping out. You spoke about this earlier in a different context, but I think you're coming back to it here too about how do you really personalize these conversations and make sure that you're reaching a level of comfortability with everybody that you can allow to have some of these asks and allow them to feel comfortable enough to be able to step into those environments and really continue to support schools in unique ways. It's a really strategic way to make sure that you're starting to build that community in a really purposeful way for your schools and for your families as well. I want to come back to a question or an answer that you shared about how large your district is and within that large district, I'm sure that there is different areas where there might be different socio and economic statuses or there might be different cultural barriers that are there. Can you share some practical tips or things that you have done to overcome some of those barriers that are in your way for your schools? Yeah, so I think that that's something that it's going to always be a work in progress because that is definitely, especially in our area, we've got such huge wide diversity between just portions of the district and they all get to come to our school, which is great because we're a public school open to everyone. But I think that the biggest thing when it comes to that is just ensuring equitable access. When we're talking about, there's the normal things the district will provide and our district is very, we're very blessed to be able to offer computers to everyone, access to internet, things of that nature. But I think one of the things to think about is just access to people, people resources. I think people resources are probably the biggest, most important factor. So there might be times where you'll have some students that are maybe that have a social economic problem or need that they need support with and so having the ability to go and knock on the door and offer support or bring them in for any one-on-one in-person opportunities. That's important. I think meeting them where they are is key in knowing where they are because everyone's going to be in a different level in a different space and that looks a little different. You can also, I think it's great opportunity to partner and buddy up kids that they have an opportunity to help and learn and grow from each other. I think peer learning is probably one of the most beneficial things for students who need that extra support. But again, when it comes to our parents and our families, we've been known to knock on some doors and help support in ways that are maybe not so conventional that you would see in traditional school. Absolutely. You're embodying that persona of we'll do anything for our kids and we'll make sure that we're there whether it means we have to physically knock on doors or we set up different systems on the back end that just allows them to have different peer support networks as well. Love to hear those practical steps. I have a next question for you is going to be our throw you for a loop question. If you could eat one food for the rest of your life what would you choose? That is such a good question and this one is going to, I would probably eat any potato product. Any potato product. French fries, big potatoes. Does that count? It's pretty broad. It's potato. It's a single item. So that definitely works. That's a fantastic answer especially coming from someone who lives in the Midwest that potatoes are really everywhere and they're a great source of carbs and they're super delicious. That's awesome. I don't think it would be the best option though for eating only potatoes forever but it's okay. That's okay. You'll enjoy it while you have it. It's all good. One final question for you as we start to close off things thinking of one last thing that the audience can leave with one more little tip or trick that we can give to everybody who's tuning in what advice would you give to your parents and what advice do you hand to your parents when you start your year to help to provide supporting environments for their students learning and how they can be successful in school? What are some things that you start to share with your parents, whether it's the start of school or even maybe midway through school how do you continue to just provide that information to them? I think that one of the biggest things that parents really need to know is how to access student data because in order to really understand student achievement and how well your child is doing personally is to actually see what your child is doing. One of the things that we start the year off with specifically is our school system uses canvas so that's one way for them to look for grades, for grade points and data points but finding ways to access that as a parent observer I think is the biggest piece and then that way they can follow with communications and actually speak to the data points. I see that my child has done this on this particular standard and so what can we do to help support that? As a classroom teacher, one of the things that I used to love to do was of course my sea salt since we never talked about sea salt so as a music teacher I actually would have them show progress so if we were working on a project they would do step one here and they would show it in their portfolio then step two, step three, step four and so when we look at data points then I can even say along the way it's not and that's how it guided and shaped our final project and so having those data points really I think helps our parents see along the way, the journey along the way so it's not an aha got you at the end or a surprise, as a parent I think there's been times where I've gotten to the end and I've gotten a final grade and I was like how did that even happen? I feel like I know how to find the data so I think that schools in general really need to help parents understand where is it going for the class, how can I view it how can I keep track of it along the way and then that way they can have this open conversations for sure I love that, I think that really embodies that growth mindset that you're really trying to instill in your parents, your families, your community and your students most importantly there so I think that's an amazing step to take at the beginning of the year and really any time to just inform your parents like what does success look like in our school and how do we measure that and just being really clear and transparent with that with your families is a great step to take as we close up today I just want to say thank you Megan for taking some time here, thank you for just taking your busy day and making sure that you can come here and chat with us a little bit about family engagement we learned so much from your specific instance and how do you really bridge those connections in virtual schools I just want to thank you and appreciate you sharing all these wonderful insights thank you so much thank you


Hey, I'm Cody with security mentor. You're either thinking about getting an insurance business or you're already in it I'm here to tell you. I love this business. It's been amazing to me. I'm passionate about I'm excited about it That's why I want to give you three tips for any type of insurance sales generally life for health life for Medicare Same can be said for PNC.  It doesn't matter The big thing is enjoy what you're selling if you're excited about it If you're passionate about it much easier to wake up to get out of bed and to actually go perform Your job and to do what you know you first do so find a good company in it That's tip number one. They got something that you're gonna enjoy selling and then focus on it tip number two is to have a prospecting System you follow my videos if you watch everything we do I'm big on the word system and having a system in place that is Duplicatable and repeatable on a daily and weekly basis once you find that system. Maybe it's leads Maybe it's finding telemarketers to generate leads for you. Maybe it's buying leads from a vendor Maybe it's direct mail leads. Maybe it's internet leads. Maybe it's Prospect maybe it's networking.  Maybe even great months, but to put together a great quarter a Great year a great decade a great career. You've got to be consistent So I would say the biggest thing to all this is to find something that is duplicated or repeatable that you enjoy doing and that you Can be consistent at once you're consistent at it Success will come so enjoy what you're doing have a blast More millionaires are in the insurance and financial services industry than any other industry in the world You've chosen the right career now Let's repeat it and make sure that you are doing what is best for you to succeed long term If you like our videos if you love what we're doing and you want to be in tune with all the video We've got over 500 videos on YouTube click subscribe below so that you get notified anytime we do videos So click subscribe also if you love the content Give us a thumbs up and feel free to check out our website secure age mentor comm for more information on everything that we do whether it's leads coaching Memberships mindset a team agency mentorship scripts Recordings whatever you need. We have it here for you. Thanks for watching from all of your agent mentor. I'm Cody. Have an awesome day


One of the best ways to manage a team's energy in a workshop is to tell them right at the beginning of the workshop that they're going to feel tired in the workshop and that that's okay. One of the things that makes people feel really tired and low on energy in a workshop is that they think they need to be switched on the entire time and if they get tired they're ruining the whole thing. But in the beginning of every workshop I tell a team you're gonna feel tired after lunch you're gonna have a slump and in the workshop I'm saying are you feeling that slump now you're feeling the low that's okay that's normal that's how it feels to be in a workshop and just telling them this will counter intuitively keep their energy levels up a lot higher than if you don't mention anything and they think that you think that they should be high energy. No tell them at the very start of the workshop that it's completely normal if the energy drops and that you've planned and built the workshop based on the fact that their energy will be lower later in the day. That's it.


K. R. Palsnur working as an assistant professor in civil department from Walton Institute of Technology, Sulapur. Today's class we are going to discuss on stone masonry and the brick masonry walls. These are the learning outcomes. At the end of this session students will be able to compare between the stone masonry and the brick masonry walls and its selection according to the construction work. Masonry is defined as an art of construction. This was the oldest method of the construction generally known to the humans. Masonry is the process of laying the masonry unit over another unit with the mortar to form a uniform bonding so that it can form an element of the building or a member of a building. It is commonly used for the masonry walls and the buildings. So there are different types of the masonry walls as the stone masonry, the brick masonry, hollow block concrete masonry, the reinforced masonry, composite masonry. So out of this we will be studying about the stone masonry and the brick masonry. The stone masonry. The rock that is removed from its natural site and is used for the fur and is cut and dressed and finally finished for the building purpose is called as the stone and the construction of the building structure with stones as a constructional unit is called as the stone masonry. Here you can see that the stone masonry is made up of the stone units bonded together with the mortar. There are different types of the stone masonry as the rubble stone masonry and the ashlar masonry. So in the rubble masonry the stones are either undressed or roughly dressed and whereas in the ashlar masonry the stones are finely dressed. So these are the different types of the rubble masonry as the coals rubble masonry. Second you have the uncorals rubble masonry, third the random rubble masonry, fourth is the polygonal rubble masonry, fifth is the flint rubble masonry and finally the dry rubble masonry. So let us see one by one the coals rubble masonry. So in this we have the plan, the elevation of the coals and the section is shown. So in this type you can see that the stones they are of different sizes and even in the coals rubble masonry the masonry work is carried out in the coals. Here you can see that the stones which are used in the coals are of equal height. So they are used in the residential and the commercial constructions. So next we have the uncorals rubble masonry. In this type of the masonry you can see that there is no such coals maintained over here. So here you can see that the large stones are laid below and over that the small chips of the stones that is the spals they are filled in the spaces between the stones. This type of the masonry is used in the go downs, the garages etc. Next we have the polygonal rubble masonry. In this type of the masonry the stones are properly shaped to the polygonal shape. And here you can see that the small stones that is the chips are not used in this type of the masonry and even the vertical joint is not maintained in this type of the masonry. Next we have the random rubble masonry. In this type of the masonry the straight beds and the sides are used. The stones are properly shaped and the stones are square shaped in this type of the masonry. So this is the elevation, the section is shown and this is the plan of the courses. Next we have the flint rubble masonry. So this type of the masonry is used where the flint stones are available in plenty. So the thickness of the flint stones is it varies from 8 to 15 cm whereas the length varies from 15 to 30 cm. Next we have the dry rubble masonry. So in this type of the masonry the mortar is not used in this masonry. This is used for the construction of the retaining walls, the compound walls. Here it is used in the non-load bearing constructions. Next we have the types of the ashlar masonry. First we have the ashlar fine masonry. Second the random course ashlar masonry. Third is the rough tooled ashlar masonry. Fourth is the rock or the quarry phase ashlar masonry. Next we have the chamfered ashlar masonry. Now again further we have the block in course masonry and ashlar facing. So out of this some of the masonry I will be discussing here. So ashlar fine masonry. In this type of the masonry the stones are finely chisel shaped and this is costly in construction and this type you can see that the stones are of uniform size. That is the rectangular shape they are and even you have the horizontal and the vertical joints in between them and whereas in the rough ashlar masonry the stones are roughly dressed and a 25 mm wide strip is used along the perimeter of the stones. The rock or the quarry phase. So this type of the masonry is similar to the rough ashlar masonry. But the remaining portion which is brought from the quarry the stones are remained as it is. So next we have the chamfered ashlar masonry. So in this type of the masonry the finely chisel shaped stones are laid below and a 25 mm wide strip is used along the perimeter of the stones. And the stones are beveled at an angle of 45 degrees. Next we have the brick masonry. So based on the arrangement of the bricks there are different types of the bonds in the brick masonry. The most commonly used of that are the stretcher bond, the header bond. Next we have the English bond and the Flemish bond. So next let's see one by one the stretcher bond. The longer phase of the brick is called as the stretcher and the vertical phase of the wall is called as the header. The brick size, this is the elevation and this is the plan of the courses. So each course is given as the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and so on. So this is the courses, this is the plan of the courses as 1, 3 and 5. So this type of the bond is used for the 9 cm thick wall. If the thickness of the wall is more than 9 cm this type of bond is not at all used. So the courses, in this courses you can see that the bricks are led with their length in the direction of the wall. Next we have the header bond. So this is the header bond, a three fourth bar is used before starting the header in the header bond. So this type of the bond is used for the one brick thick wall and here you can see that it is of 18 cm thickness of the wall. Next we have the English bond, it consists of the alternate courses of the stretcher bond and the header bond. So in the header bond you can see that a queen closer is placed after a header in the header course. So the queen closer is placed before, queen closer is placed due to break the continuity of the joint, a vertical joint which is maintained and the header course, this is the plan of the stretcher course. The plan of the header course, the face and the back which are the outer appearance of the wall and back is the inner appearance of the wall. Next we have this is the plan for the odd courses of the wall and this is the plan of the even courses of the wall. So here you can see that the face and the back, the appearance of the wall represents the stretcher bond which is the similar appearance from both the faces. So this is in the case of the odd courses whereas in the header bond it represents the header bond in both the header bond in both the walls that is the back and the face wall whereas in the stretcher course, the plan of the stretcher course here you can see that in one and a half brick thick wall here the appearance of the wall that is the face, it represents the stretcher bond whereas the back represents the header bond. So this is the combination of the header and the stretcher bond and here it is the similar is the for the header course, the back that is the inner face of the wall represents the stretcher bond whereas the outer face of the wall represents the header bond that is it represents the English bond and English bond which is nothing but the alternate stretcher and the header course. Next we have the single and the double-flemish bond. So this is the plan of the single-flemish bond, it is used for the appearance of the wall, here you can see our stretcher is placed and then a header is placed that is it consists of the stretcher and the header in a particular course. So this type of the wall is used for the minimum one and a half brick thick wall. So this is the plan for the odd courses and this is for the even courses that is it represents the same appearance, it is used for the aesthetic look of the wall. This type of the wall gives a pleasing appearance of the wall. So it is a combination of the English bond and the Flemish bond. So here we have the comparison between the brick masonry and the stone masonry. The brick masonry is that in which the bricks are used whereas in the stone masonry the stone blocks are used. The brick masonry is cheaper than the stone masonry because the bricks can easily be lifted to the side whereas in the stone the labor and more skills and labor are used for the lifting of the stone. The brick masonry requires less mortar whereas the stone masonry requires mortar which cannot be easily estimated.  The life of the brick masonry is less as compared to the stone masonry. So here you can select the correct answer for these questions. The stones which are placed at the regular interval right across the wall are known as spals through stones, the rivals, the springer. This is the right answer for that. Next what should be placed at the beginning of every header course in the English bond to avoid the vertical joint? The queen closure, half bat, three fourth bat and the king closure. This is the right answer for that. These are the references. Thank you.