censor 2 book ban
current Three 3 25
sorta bak disambig 12 22
see censorship main
SEE MEMORY HOLE WWW STORY 1 VS 2
see CRTparents rights BS desantis brian kemp okla
see homophobe
NO MERRI
see fascism burn filth cleansing fire stew peters
SEE M4L
see public library/ school teacher
see bounty vigilante texas
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AN 8 25
The Wall Street Journal reports the White House will conduct a sweeping review of Smithsonian museum exhibitions, materials and operations to align it with President Donald Trump’s interpretation of American history.
Three top White House officials, said the Journal, sent a letter to Lonnie Bunch, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, claiming they want to ensure the museums’ “unity, progress, and enduring values” reflect President Donald Trump’s executive order calling for “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”
The White House intends to inspect and adjust public-facing exhibition text and online content. It also wants to have a say in future exhibition planning, as well as the use of collections and artist grants, say Journal reporters.
READ MORE: Trump's worst crimes and destructions haven't even happened yet
“This initiative aims to ensure alignment with the president’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions,” states the Aug. 12 letter.
Critics railed against Trump’s January executive order demanding a Trump-approved version of U.S. history that erases chapters that fail to align with Trump’s vision of American greatness, reports the Guardian.
“He’s ignorant of economic history, he’s ignorant of political history. And his idea for the 250 [anniversary] is to use it as a way to celebrate him,” said Jonathan Alter, a historian and biographer to the Guardian. “We don’t know yet exactly how he’ll hijack that event next year, but he will certainly try to do so.”
The Journal reports Trump singled out the Smithsonian Institution in his executive order, claiming the Smithsonian had “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology” that promotes “narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.”
READ MORE: 'Not plausible': Trump-appointed judge hands him major loss in court
The Smithsonian’s Board of Regents had already agreed to conduct a thorough review of its museum and zoo content to eliminate political influence and bias, according to the Journal.
This may not be the first time the White House has tinkered with museum exhibits. After outcry, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History restored references to Trump after removing them from a presidential impeachment display in late July.
Read the full Wall Street Report at this link.
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rww 4 25
Christian Nationalist Jason Rapert Topples The Arkansas State Library Board | People For
an 3 25
The Trump administration's sweeping attacks on journalism and federal workers continued Thursday with an announcement that Social Security Administration employees can no longer access "general news" websites on government devices.
The Washington Postnoted the email in an update to its Thursday reporting that earlier this week, acting SSA Commissioner Leland Dudek told top staff that members of President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by billionaire Elon Musk, are leading efforts to shrink the agency—which critics slam as a push toward privatization.
"DOGE people are learning and they will make mistakes, but we have to let them see what is going on at SSA," Dudek said, according to notes from the meeting. "I am relying on longtime career people to inform my work, but I am receiving decisions that are made without my input. I have to effectuate those decisions."
The newspaper reported that "on Thursday morning—three hours after the publication of this story—an all-staff email went out to SSA employees informing them that they would be prevented 'effective today' from accessing certain websites on their government devices, including 'online shopping,' ' general news,' and 'sports.'"
The email—a screenshot of which was posted on the Musk-owned social media site X by independent journalist Justin Glawe, author of the newsletter American Doom—states that "these additional restrictions will help reduce risk and better protect the sensitive information entrusted to us in our many systems."
An SSA spokesperson said in a statement that "employees should be focused on mission-critical work and serving the American people," but they "may request an exception if they have a business need for job-specific duties."
As Glawe pointed out: "To all the people saying BUT YOU SHOULDN'T READ NEWS AT WORK—they are government employees, so reading news and staying informed is part of their job. They're not working at a car dealership."
While SSA messaging frames the policy as an effort to promote safety and efficiency, and the email did not include a list of blocked websites, Wiredrevealed that some outlets "at the forefront of the reporting" on DOGE have been banned:
Wired has confirmed with two sources inside the SSA that Wired.com is no longer accessible today, though it was accessible previously. The sources also confirmed that the websites of The Washington Post, The New York Times, and MSNBC were inaccessible. However, the sources were able to access other news websites including Politico and Axios.
"Local news blocked," says one source at SSA, who was granted anonymity over fears of retribution. "So if there was a local shooting or something, I wouldn't be able to see."
It's unclear who has implemented the block list or what criteria were used to populate it, but it appears not to be based on ideological grounds, as Fox News and Breitbart are also blocked.
The policy change comes amid a flurry of reporting on Musk calling Social Security "the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time" during a recent podcast interview with Joe Rogan as well as efforts to shrink the agency and shut down multiple offices nationwide.
Over 150 House Democrats wrote in a Tuesday letter to Dudek that "Social Security helps approximately 70 million beneficiaries—including seniors, people with disabilities, children, and their families—put food on the table, pay the rent, heat their homes, cover medical bills, and more... Shuttering field offices and gutting SSA staffing has nothing to do with 'governmental efficiency.'"
Other federal agencies are also under assault by DOGE and its billionaire leader—who is facing new limits from the president. Citing two officials, Politicoreported that during a Thursday Cabinet meeting attended by Musk, "Trump told top members of his administration that Musk was empowered to make recommendations to the departments but not to issue unilateral decisions on staffing and policy."
While working to gut the federal government, the Trump administration has also taken aim at journalism. Amid a spat with The Associated Press over its refusal to use Trump's preferred name for the Gulf of Mexico, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced last week that the administration will now decide which outlets get to participate in the presidential press pool.
That came a week after the Postreported that the U.S. State Department told embassies and consulates to cancel "all non-mission critical contracts/purchase orders for media subscriptions (publications, periodicals, and newspaper subscriptions) that are not academic or professional journals."
According to the newspaper, a memo "directed procurement teams at embassies and consulates to prioritize the termination of contracts with six news organizations in particular: The Economist, The New York Times, Politico, Bloomberg News, The Associated Press, and Reuters."
Similarly, as Rolling Stonedetailed Thursday: "In the first weeks of the Trump administration, DOGE canceled subscriptions to services like Politico Pro, which many agencies rely on to stay abreast of legislation moving through Congress. DOGE also incorrectly identified a contract with a wing of Thomson Reuters as going toward news subscriptions. In fact, the contract—signed by the Defense Department under the first Trump administration—was with Thomson Reuters Special Services and dealt with preventing cyber threats."
The Republican president has a long record of attacking news outlets and individual reporters—from his frequent declarations of "fake news" to reportedly inquiring about how he could jail journalists if he returned to the White House.
NOW READ:There is no magical way out of this — there will be blood
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trms pix of enola gay hegseth ~ DEI
an 3 25
Many MAGA Republicans vehemently criticize liberals and progressives for language policing, often mocking "woke" terms like "Latinx" and "pregnant people." And some Americans who vote Democratic are critical of "woke" language as well: "Real Time" host Bill Maher and veteran Democratic strategist James Carville argue that it's ridiculous for Democrats to say "Latinx" when the vast majority of Latinos don't use that word.
But language policing exists in the MAGA movement as well.
In an article published on March 7, New York Times journalists Karen Yourish, Annie Daniel, Saurabh Datar, Isaac White and Lazaro Gamio list some of the many words and terms that the Trump Administration is urging government workers to limit or avoid in their communications.
READ MORE:'Clear attack': Trump Org sues major bank for closing its accounts after January 6 riot
The list includes a lot of terms that are often mocked on the right as stereotypically "woke," including "Latinx," "pregnant people," "non-binary" and "pregnant persons." But many of the terms listed aren't necessarily thought of as "woke" — for example, "Black," "stereotype," "prostitute," "mental health," "activists," "sexuality," "inequality," "disparity," "trauma" and "discriminatory."
Also on the list: "hate speech," "gender-affirming care" and "intersectional."
"All presidential administrations change the language used in official communications to reflect their own policies," the Times reporters explain. "It is within their prerogative, as are amendments to or the removal of web pages, which The Times has found has already happened thousands of times in this administration."
The journalists add, "Still, the words and phrases listed here represent a marked — and remarkable — shift in the corpus of language being used both in the federal government's corridors of power and among its rank and file. They are an unmistakable reflection of this administration's priorities."
READ MORE:Marjorie Taylor Greene supports infecting kids at measles 'parties' as outbreaks turn deadly
*Read the full New York Times article at this link (subscription required).
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A Texas county has mandated public libraries move a well-regarded children's book documenting the mistreatment of Native Americans in New England — Colonization and the Wampanoag Story — from the "non-fiction" section to "fiction." The decision was made after the government of Montgomery County, under pressure from right-wing activists, removed librarians from the process of reviewing children's books and replaced them with a "Citizens Review Committee." Colonization and the Wampanoag Storywas "challenged" by an unknown person on September 10, 2024. The Committee responded by ordering that the book be moved to the fiction section of public libraries in Montgomery County by October 17, 2024, according to public records obtained by the Texas Freedom To Read Project shared with Popular Information.
The author of Colonization and the Wampanoag Story is Linda Coombs, a "historian from the Wampanoag Tribe." Coombs spent three decades working at the Wampanoag Indigenous Program, an initiative to preserve the history of the Wampanoag people. The book is published by Penguin Random House, which describes the book as "[t]he true story of the Indigenous Nations of the American Northeast, including the Wampanoag nation and others, and their history up to present day."
Colonization and the Wampanoag Storytells the real story of the brutalization of the Wampanoag people by European settlers. An excerpt:
[C]ertain ship captain began kidnapping Wampanoag men and those of other tribal nations along the coast. Sailors invited them aboard their ships under the pretense of trading, then lifted anchor and sailed away. The men were prisoners, stolen from their families and homes.
They were taken to England and Spain to be sold into slavery and paraded through the streets as "novelties," something for the people of Europe to gawk at as curiosities — not as human beings. Imagine how these men must of felt when they realized their situation: they would never see their children, parents, wives, relatives or communities and homelands again. What a terrible shock for all their families when they realized their men were gone — just disappeared forever.
This is fact, not fiction.
In addition to telling the history of the Wampanoag people, the book also includes several parables. But these sections are identified in italics. It does not change that it is a history book, which is why it is classified as non-fiction by the Library of Congress. The book's Library of Congress classification begins with "E99," the non-fiction classification for books about Native American peoples. It is also classified as non-fiction by Penguin Random House, the Houston Public Library, the Austin Public Library, and the Fort Worth Public Library.
The move to reclassify Colonization and the Wampanoag Storycomes after a controversial decision last March to remove librarians from the decision-making process when a children's book carried by Montgomery County is challenged. Previously, there was an advisory committee comprised of five librarians and five community members. As a result of the change, the librarians were removed from the Committee, and the determinations of the new Committee, which consisted of five non-librarians, became binding.
The change to the book review process was driven by a local right-wing group, Two Moms and Some Books. The group is led by Michele Nuckolls, a local mother. Nuckolls believes "children’s books with alternate gender ideology to be moved to the adult section." The group also is demanding more "conservative and Christian’s [sic] books in the public library." The group is especially enthusiastic about titles from Brave Books, which publishes children's books from far-right authors like Congressman Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), Donald Trump's former press secretary Sean Spicer, and Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn. In case there is any confusion about the objectives of the group, its slogan is "Make Libraries Great Again!"
Before the change to the review process, Nuckolls expressed frustration that the local library system was not altering its holding to conform to her ideology. Nuckolls then successfully lobbied the Montgomery County Commission to change the policy and put non-librarians in charge:
“It’s been a long road,” said Michele Nuckolls, a Montgomery County mom who advocates for keeping the children’s section of local libraries safe and appropriate for kids.
“I first sounded the alarm about concerning children’s books at commissioners court a year ago,” Nuckolls told Texas Scorecard…
“I challenged two of the most alarming children’s books late last year and the committee head, a librarian, sent me a letter saying that they would stay right where they were,” said Nuckolls. “The old policy was not working.”
Under the new policy, once a children's book is challenged, it must immediately be moved to the adult section, with only adults allowed to access it. The book is then considered by the Citizens Review Committee at a meeting that is "closed to the public except for the Resident who made a formal request for review." The decisions of the Citizen's Review Committee are final, and there is no appeals process.
From the outset, critics of the new policy warned that it could be abused.
Teresa Kenney, a Montgomery County resident who owns an independent bookstore, submitted a public records request revealing the decision to reclassify Colonization and the Wampanoag Story. No explanation for the decision was provided.
The Committee's decision to reclassify Colonization and the Wampanoag Storymay have exceeded the Committee's authority. The new policy allows the Committee "to reassign the material to a more restrictive portion of the library" or "recommend removal of a material." There is no provision for changing the classification of a children's book from non-fiction to fiction. But with no appeals process, it's unclear whether the decision can be challenged.
At the October 8, 2024, meeting of the Montgomery County Commission, Kenney spoke about her ongoing concerns regarding the Citizens Review Committee. She asked the Montgomery County Commission to "return librarian oversight to the review process and open the meetings to the public for complete transparency." Her request was tabled.
Members of the Montgomery County Commission and the Citizens Review Committee did not respond to requests for comment.
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rww 11 24
Finally, unable to get his agenda adopted by the fellow members of the Arkansas State Library Board, Jason Rapert is "of the opinion that the state of Arkansas would be better served if the Arkansas Legislature would abolish the board completely."
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thom
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jason Rapert Says Members of the Arkansas State Library Board ‘Probably Should Be Tarred and Feathered’
[ | August 26, 2024 rww
In 2023, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders appointed Christian nationalist activist and a zealously anti-LGBTQ and anti-choice former state senator Jason Rapert to the state library board. Predictably, his tenure on the board has been anything but smooth, with Rapert regularly lashing out at his fellow board members for refusing to support his far-right agenda and complaining that he’s been experiencing a “hostile work environment” because he is “a Christian white male.”
During a recent episode of his “Save The Nation” program, Rapert’s frustrations boiled over as he called on the state legislature to abolish the library board entirely, declaring that his fellow board members “probably should be tarred and feathered.”
“The Bible says, ‘Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,'” Rapert said. “Well, when you have leaders that are not allowing the nation to be blessed of God, they’re not doing godly things, you need to replace them, get rid of them, get them out of office, put people back in there that will. You’ve got schools where they’re fighting over allowing homosexual, LGBTQ material to be utilized to groom children. … There needs to be people that will take up and sue anybody that is allowing that sort of thing to go on in our school districts and in our libraries.”
“I serve on the Arkansas Library Board,” Rapert continued. “I cannot get those other board members to take a stand to stop some of the smut that is in those libraries. It’s ridiculous. I’ve made motions trying to do it, and I am at a point now where it’s going to take so long to get new board members on there, if I were the legislature, I would run a bill just to abolishing the Arkansas State Library Board and let it be reconstituted. Put new people in there, or maybe they just need to call on people to resign if you’re not going to do your job.”
“When you don’t protect children in America, you have no business serving in a public official’s role,” Rapert griped. “You have no business serving on a board, you have no business serving in a state legislature, you have no business being an elected official at any level if you’re not going to protect children. When you get to a point that you’re so confused and you’re so completely jaded that you cannot make a decision to keep smut or pornographic stuff [away from] children, you’ve lost your ever-loving mind and you need to be replaced. You need to be taken out. Some people say, ‘Oh, he’s talking about violence.’ No, I’m not talking about violence. You need to be run out on a rail. You probably should be tarred and feathered. That’s what they used to do in America is they would tar and feather those kind of folks. Get rid of them. Teach them a lesson. Get them out of office.”
Jason Rapert Says Members of the Arkansas State Library Board 'Probably Should Be Tarred and Feathered' from Right Wing Watch on Vimeo.
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AN 7 24
Do you know about Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order 13950? If you don’t, be afraid. Be very afraid.
Just weeks before he was fired by America’s voters in 2020, President Trump issued this piece of nastiness which was quickly rescinded by just-inaugurated President Biden.
The Executive Order is a “DCL,” what the right-wing brilliantly calls a, “Divisive Concepts Law.” These DCL’s terrorize teachers with the threat of losing their jobs if they dare teach the truth of America’s racial history: That white people enslaved Africans, that the Klan enforced racial vote suppression with the hanging rope. And God forbid, they teach that women were banned from the vote until the 20th Century. The Executive Order bans teaching any historical facts if,
“….any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex….”
As a practical matter, it means teaching the truth of America’s racial stain will get you fired. In 2021, Tennessee high school teacher Matt Hawn lost his job because a student accused him of teaching—cover your children’s ears—“Critical Race Theory.” Hawn said he’d never heard of Critical Race Theory when he was canned.
(Critical Race Theory, taught in law schools, says many of America’s laws and their enforcement, contain a racial bias. Well, D’oh!].
On Thursday, Vice-President Harris told the American Federation of Teachers convention in Houston, epicenter of the anti-CRT hysteria,
“While you teach students about our nation's past, these extremists attack the freedom to learn and acknowledge our nation's true and full history; including book bans! Book bans — in this year 2024! Just think about it: we want to ban assault weapons and they want to ban books.”
It was a century ago, that Tennessee was the laughingstock of the nation for prosecuting a schoolteacher for telling his class about human evolution, a story recounted in the film, Inherit the Wind. Now, a hundred years later, Trumpsters are again passing wind over Tennessee.
And he’s baaaaack! Trump has put his fixation with censoring “divisive concepts” into the GOP platform. Details are provided in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 master plan for the master race.
This ill wind originated in Georgia when Gov. Brian Kemp signed HB1084, threatening the jobs of teachers for teaching ‘divisive concepts’ that could make a white child feel “discomfort.”
Who would feel “discomfort” about the uncensored history of Georgia? Well, maybe it’s Gov. Kemp himself. Because it was the Kemp family, then known as the Habershams, that first brought Africans in chains to Georgia.
Maybe Kemp and family should feel a bit of discomfort. I spoke with Janie Banse, who told me she is she is heartsick that her cousin, Gov. Kemp, won’t admit that their family’s wealth originated in the African slave trade. Kemp’s ancestors held the largest auction of human beings in American history, still remembered by Black Georgians today as “Weeping Time,” when 436 men, women and their children were separated and sold.
Georgia’s HB 1084, passed in 2022,
Prohibit[s] the use of curricula that addresses the topics of slavery, racial oppression, racial segregation, or racial discrimination, including topics relating to the enactment and enforcement of laws resulting in racial oppression, segregation, and discrimination in a professionally and academically appropriate manner and without espousing personal political beliefs;
And what if a teacher expresses a personal distaste for slavery?
Since Georgia was among the first to pass a “DCL,” and at least 16 states have followed.
In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis, dubbed his DCL the “Stop WOKE Act.”
He banned the College Board’s AP African American Studies course and supported new Black history standards that include the requirement to teach, “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
I can’t make this up.
Since 2021, at least 27 states have imposed or proposed bans or restrictions on teaching topics related to race and gender. Mississippi, Alabama, Arizona and Oklahoma all passed these Divisive Concepts laws. What do these states have in common? According to rankings by US News and World Report, they are all in the nation’s bottom third in educational achievement. Apparently, they won’t teach uncensored history—but then, it’s not clear that they teach much history at all.
Trump’s DLC brigade is not just putting a blindfold over students regarding slavery and Jim Crow. Oklahoma’s Divisive Concepts Law has effectively silenced the true story of the state that was once known officially as, “Indian Territory.”
Jim Gray, former Principal Chief of the Osage Nation, told me that teachers throughout the state have been yanking copies of David Grann’s book Killers of the Flower Moon off their classroom shelves. Killers, on which the Martin Scorsese/Leonardo DiCaprio movie is based, tells the true story about how, in the 1920s, over 100 Oklahoma Osage were murdered for their oil rights.
The insidious brilliance of the Oklahoma law is that it has a fuzzy general prohibition on “divisive” concepts—with teachers facing loss of their teaching credentials and the entire school district losing funding. Because teachers have to guess which books or films will get them fired, the result is mass self-censorship, with Killers culled from classrooms across the state.
A RAND corporation study found that a breathtaking two out of three K-12 teachers, “have decided on their own to limit instruction about political and social issues in the classroom.” Can you blame them?
Any student or parent can put a legal gun to a school principal’s head. But when the law says, “students,” as a practical matter, they don’t mean young kids on the Reservation. Every year, on April 22, Oklahoma celebrates “Sooner Rush Day”, the day in 1889, when any white man could simply stand on a plot of land and seize the surrounding 160 acres of what was, by treaty, Indian Territory. Indigenous kids have to re-enact the theft of their property whether they feel discomfort or not.
I have included this story of the Sooner Rush land grab in my documentary, Long Knife: the Osage Nation, Koch Oil and the new Killers of the Flower Moon. And for that alone, says Chief Gray, the chance it will screen in an Oklahoma school, even a state university, is zilch.
But some states are not shy about creating Black Lists of books to ban. Assigning anti-racist classics Huckleberry Finn or To Kill a Mockingbird, could kill a teacher’s career. PEN America counted 3,132 books banned in nine states in the 2022-23 school year.
Cui Bono? Who benefits from historical amnesia? Kemp alone was not the only white boy to make his fortune from a slaver’s whip. Historic amnesia is a profit center covering many historic misdeeds from Jim Crow to union busting to corporate corruption.
I found this out when I was physically ejected from the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah. I was having a polite interview with the Society’s in-house historian, Dr. Stan Deaton, who was explaining that the Klan took over control of the South when, in 1876, Republicans lost both the popular vote and the Electoral vote—yet a pact between the Klan-backed Southern Democrats and northern Republicans used a sly maneuver to overturn the vote and install the GOP candidate as President. It came down to one official, Dr. Deaton noted, then added, “We saw Mike Pence in that situation recently.”
The second the historian uttered the words, “Mike Pence,” the door flew open and the Society’s PR man halted the interview and expelled me from the building, saying, “We have to protect the new corporate donors on our board.”
I was curious. Who were these “donors” needing protection from history? I found their gala dinner on YouTube with their tuxedoed corporate money men: Georgia Pacific (owned by Koch Industries), Home Depot (owned by right-wing union buster Ken Langone), and Southern Company, whom I investigated some years ago for racketeering and the inexplicable death of whistleblowers. And the Chairman of the Historical Society? Gov. Brian Kemp.
Just below Savannah, at the Kemp family’s old plantation, I spoke with caretaker and Councilman Griffin Lotson whose own great-grandmother was sold at Weeping Time by Kemp’s progenitors.
Lotson emphasizes the connection between this legally enforced historical amnesia and the fight for voting rights. He says, “Suppressing history is suppressing the vote.”
Back in Oklahoma, the current Principal Chief of the Osage, Geoffrey Standing Bear, explained that if Oklahoma were to admit that its “Sooner Rush” was simply theft from the indigenous owners of the land, then it would force open eyes to what he calls, the “military occupation [of Native land] that continues today.”
Napoleon famously said, “History is a set of lies agreed upon.” Trump’s DCL crusade sees history as a set of truths silenced.
*Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers including The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. His latest film is Vigilantes Inc.: America’s New Vote Suppression Hitmen to be released in September. GregPalast.com
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Christian Nationalists' Anti-LGBTQ Plan: Allow Anyone To Sue Teacher, Librarian 'Groomers'
June 26, 2024 rww
see story 1 crt rufo censor book ban
aha: trumpista maga qanon gop base about making AM dominant again, keeping power for shrinking white patriarchy rural less educated? that cannot win fair election
so must glorify mythologize past, which means denying slavery original sin, thus lost cause BS
an 12 23 no lnx
What Nikki Haley’s gaffe reveals about the GOP also tom cotton
John Stoehr
December 28, 2023
The new Nikki Haley news is that she refused to say that slavery was the cause of the Civil War. During an event in New Hampshire, she said that the bloodiest conflict on US soil was about, well, anything but slavery: “how government was going to run, the freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do,” she said, among other ridiculous things.
Magdi Jacobs, an Editorial Board contributor, said that “the fascinating thing about Haley's response was her discomfort. You could feel her flailing as she reached for the perfect combo of a pre-Donald Trump conservative ‘states’ rights’ answer to appeal to centrist voters, all while knowing that the insurrectionists want more racist red meat.”
“This is a balance no one can strike,” Magdi concluded. “It shows how fundamentally weak the current GOP is, even if our political media doesn't want to admit it. You can't win without Trump. I firmly believe – and I think Haley does, too – that you can't win with him either.”
More precisely (and I think Magdi would agree) is that this balance is impossible to strike because there’s nowhere to put it. There’s no such thing as a moderate position inside today’s Republican Party. There’s no foundation on which to build the broad coalition of voters that’s necessary to winning (ie, candidates need more than a base.) If such a position existed, Haley would have found it. It doesn’t, so all she can do is reach for a reason, any reason, as the true cause of the Civil War.
To her credit, Haley quickly walked back her remarks. Perhaps she sensed something was at risk in sounding so unreasonable. “Of course, the Civil War was about slavery,” she said. “We know that. That’s the easy part of it.” Then she went on to say that it was about “more than that,” citing, among other ridiculous things, “the role of government.”
That she walked back her initial remarks may seem “reasonable,” but it won’t matter. Remember, even if she wanted to strike a balance between “conservative states’ rights” and “racist red meat” – and that’s apparently what she wanted to do – there is no foundation inside the Republican Party on which to put it. There is no moderate position.
To be a moderate, you have to sound reasonable, but according to David Atkins, a frequent contributor to the Washington Monthly, the GOP base “doesn’t want even the perception of a more reasonable candidate. They want a dictator to punish their enemies.”
“Haley has zero chance of winning” the presidential election, David told me. “Even if she did win New Hampshire, it wouldn’t help her any more than it did Bernie Sanders in 2016 and Pete Buttigieg in 2020.”
There’s always makebelieve, though. Fortunately, Haley has a lot of help in that regard. The billionaire Koch brothers gave her their blessing. So did the popular governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu. They portray Haley as the champion of “conservative values,” as if “conservative values” was still shorthand for “moderate,” and as if Donald Trump’s gravity has not pulled the entire party to the far right.
While makebelieve is a powerful force in politics, it’s probably not going to be enough for Haley or any of the other GOP candidates. Oh, sure, they did OK while the neutral press was casting them as “legitimate alternatives” to Trump. But once the neutral press gets bored – and the neutral press always gets bored – whatever promise these “legitimate alternatives” once had melts into the air. It happened to Ron DeSantis. It happened to Vivek Ramaswamy. It will probably happen to Haley. Everything begins and ends with Trump. As Magdi said, the GOP can’t win with him and it can’t win without him.
In the following interview with me, David Atkins explains not only why he thinks Haley is doomed, but why, in 2024, the Republicans are, too.
JS: New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu endorsed Republican candidate Nikki Haley after the Koch network did. Could that be enough for her to win New Hampshire? And will that matter in the long run?
DA: GOP megadonors need to come to terms with the reality that their base cannot be controlled. They let the MAGA flames burn out of control and now they get to reap the whirlwind. Haley has zero chance of winning absent some issue impacting Trump’s health, because the GOP base doesn’t want even the perception of a more reasonable candidate. They want a dictator to punish their enemies.
And let’s be clear: Haley is also a radical rightwing extremist, as her embrace of a six-week abortion ban makes clear. She just doesn’t seem like she wants to destroy the entire federal bureaucracy, send Democrats to gulags, weaponize the Justice Department and the IRS against all their domestic opponents, and institute mass deportation camps of immigrants. So she’s not the candidate of the GOP base, which does want those things and wants Trump to deliver them.
The Republican Party’s base isn’t in the thrall of Trumpism; Trump is the avatar of their desires, which is why he will be the nominee. Also, even if Haley did win New Hampshire, it wouldn’t help her any more than it did Bernie Sanders in 2016 and Pete Buttigieg in 2020.
JS: You said the culture war is over. Taylor Swift won, Elon Musk lost. I have written that obituary, too, only to see myself proven wrong.
DA: The culture war is over in the sense that people under the age of 50 in the areas of the country that make up more than 80 percent of the national GDP despise the theocratic conservatism that animates Republican activists. That isn’t going to change.
This doesn’t mean that Republicans can’t win elections, and institute rearguard policy actions, like restricting abortion and LGBT rights. They can. The threat of hard-right fascist dictatorship is very real.
But most of the culture wars can be explained by the fact that the marketplace responds primarily to 18- to 45-year-old consumers in cities, while the electoral system responds primarily to 65-plus-year-olds in exurbia. The electoral system can produce a fascist takeover, but it will do so by oppressing a majority that wants nothing to do with it. Such tyrannies rarely last for long.
In the meantime, the weight of popular culture is increasingly shifting to treat cultural progressivism as normative, if for no other reason than that’s the population advertisers want to appeal to. The engines of capitalism are working against social conservatives now, which is why you see such a growing rift between the evangelical base and the urbanite business Republican crowd.
JS: You said the GOP will lose 2024. You cited the fact that they have lost every special election. Special elections attract partisans. Presidential election attracts everyone. Am I wrong in noting the difference?
DA: It’s no secret that Trump and Biden at the top of the ticket will make for an interesting dynamic in 2024, since neither are popular, at least at the moment. But in this environment, a generic Democrat is consistently beating a generic Republican. If the public’s concerns about both Trump and Biden as individuals were sidelined, and the voters were to choose a party and its policies, Democrats would be marching into a confident victory in 2024.
The key will be to remind voters of the tremendous legislative accomplishments of the Biden administration, emphasize Trump’s rampant criminality and danger to democracy, and remind people that no matter what they think of the candidates, the policy choices are very real. Republican rule would be a cruel disaster.
JS: I think the GOP is going to impeach Biden. How does that factor into your thinking, if it does, that the Republicans are going to lose 2024?
DA: Republicans want to play tit-for-tat by impeaching Biden to take some of the sting out of Trump’s double impeachments. More generally, if they can make impeachment into a routine partisan clown show, then it minimizes and defangs the one tool in the Constitution that’s designed to stop an authoritarian, criminal unitary executive.
The flip side of doing this is that any impeachment of Biden by Republicans on flimsy pretexts is likely to have as minimal an impact on voters as Trump’s impeachments apparently have.
JS: What if there's a major polling error and Trump isn't really a mile ahead of every other Republican candidate? Most of us just assume he's going to be the nominee. Iowa and New Hampshire might be stunners?
DA: What’s particularly interesting about Trump seizing the GOP nomination is the low-key panic among many Republican activists. While Trump’s indictments have so far not impacted his popularity, we are in uncharted territory. It’s impossible to predict what impact multiple public trials and possible felony convictions of the sitting GOP nominee might have on public polling and electoral outcomes.
One could speculate that the polling might be wrong, and GOP voters in Iowa and New Hampshire might choose a different nominee out of self-preservation. But Trump has developed a cult-like following, and one thing that we know about cults is that they are largely impervious to even their leaders going to jail. If anything, it makes them feel like martyrs. So I find it extremely unlikely that Iowa and New Hampshire will surprise us by selecting a Haley or Ron DeSantis.
===
rww
far-Right Broadcaster Stew Peters Plans An ‘Extreme Accountability’ Weekend Of ‘Bloody Bidens’ And Book Burning
Kyle Mantyla | May 22, 2024
Far-right broadcaster Stew Peters is a racist, anti-LGBTQ bigot who regularly uses his nightly program, speeches, and social media accounts to promote white nationalism and virulent antisemitism while spreading wild conspiracy theories, bigotry, and open calls for violence.
Peters has repeatedly called for violence against the government and his perceived political enemies, threatening time and again to deliver “extreme accountability,” by which he means public executions.
Now, Peters appears poised to take his radicalism out from behind the camera and into the real with an “Extreme Accountability Event” to be held in October at Caesars Atlantic City Hotel and Casino in New Jersey. According to the website, the theme of the weekend will be “Nuremberg 2.0” and the event will feature “drinks and specialty cocktails all weekend like ‘The Retribution’ and ‘Bloody Bidens,'” as well as “a red-carpet ‘Gallows Gala'” and a “Gallows and Mimosas” brunch.
But the highlight of the event will be a literal book-burning, reminiscent of those that occurred in Nazi Germany, which Peters has repeatedly praised.
“If we demand that the classroom bookcases and school library shelves be cleansed of filth and perversion and pedophilic materials, then we’re called a bunch of book burners. Well, guess what? That’s exactly what we are, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” Peters said during his Tuesday night broadcast. “It’s time for us to go into the public libraries, to go into these public schools, and rip the filth off of these shelves and destroy it. To remove it from the face of the planet for all of eternity. To turn it to ash. And every time it’s reprinted, we do it all over again. And eventually we’ll get ahold of the perverts’ hard drives, and we’ll burn those too. All of this filth will never again see the light of day and an army of Americans, an army of patriots millions of men strong, will make sure of it.”
“We will not stop until we are victorious on all fronts,” Peters declared. “And when they finally have waved the white flag, they’ll be put on trial. And when they’re found guilty of grooming and mutilation and child rape and all of their other crimes against our kids and against our country and against humanity, they will face the ultimate punishment: Maximum accountability. Extreme accountability at the end of a rope.”
Peters pledged that “we’ll do the things that those at Nuremberg 1.0 were too cowardly to pull off” and vowed that “the perverts and globalist Zio-crime syndicate ruling over our country will fall to its knees and will beg us for mercy.”
“This is what has to be done,” Peters proclaimed, insisting that he is focused on “taking real action and stepping out into the physical world and fighting back and exposing these freaks and criminals that are ruining our country.”
“We’ve all sat idly by long enough,” Peters announced. “It’s time to do something. And this fall, that’s exactly what’s going to happen. I’m not talking about some gay, rigged presidential election. No, I’m talking about taking real action in the real world. And I’m calling for every single one of you to join my army. Come and join me in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on October 11, 12, and 13 where we will begin the march down the road to extreme accountability.”
“We will begin the national cleansing process right then and right there,” Peters said. “We’re gonna spend the summer going into our communities and removing all of the filth and smut and pedophilic and pornographic materials from the schools and the library bookshelves and everywhere it’s hawked onto our kids. And come October, we’re going to bring it all to Atlantic City Beach, New Jersey, and we’re going to kill it with fire. We’re going to vanquish it from the Earth.”
“This will only be the beginning,” Peters promised. “This is an extreme event like no other. You want to call us extremists? We’ll show you extreme.”
It is important to remember that despite his bigoted views and openly violent rhetoric, Peters regularly manages to get Republican leaders, elected officials, and candidates for office to appear on his program, and that Peters himself has participated in ReAwaken America events alongside various Trump insiders and members of the Trump family.
2 24
'I don’t think that’s appropriate': DeSantis reneges on book censorship crusade - Alternet.org
2x?
massachussets-police-search-school-for-copy-of-gender-queer-book
Why Newsmax wants to drag a Greek Orthodox priest into Dominion defamation case - Alternet.org
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12 23 RWW
Douglas Soule @ The Tallahassee Democrat: ‘That’s authoritarianism’: Florida argues school libraries are for government messaging.
Florida’s government is arguing that school districts have a First Amendment right to remove LGBTQ books. Or any book, for that matter.
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October 16, Popular Information reported that Scholastic was facilitating the exclusion of books that feature people of color or LGBTQ characters from its book fairs. The company, under pressure from right-wing ideologues, created a collection of these titles and offered school officials the ability to remove all of them. Our report broke the news on what books were targeted, a list that included biographies of civil rights icon John Lewis and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Several hours later, the New York Times picked up the story, citing Popular Information's reporting. Soon, the story was covered by numerous national media outlets, including CNN, NPR, CBS, Insider, The Daily Beast, The Daily Mail, and The Intercept. On October 25, in a letter to authors and illustrators, Scholastic announced it was reversing the policy.
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https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/virginia-school-board-deploys-moms-for-liberty-associated-book-banning-tool/
school board in Hanover County, Virginia, changed its policies in June to give itself the power to remove any title from school libraries, and then used that power to pull 19 books from the shelves. Now the board is forcing librarians to use a book rating tool associated with the right-wing political group Moms for Liberty to review more than 100 additional books in high school and middle school libraries, the Richmond Times Dispatch reported Monday.
The paper reported that school district documents “state that educators are expected to use BookLooks, a tool associated with advocacy group Moms for Liberty, as the first authority when gauging a book’s suitability. BookLooks was first approved as a new ‘professional selection source’ at the School Board’s meeting only last Tuesday.”
While BookLooks claims not to be affiliated with Moms for Liberty, there’s plenty of documentation about close ties between the groups’ leaders, agenda, strategies, and criteria for challenging books. As Bookriot reported last year, “what appears to be an objective measure of a book’s content, mirrored after movie ratings, is anything but. It is a tool developed by Moms For Liberty being used to push their agendas even further under the guise of protecting children.”
According to the Dispatch reporting on Hanover County:
More than 100 books could be on the chopping block as the board seeks to eliminate books that some parental groups say contain sexual content that the board says is unsuitable for students. Opponents of recent changes to rules for libraries have said the School Board is engaging in censorship while ridding schools of important books teaching real-world lessons to students.
Not surprisingly, books with LGBTQ content are targets of BookLooks content ratings and determinations about which books are “unsuitable,” along with books by and about people of color that explore racism in our history and society.
As Right Wing Watch reported in its coverage of Moms for Liberty’s national summit in Philadelphia this summer, Moms for Liberty “has been fully adopted by the deep-pocketed powerhouses of the right-wing political movement,” groups like the Leadership Institute and Heritage Foundation, who see Moms for Liberty as a media-friendly vanguard supporting authoritarian politicians and their attacks on freedom and the MAGA movement’s perceived enemies.
During the Moms for Liberty summit, People For the American Way launched its “Grandparents for Truth” project to mobilize public support for the freedom to learn.
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an 8 23
'Just absurd': Shakespeare is latest casualty of Florida’s book ban law
LONDON - MARCH 09: A painting of William Shakespeare which is believed to be the only authentic image of Shakespeare made during his life is unveiled by The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust on March 9, 2009 in London, England. The recently discovered painting, which is believed to date from around 1610, depicts Shakespeare in his mid-forties. The portrait is due to go on display at The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 23, 2009. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)
Adam NicholsandRaw StoryAugust 08, 2023
The Bard has become the latest casualty of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's push to remove books involving sexuality from schools.
The Tampa Bay Times reported Monday that schools in the state’s Hillsborough County will allow only excerpts of William Shakespeare’s works to be studied.
School district officials said teaching now covered a wider array of books and writing styles – meaning more writers would be studied, and shorter sections of their work assigned rather than complete books.
But spokeswoman Tanya Arja said, “It was also in consideration of the law,” referencing the newly expanded Parental Rights in Education Act.
Teacher Joseph Cool told the Times, “There’s some raunchiness in Shakespeare. Because that’s what sold tickets during his time.”
The district said that, because students need to read more writers, they are no longer required to read the complete books.
“We need to make sure our students are prepared with enough material during the year so they will be prepared for their assessments,” Arja said.
School board member Jessica Vaughn said on Facebook that teachers had only just found out about the changes, days before schools returned from summer recess.
“Honestly, it feels that much of this is intentional, in order to cause as much chaos in public education as possible, so that the collapse of public education is swift and the agenda of education privatization can move forward with less obstacles,” she wrote.
And Cool said, “I think the rest of the nation — no, the world, is laughing at us.
“Taking Shakespeare in its entirety out because the relationship between Romeo and Juliet is somehow exploiting minors is just absurd.”
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https://www.democracynow.org/2023/7/24/texas_border_abbott razor
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/7/28/greg_casar_thirst_strike
10 comm
https://www.alternet.org/texas-public-schools-2659732308/
an 7 23 ~ AA
no lnx
Houston schools eliminate librarians and 'repurpose' libraries into 'discipline centers'
David Badashand The New Civil Rights Movement July 27, 2023
The Houston Independent School District, the largest in Texas and the eighth-largest in the United States, will eliminate librarian positions in 28 schools and turn libraries into what are being called “discipline centers,” according to Click2Houston.
Mike Myles, the state-installed schools superintendent and former charter schools CEO, earlier this month announced cuts of up to 600 central office positions.
Texas has a $32 billion state surplus but rather than allocate needed funds to public schools, lawmakers in the majority-Republican state legislature, at the behest of Governor Greg Abbott, just delivered a massive property tax cut.
The move to gut librarians and massively reduce access to books and other material does not appear to be budget related, as librarians will be allowed to apply for other positions.
READ MORE: Nancy Mace Tells Prayer Breakfast About Refusing Sex With Her Fiancé This Morning: ‘I’ll See Him Later’
KHOU reports libraries at those 28 schools “will be repurposed into ‘team centers’ where students who had to be removed from class due to behavioral issues will be placed to watch their class virtually.”
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}:
Former HISD librarian and Manager of Library Services, Janice Newsum, says, “When students engage in reading as an activity of choice, they are not only building that reading muscle, but they are also developing their vocabulary they are understanding a bit about the world that exists outside their block radius.”
Mayor Sylvester Turner appeared to suggest the schools that are losing their librarians are already underserved.
“You don’t close libraries in some of the schools in your most underserved communities, and you’re keeping libraries open in other schools,” Turner said.
Watch Click2Houston’s report below or at this link.
: report
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an 7 23 no lnx
'May not be what you think': Jen Psaki exposes 'unapologetically extreme' Moms for Liberty group
Maya Boddie July 16, 2023
During the Sunday, July 16, episode of MSNBC's Inside with Jen Psaki, Psaki took a few minutes to educate viewers on the increasingly popular political group, Moms for Liberty.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, according to NPR, has deemed the nonprofit organization "extremist," saying, "They really are seeking to undermine public education holistically and to divide communities."
Psaki began the segment saying, "Since the height of the COVID pandemic, schools, teachers, and administrators have all become the targets of right-wing anger. First it was the reaction to COVID restrictions, which then morphed into outrage over the teaching of race and identity, and outrage over CRT — critical race theory. Which rapidly turned our education system into the frontline of the right's ongoing culture war. That anger no doubt sparked the rise of organizations, now focused on taking over school boards, pulling books from the shelves, and changing curriculums in schools across the country.
In fact, according to a 2022 report from a nonprofit that tracks censorship in America, 70 percent of those organizations were formed in about an 18 month period, beginning at the start of 2021. Among the largest of these new groups, which you may have heard of, is Moms for Liberty, and it's recently become something of a political powerhouse. Just a few weeks ago, they hosted five Republicans presidential candidates, including the frontrunners, Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis — they all came out for Moms for Liberty."
READ MORE: Top Democrats ignorant of 'extremist' Moms for Liberty despite warnings the group is dangerous
She continued, "Now, the group has declared itself a nonpartisan organization, and its name does sound innocuous enough — Moms — great, sounds good. Liberty — awesome, who doesn't like liberty? "Moms for Liberty" — as the mom of two young kids, that even sounds good to me. But, it's vague enough, that even some of its own members are pretty unclear as to what the group is really all about, what they're a part of. One mom who became treasurer of an Indiana chapter was even quoted asking, 'What am I apart of? I need to know these things.' Fair question. Well, I'm here to help. I'm here to help you. Because as benign as Moms for Liberty may sound, its agenda is unmistakably extreme. For instance, you may not know that Moms for Liberty has been helping to lead the movement in pulling books from the library shelves, including classics, like The Bluest Eye — great book. The Kite Runner — amazing book. As well as other books that deal with race, diversity and sexuality."
Furthermore, Psaki said, "The group has turned school board meetings into unruly shouting matches. As an attendee at one Florida meeting described, 'They turn around and scream at me that I am a commie, and teachers want to see all kids fail. This group brings out the worst in people.' The group says this work, all this shouting, is the work of 'joyful warriors,' is what they call it. Sounds a lot more to me like pretty aggressive harassment. And that behavior is not isolated, it's part of a bigger pattern. Chapters and members across the country have led campaigns targeting community advocates, school board members, and opposing groups. They've repeatedly sent intimidating messages, openly threatened officials, and even baselessly leveled charges of child abuse and sympathizing with pedophilia. Unbelievably, an Indiana chapter even put out a newsletter that quoted Adolf Hitler, saying, 'He alone who owns the youth gains the future' — that is a Hitler quote. And while they eventually apologized, the organization seemed to later regret that apology."
The former White House press secretary then rolled a video of a MFL member saying to an audience that she supports the mom who quoted Hitler in the newsletter.
Psaki went on to say, "Standing by a mom who quotes Hitler in a newsletter. People cheering for that. That's what you just saw," adding, "And as for their claim that they are just a group of concerned, nonpartisan moms who happen to care about liberty, consider this: One of the founders, who's name is notably emitted from its website, is a current Republican school board member, who is married to the now-chairman of the Florida Republican Party. In 2021, he told the Washington Post, "I have been trying for a dozen years to get 20- and 30-year old females involved with the Republican Party. But now Moms for Liberty has done it for me."
READ MORE: 'Treacherous march of normalization': ABC News slammed for 'puff piece' on Moms for Liberty
The MSNBC host sarcastically commented, "Sounds pretty apolitical," emphasizing, "So, below the surface of their friendly sounding name, and politically vague taglines, they're an unapologetically extreme organization that has built a long record of harassment and controversy, in a pretty short period of time. Some free advice out there for people who are not sure what the organization is about — whether it's called Moms for Liberty or Puppies for Ice cream — it's worth looking into the agenda of an organization before joining it. Sometimes, it may not be what you think."
Watch the video below or at this link.
READ MORE: 'Shocking': Scholars condemn Philadelphia Museum for hosting Moms for Liberty event
NPR's full report is available at this link.
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https://www.alternet.org/north-carolina-republicans-prosecute-librarians/
another stopped tanehai coates betw world and me; youth poet laureate
teacher taught racism
https://www.alternet.org/i-did-not-feel-safe/
youth poet laurate inaug?
https://www.alternet.org/mom-amanda-gorman-proud-boys/
see reawaken anti-semite, seems like far rt trying to out-nazi each other?!
https://www.mediamatters.org/michael-knowles/daily-wires-michael-knowles-i-would-probably-happily-burn-many-books
https://www.alternet.org/school-districts-book-ban-investigation/
no lnx
School district’s book ban under investigation for potential civil rights violations
David Badash andThe New Civil Rights Movement May 22, 2023
A U.S. Dept. of Education investigation into how a Georgia school district chose to remove almost a dozen books, mostly with Black and LGBTQ characters, finds it created a hostile environment for students and may have violated their civil rights. The DOE’s Office of Civil Rights says the effects of the book removals were so “harsh” they led at least several students to be afraid to go to school.
The Washington Post calls the investigation’s conclusion “a move that could affect how schools handle book challenges.” The Forsyth County, Georgia school district has “agreed to offer ‘supportive measures’ to students affected by the book removals and to administer a school climate survey,” according to a letter from the Dept. of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR).
The extensive and detailed letter notes that the district weighed multiple methods to handle parents’ complaints about several books, and took steps, albeit insufficient, to attempt fairness. But it also makes clear extremist parents’ demands played a role in its decision to remove certain books. The letter also includes comments from students.
READ MORE: Moms for Liberty Leader Says Biden Behind High-Level, Coordinated Effort to Make Kids LGBTQ (Video)
In March of 2022, a local CBS affiliate in Georgia ran a news report detailing the remarks of some parents. That report largely focused on parents who were demanding books be banned. It did not include any students. It also alleged the books were inappropriate: “A slew of inappropriate books in Forsyth County school libraries is causing outrage amongst some parents,” the video’s written statement on YouTube reads.
“During a February 15 District school board meeting, which the District’s Superintendent attended, multiple parents and students spoke about the District’s removal of books,” the Office of Civil Rights’ letter reads, referring to an earlier meeting. “Many parents called for the removal of additional books, with most of their comments focused on sexually explicit content; however, some comments focused on removing books for reasons related to gender identity or sexual orientation. Also, some parents made negative comments about diversity and inclusion or critical race theory.”
“The students’ comments at the board meeting focused on the gender identity, sexual orientation, and race or color of authors or characters in the books. Some students also raised concern about the impact of removing the books. One student stated that the book ban immediately made the environment more harsh for students; people like him who are not in the closet are watching their safe spaces disappear, and he is sick of being fearful at school,” OCR states. “A student who identified herself as Asian said it is hard for her to find books with main characters who are of her race; she knows that people of other minority backgrounds have the same struggle and banning books written with diversity silences mainly minority voices.A third student — who characterized the District’s actions as singling out books by authors who are gay, supporters of the LGBTQI+ community, women and people of color — expressed the belief that the District does not care about diversity.”
In its letter, the Office of Civil Rights sys it “has a concern the District received notice that its media center book screening process may have created a hostile environment for students, yet the District’s responsive steps related to the book screening process were not designed to, and were insufficient to, ameliorate any resultant racially and sexually hostile environment.”
READ MORE: Chris Hayes Decimates DeSantis’ ‘Dystopian’ Hypocrisy of Taking Away Rights of Parents to Decide Trans Kids’ Health Care
It also “recognizes the District Media Committee rejected suggestions to handle challenged books in ways that it believed would target certain groups of students and that the District posted a statement on media centers’ websites that they ‘provide resources that reflect all students within each school community’ and that ‘If you come across a book that does not match your family’s values and/or beliefs, and you would prefer that your child does not check that book out, please discuss it with your child.’ OCR also recognizes the District limited its book screening process to sexually explicit material.”
But OCR makes clear the district’s attempts were insufficient, noting that “communications at [school] board meetings conveyed the impression that books were being screened to exclude diverse authors and characters, including people who are LGBTQI+ and authors who are not white, leading to increased fears and possibly harassment.”
“District witnesses reported to OCR that the District has not taken steps to address with students the impact of the book removals. In light of these communications and actions, OCR is concerned a hostile environment may have arisen that the District needed to ameliorate.”
Watch the video above or at this link.
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5 32 an sonali
https://www.alternet.org/republicans-want-defund-our-libraries/
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an 4 23
republicans in the Missouri State House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to strip all public libraries of their funding a week after lawmakers debated the budget proposal that Governor Mike Parson submitted to the legislature.
The version that will now head to the State Senate eliminated "not only the $4.5 million Parson had slated for libraries, but also costs for diversity initiatives, childcare and pre-kindergarten programs," Heartland Signal reported.
The move appears to be a retaliatory response to legal action taken by the American Civil Liberties Union.
READ MORE: Missouri Dem. lawmaker blasts state GOP for 'dystopian future' proposal to defund public libraries
"Missouri House Budget Committee leader Rep. Cody Smith (R-Carthage) proposed cutting library aid due to a recent lawsuit filed against the state last February," Heartland Signal explained.
"The lawsuit — filed by the ACLU of Missouri on behalf of the Missouri Association of School Librarians and the Missouri Library Association — seeks to declare Senate Bill 775 unconstitutional, a bill that has resulted in over 300 books getting banned from school libraries, many of which include LGBTQ characters or racial justice themes," the outlet added.
READ MORE: 'Are people seriously this stupid?': Missouri woman and pastor claim 'miracle' of three regrown toes
an 3 23
no lnx
jonathan Mitchell, the attorney behind Texas' vigilante law that acted as an end-run around Roe v. Wade, allowing anyone to sue anyone who even assisted someone getting an illegal abortion, is now reportedly drafting legislation to not only ban "immoral" books in schools, but allow anyone to sue librarians and other school staff over the book, or even if they express support for LGBTQ people.
"Draft city ordinances allegedly written by Mitchell could lead to Texans suing librarians and others for their decisions about which books to put on shelves — or for expressing LGBTQ+ support," Axios reports.
The legislation would ban events known as "drag queen story hours," and any recognition of LGBTQ Pride month.
"The draft ordinance — a copy of which, marked privileged and confidential, was obtained by Axios — says the library may not purchase any item containing 'immoral content' or allow people in drag to read to children."
READ MORE: ‘Radical Gender Ideology’: Mike Pence Goes to Iowa to Attack Transgender Children in the Name of God (Video)
"Librarians also may not put on the shelves any book in the young adult section that includes descriptions of nudity, 'any type of sexual act between individuals,' masturbation, cross-dressing, suicide, self-harm, or ‘excretory functions,'" Axios adds. "The draft ordinance also bars librarians and any other city employees from displaying LGBTQ+ flags or emblems — or 'tak[ing] any action that … acknowledges the month of June or any other period of time as LGBTQ Pride Month.'"
Citizens who successfully sue librarians or other school personnel can expect to win at least $10,000 per violation, plus attorney fees.
Mitchell is a former Solicitor General of Texas, appointed by then-Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. He clerked for ant-LGBTQ Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and was a Trump nominee.
Mitchell's biography at the Federalist Society's website brags about his vigilante legislation.
READ MORE: Legal Experts: Fulton County Grand Jury Report Means ‘Trump Likely Committed Crimes’ and ‘Expect Charges to Follow’
"Mr. Mitchell devised the novel enforcement mechanism in the Texas Heartbeat Act, also known as Senate Bill 8, which avoids judicial review by prohibiting government officials from enforcing the statute and empowering private citizens to bring lawsuits against those who violate it," it reads. "This produced an end-run around Roe v. Wade and allowed Texas and other states to impose pre-viability abortion bans despite the continued existence of Roe."
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obvious proven lies earth2 for those outside bbl?
no lnx
late last month a Florida teacher posted a video of a school library where almost every shelf was empty. The video went viral, getting millions of views. Now, the teacher who posted that video has been fired.
Earlier this week Governor Ron DeSantis was asked about the video, he claimed it was a “fake narrative,” and “not true.” DeSantis told reporters the shelves were empty because “they hadn’t put the books out yet to begin with.”
School libraries at the end of January rarely have empty shelves because librarians hadn’t gotten around to filling them.
“Brian Covey, a substitute teacher at Mandarin Middle School, posted a video on Jan. 27 showing rows of empty bookshelves in the school’s library. The jarring video quickly went viral and now has over 13 million views, it made national headlines and was even fodder on a late night talk show,” First Coast News reports.
“On Wednesday, nearly three weeks after the video was posted, Covey said he was fired.”
“In discussion between the district and ESS,” a statement from Duval County Public Schools reads, “regarding this individual’s misrepresentation of the books available to students in the school’s library and the disruption this misrepresentation has caused, it was determined that he had violated social media and cell phone policies of his employer. Therefore, ESS determined these policy violations made it necessary to part ways with this individual.”
:{
}:
ESS, First Coast News reports, is the company that hires substitute teachers.Their statement does not say what was allegedly misrepresented.
On January 31, First Coast News spoke with Covey, before he had been fired.
Their report, and many others, state that because of DeSantis’ laws, administrators or librarians have to review every book in the entire school.
:{
}:
But DeSantis told reporters reviewing a book should only take “two minutes,” and said his Dept. of Education would be happy to help school officials if they had a question about a specific book.
During that same press conference, DeSantis was asked why a popular book about baseball great Roberto Clemente had also been pulled from school shelves.
:{
}:
The Florida governor, expected to launch a presidential campaign soon, lashed out at the reporter, first blaming “politics,” then “teachers’ unions,” then claiming the story itself was “a joke” and “manufactured” while never accepting the impact the legislation he has supported, promoted, signed into law, and used to brand himself as a protector of children has had a devastating effect on those very children he claims to want to protect.
DeSantis appeared to be wholly uninformed as to what schools and students are going through as a result of his laws, which include his “Don’t Say Gay” law.
:{
}:
“More than 1 million books in Duval County schools in Florida are subject to review due to three state laws impacting certain subjects in education, including race, gender and sexual orientation,” ABC News reported this week, confirming the Roberto Clemente book was pulled from school shelves, citing communication from county officials.
:{
}:
“As required by state law, we are in the process of having certified media specialists review all classroom library books,” Tracy Pierce, chief of marketing and public relations at Duval County Public Schools told ABC News. “There are approximately 1.6 million titles in our classroom and media center libraries that need to be reviewed by a certified media specialist.”
https://boingboing.net/2023/01/31/unable-to-burn-digital-books-orange-unified-school-district-bans-the-whole-virtual-library.html
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Popular Information exposed the real consequences of laws and regulations imposed on teachers by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Teachers in Manatee County were advised to make their classroom libraries inaccessible or face felony prosecution.
Our reporting is now under attack by the Florida Commissioner of Education, Manny Diaz Jr. He called Popular Information "fake news" and claimed we were "too lazy" to read Florida law. But, as you'll learn below, Popular Information's reporting was completely accurate. Diaz Jr., on the other hand, is grossly representing his own department's guidance.
Popular Information is a three-person newsletter, but we can rattle the cages of some of the most powerful politicians in the country.
the Florida Commissioner of Education, Manny Diaz Jr., lashed out at Popular Information's recent reporting on Florida classroom libraries, calling it "fake news from media activists too lazy to read [Florida] law." But Popular Information's reporting was completely accurate — and later confirmed by other outlets, including the Washington Post. It was Diaz, in an interview published Monday by the conservative National Review, who grossly misrepresented his own department's guidance in an effort to defend Governor Ron DeSantis (R).
On January 23, Popular Information reported that teachers in Manatee County, Florida are being told to make their classroom libraries inaccessible to students, or risk felony prosecution. A memo created by the Manatee County School District, and distributed to principals, instructed teachers to "remove or cover all classroom libraries until all materials can be reviewed."
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Kevin Chapman, the Chief of Staff for the Manatee County School District, told Popular Information that at the same January 18 meeting where the memo was distributed, principals were advised that teachers that fail to comply with the rules regarding classroom libraries could face stiff penalties, including third-degree felony charges. This message was passed on to Manatee County teachers.
Diaz told the National Review that teachers who packed up their classroom libraries were simply participating in a "stunt" intended to damage DeSantis politically. “I think this is clearly an intentional effort to cause confusion and make it look like the state of Florida, the governor, the legislature, are trying to ban books or trying to create this authoritarian state,” Diaz said.
Diaz said that teachers were free to "apply common sense when examining their classroom libraries" and only remove books that, in the teacher's opinion, are in a "gray area." More from Diaz:
When you’re looking at these, if there’s something in a gray area that you think could be an issue, pull that book aside and have it vetted by the process to make sure that indeed it should be in that library. That doesn’t mean that you cover your library or shut it down.
Diaz's recommendations to teachers directly contradicts the training produced by his own agency, the Florida Department of Education. Slide 22 of the training says that only a "certified media specialist" can select materials for any school library, including classroom libraries.
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(Although the slide focuses on elementary classrooms, another rule, adopted by the Florida Department of Education on October 19, 2022, defines classroom libraries in all grades as a type of school library.)
The trainingreminds media specialists that making material "harmful to minors" available could result in felony prosecution. It also urges media specialists to "err on the side of caution" with all books. Diaz pretends all this guidance does not exist, and that, for the most part, teachers can continue to curate classroom libraries independently.
Diaz also said that teachers' concerns are unwarranted because only materials deemed "harmful to minors" would result in a "third-degree felony." This is cold comfort because right-wing activists and their allies in government consider books by Pulitzer Prize winner Toni Morrison pornography. Further, Diaz notes that a teacher who allows books that are unvetted and inappropriate — but not "harmful to minors" — "would be addressed through an administrative process." That administrative process could result in a teacher having their license revoked and losing their job.
Teachers are still in the dark
Diaz encouraged teachers to exercise "common sense" regarding their classroom libraries. But the Florida Department of Education will not answer basic questions about what kind of books are permitted in Florida schools.
Specifically, the recently enacted Parental Rights In Education Act, known as "Don't Say Gay," prohibits all instruction on "sexual orientation or gender identity" in K-3 classrooms and instruction in other grades that is "not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate." The STOP Woke Act, another new law, limits discussion and instruction of certain racial issues. The laws appear to be limited to "classroom instruction." But can materials that would violate these laws be made available in a classroom library?
The training issued by the Florida Department of Education doesn't answer that question. The Florida Association for Supervisors of Media (FASM) requested that the Florida Department of Education clarify the issue. But, as the Washington Post reported last week, the Department has yet to respond. “They will not tell us in writing,” Michelle Jarrett, the president of FASM, said last week. "We’re not getting a clear message.”
It is a critical question. Applying the "Don't Say Gay" and the "STOP Woke" laws to classroom libraries would likely mandate the removal of scores of books. A teacher found to be in violation of either law is subject to the "revocation or suspension of the individual educator's [teaching] certificate." It is a career-ending offense.
Popular Information asked Chapman if Manatee teachers should remove books from classroom libraries that are not consistent with the "Don't Say Gay" and the "STOP Woke" laws. "In regards to books in school media centers or classrooms, the School District of Manatee County is abiding by all applicable laws and statutes of the state of Florida, and adhering to the guidance of the Florida Department of Education," Chapman replied, not answering the question.
"Woke-busters"
Teachers in Manatee County are required to look up all of the titles in their classroom libraries, determine which ones are already available in the library (and therefore have already been vetted by a librarian), and remove any unvetted books. But, at a school board meeting last week, Manatee County Schools' Director of Curriculum, Laurie Breslin, acknowledged that this was a time-consuming process that most teachers did not have the capacity to do during the school year. Therefore, Breslin said, the county was soliciting volunteers to assist teachers with this process.
Right-wing activists hostile to Florida teachers are seizing on the opportunity. The Manatee Patriots is seeking "Woke Busters" to "SAVE the CHILDREN and OUR Society."
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They are urging their members to "get into the school Libraries" and determine whether teachers are "following the laws." Volunteers are urged to "be on watch for anything that looks inappropriate," including "activism" and "globalism."
Chad Choate, the chair of the Manatee County School Board who was appointed by DeSantis, was the featured speaker at a meeting of the Manatee Patriots on Tuesday night.
no lnx twt
...Across the country, school districts are removing books with LGBTQ characters and themes from school libraries. Now, a high-ranking legislator from North Dakota is proposing the inevitable next step: banning these books from public libraries.
The legislation, sponsored by North Dakota House Majority Leader Mike Lefor (R), would prohibit "public libraries from maintaining sexually explicit books." As defined by the legislation, a "sexually explicit" book is a book that contains a "visual depiction" of anything on a list of twelve items. This list includes "human masturbation," "sexual intercourse," and "deviant sexual intercourse." But it also includes concepts that are not necessarily associated with "sexually explicit" behavior, including "sexual identity" and "gender identity."
What does a visual depiction of gender identity look like? Lefor's legislation does not define the term. There is an exception for books with “serious artistic significance” — another term that is left undefined.
Librarians in North Dakota argue that the legislation would require them to remove most books with LGBTQ characters. Christine Kujawa, a public librarian in Bismarck, told the Associated Press her library would be required to remove a children's book with two hamsters on the cover. The hamsters, both males, get married at the end of the book. Under the legislation, Kujawa says, the book would be considered pornography because the book involves gender identity.
The legislation provides that librarians that make prohibited materials available would face "up to 30 days imprisonment" and a $1500 fine. Kujawa says the bill and companion legislation introduced in the North Dakota Senate, "promote censorship and book bans" and have "been drafted with vague and open-ended language, which leaves the door open for unintended consequences." The Senate version of the bill would also prohibit books with written descriptions of "sexually explicit" topics.
"Citizens should have the freedom to choose the information they want to access," Kujawa said. "In the case of minors, parents are responsible for this, not the government."
The House bill states that any “individual who believes a public library is maintaining a book in violation… may submit a written request to the public library to remove the book from its inventory.” The bill says the library “shall remove the book requested for removal within thirty days of receiving the request.” The bill does not include any provision for the librarian to review or reject the request.
“One person can essentially tell an entire community what they have access to at their public library based on their own opinions, moral, or religious viewpoint[s],” the ACLU of North Dakota's Cody Schuler told Popular Information.
The North Dakota Library Association also issued a statement condemning Lefor's bill:
We stand opposed to censorship and any effort to coerce belief, suppress opinion, or punish those whose expression does not conform to what is deemed to be orthodox in history, politics, or belief. The unfettered exchange of ideas is essential to the preservation of a free and democratic society.
Introducing the legislation, Lefor asserted that North Dakota libraries today include books with "disturbing and disgusting" content. In a committee hearing, Lefor said he was motivated to introduce the bill because the book "Let's Talk About It: The Teen's Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human" was available in public libraries. A Kirkus review describes the book as an "illustrated sexuality and relationship education resource for teens." The review praises it for being "crisp, breezy, effective, and noteworthy in a crowded field for its holistic emphasis on human, emotional aspects of sexuality."
Lefor, however, says, "we have to do everything we can to make sure that [Let's Talk about It] doesn't get into the hands of children." He claimed that, when he grew up, "we didn't need things like this." Lefor also complained that there are books in North Dakota libraries that "assert that gender is fluid."
Lefor argued that a child's exposure to these kinds of books is associated with "addiction, poor self-esteem, devalued intimacy, increasing divorce rates, unprotected sex." He did not provide any evidence to back up these claims.
This legislation is likely unconstitutional. In general, the Supreme Court has ruled that governments are not permitted to remove materials from libraries because they disapprove of the content. The First Amendment protects the right of the public to speak and receive information. There are a few narrow exceptions, like obscenity, but Lefor's bill is much broader.
But the legislation also has a strong chance of approval by the legislature since it is backed by Lefor, the most powerful member of the North Dakota House. Lefor, in turn, is supported by some of the most prominent corporations in the United States.
Corporations that claim to support LGBTQ rights send checks to Lefor
Lefor, who is seeking to ban books that include LGBTQ characters and themes, has received donations from multiple corporations that publicly champion LGBTQ rights.
On June 1, 2022, Johnson & Johnson tweeted that it “takes #pride in supporting the LGBTQIA+ community.” The company’s website states that Johnson & Johnson brands are “committed to championing full equality, inclusivity, care and representation for the LGBTQIA+ community.”
Twitter avatar for @JNJNews
Johnson & Johnson @JNJNews
Johnson & Johnson takes #pride in supporting the LGBTQIA+ community. From developing gender-affirming technologies to fostering an inclusive and diverse work environment, J&J will continue to serve as an ally by championing equality and care. #PrideMonth social.jnj.com/3NR6ePg
Image
4:07 PM ∙ Jun 1, 2022
38Likes10Retweets
The company also boasts about the “innovative ways Johnson & Johnson proudly supports the LGBTQIA+ community,” including having a company initiative, Care with Pride, that “sponsor[s] and participate[s]” in Pride events and sells products with Pride theme packaging.
On September 15, 2022, however, Johnson & Johnson donated $500 to Lefor. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
On June 6, 2021, AT&T tweeted, “We can #TURNUPTHELOVE for LGBTQ+ youth together. The company stated that it “recognizes, embraces, and stands with LGBTQ+ people,”' while asserting that the company is committed to supporting the “mental health crisis affecting LGBTQ+ youth.”
Twitter avatar for @ATT
AT&T @ATT
We can #TURNUPTHELOVE for LGBTQ+ youth together. Sign up with AT&T and join us to support the @TrevorProject. Learn more at: go.att.com/7a3f34fb [rainbow ht emoji]
Image
1:50 AM ∙ Jun 6, 2021
42Likes19Retweets
AT&T also signed a letter in June 2021 organized by the Human Rights Campaign opposing “bills being introduced in state houses across the country that single out LGBTQ individuals - many specifically targeting transgender youth - for exclusion or differential treatment.”
On July 12, 2022, however, AT&T donated $250 to Lefor. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
The bill is also sponsored by North Dakota Representative Vicky Steiner (R). Other corporate donors to Lefor and Steiner since 2022 include: NextEra Energy ($750 to Lefor and $300 to Steiner), ConocoPhillips ($500 to Lefor and $250 to Steiner), and Marathon Petroleum ($1,000 to Steiner). None of these companies responded to a request for comment.
The fact that Twitter is now controlled by a right-wing billionaire is a problem for Popular Information. To date, about half of all Popular Information subscribers learned about the newsletter through Twitter. But it's clear that Popular Information can no longer rely on the audience we've built on Twitter to drive its growth.
https://www.mediamatters.org/daily-wire/daily-wire-host-defends-book-bans-if-book-being-banned-just-and-wise-and-prudent
an badash 1 23 no lnx
Responding to backlash over Florida banning a high school advanced placement course on African American history, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis lashed out, saying part of the reason it was banned is it includes “indoctrination” on “queer theory.”
Standing in a school classroom at a podium with a sign that reads, “Florida, the education state,” DeSantis defended the move to block the Black history class while not banning any others.
Acknowledging that “in the state of Florida, our education standards not only don’t prevent but they require teaching Black history, all the important things as part of our core curriculum,” DeSantis called the class “a separate course on top of that for Advanced Placement credit.”
READ MORE: Democrat Ruben Gallego Praised After Launching Campaign to Unseat Unpopular and ‘Out-of-Touch’ Senator Krysten Sinema
:{“The issue is we have guidelines and standards in Florida,” he proclaimed, as does every other state in the nation. “We want education, not indoctrination. If you fall on the side of indoctrination, we’re going to decline. If it’s education, then we will do.”
“So when I heard it, we didn’t meet the standards. I figured, yeah, they may be doing…” he said as his voice trailed off. “It’s way more than that,” DeSantis warned.
“This course on Black history. What are one of what’s one of the lessons about? Queer theory,” he criticized.}:
“Now who would say that an important part of Black history is ‘queer theory”?” DeSantis said mockingly, not recognizing that LGBTQ people are an integral and important part of all races and cultures. The Florida GOP governor has a history of trying to erase LGBTQ people, especially from public school curriculums with his “Don’t Say Gay“ law.
READ MORE: ‘I Will Never Leave That Woman’: McCarthy Vows He ‘Will Always Take Care’ of Marjorie Taylor Greene, His Friends Say
“And so we’re on, that’s the wrong side of the line for Florida standards. We believe in teaching kids facts and how to think, but we don’t believe they should have an agenda imposed on them. When you try to use Black history to shoehorn in queer theory, you are clearly trying to use that for political purposes.”
:{
Governor DeSantis studied history at Yale and taught history at a private college prep school in Georgia.}:
Last week White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre blasted DeSantis, saying, “let’s not forget,” Florida “didn’t block AP European History. They didn’t block our music history. They didn’t block our art history. But the state chooses to block a course that is meant for high-achieving high school students to learn about the history of arts and culture.”
Watch below or at this link.
an 1 23
Teachers in Manatee County, **Florida**, are being ordered to remove or make inaccessible libraries of books inside their classrooms or face possible felony prosecution, as the district responds to legislation **Governor Ron DeSantis** signed into law prohibiting any books that have not been thoroughly vetted by a credentialed librarian.
The law, which went into effect at the start of this year, “is based on the premise, promoted by right-wing advocacy groups, that teachers and librarians are using books to ‘groom’ students or indoctrinate them with leftist ideologies,” according to Judd Legum at Popular Information.
He puts it simply: “classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal.”
“My heart is broken for Florida students today as I am forced to pack up my classroom library,” one teacher wrote on Facebook, Legum reports.
Calling it a “travesty to education, the future of our children and our nation,” another teacher lamented they have spent 18 years “dedicated to providing students with quality literature,” and helping them “connect with books and develop a love of lifelong learning,” but now they will have to dismantle their classroom library.
Kevin Chapman, the Chief of Staff for the Manatee County School District, “says that school principals in Manatee County were told Wednesday that any staff member violating these rules by providing materials ‘harmful to minors’ could be prosecuted for ‘a felony of the third degree.'”
Not only are teachers now packing up their classroom libraries, but children are being told they are not allowed to bring any books from home to school.
Books can be returned to the classroom only after vigorous review by certified librarians, whose official title is media specialist. They are also subject to felony prosecution if they make any errors.
“That review must also be consistent with a complex training,” Legum reports, “which was heavily influenced by right-wing groups like Moms For Liberty and approved by the Florida Department of Education just last week. Any mistake by a librarian or others could result in criminal prosecution. This process must be repeated for any book brought into the school on an ongoing basis. But librarians and teachers are not being provided with any additional compensation for the extra work.”
Earlier on Monday Gov. DeSantis defended the decision to ban advanced placement for African American history classes in Florida.
Standing in a school classroom at a podium with a sign that reads, “Florida, the education state,” DeSantis declared the “issue is we have guidelines and standards in Florida.”
“We want education, not indoctrination. If you fall on the side of indoctrination, we’re going to decline. If it’s education, then we will do.”
“This course on Black history. What are one of, what’s one of the lessons about? Queer theory.
an 1 23
no lnx
Scholars and lawmakers are outraged over DeSantis’ rejection of AP African-American curriculum
Jake Johnson and Common Dreams January 20, 2023
Academics and Democratic lawmakers reacted angrily Thursday after the administration of Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rejected a new high school Advanced Placement African-American studies course—without even seeing its syllabus—claiming it violates the state's ban on "woke" educationand "lacks educational value."
Some Republican Florida officials said they believe the African-American studies course offered by the College Board—which approves AP courses and runs SAT testing—violates the state's Stop WOKE Act by promoting critical race theory (CRT), a graduate-level academic framework positing that systemic racism is inherent in U.S. society.
DeSantis said the Stop WOKE Act, which applies to schools from the primary through university level and businesses, is meant tocombat "wokeness as a form of cultural Marxism."
The law was partially blocked last year by a federal judge who rejected the state's "authority to muzzle its professors in the name of 'freedom.'"
Marvin Dunn, a prolific author and former Florida International University professor who has dedicated his career to preserving and sharing Florida's Black history, told the Daily Beast that the state's rejection of the AP African-American studies course "means an insult to me, it means an injury to me."
"Florida is doing its best to shut down discussions about race, slavery, anything having to do with a challenge to the idea that racism is still a real factor in American life today," he added.
\u201cThis political extremism and its attack of Black History and Black people, is going to create an entire generation of Black children who won\u2019t be able to see themselves reflected at all within their own education or in their own State.\n\nhttps://t.co/0IDCzOJZlG via @thedailybeast\u201d
— Shevrin \u201cShev\u201d Jones (@Shevrin \u201cShev\u201d Jones) 1674085974
:{
}:
New York University historian Diane Ravitch wrote:
:{
}:
Just in case there was any doubt about what Gov. DeSantis and Florida Legislature banned when they outlawed any discussion of "critical race theory," that doubt has been resolved. They do not want schools and teachers to acknowledge race, racism, or the very existence of people of color in the United States. Sight unseen, the [Florida Department of Education] has banned an AP course on African-American studies. The department claimed that the content of the course is historically inaccurate and violates state law, even though the department has never seen the course syllabus.
DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, has backed dozens of right-wing school board candidates while purging education officials who promote or enforce Covid-19 mandates. Last year, he outraged LGBTQ+ advocates by signing into law the so-called "Don't Say Gay or Trans" bill, falsely claiming that schools were promoting "pornographic" material.
Cassandra Quick, a Seattle-area attorney who is Black and transgender, told Common Dreams that Republicans like DeSantis "seek to silence the stories and histories of Black and Brown people, and of queer people, in a bid to maintain the cultural, economic, and political hegemony they've enjoyed since the inception of the United States and which is threatened by current efforts to shine the light on the realities of those they have suppressed and marginalized."
"Diversity and equity are offensive to the conservative worldview, and they will use whatever tools available to continue enforcing a hierarchy which keeps those they consider the in-group at the top, and the rest of us at the bottom, if they must abide our existence at all," Quick added.
\u201cWhat\u2019s worse, is that for voters who buy white supremacy lock, stock & barrel, their fealty to DeSantis just increased.\n\nThey believe him, his \u201cStop WOKE Act,\u201d and banning things like AP Black History are *protecting* them, their power, and their property.\n\nIt makes him stronger.\u201d
— brittany packnett cunningham. (@brittany packnett cunningham.) 1674138829
:{
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In its brief letter explaining why it rejected the AP African-American studies course, the Florida Department of Education (DOE) said that "as presented, the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value."
:{
}:
The letter was issued on January 12, just days before the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and days after the 100th anniversary of the Rosewood Massacre, in which white supremacists destroyed the eponymous Black town in Levy County, Florida in a murderous rampage.
Florida DOE spokesperson Cassie Pelelis told the Daily Beast that "if the course comes into compliance and incorporates historically accurate content, the department will reopen the discussion."
In response to Florida's move, the College Board told the Daily Beast that "we look forward to publicly releasing the updated course framework as soon as it is completed and well before this class is widely available in American high schools."
In a separate statement, the College Board said that "like all new AP courses, AP African-American Studies is undergoing a rigorous, multiyear pilot phase, collecting feedback from teachers, students, scholars, and policymakers. The process of piloting and revising course frameworks is a standard part of any new AP course, and frameworks often change significantly as a result."
\u201cClearly every history except Black, is seen as worthy of further development, exploration and understanding in Florida under DeSantis' leadership. Black history is American history. Striking it from curriculum does students a grave disservice, and makes America weaker for it.\u201d
— Ameshia Cross (@Ameshia Cross) 1674144497
Reacting to the course's rejection, political analyst Ameshia Cross tweeted: "Black history is American history. Striking it from [the] curriculum does students a grave disservice, and makes America weaker for it."
an badash 1 23 no lnx
Responding to backlash over Florida banning a high school advanced placement course on African American history, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis lashed out, saying part of the reason it was banned is it includes “indoctrination” on “queer theory.”
Standing in a school classroom at a podium with a sign that reads, “Florida, the education state,” DeSantis defended the move to block the Black history class while not banning any others.
Acknowledging that “in the state of Florida, our education standards not only don’t prevent but they require teaching Black history, all the important things as part of our core curriculum,” DeSantis called the class “a separate course on top of that for Advanced Placement credit.”
READ MORE: Democrat Ruben Gallego Praised After Launching Campaign to Unseat Unpopular and ‘Out-of-Touch’ Senator Krysten Sinema
:{“The issue is we have guidelines and standards in Florida,” he proclaimed, as does every other state in the nation. “We want education, not indoctrination. If you fall on the side of indoctrination, we’re going to decline. If it’s education, then we will do.”
“So when I heard it, we didn’t meet the standards. I figured, yeah, they may be doing…” he said as his voice trailed off. “It’s way more than that,” DeSantis warned.
“This course on Black history. What are one of what’s one of the lessons about? Queer theory,” he criticized.}:
“Now who would say that an important part of Black history is ‘queer theory”?” DeSantis said mockingly, not recognizing that LGBTQ people are an integral and important part of all races and cultures. The Florida GOP governor has a history of trying to erase LGBTQ people, especially from public school curriculums with his “Don’t Say Gay“ law.
READ MORE: ‘I Will Never Leave That Woman’: McCarthy Vows He ‘Will Always Take Care’ of Marjorie Taylor Greene, His Friends Say
“And so we’re on, that’s the wrong side of the line for Florida standards. We believe in teaching kids facts and how to think, but we don’t believe they should have an agenda imposed on them. When you try to use Black history to shoehorn in queer theory, you are clearly trying to use that for political purposes.”
:{
Governor DeSantis studied history at Yale and taught history at a private college prep school in Georgia.}:
Last week White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre blasted DeSantis, saying, “let’s not forget,” Florida “didn’t block AP European History. They didn’t block our music history. They didn’t block our art history. But the state chooses to block a course that is meant for high-achieving high school students to learn about the history of arts and culture.”
Watch below or at this link.
an 1 23
Teachers in Manatee County, **Florida**, are being ordered to remove or make inaccessible libraries of books inside their classrooms or face possible felony prosecution, as the district responds to legislation **Governor Ron DeSantis** signed into law prohibiting any books that have not been thoroughly vetted by a credentialed librarian.
The law, which went into effect at the start of this year, “is based on the premise, promoted by right-wing advocacy groups, that teachers and librarians are using books to ‘groom’ students or indoctrinate them with leftist ideologies,” according to Judd Legum at Popular Information.
He puts it simply: “classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal.”
“My heart is broken for Florida students today as I am forced to pack up my classroom library,” one teacher wrote on Facebook, Legum reports.
Calling it a “travesty to education, the future of our children and our nation,” another teacher lamented they have spent 18 years “dedicated to providing students with quality literature,” and helping them “connect with books and develop a love of lifelong learning,” but now they will have to dismantle their classroom library.
Kevin Chapman, the Chief of Staff for the Manatee County School District, “says that school principals in Manatee County were told Wednesday that any staff member violating these rules by providing materials ‘harmful to minors’ could be prosecuted for ‘a felony of the third degree.'”
Not only are teachers now packing up their classroom libraries, but children are being told they are not allowed to bring any books from home to school.
Books can be returned to the classroom only after vigorous review by certified librarians, whose official title is media specialist. They are also subject to felony prosecution if they make any errors.
“That review must also be consistent with a complex training,” Legum reports, “which was heavily influenced by right-wing groups like Moms For Liberty and approved by the Florida Department of Education just last week. Any mistake by a librarian or others could result in criminal prosecution. This process must be repeated for any book brought into the school on an ongoing basis. But librarians and teachers are not being provided with any additional compensation for the extra work.”
Earlier on Monday Gov. DeSantis defended the decision to ban advanced placement for African American history classes in Florida.
Standing in a school classroom at a podium with a sign that reads, “Florida, the education state,” DeSantis declared the “issue is we have guidelines and standards in Florida.”
“We want education, not indoctrination. If you fall on the side of indoctrination, we’re going to decline. If it’s education, then we will do.”
“This course on Black history. What are one of, what’s one of the lessons about? Queer theory.
an 1 23
no lnx
Scholars and lawmakers are outraged over DeSantis’ rejection of AP African-American curriculum
Jake Johnson and Common Dreams January 20, 2023
Academics and Democratic lawmakers reacted angrily Thursday after the administration of Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rejected a new high school Advanced Placement African-American studies course—without even seeing its syllabus—claiming it violates the state's ban on "woke" educationand "lacks educational value."
Some Republican Florida officials said they believe the African-American studies course offered by the College Board—which approves AP courses and runs SAT testing—violates the state's Stop WOKE Act by promoting critical race theory (CRT), a graduate-level academic framework positing that systemic racism is inherent in U.S. society.
DeSantis said the Stop WOKE Act, which applies to schools from the primary through university level and businesses, is meant tocombat "wokeness as a form of cultural Marxism."
The law was partially blocked last year by a federal judge who rejected the state's "authority to muzzle its professors in the name of 'freedom.'"
Marvin Dunn, a prolific author and former Florida International University professor who has dedicated his career to preserving and sharing Florida's Black history, told the Daily Beast that the state's rejection of the AP African-American studies course "means an insult to me, it means an injury to me."
"Florida is doing its best to shut down discussions about race, slavery, anything having to do with a challenge to the idea that racism is still a real factor in American life today," he added.
\u201cThis political extremism and its attack of Black History and Black people, is going to create an entire generation of Black children who won\u2019t be able to see themselves reflected at all within their own education or in their own State.\n\nhttps://t.co/0IDCzOJZlG via @thedailybeast\u201d
— Shevrin \u201cShev\u201d Jones (@Shevrin \u201cShev\u201d Jones) 1674085974
:{
}:
New York University historian Diane Ravitch wrote:
:{
}:
Just in case there was any doubt about what Gov. DeSantis and Florida Legislature banned when they outlawed any discussion of "critical race theory," that doubt has been resolved. They do not want schools and teachers to acknowledge race, racism, or the very existence of people of color in the United States. Sight unseen, the [Florida Department of Education] has banned an AP course on African-American studies. The department claimed that the content of the course is historically inaccurate and violates state law, even though the department has never seen the course syllabus.
DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, has backed dozens of right-wing school board candidates while purging education officials who promote or enforce Covid-19 mandates. Last year, he outraged LGBTQ+ advocates by signing into law the so-called "Don't Say Gay or Trans" bill, falsely claiming that schools were promoting "pornographic" material.
Cassandra Quick, a Seattle-area attorney who is Black and transgender, told Common Dreams that Republicans like DeSantis "seek to silence the stories and histories of Black and Brown people, and of queer people, in a bid to maintain the cultural, economic, and political hegemony they've enjoyed since the inception of the United States and which is threatened by current efforts to shine the light on the realities of those they have suppressed and marginalized."
"Diversity and equity are offensive to the conservative worldview, and they will use whatever tools available to continue enforcing a hierarchy which keeps those they consider the in-group at the top, and the rest of us at the bottom, if they must abide our existence at all," Quick added.
\u201cWhat\u2019s worse, is that for voters who buy white supremacy lock, stock & barrel, their fealty to DeSantis just increased.\n\nThey believe him, his \u201cStop WOKE Act,\u201d and banning things like AP Black History are *protecting* them, their power, and their property.\n\nIt makes him stronger.\u201d
— brittany packnett cunningham. (@brittany packnett cunningham.) 1674138829
:{
}:
In its brief letter explaining why it rejected the AP African-American studies course, the Florida Department of Education (DOE) said that "as presented, the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value."
:{
}:
The letter was issued on January 12, just days before the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and days after the 100th anniversary of the Rosewood Massacre, in which white supremacists destroyed the eponymous Black town in Levy County, Florida in a murderous rampage.
Florida DOE spokesperson Cassie Pelelis told the Daily Beast that "if the course comes into compliance and incorporates historically accurate content, the department will reopen the discussion."
In response to Florida's move, the College Board told the Daily Beast that "we look forward to publicly releasing the updated course framework as soon as it is completed and well before this class is widely available in American high schools."
In a separate statement, the College Board said that "like all new AP courses, AP African-American Studies is undergoing a rigorous, multiyear pilot phase, collecting feedback from teachers, students, scholars, and policymakers. The process of piloting and revising course frameworks is a standard part of any new AP course, and frameworks often change significantly as a result."
\u201cClearly every history except Black, is seen as worthy of further development, exploration and understanding in Florida under DeSantis' leadership. Black history is American history. Striking it from curriculum does students a grave disservice, and makes America weaker for it.\u201d
— Ameshia Cross (@Ameshia Cross) 1674144497
Reacting to the course's rejection, political analyst Ameshia Cross tweeted: "Black history is American history. Striking it from [the] curriculum does students a grave disservice, and makes America weaker for it."
an badash 1 23 no lnx
Responding to backlash over Florida banning a high school advanced placement course on African American history, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis lashed out, saying part of the reason it was banned is it includes “indoctrination” on “queer theory.”
Standing in a school classroom at a podium with a sign that reads, “Florida, the education state,” DeSantis defended the move to block the Black history class while not banning any others.
Acknowledging that “in the state of Florida, our education standards not only don’t prevent but they require teaching Black history, all the important things as part of our core curriculum,” DeSantis called the class “a separate course on top of that for Advanced Placement credit.”
READ MORE: Democrat Ruben Gallego Praised After Launching Campaign to Unseat Unpopular and ‘Out-of-Touch’ Senator Krysten Sinema
:{“The issue is we have guidelines and standards in Florida,” he proclaimed, as does every other state in the nation. “We want education, not indoctrination. If you fall on the side of indoctrination, we’re going to decline. If it’s education, then we will do.”
“So when I heard it, we didn’t meet the standards. I figured, yeah, they may be doing…” he said as his voice trailed off. “It’s way more than that,” DeSantis warned.
“This course on Black history. What are one of what’s one of the lessons about? Queer theory,” he criticized.}:
“Now who would say that an important part of Black history is ‘queer theory”?” DeSantis said mockingly, not recognizing that LGBTQ people are an integral and important part of all races and cultures. The Florida GOP governor has a history of trying to erase LGBTQ people, especially from public school curriculums with his “Don’t Say Gay“ law.
READ MORE: ‘I Will Never Leave That Woman’: McCarthy Vows He ‘Will Always Take Care’ of Marjorie Taylor Greene, His Friends Say
“And so we’re on, that’s the wrong side of the line for Florida standards. We believe in teaching kids facts and how to think, but we don’t believe they should have an agenda imposed on them. When you try to use Black history to shoehorn in queer theory, you are clearly trying to use that for political purposes.”
:{
Governor DeSantis studied history at Yale and taught history at a private college prep school in Georgia.}:
Last week White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre blasted DeSantis, saying, “let’s not forget,” Florida “didn’t block AP European History. They didn’t block our music history. They didn’t block our art history. But the state chooses to block a course that is meant for high-achieving high school students to learn about the history of arts and culture.”
Watch below or at this link.
an 1 23
Teachers in Manatee County, **Florida**, are being ordered to remove or make inaccessible libraries of books inside their classrooms or face possible felony prosecution, as the district responds to legislation **Governor Ron DeSantis** signed into law prohibiting any books that have not been thoroughly vetted by a credentialed librarian.
The law, which went into effect at the start of this year, “is based on the premise, promoted by right-wing advocacy groups, that teachers and librarians are using books to ‘groom’ students or indoctrinate them with leftist ideologies,” according to Judd Legum at Popular Information.
He puts it simply: “classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal.”
“My heart is broken for Florida students today as I am forced to pack up my classroom library,” one teacher wrote on Facebook, Legum reports.
Calling it a “travesty to education, the future of our children and our nation,” another teacher lamented they have spent 18 years “dedicated to providing students with quality literature,” and helping them “connect with books and develop a love of lifelong learning,” but now they will have to dismantle their classroom library.
Kevin Chapman, the Chief of Staff for the Manatee County School District, “says that school principals in Manatee County were told Wednesday that any staff member violating these rules by providing materials ‘harmful to minors’ could be prosecuted for ‘a felony of the third degree.'”
Not only are teachers now packing up their classroom libraries, but children are being told they are not allowed to bring any books from home to school.
Books can be returned to the classroom only after vigorous review by certified librarians, whose official title is media specialist. They are also subject to felony prosecution if they make any errors.
“That review must also be consistent with a complex training,” Legum reports, “which was heavily influenced by right-wing groups like Moms For Liberty and approved by the Florida Department of Education just last week. Any mistake by a librarian or others could result in criminal prosecution. This process must be repeated for any book brought into the school on an ongoing basis. But librarians and teachers are not being provided with any additional compensation for the extra work.”
Earlier on Monday Gov. DeSantis defended the decision to ban advanced placement for African American history classes in Florida.
Standing in a school classroom at a podium with a sign that reads, “Florida, the education state,” DeSantis declared the “issue is we have guidelines and standards in Florida.”
“We want education, not indoctrination. If you fall on the side of indoctrination, we’re going to decline. If it’s education, then we will do.”
“This course on Black history. What are one of, what’s one of the lessons about? Queer theory.
an 1 23
no lnx
Scholars and lawmakers are outraged over DeSantis’ rejection of AP African-American curriculum
Jake Johnson and Common Dreams January 20, 2023
Academics and Democratic lawmakers reacted angrily Thursday after the administration of Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rejected a new high school Advanced Placement African-American studies course—without even seeing its syllabus—claiming it violates the state's ban on "woke" educationand "lacks educational value."
Some Republican Florida officials said they believe the African-American studies course offered by the College Board—which approves AP courses and runs SAT testing—violates the state's Stop WOKE Act by promoting critical race theory (CRT), a graduate-level academic framework positing that systemic racism is inherent in U.S. society.
DeSantis said the Stop WOKE Act, which applies to schools from the primary through university level and businesses, is meant tocombat "wokeness as a form of cultural Marxism."
The law was partially blocked last year by a federal judge who rejected the state's "authority to muzzle its professors in the name of 'freedom.'"
Marvin Dunn, a prolific author and former Florida International University professor who has dedicated his career to preserving and sharing Florida's Black history, told the Daily Beast that the state's rejection of the AP African-American studies course "means an insult to me, it means an injury to me."
"Florida is doing its best to shut down discussions about race, slavery, anything having to do with a challenge to the idea that racism is still a real factor in American life today," he added.
\u201cThis political extremism and its attack of Black History and Black people, is going to create an entire generation of Black children who won\u2019t be able to see themselves reflected at all within their own education or in their own State.\n\nhttps://t.co/0IDCzOJZlG via @thedailybeast\u201d
— Shevrin \u201cShev\u201d Jones (@Shevrin \u201cShev\u201d Jones) 1674085974
:{
}:
New York University historian Diane Ravitch wrote:
:{
}:
Just in case there was any doubt about what Gov. DeSantis and Florida Legislature banned when they outlawed any discussion of "critical race theory," that doubt has been resolved. They do not want schools and teachers to acknowledge race, racism, or the very existence of people of color in the United States. Sight unseen, the [Florida Department of Education] has banned an AP course on African-American studies. The department claimed that the content of the course is historically inaccurate and violates state law, even though the department has never seen the course syllabus.
DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, has backed dozens of right-wing school board candidates while purging education officials who promote or enforce Covid-19 mandates. Last year, he outraged LGBTQ+ advocates by signing into law the so-called "Don't Say Gay or Trans" bill, falsely claiming that schools were promoting "pornographic" material.
Cassandra Quick, a Seattle-area attorney who is Black and transgender, told Common Dreams that Republicans like DeSantis "seek to silence the stories and histories of Black and Brown people, and of queer people, in a bid to maintain the cultural, economic, and political hegemony they've enjoyed since the inception of the United States and which is threatened by current efforts to shine the light on the realities of those they have suppressed and marginalized."
"Diversity and equity are offensive to the conservative worldview, and they will use whatever tools available to continue enforcing a hierarchy which keeps those they consider the in-group at the top, and the rest of us at the bottom, if they must abide our existence at all," Quick added.
\u201cWhat\u2019s worse, is that for voters who buy white supremacy lock, stock & barrel, their fealty to DeSantis just increased.\n\nThey believe him, his \u201cStop WOKE Act,\u201d and banning things like AP Black History are *protecting* them, their power, and their property.\n\nIt makes him stronger.\u201d
— brittany packnett cunningham. (@brittany packnett cunningham.) 1674138829
:{
}:
In its brief letter explaining why it rejected the AP African-American studies course, the Florida Department of Education (DOE) said that "as presented, the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value."
:{
}:
The letter was issued on January 12, just days before the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and days after the 100th anniversary of the Rosewood Massacre, in which white supremacists destroyed the eponymous Black town in Levy County, Florida in a murderous rampage.
Florida DOE spokesperson Cassie Pelelis told the Daily Beast that "if the course comes into compliance and incorporates historically accurate content, the department will reopen the discussion."
In response to Florida's move, the College Board told the Daily Beast that "we look forward to publicly releasing the updated course framework as soon as it is completed and well before this class is widely available in American high schools."
In a separate statement, the College Board said that "like all new AP courses, AP African-American Studies is undergoing a rigorous, multiyear pilot phase, collecting feedback from teachers, students, scholars, and policymakers. The process of piloting and revising course frameworks is a standard part of any new AP course, and frameworks often change significantly as a result."
\u201cClearly every history except Black, is seen as worthy of further development, exploration and understanding in Florida under DeSantis' leadership. Black history is American history. Striking it from curriculum does students a grave disservice, and makes America weaker for it.\u201d
— Ameshia Cross (@Ameshia Cross) 1674144497
Reacting to the course's rejection, political analyst Ameshia Cross tweeted: "Black history is American history. Striking it from [the] curriculum does students a grave disservice, and makes America weaker for it."
an badash 1 23 no lnx
Responding to backlash over Florida banning a high school advanced placement course on African American history, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis lashed out, saying part of the reason it was banned is it includes “indoctrination” on “queer theory.”
Standing in a school classroom at a podium with a sign that reads, “Florida, the education state,” DeSantis defended the move to block the Black history class while not banning any others.
Acknowledging that “in the state of Florida, our education standards not only don’t prevent but they require teaching Black history, all the important things as part of our core curriculum,” DeSantis called the class “a separate course on top of that for Advanced Placement credit.”
READ MORE: Democrat Ruben Gallego Praised After Launching Campaign to Unseat Unpopular and ‘Out-of-Touch’ Senator Krysten Sinema
:{“The issue is we have guidelines and standards in Florida,” he proclaimed, as does every other state in the nation. “We want education, not indoctrination. If you fall on the side of indoctrination, we’re going to decline. If it’s education, then we will do.”
“So when I heard it, we didn’t meet the standards. I figured, yeah, they may be doing…” he said as his voice trailed off. “It’s way more than that,” DeSantis warned.
“This course on Black history. What are one of what’s one of the lessons about? Queer theory,” he criticized.}:
“Now who would say that an important part of Black history is ‘queer theory”?” DeSantis said mockingly, not recognizing that LGBTQ people are an integral and important part of all races and cultures. The Florida GOP governor has a history of trying to erase LGBTQ people, especially from public school curriculums with his “Don’t Say Gay“ law.
READ MORE: ‘I Will Never Leave That Woman’: McCarthy Vows He ‘Will Always Take Care’ of Marjorie Taylor Greene, His Friends Say
“And so we’re on, that’s the wrong side of the line for Florida standards. We believe in teaching kids facts and how to think, but we don’t believe they should have an agenda imposed on them. When you try to use Black history to shoehorn in queer theory, you are clearly trying to use that for political purposes.”
:{
Governor DeSantis studied history at Yale and taught history at a private college prep school in Georgia.}:
Last week White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre blasted DeSantis, saying, “let’s not forget,” Florida “didn’t block AP European History. They didn’t block our music history. They didn’t block our art history. But the state chooses to block a course that is meant for high-achieving high school students to learn about the history of arts and culture.”
Watch below or at this link.
an 1 23
Teachers in Manatee County, **Florida**, are being ordered to remove or make inaccessible libraries of books inside their classrooms or face possible felony prosecution, as the district responds to legislation **Governor Ron DeSantis** signed into law prohibiting any books that have not been thoroughly vetted by a credentialed librarian.
The law, which went into effect at the start of this year, “is based on the premise, promoted by right-wing advocacy groups, that teachers and librarians are using books to ‘groom’ students or indoctrinate them with leftist ideologies,” according to Judd Legum at Popular Information.
He puts it simply: “classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal.”
“My heart is broken for Florida students today as I am forced to pack up my classroom library,” one teacher wrote on Facebook, Legum reports.
Calling it a “travesty to education, the future of our children and our nation,” another teacher lamented they have spent 18 years “dedicated to providing students with quality literature,” and helping them “connect with books and develop a love of lifelong learning,” but now they will have to dismantle their classroom library.
Kevin Chapman, the Chief of Staff for the Manatee County School District, “says that school principals in Manatee County were told Wednesday that any staff member violating these rules by providing materials ‘harmful to minors’ could be prosecuted for ‘a felony of the third degree.'”
Not only are teachers now packing up their classroom libraries, but children are being told they are not allowed to bring any books from home to school.
Books can be returned to the classroom only after vigorous review by certified librarians, whose official title is media specialist. They are also subject to felony prosecution if they make any errors.
“That review must also be consistent with a complex training,” Legum reports, “which was heavily influenced by right-wing groups like Moms For Liberty and approved by the Florida Department of Education just last week. Any mistake by a librarian or others could result in criminal prosecution. This process must be repeated for any book brought into the school on an ongoing basis. But librarians and teachers are not being provided with any additional compensation for the extra work.”
Earlier on Monday Gov. DeSantis defended the decision to ban advanced placement for African American history classes in Florida.
Standing in a school classroom at a podium with a sign that reads, “Florida, the education state,” DeSantis declared the “issue is we have guidelines and standards in Florida.”
“We want education, not indoctrination. If you fall on the side of indoctrination, we’re going to decline. If it’s education, then we will do.”
“This course on Black history. What are one of, what’s one of the lessons about? Queer theory.
an 1 23
no lnx
Scholars and lawmakers are outraged over DeSantis’ rejection of AP African-American curriculum
Jake Johnson and Common Dreams January 20, 2023
Academics and Democratic lawmakers reacted angrily Thursday after the administration of Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rejected a new high school Advanced Placement African-American studies course—without even seeing its syllabus—claiming it violates the state's ban on "woke" educationand "lacks educational value."
Some Republican Florida officials said they believe the African-American studies course offered by the College Board—which approves AP courses and runs SAT testing—violates the state's Stop WOKE Act by promoting critical race theory (CRT), a graduate-level academic framework positing that systemic racism is inherent in U.S. society.
DeSantis said the Stop WOKE Act, which applies to schools from the primary through university level and businesses, is meant tocombat "wokeness as a form of cultural Marxism."
The law was partially blocked last year by a federal judge who rejected the state's "authority to muzzle its professors in the name of 'freedom.'"
Marvin Dunn, a prolific author and former Florida International University professor who has dedicated his career to preserving and sharing Florida's Black history, told the Daily Beast that the state's rejection of the AP African-American studies course "means an insult to me, it means an injury to me."
"Florida is doing its best to shut down discussions about race, slavery, anything having to do with a challenge to the idea that racism is still a real factor in American life today," he added.
\u201cThis political extremism and its attack of Black History and Black people, is going to create an entire generation of Black children who won\u2019t be able to see themselves reflected at all within their own education or in their own State.\n\nhttps://t.co/0IDCzOJZlG via @thedailybeast\u201d
— Shevrin \u201cShev\u201d Jones (@Shevrin \u201cShev\u201d Jones) 1674085974
:{
}:
New York University historian Diane Ravitch wrote:
:{
}:
Just in case there was any doubt about what Gov. DeSantis and Florida Legislature banned when they outlawed any discussion of "critical race theory," that doubt has been resolved. They do not want schools and teachers to acknowledge race, racism, or the very existence of people of color in the United States. Sight unseen, the [Florida Department of Education] has banned an AP course on African-American studies. The department claimed that the content of the course is historically inaccurate and violates state law, even though the department has never seen the course syllabus.
DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, has backed dozens of right-wing school board candidates while purging education officials who promote or enforce Covid-19 mandates. Last year, he outraged LGBTQ+ advocates by signing into law the so-called "Don't Say Gay or Trans" bill, falsely claiming that schools were promoting "pornographic" material.
Cassandra Quick, a Seattle-area attorney who is Black and transgender, told Common Dreams that Republicans like DeSantis "seek to silence the stories and histories of Black and Brown people, and of queer people, in a bid to maintain the cultural, economic, and political hegemony they've enjoyed since the inception of the United States and which is threatened by current efforts to shine the light on the realities of those they have suppressed and marginalized."
"Diversity and equity are offensive to the conservative worldview, and they will use whatever tools available to continue enforcing a hierarchy which keeps those they consider the in-group at the top, and the rest of us at the bottom, if they must abide our existence at all," Quick added.
\u201cWhat\u2019s worse, is that for voters who buy white supremacy lock, stock & barrel, their fealty to DeSantis just increased.\n\nThey believe him, his \u201cStop WOKE Act,\u201d and banning things like AP Black History are *protecting* them, their power, and their property.\n\nIt makes him stronger.\u201d
— brittany packnett cunningham. (@brittany packnett cunningham.) 1674138829
:{
}:
In its brief letter explaining why it rejected the AP African-American studies course, the Florida Department of Education (DOE) said that "as presented, the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value."
:{
}:
The letter was issued on January 12, just days before the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and days after the 100th anniversary of the Rosewood Massacre, in which white supremacists destroyed the eponymous Black town in Levy County, Florida in a murderous rampage.
Florida DOE spokesperson Cassie Pelelis told the Daily Beast that "if the course comes into compliance and incorporates historically accurate content, the department will reopen the discussion."
In response to Florida's move, the College Board told the Daily Beast that "we look forward to publicly releasing the updated course framework as soon as it is completed and well before this class is widely available in American high schools."
In a separate statement, the College Board said that "like all new AP courses, AP African-American Studies is undergoing a rigorous, multiyear pilot phase, collecting feedback from teachers, students, scholars, and policymakers. The process of piloting and revising course frameworks is a standard part of any new AP course, and frameworks often change significantly as a result."
\u201cClearly every history except Black, is seen as worthy of further development, exploration and understanding in Florida under DeSantis' leadership. Black history is American history. Striking it from curriculum does students a grave disservice, and makes America weaker for it.\u201d
— Ameshia Cross (@Ameshia Cross) 1674144497
Reacting to the course's rejection, political analyst Ameshia Cross tweeted: "Black history is American history. Striking it from [the] curriculum does students a grave disservice, and makes America weaker for it."
Moms For Liberty, founded in 2021, is the far-right group that has been pushing for MAGA curriculums in schools and trying to pressure teachers into avoiding any topics having to do with gay rights or the United States’ history of racism. In Moms for Liberty’s world, discussing the beliefs of Malcolm X or Cecil B. Moore in a classroom could be considered teaching “critical race theory” — although the academic field of study known as CRT didn’t exist until the 1980s, which was after the deaths of Malcolm X in 1965 and Moore in 1979.
Now, according to journalist Melissa Gira Grant, a Moms for Liberty offshoot is focusing specifically on book repositories: Moms for Libraries.
In an article published by The New Republic on January 11, Grant reports, “Conservatives have made libraries a target of extreme ire over the past several years, as in the moral panic over drag queen story hour events, now common from Idaho to New York. But it’s school libraries that are likely to get an extra level of right-wing scrutiny in the year ahead, thanks to a group born from Moms for Liberty. Courting a child star, former Trump officials, and a tech billionaire as their North Star and potential influencers, Moms for Libraries is hoping to entrench itself this year in libraries across the country.”
READ MORE: **Foot soldiers for Ron DeSantis: The right-wing money and influence behind Moms for Liberty**
Grant describes Moms for Libraries, launched in 2022, as “part of that much larger and better-known national group Moms for Liberty, whose financial backers are largely unknown and which is organizing conservative women to influence and/or take over school boards.”
“On the surface,” Grant observes, “Moms for Libraries prompts supporters to purchase copies of books from a handful of small conservative publishers it’s chosen, such as Heroes of Liberty, which released a book in December valorizing Elon Musk…. Another Moms for Libraries partner, Brave Books, recently used a book by former ‘Growing Pains’ star Kirk Cameron to fuel a misinformation campaign that libraries are discriminating against Christians.
Grant notes that Moms for Libraries founder Catherine Rahimian “started off as the founder of the Moms for Liberty chapter in Orange County, California.”
“On one level, Moms for Libraries may seem to be not much more than a way to push a promo code for conservative publishers — one that has managed to get only about 5000 books donated to it to distribute to schools,” Grant explains. “But the group’s mission is to turn libraries into the kind of battle fronts it can command, from social media to Fox News, as it has before with school boards. School librarians witnessed the toxic environment that Moms for Liberty has stoked, and on which Moms for Libraries is now focused, using the massive, apparently well-resourced network that Moms for Liberty has built so quickly.”
https://www.alternet.org/biden-administration-investigating-texas-books/
judd pop info 12 22
high school English teacher Vicki Baggett speaking to a local media outlet, Studio 850 in September 2020.
When Wilma Rudolph Played Basketball is a book about the childhood of Wilma Rudolph, a legendary sprinter who won three gold medals at the 1960 Olympic games in Rome. The book, which is 32 pages long, is geared toward readers in elementary school.
The story focuses on Rudolph's childhood and the obstacles she had to overcome to achieve success. Rudolph, for example, had polio as a child and was forced to wear a leg brace. She was told by a doctor that she would never be able to walk without the brace. But Rudolph was determined.
As a Black child in the American South, Rudolph also faced racial discrimination and segregation. But Rudolph overcame both her physical limitations and societal prejudice to become a world-champion sprinter.
It is a wholesome and inspirational story. But When Wilma Rudolph Played Basketball is one of nearly 150 books that Vicki Baggett, a high school English teacher, is seeking to ban from school libraries in Escambia County, Florida. According to a challenge form submitted by Baggett on August 24, the purpose of When Wilma Rudolph Played Basketball is "race-baiting," and the book is not appropriate for any student. ...
big funder of school bd takeover?
https://www.alternet.org/human-rights/christian-book-banning/
https://www.alternet.org/2022/11/florida-judge-blocks-censorship-law/
dystopia
note aha-ish parental rights is almost only issue gop has for midterms, and key to sweatervest win va youngkin
https://www.mediamatters.org/greg-gutfeld/fox-news-host-greg-gutfeld-says-he-supports-book-banning-including-beloved-which-he
no lnx many
Angry Right-Wing Moms Are Trying to Have Librarians Arrested by “Constitutional Sheriffs”
BY JESSICA PISHKO
NOV 04, 2022
Pippin wearing a "Moms for Liberty" shirt and placing her hands over stacks of books.
Jennifer Pippin, president of the Indian River County chapter of Moms for Liberty, helped launch a criminal investigation of her local school library, seeking to criminalize Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, among other books. Giorgio Viera/Getty Images
In March, special counsel to the sheriff of Hamilton County, Tennessee, Coty Wamp, was campaigning for district attorney when she met with a group of parents calling themselves Moms for Liberty. Wamp said afterwards that she had facilitated a meeting between the “parents’ rights” group and the sheriff’s office because she thought law enforcement could help the group in its goal of banning books. “I think that there’s going to come a time with some of these books where it crosses a criminal line,” Wamp said. “It’s called contributing to the delinquency of a minor.” Wamp won that promotion to district attorney and was one of the earliest law enforcement figures to begin to establish a frightening new alliance between far-right sheriff’s offices and the radical right-wing parent’s group seeking to upend America’s educational system.
After Wamp’s meeting, she did not shy away from the possibility of filing charges for “criminal” books, although she later told Jezebel that she did not intend to suggest she was going to go about arresting librarians. Whatever her actual intentions, the alliance Wamp sought to foster is a dangerous one and one that is spreading.
Across the country, members of Mothers for Liberty, a far-right group focused on banning library books and whitewashing school curricula, have appealed to sheriffs as allies in these goals. Much like the partnerships between sheriffs and militia members, or sheriffs and election deniers, this alliance is another example of how sheriffs have become the arm of the law willing to enforce the radical agenda of the far-right. It also shows how determined groups like M4L are to be seen as having legal legitimacy—and how willing sheriffs are to provide it.
I have spent the past few years reporting on far-right sheriffs and their allies and confidants. One notable change since 2020 has been the increasing number of women who identify with the politics of far-right groups like the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association. While most people associate groups like CSPOA with hyper-masculine-fueled violence, women are often key facilitators between these groups and voters.
Much of this alliance emerged during the pandemic, when far-right parent groups opposed masking in schools. On forums like Facebook, these parents, mostly mothers, passed around information about the so-called constitutional sheriff movement, citing its members as potential allies. This blossomed into an anti-public-school movement focused on altering classroom curricula to eliminate material about racism, sex, or LGBTQ people; policing classrooms and libraries; eliminating requirements for all forms of vaccines as well as masking for COVID; and pushing parents to embrace home-schooling as an ideal way to escape federal and state government indoctrination.
While many anti-mask and election conspiracy rallies were filled with men clad in military-style apparel and carrying long guns, women presented a softer side and turned out in equal—if not stronger—numbers, in my observation. During the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association’s “Arise USA Resurrection Tour” last year, the two women founders of Freedom Angels appeared onstage to talk not just about resisting mask and vaccine orders but also about establishing entire communities free from government regulation, like food co-ops and alternative home-schooling. Large public events sponsored by CSPOA drew crowds approaching gender parity.
Moms 4 Liberty—their slogan is “Parents’ Rights”—is just one of these influential women-led groups. It was formed in Florida by Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice after both lost their reelection campaigns for their respective local school boards. Their latest conference theme was “Joyful Warriors,” another example of how far-right women mitigate the toxic masculinity associated with groups like the Oath Keepers, border militias, and the Proud Boys. According to recent reporting by Mother Jones, the group now claims 100,000 members across 38 states.
While M4L has been accused of various direct actions like harassing local school board officials with emails, calls, and threats, it has lately begun to approach county sheriffs as a way to legitimize its grievances and gain actual traction in criminal courts. Granted, it hasn’t been too successful yet. But these alliances suggest that should it not achieve its goals via democratic means, M4L is perfectly willing to find its own firepower.
One strategy has been to bring criminal complaints to sympathetic sheriffs, which become “sex crime” investigations, further spreading the QAnon-influenced anxieties that children are being recruited or brainwashed by sex predators presenting as progressives. In the spring, Jennifer Pippin, who is an M4L chapter chair, filed a criminal complaint against a school library in Indian River County, Florida, for failing to remove dozens of books flagged by the members as inappropriate. The original list of books for examination included more than 150 titles, and while some were removed, not all of them were. In an email, Pippin told a member of the school board that she was focused on “ALL of the books currently in the libraries that have sex, rape, drugs etc etc in them that need to be removed immediately so they don’t get into the hands of anymore students in our district.” She threatened, “I’m holding all of you accountable.”
Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers—who last year was aSheriff Fellow at the far-right think tank Claremont Institute—assigned a sergeant to investigate the issue, reviewing emails between an M4L representative and various local officials. There were even annotated pages of the books in question, including sections of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, a 2005 novel by Jonathan Safran Foer about a 9-year-old boy whose father is killed in the 9/11 attacks. (The book has been the subject of previous attacks by some parents since it was published.) The pages are annotated with handwritten notes like “sexual encounter” and “masterbation.”
The six-week investigation resulted in a 74-page report, which concluded that “no crime occurred.” Whether patently unconstitutional charges are ultimately filed in cases like these, though, is not the issue. The chilling effect of the threat is.
That threat is real. In a letter to the school superintendent, Flowers wrote that “the totality of the circumstances do not allow us to make an arrest in this case,” but added, “We do not feel that this content is appropriate for young children even though it does not rise to the level of a crime.” Flowers then recommended “stricter oversight” for children’s books.
Other sheriffs—especially those in Florida, where M4L began and has garnered support from Gov. Ron DeSantis—have conducted similar investigations into so-called dirty books, and while no criminal charges have resulted thus far, they indicate that going to the sheriff is an accepted strategy. In Flagler County, Florida, another M4L member filed an almost identical complaint to Pippin’s. And in Polk County, Florida, a dark money group called County Citizens Defending Freedom funded a series of complaints about books (under the guise of citizen complaints) to Sheriff Grady Judd, who deemed the material “vile and nasty and inappropriate” but not pornographic. Judd added that the matter was “under review to determine if there will be a criminal investigation” based on additional complaints, which all appear to have stemmed from the same dark money group that produced the initial complaints.
Sheriff candidates in many counties are also courting M4L members as political allies, appearing alongside them at events, providing legal legitimacy to their fears, and contributing to the spread of misinformation. Sheriff Wayne Ivey of Brevard County, who was recently exposed for potentially trying to bribe political candidates he did not like to exit races and endorse his preferred candidates, has embraced M4L-allied members for school board.
In Tulsa, Oklahoma, Sheriff Vic Regalado did an April speaking event with an M4L county chair in which he supplied background on “applicable laws,” explaining that many criminal laws do not apply to book banning, even things that would “make a normal person puke.” He noted, however, regarding a book of poetry, “If an individual on the streets of Tulsa, Oklahoma, were showing this to a child, they would be in cuffs like that”—snapping his fingers—“and they would be prosecuted, but I don’t know that they would be convicted in today’s world.”
“This is now accepted,” he continued, waving a page around, arguing that a jury would be unlikely to convict because “a lot of parents are apathetic,” and blaming in particular single mothers. He ended by promising to consult with the district attorney about “how we can insert law enforcement into this thing.”
It might seem unusual to have elected law enforcement—especially in a time of much-hyped fears of violent crime and alleged understaffing—insert themselves into whether a book should be in a school library. Sheriffs, as politicians, need not justify the use of their resources, though, whether they are used to solve murders, investigate non-existent election fraud, or thoroughly report out whether Jonathan Safran Foer’s book about 9/11 is too sexy for the youths.
The alliance between sheriffs and M4L makes further levels of political sense as well. Local police chiefs are unlikely to be allies, as their budgets are scrutinized by city leadership and they tend to be in larger cities. Sheriffs serve longer terms than police chiefs and are politicians at heart, having the ability to deploy time and personnel however they see fit, with little if any oversight. And even if there were oversight, in most states where M4L is active, it has the support of state actors and other powerful politicians. Investigating a school book is both safe, easy, and popular in these jurisdictions, especially compared with solving actual crime.
https://www.alternet.org/2022/09/doesnt-get-to-tell-county/ xian ~ gay
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As we enter Banned Books Week 2022, a new movement to gut public school libraries is sweeping the nation, with far-right “parental rights” group Moms for Liberty and two pro-censorship organizations — Book Look and Book Looks — at the forefront.
Moms for Liberty’s book banning campaign is growing in both size and intensity, with a clear strategy: manufacture moral panic in your community to pressure public schools into removing titles with LGBTQ themes or discussions of racism in American history. With the help of Book Look and Book Looks, it's been increasingly successful.
With over 200 chapters, Moms for Liberty has become the largest driver of the nationwide book banning crusade, which has led to harassment and threats against public school teachers, librarians, and education officials. Moms for Liberty chapters have challenged Martin Luther King Jr. and the March to Washington because of “photographs of political violence” and Ruby Bridges Goes to School because of “racist remarks,” among other objections. Moms for Liberty is also a vocally anti-LGBTQ organization and has advocated for trans bathroom bans in public schools.
Now, Media Matters has obtained documentation showing that Moms for Liberty has created “Books/Library Director” chapter positions that would be responsible for surveying and evaluating library book lists and challenging them within local school districts. These positions would allow each individual chapter to have a member organizing the gutting of public school libraries. One chapter has already started a “book review committee” and encouraged parents to go to their child’s public school open house and take pictures of books in the library containing “material most of us would not want our kids reading.”
Media Matters has also uncovered evidence that Moms for Liberty chapters “have teamed up” with Book Look and Book Looks, which appear to be distinct entities that are crowdsourcing parents’ book reviews and using them as justification for literature bans in public schools. And while the two organizations are separate, they use nearly the same book rating system, have overlapping book reviews, and operate in a seemingly identical manner.
[13 reasons why]
Book Look and Book Looks both collect reports to expedite the process of challenging books, helping conservative activists organize campaigns around parents’ outrage and demand a book’s removal without even reading it. Anonymous volunteers create reports by documenting examples of profane or inappropriate content with their corresponding page number, which are then packaged into “easy to understand book content reviews centered around objectionable content.” Books are given a rating on a scale from zero to five, with zero being “appropriate for all audiences” and five being “might be arrested for reading at school board meetings.”
The rating system allows heavily biased right-wing reviewers to disguise themselves as objective arbiters. For example, a Book Looks report about Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home — an award-winning graphic novel about the author’s “journey from childhood to college student to adult in relation to both her identity as a lesbian and her dynamic with her family, particularly her father who is a closeted gay man” — cites the depiction of “alternative sexualities” and “alternative gender ideologies” among other justifications for why it should be removed from school libraries. It was given a four rating: “Not for minors.”
In addition to rating books, sharing out-of-context quotes on Facebook of “objectionable” books is another part of the groups’ broader strategy that they say “gathers attention” on social media and “gets people engaged with outrage.” Individuals are also encouraged to send school boards snippets of the most objectionable books and attend board meetings to “ask publicly about progress,” or, “if you have brave volunteers, attempt to read some passages from these books and ask if the board thinks this is OK for minors. Let them stand behind this material and own it if they are not working to get rid of it.”
Notably, Book Look’s website directs parents to links about the anti-LGBTQ “grooming” smear and articles about Moms for Liberty “fighting against porn” in schools; it also provides users with anti-trans memes to spread on social media. Some of the group’s infographics push back against the accusation that Book Look and Moms for Liberty encourage banning books, claiming that they “support the process of challenging and removing books in school libraries” and establishing “book boundaries” — which they argue is distinct from “the banning of books.” (It’s not.)
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