White supremacists have gagged teachers, and now even kids are afraid to bring up the topics or complain when they’re harassed by christian nationalist bullies…
Similar to the slaveholders of yesteryear, the brutal authoritarian politics that is powered by white supremacy does not want people to be able to think for themselves. Also why it's so hard to pass national education policy in this nation.
I had a great great grandfather John Neal and a great great uncle, Henry Farrar, both had a wife and three kids, neither owned a slave. Neither of the fools were conscripted John Neal happily marched up the road to the county seat to join the 37th Regmt, 9th Arkansas on May 10, 1862 only to die of the plaque at Camp "Hope" renamed Nelson in Austin Arkansas on Sep 15, 1862along with 1,500 other Arkansas and Texas boys. Henry joined the Perry Rangers, and was automatically folded into the 28th Alabama and died of wounds incurred in the Battle of Corinth, MS in May 1862, he enlisted in Mar 19, 1862 was dead by May 14, 1862..
Fools joined because of "patriotic" propaganda about "states rats" Can't say I would go back in time and prevent any of it, because if one nano second of the past was changed, I would never have been born, and even during my life time, if I had not made the choices that I made, I would not be who I am or where I am, And I am quite happy with my current situtation, it is the future that worries me, and I see a dark future.
And Steward. the money powers fear and educated populace, to wit the Powell Memo that Thom as written so much about.
You don't need educated persons to do menial labor, and certainly don't need them on assembly lines.
Airlines send their planes to El Salvador for scheduled maintenance. they are serviced by people who can't read the Tech Manuals in English or Spanish, and they don't need them, they are trained on a few tasks, just like workers on assembly lines. Educated workers are trouble, for the ruling class, they know what is happening in the world and in their nation, and demand more pay, benefits and working conditions.
I was in Nicaragua in 1975, when it was under the thumb of the dictator Somosa, and was in the midst of a revolt by the Sandinistas, I was the last gringo to cross the border into Panama.
Managua, the capital, didn't even have street signs, and people couldn't even read a map.
Nicaragua was a libertarian paradise, only two classes, the ruling class and the peasants.
Mr. Farrar. Four decades ago, when I was writing my dissertation, my chairman Dr. W.Johnson had been a friend and advisor to Somoza, Batista and Marcos . He had advised them to spend tax money on public education so as to strengthen their countries. They, of course, humored him and did nothing of the sort. All three countries threw off those dictators. Since then Cuba and Nicaragua have improved immensely. I recommend NICARAGUA by Daniel Kovalik Clarity Press 2023. The Philippines are still, unfortunately waiting for deliverance from hell. Venezuelans are still not quite out of the mud yet.
My take is that the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment should protect black history.
" No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
The Privileges and Immunities Clause of Article IV, Section 2 of the Constitution states that "the citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states."
Kids learn racism from their parents, who teach fear and hate of other human beings, all those who must bear the blame for life's trials and tribulations. And it's always in terms of the "others" who threaten everything we hold most dear, "those" unworthy people, unlike us.
Instead of learning life's hard lessons, accepting responsibility for one's thoughts and actions, and trying to do better, like good people should, cynical, self-righteous adults over a lifetime of unrelenting conditioning become rigid in their exclusionary belief system, blind to its ugly, real-world consequences, secretly relishing in their hatred while excusing or hiding it with lofty ideals and heartfelt indignations, hollow words designed to distract from the ugly reality of their hugely flawed self. And these fearful, hateful, small-minded fools instruct their children in the ways of bigotry, teaching them what to think rather than how to think.
Like most of their made-up attacks against perceived enemies, Republicans are infamous for Orwellian doublespeak: falsely attributing to others their own sins. They are masters of projection. When Republicans accuse Democrats of indoctrinating ("grooming") children into some fictitious "woke" ideology, what they really mean is that they fully intend to indoctrinate as many children as possible with extreme, right-wing ideology. It's an open secret they're not even trying to hide anymore — they're going full tilt!
Deepspace. Many years ago when I was a student at Iowa State University I had a friend, James Frawley, who told me he was the first Irishman to earn a PhD in Rural Sociology. He grew up on an Irish farm and said the only way to get an Irish Bog Pony's attention was to pick up a large timber and pound it between the horse's eyes. I am a city boy. Please tell me he was kidding......
The most powerful action is to repeatedly point out the fascist ideology of using non existent ideas as being real. The Nazi did this in spades and it is the most dangerous for cultures to allow.
Sure, as I mentioned in another post a few weeks ago, the strategy is to create chaos and then "solve" it by being "strong." CRT was, as Thom says, an obscure idea. "Woke" didn't even exist as more than the line of a song. Antifa is not some vast centralized conspiracy. But suddenly these are panic-worthy problems that only the GOP can fix. It is a matter of discovering an enemy to blame, and it doesn't matter if it's a follower of Trotsky in Stalin's USSR, Jews in Hitler's Germany, Romany in Orban's Hungary or people with "poisonous" blood in Trump's America. And since "corrupting the youth" has been a panic button since Socrates was executed on charges of doing that, finding an enemy ties in neatly with the idea of a near-treasonous subject in the classroom. The fact that it is a complete fiction is irrelevant. Only the results matter.
Daniel, I've read Mein Kampf, along with the Communist Manifesto, Das Kapital and Wealth of Nations, even Mao's little red book.
Mein Kampf laid out Hitlers long term objectives and his scapegoats. It also was a projection of what he intended to do, in it he accused the Jews of the big lie. and hencethorth in every speech he pounded the big lie, until people believed it, and turned a blind eye to the persecution of the Jews, Slavs, Socialists, Gays and disabled, The result was he mass slaughter of Jews and what Hitler considered untermenshen and political opponents.
When he made Goebbels his minister of propaganda, Goebbels went full force on the big lie.
Hannah Ahendt nailed it,for Hitler and autocrats like Trump. They telegraph what they are going to do,by accusing those that they seek to victimize of the very acts and crimes they are planning.
If Trump gets elected, then racial, sexual, religious minorities will regret not voting for Democrats, and all of those Trump Humping Kunts will rue the day, that they adored the "dear leader. The Republic of Gilead will prove to be fact, not fiction., but as my wife says, some women will be perfectly happy, as it will relieve them of responsibility.
Lost to history and memory is that it was women, like Phyliss Schafly, that killed the Equal Rights Amendment.
This is why I left teaching, because the people running schools are just as White Supremacist as can be. On NYE a friend of my nephew's who is Korean American was over at our house telling us how she is quitting her teaching job because she is working for a White Supremacist. She says his EdD dissertation was on how schools are hard for White boys to succeed in. She is going to study statistics instead of being a music teacher. I was telling this to another friend who is a professor of Linguistics about this, and she said she cannot even understand at which university they would have been accepting this sort of a dissertation. We were thinking Oral Roberts university, or Liberty University or some other ultra-conservative Evangelical Christian university.
Here in Baghdad By the Sea students are forced to take “Victims of Communism Day” every November 7 "to honor the hundreds of millions of people who have suffered under communist regimes across the world."
We've got one such regime about 90 miles from Key West. Most of its victims support DeSantis and the Florida legislature elimination of Black history, banning of books, and limitations on the First Amendment rights to speak freely about race or petition the government, especially when it comes to it. In the last election, they voted heavily for DeSantis and sent three MAGAT Batistianos back to represent Miami in Congress, despite the fact that Miami has a majority Democratic registration.
Simultaneously, more than 100,00 Cubans, mostly negr]itos, who had been convinced to rebel and protest against the Cuban government and voted with their feet to get to Mejico, try to make it to freedom as maybe 1,000,000 of their paisanos had done. But their countrymen, DeSantis and the entire Republican Party would rather demonize them than sponsor them.
They target and threaten to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose family also fled Cuba. but who is, in the local vernacular, a Juban,
Some of the very people who support the elimination of Black history, banning of books, and limitations on the First Amendment rights to speak freely about race or petition the government happen to be Black -- most Afrocubanos, but also Haitians and others. I reported several times about the major error committed by BLM. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/black-lives-matter-faces-backlash-statement-cuba-protest-rcna1438
IMHO it would not take too much to turn this around.
Daniel: From my knowledge base, the "refugees" from Cuba constitute two classes or immigration waves.
The first are the Batisto's, the upper class, who lived and prospered off the Cubano/Mafia connection of Hotels, Spas, Casino's, and because of mafia money, a prosperous middle class arose. The majority of the country were campesino's, laborers and unemployed who had no dinero.
It was the rich middle class, who suddenly found themselves peasants that boarded planes and boats and headed to Miami, the Mafia's southern base.
The second wave were criminals released by Castro, and sent by boat to Florida, the Mariella boat lift.
The Cuban experience is being replayed by Venezuelan middle class. Chavez had the audacity to actually think that Venezuelan oil, belonged to Venezuela, and no Exxon Mobil.
Exxon Mobil then used its bought and paid for clout with our government, and the CIA was turned loose to destablize the government of Venezuela. and they tried and failed, so the US Government, well bought by Exxon Mobil, has turned to sanctions, thus forcing Venezuela to turn to our enemies, Russia and Iran, for help.
Now we have middle class Venezuelans, who have enough money to purchase plane tickets to Mexico, turning up at our borders, well scrubbed in clean designer clothes, there kids carrying soccer balls and dolls, claiming to have transited the jungles of Colombia, the (very, very dangerous and dirty) Darien Gap, and an over 1,000 mile journey to the US border.
These "asylum seekers" are a creation of our government, bending to the demands of Exxon Mobil, and yet again we have multinational corporations, creating problems by destabilizing governments.
Unfortunately bleeding hearts in America buy into the lies that these people are political refugees, in reality they are financial refugees, finding themselves no longer the privileged class, they flee to the land of the big BX (G.I. slang for Base Exchange), not really willing to get blisters and callouses on their hands, and welcomed by more bleeding hearts in Martha's Vineyard as "poor downtrodden refugees, seeking asylum.
I am with you Daniel, they all should be sent to North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming If the idiots who run Mass, NY, Chicago had any smarts or guts, they would do what Rhonda Santis and Abbott do, put them on buses and ship them west to red states.
I wrote a book....Breaking Up with Cuba. Cuba had many political parties. Batista overthrew the Autentico Party in 1952. Castro was an Ortodoxo Party candidate for the Cuban House in that election that never occurred. Both of those parties were center-left. Batista had been a labor candidate and in the 40's ran with the Communist Party and had two Commies in his cabinet. In order to get support of the US, he turned on his former allies.
Originally Castro was seen as the white hope. His father was a Spanish soldier, while Batista was the son of a Black Mambi fighter. But after he was rebuffed by the US, Castro allied with the Soviet Union.
Many Autenticos and Ortodoxos left before 1959. In 1959, Batista and his allies fled. After that, the entire professional class fled. Although many opposed each other on the island, in the US they allied after the Bay of Pigs fiasco. People who once were socialists or even communists in Cuba became right wingers in the US.
It's true that a lot of prisoners and mental patients came in Mariel, but many middle class people did also.
Some of the mafia got out early -- the Cleveland variation -- to Vegas. Little Marco Rubio's family came to the US with the -- then went back after Batista fled -- then returned to Vegas.
The most recent riots took place in poor, mostly Black neighborhoods in Havana and especially Santiago de Cuba, which is heavily Black. I assume most of the people on the border came from there.
Ironically Blacks like Enrique Tarrio, convicted president of the Proud Boys, oppose immigration.
Tarrio and his ilk, and they are legion, like Joe Arpaio is of the I got mine, the hell with you crowd
Crabs in a pot People like Tarrio and Arpaio are, IMO, of the mindset, everything would be OK for us Hispanics were it not for the migrants.
Kind of reminds me of the Irish. Shunned considered non white, even signs on the lawn, Dogs and Irish keep off, once they lost their brogue and thus melted into Anglo Saxon society, they have become the most virulent of racists. I vividly remember the anti Busing (race) riots of 1974, and the rioters almost to a person were Irish, not to mention Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly.
Here's Andrew Otazo: Racist Abuelo’s New Year’s Resolution is to Be as Racist as Last Year
Alberto Rodriguez (aged 82), grandfather to Susan and Emilio Rodriguez (aged 17 and 22, respectively), confirmed to his progeny this past Thursday that he’d be just as racist next year as during the previous 12 months. The fact that he was an immigrant and member of an ethnic minority would continue to have absolutely no bearing on his all-consuming prejudice.
Indeed, to the dismay of his exasperated grandchildren, Mr. Rodriguez loudly declared at a family get-together that he planned to amplify the scope and intensity of his bigotry in its myriad forms. Women, the LGBTQ community, Millennials, Generation Z, and “the poors” would all receive increased ire. Of course, the traditional targets of his discrimination (Blacks, Muslims, and Central Americans, in no particular order) would continue to bear the brunt of his animosity throughout the coming year.
At this point in time, Mr. Rodriguez’s grandchildren have just about given up on pointing out the hypocrisies and inconsistencies in his hours-long diatribes.
“There’s nothing we can do,” insisted Susan Rodriguez with a mix of frustration and defeatism while Mr. Rodriguez ranted forcefully about how President Obama was a Nigerian Muslim. “It’s not like he’s even trying to convince anyone. I just think he likes the sound of his own voice.”
When approached for comment, Mr. Rodriguez brandished a candlestick over his head while insisting I “get the f— off my lawn, you f—ing snowflake!”
I missed out on the excitement of school board meetings during COVID. I started to get interested in my local meetings (in a rural area in a "Blue" state) when the elections started to appear political. A group of 3 ran as a team and were allegedly part of a statewide group with the term "Patriots" somewhere in the title (and the local Republican state senator was linked to the group as well). Two of the three were voted to the school board.
Unfortunately, I have missed the last so many meetings, but there was obviously some tension among the board. I was mostly curious to figure out their agenda. Allegedly (I recently heard), one of the new board members had placed a call, to the librarian, to inquire about some of the books in the library (no surprise). I want to monitor this situation since Steve Bannon has said that they need to save the nation by going through the school boards. The right knows how to play the long game.
You put your finger on the problem at the end Thom. The right wing, the fascists, the racists, the authoritarians are motivated and have been since Brown V Board of Education.
Motivated by fear and angst, they have been showing up at school boards and local elections.
While liberals, including those discriminated against, have been sitting by and letting the fascists take over the country, from school board and dog catcher to legislatures and governors, while the only apparent interest of liberals (Democrats) has been the General Election.
Racists are motivated, by fear, to action, Liberals by the ideology of peace and reason to protesting with signs. Democrats kvetch, Republicans act and willingly empty their pockets, that is what fear motivation does.
Liberals are not afraid, and as a result fascism is in its ascendancy.
Liberals are the pre frontal cortex, conservatives the lizard brain.
And guess which is winning?
Liberals need to get angry, show up, take action, defend decency, diversity and equity at the city council, the corporate level, the state and federal level, because that is where the fascists are active.
The fascists are so motivated to ban books and reverse all civil gains, that they will risk their own freedoms, like J6, even their lives. Where is such dedication on the left. Nay, our "leaders' implore us to be patient, kind, considerate, open minded, and reason with those who would destroy us.
Here is one piece of deadly and ill advised advice, from a respected source: Be compassionate toward hardcore followers of Trump. Yeh like Socialists being compassionate towards hard core followers of Hitler and how did that work out.
The right wing is irrational, because it is self willed ignorant, short sighted and thus incapable of critical reasoning, also a fault of libertarians.. The left wing is rational and thus complacent
we limit ourselves to kvetching about this and that or scribbling on placards and marching in protest.
Temecula is in Riverside Co., CA and blacks are only 7.8% of the population, it is axiomatic that the smaller the percentage of non whites, the more racist the city, county or state is, (with the exception of the Deep South.
Cosmopolitan centers are liberal tend to democratic because they are commercial centers, attract a large number of non whites, who have money to spend, and whose labor is more than menial.
There seems to be a correlation between economic health, jobs, and lifestyle and attitudes toward liberalism and diversity. Thus the Trump states are marginal to poor, and you have situations like Washington a state which were it not for prosperous King , Snohomish Counties and the I-5 Corridor would be red.and New York State which is Blue only because of NYC which numbers over 8 million the largest other cities number in the hundreds of thousands and teeter, witness the 2020 elections in which four seats were lost, because the Majority leader of Congress, Sean Patrick Maloney, NY's 18th,, and Adam Schiff felt so secure that they went junketeering in Paris, in 2022, rather than stay at home and help defend 4 Democratic seats.
The racism in the south is historic and passed down by tradition and tales, father to son, mother to daughter and is perpetuated because the states themselves are impoverished and taker states, surviving only because of blue states, and at that the cosmopolitan commercial centers in those states.
People can't accept personal responsibility for their own state of misery, so they use scapegoats, people who don't look like them, worship like them, have a different lifestyle, customs and traditions than them.. the deadly other.
Turning the United States into something sappy like a Hallmark movie or Disney experience is a horrible thing to do. The blood, sweat and tears that went into building this nation is all too real. Isn't the least we 2024 Americans can do is tell our children the truth to honor those sacrifices? ALL the sacrifices and EVERYONE'S sacrifices must be included; people earned their place in our history. Of course the really young need to be considered carefully, but the bulk of history is taught in the higher grades to older students. They see the news and our real history being made everyday.
We've succeeded in getting out the truth and have been blowing-up their myths, these right-wing radicals can't have THAT! There's also an element of "What I learned worked for me, and I want the same for my child". According to their philosophy, a big serving of White-privilege will do for everyone. At the heart of it all is conservatives clinging to their past. They are scared to death of the future and the demographic change on the horizon.
Folks paying property tax (includes renters), people with kids and grand-kids, and community members are stakeholders. It's good to look-up the agenda when researching the times for your school board meetings. Our board does take comments both written and oral at every meeting.
This is all concerning and it is vitally important for parents to get involved particularly when it comes to school boards. That being said, the racism of the Democratic Party, from Biden's stance on policing and lack of action on police reform and voting rights to his continuation and expansion of restrictive Trump era immigration policies to the party's stance on Israel are all on the spectrum and have resulted in attrition in the party's grassroots activist base. In addition, your framing of Biden as a "geriatric stutterer" shows either naivete or bias in failing to acknowledge his rapidly deteriorating cognitive and physical condition.
Mr. Kaufman. Biden's "rapidly deteriorating cognitive and physical condition," must be placed in context.
Trump is an obese consumer of junk food with a clownish pseudo-Hollywood hair-do and puffy, orange face. His cognitive level is not declining. It has been in the intellectual basement from the first time he made a public statement years ago. The man has the vocabulary of a high school Freshman, the insights of a butterfly, and the soul of a snake.
Chris Christie is another unhealthy, obese blowhard with the bullying instincts of Trump, plus a powerfully loud voice with which he childishly emphasizes his "arguments."
Nikki haley is so lacking in a Liberal Arts education that she does not know the American Civil War was fought over chattel slavery imposed upon African Americans. She also disingenuously represents herself as "Nonwhite." She is about as much a woman of color as Anita Bryant.
Vivek Ramaswamy has a fake smile glued onto his face as he pukes out the most outlandish, cruel policies since Barry Goldwater in 1964.
Biden rides a bike. Occasionally falls; but gets back on and rides again. He swims in the frigid waters off the Atlantic shore. Have you? How many 80 year old men can? He is still as thin and upright as a young man, and he is possessed of the wisdom that comes with advanced age.
Mr Dobbertin. You are too generous. Trump's level of knowledge and cognition is at that of a 5th grader. You don't have to be smart to make money and gain power, just a sociopathic, psychopath.
Boris doesn't give a hoot about the Republican party, he simply wants the Democrats to give up in disgust on Biden, that Trump becomes dictator, as Trump is Putin's puppet. It is just that simple.
There you go again Boris. The racism of the Democratic party. LOL. It is the Democrats that are responsible for any gains in equality and diversity, and the Republicans who have been active in dragging us back to the days of Jim Crow.
We are on to you Boris.
Two things happened on Oct 7th Boris, your man Putin had a birthday party and HAMAS slaughtered Jews.
I would think that you are a Trump troll, but only so far as an attempt to discredit Biden, and turn the tide in the favor of Trump, who is Putin's dog.
Once again, schools should not be controlled by political actors, whether elected school board members or state government officials, agencies, and executives. Professional administrators with service to children as their primary objective and focus should be in charge of schools, and parents should have the option of choosing which school or which teacher and which curricula meet the needs of their child or satisfies their particular political or educational philosophy. Those on the left should know, even if those on the right do not, that they should not have to initiate a second career as a school board member to overpower someone whose political or philosophical orientation is different. That's what political offices are for. Fighting over the specifics of what books or what ideas and ideals should be introduced to students is not a matter for the state to control in a democracy and that should be obvious. It is not obvious because people are conditioned to believe that it is okay for education to be under an arbitrary authority. But when that authority becomes capricious and destructive, they cannot figure out why they are in an existential battle for control. You gave Ron DeSantis the power to dictate school policy. You cannot complain about how he exercises that power.
I’m holding Republicans to blame for taking this stance and rolling it into every corner of our society.
White supremacy has been adopted by them as another tool
Of opposition to our democracy.
The people pushing these policies are incited by the evil of the agencies supporting them .
The Federalist Society. Big Business.
Big moneyed architects of White Supremacy. All foundations of the Republicans whether or not they pretend to know it .
It’s there and it’s tragic.
People that are comfortable with this twisted evolution are bigots, period.
Trump and his supporters are big proponents of active destructive racism
And the alleged ‘Christian’s’ who support this are not Christian’s.
It’s a putrid interpretation of their ideology.
Similar to the slaveholders of yesteryear, the brutal authoritarian politics that is powered by white supremacy does not want people to be able to think for themselves. Also why it's so hard to pass national education policy in this nation.
I had a great great grandfather John Neal and a great great uncle, Henry Farrar, both had a wife and three kids, neither owned a slave. Neither of the fools were conscripted John Neal happily marched up the road to the county seat to join the 37th Regmt, 9th Arkansas on May 10, 1862 only to die of the plaque at Camp "Hope" renamed Nelson in Austin Arkansas on Sep 15, 1862along with 1,500 other Arkansas and Texas boys. Henry joined the Perry Rangers, and was automatically folded into the 28th Alabama and died of wounds incurred in the Battle of Corinth, MS in May 1862, he enlisted in Mar 19, 1862 was dead by May 14, 1862..
Fools joined because of "patriotic" propaganda about "states rats" Can't say I would go back in time and prevent any of it, because if one nano second of the past was changed, I would never have been born, and even during my life time, if I had not made the choices that I made, I would not be who I am or where I am, And I am quite happy with my current situtation, it is the future that worries me, and I see a dark future.
And Steward. the money powers fear and educated populace, to wit the Powell Memo that Thom as written so much about.
You don't need educated persons to do menial labor, and certainly don't need them on assembly lines.
Airlines send their planes to El Salvador for scheduled maintenance. they are serviced by people who can't read the Tech Manuals in English or Spanish, and they don't need them, they are trained on a few tasks, just like workers on assembly lines. Educated workers are trouble, for the ruling class, they know what is happening in the world and in their nation, and demand more pay, benefits and working conditions.
I was in Nicaragua in 1975, when it was under the thumb of the dictator Somosa, and was in the midst of a revolt by the Sandinistas, I was the last gringo to cross the border into Panama.
Managua, the capital, didn't even have street signs, and people couldn't even read a map.
Nicaragua was a libertarian paradise, only two classes, the ruling class and the peasants.
Mr. Farrar. Four decades ago, when I was writing my dissertation, my chairman Dr. W.Johnson had been a friend and advisor to Somoza, Batista and Marcos . He had advised them to spend tax money on public education so as to strengthen their countries. They, of course, humored him and did nothing of the sort. All three countries threw off those dictators. Since then Cuba and Nicaragua have improved immensely. I recommend NICARAGUA by Daniel Kovalik Clarity Press 2023. The Philippines are still, unfortunately waiting for deliverance from hell. Venezuelans are still not quite out of the mud yet.
My take is that the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment should protect black history.
" No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
The Privileges and Immunities Clause of Article IV, Section 2 of the Constitution states that "the citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states."
Kids learn racism from their parents, who teach fear and hate of other human beings, all those who must bear the blame for life's trials and tribulations. And it's always in terms of the "others" who threaten everything we hold most dear, "those" unworthy people, unlike us.
Instead of learning life's hard lessons, accepting responsibility for one's thoughts and actions, and trying to do better, like good people should, cynical, self-righteous adults over a lifetime of unrelenting conditioning become rigid in their exclusionary belief system, blind to its ugly, real-world consequences, secretly relishing in their hatred while excusing or hiding it with lofty ideals and heartfelt indignations, hollow words designed to distract from the ugly reality of their hugely flawed self. And these fearful, hateful, small-minded fools instruct their children in the ways of bigotry, teaching them what to think rather than how to think.
Like most of their made-up attacks against perceived enemies, Republicans are infamous for Orwellian doublespeak: falsely attributing to others their own sins. They are masters of projection. When Republicans accuse Democrats of indoctrinating ("grooming") children into some fictitious "woke" ideology, what they really mean is that they fully intend to indoctrinate as many children as possible with extreme, right-wing ideology. It's an open secret they're not even trying to hide anymore — they're going full tilt!
"Teach your children well
Their father's hell
Will slowly go by" - Graham Nash
Deepspace. Many years ago when I was a student at Iowa State University I had a friend, James Frawley, who told me he was the first Irishman to earn a PhD in Rural Sociology. He grew up on an Irish farm and said the only way to get an Irish Bog Pony's attention was to pick up a large timber and pound it between the horse's eyes. I am a city boy. Please tell me he was kidding......
Nope, that's pretty much how to get my attention. Just ask my mare.
};--))
The most powerful action is to repeatedly point out the fascist ideology of using non existent ideas as being real. The Nazi did this in spades and it is the most dangerous for cultures to allow.
Sure, as I mentioned in another post a few weeks ago, the strategy is to create chaos and then "solve" it by being "strong." CRT was, as Thom says, an obscure idea. "Woke" didn't even exist as more than the line of a song. Antifa is not some vast centralized conspiracy. But suddenly these are panic-worthy problems that only the GOP can fix. It is a matter of discovering an enemy to blame, and it doesn't matter if it's a follower of Trotsky in Stalin's USSR, Jews in Hitler's Germany, Romany in Orban's Hungary or people with "poisonous" blood in Trump's America. And since "corrupting the youth" has been a panic button since Socrates was executed on charges of doing that, finding an enemy ties in neatly with the idea of a near-treasonous subject in the classroom. The fact that it is a complete fiction is irrelevant. Only the results matter.
The big lie.
Daniel, I've read Mein Kampf, along with the Communist Manifesto, Das Kapital and Wealth of Nations, even Mao's little red book.
Mein Kampf laid out Hitlers long term objectives and his scapegoats. It also was a projection of what he intended to do, in it he accused the Jews of the big lie. and hencethorth in every speech he pounded the big lie, until people believed it, and turned a blind eye to the persecution of the Jews, Slavs, Socialists, Gays and disabled, The result was he mass slaughter of Jews and what Hitler considered untermenshen and political opponents.
When he made Goebbels his minister of propaganda, Goebbels went full force on the big lie.
Hannah Ahendt nailed it,for Hitler and autocrats like Trump. They telegraph what they are going to do,by accusing those that they seek to victimize of the very acts and crimes they are planning.
If Trump gets elected, then racial, sexual, religious minorities will regret not voting for Democrats, and all of those Trump Humping Kunts will rue the day, that they adored the "dear leader. The Republic of Gilead will prove to be fact, not fiction., but as my wife says, some women will be perfectly happy, as it will relieve them of responsibility.
Lost to history and memory is that it was women, like Phyliss Schafly, that killed the Equal Rights Amendment.
This is why I left teaching, because the people running schools are just as White Supremacist as can be. On NYE a friend of my nephew's who is Korean American was over at our house telling us how she is quitting her teaching job because she is working for a White Supremacist. She says his EdD dissertation was on how schools are hard for White boys to succeed in. She is going to study statistics instead of being a music teacher. I was telling this to another friend who is a professor of Linguistics about this, and she said she cannot even understand at which university they would have been accepting this sort of a dissertation. We were thinking Oral Roberts university, or Liberty University or some other ultra-conservative Evangelical Christian university.
Here in Baghdad By the Sea students are forced to take “Victims of Communism Day” every November 7 "to honor the hundreds of millions of people who have suffered under communist regimes across the world."
We've got one such regime about 90 miles from Key West. Most of its victims support DeSantis and the Florida legislature elimination of Black history, banning of books, and limitations on the First Amendment rights to speak freely about race or petition the government, especially when it comes to it. In the last election, they voted heavily for DeSantis and sent three MAGAT Batistianos back to represent Miami in Congress, despite the fact that Miami has a majority Democratic registration.
Simultaneously, more than 100,00 Cubans, mostly negr]itos, who had been convinced to rebel and protest against the Cuban government and voted with their feet to get to Mejico, try to make it to freedom as maybe 1,000,000 of their paisanos had done. But their countrymen, DeSantis and the entire Republican Party would rather demonize them than sponsor them.
They target and threaten to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose family also fled Cuba. but who is, in the local vernacular, a Juban,
Some of the very people who support the elimination of Black history, banning of books, and limitations on the First Amendment rights to speak freely about race or petition the government happen to be Black -- most Afrocubanos, but also Haitians and others. I reported several times about the major error committed by BLM. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/black-lives-matter-faces-backlash-statement-cuba-protest-rcna1438
IMHO it would not take too much to turn this around.
Daniel: From my knowledge base, the "refugees" from Cuba constitute two classes or immigration waves.
The first are the Batisto's, the upper class, who lived and prospered off the Cubano/Mafia connection of Hotels, Spas, Casino's, and because of mafia money, a prosperous middle class arose. The majority of the country were campesino's, laborers and unemployed who had no dinero.
It was the rich middle class, who suddenly found themselves peasants that boarded planes and boats and headed to Miami, the Mafia's southern base.
The second wave were criminals released by Castro, and sent by boat to Florida, the Mariella boat lift.
The Cuban experience is being replayed by Venezuelan middle class. Chavez had the audacity to actually think that Venezuelan oil, belonged to Venezuela, and no Exxon Mobil.
Exxon Mobil then used its bought and paid for clout with our government, and the CIA was turned loose to destablize the government of Venezuela. and they tried and failed, so the US Government, well bought by Exxon Mobil, has turned to sanctions, thus forcing Venezuela to turn to our enemies, Russia and Iran, for help.
Now we have middle class Venezuelans, who have enough money to purchase plane tickets to Mexico, turning up at our borders, well scrubbed in clean designer clothes, there kids carrying soccer balls and dolls, claiming to have transited the jungles of Colombia, the (very, very dangerous and dirty) Darien Gap, and an over 1,000 mile journey to the US border.
These "asylum seekers" are a creation of our government, bending to the demands of Exxon Mobil, and yet again we have multinational corporations, creating problems by destabilizing governments.
Unfortunately bleeding hearts in America buy into the lies that these people are political refugees, in reality they are financial refugees, finding themselves no longer the privileged class, they flee to the land of the big BX (G.I. slang for Base Exchange), not really willing to get blisters and callouses on their hands, and welcomed by more bleeding hearts in Martha's Vineyard as "poor downtrodden refugees, seeking asylum.
I am with you Daniel, they all should be sent to North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming If the idiots who run Mass, NY, Chicago had any smarts or guts, they would do what Rhonda Santis and Abbott do, put them on buses and ship them west to red states.
I wrote a book....Breaking Up with Cuba. Cuba had many political parties. Batista overthrew the Autentico Party in 1952. Castro was an Ortodoxo Party candidate for the Cuban House in that election that never occurred. Both of those parties were center-left. Batista had been a labor candidate and in the 40's ran with the Communist Party and had two Commies in his cabinet. In order to get support of the US, he turned on his former allies.
Originally Castro was seen as the white hope. His father was a Spanish soldier, while Batista was the son of a Black Mambi fighter. But after he was rebuffed by the US, Castro allied with the Soviet Union.
Many Autenticos and Ortodoxos left before 1959. In 1959, Batista and his allies fled. After that, the entire professional class fled. Although many opposed each other on the island, in the US they allied after the Bay of Pigs fiasco. People who once were socialists or even communists in Cuba became right wingers in the US.
It's true that a lot of prisoners and mental patients came in Mariel, but many middle class people did also.
In 19666 we offered, in effect, bribery for Cubans- financial support, a green card, other bennies -- to any Cuban who came. https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-eligibility/green-card-for-a-cuban-native-or-citizen#:~:text=The%20Cuban%20Adjustment%20Act%20of,(get%20a%20Green%20Card).
Some of the mafia got out early -- the Cleveland variation -- to Vegas. Little Marco Rubio's family came to the US with the -- then went back after Batista fled -- then returned to Vegas.
The most recent riots took place in poor, mostly Black neighborhoods in Havana and especially Santiago de Cuba, which is heavily Black. I assume most of the people on the border came from there.
Ironically Blacks like Enrique Tarrio, convicted president of the Proud Boys, oppose immigration.
Tarrio and his ilk, and they are legion, like Joe Arpaio is of the I got mine, the hell with you crowd
Crabs in a pot People like Tarrio and Arpaio are, IMO, of the mindset, everything would be OK for us Hispanics were it not for the migrants.
Kind of reminds me of the Irish. Shunned considered non white, even signs on the lawn, Dogs and Irish keep off, once they lost their brogue and thus melted into Anglo Saxon society, they have become the most virulent of racists. I vividly remember the anti Busing (race) riots of 1974, and the rioters almost to a person were Irish, not to mention Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly.
Here's Andrew Otazo: Racist Abuelo’s New Year’s Resolution is to Be as Racist as Last Year
Alberto Rodriguez (aged 82), grandfather to Susan and Emilio Rodriguez (aged 17 and 22, respectively), confirmed to his progeny this past Thursday that he’d be just as racist next year as during the previous 12 months. The fact that he was an immigrant and member of an ethnic minority would continue to have absolutely no bearing on his all-consuming prejudice.
Indeed, to the dismay of his exasperated grandchildren, Mr. Rodriguez loudly declared at a family get-together that he planned to amplify the scope and intensity of his bigotry in its myriad forms. Women, the LGBTQ community, Millennials, Generation Z, and “the poors” would all receive increased ire. Of course, the traditional targets of his discrimination (Blacks, Muslims, and Central Americans, in no particular order) would continue to bear the brunt of his animosity throughout the coming year.
At this point in time, Mr. Rodriguez’s grandchildren have just about given up on pointing out the hypocrisies and inconsistencies in his hours-long diatribes.
“There’s nothing we can do,” insisted Susan Rodriguez with a mix of frustration and defeatism while Mr. Rodriguez ranted forcefully about how President Obama was a Nigerian Muslim. “It’s not like he’s even trying to convince anyone. I just think he likes the sound of his own voice.”
When approached for comment, Mr. Rodriguez brandished a candlestick over his head while insisting I “get the f— off my lawn, you f—ing snowflake!”
Unbelievable. Maybe he is brain damaged, I've read of such things happening, a portion of the brain is damaged,perhaps a mini stroke.
I missed out on the excitement of school board meetings during COVID. I started to get interested in my local meetings (in a rural area in a "Blue" state) when the elections started to appear political. A group of 3 ran as a team and were allegedly part of a statewide group with the term "Patriots" somewhere in the title (and the local Republican state senator was linked to the group as well). Two of the three were voted to the school board.
Unfortunately, I have missed the last so many meetings, but there was obviously some tension among the board. I was mostly curious to figure out their agenda. Allegedly (I recently heard), one of the new board members had placed a call, to the librarian, to inquire about some of the books in the library (no surprise). I want to monitor this situation since Steve Bannon has said that they need to save the nation by going through the school boards. The right knows how to play the long game.
Hi Tom,
Nikki Haley was governor of South Carolina, not North.
You put your finger on the problem at the end Thom. The right wing, the fascists, the racists, the authoritarians are motivated and have been since Brown V Board of Education.
Motivated by fear and angst, they have been showing up at school boards and local elections.
While liberals, including those discriminated against, have been sitting by and letting the fascists take over the country, from school board and dog catcher to legislatures and governors, while the only apparent interest of liberals (Democrats) has been the General Election.
Racists are motivated, by fear, to action, Liberals by the ideology of peace and reason to protesting with signs. Democrats kvetch, Republicans act and willingly empty their pockets, that is what fear motivation does.
Liberals are not afraid, and as a result fascism is in its ascendancy.
Liberals are the pre frontal cortex, conservatives the lizard brain.
And guess which is winning?
Liberals need to get angry, show up, take action, defend decency, diversity and equity at the city council, the corporate level, the state and federal level, because that is where the fascists are active.
The fascists are so motivated to ban books and reverse all civil gains, that they will risk their own freedoms, like J6, even their lives. Where is such dedication on the left. Nay, our "leaders' implore us to be patient, kind, considerate, open minded, and reason with those who would destroy us.
Here is one piece of deadly and ill advised advice, from a respected source: Be compassionate toward hardcore followers of Trump. Yeh like Socialists being compassionate towards hard core followers of Hitler and how did that work out.
The right wing is irrational, because it is self willed ignorant, short sighted and thus incapable of critical reasoning, also a fault of libertarians.. The left wing is rational and thus complacent
we limit ourselves to kvetching about this and that or scribbling on placards and marching in protest.
Temecula is in Riverside Co., CA and blacks are only 7.8% of the population, it is axiomatic that the smaller the percentage of non whites, the more racist the city, county or state is, (with the exception of the Deep South.
Cosmopolitan centers are liberal tend to democratic because they are commercial centers, attract a large number of non whites, who have money to spend, and whose labor is more than menial.
There seems to be a correlation between economic health, jobs, and lifestyle and attitudes toward liberalism and diversity. Thus the Trump states are marginal to poor, and you have situations like Washington a state which were it not for prosperous King , Snohomish Counties and the I-5 Corridor would be red.and New York State which is Blue only because of NYC which numbers over 8 million the largest other cities number in the hundreds of thousands and teeter, witness the 2020 elections in which four seats were lost, because the Majority leader of Congress, Sean Patrick Maloney, NY's 18th,, and Adam Schiff felt so secure that they went junketeering in Paris, in 2022, rather than stay at home and help defend 4 Democratic seats.
The racism in the south is historic and passed down by tradition and tales, father to son, mother to daughter and is perpetuated because the states themselves are impoverished and taker states, surviving only because of blue states, and at that the cosmopolitan commercial centers in those states.
People can't accept personal responsibility for their own state of misery, so they use scapegoats, people who don't look like them, worship like them, have a different lifestyle, customs and traditions than them.. the deadly other.
When are they coming for the atheists?
“The media could have........” yes they could have. And they should have. And they better start doing so with gusto.
Turning the United States into something sappy like a Hallmark movie or Disney experience is a horrible thing to do. The blood, sweat and tears that went into building this nation is all too real. Isn't the least we 2024 Americans can do is tell our children the truth to honor those sacrifices? ALL the sacrifices and EVERYONE'S sacrifices must be included; people earned their place in our history. Of course the really young need to be considered carefully, but the bulk of history is taught in the higher grades to older students. They see the news and our real history being made everyday.
We've succeeded in getting out the truth and have been blowing-up their myths, these right-wing radicals can't have THAT! There's also an element of "What I learned worked for me, and I want the same for my child". According to their philosophy, a big serving of White-privilege will do for everyone. At the heart of it all is conservatives clinging to their past. They are scared to death of the future and the demographic change on the horizon.
Folks paying property tax (includes renters), people with kids and grand-kids, and community members are stakeholders. It's good to look-up the agenda when researching the times for your school board meetings. Our board does take comments both written and oral at every meeting.
Too many people are simply cowardly.
This is all concerning and it is vitally important for parents to get involved particularly when it comes to school boards. That being said, the racism of the Democratic Party, from Biden's stance on policing and lack of action on police reform and voting rights to his continuation and expansion of restrictive Trump era immigration policies to the party's stance on Israel are all on the spectrum and have resulted in attrition in the party's grassroots activist base. In addition, your framing of Biden as a "geriatric stutterer" shows either naivete or bias in failing to acknowledge his rapidly deteriorating cognitive and physical condition.
Mr. Kaufman. Biden's "rapidly deteriorating cognitive and physical condition," must be placed in context.
Trump is an obese consumer of junk food with a clownish pseudo-Hollywood hair-do and puffy, orange face. His cognitive level is not declining. It has been in the intellectual basement from the first time he made a public statement years ago. The man has the vocabulary of a high school Freshman, the insights of a butterfly, and the soul of a snake.
Chris Christie is another unhealthy, obese blowhard with the bullying instincts of Trump, plus a powerfully loud voice with which he childishly emphasizes his "arguments."
Nikki haley is so lacking in a Liberal Arts education that she does not know the American Civil War was fought over chattel slavery imposed upon African Americans. She also disingenuously represents herself as "Nonwhite." She is about as much a woman of color as Anita Bryant.
Vivek Ramaswamy has a fake smile glued onto his face as he pukes out the most outlandish, cruel policies since Barry Goldwater in 1964.
Biden rides a bike. Occasionally falls; but gets back on and rides again. He swims in the frigid waters off the Atlantic shore. Have you? How many 80 year old men can? He is still as thin and upright as a young man, and he is possessed of the wisdom that comes with advanced age.
Are we looking at the same man, you and I?
clapping hands
Mr Dobbertin. You are too generous. Trump's level of knowledge and cognition is at that of a 5th grader. You don't have to be smart to make money and gain power, just a sociopathic, psychopath.
Boris doesn't give a hoot about the Republican party, he simply wants the Democrats to give up in disgust on Biden, that Trump becomes dictator, as Trump is Putin's puppet. It is just that simple.
There you go again Boris. The racism of the Democratic party. LOL. It is the Democrats that are responsible for any gains in equality and diversity, and the Republicans who have been active in dragging us back to the days of Jim Crow.
We are on to you Boris.
Two things happened on Oct 7th Boris, your man Putin had a birthday party and HAMAS slaughtered Jews.
I would think that you are a Trump troll, but only so far as an attempt to discredit Biden, and turn the tide in the favor of Trump, who is Putin's dog.
Once again, schools should not be controlled by political actors, whether elected school board members or state government officials, agencies, and executives. Professional administrators with service to children as their primary objective and focus should be in charge of schools, and parents should have the option of choosing which school or which teacher and which curricula meet the needs of their child or satisfies their particular political or educational philosophy. Those on the left should know, even if those on the right do not, that they should not have to initiate a second career as a school board member to overpower someone whose political or philosophical orientation is different. That's what political offices are for. Fighting over the specifics of what books or what ideas and ideals should be introduced to students is not a matter for the state to control in a democracy and that should be obvious. It is not obvious because people are conditioned to believe that it is okay for education to be under an arbitrary authority. But when that authority becomes capricious and destructive, they cannot figure out why they are in an existential battle for control. You gave Ron DeSantis the power to dictate school policy. You cannot complain about how he exercises that power.