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| It's okay for a minority to flee the state, but we need to get rid of the filibuster? |
In a second attempt to block the quorum necessary for Republican to hold votes on any of their upcoming legislation, the Texas Democrats have once again left the state. If this sounds familiar that is because they just did this a few years ago, only to eventually give in and return to work.
Part of the issue here is that Democrats literally need to leave the state or they can be forced to the capital. So they apparently are on their way to Washington D.C. where no doubt they will be celebrated as heros by the same people who are arguing that the Senate filibuster needs to be eliminated so they can pass legislation by 50-50 tie break procedure.
Right now, these people are no longer being paid, which is apparently not much of a burden for them. But in just a few weeks, legislative staffers (who count on their paychecks like any other worker) will also be out their pay. Nobody expects that they will sacrifice these people in the names of obstruction.
57 comments:
I wonder who's paying for all this? Staying in DC is a lot more expensive than Texas.
And what a great picture of democrats flying without masks. John Kerry must be in charge. Maybe they are stopping off in Iran first with some pallets of cash for his friends.
You can also see their smiles before they break out the spirits.
High times
only thing image worse for democrats would be if Kamala is there to great them
Someone definitely didn't think this out very well
*image worse
alky's word salads have obviously effected me...
The US Marshalls need to fly into DC, apprehend these clowns, fly them to Havana, and drop them off.
‘Complete Shithole’: Biden’s Namesake Rest Stop in Disarray
https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/complete-shithole-bidens-namesake-rest-stop-in-disarray/
At least we know where to put his presidential library.
rrb said...
‘Complete Shithole’: Biden’s Namesake Rest Stop in Disarray
https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/complete-shithole-bidens-namesake-rest-stop-in-disarray/
"Hunter Biden was here ?"
Define Lost Lil Schitty.....they did stop the bill last time by leaving and will do the same again delaying the flawed bill..... Delay will only give congress more time to pass a federal rights bill if the R's decide to cooperate....Thw Tx bill limiting drive through voting discriminates against the precincts in which blacks used the method most....sorry sport, hating democracy is your MO with the GOP white shirts supporting anarchy rather than we the people.... The trump shit hole in floriduh is just the perfect example of a mafia private club.....!!!!
Now the ignorant right wing assholes are worried about a rest stop in Delaware being dirty.....Don't you assholes have something better to worry about instead of a namesake toilet as being indicative of the current administration????? Must be a real slow news day to be posting such trash!!!!!!!! BWAAAAAAPAAAAAA!!!!! I bet rat's double wide would also be a shit hole.......LOLOLOLOL
Byron York
https://twitter.com/ByronYork/status/1414770595691106307
Why do Texas Democrats think fleeing the state to cripple the legislature will highlight the issue of 'voting rights'? What about the rights of Texas voters who elected Republicans to an 83-67 majority in TX House? Unlike the situation in US Senate, that's an actual majority.
Apparently now majorities don't have rights
Only democrats have rights
Banana Republic
Joe Biden's America
HEH:
“So as I understand it, Democratic legislators fled the state of Texas to prevent the large legislative majority from enacting a voting reform bill. They flew to Washington, D.C., where they rallied for ending the filibuster so that Democrats’ slim majority can pass a voting ‘reform’ bill.”
Comment: “Yeah, last night the BBC was saying both those things at once, with no consciousness of any contradiction.”
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/461381/
CHT nails Roger to the cross.
"It's okay for a minority to flee the state, but we need to get rid of the filibuster?"
Bingo
Bingo
The hypocrisy AND the stupidity are equally breathtaking.
So as I understand it, Democratic legislators fled the state of Texas to prevent the large legislative majority from enacting a voting reform bill. They flew to Washington, D.C., where they rallied for ending the filibuster so that Democrats’ slim majority can pass a voting ‘reform’ bill.”
Technically Democrats do not even have a majority. There is a 50-50 split.
True, but I think that assumes the Cum-Allah and which way she votes.
Gas prices average Bad Orange Man.
2017 2.469
2018 2.794
2019 2.698
2020 2.242
BIDENOMICS Sucks
2021. 3.175 and ⬆️
BIDEN wants MORE OIL, from OPEC.
Technically Democrats do not even have a majority. There is a 50-50 split.
July 13, 2021 at 8:15 AM
Blogger rrb said...
True, but I think that assumes the Cum-Allah and which way she votes.
yeah, and everyone knows Kamala does the splits
h/t to Willie Brown
And for the 47th time.....being the economics expert you claim to be, what is causing the increase of gas prices????? Oil cracking is not the reason.....BWAAAAAAAAA!!
Jewish Deplorable
@TrumpJew2
THREAD: Legislative walkouts
When we do it -vs- when they do it
https://mobile.twitter.com/TrumpJew2/status/1414723056350736387
CNN does cover it a bit differently
FAKE NEWS
enemy of the people
Oil cracking is not the reason.
Is that a new way you crack heads get high?
THe biggest difference here...
Is that the Texas Democrats are a real minority walking out to prevent a bill that is very popular with the Texas citizens and will become law one way or the other.
But the Democrats are attempting to break the filibuster in order to pass legislation that is so unpopular that they may never get another chance to pass it.
high
I saw the inflation rate jumped up higher than forecast
unexpectedly
high
In a repeat of 2003, Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives planned to flee the state in order to stop House Republicans from being able to pass a series of voting restrictions during a special session of the legislature, multiple news organizations reported Monday. If successful, the highly unusual and risky strategy would prevent Texas Republicans from attaining a quorum—the minimum number of members of the chamber required to make the proceedings valid—and effectively paralyze business in the state legislature.
The Texas House of Representatives, which is controlled by the GOP, mandates a quorum of two-thirds of its members be present for the chamber to conduct official business.
According to reports from NBC News and The New York Times, more than 51 of the 67 House Democrats—the minimum required to leave to thwart quorum—have chartered two private jets that are expected to leave from Austin and arrive in Washington, D.C. by early evening on Monday. They are in DC
Under state law, the fleeing lawmakers that remain in Texas can be arrested by law enforcement authorities and legally compelled to return to the Capitol if any member of the House moves “to secure and maintain a quorum,” and the motion gets 15 backers and passes a majority vote.
“All absentees for whom no sufficient excuse is made may, by order of a majority of those present, be sent for and arrested, wherever they may be found, by the sergeant-at-arms or an officer appointed by the sergeant-at-arms for that purpose, and their attendance shall be secured and retained,” Texas House rules state. “The house shall determine on what conditions they shall be discharged.”
A source on Monday told NBC News that Democrats expect GOP officials to request that the Department of Public Safety locate the fleeing lawmakers and bring them back to the legislature.
-------
The visual of the Texas Rangers arresting Democrats will make some of those here will scream in pleasure!
But it would resemble talking people to Auschwitz camp.
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/texas-democrats-plan-to-flee-state-on-private-jets-to-prevent-passage-of-gop-backed-voting-restrictions-in-replay-of-2003/
But the Democrats are attempting to break the filibuster in order to pass legislation that is so unpopular that they may never get another chance to pass it.
It's the attempted end game
And the ridicule they are getting hopefully dooms them
Biden is the last gasp.
If he doesn't get it through plan-B may be to doom Biden and try with Kamala
knives are already out
Cernovich
https://twitter.com/Cernovich/status/1414435928395767809
We don’t live in the United States of America. We live under an oppressive regime located in Washington D.C. They are allowed to lie in court records, spy on Americans, and hold people without a trial. Federal judges are happy to approve these oppressive tactics.
and Texas dems flee there
thebradfordfile
https://twitter.com/thebradfordfile/status/1414768092681474048
Democrats have branded stopping voter fraud as "voter suppression."
and the FAKE NEWS state media runs with it
The real coldheartedtruth of this day.
In a high-profile voting rights speech Tuesday, President Joe Biden plans to “blast the denial of the right to vote as grounded in autocracy, undemocratic, un-American, and unpatriotic,” a White House official shared with POLITICO.
And the president will call for a “new coalition” of advocates, activists, students, faith leaders, labor leaders, and business executives “to overcome this un-American trend and meet the moment” through “turnout and voter education.”
Biden will say “in no uncertain terms” that attempts to limit voting access in Republican-led states “are the most significant threat today to the integrity of our elections, and to the security of the right to vote for people of all races and backgrounds,” said the official, who shared some details of the speech. And the president will take aim at election changes that “could allow partisans to throw out the votes of anyone for made up reasons,” in what appears to be a reference to Georgia’s new law where the state legislature now appoints the majority of the board of elections and that board can replace local election officials.
Biden administration to sue Georgia over its GOP-enacted voter
Biden’s speech on voting rights at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center on Tuesday comes as the president is facing rising pressure from civil rights activists, progressives and some in party leadership to use new and aggressive tactics to combat Republican voting laws.
While Biden’s speech may not give activists, nor a growing number of Democrats, what they’re desperately calling for — the endorsement of a carve out for the legislative filibuster specifically for their signature voting rights bills — the president will lay out how Democrats plan to meet what his White House is calling the greatest threat to democracy since the Civil War.
The president will also look back to the country’s past history of voter suppression including KKK campaigns of terror, poll taxes, and literacy tests, according to the White House official. On Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that Biden would also note that “the greatest irony of the Big Lie is that no election in our history has met such a high standard, with over 80 judges, including those appointed by his predecessor, throwing out all challenges.”
Biden will again call on Congress to pass Democrats’ sweeping bill to change the election system and another that would restore key provisions under the 1965 Voting Rights Act that were gutted by a 2013 Supreme Court decision. And he’ll say the work to pass those bills is “only beginning,” the official said.
And the president will outline what his administration is doing to protect voting, including an executive order to direct federal resources toward voter education and ballot access in addition to the Justice Department's expansion of its Civil Rights Division.
But Biden is severely limited, in part by the nature of the presidency but also because of the makeup of Congress, where Democrats have a slim House majority and control an evenly split Senate.
Those limitations, however, are driving Democrats to consider new tactics, including changing the legislative filibuster — which establishes a 60-vote threshold for most legislation to pass through the Senate and allows Republicans to block new voting rights legislation, among other Democratic priorities. And a growing number of Democratic lawmakers are looking to Biden to help make that happen.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), long an opponent of the filibuster, said he hopes to have a conversation with the White House about the procedural rule and that more of his Democratic colleagues in the Senate will change their mind about amending it.
“I'm sure that President Biden could be influential but he'll have to make that decision,” Blumenthal said of Biden pushing for a filibuster change.“I hope that he'll do everything possible.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/13/biden-coalition-voting-rights-499452
Voting should be easy and fraud hard
hearing that more and more.
Doubt Biden will echo that...
John Cardillo
SMOKING GUN LETTER:
https://twitter.com/johncardillo/status/1414926107682426951
This letter from McSwain to Trump isn’t only a smoking gun proving PA electoral fraud, it’s a smoking gun proving that Barr and DOJ fixed the deck for Biden.
Barr was the deepest deep state.
No wonder we never heard from Durham and the FBI accountability for its crimes against Trump and his associates.
Barr was the ultimate insurance policy.
A fraud election
So Roger...
You have no actual issue with the fact that Democrats are literally breaking the law in order to prevent a very popular bill from passing in Texas?
You believe this will help them, how?
That people in Texas that want this bill will suddenly turn Democrat?
Again... you really seem to have no issue with Democrats blatantly breaking laws, but you will spent years applauding efforts to "find" a law that Donald Trump has broken (an effort that has been unsuccessful to date).
The recent decision by South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to accept private funding from Willis Johnson, a major Republican donor, to send her state’s National Guard to the Mexican border has been called unprecedented, a conflict of interest, an abuse of public power for personal political gain, an outsourcing and privatization of national security, an assault on the authority and legitimacy of the federal government.
The National Guard troops will be turned into an army of missionaries who can use military force to perform political agendas across the country.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/kristi-noems-national-guard-deployment-is-the-governments-future/619404/
helping you out alky, you should just include the link directly in the post
even if it is totally off topic and non-responsive
But it would resemble talking people to Auschwitz camp.
Talking? You use of language is mockable as it your lame holocaust comparisons.
Scott, people have put their lives and careers at risk today, to attempt to rebeal the big lie.
The Republicans across the country have carefully designed voter suppression legislation that could reduce turnout in sufficient numbers to maintain a minority government system nation wide.
They are brave American heroes.
You have said that he lost the election, but from day one after the election day, you began to undercut our election system, despite even the conservative judges overturned over 60 lawsuits alleging voter fraud.
If they prevail a white minority will govern the country for decades, despite the changing demographics, when by 2035 or so the white Anglo Sanctions will be a minority.
But you don't care..
The Republicans are scared of the voice of the people.
Roger...
Last time I checked, the National Guard works for the Governor.
Did you take issue when Ralph Northam sent his troops out of state?
Do you even understand what you are taking about or just regurgitating some more rhetorical nonsense?
So Roger...
You have no actual issue with the fact that Democrats are literally breaking the law in order to prevent a very popular bill from passing in Texas?
If you believe the polling about 30% of Democrats also like the law. And there is Hugh support among the all important swing voter. So basically if you're a Democrat that's not in a safe district, you're in real trouble.
Wonder if they know that or they just have special interest money in their eyes.
Sorry Roger...
But these laws are popular. They are designed to push back on the problems we have seen in recent elections. The last one being an election that still has 40% of independent voters believing that the wrong person won.
Most people want Voter ID. Most people want poll watcher to be allowed to watch. Most people do not want their voter information sent out in an absentee ballot form without their request or permission. Most people want people voting in the precinct that they are assigned, not just willy nilly going where-ever (lord knows how many times).
All of these laws expand early voting and voting hours.
All of these laws allow for mail in ballots to be requested and used.
You can spew your rhetoric.
But at the end of the day, you and your rhetoric are in a shrinking minority.
I suggest you read this article.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/kristi-noems-national-guard-deployment-is-the-governments-future/619404/?utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
Basically she has turned the National Guard troops into mercenaries to impose political agenda.
You know enough about history, you should sit back and reflect.
She used private companies to pay for the deployment of troopers from South Dakota to the Mexican border!
It's not rhetorical nonsense.
Our nation is at risk of epic proportions.
The Republicans across the country have carefully designed voter suppression legislation that could reduce turnout in sufficient numbers to maintain a minority government system nation wide.
The proposed Texas legislation that the democrats fled actually EXPANDS voter access.
Same with GA.
If all you're going to do is let the NY Times and MSDNC be your source of information instead of reading the actual proposed legislation, you will forever look like fucking moron on this particular topic alky.
And regarding you "minority government" idiocy -
The Senate sits at 50-50 with the Cum-Allah tie breaker and the House sits at the thinnest democrat majority perhaps in my lifetime. This is called the will of the people and the consent of the governed. We are where we are because the people voted this way. Fucking deal with it. And stop trying to game the fucking system with rule changes every time you don't get your way.
2016 - "Eliminate the Electoral College!"
2020 - "Eliminate the filibuster, pack the USSC and make DC and PR states!"
For chrissakes, what a pack of fucking whiners.
If the situation was reversed this would drive you crazy at the MSM
The last one being an election that still has 40% of independent voters believing that the wrong person won
Because of the big lie !
YET ANOTHER LIE FROM THE BIG LIAR
Trump was wrong about officer who shot Capitol rioter, law enforcement official says
NBC Universal
TOM WINTER
July 12, 2021
Former President Donald Trump suggested Sunday that the U.S. Capitol Police officer who shot Ashli Babbitt during the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol was the "head of security" for a "high-ranking" Democratic member of Congress.
That is false, according to a senior law enforcement official briefed on the matter.
The official said the officer who shot Babbitt, 35, was not a member of a security detail provided to a specific member of Congress, adding that the officer has not yet returned to duty.
Trump made the statements on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" program, hosted by Maria Bartiromo.
"Who shot Ashli Babbitt? People want to know and why," Trump said.
Bartiromo asked Trump who he thought shot her.
"I will tell you they know who shot Ashli Babbitt. They're protecting that person," he replied. "I've heard also that it was the head of security for a certain high official — a Democrat — and we'll see, because it's going to come out. It's going to come out."
Bartiromo later said: "I want you to know that my team reached out to Sen. Chuck Schumer's office to check on what he may know about who shot Ashli Babbitt. We have not heard back from Chuck Schumer's office."
Trump interrupted, saying, "I wonder why."
Schumer's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bartiromo made her own misrepresentations of the circumstances surrounding the attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, saying Babbitt, an Air Force veteran, had gone to a "peaceful protest" and was shot "as she tried to climb out of a broken window."
A representative for Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Video of the shooting showed Babbitt in front of a crowd of rioters trying to get through a door leading to where members of Congress were being evacuated on the House side of the building. The Justice Department found that Babbitt had "attempted to climb through one of the doors where glass was broken out."
The Justice Department released a statement in April clearing the officer of any criminal wrongdoing.
The statement said in part that "the investigation revealed no evidence to establish that, at the time the officer fired a single shot at Ms. Babbitt, the officer did not reasonably believe that it was necessary to do so in self-defense or in defense of the Members of Congress and others evacuating the House Chamber."
Babbitt was a loyal Fox News watcher, according to thousands of tweets to Fox News hosts, NBC News has reported. Last year, she began to tweet with QAnon accounts and to use QAnon hashtags. QAnon conspiracy theorists subscribe to a false belief that high-profile Democrats and Hollywood celebrities are ritually sacrificing children and that Trump is fighting to stop it.
Her death has been touted as an unjust killing by some on the far right who have sought to downplay the violence at the storming of the Capitol, and they have demanded that the identity of the shooter be publicly released. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., has said Babbitt's death was "an execution," and he accused the officer who shot her of "lying in wait" to do so.
Michael Byrd Is The Capitol Hill Police Officer Who Shot And Killed Ashli Babbitt…
Guy is a career moron. He once left his firearm loaded and unattended in a bathroom of the capitol complex where anyone could’ve grabbed it.
Via BH Pioneer:
Most police departments — including Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police — are required to release an officer’s name within days of a fatal shooting. Not the U.S. Capitol Police, which is controlled by Congress and answers only to Congress. It can keep the public in the dark about the identity and investigation of an officer involved in a shooting indefinitely.
Which is what happened with the Jan. 6 shooting of Ashli Babbitt, an unarmed protester in the U.S. Capitol riot who was fatally wounded by a plainclothes police lieutenant as she attempted to breach a set of doors inside the building.
https://www.weaselzippers.us/471768-michael-byrd-is-the-capitol-hill-police-officer-who-shot-and-killed-ashli-babbitt/
Blogger Roger Amick said...
If the situation was reversed this would drive you crazy at the MSM
What in the ever loving fuck does this even mean?
You admit she attempted to breach a set of doors?
Embrace the suck...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Prices for U.S. consumers jumped in June by the most in 13 years, extending a run of higher inflation and fueling concerns that the rapidly rebounding economy is making goods and services increasingly expensive.
Tuesday’s report from the Labor Department showed that consumer prices in June rose 0.9% from May and 5.4% over the past year — the sharpest 12-month inflation spike since August 2008. Excluding volatile oil and gas prices, so-called core inflation rose 4.5% in the past year, the largest increase since November 1991.
https://apnews.com/article/business-prices-consumer-prices-7c0dceffdbd50a8b1b888af5d3b922ed?utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_medium=AP
As any protester. Peaceful protest is not grounds for being shot.
Blogger JamesNewLeaf said...
You admit she attempted to breach a set of doors?
I admit that her death was ruled a homicide, and that a black guy murdered her. How stereotypical.
Are you telling us that for allegedly breaching a set of doors the federal penalty for that is death?
Roger...
It's an "opinion" that sending the National guard to other states turns them into "mercenaries". Nothing more and nothing less. Governors use their National Guards for a variety of reasons and many times will send them out of state if there are emergency conditions.
The Governor of Virginia sent his National Guard to D.C. after the Capital riots. There was no emergency or danger there. Just a pure political move to gain favor with Democrats and the media.
So I have two examples of Governors sending their troops out of state for what some would claim were partisan reasons. But at the end of the day I am sure that you would find that Northam did the "right" thing by moving National Guard members to DC and you will believe that Noem did the "wrong thing" for sending them to the border.
Again... purely your opinion. But if sending your National Guard troops to other states makes them "mercenaries" then every Guard that is in another state is a mercenary.
Opinions are like assholes!
YET ANOTHER LIE FROM THE BIG LIAR
Until they actually release the name of the person who killed the unarmed protester, we really won't know who is lying and who is telling the truth. The fact that there are a 101 different theories is solely on the Capital Police for not providing the information that every other law enforcement agency in the country would have provided within a few days of it happening.
So Reverend...
Why not just take what we know here. That they are hiding the identity of the person who shot the unarmed protester. That this is the wrong thing to do. That any "rumors" or "mischaracterizations" are on them.
You admit she attempted to breach a set of doors?
So you believe it would be okay for police officers to shoot any Antifa/BLM protester who attempt to breach a blockade or enter a building they are not allowed in?
Because we would have 100's (if not 1000's) dead at this point and the country would be in absolute turmoil.
The Reverend will fall back on dishonest rhetoric and demand that the the fact that the laws are the same regardless of what Federal building you breach is irrelevant if not plain old wrong.
This may be a transitional day.
President Biden will travel today to Philadelphia on Tuesday to deliver a speech on voting rights as Republicans in state legislatures across the country are seeking to pass measures restricting access to vote and as a Democratic effort to overhaul the system has faltered in Congress.
The trip to the birthplace of American democracy is meant to provide a powerful backdrop for Mr. Biden as he tries to revive an embattled centerpiece of his domestic agenda.
Mr. Biden is expected to outline all of the ways his administration is working to further voting access. He is expected to highlight the vice president’s efforts to support voter registration and education. He will likely reinforce the idea that the current crop of Republican statehouse efforts meant to restrict voting access were inspired by a lie that voter fraud upset the 2020 election.
“He will redouble his commitment to using every tool at his disposal to continue to fight to protect the fundamental right of Americans to vote,” Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, told reporters on Monday.
But absent from the outline detailed by Ms. Psaki is any plan to address growing demand among activists that he call for Democrats to unite behind a change in filibuster rules. Rolling back the filibuster would allow two pieces of ambitious voting rights legislation to pass the Senate with a simple majority vote.
--------
I know that the founding fathers feared emotional response to current political issues. That's why we have a three branches of government. And elections two, four and six year terms.
But despite the fact that the Democrats of the past were highly racists, the filibuster was used by Democrats in the last century, it should require a five vote majority to filibuster any legislation.
The trip to the birthplace of American democracy is meant to provide a powerful backdrop for Mr. Biden as the DNC proceeds to read our SMS messages.
h/t: Politico.
The source of Scott's plagiarism squared
https://beckernews.com/texas-democrats-receive-devastating-news-about-their-beer-fueled-road-trip-to-avoid-election-integrity-vote-40247/
Dear Tucker Carlson,
Hey Tuck, I just got done watching a segment of your show. You know, the one where you suggest that there should be a camera in every classroom in order to root out…let me get this accurate…”civilization ending poison.” https://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/1412566208763895810
I’m going to zig where you thought most teachers would zag. I welcome your Orwellian cameras in my classroom. Frankly, I don’t know many teachers who would object to having people watch what we do. As a matter of fact, I hate to tell you this Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson, but most of us spent the last year having video cameras in our classrooms.
See, I think you believe that your suggestion that people see what happens in our classrooms will somehow scare teachers. The truth of it is that we have been begging for years to have people, such as yourself, come into our classrooms. I somewhat famously asked Ms. DeVos to visit a public school before she became Secretary of Education (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/an-introduction-from-public-school-teachers-to-betsy_b_5845e2fbe4b0707e4c8171a3). It’s unclear whether she has yet to set foot in an actual public school classroom, but I digress. I sense that you think you’ll see all of us pinko teachers speaking endlessly about Critical Race Theory leading to…and again, let me get this right, “civilization ending poison.” I’ve been in a lot of classrooms (more than you I am willing to bet) and I think you’re going to be disappointed on that front.
What happens in America’s classrooms is teaching and learning. Your “spy cameras” will see teachers and students working together to be better every day. I’ll tell you what I saw on a tour of classrooms not that long ago. I saw a group of kindergartners trying to create bridges over running water with basic classroom supplies in a lesson about collaboration. I saw a high school literature class talking about the character development in The Glass Menagerie. I saw a middle school history class participating in group project where they had to solve problems in a fictional city, with specifics of how they would utilize resources and build public support for their projects. Anyone watching your cameras will see learning…all day every day.
For those who watch your “nanny cams” carefully, they’ll see a lot of other things as well. They will see teachers working with students who have vastly different life experiences. They will see students who are fluent in multiple languages working with teachers to become proficient in yet one more language. They will see students who are hungry get their one solid meal a day in the cafeteria. They will see students itching for more fine arts, industrial technology, or world languages to be offered in their school. In my classroom, if we’re being honest, they’ll probably hear some sketchy intonation from my saxophones, and I promise we’re working on it. But for sure, they will see learning…all day every day.
To be honest, I’m fascinated by the logistics of your proposal. In a world where school districts are struggling to recruit and maintain teachers, who is going to man your “citizen review boards” (setting aside the fact that public school teachers already answer to publicly elected school boards)? For instance, in my school district I sense you would need well over 500 cameras going every day. Who watches those 500 screens 10 hours a day (I want you watching my 7 am jazz band and my after school lessons)? What qualifications would these “experts” need to know what they were watching for? What happens when they catch a teacher teaching…let me get this right…”civilization ending poison?” Who do they report that to? I’m also curious who will pay for all of this incredible technology. Maybe I missed it, but can you point me to a K-12 institution where Critical Race Theory is being taught? Hell, can you define Critical Race Theory for all of us? I’m sure you’ve got answers to all of these questions.
Frankly, I’ve never been able to figure out, instead of dreaming up Orwellian plans to have Big Brother in all of our classrooms, why you don’t round up an army of bright young conservatives to actually step up and teach? Is it because teachers work hard, aren’t paid as much as those with similar educational backgrounds, don’t have support from our elected officials, constantly serve as punching bags for those who don’t understand public education, or is it just because it’s easier to throw rocks at a house than to build one?
Here’s the real deal Tuck, I grew up with my mom making me eat your family’s Salisbury Steaks once every couple of weeks (his family makes Swanson TV dinners) for many years. I struggle to take advice on teaching and learning from a guy who makes a steak that, on its best day, tastes like shoe leather that has been left out in a goat pasture for a few weeks. I get that Critical Race Theory is your latest attempt to scare your easily manipulated demographic, but let’s just admit that you don’t know what you’re talking about.
With all of that being said, count me on the cameras Tucky. Like many teachers, I’m in the early stages of understanding Critical Race Theory (most of us hadn’t heard about it until you and your people started crying about it), but if you find me teaching it, have one of the Tucker Youth watching your surveillance devices let me know. If Critical Race Theory involves talking honestly about American history, I’m probably doing that sometimes. I spent much of the last six years advocating for a way for teaching to become more transparent, and in the dumbest way possible, you are joining that crusade. Let’s make this happen TV Dinner Boy.
Sincerely,
Patrick J. Kearney
Actual Teacher
Republicans have learned to love the insurrection because they can’t afford to cross Trump
Trump’s recent focus on Ashli Babbitt makes very clear that lies about the 2020 election will be central to his political identity — and that of the Republican Party he dominates — going forward.
The lie Trump has been pushing is that Babbitt and the rest of the January 6 insurrectionists had good reason to attack Congress that day, because the election was stolen from him. And while there’s no evidence to back that up, Trump’s speech Sunday afternoon at CPAC Dallas — an event where he dominated the presidential straw poll — demonstrated he’s not above just making stuff up.
“You saw what happened in Georgia the other day. They found 35,000 votes,” Trump said, mischaracterizing a recent article from a right-wing publication about voters who may have moved from one Georgia county to another outside of a statutory 30-day grace period — hardly the type of politically motivated fraud Republicans have been fear-mongering about.
“Then they deleted, in Georgia, over 100,000 votes, because they were so bad, voters,” Trump continued, referring to the state’s recent routine move to purge 100,000 names from voter registration rolls.
For Trump, evidence or lack thereof isn’t important — what matters is that enough Republican voters buy his lies about the election so that it’s impossible for those who don’t indulge them to stay in the party. The purge appears to be succeeding. Consider Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who lost her spot in House leadership because she voted for Trump’s impeachment, or even Trump’s boasts at CPAC about how Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) can’t walk down the streets in his home state without being harassed by Trump supporters who are upset with his vote to convict Trump.
But diatribes about voter rolls and voting machines don’t have the same emotional impact as the story of Babbitt. After all, many Trump supporters probably see elements of themselves in her, as a veteran who was radicalized by viral conspiracy theories.
Turning Babbitt into the MAGA version of Horst Wessel has become a central theme of Trump’s return to public life. And her ascension to martyr status symbolizes how, now more than ever, Trumpism stands in opposition to free and fair elections.
The Trump movement was always authoritarian and illiberal. It indulged periodically in the rhetoric of violence. Trump himself chafed against the restraints of law. But what the United States did not have before 2020 was a large national movement willing to justify mob violence to claim political power. Now it does.
Is there a precedent? Not in recent years. Since the era of Redemption after Reconstruction, anti-government violence in the United States has been the work of marginal sects and individual extremists. American Islamic State supporters were never going to seize the state, and neither were the Weather Underground, the Ku Klux Klan killers of the 1950s and ’60s, Puerto Rican nationalists, the German American Bund, nor the Communist Party USA.
But the post-election Trump movement is not tiny. It’s not anything like a national majority, but it’s a majority in some states—a plurality in more—and everywhere a significant minority, empowered by the inability of pro-legality Republicans to stand up to them. Once it might have been hoped that young Republicans with a future would somehow distance themselves from the violent lawlessness of the post-presidential Trump movement. But one by one, they are betting the other way. You might understand why those tainted by the January 6 attacks, such as Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, would find excuses for them. They have butts to cover. But Hawley is being outdone by other young politicians who weren’t in office and seemed to have every opportunity to build post-Trump identities—including even former Trump critics like the Ohio Senate aspirant J. D. Vance. Why do people sign up with the putschists after the putsch has failed? They’re betting that the failed putsch is not the past—it’s the future.
What shall we call this future? Through the Trump years, it seemed sensible to eschew comparisons to the worst passages of history. I repeated over and over again a warning against too-easy use of the F-word, fascism: “There are a lot of stops on the train line to bad before you get to Hitler Station.”
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