PUBLIC EDUCATION IS UNDER ATTACK!!

  It is becoming increasingly obvious that the public education system in the US is being dismantled bit by bit. School vouchers, privatized charter schools, book bans, personal pronoun bans, gender identity bans, religious indoctrination. It’s all designed to take the education of children – yours and mine – and put it in the hands of people who may not make it their top priority. People who want your children and my children to learn what they want them to learn, whether it is factual or not. Teach them that slavery was beneficial to the enslaved. Teach them that there was a worldwide flood 4,000 years ago that wiped all but 8 humans off the earth. Teach them that what they are feeling about their bodies is wrong! Teach them whatever they want to teach them because you, as the child’s parent, have no say in the matter if you want your child to attend that school … or any school. If public, state-funded schools disappear, we’ll be left with for-profit schools that will teach them whatever they’re being paid to teach them. Capitalism as an education model.

Imagine having to “shop around” for which school to send your child to. You’ll have to do it the same way you shop for a car or a TV. You’ll have to weigh up all the options – what histories do they teach? Will science be taught at all? Can we afford it?

Public school has always been vital to the success of this country. The founders knew that. That’s why they made state-funding of public schools a provision for newer states joining the union. They knew that a well-educated electorate would only strengthen the fabric of democracy. As access to education erodes, so does public involvement in government. And as public involvement erodes, conservative government expands. Education leads to enlightenment. Enlightenment leads to questioning, and thereby threatening, their authority. Questioning their authority leads to removing their power. And they can’t handle that.

Public education has been the bedrock of society in this country by creating and maintaining a commonality among its citizens. It is a basic human right for people to earn a quality education. An educated public is a more engaged and contributive public. The more we know, the more we are capable of. And that may be at the root of the issue.

Conservative bigots have been going after public schools since desegregation. (Brown v. Board, 1954) The very idea that non-white students could attend the very same schools as white students was an abomination to their “still salty about that whole ‘civil war’ thing” values and a threat to their presumed (white) supremacy. To think, it only took 90 years to get there, too. Then there was the removal of state-sanctioned prayer in public schools. (Engle v. Vitale, 1962) That ruffled some feathers among the Evangelical set. And since “evangelical” and “conservative bigot” are often used to describe the same people, they have been trying ever since to “rid the country of liberal bias” beginning in school.

Fast-forward to 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools were forced to close to reduce the spread and children were forced to learn remotely over the internet. Parents were upset because now their source of childcare was taken away, forcing some of them to have to quit their jobs to stay home with the kids. That gave way to “hybrid learning” – some days at home, some days in class. Of course, the in-class days meant kids wearing masks. Oh, the horror!! The kids didn’t mind the masks nearly as much as their parents. The anti-mask crowd descended upon school board meetings like flies on shit, screaming their fool heads off – unmasked, of course – about how masks were tyranny!!

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So … the highly anticipated “Red Wave” the right-wing propaganda machine was peddling didn’t happen quite like they predicted, did it. No. Instead, it spluttered and went flaccid like Ben Shapiro on date night. Remember, his doctor wife told him a wet vagina is a disease. That’s kinda telling, ain’t it Ben?

As of this recording, Democrats control the senate with 50 seats … so now the Georgia senate race comes down to whether republican voters care enough to vote for the walking concussion protocol, Herschel “What-stupid-thing-did-he-say-today” Walker, now that they know it won’t mean anything for them. My guess is, no, they won’t. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mitch McTurtle tries to get Walker to withdraw from the race to eliminate the possibility of him winning and putting another moron on the senate floor. There are so many!  Florida senator, and Voldemort in a bad suit, Rick Scott told Faux News’ walking thumb, Sean Hannity, that the midterms were a “complete disappointment” for the Republican Party and blamed it on voters not showing up.

OK. I wonder why they didn’t show.

Fox & Friends anchor & Trump hype-man Steve Doocy said of the Pennsylvania race between Democrat John Fetterman and Trump-backed snake oil salesman Mehmet Oz, “Why did Dr. Oz lose? Well, it looks like, according to the exit polling, it's because Fetterman won!” Really, Steve? Is that the reason? Forty years in journalism and you sound like a kid who didn’t do his book report. “Stevie, what is Animal Farm about?” “Well, it’s about these animals … and they’re on a farm…” Brilliant.  

On the House side, the Republicans look like they’ll take control, but it’s not over yet. There are still some districts left to be decided and Democrats are leading in enough of them to make it a slim Republican majority if at all. It’s so bad for the right in the house that Kevin McCarthy, who is poised to become speaker if they win and who would sacrifice his first born for the gavel, may not get it. He will have to grovel at the feet of Trumpty-Dumpty McFuckstick live on camera from Mar-a-Lago to even be considered worthy of the speakership – a position he’s been striving for since his time as an aide to Congressman Bill Thomas thirty years ago. It appears Kevin doesn’t have enough votes among the MAGA caucus to win Speaker. It remains to be seen who will overtake him, but New York congresswoman and Trump-loving lumber yard heiress Elise Stefanik appears to be a front runner. You may remember Elise from her performance in such great hits as Trump’s first impeachment hearing where she did everything but cry out in ecstasy “Oh, Donald!” No one on the right has the 218 votes it would take to win Speaker. The Freedom Caucus doesn’t want Kevin. None of the Democrats will vote for him, so it could, in fact come down to Republicans and Democrats coming together to agree on a speaker. Whatever happens, it will be a shit show on January 3rd and I am here for it!

If the Republicans do take control of the House, the next two years will be total chaos in congress. Look for MAGA crazies to take control of top committees because the only way they’re gonna vote for McCarthy for speaker is if he agrees to give them appointments. Marjorie “Trailer trash” Green has been quoted as saying she wants to be on both the House Oversight Committee as well as the House Judiciary Committee stating she “completely deserves it” because she has been “treated like garbage.”

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