41 Comments

The balls on DeSantis to invoke MLK, Jr. while he tries to erase the very lessons King taught. Between the Florida governor and Joe Manchin, I've had my fill of outrage for the day and it's only 7:30 AM.

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Especially when you know DeSantis would've been one of those rednecks out front, trying to physically prevent desegregation in the 60s. Everything about the man is disgusting.

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Rednecks? Who is the bigot now Amy?

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Pin pricks hardly balls! MLK, jr. had BALLS! Avoid any possibility of false equivalence.

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Just about everything being done to thrwart Democracy is out on the table. DeSantis is a master at it. With teacher pay so low and a critical shortage of new teachers, this is just another step in gutting public education. How folks still think we are going to come out enmasse and stop the Republican party from achieving minority rule in all its Gory is fantasy. Dr. King would see this for what it is. A giant step backward in Civil Rights.

44 state legislatures are GOP. MANCHIN and Sinema have hog tied Voter Rights and the American rescue plan in Congress.

Jan.6 has never been ended. The insurrection is in plain sight.

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Don’t say master

This is associates degree chicanery at best

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Cathy b, I guess I’m one of those fabulists, cause yes I do still believe that the right wingers are a tiny minority, and that we are seeing some dying sputters in real time, not the beginnings of “minority rule in all its Gory [sic]” (dk if that was a typo, but if so, it’s a lovely mishap). i even believe that we liberal-radicals (isn’t that what Spiro Agnew called the 60s-era left wing?) retain a fighting chance to make progress in the USA under this President, in the midst of this pandemic, in continuation of the work of MLK Jr and Cesar Chavez and even Emma Goldman. Progress however is incremental, slow and hard. On a related point, I believe we’ll see portions of BBB back on the table in 2022 with bilateral support, even if Joe M needs another couple weeks on his yacht to figure out how to ‘splain deferred maintenance to his constituents. (Which he doesn’t - West Virginians aren’t ALL stupid.)

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Gory was purposeful. I just watched Virginia fall to apathetic Democratic voters. 34% did nit vote fir Gov in November.

You have to realize we are going to have a Trumpet Gov. Ij VA. That is my experience. Like it or not, the Surpreme Court has also shown its cards as well. You can argue against minority rule. But 74 million, before all the anti voter laws in 2021, voted for Trump. I don't think that is a shrinking , insignificant total.

I hope for the best, but my jaundiced eye sees what is happening before it and it doesn't look like what you foretell.

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Well I stand by my comment - “Gory” was brilliant. And fwiw I’m not laying odds against you, just presenting an alternate view from IL - where our Dem Governor seems well-loved, our “Second (really third?) City” has average-for-a-big-city problems, and our suburban White moms (including my younger sister) don’t appear to be running after Orange racist “solutions”. (yet.)(downstate, ok it’s not quite the same, but “our” liberals seem to remain organizable.) FWIW, I’m more than grateful for the distance between myself and either coast - and especially between myself and DC, which I've visited several times and from which each time I’ve fled screaming. Quite sure that if I lived there I would be swept up in national politics and lose whatever (weak at best) foothold I have in reality. — for now, I hope you will/can enjoy this holiday season - that part’s up to you and me right? - <24 hours now to Solstice, woohoo!

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Ps I have a married/young/intellectual niece in Charlottesville, and apologize for her failure to get the vote out this fall - afraid she has fallen in with bad, as in defeatist/drunkard/misogynistic/Virginia trad company. I feel very bad also for any part of your gov. Election I might have but didn’t influence. (I did send $ but failed to drive East to help, see above.) Really hope things will turn quickly back to a strong Blue Virginia.

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Oh pps I’m not giving up on SCOTUS either. YET.

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Have a wonderful holiday!

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Thanks Cathy b - you too!

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This is so insane. DeSantis is completely off the rails, as are FL legislators. The actually think we can go back to a whitewashed U.S.

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Not only do they think it, they are making it happen in red and purple states across the country.

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Please note: conservatives have been attacking public education since its inception. Attacking history is a desperate attempt to limit public discourse by targeting children. It certainly is a new low.

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Well, as the Orange Asscactus said, "I love the poorly-educated". There's a reason for that--they tend to vote Republican.

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Wrong, they have been attacking it since it's been accessible to all that live in this country.

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DeathSantis is as odious as his Orange Asscatus mentor.

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States without anti-CRT laws should start advertising for teachers in Florida. All states are suffering from a teacher shortage; they could offer relocation benefits and probably already pay better than Florida. It is a brutal reality and, of course, not great for Florida, but it would make the point. I am in a state with one of these ridiculous laws and I fully expect adjacent states to come after our teachers. Not great for us either, but one hopes that this type of action might snap some reality into a state that is suffering from a teacher shortage right now. Florida's threat of litigation makes it all the worse. These states pushing extremist laws are usually a blend of people across political spectrums with a rural population (or an older relocated population in Florida) that has gained an electoral advantage. They are not socially isolated from the rest of the country and are not immune to national economic forces. They are not solidly in the nutty right wing but need some pushing.

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DeSantis is relentless in his disgusting pursuit of a second term. I encourage FL voters to get out and not only vote but to volunteer to register voters and help in any way to remove this man from office.

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Sue teachers? For what? Their exorbitant salaries? The personal money they spend in their classrooms? Good luck on that teacher shortage, FloriDUH.

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Why not just turn over the schools to the Taliban?

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founding

thanks for the lol...glad my sense of humor still works!

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The Democrats have wasted such valuable time trying to look fair while they’re being dragged behind a truck. Find a way to force out the filibuster and shove through the Voting Rights Act or we will be powerless to stop this rolling coup and totalitarian/fascist rule.

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founding

Please, give us more of the information on "the Florida Education Association, the state's largest teacher's union" and any other groups using their voices and power to confront actions such as those taken by DeSantis. I'm in need of who and what to be supporting. Balance! [I'm thinking how important it is for Val Demmings to win. Any hope there?]

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founding

On the bright side, I think that would be a pretty tough lawsuit to win.

Is Rondo going to pay the legal bills for the human tools filing frivolous lawsuits?

It's for his idiot base.

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Exactly. Doesn’t read well outside FL/TX.

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Just more grease on the ever steeply increasing slope of TX SB8...abortions in The Lone Star State, guns in The Golden State, now history in The Sunshine State. Throw in a blatantly partisan and invertebrate SCOTUS, and soon no further lubrication will be needed, as the incline will be so steep no friction will remain to be overcome. Governance and regulation by tort action. So, when do we get a law that allows us Everyday Joes to drag an elected legislator into court?

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In combination with PI’s 12/1 column (which I somehow missed, too much Hanukkah eggnog?), this one paints a dismal picture of life in the New Old South. But I kinda like how De Santis is showing his entire (counter revolutionary) hand well before RNC has picked its 2024 candidate - the part that latches onto texas’ SB8 to try to evade the US Constitution, but this time switches attack to the beloved First Amendment; the part that threatens kids (black and white) and teachers (ditto) because well aren’t they still a White man’s property?; the part that attempts to jump onto a non moving band wagon and ultimately serves as a foil/test case for whoever the Orange Haired man deems his successor. But this proposed legislation, as a real “thing”? Color me skeptical. It may raise DeS some dark money, and it certainly should serve as a wake up call for any liberals who aren’t seeing the new Civil War playing out in schools, governors’ mansions and state legislatures; but it’s ham handed af. Great reporting Judd, thank you!

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I wonder why we aren’t seeing much commentary from AFT, NEA or the DoE.

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founding

How about letting students sue their parents for circumventing their education.

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