“Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell on Saturday told Attorney General Merrick Garland that parents “absolutely should be telling” local schools what to teach amid a debate over mask and vaccine mandates, the role of racial equity education and transgender rights in schools that has become a flash point ahead of the 2022 midterms.” https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/09/politics/mitch-mcconnell-merrick-garland-what-public-schools-teach-threats/index.html
The letter from the Senate Minority Leader comes in response to a Justice Department effort to address the increase in harassment, intimidation and threats of violence against school board members, teachers and workers in public schools. Earlier this week, Garland directed the FBI and US attorneys’ offices to meet with federal, state and local law enforcement leaders “to discuss strategies for addressing this disturbing trend,” the department said in a news release.
“The law that prompted a school administrator to call for an “opposing” perspective on the Holocaust is causing confusion across Texas” https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/15/Texas-critical-race-theory-law-confuses-educators/
“…It’s not the first time the Carroll school district in Southlake — the affluent suburb that sits between Fort Worth and Dallas — has made news with its interpretation of the new law, which is an attempt to keep critical race theory, or CRT, an academic discipline usually taught at the university level, out of schools. Critical race theory’s central idea is that racism is not something restricted to individuals. Instead, the theory contends that bias is something embedded in policies and legal systems.”
Paul Martino, the right-wing founder of a Silicon Valley venture fund, is poised to shake up Pennsylvania’s upcoming school board elections by applying the VC model to local politics. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Martino claims his group, Back to School PA, has handed out $10,000 to 50 separate PACs in hopes of backing school board candidates who will support in-class learning no matter what happens moving forward with the COVID-19 pandemic. https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5gzej/right-wing-vc-says-hes-using-silicon-valley-mindset-to-fund-school-board-candidates
“Menace Enters the Republican Mainstream : Threats of violence have become commonplace among a significant part of the party, as historians and those who study democracy warn of a dark shift in American politics.” (New York Times) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/12/us/politics/republican-violent-rhetoric.html
“From congressional offices to community meeting rooms, threats of violence are becoming commonplace among a significant segment of the Republican Party. Ten months after rioters attacked the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, and after four years of a president who often spoke in violent terms about his adversaries, right-wing Republicans are talking more openly and frequently about the use of force as justifiable in opposition to those who dislodged him from power.”
(Fox News): “GOP rep accuses Merrick Garland of ‘perjuring’ himself after explosive FBI whistleblower docs released : Emails surfaced Tuesday alleging the FBI created a ‘threat tag’ to label angry parents https://www.foxnews.com/media/rep-accuses-merrick-garland-perjuring-himself-whistleblower
“The FBI’s “Counterterrorism and Criminal Divisions created a threat tag, EDUOFFICIALS, to track instances of related threats,” according to the email. “The purpose of the threat tag is to help scope this threat on a national level and provide an opportunity for comprehensive analysis of the threat picture for effective engagement with law enforcement.”
In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Representative Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote that the whistleblower email “provides specific evidence” that federal law enforcement employed counterterrorism tools “against concerned parents.” https://news.yahoo.com/fbi-whistleblower-claims-doj-used-210523832.html
“Timeline: Rep. Jim Jordan, a Systematic Disinformation Campaign, and January 6” https://www.justsecurity.org/77852/timeline-rep-jim-jordan-a-systematic-disinformation-campaign-and-january-6/
Eideard 
‘Heinous indoctrination’: Ron DeSantis fundraises off Joe Biden ‘weaponizing’ Justice Department https://floridapolitics.com/archives/463451-weaponizing-doj-desantis/
School Books Become the Focus of the Culture Wars https://www.dcreport.org/2021/10/10/school-books-become-the-focus-of-the-culture-wars/
Here we go, again!
7AM MDT, tomorrow morning, 12th
“Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell on Saturday told Attorney General Merrick Garland that parents “absolutely should be telling” local schools what to teach amid a debate over mask and vaccine mandates, the role of racial equity education and transgender rights in schools that has become a flash point ahead of the 2022 midterms.” https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/09/politics/mitch-mcconnell-merrick-garland-what-public-schools-teach-threats/index.html
The letter from the Senate Minority Leader comes in response to a Justice Department effort to address the increase in harassment, intimidation and threats of violence against school board members, teachers and workers in public schools. Earlier this week, Garland directed the FBI and US attorneys’ offices to meet with federal, state and local law enforcement leaders “to discuss strategies for addressing this disturbing trend,” the department said in a news release.
“Democrats have declared war on ‘school board moms’ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/10/12/democrats-school-board-moms/ [opinion by Marc Thiessen, American Enterprise Institute fellow and former chief speechwriter for President George W. Bush]
“Profanity, screaming, threats: Hampton Roads school boards become battleground” https://www.pilotonline.com/news/education/vp-nw-school-board-meetings-20211009-dg3iidzdhfdbfk7rta6tcuvgjy-story.html
“The law that prompted a school administrator to call for an “opposing” perspective on the Holocaust is causing confusion across Texas” https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/15/Texas-critical-race-theory-law-confuses-educators/
“…It’s not the first time the Carroll school district in Southlake — the affluent suburb that sits between Fort Worth and Dallas — has made news with its interpretation of the new law, which is an attempt to keep critical race theory, or CRT, an academic discipline usually taught at the university level, out of schools. Critical race theory’s central idea is that racism is not something restricted to individuals. Instead, the theory contends that bias is something embedded in policies and legal systems.”
Paul Martino, the right-wing founder of a Silicon Valley venture fund, is poised to shake up Pennsylvania’s upcoming school board elections by applying the VC model to local politics. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Martino claims his group, Back to School PA, has handed out $10,000 to 50 separate PACs in hopes of backing school board candidates who will support in-class learning no matter what happens moving forward with the COVID-19 pandemic. https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5gzej/right-wing-vc-says-hes-using-silicon-valley-mindset-to-fund-school-board-candidates
Jennifer D. Jenkins: I’m a Florida school board member. This is how protesters come after me. https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/oct/24/jennifer-d-jenkins-im-a-florida-school-board-membe/
“Menace Enters the Republican Mainstream : Threats of violence have become commonplace among a significant part of the party, as historians and those who study democracy warn of a dark shift in American politics.” (New York Times) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/12/us/politics/republican-violent-rhetoric.html
“From congressional offices to community meeting rooms, threats of violence are becoming commonplace among a significant segment of the Republican Party. Ten months after rioters attacked the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, and after four years of a president who often spoke in violent terms about his adversaries, right-wing Republicans are talking more openly and frequently about the use of force as justifiable in opposition to those who dislodged him from power.”
(Fox News): “GOP rep accuses Merrick Garland of ‘perjuring’ himself after explosive FBI whistleblower docs released : Emails surfaced Tuesday alleging the FBI created a ‘threat tag’ to label angry parents https://www.foxnews.com/media/rep-accuses-merrick-garland-perjuring-himself-whistleblower
“The FBI’s “Counterterrorism and Criminal Divisions created a threat tag, EDUOFFICIALS, to track instances of related threats,” according to the email. “The purpose of the threat tag is to help scope this threat on a national level and provide an opportunity for comprehensive analysis of the threat picture for effective engagement with law enforcement.”
In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Representative Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote that the whistleblower email “provides specific evidence” that federal law enforcement employed counterterrorism tools “against concerned parents.” https://news.yahoo.com/fbi-whistleblower-claims-doj-used-210523832.html
“Timeline: Rep. Jim Jordan, a Systematic Disinformation Campaign, and January 6” https://www.justsecurity.org/77852/timeline-rep-jim-jordan-a-systematic-disinformation-campaign-and-january-6/
Imagine another American Civil War, but this time in every state https://www.npr.org/2022/01/11/1071082955/imagine-another-american-civil-war-but-this-time-in-every-state