'...we cannot afford to look away'

[Joinfortmill]

https://joycevance.substack.com/p/the-week-ahead-8f6?utm_source=substack&utm_medium

Joyce Vance: Civil Discourse:

'...the former president’s first campaign rally to try to become the future president was launched, celebrating his connection to the convicted criminals who stormed the Capitol on January 6 to try to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power...“2024 is the final battle. That’s gonna be the big one...He was, predictably, pro-Putin and anti-prosecutor.

What of the grand old men of the Republican Party? A former president? Senators? Governors? Leaders of all stripes and at all levels? Silent, in abdication of public responsibility for the monster they’d invited in and have permitted to remain, no matter how much private distaste they may have for him.

For many people, it’s easier to ignore Trump than to pay attention. But we cannot afford to look away...Last week, lawmakers toured the District of Columbia jail where Jan. 6 defendants are being held, at the behest of Trump cronies like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz. They expressed concern that people held there reported being mistreated despite the fact that they have far better access to their lawyers and technology than most people in custody, and they had sufficient resources to tape the “J6 Choir” song with Trump.— Following the visit, first-term Texas Representative and former public defender Jasmine Crockett corrected the Republican narrative. “Somebody’s got to be here to tell the truth,” she said. “If we weren’t here, there would be no check for whatever it was that they said.” But Republicans don’t seem to be listening.'

[Lonestarblue]

1. Writing in the NYT today, David French posited that MAGA is its own leader today.

And they will go on with or without Trump. They are rabid and demanding that power be given to them or they will take it violently, as they tried to do on J6. We are seeing the MAGA mentality at work in Florida as they try to dismantle public education. WaPo has an article today about the number of requests for information that are inundating schools, in Florida and elsewhere, and forcing them to use staff time and their education dollars not on instruction but on satisfying Republican witch hunts for anything they can take out of context and politicize. I do not think this is solely a grass-roots effort by right-wing parents. National right-wing groups are most likely funding hundreds of FOIA demands, some so broad that they ask for copies of all email for all school personnel.

While the MAGA cult is not a majority of voters, they are nevertheless doing what may cause permanent damage to our country, and especially to education as they turn it into a parody of true education and it becomes Republican propaganda paid for by taxpayers. What a scam!

“One Virginia school district added half a million dollars to its budget just to process public records requests. In the span of 90 days this school year, an Arkansas district received 100 such requests that cost nearly $20,000 and 400 hours of staff labor to fill.”

https://wapo.st/42UwGzM

[mollie8]

3. Whoa

The people requesting the information should have to pay for its production

[Joinfortmill]

6. Exactly

[Wounded Bear]

2. K & R...nt

[Scrivener7]

4. Yes. We tried that once. It went badly. We need to do it differently now.

[jaxexpat]

5. Lying? Denying culpability? Stuck in a worn out loop?

Must be contemporary Republicans. Nothing else smells quite like it.