Action Needed

Offer from David Simon

If you are a voter in Tennessee's 7th Congressional District and also a fan of The Wire, I will, on evidence you voted today, pen a personal apology for having killed any character you cared for. And yes, this assumes Wire fans do not vote for some cheese-eating supplicant to any tinpot dictator.

— David Simon (@audacityofdespair.bsky.social) December 2, 2025 at 10:52 AM

Final Push for Aftyn!

I'm attending Indivisible's event, “All In for Aftyn: Special Election Phonebank for TN-07” - sign up now to join me! www.mobilize.us/indivisible/...

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— James Horn, PhD (@schools-matter24.bsky.social) December 1, 2025 at 7:24 AM

U.S. Anti-Intellectualism Finally Reaches Its Zenith

PBS: “A poll from the journal "Nature" found 75% of researchers are considering leaving 🇺🇸— including a man dubbed the Mozart of Math… a scientific brain drain.” The Trump Effect. The opposite of Making America Great Again. www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

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— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) November 30, 2025 at 8:14 AM

Support Trumpism by Choosing Northwestern U.

bsky.app/profile/prof...

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— Milan Markovic (@profmarkovic.bsky.social) November 28, 2025 at 6:51 PM

It’s Happening!

LET’S GO!!!! share.newsbreak.com/g3e6w06o

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— James Horn, PhD (@schools-matter24.bsky.social) November 27, 2025 at 12:27 PM

Scripted “Parrot” Learning Is Not in the Best Interests of Children and Society

Reshaping Reading Instruction In U.S. Public Schools to Support the 60% of Children in America who are Coping with Adverse Childhood Experiences and Potentially Life-Long Traumas by Denny Taylor

Read on Substack

U.S. Media Outlets Closely Following TN 7th District Race

The Tennessee race that suddenly has Trump world nervous www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

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— James Horn (@schools-matter24.bsky.social) November 22, 2025 at 8:21 AM

Veterans in Congress Speak Directly to Active Military and Intelligence Communities

TN Parents File Lawsuit to Stop Bill Lee’s School Voucher Privatization Plan

Lawsuit Alleges Tennessee's School Voucher Program is Unconstitutional nashvillebanner.com/2025/11/21/t...

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— James Horn (@schools-matter24.bsky.social) November 21, 2025 at 8:06 AM

The Felon-in-Chief Calls a Female Reporter “Piggy"

 

Every outlet worth a damn should be calling this out. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

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— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) November 18, 2025 at 10:45 AM

On Horny Racist, Epstein Pal, and Former Harvard President, Larry Summers

Despite Dr. Summers’ attempt to have the Harvard trustees muzzle the Harvard Crimson, follow the link to the reporting excerpted below.

This is absolutely disgusting. Larry Summers discussed wanting to fuck a former Harvard student who was Chinese with Epstein. He nick named her "peril" a reference to the racist "yellow peril." Larry Summers needs to resign. www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

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— Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) November 16, 2025 at 8:58 PM

She's Aftyn Behn and She’s Running for Congress.

Blackburn and Hagerty Among Senate’s Most Corrupt

 

TENNESSEAN: “Ethics complaint filed claiming 8 Senators ― including @MarshaBlackburn & @SenatorHagerty ― violated conflict of interest rules by supporting a provision allowing them to sue the government for millions…” (Finally they cover this story! 👏🏽) www.tennessean.com/story/news/p...

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— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) November 15, 2025 at 7:21 AM

Feinberg Finally Speaks Some Truth about KIPP

When the high-rolling co-founder of KIPP, Mike Feinberg, was fired in 2018 based on allegations of child sexual abuse, he found work running some vocational programs in Houston. He is once more hooked up with construction magnate and charter school enthusiast, Leo Linbeck, and Feinberg heads up an outfit called Work Texas, a jobs training program that sends its grit-infused program completers into blue collar careers.

As a board member of Work Texas, one of Linbeck’s companies was paid $2.4 million in 2020 to build the Work Texas vocational school (see IRS 990 here). 

Rather than training children to become future assets for white collar corporations, which is the mission of KIPP, Feinberg’s new lucrative “non-profit” venture hopes to make black and brown workers into assets for construction and building companies. 

In the following clip from a recent article promoting Work Texas, which uses an old photo of Feinberg from his “stallion” days at KIPP, Feinberg finally admits at least some small part of the damage that KIPP has imposed on its graduates.

The [graduation] numbers are eye-catching: WorkTexas boasts an 88 percent completion rate. But Feinberg insists the more telling data emerges later. Graduates who stay employed for at least a year earn an average of $23 an hour, while about 100 alumni have returned for additional training to advance their careers.

This long-term obsession comes from Feinberg’s earlier work at KIPP, the charter school network he co-founded. KIPP famously tracked its students through college for up to a decade after middle school. That data revealed sobering truths: while half of KIPP Houston alumni earned degrees, others dropped out burdened by debt.

“We hurt children,” Feinberg admits about students who took on massive loans but never finished. “They’re working at Starbucks with $100,000 worth of debt.”

New Report Shows How WH Weaponized Civil Rights to Attack Campus Free Speech

A new report published today by the AAUP and the Middle East Studies Association finds that the weaponization of civil rights law has been central to attacks on campus speech over the past two years. 

The report, “Discriminating Against Dissent: The Weaponization of Civil Rights Law to Repress Campus Speech on Palestine,” is the first systematic empirical study of government investigations and private lawsuits against US colleges and universities under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

The findings in the report underscore how the Civil Rights Act of 1964—which passed in response to years of nonviolent civil disobedience against racial injustice—is being cynically used to squash political dissent and speech that advocates for the human rights of Palestinians. At the same time, the Trump administration appears to have completely halted investigations based on complaints of racial harassment.

While reprehensible acts of antisemitism have occurred on campuses over the last two years, “Discriminating Against Dissent” shows that most government investigations of antisemitism are prompted by complaints received from outside of university and college campuses, including from people and organizations who have no relationship with the schools under investigation. Of the 102 complaints filed with the Office of Civil Rights that the report analyzes, all but one focus on speech critical of Israel. Eighty percent describe speech critical of Israel or Zionism--with no reference to Jews or Judaism--as antisemitism, and 50 percent consist solely of such criticism.  

The report documents the surge in investigations since October 7, 2023, with more opened in the last two months of 2023 (25) than in all previous years combined (24). Investigations broke record numbers in 2024 (39) and are on track to do so again in 2025 (with 38 as of September 30).

The explosion in antisemitism investigations has been largely driven by a handful of pro-Israel and right-wing organizations; such groups were involved in 78 percent of complaints leading to investigations.

Federal antisemitism investigations in the final year of the Biden administration pressured over twenty schools to accept deals in which they agreed to sweeping policy changes such as handing over extensive data on internal antisemitism complaints—including the names of accusers and accused.

The report also analyzes the twenty-eight Title VI antisemitism lawsuits filed to date by pro-Israel groups against universities in federal courts. Although no case has yet resulted in a final judgment for plaintiffs, some have resulted in settlements implementing even more draconian policy changes than government investigations.

Finally, the report analyzes the work of the Trump administration’s multi-agency Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, including its pretextual use of antisemitism allegations to cut federal funding to universities and the coercive agreements it has extracted from Columbia and Brown Universities. It highlights the first appellate decision in a Title VI case alleging anti-Israel discrimination in which the First Circuit rejected attempts “to stifle anti-Zionist speech by labeling it inherently antisemitic.” 

Source: https://www.aaup.org/news/new-report-civil-rights-law-weaponized-chill-speech

Maddow: Democrats snatch defeat from the jaws of victory (again)

"Rachel Maddow looks at the powerful political momentum Democrats had built, including massive nationwide protests and a wildly successful election, only to have their unity falter on the shutdown fight with Republicans, resulting in capitulation that leaves many Americans who'd been encouraging Democrats to stand up and fight feeling hopeless and dispirited. Senator Bernie Sanders talks with Maddow about his objections to vote, 

Democratic plans going forward, and why "the Democratic establishment" should be the target of primarying."

Mark Elias on 8 Ways Republicans Will Subvert The 2026 Election

Mark Elias and his law firm have brought and won more lawsuits to protect voting rights than any other group in the U. S. This guy is a bulldog of the best kind.

The Senate Surrender WILL Have Repercussions

 

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— Indivisible ❌👑 (@indivisible.org) November 10, 2025 at 7:11 AM

Pathetic Cave-in By 8 Cowards Who Should Resign from the Senate

These 8 Senators sold us out to Trump: Hassan King Cortez-Masto Shaheen Kaine Fetterman Durbin Rosen Understand This Fact: Chuck Schumer is behind this. None of these 8 are up for reelection in 2026. Schumer asked them vote yes—they agreed. He's such a coward that he folded and won't even own it.

— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@qasimrashid.com) November 9, 2025 at 8:59 PM

Cornell Sells Out to Fascists

 

Whore-nell bends over for Trump Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/u...

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— James Horn (@schools-matter24.bsky.social) November 7, 2025 at 2:00 PM

He Just Doesn’t Care

If he cares this much about a med emergency of someone in his own circle, imagine how much he cares about the millions of people in rural America where hospitals are closing. 'That guy doesn't care': MSNBC host calls out Trump's indifference after executive faints www.rawstory.com/trump-oval-o...

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— James Horn (@schools-matter24.bsky.social) November 7, 2025 at 7:59 AM

Another angle: 

Early Voting in TN 7th Starts Nov. 12

Tennesseans are Getting a Rough Ride by Rep. Aftyn Behn

Our first campaign ad of the TN-7 Special General Election

Read on Substack

Vote for Making Life Affordable OR Pleasing Donald Trump

Where In the World Is Matt Van Epps?

". . Van Epps has skipped public forums, and mostly avoided interacting with . . . the media. The Van Epps campaign has not responded to multiple requests for interviews. . . . Instead, he's focused energy on hosting fundraisers, and taking a trip to the White House." www.yahoo.com/news/article...

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— James Horn (@schools-matter24.bsky.social) November 6, 2025 at 8:30 AM

Wins, Big Wins, and Seismic Wins

 Last night saw the first official repudiation at the voting booth of all things MAGA.  

This is such a statement!! Between this and the trouncing that appears to have happened to the Virginia House of Delegates, it does seem like an absolute repudiation of many of MAGA Now, we need to carry that momentum into 2026 but also 2028. LFG!!!!

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— Bock Sam (@bocksam.bsky.social) November 5, 2025 at 6:34 AM

Marsha Blackburn Lies on the U.S. Senate Floor

Marsha Blackburn has been known to offer up some whoppers on the Fox propaganda channel, but now she has been spotted lying outrageously on the Senate floor.  We’re talking Trump-class lying.

In this clip, she blatantly lies when she says that extension of the ACA health care tax credits will cost "450 billion hard-earned dollars every single year.” 

Rather than $450 billion per year, as Lying Marsha claims, extending the enhanced tax credits will cost $350 billion over 10 years—with 3.6 million additional Americans who will be able to afford health care, thanks to the credits.  

Here are the facts, brought to you by the Congressional Budget Office and summarized at Congress.gov—you know, where Marsha has an office. 

What Might Happen If the Enhanced Subsidies Are Extended?

CBO and JCT provided budgetary and coverage estimates under a permanent extension of the enhanced PTC.21 They estimated that direct spending would increase by nearly $296 billion (on net) over the FY2026-FY2035 budget window and that revenues would decrease (on net) by more than $54 billion over the same window. Taken together, the permanent extension would add approximately $350 billion to the budget deficit for that time period. 

In addition, CBO and JCT estimated that, under a permanent extension, "the number of people with health insurance would increase by 3.6 million in 2030 and by 3.8 million in 2035."22 CBO also projected that gross benchmark premiums would decrease 7.6%, on average, each year over the 2026-2035 period.

 

Saying Goodbye to 60 Minutes

Watching 60 Minutes last Sunday evening offered a peek into what we may expect from CBS’s style of dumbed down investigative journalism under new right-wing management. Mike Wallace is surely rolling in his grave.

Bari Weiss's team at 60 Minutes offered up a shallow, lopsided lead-off piece on Trump’s obvious attempts to overthrow the government of Venezuela; a puff piece on a medical fitness entrepreneur who has a 75-patient load (total), each of whom he charges several hundred thousand dollars per year; and a story on a manipulative mentalist who entertains the rich and famous with his powers to read and control people. I will focus comments here on the 60 Minutes lead story.

Problem One: Sharon Alfonsi’s story provides no historical context for understanding how we got to where we are today with relations between Venezuela’s criminal dictator and America’s criminal would-be dictator. If the 60 Minutes team had offered just a smidgen from any historical source on our own government’s repeated meddling over the past 120 years in Venezuelan politics for the benefit of American corporations, it would have been helpful to viewers. See GovFacts.org for an able synopsis. Here is just one paragraph from there that stands out:

This half-century [1908-1958] of U.S. policy was defined by stark pragmatism where oil flow served as the ultimate arbiter of American interests. Stated democracy commitments were consistently subordinated to securing energy resources and maintaining regional stability goals, even at the cost of supporting repressive regimes. This approach fostered deep, lasting Venezuelan perceptions that the United States was an ally of corrupt domestic elites and foreign corporate interests—powerful grievances that would fuel nationalist political movements for generations.

From 1958 to 1998, Venezuela enjoyed forty years of relative stability under a social democratic government whose anti-Communist stance and support for U.S. economic goals guaranteed American support. 

That all came to a screeching halt in 1998 when Hugo Chavez was elected President. Chavez was able to exploit his own people’s deep resentment of growing economic inequality, political corruption, and U.S. exploitation of Venezuelan natural resources in order to consolidate power under a populist banner that Chavez, in turn, exploited to secure for himself dictatorial powers. Despite U.S. support for a coup attempt in 2002 to replace Chavez, Chavez persisted and was able to further consolidate power by presenting himself as a victim of foreign aggression and by nationalizing important industries, including oil, and by using proceeds to initiate programs like health care and education. 

Chavez’s hand-picked successor in 2013, Nicolás Maduro, further tightened one-man rule of Venezuela as the economy melted down. For the people of Venezuela, the result was severe economic hardship and severe suffering due to Chavez’s human rights violations aimed to eliminate political opposition and to assure compliance.

The Obama Administration responded with a program of targeted sanctions that aimed to punish human rights violations and the elimination of democratic institutions in the country.

In 2017, the Trump Administration expanded sanctions in an attempt to crush Maduro’s rule:

Key measures included financial sanctions cutting off the Venezuelan government and its state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), from U.S. financial markets; ban on the government’s digital currency; and, most critically, sectoral sanctions blocking all U.S. dealings with PDVSA, the central bank, and gold mining sector. In August 2019, E.O. 13884 effectively blocked all Venezuelan Government property in the United States.

In addition to applying an economic chokehold, Team Trump attempted to impose regime change in 2019, an effort that solidified Maduro’s closer linkages with China, Russia, Cuba, and Iran, while raising U.S.-Venezuelan relations to a boiling point.

The other direct side effect was to create a Venezuelan crisis that resulted in the massive influx of immigrants to the United States comprised of people seeking political asylum and economic survival.

None of this historical context was reported by the 60 Minutes gloss, and Alfonsi interviewed no historians, political scientists, or economists.

Instead, Alfonsi and her bosses limited American “analysis” to Trump’s last ambassador to Venezuela, James Story, and one of Trump’s leading sycophants in the U.S. Senate, Rick Scott. On cue, these Trump yes men had nothing to say of attempts at Venezuelan regime change so as to guarantee billionaire oilmen and tech bros access to the country's valuable resources. 

Most stunning of all, Alfonsi’s report offered no official or unofficial U.S. critique of Trump’s current unofficial war on Venezuela.

So this evening when the clock at 60 Minutes starts its ticking, I will be looking elsewhere to find informative stories on politics, culture, and the arts. Goodbye, Bari, and to all the real reporters remaining at CBS, goodnight, and good luck.

Finally, the article at GovFacts closes with this summation regarding foreign policy based on bullying and heedless machoism. It's is well-worth remembering:

The “maximum pressure” campaign created a profound paradox. While the policy succeeded in inflicting severe Venezuelan economy damage, it failed to achieve its primary political objective. The regime didn’t collapse; instead, Maduro consolidated power, retained military loyalty, and deepened reliance on U.S. adversaries for economic and political lifelines.

The resulting economic devastation fueled unprecedented refugee crisis, with over 7 million Venezuelans fleeing their country, creating major challenges for the U.S. and entire region. This outcome demonstrated stark limits of using unilateral economic sanctions as regime change tools and has forced U.S. policy into more complex, nuanced strategy of leveraging sanctions as bargaining chips in protracted diplomatic stalemate.

The Venezuelan case illustrates broader tensions in American foreign policy between idealistic democracy promotion and pragmatic strategic interests. From early 20th-century support for oil-friendly dictators to 21st-century sanctions aimed at democratic restoration, U.S. policy has consistently reflected immediate strategic priorities over long-term democratic values. Today’s crisis represents the culmination of nearly two centuries of complex, often contradictory engagement—a relationship shaped by oil, ideology, and the persistent challenge of balancing American interests with Latin American sovereignty. https://govfacts.org/history/a-history-of-us-policy-toward-venezuela-from-monroe-to-maduro/

Build Momentum for 2026: Support Aftyn Behn on Dec. 2

Just gave for a second time to Aftyn’s campaign. This is the final Congressional election of the year. Please share widely and give what you can, regardless of where you live. Think of the momentum we can establish for 2026 with Aftyn’s win on December 2! Thanks. www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS6W...

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— James Horn (@schools-matter24.bsky.social) October 29, 2025 at 3:21 PM

NYTimes Says Dems Should Appeal to Moderate Fascists?

WHAT HE SAID!!!!!!

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— James Horn (@schools-matter24.bsky.social) October 26, 2025 at 11:31 AM

Still Room for Hope

An in depth conversation about hope that i need daily with @simonwdc.bsky.social & @vermontgmg.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/simonwdc...

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— Melinda 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦🗽 (@melindajean.bsky.social) October 25, 2025 at 11:34 AM

RONALD REAGAN vs.TARIFFS: 1987 speech gains NEW LIFE in 2025

Following this week's Canadian ad about tariffs that included clips from a 1987 Reagan radio address, the Liar-in-Chief has added some new whoppers about Reagan’s stance on tariffs to his mountainous repertoire of falsehoods.  

Once again he asks the American people: who are you going to believe, your lying eyes and ears or a convicted felon who told over 30,000 documented lies during his first presidency. If you are undecided as to how to answer that question, here is Reagan's 5-minute address below in its entirety.

Home Depot Lets ICE Goons Into Stores

Why TF is anyone shopping at Home GD Depot anymore. Boycott

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— DC Shari G 🦅 (@dcsharig.bsky.social) October 22, 2025 at 5:24 PM

What Once Was the East Wing of the People’s House

 

Crazy

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— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) October 21, 2025 at 4:48 PM

No Kings: 2,700 Events and 7 Million Protesters, +1 (Below)

America-hating Antifa showing up for a *second* time today.

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— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@mrsbettybowers.bsky.social) October 18, 2025 at 8:45 PM

Robert De Niro on No Kings

Lawrence O. Details Political Porn of Young Republicans

 

The Next Generation of “only the best people"

The next generation of morbidly-obese white male nazi GOPers: www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

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— James Horn, PhD (@schools-matter24.bsky.social) October 14, 2025 at 12:00 PM

NO KINGS MARCH, Saturday October 18

 

Robert De Niro: “Now we have a would-be king — King Donald the First. Fuck that. I’m Robert De Niro and I’m asking you to stand up and be counted in the nationwide No Kings protest on October 18th” 👉👉 nokings.org

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— George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 (@gtconway.bsky.social) October 11, 2025 at 4:21 PM

Analysis by Jimmy Kimmel

The Real Power of Nonviolent Resistance

 

Felon is trying to create chaos in blue cities to rationalize use of the Insurrection Act. No federal court will ever agree if cities remain peaceful in their constant NONVIOLENT RESISTANCE. Remember John Lewis and Dr. King!! We shall fucking overcome. Thank you for your attention to this matter. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

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— James Horn, PhD (@schools-matter24.bsky.social) October 7, 2025 at 8:13 AM

ORWELL 2+2=5 - Official Greenband Trailer - In Select Theaters October 3

During this Great Regression, AFT and NEA could use some of their hundreds of millions of dollars for an educational purpose, rather than promoting AI to replace teachers and endanger children, by purchasing this amazing documentary for every high school in the U.S. 

 

"George Orwell was one of the most visionary authors of the 20th Century, whose novels 1984 and Animal Farm foretold a chilling, all-to-believable authoritarian future. Acclaimed director Raoul Peck (Academy Award-nominated I Am Not Your Negro), working in collaboration with the Orwell Estate, seamlessly interweaves historical clips, readings from Orwell's diary, cinematic references, and dynamic modern day footage to craft not only a definitive portrait of the writer himself, but an entirely fresh take on how remarkably relevant and prophetic his work has become. Peck doesn't just present the information but shows new ways of seeing it, drawing patterns and connections we might not otherwise realize, championing Orwell as a man from the past who just might hold the key to the world's future." (Source)

October 18, Next National Day of Action

 

Ready to take a stand? Find a #NoKings event near you on Oct 18 and join millions rising up against Trump's authoritarian power grab! social.demcast.com/s/jFZHtBh7

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— lm100.bsky.social (@lm100.bsky.social) October 3, 2025 at 2:07 PM

A Teacher Benefits Plan with Federal Precedent

 

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— Krassensteins (@krassenstein.bsky.social) October 3, 2025 at 11:27 AM

Trump’s Shiny Object of the Day:

This new diversion from the demand for release of the Trumpstein Files takes the form of a dystopian fantasy so blatantly stupid it would have to put together directly by the Disaster-in-Chief, himself. 

"Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) wrote on X in all capital letters, 'IF ANY CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY SIGNS THIS RADICAL AGREEMENT, THEY'LL LOSE BILLIONS IN STATE FUNDING — INCLUDING CAL GRANTS — INSTANTLY. CALIFORNIA WILL NOT BANKROLL SCHOOLS THAT SELL OUT THEIR STUDENTS, PROFESSORS, RESEARCHERS, AND SURRENDER ACADEMIC FREEDOM’.” 

Source: https://www.rawstory.com/trump-colleges-2674149248/

Lawrence O’Donnell Commentary: “Disaster in Chief"

 

Bernie and AOC in Washington Today on the Shutdown

The Christofascist Agenda for Schools: Replace Education with Propaganda Centers

 

America 250: The Billionaire War on Public Education by DemCast USA

A dark-money campaign to defund schools, silence teachers, and replace democracy with indoctrination.

Read on Substack

Fired Profs, Take Heart: The Courts Are in Session

A federal judge has ruled that a tenured South Dakota professor who was fired over a social media post about murdered white nationalist, Charlie Kirk, must be reinstated.  

So the Darren Michaels of the world should get lawyered up and go to court. 

 If you are one of those university trustees or presidents who allowed your stupidity, cowardice, and ideology to rule your judgment regarding student and faculty speech, get lawyered up and stand by—justice awaits.

From Raw Story:

A University of South Dakota professor who raged against murdered right-wing youth activist Charlie Kirk on Facebook cannot be fired from his post, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.

Phillip Michael Hook, a tenured professor of art at USD, was placed on administrative leave and notified of the intent to remove him from his position by the South Dakota Board of Regents following a Facebook post in which he criticized the Turning Point USA founder, after a gunman shot him during a political student event at Utah Valley University in Orem earlier this month.

"Okay. I don’t give a flying f--- about this Kirk person," wrote Hook in the post. "Apparently, he was a hate-spreading Nazi. I wasn’t paying close enough attention to the idiotic right fringe to even know who he was. I’m sorry for his family that he was a hate-spreading Nazi and got killed. I’m sure they deserved better. Maybe good people could now enter their lives. But geez, where was all this concern when the politicians in Minnesota were shot? And the school shootings? And Capitol Police? I have no thoughts or prayers for this hate-spreading Nazi. A shrug, maybe."

Jimmy Kimmel is Back!

Professor from APSU Fired for Re-Sharing Social Media Post

Last week a full-time APSU professor was fired by Austin Peay State University for re-sharing a social media post. 

This morning I sent this letter to Austin Peay State University President, Michael Licari, his admin team, and to the Dean of Arts and Sciences: 

Dear Sir:

I graduated from APSU in 1971 with a Bachelors in English and Philosophy. Having grown up in a small town in Middle Tennessee with a not-so-great high school, I was delighted to be thrown into the world of ideas that I never knew existed until beginning my studies at Austin Peay.  

I had great professors: Richard Gildrie in History, Floyd Crenshaw in Philosophy, Malcolm Glass, Chuck Water, and others in the English Department. 

The nation at that time was in the midst of deep social and cultural tumult, and disagreements, both non-violent and violent, were common.  Through protests and moratoriums and hot classroom debates, one thing remained constant: the University Administration stood behind students and professors at Austin Peay as they engaged in the open and free expression of conflicting ideas that are the wellsprings of democracy. As long as actions and expressions remained lawful, the Administration did not intervene.

With the unjust firing of tenured Associate Professor, Darren Michael, I can see that those values are no longer shared by the Administration of my alma mater. Prof. Michael was seemingly fired without due process and without just cause.  The sharing of a social media post does not constitute any credible definition of just cause, and I suspect that it will not stand up in court where it is challenged. Such administrative action exhibits a reckless disregard for American values and ideals and university policies and traditions, as well exposing as a level of cowardly political kowtowing that, unfortunately, is all too common during this political Great Regression. 

Your decision has brought shame to Austin Peay and to every alumnus who learned there the shared American values that have made U. S. universities the envy of the world.  

I have been a vocal supporter of Austin Peay for over 50 years.  Sadly, that just ended.

I can only hope that Professor Michael has his day in court to find redress for this great injustice.  

Sincerely, 

James K. Horn, PhD

The Charlie Kirk Murder Suspect

His name is Tyler Robinson, age 22. He’s not trans, gay, immigrant, or leftist, not a Muslim nor black, not even a Democrat. Tyler is registered as “No Party Affiliation,” even though he is from a conservative Christian and Republican household. 

From Newsweek: Robinson's parents are Amber Jones Robinson and Matt Robinson, longtime residents of Washington, Utah, in the southwest-most corner of the state. The family owns a six-bedroom home in the suburbs, valued at around $634,400, according to Zillow.

Tyler and his family love guns. 

You might say he was groomed into gun culture by his parents. He was good with a gun. Here’s Tyler and his younger siblings.

Here’s Tyler’s mug shot.

The Martyrdom of Horst Wessel: Will Charlie Kirk be the 21st Century Version?

In 1930 a young rising star of the Nazi Party in Germany was shot in the head and killed by two members of Communist Party.  Yesterday attorney and former Trump supporter, George Conway, reminded us of that  history most of us never knew, and he wondered aloud if something similar could be happening as MAGA’s attempted martyrdom of Charlie Kirk has seemingly begun in earnest.  

The White Nationalist rage machine was quick to react, demanding Conway apologize.  Conway would have none of it. From Raw Story:

George Conway, a former Trump associate and now vocal critic, is continuing to double down on comparisons to Charlie Kirk's killing with what happened in Nazi Germany — the assassination of Horst Wessel.

"They may not want to hear it, and it may incense them, but the parallels between what the Nazis did then, and what Trump and MAGA are doing today, are striking, chilling—and as any expert on authoritarianism will tell you, straight out of the same toxic, but dog-eared, playbook," Conway posted on X.

Conway shared an image and link to a Wikipedia page about Wessel, a 23-year-old member of the Nazi Party's paramilitary wing who was assassinated in 1930 by members of the Communist Party and hailed as a "martyr" in Nazi propaganda. Nazis used his death to mobilize others in their movement and target Communists, using the "Horst Wessel Song" as the co-national anthem of the Nazi Party and memorializing him during their reign of power.

Here is a clip from the Wikipedia article on Horst Wessel:

Horst Ludwig Georg Erich Wessel (9 October 1907 – 23 February 1930) was a member of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party, who became a propaganda symbol in Nazi Germany following his murder in 1930 by two members of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). After his death, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels elevated him into a martyr for the Nazi Party.

Wessel first joined a number of youth groups and extreme right-wing paramilitary groups, but later resigned from them and joined the SA, the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. He rose to command several SA squads and districts. On 14 January 1930, he was shot in the head by two Communists. According to sources, his murder was due to a dispute related to his procuring of women.^[2][3][4] Albrecht "Ali" Höhler was arrested and charged with his murder. Höhler was initially sentenced to six years in prison but was forcibly removed from jail and killed by the SA after the Nazis came to power in September 1933.

Wessel's funeral was given wide attention in Berlin, with many of the Nazi elite in attendance. After his death, he became a propagandasymbol in Nazi Germany. A march for which he had written the lyrics was renamed the "Horst-Wessel-Lied" ("Horst Wessel Song"), and became the official anthem of the Nazi Party. After Adolf Hitler came to national power in 1933, the song became the co-national anthem of Germany, along with the first verse of the previous "Deutschlandlied", also known as "Deutschland über alles”. . . .

Meanwhile, there’ growing evidence mounts that Conway could be correct.  Yesterday, for instance, the Vice-President of the U. S. flew to Salt Lake City, accompanied Kirk’s casket to his home in Arizona, and was seen helping United States uniformed military carry the casket.

Even more bizarre, yesterday Republican Representative, Nancy Mace, announced that a resolution would be introduced in Congress to allow Kirk’s body to lie “in honor" in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.  

Will a tribute song from Kid Rock be next!!

And this morning the Felon-in-Chief, himself, was on Fox and Friends to remind his cult that he supports the Radical Right and that the problem is with the Radical Left.  He had this to say when asked about radicalism of the Left and Right in America:

“The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don’t want to see crime. They don’t want to see crime. They’re saying: we don’t want these people coming in; we don’t want you burning our shopping centers; we don’t want you shooting our people in the middle of the street.

“The radicals on the left are the problem,” he said, “and they’re vicious and they’re horrible and they’re politically savvy.”

So the Right is justifiably radical because “they don’t want to see crime.”  And who are the criminals that should be persecuted and targeted, according to Felon and his minions?  Brown and black immigrants, black and brown citizens, black and brown people anywhere in the world, the poor, the homeless, the sick, the needy, anyone who is not heterosexual, and women who do not bow to their men.  

I am wondering which groups Hitler’s Nazis targeted, besides the 6,000,000 Jews they starved and slaughtered.  Oh, I found it in the Holocaust Encyclopedia:

The Nazis targeted people as members of the following groups (listed in alphabetical order for ease of reference): 

• Black people in Germany;
• civilians (non-Jewish) accused of disobedience, resistance, or partisan activity; 
• gay men, bisexual men, and other men accused of homosexuality in Germany; 
• Jehovah’s Witnesses; 
• people with disabilities; 
• Poles; 
• political opponents and dissenters in Germany; 
• Roma and other people derogatorily labeled as “Gypsies”; 
• social outsiders in Germany derogatorily labeled as “asocials” or “professional criminals”; and 
• Soviet Prisoners of War.