The general Republican assault on public education isn’t slowing down.
(Permanent
Musical Accompaniment To The Last Post Of The Week From The Blog’s Favourite Living Canadian)
Because we now live in the Land Beyond Parody, the former president* has issued his education plan in anticipation of the 2024 campaign, and now we all have to pretend a) to take it seriously, and b) that he knows fck-all about anything, let alone education. Politico is very good at pretending all these things.
He also is in favor of the direct election of school principals by the parents of the students—this is not satire.
Not that we all don’t live in fear these days of pink-haired commies and other Punk Trotskys, but none of us should act like this nonsense has any basis in reality. Gov. Ronald DeSantis is a genuine threat to public education; he’s already hard at work at the task of its ruination. But this is the former president* attempting not to outflank DeSantis but rather to float past him on pure hot air. He’s reciting his conjuring words and hoping that will work the way it did six years ago.
And it may work, because DeSantis’ gifts as a politician are as yet unexplored.
The Ohio legislature, which has been a hothouse for some of the most garish wingnut flora of our time, went completely to the zoo recently (which is entertaining enough, I guess).
The issue was the circumstances under which representatives are allowed to offer amendments from the floor. It was the typical intramural GOP brawl between the party’s Insane and the Not Entirely Bazats wings. The former want to break the speaker’s power to deny recognition of amendments that he might find merely performative. And it’s one of the proposed amendments that caught my eye.
Personally, I’d be in favor of giving the speaker the power to clap anyone proposing this idiocy in irons on the Capitol lawn. Stop wasting everybody’s time.
Weekly WWOZ Pick To Click: "Golden Limousine" (Golden Dawn Arkestra): Yeah, I still pretty much love New Orleans.
Weekly Visit To The Pathé Archives: Here, from 1928, is President Calvin Coolidge, whooping it up in the mountains of Virginia. No president in history looked sillier in elaborate headgear than Coolidge did, and it seems a camera was nearly always around when he was wearing one. Here he is in one that looks as though it were the size of a radio telescope. First lady Grace Coolidge wears one of those Roaring ’20s bucket things. History is so cool.
The season begins this weekend, and Sam is still home where he belongs. The Dubs slipped into Division 2, which is weird, but they’ll be around at All Ireland time. The Kingdom kicks off on Sunday against Donegal. Some players from the 2022 champs will miss this week’s action because of commitments to their home clubs. Still, it will be good to give some of the bench players some run.
Discovery Corner: Somebody found something really old in Belgium. From IFLScience:
I think they were the tokens in ancient board games. Or some strange kind of Roman marbles, or jacks. In any event, I think they have something to do with kids. They look to me like toys. And, anyway, look at what we found!
Hey, Ars Technica, is it a good day for dinosaur news? It’s always a good day for dinosaur news!
They will simply never stop surprising us. It’s the way they lived then to make us happy now.
I’ll be back on Monday to see what unfolds amid the stalactites now populating the House of Representatives. Be well and play nice, ya bastids. Stay above the snake-line, wear the damn mask, and take the damn shots—especially the damn boosters. And spare a minute this weekend for the people of Ukraine as winter really sets in, and for the communities in California so bloodied by this country’s insane attachment to our firearms, God help us all.
Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston and has three children.
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