Mercedes Schneider explains why the re-election of Governor John Bel Edwards over his Trump-loving opponent is good news for education.
President Trump visited Louisiana three times in recent weeks to campaign for Republican gubernatorial challenger, Eddie Rispone.
As of this writing, Trump has been silent on Twitter regarding the Edwards win (Rispone loss).
Edwards’ win is critical for Louisiana’s infrastructure, including education, both K12 and postsecondary. Under Edwards’ leadership (see here also) in his first term (2016-2020), he fully funded Louisiana’s Taylor Opportunity Scholarship Program (TOPS); supported a state raise for teachers and other school personnel, and investing millions in early childhood education.
Rispone’s most notable connection to education is via US ed sec Betsy DeVos and her national, school-choice organization, American Federation for Children (AFC). Risponse is the former chair of the Louisiana branch of AFC, the Louisiana Federation for Children.
The Wahington Post said That Trump called conservative Democrat Edwards a “radical leftist.” That didn’t pass the laugh test.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Trump doesn’t pass the laugh test. He is a joke that has grown really, really old.
Every day I get up and wonder, what will be the outrage of the day from Trumpty Dumpty? Will he abandon another ally? take free school lunches away from poor children? ridicule a dedicated career public servant? declare all hunting restrictions illegal? create a new tax incentive for dumping toxins in waterways? invite Putin to chair a new committee on US election security? use taxpayer dollars to buy a portrait of himself for the Offal Office? show up at a pediatric cancer ward to pass out free cigarettes?
All of those are real possibilities
“declare all hunting restrictions illegal?”
Not sure what you mean by that, Bob? Please explain. Gracias.
Well, there are laws, currently, that restrict hunting. Donald doesn’t seem to be a fan of those. He is, rather, a fan of unrestricted serial murdering of wildlife.
Well, I’m not too worried about him messing with the Missouri Conservation Department (one of the best if not the best in the country) and their “turf”.
Be that as it may I almost took out a big doe on the way home a few minutes ago. Had to hit the breaks hard and missed her hind quarter by an inch or two. (It’s opening weekend of gun deer season)
Glad you avoided that, Duane, and that you and the deer were both safe. Ofc, you won’t have hunters chasing you around the woods for the next few months. Well, maybe. I used to live in New Hampshire. Spent a lot of time hiking in those mountains. And come the season, I had to be very careful not to be shot by some drunken fool with a gun.
I’ve worn hunter orange before when I’ve been fishing during gun season. I generally don’t go in the woods during gun season. But then again I live in the woods so I don’t have a big a need to “escape” to the woods.
And yes, unfortunately around here there are too many unethical (and sometimes drunk) hunters.
Is this a foreshadow of 2020? Perhaps “The times they are a changin.” Fingers crossed!
In a fair election, the Dems will win, but it won’t be a fair election –Trump’s foiled Ukraine plot is just the tip of the dirty tricks iceberg. I’m slightly buoyed by the thought that China or Iran might weigh in on the side of Democrats and thereby counter Russia’s meddling.
BRett McGurk, former presidential envoy, tweeted this yesterday:
Today in Syria: Russia takes control of main U.S. military facility abandoned earlier this week by American forces on Trump’s orders. This area is south of Kobani and went to Russia under the Putin-Erdogan deal. Russia now also owns the airstrip we built.
I hope Pelosi and Co. find a way to connect the dots for the public: Trump is an instrument of Russia. The tax returns will probably show why. I bet the pee tape is real too. And speaking of kompromat: I am convinced that it’s behind Lindsay Graham’s 180 degree turn toward abject sycophancy. He probably got filmed with some Slavic male escort.
Pelosi said it first: with this president, all roads lead to Putin.
Putin wants Ukraine.
Trump has said that Ukraine belongs to Russia.
Who gave him that idea?
He, who knows nothing about the world except for the dimensions of the girls in his Miss Universe contest, learned geopolitics at Vlad’s knee.
Mr Blob says/does ANYTHING to keep him in the spotlight .
Trump is not the only person to characterize the most moderate of political thinkers as a “radical leftist” for hiser political purposes. ( hiser is my own pronoun for his or her. I thought about heris but that starts with the German word for the male gender). If the republican leaders do not want a real leftist on their hands, they better quit calling people that do not advocate nationalization of industry “socialists.” Soon the public will not know what a real socialist is and we will end in the Union of socialist America. Bernie Sanders, who calls himself a socialist for some reason, is far to the right of the old socialists in the days of Eugene V. Debs.
To my way of thinking, and I am prone to being wrong, socialism means public ownership of property through some level of government. Single payer insurance, whether it is good or bad, does not fit this definition. Public schools are not socialism. In fact, services provided the public like police, fire, the military, and the library are not socialist ideas simply because no one makes a financial empire from their practice. To hear those on our dominant and distant right, teachers are a devious collection of governmental sycophants, and Trumps and Kochs are fighting for your freedom against these socialist minions. It is time to use the term correctly.
Perhaps it would be a good time to pass a law that would instantly nationalize the assets of any person who misuses the term, socialist. Object lesson.
Red baiting has a very long history in this country. When FDR was proposing Social Security, Glass-Steagall and other regulations, the usual suspects were screaming socialism, communism, bolshevism, totalitarianism!! The FDIC was a communist plot, socialism, Leninism, Stalinism. LBJ’s Medicare, Medicaid and his war on poverty were met with howls of protest; it was socialism, communism and would lead to a loss of freedom, according to Reagan, the AMA and many others with deep pockets. Bernie is a democratic socialist but he is branded as a communist, East German style socialist, Soviet socialist, Cuban socialist, etc. Even Obama, the consummate centrist corporate Democrat, was slimed with the socialist label because of his corporate friendly health care proposal. There is no winning with the right wingers, libertarians and Ayn Rand crowd.
I have long wished that Bernie would call himself a social democrat, as the Danes do, for the party that advocates for strong social safety nets. The word “socialist” is a loaded word in our culture. It needlessly gives the radical right wing “word” ammunition against him. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Democrats_(Denmark)
Maybe there’s hope for Florida….