Peter Greene has been following the career path of Rebecca Friedrichs, a teacher who became the face of anti-unionism.
Friedrichs lent her name to a Supreme Court case that didn’t get decided (it was eventually superseded by the Janus case, whose attempt to defund the teachers’ unions won in the Supreme Court but has thus far not defunded the teachers’ unions.
I have often heard the rightwing cranks complain about evil teachers’ unions. I always ask them to name a high-performing state that has banished unions, and they are always speechless.
Greene offers a compilation of his articles about this dissident teacher.
He begins:
Friedrichs has been in the news yet again, this time appearing on Fox to accuse America’s Evil Teacher Unions of being sexual predators. It’s an accusation that will have traction in some circles; if you spend any time in conspiratorial comment sections of the interwebz, you’re probably aware of the grand conspiracy theory that says that the entire Democratic Party is a smokescreen for pedophiles trafficking in children.
If the Friedrichs name seems familiar, that’s because she first burst into the news as the chirpy face of a lawsuit to legitimize freeloading in teachers unions and not coincidentally try to gut the unions financially. That suit ran into an unexpected death on the Supreme Court and the issue was eventually decided by Janus, but while the lawsuit failed, it launched a whole new career for Friedrichs.
So that’s who that woman is. Rather than rehash previous pieces I’ve written about her, let me just provide you with the listings and you can decide on your own how much of this you can stomach.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Yecch, after reading Peter’s full post, I need to take a shower and bleach my eyes. That woman is pure evil.
Regardless of what the president says, do not apply bleach to your face. It’s a bigly bad idea.
What is crawling out of the woodwork these days is a step (way) below cockroaches.
Ttranscript: the Rebecca Friedrichs Rant at the Repugnican National Convention and Trump Fascist Lovefest 2020:
I’m Rebecca Friedrichs, a veteran California public school educator. I’m here to give voice to America’s great teachers because our voices have been silenced for decades by unions who claim to represent us. They do not. [Those organizations that represent teachers don’t represent teachers?] When other dedicated teachers and I served within the unions, we spoke up in defense of children, parents, scientific fact and American values. [Because the Trump administration is so committed to science.] For our trouble, we were brutalized, booed off the platform, barred from committees, shouted down and even spit upon by union leaders. [Which union leader spat upon Ms. Friedrichs?] This is how unions treat devoted teachers, [Yeah, all that spitting on teachers by unions. LOL.] but what’s even worse is how their agenda of control deceives Americans and our children. They’ve intentionally rewritten American history to perpetuate division {Because what happened in America is that superior people from Europe cleared out the savages and enslaved lesser persons to make the world safe for Walmart?], pervert the memories of our American founders [Who owned slaves because, you know, that’s in the natural order of things] and disparage our Judeo-Christian virtues [Stone those homosexuals and witches!]. They’re lenient discipline policies morphed our schools into war zones [Not, of course, the fact that any 14 year old in this country can lay his hands on a military-style assault rifle] and they back defunding police [Joe Biden only says that he is against this. LOL.] and abolishing ICE. Unions collect billions annually from unsuspecting teachers [Because, you know, they are so stupid] and push this radical agenda [That teachers should have due process and bargaining representatives and a part in school decision making] into our classrooms against our will. Why?
The only way to keep a free republic is with a well-educated moral citizenry that can self- govern. Unions are subverting our republic [Oh, yes, they are so pervasive. Almost 11 percent of U.S. workers are unionized!], so they undermine educational excellence, morality, law and order. That’s why they spend hundreds of millions annually to defeat charter schools and school choice [This has nothing to do with the industry being riddled with corruption and taking billions from public school funding]. Trapping so many precious, low-income children in dangerous, corrupt, and low-performing schools [This has nothing to do with poverty and with funding schools primarily through property taxes.]. To fight back on behalf of children and America, brave teachers brought a lawsuit against unions. And do you know who intervened against us? The Obama, Biden administration and California Attorney General Kamala Harris. They argued against us at the U.S. Supreme Court. Their comrades [Those commies, Obama and Biden!] labeled us spawns of Satan [If it quacks like a duck, Rebecca. . . .] and slandered us in mainstream media. No matter their abuse, we’ll keep fighting for the country and children we love just like President Trump [Children like President Trump? No, most children aren’t this twisted, though he does have the understanding of a four-year-old]. He’s breaking the union’s grip on our schools. That’s why unions have tried to destroy him since the day he was elected. But President Trump isn’t afraid to fight for what’s right. He won’t back down. His courage gives great teachers renewed hope. [Cadet Bone Spurs, Our Wartime President!]
He’s even proposed education freedom scholarships [aka, vouchers] to return control to parents, protect religious liberties [Use taxpayer dollars to fund religious indoctrination and bigoted exclusionary practices] and empower kids to escape dangerous, low-performing schools. The Republican platform supports educational freedom [the freedom, for example, to think just like Glorious Leader]. The Democrat Party does not. Democrats stand with deceptive teachers unions who pick on loving teachers and little kids [Those bullies!]. President Trump stands with America’s families, great teachers, and most importantly, our children. So America’s great teachers, let’s stand with President Trump in protection of the kids and country we love. [Which is so much better than those terrible, lesser countries like, you know, Denmark and Finland and. . . .]
From what little I can see with my bleached eyes, I like the annotated version better.
LOL!
Rebecca Friedrichs is a complete wacko–I mean, a protect-yourself-from-succubi-demon-doctor-level wacko.
So, ofc, she was invited to speak at the Repugnican National Convention.
On this Labor Day, it’s well worth remembering that after decades of undermining of working people in this country, only 11 percent of U.S. workers are now unionized.
But the oligarchs who use nutcases like Friedrichs will not be satisfied until they have wiped out all vestiges of unionism. These are the same people who use other nutcases to convince working-class folks that Medicare for All would mean taking their insurance away from them, taking away their ability to choose doctors, subjecting them to “death panels,” vast increases in costs, and other such nonsense, even though EVERY OTHER ADVANCED DEMOCRACY IN THE WORLD has some form of universal, government-provided health insurance, and U.S. costs per person for healthcare are TWICE what they are, on average, in those other countries.
cx: of oligarchs paying politicians to undermine protections for working people in this country
perhaps the important words are ADVANCED DEMOCRACY
I’m willing to bet that her salary is supplemented by many more times what she “earns” as a (choke, cough, cough) teacher (is that the right word?).
She’s an ex-teacher now. And yeah, I’m sure.
Campbell Brown came to prominence in education circles by falsely claiming teachers who were pedophiles were not being properly banished from the profession in NyC. She started several lawsuits vs teacher tenure that lost, started the 74 publication, and was finally rewarded by being hired by Zuckerberg at Facebook at what I’m sure is a high salary to deal with those pesky media outlets that resented being defunded by his taking over all their ad business. This sort of propaganda appears to be a well worn path of fraudulent hucksters to gain attention and worldly success.
Leonie Haimson Class Size Matters/ Parent Coalition for Student Privacy http://www.classizematters.org http://www.studentprivacymatters.org leoniehaimson@gmail.com
Follow me at @leoniehaimson
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anti-education circles
or profiting for what passes for some as education circles
I go to all the local teachers union meetings, and I’m here to tell you, Friedrichs, you’re going to need to prep up your doomsday shelter with some military grade tin foil, and start making those helmets pretty soon. We teachers unions are planning the final stage. We are too powerful to be stopped! Bwahahaha! We’re going to make everything socialist so we can take all your stuff, including your children. Wink. Wink. Just try to hide from the all powerful teachers! Don’t let the used economy cars and orthopedic shoes fool you. We’re teaching children to share graham crackers and apple juice to distract them while we sell them into slavery and finance the Freedom Destroyer Machine of Doom. After the revolution, there will be a quiz.
Funny, but really too close for comfort in the indulgent right wing wacko circles.
LeftCoast, that’s freaking hilarious.
And, keep this up, and you’ll be invited to speak at the next Repugnican Convention!
https://www.epi.org/publication/labor-day-2019-collective-bargaining/, see the charts on Income inequality and correlates with union membership.
Thanks for this, Laura! Oh, those pesky facts.