There seems to be no bottom to “how far can Republicans fall?” Fall from common sense, fall from civic duty, fall from intelligent decision-making?
Texas created a model for deputizing private citizens to report abortions and offering them a $10,000 bounty. Now, a Republican in Oklahoma has copied that model to catch and punish schools that hold copies of forbidden books.
Under a new senate bill in Oklahoma, if a parent objects to a book in a school library, then it must be removed within 30 days. If it is not, a librarian must be fired and parents could collect at least $10,000 per day from school districts until it is removed…
State Senate Bill 1142, authored by Republican State Sen. Rob Standridge, would place the power to ban books into the hands of parents in a profoundly unprecedented manner. “Under Senate Bill 1142, if just one parent objects to a book it must be removed within 30 days,” reportsthe McAlester News-Capital. “If it is not, the librarian must be fired and cannot work for any public school for two years.”
There was also this tidbit buried in the same report: “Parents can also collect at least $10,000 per day from school districts if the book is not removed as requested.” (Emphasis added.)
Will the bill be passed? We will see. Passed or not, it’s an ominous sign of a nascent thirst for censorship, book banning, and—yes—fascism.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Every day a new low. Where does this end? When will the pendulum swing back towards responsible citizenship and collective good will?
All Pit, No Pendulum
One more time the Extreme Court has aided and abetted this moronic mania.
yup
Just working hard every day to “improve public schools” – they never actually “improve” anything, or even offer anything remotely positive or helpful or useful, but just ask them- that’s what they are about.
“Abortion bounty hunters and school library plunderers making bank, because in Republican World, there is nothing that cannot be monetized.”
These outrageous laws will continue if states continue to elect radical, right wing libertarian types that want to destroy public education. it is a sad state of affairs when elected state representatives can work together with anarchists like the Proud Boys to undermine a public institution. Change is only possible if the people of these states stop electing representatives that seek to blow up a civil society and the democratic principles on which our country was founded.
But a majority of the citizens of these states ARE the “radical, right wing libertarian types that want to destroy public education” ….or non-functioning screen zombies incapable of civic action of any kind.
Yeah, I have a little assignment that I like to give to folks who think that this is a fringe phenomenon: go to the Facebook pages or the Republican Party in various states and read the comments.
People calling for Civil War.
Last night, there was a program on “Frontline” about extremist groups. It is called “American Insurrection.” I will post it later. It is chilling. There are heavily armed groups that want revolution. Their grievances are unclear. Their rage is clear.
Frontline is outstanding. Thanks for recommending this, Diane!
Just as with religion…keep the masses dumb and hence controllable.
Having spent some time as an undergraduate studying authoritarian political movements, I hesitate to blithely use the term fascism for fear of attenuating it. But this? Yes, this is fascism.
It is. If it quacks like a duck.
“Christine M. T. Pitts, PhD
We need metrics and thresholds to use for making school closure decisions. The subjectivity is doing nobody any favors.”
Well, that’ll be increasingly hard to do in the privatized, fragmented systems all of these folks promote but it’s not like there needs to be any consistency or coherence at all, so onward.
At some point their penchant for regulating/standardizing public schools runs headlong into their promotion of deregulated privatized systems, up to and including vouchers to purchase any and all “educational services”, but no reason to ponder that contradiction at all.
At the end of this they’ll be regulating and policing public schools, while there’s an entire privatized sector not subject to any of the regulations. They’re already there.
Maybe it is time to examine the man. He is on someone’s payroll and is being paid handsomely to do the bidding of a sociopathic Slime Master.
In 1995, Rob Standridge purchased a small pharmacy in Blanchard, Oklahoma and expanded the pharmacy into an interactive online pharmacy. In 2005, it was transformed into a pharmacy that specialized in juveniles and the mentally disabled.
In 2020, Standridge started a private Facebook group believing that people are “bombarded by leftist propaganda online”. Standridge’s group used military jargon like army, platoons, and militia. The group’s call was to get an assignment and spread whatever talking point Standridge wanted the group to blanket the internet with on that day.
To be a lawyer in the US…fortunes to be made.
As a parent and pursuant to the statute I demand that the New Testament, commonly called the Bible, be removed from all libraries
Ed, you have to understand that this is only a first version of the law, and it will be improved when gaps are discovered. For seditious and unpatriotic phonies like you, there will be a clause added: “Fake citizens who seek to impede the administration of this law to protect our children and our country will also be fined $10,000 per incident.”
Proudly served my nation as a patriotic citizen, and am dedicated to our constitution including the First Amendment
Well, as a strict Constructionist of the Constitution, and being a REAL patriotic American, I can tell you that it means whatever Glorious Leader Ron Desantis says it means.
cx: Originalist. Aie yie yie. Just wakingup here.
I’m puzzled: Shouldn’t the books be removed by the end of the day, and the librarians banned for life? Or maybe allowed back if they make a public act of contrition, swear an oath to obey, and are continually monitored.
Hitler’s rebirth?
You are exaggerating, spreading fake news and sowing panic. This is only about banning bad books, not burning them.
How naive you are. Before they knew it, Hitler wasn’t only banning books, he was burning them – banning unions and anything that stood in his way.
So, banning them is OK but burning them is not? LMAO.
I don’t see the difference.
https://www.ushmm.org/learn/timeline-of-events/1933-1938/book-burning
Lot and his daughters? Bad book. Bad. Must be banned!
The Repugnicans are now the Limbo Party: “How low, how low, how low can you go?”
They should have their national conventions in Death Valley, on the Devil’s Golf Course, the lowest elevation in the United States (282 feet below sea level)
It would all be very fitting.
Preferably in the hottest part of the summer, when the temperature is around 125F or more.
I’ve been there in June when it was 120 and I think Republicans would probably love it.
Yeah…having no brains there is no danger of brains frying.
I am not surprised. Texas and Oklahoma are both Stand Your Ground states. Stand your ground laws haven’t improved crime rates but they have made murder legal.
I plan to never set foot in any states with Stand Your Ground laws that legalize murder.
https://www.findlaw.com/criminal/criminal-law-basics/states-that-have-stand-your-ground-laws.html
Click to access _stand_your_ground_kills_-_how_these_nra-backed_laws_promote_racist_violence_1.pdf
Stand Your Ground States like Texas and Oklahoma showcase libertarian, fascist, and racist idealism at their worst.
We have a lovely parent in my NJ hometown who wants to sue the district for closing Monday due to impending snow (we got none) and staffing issues due to Covid. I said nobody taught today so where did your money go? He said “operating costs for the buildings.” It was the day after break was over. Nobody was in the building and assured him that all 12 month staff were working from home. He just wanted blood.
A key feature of cults is this “informing” and “tattling” behavior as a means of controlling group behavior and also promotes the hierarchy formation process.