Republicans have gone stark raving mad. They are terrified that their children might read a book that will turn them gay or transgender or might make them feel bad about racism. of course, their children have access to the internet, where they can see stuff far more sensational than anything in a book.
Somebody has to be punished for the racy books in the libraries.
In Idaho, parents will be able to sue libraries and school districts if they find an inappropriate book on their shelves. The fine would be $10,000 for each time a dangerous book is accessed.
A bill that would allow parents to sue libraries and school districts for allowing books containing material considered “obscene” on their shelves is one step closer to becoming law.
The “Children’s School and Library Protection Act” passed the Idaho House on a 40-30 vote Monday afternoon.
The bill lays out a proposed definition for what it calls material that is “harmful to minors,” including material that contains description or representation of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement or “sado-masochistic abuse.”
The bill also specifically mentions representations of “intimate sexual acts, normal or perverted” along with descriptions of “masturbation, excretory functions, or lewd exhibition of the genitals or genital area.”…
One legislator made a good point:
A representative from Latah County says libraries are not the main place where kids are being exposed to mature content.
“This telephone and this computer has more damage than any library is ever going to have to our children,” Lori McCann (R), representative of Legislative District Six, said.
How many of those voting went home to watch porn on their phone or computer?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. Song of Solomon 2:3, KJV
his fruit. lol
As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. –Song of Solomon 2:3, KJV
OK. This is totally bizarre. I posted a passage from the Bible, and WP placed it in moderation. You know, as moronic legislators do in Podunk, Idaho.
Very dangerous!
LOL!!! Better get it out of the libraries, quickly!!!
The pattern is clear. Check out the Washington Post article on how schools are buckling under the weight of costs related to responding to requests for records concerning books and curriculum A determined minority is out to make it financially unviable for states to continue to support public education, by increasing, exponentially, the amount of money that has to be diverted from instruction to defending lawsuits.
“A determined minority”: never underestimate, never relax, never acquiesce.
School budgets for instructional materials and library collections derive from the community tax base. They should be inclusive and represent the community they serve. It could be discriminatory to exclude materials that represent marginalized groups such as LGBTQ+ students. If this law is passed it appears that Staff, parents or students would have standing to challenge it.
But of course Republicans “have gone stark raving mad.”
Such actions are precisely intended to stir up the proverbial pot, to create chaos, which to their way of thinking creates fear in the public’s mind, a fear of loss (ultimately, all fear is fear of loss — loss of life, liberty, family, etc.), from which the GOP will save them. Those are things worth fighting for — Democrat, Republican, or Independent — and Republicans play it to the hilt.
Again, that is part and parcel of their “divide and conquer” strategy. They control the narrative, and as long as they do, they’ll continue to employ such fear-based tactics.
And in response, Democrats find themselves playing defense, instead of winning votes for ideas and policies that most everyone agrees to.
Democrats are not good at messaging, and much of it has to do with the choice of words they use. Words have meaning, carry emotion, and win votes. Few people vote on the basis of intellect. The “wonky” and “wooden” Democratic candidate for President, VP Al Gore, had a wonderful idea that would have made solvent into perpetuity the Social Security Trust Fund, but that idea didn’t arouse much attention, because it didn’t play on people’s emotions.
What was the idea? Make the SSTF a “HANDS OFF!” account, to be used ONLY for claims made upon it, NOT as a virtual “slush fund” from which Congress pays for their pet projects. Had that been done years ago, we wouldn’t find ourselves faced with the “conversation” of its solvency every so often.
I can practically guarantee, that if Democrats employed the fear technique — as POTUS BIDEN did in his SOTU, and thereby got the live, on-air, public agreement of EVERY Republican that they would not touch Social Security — we could win more elections, and pass more laws that benefit more people.
Another thing Democrats have sorely neglected is the rural voter, and their needs — the needs of America’s farmers (not corporate shills), the mom-and-pop family operations that have fed us all for generations.
America’s 10 most populous cities have a mere 25,607,845 people, which is less than 10% of the nation’s 334,585,468, population.
If we added 15 more, that’d still only be an extra 11,799,765, or 11.18% of total population.
One idea that would gain traction would be to restrict foreign ownership of farmland. Presently, there are no such restrictions. And at last toll, according to the USDA which tracks such things, 40.8 million acres of U.S. agricultural land is foreign owned, which is 3.1% of all privately owned land.
China now owns 383,935 acres, or 0.9% of total foreign-owned U.S. agricultural land as of year-end 2021.
To put that in perspective, 40.8M acres is 63,750 square miles, or an area slightly larger than Georgia, and smaller than Wisconsin.
Mississippi, and handful of other states (14, specifically) forbids or restricts foreign ownership, while neighboring Alabama is the nation’s foremost repository of foreign-owned farmland.
And as you sit down for breakfast tomorrow, and perhaps enjoy a bite of bacon & eggs, sausage biscuit, or ham this coming Easter, you can thank Smithfield Foods — a Chinese-owned firm since 2103 when Shuanghui International, now WH Group, purchased them — for feeding you.
And America’s poultry farmers are very much still sharecroppers, for they must bow to what their corporate contract holder says they must do, or else they risk forfeiting a market for their flock.
ALL THESE MATTERS are VERY REAL concerns -and- fears, and Democrats ~could~ capitalize upon them, and others, but they do not make any noise about it, and therefore lose the high ground to rightwing radicals.
It’s all in how the ideas are couched, and GOPers lead the way with their cultural chaos.
Although I agree that Democrats are terrible at messaging it is time for a little fact check.
#1 For starters your assertion about Social Security is ” stark raving mad ” . Not a single dollar is missing from the Social Security Trust Fund . Exchanging interest bearing treasury notes for the recites from payroll taxes is not robbing the fund and certainly has nothing to do with the solvency of the fund. The bat sh!t crazy assertion that it does has been a Republican talking point for privatization and robbing Social Security for decades. That it is believed by so many ignorant voters is the reason the Nation is at were we are at. “Government is the Problem” even in programs Americans favor and depend on. You would have a hell of a lot more to worry about then Social Security if the US Government defaults on its debts. (We may find out ).
2 Although your figure on Cities may or may not be correct, that does not reflect the reality that a City does not end at its electoral borders. The NYC Metropolitan Area has a population of 18.7 million people and Los Angeles as well. So 10% of the population lives in just 2 metro areas dependent on the economic engines of those two cities. Perhaps a better way to look at this is where people say they live. The Eastern tip of Long Island is in the NY Metro area. I doubt the Potato farmers and Vineyard owners consider themselves urban or suburban.Although wealthy NYC residents with vacation homes might.
That said “52 percent of U.S. households describe their neighborhood as suburban, 27 percent describe their neighborhood as urban, and 21 percent describe their neighborhood as rural ”
And of course a person living in a small city in a Rural region may have more in common with his rural neighbors than with large City dwellers but your framing of the divide is nowhere near accurate. The majority of those who consider themselves suburban are acknowledging an economic and cultural tie to a City. Where as those living in the outer stretches of a Metro Area would probably consider themselves rural.
#3 Americans seek products as cheap as they can get them. While many Americans, those affluent enough to have investments no matter how small ,expect “irrationally exuberant returns ” on their pension and other investment income. God forbid the markets should dip for a few months. The 2 year average return on the S&P is 5% a Year after climbing 28% in 2021 and falling -18% in 2022. I might be the only one to ask what is wrong with that.
Corporations have outsourced production and Jobs to the cheapest labor markets in the world for near 30 years. The American consumer has benefited from (slightly!!! ) cheaper prices as profits soared , they would not have it any other way. All one has to do take a ride through any neighborhood and notice the number foriegn cars none built Union in the USA.
With that we have created billionaires in China with 3.5 trillion dollars in US reserves. What would you expect them to do if not invest in US assets with US dollars.
So I don’t know what the message should be. This week Bernie Sanders called for breaking up big Agra Businesses, as profits soared 700 % at the largest egg producer in the Nation. I might ask what a Bird Flu has to do with increased profits. But I bet you those rural voters are calling Sanders a Commie.
Slaves were mostly forbidden from learning to read. Book banning s and burning keep them as “share croppers”.
Thanks for your response; following is my reply.
1) No assertion was made about the SSTF, save that it would become solvent into perpetuity were it to be made a “HANDS OFF!” account.
2.) No claim was made about “a single dollar missing,” nor “robbing the fund.”
• Analogy: A petty cash fund lockbox at work has $100 for any use by any employee, loans are typically repaid the next day, by week’s end, or NLT than next pay period. At all times, IOUs and cash equal $100, so it balances. However, if all money is lent out, and the box is filled with IOUs totaling $100, does it balance? Yes, it does. It is useful? No, it’s not. The SSTF is that lockbox, and the IOUs represent T-bills, and other future payables which Congress places in the SSTF when they “borrow” from it.
There is NO legitimate reason why Congress should be allowed to spend We The People’s Social Security money for anything other than Social Security claims.
3.) Populations cited U.S. Census data. No claims were made about “electoral borders.”
4.) Subjective opinions, i.e. “describe their neighborhood,” were not considered — only facts.
5.) NAFTA, CAFTA, and other “free trade” deals were not good for the American public in any way, and was a wholesale sellout for rapacious Wall$treet profiteering.
• Anecdotal story: A friend owned a couple sock factories in Fort Payne, AL, “Sock Capital of the World,” shared this story w me, which was confidentially told to him, and a handful of others, by AL Rep. Robert Aderholt. GW Bush wanted Congress to pass CAFTA. Robert Aderholt, who represented that district in Congress was the sole holdout vote, being concerned for the district’s welfare. GW Bush called him and threatened to do everything in his power to “screw over” Aderholt’s district -and- the state, if he did not vote “YES” for CAFTA. Aderholt voted “YES.” The ink hadn’t dried on the deal until the major corporate-owned factories announced they were moving to Honduras. Families were left holding the bag, the local economy collapsed, lives were forever negatively changed, all because Americans and their jobs were sold out by Wall$treet corporate profiteers and their overlords, the masters of money. Not good.
Ultimately, these matters all come down to national security. There is no legitimate reason why our United States should be a beggar nation, failing to fulfill its promises to “insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” — to its citizens. We cannot allow our nation to be sold to the highest bidder — ever. But, we’re off to a mighty fine start.
There are few policies, if any, with which I disagree with Senator Sanders. VT’s new Senator Peter Welch is taking on the FDA by challenging their preposterously absurd asinine ruling that loosely “plant-based,” highly-processed, chemically synthesized beverages can be called “milk,” when milk is the exclusive product of mammary glands. They should be called “milk alternative” or some such. I applaud his move to protect honesty to consumers, and integrity for farmers.
Poor White folks were also share croppers, which was not exclusively limited to former slaves. In my family, that is just one generation removed. But the principle is the same for poultry farmers: Do as corporate says, or they’ll have no market for their flock. That is not only anti-competitive, it is ultimately terroristic, to threaten anyone’s livelihood.
Have you read the book The Walmart Effect? It explains why many jobs went overseas.
Walmart also caused the collapse of many small town business districts. Mom and Pop no longer own the hardware store. Couldn’t compete with Walmart. Mom and Pop are greeters at Walmart.
WSB
Again: Social Security deposits a check into my account every month so the the fund is currently solvent . If it can only deliver 77% -79% of my benefits for the next 75 years when the trust fund runs out, it will not be because the IOU’s in it were not solvent . It will be because of the age demographics of the working age and retired populations. Most will certainly live to collect more than they contributed in payroll taxes.
That does not mean that the actuaries who recommended the changes to the program in 1983 got life expectancy all that wrong. They actually had estimated increases in life expectancy pretty well. What they did not expect was a roughly 8% shift in National Income to people earning over the Cap. Most of which is not going to relatively well off workers, few of whom even in high wage metro NYC will come close to the 160K payroll tax cap this year.. Not a high paid Union Construction worker nor a Long Island Teacher featured in LI Newsday for their supposed “outrageous ” 3 figure salaries will come close to that 160k . Rather 8% of National income is going to the investor class exempted from payroll tax as well as taxed at lower rate than earned income.
Simply inequality is the primary cause of 80% of the shortfall in the Trust fund . If that income had stayed with the working class and not been diverted to the 1% or 5% , than payroll taxes would have been collected at the rate of 15.3% for Social Security and Medicare on that additional income for the last 40 years, since 1983 when SS was last adjusted .
So if SS has a 21% -23 % shortfall when the Trust fund runs
out and it has to be paid by current payroll taxes that shortfall would have been a bit over 4% . A far more manageable figure. An amount that could be easily dealt with. Those tax dollars were diverted to corporate profits and thus capital gains. Stagnant wages from the minimum wage through the middle class have cause a shortfall. Had wages kept up with productivity as they did in the 50s and 60s and even 70s ,there would hardly be a problem .
Don’t play the populist card with me. I assure you I have made more phone calls to Congress and the White House as well as attended meetings with Lori Wallach of Public Citizen Global Trade watch than you . As well as demonstrations against our disastrous trade policies. That said that horse has left the barn, as devastating as it is to American Workers who saw profitable Factories shut to be off shored. There were probably 12 to 15 million jobs lost when you factor in the multiplier effect in those communities that saw factories close. As in your example with Cities 15 million represents less than 5% of Americans . The other 70%-95% have been racing to Walmart to buy those foreign goods at prices they could not be produced for in the USA.
I have only been in Walmart once when my son attended a College in Rural NY. That was 20 + years ago all my cars have a UAW sticker on them. However the American people have exported inflation overseas for 30 + years and judging by the hysterics generated by the small short live spike in inflation caused by Covid disruptions and corporate greed , there is no way they would not have the head of politicians who brought home those jobs with the resultant inflation.
The vote in the House on fast Track Trade authority (which as detailed by Lori Wallach in a lecture I attended) was the foil that would allow Congress to cover their butts and pass eventual trade agreements. That vote saw 190 Republicans vote for Fast Track and only 28 Democrats. How did those Republicans do in rural America and devastated factory towns only a year later and even 4 years later. Remind me who took control of the House on January 1 2017 and where they won those elections. Certainly not in the Liberal Cities that saw the last manufacturing jobs leave in the 1970s.
And then when the Orange Menace negotiated a trade agreement with Mexico who was it that insisted on ANY labor or environmental protections? Democrats . And when the conman reached a non deal with Xi that did NOTHING for American Manufacturing who did they vote for again.
Tell me the message Democrats should have.
booklady
Long before Walmart. American workers entered a race to the bottom starting with the assaults on Union labor in 1947 and 59. And Americans have been voting for these same politicians with policies that devastate the working class repeatedly. Walmart and Corporate America was only able to do what it did because citizens voted for politicians who enabled them to do so . Even with a war on Unions initiated by that imbecile Ronald Reagan, Reagan wiped the floor with one of the most pro labor Democrats in the US Senate as Nixon did 12 years before to another pro labor Democrat progressive Democrat. By the time Clinton came to office Democrats got the message and adopted Republican talking points . “The age of big Government is over” . Why would anyone want a Government who can regulate greed and apply progressive taxes in order to provide benefits to the working class and the poor. (sarcasm noted)
Sadly the working class has only itself to blame for the predicament many find themselves in . The poorest States in our flawed Union repeatedly voting for those whose policy
favors the former landed gentry who used to own plantations(poetic license) . Those who “Earned their money the old fashioned way through inheritance. ” Or at least those completely in the pockets of those oligarchs from DeVos to Koch to the Walton’s.
My question about bills targeting public libraries…
Are they talking about books in the children’s section or books in the library period? Why do I get the feeling they are talking about the entire library?
Glad I no longer live in Boise. I’m ashamed of what this state is doing. Why are politicians so blasted ignorant? Why are people so stupid to as to vote for ignorant politicians.
I graduated from Borah High and Boise Junior College. It is now called Boise State University.
Unfortunately, by brother and an aunt still live in Boise. My aunt thought the best president was George W. because God was guiding him. My brother claimed that Obama was the anti-Christ who would destroy the U.S.
We can choose our friends but not our relatives. [Both my aunt and brother are good people if you stay away from certain subjects.]