Josephine Lee, David McHam Investigative Reporting Fellow - Texas Observer
Stephan:
MAGAt Republicans are purposely and deliberatively willfully ignorant. They do not want children to be taught factual history, they want them to be indoctrinated into the pseudo-history they want Americans to believe. Texas, with its MAGAt Republican Governor Greg Abbott, is one of the strongest examples of this willful stupidity. As a result, children in the Red states are growing up believing all kinds of false information to be true. America is losing whole chapters of its past.
Credit: David Zalubowski / AP
According to Texas’ fourth-grade social studies standards, Indigenous peoples from Texas, including the Lipan Apache, Comanches, and Caddo, exist only in the past tense. Students study their way of life when the tribal nations “lived” in the different regions of the state before Europeans arrived to “explore” the land.
These are but a few of the many misconceptions about American Indians that Kelly Tudor, a Lipan Apache, has found in Texas’ curricular standards, known as the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS).
“What’s taught about us is not from a cultural insider perspective, but from an outsider perspective, and it’s usually very biased. I’ve learned that I’ve had to break down all those false ideas first before students can hear you,” Tudor said.
Growing up, Tudor and her family had been called “Prairie N—.” School teachers called her family “stupid” when her sister attempted to correct false information about American Indians being taught from the textbook. Even after she became a curriculum consultant and Indigenous educator, teaching both young students and other teachers about American […]
How interesting. The Republicans having stirred up civil violence to a level never before seen are now becoming frightened by what they have done. They also want to keep their travels secret from the public. And who reveals this? None other than MAGAt Republican Senator Ted Cruz. It is a case of reaping what you sow, and so typical.
There are “serious security threats facing public officials,” Sen. Ted Cruz said. “It’s important that we take reasonable measures to keep everyone safe.” Credit: Jose Luis Magana / AP
Viral photos of politicians jetting off to a tropical hideaway during a deadly cold wave might become a lot rarer under legislation being pushed by Sen. Ted Cruz.
The Texas Republican — infamously photographed by a gawker while en route to Cancún in 2021 — is proposing a bill amendment that would offer lawmakers a dedicated security escort at airports, along with expedited screening outside of public view. That could make it much less likely that the politicians’ comings and goings would become fodder for embarrassing news reports and late-night comedy mockery.
The measure would also provide the same special treatment to federal judges and Cabinet members, as well as a limited number of their family and staff. Cruz is trying to attach the amendment to a major aviation policy bill, S. 1939, that is expected to be marked up in the Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday.
The outcome of the primary in South Carolina I was thought was heartening, and this essay by Michael Waldman also gives me hope that a democracy movement is arising that is pushing back against the White supremacist, sexism, hate, entitlement, and resentment that so clouds our present day. Maybe there are enough of us to push back against the MAGAt scum and preserve our democracy and curtail the oligarchs. Let us hope so. It is up to each of us.
Illustration by Adrià Fruitos
Violence has often scarred American politics. There was systematic terrorism from the KKK aimed at Black voters. Pinkertons versus labor unions. Unrest in cities in the 1960s. The violence aimed at the marchers in Selma. And, of course, the assassinations of presidents and other leaders.
Now we are in the middle of what seems to be another historic wave of violence. The shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise, the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, the attack on Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s husband, the threats against Republican members of Congress for refusing to support Rep. Jim Jordan’s run for speaker of the House, and more all reflect this intense and angry moment.
Last week, the Brennan Center released an important and timely report documenting the growing problem of abuse, threats, and violence directed at state and local elected officials. The top-level numbers are extremely troubling. At the state level, 43 percent of legislators have experienced threats, and 38 percent reported that the amount of abuse they experience has increased since first taking public office, while […]
Here is some good news, but the main reason I picked this report is that it shows something I think is very important. A green approach to solving a need previously met by plastics, the worst pollutant in the world. This is the kind of approach we should think about with all manner of issues like this.
Alona Kozma piles cork at a farm in Coruche, Portugal. Credit: Jose Sarmento Matos / The Washington Post)
CORUCHE, PORTUGAL— The rhythmic noise of axes whacking trees echoes in the depths of the cork oak forest.
But in Coruche, a rural area south of the Tagus River known as Portugal’s “cork capital,” the bang of trees falling to the ground doesn’t follow the sound of the ax strokes. Instead, experienced workers carefully peel away the bark from the tree trunks.
This annual rite of extracting cork in the summer months has been around for thousands of years in the western Mediterranean. Egyptians, Persians, Greeks and Romans used the material to make fishing gear, sandals and to seal jugs, jars and barrels. As glass bottles gained popularity in the 18th century, cork became the preferred sealant because it is durable, waterproof, light and pliable.
Now cork is experiencing a revival as more industries look for sustainable alternatives to plastic and other materials derived from fossil fuels. The bark is now used for flooring and furniture, to make […]
Robert Booth, Social Affairs Correspondent - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan:
Something is going wrong in American culture and the British culture with a significant number of younger men threatened and resentful about the equality of women. They seem to have lost a sense of their place in the culture, and what it means to be a man. I think it is also important to recognize that much of this is the product of misinformation spewed out by this minority on social media. If the politicians in Congress don’t quit behaving like petulant brats and start behaving like adults whose task is to foster wellbeing the culture crisis that is already tearing both countries apart is going to produce a society unlike anything ever seen before. The solution in the United States is clear to me. Both houses of Congress and the Presidency must be Democratic, and once elected the Democrats must clean up the judiciary, particularly the Supreme Court. That means the people of the country, the voters, must vote only for Democrats in November. Not because they are perfect but, at least, they are trying to foster democracy and social wellbeing. Look at the economy.
Boys and men from generation Z are more likely than older baby boomers to believe that feminism has done more harm than good, according to research that shows a “real risk of fractious division among this coming generation”.
One in four UK males aged 16 to 29 believe it is harder to be a man than a woman and a fifth of those who have heard of him now look favourably on the social media influencer Andrew Tate, the polling of over 3,600 people found.
Tate, the British-American former kickboxer who has 8.7 million followers on the social media platform X, is facing charges in Romania, which he denies, of human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. He has talked about hitting and choking women and has said he is “absolutely a misogynist”.
The bestselling author and Canadian academic, Jordan Peterson, is also seen favourably by 32% of 16 to 29-year-old men, compared with 12% among women of the same generation. Peterson speaks up for “demoralised young men” and says Tate offers “forthright aggression” as an alternative to […]
