Home schooling’s rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

A district-by-district look at home schooling’s explosive growth, which a Post analysis finds has far outpaced the rate at private and public schools.

By Peter Jamison, Laura Meckler, Prayag Gordy, Clara Ence Morse and Chris Alcantara

 

Don’t Know Who Mike Johnson Is? Neither Do Senate Republicans

Grace Segers from The New Republic

Greg Sargent Says

 Congressional Republicans have long been split between establishment figures who favor compromise reforms (legalization of many undocumented immigrants in exchange for border security) and those who see migration as a wholly destructive force, an invasion to be rebuffed via mass deportations, an effective end to asylum and maximal border militarization. As Johnson’s new — and very powerful — leadership position reveals, the latter forces have decisively won.

Jamelle Boule in the NY Times

 And what does Johnson believe? He is staunchly against the bodily autonomy of women and transgender people and supports a nationwide ban on abortion and gender-affirming care for trans youth. He is also virulently anti-gay. In a 2003 essay, Johnson defended laws that criminalized homosexual activity between consenting adults. In 2004, he warned that same-sex marriage was a “dark harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy that could doom even the strongest republic.” Last year, Johnson introduced legislation that has been compared to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, and he continues to push to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015.

If Johnson is known for anything, however, it is for his tireless advocacy on behalf of Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Johnson wrote one of the briefs purporting to give a legal justification for throwing out the voting results in several swing states. He advanced the conspiracy theory that Venezuela was somehow involved with the nation’s voting machines. On Jan. 6, 2021, he urged his Republican colleagues to block certification of the election on the grounds that state changes to voting in the face of the pandemic were illegitimate and unconstitutional. When questioned, during his first news conference as speaker, whether he stood by his effort to overturn the 2020 election, he ignored the question, and his fellow Republicans shouted down the reporter who asked it.

The new speaker is, in short, an election-denying extremist who believes that his allies have the right to nullify election results so that they can impose their vision of government and society on an unwilling public. He is Jim Jordan in substance but not Jim Jordan in style, which was enough for Republicans to come together to make him leader of the House and second in line to succeed the president of the United States in the case of emergency.

 To be silent the whole day, see no newspaper, hear no radio, listen to no gossip, be thoroughly and completely lazy, thoroughly and completely indifferent to the fate of the world is the finest medicine a man can give himself. ~Henry Miller

 We thought we had moved beyond the McCarthyism of the 50's.  Not!

David Grann in the NY Times

 The movement to suppress elements of American history extends well beyond Oklahoma. According to an analysis by The Washington Post, more than two dozen states have adopted laws that make it easier to remove books from school libraries and to prevent certain teaching on race, gender and sexuality. In 2023, PEN America, which defends freedom of speech, reported that book bans in U.S. public school classrooms and libraries had surged 33 percent over the previous school year, with more than 3,000 recorded removals; among them are classics by the Nobel laureate Toni Morrison (banned in 30 school districts) and Margaret Atwood (banned in 34). School curriculums are being revised to mask discomfiting truths — so much so that in Florida students will now be taught that some African Americans benefited from slavery because it gave them “skills.”

After the world premiere of “Killers of the Flower Moon” at the Cannes Film Festival, Matt Pinnell, Oklahoma’s lieutenant governor and a Republican, encouraged audiences to see the movie. (His state had even provided financial incentives for the production.) A reporter asked him why, if people from around the world should watch the film, the subject can’t be taught without fear in Oklahoma’s public schools. Though he acknowledged a need to clarify the law, in the five months since the festival, the state legislature has not done so.

If such policies continue, new generations of Americans will be deprived of the wisdom of history — all of history: the stirring, the cautionary, the truth. As Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. put it, Oklahomans cannot “move forward unless we understand how we got here.”

The same is true for all of us.

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If such policies continue, new generations of Americans will be deprived of the wisdom of history — all of history: the stirring, the cautionary, the truth. As Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. put it, Oklahomans cannot “move forward unless we understand how we got here.”

The same is true for all of us.

The Johnson brief was a full-throated endorsement of the “independent state legislature” theory, ultimately rejected by the Supreme Court in 2023’s Moore v. Harper. The brief asserted that under the terms of the Constitution, only state legislatures — without any review by state courts or involvement of other state parties — have power to set rules for choosing presidential electors. “The clear authority of those state legislatures to determine the rules for appointing electors was usurped at various times by governors, secretaries of state, election officials, state courts, federal courts, and private parties,” the brief argued.

-Ruth Marcus in the WaPost

Tyranny of the Minority - Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt - Notes

 Two Harvard political scientists talk about how in this country where majorities are supposed to rule minorities gain control abetted by the Constitution.

Supreme Court justices serving lifetime in "good behavior" unknown in other worldwide democracies. When you had have corrupt behavior like Clarence Thomas, who's to stop him?

The miracle in Georgia in 2021: A Jew and a Black man inaugurated US Senators.  P. 3

Multiracial democracy is hard to achieve.  In this country I think it's impossible.  P. 4

Normally political parties change policies when they lose an election, but not minority oriented parties like the Republicans.  P. 192

Completing political parties should be self-correcting, but not today's Republican Party, and not when a party can win with a minority of votes.  This can cause a party to turn inward and radicalize.  Republicans are shielded from internal pressure.  P. 193

Until Republicans can legitimately win national elections competing for the whole electorate is our democracy safe.  P. 194

I do not see the Republican Party becoming a multiethnic party.  

As long as we have a Republican Party completely wedded to a radicalized core white Christian base, it will be prone to the extremism that threatens our system of democracy.  P. 194

 Alas, not for the first time, we must observe that among the many things the Framers could not have foreseen is the state of today’s Republican Party: devoid of any respect for institutions and hell-bent on writing blank checks to the biggest extremists in its midst. That the GOP has made a farce of such a basic task as electing a leader should really come as no surprise to anyone. It’s been quite some time since Republicans have shown any kind of interest in performing the basic functions of a majority party in the legislature.

-The New Republic

 There are worse ways to be disgusted in being forced to spend an evening trying to have a decent discussion with like, say, Jim Jordan or a life insurance salesman. I would have added any two Harvard political scientists spouting statistics, but these guys seem like they might be fun, though surely they are an exception. Talking about Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt.

Republicans Struggle to Find a Speaker

 

Rep. Jim Jordan draws less support on second ballot, expects third vote Thursday

 The Law of Discovery is alive and well.

 In a recent conversation with Salon, journalist Katherine Stewart expressed her view that the Republican Party “has largely abandoned conservatism and has now refashioned itself as a revolutionary party":

It’s not interested in preserving key American institutions. A segment of the party doesn’t even care about governing. ... The extreme faction of the Republican Party is aiming to blow up the system and take control of whatever remains….

We need to stop calling the Republican Party’s dominant faction “conservative.” The real conservatives, right now, are the incrementalists on the center-left, people who think that we should try to preserve, build on and improve our key democratic institutions and international alliances. Leaders of the New Right and related movements are not remotely conservative. I would say they are revolutionaries without a rational or coherent purpose, or reactionary nihilists.

From Salon.com Chauncey Devega

The Tulsa Race Riot III

 Is there a connection between the Osage killings and the Tulsa Race Riot?

The Tulsa Race Riot II

 It started from such a small beginning but typical---white woman making a charge against a black man.

The Tulsa Race Riot

 Chilling in the Robert P. Jones book.

MAGA Coming

 Donald Trump has publicly announced his plans to become America’s first de facto dictator if he wins the 2024 election. Using Orwellian Newspeak and other lies, Trump and his spokespeople are presenting their fascist agenda as "taking back the country” for “real Americans." In reality, Trump’s Agenda 47 and Project 2025 (both created by right-wing think tanks and interest groups) are no such thing. If imposed on the American people, these political projects will attempt to end the First Amendment, make White Christianity the official religion, fire government employees who are not personally loyal to Trump, use the military to occupy cities, invoke the Alien Enemies Act to deport undocumented immigrants, and take away the civil and human rights of other targeted groups.

-Chauncey Devega in Salon.com

The Osage Nation

 Cinema legend Martin Scorsese's next epic, "Killers of the Flower Moon," is taking on the story of Oklahoma murders in the Osage Nation during economically fraught and racially segregated 1920s America. Scorsese's film is adapted from nonfiction book of the same name written by investigative journalist and staff writer at the New Yorker, David Grann.

The book and film chronicle the story of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma, who at the time were the richest people per capita in the world because they were displaced onto and owned one of the largest deposits of oil in the United States. The Osage were so rich that they built, owned and lived in mansions, rode in chauffeured cars and sent their children overseas to Europe to study. Not at all the picture Americans have about Native American people in the 1920s.

-Nairdos Haile in Salon.com

People Used to Ask Me

 People use to ask me how did Moyna and I sustain a 40 yr relationship. So simple: Over the 40 yrs I was never right on a single question or issue. That made it easy when one person was always right. And when I would namedrop, like Leo Durocher or Bronco Nagurski, I would carefully and gingerly explain.

 Third, does he have any kind of relationship with Mitch McConnell? Jordan said this week it’s “fine” and “good.” Um … sure. McConnell has done his share to burn down the Senate, Lord knows, but compared to people like Jordan, he’s Arthur Vandenberg. Cynical and slippery though he is, McConnell at least believes in a kind of old-school decorum that Jordan has utterly rejected. They’re stylistically polar opposites. And then there’s Ukraine aid, which McConnell backs and Jordan staunchly opposes.

-I've been waiting for yrs for someone to reference Arthur Vandenberg. :)

Our Only Job Now

 Joe Walsh was a Republican congressman and a leading Tea Party conservative. He is now a prominent conservative voice against Donald Trump and the host of the podcast "White Flag with Joe Walsh."

It is a cult. How many times must that be said. One of America's two major political parties has become completely radicalized and has given up on democracy. Trump is their cult leader. Each and every evidence of his corruption and criminality only strengthens his support within his cult. Our only job now is to defeat them.

-From Salon.com

He's Gone

 

(Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

McCarthy’s gone. Republican dysfunction is here to stay.

Kevin McCarthy, whose only ideology had been ambition, has obtained his place in history: the only speaker in U.S. history to be ousted by his peers. 

Opinion by Dana Milbank1 hour ago

Judgement Day

 Republican frontrunner and presumptive 2024 presidential nominee Donald Trump faces as many as four upcoming criminal trials — but a civil case that could destroy his business in New York has leapt to the forefront this week.

To some degree, the lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James alleging decades of fraudulent business practices has flown under the radar, perhaps because — unlike in the criminal cases Trump must face in New York, Florida, Georgia and Washington, D.C. — there is no possibility of criminal convictions or a prison sentence. 

But all that changed last week when New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoronissued a summary judgment against Trump and his co-defendants, ruling that the evidence of fraud was so overwhelming that a full trial was not necessary. If that decision stands, Trump will likely lose control of many of his most high-profile businesses. As a practical matter, his supposedly successful real estate empire may well lie in ruins.

-Chauncey Devega in Salon.com

McCarthy Out

 

Kevin McCarthy ousted as House speaker — Far-right coup leads to Capitol chaos

Matt Gaetz's coup ends McCarthy's brief tenure as speaker — Republicans don't seem to know what happens next

By TATYANA TANDANPOLIE

News Fellow

 Joe Biden gave a speech last week that went largely unnoticed in the press, and it's really too bad. It may have been the best speech he's ever given, and if people actually saw or heard it, it might set their minds at ease a little about his prospects in the next election. He's never been much of a speaker, but when he talks about the threat to democracy he's been excellent. This is his fourth such speech, reflecting a sincere effort on his part to which we should all pay attention. After all, while we're all painfully aware of the right's anti-democratic turn, he is the actual president. It stands to reason he sees this from a different perspective. The fact that he's so determined to sound the alarm should get much more attention than it does.

On the heels of a bizarre impeachment inquiry hearing last week in which Republican House members threw out outrageous smears against Biden without a shred of evidence and a GOP primary debate that had the candidates yelling at each other like drunken football fans, Biden traveled to Arizona to open the John McCain Institute and Library. He spoke at length about his long friendship with the former senator, reminding people of a time when the divisions between the two parties were not as uniformly bitter and hostile as they are now.

-Heather Digby Parton in Salon. com

Trump's Threats

 Donald Trump is continuing to threaten the lives of his "enemies" and all others who oppose him. Trump has been doing this publicly and without contrition, pause or any apparent fear of repercussions or negative consequences. His behavior is a function of his depraved character, damaged personality, and diseased mind.

Despite how too many among the news media and political class, even after seven years of experience to the contrary, would like to believe, Trump is not going to pivot. Moreover, there are no "responsible" senior members of today's Republican Party who are going to place country over party to finally stop Trump and his neofascist MAGA movement.

Trump's threats of violence and acts of intimidation are so great that the Department of Justice is seeking a gag order in an attempt to protect the safety of the jurors, witnesses, and members of law enforcement who will be involved in the ex-president's upcoming criminal trials, as Salon's Areeba.

-Chauncey Devega in Salon.com