Election 2020: More on Garland's Full Frontal Attack on School Moms

Equanimity

More heat than light this morning, I'm afraid. AG Merrick Garland's full frontal attack on school moms is dominating the coverage. At Da Caller, Merrick Garland Cites Unexplained Threats Of Violence To Involve Authorities In Culture War Issues

Following outrage and protest from parents across the country regarding progressive Critical Race Theory and LGBTQ content in schools, Garland called on the FBI Monday to “use its authority” against parents who threaten or use violence against public school officials.

The attorney general said there has been a “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff” and directed the FBI to work with each U.S. attorney and leaders “in each federal judicial district” to discuss strategy to address threats within 30 days of his statement.

The DOJ’s memorandum did not specify what it classifies as a crime.

Garland’s statement follows a letter from the National School Board Association (NSBA) that asked the federal government to get involved in the “immediate threat” of violence from parents faced by American public schools and its education officials. The NSBA said the incidents could be “the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”

At the New Yorker,  The Increasingly Wild World of School-Board Meetings "At one event, riled-up conservatives got so out of hand, the boar chair halted the proceedings while police cleared the room" Oh, my god, it's a national crisis! A quote from Haut Hair:

But, in so many cases, legitimate debate is not what’s on offer. Online, the thinking usually goes, people sometimes say the kinds of venomous things they wouldn’t in person; but, in these public forums, they seem all too ready to. They boo and jeer at people who express an opinion different from theirs. They find ways to bring up and rant about child-trafficking conspiracies. In one notorious case, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, audience members laughed as a high-school junior, Grady Knox, described losing his grandmother to covid. A woman behind him held a sign that read “Let our Kids Smile.” The “kids,” or, more often in this kind of rhetoric, “the children,” are usually props and symbols in these scenes; this is a parents’ war, and they mostly don’t want to hear the students speak.

Sure sounds like a Federal case to me! Roger Kimball at Am Great, Garland Just Tipped Over the Dominos, "Parents across the country have suddenly woken up to the wokeness haunting their schools and poisoning the minds of their children." At ET, Roger L. Simon thinks it may be Time to Stop ‘Communism, American-Style’?. Insty, YEP:

Academia: CRT is just an obscure and benign legal theory that’s only taught in advanced classes in law school.

Also Academia: If you want a faculty job at our college, you must submit a Diversity Equity Inclusion statement that explains how you will incorporate CRT concepts into your astronomy class.

Neatly summed up.

Jerry Dunleavy at WaEx takes notice that Garland son-in-law’s company recommends article calling Trump fans white supremacists. That's fairly attenuated, but it's worth asking him about, the next time he's on the stand in Congress.

Exciting news from Jim Acosta at CNN, Former Trump aide Dan Scavino served January 6 committee subpoena after struggle to locate him. Whew, that was a close one! Politico whines (it's pretty much all they do) that Congress' Jan. 6 investigators face an inevitable reckoning with their GOP colleagues, "The probe into the Capitol attack could trigger a clash over lawmakers' powers to police their own members." I know they'll enjoy it when the shoe is on the other foot. 

WSJ opines If Trump Wins in 2024, Then Who Threatens Democracy? "Democrats need to stop lying to themselves and acknowledge they are part of the problem too." That'll never happen. At Mediaite, Bill Maher Lays Out Nightmare Trump 2024 Scenario in Excruciating Detail: ‘I Hope I Scared the Shit Out of You!’. Well, no, it gives me a warm glow.

Breitbart reports Facebook Blacklists Developer Whose Tool Helps People Spend Less Time on Platform

The Verge reports that the developer behind the “Unfollow Everything” browser extension tool that allows users to mass unfollow users and groups on Facebook claims that he has been permanently banned from the social media platform. Louis Barclay developed Unfollow Everything to allow users to unfollow friends, groups, and pages, removing their content from the Facebook News Feed.

Discussing his experience using the tool with Slate, Barclay stated: “I still remember the feeling of unfollowing everything for the first time. It was near-miraculous. I had lost nothing, since I could still see my favorite friends and groups by going to them directly. But I had gained a staggering amount of control. I was no longer tempted to scroll down an infinite feed of content. The time I spent on Facebook decreased dramatically. Overnight, my Facebook addiction became manageable.”

He could just quit. At the NYPo, Eric Spitznagel propounds on how How governments actually can — and should — tame Facebook. Regulate the hell out of it. From Forbes, There’s A Brewing Battle Among Conservatives Over Facebook Whistle-Blower Frances Haugen. Use her and throw he away; it's what the Democrats would do. VOAnews, Philippine Nobel Winner Ressa Calls Facebook 'Biased Against Facts' It doesn't take a Nobel Prize winner to see that. 

"The veteran journalist and head of Philippine news site Rappler told Reuters in an interview after winning the award that Facebook's algorithms "prioritize the spread of lies laced with anger and hate over facts."

WaPoo sends a reporter out into flyover country (did she get hazard pay?) to discover  What Wyoming Really Thinks of Liz Cheney "I traveled 2,100 miles across the state to figure out if she is doomed — and to glimpse the future of the Republican Party." It turns out a lot of people don't like her very much. Well, votes have consequences.