A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things.
The Inevitable Outcome
A top administrator for the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas, actually told teachers to provide students with “other perspectives” on the Holocaust in their classroom libraries last week.
- “Make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust, that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives,” Gina Peddy, the school district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, told the teachers during a secretly recorded meeting on Friday.
- Peddy cited Texas’ new law that bans “critical race theory,” a term conservatives have distorted to encompass any classroom learning material that discusses systemic racism.
- Peddy’s directive came during a training session after a teacher in the district was reprimanded for having an anti-racism book in her classroom.
- The GOP lawmaker who wrote the bill, state Sen. Bryan Hughes (R), insisted that Holocaust denialism wasn’t part of the plan. “I’m glad we can have this discussion to help elucidate what the bill says, because that’s not what the bill says,” he said.
- Meanwhile, “teachers are literally afraid that we’re going to be punished for having books in our classes,” an elementary school teacher told NBC News.
Jan. 6 Committee Testimony Delays
The House select committee moved to slap criminal contempt charges on former White House adviser Steve Bannon after he skipped a scheduled deposition on Thursday, and his absence seemed to have shaken up the proceedings with the other subpoenaed Trump foot soldiers (ex-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, ex-Defense Department official Kash Patel and Trump social media chief Dan Scavino).
- Patel was scheduled to testify on Thursday as well, while Meadows and Scavino were slated to appear in front of the panel today.
- The committee has decided to postpone the depositions with those three men, according to CNN and MSNBC.
Appeals Court Rules Against DOJ In Challenge To Texas Abortion Ban
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit on Thursday rejected the Justice Department’s request to reinstate a lower court order that temporarily suspended the enforcement of the six-week abortion ban in Texas.
- The decision is likely to be appealed in the Supreme Court, where the conservative majority allowed the ban to take effect last month.
GOP Guv Threatens Reporter For Flagging Online Security Breach
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) threatened criminal prosecution against a reporter at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Thursday for informing the state’s Department of Education that teachers’ Social Security numbers were visible in the HTML source code of the department’s web pages.
- Parson accused the reporter of being a “hacker” who was part of a “political game by what is supposed to be one of Missouri’s news outlets” and was “attempting to embarrass the state and sell headlines for their news outlet.”
- The Post-Dispatch pointed out the obvious, which is that the journalist informed the state government of his findings because it’s, uh, bad to display people’s Social Security numbers online!
- The paper held off on publishing the reporter’s story on the website flaw until the education department fixed it.
Sinema’s Numbers With Dems Are Just Atrocious Back Home
As she continues to stonewall the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s (D-AZ) net disapproval among likely Democratic primary voters is 70 percent, according to a new poll by progressive group Data for Progress.
- Keep in mind, though, that her primary isn’t until 2024.
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That’s Just Like, Your Opinion, Man
After Trump declared on Wednesday that Republicans “will not be voting” in the 2022 or 2024 elections if “we don’t solve” the 2020 election, National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) chair Tom Emmer responded with this on Thursday: “He’s a private citizen and he’s entitled to his own opinion.”
Bill Clinton Was Hospitalized Earlier This Week
The former president is “on the mend” and “in good spirits” after being admitted to UCI Medical Center in Orange, California on Tuesday evening for a “non-Covid-related infection,” his spokesperson, Angel Ureña, announced on Thursday night.
The Right-Wing Media Cesspit
Fox News host Tucker Carlson made this dig at Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the first openly gay Cabinet member, for going on paternity leave after the birth of his adopted twins:
Taking care of your newly born children? Hah! How gay is that, folks? [Seinfeld guitar riff]
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