The NRA is trying to declare bankruptcy, walk out on its debts, and reorganize itself in damn Texas.

Oh hell, no.

They spent themselves into massive debt giving all the officers enormous bonuses, the lavish care, feeding and housing of Wayne LaPierre’s hussy friend, and vacations worthy of the King of Siam.

The NRA’s hopeful ride back into the land of plenty and blood got a little gut punch yesterday when a US bankruptcy administrator asked the bankruptcy judge to dismiss the NRA efforts or at least appoint a trustee to oversee it.

Additionally …

It is teacher appreciation week. I know these things get dizzying after awhile. We have to keep these things straight and many times we don’t know we are celebrating a profession until the calendar on the wall tells us we are. We have secretary’s day, librarian day, counselor’s week, and custodian’s day. That’s just in the education field. All we have to do is multiply that by all of the professions and we soon realize that every day on the calendar celebrates something.

Of course, the ultimate irony is that we are administering the STAAR test during our appreciation week. Thanks Texas. A number of people ask what we would want for our week. As a high school teacher, I am accustomed to getting nothing from our students. I see them only 45 minutes a day, so a large part of that is understandable. Still, Starbucks cards go to my wife because I don’t drink coffee. Nick nacks are nice as well, but I really don’t need anything along those lines.

A lot of people talk about teacher pay and that is a big deal in some areas of the state. For me, it’s not that big of a deal. I earn a comfortable living and I don’t really want for anything. The biggest two issues are related. I want to be treated like a professional adult and I want state testing to go away. I’ve mentioned my wife before. When she needs to go to the doctor she goes to the doctor. When she needs to take time off for other things she takes time off. She doesn’t get read the riot act or made to jump through hoops to get that done. I once had to bring in a doctor’s note for missing a summer professional development workshop that occurred outside of our contracted days. My word wasn’t good enough.

All that being said, there can be no greater irony than giving out the state tests during our week of appreciation. It is a not so subtle nod from the state telling us that they don’t trust us collectively. Yes, it is important that we figure out what kids have learned so that we can work on helping those that haven’t mastered those skills. We don’t need to base accountability on it and we don’t need to pay faceless corporations more than a billion dollars to write those tests. We have smart people that can write those tests on their own.

When you take the pandemic into account, we have missed upwards of five weeks of instruction by administering the five high school STAAR tests, the SAT and PSAT, TSIA exam, and AP exams,. Any time you take those tests you also have to take benchmark tests, mock tests, and take a week or so out of regular instruction to do specially designed test preparation. We have three weeks of school after this week in most districts. So, you are asking teachers to teach 36 weeks worth of information and skills into 28 weeks. For the English exams it is 24 weeks.

Meanwhile, the general direction of education is to provide students with an authentic experience so they can connect their learning to real world experiences. It’s hard to get more unauthentic than a state test. This would be the greatest gift the state could give to teachers. It would greatly reduce our stress and maybe keep more of us in the profession for longer. Maybe it doesn’t compete with e jeans day pass or breakfast burrito in our mail box, but what could possibly compete with those things?

Yesterday, Michael Gerson published a good piece in the Washington Post about how Republicans lying about the 2020 election are doing so with open eyes, and why that is corrosive to a free society.  He’s right in that Trump is a congenital liar, and everyone knows it.  The ones committing the most egregious lies are those enabling Trump’s lies, those party leaders and politicians who are passing the litmus test by knowingly telling the Big Lie to avoid the wrath and primary threats.

This lying, though, is not new.  Since Reagan, Repubs have made lying the foundation of the party.  Examples: cutting taxes increases revenue; cutting taxes for the rich trickles down prosperity to everyone;  “welfare queens” are lazy and always non-white; companies don’t need regulations since
the “free market” will drive them to do the right thing; Iraq was involved in 9/11; Saddam has weapons of mass destruction; if you’re opposed to war you “hate the troops”; Barack Obama was not born in the US; a gigantic conspiracy of thousands of poll workers, voting machine companies, elected officials from both parties, state legislatures, the US Congress, and even VP Pence caused the 2020 election to be stolen from Trump.  This last lie is now required to be told, and repeated, by all Republicans, no matter where they come from or role they play.  Those who refuse to tell the lie are censured or run out of the party.

When a party’s foundation is all based on a dictated lie as a litmus test, that party is dead.  The GOP has come a long way to this point, but I personally believe it has morphed from political organization to religious cult.  A lot of people reject drawing comparisons between the rise of Hitler to the rise of Trump.  I think they do that our of fear that it may be true.  I believe it’s absolutely the perfect analogy.  It’s well known that Hitler was a psychopath.  He tried to overthrow the Bavarian government in 1923 in the Beer Hall Putsch, which he planned to use as a springboard to take over the German government.  He was convicted of high treason, but during the trial became a national figure, and much of the public adored him.  Upon his conviction he swore to ignore the verdict saying he would be acquitted by the “Eternal Court of History”; indeed, Hitler served less than a year before he was released.  Eight years later he accomplished his goal in taking over the government, leading to World War II.  Hitler’s main weapon?  Lying.  Gargantuan lying, which he required repetition by his followers.  His lying lead to millions of deaths around the world and the collapse of Europe which took a generation to recover.

Trump is more like Hitler than anyone wants to admit.  He has the same personality traits including toxic narcissism and total disregard for human life.  Like Hitler, he freely used the levers of government to enrich himself, protect his co-conspirators, and punish his enemies.  He politicized everything from science to law enforcement.  If allowed back in, he will follow the same path as Hitler, and if we ignore it, the chance of history repeating itself is highly likely.

All the lights about Trump are flashing red, and his enablers are speeding along the road that will most certainly lead to disaster for all of us.

Facebook’s oversight board has apparently decided on the fate of Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts and is going to announce the decision on Wednesday.  The thought of the Orange Menace ranting again on social media sends cold chills, but based on Zuckerberg and Company’s terrible decisions in the past, it won’t surprise me a bit if they let him back on just to drive internet clicks.  Of course, Facebook was right (like Twitter) to finally ban his ass way too late, especially since he violated almost every rule in the book, especially in inciting violence against the US government, Democrats, and everyone not white, obese, gun-toting, or bible thumping.  I guess they finally decided to take steps after his followers attacked the US Capitol resulting in millions of dollars in damage, 200 injuries, and 5 deaths.  At least Twitter’s ban is permanent.

Trump has no business with a public voice ever again, and Facebook should permanently ban him along with his entire fucking family from the platform.  I won’t hold my breath, though.

I sat there in the bleachers watching my daughter play in her last volleyball tournament (indoors) of the year. I listened somewhat intently to the conversation next to me. It was hard not to at least catch bits and pieces of it. Admittedly, I was already a little annoyed.

The latest from the Lincoln Project.