Monday Stuff

Emma and the Majority Report crew discuss this assclown New Hampshire Repug state rep named Erica Layon who totally screws up the history of slavery and immigrants arriving to this country as part of an emerging industrial workforce (and no, Irish and/or Italian immigrants were not classified as three fifths of a person, as Emma V. says...and JUST ONCE I would like for a reporter, when they hear a Repug politician bloviating about CRT, to say in response “Can you give us an example of CRT being taught in a school that you think is a problem?” because I’ll bet $10 that they won’t be able to do it).

And I just want to add something here that is probably stupendously obvious, but I’ll say it anyway.

As pointed out here, Critical Race Theory is quite literally a particular academic field of study claiming “that race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies.” One of the examples cited is “redlining” of certain districts for low-density housing to keep out African Americans, keeping them in higher-density areas (where there would be, more often than not, higher rates of crime, less of an availability of social services, etc.).

More simply put, it is something taught at some colleges, but by no means all. And I have found NO EVIDENCE to indicate that it is taught in any K-12 school district in this country.

However, the people screeching about it likely don’t know that. And if somehow they do, they sure as hell don’t want anyone else to know that either. So CRT, as far as they’re concerned, becomes a “grab bag” of grievance issues and talking points that they can spew about any way they want (made up/tailored the way they want), since they’re relying on the fact that most people won’t know what it is that I just noted above.

This requires our media to get a hell of a lot smarter than they’ve shown so far when it comes to interviewing the people screeching about it the loudest. And I for one am not going to hold my breath waiting for that to happen...



Update 1/26/22: Exactly.

...and I thought this was a good recent commentary from Brianna Keilar of CNN about Fix Noise and their hysterical hissy fit over their damn Christmas tree versus how they SHOULD report on the 1/6 insurrection (more here...and when it comes to The Roger Ailes BS Factory, let's not forget this Jacob DeGraff idiot also as noted here...and with the recent departure of Chris Wallace, who showed flashes of integrity though he "carried water" for the wingnuts more often than not, that channel loses any slight pretense of a network practicing actual journalism)...



...and I read this recent New York Times Op-Ed from former Montana Governor Steve Bullock, which was all full of “oh, you blue state Dems need to come out and talk to WE REAL AMERICANS in the heartland,” and I thought he made some good points particularly when it comes to Dems and messaging (which they ALWAYS have a problem with for some reason), but I also had a reaction very much like the one from Thom Hartmann below (that being said, I’d like to see DNC head Jaime Harrison hop a plane and fly out west to meet with Bullock and make the latter put his money where his mouth is)...



...and as usual, Second Thought gives us a hell of a lot to think about, this time around on wage theft and how workers are exploited as a matter of course in our capitalist economy...



...and here are more seasonal selections.