Schools ditch student mask requirements in growing numbers
As a lengthy, bitter fight over mask requirements for students neared its conclusion, the chairperson of a Florida school board announced that she would agree to lift a mandate that had been in place since September even though she preferred leaving it in place until the end of the academic year. Parents hurled insults in response.
“Communist! Democrat!,” opponents of making children wear masks in school shouted as board chair Wei Ueberschaer and the district superintendent explained at a May 3 meeting that they still considered masks advisable. “This is Santa Rosa County, America, not China!”
Moments later, the Santa Rosa school board voted unanimously to make masks optional for all grades effective immediately, joining dozens of other U.S, communities in declaring that masks were or would soon no longer be mandatory for students.
The debates have been emotional and highly divisive around the country, in some cases leading to the involvement of police. A few beleaguered school boards, caught between the demands of anti-mask parents and the appeals of employee unions, eliminated student mask rules only to reverse or revise the decisions. Where many see a continued need to protect children who aren’t vaccinated against COVID-19, opponents argue that masks make students uncomfortable and mandates impinge on freedom.
“The mask is a personal choice, and I wore it at the beginning, but I just decided that it wasn’t about the mask anymore,” said Cynthia Licharowicz, a Milton, Florida, parent who opposed Santa Rosa County’s rule. “So I decided to take it off, and I wanted my child to have the same choice.” . . .
MSNBC’s Melber: Cheney Ouster All to Appease the ‘Deceitful Vanity’ of ‘One Blogger in Florida’
MSNBC anchor Ari Melber said Wednesday on his show “The Beat” that the ouster of Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) from Republican House leadership was “all to appease one blogger in Florida,” referencing former President Donald Trump.
124 Retired Generals Warn of Marxist Threat
More than 100 retired military leaders are warning about the threat of Marxism and socialism. They say today’s fight to preserve the constitutional republic of the United States is unlike any other since its founding in 1776.
Detroit on use of Zuckerberg’s CTCL election funding: ‘We have created a new normal’
The Department of Elections reported that what it was most proud of in its allocation of its $7.4 million grant was that it “allowed us to hire more quality staff because we were able to pay them more.”
Dominion Worker Drops Newsmax From Lawsuit After Network Apologizes for Allegations
A Dominion Voting Systems worker has dropped a lawsuit against Newsmax after the broadcaster apologized to him for allegations it said were unfounded. Newsmax apologized to Eric Coomer, Dominion’s director of product strategy and security, for covering claims by lawyers for former President Donald Trump and others that he “played a role in manipulating Dominion voting machines, Dominion voting software, and the final vote counts in the 2020 presidential election.” “Newsmax subsequently found no evidence that such allegations were true,” the company said in a statement. “Newsmax has found no evidence that Dr. Coomer interfered with Dominion voting machines or voting software in any way, nor that Dr. Coomer ever claimed to have done so. Nor has Newsmax found any evidence that Dr. Coomer ever participated in any conversation with members of ‘Antifa,’ nor that he was directly involved with any partisan political organization.” “We would like to apologize for …
Man convicted of consensual gay sex in the ’90s doesn’t have to register as sex offender: judge
A man convicted of consensual gay sex in the ’90s doesn’t have to register as a sex offender in Montana, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.
Randall Menges was arrested as a teenager in 1993 and did seven years behind bars in Idaho for violating the state’s “crimes against nature” law.
Today, Menges couldn’t be arrested for his sexual activity but was still required to register as a sex offender in Montana.
“None of the governmental interests in maintaining a sexual offender registry are served by Menges’ inclusion,” US District Judge Dana Christensen wrote.
Menges must now be removed from the registry by May 21, and the judge ordered to clear records that say he was ever subject to registration.
“I guess I’m just grateful, honestly, that the judge actually listened and was fair because for the last few years of my life … I don’t feel like anything’s been fair,” Menges said Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.
The real steal is coming
The substitution of Rep. Elise Stefanik for Rep. Liz Cheney is an alarm, signaling that the Republican Party no longer will be bound by law or custom.
War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength. — George Orwell, “1984”
Welcome to the funhouse world the Republican Party is building. Up is down. Black is white. Lies are truth.
The great cause that Republicans are uniting around is “election integrity.” That’s rich. The reality is that somebody did attempt to steal the 2020 election — Donald Trump. During the days and weeks following his loss, he brayed endlessly that the outcome was fraudulent, laying the groundwork for an attempt to overturn the voters’ will.
From the White House, he made multiple calls to local election officials demanding that they find votes for him. He dialed up members of local canvassing boards, encouraging them to decertify results.
At a time when Trump’s toadies were calling for legislatures to ignore the popular vote and submit alternate slates of electoral college votes, he engaged in flagrant election interference by inviting seven Michigan state legislators, including the leaders of the house and senate, to the White House on Nov. 20. What did they discuss? You can surmise from their statement issued after the meeting: “We have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan and, as legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan’s electors…”
Trump phoned a Georgia elections investigator who was conducting a signature audit in Cobb County and asked her to find the “dishonesty.” If she did, he promised, “you’ll be praised. … You have the most important job in the country right now.”
The then-president phoned Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger 18 times. When he finally got through, he wove a tangled theory of voting irregularities that crescendoed to a naked plea to falsify Georgia’s vote: “So what are we going to do here, folks? I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes.”
Trump entertained ideas such as declaring martial law, seizing the nation’s voting machines and letting the military “rerun” the election. He turned loose his Kraken-conspiracy nuts and his pillow man to spread lies about Dominion Voting Systems, Black-run cities like Philadelphia and Chinese bamboo ballots.
The Trump campaign and its allies filed more than 60 lawsuits challenging election procedures and lost all but one. Pennsylvania was found to have erred in extending the period to fix errors on mail-in ballots. The case was a matter of three days and a small number of votes that would not have changed Pennsylvania’s outcome.
And then came the ultimate attack on election integrity — the violent attack on the Capitol and on members of Congress and the vice president as they were fulfilling their constitutional duties.
Leaving no doubt about his intentions for the riot, Trump told a crowd in February that the only thing that prevented the violent mob from successfully hijacking the official tally of the Electoral College votes was the “cowardice” of Mike Pence.
Today, we stand on the precipice of the House Republican conference ratifying this attempt to subvert American democracy. They are poised to punish Liz Cheney for saying this simple truth: “The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.” In her place, they will elevate Elise Stefanik, whose claim to leadership consists entirely of her operatic Trump followership.
Let’s be clear: The substitution of Stefanik for Cheney is a tocsin, signaling that the Republican Party will no longer be bound by law or custom. In 2020, many Republican officeholders, including the otherwise invertebrate Pence, held the line. They did not submit false slates of electors. They did not decertify votes. They did not “find” phantom fraud. But the party has been schooled since then. It has learned that the base — which is deluded by the likes of Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Mark Levin — believes the lies and demands that Republicans fight.
As my colleague Amanda Carpenter put it, the 2024 mantra is going to be “Steal It Back.”
If Cheney must be axed because she will not lie, then what will happen if Republicans take control of Congress in 2022 and are called upon to certify the Electoral College in 2024? How many Raffenspergers will there be? How many will insist, as Pence did, that they must do what the Constitution demands? How many will preserve any semblance of the rule of law and the primacy of truth?
With this sabotage of Cheney, House Republicans are figuratively joining the Jan. 6 mob.
Mona Charen is policy editor of The Bulwark and host of the “Beg to Differ” podcast. Her most recent book is “Sex Matters: How Modern Feminism Lost Touch with Science, Love, and Common Sense.”
New survey of US Jews reveals worries, strengths, divisions
The survey of 4,178 Jewish Americans was conducted between November 2019 and June 2020 — long before the current escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, the findings reflected skepticism among U.S. Jews regarding that conflict — only one-third said the Israeli government was sincere in seeking peace; just 12% said Palestinian leaders were sincere in that regard.
A comprehensive new survey of Jewish Americans finds them increasingly worried about antisemitism, proud of their cultural heritage and sharply divided about the importance of religious observance in their lives.
The survey, released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center, estimated the total Jewish population in the country at 7.5 million — about 2.3% of the national population.
The survey of 4,178 Jewish Americans was conducted between November 2019 and June 2020 — long before the current escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, the findings reflected skepticism among U.S. Jews regarding that conflict — only one-third said the Israeli government was sincere in seeking peace; just 12% said Palestinian leaders were sincere in that regard.
Compared with Americans overall, Jewish Americans, on average, are older, have higher levels of education and income and are more geographically concentrated in the Northeast, according to Pew.
Yet even as the Jewish population is thriving in many ways, concerns about antisemitism rose amid the deadly attacks in 2018 and 2019 on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh; the Chabad of Poway synagogue in Poway, California; and a kosher grocery store in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Three-quarters of Jewish Americans say there is more antisemitism in the U.S. than five years ago, and 53% say they feel less safe. Jews who wear distinctive religious attire such as head coverings are particularly likely to feel less safe.
The impact of such worries on people’s behavior seems limited: Pew reported that the vast majority of American Jews — including those who feel less safe — say concern about antisemitism hasn’t deterred them from participating in Jewish observances and events.
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union of Reform Judaism, said American Jews believe they are being singled out for attacks and vitriol, yet also see antisemitism as part of a broader national problem of bigotry and intolerance.
“We have to get a lid on the tolerance of intolerance in the United States,” he told The Associated Press. “Hatred and bigotry existed before five or six years ago, but in recent years it has become OK to do it in a very public, unrestrained way.”
Don Lemon Begs Mother to Follow Science and … Take Off Her Mask
CNN is the recognized leader in Pandemic Panic Porn. Whenever you see someone having a meltdown over someone not wearing their mask good enough, the smart money is that person isn’t getting their info from BlazeTV. They’re getting it from the network with the bright purple death counter running 24/7. The network that shamed people who have even slightly challenged the official narrative. The network that based their editorial decisions on what would be worse for Trump. The same network who watches Fox News and complains about their pandemic coverage. That CNN.
So when Don Lemon goes on CNN and bashes his mother for still living in fear … c’mon son.
She chipped her tooth during the pandemic and she won’t go to the dentist. And I say, “Mom, you can go to the dentist, it’s safe.” Sanjay is going to do a house call on her because this is real, people are having trouble reemerging into society.
And if you are going to say during the entire pandemic and I am talking to you, mom and I’m talking to you my other friend – and I won’t say your name because she’ll get mad at me. If you are going to say I believe in the science and the scientists, then now on this side of the pandemic, then you must believe in the science and scientists as well.
Some of us have been maskless outside this whole time. Living in (mostly) silent judgment of those wearing them. I wonder where Don Lemon’s mom learned to live in such fear?
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- This is CNN: Analyst Demands Biden Only Allow Americans’ ‘Freedom’ for Most Insane Reason Yet
- CNN Director Says Quiet Part Out Loud, Admits Network Purposely Exploits Pandemic Fear
To be kinda fair to Lemon, Joe Biden doesn’t help. Whenever Americans start to show the slightest bit of hope, Biden puts on an extra mask and stands out in an empty field just to be spiteful. People like Don Lemon’s mother are just following the former vice-president’s example. We’re a news cycle away from Biden sending his aide to gather up every mask in a five-mile radius and sewing them together as a new suit. The virtue signaling is strong in Biden.
But people have been taught to live in constant fear for over a year. Any time anyone attempted to provide the slightest bit of hope, they were shut down. They were shut down on CNN and by people like Don Lemon. Instead of putting his mother on blast, he should take a look at the cryon under his smug face. Then take a look in the mirror.
Schumer: ‘The big lie is spreading like a cancer’ among GOP
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) offered fiery criticism of Republicans on Tuesday for efforts around the country to tighten voter laws amid unproven claims made by former President Trump that the 2020 election was stolen.
Schumer, speaking at a Senate Rules Committee meeting on a sweeping elections overhaul bill, accused Republicans of trying to act upon the “big lie that the election was stolen” to “placate” and “please” Trump.
“Unfortunately, the big lie is spreading like a cancer among Republicans. It’s enveloping and consuming the Republican Party, in both houses of Congress,” Schumer said.
Schumer pointed to the likely ousting of Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as House Republican Conference chair. Frustration with Cheney has boiled over among House Republicans after she’s pushed back against Trump’s false claim that the election was stolen.
“Liz Cheney spoke truth to power, and for that, she’s being fired,” Schumer said.
Schumer also criticized Republicans for not pushing back against state laws that add restrictions on the ability to vote.
“Every Republican in this room knows Joe Biden won the election fair and square. Every Republican knows that Donald Trump perpetrated the big lie. But the price of admission in today’s Republican Party is silence in the face of provable lies,” Schumer said.
The Senate Rules Committee is set to vote on a sweeping bill to overhaul elections that has divided Congress along party lines.