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Heather Cox Richardson Questions Trump’s Mental Health After His Frenzied Tweets | Diane Ravitch's blog
Heather Cox Richardson relates Trump's flurry of tweets yesterday, which indicate a heightened state of anxiety. It seemed as though he devoted an inordinate amount of time to posting on his social media site. He did board a helicopter at one point in the day and answered a reporter's question, using the F word. What…
The Philosopher Crackpot Who Hates Democracy and Influences Powerful Tech Bros | Diane Ravitch's blog
If you haven't heard of Curtis Yarvin, you should learn about him now. Yarvin does not believe in democracy. He believes in a society commanded by a king or autocrat. He was a prodigy as a child and now considers himself to be a political genius. Powerful men in the tech industry and politics pay…
Florida: Rare Public Protest Kills GOP Plan to Cut Funding for AP CLASSES | Diane Ravitch's blog
Scott Maxwell, opinion columnist for The Orlando Sentinel, wrote about the unusual public protest against the Legislature's plan to cut funding for AP classes in public schools. For years, Republicans who run the state have inflicted blow after blow on the public schools, preferring to divert billions of public dollars to private and religious schools.…
Trump Strips Protection from 58 Million Acres of Wilderness | Diane Ravitch's blog
Henry David Thoreau wrote: "In wildness is the preservation of the world." Thoreau understood that as humans we need to be nourished by contact with or immersion in the natural world. Environmentalists understand this. They fight the inexorable march of what we call progress, which clear-cuts forest and paves over what once were boundless plains.…
Federal Judge Again Blocks Trump’s Ban on International Students | Diane Ravitch's blog
Yesterday a federal judge in Massachusetts again blocked the Trump administration's efforts to ban international students at Harvard University. Stephanie Saul wrote in The New York Times: For the second time in less than a week, a federal judge in Boston rejected efforts by the Trump administration to bar international students at Harvard, blocking a…
The Stench of Censorship Spreads in Higher Education in Red States | Diane Ravitch's blog
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that legislatures in Republican-controlled states are passing laws to restrict teaching about racism or any kind of DEI in higher education. Such state laws follow the lead of Governor Ron DeSantis in Florida, who was first to launch the war on academic freedom, but also the policies of Trump,…
The American Bar Association Sues Trump for Intimidating Law Firms | Diane Ravitch's blog
The American Bar Association has filed a lawsuit to stop the Trump administration's policy of intimidating lawyers and law firms. The article was written by Mimi Rocah, former District Attorney, former prosecutor, and currently law professor. It was posted at Cafe, a blog for legal issues. She wrote: Last week, the American Bar Association (“ABA”)…
The Battle Over the Ten Commandments in the Classroom | Diane Ravitch's blog
On Friday June 20, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Louisiana's law requiring that schools post the Ten Commandments in every classroom. On Saturday June 21, Governor Greg Abbot of Texas announced that he had signed a law requiring that the Ten Commandments be posted in every classroom in the state. The goal of…
Taxing the Endowments of Colleges and Universities Is Grossly Unfair! | Diane Ravitch's blog
In 2017, when Trump passed his first budget bill, his allies inserted into it an unprecedented tax on institutions of higher education that have large endowments. The tax was 1.4%. But that 1.4%, though it seemed small, was money that would not be available for low-income students at expensive colleges and universities. The next logical…
Trump Tax Bill Harms Public Schools by Funding Private Choices | Diane Ravitch's blog
Matt Barnum and Richard Rubin of The Wall Street Journal describe the harm that Trump's One Big Ugly Budget Bill will do to public schools. They wrote: Republicans’ tax-and-spending megabill would give the school-choice movement a major, long-sought victory—and deliver an unusually generous tax break to wealthy taxpayers. The bill includes a new way for…
Donald Trump: “I Deserve the Nobel Peace Prize” | Diane Ravitch's blog
Political cartoonist Ann Telnaes recently won the Pulitzer Prize, specifically for a cartoon that depicted plutocrats prostrating themselves at the feet of Trump. One of them was Jeff Bezos, owner of The Washington Post, who was her boss. Her editor refused to post her cartoon, and she resigned. open.substack.com/pub/anntelnaes/p/most-deserving This is her latest.
Trump Slashes Staff at Voice of America | Diane Ravitch's blog
Voice of America is known worldwide for its straightforward, unbiased presentation of world news. Trump placed MAGA enthusiast Keri Lake in charge. At his behest, she just laid off most of the VOA staff. Remember when America was great? We thought we had a message for the world and that the truth would set us…
Tom Ultican: Don’t Revive Failed Policies | Diane Ravitch's blog
Tom Ultican, retired teacher of high school physics and advanced mathematics in California, has been keeping close watch on the billionaire-funded efforts to promote privatization and demean teachers. In this post, he reviews an opinion piece that advocates the resuscitation of failed policies of the past. As I wrote in my 2013 book Reign of…
Trump’s “One Big Ugly Bill” Will Devastate Rural Hospitals | Diane Ravitch's blog
Trump's tax cuts for the wealthiest will be funded in large part by draconian cuts to Medicare, which provides insurance to poor people. The massive cuts to Medicaid will lead to closure of many rural hospitals, which rely on Medicaid payments. The Senate knows this, and so-called "moderates" are working on adding a fund for…
A New Statue On the DC Mall Mocks Dictators, One in Particular | Diane Ravitch's blog
Joe Heim of The Washington Post wrote this story about the arrival of a new and temporary sculpture on the National Mall. It has approval to remain until June 22. An anti-Trump statue has popped up on the National Mall in Washington. (Maxine Wallace/The Washington Post) Remember the poop statue? The curly-swirly pile of doo…
DANGER! Trump’s “One Big Ugly Bill” Protects AI for a Decade | Diane Ravitch's blog
We don't yet know the rewards and risks of artificial intelligence or its uses in the schools. Yet Trump's "Big Ugly Budget Bill" creates a special status for AI in the schools and beyond, fending off regulation by states. Lobbyists at work. There are many damaging aspects of the U.S. House budget bill just passed,…
Did the Tech Bros Rig the 2024 Election? | Diane Ravitch's blog
I have always thought there was something fishy about Trump's win last November. When Elon Musk broke up with Trump, he said boldly that Trump would have not won the election without his help, and the Democrats would now control the House. What kind of help did he refer to? I wondered if this was…
Heather Cox Richardson: Under Our Mafia Boss, Everything Is For Sale | Diane Ravitch's blog
Heather Cox Richardson describes the legal corruption that is now out in the open. Yesterday at the meeting of the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7), a forum of democracies with advanced economies, President Donald Trump told reporters: “The UK is very well protected. You know why? Because I like them, that's why. That's…
Benjamin R. Cremer: Why We Celebrate Juneteenth | Diane Ravitch's blog
Benjamin R. Cremer is pastor at the United Methodist Church in Boise, Idaho. I read his essays regularly. He is truly a Christian. He preaches love, not hate. He knows and tries to exemplify the Beatitudes. He wrote about the meaning of this day: On June 19, 1865—two and a half years after the Emancipation…
Glenn Kessler Fact-Checks Rubio-Vance Lies About Foreign Aid | Diane Ravitch's blog
Glenn Kessler is the fact-checker for The Washington Post. He wrote: “There are all these humanitarian programs, where we sent money to people for medicine, for food, okay? What I thought, before I got into government, what most Americans think is, okay, so we sent $100,000 to this group to buy food, for like poor…
ProPublica: How Trump Is Killing Medical Research: But Why? | Diane Ravitch's blog
ProPublica published a searing critique of the medical research that has been cancelled by the Trump administration. The fact that this research has been canceled is not at question; at least some of the cancellations have been reversed (for now) by federal courts. What's truly puzzling is why the Trump administration wants to eliminate so…
John Thompson: MAGA Republicans in Oklahoma Are Hurting the People Who Elected Them | Diane Ravitch's blog
John Thompson, historian and retired teacher in Oklahoma, probes the divide in the state Republican Party, which is currently in the hands of MAGA extremists. He writes: Oklahoma seems to be a case study in MAGA-ism and, now, it may be foreshadowing the chaos that President Donald Trump is creating with his fights with allies.…
Trump Reverses Decision to Stop ICE Raids in Farming, Hotels, and Restaurants | Diane Ravitch's blog
There was joy in certain industries last Friday when Trump announced that ICE would stop raiding workplaces. He exempted farms, restaurants, meatpacking plants, and hotels, acknowledging that they needed their employees, and that these immigrants were hardworking and contributed to the economy. His Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins apparently persuaded him. But by Monday, he reversed…
Joyce Vance: The Kids Are Alright Despite Trump’s Efforts to Kill Public Education and Academic Freedom | Diane Ravitch's blog
Joyce Vance is a former federal prosecutor for North Alabama. She writes an important blog called Civil Discourse, where she usually explains court decisions and legal issues. Today she turns to education. Today I’m recovering from the graduation tour, one in Boulder and one in Boston in the last two weeks, and getting back into…
Musk Is Gone But His DOGS Live On, Embedded in Agencies | Diane Ravitch's blog
Elon Musk left Washington, where he enjoyed the exalted status of being Trump's brain. He returned to Texas, his new home. Where he launched into a Twitter tirade against Trump. But he left behind a still large contingent of DOGS (Department of Governmental Subsistence). Who are they? ProPublica has been tracking them. In an effort…
Arizona: Cost of Universal Vouchers Reaches $872 Million per Year | Diane Ravitch's blog
The Grand Canyon Institute has been tracking the growth and cost of vouchers and charter schools in Arizona for several years. The vast majority of students who take vouchers (almost 3/4). But this year, a larger share were drawn from district schools and charter schools. The report contains a number of excellent graphics. Open the…
Study: In States with Lax Gun Laws, More Children Are Killed by Guns | Diane Ravitch's blog
Guns are the leading cause of death among children. A new study concludes that states that have eliminated gun restrictions have higher death rates among children than states that have retained restrictions. The National Rifle Association, which opposes any restrictions on access to guns, dissented. The NRA, the Supreme Court, and the gun-loving Republican Party…
Jennifer Rubin: Trump’s Ugly Bill Will Hurt His Supporters | Diane Ravitch's blog
Jennifer Rubin was a star columnist at The Washington Post, but resigned after Jeff Bezos tried to exert control over the opinion pages to makts writers less antagonistic to Trump. Ironically, Rubin was originally hired by The Post to be its conservative columnist. But the extremism of the MAGA movement repelled her. After she resigned…
Anand Girihadaras: Why Trump’s Birthday Parade Failed | Diane Ravitch's blog
The crowds were larger and more animated at the No Kings rallies than on Constitution Avenue, where Trump summoned up a parade in honor of his 79th birthday. Yesterday evening, I saw tweets comparing the demeanor of the American service members to their parade counterparts in Russia, North Korea, and China. The soldiers in other…
Steve Ruis: A DEI Abomination! | Diane Ravitch's blog
Steve Ruis alerts Trump and his DEI Police to a dangerous historical event that should be scrubbed from all the history books. It's an example of DEI before DEI was recognized as unAmerican. Grace Hopper directed a team that developed early COBOL applications.Photo credit: Smithsonian Institution/Wikimedia Commons There’s probably no programming language in history that’s…
Trump’s Ignorant Comments about World War II | Diane Ravitch's blog
At a news conference, Trump mused about Russia's role in World War II and our alliance with Russia. He began by saying that he just finished talking to President Macron of France, who said the French were celebrating "our victory" in World War II. Trump scoffed. Then he said he had a conversation with President…
Trump is Incoherent on ICE Raids of Farm Workers | Diane Ravitch's blog
Last week, ICE was rounding up immigrant workers in agriculture, swooping them up in the fields where they were picking berries and radishes, trimming the vines in vineyards, and preparing the soil for planting. This is backbreaking work. The videos I've seen were taken in California, so this must be part of Trump's focus on…
Wall Street Journal: Trump’s Immigration Policy Is Wrong | Diane Ravitch's blog
The conservative, Murdoch--owned Wall Street Journal editorialized that Trump's immigration plan is in deep trouble, and rightly so. His goal (Stephen Miller's) is to deport 11 million immigrants (one of every 20 people in the country. That's led to raids at workplaces. Even his supporters are shocked. They voted to deport criminals, "the worst of…
Political Assassinations in Minnesota | Diane Ravitch's blog
I'm sick at heart about the targeted assassinations in Minnesota. As everyone surely knows by now, a gunman dressed as a police officer entered the home of Melissa Hortman, a top Democratic legislator, and murdered her and her husband Mark. The same gunman attempted to kill State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette, who…
Timothy Snyder: Trump’s Fascist Speech to the Troops at Fort Bragg | Diane Ravitch's blog
Tomorrow is "No Kings" Day. Join a group and protest Trump's attempt to make himself our king, our permanent dictator. Timothy Snyder, noted historian, analyzed Trump's speech to the troops at Fort Bragg and determined that it was not only self-aggrandizing but also an appeal to disunity, division, and hatred. He honored traitors and oath-breakers,…
Trump Halts ICE Raids at Farms, Restaurants, Hotels | Diane Ravitch's blog
Social media was ablaze yesterday and today with videos of ICE agents grabbing farm workers as they did their jobs in the fields and arriving at hotels and other places of employment to arrest undocumented workers. Trump must have been bombarded with calls from farmers and business owners, outraged that their long-time workers were seized.…
Congressional Budget Office: Trump Tax Plan Will Enrich the Rich, Reduce Income for the Poor | Diane Ravitch's blog
Democratic leaders asked the nonpartisan, highly respected Congressional Budget Office to evaluate the consequences of the Trump tax plan. In brief, the bill would widen the gap between haves and have nots and would increase the number in poverty. The Financial Times reported: Donald Trump’s landmark tax bill would make the most prosperous Americans $12,000…
Trump Tries to Cancel National History Day and Fails–This Year | Diane Ravitch's blog
Republicans have wanted to gut the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities for many years. In the past, they targeted the National Endowment for the Arts by focusing on artists whose work offended them. Somehow the Endowments managed to survive. But not this year. Elon Musk's DOGS eliminated their funding. One victim of the…
Orlando: A Tribute to the 49 People Murdered at the Pulse Nightclub in 2016 | Diane Ravitch's blog
Nine years ago, a lone gunman entered the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, armed with a high-powered weapon, and slaughtered 49 people. The victims were dancing, relaxing, partying. It was not the worst massacre in the U.S. (that was the one in Las Vegas in 2017, when 58 people were murdered by a lone gunman…
Federal Appeals Court Restores Trump’s Control of Ca. National Guard | Diane Ravitch's blog
Only hours after a federal district judge ordered Trump to return control of the California National Guard to Governor Gavin Newsom, a three judge federal appeals court blocked the lower court's order. The Orlando Sentinel reported: The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday temporarily blocked a federal judge’s order that directed President Donald…