The Martyr of Mar-a-Lago

The Martyr of Mar-a-Lago: Trump can never be wrong; he can only be wronged.

MAGA ATTACKS on Teachers and Schools

Show your solidarity with teachers in the face of Republican attacks on public education!

This week, the Utah Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, sued the state in hopes of shutting down a Republican-led voucher program that could reroute more than $82 million of taxpayer money away from public schools and Utah's students. The union president called it a "deliberate undermining of public schools." Before 2021, Utah ranked last in the country for its per-student spending. Now, it's second to last.² 

For decades, Republicans across the country have worked to decimate public education and villainize public school teachers. Now, their most extreme plan for public education is laid out in Project 2025, the MAGA agenda for a second Trump presidency. 

The Project 2025 manifesto has an entire section focused on reshaping—or, more accurately, dismantling—our public education system and has a plan to drain all of our resources to reroute them to private education, like what is happening in Utah. The plan includes eliminating the Department of Education, getting rid of teachers unions, ending federal funding, and gutting any programs that support equity and inclusion, even free school lunch programs and Head Start.³

For many communities across the country, teachers are wrapping up after another year of serving and educating our communities. Will you print out a few of these cards to thank the teachers in your life for all they do for your kids or your community? Taking a moment to write a note to thank them for all they do is an act of solidarity during a challenging time for public educators.

It's no surprise that Moms for Liberty, a far-right "parental group" best known for their support of book bans and opposing LGBTQ+ inclusion in schools, sits on the Project 2025 advisory board and were influential in drafting the educational policies within the Project 2025 proposal.⁴ While under the guise of protecting kids and family values, they aim to strip us of our freedoms, deny the truth of our history, and push their ultra-conservative agenda into every aspect of our lives. 

Authored by the far-right Heritage Foundation, backed by more than 100 conservative organizations, and funded by dark money, Project 2025 is a 920-page detailed presidential transition plan to consolidate power and force the MAGA agenda into every aspect of our lives. In addition to undermining public education, the agenda aims to eliminate Social Security and Medicare, roll back climate initiatives, revoke protections for LGBTQ+ people, and ban abortion.⁵ 

This is the agenda Trump and Republican leaders will pursue if they seize power in this election. No wonder the stakes are so high. As we fight to defeat this MAGA threat in November, we also need to make sure American voters know about Project 2025 and all the unpopular, damaging policies it includes. And we need to do what we can to show solidarity with those who would be targeted the most—such as public school teachers who, day in and day out, make an important difference in the lives of our kids.

Together we can defend public education and the teachers who give so much to our kids and community. Start by thanking them for another year of teaching!

Thanks for all you do.

Sources:

1. "Utah teachers union sues over state's $82 million school voucher program," The Salt Lake Tribune, May 29, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/193597?t=6&akid=391408%2E22927824%2EQsn0IW 

2. "Utah has no plans to change lowest-in-nation education spending, officials say," The Salt Lake Tribune, January 28, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/193598?t=8&akid=391408%2E22927824%2EQsn0IW

3. "A guide to Project 2025, the extreme right-wing agenda for the next Republican administration," Media Matters, March 20, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/189537?t=10&akid=391408%2E22927824%2EQsn0IW

4. "Project 2025 Tapped Known Hate, Extremist Groups For Advisory Board," Accountable.US, May 20, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/193620?t=12&akid=391408%2E22927824%2EQsn0IW

5. "A guide to Project 2025, the extreme right-wing agenda for the next Republican administration," Media Matters, March 20, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/189537?t=14&akid=391408%2E22927824%2EQsn0IW

PAID FOR BY MOVEON POLITICAL ACTION, https://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. MoveOn Political Action - PO Box 96142, Washington, D.C. 20090-6142.

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Texas Attacks Immigrants - LULAC

 

LULAC STATE DIRECTOR: TEXAS, WAKE UP!

Nation’s Oldest and Largest Latino Civil Rights Organization Cites Data Supporting Immigrant Contributions to the State’s Economy and Prepares to File Federal Complaints Against Texas Agencies

San Antonio, TX – Hundreds of delegates who attended the 95th annual Texas LULAC State Convention in Odessa have issued a stern warning to elected state officials to wake up, read the data, and stop the discriminatory actions that attack the fastest-growing and most significant labor segment in the Texas economy, while also hurting other Texans in the process.

“We have emerged from this historic convention unified and determined to stop Governor Greg Abbott and his supporters in the Texas Legislature who have targeted us through their discriminatory laws,” says Gabriel Rosales, elected Texas LULAC State Director. Rosales is a lifelong San Antonio resident and labor activist. “Texas SB 4 and SB 17 were written and pushed through with Latinos in the crosshairs. Those elected officials who voted to oppose diversity, equity, and inclusion, known as DEI, are fighting the inevitable changing demographics of Texas. They are racially profiling anyone who is an immigrant or looks like an immigrant. In the process, they are hurting others, including children,” says Rosales.

Several major resolutions were adopted by the convention delegates, including one that intends to draw action against Texas leaders from the highest levels of the federal government against the impact of SB17, adopted by the 88th Texas legislature outlawing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts at higher education institutions and elsewhere in state public agencies.

“Banning DEI also adversely impacts programs that help students with academic learning disabilities,” says Rosales. “Children with autism or who are on the spectrum should not be victims of political agendas that gut assistance wholesale without regard to the untold numbers of families they are hurting. Texas LULAC stands with organizations fighting for the developmentally disabled in our state, and we will not allow these cuts to go unchallenged,” he adds.

According to the latest research, for every 1,000 workers, immigrants and asylum seekers contribute $2.6 million to state and local taxes within their first year of eligibility. Moreover, once immigrants have been here for about five years, their median wage will likely increase to about $29,000 per year as they earn higher wages and as a more significant share get full-time jobs, raising a two-earner family’s income to about $58,000, further boosting their contribution as workers and taxpayers.

“Texas LULAC urges voters statewide to examine the data that clearly shows our state’s economy benefits from immigrant labor,” says Rosales. “Indeed, the future of Texas and our country will be better because of the upsurge in younger, stronger laborers willing to do the lower-paying, essential jobs others will not,” he adds.

Citing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Texas LULAC charges the State of Texas with discriminating against protected classes and inadequately represented groups in higher education. Texas and its public colleges and universities receive federal financial assistance and have agreed to follow nondiscriminatory practices to receive these funds. The dismantling of DEI initiatives under Senate Bill 17 unfairly targets Latinos, Blacks, and Asians based on their race, color, and national origin.

“The State LULAC Assembly meeting in Odessa, Texas, voted on Sunday, May 19, 2024, to approve this resolution to file complaints with the appropriate federal agencies, including the United States Department of Justice and the United States Department of Education,” says Rosales. “We urge the federal agencies to conduct prompt investigations of these allegations and take immediate actions to eliminate these discriminatory practices that are in violation of their contractual obligations and violations of the Civil Rights Act. Our membership has authorized me within 30 days after the conclusion of the Texas LULAC State Convention to initiate the formal complaint process and shall file these grievances with the appropriate federal agencies,” said Rosales.

# # #

About LULAC
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is the nation’s largest and oldest Hispanic civil rights volunteer-based organization that empowers Hispanic Americans and builds strong Latino communities. Headquartered in Washington, DC, with 535 Councils and 145,000 members across the United States and Puerto Rico, LULAC’s programs, services, and advocacy address the most important issues for Latinos, meeting the critical needs of today and the future. For more information, visit www.LULAC.org.

For Educators Grappling with Student Protests

 For educators grappling with student protests, here’s how to play a supporting role

From mentoring to monitoring to joining in, there is much faculty can do to foster constructive outcomes and help young people confront the injustices of the world they are inheriting.

Lee Smithey May 17, 2024

    As tent encampments have sprung up on college and university campuses — including my own at Swarthmore College — some, but not all, administrators have called in armed police to arrest student protestors. To date, police have arrested more than 2,800 students across the U.S. In some cases, law enforcement officers have forcefully arrested faculty members as well. Predictably, the repression has backfired, fueled solidarity among educators and led to the establishment of even more encampments from coast to coast (141 campuses in the U.S. at last count). 

If you are an educator, you may have spent recent weeks grappling with your position with respect to student nonviolent resistance. You’re not alone, and in this moment, perhaps it is helpful to identify ways teachers and staff at schools, colleges and universities have supported students engaged in nonviolent civil resistance. Below, I will share a range of options, progressing from familiar faculty roles to those with greater proximity to student nonviolent action.

 

https://wagingnonviolence.org/rs/2024/05/for-educators-grappling-with-student-protests-gaza-supporting-role/

 

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https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article288535505.html

 

This act is an abuse of power. 

 

Here is an example of an alternative.  

https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2024/03/25/cease-fire-now-neutrality-complicity-opinion

 

Parents Understanding LCAP

 

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Cops and others attack protestors. 

MOST CAMPUS PROTESTERS AREN’T EXTREMISTS, BUT THE EXTREMISTS HAVE SEIZED THE NARRATIVE, THANKS TO THE MEDIA

  

 

 

https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/most-campus-protesters-arent-extremists-but-the-extremists-have-seized-the-narrative-thanks-to-the-media

 

MOST CAMPUS PROTESTERS AREN’T EXTREMISTS, BUT THE EXTREMISTS HAVE SEIZED THE NARRATIVE, THANKS TO THE MEDIA

 

By Peter Dreier

On our blog. 

 

It is hard to find an objective analysis of the ongoing student protests about Israel and Palestine – which so far have taken place on over 50 campuses and led to over 2,000 arrests --  or the wider war that has provoked the demonstrations. Here are some thoughts:  

 

1. Most of the student protesters want an end to the horrific violence and violations of basic human rights (housing, health care, food) that they see on TV and on social media every day. 

 

2. Most protesters don’t support Hamas (a theocratic, anti-women and anti-LGBTQ terrorist organization) or want to see  the mass murder or exile of Israeli Jews. Still, a small fraction of protesters do support Hamas.  For example, when the  national office of Students for Justice in Palestine called Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel "a historic win for the Palestinian resistance," and when 34 Harvard student organizations issued a joint statement saying they "hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence," that can reasonably be interpreted as support for Hamas.  These views are often what the media reports and what gets the headlines. Most news outlets, particularly TV, are suckers for extremism. 

 

3.  Most of the protesters want an end to the Jewish settlements in the West Bank and to Israel’s widespread discrimination against its Palestinian citizens. They want equality and peaceful co-existence between Jews and Palestinians. They want Netanyahu gone, but they don’t know enough about Israeli politics to know what kind of government might replace him and his government. They don’t have clear or well-reasoned thoughts on the end-game, such as what to do when the Gaza war is over. But neither do most well-informed experts. I favor a two-state solution and many of the protesters I’ve talked to share some vague idea that this would be a good idea, but they don’t understand much about Israel-Palestine history or the real options. They don't know about the Israeli peace movement or groups like Standing Together, founded by Israeli Jews and Palestinians to work toward mutual understand, justice, and peace. They don't understand the geo-politics of the Middle East and what it would take to forge a real peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians that would require pressure from other Arab governments, the US, the EU, and the UN to allow self-governance for both Jews and Palestinians. 

 

 

4.  I don’t deny the existence of campus anti-Semitism nor do I deny that it has been increasing.  Anti-Semitism is not the same as anti-Zionism, but sometimes the two overlap.  When Jewish students hear slogans like “intifada forever,”  “Zionists don’t belong here,” or  “Settlers, Settlers Go Back Home,  Palestine Is Ours Alone,”  they aren’t unreasonable to view them as attacks on Jews.  When protesters tell Jewish students to “go back to Poland,” when they see swastikas on campus buildings, or view the poster of UC-Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chermininsky that calls him a “Zionist” and depicts him with flood on his knife and folks “while Gaza starves,” they recognize it as anti-Jewish bigotry.  Such incidents  only have to happen once and they can be hard to forget. 

 

More: 

 

https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/most-campus-protesters-arent-extremists-but-the-extremists-have-seized-the-narrative-thanks-to-the-media

 

 

 

Who Created the Israel-Palestine Conflict?

Who Created the Israel-Palestine Conflict?: It wasn’t really Jews or Palestinians. It was the U.S. Congress, which closed American borders 100 years ago this month.

Its Hard to Write This e mail

 

This email is hard to write. Last weekend, my husband and I joined the anti-war encampment at Washington University in St. Louis to support students protesting their university’s complicity in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. When the University called in armed police officers to violently break up what had been a very calm, even festive, gathering on the University lawn; my husband and I were both arrested.  In addition to the arrest, my husband, Steve Tamari, a 65-year old history professor, was also brutally beaten by four police officers for filming the arrests of students. Horrifying footage shows him slammed to the ground, then dragged away while his body remains limp, before officers callously drop him on his injured ribs with his hands tied behind his back. My husband returned home from the hospital yesterday with nine fractured ribs and a broken hand. One doctor told him he was lucky to be alive, as his lungs could have easily been punctured during the abuse, which would have killed him on the spot. Somehow, through it all, he issued this statement and reminder from his hospital room: “My ordeal…is a small price to pay for Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, aided and abetted by the U.S. government, the military, the political elite of both the Democratic and Republican parties, and, most outrageously, institutions of higher education like Washington University(…)The students are our collective best hope for an end to wanton violence, a more humane future, and a free Palestine.” Take action now to support student protesters around the country. Use this tool to email 37 university presidents to support the student’s demands and tell administrators to be on the right side of history. We are at a historical crossroads where students are meeting this critical moment by taking their demands directly to their administrations and forcing them to the table.  The demand is simple: Divest from companies that are actively contributing to Israel’s genocide.  At Washington University, students are demanding that the university cut all financial and recruitment ties with the weapons manufacturer Boeing. Boeing, based in St. Louis, is responsible for munitions that have destroyed homes and killed families in Gaza.  Like many other administrators across the country, Washington University leaders instead chose violent repression rather than address students’ concerns about the school’s complicity in genocide. In addition to Steve and me, more than 100 students, faculty, and community members were arrested for participating in the Gaza solidarity encampment at Wash U. During the violent arrests, at least 21 protestors sustained injuries. The repression didn’t stop there. The university administration banned twenty-three students and six faculty from campus. The faculty members were placed on administrative leave, locked out of their work emails, and instructed not to communicate with any faculty, staff, or students at Washington University, even in an off-campus setting.  Washington University is of course just one example. In the last two weeks, over 2000 students have been arrested on college campuses during anti-war protests. Often, arrests have been accompanied by extreme police brutality like we just saw at UCLA, University of Texas, and Columbia. This is clearly a coordinated attack on the campus movements for Palestinian freedom. We stand wholeheartedly with the students across the nation and the globe demanding transparency and urging divestment from the war machine.  Students need all of our support right now. Here are three ways to help today:   5 MIN: Use this tool to email University administrators from around the country and support students’ demands and their right to protest safely.   15 MIN: Check this list to find out if a school you attended has an active Gaza solidarity encampment. If so, call and email the school administration to express your support as an alumni for student protesters and their demands. Then ask fellow alumni to do the same.   5 HOURS: Support students at your local college campus. Check the list above to find out if a school near you has an active Gaza solidarity encampment. Then, look for an online account on Instagram, Twitter, or Tiktok set up by the specific encampment, or look for your local chapter of Students for Justice for Palestine (SJP). Check these accounts to find out what kind of support students are asking for in your area.   We must all use the power at our disposal to grind this war machine to a halt. Sandra Tamari Executive Director Adalah Justice Project   P.S. If you want to contact Washington University administrators specifically to tell them to divest from Boeing, end their complicity, and stop violently repressing students & faculty, tag them on X (formerly Twitter) @wustland @WashUChancellor, or contact Chancellor Andrew D. Martin directly at admartin@wustl.edu and 1-314-935-5100. You can find the contact information for the other WashU administrators here.

Our mailing address is: Adalah Justice Project P.O. Box 541 Glen Carbon, Illinois 62034