Thursday, July 24, 2025

"The 'Damn' They Give"

@Japapathway 
Of course, as if the status quo had any concern for the consequences of their supremacist re-do, the damn that's given would be actual.
 
the Guardian at this crucial time for journalism in the US.

When the military is deployed to quell overwhelmingly peaceful protest, when elected officials of the opposing party are arrested or handcuffed, when student activists are jailed and deported, and when a wide range of civic institutions – non-profits, law firms, universities, news outlets, the arts, the civil service, scientists – are targeted and penalized by the federal government, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that our core freedoms are disappearing before our eyes – and democracy itself is slipping away.

In any country on the cusp of authoritarianism, the role of the press as an engine of scrutiny, truth and accountability becomes increasingly critical. At the Guardian, we see it as our job not only to report on the suppression of dissenting voices, but to make sure those voices are heard.

Not every news organization sees its mission this way – indeed, some have been pressured by their corporate and billionaire owners to avoid antagonizing this government. 
Immigration agents told a teenage US citizen: ‘You’ve got no rights.’ He secretly recorded his brutal arrest | US immigration | The Guardian Immigration agents told a teenage US citizen: ‘You’ve got no rights.’ He secretly recorded his brutal arrest | US immigration | The Guardian 

Louisiana's Seditious Squad⤵

Lafayette, Louisiana 2020 after 'rhetorical' by congressman⤵
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to revisit Louisiana v. Callais, which has questioned the creation of a Black-majority congressional district, given that Louisiana’s map has had only one such district despite a 32.6% Black population. Justice Clarence Thomas previously dissented, calling for a review of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The case has reignited debates over racial representation and voting rights.
Legal scholar Hans von Spakovsky argued Section 2 is often misused to force race-based redistricting that violates equal protection.



Thursday, December 5, 2024

The Demise of Public Education locally related: U.S. Dept. of Education & Other Matters


@Japapathway 

Even in the redistricting of Louisiana Congressional districts the truth comes out. 


You all can forget it. "A new generation is here"

The mainstream defunctory methods to rid the nation, of others' former ideas to do with continued 19th century practices is undone.  

Locally, statewide & nationally a move is on to destroy public education.  In Louisiana, the governor and his super-majority legislature, is using 'public money' to pay for tuitions in 'private schools'.  

Governor Jeff Landry has declared this state is a maga state.  

The giant social-media company META, is announced it's $10 billion dollar facility, to be built in Northeast Louisiana's Holly Ridge in Richland Parish.  

Director, Data Center Infrastructure at Meta | former Apple & Cisco 

Mr. Janda spoke of initiatives yesterday, that will impact, students; the disadvantaged & non-profits, for the betterment.

As the national government evolves for January next year; the push is on to get rid of the U.S. Department of Education. The GOP's supermajority in the federal government is hellbent on 'defunding' HHS. The MAGA-fueled government seeks to get rid of the National Institute of Health, the main agency that facilitated pandemic vaccine research. 
The person selected for Medicare/Medicaid/CMS leadership, Mehmet Oz, is something out of a nightmare of deregulations. This suspected MAGA-type initiatives is call for concern.  

In the mean while, state and local initiatives are affecting individuals and families in different ways. In other words, the ultra-neoconservative actions are "trickling down" incessantly. For instance the prominent, Monroe City School System's Neville High School has filed papers to become a Charter School. Why? 

What ignored need will Neville Charter school address?

The dedication of parents and community members to improving educational outcomes at Neville High School is commendable. The Neville Charter Association’s stated goal of moving from “good to better” reflects an admirable commitment to excellence that has long been part of Neville’s tradition. However, the proposal to convert Neville to charter status raises serious questions that deserve careful scrutiny.

The most glaring issue is the fundamental question of necessity. If the Monroe City School Board has not rejected any academic program changes requested by Neville High School, what additional benefits would charter status provide that couldn’t be achieved within the current system?

The NCA’s application, while robust in its aspirations, is notably thin on specific academic interventions that aren’t already available to the school.

Of particular concern is the application’s failure to address one of Neville’s most pressing challenges: the growing achievement gap affecting its minority student population. Recent data shows alarming underperformance in core subject areas among minority students. The charter proposal offers no concrete strategies to tackle these disparities beyond what the school could implement without being a charter.

Everything the NCA wants to do academically as a charter, can be done now, except dealing with the growing presence of underperforming minority students. Neville, once an all white school is now mostly minorities, 54% of whom are African-Americans.

Under charter status, students from predominantly minority areas like Parkview and Robinson Place would have the option to attend Neville but wouldn’t be zoned or required to do so. This arrangement has rightfully raised red flags among minority community leaders who question whether the charter conversion might become a vehicle for demographic cheerypicking to weed out undesirables and send them to Carroll or Wossman.

Any principal would love to have a school without students who are frequently absent, disruptive, and score low on ACT and state assessments. That can only be achieved in private or a specialized “college-bound” charter school that has the freedom to cherry pick students.

It’s a suspicion. The NCA has not made any indication that it has anything but honorable intentions, but the suspicion is a reality in the Black community.

The NCA’s board must address these concerns head-on. Their vision of moving from good to better is laudable, but it must be achievable for all students, not by eliminating rather than helping its underperforming students.

Before supporting such a significant change in governance, we must ask: What specific academic programs would charter status enable that the current system prevents? How will the NCA ensure that achievement gaps between the races are closed rather than widened? How will the underperforming racial minorities in the school be helped to become “college bound” as a result of the charter status.

The desire to improve is right, but the means matter. 

If Neville’s leadership has ideas for academic improvement, they should present them to the school board. If those ideas are rejected, then charter conversion might be worth discussing. But until that happens, the rush to charter status seems like a solution in search of a problem – one that could create new challenges while failing to address existing ones.


The reality of all this is, The young people who are in school today; from college to grade school are getting along fine, and with a different mindset. When it is said, 'maga'; the return to what, is 1960 evidently is what is desired? 
Again, students in grade school are accepting to each others' 'diverse' backgrounds, cultures & lifestyles; while the generations of those children's grandparents & great-grandparents are the who, that really want to put 'the others' back in their place, specifically more than any, the blacks; the African-Americans and of course those Negroes. 
The others of the "others", the proxies of the maga-folk are hellbent on deporting enmasse; those who pick your avocadoes, work your flower-beds, harvest your lettuce, tomatoes, cabbage or other crops. As the U. S. House recesses,10 minutes ago December 5th: -the congressman from Texas this evening is saying, "otherwise we will cease to exist". I heard theses same words, from Crosstar, in 2007 in Jena.  
The thought of being right. 
Exhibited in their rhetoric, convincingly they state their case. 
About the deficit. The economy. 
Their children and grandchildren. 

Ever so often they refer to #wokeness, #DEI and #CRT.
As in Louisiana, all of their deviousness is overshadowed because of the moneyed economic development, as in Meta Expands in Louisiana's Richland Parish, in Northeast La., near Holly Ridge. 

As with the president-elect, his death-threats, revenge against 'enemies', migrant deportations, tariffs against neighboring countries, will break the economy.   Revelation 6:6