The board's conservative majority is "using lawyers as a weapon against the public, basically to create roadblocks hoping that you just eventually give up," he told Salon. "The more they did that, the more I was just like, f**k this. It just pissed me off, so I've spent, like, so much goddamn money trying to beat this." --from the article at Salon, linked to in this post
That's the crux: MONEY. I only have so much to spend on politics and sites like Wonkette. I'm fortunate that I live in a place where so far, KKKlanned Parenthood hasn't been able to get a toe hold. So before I judge districts and counties and their school board infiltrations, I remember that White Hoods for Liberty is astro-turfed and has lots of $$$ and advice and materials given to them by RW dark money operatives. Your average parent with multiple jobs, multiple kids, and very little time has almost no chance against them unless they band together with people who have the time, money, and legal representation to help them fight back. There are groups forming to help parents fight back, with less money than the other side, so it's going to be much more difficult and take longer for them.
I've been a book fair chair for several years. There's a FB group for chairs that I belong to where this has also be a big point of discussion. There's lots of sharing about exactly which titles are included to try and encourage people not to opt out. There have been some outstanding impassioned pleas to include the case. The thing I keep coming back to is that every charge made at the fairs shows on my credit card statement as coming from Florida. So I suspect a lot of this nonsense is coming from their attempts to comply with DeSantis's insane laws. But, at the same time, there are so many posts from chairs at religious schools and in conservative communities complaining about the need to remove certain titles. There are posts about specific books that parents complained about "warning" other chairs that they might want to look hard at it and second guess putting the title out for sale, etc. This strikes me as Scholastic attempting to respond to customer feedback, which is incredibly sad, but just how things are at a lot of schools. As a few of the teachers/librarians have commented, their teaching licenses are on the line, so as much as they want to include these titles personally, there's a lot on the line professionally for them if they do. It's just a shitty situation all the way around thanks to fucked up politics.
The book fairs are nice, but as a poor kid in the south, I was lucky if I got to purchase one or two new books each year. But hey! I had unlimited, unsupervised, full access to ALL THE SECTIONS in the library throughout my life, including the teen section, so I got to read a lot of the books that way.
The most socialist book I had access to in my middle school library was "My Teacher Glows in the Dark" - the third entry in the "My Teacher is an Alien" series. In it, the main protagonist is taken to his mentor's home world, where there are (gasp) no poor people! At all! And when asked where the tired, the poor, and the yearning masses all were, the teacher shrugged and said, "We decided we didn't want it to be that way."
I read the first two books in that series. They were nice. Never thought of them as political, but then as an SF fan all kinds of ideas are discussed, including living wages for all people.
No shame in going back and finishing the series as an adult. There are two more books - in the last one, all three of the main protagonists go on a final farewell tour of Earth before the scared alien collective decides to push the big red button and blow up the entire planet.
They find out that there's a reason behind humanity's inexplicable inner anger, and the entire thing ends on a hopeful note for Earth.
The upside of Scholastic (outside of this bigot button) is that they do generate funds so that schools and teachers can provide classroom and library books the rest of the year. A lot of schools complain about Scholastic for a lot of other reasons (pricing, delivery, the plastic non-book crap they force on the schools for the book fair, etc.), and a few alternatives have emerged. Many of those, though seem to lack the types of diverse titles being targeted by these bans. I cannot tell, however, if those books are missing from these non-Scholastic fair companies by choice, or because Scholastic has a lock book fair distribution of things for a lot of titles. There are a lot of Scholastic exclusive books -- Dog Man, R. L. Stine, Harry Potter, Wimpy Kid, Hunger Games -- that are reading gateways for a lot of kids, but are not available through these other companies.
That's one reason why we have book fairs. They are primarily a fund raiser. We get tons of books to give away at library events and holidays. In summer, kids can choose a free book every day, if they want.
I bought the first Harry Potter book from a Scholastic Book Fair when I was a kid. I'd never seen it anywhere else, though I'm not sure if they have the exclusive publishing rights.
Either way, they should absolutely not abide this bullshit.
Well, there's still actual, important national and international news for adults at Daily Kos and elsewhere (not those shitty war porn and etc. gossip site people often link).
I'm eternally thankful I missed this nightmare horror show and brouhaha in real time. Guys, I can't handle this shit. This is more than I can take in and process. I don't think I want to process it.
With this country being so fucked up that Rs fuck us over in every way possible so to read about it so literally makes me want to scream and throw up.
I am sorry to hear that and I know that has to be a real struggle for you. I have to take time off from all news or I'd lose my ever loving fucking mind. Be kind to yourself and do whatever it takes to regain your footing.
My mom and I are living together so that she doesn't have to go to a nursing home. She's in good health but getting very forgetful that leads to things that could burn the house down so she needs someone with her to stop that.
Let me tell you the tantrums she can throw gives a 2 year old a run for their candy.
This morning I glanced at my computer which was parked on last night's open thread right where I left it at around 1 am. Something had changed on the page. The avatar of the person who may have been Rebecca's last straw was blank with a slash and instead of the nym, it said REMOVED (BANNED). I've never seen that before. That person was quite the jerk.
If I were 'becca, a person I'd like to be, and woke up to a thousand fucking "I HAVE REPORTED THIS BULLSHIT BECAUSE THING" for a billion reasons, it would piss me the fuck off that she let us in her house.
It's fine with me. This topic brings out the absolute worst in some people and I'm already misanthropic enough. If we have to shut down all comments to quiet them, so be it.
I am inordinately grateful to have been desperately attempting to sleep again and missed that one. I saw more than enough of it here yesterday and trying to keep the peace exhausted me and I gave up.
The board's conservative majority is "using lawyers as a weapon against the public, basically to create roadblocks hoping that you just eventually give up," he told Salon. "The more they did that, the more I was just like, f**k this. It just pissed me off, so I've spent, like, so much goddamn money trying to beat this." --from the article at Salon, linked to in this post
That's the crux: MONEY. I only have so much to spend on politics and sites like Wonkette. I'm fortunate that I live in a place where so far, KKKlanned Parenthood hasn't been able to get a toe hold. So before I judge districts and counties and their school board infiltrations, I remember that White Hoods for Liberty is astro-turfed and has lots of $$$ and advice and materials given to them by RW dark money operatives. Your average parent with multiple jobs, multiple kids, and very little time has almost no chance against them unless they band together with people who have the time, money, and legal representation to help them fight back. There are groups forming to help parents fight back, with less money than the other side, so it's going to be much more difficult and take longer for them.
I've been a book fair chair for several years. There's a FB group for chairs that I belong to where this has also be a big point of discussion. There's lots of sharing about exactly which titles are included to try and encourage people not to opt out. There have been some outstanding impassioned pleas to include the case. The thing I keep coming back to is that every charge made at the fairs shows on my credit card statement as coming from Florida. So I suspect a lot of this nonsense is coming from their attempts to comply with DeSantis's insane laws. But, at the same time, there are so many posts from chairs at religious schools and in conservative communities complaining about the need to remove certain titles. There are posts about specific books that parents complained about "warning" other chairs that they might want to look hard at it and second guess putting the title out for sale, etc. This strikes me as Scholastic attempting to respond to customer feedback, which is incredibly sad, but just how things are at a lot of schools. As a few of the teachers/librarians have commented, their teaching licenses are on the line, so as much as they want to include these titles personally, there's a lot on the line professionally for them if they do. It's just a shitty situation all the way around thanks to fucked up politics.
wrong thread.
My parents were not perfect, but they let me read ANYTHING I wanted, including the
"Electric Koolaid Acid Test" when I was barely 13. It mostly bored me! LOL.
"Love in the Library" is an absolutely beautiful book.
The book fairs are nice, but as a poor kid in the south, I was lucky if I got to purchase one or two new books each year. But hey! I had unlimited, unsupervised, full access to ALL THE SECTIONS in the library throughout my life, including the teen section, so I got to read a lot of the books that way.
The most socialist book I had access to in my middle school library was "My Teacher Glows in the Dark" - the third entry in the "My Teacher is an Alien" series. In it, the main protagonist is taken to his mentor's home world, where there are (gasp) no poor people! At all! And when asked where the tired, the poor, and the yearning masses all were, the teacher shrugged and said, "We decided we didn't want it to be that way."
I read the first two books in that series. They were nice. Never thought of them as political, but then as an SF fan all kinds of ideas are discussed, including living wages for all people.
No shame in going back and finishing the series as an adult. There are two more books - in the last one, all three of the main protagonists go on a final farewell tour of Earth before the scared alien collective decides to push the big red button and blow up the entire planet.
They find out that there's a reason behind humanity's inexplicable inner anger, and the entire thing ends on a hopeful note for Earth.
The upside of Scholastic (outside of this bigot button) is that they do generate funds so that schools and teachers can provide classroom and library books the rest of the year. A lot of schools complain about Scholastic for a lot of other reasons (pricing, delivery, the plastic non-book crap they force on the schools for the book fair, etc.), and a few alternatives have emerged. Many of those, though seem to lack the types of diverse titles being targeted by these bans. I cannot tell, however, if those books are missing from these non-Scholastic fair companies by choice, or because Scholastic has a lock book fair distribution of things for a lot of titles. There are a lot of Scholastic exclusive books -- Dog Man, R. L. Stine, Harry Potter, Wimpy Kid, Hunger Games -- that are reading gateways for a lot of kids, but are not available through these other companies.
That's one reason why we have book fairs. They are primarily a fund raiser. We get tons of books to give away at library events and holidays. In summer, kids can choose a free book every day, if they want.
Didn't Scholastic publish the US versions of the Harry Potter books? They should have enough money to not have to worry about Moms for Fascism.
Unless they're under orders from uber-TERF JK Rowling to not be so "woke".
I bought the first Harry Potter book from a Scholastic Book Fair when I was a kid. I'd never seen it anywhere else, though I'm not sure if they have the exclusive publishing rights.
Either way, they should absolutely not abide this bullshit.
separate and not quite equal. how quaint.
Well, there's still actual, important national and international news for adults at Daily Kos and elsewhere (not those shitty war porn and etc. gossip site people often link).
and if the content here is not to your liking, the door you entered can be used to exit
I've always thought Daily Kos was for weak-minded fools
Has it changed?
Perhaps you should add investigative reading to your self-avowed list of endless accomplishments and find out for yourself.
Scholastic: DON’T PROACTIVELY OBEY NAZIS
Publishing is just like everything else in capitalism, some do it because they value books and some do it because they value money.
A good reason to fuck the Texas School Board with its textbooks until it performs the Mad Mike Hughes.
Um, OK, but that is a VERY unbalanced situation these days.
yep
flames on the side of my face gif
Aye....
https://substack.com/profile/155624400-chicken-ate-my-ballot/note/c-41676178?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=2knkk0
I'm eternally thankful I missed this nightmare horror show and brouhaha in real time. Guys, I can't handle this shit. This is more than I can take in and process. I don't think I want to process it.
With this country being so fucked up that Rs fuck us over in every way possible so to read about it so literally makes me want to scream and throw up.
I hear you and understand. My current meds for depression, ADHD, and bi-polar disorder are NOT WORKING THESE DAYS. UGH.
I am sorry to hear that and I know that has to be a real struggle for you. I have to take time off from all news or I'd lose my ever loving fucking mind. Be kind to yourself and do whatever it takes to regain your footing.
Thank you!
I am also caring for old parents who should be in a nursing home, but did not allocate money for their retirement. UGH!!!
xo
My mom and I are living together so that she doesn't have to go to a nursing home. She's in good health but getting very forgetful that leads to things that could burn the house down so she needs someone with her to stop that.
Let me tell you the tantrums she can throw gives a 2 year old a run for their candy.
I just saw that a book called "Read Me a Story, Stella" was banned for being sexually explicit. The reason? The author's name is Marie Louise Gay.
OH THE HORROR.
That's what happens when you search for books to ban using keywords.
Fortunately, not actually banned, but put on a review list by the library itself, which is bad enough, but then they caught the error and removed it.
Tough luck for Tyson Homosexual, though.
https://t.co/gV19s45vND
I'd edit it but I have no fucking clue how.
Signed, Confused by HTML
Tyson Homosexual got done for juicing so fuck that guy, but the whole thing is stupid.
edit: in case this needs clarification, it was Tyson Gay, who ran a 9.69 which is quick as fuck, but he was juicing, so fuck that guy
I thought that was a joke but ... it wasn't.
I am going to have all Hanna Barbara materials removed so kids do not have a "gay old time".
But can I still have a yabba dabba doo time?
When I saw that I honestly and for truly thought the top of my head just might blow clean off.
Jaysus...
No more Elvis feeling “gay all through the morning and at night I’m just the same”
I agree with the skewl. Just seeing such a magic and powerful word will turn a kid and all their friends into flaming homosexuals.
My cousin saw that word as a baby. I saw the word "architectonic" and am now sexually attracted to buildings.
That reminds me a scene from Gen V.
This morning I glanced at my computer which was parked on last night's open thread right where I left it at around 1 am. Something had changed on the page. The avatar of the person who may have been Rebecca's last straw was blank with a slash and instead of the nym, it said REMOVED (BANNED). I've never seen that before. That person was quite the jerk.
Was it DT? Because I reported that fuck
Yes, I was about to make another futile post at him when he *poof* was no longer a problem.
Yep!
Thought so...
That was my assumption.
If I were 'becca, a person I'd like to be, and woke up to a thousand fucking "I HAVE REPORTED THIS BULLSHIT BECAUSE THING" for a billion reasons, it would piss me the fuck off that she let us in her house.
So I get this, and respect the fuck out of it.
Seconded. The fury in the email blast today is entirely correct and righteous and I support it.
Agree. I'd have let her know via comment, but of course her reasons for turning those off are quite valid.
It's fine with me. This topic brings out the absolute worst in some people and I'm already misanthropic enough. If we have to shut down all comments to quiet them, so be it.
you'll get nothing and like it!
Comments aren't allowed anyway, so no big.
I am inordinately grateful to have been desperately attempting to sleep again and missed that one. I saw more than enough of it here yesterday and trying to keep the peace exhausted me and I gave up.
I think I know who you mean. That person got banned for a day, then came right back with the same shit so I assume it's now permanent.
Good fucking gawd WTF happened here. NO DO NOT tell me. Ignorance is bliss in this situation. I'm getting overwhelmed reading about it in hindsight.
They're not worth it. Just a tankie asshole who wouldn't shut up.
I suspect that I know who that individual is.