Koch-Funded Group: Provides Pointers For Harassing Your Local School Board
- Daily Kos, Oct. 2, 2021.
Theres a meme commonly shared on social media that goes something like this: If you drank from a garden hose, stayed outside till dark, rode in the back of a pickup truck, ate dirt, licked random amphibians, taunted apex predators, and slapped yourself repeatedly in the face just to feel something in the midst of your cosseted, banal, utterly meaningless existence, then SHARE. I may be paraphrasing, but the meaning is plain enough.
Kids these days need fresh air and a maybe a good dose of COVID-19 to teach them that life is an adventure!
The problem with that meme is that the person who drank from a garden hose and got a parasitic condition that turned their brain to ricotta cheese before they briefly took up prop comedy, and then unceremoniously shuffled off to an Elysian afterlife (where premium champagne flows 24/7 from sketchy garden hoses) never gets to share that meme. Because theyre fucking dead. So, were a nation of rugged individualists. I get it. Unfortunately, that attitude has put us behind the eight ball when it comes to COVID-19 mitigation. As in, we pretty much suck at it. Because too many of our fellow citizens are, well, pretty fucking dumb.
Enter the Koch brothers. Or, rather, the Koch brother. (David Koch drank from too many garden hoses, apparently, and is no longer with us.) Turns out that the same deep-pocketed creeps who were behind the astroturf Tea Party are now associated with a burgeoning movement to keep masks off the faces of our precious, cherubic children. And I could not be more depressed. The Washington Post has obtained a form letter suggesting that the recent grassroots effort to turn our schoolchildren into little disease vectors of freedom is not so grassroots after all.
The Koch(s) is (are) behind it. According to the Post, a letter that sounds passionate and personal has been circulating among parents who are concerned that their kids might be called nerds or something (really, who knows what the fuck they think?), and theyve been pestering local school officials with it.
- The Washington Post: - But the heartfelt appeal is not the product of a grass roots groundswell. Rather, it is a template drafted and circulated this week within a conservative network built on the scaffolding of the Koch fortune and the largesse of other GOP megadonors. That makes the document, which was obtained by The Washington Post, the latest salvo in an inflamed debate over mask requirements in schools, which have become the epicenter of partisan battles over everything from gender identity to critical race theory. The political melee engulfing educators has complicated efforts to reopen schools safely during a new wave of the virus brought on by the highly transmissible delta variant. -
The document offers a rare glimpse into the inner workings of a well-financed conservative campaign to undermine regulations that health authorities say are necessary to contain the coronavirus. The frustration of many parents who want a greater say is deeply felt, school superintendents say. But their anger is also being fueled by organized activists whose influence is ordinarily veiled...
- Read More + Comments,
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/10/2/2055718/-Ready-to-harass-your-school-board-about-mask-mandates-This-Koch-funded-group-is-here-to-help
-- "Other backers include Facebook; Dick DeVos, heir to the Amway fortune and the husband of former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos; and the Walton Family Foundation, a philanthropy controlled by the family that founded Walmart. Another reason I refuse to shop Walmart or use Facebook" --
dutch777
(3,023 posts)I don't know what the current stat is, but 20 or so years ago I worked for a school district and remember being told that less than 50% of school board members never even stay for their whole first term in office.
Botany
(70,520 posts)The document offers a rare glimpse into the inner workings of a well-financed conservative campaign to undermine regulations that health authorities say are necessary to contain the coronavirus.
This is all coordinated at some level with the Governors (DeSantis, Abbott, Noem, Taint Reeves, and so on),
Senators (Hawley, Cruz, Cotton, and so on), Congresspersons (Greene, Bobbart, Gohmert, Mo Brooks, Jordan
and so on), and right wing media (Fox, NewsMax, talk radio, and so on) all are working to spread the disease.
And I have no doubt that Russian produced anti vax stuff is running wild on Facebook too.
And now the Koch Brothers are pushing these mouth breathers to "mess up" school board meetings just to
cause chaos and to make it harder to stop the spread of the disease.
The only question is why?
Reichstag Fire?? Trying to get the minority rule through chaos?
appalachiablue
(41,146 posts)multigraincracker
(32,690 posts)and protest the teaching of "Replacement Theory". If FOX is now pushing it, I don't want it in MY schools.
Alexander Of Assyria
(7,839 posts)Midnight Writer
(21,769 posts)kimbutgar
(21,163 posts)appalachiablue
(41,146 posts)"...can't preform in a mask. Ask any surgeon out there!"
"...means I can't attend my kid's 3hr Christmas concert; well, that one's alright with me."
Comedy gold.
I_UndergroundPanther
(12,480 posts)Home ransacked by the FBI. I think they had thier grubby fingerprints all over the January 6th insurrection.
They are evil fascist rich people who want to hurt people not like them ,and they hate democracy.
They have deep pockets to fund fascism.
BeckyDem
(8,361 posts)Infuriating, ugh.
K&R