Conservative Activist Supreme Court redefines "Academic Freedom," strikes blow against "Liberal" Campuses

The national laughing stock we call the Wisconsin Supreme Court is now that finely tuned, shaped and twisted conservative hammer Scott Walker and the legislature envisioned it to be.

Their decision not only told a Catholic private college what it can or can do, but also redefined "academic freedom" and intentionally gave conservatives another weapon to silence dissent; exposing personal information under the guise of "academic freedom," to threaten dissenters who oppose their righteous cause.

Think I'm kidding? As Marquette University explained...

"At Marquette University, we are proud that we have taken a stand for our students, our values and our Catholic, Jesuit mission. This case has always been about Associate Professor John McAdams’ conduct toward a student teacher. The professor used his personal blog to mock a student teacher, intentionally exposing her name and contact information to a hostile audience that sent her vile and threatening messages." She left the university to finish her studies in Colorado.

She left Marquette, that's how bad it got. The part "vile and threatening" should have tipped off the justices...nope.

In a 4-2 ruling, the Court ruled that Marquette University political science professor John McAdams, 72, was improperly suspended after he publicly criticized a graduate student by name on his politically conservative blog, leading to threats against her. 

It got so bad that it forced the graduate student to leave the university. So using her name and posting her personal email is now considered "academic freedom?" McAdams attorney said yes, using the term "painting a target on their back" to send the not so subtle message, it's open season folks:

Esenberg said the university's claims that McAdams had endangered the graduate instructor were overblown. "If criticizing somebody amounts to 'painting a target' on their back … then none of us are free to say anything."

How partisan and embarrassing is our Republican Supreme Court? Our newest right-wing Justice unintentionally exposed her deep-seated anger over the myth that conservative students are picked on and threatened on "liberal" college campuses. With buzzwords like "offending" and "sensitivities," Bradley was not making a legal argument:

Justice Rebecca Grassl Bradley stressed the importance of academic freedom, saying it was being increasingly undermined on college campuses.

"Academic freedom means nothing if faculty is forced to self-censor in fear of offending the unforeseen and ever-evolving sensitivities of adversaries demanding retribution." 

The majority opinion written by Justice Daniel Kelly...

"The undisputed facts show that the University breached its contract with Dr. McAdams when it suspended him for engaging in activity protected by the contract's guarantee of academic freedom." The conservative-leaning court ordered the Jesuit university to immediately reinstate McAdams and sent the case back to a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge to award damages, including "unimpaired rank, tenure, compensation and benefits."

Academic Freedom means you can expose someone else's personal information? How odd it must have been when the Circuit Court strongly defended the university and the graduate student:

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge David Hansher ruled in May 2016 that the professor was prohibited by professional standards from bringing negative public attention to a student ... dismissing all six of McAdams' claims against Marquette in a 33-page ruling with a recitation of what academic freedom is — and is not. Academic freedom, Hansher wrote, "does not mean a faculty member can harass, threaten, intimidate, ridicule."

And like most conservative activists I know, when it comes to their actions and deeds, it's never their fault:

McAdams maintains that the "unkind" emails the graduate student instructor received were the result of other media writing about it; not his original blog post.

Cranky McAdams used the finely tuned right-wing media machine to do the rest. You'll notice that Fox News and McAdams both failed to mention the use of someones personal information:



The two supposed "liberal" Justices (anyone who isn't far right apparently) pointed out the obvious in their dissent:

Justice Ann Walsh Bradley said the majority erred "in conducting only half of the academic freedom analysis. It fails to recognize, much less analyze, the academic freedom of Marquette as a private, Catholic, Jesuit university. As a result, it dilutes a private educational institution's autonomy to make its own academic decisions in fulfillment of its unique mission. Apparently, the majority thinks it is in a better position to address concerns of academic freedom than a group of tenured faculty members who live the doctrine every day."

It's sad that Marquette won't continue to defend themselves. Conservative right-wing groups wouldn't hesitate.

It appears Hobby Lobby has greater religious rights than private Catholic college like Marquette University? You can't make this stuff up. But it's getting scarier.

Feel free to post McAdams address and number here, and continue that discussion of free speech on a more personal level. I found a number and address with a simple search, not confirmed, but John Charles McAdams should be out there. 

Republicans push "Academic Right Wing Freedom" at the UW, criticizing Trump class discussion of his failures!!!

Scott Walker and Wisconsin Republicans pushed and passed legal protections for academic freedom at the UW. Academic freedom is nothing more than a protection racket that is meant to intimidate professors and defended right wing ideas and their guest speakers.

For instance:

It all sounded innocent enough:

Rep. Dave Murphy, R-Greenville, leveled criticism in a letter to UW-Madison professor Kenneth Mayer, who is teaching “The American Presidency” this semester.

The syllabus’ first page includes a two-line paragraph saying Trump supporters “rejoice in his contempt for what they insist is a corrupt D.C. establishment.” It then includes an 11-line paragraph that begins: “To others, he is a spectacularly unqualified and catastrophically unfit egomaniac who poses an overt threat to the Republic.”

Wait a minute, since when does Prof. Ken Mayer have the freedom to present a few negative facts and opinions held my a majority of Americans about Trump. Trump has been the best president in history, ever, right?

Mayer also included a few other facts and questions that when said out loud sound really bad:

Despite all the positive things Trump has done; like loosen pollution standards; push coal; take health care away; ban Muslims; separate kids from parents with no way to identify and reunite them; and economically destroy government workers lives with a government shutdown, Rep. Murphy could only focus on Mayer's plans to discuss Trump's negatives...

Murphy said, referring to an 1894 Board of Regents statement on academic freedom enshrined in bronze outside Bascom Hall, “If the course description already tells basically what the bias is going to be in the course, it’s pretty hard to sift and winnow that,” .

Fierce Advocate of Academic Freedom, GOP Rep. Dave Murphy...Criticizes Freedom? What fascinated me most about this story was Murphy's specific criticisms. Notice the contradictory statements and loony tunes logic, "sparking a dialogue" with a UW professor about what is "appropriate?" 

Murphy, who wrote in his letter that he is a fierce advocate of academic freedom, said his intention is to spark a dialogue on what is, and is not, appropriate for a course syllabus. 

…and throw in a little "stop by my office" intimidation:

He issued Mayer an invitation to his office and encouraged the professor to show some good faith and invite a Trump administration official to speak with students.

Rep. Dave "Academic Freedom" Murphy has encouraged similar freedoms before:

In late 2016, Murphy asked UW-Madison to cancel a course titled “The Problem of Whiteness” because he said it was inappropriate and a waste of money. School officials defended the course. Two years later it is still listed as a course offered in the spring 2019 semester.

Again, this is what Republicans view as "academic freedom:" Here's part of Murphy' letter to Mayer:

I especially like Murphy's suggestion to students to drop his class:

It is unfortunate that students who enrolled in your course expecting to learn about the overall American presidency may now have to choose between dropping the course and taking a course that is a bait and switch, focused instead on a critique of the Trump presidency. 

Mr. Politician and Academic Freedom advocate Murphy then suggested a better way to teach, heck, even waiting decades before passing judgment on Trump:

It may have been more appropriate to design a new course with a more accurate title and permit another less biased instructor to teach sections of Political Science 408. Although utilizing current event examples in learning is clearly valuable, the level of focus on the current presidency in a course designed to survey the American presidency seems wholly misguided. For example, teaching this course with such a lens during the Watergate scandal, without any of the historical record and perspective, would have provided students with an incomplete and academically unsound account of the Nixon presidency and its relationship to the function of the office of the president. This lack of perspective is a slap in the face to the sort of academic rigor that should be a central focus at an institution such as UW–Madison.

It's not about Critical Race Theory, it's about preserving and concealing Racist movement today!

After Trump made racism and "replacement theory" an open and acceptable bragging point for his cult followers, some are now trying to repair their long history of racism by banning it. 

You'd never know this was a purple voting state: Vos-Republicans in the Assembly voted to 
ban critical race theory, a course taught in law school.

Hey Republicans, this is actual Censorship! They just want to make sure kids K-12 and those attending four year colleges don't get the wrong idea about America's struggle with racism. Oh, and they included a grocery list of words and terms critical to explaining race in American history. So much for "academic freedom" and the First Amendment. I highlighted some overly broad terms that would essentially ban everything. Wisconsin State Journal:

Among those words: “Woke,” “whiteness,” “White supremacy,” “structural bias,” “structural racism,” “systemic bias” and “systemic racism.” “Social Emotional Learning,” “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,” culturally responsive teaching, anti-racism, conscious and unconscious bias, culturally responsive practices, diversity training, microaggressions, multiculturalism, patriarchy, restorative justice, social justice, white privilege,” among others.

The bill would also bar “abolitionist teaching,” in a state that sent more than 91,000 soldiers to fight with the Union Army in the Civil War.

There is one positive; this will be an exceedingly uncomfortable question during the gubernatorial debate next year for the Republican candidate. Good luck with that one.

MSNBC's Chris Hayes spotlights our controling idiot's of Wisconsin again, along with a scathing critique from the founder of Equal Justice Initiative, Brian Stevenson. Hint, it's an actual threat to a functioning democracy, not that that matter to MAGAts:

Republicans continue Anecdotal Governing! What could go Wrong?: "Concerns raised by parents" and "I heard someone say" constituent comments are oddly never corrected by gutless Republicans who are too afraid to correct misinformation, or simply say they're wrong. 

Bill co-author Rep. Chuck Wichgers, R-Muskego, said the bill follows concerns raised by parents over materials being taught to their children in primary and secondary schools (and) prohibit the same concepts from being taught in universities and technical colleges.

Just as ridiculous, Rep. Robin Vos piled on with a hyperbolic fantasy..."idea"...that teachers would say what he confidently claims they are saying in our schools. Yes Robin, "That is preposterous:"

“The idea that we are going to say that one race is superior, that one religion is better than the other, that one sex has certain characteristics that make it better than the other, that is preposterous, it should never happen.”

Well, guess what, it doesn't happen!!!

Words and Concepts Banned from history: Remember when Scott Walker banned references to "climate change," like it wasn't happening, all the while it was happening and getting worse? Well, here we go again. Yet "academic freedom" is a big thing with the college group YAF. 

WisTexas Idea or Never a Republican Original Thought: The list of words Vos-Republicans put together were a copy paste job by our lazy legislature. See if you agree after looking at the following poster: 

It Could Happen Here: If you were wondering what the Republican end game is, well, wonder no more:

The Johnston Co (NC) Sch Bd was just forced to adopt a new patriotic history policy, after the Bd of Commiss voted to withhold 10% of their budget. They must now teach that all people who “contributed to American society must be presented as reformists, innovators and heroes.” pic.twitter.com/B5X2FwsuAA

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 4, 2021

________________________________________________________________________

Gerrymandered Republicans have a long history of Censorship, so none of this should be a shocker. First, way back when Vos had this take on education:

How times have changed.

Example #1: Remember when a Marquette University political science professor, who doxed a graduate student by publishing all her personal information resulting in death threats, had his suspension reversed by the WI Supreme Court? This broadened the definition of academic freedom to a surreal level:

In a 4-2 ruling Justice Rebecca Bradley stressed the importance of academic freedom, saying it was being increasingly undermined on college campuses.

"Academic freedom means nothing if faculty is forced to self-censor in fear of offending the unforeseen and ever-evolving sensitivities of adversaries demanding retribution."

Sound insane? Yup, especially when you consider what the Justices overturned:

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge David Hansher ruled in May 2016 that the professor was prohibited by professional standards from bringing negative public attention to a student … Academic freedom, Hansher wrote, "does not mean a faculty member can harass, threaten, intimidate, ridicule.

Example #2: Republican Rep. Dave "Academic Freedom" Murphy has encouraged similar freedoms before:

In late 2016, Murphy asked UW-Madison to cancel a course titled “The Problem of Whiteness” because he said it was inappropriate and a waste of money. School officials defended the course. Two years later it is still listed as a course offered in the spring 2019 semester.

Example #3: Educations Darth Vader, State Sen. Steve Nass:

State Sen. Steve Nass blasted a UW-Madison economics professor in a scathing email ... calling the academic's report on right-to-work legislation and economic performance "partisan, garbage research."

The email, sent to Senate and Assembly Republicans and UW System officials with the subject line "UW-Madison Professor Steven Deller Uses State Resources to Trash Right to Work," cites a two-page fact sheet written by a Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics faculty member.

"Attached is yet another example of wasted resources at the UW-Madison/UW Extension to issue a trumped up report from a partisan academic against Right to Work. Hiding behind academic freedom to issue partisan, garbage research is what we have come to expect from some of the overworked and stressed faculty at UW-Madison.

I will certainly forward this email on to UW System President Ray Cross and UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank, as just one suggestion of a faculty member with time to teach more courses. Or maybe not!"

Example #4: Gov. Scott Walker....

It’s rare for a governor to attack the flagship university in his own state. First, back in January he proposed an enormous $300 million cut to the University of Wisconsin’s budget, at a time when other state universities are finally recovering from the recession. Now he’s proposing to get rid of academic tenure, not only threatening faculty jobs but also destroying academic freedom for professors at the University of Wisconsin.

Example #5: Charlie Kirk-Turning Point USA:

Turning Point USA has put together a list of academics that they say discriminate against
conservative students and use their lectures to push their left-wing propaganda. But what about the first amendment?

Example #6: More Steve Nass...

Rep. Steve Nass shreds First Amendment, Censors Art and Political Speech.

The Progressive: Mike Konopacki, a labor cartoonist who was working on the “Art in Protest” event, is not happy about this outcome … “I’m getting e-mails from artists who are saying, ‘What the hell is going on?’ This is a direct attack on freedom of speech, on freedom of expression, on academic freedom, and on labor education,” says Konopacki. “We were celebrating all the art and creativity that people come up with at these protests. It’s beautiful stuff. We’ve had the largest outpouring of protests in the state’s history, and the School for Workers is not allowed to display this?”

Konopacki is worried that the Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature want to kill the School for Workers … “The School of Workers survived McCarthyism,” he says. “It may not survive Walker.”

Sen. Steve Nass already challenging academic freedom, calls for Professor's termination.

Before the ink is dry and the new rules on tenure are signed into law, Republican State Sen. Steve Nass was already asking the UW to fire a professor he did not agree with, accusing him of "partisan garbage research" and "hiding behind academic freedom."

Really, "hiding" behind academic freedom. Outrageous, what scoundrel. Tenure was in place to protect against this exact thing, ironically proving the point opponents made about the GOP changes back in March:

Tenure by definition offers protection for academic freedom, grounded in a conviction that creating knowledge and expressing ideas should be free from intimidation or retaliation. Under policy currently in state law, tenured professors can only be dismissed for just cause or a campus wide financial emergency.

Nass' iron fisted control over academic research is only the beginning:

State Sen. Steve Nass blasted a UW-Madison economics professor in a scathing email ... calling the academic's report on right-to-work legislation and economic performance "partisan, garbage research."

The email, sent to Senate and Assembly Republicans and UW System officials with the subject line "UW-Madison Professor Steven Deller Uses State Resources to Trash Right to Work," cites a two-page fact sheet written by a Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics faculty member.

"Attached is yet another example of wasted resources at the UW-Madison/UW Extension to issue a trumped up report from a partisan academic against Right to Work. Hiding behind academic freedom to issue partisan, garbage research is what we have come to expect from some of the overworked and stressed faculty at UW-Madison.

I will certainly forward this email on to UW System President Ray Cross and UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank, as just one suggestion of a faculty member with time to teach more courses. Or maybe not!"

Nass has been the enemy of public education for years:

Nass, an outspoken UW System critic who chairs the Senate Committee on Labor and Government Reform, took issue with Deller's findings, the way they were presented and released to the public, says his chief of staff, Mike Mikalsen.

"Steve is frustrated with what we see as a faculty member abusing their position within the UW System to issue, frankly, just pure garbage research," Mikalsen says. "This piece clearly takes a side or a position."

Yes, research and facts eventually took a side...funny how that works:

Deller, who works with the UW Extension's Center for Community and Economic Development, says he wrote the report about a month ago with the intention of providing individuals with an overview of the controversial anti-union legislation. "I tried to make it as objective as possible," says Deller. The report summarizes the common arguments for and against right-to-work legislation, acknowledging that there is "little agreement within the literature that has attempted to empirically document the impact of [right-to-work] laws."

Does this sound like a partisan researchers to you?

Deller says the cooperation between UW System academics and government officials is a two-way street: Researchers shouldn't use the university as a "bully pulpit" to promote a political ideology, but lawmakers "shouldn't shoot the messenger."

"We try to provide information and ideas and let citizens make a decision," Deller says. "If we filtered everything that came out of the university based on whether or not it's going to pass through some political lens, then why are we here?"

Ever more proof this guy is pretty impartial:

Deller, coincidentally, says he declined to join a union when he taught at the University of Maine, opting instead to donate the dues he would have paid to a general scholarship fund that the university used to support low-income students. The donation option was the alternative the University of Maine offered to address the issue of "free riders," or employees who benefit from union contracts without paying for membership. "I think you could set up the same thing in Wisconsin," Deller says.

Using income, poverty and unemployment data from states with and without the anti-union legislation and comparing them using a statistical test to identify significant differences, Deller found that "right-to-work states tend to have lower manufacturing wages and overall income levels, higher poverty rates and lower education levels."

Mikalsen also questioned whether Deller, who has a doctorate in agricultural economics and a master's in economics, was even qualified to present findings on the topic of right-to-work.

Walker tells nation, academic freedom and public education must end.

Scott Walker made it very clear about his plans for public education. The title of his opinion piece, in the Des Moines Register, was "We changed broken education system." It wasn't for the good, but yes, he changed it.

K-12: Walker injected private sector principles into what we decided long ago would be "public."
There was a reason we took the profit motive out of it. But that's over. Teachers can now focus on their paychecks, and not concern themselves with their community or commodified kids. There's always someone who'll pay them more, right? 

Walker wrote about all the choices parents will have from the growing number of competing businesses offering an education that's out-of-this-world...or so says the advertising brochure. Remember, parents know this stuff instinctively, and will make the right choices. We trust them, and they like it when we say that. But if they're not happy, they can always send a nasty letter to the schools CEO, via their public relations department:  

Walker: "I believe that every child deserves access to a great education — be it at a traditional public, charter, choice, private, virtual or home school environment. We need leaders who value quality choices and who trust parents to put the interests of their children first."

UW: The same is true of our great public university. Thank god Walker took care of that, before he focused all his attention the presidency. Check out the following article about Scott Walker's irrational attack on the UW system by Forbes' contributor Steve Salsberg:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's Dual Attacks on The University of Wisconsin: Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker really doesn’t like professors. He seems to have a special grudge against the University of Wisconsin, against which he has launched a two-pronged attack this year.

It’s rare for a governor to attack the flagship university in his own state. Governors usually do just the opposite, promoting their universities to the rest of the world whenever the opportunity arises. Thus it’s surprising–startling, really–to observe how Scott Walker is waging a war on academic freedom in his home state of Wisconsin. Let’s look at what he’s doing, and then ask why.

First, back in January he proposed an enormous $300 million cut to the University of Wisconsin’s budget, at a time when other state universities are finally recovering from the recession. Now he’s proposing to get rid of academic tenure, not only threatening faculty jobs but also destroying academic freedom for professors at the University of Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin faculty responded that this new policy, if implemented, will inflict lasting damage on a highly successful institution….It would be difficult to overstate how destructive and unnecessary the [legislature's] proposed changes to tenure and shared governance are.

Perhaps the reason behind Walker’s dislike of academia is that he thinks that professors are too liberal. If true, this is deeply disturbing: it means he wants to stifle speech that he disagrees with. This kind of repression of scholarship is one of the most important reasons for tenure in the first place. One doesn’t have to look far–hello, Vladimir Putin?–to find examples of how powerful politicians can suppress speech, to the detriment of their societies.

As UC Irvine’s Mark Levine wrote this week, none of academia’s core functions could occur without tenure and the assurance of academic freedom it enables.

The leaders of a national university governing board association (agreed), pointing out that under Walker’s proposed new policy, “decisions about a tenured faculty member’s service could be based less on performance and institutional finances and more on the political or personal views of board members.”

Governor Walker’s actions make even less sense when viewed from outside the state, where the University of Wisconsin is considered one of the nation’s top public universities (currently ranked 13th among public schools).

Walker is sending a message that professors at Wisconsin should sit down and shut up. It’s disturbing that Wisconsin’s governor is using his power not only to weaken one of the state’s biggest assets, but also to attack the free expression of ideas. I can’t come up with any explanation for his actions that doesn’t appear vindictive and short-sighted. This isn’t the kind of behavior I want in any politician, and certainly not in someone who wants to be the most powerful politician in the nation.

Right-Wing Campus Group creates "Professor Watchlist!!!" Now that's Academic Freedom.

While a new wave of white supremacist groups are infiltrating our college campuses...: 

White supremacists have held minor campaigns on college campuses in the past, but an unprecedented amount of hate-group propaganda and a rebranding of white supremacy as “alt-right” have been especially geared to recruit and provoke college students in recent months. A recent report by the Anti-Defamation League cited at least 107 incidents of white-supremacist propaganda on college campuses since September, at least 65 of which have occurred since January. Posters with messages like “Make America white again” and “Imagine a Muslim-free America” have been found in high-traffic areas on campuses in 25 states.

...at the same time Republican legislators are using academic freedom to clamp down on real academic freedom. The timing isn't a coincidence:

Conservative critics have opened a new chapter of their long-running complaints about institutions such as UW-Madison ... It could also foreshadow new legislation that seeks to change what many Republicans see as a lack of “intellectual diversity” on college campuses, by pushing institutions to invite more conservative speakers and hire more right-leaning faculty.
Speaker Robin Vos, (R), who last year called for UW institutions to invite more conservative speakers, has indicated that he wants to see the System’s funding tied to the variety of voices on campus...

In December he and Rep. David Murphy, (R), criticized a course on white identity and racism titled “The Problem of Whiteness.” Sen. Steve Nass, (R), told his colleagues that a program in which students discuss masculinity amounted to the university declaring a “war on men.”

Which begs the question...

Donald Moynihan, director of UW-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs said, “Would you start looking at people’s voting registrations, or who they had donated money to? The degree to which this would be government intrusiveness on people’s lives would be mind-boggling.”

...which has now been answered by right wing Brownshirt's... 

Turning Point USA has put together a list of academics that they say discriminate against conservative students and use their lectures to push their left-wing propaganda. But what about the first amendment?

Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk laughed at, even scoffed at the idea that this is somehow "Hitlerian," but historically....

The practice of Hitlerian authorities removing professors for any but scholastic reasons … Still others left because they would not subject their conscience to the dictates of the National Socialist ideologies as preached by the govern­ment. 

A professor at the University of Rostock demanded from the German government, which controlled all univer­sities, that he be given a clear guarantee that the government leave unimpaired his freedom to seek and teach the truth. Despite his prominence in his field, he was ousted from his position.

MAGA Fascism hits speed ramp...pt 2!

Continuing the previous post on the DeSantis-like rush to fascism, the following is just a partial list that I will add to for a while...a growing list of examples hitting the shit fan daily. 

Imagine if we didn't have Gov. Evers...we'd be here. 

1. John Oliver derails the DeSantis fascist train to authoritarianism, verbally of course. Must see...

The Don’t Say LGBTQ policies are part of a coordinated campaign by the DeSantis Administration. They are the epitome of the administration’s effort to wage culture wars against academic freedom, parental rights, and diversity, equity, and inclusion as part of a broader strategy to challenge the Governor’s former mentor Donald Trump for a presidential nomination. The Desantis Administration’s obsession with far-right Presidential primary voters are why we have seen one of the country’s largest state university systems subjected to a McCarthy-era witch hunt for equity and diversity programs and provision of transgender healthcare, sweeping censorship of books by Black and LGBTQ authors, doctors’ careers threatened for providing transgender Floridians life-saving healthcare, and even a complete far right take over of the New College of Florida. Florida stands in the midst of an unprecedented campaign of censorship and surveillance, targeting anyone who doesn’t share the increasingly extremist ideology of Governor Ron DeSantis.

2. Alaska State Rep. Eastman accidently discloses MAGAs cruel use of Children for Political Control: Like they really care. 

State Rep. David Eastman (R-Wasilla) faced criticism from ... the House Judiciary Committee, which featured a presentation from experts on adverse childhood experiences. In response to a statistic that listed the lifetime cost of fatal child abuse at $1.5 million per victim, Eastman referred to a counterargument that the death of abused children is “actually a benefit to society.”

“It can be argued, periodically, that [fatal child abuse is] actually a cost savings because that child is not going to need any of those government services that they might otherwise be entitled to receive and need based on growing up in this type of environment,” he said.

After his crazy comment featured below, another Representative came up with this doozy as a defense...: 

"One of the arguments for abortion has been that it’s better to terminate that child’s life before they become a burden to society.”

Noooo...not familiar with that one.

_________________________________________________________________________

3. MAGA's Abandon "Academic Freedom" for political takeover of Liberal Arts Colleges: We're all familiar with this...

DeSantis replaced six of the 13 members on the college’s board of trustees with conservative allies, including Christopher Rufo, who has fueled the fight against critical race theory.

...which predictably grew into this lunacy...

A similar plan didn't turn out well in Idaho...

Trustees backed by the Kootenai County GOP took over the governing majority of North Idaho College and denounced alleged liberal "indoctrination" by the faculty and vowed to root out "deep state" corruption in the school administration, but their leadership resulted in lawsuits from two of the past five school presidents and Moody's downgraded their debt over “significant governance and management dysfunction," reported the New York Times. GOP activists set their sights on the college after its diversity council issued a statement of support for social justice demonstrations after the police killing of George Floyd.

Former college president Rick MacLennan said the school was a warning to other institutions facing partisan attacks and hostile takeovers by Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican leaders.

NO KIDDING: DeSantis takes over State Education: H.B. 999 is “laden with unconstitutional provisions hostile to freedom of expression and academic freedom.”

4. DeSantis will Control Disney Content? He even bragged about this when he campaigned in California, where the original Disneyland is located. Jonathan Chait wrote:

Last fall, I attended the National Conservatism Conference, where the attendees laid out rather plainly their ambition to turn DeSantis into a model for a ruthless, illiberal party that would use the organs of the state to crush its enemies. Since those pieces appeared, DeSantis’s actions have made me more, not less, concerned.

While the board handles infrastructure and maintenance, DeSantis boasted that it could use its leverage to force Disney to stop “trying to inject woke ideology” on children.

“When you lose your way, you’ve got to have people that are going to tell you the truth,” DeSantis proclaimed. “But I think all of these board members very much would like to see the type of entertainment that all families can appreciate.”

It is worth pausing a moment to grasp the full breadth of what is going on here. First, DeSantis established the principle that he can and will use the power of the state to punish private firms that exercise their First Amendment right to criticize his positions. Now he is promising to continue exerting state power to pressure the firm to produce content that comports with his own ideological agenda.

5. LGBTQ Discrimination now Legal in Alaska: Quietly reversed...

It published new guidelines in 2021 saying Alaska’s LGBTQ protections now extended beyond the workplace to housing, government practices, finance and “public accommodation.” It updated the website ... a “sea change under Alaska law for LGBTQ+ individuals’ rights to be free from discrimination.”

But a year later, the commission quietly reversed that position. It deleted language from the state website promising equal protections for transgender and gay Alaskans against most categories of discrimination, and it began refusing to investigate complaints. Only employment-related complaints would now be accepted, and investigators dropped any non-employment LGBTQ civil rights cases they had been working on.

6. And because I think it needs to be said and repeated often:

7. Anyone hurt by Drag Shows? Drag Shows; normal, sometime outrageous, so what's the harm? As I've stated many times, I always go back to the original intent of Republican bills, because it exposes what they're thinking: 

Republican lawmakers are intensifying their ongoing, all-out assault on trans existence. More than 300 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were either passed or introduced in 2022, the majority taking aim at trans youth through health care bans, sports team restrictions, and bathroom bills, and removing Medicaid coverage for trans adults’ health care too. Meanwhile, drag performances, particularly family-friendly drag brunches and drag queen story hours at libraries, have become a focal point of histrionic Republican rhetoric and far-right militia attacks. With obsessive ferocity, the right is attempting to criminalize, harass, and legislate gender nonconformity out of existence. A bill moving at pace through the Arkansas legislature, for example, would constitute a ban on all trans adults using bathrooms in public.

8. Drag Show Legislative Circus: The best argument yet...

Republicans suppress "Free Speech," silence college instructors via national fake news media.

What the hell is wrong at the University of Wisconsin Madison? The administration has adopted a policy that takes aim at its own students on behalf of the carnival barker crowd of right wing speakers crying alligator tears over not being able to exercise their "right to be heard" on campus. I've always loved that right.

This speech suppression scheme based on the myth conservative have to remain silent and hide on college campuses. This imagined threat is so unfair. Never mind that college educators don't share in that freedom...more on that incredible hypocrisy later.

For Scott Walker, he just thinks it's wrong, so goodbye dissenting free speech:

Walker: "Whether it's against me or somebody else say, "I disagree," but disagreeing and even protesting is one thing ... But the minute you shut down a speaker, no matter whether they're liberal, conservative, or somewhere in between, I just think that's wrong." To me a university...anywhere free speech should be upheld...but disrupting and shutting down as we've seen here in Wisconsin, but elsewhere across the country, shutting down the ability for someone to actually be heard is not free speech."

  

The UW did nothing to censor or discourage right wing appearance on campus, but they are surrendering their students right to protest, to Republicans who have threatened to cut funding.

Republicans are demanding a conservative agenda on campus, at the same time they're denouncing the supposed liberal agenda on campus. So far, Republicans have boldly stacked the Board of Regents with Scott Walker picks (all but 2), influenced curriculum, require their guest speakers, and soon will have total control over hiring instructors.

I think this pretty much sums it up:

Regents President John Robert Behling told the board before Friday’s vote that adopting the policy ahead of the legislation shows “a responsiveness to what’s going on in the Capitol, which helps build relationships.”

Yup, it's that bad here. In fact, Republican Robin Vos' insecurity shows through when he packages the appearance of these bigots, racists, and authoritarians as good solid people who aren't wrong, just someone we would disagree with. Also, the arrogance of professors who think they're smarter than some ideologically drive partisan political hack spouting anecdotal "facts" to his drooling base:

Vos: "Civility begins by appreciating and understanding that the other point of view isn't wrong...it's just...you don't agree with. It's not evil, it's just perhaps somebody you need to inform." 

With the Regents adopting this cancerous right wing agenda, I tweeted this....

And the big monied special interests are at the heart of right wing speaker circuit:

Conservative foundations that for years have quietly given money to help student groups bring speakers to college campuses recently have been under scrutiny in the wake of speaker protests, suggesting the push for conservative views is from off-campus. The Milwaukee-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation in recent years has given Young America's Foundation tens of thousands of dollars for such activities as increasing the number of conservative-leaning campus events it sponsors, including in Wisconsin."

Expect more of the following previous successful attempts to kill the UW:

Nass #1: …he expressed cutting funding of a UW-Madison center because its studies were "too far to the left."  

Nass #2: State Sen. Steve Nass blasted a UW-Madison economics professor ... calling the academic's report on right-to-work legislation "partisan, garbage research." "Attached is yet another example of wasted resources at the UW-Madison/UW Extension … Hiding behind academic freedom to issue partisan … I will certainly forward this email on to UW System President Ray Cross … as just one suggestion of a faculty member with time to teach more courses. Or maybe not!"

Nass #3: WRN: Republican Rep. Steve Nass has gotten the UW’s School for Workers to cancel an “Art in Protest” exhibit that had been scheduled for next month. “The problem with it is that it would be funded with taxpayer dollars and that’s through the Extension.”  Nass charges the exhibit would have provided a one-sided view of last year’s protests at the Capitol, with UW Extension taking the side of protesters. “I did indicate to Extension that … any problems that arise from that, or any misbehavior by the protesters – which I certainly would expect, it would probably be very despicable … and I will be watching.”

And finally, the whole reason I posted this story. This isn't about free speech at all, just the opposite. It's the right wing campaign to suppress free speech on campuses, by going after instructors, anonymously with the power of the entire right wing network of fake news:

Conservatives are the real campus thought police squashing academic freedom: The outrage machine geared up as it often does, with a minor conservative media outlet — in this case, the Daily Caller — chopping my tweets up into a misleading mishmash that transformed a nuanced diagnosis of white male frustration into an attack on white people in general. When the Daily Caller posted the article to Facebook, moreover, the intention was clearly to incite: “Absolutely unforgiveable” (sic) read the post, which by now has been shared nearly 2,000 times and commented upon more than 3,000 times.

Hate mail and death threats began to roll in. “I will beat your skull in till there is no tomorrow.” “Soon all you p‑‑‑‑‑s will get exactly what you deserve.” “Do the world a favor, and kill yourself … I’ll help you find death sooner than later.” One called me a “pig f‑‑‑er like Obama,” adding homophobic slurs for good measure. Many called me a “cuck” — a favorite racial and sexual insult of the alt-right — while others urged me to move to North Korea or Venezuela. One “love note from a WHITE American” wrongly identified me as a “greasy South American a‑‑hole.”

From there, the contagion was rapid, with Stephen Bannon’s Breitbart News and even Milo Yiannopoulos’s own website running their own cribbed copies of the same story. Then came FrontPage, the Blaze, the College Fix and the campus mercenaries at Turning Point. Soon, the manufactured story had hit the conspiratorial fringes of Infowars and online forums across the right: from “blue lives matter” to those preparing for the inevitable rapture.

Finally, the story crossed the mainstream-fringe barrier at its most permeable point: Fox News. Fox claimed that not only do I blame Trump for the Las Vegas massacre, but that I even somehow blame the victims. Threatening emails increased to a flood. An invitation to appear on Tucker Carlson’s show arrived in short order, only confirming the insular nature of the machine, which amplifies to a furious roar the same small group of voices. I declined.

I am by no means the first, and will not be the last target of this kind of smear campaign by conservatives aimed at academics. In every case, it is the same right-wing media outlets leading the charge, and campuses are increasingly the target. Universities and colleges have become the perfect target for such crusades: Purportedly hotbeds of multiculturalism, “safe spaces” and political correctness, campuses represent everything the resentful right is afraid of. At the same time that the right-wing media smears professors like myself, decrying our tenure and demanding our heads, they breathlessly chronicle the supposed intolerance of the left when confronted with provocative campus tours by Yiannopoulos, Richard Spencer, Charles Murray, Ann Coulter and others.

And things aren’t letting up. While noteworthy cases such as Saida Grundy and Zandria Robinson in 2015 gave a glimpse of what was to come, the months since Trump’s election have seen a generalized assault on anti-racist academics. In May, Tommy Curry at Texas A&M was targeted for a years-old podcast; Princeton’s Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor was forced to cancel public events after threats following a commencement speech; and Johnny Eric Williams at Trinity College was targeted and suspended reposting someone else’s words on Facebook. Increasingly, leftist professors are being targeted for “things they never really said.” As Princeton’s Eddie Glaude has put it, when the right is so easily triggered by anti-racism and feminism, they make it perfectly clear who the “real snowflakes” are.

Caught in this wave of right-wing threats and provocations, many universities are scrambling to keep up with the coordinated onslaught. In the best of cases, university administrations and departments have publicly condemned threats against faculty and made clear that they do not cave to intimidation campaigns. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has even responded to our cases with new guidelines urging universities to resist the targeted online harassment of their faculty.

In response to such illegal threats of violence, Drexel has chosen to place me on administrative leave. Earlier in the week, I asked my students to explain the relation between white masculinity and mass killings, and they offered in a few short minutes of class discussion far more insight than any mainstream media outlet has offered all week. But now, their own academic freedom has been curtailed by their university, and they are unable to even attend the classes they registered for.

By bowing to pressure from racist internet trolls, Drexel has sent the wrong signal: That you can control a university’s curriculum with anonymous threats of violence. Such cowardice notwithstanding, I am prepared to take all necessary legal action to protect my academic freedom, tenure rights and most importantly, the rights of my students to learn in a safe environment where threats don’t hold sway over intellectual debate. Alongside organizations like the Campus Antifascist Network, I will continue to challenge white supremacists in an effort to make Drexel and all universities safe space for an intellectual debate among equals.

It's not Critical Race Theory, it's the Rufo Theory of race...

Scary CRT, Critical Race Theory, will get you! From Sharia Law to Critical Race Theory, same old fear mongering, same old scheme, and it works. The QAnon base can't stop themselves from soaking in the hate.  

The Rufo Theory Exposed! Who is Christopher Rufo? He's the guy marketing CRT as the one-size-fits-all brand that encompasses the entire liberal vision of America, turning it he hopes, "toxic."

MSNBC's Joy Reid gave everyone a chance to hear Rufo defend his scheme, but he crashed and burned like the Hindenburg: 

#RacistRebecca building creds in run for Governor: Jumping right into CRT, Rebecca Kleefisch used a random site pushing defunding the police posted and later unposted at UW Riverfalls as an example, blew it out of proportion with no insightful analysis whatsoever, and then solved our racial problems by saying the Constitution protects the rights of everyone. So what was that slavery, racism, Civil War thing all about anyway? 

Oddly, #racistRebecca must have forgotten "academic freedom" of speech on campus? Weren't unpopular or "different" points of view, the kind you are complaining about here, now protected by the UW's rules on campus free speech?

Remember the often forgotten "implied" constitutional right...

Co-Founder of Critical Race Theory...the Truth:

The truth about ‘critical race theory’: co-founder breaks down GOP gaslighting https://t.co/KhQGzUBcip via @MSNBC

— John Peterson (@democurmudgeon) June 21, 2021

Banning Critical Race Theory Disaster: There is one thing for certain; bashing, defunding, and privatizing education does NOT qualify Republicans to design curriculum. 

This horror story could be playing out in a classroom near you:

...and just for laughs, Sen. Ted Cruz....

One more thing, check out this CRT legislation from Pennsylvania: Here's the most egregious authoritarian Republican censorship:

1. A license to be openly racist:

Penalty prohibited--No employee, contractor, staff member or student in a Commonwealth, county or municipal agency, school district or public postsecondary institution shall face a penalty or adverse treatment due to a refusal to support, believe, endorse, embrace, confess, act upon or otherwise assent to an racist or sexist concept.

The following shall apply: (1) No instructor, teacher or professor at a public school district or public postsecondary institution shall: (i) teach or (ii) penalize or treat adversely a student who refuses to adopt or express any racist or sexist concept.

2. Academic Freedom-Ban Speakers…yes, ban speakers and racist historical literature, the Civil War?:

(2) No public school district or public postsecondary institution shall: (i) host, pay or provide a venue for a speaker who espouses, advocates or promotes any racist or sexist concept; or (ii) require a student to read, view or listen to a book, article, video presentation, digital presentation or other learning material that espouses, advocates or promotes a racist or sexist concept.

3. Get A Reward for Spying on your Neighbor, Teachers, Schools, and Businesses.  

Private cause of action. The following shall apply: (1) A resident of this Commonwealth shall have standing and a private cause of action to file a civil complaint in a court of common pleas against a Commonwealth, county or municipal agency, school district entity or public postsecondary institution claiming that the entity or institution has violated a provision of this act.

The court shall enjoin the violating entity or institution from receiving funding from the Commonwealth in the following fiscal year and shall award costs and attorney fees to the complainant.

Yes, it never ends. Here's today's discovery and helpful poster for those unsure of just how repressive the Republican Party has become. Seriously, "equity, diversity, inclusion, anti-racism, social justice" all bad, must be rejected:

 

Florida's Gov. Ron DeSantis, a serious presidential contender, is already creating his vision of America, with the "red scare" formula vilifying "critical race theory" that's only taught in law schools:

DeSantis signed the latest in a series of measures aimed at chilling political conversation on college campuses and crimping what teachers in Florida’s classrooms can say about racism or other troubling aspects of America’s past. The new law mandates that Florida’s public universities conduct an annual survey of students’ views on “viewpoint diversity” — with the governor suggesting that campuses not open to right-wing ideas (like his own) could lose government funding. DeSantis said colleges that appear to be what he called “hotbeds of stale ideology” are “not worth tax dollars and not something we’re going to be supporting moving forward.”

The new law came just days after the Florida Board of Education — at the urging of DeSantis, moved to ban the teaching of what it called “critical race theory.” Educators say the ban will make them fearful of suffering consequences for any teaching around America’s historic racism. Party insiders say hysteria over discussions of race in classrooms among white suburban parents is fast becoming a 2.0 version of the Tea Party revolt that propelled the GOP a decade ago.

Robert Dahlgren — a former Florida academic and teacher who studied that state’s wars over academic freedom from 1945-60 said Florida schoolchildren will likely face mandatory testing on the patriotism-oriented curriculum developed by DeSantis’ allies, and he worries that more extreme measures like loyalty oaths for teachers and professors could come in the near future.