Kansas Crimson

Shirley wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2023 6:59 am This is the "Christian" hypocrite, Christo-Fascist, republicans chose to lead their party in the house of representatives. The guy who is now 2nd in line for the presidency: (Think about that...)

@PeterVroom1

Reminder that after 27 days as Speaker, Mike Johnson continues to hide from the media to avoid explaining why he:

1) Lied about "adopting" and "taking custody" of a 14 year-old black son. (His office now admits he never formally adopted Michael because of the paperwork involved.)

2) Lied about being married at the time. (Johnson didn't even meet his future wife until two years after he first met Michael as a single man.)

3) Lied about "turning his "son's" life around." (His "son" has been in and out of prison for years and is currently estranged from his wife and children).

4) Has yet to explain his role with and involvement in Young Life Ministries, which is not an adoption agency but has been described by former participants as "a setting rife with sexual harassment and assault of students, often at the hands of peers or adults they trusted."

"We adopted Michael through the Young Life Ministry."

“I met him through the Young Life Ministry. It’s a very long story, I won’t go into it today.”

It is a sign of the speed at which events are moving that Hurst and Blackett’s unexpurgated edition of Mein Kampf, published only a year ago, is edited from a pro-Hitler angle. The obvious intention of the translator’s preface and notes is to tone down the book’s ferocity and present Hitler in as kindly a light as possible. For at that date Hitler was still respectable. He had crushed the German labour movement, and for that the property-owning classes were willing to forgive him almost anything. Both Left and Right concurred in the very shallow notion that National Socialism was merely a version of Conservatism.

Then suddenly it turned out that Hitler was not respectable after all. As one result of this, Hurst and Blackett’s edition was reissued in a new jacket explaining that all profits would be devoted to the Red Cross. Nevertheless, simply on the internal evidence of Mein Kampf, it is difficult to believe that any real change has taken place in Hitler’s aims and opinions. When one compares his utterances of a year or so ago with those made fifteen years earlier, a thing that strikes one is the rigidity of his mind, the way in which his world-view doesn’t develop. It is the fixed vision of a monomaniac and not likely to be much affected by the temporary manoeuvres of power politics. Probably, in Hitler’s own mind, the Russo-German Pact represents no more than an alteration of time-table. The plan laid down in Mein Kampf was to smash Russia first, with the implied intention of smashing England afterwards. Now, as it has turned out, England has got to be dealt with first, because Russia was the more easily bribed of the two. But Russia’s turn will come when England is out of the picture—that, no doubt, is how Hitler sees it. Whether it will turn out that way is of course a different question.

Suppose that Hitler’s programme could be put into effect. What he envisages, a hundred years hence, is a continuous state of 250 million Germans with plenty of ‘living room’ (i.e. stretching to Afghanistan or thereabouts), a horrible brainless empire in which, essentially, nothing ever happens except the training of young men for war and the endless breeding of fresh cannon-fodder. How was it that he was able to put this monstrous vision across? It is easy to say that at one stage of his career he was financed by the heavy industrialists, who saw in him the man who would smash the Socialists and Communists. They would not have backed him, however, if he had not talked a great movement into existence already. Again, the situation in Germany, with its seven million unemployed, was obviously favourable for demagogues. But Hitler could not have succeeded against his many rivals if it had not been for the attraction of his own personality, which one can feel even in the clumsy writing of Mein Kampf, and which is no doubt overwhelming when one hears his speeches … The fact is that there is something deeply appealing about him. One feels it again when one sees his photographs—and I recommend especially the photograph at the beginning of Hurst and Blackett’s edition, which shows Hitler in his early Brownshirt days. It is a pathetic, dog-like face, the face of a man suffering under intolerable wrongs. In a rather more manly way it reproduces the expression of innumerable pictures of Christ crucified, and there is little doubt that that is how Hitler sees himself. The initial, personal cause of his grievance against the universe can only be guessed at; but at any rate the grievance is here. He is the martyr, the victim, Prometheus chained to the rock, the self-sacrificing hero who fights single-handed against impossible odds. If he were killing a mouse he would know how to make it seem like a dragon. One feels, as with Napoleon, that he is fighting against destiny, that he can’t win, and yet that he somehow deserves to. The attraction of such a pose is of course enormous; half the films that one sees turn upon some such theme.

Also he has grasped the falsity of the hedonistic attitude to life. Nearly all western thought since the last war, certainly all ‘progressive’ thought, has assumed tacitly that human beings desire nothing beyond ease, security and avoidance of pain. In such a view of life there is no room, for instance, for patriotism and the military virtues. The Socialist who finds his children playing with soldiers is usually upset, but he is never able to think of a substitute for the tin soldiers; tin pacifists somehow won’t do. Hitler, because in his own joyless mind he feels it with exceptional strength, knows that human beings don’tonly want comfort, safety, short working-hours, hygiene, birth-control and, in general, common sense; they also, at least intermittently, want struggle and self-sacrifice, not to mention drums, flags and loyalty-parades. However they may be as economic theories, Fascism and Nazism are psychologically far sounder than any hedonistic conception of life. The same is probably true of Stalin’s militarised version of Socialism. All three of the great dictators have enhanced their power by imposing intolerable burdens on their peoples. Whereas Socialism, and even capitalism in a more grudging way, have said to people ‘I offer you a good time,’ Hitler has said to them ‘I offer you struggle, danger and death,’ and as a result a whole nation flings itself at his feet. Perhaps later on they will get sick of it and change their minds, as at the end of the last war. After a few years of slaughter and starvation ‘Greatest happiness of the greatest number’ is a good slogan, but at this moment ‘Better an end with horror than a horror without end’ is a winner. Now that we are fighting against the man who coined it, we ought not to underrate its emotional appeal.

KUTradition wrote: ↑Sat Nov 25, 2023 8:11 pm Marine Veteran Sues Tim Ballard and OUR Over Sexual Assault Claims, Injuries Suffered In Training

https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxjbz5/ ... n-training

“OUR only focused on allowing its celebrity founder, defendant Tim Ballard, to live the lavish lifestyle of a wealthy sex tourist and sexually manipulate and abuse employees, contractors, and volunteers,” the suit reads.


and…

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/cu ... 91238/amp/

KUTradition wrote: ↑Sat Nov 25, 2023 8:11 pm Marine Veteran Sues Tim Ballard and OUR Over Sexual Assault Claims, Injuries Suffered In Training

https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxjbz5/ ... n-training

“OUR only focused on allowing its celebrity founder, defendant Tim Ballard, to live the lavish lifestyle of a wealthy sex tourist and sexually manipulate and abuse employees, contractors, and volunteers,” the suit reads.


and…

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/cu ... 91238/amp/

Shirley wrote: ↑Sun Dec 03, 2023 8:59 am Dec 3, 2023 Former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney says that voters have become increasingly numb to politicians warning of looming dangers to democracy, so in her new book, "Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning," she lays out the case for the threats to the Constitution posed by Donald Trump should he regain the White House. Cheney talks with CBS News' John Dickerson about how the leading GOP candidate's own words reveal his plans for a second term, and why she believes blocking Trump and preventing a Republican House majority in the next election is "the cause of our time."

Liz Cheney's "dire" warning against reelecting Trump

On November 14, a 20-year-old woman named Lanah Burkhardt appeared before the school board of the Conroe Independent School District in Texas. Burkhardt told the board that, when she was 11, she read a Scholastic book that introduced her to "a single kiss." According to Burkhardt, her exposure to this Scholastic book was directly responsible for her developing a debilitating addiction to pornography.

Burkhardt said that after reading the Scholastic book with the "single kiss," she "looked for other books that gave me pleasure." This "led to internet searches" that Burkhardt will "never forget." By the time she was 13, Burkhardt says her porn addiction left her depressed and suicidal.

Burkhardt cited her story as a reason to restrict access to Drama, a novel published by Scholastic. The book includes this image of two people kissing.

But Burkhardt went further, arguing that Conroe should remove all Scholastic books from schools and stop hosting Scholastic book fairs. These steps were necessary, Burkhardt argued, to protect children from "sexual obscenity." According to Burkhardt, "getting rid of Scholastic books and their book fairs will inevitably protect kids."

Burkhardt's appearance was promoted by SkyTree Book Fairs, a newly formed organization marketing itself as "an alternative to the sexually explicit content distributed in Scholastic's book fairs."

While SkyTree Book Fairs presents itself as an independent non-profit organization, it appears to be a hastily assembled offshoot of Brave Books, which publishes children's books by right-wing pundits and pseudo-celebrities.

The president of SkyTree Book Fairs, Riley Lee, was listed as an "Executive Assistant" at Brave Books earlier this year. (Lee has omitted her employment at Brave Books from her LinkedIn profile.) A website, stopscholastic.com, which previously redirected to a page promoting book fairs by Brave Books, now redirects to SkyTree Books Fairs. An "extensive report" on the dangers of Scholastic, previously offered by Brave Books, is now being distributed by SkyTree Book Fairs.

[...]

Burkhardt's appearance at the Conroe school board was also promoted by Brave Books. The company called it a "must watch" and a "powerful message that needs to be heard." Burkhardt's story was also pushed by Kirk Cameron, the former child actor who has several titles published by Brave Books and is an advisor to SkyTree Book Fairs.

Neither Brave Books nor Burkhardt disclosed that Burkhardt is an employee of Brave Books. According to her LinkedIn profile, Burkhardt is the company's "public relations coordinator."

Brave Books was founded by Trent Talbot, an ophthalmologist with no apparent background in education. According to Talbot’s LinkedIn profile, he founded the company in February 2021 after he “realized there was a war going on for the hearts and minds of our children and the wrong side was winning.” The company’s website states that it sells “[f]aith-based children’s books” and aims to “help parents instill a love of truth in their children” so that they can “withstand harmful progressive influences.”

Brave Books offers a slew of children’s books with conservative messaging written by right-wing influencers and politicians. Authors on Brave Books’ website include actor Kevin Sorbo, United States Representative Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), Donald Trump's former press secretary Sean Spicer, and Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Many of the titles published by Brave Books are set in an imaginary world based on the United States called Freedom Island. According to Politico, each book based on Freedom Island contains a “fold-out map marked with villages and mountain ranges,” with the southwestern corner of the map being called the “Car-a-Lago Coast.” The books also include “an afterword for parents” that is “filled with suggested games and discussion questions to drive home political concepts.”

One of the books sold by Brave Books is “Elephants Are Not Birds” by Ashley St. Clair. The book, which sells for $22.99, follows an elephant named Kevin “as he learns that even though he can sing, he is not a bird.” The villain of the story, a “vulture named Culture,” “gives [the] elephant a beak and a set of fake wings and watches as he plummets out of a tree.” Culture is a recurring character in the books set on Freedom Island who, according to Politico, “tries to poison innocent animals with progressive ideas.” In an interview with the New York Post, St. Clair described the book as “an unapologetic rebuke of transgender acceptance and the growing number of young people identifying as trans.”

Brave Books also sells a book called “Paws Off My Cannon” by Dana Loesch, a former spokesperson for the National Rifle Association (NRA). According to Brave Books’ website, the book “teaches kids the importance of the Second Amendment” by following the story of Bongo, a gorilla, who is shot at with a coconut cannon by a “villainous hyena.” Bongo’s friend Bonnie then “suggests the village ban all coconut cannons,” but “Bongo thinks that the hyenas are the problem, not the coconut cannons.”

Another book sold on Brave Books’ website is “No More Secrets: The Candy Cavern” by right-wing influencer Chaya Raichik. Raichik runs the X account Libs of TikTok, known for anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. The book is about “Rose the Lamb” and how her teacher is “focused more on candy than teaching.” According to the New York Post, the subtext of the book is “based on longstanding criticisms by parents that schools are encouraging gender transition in young students without informing parents.” Brave Books’ website advertises that “Donald Trump Posted in Support of the Book!”

Brave Books also sells “The Island of Free Ice Cream” by Jack Posobiec, which is a story about communism. Posobiec is a right-wing personality who “promoted the false Pizzagate conspiracy theory” and has ties to white supremacists.

Republican-dominated states are pushing out young professionals by enacting extremist conservative policies. Abortion restrictions are the most sweeping example, but state laws restricting everything from academic tenure to transgender health care to the teaching of “divisive concepts” about race are making these states uncongenial to knowledge workers.

The precise effect of all this on the brain drain is hard to tease out from migration statistics because the Dobbs decision is still fairly new, and because red states were bleeding college graduates even before the culture war heated up. The only red state that brings in more college graduates than it sends elsewhere is Texas. But the evidence is everywhere that hard-right social policies in red states are making this dynamic worse.

The number of applications for OB-GYN residencies is down more than 10 percent in states that have banned abortion since Dobbs. Forty-eight teachers in Hernando County, Florida, fed up with “Don’t Say Gay” and other new laws restricting what they can teach, resigned or retired at the end of the last school year. A North Carolina law confining transgender people to bathrooms in accordance with what it said on their birth certificate was projected, before it was repealed, to cost that state $3.76 billion in business investment, including the loss of a planned global operations center for PayPal in Charlotte. A survey of college faculty in four red states (Texas, Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina) about political interference in higher education found a falloff in the number of job candidates for faculty positions, and 67 percent of the respondents said they would not recommend their state to colleagues as a place to work. Indeed, nearly one-third said they were actively considering employment elsewhere.

jfish26 wrote: ↑Tue Dec 05, 2023 10:19 am I thought I previously posted about this, but just in case.

Mysterious woman tells school board that Scholastic book sparked porn addiction

https://popular.info/p/mysterious-woman ... hool-board

On November 14, a 20-year-old woman named Lanah Burkhardt appeared before the school board of the Conroe Independent School District in Texas. Burkhardt told the board that, when she was 11, she read a Scholastic book that introduced her to "a single kiss." According to Burkhardt, her exposure to this Scholastic book was directly responsible for her developing a debilitating addiction to pornography.

Burkhardt said that after reading the Scholastic book with the "single kiss," she "looked for other books that gave me pleasure." This "led to internet searches" that Burkhardt will "never forget." By the time she was 13, Burkhardt says her porn addiction left her depressed and suicidal.

Burkhardt cited her story as a reason to restrict access to Drama, a novel published by Scholastic. The book includes this image of two people kissing.

But Burkhardt went further, arguing that Conroe should remove all Scholastic books from schools and stop hosting Scholastic book fairs. These steps were necessary, Burkhardt argued, to protect children from "sexual obscenity." According to Burkhardt, "getting rid of Scholastic books and their book fairs will inevitably protect kids."

Burkhardt's appearance was promoted by SkyTree Book Fairs, a newly formed organization marketing itself as "an alternative to the sexually explicit content distributed in Scholastic's book fairs."

While SkyTree Book Fairs presents itself as an independent non-profit organization, it appears to be a hastily assembled offshoot of Brave Books, which publishes children's books by right-wing pundits and pseudo-celebrities.

The president of SkyTree Book Fairs, Riley Lee, was listed as an "Executive Assistant" at Brave Books earlier this year. (Lee has omitted her employment at Brave Books from her LinkedIn profile.) A website, stopscholastic.com, which previously redirected to a page promoting book fairs by Brave Books, now redirects to SkyTree Books Fairs. An "extensive report" on the dangers of Scholastic, previously offered by Brave Books, is now being distributed by SkyTree Book Fairs.

[...]

Burkhardt's appearance at the Conroe school board was also promoted by Brave Books. The company called it a "must watch" and a "powerful message that needs to be heard." Burkhardt's story was also pushed by Kirk Cameron, the former child actor who has several titles published by Brave Books and is an advisor to SkyTree Book Fairs.

Neither Brave Books nor Burkhardt disclosed that Burkhardt is an employee of Brave Books. According to her LinkedIn profile, Burkhardt is the company's "public relations coordinator."

Color ME shocked, guys.

We continue.

Brave Books was founded by Trent Talbot, an ophthalmologist with no apparent background in education. According to Talbot’s LinkedIn profile, he founded the company in February 2021 after he “realized there was a war going on for the hearts and minds of our children and the wrong side was winning.” The company’s website states that it sells “[f]aith-based children’s books” and aims to “help parents instill a love of truth in their children” so that they can “withstand harmful progressive influences.”

Brave Books offers a slew of children’s books with conservative messaging written by right-wing influencers and politicians. Authors on Brave Books’ website include actor Kevin Sorbo, United States Representative Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), Donald Trump's former press secretary Sean Spicer, and Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Many of the titles published by Brave Books are set in an imaginary world based on the United States called Freedom Island. According to Politico, each book based on Freedom Island contains a “fold-out map marked with villages and mountain ranges,” with the southwestern corner of the map being called the “Car-a-Lago Coast.” The books also include “an afterword for parents” that is “filled with suggested games and discussion questions to drive home political concepts.”

One of the books sold by Brave Books is “Elephants Are Not Birds” by Ashley St. Clair. The book, which sells for $22.99, follows an elephant named Kevin “as he learns that even though he can sing, he is not a bird.” The villain of the story, a “vulture named Culture,” “gives [the] elephant a beak and a set of fake wings and watches as he plummets out of a tree.” Culture is a recurring character in the books set on Freedom Island who, according to Politico, “tries to poison innocent animals with progressive ideas.” In an interview with the New York Post, St. Clair described the book as “an unapologetic rebuke of transgender acceptance and the growing number of young people identifying as trans.”

Brave Books also sells a book called “Paws Off My Cannon” by Dana Loesch, a former spokesperson for the National Rifle Association (NRA). According to Brave Books’ website, the book “teaches kids the importance of the Second Amendment” by following the story of Bongo, a gorilla, who is shot at with a coconut cannon by a “villainous hyena.” Bongo’s friend Bonnie then “suggests the village ban all coconut cannons,” but “Bongo thinks that the hyenas are the problem, not the coconut cannons.”

Another book sold on Brave Books’ website is “No More Secrets: The Candy Cavern” by right-wing influencer Chaya Raichik. Raichik runs the X account Libs of TikTok, known for anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. The book is about “Rose the Lamb” and how her teacher is “focused more on candy than teaching.” According to the New York Post, the subtext of the book is “based on longstanding criticisms by parents that schools are encouraging gender transition in young students without informing parents.” Brave Books’ website advertises that “Donald Trump Posted in Support of the Book!”

Brave Books also sells “The Island of Free Ice Cream” by Jack Posobiec, which is a story about communism. Posobiec is a right-wing personality who “promoted the false Pizzagate conspiracy theory” and has ties to white supremacists.

Overlander wrote: ↑Tue Dec 05, 2023 11:46 am Every Accusation…..

jfish26 wrote: ↑Tue Dec 05, 2023 10:19 am I thought I previously posted about this, but just in case.

Mysterious woman tells school board that Scholastic book sparked porn addiction

https://popular.info/p/mysterious-woman ... hool-board

On November 14, a 20-year-old woman named Lanah Burkhardt appeared before the school board of the Conroe Independent School District in Texas. Burkhardt told the board that, when she was 11, she read a Scholastic book that introduced her to "a single kiss." According to Burkhardt, her exposure to this Scholastic book was directly responsible for her developing a debilitating addiction to pornography.

Burkhardt said that after reading the Scholastic book with the "single kiss," she "looked for other books that gave me pleasure." This "led to internet searches" that Burkhardt will "never forget." By the time she was 13, Burkhardt says her porn addiction left her depressed and suicidal.

Burkhardt cited her story as a reason to restrict access to Drama, a novel published by Scholastic. The book includes this image of two people kissing.

But Burkhardt went further, arguing that Conroe should remove all Scholastic books from schools and stop hosting Scholastic book fairs. These steps were necessary, Burkhardt argued, to protect children from "sexual obscenity." According to Burkhardt, "getting rid of Scholastic books and their book fairs will inevitably protect kids."

Burkhardt's appearance was promoted by SkyTree Book Fairs, a newly formed organization marketing itself as "an alternative to the sexually explicit content distributed in Scholastic's book fairs."

While SkyTree Book Fairs presents itself as an independent non-profit organization, it appears to be a hastily assembled offshoot of Brave Books, which publishes children's books by right-wing pundits and pseudo-celebrities.

The president of SkyTree Book Fairs, Riley Lee, was listed as an "Executive Assistant" at Brave Books earlier this year. (Lee has omitted her employment at Brave Books from her LinkedIn profile.) A website, stopscholastic.com, which previously redirected to a page promoting book fairs by Brave Books, now redirects to SkyTree Books Fairs. An "extensive report" on the dangers of Scholastic, previously offered by Brave Books, is now being distributed by SkyTree Book Fairs.

[...]

Burkhardt's appearance at the Conroe school board was also promoted by Brave Books. The company called it a "must watch" and a "powerful message that needs to be heard." Burkhardt's story was also pushed by Kirk Cameron, the former child actor who has several titles published by Brave Books and is an advisor to SkyTree Book Fairs.

Neither Brave Books nor Burkhardt disclosed that Burkhardt is an employee of Brave Books. According to her LinkedIn profile, Burkhardt is the company's "public relations coordinator."

Color ME shocked, guys.

We continue.

Brave Books was founded by Trent Talbot, an ophthalmologist with no apparent background in education. According to Talbot’s LinkedIn profile, he founded the company in February 2021 after he “realized there was a war going on for the hearts and minds of our children and the wrong side was winning.” The company’s website states that it sells “[f]aith-based children’s books” and aims to “help parents instill a love of truth in their children” so that they can “withstand harmful progressive influences.”

Brave Books offers a slew of children’s books with conservative messaging written by right-wing influencers and politicians. Authors on Brave Books’ website include actor Kevin Sorbo, United States Representative Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), Donald Trump's former press secretary Sean Spicer, and Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Many of the titles published by Brave Books are set in an imaginary world based on the United States called Freedom Island. According to Politico, each book based on Freedom Island contains a “fold-out map marked with villages and mountain ranges,” with the southwestern corner of the map being called the “Car-a-Lago Coast.” The books also include “an afterword for parents” that is “filled with suggested games and discussion questions to drive home political concepts.”

One of the books sold by Brave Books is “Elephants Are Not Birds” by Ashley St. Clair. The book, which sells for $22.99, follows an elephant named Kevin “as he learns that even though he can sing, he is not a bird.” The villain of the story, a “vulture named Culture,” “gives [the] elephant a beak and a set of fake wings and watches as he plummets out of a tree.” Culture is a recurring character in the books set on Freedom Island who, according to Politico, “tries to poison innocent animals with progressive ideas.” In an interview with the New York Post, St. Clair described the book as “an unapologetic rebuke of transgender acceptance and the growing number of young people identifying as trans.”

Brave Books also sells a book called “Paws Off My Cannon” by Dana Loesch, a former spokesperson for the National Rifle Association (NRA). According to Brave Books’ website, the book “teaches kids the importance of the Second Amendment” by following the story of Bongo, a gorilla, who is shot at with a coconut cannon by a “villainous hyena.” Bongo’s friend Bonnie then “suggests the village ban all coconut cannons,” but “Bongo thinks that the hyenas are the problem, not the coconut cannons.”

Another book sold on Brave Books’ website is “No More Secrets: The Candy Cavern” by right-wing influencer Chaya Raichik. Raichik runs the X account Libs of TikTok, known for anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. The book is about “Rose the Lamb” and how her teacher is “focused more on candy than teaching.” According to the New York Post, the subtext of the book is “based on longstanding criticisms by parents that schools are encouraging gender transition in young students without informing parents.” Brave Books’ website advertises that “Donald Trump Posted in Support of the Book!”

Brave Books also sells “The Island of Free Ice Cream” by Jack Posobiec, which is a story about communism. Posobiec is a right-wing personality who “promoted the false Pizzagate conspiracy theory” and has ties to white supremacists.

japhy wrote: ↑Tue Dec 05, 2023 12:09 pm

jfish26 wrote: ↑Tue Dec 05, 2023 10:19 am I thought I previously posted about this, but just in case.

Mysterious woman tells school board that Scholastic book sparked porn addiction

https://popular.info/p/mysterious-woman ... hool-board

On November 14, a 20-year-old woman named Lanah Burkhardt appeared before the school board of the Conroe Independent School District in Texas. Burkhardt told the board that, when she was 11, she read a Scholastic book that introduced her to "a single kiss." According to Burkhardt, her exposure to this Scholastic book was directly responsible for her developing a debilitating addiction to pornography.

Burkhardt said that after reading the Scholastic book with the "single kiss," she "looked for other books that gave me pleasure." This "led to internet searches" that Burkhardt will "never forget." By the time she was 13, Burkhardt says her porn addiction left her depressed and suicidal.

Burkhardt cited her story as a reason to restrict access to Drama, a novel published by Scholastic. The book includes this image of two people kissing.

But Burkhardt went further, arguing that Conroe should remove all Scholastic books from schools and stop hosting Scholastic book fairs. These steps were necessary, Burkhardt argued, to protect children from "sexual obscenity." According to Burkhardt, "getting rid of Scholastic books and their book fairs will inevitably protect kids."

Burkhardt's appearance was promoted by SkyTree Book Fairs, a newly formed organization marketing itself as "an alternative to the sexually explicit content distributed in Scholastic's book fairs."

While SkyTree Book Fairs presents itself as an independent non-profit organization, it appears to be a hastily assembled offshoot of Brave Books, which publishes children's books by right-wing pundits and pseudo-celebrities.

The president of SkyTree Book Fairs, Riley Lee, was listed as an "Executive Assistant" at Brave Books earlier this year. (Lee has omitted her employment at Brave Books from her LinkedIn profile.) A website, stopscholastic.com, which previously redirected to a page promoting book fairs by Brave Books, now redirects to SkyTree Books Fairs. An "extensive report" on the dangers of Scholastic, previously offered by Brave Books, is now being distributed by SkyTree Book Fairs.

[...]

Burkhardt's appearance at the Conroe school board was also promoted by Brave Books. The company called it a "must watch" and a "powerful message that needs to be heard." Burkhardt's story was also pushed by Kirk Cameron, the former child actor who has several titles published by Brave Books and is an advisor to SkyTree Book Fairs.

Neither Brave Books nor Burkhardt disclosed that Burkhardt is an employee of Brave Books. According to her LinkedIn profile, Burkhardt is the company's "public relations coordinator."

Color ME shocked, guys.

We continue.

Brave Books was founded by Trent Talbot, an ophthalmologist with no apparent background in education. According to Talbot’s LinkedIn profile, he founded the company in February 2021 after he “realized there was a war going on for the hearts and minds of our children and the wrong side was winning.” The company’s website states that it sells “[f]aith-based children’s books” and aims to “help parents instill a love of truth in their children” so that they can “withstand harmful progressive influences.”

Brave Books offers a slew of children’s books with conservative messaging written by right-wing influencers and politicians. Authors on Brave Books’ website include actor Kevin Sorbo, United States Representative Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), Donald Trump's former press secretary Sean Spicer, and Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Many of the titles published by Brave Books are set in an imaginary world based on the United States called Freedom Island. According to Politico, each book based on Freedom Island contains a “fold-out map marked with villages and mountain ranges,” with the southwestern corner of the map being called the “Car-a-Lago Coast.” The books also include “an afterword for parents” that is “filled with suggested games and discussion questions to drive home political concepts.”

One of the books sold by Brave Books is “Elephants Are Not Birds” by Ashley St. Clair. The book, which sells for $22.99, follows an elephant named Kevin “as he learns that even though he can sing, he is not a bird.” The villain of the story, a “vulture named Culture,” “gives [the] elephant a beak and a set of fake wings and watches as he plummets out of a tree.” Culture is a recurring character in the books set on Freedom Island who, according to Politico, “tries to poison innocent animals with progressive ideas.” In an interview with the New York Post, St. Clair described the book as “an unapologetic rebuke of transgender acceptance and the growing number of young people identifying as trans.”

Brave Books also sells a book called “Paws Off My Cannon” by Dana Loesch, a former spokesperson for the National Rifle Association (NRA). According to Brave Books’ website, the book “teaches kids the importance of the Second Amendment” by following the story of Bongo, a gorilla, who is shot at with a coconut cannon by a “villainous hyena.” Bongo’s friend Bonnie then “suggests the village ban all coconut cannons,” but “Bongo thinks that the hyenas are the problem, not the coconut cannons.”

Another book sold on Brave Books’ website is “No More Secrets: The Candy Cavern” by right-wing influencer Chaya Raichik. Raichik runs the X account Libs of TikTok, known for anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. The book is about “Rose the Lamb” and how her teacher is “focused more on candy than teaching.” According to the New York Post, the subtext of the book is “based on longstanding criticisms by parents that schools are encouraging gender transition in young students without informing parents.” Brave Books’ website advertises that “Donald Trump Posted in Support of the Book!”

Brave Books also sells “The Island of Free Ice Cream” by Jack Posobiec, which is a story about communism. Posobiec is a right-wing personality who “promoted the false Pizzagate conspiracy theory” and has ties to white supremacists.

God damn it how have I not found any of these books in thrift stores yet? I cleaned out the children's religious book section a couple of weeks ago in the Empire. I got 13 books for $3, it included an illustrated child's version of the Book of Mormon.

But this shit! This would be a gold mine of ideas. A friend and I have been discussing a collaborative project. If any of your kids have finished reading their copies please let me know and maybe I can borrow them and scan them? Many thanks and have a blessed holidays!

jfish26 wrote: ↑Tue Dec 05, 2023 12:12 pm You said it yourself: god has damned you.

Or damnated you?

I'm always iffy on my smite diction.

Overlander wrote: ↑Tue Dec 05, 2023 1:03 pm The juxtaposition of describing how the media jumps to conclusion about gun violence vs. the far right jumping to conclusions about the likely motive of a car crash is amusing.