Echinocentric @Echinocentric@social.cleverlibre.org

1. A newly-formed right-wing group is launching a brazen plan to remake Michigan public schools — using hyper-aggressive legal action to effectively mandate the erasure of LGBTQ people

Follow along if interested

🧵

https://popular.info/p/inside-the-audacious-new-scheme-to

2. In Michigan, parents have the right to opt-out of sex education courses

The new group, called the Great Schools Initiative, has created their own form

In addition to sex education classes, the GSI form demands students are excluded from "ROGUE SEX ED"

Big HT to @baratunde for sharing this brilliantly written and very well-argued piece on NOT going to #Mars

"It’s hard to imagine landings going past the single digits before cost or an accident shut the program down. And once the rockets had retired to their museums, humanity would have nothing to show for its Mars adventure except some rocks and a bunch of unspeakably angry astrobiologists. It would in every way be the opposite of exploration."

https://idlewords.com/2023/1/why_not_mars.htm

5. During a January 19 Zoom meeting obtained by http://popular.info, Nathan Pawl, one of GSI's co-founders, said the group aimed to have "20, 30, 50, or 100 parents per school" start "dropping off the opt-out forms" in February.

The goal is to OVERWHELM the schools

6. To comply with GSI's opt-out form, Pawl says, the only option would be "to transform our schools.”

WATCH:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsrXgESoEQo

3. What is ROGUE SEX ED?

According to GSI, it includes anything that acknowledges the existence of an LGBTQ person.

A teacher wearing a flag pin.

A school marking LGTBQ pride month.

A gender neutral bathroom.

Any book with an LGBTQ character.

7. GSI, however, doesn't expect Michigan schools to simply comply with their demands.

So, with legal support from the far-right @ThomasMoreSoc@twitter.com, GSI plans to overwhelm schools with litigation

During a 10/21 meeting, a lawyer described the strategy as "asymetrical lawfare"

@ThomasMoreSoc@twitter.com 8. Under Michigan law, parents who don't believe their opt-out request is being honored can file a complaint with the district.

The district then must investigate and issue a report on their findings within 30 days.

GSI plans to flood Michigan schools with these complaints

@ThomasMoreSoc@twitter.com 10. There are two additional appeals that parents can pursue at the administrative level. Each requires school administers to investigate and issue a report.

If that fails, parents can take their complaints to Michigan courts.

GSI plans to support all this litigation.

11. Obviously, Michigan schools are not set up to handle this amount of litigation. And that's the point.

The far-right was defeated at the ballot box in Michigan, so now its headed to the courtroom.

@ThomasMoreSoc@twitter.com 9. This legal process is intended for parents who opted out of sexual education classes, not "rogue sex ed," a concept invented by GSI

So it's very possible that school districts will reject the GSI opt-out forms as irrelevant to Michigan law.

But that's just the beginning

14. Funding for GSI and the @ThomasMoreSoc@twitter.com is almost completely opaque.

This is a sophisticated effort, but we do not know who is funding it.

13. There is considerable evidence that GSI is not an organic movement of parents.

The GSI website features three testimonials from Michigan parents.

But the photos are not of Michigan parents. They are stock images available for purchase online.

4. The intent is not for parents to exercise control over their children.

Either the school acknowledges LGBTQ pride month, or it does not.

The intent is to align the entire school with a reactionary political agenda.

https://popular.info/p/inside-the-audacious-new-scheme-to

"The McGonigal story is huge, and the NYT still has a lot of explaining to do...

It was the real "October Surprise" - 2016 deceptions that put #Trump in the White House, fueled by #FBI leaks

Knowing now that a top FBI agent went to work for a billionaire #Putin ally, the #NYTimes need to reveal the truth of these stories."

If @willbunch wrote it, you should read it.© And I thread it 🧵 👇 1/...

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/mcgonigal-russian-oligarch-trump-2016-election-20230129.html

Colleges bow to lil’ tyrant Ron DeSantis’ will and halt diversity training. DeSantis won’t stop there. He’s already violated the 1st and 14th amendments and removed publicly elected officials

Fascism is winning

A reminder, DeSantis was a Guantánamo lawyer and administrator

His job was greenlighting torture , as per Mansoor Adayfi

This needs to be a bigger story.

https://mronline.org/2022/11/26/i-was-screaming-and-he-was-smiling-desantis-ran-guantanamo-torture/

When fence sitters try to convince you that "both sides" of the QAnon divide are equal. From my FB page: https://www.facebook.com/godlessmom/posts/pfbid0RC7bZByvSNXTHpBkUqDXjHcBkquGZ7s9BfJ3EP12hWQwECEfwHgbH8R6tFttLn2Bl #QAnon

Share this photo of #tyre #sayhisname

Finally broke down and joined Christian Mingle…My username is…ComeUntoGod. 😂