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Celayne Jones's avatar

I heartily wish our leftist friends would stop throwing the term “fascist” at everyone until they’ve spent five minutes looking up what it means. Government intervention with and control of industry, just for the sake of argument let’s say pharma and the media, is a lot closer to what is actually happening with the Biden Administration than with a bunch of legislators in Tennessee tossing ill-mannered colleagues to the curb, but no matter. They will persist in their ignorance.

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Donna in MO's avatar

Our school board elections were Tuesday. Worked very hard for 3 common-sense conservatives candidates who were put through h*ll the last few months by the name callers: -'book banners'- for wanting to remove porn from the school libraries

'transphobes' - for standing against boys in girl's sports and bathrooms

'homophobes' - for not speaking up for LGBT xyz whatever the letters are kids

'science deniers' - for saying they would never have voted to mask kids

and 'insurrectionist' for the candidate who was in DC on Jan 6 (but not the capitol building)

The vote was close, but only one of the 3 won. Two leftists with an agenda to continue the DEI marxist rhetoric won with an endorsement by the NEA (teachers VOTE), constantly saying they would support 'all students' and other virtue signaling BS. They were more effective at getting out the vote I guess, and very effective at making labels stick. Heard 'book banners' all the -ists, and insurrectionist while door knocking, outside the polls, and on social medial all season long. And you couldn't talk sense to people. Sad and discouraged, as I thought I lived in a red city, but evidently conservatives are too lazy to even show up to vote. 14% turnout.

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Celayne Jones's avatar

What shame. Results like this will discourage good candidates from even running, which I suppose is part of the nutty left’s plan.

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Donna in MO's avatar

Yes, we have a slew of Monday morning quarterbacks, saying our slate was 'weak candidates'. All 3 were everyday people, 2 with school age kids and one grandfather, who had never run for office, and before covid, never even paid attention to politics, who stepped up and said 'enough'. So, no, they were not scripted by PR professionals. No, they did not have huge war chests. Yes, they made a misstep or 2 saying things the left chopped into soundbites and spread all over social media (one said covid was a bad cold and people should have had more Vit D and C) BUT on the other hand, people love to bitch about 'professional politicians' who don't say anything their consultants hasn't approved, and skirt answering questions, and put out a fake veneer of respectability. The leftist candidates were coached, scripted and had piles of money from outside our city, and ran as moderates. but their minions and donors did all the bashing.

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Celayne Jones's avatar

It’s almost like there’s a Central Authority directing all these campaigns...hmmm

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Donna in MO's avatar

Oh there is. No doubt about it. When 3 random people hit the ground running with a pile of money and a script it is not by accident. These folks have had their tentacles in our local political scene for a long time and it is only in the past few years they have gone fully public and seem to not care that we recognize them for who they are. And of course, calling them out just gets us labeled conspiracy theorists.

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Celayne Jones's avatar

I agree with the ‘bad cold’ comment but once you say that, they dredge up stories of people who died With Covid and several comorbidities

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Donna in MO's avatar

Yes, I wanted to cringe and hide under my seat when she said it. It was a 'friendly' conservative group candidate forum but the left was there and filming on their phones. That is the kind of thing to say AFTER the election, not before.

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Celayne Jones's avatar

and call you a grandma killer.

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Peter Schott's avatar

We have a couple billboards in our areas trying to show that books shouldn't be banned. No actual facts about which books are pulled for review nor why they're in school libraries in the first place - just a subtle attack on any who dare to suggest that some books don't belong in school libraries.

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Donna in MO's avatar

I wanted to shake people and say "HAVE YOU EVEN READ THESE BOOKS!?!" who told me: oh are those the book banner candidates? I don't agree with that. One of our supporters got up during public comments at a school board meeting and tried to read from "All Boys Aren't Blue" and the board pres banged her gavel and had the cops escort him out for violating board policy for "Profane speech". And yet MINORS can check this book out of the school library?! You can't make this stuff up. The left is a master at name calling and too many people are intellectually lazy and take this propaganda at face value. I appreciate Jeff/C&C for the humor and positivity, but in my little corner of the world I am struggling for silver linings this week.

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RunningLogic's avatar

Maybe conservatives should carry a copy of a few of these books with them and show them to people during these conversations.

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Donna in MO's avatar

Great idea, but the problem is, at the door, you typically have about 30 seconds to make your pitch before they tune you out and shut the door in your face or agree with you. I am a yakker, and do sometimes get into debates with people, and every once in a while, they are actually good conversations, but that too is a double edged sword. When you have a team of people out there and one of us is a yakker, I get left behind and then have to hunt everyone else down. Plus its a numbers game, long convos at every door means you don't hit that many doors. So I try to strike a middle ground. One relatively wealthy donor toyed with the idea of mailing out one of the books to his neighborhood, but just settled for a hand signed letter instead.

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RunningLogic's avatar

I guess I was thinking more along the lines of more casual conversations around these events. But yes, I get your point. No easy answers.

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Big E's avatar

Same thing happened in Idaho! The committees and floor debates wouldn’t allow the books to be read out loud. The Library Bill passed. Republican Governor vetoed it. Veto override failed by ONE vote!

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Donna in MO's avatar

We need a new governor. 2024 can't happen soon enough.

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Sharon Beautiful Evening's avatar

There's no "silver lining" - only TRUTH and EVIL!!! Onward Christian Soldiers...is a wonderful hymn of the Christian faith to get our spirits to ENLIVEN and PUSH BACK and MOVE FORWARD in the TRUTH of His Word and might!

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Celayne Jones's avatar

They stretch in into “adults won’t be able to read what they want” in Florida, an absurdity I read in a comments section in the Minneapolis paper. The ignorance is appalling.

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Based Florida Man's avatar

Fake news abounds. I do try to read diverse sources of info to avoid it myself. I think we substackers are pretty well versed.

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Based Florida Man's avatar

"nazis banned books" ... well do you know what the books were? Exactly the same as we have now! Written by... the same people. Interesting, huh?

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Sharon Beautiful Evening's avatar

There is a national PAC called My Faith Votes that is working diligently to get Christian conservatives to GET OUT OF THEIR HOMES AND CAMPAIGN/VOTE at each and every election--be it local/state/national. They are based in GA, but have a D.C. office as well. I have donated and been involved in their mission for several years. Check them out, Donna. https://www.myfaithvotes.org/

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Alan Davis's avatar

What part of Missouri are you in?

From a distance Missouri seems to have grown more red in last few cycles.

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Donna in MO's avatar

Jackson County/Kansas City suburb. Yes, MO has gone from a swing state to a red state. BUT we have issues. One, D's run as R's for the legislature as we don't have party registration/closed primaries. And then good legislation gets killed. Two, R's are complacent and don't fight back or pay attention. The Elks lodge had drag queen story hour in a red county next to ours (Johnson County) and only a dozen people showed up to protest. Deep red Cass County (whose county commissioner banned covid restrictions) just elected 3 lefties to the school board. (non partisan election so most probably had no idea who they were voting for). I keep telling people, the left never sleeps, and they need to get engaged. But feel like people are discouraged, indifferent, or have their heads in the sand.

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Based Florida Man's avatar

Wow interesting news. We've really got to get it together.

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Donna in MO's avatar

yep, like yesterday. 2024 will be here before we know it.

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Monterey's avatar

Yes, I almost have to admire how clever the Left is in coming up with ploy after ploy to get people elected to positions. They have so many tactics that it makes your head spin. They must sit around all day thinking about how best to infiltrate and get their candidates elected. And they always come with cash spilling out of their pockets.The Republicans don't come close to that kind of strategizing.

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Donna in MO's avatar

Yes we are at least a decade behind. I keep telling people. We didn't get here overnight and we aren't going to fix it overnight. We have to learn to play the long game, like the left does. We had 7 libs on the school board in 2021. Won 2 seats last year, one this year. So still 4 vs 3. So next year it is crucial to start laying the ground work NOW for next April., when 2 more seats come up.

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Sharon Beautiful Evening's avatar

Yep--that's exactly what they do. Do you know what Obamanation was before he came out of NOWHERE to be the DEM candidate in 2008? He was an NEIGHBORHOOD ORGANIZER and "activist for human rights" in Chicago. The people with power and wealth in the progressive camp of the DEM party had "groomed" Obama for YEARS before they "released" him to the public eye. I've seen photos of him from the mid 1990's and he was scruffy looking with really bad teeth and NOT married. "Michelle" - you can't find any photos of "her" from that time period--only in the early 2000's. Transformation from one sex to another takes YEARS of hormones and surgery and "counseling". I'd love to see a photo of Michelle as she REALLY IS!! "She's" quite homely without her make up and designer clothes!

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Monterey's avatar

I had wondered if the things about Michelle we're really true. It's hard to believe they could get away with that, but.....

How was she able to write a book without having any photos of her before early 2000s? Admittedly, I have not read the book

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CMCM's avatar

Well, I just searched for "photos of Michelle Obama as a teenager" and tons of photos came up, including a few of her as a young child.

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Sharon Beautiful Evening's avatar

The powerful people "behind" the "mystic couple" of Barry and Michelle have developed a magnificent biopic for both of them. But people on the "inside" know what they REALLY are? People like Joan Rivers know (who died quite under mysterious circumstances a few weeks after stating this on nationwide TV): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9C3SAdw-AA

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Sharon Beautiful Evening's avatar

I just checked online and the clinic/doctors who performed this ill-fated surgery on Joan Rivers completely "rolled over" and admitted they were negligent (which is highly irregular)...I am believe they were "paid off" by the "powers behind the curtain" to "do Joan in". She had so many cosmetic/elective surgeries in her lifetime--it was very easy to "arrange" this "contract killing". https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joan-rivers-daughter-settles-malpractice-suit-against-doctors-in-mothers-death_n_5735cf18e4b08f96c182dc13

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Peter 🔒's avatar

Thank you for posting. this thread is valuable info.

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Donna in MO's avatar

I have written the school board race all up in detail and shared with the county R party email thread. Meeting in a couple of weeks to re-hash what went wrong and lessons we can learn for next time. Technically these races are non partisan so its critical to get the word out to conservatives who is the real deal as the left has mastered running as common sense moderates and then flipping to radical once elected.

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Peter 🔒's avatar

You are doing good work. Most peeps in my area are in fact, Indifferent, and just want "Regular Life" back, whatever that means to them. I keep trying to educate peeps on what is really happening, but most don't want to put out any real effort.

I think that engaging them with questions, inductively inquiring their positions on topics, is the way to start.

I can sense your energy, and I know how urgent the issues upon us are.

I'm in CA, and I can tell you from my conversations with peeps, there are a TON of peeps that were former Dem's that are really truly middle of the road politically, but are seeing how Wacked/Crazy the left has become. That is a good sign here. I am a good example as I never really understood politics, but have read furiously over the last 3-4 years and am now caught up.

I credit an interview of Dave Rubin, Brett Weinstein, Jordan Peterson, and was it Douglas Murray? that created an interest for me to learn more, as they seemed Intelligent and balanced.

Edit: typos.

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Donna in MO's avatar

A lot of people say politics is boring, ugly, corrupt, etc. Easy button to not engage I guess. I grew up in a political household. I was 7 when Roe went down and my parents had us out there marching around planned parenthood. My late dad was an 'old school' D and very involved , remember going door to door with him in grade school. We talked politics at the dinner table. I left the D reservation in the 80's., although still supported a few D's here and there up until the Obama years when the party took a hard left turn. My dad was starting to see the light before he passed in 2014. It's just in my blood I guess, have always been involved but most of my friends just don't 'get it'. Have a new tribe since covid but lots of people new to all this, and new folks make lots of rookie mistakes. But we are all learning and need to quit bickering over tactics and unite under one big strategy grounded on the things we can all agree on. And that's locally, regionally, and nationally. Thank you for stepping up and getting educated!! My sister is in So Cal and a lonely conservative. She dipped her toe in the water back in 2020 and got involved with the Trump campaign but has since thrown up her hands due to ballot harvesting.

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Peter 🔒's avatar

She can look to Peggy hall - https://www.thehealthyamerican.org/ or https://www.theunityproject.org/.

Parental and Medical Freedom Advocates

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Donna in MO's avatar

Thanks I will pass those on!

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Sharon Beautiful Evening's avatar

So...you're the "apple" that didn't fall far from the "tree" of political activism--what a grand heritage to have, Donna.

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Donna in MO's avatar

Funny none of my other 3 sisters caught that bug. One does not even follow it at all, and if I try to talk to her, says she 'hates politics'.

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Sharon Beautiful Evening's avatar

I "hate" political shenanigans as well--but I LOVE my freedom...and "free"dom is NEVER free...we must exercise our God-given, Constitutional rights in order to KEEP THEM STRONG--just like our muscles. Our country is now WEAK and FLABBY--ripe for the takeover by stronger, more arduous and dedicated to their "cause" country (China).

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Donna in MO's avatar

Oh and LOVE Jordan Peterson. I get on his video channel and end up losing hours. One of the smartest people out there. If you have not read Thomas Sowell, highly recommend. I get both men's audio books and listen while I do yard work or clean house.

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Peter 🔒's avatar

Sowell is a legend. Mentioned in Black History month? Nope.

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Monterey's avatar

Good reminder that we need to speak up and tell those who talk about Black History Month that he needs to be included.

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Sharon Beautiful Evening's avatar

You know what Sowell thinks of Obamanation, don't you, Donna?

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Peter 🔒's avatar

lol, answering your own question. :):):):)

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Sharon Beautiful Evening's avatar

We're all in this together - THE BATTLE BELONGS TO THE LORD GOD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. So we must PRAY and PUT ON THE FULL ARMOR OF GOD--every time we leave our homes. When an opportunity arises to share the TRUTH of what is happening in our country (and world) be COURAGEOUS--swallow your fear and pride and SHARE, SHARE, SHARE. Bringing in the sheaves - we will come rejoicing (to paraphrase a very old Christian hymn).

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RunningLogic's avatar

I know all too many of those “get back to regular life” people 😕

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Sharon Beautiful Evening's avatar

Trump has said that repeatedly in his speeches, "The radical socialist Democratic party knows how to ORGANIZE and ENTRENCH their doctrine--they don't back down like the RINOS's". Most Republican "leaders" are anything BUT that!! They're "pussies" as my friend, Jeff, as often said.

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Julie Ann B's avatar

I live in Cass County and it is red. But there is a lot of apathy here; I try to encourage people constantly to get involved, attend meetings, get out to vote and support solid conservatives financially but they don’t step up. Frustrating. In the family I grew up in it wasn’t an option to sit back and do nothing. I’ve never missed voting in an election in my life.

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Donna in MO's avatar

Yes my cousin's daughter has 4 kids in PH. Her mom, my cousin, gets really frustrated at her as she is conservative but does not really pay attention to what is going on at her kids' schools, and says all that CRT and such is a 'big city school issue'. I messaged her and told her to vote for Athena Brattin, but no idea if she did. Athena lost, sadly, and according to the Cass County R chair that I emailed to ask for some other friends there, she was the only conservative on the ballot in PH school board race. WTH!

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Julie Ann B's avatar

I voted for Athena who is very bright and an impressive woman. I couldn’t believe she didn’t win. It might be best to get as many children out of the public indoctrination programs known as schools and homeschool, join forces with other parents and do a co-op school or send them to private schools. Have the state funds follow the student, rather than the failing public schools.

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Donna in MO's avatar

Yes, met Athena several times and hope she stays in the fight, she is impressive and her hubby is a pretty good state senator too. One of our losing candidate's wives called me yesterday asking how she could get involved in school choice movement. I reached out to someone I thought was with Concerned Women of America's local chapter as I thought they advocated for that. This person said she resigned in March, needed a break from politics for a while. (It can burn you out) BUT she said they do not support 'dollars follow student' because with federal dollars come federal strings. If the dollars are Fed, they will want to come in and regulate, monitor or restrict private schools and home schools. I have several homeschooling friends who are against school choice as they want to be left alone. Something to think about anyway. MO's current limited school choice is a 'scholarship' and so I think that avoids the Fed issue.

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Julie Ann B's avatar

Thanks for the info, Donna. It’s overwhelming to think about how quickly our country is devolving and where or how we can make an impact. Then I remember…but God.

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Donna in MO's avatar

Not to mention how hard it is to keep up! Thankful for Jeff. C&C posts AND commenters who help keep my head halfway above water on what is going on. It CAN be overwhelming at times. But we have to keep fighting, as what other choice do we have?

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Julie Ann B's avatar

We have a small army of sane patriots here and I appreciate being part of it!

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Donna in MO's avatar

Oh and Jackson County is a liberal hell hole. 2 conservatives on the legislature vs 7 radical leftists. The 2 moderate D's did not run for re-election last year and replaced by 2 radicals. There are 2 election boards - Kansas City, and the rest of Jackson county. Conservatives win in JaCo but lose as KC has a bigger population and cancels out JaCo votes. Freedom Inc and the D machine run KC like the mafia. Conservatives made a valiant effort at inroads on the KC council and were mostly trounced on Tuesday. A couple of them survived the primary (top 2 vote getters move on) but don't have a snowball's chance in h*ll in the general in June. It's discouraging to say the least.

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Julie Ann B's avatar

That saddens me. Its only a matter of time before 3 cities negate the will of the entire state.

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Big E's avatar

The Republicans / conservatives are LAZY voters. They must become activated to vote and to run! Many don’t run because the heat is enormous and they are busy working, feeding their families, and teaching their kids.

I read an excellent essay about what can happen with a “Rocky Mountain Heist” of apathetic voters. See https://www.freedomman.org/video/rocky-mountain-heist/ (essay and the video).

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Donna in MO's avatar

Yes, the heat is enormous, and having run for City Council (and lost) back in 2018, it does consume your life. But other than the presidential election, it takes less than 5 minutes to vote, and maybe a few hours to research the ballot. I send a sample ballot out to dozens of people and post on social media. And even then people don't always vote. I will ask, did you vote? Oh shoot I forgot. Annoys the crap out of me.

Wow that essay sounds just like my town. Yes, Colorado is a sad case. We go skiing there every year and it used to be a great state. Western CO is still red, but thinly populated. Denver/Boulder/CO Springs areas are a lost cause. We used to spend a day in Denver, but not any more.

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Anne Clifton's avatar

So sad, Donna. As Jeff and others keep telling us, we need to work locally for change.

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Donna in MO's avatar

Lots of ways to get involved besides running for office. Most municipalities have a slew of boards, commissions, and opportunities for input-surveys, public comments, etc. Our meetings are broadcast and stored online even if you can't be there in person. All elected officials have emails and phone numbers and most have social media accounts. The left is very active in all of the above. Conservatives, eh, not so much. There is a small active group of us but not nearly enough and not sure how to motivate them. The usual excuses: jobs, family, etc. We all have those too. Priorities! I want to say: turn off the TV, quit spending hours a day on FB and get out and DO something. Giving up is easy, paddling upstream is hard.

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Anne Clifton's avatar

Well, I have accomplished one of those: turning off the TV. The only thing our TV is used for is to cast The Chosen or American Thought Leaders' interviews, or for watching an occasional movie. We have a newly elected conservative school board member and I've been thinking I need to contact him to find out if our semi-rural schools have the LBGTQ books. I know the county next door does and their libraries are filled with them, as well. We have a new conservative sheriff. You're right, we need to do what we can. I'm a 70 year old grandmother and another thing I am doing is helping teach tenth grade girls at my church. Let's keep up the good work!

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Donna in MO's avatar

Good for you! I tell people: how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Too many think if they can't eat the elephant in one sitting/election cycle, they get discouraged and give up. If we all can do a little, it adds up to a lot!!

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daiva's avatar

Just like C&C multipliers! 😊

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Apr 7, 2023
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Donna in MO's avatar

Yes, there was a PAC formed with the 3 leftist candidates that had people out there all election day waving their flyers and saying 'teacher endorsed candidates'! And people snapping them up. It's a lie. Conservative teachers are heading for the exits at an alarming rate and not all of them endorsed these 3 lefties. But people don't dig deep enough.

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RunningLogic's avatar

I am so tired of “support the teachers” claptrap. So many of them are clueless that they are being used and manipulated. They earnestly buy the whole propaganda garbage about inclusion and kids feeling safe blah blah blah. Their inability to see through all this has made my already not very positive opinion of many teachers go even lower.

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Donna in MO's avatar

I also get tired of them saying they are underpaid. Lots of people with a college degree make less. They get at least part of the summer off, and at least here, they can retire after 30 years with a full pension. How many people have pensions any more?! Was talking about this with our CPA when we were getting our taxes done, and he said those on a pension make $60-$70K a year! And generally retire in their 50's and then get a different job, so they are making 2 incomes.

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RunningLogic's avatar

Oh yes I agree. It may be true in places where the cost of living is high, but the teachers I know all live in very nice houses, drive newer cars, go on vacation two or three times a year, and go out to eat regularly. Plus they always say they work during the summer but that is mostly just a day or two here and there and I never see anyone post about working during breaks, they are always out having fun. They also get lots of extra discounts in many places. I don’t think their jobs are always easy, especially with kids’ and parents’ attitudes nowadays, but I am really over the whining.

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Donna in MO's avatar

But woe to anyone who posts remarks like ours on social media. They attack like a horde of locusts. Another reason I tend not to be very sympathetic.

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CaliforniaLost's avatar

They use the term "racist" the same way, after basing all of their own arguments on race.

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Peter 🔒's avatar

It's quite ridiculous. If one accepts the label, no detective work is needed. i'm sure you understand that. Imagine showing up to a crime scene and only interviewing 1 witness, or 1 piece of evidence and call it DONE / Case Closed. whiskey tango foxtrot.

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