American Idiot
You may have heard that the state of Florida banned a poem by Amanda Gorman from grade school libraries. What’s chilling is that this was triggered by one person complaining, a woman named Daily Salinas. She is a real piece of work.
In a series of screenshots tweeted by the group Miami Against Fascism, Salinas appears to be photographed in several Proud Boys events. In one photo, Salinas appears to be standing next to Enrique Tarrio, the far-right group’s neo-fascist leader who was found guilty of seditious conspiracy last month. “Freedom to choose,” said Salinas’s T-shirt.
In another post that featured a picture of Tarrio, Salinas appeared to hail the Proud Boys, writing, “Los mejores,” or “The best” in Spanish, adding, “My Proud boys,” alongside emojis of the American flag, a heart, a flexed arm and prayer hands.
Miami Against Fascism also posted pictures of Salinas’s apparent involvement with CCDF, also known as County Citizens Defending Freedom USA, a controversial Christian nationalist organization.
The outlet Jewish Telegraphic Agency also reviewed a Facebook account that appeared to be Salinas’s. The account featured a series of rightwing and antisemitic posts, including one about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a fabricated Russian antisemitic text originally published in 1903 about a purported Jewish plan to dominate the world.
According to JTA, the post about the Protocols showed a list of steps on how “Jewish Zionists” would dominate the world.
Not only is she a bigot, she is a nearly illiterate dumbass.
“I see the word ‘communism’, and I think it’s something about communism,” she told JTA, adding, “I didn’t read the words.”
Salinas added that she is Christian, has Jewish friends and enjoys watching the Israeli Netflix series Fauda.
She also revealed that she only read snippets of the books that she sought to ban at the education center. The books include The ABCs of Black History, poetry by Langston Hughes and books on Cuba, all of which she has criticized for “indirect hate messages”, references to critical race theory and gender indoctrination.
“They have to read for me because I’m not an expert,” Salinas told JTA. “I’m not a reader. I’m not a book person. I’m a mom involved in my children’s education.”
The state of Florida allows an idiot who doesn’t read to dictate the contents of school libraries.
Maybe they should only accept criticisms of books from people who pass a test of basic literacy and who can actually demonstrate that they read and understood the whole book in question. But that would be un-American!
… the state of Florida banned a poem by Amanda Gorman …
Just banned by one school in a Miami suburb – so far…
Correction to my # 1 – they didn’t “ban” Gorman’s poem per se, just removed it from the elementary-school-level kids’ shelves, but left it remaining for middle-schoolers.
None of which I find tolerable, but I prefer to keep the accusations accurate.
Ban “Opticks”. It’s about rainbows and was written by a foreigner.
And ignore people who start from and end with their ignorant biases.
Pierce @ #1 — I think you’re in safe territory to say Gorman’s poem was banned…banned from the shelves of the library at least.
Well, isn’t that ironic?
That Alanis Morrisette song starts playing..
Desantis wants to make America Florida and Republicans want every American to be a Daily Salinas.
Is this what the right wingnuts mean by “cancel culture”.
We should strive to avoid words like “chilling” and “frightening” when discussing these criminal acts. The Guardian is especially guilty of this. The right is fishing for fear; let’s not validate it. How about “sickening” and “disgusting” and “shitty” instead?
Banned from grade school libraries, and only allowed to be read by middle-schoolers.
Make no mistake, this was a trial run to see how much they could get away with. It’s a probe — can we ban an innocuous poem associated with the Democrats, and written by a black girl? They succeeded, and also got liberals questioning and squabbling over the details.
I’m sure they’d consider her illiteracy a plus. After all, women, even “concerned moms” like this vile scut, are supposed to be spending their time birthing babies and cleaning. Book Larning is for men-folk.
Florida bans CRT and other neo-McCarthyite bogeys while conversely highlighting the esteemed minority plight of Cuban exilios because they are loyal Republicans.
https://www.flgov.com/2022/05/09/governor-ron-desantis-signs-legislation-to-honor-victims-of-communism-and-preserve-history-of-the-freedom-tower/
At least this more recent one died on calendar: https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/1728
And Desantis’ deliberate targeting of Chinese citizens means Florida is reliving the “Yellow Peril” bogey and bringing back anti-Chinese sentiment with a fury. I’m no fan of the authoritarian Chinese regime either, but Desantis is trending toward their governing style, ironically, intolerant of any dissent. See his spat with Mickey Mouse for expressing his corporate free speech. Aren’t corporations supposedly people protected by the 1st and 14th amendments from targeted retaliatory action by a banana republic dictator in high heeled white rainboots?
Also real antisemitism is surging in Florida. This is not the same thing as being highly critical of the Revisionist strand of Zionism that gave us Likud and the shameless ideologue Bibi. Plenty of secular Jews and more left leaning Zionists (Labor etc) are also not fond of the rightward and religious nationalist turn in Israel. See recent protests there. As an aside I have little truck with BDS in as much as it pushes for an untenable “one state”, but laws targeting boycotters of Israel as such are not what I would consider constitutional. People should be able to boycott Israel for matters of personal conscience without fear of government sanction.
Also Desantis loves him some Bibi. See his recent photo-op at the Wailing Wall with a self-serving political yarmulke. Sickening.
That would work.
How about being more accurate and specific instead.
It is fascist, authoritarian, anti-US constitution, and anti-democracy.
You could also call it a modern day witch hunt, with the witches being “woke”, which is to say equally mythological.
Unamerican would work but that word picked up some baggage during the McCarthy era.
The House Un-American Activities Committee was only disbanded in 1975.
This is also censorship and an attack on free speech.
Another word that has some baggage here – snowflake(s).
They claim the Left & progressive side are “snowflakes” for opposing their hate speech but if ever something reflected their hypocritical toxic fragility, well here it is.. a poem by a black woman and they cannot handle listening to it? Or allowing others to do so?
What was their slogan about facts and feelings again?
I had never read Amanda Gorman’s poem. Until now.
It does seem pretty innocuous.
Here is a link for anyone that wants to read it.
It isn’t very long.
I’m wondering now what reasons the right wingnut crazies gave for having this poem banned. That it was written by a Black woman hardly seems like a good reason.
The Hill We Climb: the Amanda Gorman poem that stole the inauguration show
While DeSantis and his fellow fascists are trolling rubes into banning poems and killing Florida’s economy, Ron is flying around on the private jets of his “friends” and secret donors, who just happen to be rich enough to own and operate private jets. No surprise…hate and bigotry have always been good business.
Targeting of books about Cuba in Florida is not a recent phenomenon. There was a book years ago showing Cuban kids smiling. The horror. Outrageous!
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/16/education/miamidade-school-board-bans-cuba-book.html
https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/ill-literate-happy-cuba-book-exiled/1862428/
Reminds me of Ayn Rand’s objections to Song of Russia:
“Also realize that when all this sweetness and light was going on in the first part of the picture, with all these happy, free people, there was not a GPU agent among them, with no food lines, no persecution — complete freedom and happiness, with everybody smiling. Incidentally, I have never seen so much smiling in my life, except on the murals of the world’s fair pavilion of the Soviets. If any one of you have seen it, you can appreciate it. It is one of the stock propaganda tricks of the Communists, to show these people smiling.”
[…]
“Rep. John R. McDowell: You paint a very dismal picture of Russia. You made a great point about the number of children who were unhappy. Doesn’t anybody smile in Russia any more?
Rand: Well, if you ask me literally, pretty much no.
McDowell: They don’t smile?
Rand: Not quite that way; no. If they do, it is privately and accidentally. Certainly, it is not social. They don’t smile in approval of their system.”
https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand%27s_testimony_before_the_House_of_Representatives_Committee_on_Un-American_Activities
@16- robro
And he signed into law a bill that keeps disinfecting sunshine blocked from his travel records:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/11/politics/ron-desantis-state-travel-records-covid-mandate/index.html
How convenient. That’s what aspiring dictators do. “The law applies retroactively and would cover his extensive use of state planes throughout his time as governor. It would also cover records related to visitors to the governor’s mansion, opponents said.
Such information has long been public record in Florida, a state where public access to state records and meetings is enshrined in its constitution, and it has at times led to uncomfortable disclosures about Florida governors.”
A person who was taught to do this because it makes this person, and others like her, feel very powerful.
@9
Snopes https://www.snopes.com/news/2023/05/24/amanda-gorman-book-florida-school-ban/ shared the voicemail/email that the school sent to parents:
This decision was made by “…the school’s principal, Yecenia Martinez, as well as three teachers, the school’s librarian, a guidance counselor, a local chairperson, and a principal from a different school.”
So, no books were banned, they are accessible to everyone and the decision where to place them was made by elementary school professionals. I just don’t see what I should be outraged about.
“I’m a mom involved in my children’s education.”
No, you’re what we call a dipshidiot. Congratulations on sucking.
@20 marner
Well, yeah, fair point, but what if I want the catharsis of being mad at Florida, and Florida Woman?
I see the word ‘Florida’ and I think it’s something I should be outraged about. They will read Snopes for me because I’m not an expert.
They’re the kinds of people who ruin the country now.
;-)
It is actually worse than even what PZ Myers says in the OP.
Daily Salinas is a Cuban with limited English skills, almost illiterate, and never read any of the 4 books and the poem she complained about.
Which is why her complaint is lacking any sort of details other than unproven assertions without any reasoning behind them. How does the poem cause “confusion” and “indoctrinate students”. If you ask Daily Salinas, she wouldn’t know, not being able to read the poem for comprehension.
She in fact, has no idea who wrote the poem, The Hill We Climb, and claims it was…Oprah Winfrey. Just so you know, Ms. Daily Salinas, all Black women do not look the same.
hemidactylus @ 18, retroactive laws are always rejected by the first court of law that sees a challenge, as retroactive laws are ex post facto laws, which are expressly forbidden in the US Constitution.
marner @ 20, similar instances abound and those responsible then get ordered to move the books according to the misleadership’s direction and if they refuse, are terminated for cause. There is no carve out for local staff to overrule state law.
Fascists always started small, one off things as a test, then escalated rapidly as their power expanded. Nobody objected to book burnings, even as they became great bonfires. Then, the elderly, mentally ill and disabled were taken out of care homes and gassed in carbon monoxide dispensing trucks. Then, on to rounding up Jews, first in ghettos, then into concentration camps.
Were you to show that to a German in 1930, they’d confidently tell you “that could never happen here”. Even if you showed them the films of it happening.
@28 wzrd1: No, not all laws with retroactive effect are ex post facto. Only laws that prohibit or punish, or increase punishment after an already-wrongful act, are disallowed ex post facto laws. For example, if I read Ms Gorman’s poem aloud to the second-grade class in a presentation on “How the Inauguration Happens,” it would be a disallowed ex post facto provision to later pass a civil statute providing that a private citizen can sue me for breach of the peace; or to make such a reading a criminal offense (however minor); or, if it’s already a criminal offense — we are talking about Florida! — to increase the penalty. Conversely, a law (like we recently passed out here in fruits-and-nuts-and-tree-huggers country) that retroactively decriminalizes possession of certain quantities of cannabis sativa is just fine, even though it’s literally “after the fact.”
The real problem here is not that Ms Salinas (and she probably hates being called “Ms” — which is precisely why I’m doing it) wants to be “a mom involved in my children’s education.” (Whether her particular involvement crosses the line to child neglect and abuse is for another time.) The real problem is that she is demanding in substance to be “involved” in the education of every other child in those schools, in that district, in the state… as a marginally literate person who, to slightly paraphrase Mr Twain’s aphorism, has no advantage over the six-year-olds who can’t read good books because she hasn’t.
FWIW, Oprah Winfrey wrote the introduction to book publication of the poem. So that is why Oprah Winfrey is the name she associates with the poem.
@22.beholder :
Huh? I see the word Florida and think, Ah, that’s the US state that can actually see Alpha Centauri but then that’s me..
Oh and yeah, Ithink Everglades, Spanish colonisation of the Americas, the Everglades swamp, the part of the USA most likely to literally vanish due to globalOverheatingand consequent sea level rise, the state thathosts Mar-e-lago and the bloated evil traitor Trump, the state that has anti-kindness and listening to others & anti-listening to science fascist Ron DeathSantis as its governor, the stereotypical wild and craxy tales of “Florida man” and more..
I do read Snopes at times.
I also read the blog here. The relvant story which is a bout a Florida bigot who is trying toimpose her small minded semi literate racism on the rest of Florida and if she could on the rest of the USA and world too.
Your issue here? I’m not sure what point you think you’re making or problem you have with this post..
Well good for you for being opposed to small minded semi literate racism.
Remind us what you keep getting banned for again?
@20. marner : Did you read the OP here? I think you are totally missing the point.
What are your thoughts on Daily Salinas and her complaint abvout a poem she doesn’t read by a writer she confuses with someone else and her intentions and vision here?
FWIW, usually the author of a book…has their name on the cover of the book along with the title.
It’s been that way for at least hundreds of years.
I just checked with Amazon.com.
All editions of Amanda Gorman’s book have her name, Amanda Gorman, and the title, The Hill We Climb, in very large letters taking up most of the cover space.
This is a teachable moment here for Ms. Daily Salinas who admits in her own words that, “I’m not a reader. I’m not a book person.”
Ms. Daily Salinas, the author of a book and the title of a book are usually on…the front cover of a book. If you look at a random sample of books, you will learn how to determine the author and title of…books.
I see Florida for what it is. A goofball state, full of goofballs, with 49 partner goofball states that constitution an occasionally United States.
Their singular thing that makes them stand apart is an internet meme. Currently, conservatism is overexpressed in the state, which occurs in every other states periodically, largely due to a large retiree population.
Conservatives love the ill educated and especially, the semi-illiterate, as they’re easier to control via fearmongering and simplistic propaganda. Again, nothing unique for that state over any other states with a significant conservative base. But, it does allow it to become a test case for extremists on the far right.
So, we’re left with reality. Ms Salinas is “a mom involved in my children’s education.” I imagine she’d also love to be involved in her own brain surgery, should she need it, that doesn’t make it a good idea for her to lead such surgery. The relevance is nil, as one person decided for an entire community and seems to have been allowed to do so, contravening the very notion of a democratic republic, turning our republic into an imperial nation that’s lead by a chickencoop caesar. And some wonder why there is an objection to a semi-illiterate, unelected individual changing policy for an entire community all on that individual’s whim, while that whim is guided crudely by hands unseen.
And she is being maneuvered. She somehow learns of a book, already exceptional by her own admission. She fixates upon that book’s content, a poem, not being able to read it and indeed, unable to ascertain the name of the author and instead fixates upon who wrote a forward to the book, so who told her what was about what?
I’ve had people try to manipulate me in the past, quite a few times, much to their chagrin they come to realize that I, while not some super genius, can recognize such attempts and will countermanipulate them to make them discredit themselves. Others lack sufficient awareness to manage even to recognize manipulation and fall for it, I don’t blame them, but I also don’t accept misbehavior as a result of that manipulation. Misbehavior is misbehavior.
And I’ll never accept one individual playing emptyheaded emperor over me, my children or my grandchildren’s lives, reading choices or votes. That rejection is implacable and shall always be fixed in adamantine determination.
So, I blame neither the pawn, nor the state, but can recognize a test case being poorly played by two sides, where normally such would simply be a flash in a local pan, instead it gets propelled onto the national stage.
As evidenced by no attempt to enforce the idiotic law by terminating the school management and staff, then relocating the “offending work” and by a habituation by some to never allow a good controversy to go to waste.
We had a similar case some time back in York county, the individual basically got what was deserved, the individual was simply reported on in the press and ignored by all. Which is what will eventually happen in that Florida community, if nature is allowed to take her normal course.
Now, excuse me while I handle a few annoying distractions… :/
@29. Silentbob : I don’t “keep” getting banned. It is true that I was banned from this and another couple of FTB blogs many years ago for posting some horrendously Islamophobic stuff that I am ashamed of ever posting and will not post again. I can’t apologise enough for that but, FWIW, yes, I am sorry and will always regret it. I’ve learned since.
I’m still far from perfect, particularly with typing where clumsy fingers,and a tired brain that keeps seeing what I think I’ve typed rather than what’s actually there but I try to do and be better. It’s also pretty typical & keeps happeneing all too often that I think of something I should have written about a nano-second after hitting the post button too. But anyhow. Enough about me. I’m sure I’m nowhere near as fascinating as, say, John Morales apparently is to you..
Are you having a nice day?
From the poem:
“Our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation”
And THAT is why the current cabal of do-nothing corporate Democrats are harmful. Biden, Pelosi, the rest.
Obama could have invoked the 14th amendment when SCOTUS was more favorable, but he did not. He passed on the problem.
But I digress. The current batch of Republicans are so close to fascism the difference makes little practical difference.
@ 34
Here! Here!
Try getting involved in your own education before you insert yourself in that of others, lady.
Florida bans CRT and other neo-McCarthyite bogeys while conversely highlighting the esteemed minority plight of Cuban exilios because they are loyal Republicans.
Next up: Marisleysis Gonzalez makes her big comeback!
And not allowed to return, therefore banned.
Well aren’t you the ignorant fool.
https://carnegieendowment.org/2018/09/18/two-states-or-one-reappraising-israeli-palestinian-impasse-pub-77269
I thought we had free public schools precisely so we wouldn’t end up with a nation full of idiots like Daily Salinas, a person who doesn’t want to put in the hard work of becoming literate and educated and doesn’t want anyone else to be better than her either.
Behold the crab pot in action.
@8 Works for me.
@21 This +1000
@28
Whoosh!
What a fucking moron you are, Birger. (And the fact that the severely disturbed Ms. MacKenzie agrees proves it).
@30
Um, I really don’t care much about one random fool. What I do care about is if it’s true that the state of Florida is permitting that one random fool to dictate its media center policies – and even going so far as to allow that fool to ban books.
And if this case is any indication of the Florida process; it is untrue that said fool dictates policy or bans books.
“Severely disturbed,” eh?
Please, I’ve heard better insults from the jocks who used to beat me up in high school.
Do better.
Also, I fail to see how fair criticism of liberals and Democrats constitutes mental illness.
OT
Today is Memorial Day in USA.
I just learned the house raided the PACT act for ten billion dollars as part of the unholy budget ceiling deal.
Because they are against “irresponsible spending”. On things like …sick veterans???
And this example of budget ceiling deal is why I despise the leading clique of Democrats.
Happy memorial day!
Akira
He said “Ms.” MacKenzie. Are you sure that’s referring to you?
Akira @44: He may have been referring to your repeatedly, and passionately, expressed “fuck you and die” aimed at a lot of people you don’t even know, and their families. Mileage seems to vary on whether that is “fair criticism”.
@ 46
Meh. If it was deliberate misgendering rather than a mere typo, I don’t care. Like Iggy Pop, I don’t think it’s shameful to be a woman.
@42. marner :
Yet that one fool had an impact on what happened to the book in question here – see comment # 38 by Jim Balter. It has affected everyone who now finds it harder to access a powerful book by an African-American poet.
Moreover, it isn’t, just “one random fool” as Ms Salinas is one of many in the book banning movement trying to suppress and censor education and access to factual historical information and ideas in the United States. Salinas is neither alone but one of worryingly many brain-washed people like her nor is what she is doing random – there’s a very discernible pattern and political& cultural (politico-cultural?) trend and movement here of which Ms Salinas is one notable individual case study.
@41. Jim Balter : why do you think (#
2834 actually) birgerjohansson’s comment :wrong at all let alone “fucking moronic” please? I don’t understand why you think that and you’ve made no actual argument there to show why you think that.
Also you can’t judge someone based solely on who agrees with them e.g. your note about Akira MacKenzie and whilst a lot of people might be “severely disturbed”” (mental illness is a common thing, a lot of people myself included have issues here) that doesn’t necessarily invalidate their points and arguments.
It wasn’t deliberate. My apologies for the error.
@50
You’re too fucking stupid to grasp that I quoted one line from BJ’s comment. That you quote the whole thing shows that you’re a cretin. And anyone who thinks that Biden and Pelosi are “do-nothing” is appallingly stupid, ignorant, and intellectually dishonest.
@ ^ Jim Balter : I might not be the most intelligent person here but if all you write in a comment (eg #41) is name-calling it probly shouldn’t surprise you that people don’t see why you are doing the name calling and are confused about what you are actually objecting to and talking about.
FWIW I agree that calling Pelosi and Biden “do-nothings” is false and unfair although I also really wish they would do a lot more and take far stronger and more progressive positions too and understand the frustration this causes since I do feel it myself.
Whilst you’re here and answering questions; you never did tell me why you seem to disbelieve the account of Noelle Dunphy?
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2023/05/16/brain-bleach-stat/#comment-2178744
I don’t understand hence my asking since it does puzzle me and I suspect others too here.
PS. Being so very bright and all, you will understand that such things as hyperbole exists & comments like birgerjohansson’s #34 and some of Akira MacKenzie’s admittedly much more Over The Top lines might be, well, that and rhetorical exaggeration, right Jim Balter?
Hey, I’m pretty durn literal-minded myself and yet I manage to grok that much.
StevoR, do yourself a favour and give it up.
(To quote: “Whoosh!”)
—
BTW: https://web.archive.org/web/20111011191109/http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/02/february_needs_a_molly.php
@ Morales
Speaking of whoosh, is there a reason you’re linking to an archive of a 15 year old post from the creepy days when Pharyngula was like a weird cult that gave itself awards other than to have people ask why you’re linking to an archive of a 15 year old post from the creepy days when Pharyngula was like a weird cult that gave itself awards?
Silentbob@56,
Tediously pedantic or obscure as John Morales can be, he’s not a fraction as tedious as your obsessive sniping at him. Give it a rest.
Yes, Silentbob. There is a reason.
—
Anyway, since you bring that aspect up, yes, that was a time of ferment and of fervency.
PZ got biggish in the atheosphere, got invitations.
The days of pharyngulation!
Unlike some, PZ did not monetise and sell out.
Parlay his prominence and popularity for profit.
(He kept and keeps this blog as an avocation, not a vocation)
You had to be there to, as StevoR pithily put it, grok it.
And, of course, the Mollies are currently canonically deprecated.
(But sure, nothing more cultish than the acclamation of one’s peers.
“Best and fairest” at the local sporting club? Weird cult vibes, right there!)
[I should add that I linked to an archive because Sb is now a zombie site. Corrupt]
John Morales@58,
Ah, that link to the archived site takes me back! I’d have said offhand that I wasn’t yet commenting in February 2008, but I remember that weird photo of the burst snake – which I took to be the point of linking to that post, although I admit I’m not quite sure who was the snake and who the ‘gator.
Gator, snake, scissors?
Sorry, the silly came and took me away. Just not far enough away. ;)
Florida Man here. This shit is cringe. I know rational skeptics in the past were not so rational and misused skepticism, but that doesn’t mean we have to throw the baby out with the bathwater here.
Are you sure, logicalcat?
Put down that trout, it’s frozen! ;)
Seriously though, we lived in SW Philly for decades and one somewhat new neighbor arrived and was, ahem, disruptive ala Florida Man and her family dutifully followed. She was proud to announce to one and all that she was literally illiterate.
Oddly, in private, she was oddly happy to learn, when presented as opportunities, rather than required duties and such.
That started a my last military career genera, second chance NCO. Take knuckleheads under my wing and retain them. Only lost two, both to drug offenses.
The system failed her, she failed it back and only out of band works for approach and rapprochement.
Many such do have a similar trait to me, we thrive in a steep learning curve and increased responsibility, far out of scale with the traditional approach.
There are still failures, that goes with life and a few, I’ll take personal credit for screwing up from optimal growth.
Children are an excellent example. They don’t come with instruction manuals, early models experience development errors, later models, not so much, then you get grandchildren to learn even more from.
Want perfection, go to another universe. Until then, we deal with that which we have, our own knowledge, hopefully acquired wisdom and experience and we’ll still fuck up occasionally and retain a remnant The Florida Man.
There is Florida Man and The Florida Man, just as there’s Pennsyltucky man and The Pennsyltucky man. Both endemic in my current area.
They’re learning, slowly, via example. By someone who can outshoot many of them.