DL Open Thread: Sunday, August 27, 2023

Of course they have.

Another Racist Kills And Gets Killed.  In Jacksonville, FL.  Don’t tell me that the racial hatred spewed by Trump and his Magat minions has nothing to do with the increased spate of shootings:

Three people were killed Saturday in a racially motivated attack after a gunman targeted Black people at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, in one of several weekend shootings that again shocked Americans in public places – from stores to football games to parades.

“This shooting was racially motivated and he hated Black people,” Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said at a news conference early Saturday evening.

Waters said the shooter, who he described as a White man in his 20s, shot and killed himself after the attack. The suspect left behind what the sheriff described as three manifestos outlining his “disgusting ideology of hate” and his motive in the attack.

How The Right-Wing ‘Hillsdale College’ Got A Foothold In Bucks County Public Schools.  If you guessed a right-wing Board Of Education, you’d be correct:

As school starts Monday, some teachers in the Pennridge School District have warned they aren’t prepared to teach anew social studies curriculum, revamped this summer with the help of a consultant tied to a conservative Christian college.

The curriculum, written in part by consultant Jordan Adams, lists Hillsdale College’s “1776 Curriculum” as a “required” resource for teachers — spurring outrage from community members who have accused the Republican-led school board of seeking to whitewash history and steer children into a conservative worldview.

The board, which is slated to vote on the new courses Monday night, has been embroiled in controversy over its moves to reshape curriculum. After voting in December to reduce social studies requirements at the high school, the board moved to incorporate the Hillsdale curriculum.

The 3,200-page curriculum, available for free online, has been pushed by the college amid conservative opposition to equity efforts and the New York Times’ 1619 Project. But historians have criticized it as ideologically driven; Princeton historian Sean Wilentz told The Inquirer the Hillsdale curriculum “fundamentally distorts modern American history into a crusade of righteous conservative patriots against heretical big-government liberals.”

Keep this in mind the next time a school board election comes up.  Oh, one little Hillsdale tidbit from Wiki:

Since the late 20th century, in order to opt out of the US government’s Title IX nondiscrimination requirements, Hillsdale has declined government financial support. Instead, Hillsdale depends entirely on private donations to supplement students’ tuition.

Utopia In Cali?  Something tells me an utopia envisioned by tech billionaires may at best only be an utopia for billionaires:

After weeks of local speculation, the purchasers of 55,000 acres of northern California land have been revealed. The group Flannery Associates – backed by a cohort of Silicon Valley investors – has quietly purchased $800m worth of agricultural and empty land, the New York Times has reported. Their goal is to build a utopian new town that will offer its thousands of residents reliable public transportation and urban living, all of which would operate using clean energy.

The project was spearheaded by Jan Sramek, a 36-year-old former trader for the investment banking firm Goldman Sachs, and is backed by prominent Silicon Valley investors including Michael Moritz, a venture capitalist; Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of Linkedin; Laurene Powell Jobs, the founder of the philanthropic group Emerson Collective and wife of Steve Jobs; Marc Andreessen, an investor and software developer; Patrick and John Collison, the sibling co-founders of the payment processor Stripe; and the entrepreneurs Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman, the Times reported.

The land bought by the firm encircles Travis air force base in Fairfield, a city of about 120,000 residents and home to the Anheuser-Busch Co brewery and the Jelly Belly jelly bean factory.

Despite the lofty goals set forth by Flannery, the group faces an uphill battle that will affect each step of the process of creating a new city from scratch. The firm has been sued by farmers who sold their land to the group over what the land owners describe as an “illegal price-fixing conspiracy”. Flannery would have to get the blessing of officials at the local and state levels and residents. It will also have to navigate environmental and zoning roadblocks, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Hey, I hope this community gets off the ground.  If for no other reason than for the inevitable The Housewives Of Utopia reality series.  Might I suggest that the entire community steep itself in Esperanto?  Hmmm, I wonder, does this foretell a parade of tech billionaires trekking through Arden?  Pro tip: Don’t become too enamored of Gilbert & Sullivan.  Trust me–a little goes a long way.

What do you want to talk about?