“I was reading a recent post by Chad Aldeman at Aldeman on Education that touched on something I’ve been thinking about a lot: the rise of disorder in our schools. I’ve heard anecdotes for a while, but I first saw it clearly in data while working on a project about teacher working conditions. Since the pandemic, teachers report substantial declines in their working conditions along many dimensions. Most notably, they report a sharp increase in classroom disruptions. We are losing control of the learning environment, and that’s a serious mistake.” [editor’s note: Education bureaucrats’ control fetishes seem to be the single biggest driver of non-learning in government schools. I was amazed about 20 years ago at how much the mask has come off; even by that point, “students” were openly treated as prison inmates who must never, ever, ever do anything but exactly as told – TLK] (02/25/26)
“MAGA has been, throughout, an amorphous entity — curling, folding, dividing — as it slimed and slithered its way into this American life. Neocon MAGA is one particularly noteworthy division within, a more-than-slightly schizophrenic aberration that, if MAGA-world had any interest in maintaining conceptual coherence, would surely have long ago been run out of town. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is Neocon MAGA’s chief exemplar. In contrast to unreconstructed neocons like Lindsay Graham and John Bolton, who have tried to bootlick their way into President Donald Trump’s good graces with spotty results, ‘Little Marco’ was a neoconservative boy who has growth-spurted his way into a Neocon MAGA man.” (02/25/26)
