First off, unless you’ve been deep in a cave in the remote jungle or desert somewhere for the past week, you may have heard of a perfectly normal ordinary tourist visit that the FBI made to Mar-a-Lago this week. After their visit, they left with many souvenirs to remember their visit by, including what appear to be some very exclusive and hard to get (dare I say, even a bit treasonous?) collectibles.
Why did the FBI visit Donnie down at MaL? Because the librarians had the receipts.
The archivists at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) had evidence that dear Donnie had not been truthful about his having turned over all the classified documents he waltzed out of the White House with after his term ended.
So the FBI paid him a little social call.
Donald, of course, proceeded to whine that Obama had taken MILLIONS of documents when he left, so what’s the big deal? MILLIONS, I SAY!
NARA was all, “Really, bro? That’s the best you got?” and issued this statement today:
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) assumed exclusive legal and physical custody of Obama Presidential records when President Barack Obama left office in 2017, in accordance with the Presidential Records Act (PRA).
NARA moved approximately 30 million pages of unclassified records to a NARA facility in the Chicago area, where they are maintained exclusively by NARA.
Additionally, NARA maintains the classified Obama Presidential records in a NARA facility in the Washington, D.C., area. As required by the PRA, former President Obama has no control over where and how NARA stores the Presidential records of his Administration.
Don’t mess with the librarians, dude.
Apparently the FBI raid is part of an investigation launched by the National Archives and Records Administration.
That’s right, he gonna get taken down by the librarians!
Oh, they’re comin’ for ya, baby!
They’re organized, they know where everything is, and you never know which way they’re comin’, cuz they’re so quiet.
They are silent but deadly.
Don’t mess with people whose literal job is to know stuff, and how to find information. FAFO, Donnie.
Oh, my, that was cathartic. On a more serious note, though, the battle of the books continues:
On the censorship front, Louisiana 2021 School Librarian of the Year Amanda Jones was being harassed after exercising her First Amendment rights to speak out against censorship of library materials at a Livingston Parish Library Board meeting. The Deplorables present found out she was a school librarian and after the meeting went on the attack, harassing her and creating memes suggesting she was teaching children about anal sex.
Jones initially more or less went into hiding at first, but then became furious at the attempts to intimidate and silence her. So she’s fighting back.
“I'm just sick of it,” she says. “I'm so angry. And I'm so tired. I'm tired as a librarian, seeing librarians getting harassed for doing their jobs. But I'm also tired as an educator of this attitude that people in the public think they can just write whatever they want online and completely defame someone with no consequences. I've had it.”
Jones believes these people chose to attack her, and not anyone else who spoke against censorship at the meeting, because they thought if they could shut her up, everyone else would be afraid to speak up in the future. She is suing Citizens for a New Louisiana executive director Michael Lunsford, as well as the person who runs the Bayou State of Mind Facebook page who created the meme.
She is trying to stop both men from posting more about her and plans to take them to civil court for defamation. While librarians across the country are being attacked and harassed, Jones took the unusual step of going to an attorney.
Stay tuned. Jones says her opponents are well funded, but she’s “in it for the long haul.” She has a GoFundme to support the effort and pay fees, if you’re interested, which has raised a bit over it’s $20,000 goal, but I’m sure she could always use more help.
One last bit from the article, which is worth the read if you haven’t done so, which is very important:
“You don't realize how prevalent it is right now, because a lot of people don't talk about it,” Jones says. “It's scary, and they're embarrassed, and they just want it to go away.”
That silence plays into the hands of the harassers, Jones says.
“That’s what they’re counting on.”
And finally, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) is looking for high school students willing to stand up for their school and public libraries and stand as plaintiffs in lawsuits pushing back against censorship attempts:
“FIRE is looking specifically for student plaintiffs,” he says. “We'd like to bring suits on behalf of students at high schools who are dealing with vigilante censorship by school boards that are ignoring or simply inventing policies for removing challenged books. We'd love to hear from librarians, and we'd love to hear from students.”
With legal action, FIRE is hoping to strengthen the Supreme Court decision in Board of Education, Island Trees School District v. Pico, Creeley said.
In 1976 Stephen Pico and three fellow students sued the Island Trees School District in Levittown, NY, for removing books that the school board said were “anti-American, anti-Christian, and just plain filthy,” and that the bans were part of their duty and obligation to “protect the children” in the school district from “moral danger.” The books included Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut and The Best Short Stories by Negro Writers edited by Langston Hughes, among other titles.
Go get ‘em.