HAPPY INDIGENOUS PEOPLES' DAY COLUMBUS DAY. Enjoy the pictures.

GOOD MORNING, and Let's go, Brandon.

The Biden administration is unraveling by the day. Here's a comparison of Rasmussen Approval Indices of the first 265 days of the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations.

For those of you mathematically inclined, Biden has a 41% approval rate, with only 21% strongly approving. On the other side, 58% disapprove, with 50% strongly disapproving. So his support is tepid (20%) at best, while only 8% are not strongly disapproving.

Not looking good, Joe.

INSTAPUNDIT: "We are ruled by corrupt thugs. Fortunately, they’re also incompetent."

The Roger Kimball link is here. Take the time to read it in full.

Mallard Fillmore nails it.

Don't be scared; be mad. Be really, really mad.

COGS. JUST REPLACEABLE COGS: The Left views everything and everyone as commodities.

HE DARE NOTE VIOLATE HIS PROGRESSIVE 'HYPOCRITE' OATH: California Gov. Newsom's daughter is not vaccinated despite his mandate for students.

THIS IS A SURPRISE? Taliban say they won’t work with US to contain extremism in Afghanistan.

Well, to be fair, it probably is a surprise to the Biden administration.

ONLY 5 MORE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS TO GO: Ammo Grrrll on the benefits of turning 75.

THANK YOU, SAINT FAUCI: Fauci gives the green light on trick-or-treating this Halloween.

So kind of you to let us serfs outside for a few hours....

FALLING LEAVES 2021, WEEK 5.

Without much comment, here are my two standard photos of the pond and fire pit/barn, both taken from our back deck:

There hasn't been a heckuva lot of change over the week -- the oaks are completely denuded; the remaining trees still mostly have their leaves, though that's beginning to change. Our next-door neighbors have noticed the same; their oaks are bare of leaves, but not much else has happened other than the brush has mostly died off -- the same as with us.

This next picture is from down our road a bit at another neighbor's driveway. The oaks, as you can see, are pretty much leaf-free, and we're seeing a bit of red in the smaller hardwoods as they begin to go dormant for the winter.

Here are a couple of our community pond:

The first was taken from the walking path below our house. The oaks are mostly leaf-free and invisible in the picture. There are some reds in the remaining hardwoods, and a smattering of yellow beginning to show. The second picture from the commons shows mostly reds, but with a little yellow (turning brown) in the background.

The last picture, from Cutcane road outside our subdivision is supposed to show bright yellows, but is being very obstinate this year. Maybe next week....

IT'S CALLED THE PANAMA CANAL: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis offers the solution to the supply-chain issues California Gov. Gavin Newsom has exacerbated.

RANDOM THOUGHT: Taxes are the primary source of income for the politicians who keep demanding to increase them.

Why in hell do we vote to fund their greed, incompetence, and lust for power?

WELL, THEY WERE: Manchin told Schumer his remarks were 'f**king stupid'.

And he is.

I CAN'T IMAGINE WHY: Elon Musk is leaving California behind. Although as a [thankfully] former resident, Austin isn't much of an improvement.

POWERLINE'S WEEK IN PICTURES has a number of good ones this week. I have two favorites -- one funny and one ugly. See if you can guess which is which.

Now go see the rest.

GLENN REYNOLDS [AKA INSTAPUNDIT] School boards persecute dissident parents. Note that Reynolds wrote persecute, not prosecute.

That, I think, is an entirely fair statement and an indicator that with the Biden administration's attack on our borders, mask and vaccine mandates, and imposition of critical race theory in our public schools, the second American civil war has begun.

And America fires back:

October 1, 2021

Ms. Viola M. Garcia and Mr. Chip Slaven
National School Board Association
1680 Duke St Fl. 2
Alexandria, VA 22314

Sent via Electronic Mail (info@nsba.org)

Dear Ms. Garcia and Mr. Slaven,

On behalf of our 427,000 members, the undersigned organizations write in response to your September 29th letter to President Biden requesting “federal assistance to stop threats and acts of violence” against school board members, school officials, and teachers.

In that letter you requested that the federal government “investigate, intercept, and prevent the current threats and acts of violence against our public school officials through existing statutes, executive authority, interagency and intergovernmental task forces, and other extraordinary measures” and that the government leverage “the expertise and resources of the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Secret Service, and its National Threat Assessment Center.”

NSBA cites a tiny number of minor incidents in order to insinuate that parents who are criticizing and protesting the decisions of school boards are engaging in, or may be engaging in, “domestic terrorism and hate crimes.” NSBA even invokes the PATRIOT Act.

The association of legitimate protest with terrorism and violence reveals both your contempt for parents and your unwillingness to understand and hear the sincere cries of parents on behalf of their children. To equate parents with terrorists dishonors the thousands of victims of actual terrorism around the world. Have you no shame?

Your letter to President Biden is a thinly veiled threat, intended to intimidate into silence and submission the very constituents that your members ostensibly represent. Our organizations unequivocally oppose violence and find it deeply troubling that you imply otherwise about concerned citizens who care deeply about their community’s children – and who are concerned by the direction that America’s schools have taken.

Citizens are angry that school boards and school officials around the country are restricting access to public meetings, limiting public comment, and in some cases conducting business via text messages in violation of state open meetings laws. They are angry that schools are charging them thousands of dollars in public records requests to view curriculum and training materials that impact their children and that should be open to the public by default. They are angry that pandemic-related learning losses have compounded the already-low reading, writing, and math proficiency rates in America’s schools. They are angry that rather than focusing on declining student achievement, large numbers of districts have chosen to fund, often with hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money, “social justice” and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” programs with finite resources.

Your members refuse to listen to these concerns – and your association has chosen to smear their constituents rather than engage with them in good faith. It is appalling that you would choose to threaten your fellow Americans for having the courage to hold you accountable for your failures.

We will not be bullied. We will not have our speech chilled. We have a constitutional right to petition our elected officials, and we will continue to do so.

We ask that your organization – and your members – engage respectfully and constructively with the country’s parents, grandparents, and concerned citizens so that we might work together to address and improve the quality of America’s public education system for all children.

Sincerely,

Parents Defending Education
Awake IL
CACAGNY
California Foundation for Equal Rights
Citizens for Brandywine School District
Conservative Ladies of Washington
Education First Alliance
Fair Education Santa Barbara
Fight for Schools
Fishers One
Moms for America
Moms for Liberty
New Castle Patriots for Delaware School Committee
No Left Turn
Olentangy For Students
Oregonians for Liberty in Education and Liberty in Education Foundation
Recall MTSD School Board
Take Back Our Schools GCS
Unify Carmel
Utah Parents United
We the Parents Coronado

A .pdf version of the letter can be found here. I'd suggest readers download it and send it to their local school boards and state and federal congresscritters. I'm doing so.

IN RESPONSE to a vocal outbreak of parent protests at school board meetings nationwide, the National School Board Association has demanded federal assistance to 'stop threats and acts of violence against public education 'leaders'.

“America’s public schools and its education leaders are under an immediate threat,” reads the letter signed by NSBA President Viola M. Garcia and NSBA interim Executive Director and CEO Chip Slaven. “The National School Boards Association respectfully asks for federal law enforcement and other assistance to deal with the growing number of threats of violence and acts of intimidation occurring across the nation.”

The letter asks the federal government to “investigate, intercept, and prevent the current threats and acts of violence against public school officials through existing statutes, executive authority, interagency and intergovernmental task forces, and other extraordinary measures to ensure the safety of our children and educators, to protect interstate commerce, and to preserve public school infrastructure and campuses.”

And so Merrick Garland's Department of Justice rushes to respond.

Michael Ramirez takes note:

The unanswered question: What threats and acts of violence?

I agree with Megan Fox: take a page out of the Democrats' playbook and sue the bastards. Then kick 'em out of office at the first opportunity.

POWERLINE: A short history of Democrat mob rule.

FACEBOOK 'WHISTLEBLOWER' just wants more censorship of conservatives.

So Congress must mandate that we (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Google/YouTube, etc.) be required prevent 'misinformation' from being spread willy-nilly throughout social media.

Question (and yes, I know the answer): what is 'misinformation'?

RIGHTFULLY SO: Kyrsten Sinema goes full savage on the White House.

RANDOM THOUGHT: Have you noticed that whenever you choose to ignore (or engage with, for that matter) the progressive Left, their automatic response is to scream louder?