Skyping with elephants: a new paradigm for education

In a new speech, North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a Republican, demanded that all politicians who encourage people to get vaccinated for COVID-19 should be voted out of office.

"Anybody that takes this vaccine needs to be voted out of office," said Robinson, to applause from his audience. "It's not your job to convince anybody to take that vaccine. That's not your job. Your job is to make sure it's available to anybody who wants it. That's your job. And you should give them good, solid, scientific information about that vaccine and about the virus so that they can make an informed decision for themselves. I don't care whether it's Governor Cooper. I don't care whether it's Joe Biden. Nobody should be telling anybody that they should have to take this vaccine."

Local school board meetings are still going haywire as right-wing parents lose their minds over mask mandates. California schools intend to sue Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) for ushering in a mask mandate, which could prove to be the first case law on the topic.

But in North Carolina, things got so heated that the school board members simply adjourned and walked away, leaving the angry crowd still screaming at them.

On Thursday, The Washington Post highlighted President Joe Biden's speech at a ceremony in the Rose Garden awarding medals to the police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol during the January 6 attack — and used the moment to fight back against all the efforts within the GOP to whitewash or rewrite the history of the event.

"It wasn't dissent. It wasn't debate. It wasn't democracy," said Biden. "It was insurrection. It was riot and mayhem. It was radical and chaotic, and it was unconstitutional. Maybe most important, it was fundamentally un-American."