Day: June 17, 2021

Tennessee Educators Marched Against Critical Race Theory Ban Last Weekend; Event Organized by Black Lives Matter

Corinne Murdock

Last weekend, around 50 Tennessee educators marched through Memphis to oppose the state’s new ban on critical race theory in the “Downtown Memphis Solidarity Walk.” The educators gathered at the site where a historical slave market run by Confederate General and Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest once stood, then walked by the Schools for Freedman historical marker and the Memphis Massacre marker before concluding at the National Civil Rights Museum. 

The march was part of a national pledge called “Day of Action.” The effort was organized by Black Lives Matter (BLM) At School, a national coalition with loose ties to the original BLM, and the Zinn Education Project, which provides supplemental curriculum for “a more accurate, complex, and engaging” version of U.S. history. Some of their materials include information on the 1619 Project, reparations, environmental racism, and antiracism.

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Teacher Shares Behind-Scenes Look at How Unions Further Woke Agenda

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Brenda Lebsack

California teacher Brenda Lebsack says she began seeing “red flags” in her school district when she decided to become more involved with her union, the California Teachers Association.

After she began attending the union’s conferences in 2015, Lebsack says, she was alarmed to see that many of the topics weren’t academic but instead focused on social justice, human rights, and LGBTQ issues.

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Joe Biden Asks Americans to Report ‘Radicalized’ Friends and Family to the Government

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Joe Biden

In an unsettling development, the administration of Joe Biden is asking American citizens to betray friends and family who have different political views, and report them to the government for allegedly being “radicalized,” as reported by Breitbart.

During a teleconference with the press, a senior administration official said that they were seeking “to improve public awareness of federal resources to address concerning or threatening behavior before violence occurs.” “This involves creating contexts,” the official continued, “in which those who are family members or friends or co-workers know that there are pathways and avenues to raise concerns and seek help for those who they have perceived to be radicalizing and potentially radicalizing towards violence.”

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Bill Introduced by Rep. Harshbarger Would Ban Federal Vaccine Passports

Cooper Moran

Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger (R-TN-01) introduced a bill in the House of Representatives on Tuesday that would prohibit the federal use of a COVID-19 vaccine passport or any other similar required proof of vaccination.

“Vaccine passports are a restriction on individual liberties, period,” Harshbarger said of the attempts by some governments to require proof of vaccination in certain circumstances. 

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Federal Judge Orders Biden Administration to Halt Oil and Gas Leasing Ban

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A federal judge ordered the federal government to halt its ban on new oil and gas leases in a major setback for President Joe Biden’s administration.

Judge Terry Doughty, of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, granted a preliminary injunction that had been requested by a large coalition of Republican state attorneys general in an order released Tuesday evening. The Department of Interior is prohibited from enforcing the oil and gas leasing ban until the case is concluded, according to the order.

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Commentary: Connecting the Dots on ‘Wit and Wisdom’

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Williamson County parents are upset about the recently adopted Wit & Wisdom curriculum being used with their children. On Tuesday, June 15, 2021, about 350 parents, grandparents, and concerned citizens settled into their seats at the Moonshine Harley-Davidson in Franklin, Tennessee to listen to Robin Steenman and her Moms For Liberty-Willamson County discuss how the concerning curriculum snuck its way into our school district. In a mostly Republican, conservative, community on the outskirts of Nashville, residents were shocked.

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Commentary: Are Race-Based Government Programs on the Verge of Extinction?

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United States District Judge William C. Griesbach sustained a motion last week for a temporary restraining order to block a program under the Department of Agriculture to forgive certain government loans for farmers belonging to at least one “socially disadvantaged group.” The Department of Agriculture identified groups eligible for this classification as “a group whose members have been subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice because of their identity as members of a group without regard to their individual qualities . . . one or more of the following: Black/African American, American Indian, Alaskan native, Hispanic/Latino, Asian, or Pacific Islander.”

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Senate Unanimously Passes Bill Making Juneteenth a Federal Holiday

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Juneteenth Plaque

The Senate unanimously passed legislation Tuesday making Juneteenth a federal holiday.

Juneteenth, already celebrated in the majority of states on June 19, commemorates the official end of slavery in Confederate states on that day in 1865. Though President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, hundreds of thousands of slaves did not learn of their freedom until after the end of the Civil War.

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Commentary: White Liberal Control Freaks Are a Menace to Liberty

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The greatest threat America faces isn’t “white supremacy” or any foreign power, but America’s own ruling class. China understands very well that Americans have less to fear from Chinese armies than they do from their own Stasi-like informants with “In This House, We Believe . . . ” signs on their front lawns. 

The Chinese have a word for this demographic: baizuo, which literally means “white left.” It’s a political pejorative referring to narcissistic white American liberals. 

In a time of vaccine passports, “disinformation,” and make-believe insurrections, the anti-social, authoritarian tendencies of this lot have never been a clearer menace to America and its tradition of civil liberty. 

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Behind the Scenes of the Effort to Recall Six Pro-Critical Race Theory Loudoun County School Board Members

Corinne Murdock

Parents are organizing to recall six members of the Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) School Board who kept schools closed and reportedly allowed and encouraged critical race theory curriculum. LCPS parent Ian Prior – one of the leaders behind Fight For Schools, the recall effort – informed The Virginia Star that they have secured more than the 10 percent of votes each member obtained during the last election – and they’ve been busy gathering more. 

“At last count last Sunday, we were at 60 percent for Beth Barts, 54 percent for Ian Serotkin, 42 percent for Denise Corbo, 27 percent for Leslee King, 24 percent for Brenda Sheridan, and 20 percent for Atoosa Reaser. That was 10 days ago. People are out there collecting signatures: going door-to-door and attending events,” explained Prior. “We want to make sure that we have more signatures than required, which will obviously protect us from any challenges or whatnot. We’re still determining the best way forward.”

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Two Never Again Bills Emerge from Minnesota Republicans to Stop Emergency Powers

Hayley Feland

Two competing Republican bills have been brought forward seeking to end Governor Tim Walz’s emergency powers and ensure that it will never happen again. One of the bills, HF28 was introduced to the Special Session on Monday and was authored by Representative Cal Bahr (R-MN-31B), along with Representative Jeremy Munson (R-MN-23B), Representative Eric Lucero (R-MN-30B), Representative Shane Mekeland (R-MN-15B), Representative Steve Drazkowski (R-MN-21B), Representative Mary Franson (R-MN-08B), Representative Sondra Erickson (R-MN-15A), and Representative Tim Miller (R-MN-17A).The other bill, HF2204, or the Unilateral Emergency Powers Repeal Act, was authored by Representative Erik Mortensen (R-MN-55B), and Representative Jeremy Munson (R-MN-23B), Representative Steve Drazkowski (R-MN-21B), Representative Tim Miller (R-MN-17A), and Representative John Poston (R-MN-09A). This bill was first brought forward in March, but according to Action 4 Liberty President Jake Duesenberg, it was later not supported in the legislature by some of the same lawmakers who signed it.

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Michigan Senate Passes $4.38 Billion Federally Funded School Aid Fund Bill

The Center Square

The Michigan State Senate passed a School Aid Funding supplemental appropriations bill.

The entire $4.38 billion sum approved by the Senate on Tuesday afternoon is derived from federal funding, which includes $700 million of COVID-19 relief money approved last year during the administration of Donald Trump and another $3.66 billion from the American Rescue Plan signed by President Joe Biden in March.

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Georgia Audit Documents Expose Significant Election Failures in State’s Largest County

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Documents that Georgia’s largest county submitted to state officials as part of a post-election audit highlight significant irregularities in the Atlanta area during last November’s voting, ranging from identical vote tallies repeated multiple times to large batches of absentee ballots that appear to be missing from the official ballot-scanning records.

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Virginia Attorney General Candidates Attack Each Other’s Weaknesses at First Debate

Eric Burk

Attorney General Mark Herring and Delegate Jason Miyares (R-Virginia Beach) laid out competing visions for the Office of Attorney General in their first debate Tuesday.

Herring said the attorney general should work for safety, justice, equality, and opportunity for all Virginians. “I believe the attorney general should be the people’s lawyer,” Herring said.

In his opening remarks, Miyares cited his experience as a prosecutor, “which I think is so important when you’re running to be Virginia’s top cop,” he said.

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Ohio House of Representative Expels Member for Corruption

Cooper Moran

The Ohio House of Representatives voted to expel one of their members, former Speaker Larry Householder (R-Glenford), following Householder’s indictment in an alleged $60 million federal bribery scheme.

Republican members advocated for the vote to be held on the House floor, rather than waiting for the expulsion legislation to pass through various committees. The historic, bipartisan 75-21 vote approved a resolution that contended Householder was not qualified for office.

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Governor DeSantis Suggest Appointing DEP Secretary Without Florida Cabinet Approval

Casey Owens
Florida State Capitol

During a Florida Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Governor Ron DeSantis insinuated the possibility of appointing a new secretary for the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) without the Cabinet’s approval.

Controversy regarding the appointment comes after Former DEP Secretary Noah Valenstein, who had held the position for four years and was approved by the Cabinet in 2017 and 2019, officially resigned on June 4th.

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Democrats Say Minnesota Governor’s Emergency Powers Could Last Until August

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Gov. Tim Walz

Democrats said Monday that Gov. Tim Walz’s emergency powers will most likely continue into August.

Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman, D-Brooklyn Park, thinks both the governor and the legislature “foresee an end to the peacetime emergency sometime in the not-too-terribly distant future,” she said during a press conference Monday regarding the start of the special session.

She later indicated an end to the peacetime emergency sometime in August.

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Arlington County Prepares to Rename Lee Highway After Virginia’s First Black Congressman John Langston

Eric Burk
Lee Highway

The Arlington County Board is expected to vote in July on a motion to rename U.S. Route 29 from Lee Highway to Langston Boulevard. On Saturday, the Board voted to defer the vote to allow more time for community comment and to refine cost estimates, according to a county press release. The release said the supervisors expressed “broad support for the motion.”

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Discrepancy Found Between Nikki Fried’s English and Spanish Websites

Casey Owens

A discrepancy between Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried’s English and Spanish websites has been recently criticized as a deliberate attempt to withhold progressive ideas from Hispanic and Latino voters.

Newsweek noticed the discrepancy and quickly questioned Fried’s campaign team who, without responding, changed the Spanish website to match the English website.

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DeSantis, Fried Spar over Defunding Police Issue

Grant Holcomb

On Tuesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried had a war of words related to governance issues related to the defunding police issue.

Fried, who is running as a Democratic candidate to unseat DeSantis in the 2022 gubernatorial election, said DeSantis was bullying local municipalities under the rule of Republican control in Tallahassee.

“Now, the so-called party of small government is yet again telling government closest to the people what they can and cannot do with their money,” she said. “So, as you vote today, ask yourself, who is really the big government bureaucrat in the faraway Capitol?”

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Metro Nashville City Council Votes to Increase Police Spending by $10.5 Million in Finalized Budget; Activists Disrupt Meeting

Corinne Murdock
Activists Disrupt Meeting

Metro Nashville City Council voted to increase its spending on Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) by $10.5 million, per the finalized budget. Mayor John Cooper approved the budget on Wednesday. Some of this funding will go toward the new southeast precinct, totaling up a 5 percent increase. Overall, the budget sits at around $2.6 billion. 

Following passage of the budget during Tuesday’s meeting, the Nashville People’s Budget Coalition shouted down the council members during its 45 minute recess. As a result, the council was unable to continue its business on time.

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