Non-Theoretical Conspiracies

There was a story that came out a couple of weeks ago; you’ve probably heard it by now. So I’m looking at it not to bring you news, but to look at the meaning.

The originating article is “Unindicted Co-Conspirators in1/6 Cases Raise Disturbing Questions of Federal Foreknowledge” Revolver, June 14, 2021.

screenshot of the Revolver story

Tucker Carlson talked about that report, and the inferences we can draw from it, the next day (at 4:52 in video).

Tucker Carlson discusses the Revolver story.
screenshot from here

And then he responded to the swarm of attacks for his report: “Tucker Carlson’s Response to Media Freak Out About Questioning FBI’s Role in January 6th is ‘Classic Tucker.’” 

The Revolver story suggests asking three questions as we look at 1/6 (their shorthand for the January 6^th breaching of the capitol). The links are also theirs:

·        In the year leading up to 1/6 and during 1/6 itself, to what extent were the three primary militia groups (the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, and the Three Percenters) that the FBI, DOJ, Pentagon and network news have labeled most responsible for planning and executing a Capitol attack on 1/6 infiltrated by agencies of the federal government, or informants of said agencies?

·        Exactly how many federal undercover agents or confidential informants were present at the Capitol or in the Capitol during the infamous “siege” and what roles did they play (merely passive informants or active instigators)?

·        Finally, of all of the unindicted co-conspirators referenced in the charging documents of those indicted for crimes on 1/6, how many worked as a confidential informant or as an undercover operative for the federal government (FBI, Army Counterintelligence, etc.)?

Carlson asks different but related questions:

1.     How many of the so-called insurrectionists on January 6 had a relationship with the FBI? How many of these FBI moles encouraged others that day to break the law at the Capitol?

2.     If the Justice Department knew there were going to be protestors massing at the Capitol that day, and it’s clear they did know, then why didn’t they do anything to stop the riot? Why did police at the Capitol allow protestors to walk in, as video shows that they did?

3.     Why can’t we see the tape for ourselves? The government is hiding more than 14,000 hours of video surveillance tape that shows exactly what did happen at the Capitol that day? Why are they hiding that? And why aren’t news organizations demanding to see it?

Conclusions are speculation, until proof can be shown—but the government's failure to provide the evidence that could debunk the speculation is added evidence that these investigative journalists are on the right track.

The Revolver journalists walk us through their systematic research.

The groups at the capitol can be divided into two groups: First, “mostly harmless tourists,” what they call “MAGA moms,” just regular people who were there to hear a Trump speech and participate in a gathering to tell Congress to consider the alternate electors in the several contested states. Some of these may have entered the capitol after doors were open and guards guided them in, then walked around, taking selfies. These are either completely innocent or are guilty of minor trespassing or property crimes. Nothing violent. 

people let into the Capitol on January 6th
screenshots from this video tweeted by Christina Bobb

Second, those who were “violent with police officers, broke down barricades, smashed windows, belonged to a ‘militia’ group engaged in military-style planning prior to the event, discussed transporting heavy weaponry, and so forth.”

The writers point out that much effort has gone to defending those innocent people at the capitol that day. And they need to be defended. But that has left the real story undiscovered. The writers say,

We are especially interested in the unindicted co-conspirators who belonged to any of the big three “militia groups”—the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, and the Three Percenters.

They have been looking carefully at the charging documents. What they want to know is, how many of those involved in that second, violent group were undercover government agents or their informants?

There’s a long history of undercover agents going beyond their legitimate duty to observe and inform, and moving to the role of participant—or even instigator. As a most recent example, they look closely at the kidnapping attempt of Michigan Governor Whitmer. Of the 14 indicted, 5 were FBI people. And it appears they were among the planners, the ones who pushed the event from a protest to a serious illegal act.

It looks as though, left to their own devices, the groups being infiltrated would have steered clear of serious illegal actions. They wouldn’t even have conceived of them.

In other words, it’s a basic case of entrapment.

Steven D'Antuono, Assistant Dir. FBI DC office,
reporting Jan. 12, 2021, on Capitol Hill riots.
screenshot from here

Yet, after this discovery of FBI entrapment, rather than being disciplined, the Detroit field office manager, Steven D'Antuono, was promoted to head the Washington, DC, field office, in time for the January 6th riot. So,

Revolver took special notice of not only the unusual volume of unindicted co-conspirators, but a still more unusual feature that the statements and actions of the unindicted co-conspirators in many cases seemed far more egregious and aggressive than those of the persons actually indicted.

US Attorney Michael Sherwin explains his
"shock and awe" policy on 60 Minutes.
screenshot from here

Much of the very long Revolver article details what they mean. They show that these unnamed people were involved in activities and incitement more clearly prosecutable than many of those charged. And based on then-acting US Attorney for DC Michael Sherwin's policy of “shock and awe,” to "charge as many people as possible," these unnamed are left uncharged. Why weren't they charged? It’s a legitimate question. It looks like it's because they are FBI agents or informants.

It appears the FBI, working with similar groups as in Michigan, infiltrated in much the same way ahead of January 6th. And it looks likely that what happened at the capitol on 1/6 would have been nothing more than a loud demonstration without the urging of government infiltrators.

At the very least, if infiltrators and/or informants were aware of the potential for violence that day, why did they go along but fail to notify their agencies? In fact, it’s inconceivable that they did not inform leadership. Leadership knew.

So it’s worse if they notified their handlers and no precautions were taken. Worse yet, if they notified them, and precautions were prevented. It does look possible that 1/6 was that worst case.

A bipartisan Senate report took five months to show, oh dear, we had intelligence failures and some lapses in judgment. Not satisfying.

Were their lapses purposeful? To entrap? We might know for certain, if we could see unredacted charging documents and/or the 14,000 hours of video surveillance.

Joe Biden has called 1/6 the worst attack on our country since the 1800s, maybe the Civil War era. Worse than Pearl Harbor. Worse than 9/11. Worse than presidential assassinations and attempted assassinations. Worse than previous occupations of the capitol. Worse, certainly, than the ongoing riots in Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, and elsewhere—including autonomous zones claiming land seized from the United States—which are labeled simply as mostly peaceful protests, while violent crime skyrockets 400% and higher in those cities.

And yet the rioters at the capitol took zero lives. That’s right, the only life lost because of violence was Ashli Babbit, an unarmed woman, by all accounts a patriot, a veteran, who got caught up in the break-in of the Senate Chamber—shot at point blank range by a police officer, when she was posing no danger to anyone, and was surrounded by police, who could have nonviolently prevented her from doing harm at any moment. We know it was an officer who shot her; we don’t know his identity. We don’t have any word on discipline for this overuse of force.

Early stories about the death of Officer Brian Sicknick being bludgeoned by a fire extinguisher and later dying of injuries was totally fabricated. Later stories that he died from inhaling bear spray were also found to be false. He died the following day of what his family and medical records report are unrelated natural causes. But do we know where the original lie came from? Who reported it? What was their source? Why didn’t they corroborate it?

Among all the people present at the capitol that day, zero firearms were confiscated. The so-called insurrectionists were unarmed, and they killed no one. And they left the premises within hours, and then left the city to go home.

No government officials were harmed. None were in danger; they were cleared to safety in the first minutes of the breach.

The business of Congress continued later that evening—probably going through with less objection than it would have without the interruption.

No one was charged with insurrection. Not one.

So what qualifies this as the most serious attack on our country since the Civil War era? Nothing. Nothing but the administration’s narrative saying so.

Were they (this administration) hoping greater violence would have been incited than was? Based on what their side had been incited to do since George Floyd's death last May? Were they intending to do what they did—broadly paint each and every Trump supporter/voter as an insurrectionist and potential domestic terrorist—and that was the plan regardless of how little violence there was? It’s probably a bit embarrassing to them to have to peddle this "greatest attack ever" lie when they only got as little violence incited as what happened.

They claimed Trump’s speech had incited the violence—even though he called for no violence, and his speech was still ongoing a mile and a half away when the breach happened. They impeached him for that anyway—after leaving office—again, without evidence. They put up fencing and kept tens of thousands of troops to guard the capitol for weeks afterward, as though the capitol were under siege. And it might never again be our right as “We, the People” to enter and tour our Capitol building.

They have identified hundreds as supposed insurrectionists, arrested them, failed to charge them promptly, failed to bring them to trial, kept them in solitary confinement for 100 days and longer. They’ve falsely accused people, raiding them in their homes—people who didn’t even enter the capitol. (There's this story about an Alaska couple who attended the speech but never entered the capitol, where FBI agents revealed that Nancy Pelosi's laptop had indeed been stolen.) They’ve put people on a no-fly list and called them domestic terrorist suspects.

If this were a socialist dictatorship or a banana republic, we might expect this behavior from the administration and regime-media. But here in America, as Tucker Carlson said, it’s still shocking. I hope it always will be.

In January, the week after the event, I wrote a long piece on what I thought happened, with this conclusion: 

I think the President called patriots to Washington to encourage the legislature to protest the electoral votes in the states known to have voting results that should not have been certified before the evidence was considered. I think a million people showed up to support him in doing that very thing. I think bad actors saw this as an opportunity to do damage to Trump and to his supporters. These include agent provocateurs, possibly Antifa and BLM, and also Pelosi and/or others who left the capitol vulnerable, possibly by coordinating with those APs.

Add to the list of bad actors, the FBI’s leadership along with their undercover agents and informants. Apparently they’re well trained in incitement and make pretty good agent provocateurs.

If, indeed, we are under the rule of tyrants and their minions who would carry out this entrapment and subsequent injustice, what else might they be capable of?

·         Stealing an election.

·         Conspiring with media and private tech companies to eradicate dissent.

·         Using a relatively nonlethal pandemic to enforce controls to:

o   Shut down businesses and schools.

o   Take away people’s livelihoods.

o   Attempt to shut down religious worship.

o   Prevent knowledge of treatments from getting to people, and even firing doctors to prevent them from using treatments—leading to hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths.

o   Force the use of EUA (emergency use authorization) injections.

o   Force injections on those with immunity, and those with low risk of harm from the illness, including children, for whom the injection was not tested.

o   Prevent discussion of possible harm by the injections.

o   Require proof of injection for inclusion in society and economy.

·         Spending impossible sums of money that are likely to collapse the economy, after which they could impose a new, controlled economy.

·         Indoctrinating our children in schools with ideologies that cause division and civilization decay/collapse.

·         Getting an inordinate number of people with damning information to “commit suicide” in prison or elsewhere, under implausible conditions.

I’m sure there’s more—things that could be put in the “conspiracy theory” bucket. But, with what we’ve seen, they’re not theoretical; they’re real.

School Board Meeting Debrief

I didn’t get to speak at the Cy-Fair ISD* school board meeting last night. That’s OK. It’s still an experience worth a debrief. (My sample speech was my last post.)

 

GATHERING FORCES

There was a crowd of us there by the time I arrived around 5:00, an hour before the meeting started. The citizen group who had notified people to come had a petition for people to sign if they couldn’t stay but wanted to offer support for our anti-CRT position. And we had a group prayer shortly after 5:15.

At 5:30 officials provided signups for public comment and citizen participation. Public comment is limited to items on the agenda, which was related mainly to showing honors earned by students, installing a new elementary school principal, and handling the budget. So we were signing up to speak during the citizen participation portion.

Only ten two-minute testimonies were allowed. When more than ten want to speak, they do a lottery. They do not tell you ahead of time who gets to speak. If they say your name, you go to the microphone.

It was not the dramatic event you’re seeing in Loudoun County, Virginia. But it also wasn’t the blasé meeting our board is used to. Since word got out about our plan to speak out against Critical Race Theory, there was quite a crowd joining us. Also, when you get the word out, the opposition hears about it. It was hard for me to tell how many of those there were against us, but there were people outside the building calling us racists. When we all settled inside for the meeting, nearly all audience chairs were filled.

 

PUBLIC COMMENTS

the first public comment speaker, Ms. Endomeo (?)
screenshot from here**

There was one anti-CRT speaker, A. C. (or something that sounded like possibly Aishane) Endomeo (I have no idea if I’m spelling her name right) during the public comment section, and that is when the room got a little unruly. This was a woman who addressed the board last month, which meant her comments were in the minutes and therefore an agenda item. She was interrupted by General Counsel Marney Collins Sims, who was asking whether this testimony should be moved to Citizen Participation. People yelled out, “Let her speak!” The woman explained why she should be allowed to speak now, and then was able to go ahead.

She had two issues. One was a video related to skin color that had been shown at her children’s school; she had gone through many sources to find out who recommended this video, and got told either Superintendent Henry or silence. She also talked about a discipline her child went through—because he didn’t physically distance himself from a disrupting child. She thought this was an odd thing to call a parent on, which means it was considered serious enough to go in her child’s permanent record. She asked if this was part of social/emotional learning—which is a CRT approach to socializing children. She was told it was just a teachable moment. Then why make such a big deal about it?

I think she’s giving evidence of harm to children by the infiltration of CRT. The board did not respond to her at that time.

 

BOARD COMMENTS

Before Citizen Participation was a segment where board members could speak on anything they chose without it having to be on the agenda. Several of them used this time to try to quell the furor over CRT in our schools.

CFISD board member Don Ryan
screenshot from here

First of these was Don Ryan, who said CRT should not be a concern. We’ve been misinformed. I’ve transcribed part of his comments, so you can see the Board’s position, which he wanted on record:

Let me start by saying that we teach the required curriculum from the state, and this does not include Critical Race Theory, and it never has.

Since this contradicted the testimony of Ms. Endomeo, it caused an outburst, followed by threats to remove her, and threats to clear the room, and calls for respect, since they had been respectful to us, etc.—failing to note that they had previously interrupted her speech and are at this point calling her a liar in front of all of us. So, yes, it took a bit of doing to settle down for the rest of his comments. I’m uncomfortable with the calling out and yelling in public gatherings, but I can see why people reacted. Mr. Ryan continues:

The state requires teaching social studies and history, and that is obviously going to include learning about historic examples of racism and the impact. But our teachers know how to teach this. And in fact we have a board policy that addresses how to cover this and other topics objectively. There’s been some confusion and misinformation out there about this issue.

Bridgeland [high school]’s No Place for Hate committee, which is led by students, recommended several different activities, including a video for other students to watch on implicit bias. The campus wanted parents to see the suggested video first and sent it out to the parents to watch and provide feedback. After hearing concern from parents, the principal did not include the video in the No Place for Hate activities, so the video was never shown to students.

And I think there’s confusion about No Place for Hate as well. This has been a popular program in schools for years, especially the past ten years or so as part of our anti-bullying education at many of our campuses. The committees are led by students and promote a positive school climate. It is not a program about Critical Race Theory.

Critical Race Theory, as far as I know, is something taught at some colleges. But it has never, ever been a part of the school district curriculum. In the school district, ever since I started on the Board in 2000, we’ve talked about educational equity as part of the requirements of No Child Left Behind. As part of No Child Left Behind, and now, whatever the law is called now, as a Board we are required to look at our test scores and other achievement data that is broken down by race and create plans to close any achievement gaps between groups.

This is part of what the Board is asking administration to do as part of the equity audit, to help create plans to address the gaps. Our anti-bullying programs and the educational equity plans are things we have responsibility to create—and are not Critical Race Theory programs.

And I just want to take a minute and clear up that confusion. If any parent or patron has a question or concern about our curriculum, I want to encourage you to contact our administration. And if you can take one thing away from my comments, I hope it would be that we are not teaching Critical Race Theory. It is on the record. I’ve made the statement. So now you’ve got me.

I’m afraid he didn’t allay any fears. Let’s look a little closer. The prior testimony had asked who provided that video as an option for the students; she couldn’t get an answer, unless we assume the Superintendent personally recommended it to them. No one wants to say, because they’d be the target of blame—because clearly that video was CRT, and the parents were against it. We hear later testimony about an offensive video shown in a third-grade class; Ryan’s statement asserts that this cannot have happened, regardless of what parents are testifying.

I personally have problems with the educational equity effort he mentions. Remember, equity, as opposed to equality, is about equal outcome, not equal opportunity to achieve potential. Equal outcome is a Critical Race Theory concept. You might have heard it called social justice rather than CRT.

The failure of this district to provide for the special needs of my three gifted children (all tested into GT in this district, as well as the district we’d moved from) led us to our decade of homeschooling. Mr. Ryan says they want to close achievement gaps between groups; improving opportunities for gifted students would interfere with that goal, so they ignore high-performing students and concentrate on low-performing students. Equity—not equality. I’d also note that students perform individually, not as groups. So, when he’s talking about groups, he’s talking about race. That means they will especially provide opportunities for black and Hispanic low-performing students while especially ignoring white and possibly Asian high-performing students.

So that equity audit they’re doing? Don’t worry. It’s not called a Critical Race Theory program; it’s just educational equity to get rid of those pesky performance gaps between racial groups.

I’m sure he thought he cleared things up. I’m sure he doesn’t know he verified our fears.

Board Member Gilbert Sarabia was brief but echoed agreement with Mr. Ryan. And we got plenty of scolding and being put in our place by President Bob Covey when he took his turn later. But next we heard a rather long lecture from Board Member Dr. John Ogletree. He went through some statistics about racial percentages of students. He told us that, of the more than 9,000 graduates from the district this year, “not a one has been taught Critical Race Theory.”

CFISD Board Member John Ogletree
screenshot from here

The equity audit, he says, is just to unify, to meet the needs of all children regardless of race. And he says that’s quantifiable. And this board is not political. That got a gasp and a laugh from the audience, because this board member, beyond all, is profoundly political. If there’s ever an issue where parents and taxpayers disagree with a direction the schools are taking, Dr. Ogletree will be on the side of teacher’s unions, against the parents and students. And he gets teacher union support for that. And, while school board trustee is a nonpartisan position, there is no doubt how Dr. Ogletree votes.

Then he lectured this room full of people who carry a pocket Constitution around with us by quoting from the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution, as if we were ignorant of those documents. He emphasized particular phrases: “establish justice” and “blessings of liberty.” The way he said them told me he doesn’t mean the same thing our founders meant. He means social justice—equal outcome—and government “blessing” us with those equal outcomes.

He accused us of coming for political reasons, while they on the board are here for education. Yes, that got an uproar. But I’m surprised it didn’t cause a greater uproar than it did; it was disrespectful, and intended to stab. His lack of self-awareness is staggering.

He followed up by quoting Mark 12:31 (he’s a pastor) on caring for your fellowman, further insulting us by implying that’s not what we are doing when we come to a meeting to express concern about our schools.

One of my biggest frustrations with this district is the inability to remove this man from our school board. He has been there since 2004. He’s up for reelection this November, along with Don Ryan and Board President Bob Covey. These three pioneered running as a slate supported by PAC money, a first in this district. It’s an unpaid nonpartisan position; so why does some PAC put so much money into them, unless it’s about power and control?

 

CITIZEN PARTICIPATION

Of the ten speakers during Citizen Participation, seven were testifying against Critical Race Theory. Three were saying it doesn’t exist in our schools—followed by statements about how racist we are. Not a way to persuade. One of them said he’d looked up the data, and it showed black and Hispanics in this district earn $.65 for every dollar earned by whites—and the only possible reason is systemic racism. He failed to notice all other possible reasons and factors, the most prevalent being lack of father in the home.

I was generally pleased with our speakers. The first, a man named Richard Feiden (no guarantees I’ve heard and spelled names accurately), said,

Richard Feiden speaks at CFISD
board meeting; screenshot from here

Though we’re often told that CRT is not being taught in schools, maybe, maybe not, but we want to be sure that it is not added to the curriculum in Cy-Fair School District. Obama said, “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it still is a pig.” CRT has been around for a while, and it’s covered in lipstick.

There was a 15-year-old girl, Danielle Browning, who gave a very powerful testimony. It was destroyed immediately afterward by Board Counsel Sims, who made sure the audience knew Browning was a student in Tomball ISD, just to the north, not Cy-Fair. Browning responded from her seat that her family does pay taxes in Cy-Fair ISD, and she has many friends in Cy-Fair with the same experiences she has had. Someone in the audience yelled out, “Don’t cross-examine her,” but damage was done.

15-year-old student Danielle Browning speaks at CFISD board meeting
screenshot from here

I’d nevertheless like to repeat a good chunk of her testimony, because my concerns are not limited to this one school district. And I suspect she’s right, that similar things are happening here and elsewhere:

End of October last year I was sitting in my freshman English class, and we were about to receive the selection of books we got to choose from for our end-of-semester reading project. I was expecting the classics, such as To Kill a Mockingbird or The Great Gatsby. However, to my surprise, the only books we had to choose from focused on Black Lives Matter and police brutality stories.

Of course, having been fully educated on the current events preceding the election, I immediately knew what this was all about. I was overcome with rage as I flipped through one of the novels about a black girl whose best friend was killed by a white cop—a story that seems to be copied and pasted on the news every week. What I noticed was that the author emphasized the fact that the cop was white, but failed to highlight the part of the story where the boy resisted arrest.

It soon became crystal clear to me what the intentions behind this reading assignment were, as I saw every student in my class marvel at the girl’s bravery for yelling, “F*** the police!” at a protest.

Critical Race Theory in schools is a mission designed to brainwash vulnerable children into adopting the Marxist or CRT ideology that all whites are racist and all other races are oppressed…. It is being put into action by infiltrating the developing minds of our precious youth. I have experienced this myself, and refuse to succumb to these diabolical ideas. I am 15 years old, and I am ridiculed at school every day for my political beliefs and skin color. This is the 1960s all over again, but flipped inside out. History repeats itself, and it’s our job to save this country we call our home. It starts here with the next generation.

Tom Nobis speaks at CFISD board meeting
screenshot from here

My friend Tom Nobis, our SREC Chairman, who was sitting next to me, got called on to speak. He started out bluntly, stating, “There is Critical Race Theory, even though people say there’s not. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be having all these people here to talk about it.”

He talked about MLK’s vision, based on character instead of color, and about the purpose of education, which is to “get knowledge useful for future endeavors”; and the role of parents in teaching their children how to live, which “is not a function of the school.”

I appreciated that he added a point for school choice:

If education is for children, then you should support school choice and the opportunity for those economically disadvantaged to better the education for their children. You should have supported Senate Bill 1968 by our State Senator Bettencourt.

The minutes from the May meeting show a fair amount of antipathy for our effective state senator, by the way.

Judy DeHaan, one of the community leaders bringing the CRT issue to our attention, got to speak. She asked a good question about the district’s Resolution Condemning Racism, which is at issue, and then adds more good info, so I’m including much her testimony:

Judy DeHaan speaks at CFISD board meeting
screenshot from here

It [the resolution] also states you want to eliminate systemic oppression and racism. What are your examples inside Cy-Fair ISD?

One of your staff indicated in Monday’s meeting that social and emotional learning was to be imbedded through a new program. Please note: this is known as CRT and social justice learning, whether you want to believe that or not. Is this the result of the equity audit?

Treating white children differently today to make up for past discrimination is still discrimination—and racist. That is the framework for CRT, looking at everything through the prism of race and identity, regardless of someone’s character or abilities.

Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t know your story, and you don’t know mine. What I can tell you is these constructs have caused hurt and despair in my own family, when seeing my loved ones’ pain over these racial issues. I have sat across from parents who are intimidated to speak for themselves tonight, telling me about this Brain Pop BLM protest video that was shown to a Cy-Fair ISD third-grade class, that guilts white children for structural racism. And others tell me their concerns about these activities associated with, yes, the Anti-Defamation League No Place for Hate program. And you were putting this back off on the children for making those decisions, when you’re giving the activities to choose from….

All we’re asking, in summary, is a public policy be implemented to prohibit CRT and the tenets thereof in Cy-Fair ISD.

Michael Godsy speaks at CFISD 
board meeting; screenshot from here

The final speaker, Michael Godsy, was a father of four sons in CFISD schools. His wife is black; his sons are mixed race. They attend a school that is, he estimates, 90% white (unlike my neighborhood which is pretty nearly majority minority). He sees no racism there. He asks his kids, are they experiencing racist comments or behaviors, getting left out, hearing slurs? No. Always they say no. He ended with this, and got cheers:

I’ve come to the conclusion that all of this stuff is being taught to us through the media. We’re not racist towards one another; we’re being taught to hate each other through liberal propaganda that we see on TV. And if everyone would just stop for a minute and look at one another, and appreciate each other for who we are, instead of what other people tell us that we are, we could do a lot better.

 

SUMMARY

The school board says there’s no Critical Race Theory in our schools—just educational justice, social/emotional learning, and whatever else an equity audit tells them they should implement to get rid of performance gaps between racial groups. So, no CRT by that name, but plenty of CRT that they refuse to recognize as such.

But parents and students are experiencing CRT education in our schools.

So, what to do? The next step is to report every single instance we can find—to each member of this board, with a warning that, if they don’t deal with it, they’ll be facing a lawsuit that forces them to. And we could use a good lawyer for those lawsuits.

And, once again I say, yet another reason to homeschool. This school board isn’t going to do anything but ignore us, because they think we’re just ill-informed “political” complainers who are coming out to annoy them.

We don’t have the money, power, and people to run against them and replace them. Yet. 

Whatever we can do, we should probably keep doing. But, as I recognized when I pulled my kids out, nothing I did as a volunteer could make changes that would come soon enough to get my kids what I needed, let alone other kids like them. But by pulling them out, I’d at least take care of their education, which was my first priority.

If enough families escaped, they’d have to take notice and change. But don’t wait for the others to join you; save your own kids.

____________________

* The name comes from the Cypress-Fairbanks area; ISD stands for independent school district.

** I've taken screenshots from the "Formal Board Meeting 6/24/21" YouTube video, but video is also available on the CFISD website.

Just Another Parent Speaking Out to the School Board

Our school board website says they have a meeting today. It turns out that is just a “work session,” and the real meeting, which will allow public comment, is Thursday, June 24, 6:00 PM.

Only ten people will be allowed to speak, so it’s likely that I won’t get a chance. But I want to be ready, so I’m preparing today what I would like to say.

The meeting only allows two minutes per public comment, which is at most 500 words. That’s a fraction of what I have in this preparation speech below; I’ll need to write an abridged version in case I need it on Thursday. But maybe what I say here will help someone else who has a chance to speak—or someone elsewhere in their own school district, which I hope is a movement that's spreading.

screenshot from Cy-Fair ISD Board Work Session
Monday, June 21, 2021

______________________

Public Comments Directed to the

Cy-Fair Independent School District Board of Trustees

A month or so ago I became aware of a magazine sent out to teachers in Cy-Fair ISD, called Teaching Tolerance. This was the Spring 2021 edition. On the cover it reads,

cover of the spring 2021 issue of Teaching Tolerance

White Supremacy in Education

White supremacy affects every element of the U.S. education system. Find out how students, educators and other stakeholders resist it daily.

When this was sent out, it wasn’t illegal. But with the passage of HB 3979 and Governor Abbott’s signature, this publication is full of propaganda that is against the law in the Texas education system as of this coming school year.

Today I want a promise from you that this publication—and anything like unto it—will no longer be made available to teachers in our district.

Beyond that, I’d like to say that, even without the law, these materials should never have been part of teaching materials in Cy-Fair ISD. It is all based on a lie.

White supremacy exists—but it is a tiny fringe of society, unacceptable among civilized people. Most of us have never met a person who believes this philosophy, because they are so rare.

But there’s a movement that has worked to do a bait-and-switch with the definition. Instead of this unacceptable fringe, they enlarge the category of white supremacy to include any culture in which people with white skin are or have been the majority. That means anything from a European heritage, or what we call Western civilization.

p. 48 of spring 2021 issue
of Teaching Tolerance 

It means the culture that produced Shakespeare—and these supposed anti-racists do indeed want to cancel Shakespeare. It means classical Greek and Roman philosophy. This magazine you sent out has a piece in it on why Aristotle and Plato should be canceled. Not because the words they say don’t have wisdom for all mankind—but because they were white in a white-majority society.

They believe our founding fathers should be canceled—and their writings, including the US Constitution. They fail to note that it is the founding doctrine that all human beings are created equal—revolutionary at a time when every society on earth was stratified into nobility and lower classes based only on the accident of their birth—that belief in equality before the law led to freedom everywhere on earth. Every country that has a representative democracy today—in place of a monarchy or tyrannical government—inherited the idea from the United States Constitution.

This is the philosophy that led to the elimination of slavery—not only in this country, but in places like Brazil and Cuba, and everywhere that followed the US in the elimination of slavery.

The American idea that all people are created equal did not lead to slavery. It led to its demise.

If the country were endemically racist, it would have maintained racism, not fought a Civil War to eliminate it. Obviously. Later, it would have kept Jim Crow laws, not eliminated them nationwide.

It was Christianity that led Britain to be the first nation to eliminate slavery. But Critical Race Theorists want to cancel Christianity—despite the New Testament teachings by Paul, concerning a slave named Onesimus, who had become a Christian. Paul told the slave master, Philemon, also a Christian, that, while they could do nothing about the law of that time and place, he was required to treat his servant as a fellow brother in Christ. Racially, by the way, this master and slave were likely the same color; back in that day, enslavement was done to those nearby enough to enslave, regardless of color. It was the consideration of one person as inferior to another that was at issue—but Christ invited all to come unto him: Jew and Greek, bond and free, male and female (Galatians 3:28).

This command to accept all as brothers is what the CRT pushers claim is white supremacy and should be eliminated.

And replaced with what? Hatred of whites? Supremacy of their preferred race over whites and other less preferred races? And we're supposed to just be nice and go along with this?

The new law contains a great many things that should be included in social studies teaching in Texas—including covering difficult topics such as slavery and civil rights. But it emphasizes accurate history with original source documents.

There’s a relatively small section of the law regarding what shall not be taught. It fits on a single page. I’ve printed it out for you.

the anti-CRT section of HB 3979

It includes, for example, that you shall not teach that:

one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex;

or that,

with respect to their relationship to American values, slavery and racism are anything other than deviations from, betrayals of, or failures to live up to, the authentic founding principles of the United States, which include liberty and equality.

The law doesn’t use the term Critical Race Theory. The only named item is that you shall not teach the 1619 Project, which we know to be provably false and racist propaganda.

The problem we’ve seen in the past—concerning things like Common Core, for example—is that names and terms are fungible. Don’t want CRT? We’ll just call it something else.

So I’ve printed out for you a list of 87 terms that are interchangeable with or used in Critical Race Theory. These include terms like:

CRT terminology, source: Center for Renewing America

·         Equitable or Equity

·         Educational justice

·         Cultural relevance

·         Critical self-reflection

·         Land acknowledgment

·         Spirit murder

·         Whiteness

·         White social capital

·         Restorative justice

·         Racial healing

These myriad terms are the ones already in use to obscure the CRT ideology. I’m sure they will invent more.

By way of information, your Resolution Condemning Racism, which you all signed last September, says that you “resolve to engage an outside entity to conduct an equity audit that will lead us to develop an equity policy/policies.” Now that we know that equity, as opposed to equality, is a CRT term, it looks like you’re taking our taxpayer dollars to get some CRT organization to impose Critical Race Theory on our school district. Now that you know any such action is illegal, we’d like an update on that resolution.

Critical Race Theory is a reworking of Marxist critical theory. Originally, Marxism divided people and encouraged hatred based on economic and social class. That doesn’t work in America, where class mobility is typical. Instead, Marxists now divide and encourage hatred based on race. Their intention is to overthrow our constitutional republic, our free market, and our civilizational structures such as families and churches, in order to create enough chaos that they can step in and impose their tyrannical controlled social order onto us.

We’re not falling for it.

What we as the parents and taxpayers in Cy-Fair ISD want is a good education for our children. That absolutely does not include indoctrinating them in Marxist-based critical theory in any form.

We don’t want them to be taught to hate one another based on skin color. We don’t want them to be taught to feel guilty and hate themselves because of their skin color. We don’t want them to be taught to hate their country, or to misconstrue our founding, which has led to more freedom and opportunity for all races and ethnicities than any other governmental system in history.

We don’t want our children to be taught to consider skin color above character when they interact with one another, and when they consider the writings and thoughts of brilliant minds who have gone before.

We want them to be taught the truth.

And we’re asking for your promise today that you will abide by the law and preclude the teaching of any of this racist propaganda.

 

 

Stand Up, Speak Up

People differ on advice when facing a criminal. Some say, “Let the mugger take your handbag. It’s not worth your life.” Others say “Scream and fight. Bullies are weak and easily scared off.”

Some say, “Don’t fight a rapist and he won’t kill you.” Others say, “Fight with everything you have; if he’s willing to take that from you, he’s willing to kill you, and he’s motivated to, because you can ID him. So you have nothing to lose by fighting and everything to gain.”

Some say, “A burglar is only taking stuff; that’s not worth the death penalty.” Others say, “If he’s willing to come on your property and take your stuff, how do you know that’s all he’s willing to do? He knows you have the right to protect yourself before he risks his life to get your stuff.”

Two approaches. One says, “Submit and be a victim.” The other says, “Fight. You don’t have to be a victim.”

Today’s post is about standing up, refusing to be a victim—against some particular assaults on our freedom and civilization.

A number of stories lately give me hope, because people are standing up. When enough people do that, we start to win, and then those committing the assaults on our freedom and civilization will get scared off—back into the dark corners they crawled out of.

The main type of assault we have examples for today is Critical Race Theory. But the principles apply to the gender agenda, often tied up with CRT because of intersectionality. And it applies to other forms of tyranny as well, which might get a mention at the end.

 

Critical Race Theory Assault Response

Standing Up at School Board meetings—especially when the message gets shared—is having an impact.

Virginia is getting a lot of attention. In this first one, a Fairfax County teacher speaks at a Loudoun County school board meeting.

A teacher speaks against Critical Race Theory
at a Virginia school board meeting.
screenshot from here

·       “Virginia Teacher Eviscerates ‘Woke’ Leftist Critical Race Theory Agenda at School Board Meeting” by David Rufful, Analyzing America, June 10, 2021. 

·       “Teacher Unloads on 'Woke' CRT Agenda During Loudoun County School Board Meeting” by Sister Toldjah for RedState, June 9, 2021. 

Her speech is brief. Here’s the transcript:

I’m a Fairfax County public school teacher, and I’m going to give a message of encouragement to parents and teachers and students who are too afraid to come forward and speak.

Parents, the longer that you wait and you don’t hold your child’s schools accountable gives these guys more time to dictate what’s best for your child’s physical, mental and emotional health. Don’t be afraid to speak out for your kids, because they are voiceless and they rely on you.

You should be afraid of them rooting for socialism by the time they get to middle school.

Teachers, it may seem that our careers have come to a dead end, but I’m here to remind you, we don’t work for the school board. We work to mold the next generation of well-rounded American patriots, so don’t give up because it is up to us.

Students, you are on the front lines of these indoctrination camps. Challenge the staff when you’re presented with a ludicrous statement and do not allow anybody to tell you that you cannot accomplish anything because of your skin color or to hate yourself because of your skin color. Students, it is up to you to be the next generation of victims or victors.

And finally, to the board, this isn’t over and your policies are just as [mic was cut off].

This second one is also in Virginia, Xi Van Fleet, a survivor of Mao’s cultural revolution, giving us warning:

·       “Survivor Of Mao’s China: Critical Race Theory ‘Is Racist,’ China Used ‘Wokeness’ To Install Communism” Daily Wire News, June 11, 2021. 

·       “Woman who survived Mao's purge compares critical race theory in US schools to China's Cultural Revolution in scathing speech” by Paul Sacca for The Blaze, June 10, 2021. 

·       “Virginia mom who survived Maoist China eviscerates school board's critical race theory push” by Michael Ruiz for Fox News, June 10, 2021. 

This additional Virginia story happened a while ago, but there’s new news:

·       “Judge Reinstates VA Teacher Suspended For Refusing To Affirm Trans Identity For Kids, Calls School Response ‘Vindictive’” by Jon Brown for The Daily Wire, June 8, 2021. 

Tanner Cross, an elementary school PE teacher in Loudoun County, was suspended for speaking at a school board meeting at which the board had requested opinions on the subject of pronoun policy for transgender students. But they didn’t like his opinion, so they suspended him. They had additionally restricted him from any school property, taking away any opportunity for further public comment. A judge has called them out as being vindictive.

Here’s part of Cross’s statement:

I love all of my students, but I will never lie to them regardless of the consequences. I’m a teacher, but I serve God first and I will not affirm that a biological boy can be a girl and vice versa, because it’s against my religion. It’s lying to a child, it’s abuse to a child, and it’s sinning against our God.

 

Here's one from New York:

·       “New York Mother unleashes on school board: 'You're emotionally abusing our children'” by Thomas McDonald, Independent Chronicle, June 10, 2021.  

Tatiana Ibrahim, the NY mom, told them,

You’re emotionally abusing our children and mentally abusing them. You’re demoralizing them by teaching them communist values. This is still America, ma’am. And as long as I’m standing here on this good ground Earth of God, I will fight. This is not the last of me you will see. I’m retired; I’ve got nothing else better to do.

Tatiana Ibrahim speaks at a Carmel, NY, school board meeting.
screenshot from here

This was an intense 11 minutes. At one point a school board member tried to get her to stop, because this wasn’t a “peaceful discussion.” Ibrahim responded, “No, that's your opinion. See, here we go again. This is peaceful; to me, this is peaceful. I'm not burning, looting, and murdering.” She told them she had proof that their teachers were supporting those types of behaviors, including encouraging murder of police. The board looked nonplussed. But the people there—and the people who have watched the video—are glad to see someone standing up against the misguided authority figures.

 

This one is from Bloomington, Illinois:

·       “Mother unloads on school board over young children being taught about masturbation, anal sex, transgenderism” by Phil Shiver for The Blaze, June 14, 2021.

Becky Swan confronts Illinois school board with text containing
explicit content being presented to young children.
screenshot from here

 

At the school board meeting, Becky Swan mentions that introducing sexualizing topics to young children is grooming behavior. She’s right about that. http://sphericalmodel.blogspot.com/2019/05/its-called-grooming.html  Making children suffer through these uncomfortable topics is a form of sexual harassment. Also true. After listing the explicit content topics being forced upon children at different levels (all inappropriate), Swan held up a book and said that if the content is too sensitive to be brought up at that meeting, it was too sensitive to be taught to young children.

 

Rhode Island mom Nicole Solas stood up to a school board in yet another way, to find out what CRT and gender curriculum was going to be taught to her kindergartener.

·       “Kindergartner's mom files 200 records requests on CRT, gender curriculum to force school district to respond. Board claims she's using intimidation tactics” by Sarah Taylor for The Blaze, June 4, 2021.  

·       “Mom fights anti-White training in daughter’s kindergarten class: ‘They reduce everything down’ to skin color” by Angelica Stabile for Fox News, June 3, 2021. 

Nicole Solas speaks with Tucker Carlson about getting
information on what her kindergartener would be taught.
screenshot from here

What started out as “several” records requests—the method for getting the information that the school district directed her to use—grew to 200 records requests, because she couldn’t get a straight answer from the school district about what they were going to teach her daughter.

The school board felt the heat. They threatened to sue her, accusing her of intimidating them in order to get rid of that heinous curriculum they wanted to use. At a public hearing, they shouted at her and called her racist—just as you’d expect from a bully. But she has stood firm.

Solas uses APRA, the Access to Public Records Act, which is essentially a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request. There’s a good explanation and sample request letter here. 

 

Some good things happened in Colorado. Parents spoke up, and the school board changed their minds:

·       “Colorado Mother Rebukes Critical Race Theory As ‘Nightmare’ That Needs To ‘End Now’” by Chrissy Clark for The Daily Wire, June 2, 2021. 

·       “These Parents Successfully Pressured Their School Board To Ditch Divisive Equity Training” by Georgia Howe for The Daily Wire, June 3, 2021.  This is in Douglas County, Colorado.

 

Here's an example from Florida:

·       “Black Mom Torches Critical Race Theory: It’s ‘Racist,’ It’s ‘Teaching Hate,’ Will Destroy America” Daily Wire News, June 11, 2021. 

Keisha King speaks to Florida State Board of Education.
screenshot from here

Keisha King, a Duval County parent supporting school choice and opposing divisive CRT curriculum, says,

I don’t know about you, but telling my child or any child that they are in a permanent oppressed status in America because they are black is racist, and saying that white people are automatically above me, my children or any child is racist as well.

 

State Actions

By the way, the State of Florida has now banned the teaching of Critical Race Theory.

·         “Florida bans use of critical race theory, ‘1619Project’ in teaching history” by Jeffrey S. Solochek for the Miami Herald, June 10 (updated June 11), 2021.  

The “1619 Project,” was a badly non-historical rewriting of American history put forth by the New York Times. President Trump banned it in September 2020 and replaced it with the “1776 Unites Curriculum,” and put in place the “1776 Commission.” But Biden switched back toward Critical Race Theory and its Marxist dogma on his first day in office. 

Florida is not the only state banning these ideas. Here are stories about Iowa, Idaho, and Oklahoma:

·       “Iowa Bans Critical Race Theory: Schools Should ‘Promote Learning, Not Discriminatory Indoctrination’” by Tim Pearce for The Daily Wire, June 9, 2021. 

·       “Red States Against Critical Race Theory/Idaho and Oklahoma pass legislation banning state-sanctioned racism in public schools.” by Christopher F. Rufo, May 3, 2021.

This next one covers Florida and others, and lists the following as considering such bans in their legislatures: Michigan, Tennessee, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, Arizona, Kentucky, Utah and New Hampshire.

·         “Critical Race Theory Is Banned in These States” by Chris Dutton for Newsweek, June 11, 2021. 

While Texas was on that list, the Texas legislature finished its legislative session May 31^st. Before close of session, it passed HB 3979 requiring that civics teaching must include the moral, political, and educational foundations of America and must not include CRT ideas; the bill has been sent to the Governor for signature. He has until Tuesday, June 15^th, to sign or veto the bill, or else it automatically becomes law.

Even though these states have banned the teaching of CRT, we’ve seen this before, with Common Core. They retitle and put it in anyway. Some of the laws are specific enough to specify what curriculum must include or exclude. But that doesn’t mean local districts won’t use other materials that they might not call curriculum. So parents better be vigilant about holding their local school districts accountable.

By the way, for local friends, we have a Cy-Fair Independent School District board meeting Monday, June 21, at 6:00 PM. Info here. You might want to mention that they sent out CRT materials to teachers just this past month, and we need a solemn promise that such propaganda will have no way into our schools ever again. I wrote about this here. 

Some Outcome Effects

We need to know we’re not alone in our opinions. We have a right to speak them. And things get better when we do.

Here’s an example of what outcome this damaging indoctrination has led to—but the employer isn’t giving the wokes a win:

·       “Employer says he has stopped hiring Ivy League grads: They're too 'woke,' too 'self-important,' or have been trained to stay silent when it matters” by Phil Shiver for The Blaze, June 9, 2021.

In this next story, Matt Walsh offers this opinion: 

Do you want to know why conservatives are losing the culture? Nickelodeon put out two videos in a week of a drag queen pushing gay pride on children and still most conservative parents will allow their children to watch shows on the network. That’s it. That’s why we lose.

Nickelodeon should be bankrupted. They’ve made their agenda clear. They’ve made it plain that they hate us. And if we all stopped giving them our money, they’d collapse. That’s what should happen but it won’t.

I did hear elsewhere today that Nickelodeon’s viewership is 1/3 of what it was 4 years ago. “Since July of 2017, Nickelodeon’s viewership has dropped from 1.3 million average viewers per week to a June of 2021 average of only 372,000.”  It looks like bankruptcy may be looming after all. If that happens, it will be because parents spoke by tuning out.

 

Learn Then Speak

While collecting things for this post, I learned about investigative reporter/filmmaker Christopher Rufo (he wrote the piece about Idaho and Oklahoma above). It was his investigative journalism that led President Trump to ban CRT in the federal government. He has put out some resources.

·       This “Critical Race Theory” explanatory video, which includes CRT history, what’s happening in institutions, and how to fight back. 

·       This Critical Race Theory Briefing Book.  I especially like a section called “Winning the Language War.” This free online “book” also includes links to examples, and info about passing legislation.

·       This 11-part series “Critical Race Theory in Education” in the Articles section of Rufo’s website.  Every example is jaw-dropping. These things shouldn’t be happening.

·         This transcription of Rufo's Atlantic interview on CRT. 

Rufo also wrote these two informative pieces:

·       “Critical Race Theory: What It Is and How to Fight It” for Hillsdale’s Imprimis, from a lecture he gave March 30, 2021. 

·       “Critical Race Theory Would Not Solve Racial Inequality: It Would Deepen It” by Christopher Rufo for the Heritage Foundation, March 23, 2021. 

 

Here’s another guide to stopping CRT in schools:

·       “Conservative think tank creates 'A to Z guide' for stopping critical race theory in schools/Former Trump official Russ Vought leads effort to train anti-CRT parents” by Matt Leach for Fox News, June 8, 2021. This includes a free 18-page downloadable booklet by Vought on what CRT is and how to stop it.  

And, because terminology changes whenever a term becomes negative, here is Vought's list of terminology that often accompanies CRT ideas:

·       “List: Critical Race Theory Terms” from the Center for Renewing America, a Russ Vought website. 

 

Additional Stand Taking

What is giving me hope right now is the accumulation of people standing up and speaking up. CRT and the LGBTQ agenda are worth standing up against—even though you get maligned and cancelled. It’s beginning to make a difference.

Here are some other examples of people standing up against the tyranny we’re facing—from CRT and other arenas of tyranny.

·       “Houston Hospital Nurses Stage Walkout Over Vaccine Mandate” by Holly Hansen for The Texan, June 8, 2021. 

·       “117 employees sue Houston Methodist overCOVID-19 vaccine requirement” KHOU-11 News, May 28, 2021. 

·       “Breaking News: Harris County Voter Applied for a Ballot by Mail—29 Years After Her Death” by Colleen Vera for Texas Trash Talk, June 12, 2021. Colleen, a friend of mine, keeps finding these examples. One FOIA request at a time. She has given the state AG’s office quite a lot of work to do. 

·       “‘We Are Going To Expose You’: Vets Crenshaw, Cotton Create Whistleblower Doc To Combat ‘Woke’ Efforts In U.S. Military” by Hank Berrien for The Daily Wire, May 30, 2021. 

·       “Cotton Reveals Military Whistleblower Complaints On Woke Training, Biden’s SecDef Insists, ‘Diversity, Equity And Inclusion Is Important To This Military’” by Hank Berrien for The Daily Wire, June 11, 2021. 

·       Dan Crenshaw has this Whistleblower Form for military to report complaints on Woke Training.  He posted about it on Facebook here. 

·       “How Critical Race Theory is Sabotaging Our Schools” Rep. Dan Crenshaw on his Hold These Truths podcast interviews Dr. Richard Johnson of Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Booker T. Washington Initiative. 

 

Think of information as your ammo. Your voice is your weapon. Use it carefully and wisely. But use it.