In a recent Washington Times column, titled “Is San Francisco the future of America?,” Lee Edwards, distinguished fellow at the B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics at The Heritage Foundation, asked, “What has happened? Why is America slouching like some rough beast — not toward Bethlehem, but Gomorrah?”
This is a question we hear almost every day. “How did this happen so quickly?” It is as if we’ve have awakened from what we thought was a bad dream only to find that the nightmare is real. What in the world happened? How did we get in this mess? Intuitively we all know something is wrong.
Our culture seems to have lost its mind, lost its soul and lost its way.
Politicians, who can’t tell us that a woman is real, claim to be pro-woman.
A Congress that pretends to champion human rights tells us a child, who is one second from exiting the birth canal, is not human and has no rights.
Millions of millennials claim that socialism is good, in spite of more than 100 million people being murdered at the hands of socialists.
Precocious adolescent girls claim to be frozen in fear because the globe is “warming.”
Pedantic professors claim to be proponents of open inquiry while they silence all dissent and all inquiry. They demand academic freedom for themselves while they silence all who dare disagree. Intellectual liberty is crushed. Ideological fascism is king.
Feminists deny the feminine.
Liars deceive while condemning those who lie.
Colluders condemn collusion while they collude.
Arrogant athletes claim America is bad, and China is good. They besmirch Madison while deifying Mao. They empathize with antifa while maligning those fighting for freedom in Hong Kong. They bow to the red and yellow of a communist regime while they kneel in protest before the red, white and blue of our constitutional republic.
An entire generation smugly tells us that they can’t tolerate our intolerance and that they hate hateful people. With zero self-awareness, they double-down on dumb and shout that they are sure nothing is sure, that they know nothing can be known, and they are absolutely confident there are no absolutes.
Media talking-heads pander to the rainbow cabal. Posturing as proponents of science, they ignore the elementary facts of biology. Claiming to be “smarter-than-thou” they conflate love with sex as if they have sex with everyone they love. They listen to poorly informed children and ignore thoughtful adults. They deny God while worshiping themselves.
Progressive mayors smile smugly because of the number of homeless they have in their streets while they condemn conservatives for creating the homeless and not granting more taxes to stop crime now rampant on every street. Sidewalks are littered with human feces in the name of human rights. Children dodge dirty needles while walking to schools that teach them nothing is wrong and nothing is right.
How did we get here? The answer is simple. The blame lies with education.
If you teach your children nonsense for decades, it should not surprise you that you suddenly live in a culture that has no sense.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “the philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will become the philosophy of the government in the next.”
Richard Weaver told us, “ideas have consequences.” Your grandmother said, “Garbage in, garbage out.” There is no such thing as a neutral idea. All ideas are directional. Good ideas lead to good culture, good community, good corporations and good kids. Bad ideas lead to the opposite. As Barack Obama’s pastor once said, “The chickens come home to roost.” All ideas have consequences. All ideas bear fruit.
We are where we are today because of education. The fault for the nightly news lies with our colleges, universities and our public schools. But the blame also lies with us. All parents and other citizens who support these broken schools, with their tuition and tax dollars, need to wake up and face reality. Until we stop sending our kids off to intellectually bankrupt schools, we can expect nothing other than an intellectually bankrupt culture.
Why would anyone want their son or daughter to incur massive debt to spend four years (or more) in what amounts to a politically correct indoctrination camp? Why is mortgaging the family farm to send your child off to intellectual gulag of snowflake fascism a good idea?
The fault is ours. Why do we continue to vote for school bonds and throw more money at teachers who elevate LGBTQ over the ABCs? Why do we remain silent when our children seem to know more about condoms than the U.S. Constitution? Why do we shrug in silence when they can tell us more about drag queens than the Declaration of Independence?
The only solution is to stop supporting this nonsense.
It is really quite simple: If you want a moral culture, then stop paying for your kids to be taught by those who mock morality.
If your school is woke, it’s a joke.
• Everett Piper, former president of Oklahoma Wesleyan University, is a columnist for The Washington Times and author of “Not A Day Care: The Devastating Consequences of Abandoning Truth” (Regnery 2017).
A Texas Mayor Defends the Constitution from Sharia Law
NOTE: In 2010, we worked really hard to pass the'first in the nation', Tennesseee Law for Tennessee Courts. That became the American Laws for American Courts (ALAC). It has been introduced in over 20 states and at last count, had passed in eleven states. We hope that Texas will get its act together and get it passed there.
The goal of the American Laws for American Courts Act is a clear and unequivocal application of what should be the goal of all state courts: No U.S. citizen or resident should be denied the liberties, rights, and privileges guaranteed in our constitutional republic
October 17, 2019 By Amil Imani
Time and again in every election we see politicians promise everything, and once elected deliver very little or nothing. Beth Van Duyne is a welcome exception and her past record clearly proves it. A person of impeccable integrity, Beth has always remained loyal to the values and wishes of her constituents and has not compromised them on the altar of political expediency so widely practiced by self-promoting politicians. A devoted mother beaming with energy and the talent to get things done, Beth is indeed the kind of person the US Congress desperately needs.
Under Beth’s leadership as a Mayor of Irving, TX, the city became one of the best and safest towns in the great state of Texas. Beth Van Duyne’s achievements attracted the attention of President Trump’s administration and accepted to serve, this time, at the national level in the Department of Housing and Urban Development Office in Fort Worth.
City of Irving Islamic Tribunal
Van Duyne’s reputation soared outside her city since February 2015, when she became aware that some Muslims intended to create a Sharia court in Irving, TX. To follow with her oath of office, she wanted to make sure if in fact, these stories were accurate.
Van Duyne went directly to the source, the Islamictribunal.org website. What she noticed was shocking. The imams at the website referred to themselves as “attorneys” and “judges” even though none of them were lawyers or practice law in the State of Texas. She noted a phone number for legal services. There was also a disclaimer at the bottom that read:
“Don’t send us any confidential material, before an attorney client relationship has been established.”
They were even charging for their services. They listed divorce cases, product liability, business, and real estate litigations as their legal specialties. Mayor Van Duyne wanted to know why anyone would subject themselves to Sharia law in the United States while everyone is protected under the U.S. Constitution! And she repeatedly noted, her biggest concern was for women were treated differently than men under Sharia law, put at a great disadvantage, and denied basic rights we are all guaranteed.
Despite a great deal of pushback and non-stop attacks from the leftist media in Texas, Beth Van Duyne, a woman of great courage managed to push the envelope off the table on Sharia’s implementation in her own U.S. city: Irving, Texas. The Mayor wasn’t aware of the extent of Sharia practiced by the Islamic Tribunal. So, she asked lawmakers at the Texas Homeland Security Forum to investigate the legality of this group in North Texas.
In a direct and powerful response, she refuted that it was authorized or approved by her office. The Islamic Tribunal was the first of its kind in the nation. Its members had begun deciding “non-criminal” cases, even though none of the tribunal members was an attorney. On her Facebook page, the mayor wrote:
“Sharia Law Court was NOT approved or enacted by the City of Irving. Recently, there have been rumors suggesting that the City of Irving has somehow condoned, approved or enacted the implementation of a Sharia Law Court in our City. Let me be clear, neither the City of Irving, our elected officials or city staff have anything to do with the decision of the mosque that has been identified as starting a Sharia Court.”
In the hope that this issue would be put to rest, the Irving City Council, headed by Mayor Van Duyne, supported a bill in Texas Legislature, HB 562, to reaffirm people would be protected from the use of foreign laws. If passed, it prohibits Texas judges or justices the use of any foreign law in any cases where there was a possibility that a person could lose his or her Constitutional rights.
Being fully prepared for the backlash from the left-wing media, the resolution was crafted without using the words, “Sharia law,” “Sharia,” “Muslim,” “Islamic,” or “religion.” It simply stated the obvious, that the United States has at the tip of its legal pyramid the Constitution, and under it a substantial body of federal, state, local laws, ordinances, resolutions, and huge volumes of case law that together have served us well since the ratification of the Constitution. "This bill does not mention, at all, Muslim, sharia law, Islam, even religion," said Van Duyne. "It specifically talks about foreign laws not taking precedence over U.S. laws and those in the State of Texas."
When the City of Irving came out with this resolution, they invited Muslim imams to come and support it. “When we had met them in private, we asked the members of the mosque if they would support our American laws and if they would support and follow our Texas State Statutes, and they told me in that private meeting, yes, they would,” stated Mayor Van Duyne. The Mayor sent them the Bill, but not only did she not hear back from them, but when she did, a protest group went into the town hall to protest and object to it.
Muslim groups did their level best to have the resolution fail. Fortunately, the Mayor held a hair’s-breath margin when the resolution passed by a five to four vote majority.
The Texas Senate passed a bill that year, forbidding the implementation of any foreign laws, which would adversely affect any person’s Constitutional rights. Senator Donna Campbell said that her bill doesn’t mention Sharia law at all, only guarantees that no law from “foreign courts” would be used to override American law in settling civil matters according to TheNewAmerican.com. Unfortunately, the Bill failed to pass in the House.
On that day, Mayor Beth Van Duyne stood tall and strong to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States for you, me and all Americans.
Tarrant County, the State of Texas and the US Congress desperately need Beth Van Duyne, an effective leader who fights for American values.
Gladys West, the 'hidden figure' of GPS, inducted into Air Force hall of fame
Dr. Gladys West, a mathematician and one of the so-called “Hidden Figures” who was lesser known for her contributions to inventing GPS, has been inducted into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame.
A ceremony was held in West’s honor at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, a local CBS affiliate reported on Tuesday. The induction is one of the Air Force's Space Commands highest honors.
West worked among a small group of women on computing for the U.S. military in the 1950s and 1960s, just before the era when the military began to usher in a wave of electronic systems, according to a news release from the Air Force Space Command Public Affairs office. That group was later depicted in the movie "Hidden Figures."
West began working at the U.S. Naval Weapons Laboratory as a mathematician in 1956, where she also participated in an award-winning study that proved “the regularity of Pluto’s motion relative to Neptune” in the early 1960s, according to the release.
That's where West also programmed an IBM 7030 “Stretch” computer that delivered refined calculations for an “extremely accurate geodetic Earth model, a geoid, optimized” for what would eventually become known across the world as the Global Positioning System (GPS) orbit, the release also states.
21 apps parents should look out for on their kids' phones
Authorities are warning parents to be aware of what apps their children are using.
Author: 10News Staff
Updated: 1:03 PM EDT September 27, 2019
SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. — Following the arrests of 23 men accused of traveling to meet people they thought were children for sex, the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office has updated its widely-circulated list of apps parents should know about.
The new list includes 21 apps -- as opposed to the original 15.
During its latest operation, the sheriff's office said men connected with people they thought were 14-year-old boys and girls through apps including Plenty of Fish, HILY, MocoSpace and Zoosk.
Another new addition to the list is an app called "Monkey." Deputies say it is rated for people 12 and older but also has "mild sexual content and nudity."
Law enforcement officers encourage parents to monitor their children's phones and keep an eye on what mobile apps they are using.
Plenty of Fish: A popular free dating app and website that encourages chatting with strangers. It allows users to browse profiles based on location.
HILY: A dating app where users can browse photos, engage in chats, send private videos and more. Based on the GPS location of a mobile device, strangers can arrange to meet up locally.
Zoosk: A location-based dating app and website similar to many others. The app is available in 80 countries and utilized a 'carousel' feature which matches users with random strangers.
Mocospace: A free social networking and dating app. Users can connect with strangers worldwide via text messages or voice calls.
Best Secret Folder: Specifically meant to hide photos and videos. According to app store descriptions, it features password protection, decoy videos and alarm settings.
Monkey: A live video chat app that connects users to random strangers worldwide, offering group chat and private message options. It claims to be rated for ages 12 and up but has "mild sexual content and nudity."
MeetMe: A dating social media app that connects people based on location. Users are encouraged to meet in person.
WhatsApp: A messaging app that allows texts, video calls, photo sharing and voicemails with users worldwide.
Bumble: Similar to Tinder, but requires women to make the first contact. Law enforcement says kids and teens can create fake accounts and falsify their age.
Live.Me: A live-streaming app that uses geolocation to share videos. The sheriff's office said users can earn "coins" to "pay" minors for photos.
Ask.FM: The sheriff's office said this app lets users ask anonymous questions and is known for cyberbullying.
Grindr: A dating app geared toward the LGBTQ community based on user location.
TikTok: A new app popular with kids lets users create and share short videos. Law enforcement said the app has "very limited privacy controls" and users can be exposed to cyberbullying and explicit content.
Snapchat: One of the most popular social media apps in the world, Snapchat lets users take and share photos and videos. The app also lets people see your location.
Holla: This self-proclaimed "addicting" video chat app lets users meet people in seconds. Law enforcement said users have seen racial slurs and explicit content.
Calculator+: Police say this is one of several apps that are used to hide photos, videos, files and browser history.
Skout: A location-based dating app that is supposed to prohibit people under 17 from sharing private photos. However, police say kids can easily create an account with a different age.
Badoo: A dating and social media app where users can chat and share photos and videos based on location. Police say the app is supposed to be for adults only, but they've seen teens create accounts.
Kik: Police say kids can bypass traditional text messaging features using this app. Kik "gives users unlimited access to anyone, anywhere, anytime," the sheriff's office said. The Kik app is actually going away, although there's no clear date for when it will shut down.
Whisper: An anonymous social network that lets users share secrets with strangers. Police say it also shows users' location so people can meet up.
Hot or Not: The app lets users rate profiles, check out people in their area and chat with strangers. Police say the goal of the app is to hook up.
Surprise ‘coming out ’ middle school assembly angers parents
Linda Harvey Wed Oct 16, 2019 - 6:40 pm EST
October 16, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) -- Most parents don’t like to be the last to know what’s being presented to their children, and Dayton, Ohio-area families were appalled to learn about a school-wide assembly held at a middle school.
No advance parental notice was given for this event held in conjunction with homosexual/transgender National Coming Out Day. As I have mentioned in previous articles, schools are regularly observing special days and weeks as part of a coordinated “LGBT” agenda directed to America’s children.
It all happened at Van Buren Middle School in Kettering, a Dayton suburb. An 11-year-old boy reported to his mom that a special speaker addressed the students. Actor/author Maulik Pancholy related his experience believing he was “gay” back in sixth grade and now encourages students to embrace their own homosexual feelings. He has written a book called The Best At It.
Yes, that’s right. Sixth graders are now being encouraged to announce a homosexual identity.
Pancholy was in the Dayton area as part of a tour promoting the book. Since he was also a voice on the popular Disney cartoon “Phineas and Ferb,” during his speech he told the Kettering middle school students that one of the Phineas’ characters was “gay.”
So is this school officially on board with destroying innocence while encouraging pre-adolescent corruption? This administration needs to be held accountable for mentally molesting these children while betraying the trust of their families.
And the mom in question is sounding the alarm. She emailed a number of other Van Buren families with this message:
“Sharing one's sexuality to 11-year-olds, many who aren't even thinking about sex, has absolutely no place in our publicly funded schools. Why did they think this was appropriate? And why did they think it was okay to teach our children without our knowledge or consent? And on top of that, use our tax money to teach our children beliefs we disagree with?
“If they were looking for diversity, there are numerous other authors they could have chosen from that didn't come with a clear LGBT agenda. I'm assuming when confronted the school will fall back on their ‘anti-bullying’ facade, which I find ironic when you consider what is defined as bullying.
“As is well known, anyone who disagrees with this agenda is instantly labeled with hateful rhetoric and name-calling such as ‘homophobic,’ ‘bigot,’ or ‘hate group/hate speech,’ certainly not what any child wants to be called. Nor does any child want to be singled out as hateful, when they're anything but that. (It's not hateful or bigoted just because you believe differently.)
“I would certainly call that intimidating! So, as the school hides behind the ‘anti-bullying’ facade to deceptively promote the LGBT agenda behind parents’ backs, it would appear by definition they are the big bullies here.”
Parents feel the betrayal keenly. And they should, because it goes beyond sexual corruption. It’s a violation of parental rights and it’s unconstitutional.
Schools have no right to assume that a pro-“LGBT” worldview is an appropriate official position for a public school, and an all-student assembly carries the implied endorsement of the school. Families who are Christian, Jewish, or Muslim are completely disregarded and disrespected by the assumption that affirmation of homosexuality and gender deviance is an acceptable message. It’s the establishment of one viewpoint while foolishly promoting a morally, spiritually and medically high-risk behavior.
“Coming Out Day” is on October 11 every year, established by the homosexual activist community because of its association with a “gay rights” march in Washington in 1987. It’s an activist day with a personal slant, encouraging people to declare “I’m here, I’m queer, get used to it.”
But when kids make this pronouncement, it puts them on a course that limits their lives and leads to higher risks all the way around. There’s an elevated risk of suicidal tendencies. There’s a risk of bodily harm through contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, because there’s a higher incidence of STDs, especially among males who have sex with other males. Centers for Disease Control statistics have well-established this medical risk.
And condoms do not remove all of the potential hazards, because they are often not used during reckless sexual encounters (and there are many of those in the homosexual life). And the practice of anal sex is potentially injurious to anyone’s body. Humans were not designed for anal intercourse.
The truth is that many adolescents who declare a homosexual or gender confused identity only have those feelings because they were sexually molested by an adult or older youth. And we are “blessing” such assaults by glorifying a “gay” identity, and even holding school assemblies to do so?
How dare they? How dare they?
Every administrator who went along with this travesty should be fired. And then the school needs to have another assembly, inviting speakers who have left the homosexual life, and showing the real, living hope available for all students struggling with such attractions.
It’s the least Van Buren Middle School can do to make up for the damage that has already been done – corrupting children behind parents’ backs.
Jasper, Georgia, isn’t a big town. At last count, it had about 3,800 residents. So it was a big deal when 900 squeezed into the Pickens High School auditorium determined to stop Jasper from becoming the next stop in the march for transgender bathrooms.
For the small community, the time for polite conversation was over.
The residents packed into the special school board meeting were angry. They’d already made accommodations for the two students who identified as another gender, setting up single-person restrooms for anyone who wanted them. The trouble is, these kids weren’t satisfied with that compromise.
In a fiery meeting that pit Superintendent Carlton Wilson against most of the town, moms and dads like Nathan Barfield were furious. Barfield says his two children are being made uncomfortable because a handful of students want access to any bathroom.
The demand for socialism is on the rise from young Americans today. But is socialism even morally sound? Find out more now >>
“Most people won’t say anything because they fear retaliation,” Barfield fumed. “[But] accommodations have already been made for transgender students. This is nothing but a political stunt to gain attention.”
A raucous applause broke out, punctuated by a series of “Amens!”
“Once you give into this, you’ll open the floodgates,” warned one mom.
In places like the U.K., where this sort of gender free-for-all is commonplace, parents are distraught about the rise in their kids’ anxiety. Some girls are staying home so they don’t have to use the bathrooms with boys. Others are risking bladder infections by not drinking.
Here in the U.S., even liberal parents are calling it a “bathroom crisis.” The Atlantic, not to be confused with a conservative magazine, is the latest to sound the alarm, publishing a long feature from George Packer headlined “When the Culture War Comes for Your Kids.”
Packer tells the story of sending his son to a public school in New York City to expose him to more diversity. There, a single girl in the second grade “had switched to using male pronouns, adopted the initial Q as a first name, and begun dressing in boys’ clothes.”
Within two years, “almost every bathroom in the school, from kindergarten through fifth grade, had become gender-neutral. Where signs had once said boys and girls, they now said students,” he writes, adding:
Kids would be conditioned to the new norm at such a young age that they would become the first cohort in history for whom gender had nothing to do with whether they sat or stood to pee. All that biology entailed—curiosity, fear, shame, aggression, pubescence, the thing between the legs—was erased or wished away.
The school didn’t inform parents of this sudden end to an age-old custom, as if there were nothing to discuss. Parents only heard about it when children started arriving home desperate to get to the bathroom after holding it in all day. Girls told their parents mortifying stories of having a boy kick open their stall door. Boys described being afraid to use the urinals.
Our son reported that his classmates, without any collective decision, had simply gone back to the old system, regardless of the new signage: Boys were using the former boys’ rooms, girls the former girls’ rooms. This return to the familiar was what politicians call a ‘commonsense solution.’ It was also kind of heartbreaking. As children, they didn’t think to challenge the new adult rules, the new adult ideas of justice. Instead, they found a way around this difficulty that the grown-ups had introduced into their lives. It was a quiet plea to be left alone.
In Jasper, the parents were fortunate. They won. Wilson saw the outpouring of opposition and reconsidered.
But despite all the Trump administration has done to put these decisions back in communities’ hands, there will always be a small army of activists who try to slip this indoctrination into your district.
Don't you dare grade on merit, state university tells professors
Workshop warns against maintaining 'white language supremacy'
Published October 20, 2019 at 1:10pm
A public university that warned faculty against propping up white supremacy now is hosting workshops to persuade professors not to grade based on merit.
The College Fix reports such workshops are popping up at universities from Washington, D.C. to Idaho.
Boise State University is hosting an event next week called "Inclusive Teaching Means Inclusive Grading, Too."
It's part of the BUILD certificate program, or Boise State Uniting for Inclusion and Leadership in Diversity.
The College Fix said the faculty workshop at Boise State is shrouded in secrecy, but similar events held by different universities shed light on it.
A workshop of the exact same name at University of Tennessee-Knoxville aimed "to engage instructors in conversations and activities designed to foreground diversity and inclusion in considerations of assessment and grading practices."
The University of Michigan held a faculty workshop with a similar name. The Center for Research on Learning and Teaching stated on its website that teachers would "be asked to review their own practices" on grading.
In February at American University, College Fix said, a workshop titled "Grading ain’t just grading" aimed to teach faculty "how to assess writing without judging its quality."
It promised to help teachers rethink "writing assessment ecologies toward antiracist ends."
The workshop warned that "the practices of grading writing" maintained "White language supremacy."
Taxpayer-funded Boise State, the College Fix said, also is hosting as part of its Build Certificate Program a book circle designed to "dig deep into ourselves to explore the ways in which we all, as individuals, sometimes unknowingly, support racism and white supremacy."
In-N-Out Burger owner: ‘The deep need in my heart can only be filled by Jesus’
Tue Oct 15, 2019 - 8:57 pm EST
October 15, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Chick-fil-A isn’t the only popular restaurant chain publicly displaying its Christian identity, as In-N-Out Burger president and owner Lynsi Snyder reminded the world this month in an interview with the Christian Post.
Snyder told the Post how faith in Christ helped her turn her life around after years of drug problems and failed marriages. “I finally found that the deep need in my heart can only be filled by Jesus and my identity in Him,” she said. “I have learned so much through my broken relationships along with the ups and downs that come through marriage. I’ve been the one to hurt, and I’ve been hurt. I have gained insight and growth through both sides of the coin.”
She said she leads In-N-Out based on Biblical principles, in order to maintain the high bar set by her grandparents, who founded the chain in 1948. One of the ways she does so is by printing Bible verses on cups and wrappers, a tradition that started with her uncle Rich in the 1990s.
Those verses include John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”; Proverbs 24:16, “the wicked shall fall into mischief”; and Luke 6:35, “But love ye your enemies, and do good.”
“The battle over souls is being waged in the heavenly,” Snyder said. “We want to be on the front lines of this battle to save the lost and bring fallen Christians back to their first love.”
“Picture our lives being a power strip,” she suggested. “We plug so many things into the power strip — work, family, hobbies, and God,” she analogized. “But that is all wrong. God must be the power strip and everything in our life should be plugged into Him as our power source. He gives us life and then we have His power in everything we do.”
Snyder is also the founder of the Army of Love ministry, which “bring[s] together followers of Christ for training and empowerment to help them fulfill their purpose by utilizing their gifts to serve others.” Snyder said she first got the idea for the ministry during the collapse of her third marriage, when she became “desperate for the hope that I could be used by God despite my circumstances.”
“Many people attend church, but the pool of discipleship is shallow, so I saw training modules online to disciple people and take them deeper than they may have gone attending church or Bible study,” she explained. “I envisioned this Army uniting various ministries and supporting churches and organizations.”
According to Glassdoor, Snyder and In-N-Out currently enjoy the #3 slots for top CEOs and best places to work. The company takes in between $100 million and $500 million in annual revenue.
A recent article in The Tennessean reveals how the Williamson County School District (WCS) is monitoring students’ free speech and social media posts.
The WCS recently implemented a “threat surveillance program” called Gaggle that is so invasive and frightening, one would be hard pressed not to call it a “gag” program that limits students’ free speech.
When the WCS was asked to reveal specific details about what Gaggle and authorities are monitoring students’ speech for, they claimed they could not reveal any details “due to federal family protection laws.”
Public & private schools are joining the ranks of alphabet soup surveillance agencies like DHS, the FBI and the NSA claiming they cannot reveal surveillance details.
The Tennessean was able toshed some light on what Gaggle monitors by saying it, “operates using a mathematical algorithm to identify high-risk words and phrases when students are logged into the district’s server.”
Gaggle’s video was a little more revealing, claiming that they monitor students social media posts 24/7 for things like:
profanity
insulting language
hate speech
provocative images
pornography
drug use
alcohol use and much more
When school districts and private corporations start monitoring students for things like profanity and insulting language, we should all be worried because it will not end there.
Soon social media providers will monitor everyone.
Parents think school districts have crossed the line with Gaggle.
“I’m concerned about the mining of all the other student-written text, regarding bullying, profanity, or anything offensive. Aren’t kids going to be too nervous to write anything that’s potentially controversial? What kind of education will they get if they’re walking on eggshells not to offend the computer algorithm?” WCS parent Thomas Morgan said.
Gaggle’s monitoring of students is a lot more invasive than what parents are being told.
Gaggle’s “Safety Management Dashboard” allows school staff and law enforcement to identify and track individual students who have the highest number of incidents.
The Gaggle Safety Management Dashboard allows superintendents, principals and other educators who are responsible for student safety to investigate and answer the following questions:
Which of my schools has the highest amount of incidents?
What educational tools are my students using most frequently?
How severe are the incidents Gaggle Safety Representatives discover?
Has the number of inappropriate incidents increased or decreased over time?
How does my school or district’s incident rate compare with national averages?
Mr. Morgan was right, students will be walking on eggshells because they will be afraid of getting put on a watchlist.
Gaggle’s Bloomington, Illinois, staff listens to and watches students’ social media content in real-time 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
The video also revealed that at least seven school districts are using Gaggle: Oklahoma Public Schools, Cincinnati public schools, Duval public schools, Fort Wayne Community Schools, Johnston County Schools, Denver Public Schools, and last but not least, the Williamson County School District.
The Tennessean revealed ahorrificvision of how school board members view monitoring students free speech.
“I don’t think it interferes with free speech. I think it is just like any other employer’s authority to monitor their network,” School board member Eliot Mitchell, 3rd District, an IT executive at a computer systems company said.
When faculty and law enforcement start viewing themselves as employers and students as employees, is it any wonder their free speech is in jeopardy?
What makes Gaggle’s incident tracking system even more disconcerting is that it builds a database of each student’s infraction[s] that will follow them throughout their lives.
Allowing corporations to create databases of our kids’ lives in school is horrendous. Soon no one will be able to escape being put on some type of government/corporate watchlist. That terrifies me.
Editors Note: Some of the information collected through these local surveillance programs almost certainly ends up in federal databases. The feds can share and tap into vast amounts of information gathered at the state and local level through fusion centers and a system known as the “information sharing environment” or ISE.
Fusion centers were sold as a tool to combat terrorism, but that is not how they are being used. The ACLU pointed to a bipartisan congressional report to demonstrate the true nature of government fusion centers: “They haven’t contributed anything meaningful to counterterrorism efforts. Instead, they have largely served as police surveillance and information sharing nodes for law enforcement efforts targeting the frequent subjects of police attention: Black and brown people, immigrants, dissidents, and the poor.”
Fusion centers operate within the broader ISE. According to its website, the ISE “provides analysts, operators, and investigators with information needed to enhance national security. These analysts, operators, and investigators…have mission needs to collaborate and share information with each other and with private sector partners and our foreign allies.” In other words, ISE serves as a conduit for the sharing of information gathered without a warrant. Known ISE partners include the Office of Director of National Intelligence which oversees 17 federal agencies and organizations, including the NSA. ISE utilizes these partnerships to collect and share data on the millions of unwitting people they track.
Now, due to continuing refugee placements as well as chain migration there are an estimated 80,000 Somalis living in the Twin Cities metro area, or more like 79,000 if you subtract those who’ve left the country to join terrorist organizations like ISIS.
Anyhoo, here’s a week Minneapolitans had with their Somali neighbors last month:
On Wednesday, May 15th a couple of University students were attacked on campus at the East Bank Train station by two Somali thugs. It was an attempted robbery that the guys rebuffed sustaining injuries that required a hospital visit.
On Thursday, May 16th two Somalis burned down the pavilion at Lake Calhoun [or Lake Bde Maka Ska if you’re a virtue signaler) an eating and hanging out meeting place in the heart of the city enjoyed by generations of Americans around the prettiest city lake you’ve ever seen. This is in the most expensive neighborhood in Minneapolis.
On Friday, May 17th a gang of 10-12 Somali youths attacked all the white people at that same East Bank Train station with hammers and pipes. Snopes says this is “Mostly False” because after the attack they fled, and out of the 7 who were eventually apprehended only two were still in possession of weapons, in this case pipes. So therefore, it never happened.
And now Tuesday, May 20th a woman walking her dog in a gorgeous, huge, wooded off leash dog park, complete with sandy beach on the Mississippi River, found spikes just off the path. Sharp metal objects taped to a wooden spike, presumably designed to hurt dogs running happily through the underbrush. Now, we don’t know that a Somali did that, it could be some crazed psycho Swede, but Islam abhors dogs as unclean because the prophet did.
Will this cause anything to change in Minnesota? Will the city’s leaders stop wearing the hijab in solidarity with the worst of Islam, incredibly, after they attack us!? Will Minneapolitans elect secular, assimilated Somalis rather than proudly Sharia- supporting, anti-Semitic, enshrouded Somali Muslims like Ilhan Omar? (80% of Democrats picked her in the primary.) I doubt it. They did all that after the following events:
· In 2018 it was uncovered that Somalis had perpetrated a massive, community wide scam against the welfare state of Minnesota, stealing an incredible $100 million from a childcare handout program by fraud and shipping that money to Somalia to fund God knows what. (Incidentally, though finally proven in 2018, this was an open secret for years. I knew about this scam when I left the state in 2014.)
· Dozens of Somalis, men and women, over the years arrested or tracked as they attempted to join terrorists overseas including ISIS. The feds are concerned it is still a rich breeding ground for Islamic supremacy and terrorist organizations.
· In 2016 the first Somali police officer murdered a woman in her pajamas who had called in a disturbance. I guess it’s not safe to call the cops when you see something and say something. He has been found guilty of that murder.
· In 2018 a Somali student at St Catherine University attempted to burn down the school and “hurt people,” saying, ““You guys are lucky that I don’t know how to build a bomb because I would have done that.”
· In 2017 a Somali man stabbed a young woman 14 times for no apparent reason -- he didn’t go after her purse -- while she was walking home from her job at an Apple Store. He’s still at large. Curiously no composite sketch was ever released to the media.
· In 2016 during Ramadan a gang of religious robed Somali men terrorized the city’s affluent Linden Hills community “for three straight days, threatening to rape a woman, beating one resident’s dog, and shouting “jihad!” as they drove vehicles over residents’ lawns and pretended to shoot people through their duffel bags. No arrests were made.” (Seriously read this account. You will find it absolutely horrifying and it’s shocking that no arrests were made with all these people trying to get license plate numbers, all the likely surveillance cameras etc. It makes one wonder if the city is protecting Somalis from being held accountable to our laws.)
· In 2012 90% of Somalis worldwide said they think they agree with Sharia Law and think it should be implemented.
I’m not sure what it would take for Minneapolitans to wake up and stop being so suicidal with their multiculturalism. Terrorism, arson, violent crime, murder, corruption, fraud, female oppression is apparently not enough.
Pompeo talks religious freedom in Nashville speech
Associated PressOct 12, 2019
NASHVILLE, Tennessee - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday continued to raise the alarm about religious freedoms around the world, receiving a warm welcome in Tennessee as his department faced heightened scrutiny amid the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
The top U.S. diplomat said in a speech to a Christian group in Nashville that 80% of the world lives in areas where people are denied religious freedom.
“This is not a popular conversation to raise sometimes, but the world needs to hear this truth,” Pompeo said.
Pompeo delivered the remarks the same day a former special envoy for Ukraine was set to be interviewed in the impeachment probe. Pompeo did not refer to the impeachment inquiry directly, but joked at the start of his speech that it was “a heck of a day to be out of Washington.”
Pompeo also made no mention of this week’s Turkish offensive against U.S.-allied Kurdish fighters in northern Syria. Nashville has the largest Kurd population in the U.S. and Trump’s recent decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria, leaving Kurds there vulnerable to Turkish attack, has sparked protests among Kurds in places including Nashville.
Separately, hundreds of Kurds and supporters protested Friday outside a downtown federal courthouse in Nashville, holding flags and urging peace just several hours after Pompeo’s speech. The city is home to an estimated 15,000 Kurds.
On Friday, Pompeo instead highlighted his Christian leadership during his time overseeing the State Department.
In a nearly 20-minute speech, Pompeo described the Islamic Republican Iran as an “aggressor not a victim,” and singled out China for holding Muslim Uighurs in internment camps, as well as calling out Iran for the persecution of Christians.
Pompeo said the Trump administration has prioritized the issue in discussions with world leaders and by recently hosting a conference in Washington on the matter.
He also noted the administration has imposed visa restrictions on Chinese officials responsible for human rights violations and stopped U.S. tech companies from supplying equipment that’s “enabling” human rights abuses.
Still, he said, “there’s so much more world to do.”
Critics have recently accused the administration of being selective as it stands up for religious freedom, noting that it has made it harder for Muslims to enter the United States and appears to tolerate persecution in close allies such as Saudi Arabia.
Still, Pompeo repeated that Trump’s administration had sought out the truth in its defense of religious freedom.
“This administration has spoken the truth in many ways that previous others administrations haven’t done,” he said.
The biggest applause from the speech, however, came after Pompeo vowed his department would never sign an agreement with an international organization that declared abortion as a human right.
Hillary Clinton Wins Pro-Abortion “Lifetime Achievement” Award, Calls Killing Babies a Human Right
MICAIAH BILGER SEP 27, 2019 | 10:24AM WASHINGTON, DC
The pro-abortion group NARAL celebrated its 50th anniversary Thursday by giving failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton its Lifetime Achievement Award.
In between criticisms of President Donald Trump, leaders of the radical pro-abortion group called Clinton “our president” and touted her pro-abortion record. NARAL held its 50th anniversary celebration Thursday in Washington, D.C.
“Women’s rights are human rights, and for 50 years NARAL has taken on the toughest fights to protect our most fundamental freedoms. Happy anniversary. Let’s keep going,” Clinton wrote on Twitter after accepting the award.
During her acceptance speech, Clinton spent a lot of time criticizing Trump, who has taken strong steps to protect human rights for both the born and unborn. Among his many actions, the president cut taxpayer funding to abortion providers, urged countries to stand together against the United Nation’s abortion agenda, and defended the conscience protection rights of pro-life medical workers.
On Thursday, she slammed Trump as a “danger” to the future of America and urged Democrats in Congress to impeach him, according to Bloomberg.
“This current occupant of the Oval Office poses a clear and present danger to our future, to our democracy,” Clinton said. Trump “has betrayed his oath of office to uphold the Constitution and protect and defend our country.”
For her commitment to the cause of killing unborn babies, NARAL leader Ilyse Hogue praised Clinton and called her “our president.”
After his conversion, he admitted that NARAL lied when it was campaigning to legalize abortions across the country.
“We spoke of 5,000 – 10,000 [back alley abortion] deaths a year,” Nathanson said. “I confess that I knew the figures were totally false … it was a useful figure, widely accepted, so why go out of our way to correct it with honest statistics?”
Arrests at Border Total Nearly 1M in Past Year, Border Chief Says
The acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection says that nearly 1 million “enforcement actions” took place on the southern border in the past fiscal year.
At a White House briefing Tuesday, Mark Morgan revealed the latest border apprehension statistics and what the Trump administration is doing to control the immigration crisis.
“CBP’s enforcement actions on our southwest border totaled nearly 1 million in fiscal year 2019. This is a staggering 88% higher than the number of enforcement actions in 2018,” Morgan said. “These numbers are numbers that no immigration system in the world is designed to handle, including ours.”
Morgan’s comments came after the close of fiscal year 2019, which ended Sept. 30.
Not only did the U.S. government experience a demonstrably high number of migrants last fiscal year, but it was also faced with a new type of demographic reaching the border than in previous years, further complicating the country’s beleaguered immigration system.
The arrival of family units in fiscal year 2019 “more than tripled” any previous year in history, the Customs and Border Protection chief revealed.
“Our Border Patrol facilities were not designed to hold families or children,” Morgan said. “They were designed as police stations. And because of that—because of the new demographic of families and children—those resources became strained, and our limited resources had to be diverted from their law enforcement duties securing the border to address the humanitarian crisis.”
Morgan placed blame for the crisis on the U.S. immigration system, which he said is filled with “loopholes.” The result, he said, was hundreds of thousands of migrant families who were “told, coached, and made to believe” that they would be able enter the U.S. if they reached the border with a child.
However, Morgan noted the recent drop in apprehension numbers and how it was a result of President Donald Trump’s work at home and abroad with neighboring governments.
“This September marked the lowest number of law enforcement actions during fiscal year 2019. The total number of law enforcement actions last month was just over 52,000—down almost 65% from the peak in May of 144,000. This represents the fourth month in a row of a steady decline in apprehensions,” Morgan said, calling it an “unprecedented” achievement.
Law enforcement actions encompass border arrests and inadmissibles, those who arrive at the border and are sent back.
Morgan, who Trump tapped in May to lead Customs and Border Protection, touted several initiatives the administration launched as reasons for the sharp decline. For example, authorities have sent over 51,000 asylum-seekers who arrived at the southern border back to Mexico to wait for their claims to processed under migrant protection protocols.
The administration has not only worked with Mexico to step up its own enforcement capabilities, but it has also secured asylum deals with the three Central American countries that are home to the vast bulk of migrants currently reaching the border—Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
Morgan also touted the progress of wall construction on the U.S.-Mexico border, noting that crews have constructed about 71 miles of new barriers and that the administration plans to have roughly 450 miles of wall built by the end of 2020.
“Just four short months ago, our daily apprehensions were close to 5,000. And today—I just looked at it on my screen before I left my office—it’s below 1,700,” Morgan said. “We went from over 19,000 people in custody just four short months ago to less than 4,000. We have essentially ended catch and release.”
Become a part of Tennessee’s growing army of EFFECTIVE conservative campaigners.
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4-day Election CampaignAcademy – in Franklin, TN!
Fri & Sat Oct. 18 & 19 followed by Fri & Sat, Nov 15 & 16
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Day 1: Fri, Oct 18, 12:30 PM to 8:30 PM. Campaign Strategy. Dinner included.
Running for Office, Campaign Strategy, Strategic Research, Setting Vote Goals & Selecting Voter Contact Tools, Building a Strong Campaign Organization, What Donors and Stakeholders Want
Day 2: Sat, Oct 19, 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM. Messaging. Breakfast and lunch included.
Imperatives for Leadership, Intuition, Reasoning and Moral Foundations, Developing a Communication Strategy, Building Communications, Earned Media Strategy, Debates, Social and Alternative Media
Day 3: Fri, Nov 15, 12:30 PM to 8:30 PM. Voter Contact. Dinner included.
Building Party Support, BACON Method, Voter Contact Overview, Absentee and Early Voting, Emerging GOTV, Paid Media, Holding a Public Event, Election Day Programs.
Day 4: Sat, Nov 16, 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM. Fundraising. Breakfast and lunch included.
Hiring and Firing Consultants, Fundraising Fundamentals, Events, Donor Research, Personal Solicitation, Sustained Giving Programs, PAC Fundraising, Direct Mail Fundraising
Location: Peytonsville Church of Christ, 4738 Peytonsville Rd, Franklin , TN 37064 (2.5 miles from I-840 and I-65)
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President Trump: “Every Child, Born and Unborn, is a Sacred Gift From God”
MARIE SMITH SEP 26, 2019 | 3:24PM WASHINGTON, DC
The United Nations General Assembly (GA) began a new session in New York with a large number of heads of state, including President Donald Trump, diplomats and country delegations in attendance. In unprecedented remarks, President Trump told the GA, “Like many nations here today, we in America believe that every child – born and unborn – is a sacred gift from God.”
He reminded the global bureaucrats that they “have absolutely no business attacking the sovereignty of nations that wish to protect innocent life.” This statement is grounded in the Programme of Action from the 1994 UN International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo where countries agreed that “Any measures or changes related to abortion within the health system can only be determined at the national or local level according to the national legislative process.”
In fact, an overwhelming majority of UN member states–121 countries–currently limits abortion and prohibits abortion on demand, or for social and economic reasons, and are often subjected to criticism and pressure from UN entities.
President Trump accurately and passionately informed the GA that “Americans will also never tire of defending innocent life.”
On Monday, September 23, the GA held the High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage where there had been a concerted effort by pro-abortion elites to include abortion under primary health care as a component of universal health coverage. Their efforts paid off as the Political Declaration that was advanced at the meeting contained terms and language used to advance abortion including a call to “Ensure, by 2030, universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services”.
His Eminence Pietro Cardinal Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See, spoke on behalf of the Holy See and voiced opposition to inclusion of these terms in the Political Declaration. His statement included the following:
“The right to health is in fact universally recognized as a basic human right and is understood as comprising the health of the person as a whole and of all persons during all stages of development of their life. The right to health is thus inextricably linked with the right to life and it can never be manipulated as an excuse to end or dispose of a human life in whichever point in the entire continuum of his or her existence, from conception until natural death.”
“At the same time, the Holy See considers it most unfortunate that the adopted declaration includes the deeply concerning and divisive references to ‘sexual and reproductive health-care services’ and ‘sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights’ as components of universal health coverage. In line with its reservations expressed at the international conferences held in Beijing and Cairo, the Holy See reiterates that it considers the phrase ‘reproductive healt’ and related terms as applying to a holistic concept of health, which embraces the person in the entirety of his or her personality, mind and body. In particular, the Holy See rejects the interpretation that considers abortion or access to abortion, sex-selective abortion, abortion of fetuses diagnosed with health challenges, maternal surrogacy, and sterilization as dimensions of these terms, or of universal health coverage.”
The US delegation, led by Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, voiced similar concerns in a group statement from the United States, Bahrain, Belarus, Brazil, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Guatemala, Haiti, Hungary, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen over divisive language in the declaration on “ambiguous terms and expressions, such as sexual and reproductive health and rights.”
Secretary Azar’s remarks and the group statement called for unity and not divisive terms that do not enjoy consensus or agreement in order to address the critical issues surrounding access to health care. The statement included,
“We do not support references to ambiguous terms and expressions, such as sexual and reproductive health and rights in U.N. documents, because they can undermine the critical role of the family and promote practices, like abortion, in circumstances that do not enjoy international consensus and which can be misinterpreted by U.N. agencies.
“Such terms do not adequately take into account the key role of the family in health and education, nor the sovereign right of nations to implement health policies according to their national context. There is no international right to an abortion and these terms should not be used to promote pro-abortion policies and measures.”
“The United States appreciates our longstanding partnership in many global health areas. As a key priority in global health promotion, we respectfully request that your government join the United States in ensuring that every sovereign state has the ability to determine the best way to protect the unborn and defend the family as the foundational unit of society vital to children thriving and leading healthy lives. We remain gravely concerned that aggressive efforts to reinterpret international instruments to create a new international right to abortion and to promote international policies that weaken the family have advanced through some United Nations fora…”
The US continues to seek Member States willing to stand up for life as the world prepares to meet in Nairobi in November for the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD).
A statement supporting “SRHR” at the UHC meeting was read by the Netherlands on behalf of: Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cap Verde, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guinea, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lebanon, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Montenegro, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Togo, Tunisia, United Kingdom and Uruguay.
This “Joint SRHR Statement” said that the countries “strongly believe that SRHR is an integral part of Universal Health Coverage and the SDGs” and included that in order for Universal Health Coverage to be “genuinely universal, it must embrace all health services, including sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR)”. The statement ended with the reassurance of the countries’ “full commitment and support to the implementation of the Political Declaration on Universal Health Coverage in our respective countries and abroad.”
PNCI notes that implementation cannot happen without funding. Parliaments can expect pressure and lobbying for budgets that will finance the implementation of Universal Health Coverage in countries.
TN REP. MARK GREEN: 5 Of My Democratic Colleagues Put Illegal Immigrants Before Our Troops
Rep. Mark Green, October 02, 2019
As one of 19 freshmen who have served our country in uniform in the 116th Congress, I’m honored to be part of the largest class of freshman veterans in a decade. Veterans bring a unique perspective and much-needed voice at the table in Congress.
I’m grateful to each veteran in my class for his or her service to our nation. My freshman class has seven Democrats who served. Unfortunately, a recent vote revealed that too many of them are willing to put party priorities before our brothers and sisters in uniform
Last week, five of the seven voted against my “motion to recommit” — a simple amendment that would ensure illegal aliens don’t get our latest medical technology before our veterans. H.R. 3525, the bill they all voted for, would require the Department of Homeland Security to set up an Electronic Health Records system for illegal aliens. The Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs don’t have that same technology yet — and won’t for several more years.
Let me repeat: These Democrats voted for healthcare technology to be delivered to illegal aliens within the next 90 days. But our veterans and service members won’t get those benefits for years.
Sixteen Democrats voted for my amendment. The voted against it. five Democratic veterans — Reps. Max Rose, Jason Crow, Chrissy Houlahan, Elaine Lucia, and Gil Cisneros
Our country’s veterans need members of Congress who shares their values. And they need people who will stand for them — and with them — in Washington. There’s a common misconception that some Democrats — especially veterans — are able to blaze an independent path in Congress. Unfortunately, that’s just not true. While they may promise to be moderates or independents, when they get to Washington, they fall in lockstep with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
While we all honor them for their service, we must take a sober look at their political record. Almost all of them promised to be independent-minded and promised they would not just do what the extreme Democratic leadership told them to do. Of the seven, every one of them voted for the unconstitutional H.R. 1, the massive debt ceiling increase, and all but one voted for the gun-grabbing H.R. 8. And each one voted for this year’s National Defense Authorization Act, a partisan bill that cut personnel accounts for the troops by $1.2 billion.
Regardless of how one feels about the underlying illegal immigration, we should all be able to agree that illegal aliens shouldn’t be put in line before our American heroes — the men and women who put their lives on the line for us and wrote a blank check to our country, cashable all the way up to their very lives.
These five Democrats will continue to campaign as independent-minded veterans. Unfortunately, as history has shown us, we can’t trust the rhetoric. When they get to Congress, they’ll fall right in line, just as they did with this latest vote.
Rep. Mark Green (@RepMarkGreen) is a physician, businessman, and combat veteran who represents Tennessee as a Republican in the United States House. He serves as the Republican freshman class president
