Monday the 4th of October, 2021 the United States’ Attorney General Merrick Garland in a memo ordered federal law enforcement authorities to meet with local leaders and discuss what he described as a recent “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence” against teachers and school board members. Garland’s memo directed the FBI to lead a task force to address threats against school officials, including creating a centralized way to report the threats.
Over the last year we have seen many videos of parents protesting during school board meetings over the implementation of Critical Race Theory curriculum as well as mask mandates. Garland’s memo came just days after the National School Boards Association (NSBA) sent a letter to President Biden saying clashes between school boards and parents may amount to “domestic terrorism.”
A conservative legal group set up by Stephen Miller requested that the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General investigate the circumstances surrounding the Attorney General Garland’s memo last week which pledged to mobilize the FBI and other Department of Justice forces against parents protesting Critical Race Theory and Mask mandates.
Miller said that, “Targeting parents in local school boards is atrocious. There’s no lawful basis for doing so. There’s no federal connection that’s even associated to such an investigation.” “Throughout the country local disputes or any disorderly conduct is handled by local authorities. The federal authorities have no right or jurisdiction in local matters. Clearly all this action is meant to suppress free speech and scare parents into silence and into obedience.”
The suppression of free speech as addressed in our Constitution is strictly prohibited by both the first and 14th amendments. It’s also, the right to peacefully assemble to protest grievances against the government. Yet here is the current government, instructing law enforcement to suppress those rights.
Some might say the people are unruly but I think many people have to shout to be heard by government officials. In many cases the loud voices and angry people may be caused by the Boards not paying any attention to the parents.
Mitch McConnell said “Parents absolutely should be telling their local schools what to teach. This is the very basis of representative government.” He also said, “They do this both in elections and, as protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution, petitioning their government for redress of grievances. Telling elected officials, they’re wrong is democracy, not intimidation.”
How true those words are, but these actions by our Attorney General are the beginning of a descent in authoritarianism. Actually, not the beginning, the mask mandates and lockdown orders were the beginning but now the left is attacking our right to free speech and the right to protest.
Last year when BLM and Antifa protested burning down cities there was no FBI task force, but when average parents speak up it somehow is Domestic terrorism. Oh, those riots were during Trump term, that’s right and he let local police handle it unless the left leaning governments wanted to let it continue which many of them did. But the offer was made for help, all you had to do was ask.
Today, it’s “Call out the troops” the people are speaking out and demanding action. Surround the capital with wire and troops, “We’ll make it a place where no citizen can go without our permission.” You can bet, it will be in more places very soon.
I agree. The 1st amendment guarantees the right to voice your opinion. However, threats against teachers or board members are crimes. I go to the Mesquite City Council meetings and no one is allowed to shout, clap, boo, or behave in an unruly behavior. I am sure the same is true of the Water District and OPD5. Why should School Boards be any different. Give your opinion in a calm and professional manner. Anyone who shouts or causes interruptions should be ejected from the meeting. Schools Boards have a tough job but they need to be treated respectfully.
I am sure you will agree with me that our elected officials should lead the way in treating each other with respect. However, I recently saw a picture of our Assembly Person, Annie Black, wearing a Let’s Go Brandon t-shirt. I am sure Mike has the same shirt but for those of you not in the loop, it is code for F**k Biden. So much for setting an example. By the way, the picture was posted on Annie’s Facebook page. She seemed very proud of it.
Lastly, you mentioned the riots over the summer. More and more information is coming out that far right wing extremists were responsible for the fires and property damage. They just arrested one for breaking windows on stores and encouraging people to steal goods. The protests last summer were 99.9 % peaceful.
Bottom line. We can disagree but do so in a civil manner. No threats, no rocks through windows, no tires flattened.
“No threats, no rocks through windows, no tires flattened” Impressive and from a guy that throws accusations of “Racism” every time he disagrees with someone. This must have been written by the good twin.
David we now agree on some things and it is nice to have that dialog. However, I don’t have a tee shirt like that, where can someone get one? Summer riots by right wing extremists? Give me a break, wait maybe they are the ones now at the school board meetings. So maybe the FBI should arrest them as they are the real terrorists’. That way the FBI would not have to deal with those in black suits and hoodies. Moms and middle ages dads are a lot easer to arrest and they would not have to stay up late to get the bad guys and girls.
If I was a parent in Loudon County and my child had been raped and the school board covered it up, I think I would have a hard time being calm cool and collected.
Last Monday during ‘Indigenous Peoples Day’, formerly known as Columbus Day, the statue of Andrew Jackson in Washington DC’s Lafayette Park was vandalized by activists with a warning message for everyone:
“Expect Us”
This is fascinating to me, considering that Lafayette Park is situated directly north of the White House, which is currently occupied by the ‘wokest’, most culturally progressive administration in history.
The federal government has stood on the sidelines cheering cancel culture, the de-gendering of our vocabulary, and ‘mostly peaceful’ protests. It has taken every opportunity to bend the knee and subordinate itself to the whims of the Twitter mob.
And yet apparently all of that is still not enough. So activists left this warning message, right in the White House’s backyard: Expect Us.
This is supposed to be intimidating. They want us to fear them as some menacing threat. But that’s the wrong way to look at it.
Yes, we expect you. You’ve made it quite clear that we should expect you.
We expect that your entire position will remain hilariously paradoxical– like how you believe Dr. Seuss is racist, but you tolerate the Chinese Communist Party’s ethnic violence.
And because your position is so comically absurd, we expect that you will continue to engage in attention-seeking criminal temper tantrums, including vandalism, arson, data theft, grand larceny, and assault.
We expect you will be protected by the media, which ignores your violent criminality and sings the praises of your moral righteousness.
We expect that, since your ideas cannot hold up to logic or rational debate, you will continue to demand suppression and censorship of any intellectual dissent.
We expect you to keep reinventing history, science, and even the English language, and to jam it all down everyone’s throats.
We expect you to indoctrinate children into your ideology through woke school curricula, peer pressure, and social media intolerance.
We expect you to try ruining the lives of anyone who opposes you.
Finally, we expect you to continue finding ridiculous reasons to be offended and outraged no matter how much your cause is advanced.
Yes, we expect all of that. But we’re not going to live in fear of it.
That’s what they want. They want you to be terrified and intimidated, that you’ll bend the knee and adopt the rituals and Newspeak of their movement, because you’re afraid.
But this is the entire point of having a Plan B: if you’re in a position of strength, you don’t have to be afraid.
This same reasoning applies to the broader challenges facing the world.
Fiscal woes are plaguing nearly every Western government; we keep seeing record high deficits and spending bonanzas.
Government debt levels keep soaring to record highs. In the United States, spending keeps climbing as politicians insist that their proposed multi-trillion dollar entitlement programs “cost nothing”.
This is one of the most ridiculous assertions that a human being could possibly make.
But it’s not surprising given that they also say things like the southern border is secure. The Afghanistan withdrawal was a success. An attack on Anthony Fauci is an attack on science itself. (Le science, c’est moi!)
They claim they want to tax the rich. But then they want to give the IRS access to the most intimate details of any bank account or transfer exceeding a mere $600.
The logical conundrums are endless.
But all of this ultimately ends up with more spending, more regulation, more bureaucracy, and higher taxes– all of which make the country less prosperous and less competitive.
It’s also been a huge factor driving inflation higher.
In fact this current episode of inflation is probably the best example of extreme government ineptitude across multiple fronts.
For example, inflation has soared in part because of bad public health policy– shutting down businesses, requiring them to operate at reduced capacity under extremely difficult conditions, forcing them to get rid of ‘unclean’ workers.
But inflation is also surging because of bad fiscal policy– endless multi-trillion dollar spending initiatives, including hundreds of billions of dollars paid for people to stay home and NOT work.
Bad labor policy has put unions in control of critical infrastructure (like transportation and port facilities), leading to supply chain bottlenecks.
Bad environmental policy has made it difficult for energy producers to keep pace with demand, causing a spike in fuel prices (which have a substantial impact on most other prices.)
Bad monetary policy has thrown gasoline on this dumpster fire by creating a tidal wave of new money that flooded the economy at a time of extreme labor shortages and supply constraints.
Inflation is the culmination of all of these policy failures and terrible ideas. And that’s why it’s not likely to improve anytime soon.
Inflation aside, people also have to contend with the obvious loss of US primacy on the world’s stage– the constant debt ceiling debacles, the utter humiliation in Afghanistan, the financial gutting of the US military (especially the Navy) at a time when China’s is on the rise.
Crime rates are soaring at home… yet the government is more concerned about investigating parents who don’t want their children to be brainwashed with Critical Race Theory and erotic woke literature in school.
And as we discussed earlier in this missive, cancel culture is a major force, and activists have no qualms violating the law in order to advance their hate-fueled fanaticism.
Obviously these trends are all extremely concerning, especially since they’re not going away.
Western civilization is in for a bumpy ride. And a lot of people are justifiably afraid… for themselves, their jobs, their children.
It’s difficult to watch your country decline so rapidly in front of your very eyes.
But it’s also important to step back, look at the situation objectively, and recognize that you’re going to be OK.
History is full of episodes of social and economic turmoil, and what’s happening now is not unique.
This is not a time for fear, or to adopt a bunker mentality and hide from the world.
Fear is a terrible emotion that causes human beings to make destructive, irrational decisions.
Rather, this is a time for clear thinking and deliberate, rational decision-making.
That’s what a Plan B is all about; it’s not for hiding in a bunker, but rather how to engage with the world from a position of strength.
Yes, we expect inflation to grind and deficits to rise. We expect higher taxes and more bureaucracy. We expect more public health paranoia and debt ceiling fiascos.
We even “expect” these activist/criminals, just like they’re warning us.
But it’s precisely because we expect these threats that we can plan for them.
To your freedom.
I saw a great meme today. The same high school students who threw stones at a young black girl trying to integrate an Alabama high school in the 60’s are now protesting teaching today’s high school students about civil rights in the 60’s. CRT is a college level theory and is not something taught in schools. Teaching history is about teaching the truth, not some right wing fairy tale. For example, Trump lost the election. The election was honest and there was zero fraud. That is history.
Wonderful, I could not have said any better.