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January 2025

Gov. Stitt’s Commerce Department Gives Multiple MILLIONS Of Taxpayer Dollars To Paycom And Love’s Through Quality Jobs Incentives

Granted, in a recommended appropriation budget of 10,060,793,526 for 2024, a million dollars here and a million dollars there, isn’t that big a deal – it’s chump change.

But then again, every dime of this money is taken by force from a working citizen of the state, ostensibly to provide services to the taxpayer – not to enrich the multibillion dollar corporations of billionaires – even ones that make Oklahoma their homes.

Let’s take Paycom, for example. Paycom is an online payroll company created by Oklahoman, Chad Richison. Here is a bit about Mr. Richison from Forbes.

As you can see, Mr. Richison is personally worth over 1 billion dollars. Here are a few articles about Mr. Richison that pop up in a simple internet search:

Meet the highest paid CEO in S&P 500, Paycom’s $211M man

The billionaire CEO of Paycom just paid $26.5 million for a beachfront Malibu mansion that took 12 years to build and blends into the rocks. Take a look inside.

Paycom CEO Chad Richison donates $10 million to UCO for stadium upgrades

Unfortunately, Mr. Richison is also a liberal who is not at all shy about announcing his thoughts on state policy. For example, during the COVID nonsense, Mr. Richison wrote a letter to Governor Stitt complaining about a lack of leadership on COVID and that further restrictions must be made on business and movement in the state.

Also in 2020, Mr. Richison wrote a letter to OU saying that he was pulling his advertising because the University was essentially racist and didn’t have adequate training to establish an understanding of ‘racial equity’. Not long afterward, OU became a bastion of DEI training. But that’s not all.

In yet another letter written to the Regional University Board of Reagents, Richison criticized their pick for UCO’s University President, former Republican Lt. Governor, Todd Lamb.

Why then, has the State of Oklahoma Commerce Department given Paycom Payroll over ELEVEN MILLION dollars in taxpayer funds during the years of 2024 and 2023 and, beyond that, why has it been granting them funds since 2009?

The information above is from a very useful website called, “Subsidy Tracker” by “Good Jobs First”. If you click on the hyperlink on the left side of the spreadsheet (which can be found here), it tells the origin of the subsidy. Note, on this page, apparently Texas is providing subsidies as well, though very limited. Overwhelmingly, Paycom’s incentives are Oklahoma based.

Note, the origin of the subsidy is the “Quality Jobs Incentive” program. Though the money is dispersed through the Oklahoma Tax Commission, the Quality Jobs Incentive Program is a product of the Oklahoma Commerce Department (OCD). Here’s what the website says about the program:

The Oklahoma Quality Jobs Program serves as an incentive for companies to expand or relocate jobs to Oklahoma by providing a rebate of a portion of newly created payroll in the state. The program induces the creation of well-paid full-time jobs and promotes economic development. Companies may receive benefits during the first three years of participation while working to achieve the required payroll threshold for full qualification.

How are these grants dispersed?

The agency – in this case Paycom – that wants one of the many taxpayer subsidies dispensed though the OCD, must fill out a request. Then, at some point, the OCD Incentive Approval Committee calls them in for a meeting during which the asking business may speak. After that, the Committee adjourns to an Executive Session during which they decide how much of a grant to provide the business.

There are several problems here other than the glaringly obvious:

  1. Who is on the Incentive Approval Committee? Internet search turned up no answers, but a concerning Frontier article – Committee approves request for state jobs incentive money by company founded by Gov. Kevin Stitt. This article states that the Committee consisted (when the article was written in 2020) of Department of Commerce Executive Director Brent Kisling and Oklahoma Tax Commission Chairman Charles Prater – both of whom were directly appointed by Governor Stitt. The third board member was Dan Ross, director of capital assets for the Office of Management and Enterprise Services.
  2. The article mentioned above, also points out the lack of transparency in this process – all of the grants given out through the Quality Jobs Incentive Program are done so through Executive Session of the Committee. The only way to find out how much any company gets is by going to the Oklahoma Tax Commission website and scrolling through the yearly Excel files housing the HUGE number of tax dollar giveaways supported by Oklahoma citizens.
  3. On the website where agendas are stored for the various taxpayer giveaway committees, the only agendas for a program that was created in 1993 (according to the Frontier article), are from 2024 and January 2025. Even then, five months of 2024 agendas are missing. Why?
  4. Every agenda must be scoured to find out the names of the businesses going to the OCD with their hands out asking for taxpayer dollars. There is no searchable list, so each agenda must be read individually – if it’s available for inspection on the website.

Obviously, taxpayer dollars are being provided to certain private businesses and the taxpayer – the people funding these ‘grants’ – have to go through quite a process to find out how much of their dollars are going where. How very transparent. But then, the Frontier article is about how Governor Stitt’s mortgage company was receiving grants from the Committee he peopled to make decisions about how to give away state taxpayer dollars.

Unfortunately, this is the same for Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores, Inc. According to Subsidy Tracker, Love’s has a large number of ‘grants’ given it by the state of Oklahoma for both 2023 and 2024. In fact, the taxpayers of Oklahoma have given Love’s Travel Stops and Country Stores EIGHT MILLION DOLLARS – $8,074,378 to be exact.

Tom and Judy Love, who together founded the Love’s dynasty here in Oklahoma, have both recently passed away (Tom in March of 2023 and Judy in November of 2024). Both Tom and Judy were tremendously generous with their self-made billions in their home state.

A story in the Oklahoman published just before Judy died, listed her as the second wealthiest self-made woman in America, pegging the Love’s net worth at over 10.2 billion dollars. It also provided a long and varied list of their philanthropy in Oklahoma, including Positive Tomorrows, the Oklahoma Hall of Fame and the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. The Loves were also famous for their support of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

According to Forbes, the estimated revenues of the Love’s stores across the country is 24 billion dollars. Last April, Love’s announced that it would be making a billion dollar investment in updates to their facilities.

Love’s has benefited from tax credits, TIFs, grants or rebates from the states of Nebraska, Colorado, Mississippi, Virginia., Iowa, Illinois and Ohio. All of these subsidies have been a mere fraction of the 8 million dollars provided by their home state of Oklahoma, however.

In 2022, a subsidiary of Love’s, the Musket Corporation, received a $10,800,000 guaranteed loan from the federal Import/Export Bank.

Love’s is on the Quality Jobs Program Incentive Approval Committee agenda for the Regular Meeting of the Committee September 19, 2024 10:00am, along with Paycom. Again, their ‘grants’ were warded via the Committee in a closed door Executive session.

One last piece of information collected by the Oklahoma Commerce Department, indicates that neither Love’s, nor Paycom is in the top 10 hiring companies in Oklahoma. Which begs the question – why are so many millions given to both multiBILLION dollar private corporations for ‘quality jobs’? Paycom is number 25 and Love’s is even lower at 31. Consequently, taxpayers are paying for job recruitment and retention for two billionaire corporations of Oklahoma billionaires that aren’t even top 10 employers in the state.

The number of tax dollars being dolled out to private businesses via incentives by Governor Stitt’s administration is staggering – and we’ve already reported on the unbelievable amount of tax dollars being given to wind generation companies doing business in the state. One only has to go out and look at the Excel spreadsheets of them on the Oklahoma Tax Commission website and scroll through name after name to get the scope of this Santa Claus list.

Just this week, Governor Stitt has announced that he wants to reduce and eliminate the Oklahoma income tax. That’s wonderful. No citizen of America – let alone Oklahoma – should be forced to give their hard-earned wages to their government to be redirected to private entities and other nonsense that doesn’t benefit them directly. Oklahomans should applaud that idea.

It is a cause for curiosity, however, as to how this miracle can occur until Oklahoma stops handing out the millions upon millions in tax-payer funded incentives for private business we continue to shell out on the back of the Oklahoma taxpayer, yearly.

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OK Representative Jay Steagall Talks DRONES

Wednesday morning during our regular podcast, Rep. Jay Steagall was with me to talk about drones.

Right before Christmas, you’ll remember, there was a flurry of reported drone activity over the East Coast. Reel after reel of video taken from various places of items identified as drones was posted to social media and the news media was having near hysterics that they could be foreign in nature. I guess when you have an enormous ‘weather’ balloon known to be Chinese flying over air force bases, anything could happen, right?.

Like most good US citizens today, Rep. Steagall wasn’t buying any nonsense. He not only flies planes, he flies drones, so he knows a little bit about the issue.

During the podcast, he told us that he is part of a group that investigates similar incidences and that their investigations indicated that all the drones flying were registered with the FAA. The only reason it looked like there were so many of them was that because many people were filming the same thing from different angles and uploading it to social media. He explained that if there had been as many drones flying as the media made out, they would have been flying into each other and falling out of the sky!

Interestingly, yesterday – just before today’s show – President Trump’s new Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt held her first press conference and the first thing she addressed was the drone ‘freak out’. She said that the drones were all authorized by the FAA – some were being flown by hobbyists, but others were performing research. Now, she didn’t delve deeply into what the ‘research’ was, but the point of the matter was that it wasn’t another ‘Chinese weather balloon’ saga.

In the clip below, Rep. Steagall gives us some background on drones before we started talking about Governor Stitt’s Executive Order to have the Department of Public Safety buy ‘drone protection equipment’ – which they did, at a cost of $30k.

We talked for quite a bit about why Oklahoma would want to have ‘drone protection equipment’ and about how the equipment that was purchased by the Department of Public Safety purchase wasn’t going to do much other than to identify where the controller to the drone was. You’ll want to watch the full live video either here on YouTube or on our Rumble channels.

Because we’d had a run-in with a drone on our property back in 2020, I asked Rep. Steagall about what to do if that ever happened again. Seriously, as tech gets better, we have to understand what great surveillance capabilities these things have – and with cameras, pictures and video can be taken and uploaded to the internet – not good things for privacy! Below is our discussion about what to do if you find a drone flying on your property without permission because, since 2022, that is a misdemeanor. It’s a short video, so watch and then put that info in your back pocket in the event you ever need it…

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National School Choice Week Is A Taxpayer Scam

All one has to do is type in the two-word phrase “school choice” in our website’s search box to know that I’ve thought the idea of ‘school choice’ to be a scam for a very long time. Oklahoma HAS already has school choice. We have a Constitutional provision for homeschooling, we have charter schools and magnate schools and neighborhood schools and private schools and online schools – OKLAHOMA HAS IT ALL. Every Oklahoman has the ability to make whatever ‘choice’ they want by which to educate their children.

The part of the ‘school choice’ idea I DESPISE, is the part where government tells taxpayers that they’ll take our money by force and then give it to other taxpayers who ‘can’t afford’ to put their kids in a private school because public schools are so bad – the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit Program.

Why do I hate this plan? Well, again, you can always search the website to get the full scope and picture, but this post is going to include a few screeds I’ve posted to my Facebook page in the past couple days.

This is the original post. There are lots and lots and lots of comments on this post, so I suggest you peruse it. Lots of good discussion. And I’ll remind you – you may not agree with me – and that’s okay, but we’ve GOT to have discussion on this topic before it gets any further out of hand. Don’t forget, REPUBLICANS – supposed bastions of limited government – are pushing this concept hard and have been for over a decade. This is a HUGE problem.

But back to my screeds. WordPress will not let me embed the post, so you’ll just have to click the link and navigate to the post. Sorry. Stupid WordPress.

But here’s the post for today (1.28.25) copied below. It’s based in part on the conversations we were having on that post.

I’m going to go ahead and try this one more time. And I’m not being ugly here, I’m simply being stoic and direct. Some of you will think I’m ‘mean’ – and that’s fine – everyone is entitled to their opinions, however, thinking I’m ‘mean’ doesn’t invalidate my argument or the personal observations that spawned them.

It’s not up to taxpayers to ‘fix’ public schools – it’s PARENTS. Parents have all control over their own children – and I’ve argued that when legislators come in to try and ‘fix’ schools, they end up removing parental control which makes parents and their children, more wards of the state than they are already. The more the government parents parents, the less they’ll parent themselves. It’s simple human nature.

If parents were really interested in their children’s educations because they believed they could give their children something better than the education they’re getting in government schools, there would be few government schools with large student populations at this point.

For those who are compassionate about parents who are poor and have no real choices other than government-funded education – (BTW; government should be completely immune from ‘compassion’ – that’s a perspective for individuals, not governments who operate solely with money taken by force from its citizens) – then you need to be compassionate with your own dollars. You should start a school in your community that you fund – either yourself or with enough individuals willing to help out of private pocketbooks – so that poorer community members have the opportunity to attend a government school alternative.

Here’s what will happen with the majority of attendees to this school (because I found the exact same thing when I moved from being a ‘regular’ school teacher to a ‘charter’ school teacher); parents will be very motivated/active for a short time, then, they’ll stop coming to meetings and will only be reachable when their child has problems. At that point, they’ll find a way to blame you – or the school – for their child’s actions because their child wouldn’t ______ (fill in the blank). (Incidentally, I also found this at my youngest son’s homeschool co-op as well. A parent would bring their child who had been kicked out of government school to the co-op – they’d just open the car door and drop them off – when most parents would stay. There, the kid would cause problems for everyone else in the classroom and eventually be removed from the co-op too.)

Most parents today don’t want CHOICES – they want someone to take care of their children for them – they want a babysitter and/or a bankroller. Oh, they’ll fight that statement tooth and nail and scream and holler about how mean it is to say something like that, but actions speak louder than words. Why are government schools (even those in expensive neighborhoods) stuffed with parents that won’t take even a night out of their schedules to go to their school board meetings or attend a parent/teacher night? Why? Because by and large, parents are happy with whatever is going on in the school until something goes bad – their child is failing, or is being sidelined on a sports team, or is creating issues in the classroom – and once there is a problem, it suddenly becomes the school’s fault, or the teacher’s fault and SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE.

Everything goes back to FREE WILL. We all have it – and as Christians, we should be pointing to that fact over and over and over again. If people want to do things, they do them. If they don’t, they won’t. The ‘compassion’ of using tax dollars (someone else’s money) to send kids to private schools won’t fix that.

As Jesus said in the New Testament – the poor will always be with us (Mark 14:6). Jesus knew that some people won’t make good CHOICES and that some people are too lazy, uncaring, or improperly educated enough to make good choices. Taking tax dollars from one person (maybe a person like me who homeschooled their kids and still had to pay for public schools too) and giving it to another (to do the same thing I did without ‘government help’) won’t make them CARE for their children any more than they already do. It doesn’t work, but by creating and perpetuating this system, one of the things you will do – is violate my religious conscience by sending my tax dollars to a Madrasa or a Satanist school. I’ve read the Bible. My God is a jealous God. Is it right for me to pay for the teaching of another religion?

In fact, isn’t this the same argument people (Christians?) use against the giving of public tax dollars to Planned Parenthood to perform abortions? Yup. It’s the same argument and people should realize that there is no difference in philosophy between paying for abortions and paying for people to send their kids to private schools – people just don’t want to confront the ugly truth; a large percentage of parents aren’t willing to make more of a commitment to their children’s education than what is found in their local public school. Period. That’s not an excuse for government intervention at any level.

So, look, the bottom line is this – we Republicans are either going to follow the path of limited government like has been embedded in our Platform since its near inception – or we’re going to abandon the idea of Party altogether. Right now – in my opinion – saying I’m a Republican is meaningless. I believe in the Constitution – as written, not as litigated in a court of law – and LIMITED GOVERNMENT. I also believe that any legislator who believes that taking money from citizens by force and then giving it to other taxpayers to fund an activity they could work out for themselves without access to my tax dollars is WRONG. Period. Sadly, this puts me out of sorts with so many people who believe themselves to be Republican – but that’s a problem for ALL Oklahomans – not just me.

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Weekly News Headlines And Commentary – Week of January 27th

ROPE Report news headlines

ON THE WEBSITE

(more articles to come this week)

Oklahoma must stop carbon capture before its too late

Shane Smith – more on Oklahoma’s race to carbon capture!

Are Rural Oklahoma Courts Inept Or Corrupt?

Jenni White – a breakdown of our podcast with our ROPE Report Regular, ‘Mary’ with V1SUT. Yet another one not to be missed!

America’s Digital Currency Conundrum

Jenni White – a breakdown of our podcast with our ROPE Report Regular, Julianne Romanello. Digital currency is something we’d better all learn about – and fast – before it becomes something we can’t escape!

LOCAL NEWS

Election Bills To Watch in the 2025 Oklahoma Legislative Session

Wendi Montgomery Dial (Restore Liberty Oklahoma) – this is a GREAT run down of election bills that have been filed in the legislature for hearing this year. Here’s what you do: read the article, print out the article, familiarize yourself with the bills and what they do, watch the Elections and Ethics Committee in the House, or the Rules Committee in the Senate to see what bills are being heard. When a bad one comes up, IMMEDIATELY contact the members of the Committee and tell them they should vote NO, or Yes. Thanks to Wendi for such a great write up.

How much money are Oklahoma agencies asking for this year? Some requests spark pushback

Daily Oklahoman – Here’s my favorite takeaway from this article: State Agency, “If you are going to mandate that I need to do ______, I’m gonna have to have more money to do it.” Isn’t this what we’ve ALWAYS said here at ROPE? Bigger government costs more and steals your liberty when it sticks its hands in your pocket to fund it’s “more is more” approach to governing. Some of these are real doozies – like the AG’s request for multiple million more dollars. But then – whether it’s true or not – he does make the case that the legislature has made his office responsible for a number of new programs. More programs require more space, require more money….you get how this works. When – WHEN!!!?????? – will the government ever REDUCE ITSELF? I know, I know….when Hell freezes over…But then, maybe we just make a pact to vote out all legislators who agree to big budget increases.

Oklahoma bills would restrict student cellphone use, social media, sex ed

Oklahoma Voice – We’ve already gone over the cell phone bill – ANY BILL THAT TAKES AWAY LOCAL CONTROL (or regulates something that could be regulated at the point of origin – school board, municipality, etc) IS BAD! So many things on this list are BAD! Sen. Ally Seifried, R-Claremore, Rep. Chad Caldwell, R-Enid, and Sen. Micheal Bergstrom, R-Adair, all have bills to FORCE schools to do things that local school boards should be doing. And please don’t say, “But the schools aren’t doing it”. YOU are the taxpayer. YOU live in the district. YOU go to the meetings. YOU make them behave. I get that you don’t want to go to meetings, you have other things to do, but your laziness is not an excuse for state’s government takeover of local governments.

Senators Jett, Prieto and Rep Kevin West – all three guys I really love – are blowing it with the Chaplain bills. Schools should not entangle themselves with religion. That’s to be done on private time. This has to stop. I’ve written on this before, but suffice it to say, if we can install Christian Chaplains in schools, so can the Satan Club.

There is a flurry of bills that have to do with sex education and I’m good with those. Why aren’t those under the auspices of local control? Because protecting child SAFETY is the state’s job. In addition, schools shouldn’t be teaching anything having to do with sex in the first place. Parents should do it or sent their child to a group outside school that provides that service. Taxpayers should pay only for teaching that specifically corresponds to an educational subject. We’ve bent over backwards accommodating those who believe that it’s the right of the child to have access to sex education for decades and look where that’s gotten us in terms of kids being able to read, write and do math. There is no legitimate argument for sex ed in schools. Zero.

Corporal punishment is – again – another issue to be left up to school boards. No, getting a board to the butt because you can’t behave in class does not equate to child endangerment. I got whacked a couple times myself and I deserved it. I grew up during the years of corporal punishment and taught in today’s world of “anything goes without consequences” and our schools, our teachers and our students are worse off without an ability to apply some wood to a seat when it is required.

Unpacking the Alleged Sexual Assault at Sperry High School

Sooner Sentinel – This is a horrific story of a sexual assault at Sperry High School undertaken by three students that was apparently filmed on someone’s phone – the video of which was seen by peers and possibly some school officials.

Though the students involved have been charged, the victim’s attorney claims that the school was not at all proactive in protecting the victimized student. As we’ve said numerous times through ‘Mary’ with V1SUT, schools MUST protect the innocence and safety of the children in their care – period. Marven is hopeful that this case will help bring light to the way schools handle student safety.

How KFOR Channel 4’s Misinformation Shaped Public Perception on Ivermectin and Representative Gabe Woolley’s ODHS Reform Bill

Sooner Sentinel – Another one from Marven Goodman, this time about the way in which KFOR (News Channel 4) misrepresented Representative Gabe Wooley’s bill to bring changes to DHS.

This is not surprising for me. I actually added a comment to the story, “So let me remind you of this (excellent article by the way)…Cheryl Williams and I were fired from the Oklahoma County Election Board by the State Election Board, accused of numerous things and turned over to the AG and DA for further investigation. KFOR who interviewed me about this situation, had the following to say during it’s video and written story, “White is the former mayor of Luther and was also in Washington DC during the January 6, 2021, insurrection.” So there you go.”

Truly, this is why I attempt to make sure and elevate OKLAHOMA news sources, blogs and substack authors. These ‘news’ stations owned by corporations only care about advertising revenue, not getting the story straight, so make sure to subscribe to the blogs I post here. Also, make sure to use your social media accounts to PUSH BACK against their narratives – as Marven has here!

Oklahoma CareerTech asks Legislature for budget increase as student waitlist grows

The Oklahoman – From the first paragraph, “Oklahoma’s CareerTech system is seeking to roll a $28.6 million one-time appropriations increase it received from the state Legislature last year into its base funds for this year, in addition to a $19.3 million requested budget hike for fiscal year 2026.”

From later in the article, “Oklahoma’s workforce is the backbone of our economy, and CareerTech is at the forefront of preparing individuals for high-demand careers,” Haken said in a news release after the budget hearing. “By increasing state funding for career training programs, we can expand opportunities for Oklahomans, equip businesses with skilled employees and ensure our state remains competitive in a rapidly evolving job market. Investing in CareerTech is an investment in Oklahoma’s future.”

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. This is how this USED to work; kids went to school, school taught them actual subjects like reading, math, science and history (NOT SOCIAL STUDIES). They also taught subjects like Home Economics, or shop. The student, then, with a well-rounded education, decided whether they wanted to go to college or directly to work. If they chose the work route, the business that employed the student out of high school WOULD TRAIN THE STUDENT ON THEIR OWN DIME. The student got on the job training and the company got a stable work force because there was loyalty created by training their own employees.

This doesn’t happen now. Now, Oklahoma chooses which companies will come to Oklahoma through their Workforce Development schemes that provide tax dollars for all kinds of CORPORATE WELFARE, such as JOB TRAINING. Today, a company doesn’t have to provide training for their hires, the government FUNNELS kids through government schools into the jobs that the corporations they bring to Oklahoma and fund with our tax dollars, want. Then, we train them for those jobs on our very own tax dollars.

Here’s the deal: taxpayers fund schools, taxpayers fund training students for preferred jobs, taxpayers fund preferred jobs through preferred corporation tax incentives (corporate welfare). So basically, Oklahoma taxpayers fund Oklahoma jobs – NOT the free market. Let us please remember this as our Republicans will use the phrase “free market” as often as they possibly can as though they understand what that means. Clearly, they don’t.

Legislative bills target Oklahoma Turnpike Authority, aim to reign in agency’s power

Oklahoma Voice – From the article, “Preventing tolls from being increased could potentially impact the OTA’s trust agreement and investors, said Bobby Stem, executive director of the Association of Oklahoma General Contractors, a trade association that advocates for road and bridge infrastructure.

“No legislator ever wants to take a vote to increase taxes or fees,” Stem said. “We understand why. However, this critical infrastructure will deteriorate if these investments are not made.”

Seriously? Maybe OTA and their contractor toady jobs program might have thought of all of this in light of the fact that ORIGINALLY, OTA was to fund ALL their work via tolls. Once the road was paid off, the tolls would be retired. Now, as I said, the OTA is a jobs program for their contractors at the taxpayer’s expense. THIS HAS TO STOP! Any bill that stops the OTA from raising rates and increasing their bonds, should be passed this session and taxpayers spared the further expense of roads already paid for. But then, should there even be an OTA in the first place? Why can’t the ODOT handle building or upkeep of these roads? Now THAT is the 64 thousand dollar question!

NATIONAL NEWS

Government Education is Unconstitutional, Says Top US Law Professor

Liberty Sentinel – Gotta love Alex Newman! From the article: “Tuomala holds that the U.S. Supreme Court will likely uphold a voucher system providing equal tax funding for private and Christian schools by government. However, going back to the principles hammered out in the Virginia establishment controversy, the Liberty law professor concludes that the state should not fund any schools.   

More and more prominent legal minds are joining the chorus against the constitutionality of coercive government-funded education. Former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr, for example, argued that the escalating hostility to faith and values of parents—the vast majority of whom identify as Christian—makes the existing system unconstitutional.”

During Miguel Cardona’s Tenure As Ed Secretary, Schools Got Worse By Every Metric

The Federalist – Pretty interesting piece. The author documents how many learning metrics have plummeted since Biden was president.

If The U.S. Government Doesn’t Ban TikTok, Parents Should

The Federalist – (again, lol) From the article: “In a sense, TikTok (and knock-offs such as Instagram Reels and Youtube Shorts) really do harvest user data to manipulate people in negative ways. Otherwise-healthy human beings are brought low by an addictive algorithm that hacks (figuratively) into their psyches and reduces them to anxious zombies with shorter attention spans than the average goldfish. Over time, the app severely stunts its users intellectually, socially, and emotionally.”

4 Reasons To Be Skeptical About OpenAI’s $500B Stargate Project 

Robert Bryce Substack – From the article: “The numbers are nothing short of gobsmacking. On Tuesday, in a splashy announcement at the White House, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed a new company called The Stargate Project that intends to “invest $500 billion over the next four years building new AI infrastructure” in the US. The new company will “begin deploying $100 billion immediately.”

I like Trump. I voted for Trump. However…we must all remember that Trump is FOREMOST a BUSINESS GUY. We must be very vigilant in how he operates on the business side of his presidency. As Michael has said on the podcast before, Trump likes to see the arrow go UP – he’s an investor – that’s what he does. And not every investment is good for America, or Americans.

How Many Births to Illegal Immigrants?: A Preliminary Estimate

Center for Immigration Studies – “…based on how births to illegal immigrants have compared to births to noncitizens in the past, our back-of-the-envelope estimate right now is that there were 225,000 to 250,000 births to illegal immigrants in 2023, amounting to close to 7 percent of births in the U.S.”

This is why ‘birthright citizenship’ must stop NOW!

Get To Know Brooke Rollins, Nominee for Agriculture Secretary

Successful Farming – Synopsis of the article; Brooke has all the right street cred for a ‘conservative’ but she knows nothing about farming or agriculture. Unfortunately, her Chief of Staff is a seed oil lobbyist whose hands have been in EVERYTHING BAD for nutrition in America. THIS is concerning.

Exclusive: J6er Speaks Out on Pardoned Prisoners Still in Jail

PJ Media – We all need to remember that there is a swamp – even in our own backyards – that doesn’t care whether Trump is president or not. Do not go back to sleep. We must be ever-vigilant.

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Oklahoma must stop carbon capture before its too late

Opponents of the green energy onslaught in Oklahoma have celebrated several high profile wins over the past few months. In December, the Department of Energy cancelled the Delta Plains Electric Corridor, a 645-mile long (and 18 miles wide) transmission line project that would’ve spanned the entire northern part of the state, after relentless pressure from landowners, activists, and lawmakers.

A proposed wind farm in McIntosh County was scrapped earlier this month, after intense public outcry. The Canadian company TransAlta planned a massive wind farm of 100 turbines, but scrapped the project after encountering intense pressure from activists who are becoming increasingly organized and vocal about the encroachment of green energy into our state.

In December, a judge ruled that a large wind farm of 84 turbines in Osage County must be dismantled within one year, after ruling that Enel, a renewable company currently operating several green projects in the state, failed to acquire the proper permissions to build, violating the Osage tribe’s mineral rights.

Despite these wins, there has been very little public outcry over the rapid advance of another green energy scam in Oklahoma: the carbon capture industry. How many know that the largest Direct Air Capture facility in the United States opened in Osage county back in August? The project, Bantam, passively draws carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere via a method using heated limestone, and then captures the CO2 to be compressed into a liquid and injected deep below the surface for permanent storage, or transported via a proposed vast network of pipeline throughout our state.

In December, the New York Times dubbed carbon capture as a new “gold rush”, and thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which tripled the 45Q tax credit that companies receive for each ton of captured carbon, billions are being poured into this unproven and potentially dangerous technology.

In November, OU’s Melbourne College of Earth and Energy received an $18.7 million grant from the Department of Energy, the largest grant in the college’s history, to establish the Oklahoma Carbon Hub, and researchers will investigate three separate underground storage locations to potentially inject 54 million metric tons of liquefied and highly pressurized CO2 over a period of 20 years (54 million tons may sound significant, but it is a drop in the bucket compared to the 40 billion tons of CO2 pumped into the air globally each year).

Once injected underground, this massive amount of high-pressure CO2 will require constant monitoring for hundreds of years to prevent disastrous leaks and shifts. There are currently three customers committed to providing captured carbon to be stored deep under Oklahoma: the CVR fertilizer plant in Coffeyville, Kansas, the Azure Sustainable Aviation Fuel Production Facility near Cherryville, Kansas, and the Bantam Direct Air Capture facility in Osage County.

I, for one, don’t remember this ever being on the ballot, or even being discussed with the public before proceeding with these plans. Does Oklahoma really want millions of tons of out-of-state CO2 stored under their feet, where future generations will be saddled with the burden of ensuring that the CO2 remains underground?

 A new study concludes that sequestered CO2 must be stored for 1000 years, centuries after the companies collecting on the carbon capture “gold rush” have disappeared from the earth, but the CO2 will remain, and all future generations of Oklahomans will be forced into stewardship of these wells. Put in this perspective, its easy to see how outlandish these endeavors are.

New research has found that existing carbon capture facilities appear to capture almost none of the total emission they release during operation, seemingly cancelling out the carbon that they do capture. A carbon capture project located in Decatur, Illinois, one that the DOE called “the largest demonstration of its kind in the United States”, was recently found to have captured only 10 to 12% of its total emissions each year. The facility, Archer Daniels Midland, was also found to have experienced dangerous leaks last year,

One big question that should be asked is this: what happens when our entire subsurface storage is filled to the brim with CO2? When 50 or 100 million tons are stored under our feet, will it have affected the level of atmospheric CO2 in the slightest? Once we’ve run out of room for captured carbon underground, where will newly captured CO2 be stored? Will the liquefied gas migrate to the surface, threatening the lives of anyone in the vicinity? Will our aquifers or our soil be in danger of contamination? Can this highly pressurized gas cause earthquakes? The questions are almost rhetorical. It seems clear that this is an enormous and dangerous boondoggle, and no one has a right to demand our citizens bear this level of risk.

The massive amount of money being poured into carbon capture appears to be blinding investors and legislators from considering long-term consequences and how this “gold rush” will affect no only present generations, but future generations who will inherit this ridiculous burden.

Unlike other green energy projects, carbon capture has drafted our oil and gas industry into the scam, and they’ve become some of the biggest supporters because they stand to reap the rewards thanks to large increases in the tax credit. To oppose carbon capture in Oklahoma means to oppose the oil and gas industry itself. As more investment pours into Oklahoma-based carbon capture projects, so will be the pressure to expand CO2 pipeline across the state, and the use of eminent domain to fast-track this expansion. The Great Plains Institute has been hard at work promoting the expansion of CO2 pipeline here, and they’ve even created a handy “fact sheet” to see just what might happen if this pipeline isn’t opposed soon.

Carbon capture will be probably the most disastrous “green” boondoggle this state has ever seen. The potential for deadly leaks, where the high-pressure CO2 migrates to the surface and killing everything within the vicinity, as well as aquifer and soil contamination, is enough to reject the industry in toto. The fact that Oklahoma will be expected to act as stewards of these massive reservoirs of CO2 for up to a millennium is laughable.

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America’s Digital Currency Conundrum

One of our favorites – Julianne Romanello – was on with Michael and I last Friday (1.24.25). As usual, the conversation was stimulating and thought provoking.

Technology changes rapidly and concerningly, the way we use our money is changing rapidly as well. Michael is very involved in crypto currency and as such, pays close attention to what is going on in the world of digital currency. Between he and Julianne, our audience that morning got a real education. Don’t worry, if you missed us live, you can find the full video on our YouTube and Rumble channels.

And, in case you missed it, here’s a clip from the show where Michael and Julianne are talking about how Americans will get pulled into the digital currency model. This is kind of scary actually, but, we here at ROPE Report operate on the ideal that KNOWLEDGE IS POWER! Watch and share!

You may watch even just that section of our show with Julianne and, like me, start getting concerned that all our paper money will suddenly go away and we’re left with controllable currency. If so, watch the clip below where we talk about some ways in which Oklahomans (Americans) can fight back against the digital currency ship…

So, did you notice that one way Julianne tells us that we can help ourselves is by understanding what digital currency is in a more thorough way? Look up ‘stable coin‘. What is that? What’s the difference between that and Crypto currency? What is Tether? What is Circle? The more we know about these things, the harder it will be for a lobbyist or legislator to put one over on us! I’ve linked pages to the terms so you can go right to where you can read all about them!

Truly, the best thing we can do is stay engaged and when confronted with legislation that could change the way we use money in America or Oklahoma, we say, NO NO NO NO NO!

So, once again, we’ve put this issue right back in YOUR lap! We’re here to help educate you, but so much of the changes we need to prevent have to be done by EACH ONE OF US in order to make an impact. So…get educated, stay informed on legislation and what is happening in the state and speak out when we need to say, “NO!”

PS: You might watch the rant Michael went on about Howard Lutnik – who was being considered by President Trump for Commerce Secretary. You can find that on our YouTube channel here.

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Are Rural Oklahoma Courts Inept Or Corrupt?

Wednesday, January 22nd, our friend “Mary” from V1SUT substack was on the podcast to talk about former Wetumka Public Schools teacher and Coach, Brent McGee. You can find the full live video here on Rumble and also on our YouTube channel.

As Mary talked about in the video clip below the Wetumka Board of Education is NOT protecting kids, they’re protecting Brent McGee’s wife, who also happens to be the Superintendent of Wetumka. I would say I couldn’t believe it, but we’ve heard the same story over and over and over.

But here’s the thing – as we say in the video – it HAS to be up to Wetumka residents and parents to make the Board do the right thing. It’s clear that unless parents and community members are there in force watching everything they do and pushing back, students of the district won’t be protected from sexual abuse.

This fact is illustrated by another story Mary tells, about Cody Barlow, the middle school Principal at Wewoka Public Schools. In fact, despite an eye-witness account of sexual misconduct with Barlow and a 7th grade student and a civil trial in which Barlow was found guilty and the school forced to pay nearly 2 million dollars in restitution to the families of four boys, the outcome of the criminal trial was much different.

How can that be? How can the outcome be so very different? The civil trial was moved out of Seminole County, while the criminal trial was adjudicated in the county.

This should upset every taxpaying citizen who cares about children. This absolutely has to stop.

Again, though it’s really up to parents and taxpayers in these districts to make this stop, so few will speak out in small towns. This is a comment left on our Facebook account under our live video feed that explains:

Small town corruption is nothing new. No one in this small town in that school system will turn on each other because to do do would make them guilty [of] not doing anything. They were there and they knew what was going on. When you are someone who grew up in [this] town, with your mom as a teacher, and your dad as a business owner and, now you are infiltrated into that system, no one is going to believe you are the villain! Just because he didn’t do it to your kid or grandkid, doesn’t mean he didn’t do it to someone else. Teachers are mandatory reporters and if they know and do nothing [they] should be held as accountable as the one who was doing the harm to the child. This should be moved out of the county and prosecuted elsewhere.

There is safety in numbers and beyond that, there’s CHANGE in numbers! DA’s can be unelected and good ones elected, school board members can be voted out, or in – it all depends upon what people in the community set their mind to doing – but no matter what; we must ALL set our minds on PROTECTING KIDS!

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Weekly News Headlines And Commentary – Week Of January 20th

ROPE Report news headlines

Oklahoma schools chief sues federal government over immigration policies

Oklahoma Voice – Cynic that I am, this feels very much like a media stunt for a couple reasons; I would imagine this kind of suit would fall in the AG’s backyard, and we will be unburdened by what has been on the 20th of January, so I’m not sure how a suit like that will be dealt with, and finally, there was no dollar amount specified in the lawsuit. In October, Walters sent a letter to VP Harris demanding $474,900,000.00 in reimbursement for the education of student non-citizens, but this number wasn’t listed on the lawsuit apparently.

Cynicism aside, this should have been done at the beginning of Walter’s term when a ruling might have had a snowball’s chance of getting some kind of meaningful ruling, but it should have been done, nonetheless. For years, our immigration policy – or lack of one beyond, “let ’em all in” – has burdened schools with the cost of educating children here in this country illegally who can barely read in their own language let alone speak and/or read in English. Those on the left cry and scream when this is said, but that doesn’t make it any less true. It is a financial BURDEN to schools to staff bi-lingual classrooms for kids who should be able to speak English when they enroll – one that taxpayers foot.

The lawsuit comes hot on the heels of Walter’s proposed rule to check the immigration status of students before they are enrolled. Again, another thing which the left has screamed about, but which should be done. It never ceases to just slay me that the public school apologist crowd ALWAYS accuses those of us wanting accountability in our public schools of ‘hating children’ when we suggest a way to use tax dollars in the ways they should be used. Yet, students who don’t speak English can be disruptive to other students trying to learn. So who really ‘hates children’?

Another Oklahoma Voice article from today (the 20th) describes a hearing held by the State Board of Education which was attended by Board member Kendra Wesson and the OSDE attorney, that brought further complaint about the proposed rule.

(OK) Wetumka Schools Arrested & Confessed Pedophile Withholds Phone Passcode, Lies for Low Bail, Home Never Searched

V1SUT – Mary will be on with us on Wednesday (1.22.25) to talk about this, but please read it before hand. I’m sure you’ll have some questions for Mary to answer LIVE on the podcast (starting at 9am on all our social media channels). This is truly the perfect example of the miscarriage of justice going on in MANY small towns in Oklahoma while the victim/s have no recourse.

Commentary on State Sponsored University’s Balancing Act Between Athletic Triumph and Academic Integrity

Sooner Sentinel – writer Marven Goodman (who will be on our show next month with Representative Tom Gann talking about automated license plate readers) makes some excellent points here about the trend to make college more about sports than learning and a bit about the policies behind the ‘trend’.

From Goodman: Our colleges are at a crossroads, trying to use sports money without forgetting their educational mission. The plan includes not just giving money but also supporting athletes to finish their degrees, making sure they have something valuable when they leave college. But the big question remains: how do we judge success? If a football team wins big but the school’s academic reputation falls, what does that say about the school’s priorities?

Courage Is Contagious, and the Oklahoma House of Representatives Has Just Been Infected

The Oklahoma State Capitol – Jason Murphy writes about the 7 Representatives who were the only ones to vote NO on the new rules for the Oklahoma House on January 7th (Organizational Day) – Gann, Hildebrant, Jenkins, Shaw, Stegall, West (Rick), and Woolley – and what their leadership can mean for the House in coming sessions.

Jason will be on the podcast with us on February 12th to talk about the new House rules and I’m sure we’ll go over what happened on Organizational Day (1.7). If you haven’t seen it, you might check out the live video I did about it on the day after. Citizens of Oklahoma should know exactly what is happening at 23rd and Lincoln and this information will definitely help increase your knowledge base.

After Canoo shuttered factories, a bill seeks to keep other EV companies from getting cash from a state incentive program

Frontier – from the article, “Senate Bill 294, authored by Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, would exclude electric vehicle manufacturers from receiving payments from the Governor’s Quick Action Closing Fund”. I don’t often agree with Senator Pugh, but I do here! Don’t forget, “EV startup Canoo files for bankruptcy and ceases operations“. This is what happens when businesses that have no business being in business are funded by tax incentives. The business goes under and the state has to try and ‘claw back’ the incentives. This needs to stop, so how about just closing the “Quick Action Closing Fund” altogether? I’ll go for that!

Another article from the Oklahoman quotes Governor Stitt as saying, “Building a business is hard,” he said. “Building a capital heavy business like this is even harder. We should never fault someone for taking a chance to chase the American dream. Canoo has been cooperative in its work with the state and I wish the best to everyone involved.”

In the event you don’t understand my frustration at this comment, let me explain.

  1. Governor Stitt pledged over 100 million dollars to a private, stockowner-held, out-of-state company to come in and supply just about 500 workers. Figure that at half a million a job?
  2. The company was in trouble from the start – in fact, investors sued Canoo in 2023 for “misstating” their financial projections. This lawsuit tells of the troubled management of this company from the beginning. Who in the Governor’s cabinet looked into this? Shouldn’t someone? Why would we have offered this out-of-state company millions in Oklahoma tax dollars when they had a proven poor track record?
  3. Offering a private company taxpayer dollars is the classic definition of CORPORATISM, not CAPITALISM.

Efforts to raise the age of consent in Oklahoma return to Legislature

Oklahoma Voice – From the article: House Bill 1003, authored by Rep. Jim Olsen, R-Roland, would raise the age of sexual consent from 16 to 18 years old in Oklahoma. The bill also includes what he calls a “Romeo and Juliet provision” which protects those who had sex with children between 14 and 18 years old from prosecution if they are within four years of age.

“We don’t want the 35 year old coach to be nice to the 16-year-old girl and gain her consent,” Olsen said. “We don’t feel like that’s a good situation. … We don’t want people taking advantage of 16 or 17 year old girls in that respect.”

We need to get behind this legislation – thank you Jim Olson. Let’s protect children from adult predators.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond announces 2026 gubernatorial bid

KOCO News – In case you’ve been in a coma and didn’t see this coming from as far away as Kansas…

Tulsa police won’t share the locations of more than 200 surveillance cameras

Frontier – The headline pretty much speaks for itself. This is the reason we are having Marven Goodman and Representative Tom Gann on the program on February 7th. This is NOT okay for citizens of Oklahoma, let alone the United States of America who breaks the 4th AND 5th Amendment every time they SURVEIL their own citizens.

How Oklahoma Property Taxes Are Calculated and Who/What Really Owns Your Property

ROPE Report – Absolutely the most important article I think we’ve ever written. Please read and share.

Our Wide-Ranging Interview With Kendra Wesson, Oklahoma State School Board Member

ROPE Report – A great run-down of the interview we had with one of our favorite people. Check it out!

ARTICLES RELATING TO “GREEN” ENERGY

2024 ‘worst year on record’ for wind power lost as electricity supplied by wind falls 

GRIPT (online Irish news) – From the article: “The drop has been attributed to grid constraints by Wind Energy Ireland. The energy company has published its annual report, which said that wind farms are closing because the electricity grid is not strong enough. Despite wind supplying almost a third of all electricity to the island of Ireland last year, the share of electricity provided by wind fell by 3 per cent compared to 2023.”

Big Wind & Big Solar Are Trying To Sue Rural America Into Submission

Robert Bryce (Substack) – From the substack: “In 2017, I talked to K. Darlene Park, a resident of Frostburg, Maryland, who was leading a fight against a proposed wind project in her neighborhood. She told me, “We feel this renewable energy push is an attack on rural America.”

The fight in Maryland is one of hundreds happening across the country. The Renewable Rejection Database now includes 764 rejections or restrictions of wind and solar projects since 2015. Among the latest examples came last November. On Election Day in Harpswell, Maine, a heavily Democratic electorate overwhelmingly rejected a proposed five-acre solar project. The vote against the project was 2,344 to 1,393, or 63% to 37%. That’s a decisive vote, particularly in a town that voted heavily for Kamala Harris over Donald Trump.”

Data centers, not homeowners, fueling Arizona’s steep energy demand

Channel 2 News (Phoenix) – This is a great article! It needs to be sent to every legislator. Please read the whole thing, but pay particular attention to the bulleted list about halfway down the page. Very eye-opening and just as with other ‘green’ energy projects, NONE OF THESE DEALS HAVE TAXPAYER ACCOUNTABILITY.

Top UN “Court” to Issue Landmark Ruling on “Climate Change”

New American, Alex Newman – From the article: “At the request of the United Nations and its member governments, the top UN “court” is set to rule on the supposed legal “obligations” of governments when it comes to fighting CO2 emissions and the alleged man-made “climate change” they supposedly cause. Experts say it may be the most significant case ever heard by the global body.

The Biden administration joined governments around the world asking the court to take a strong stand on the issue. But critics are sounding the alarm. Agriculture, energy, transportation, and other industries are all in the crosshairs, fueling concerns over more government-mandated economic carnage ahead.”  

Wall Street Climate Group Net Zero Suspends Activities Following BlackRock’s Exit

Breitbart News – From the article: “BlackRock, the globe’s largest asset manager with $11.5 trillion under management, walked away citing “confusion over the initiative’s climate efforts” and rising legal scrutiny from Republican lawmakers.

Far from serving the public interest, the Net Zero initiative that once had the enthusiastic backing. of BlackRock and other ESG cheerleaders on Wall Street is increasingly seen as out-of-touch with America’s economic needs and the political climate that is rejecting so many of the trendy causes adopted in 2020.”

Electric car range can plummet by up to 40% in winter, test reveals

This Is Money (UK) – Go figure…electrons don’t move very quickly in the cold…

The Cherokee Nation has been awarded $10.7 million for EV charging ports.

The Oklahoman – From Biden’s Infrastructure Bill: “The Cherokee Nation has received $10.7 million in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation to install 112 publicly accessible electric vehicle charging ports across 12 community locations.”

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Michael And Jenni Talk, Public Education and Green Energy

Friday (1.17.25), Michael and I had a guest slated to appear for our podcast that wasn’t able to come on. Consequently, we did what all good LIVE podcasters do – we scrambled!

Fortunately – and unfortunately – there’s never really a lack of anything to talk about in Oklahoma politics, so we began by discussing our previous podcast with Senator Kendal Sacchieri. If you haven’t seen that yet, I highly recommend it. It created the MOST IMPORTANT 7 MINUTE VIDEO YOU’LL EVER SEE. The Senator is absolutely invaluable when it comes to explaining complicated things like property tax – which she did amazingly well.

At any rate, we replayed the 7 minute video and had Kendal on for a few minutes to clarify a few things and then we moved on to talking about education.

It was during this segment that Michael said the following about the teachers he talked to when he was running for school board. Suffice it to say, his comments were extremely distressing to a former teacher like me who LOVED the autonomy of my classroom.

We had heard this about teachers during the Common Core years. It’s astounding and, frankly, horrifying that we let this continue.

Next stop, AI teachers with your kids plugged into Skynet all day. Don’t scoff or laugh. We’re so close to there.

After that, we discussed the green agenda.

It’s my contention that people have no idea what nature is anymore and therefore don’t even really know what’s good for it or not, what it looks like raw and wild, or how to appreciate it in that state. Hint: A park is a tiny microcosm of nature that is usually trimmed and watered and fertilized – it’s not really nature. We’ve gotten so plugged into the web and so unplugged from outside, we don’t understand that our idea of what’s green and what’s not, is super skewed.

I talked about an article I wrote for the Federalist several years ago, “How Living In Chaos Makes It Impossible For Us To Run Our Lives And Government“. In the article, I wrote about our family’s move to our farm and how weird it was for all of us to leave the city. I advanced my thesis about nature by way of three paragraphs from the forward – written by one of his sons – to one of my favorite books, “Witness“, by Whitaker Chambers. It’s a very long book, but WELL worth the time it took to get through it.

As I say on the podcast frequently, I read, via earbuds and a subscription to Audible because I have so many chores in the growing season that it’s the only way I can actually “read” written material! Sometimes, when the book is very good, I buy it and add it to my ever-expanding research library – the one I hope my children fight over when I’m gone!

I read these three paragraphs on the podcast as we were talking about the green agenda. I feel them so deeply, I actually got choked up, so if you want to see me cry on the podcast, definitely check out the full live version on YouTube or Rumble! Please, read these paragraphs and tuck them in your heart. We’re having our humanity stolen from us daily, certainly don’t give it up voluntarily.

“The farm was your kingdom, and the world lay far beyond the protecting walls thrown up by work and love. It is true that comic strips were not encouraged, comic books were banned, the radio could be turned on only by permission (which was seldom given or asked), and you saw few movies,” he says, addressing his children. “But you grew in the presence of eternal wonders. There was the birth of lambs and calves…There was also the death of animals, sometimes violent, sometimes slow and painful – nothing is more constant on a farm than death.”

“Sometimes, of a spring evening, Papa would hear that distant honking that always makes his scalp tingle, and we would all rush out to see the wild geese, in lines of hundreds, steer up from the southwest, turn over the barn as over a landmark, and head into the north. Or on autumn nights of sudden cold that sent the ewes breeding in the orchard, Papa would call you out of the house to stand with him in the now celebrated pumpkin patch and watch the northern lights flicker in an electric clouds on the horizon, mount, die down, fade and mount again till they filled the whole northern sky with ghostly light in motion.”

“Thus, as children, you experienced two of the most important things men ever know – the wonder of life and the wonder of the universe, the wonder of life within the wonder of the universe. More important, you knew them not from books, not from lectures, but simply from living among them. Most important, you knew them with reverence and awe – that reverence and awe that has died out of the modern world and been replace by man’s monkeylike amazement at the cleverness of his own inventive brain.”

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