I am not going to waste time writing something about this case. Our friend Katy Smith has done absolutely amazing work on her V1SUT Vantage Substack and there is no reason to re-invent the wheel.
What I am going to do is link the podcast Michael, Katy and I finished this morning about Presten’s case so that you can share that – and a five minute video which explains what happened to Presten and where he is now. (Find the full live video recorded this morning on our Rumble and YouTube channels – find the 5 minute video below)
Until Katy began exposing how children in our state are NOT being protected by the very TAXPAYER-FUNDED institutions set apart to do just that – such as our public schools, DHS and the Oklahoma Court System – no one had really attempted to make these organizations come to heel for Oklahoma parents. Now, at least, the blinders are off and Oklahoma TAXPAYERS can see these groups for what they really are – TAXPAYER-FUNDED tyrants.
Through the Lincoln Lochman case, the case of Darrell Dougherty in Payne County and now Presten Mooney, Oklahomans have had the curtain pulled back on this agency tasked with “protecting” children. Now that we’ve seen the results, we cannot look away. We cannot go back to sleep.
Reach out to your District Representative and Senator. Tell them you want them to help bring Presten home. If they prevaricate, or suggest that’s not their job, FIRE THEM in 1026.
Spend time finding candidates to run for EVERY political office who understand that they are servants of the people. That We The People pay their salaries in exchange for their services in protecting our LIVES, LIBERTY and PROPERTY – not finding our kids’ jobs, or tracking kids through a giant database, or stomping on homeschooling. If they don’t understand that basic philosophy of our government, DO NOT ELECT THEM and find someone better – someone who DOES understand the function of government.
Please take a minute and share this video with EVERYONE you know and ask them to wake up to realize that our state government is out of control, that it’s run by a bunch of swamp creatures that need replacing and that WE THE PEOPLE have to do that to put our government back in our hands. If you can’t share through this page, share via this YouTube link.
Please, also DONATE to help Dayna and Presten. They have a Give, Send, Go account set up under Pennies For Presten. Please click the link and donate.
“You lay them down at night and you promise I will protect you, I’ll be the one to protect you, I will be the one to make these decisions in your best interest, and in the blink of an eye you’re own government can make a liar out of you,” said Roberta Lewis, an advocate for the Mooney family.
Dayna Mooney had her 17-yo son removed from her home and taken to Oklahoma Children’s Hospital by DHS who then put the autistic boy – has been being treated faithfully by Dayna with a different protocol than chemo – on chemotherapy for leukemia against both their wishes. How does this happen in Oklahoma, let alone America?
Well, it happens because our government is completely out of control. It long ago stopped working as an extension of We The People and it now works for the money and power it can derive for itself through the workers who it hires to perpetuate itself.
If you’ve not heard about this situation, please watch this podcast by attorney Tom Renz who covered the story. Also, take a minute to please donate to Dayna. She has been unable to work since this nightmare began and they are in serious need of financial assistance.
Also, it’s important to thank our many legislators working behind the scenes to bring Presten home. Representative Jay Steagall and Senator Shane Jett have been two of the legislators at the forefront of this battle and their work for We The People is much appreciated.
Please also note, our State Auditor and Inspector – Cindy Bird (also running for Lt. Governor) – identified a huge problem with $63 million in unfounded spending at DHS, yet our Oklahoma Attorney General, Gentner Drummond (running for Governor) has is not way attempted to get to the bottom of this GROSS neglect of taxpayer dollars.
Again, our government is out of control and it’s up to us to take back the wheel! Get involved TODAY!
First, why do you suppose it’s important to use the word “Workforce” to describe people who are – or will be employed? Answer: so that people become accustomed to being widgets – not individuals. Who is the Constitution made for? Individuals. Who votes in elections in our Democratic Republic? Individuals.
What about the phrase “community”? Answer: it’s a group of individuals. Groups are much more easily led and studies show this to be true. This is where we get the tongue-in-cheek term, “Sheeple”. So why move to this use of the word “community” to describe multiple groups of individuals? Because
What about the phrase “data-driven”? Answer: Data is science. Science has become the God of many today (COVID anyone?) Therefore, science knows better about people than people can know about people. There’s no argument about a child’s trajectory in life, then, if the “data” lines out that trajectory. No muss, no fuss, no messy, “but mom and dad, I’d like to be a firefighter when I grow up”. If the data says “aerospace engineer” (because the state is giving the industry millions in tax credits), then Johnny gets to be an aerospace engineer.
In 2008, Barack Obama became our 49th president. Let us never forget that under the one-word campaign slogan – CHANGE – Obama set about creating a socialist paradise in this country which dismantled nearly every LOCALIZED state institution – including education – almost thoroughly.
In the place of localized educational standards, Obama worked with the National Governor’s Association (of which Governor (King) Stitt just become Chair – please review his Igniting The Dream initiative below) and of which Mary Fallin was Chair during her term, 2013-14) and the Counsel of Chief State School Officers (all state superintendents) to create top down (national) educational standards to make sure every student in America was learning like every other student in America, which they called the Common Core State Standards. Unbelievably, (wink, wink) The CCSS have been found to be a failure in every state that adopted them (please internet search the term “Common Core failure” for more studies describing this boondoggle).
He also ramped up the State Longitudinal Database System. Working with the The National Center for Education Statistics, the Common Education Data Standards Initiative was created where thousands of data points were developed so that every school around the country could collect information on every student enrolled in public school in the United States to help them ‘learn’ better. (To find more information on Common Core and the SLDS, see our former blogspot.) This initiative has not failed, and in fact, has gained more steam the more tyrannical governments at every level realize how easy it is to control a populace on which they have millions of datapoints of information.
Besides an initiative to grade teachers (which has created part of the mess we now see in public education) – the Teacher Effectiveness system – the last of Obama’s four pillars was to create a TURNAROUND MODEL for ‘turning around failing schools, funded by School Improvement Grants. This roundly debunked initiative has been an absolute failure, yet it cost US taxpayers BILLIONS of dollars.
And so, this last week, Governor (King) Stitt, took full advantage of ELECTED Ryan Walters’ decision to quit his job instead of upholding his compact with his VOTERS to finish his term and made SWEEPING changes to Oklahoma’s upper education infrastructure – which he called Oklahoma’s “turnaround”. Hopefully, you’ll understand from the brief synopsis above, why I’m not in the least inspired by this turn of events.
Now, let’s review all that has happened since Ryan Walters quit:
Governor King-Stitt tells the public he’s going to ask the legislature to make the State Superintendent position appointed because there isn’t enough alignment between the Governor’s office and the state superintendent if the position is not appointed. (NO. JUST NO. This is at minimum a CHECK AND BALANCE. Number 2, I’ve had enough of Governor Stitt’s failed appointments and number 3, we are a Representative Government, not an oligarchy or a private business – things Governor King-Stitt forgets on a regular basis.)
Governor King-Stitt moves around his office staff – hiring what can only be called “swamp creatures” to help him finish out his term. This included trying to move long-time associate Donelle Harder into the Secretary of State position (don’t worry, after telling him to exit, I’m sure Stitt will find a cozy new deal for perennial government satellite Josh Cochroft) when she wasn’t eligible. How did no one in Stitt’s office seem to know the actual rules? If you’re King, or CEO, what do rules really matter?
Governor King Stitt appoints a new Secretary of Education, Daniel Hamlin, whose background includes University of Oklahoma professor, and who was educated both in Asia (MA Sejong University, Seoul, Asian Studies) and Canada where he received a Ph.D. from Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) Educational Leadership and Policy. So, advanced degrees from socialist countries. That’s comforting. Though he’s worked at OU the last 7 years, before that, he was at Oxford for 8 and University of Toronto for 4. Very Oklahoman! He is also Jeb Bush adjacent and seems to have an itch to control HOMESCHOOLING!
Governor King Stitt appoints his Obama-styled “turnaround team” at the Department of Education that includes (among others):
Megan Oftedal (Ph.D.) was the head of the Oklahoma Education Quality and Accountability office (OEQA). She was educated at Loyola University, UCLA, RAND Pardee Graduate School and Harvard – the last two universities where she received her Ph.D., and did post-grad work in data. She somehow got to Oklahoma, where she was employed by American Fidelity (the bank associated with the the complaint of election conspiracy in the Joy Hoffmeister campaign) and then on to a stint at META before coming back to Oklahoma to work at OEQA. The OEQA website tells us, “Dr. Megan Oftedal is a results-driven data leader with over a decade of experience in both the public and private sectors. She is excited to serve OEQA and transform it into a P20 data and analytics hub to inform policy and improve educational outcomes.” P20 is the State Longitudinal Database that collects data points on children from birth (day care) to 20 years old (workforce). Now that she’ll be ensconced at the Department of Education who knows what she can do?
Current Okemah Chamber of Commerce President Connie Reilly, will now take over for Oftedal as the head of OEQA. She was a decades-long educator in Okemah schools, who was appointed to the Board of Regents of the Regional University System of Oklahoma by Brad Henry in 2007 – a post she has kept through 2 successive Republican governors now. Why a retired teacher would want to suddenly become president of the local chamber flummoxes me. And yet she will now be in a position where she can work with the Chamber and Dr. Oftedal, to hook all the databases in the state together so we can follow all children from birth to grave. Yay.
Governor King-Stitt then replaced two of his friends he had earlier appointed to the Oklahoma State Board of Education, but who haven’t been showing up much lately – Zach Archer and Sarah Lepak (who was Assistant General Counsel at Gateway Mortgage Group, from Apr 2012 – Mar 2017) – with Brian Bobek and Wes Nofire. Stitt has already appointed Bobek to the state board, where he served from 2019 to 2023. Bobek left BP Oil after 23 years to come to work for Governor Stitt, where, so far, he’s been his Deputy Chief of Staff, Chief Operating Officer (of something, I guess Governor Stitt?) and his Director of Faith Based Initiatives (another made up job not found in the Oklahoma Job Catalog so we have no idea what taxpayers pay for his salary). Nofire – like all the others – has been appointed by Stitt to something before: he’s a Commissioner on the Board of the State Athletic Commission and he’s also the Native American Liaison to the Office of the Governor since 2024.
Interestingly – neither our new, nice, State Superintendent, nor King-Stitt, notified our friend – and former Oklahoma State School Board member Kendra Wesson, that she had been fired as the Chair of the Oklahoma State Textbook Committee. She only found out when I read it in a ‘news’ media article and shared the information with her. Just another way we know that King-Stitt’s agenda is NOT about We The People.
I think it’s worth noting that in SEVERAL articles I read, the local “news” media have managed to quote Oklahoma Edvocates (a group for leftist teachers, not for parents or students), President, Jami Jackson Cole on King-Stitt’s Obama-like Turnaround, which she appears to be all for.
So, in closing, let all that sink in. Governor King-Stitt has now put into place all the “yes” men he’s previously appointed/worked with in some capacity as stewards of our Oklahoma Education funds and students. It is clear to me that this “turnaround” is one in which parents will be left behind. It has to be that way for the Jeb Bush/Chamber of Commerce-focused agenda of driving students into jobs so the elites can save money on job training can play out in real time.
Gone will be the effort to remove predators from schools and smutty, developmentally-inappropriate books from the library. Incoming will be the giant cookie cutter of big government, stamping children into widgets through collection of reams of unnecessary and invasive data for the benefit of private businesses. Watch.
__________________________________________
Governor Stitt’s Reigniting The Dream initiative as Chair of the National Governor’s Association, 2025:
Unlocking Economic Opportunity: Advancing the American Dream through entrepreneurship, creating a good jobs economy and economic mobility
Empowering Every Learner: Reimagining education and creating real on-the-jobs experiences for youth
Energizing the Future: Powering America’s next chapter by powering our AI future
Throughout the year, Governor Stitt will lead a series of convenings bringing together governors, private-sector leaders, and changemakers to explore policy and practice to forge a more hopeful, prosperous future for every American.
NGA also announced leadership for NGA’s three Governor-led task forces. The task forces foster a collaborative environment for Governors to focus on NGA’s top federal priorities. The task force co-chairs are:
Education, Workforce and Community Investment: Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon
Economic Development and Revitalization: Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong
Public Health and Emergency Management: Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe, North Carolina Governor Josh Stein
Governor Stitt has never had any problem appointing people during his terms.
In fact, the appointments he’s made during his time in the Governor’s chair tell us a story. They tell us that he doesn’t see a government that is Of The People, By The People, For The People, but more a government of the people, for the people, by the people he likes and does business with.
The people he appoints to his positions – and he’ll move people around wherever it suits him for whatever purpose he has – by and large, have worked with him previously, or come from Tulsa, or have donated to his campaign, or have ties to him through the Chamber, or Jeb Bush – they’re not We The People, they’re We The Buddies.
I’m not going to throw in a bunch of links in here to prove the veracity of this statement, a simple internet search on Governor Stitt and his appointments will bring those home for you. It’s all there. It’s not hard to find.
In order to drive the point home, however, here are several examples of my assertion.
She went on to DC (essentially) and started her own Consulting firm, Pliris Strategies, which she then sold to Pinkston (the company where she began her career), during which time she was not only appointed to the Gateway Banking/Mortgage Board, but was owner of Harder Consulting, LLC as well. Talk about landing on your feet.
Prior to that, however, she was
Communications Advisor U.S. House of Representatives May 2010 – Jul 2012
Communications Director U.S. Senate July 2012 – Nov 2016
Vice President Oklahoma Oil & Gas Association Nov 2016 – Dec 2017
Deputy Campaign Manager Kevin Stitt for Governor Oct 2017 – Jan 2019
Executive Team Member Governor-elect Kevin Stitt Transition Team Nov 2018 – Jan 2019
Doubtless, Mrs. Harder has worked very hard and had a very successful career – mostly in government, mostly with Governor Stitt.
As you can tell from the post above, Governor Stitt recently appointed Harder to the position of Secretary of State (after sitting SOS, Josh Cockroft suddenly decided to step down with four other Stitt appointees), only to find that Harder couldn’t serve as Secretary of State – a 4-year appointment that will extend into the next OK governor’s term and be a member of the next Governor’s cabinet whether they want them there or not – because she couldn’t fulfill the residency requirement of 10 years.
But no worries, again, the move won’t hurt her – she’ll now be Chief of Staff – an easy jump since she’s already been his “Senior Advisor”.
I personally think the most telling thing – the most infuriating thing – from Harder’s Facebook post is that she’s all good with her position. She’s giddy that the people she’s working with now – the same ones she’s worked within the past – are all back together and isn’t that grand? She is completely tone deaf to the fact that she doesn’t work for Kevin Stitt in a private business, she works for the people of Oklahoma, which is managed for We The People by Kevin Sitt. Her salary is paid by taxpayers, therefore her duty is to the taxpayers, not to a boss, or the buddies she’s worked with before, as would be the case in private business. But then, this is Oklahoma Inc. thinking for you.
Government is not to be run as a private business. It can’t be. The government of the state of Oklahoma is the PEOPLE OF OKLAHOMA, not the elected and appointed officials. The PEOPLE OF OKLAHOMA elect their fellow citizens to government office to manage the state for them using the dollars that are forcibly taken from them in the way of taxes and fees. Because they are forcibly taken, the employees of the PEOPLE OF OKLAHOMA have a duty to manage those tax dollars appropriately while working continuously to protect their liberty – the only job any elected official has.
Notice he’s now Stitt’s “Chief Negotiator”. What is that? Well, we’ll never know because there is no job for that in the Oklahoma Job Catalog. Interesting. How much will this employee make off the back of taxpayers? How could we know?
Hilliary has donated quite a lot of money to Stitt – who appointed him to a 9-year term as an Oklahoma State Reagent (he’s now the Chair) though he never got a college degree. An article in the Oklahoman had this to say about Hilliary and Ostrowe – also included in Harder’s post.
Hilliary is a co-owner of Lawton-based Hilliary Communications, a telephone and broadband service provider that has more than 15,000 customers in Oklahoma, Texas and Iowa. Ostrowe is the president and CEO of O&M Restaurant Group, an Oklahoma City company that operates Taco Bell franchises. Harder has clients through her public relations and consulting work.
All three have donated to Stitt’s campaigns in the past, records show. Hilliary donated $9,000, and Ostrowe donated $8,300. Harder, who has also worked for Stitt’s campaign, donated $1,000.
Abegail Cave, the communications director for the governor’s office, would not say whether the appointees would be required to step away from their non-government work. She also would not say how much each of Stitt’s new appointees will be paid.
What? Can you do that? SHOULD you do that as THE CENTRAL STEWARD OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS? How is this not the perfect example of “he who has the gold makes the rules”?
Benjamin is the current General Counsel to the Governor – since October of 2024. Might it be worth asking how Lepak’s “brilliant mind” didn’t know that Harder couldn’t be appointed SOS? Prior to that, Benjamin was the Executive Director of the State Chamber Research Foundation Oklahoma 21st Century from November 2020 until taking the General Counsel position.
Why Is Any Of This A Problem?
Here’s why. There is a process set up by which We The People may send in application to be appointed to serve on a Board, or a Commission in Oklahoma.
Ideally, qualified individuals from the population of We The People in Oklahoma use this form to submit an application for specific appointments in which they have interest. People from the Governor’s office, then, ideally, look over the applications and move forward those most qualified to the Governor for his selection.
This is clearly not happening – certainly, not at top levels.
Let’s review some of the most controversial of Governor Stitt’s appointments so far.
Shelley Zumwalt – according to her LinkdIn page, Zumwalt graduated from University of Central Oklahoma in 2002 with a BS in Business/Corporate Communications. There is nothing on her LinkdIn that accounts for the years 2002-2012, but in 2012, she became the “Communications Manager” for OMES. After that, it was off to the races with one government job after another; Director of Public Affairs for Governor Mary Fallin, Director of Public Affairs for OMES – then, in 2019, she was appointed “Chief Communications and Strategic Engagement Officer Oklahoma” of the Oklahoma Health Care Authority by Governor Stitt – yet another job not in the Oklahoma Job Description Manager. After that, she was in another made up job – Chief Innovation Officer at OMES – and then an actual job posting, Executive Director, Oklahoma Employment Security Commission and finally Executive Director at the Oklahoma Tourism Department.
Jefferey Cartmell – Cartmell got his JD in 2012 from OU, after which he became Governor Mary Fallin’s General Counsel. Gosh. One minute you’re an OU law student and the next you’re the Governor’s General Counsel. Amazing.
After that, it was nearly just one government job after the next for Cartmell; Director and Counsel State of Oklahoma – Gaming Compliance for two years, Associate Attorney Lytle Soule & Curlee, for 2 years, Deputy General Counsel Office of Governor Kevin Stitt (starting from the time he took office in 2019) for 2 years, Counsel to Secretary of State – Oklahoma Secretary of State 2 years, Executive Director – Office Of Juvenile Affairs 1 year, Director, Oklahoma DHS.
Now mind you, Cartmell may be a great attorney, but I see nothing that would make him even eligible to be appointed to the Executive Director of the Office of Juvenile Affairs or OKDHS positions. In fact, after allegations of widespread abuse at the Tulsa Juvenile Center resulted in lawsuits, investigations and at least one person charged for having sex with a minor, Carmell was moved from the OJA to OKDHS. How many people do you know are moved to a larger oversight job when they’ve apparently failed at the lesser oversight job? It’s worth it to ask.
I can only hope that Oklahomans have learned valuable lessons from King – sorry – Governor Stitt’s tenure and that they’ll never again fall for a fast-talking businessman with an ethically iffy business background who wants to turn Oklahoma into a business his buddies can run on the backs of We The People.
