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Speaker-Elect Hilbert’s Legislative Priority Personifies Everything Wrong With Oklahoma Government

According to the Oklahoma Voice this morning, our new House Speaker-Elect, Kyle Hilbert has declared;

“In this upcoming session, if we pass two bills, a state budget and a bill reducing the usage of cellphones in public schools, it will be one of the most substantial legislative sessions that I’ve experienced.” 

Full stop.

During the fight to repeal Common Core from state law and remove it from Oklahoma classrooms, the talking points invariably used by legislators to stiff-arm our pleas included “we don’t like education mandates” and “we’re a local control state”. No joke. But then, during those years, one history teacher-turned legislator told me that Oklahomans send legislators to the capitol to “write bills”.

What The Bill Says

Here is the cell phone bill, created by Senate Education Committee Vice-Chair, Ally Seifried; SB139.

According to the press release sent out by Senate Media, the bill, “empower[s] schools to adopt ‘bell to bell’ cell phone policies”, yet the bill summary says, “An Act relating to schools; requiring school district boards of education to adopt a policy prohibiting use of cell phones while on campus during certain time period”. Requiring and ’empowering’ do not have the same meaning – the first includes force.

In fact, the bill goes on to say that it will require schools to set discipline policies for students who break the school’s required policy on cell phone use (the force part). It also allots up to 2 million taxpayer dollars (“if available”, whatever that means) to be granted to middle and high schools so they can buy something to STORE cell phones during the day.

Problems With The Bill

  1. What is the point of a school board? According to state law, individual local school boards have the right and ability to set policy – including policy over cell phones. This bill actively usurps local school board authority. On one hand, we expect parents to execute control over their minor children, yet so much of what the state does actually removes parental executive control in favor of a government policy, rule or law. How can a parent execute parental control if we keep removing their executive function?
  2. This is NEW LAW. How many laws do Oklahomans need to restrain them – or, in this case, their children? What about schools? Could an argument be made that part of the reason public schools in Oklahoma are failing is that they are constrained by state laws that may not have been needed at the local level?
  3. This law forces schools to create disciplinary actions to be meted out when students break cell phone policy. What happens if a school DOESN’T create a cell phone policy? What happens if they don’t create a discipline policy? How many times has state law required schools to create a policy, but then never forced the school to write the policy when they don’t? Tulsa attorney Maria Seidler has told us numerous times, for example, that public schools don’t adhere to all of Oklahoma’s Parental Rights law, but there isn’t an enforcement mechanism in the law to make them, forcing parents to use their own money to sue schools while schools use taxpayer dollars to fight them. How many times has the state forced schools to follow the policies they DO create – about bathrooms, free speech, bullying, or student safety, for example? This law, then, would be meaningless, just like so many others our legislature creates, because there isn’t a mechanism of enforcement.
  4. Schools can apply for a grant to create a place/places for student cell phones to be kept. Two million dollars will be pulled from taxpayer pockets to supply grant ‘winners’. Is there a reason cell phones can’t be turned off as students come into class, dropped into a basket on the teacher’s desk and collected before they leave the classroom? Two million dollars is needed for that?

What Our Constitution Guarantees

The Oklahoma Constitution says the following in Section 2-1: Political power – Purpose of government – Alteration or reformation:

All political power is inherent in the people; and government is instituted for their protection, security, and benefit, and to promote their general welfare; and they have the right to alter or reform the same whenever the public good may require it: Provided, such change be not repugnant to the Constitution of the United States.

How does any of the nonsense written in our Speaker-Elect’s priority bill match with the wording of our state Constitution?

In fact,

  1. It usurps local control of government – which removes the security citizens should have in control of their government and removes any benefit to them by taking the issue out of their hands.
  2. It creates a NEW law, removing power from the people and giving it to government. The more laws government creates, the more individual liberty is constrained and the less benefit or security ‘the people’ receive.
  3. This law is meaningless because it accomplishes nothing. Meaningless laws cause ‘the people’ to suffer. Even if prohibitions were added to the bill that FORCED schools to create policy on this issue, it would do little more than once again remove the power from “the people”/parents to deal with the issue and give it to government.
  4. Taking MORE dollars from taxpayers to buy unnecessary items is burdensome to the liberty of ‘the people’. The economy is hard. Parents need to KEEP THEIR OWN MONEY and decide how to spend it. Interestingly, if parents choose not to pay their taxes so they won’t be used for government frivolity, government will fine them or send them to prison. THAT is how out-of-whack our government is compared to what our Constitution says our government must do or be.

What The Legislature MUST Prioritize Instead

The legislature MUST:

  1. Prohibit PRIVATE BUSINESSES from receiving public funds to do business in the state; ie – remove ALL tax credits and incentives for private business. This would restore free enterprise and a fair economy, creating a benefit for all citizens and security of an even playing field for those who own their own businesses. As example; we spent at least one million taxpayer dollars on a fledgling electric car maker that has never lived up to its promises.
  2. Prohibit taxation of property and income (which is also property). Our state constitution says in Section 2-2 on Inherent Rights; “All persons have the inherent right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the enjoyment of the gains of their own industry“. The bolded terminology refers to property and income. The taxation of such flies in the face of our Constitution’s requirement for the government to provide us protection, security and benefit. The legislature should write a state question to enable the people to change the Constitution to prevent the use of property taxation and start to phase out income tax ASAP (see Rep. Jay Steagall).
  3. Prohibit eminent domain for turnpikes, solar installations, wind turbines or any desire of PRIVATE INDUSTRY to conduct business in our state. Taking the property of ‘the people’ should only be done in VERY DIRE need that would benefit ‘the people’. A private wind turbine company – Invenergy – shouldn’t be able to take property from Oklahoma citizens to create an electric transmission corridor that would allow them to ship Oklahoma wind energy to out of state customers.
  4. Stop giving money to public schools that do not educate children. We are 49th in education and most children in the state aren’t proficient in either reading or math. Uneducated students remove our security and provide little benefit to the state or it’s citizens and taking tax dollars from citizens to support failure removes their security. Public schools often have multi-million dollar sports stadiums full of high school kids who can’t count back change. Stop allowing taxpayers to be robbed for failure.

What “The People” Must Do

  1. Contact your legislator. Remind them of the guarantees our State Constitution provides Oklahoma citizens. When legislation is promoted that does NOT agree with these guarantees, immediately call and/or email and explain why the bill must be voted down.
  2. Until we Oklahomans understand the function of our state government, we can’t educate our elected officials. At least read the Bill of Rights of our Constitution. Then, educate those around you including your legislators. It’s the only way to put government back in the hands of ‘the people’ and out of those who think only of lobbyists, public school bullies and elevating their power quotient for another job in government when they’re through at the legislature.
  3. Track legislation through the legislative website and/or Legiscan and/or follow OKHPR, OK2A, Save Oklahoma Farms And Ranches and ROPE, in order to know what laws are being introduced during the session and how they affect you.

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Kyle Hilbert Or Tom Gann For Oklahoma Speaker Of The House – Hint; Hilbert Pays CAMP, And Is Funded Mainly By PAC Dollars!

No general Oklahoma voter can exercise their vote for one of the most important political positions in the legislature – Speaker of the House. Why, you might ask? Though that’s an excellent and reasonable question, I honestly don’t know, but as long as I’ve been aware, we’ve had to rely on our elected House Representatives to do that for us – often in secret vote.

What, you might say? How can the leader of the House – the one that picks the Committee Chairs, the one that decides what bills are heard, the one that sets the tone for the House of Representatives and can break a tie with their vote on any contentious legislation heard in committee – not be voted on by Oklahoma voters, though he or she would lead one entire half of the body of our legislature? Well, again, that’s a really excellent question.

Here’s what it says about the process in the article announcing Hilbert’s election – because there is nothing on the Oklahoma Legislature website that explains how the Speaker of the House is elected.

Under majority caucus rules, the speaker-designate for the upcoming Legislature is selected through a caucus election on the first Monday in March during election years. The 60th Legislature will be seated after November’s elections and convene for its first session in 2025. The entire body of the House will formally vote on its next speaker on organizational day for the 60th Oklahoma Legislature in early January 2025.

Majority (Republican) caucus rules can change every year, so that’s a comforting notion.

Last year, the current speaker – and longest in the position – Charles McCall, was term-limited (Oklahoma has 12 year term limits for every legislative office). Though 29-year-old Kyle Hilbert of Bristow – who will be the youngest ever to serve as Speaker – was elected by the Republican caucus last spring on the first ballot of the secret vote inside a Republican caucus meeting, Representatives Lonnie Sims and Kevin West also vied for the position. (Here’s a bit about Hilbert according to Ballotpedia.)

But not so fast. There is at least one other vote for House Speaker, so Hilbert’s ascendancy isn’t written in stone.

And why shouldn’t there be another vote? Some of the members of the House at the time of the first vote were either term-limited, or voted out in the primaries. Some still face a candidate in the November 5th election. Why should Representatives who won’t even be seated in the House during the 2025 session vote on the Speaker position instead of the newly elected Representatives who will serve in that legislature?

Recently, representative Tom Gann of Inola has thrown his hat in the ring to challenge Kyle Hilbert for Speaker. (Here’s a bit about Tom Gann from Ballotpedia.)

I thought it might be interesting to compare the two candidates, so I went through the Oklahoma Ethics Guardian System and pulled their Ethics reports from January through August – the first three quarters of the filing year. To make it easy to read, I loaded both Contributions and Expenses data for each candidate into an Excel spreadsheet.

Here is Tom Gann’s. Representative Gann has been in the House since 2016.

Here is Kyle Hilbert’s. Hilbert has also been in the Oklahoma House since 2016.

Totals are at the bottom of each column, but let me recap:

Tom Gann had no contributions for the first three reporting quarters. He had no real expenses other than the loan he repaid himself from 2023.

During that same time period, Kyle Hilbert took $1900 from individuals (including former legislators), $5750 from lobbyists, $61,151.32 from 38 different PACs (9 originating out of state), $20,657.67 from individuals associated with some kind of a business (the entry was John Smith, CEO of XYZ Corporation) and $2950 from two separate tribes – for a total of $92,408.99.

Hilbert’s expenses are not fully listed here. I picked out his payments to other House members – a total of $97,200.00). He also paid CAMP and James Martin Company for his political needs. Both often work together in the world of Oklahoma political consulting.

This is a video of Kyle Hilbert from a KFOR political program on Sunday mornings. Please note. According to him, his job is to get Republicans elected to office.

Clearly, he’s not read the Constitution. That is NOT his job. His job is to protect the liberty of his constituents. Please also note – he was convinced that former Chair of the House Appropriations Committee Kevin Wallace would be re-elected. In a stunning victory for LIBERTY in Lincoln and surrounding counties, citizens came out during a hot July primary to UNELECT Kevin Wallace because he was more interested in special interests than his own constituents – kind of like Kyle Hilbert.

Interestingly, a PAC called the WolfPAC was created in 2023 to work for “Oklahoma’s Legislative Future”. The PAC is run by people I profiled in The Corruption Belt – Diagramming Oklahoma’s Dark Money Web – Political Consultants and PAC Treasurers. The treasurer is Dustin Hilliary, part of the Oklahoma Hilliary Communications network. The Hilliary family are very involved in Oklahoma politics and frequently donate to Oklahoma campaigns.

The following is a quote from a Fox 24 article Oklahoma’s broadband office reboots process for distributing $382 million in federal funds amid concerns:

The Hilliary family are big political donors, including to Governor Kevin Stitt and State Superintendent Ryan Walters. We looked at the Hilliarys’ political contributions since 2015 and found they donated $705,803.20 to candidates and PACS that support them. $249,315.60 of that came directly from Hilliary Communications co-CEO Dustin Hilliary. In April, Dustin was appointed by Governor Stitt to the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, even though Dustin, himself, does not hold a college degree.

Here is an invitation for a fund-raiser for the PAC. Note, that James Martin Company – who is paid many multiple thousands of dollars by Hilbert’s campaign account – is taking RSVPs.

The main donations to the PAC are other PACs, lobbyists and individuals associated with companies or corporations – many of which are the same ones donating to Hilbert’s campaign.

The main expenditures from the PAC fund the campaigns of Oklahoma Representatives – including Hilbert. Why? Aren’t people from their own districts supposed to be supporting their office? Aren’t they to be Representatives of the People, not PACs or other candidates or legislators? If a candidate is receiving money from the campaign of a ‘leadership’ PAC or the Speaker Designate, what does that say about the independence of those Oklahoma Representatives? What happens when a bill is run and the Speaker needs votes? (Notice, not every legislator is on either Hilbert’s or WolfPAC’s list). Some Oklahoma legislators don’t take funds like those described above, thus circumventing any of the questions posed about their consequences.

Don’t Oklahomans have the right to wonder what happens during the next vote for Speaker? Do legislators who got checks feel the need to vote for the person who gifted them of his campaign funds? It surely does beg the question and an answer should be carefully considered.

In contrast, here is a video of Tom Gann during an October 8th Interim Study held at the capitol which described how Oklahomans can lose a host of their Constitutional rights when police officers pull over cars and use data captured by Automatic License Plate Readers.

Hmmm…is it just me, or is there really no comparison between Gann and Hilbert now that we’ve had the chance to look at them side-by-side?

Gann is funded by NO ONE – Hilbert is funded by PACs and lobbyists and individuals who represent/work with large corporations and businesses within the state – people who could very well have a stake in any legislation run through the legislature.

NOW, if any of the issues I’ve brought up concern you, contact your House Rep RIGHT NOW and ask them to vote for Tom Gann for Speaker of the House! (If you don’t know who that is, please slap yourself and then go here) It’s the only way to put government back in its box – the one that exists solely of PROTECTING OUR RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES.

List of PACs Contributing To Kyle Hilbert’s Campaign January through August, 2024

Advance Freedom PAC

Amber Integrated PAC

American Electric Power Committee for Responsible Government

American Fidelity Corp PAC

Architects Political Action Committee

Associated Builders and Contractors Oklahoma PAC

AT&T Oklahoma PAC

Beer Distributors of Oklahoma Political Action Committee

Bondsman Political Action Committee

Brightspring PAC (KY)

Boeing Company PAC

CARE PAC

Cox PAC

Delta Dental of Oklahoma For Oral Health PAC

Dentaquest PAC (MA)

Enterprise Holdings Inc. PAC (MO)

IP-PAC (DC) (also an International Paper PAC)

International Paper PAC (DC)

Invenergy Political Action Committee (IL)

Marathon Oil Company PAC (TX)

OK Beef PAC

Oklahoma Academy of Physician Associates

Oklahoma Committee of Automobile Retailers

Oklahoma’s Electric Cooperatives PAC

Oklahoma Funeral Directors Association PAC

Oklahoma Optometric Political Action Committee

Oklahoma Pharmacists Association PAC

Oklahoma Society of Certified Public Accountants Political Action Committee

Oklahoma Title Political Action Committee

Petroleum Alliance PAC

Pfizer PAC (NY)

Phillips 66 PAC

Plains All American PAC (TX)

Realtors PAC of Oklahoma

Sooner State PAC

The Williams Companies PAC

Thoroughbred PAC

Valero PAC (TX)

38 PACs

9 out of state

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Out Of State Investors Are Causing Your Insurance To Soar!

Wednesday, September 18th, Michael and I had Kayla Blount, with 317 Insurance Advisors, return to talk to us about why Oklahomans have such EXPENSIVE CAR INSURANCE.

I have to say, I’m rarely shocked by anything the guests on our show say, but this one got me.

Did you know that there are people – often outside of the US – who give money to law firms to help car accident clients get bodily injury claims? Yup. You know me – I’ve got to research it myself before I am really going to report on it – and yup, it’s 100% accurate. It’s called, “Third Party Litigation”.

Click here to read a really great description by the Insurance Information Institute of what 3rd Party Litigation is, what it can do to the insurance industry and your bottom line as a consumer needing car insurance. And here is another short informational piece that describes the damage this practice is doing to economic inflation.

Watch Kayla describe this fun little practice and how it negatively effected one of her clients:

Here in Oklahoma, at least two organizations have been found to be engaging in this practice of financing law firms to collect vast over-market settlements for their clients with car insurance companies, usually over often hard-to-detect soft tissue injuries.

Westfleet Advisors is an American-based organization that uses funds from PRIVATE investors (outside the stock exchange) to prop up law firms attempting to gain large settlements for their clients which are then split up between the client, the law firm and the investors, leaving car insurance companies with HUGE payouts or litigation bills, the cost of which then roll on down to the consumer.

If you might be unconvinced that 3rd Party Litigation isn’t making a difference in your pocketbook, realize that an author from Westfleet Advisors themselves wants you to know that “$2.7 Billion of Capital Committed in U.S. Commercial Litigation Finance Industry in 2023“.

But it’s not only PRIVATE investment firms that take part in this ‘for the love of money’ scheme. I found several that trade publicly on the American Stock Exchange that do the very same thing for their investors – fund law firms to get big payouts for clients at the expense of automobile insurance companies and THEIR clients.

For example, Burford Capitol has offices in the US and all over the world. They’re happy to say that they’re publicly funding the misery of American consumers on their website.

So what are we to do here?

Watch the full video when you have time (find it on YouTube and Rumble). Kayla has a lot more great information outside of just the clips I pulled out. A full viewing of the interview will help you put everything in context.

Contact your legislator and tell them that OKLAHOMA MUST HAVE TORTE REFORM IN THE AREA OF VEHICULAR ACCIDENT JUDGMENTS NEXT SESSION before we all go broke just trying to lawfully drive our vehicles on Oklahoma roadways. You might propose it like this; if the legislature wants to make laws about how we can operate our vehicles on our roadways, they better help us afford to follow their laws (of course it would be better if they quit writing so many laws, but let’s start there).

Next, watch the short video below that talks about what you can do PERSONALLY to stop yourself from being victimized by a car accident. Take notes, save the video, whatever you need to do to follow Kayla’s advice and help keep yourself – and by extension your pocketbook – safe.

Lastly, TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS BY SHARING THE VIDEOS/BLOG, ETC. We’ll never win the hearts and minds of legislators if we don’t come at this problem with one really loud voice and that will take all of us we can muster up!

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Oklahoma Property Insurance Is Going Up. Why – And What’s A Homeowner To Do?

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We Need To Protect Children From Public School Predators – V1SUT Vantage On ROPE Report Live

For her regular Wednesday appearance on ROPE Report Live, our V1SUT Vantage blogger, ‘Mary’, Michael and I talked about yet another incident where a public school teacher had molested a child. This time while he and his husband were on vacation on a cruise ship.

How in the world does this happen?

One good piece of news ‘Mary’ gave us, was that State Superintendent Walters had spearheaded an investigation into Ashley Rolan’s sexual assault case, causing at least one of the perpetrators to come forward and VOLUNTARILY relinquish their license. One down. Many more to go.

In the short video below, ‘Mary’ talked about Statute of Limitation laws in Oklahoma and how they must change if we’re to protect children and make abusers pay for their crimes.

Since 2017, the Statute of Limitations on reporting sexual abuse is age 45. That seems awesome until you find out that this date is NON RETROACTIVE – meaning that no DA will file charges against someone who has abused this person IN THE PAST. How can that be? So the abused can REPORT the crime, but the abuser can’t be held accountable if the abuse didn’t happen in the same year?

Watch the short video below to see why.

The only way to solve this problem is by changing the statutes to allow for prosecution of sexual crimes against children even though the victim could be reporting the crime as an adult. Oklahomans should absolutely do all we can to protect our youngest citizens and we’ll be helping where we can on this issue for 2025 in the legislature.

In the next short video, ‘Mary’ talk about how it is that members of the LGBT community seem to have some kind of immunity when it comes to prosecution for crimes involving minors. Check out the short video below to hear ‘Mary’ talk about a situation she’s reported on from Bartlesville involving not one, but TWO children put into foster care with a same sex couple. One child ended up with a broken arm that was never investigated and a subsequent child died. This is simply not okay, yet it continues to happen over and over again.

We must pass on this information to everyone we know. Public outcry could make legislators act, but we need to spread he word so that awareness of these situations grow.

Continued to stay tuned every third Wednesday to hear what ‘Mary’ has for us next and check out her substack as well!

Take an hour or so to watch the full video on our Rumble or YouTube channels. You won’t be sorry. ‘Mary’ is always so informative!

ANNOUNCEMENT: Moms 4 Liberty, Yukon area, is hosting an event in conjunction with Sherrie Conley’s new non-profit Broken Trust called, “A Guide to Protecting Students from Predatory Behavior”, Tuesday, August 6th at 5:30, location to be announced. This event is free, but please sign up so they know to expect you.

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ROPE Report Live OK Voter Roll Re-Register Debate – Who Won?

Sorry to disappoint – that was a click-bait title (LOL) – but no one ‘won’ the debate. In fact, it was one of the best discussions we’ve had on the ROPE Report.

Chairman of the Libertarian Party and Bethany City Council Board Member, Chris Powell, joined our friends Amber Evans and Wendi Montgomery Dial (OK State Director of Restore Liberty) to talk about whether or not voter rolls in Oklahoma need to be archived and all voters re-registered. We gave each of the three 5 minutes in a round robin to talk about why – or why not – the voter rolls should be re-registered.

You can find the entire live broadcast on our YouTube and Rumble channels, but below is a wrap-up of the pro-position by Wendi.

In the video, Wendi references a candidate challenge – of which Chris was a part, because the candidate was a Libertarian – adjudicated by the Oklahoma State Election Board during candidate filing earlier this year. Amber, Wendi, Michael and I talked specifically about this issue in our ROPE Report LIVE from April 26th of this year, starting at about 31 minutes in. It’s well worth the watch if you’re so inclined – very interesting information.

Below, Michael and I talk about our specific experiences with the voter rolls in Oklahoma County. Michael from a candidate’s perspective during his run for Edmond School Board, and me from the time the Town of Luther (where I was Mayor for a term) decided to send out letters to ALL prospective voters, alerting them to the date of an upcoming vote to increase the sales tax. Unfortunately, both of us had the same experience with the voter lists we received.

Michael got a list of the voters in his district to knock doors and send literature, and I got a list of voters in my district to send letters to, from the Oklahoma County Election Board (OCEB). Michael had loads of voters on his ‘walk’ list that door knockers found to be not living at the addresses identified by the OCEB and I had a stack of about a quarter of the total letters I sent returned to me because of wrong addresses.

It makes sense that a candidate with nefarious purpose, might be able to ‘test’ a list by sending out mailers to everyone on the list given him/her by their county election board. They could then check addresses returned to make sure people don’t live at the listed address, wait until election time, apply for an absentee ballot with that person’s information and vote like the person is still on the rolls at that address. In this way, people could illegally vote absentee – and how would they be caught doing so?

From my time on the Oklahoma County Election Board (OCEB), I can tell you that there would be no way for ballot counters to have any idea if the person voting absentee lived at the address listed on the envelope – absentee ballots are notarized to signify that the voter is who he/she says they are – but it doesn’t take a genius to understand that anyone can apply to be a notary.

At the OCEB in 2023 when I was a Board member, the way absentee ballots were processed, we never even knew if there were notaries notarizing more than the lawful maximum of 20. The ballots were never laid out in piles per notary, they were simply checked to make sure all lawful information was present on the envelope and removed to another room for removal of the envelope.

Many of the elections in Edmond (Ronda Peterson, Michael Grande, Margaret Best – to name a few) that I’ve followed have had Republican candidates win at the ballot box, but then lose the race by a few absentee ballots. It certainly seems plausible and one reason Oklahoma needs to clean up our voter rolls.

Because I didn’t make a video clip of Chris’ perspective, I asked him to send me some of his suggestions for making sure Oklahoma’s voter rolls are as clean as possible. Here’s what he sent:

Some of the things I would change are things we didn’t get into.  I’d get rid of partisan registration (and so also straight party voting) and in fact I’d favor doing away with partisan primaries altogether.  But that’s probably a different show that could also talk about open primaries, Top-Two jungle primaries, ranked-choice voting, election calendar reform, and that kind of stuff.

To be specific to the voter roll, I think it’d be really easy to add a question of “has your address changed?’ when voters sign the book at the polling place on Election Day and get that new address.  I’d also like to see an interstate voter roll integrity organization, but I’d like it to be limited to providing information for states to use as they see fit rather than dictating either to include or exclude voters.  But a major point that Wendi and I alluded to but didn’t really state straight out is that the voter rolls are always going to be heavily dependent upon the actions of individual voters.  All the laws in the world only work as well as people choosing to comply and if things are made too cumbersome it fuels the argument for a more wide-open system which is something I’m sure many people don’t want.

Wendi also sent me a follow-up with her ideas:

  1. SHOW PHOTO ID when reregistering.
  2. Reregister over 2 years and then archive the old rolls.
  3. Issue the State Election Board funds to advertise the reregistration, including mailers, commercials on local tv and radio networks. 
  4. Allow provisional ballots at the polls for the first presidential election after the reregistration deadline for those who still wish to vote but missed the above advertising.
  5. Have special nursing home teams to get out and reregister the elderly and infirmed.

And here are Amber’s:

Election laws should be changed so that registered voters & candidates – through canvassing – can report voters not living at the address for which they are registered. The State Election Board should then go through the appropriate steps to verify the findings and remove the voter from the rolls once verified.

The voter rolls need to be cleaned more often, and the State Election Board needs to look at the rolls and go through the proper process to get correct lawfully physical addresses for voters on the rolls and remove any addresses violating O.S.26

After reading the blog and watching the videos, take some time to have a discussion with your duly elected Representative and Senator about this issue – even forward them this article. As Wendi pointed out so well in her closing, clean voter rolls containing only lawful entries are of upmost importance to – not only the security of Oklahoma elections – but the electoral process itself.

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This Is How Government-Issued Private School Vouchers Will Help Turn Private Education Into ‘Non-Public’ (Public) Education

What in the world IS Non-Public education? We’ll get to that in a minute, but first a recap…

At the end of the Oklahoma legislative session in 2023, the House and Senate passed HB1934, a bill which created ‘Universal School Choice’ in Oklahoma as described by organizations like The State Policy Network which have long-championed giving public tax dollars to private education.

All of Oklahoma’s Republican legislators voted for the bill (House, Senate; excepting those ‘excused’).

Afterward, the legislators we spoke with about the vote couldn’t understand how we were against the bill since it was a ‘tax credit’ – the form of ‘school choice’ for which ROPE has advocated against the concept of vouchers.

In fact, these legislators either argued with us about how the bill WAS a tax credit, or about how a voucher would – insert ‘school choice’ talking points – like those asserted in our interview with the Executive Director of the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma, Brett Farley.

Farley, who was instrumental in the creation of Every Kid Counts Oklahoma, the school choice organization for which now-state Superintendent Ryan Walters was made head, actually admitted in the interview that yes, school choice advocates want voucher bills. In the ‘school choice’ mantra, the state already funds [failing] public education, so the only way to create the ‘competition’ necessary to make public schools ‘no longer a viable option’ is to divert state money to private schools.

This ‘logic’ has always been a head-scratcher to me, because the state legislature holds the budget appropriation strings and can choose to fund public education or not, yet every year they complain about how awful public schools are and then award them ‘historic’ appropriations (see 2023 and 2024 for example) while refusing to tie public school results to funding. Make that make sense.

After the Universal Voucher bill passed, I did a full breakdown on the associated rules and found that, as Farley described, the first two tax categories listed provide – not a tax credit as the legislature promised – or was lead to believe – but a ‘voucher’; a grant of Oklahoma tax dollars to private schools for children whose parents applied to the program because they couldn’t otherwise afford private education tuition.

One more time, let’s break down the school choice options afforded to parents in Oklahoma even prior to the ‘Universal Choice’ bill:

  1. Public school;
    • Traditional public schools – Oklahoma has 509 school districts in Oklahoma. None have requirements for entry.
    • Charter schools – according to the Oklahoma State Department of Education website, Oklahoma had 24 of these in 2022. All are taxpayer-supported. Some have requirements for entry, others are a ‘lottery’ system where if the child’s name is randomly chosen, the child may attend, others have no requirement for entry.
      • Virtual Charter Schools – the OSDE records six of these schools which operate either solely on the internet, or a combination of in-person and online, such as EPIC charter schools. There is no requirement for entry
    • Magnet Schools – I could find no information about ‘magnet’ schools on the OSDE website, but an online site called Niche claims there are five in Oklahoma. Magnet schools provide a specific field of study along with ‘typical’ educational requirements for the state. An example would be Classen School of Advanced Studies where students have the opportunity to have in-depth study in the Arts while completing their Oklahoma educational requirements. There are entry requirements for attendance and all are taxpayer-supported.
  2. Private Schools – According to Private School Review, there are 106 K12 private schools in Oklahoma with an average tuition of $7,293. These are private schools because families use their own household dollars to afford the school.
  3. Homeschooling – The Homeschool Mom has an amazing list of homeschool coops and ‘enrichment’ classes available in Oklahoma. This is probably because Oklahoma is the MOST FRIENDLY homeschool state in the union, having written the ability for citizens of Oklahoma to educate their children at home in the state’s Constitution. This is also a private educational form because families pay out of their own pockets to afford this type of education.

So what is exactly the ‘choice’ School Choice proponents are talking about then? Oklahoma has LOTS and LOTS of choices that parents may choose to provide an education for their child/children. What choice did we not have that we had to have last year with Universal School Choice? Oklahoma taxpayer dollars funding private education for parents who can’t afford it – that’s it. That’s all. The ONLY thing our organization has ever objected to in the ‘choice’ menu – publicly-funding private schools.

Last Wednesday (6.5.24), our guest on ROPE Report Live was my friend and fellow homeschooling mom from Broken Arrow, Sarah DeNeui.

Sarah has become increasingly concerned about what would happen to homeschooling and private schooling since the passage of HB1934 and private schools began to receive state money. She talked with us about several of her concerns, mainly that once PRIVATE schools begin receiving PUBLIC money, they would no longer be PRIVATE schools.

Why? Because once tax dollars are involved, the government must maintain some control of the dollars in order to provide accountability and transparency to the public from whom it was taken (by force).

In addition, schools that receive funds from the Federal Department of Education, are required to comply with federal dictates, including, for example, President Biden’s decree that boys enrolled in schools taking federal funds and wanting to be girls, can use the girl’s bathroom. Though many states wrote laws to get around that particular dictate, the Biden Administration then proceeded to write a rule to keep states from placing a ban on the practice. How’s THAT for government control?

The full live video of Sarah’s interview with Michael and I can be found on our Rumble and YouTube channels, but here is the most concerning issue Sarah raised. In this short video segment, she tells the story of reaching out to her contact in the OSDE questioning a press release concerning the creation of an “Office of School Choice” in the Department. She was interested in exactly what the ‘office’s’ duties would entail.

Essentially, when the answer to her question was returned, it included a phrase she’d never previously heard – non-public education. Sarah wanted to know more, so she went out onto the internet to find that the federal government has an Office of Non-Public Education. Here’s their mission:

ONPE fosters maximum participation of nonpublic school students and teachers in federal education programs and initiatives. Since the initial passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in 1965, private school students and teachers have been eligible to participate in certain federal education programs.

So, the definition of ‘non-public education’ then, relates to private schools that take federal (and/or state?) funds.

The Office of Non-Public Schools even has a list of “private elementary and secondary schools, and/or home schools (?!?!) with which the U.S. Department of Education (Department) regularly communicates regarding the participation of nonpublic elementary and secondary school students and teachers in federal education programs and initiatives”.

It might behoove parents sending their children to ‘private’ schools to find out if the organization under which their private school is sanctioned, or accredited, is on the list provided here. And beyond that, to check DIRECTLY with their private school to find out whether or not they are truly PRIVATE – taking only private funds, no tax dollars.

This is HIGHLY problematic. It should go without saying that the more education becomes funded by a governmental entity, the more controlled it is by the government and the less free parents are to decide what is truly best for their child/children’s education. And we’re not the only organization to believe that.

Sherri Few, President of the organization USPIE (United States Parents Involved in Education) said this in a recent interview with FOX News:

“We don’t want private schools to accept money, no strings attached initially, get dependent on it and then the government starts throwing down these regulations in exchange for the funding. Then they’re stuck having to make a choice of either closing their doors or compromising their values in order to continue to accept the federal and state funding.”

Alex Newman of Liberty Sentinel told us the exact same thing in his interview with ROPE last year.

As did Robert Bortins, CEO of the worldwide homeschool organization Classical Conversations:

So how again then, does a school choice VOUCHER create freedom for parents? How is putting a school under federal ‘rule’ EMPOWERING for parents?

Sarah asks these types of questions and more in the video below. If you are a Republican FOR vouchers before you watch this segment and are still for vouchers afterward, I’m going to suggest you change your political affiliation – none of the questions asked by Sarah here, result in answers that follow the small-government, personal responsibility/liberty model of Republicanism. In fact, they could all be considered LEFTIST ideals, so how are Republicans buying into them?

The idea of every American parent choosing the form of education they want for their child is fundamental to the concept of personal freedom enshrined in the Constitution and I’ll fight with all I have to preserve that ideal.

HOWEVER, the ideal of ‘school choice’ that includes bringing in the government AT ANY LEVEL of a child’s education while asserting that as a ‘free market principal’ or freedom in any way, is a flat out lie and I’ll fight for that lie to be exposed for what it is and the detriment it will become to actual educational freedom in the long run, every day of the week.

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Oklahoma Senate MUST Pass SB426 To Protect Oklahoma Citizens From The WHO Pandemic Treaty

Wednesday, May 1st, Mic Rosado and Gina Desmarais spoke to Michael and Jenni about the Pandemic Treaty being created by the World Health Organization (WHO) – an ‘agency’ of unelected, bureaucrats that should have absolutely no ability to dictate the lives of Americans whatever, but empowered to a large degree by the Biden Administration.

While there are those saying that this will save lives during the next pandemic, Mic and Gina have read the agreement and say it will bring unprecedented control over the lives of Americans if it is signed by the US and state legislators won’t act to preserve the sovereignty of their citizens.

Listen to this short clip to get an idea of how badly we need our legislature to act on this matter. Then, write your Senator ASAP and tell them that they must pass SB426 to protect Oklahoma citizens from WHO overreach.

Find the full video on our YouTube or Rumble channels.

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Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt Signs Illegal Immigration Bill Only To Open Door To VISA Taskforce

April 20th, Governor Stitt played at giving with one hand and taking away with the other.

On the one hand, Governor Stitt signed ‘controversial’ ‘immigration’ bill HB4156; a solid bill that provides deportation and fines and/or jail time for those found to commit ‘impermissible occupation’, defined thusly

“A person commits an impermissible occupation if the person is an alien and willfully and without permission enters and remains in the State of Oklahoma without having first obtained legal authorization to enter the United States.”

All Senate Republicans voted for the bill as did all Republicans of the House. Democrats voted in blocks against the bill in both chambers.

While many ‘press’ headlines center around the word ‘controversial’, only one headline contained the fact that an Executive Order on immigration was signed by the Governor on the same day as his signature was inked to the bill.

During a press conference of the signing, the Governor announced the task force, saying, “Our hands have been forced by the unprecedented border security crisis that has seen more than 52,000 Chinese Nationals, along with terror organizations, illegally infiltrate and wreak havoc on our great nation and state,” he says. “Simply put, we will not tolerate threats to our communities and we will not become home to sanctuary cities.”

So this bill is about Chinese nationals?

Since Oklahoma passed a state question deciding the use of medical marijuana in 2018, there has been a steady rise in violent crime in once idyllic rural countrysides thanks to Chinese national-run marijuana grows. This has largely stemmed from the fact that the Oklahoma legislature not only got off flat-footed on the creation of laws to regulate the ‘medical’ marijuana industry after the question was passed, but then found themselves apparently unprepared to regulate the NEW state agency they created to regulate the industry.

Sadly, and thanks mainly to these factors, Oklahoma is now #1 in illegal importation of marijuana – GO SOONERS!

Reading the Executive Order signed directly after the bill, is instructive. Here are the first two whereas’:

Note the wording in the second paragraph, “…honest, hardworking Hispanic or OTHER international migrant populations here…”. How is anyone here in the state illegally, honest. This begs many questions then. Are shoplifters honest? What about murderers?

The EO then goes on to blame the Biden administration for not issuing VISAs or permits (how can he be blamed when he’s allowing millions of people to flood the borders of this nation illegally – there’s no possible way to keep up with the backlog that kind of volume of humanity would generate) to those immigrants who have “long filled gaps in Oklahoma’s workforce”.

In fact, it’s almost as though the EO says, ‘We have a bunch of Chinese Nationals who are causing crime in Oklahoma, so we’re going to get these people out of the state, but everyone else here illegally is honestly working to fill jobs too good for legal Oklahomans and we need them to stay, so we’re going to figure out a way to make that happen’.

Here is what the Task Force is assigned to do.

Who will serve ON the Task Force?

Look at #5. Is Oklahoma a border state? What about an international airline hub? No? Why then is there a Mexican Consul located in Oklahoma?

According to the largest post to the Oklahoma Mexican Consul page on the Mexican Consulate website, the Oklahoma Consul can help to REGISTER Hispanics to VOTE. As to what the Twitter page for the Oklahoma Mexican Consul says, one wouldn’t know unless one was fluent in Spanish.

According to the Oklahoman, the Mexican Consul was opened last year (5.20.23), to provide people with their “Mexican passports, birth certificates and other government-issued documents” in order to keep them from having to journey to Little Rock, AK, Kansas City, MO, or Dallas, TX – the latter of which is a four hour drive from Oklahoma City.

HB4156 is being lauded among Conservatives as helping to stem the tide of illegal immigration in Oklahoma, but clearly, that’s not the bottom line. If the bill is going to be signed and touted as ‘controversial’ yet the Governor goes on to sign an EO for a task force to make ‘honestly’ illegal aliens, legal, what exactly does the bill mean then?

No, Oklahomans do not want high crime rates – certainly not drug trafficking crime which tends to be graphically violent – but Chinese nationals are not the only ones here in Oklahoma committing drug crimes.

In January, Representative Justin Humphrey – a former law enforcement officer with years of experience in drug court – filed HB3133 to have drug trafficking become an act of terrorism. This bill blew up in the media, but not for the terrorism designation for drug trafficking. It blew up because he identified two Mexican cartels – the Sinola and New Age – as primarily trafficking in fentanyl, a drug responsible for many tens of thousands of deaths across the US and a skyrocketing number in Oklahoma according to the Oklahoma State Department of Health.

Because Humphrey also used the word ‘Hispanic’ in the bill, a firestorm ensued in which Humphrey was accused of racism. This prompted him to comment, “I believe these continual accusations of racism present an indisputable danger to America freedom and democracy.” (Apparently, the Legislature is aware of this issue and did add fentanyl to the Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Act this year through SB1280 – a bill that doesn’t contain the word ‘Hispanic’.)

In fact, the Governor’s EO goes out of its way to eliminate any appearance at all of considering a member of the Hispanic population as here NOT ‘honestly’.

Biden won 63% of the Latino vote in 2020 and is now appealing again to Latino voters by saying that they are the reason he won the election against President Donald Trump. According to Oklahoma Watch, Hispanic voters outvoted Black and Asian voters in the 2022 Oklahoma mid-terms by a large margin.

In fact, the RNC helped open an Hispanic Community Center in south OKC, where former Oklahoma Republican Committeewoman, Pam Pollard said they were “also going to be doing voter registration”. Clearly, the Latino vote is important and catering to that vote is something the Oklahoma GOP hopes to do.

Last year, Oklahoma Senator Michael Brooks (D), an Hispanic, proposed a bill to allow illegal immigrants to gain state driver’s licenses. The only thing an illegal person here in Oklahoma had to do to obtain a DL was show that they had been paying their taxes. This ignited a firestorm among Oklahoma citizens who believed that such cards could be used to allow the owner to vote illegally.

So it would seem that politics is out in full force when looking at the scope of HB4156. After all, our Governor is nothing if not a ‘workforce’ governor who sees it as his job to “make Oklahoma the state where it’s easiest to start and grow a business’. Yes, government MUST get out of the way to do that, but that will absolutely not happen by making lawlessness legal and more efficient.

President Biden will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the worst presidents in all American history – especially on immigration. If the President won’t act to stem the tide of people illegally entering the United States, Oklahoma, should act in its own best interest to protect its citizens. It should secure its own borders from those wishing to enter illegally, whether they bring crime and brutality, OR NOT.

Just like President Biden’s student loan bailout is a slap in the face to all the hardworking young people who have worked hard to pay their way through colleges and universities, ANY attempt to give people who come to Oklahoma illegally an end around the immigration system is a slap in the face to those who have come here the right way – the HARD way – the EXPENSIVE way – the way that includes NATURALIZATION.

Today in Oklahoma, rather than a tapestry of Oklahomans of different international backgrounds united together under the Oklahoma flag, we have different areas of our cities and towns devoted to Hispanic populations, or Asian populations, or Islamic populations (including taxpayer sponsored Madrasas) – many of whom came to Oklahoma but can barely speak a word of English.

To this end, Oklahoma has an entire division of the State Department of Education – the Office of English Language Proficiency – which is allocated $1392 for each pupil to be instructed in reading, writing and understanding of the English language.

Cynically, maybe this is the reason the Superintendent of one of the largest Hispanic population schools in Oklahoma is so annoyed about HB4156. Mr. Brewster’s X feed is full of similar posts. Is there a reason that a taxpayer funded Superintendent shouldn’t be fired for advocating lawlessness? Or is lawlessness just really fine anymore – especially if it occurs in the Hispanic population?

Governor Stitt is a professing Christian. Just a basic reading of the Old Testament of the Christian Bible would confirm that Jewish communities did not welcome ‘outsiders’. Yes, they were to be kind to those who lived among them, but they were not to intermarry, or allow others outside their faith to serve in their governments or in their Temples. Why? Because when they let down their guard and assimilated those of other faiths, their communities lost their identity in their God and quickly became affiliated with those of the outsiders.

Thanks in large part to unchecked immigration at the federal level, this country is completely different in values today, including that of national pride, than even during the 1960’s with all its generational upheaval. One has only to look at the demonstrations on college campuses in favor of Hamas – a known terrorist organization – to see that statement as absolute truth.

Should Oklahoma be a state closed to immigration? Of course not. Our country has been richer for the many legal immigrants it has welcomed from across the world over its several hundred years, as is our state. However, Identifying people here in Oklahoma illegally as ‘honest’ is wrong and on the very dangerous downhill side of a very slippery slope.

Allowing Oklahoma to develop its own system for vetting and assimilating people into the state because ‘we need workers’, or because they are already here working, is wrong.

In Biden’s economy, it may be hard for many to feed their families. Are we going to allow these families to steal food from grocery stores because Biden won’t do anything about inflation except print more money? Biden is paying off student loans. Because of this, are we to allow every student who wants to attend a school of higher learning for free to do so?

Actions have consequences and allowing lawlessness – especially lawlessness based on identity – has arguably the most far-reaching and frightening of all to the safety and security of ALL Oklahomans. The bill passed by Oklahomans to protect Oklahomans from unchecked illegal immigration and signed by Governor Stitt is a good bill. The Governor shouldn’t even consider providing an end-around.

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