Former member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, Jason Murphy, joined Michael and I on the podcast Wednesday, 2.12.25 for a discussion on legislative procedure. You can find the full live video on YouTube and on Rumble.
This year, the House has instituted a new way of doing things. Instead of going to ONE Committee for a hearing, there are now TWO Committees a bill must pass through before moving to the floor for a vote of all Representatives.
It used to work something like this for both Senate and House – I’m going to use an education bill since that’s what I’ve worked on forever:
A bill was introduced – that bill was assigned to the Common Education Committee – the members of the Committee voted yes or no – a bill voted out of the Committee with a majority went to the Floor Leader who scheduled it on the Floor (for all legislators to hear) calendar – the bill was brought to the Floor where it was voted on – the bill then moved to the other house to start virtually the same procedure over again.
This is not the way the procedure in the House works this year. Since the election of the youngest Speaker in House history, Kyle Hilbert, things have been different.
Now, if the members of the Common Education Committee pass the bill, the bill goes to an OVERSIGHT Committee who hears the bill. Then, if the bill passes out of Committee, it can go to the Floor Leader who can determine to hear the bill on the floor.
Now, let’s look at this. Below are the members of the Common Ed Committee.
These are the members of the Education Oversight Committee.
Are you going to remember those names? Well, you’d better, because if you want to call the members of a Committee to make sure they vote a certain way on a bill, now you’ll have to call members of TWO Committees.
This was all instituted as a way to make the process of a bill becoming a law in the House more transparent, but so far, I’ve had a terrible time trying to make heads or tails of it and I’ve been watching legislation nearly 15 years.
I argue (and so does Jason), that it makes the process LESS transparent than before.
Stop and think. How many times does leadership have the opportunity to kill a good bill and pass a bad one? LOTS.
The leadership chooses the Chairs of the committees
The leadership assigns the bill to a committee – to what committee the bill is assigned makes a difference
The Chair decides what bills are heard in his/her committee – and that happens TWICE. A Chair doesn’t have to hear a bill in the first committee and the Chair of the second committee doesn’t have to hear a bill even if it’s passed out of the first committee
The leadership picks the Floor Leader and the Floor Leader can determine whether OR NOT a bill is heard on the Floor of the House (or Senate)
Even if the bill is voted in the affirmative by the Representatives in the House, it might not be assigned to a committee on the senate
and then the whole process starts over
Where do The People fit in here? Jason tells us…
…we’re the ones getting ‘scammed’.
Nope, I don’t like it any more than you do, but this has been the way of the legislature for as long as I can remember. It’s a scam. It’s meant to make us think we have some control, but it’s not ‘by the people, of the people, for the people’, it’s ‘by the lobbyists and big business, of the lobbyists and big business ‘for the lobbyists and big business’. We have only to look at those who sponsored this year’s Speaker’s Ball to get a good idea of who rules the roost.
So how do we fix this? We band together and GET GOOD PEOPLE ELECTED WHO WON’T FALL FOR THE SCAM. There is no other way. There just isn’t. But then, once we get them elected, we need to stay on them like white on rice to make sure they’re not falling for the SCAM!
True, it’s work, but Benjamin Franklin once famously said to a woman on the street in Philadelphia who asked him what form of government the Continental Congress had created for the country, “A Republic, ma’am. If you can keep it.”
In case you missed it, The Federalist ran an article I authored last week, “Oklahoma Republicans Are Helping Green Energy Cronies Scam Taxpayers Out Of Billions“. Check it out. I know both the Federalist and I would love that – but so will you. You may not know exactly how much of your hard-earned dollars are being GIVEN to PRIVATE companies in Oklahoma – but then, maybe you do and you’re just glad that Governor Stitt and his hand-picked Commerce Department staff is making sure that your kids have somewhere to work in Oklahoma so they can stay here after graduating college.
But wait. Is that really a reason for Republicans who love to use the expression ‘free market’ in their campaign literature, to GIFT private companies tax dollars.
Last Friday (2.7.25), in a special ROPE Report podcast at 1pm, Oklahoma Representative Jay Steagall was with me to talk about the ‘free market’ and Oklahoma tax incentives. Below is a clip in which Rep. Steagall and I make sure that everyone watching understands the concept of FREE MARKET ECONOMICS. What is that exactly? Watch below and find out.
So, is it appropriate for the legislature to appropriate your tax dollars, give it to another business which has the ability to make dollars on their own in the free market and then tell you that they’re doing it to create jobs? NO NO NO NO NO. I think you might get the idea.
We get our property taken from us and sold at auction if we don’t pay our property taxes. If we don’t pay our income taxes, the government seizes our bank accounts, fines us, or throws us in jail until we do.
And yet, MULTI-BILLION dollar privately held companies can use our hard-earned dollars to make more money whether we like it or not.
And here’s more about the Canoo debacle that you might not know.
Wow! How do you like THEM apples? Not only did Canoo soak Oklahoma tax payers for tax dollars as incentives to help them start a business that WAS NEVER GOING TO GET OFF THE GROUND, employees that more than likely didn’t even live in Oklahoma and were hired just in time to get state and local (Oklahoma City) incentives, got paid Oklahoma unemployment. I’m imagining that Canoo never funded their portion of their employees unemployment, but I don’t know for a fact.
Rep. Steagall has a bill to reduce Income Tax this year on a trajectory to complete removal. Governor Stitt has also said that he wants to remove Income Tax. Yet here’s the headline screaming from an article in the Oklahoma Voice last week, “Oklahoma legislative leaders hesitant to cut income tax“. WHAT? WHAT? Our ‘legislative leaders’ are Republican. Whatever happened to the Republican concept of smaller government and minimal taxation as tenets of the Republican platform? What about the other tenet of the platform – FREE ENTERPRISE!??
Please, contact your Representative AND Senator. Tell them you expect them to lower the state Income Tax with a plan in place to phase it out – THIS SESSION. And you might mention that one of the things they could do to afford it, was to QUIT GIVING BILLIONAIRES AND PRIVATE GREEN ENERGY COMPANIES our tax dollars – FOR A START!
Wednesday, February 7th, Michael and I were joined on the ROPE Report podcast by Senator Shane Jett, Representative Jim Shaw and Saundra Traywick to talk about efforts in the Oklahoma legislature to ban ‘biosolids’ – aka humanure, aka biosludge – from use on Oklahoma farmland. You can find the full LIVE broadcast on both our YouTube and Rumble channels.
For many years, Saundra has been sounding the alarm about this stuff that has such an horrific scent that you can smell it for miles and, up close, almost has a feel it’s so strong.
For many years, few have wanted to entertain Saundra’s concerns about what was in it to cause such an odor. Even after stories came to light in the media about towns in Maine and Texas where animals exposed to the sludge were dying and treated farmland lay in ruins from exposure to PFAs, or forever chemicals, found in industrial coating processes and things like firefighting foam.
Her Senator, Shane Jett, got it though. In 2023, he wrote a bill attempting to curtail the dumping of this toxic substance on Oklahoma farmland, but it didn’t even get a hearing. In 2024, SB874 was re-introduced, made it all the way through the Senate and then died on its way to the House.
Last August, Ben Felder with Investigate Midwest came to Luther and wrote a very long and complete article about the issues surrounding the use of human sewage waste on farmland and its link to Maine and Texas farms polluted with PFAs.
In this clip, we talk about how farmers who use this sludge get it for free from a private company who works with the government (the City of Oklahoma City) to remove their sewage waste while they’re assuring the farmers taking the sludge that it’s safe and effective (sort of like a vaccine we’ve heard about). As with so many things, the application of toxic wastewater to farmland apparently has everything to do with money and very little to do with the safety of the farmers using it and the people eating whatever comes off it.
During another part of the video Representative Jim Shaw spent some time talking about how, without regulation, companies tend to do whatever benefits them – whether it’s spraying farmland with human poop, or putting in a carbon capture facility because, well, tax incentives.
As Rep. Shaw says, Oklahoma has to do better at protecting its citizens and that’s what we have to do this year.
Saundra has created a list of legislation to support and oppose. Check the list out and be familiar with some of the issues. These are the bills that MUST be dealt with this year to help solve the problem of toxic sludge dumping. Make sure to contact your Representatives and Senators and let them know how you expect them to vote should they make it to the floor this session. This practice of biosludge dumping may happen in the rural areas of our state, but depending on what is then grown in that soil, it could absolutely affect you and your health as well.
SUPPORT
HB 1726 – prohibiting land application, spreading, sale, and distribution of biosolids
SB 268 – preventing the spread and application of biosolids for farmland
SB 620 – forces those who use biosolids to have to disclose that they have used it
OPPOSE
SB 271 – Exempts cities and wastewater companies from liability for contaminating rural communities, and allows other states to dump their toxic biosludge on Oklahoma as long as it’s within our negligent (currently non-existent) PFAS regulations!
LETTER TO GOVERNOR STITT CONCERNING CONTRARY VIEWS FROM TRUMP ENERGY POLICIES
February 4, 2025 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dear Governor Stitt,
We are writing to you today to ask why you are contrary to President Trump’s stance on so called “green energy?” President Trump has made it clear that he opposes wind turbines, solar complexes, and even new long-range transmission lines. President Trump has stated that not one wind turbine would be built under his administration, he has also said that no one wants the solar complexes that cover miles and miles with solar panels made in China. President Trump’s National Emergency Energy Order has frozen the funds for the Biden Administration’s so called Inflation Reduction Act, aka, the Green New Deal as we understand.
Why are you still supporting the Green New Deal in Oklahoma? You commented in your State of the State Address today that, “Americans are moving away from the extremes and turning back to the values that have always defined our success: personal responsibility, resilience, family values, and hard work. …Not extreme gender ideology, Green New Deals, or open borders.” Will you commit to a moratorium on the green new deal in Oklahoma?
You also spoke about the fact that, “Here in Oklahoma, we have business friendly policies and the most affordable, reliable energy anywhere thanks to limited government, common sense, and clean burning natural gas.” Oklahomans have seen an increase of 35% on electricity bills and thousands of Oklahomans are standing up against the encroachment of these “green energy” corporations in their communities and near their homes. But the people of Oklahoma are not able to protect their non-participating land because our state lacks any site planning, coordination, approvals, oversight, or permitting for these projects! These corporations like to stay in the shadows and enjoy no oversight while bulldozing over the citizens’ rights surrounding the projects.
This is not an occurrence that should be boasted about by the Governor that swore an oath to protect the citizens of his state. These projects are financed with federal and state subsidies, and the “green energy” corporations are targeting Oklahoma to fill their pockets with these subsidies BECAUSE there is a lack of regulations and oversight to protect the people. The people of Oklahoma receive very little back for their sacrifice.
If you are serious when you say you want to “protect the Oklahoma way of life” then you must implement an immediate and emergency moratorium on industrial solar complexes, wind turbine complexes, and merchant private transmission lines currently under construction or in the proposal process to preserve the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of acres of productive Oklahoma farmland targeted for these projects.
Oklahoma farmers and ranchers are doing everything they can to defend the conversion of agricultural land into industrial solar complexes, wind turbine complexes, and transmission corridors, we are asking you as Governor to stand with us!
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:
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:
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
As our Governor continues down his “more of everything” energy plan road, Oklahomans continue to shine the stoplight against the ‘greening’ of their state.
Nowhere can you find a better example of that push back than the No Wind Turbines rally at the Capitol on Tuesday, from which we broadcast live. If you missed it, you can find the videos of the event on our YouTube channel. There were several hundred people there, though the temps started in the teens and barely got into the 20’s all day!
The Friday after the rally, we interviewed Peter Murphy on the podcast. Peter is with an organization called, CFACT – the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow – which was formed to create truthful content and publish accurate research which would directly counter the deceptive global climate change narrative. They have an extensive advisory board which includes the Lord Monckton, a climate change realist who can be found all over the internet gleefully righting global warming myths around the world.
Michael and I had an extensive conversation with Peter, but two things really need to be brought to the forefront from that interview.
First, after having a conversation via Facebook with several legislators following the rally, it’s readily apparent that there are elected officials who see green technology companies as part of the Free Market Economy. This could be further from the truth, yet people still seem to insist there’s truth to this fairy tail. Below, Michael, Peter and I talk about how very UN-FREE MARKET the green scam is, but you can find the full, live video on our YouTube and Rumble channels.
We also talked about the IRA (Inflation Reduction Act) and how its passage was really just an homage to Biden’s cronies, giving them their own little climate gravy trains. But beyond that, as Peter says, it’s just massive group think paid for with tax dollars stolen from citizens and handed out to a list of donor-base desirables.
President Trump has – so far – seemed unfriendly toward the green energy scam. This bodes well for our ability to pull back on green initiatives nationally once he is president, but there will have to be no further federal funds thrown at this nonsense if we are going to attempt to re-align post-Biden energy policy again toward fossil fuels.
Nevertheless, we will continue to have to fight right here in our own backyard. The deceptive practices of the green energy companies and the willingness of some Oklahoma elected officials to look past those, make it hard to know when or where a green energy scam project will pop up. Like Whack-a-Mole, they seem to appear, but then disappear when too many citizens get wind of the projects, only to reappear again later in a different county. Meanwhile, agendas aren’t being properly posted to warn residents of the impending doom to their land ownership and enjoyment and some county commissioners appear to worry more about the business of climate contractors than the liberty of their own citizens. To top it all off, with an “all-of-the above” energy pusher for a Governor, citizens may be out of luck asking their elected officials to protect their land, livlihoods and legacies and have to once again take matters into their own hands and stand up for themselves.
Continue to follow us and we’ll update as we’re able.
We have a small farm and have had to give countless predators a ‘dirt nap’ because they were killing our livestock. When we do it, we don’t post about it on social media – partly because people are insane and I don’t want to get reported by the PETA peeps – but also because I DON’T LIKE KILLING THINGS. I mean, we raise sheep – for meat and sale – and I hate it when we have to take them to the butcher. It usually makes me feel gross all day. I just don’t like killing things as a rule – even if I’m going to eat them afterward, or if I’m saving my livestock.
I actually like this about me – after nearly a decade of processing chickens and turkeys and taking sheep to the butcher – I still believe every life is important. I’ve not gotten ‘numb’ to death. It still stings. I still remember that even the racoon that ate the heads off 3 of my chickens was made by God just like me.
So there’s that, although that wasn’t the actual reason behind the post.
Immediately, the post blew up with comments about how I was a Karen, or a crybaby, or about how it was well within the Governor’s right to shoot a bobcat on his property whether it was eating his animals or not.
Here are a few selected responses so you can fully digest their flavor.
Look, I’m big girl. I’ve been in this game a long time. I believe in free speech. Everyone who wanted to comment about what an idiot I am got to say their piece without me censoring them in any way. And maybe I did get a bit strident in my response – I certainly don’t think everything I say, or post, or write is the best thing ever all the time. After a 20 year writing career, I’ve CERTAINLY had my duds.
It’s no secret that I’m no fan of Governor Stitt, but trust me when I say I don’t relish this position.
I would LOVE to be able to back the REPUBLICANS I VOTE FOR, but with the glaring exception of former Labor Commissioner Mark Costello whom I 100% respected and thought the world of, I’ve NEVER voted for a Republican who didn’t let me down in some huge way. In fact, that’s why I started ROPE in 2008 in the first place – to try and keep our elected officials on course by pointing out their departures from Republican ideals. I’m used to getting the cold shoulder from legislators and Party officials, or reamed a new one by all measure of commenters on social media – I’m neither a Karen nor a snowflake or I would have quit for good LONG AGO.
My choice to call out the Governor in this post wasn’t about the bobcat – it was about the DISTRACTION the post was meant to be.
After a few hours of watching the commenters pile on, I added the following update to the post:
– Thank you so much for all your comments on the post. For those asking what this has to do with Parental Empowerment – we’ve been posting ALL kinds of information here and on our podcast for nearly two years. Maybe a follow would bring some clarity on that issue.
Disagreement can be instructive and we’re all about free speech here – but our Governor’s post is a distraction from all the problems we have in this state that aren’t being dealt with by his office – and that’s the point of the post. There are plenty of us who have disposed of LIVESTOCK-EATING predators without posting them on social media. Our Governor’s media people know that posts about hunting or sports are nearly universally loved – and defended – by Oklahomans and, hence, a great distraction. It’s important to point out these distractions and attempt to put the focus back on the issues at stake. And that’s what we’ll do here every single time we can. So, agree or disagree, that’s the bottom line.
Our governor has absolutely sat out the fight to have DHS investigated, though he could have called for an investigation himself. Same with the Turnpike Authority which is costing Oklahomans millions and millions of dollars while they continue to ratchet up their tolls.
I could go on with examples of how obvious government malfeasance is simply overlooked by our Governor and his office, but I’ll stop there and end on this; we have the right and the responsibility as ‘the people’ of this state – not to mention taxpayers – to expect our elected officials to do the right thing and to call them out publicly when they don’t. You may not like the way someone does it (ie me), but if we’re going to allow ourselves to be easily distracted by public statements from our officials about hunting, or sports teams, or attracting business and increasing our workforce, that we don’t see how we’re being manipulated to look the other way, our government will NEVER work for us.
And that was the whole point of the post in the first place.
I woke up this morning to an X post by Oklahoma’s Governor Kevin Stitt, happily seated at a table in the Governor’s mansion with Ambassador of Denmark to the United States Jesper Møller Sørensen, telling Oklahomans how he has “just signed a [sic] historic memorandum of understanding between Denmark and Oklahoma” for ‘reliable’ energy for both “communities”.
Denmark is a ‘community’ now? Did I miss a downgrade or something?
The preamble of the MOU says Oklahoma is being ‘leveraged’ – that Oklahoma will be transformed using cutting edge European green energy technologies, but what will this transformation look like for Oklahoma taxpayers and private land owners? What land will be ‘leveraged’ for these projects?
The official press release from the Governor’s office is even more fawning and grotesque, painting a picture of Oklahoma and Denmark as next door neighbors sharing a cup of sugar, only the real story isn’t sweet. It will end with thousands more acres of Oklahoma farmland lost to wind turbines and solar panels, the energy from which Oklahomans don’t even use.
But Oklahoma isn’t investing only in wind and solar – the largest carbon capture plant in the United States opened in Shidler in August. Interestingly, County officials including the outgoing Sheriff, nor any of the citizens I spoke with knew anything about it. Why the secrecy? Does Governor Stitt know what happened in Satartia, Mississippi where a whole town exposed to CO2 from a ruptured pipe (something that can readily happen with CO2 pipelines because of the physics of the gas) hospitalized 45 people? Is he alright with that kind of thing happening to Oklahoma residents?
Probably the most insidious, if not insane, idea born of the World Economic Forum, is that atmospheric carbon can be removed and traded as a commodity. In fact, this must be so if the planet is to survive.
Once CO2 – the molecule completing the oxygen cycle and providing the ‘food’ for all photosynthetic plant life that, in turn, supplies oxygen breathers their necessary O2 – was demonized as a ‘greenhouse’ gas and the planet designated as a death trap as a result, the green light has shown brightly for the WEF carbon credit monopoly scheme.
The Co-Founder and CEO of Heimdal is Marcus Lima, a Norway native – recognized by Forbes 30 under 30 – whose young-man-short resume indicates that he earned a Master’s in Science from Oxford (2020) and created Heimdal through Y Combinator in 2021 specifically to take advantage of the IRA’s $180 per ton credit of CO2 that is captured and stored through at least 2032.
Bantam is Lima’s first business venture, yet Heimdal is currently valued at 63 million, financed in part by the likes of Sam Altman (Open AI) and Marc Beniof (cloud computing pioneer) and, of course, welcomed into Oklahoma by Governor Stitt’s open arms energy policy.
Why? Why would a Republican governor – especially the Republican governor of an energy self-sufficient state – want to facilitate the green agenda? What does it buy the people of our state when energy is created here only to be shipped to other states who need ‘green’ energy to meet their ‘climate’ policies while ranch and farm land disappears under wind turbines and solar panels?
Why for that matter, would Denmark be interested in Oklahoma? According to numerous sources, Scandanavia is leading the Green Revolution, producing 90% of its electrical power from renewables. For what do they need Oklahoma then? They seem to be doing quite fine on their own despite the issues with sea creatures, eagles and reindeer being bothered by the endless churning turbines.
Wind turbines explode, and when they do, they seed the land with fiberglass and concrete making it unusable for farming or ranching. Solar panels catch fire and when they heat up and explode, they litter the ground with glass, making it unusable for farming and ranching. Their batteries burn so long and so hot that it takes days and days to put them out, often depleting local water sources and rural, volunteer, fire fighters. So what are the advantages for Oklahomans again? Starving plants of CO2? Picking up millions in taxpayer subsidies? Handouts for political campaigns from green energy companies like NextEra?
The National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor – pushed by the Biden Administration through the Federal Power Act – is being developed as a way to transport Oklahoma wind and solar-generated electricity out of the state. Approximately 4–18 miles wide and 645 miles long, the Delta Plains leg of the NIETC would run right through farmlands in northern Oklahoma. It isn’t clear if the land for this corridor would be usurped by eminent domain, but it is clear that a drastic drop in real estate value for Oklahomans would accompany such an enormous project that doesn’t benefit them in any way.
In fact, the whole of Europe is exploding with unrest over green agenda goals as European governments attack farming – believed to contribute 1/3 of the world’s CO2 output – burdening farmers with excessive regulations and taxation, making it impossible for them to do their jobs. Or is that the point?
The ‘green’ agenda is simple madness – all of it – because ‘free’ government money always leads to bigger government and problem policies that trickle down on the little guy. But it doesn’t matter how stupid anything is if investors find a way to make money from it. Once the investor class sees an avenue to returns, madness becomes monetized. The only thing the rest of us can do is to band together and throw the bums supporting the madness out. It’s the only way to – in the words of a people-elected Representative who took over a bum’s seat during our summer primary – save our land, livelihoods and legacies.
It was written by Dr. John Thompson, a writer/researcher, education activist and former classroom teacher from Oklahoma whom I met during the Common Core debacle back in the 20-teens. Thompson and I heartily agreed on the problems with Common Core and we still agree on the pitfalls of standardized testing, but his opinion piece highlighted our differences in a pretty striking way.
Thompson’s thesis is that because Trump was once a reality TV star and his picks of Linda McMahon (Department of Education), Dr. Mehmet Oz (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), Sean Duffy (Secretary of Transportation), and Pete Hegseth (Defense Secretary), all have had some kind of media profile (mainly FOX news), everyone had better be very careful and suss out everything these people say for truthfulness and accuracy because media influencers are so influential to people – especially young people.
Okay. First; the world would be a much better – and saner – place if people would look at policies instead of personalities as a rule. So yeah, everyone should ALWAYS think critically about what people say to them, what they see in the media, or what a celebrity or social media influencer puts out on their ‘channels’. I’ll even argue that those with some kind of power over our lives – like elected and appointed members of government (no matter their party affiliation) – should be even more highly scrutinized on a regular basis.
But here’s where Thompson and I diverge.
I don’t remember reading cries for “critical thinking needed” by Thompson – or any Democrats for that matter (other than maybe Tulsi Gabbard) – during the COVID years, or over January 6th. Where was this critical thinking notion when people with opinions different than those of the ‘media’ were literally shut out of all discussion in any forum on these topics while being called names like “COVID deniers”, “misinformation spreaders” or, lest we forget, “insurrectionists”? In fact, Thompson himself – after lecturing us about the evils of parroting – actually parrots PBS on Oz in his piece. Though not actively using the pejorative “COVID denier”, he totally quoted a section relating to his medical treatment protocol preference for the disease – the one not preferred by the media. Was that decision critically thought out?
But then, where is any kind of reasonable discussion or critical thinking surrounding the “facts” of climate change? There are definitely two sides in this discussion, but only one which is widely fed to kids on their cell phones and through the media on a constant basis and also through curricula and testing, yet those of us with differing scientific viewpoints are called names like “climate deniers”? At what point do I find the critical thinking part of the influencing part here?
Does no one remember the endless commercials run in the media endorsing Kamala Harris run by EVERY Avenger, or the group of Hollywood B-listers and old guys who called themselves “White Guys For Harris” (as though if anyone on the ‘other side’ of the isle would get away with saying something like that)? What about the Kamala Harris endorsement by EVERYONE’S favorite “influencer” Taylor Swift – gosh, I’ll bet that didn’t influence one young person at all. I wonder how many classrooms had teachers leading their students through a critical thinking critique of her announcement, or any of the others?
But, since Thompson was specific in his comments toward Trump cabinet picks, let’s turn our attention to a few of Biden’s.
What about Biden pick Deanne Criswell (head of FEMA) who spent days in front of Congress trying to assure them that not ALL her hires were denying Trump supporters of FEMA assistance during times of crises? Many of the displaced were families with children, but I’m sure it’s okay to leave ‘Trump children’ cold, starving and covered in mud, right? They don’t deserve protecting?
And what about Rachel Lavine – the transgendered person second in command of Biden’s HHS who is being sued by a medical watchdog group for pressuring an international organization into lowering the age at which children could have gender reassignment surgery. So how does this protect children again, knowing that many adults eventually seek to be regendered?
Clearly, there’s a big difference in the way Dr. Thompson and I see the world.
In fact, Thompson’s article adjuring us to be more mindful of developing critical thinking in young people as Trump takes office, doesn’t apparently concern the changes President Biden made to Title 9 legislation that effect Oklahoma children.
Allowing boys to use girl’s bathrooms at school has caused at least one girl to be injured in Edmond and countless other girls to feel unsafe doing the one thing they physically can’t wait to do at home. Girls (those who have XX chromosomes) being forced to compete against boys (those who have XY chromosomes) who think they are girls, have crushed the dreams of countless high school girls. How does any of that protect young people – especially young women? But what about the #metoo movement? What about ‘girl power’? Aren’t we supposed to be protecting kids – girls – women’s rights? How am I missing the critical thinking part here?
People are as different as their opinions. Either we’re going to be okay with that or we’re not, but whatever standard we choose has to apply to everyone, or no one. Students can’t develop critical thinking until BOTH sides of an issue are heard, yet Dr. Thompson seems to believe that only one side really merits critical thinking police.
I’m very classically liberal in my views on speech – people should be able to say what they think, in any forum they want to say it, whether I like it or not.
You may not like Trump, but those who believe in censorship, those who believe that critical thinking only applies to someone else’s candidate or issue, are those who need to be thanked for his election. When the other side is shut out of the discussion, you’ll find that the polls will swell with those who are sick of being silenced. This is why balance – especially in media – is important. The only thing many of us have are our opinions and once those don’t count, all bets are off.
