So, before I was an education activist – and now a liberty activist – I was a biologist.
I actually have a BS (yes, I’m full of that! LOLOL) in Biology and a Master’s in Biology, both. In fact, I had intended to go on to get a Doctorate and teach, but once I found out that – in my experience – college professors were a bunch of big jerks I decided that wasn’t for me. Instead, I taught college as a TA and then after graduation, high school, middle school, my own kids and homeschool COOP kids.
Thus, I’ve been able to be fairly knowledgeable about issues we’ve covered that include science topics, like the Climate Change scam and all its universe of associated garbage.
Recently, I found out that Oklahoma had the second largest carbon capture facility in the world and the largest in the United States. I also found, as I asked around, that no one in Osage County (where the facility is located) seemed to know anything about it. This forced me – and our new writer Shane Smith – to do some research on carbon capture policy and what we found is that there really isn’t any policy other than no policy for green businesses, which doesn’t protect Oklahoma citizens at all. If you haven’t read our blog on the topic, you really should.
Last Friday, NeeAnn Clinton of Enid, in Garfield County, was on our podcast to tell us about a lawsuit residents have had to file against their Metropolitan Planning Commission for not upholding zoning laws in the case of a proposed 5000 acre solar facility just north of the city.
Though we kept trying to talk about solar, I kept inserting information about carbon capture because there were so many overlapping issues – mainly the lack of regulation.
At one point in the conversation I brought up a bit of biology…have a listen.
The slides embedded in the video came from the NOAA fisheries website. Go figure. I had learned about phytoplankton and blue-green algae when I was a student in college. So what? Now we don’t know this anymore? We’ve dumbed down our students so far in biology that not only do they NOT know the Carbon Cycle, but they don’t know what green plants/organisms do at all?
The schematic below shows specifically how oceanic environments SEQUESTER CO2 all by themselves without any help from carbon capture facilities.
In addition, just think of this one thing. What does the second largest carbon capture facility in the world run on? Electricity. Where does electricity come from? In Oklahoma, coal-fired electrical plants. So. Make sense of that. You can’t. It’s stupid.
Running a carbon capture system is incredibly energy-intensive, essentially requiring building a new power plant to run the system. This obviously creates another new source of air and carbon pollution since the U.S. no longer builds nuclear plants and even when it did never built them that small. This extra energy use undermines the whole goal of capturing carbon in the first place. Indeed, while the U.S. emits roughly 5 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year, removing 1 billion tons of that through direct air capture would require nearly the entire electricity output of the nation, according to research published in Biophysical Economics and Sustainability.
In fact, the carbon capture scam is SO BAD that Rex Weyler of GREENPEACE FOR PETE SAKES, though he believes that Climate Change is a thing, and big oil is the devil, he does believe this:
The swindle appears simple: Pretend to help solve a problem, while making the problem worse, socialize the costs and liabilities, and privatize the profits. Clever.
Weyler’s article is really very good – lots of great information on all the failed CO2 capture attempts through today – but people won’t like it because it points to big oil as the generator of the scheme for regeneration of spent oil fields and our Governor won’t like it because it basically echoes what Michael says in the clip above – it’s all about the Benjamins. Period.
Oklahoma shouldn’t perpetuate scams on the back of their citizens and taxpayers, so you’d better let your legislator know you won’t put up with giving these private companies carte blanche to wreck your back yard and kill you with a CO2 pipe break and you’d better do it NOW!
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.
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.
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
Due to scheduling issues, Camilo Ulloa and Jessica Perez joined the live podcast via a recorded interview Michael and I did with them the Tuesday before.
Camilo (who goes by Cam) was born in Columbia and emigrated here with his parents when he was 7. Jessica was born in Arizona, near the Arizona/Mexico border. Her mom was adopted from Mexico as a child. Cam is employed with the military in Oklahoma and Jessica is employed with a well-known non-profit, also here in Oklahoma.
Both Cam and Jessica are appointed members of the Governor’s Hispanic Council. We talk about that in the full video and it’s worth just that topic alone to watch the entire podcast, but I’ll say just this; neither Jessica nor Cam were appointed to the Task Force and as part of the Hispanic Council, they were not tapped for their views on the topic.
It’s also important to point out here that Cam and Jessica are both Oklahoma Republicans. Cam has been so active in the party that it’s a rare Republican who hasn’t at least met him at a party function.
Cam and I have been talking about the Governor’s Task Force since my article on its creation and after a quick video Michael and I did on the Task Force’s recommendations. He reached out with numerous insights that I hadn’t heard in the press, so I asked him to come on and talk about them. Since Jessica serves with him on the Governor’s Hispanic Council, Cam suggested she come too.
Of course, one of the topics discussed was the Task Force’s plan to provide – no joke – Driver’s Privilege Cards to non-citizens. Here’s Jessica talking about SOME of the problems this would cause.
Here is the link to the article I mentioned in the video, but it wouldn’t matter if I gave you this particular one or not. You could find a million of them if you search, “illegals driving”. Seriously, we should all call out Lt. Col. Joe Williams, designee of the Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety for having zero clue about what constitutes PUBLIC SAFETY.
I scoured the section of the recommendations under the heading “The Task Force recommends issuing Driving Privilege Cards to qualifying non-citizens to address public safety concerns” and couldn’t find a single place in which they said that the ‘non-citizens’ getting these cards would be TESTED like regular Oklahoma citizens are, TO DRIVE. That’s honestly outrageous.
But that’s not all, listen to both Jessica and Cam talk about what happens when we give non-citizens the same rights as citizens. Our state gets BLUER!
And this was just a clip. In the full video (found here on YouTube and Rumble), we talked about the fact that there is very little way that this Task Force is talking about any other than non-documented citizens – those coming across the border – not the ones already here, or coming here, with Visas to work.
People who hire foreign workers – like those they seem to be talking about in the recommendations on H1B Visas – do so directly. A worker here on an H1B Visa doesn’t just ‘show up’ for work – they have to be recommended by their employer to work for them, or they have to be sponsored by a church or another sponsoring organization. These pathways are already well-known and well-used by Oklahoma employers.
It may seem nuts for Jessica to say that the majority of undocumented people can’t even read in their own language before entering the country (making them a HUGE liability in every way – including public schools!), but I found a study done in 2017 – before it became racist to say “illegal immigrant” – which clearly shows that English literacy hovered around 40% for immigrants. With our own student scores now at 49th in the nation, how could we expect anything different for those coming to this country – especially those coming illegally?
Since the Biden/Harris Administration’ open borders policies, child sex trafficking has more than TRIPLED. Do we think this will get better with illegals acting like citizens because they have a card that lets them drive? That just opens up a whole new world of TRAFFICKING via – legal driving!
Bottom line, NOTHING THE GOVERNOR’S TASK FORCE RECOMMENDED SHOULD BE CONSIDERED AS POLICY IN 2025. The recommendations grows government, is a joke to public safety and doesn’t address the fact that most skilled workers coming here to work already have a path to that job without Oklahoma getting involved.
I urge you to read the Task Force recommendations for yourself, but my favorite is where they invoke the 10th Amendment as a way to give illegals ‘driver’s cards’. Why don’t we do that instead of accepting every dadgum federal dollar that comes down the pike? What the HECK is going on in Oklahoma? Wake up people, at this point Oklahoma is only ‘red’ because of it’s copiously bleeding values.
Becky Pellam, PhD, spoke to Michael and Jenni on Wednesday, October 2nd, 2024, about her teaching experiences in Oklahoma.
Dr. Pellam came from Texas, where she taught in the Dumas district. She loved it there, but she met a man from the Oklahoma panhandle and settled in on a ranch they bought there together. Hungry to teach again, she applied to Guymon PS and was hired as a Teaching Coach.
Before she started, she had great feelings about her time there and what she could do to help the kids – the majority of whom had ACT scores in the single digits. After she began, her experience changed drastically.
During her year of employment in Guymon, she was bullied by the other teachers, many of whom told her she was a ‘plant’ from the central office sent to spy on the other teachers and refused to submit their benchmarks to her. She talked to her superintendent about the situation but she seemed to get nowhere.
She talked to the school board president, who listened intently and believed her report, but asked her to contact the Board’s vice-president. When she did, the long-time, active OSSBA (Oklahoma State School Board Association) member told her that he had heard she was a trouble maker and knew she was the problem, not anyone else.
Needless to say, after she was told by the Superintendent to falsify benchmark data to the school board, she had it in her mind to quit, but then the school essentially fired her anyway.
Here’s Becky’s story about her employment with Guymon in her own words:
After being forced to leave Guymon public schools, she was hired at DOVE Virtual Acadmy (DVA) – an Oklahoma online public charter school.
Dr. Pellam talks about how – just like her experience with Guymon PS – everything started fine, but quickly turned sour.
The Principal almost immediately had Dr. Pellam teaching THE ENTIRE HIGH SCHOOL class of nearly 100 kids to the tune of 12 and 13 classes per week. For those who aren’t teachers, that’s 3 TIMES a ‘normal’ amount of coursework. For each class, there is a certain amount of ‘prep’ that has to happen to develop the course and to assist/grade/monitor the students. This level of coursework would exhaust anyone, but Becky also was helping to run a ranch and raise their daughter at the same time.
In the end, she found that DVA was ALSO cheating the accountability system by enrolling ‘ghost students’ to get their enrollment up (in Oklahoma, schools are appropriated funds via the number of ‘butts in seats’), but then unenrolled over 40% of their students – the ones on the lower end of the academic spectrum – when it came time for state testing.
Here is Dr. Pellam telling the story about her employment with Dove Virtual Academy:
Toward the end of the LIVE 2 hour+ broadcast, Jenni and Dr. Pellam began to talk about what education actually is.
Few people – including teachers and administrators today – know what it means to EDUCATE a child. It’s certainly NOT what we’re doing in Oklahoma right now. Right now, we’re training kids for jobs, not educating them in order to be the people best able to decide what they want to do.
There is method to this madhouse approach of education, however. Uneducated people are compliant people because they don’t know how to think for themselves. They do what they’re told because they’re conditioned to do that. They can’t think for themselves because they’re not educated, they’re conditioned.
Becky and Jenni took several minutes to flesh out this fact so that people could hopefully understand what it is that Oklahoma is doing wrong in public education. And that’s after we spoke about the horrible public school culture – the teacher/administration bullying that goes on against those who want to come in and actually teach and do the right thing.
Here are Becky and Jenni discussing the idea of what REAL EDUCATION looks like:
Dr. Pellam is VERY BRAVE for coming forward in this way.
Jenni had the very same kind of experiences while she was teaching in Oklahoma public schools 25 years ago, so this is not a new thing – THIS IS TEACHER/ADMINISTRATION CULTURE IN MOST OKLAHOMA SCHOOLS. Good Oklahoma teachers simply leave rather than try to do anything because they know nothing they will say will be heard or addressed.
See, no one listens to them because the fixes necessary REQUIRE HARD WORK, not just THROWING DOLLARS AT THE PROBLEMS and no one from public school administration, to our legislature, to our Governor really want to do the work that is required to solve the deeply entrenched problems with public school culture in Oklahoma.
Oklahoman’s shouldn’t BE FORCED TO PROVIDE THEIR TAX DOLLARS FOR THESE UNFUNCTIONAL SCHOOLS. If we really care about kids – and do we really? – we would FIX the broken public school administrative culture, instead of forcing taxpayers to provide private school tuition dollars to people who can already afford a private school education for their kid/s!
While researching the ‘green agenda’ in Oklahoma and companies attempting to install wind turbines in the east central part of the state, Saundra Traywick – owner of the states only donkey dairy – was stunned to find plans to erect a miles wide, hundreds of miles long, electrical transmission corridor being planned for the northern part of the state.
Traywick couldn’t believe that kind of thing would happen in Oklahoma, so she began to do some further digging.
Thanks to the Obama/Biden administration, the federal government is printing large sums of cash to enrich states who create legislation to advance the green agenda – wind turbine (30 million) and solar installations (7 billion – and more money for ), carbon capture pipelines (251 million), hydrogen gas extraction (7 billion).
You see, all of these will be needed to create green the energy necessary to avert climate change, and all this green energy will be shipped along these giant electrical transmission corridors to wherever the government deems it necessary to go.
Governor Stitt is quite apparently putting Oklahoma on board the green agenda train and so are many private companies getting many millions of dollars in private investments and state tax incentives to take over private land via eminent domain and boot farmers and private property owners off their land.
Now, if this sounds like some kind of conspiracy and you’re unclear how that can happen, check out the American Stewards of Liberty pamphlet, “30×30 Land Grab“. This puts all the pieces together and explains how the taking of private lands for ‘wilderness protection’, as well as wind turbine, solar, transmission corridors and carbon capture pipelines to satisfy the ‘green agenda’ WEF mission to get to carbon net zero by 2050.
Here is the final report of the Task Force which included this recommendation, “Develop incentives for established energy companies to build capabilities in carbon capture vertical (from sequestration to equipment manufacturing and services)”.
Two problems here, public money incentives and carbon capture.
But then the recommendations go on to say, “Determine Oklahoma’s carbon sequestration potential storage capacity, de-risk the timeline for Class VI permitting, and provide processes for all stakeholders involved in sequestration to provide a pathway for implementation.” WHAT?
It goes on and I won’t bore you with the details, but do you remember Secretary of Education Nellie Sanders and Goveror Stitt’s, “TASK FORCE TO UNLOCK STUDENT POTENTIAL“? Well, I have no doubt that it’s to help train state students in the hydrogen – and other green projects we want to create using printed money from the OBAMA/BIDEN/HARRIS administration – since that was yet another suggestion by the Hydrogen Task Force.
This is from a document called, “Support Opportunities”. This is where this whole thing gets dicey on NUMEROUS levels. This is a public/private partnership – like so many of the federally subsidized green projects are. Remember Obama’s Solyndra which was partially financed by our very own George Soros character, George Kaiser? Well, 570 MILLION taxpayer dollars went missing on that project. Where did it go? Has there been an accounting? Someone got it – the investors?
So there’s a problem, once investors get involved, there is no transparency because they’re not subject to open records requests – just the part subsidized with state or federal money.
And yet another problem – ALL INVESTORS HAVE TO SUBSCRIBE TO ESG! WHAT? Didn’t Oklahoma pass an Anti-ESG law? Yes, we did. Granted an Oklahoma judge blocked it, but the AG is attempting to appeal. So was that bill passed to FOOL THE PUBLIC? If not, how could Oklahoma be in an organization to get federal energy funds that would require investors to have an ESG plan?
Unfortunately (not really, the state shouldn’t go begging the OBAMA/BIDEN/HARRIS administration for ANYTHING!), the states didn’t win the money, so it’s now set out to provide subsidies for hydrogen producers. Could it be we didn’t ‘win’ because we’re ALREADY #4 in the nation for “providing net electricity generation from renewable sources”. What the heck are we doing all this for then, excepting the LOVE OF MONEY?
And so, as the Hydrogen Task Force waited with bated breath to hear back from their daddy, the Federal Government about how much money they were going to print and send Oklahoma to back the WEF’s 2050 Carbon Net Zero grift, Governor Stitt was quoted as saying, “In Oklahoma, we want more of everything,. By leaning into the hydrogen future, we can further diversify our energy portfolio and meet our future domestic energy demands.”
If you read it like this too, you’d better stay on top of what’s going on at the capitol this next year – NO MATTER WHO IS ELECTED TO THE PRESIDENCY – because they’re going to be trying to create a whole bunch of laws to make it easier for these ‘green energy’ grifters to do business in your backyard.
Now that you have the whole story backed up and cited so you’ll believe what I’m trying to warn you about, watch this video with me and Michael and Saundra as we walk through the whole green agenda grift while talking about the coming corridor – if we don’t do something to stop it.
Once the concept of anonymous isn’t anymore, trust is gone and transparency is dead.
Look, I read the Oklahoma Watch. Sometimes they’re the only online media source from which I can get any kind of real information about our Republican elected officials. But there you go. I’ve personally found their stories to be biased to the left – which, as I said, works for me sometimes because their interest in taking out Republicans at least results in some kind of transparency for one side of the isle.
But right, or left, NO media source should request information that is meant to be anonymous and Oklahoma Watch did.
September 13th, reporter Jennifer Palmer posted a story to the online paper entitled, “State Seeks to Decertify Teacher Over 5-Year-Old Instagram Family Photo“. Palmer contends that Edmond Public School teacher Regan Killacky – who took a picture of himself and his son threatening a Donald Trump mask with plastic swords during an outing to a Halloween store in 2019 – should not be fired for the post.
Here is a legitimate sentence from Palmer’s piece: “But in Killackey’s case, Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters prioritized punishing a teacher over political speech he disagreed with in order to score political points”. Is anyone going to try and argue that this statement is somehow objective ‘journalism’? That it ISN’T completely biased? I hope not. You simply can’t make that argument. You’d look like a dope.
At any rate, Palmer’s desire to “get the story” and apparently prop up Killacky, resulted in her open records requesting (ORR) from the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) information on who filed the (supposedly) anonymous tip about Killacky’s Instagram post to the state’s AWARITY reporting system.
Now, granted, there’s PLENTY of blame to go around here. Yes, Palmer requested information that was supposed to be anonymous, but the OSDE GAVE IT TO HER. What the absolute HECK? What would be the purpose of something so reckless?
Watch the short video below to get the full story, but suffice it to say, either tips are anonymous or they’re not. If they’re not anonymous and the public is told they’re anonymous, even the most ardent Walters supporters will lose faith in the system after getting doxed the first time by Oklahoma’s poor excuse for objective journalists.
Oklahoma Watch (Jennifer Palmer) AND OSDE – both of you had better do better ASAP.
Not everything is economic development and not all economic development is good.
In 2022, the town of Chickasha Oklahoma decided that – in the name of ‘economic development’ – they would erect a 50 foot leg lamp statue mimicking the one found in Warner Brother’s, A Christmas Story.
You know the one. Ralphie’s dad gets the lamp as a prize of some kind and installs the ‘soft glow of electric sex’ in the front window, much to the chagrin of the neighbors and his mom. Quickly, the leg lamp meets an untimely death by reasons unknown (although his mother was watering plants in the room when it happened…) and is carted to the trash bin.
Chickasha has had the Festival of Lights for many years – an amazing display of lights put together by the town for the benefit of the many people who flock to see them as part of their Christmas celebration traditions. Yet, one day, townspeople were told that – in the interest of economic development – the angels traditionally sitting atop the downtown light polls during Christmastide would be removed and lamp shades used instead.
Many residents were upset and wanted to know more about these plans, which included the installation of the giant leg lamp.
Since that time, concerned residents have been trying to crack the mystery of the lamp – especially how it was planned and erected without the blessing of Warner Brothers Studios – the owner of the rights to the movie.
Today, what started as questions regarding why the town would want a statue of the ‘leg lamp’ from the movie A Christmas Story, has become a full on pursuit of the truth over its funding, resulting in reams of Open Records Requests and angry interactions among normally-friendly townspeople, the Economic Development Authority, and other town leaders.
Watch the full live video (YouTube and Rumble) with town resident Laurie Wood-Allen for more information and how to get answers from YOUR town when you are concerned that something might be amiss. Also, don’t forget the show we did with regular Julianne Romanello where we talked about the GRIFT Of Economic Development. It can really help to put this story in context.
But first, watch the short clip below where Laurie tells why she decided to start pursuing the issue of the lamp.
The following letter was written by Dorn Weaver II from Lincoln County, Oklahoma.
Dear Governor Stitt and Esteemed Oklahoma State Legislators,
In light of the current federal administration’s ambitious goal of achieving 100% renewable energy production by 2035 to combat climate change, it is imperative to address the risks and challenges posed by the rapid expansion of wind and solar energy sources within our state. While Oklahoma meets and surpasses the current federal mandate of 30% renewable energy production, boasting renewable production at 47%, we must consider that Oklahoma produces 61% more energy than it consumes. This raises a critical question: why are we allocating significant taxpayer funds to allow external investors to acquire vast tracts of Oklahoma land for a product that we are already overproducing?
A pressing concern lies in our dependence on global supply chains, particularly from countries like China, for components required to manufacture wind turbines and solar panels. This reliance exposes our energy sector to significant vulnerabilities, making it susceptible to disruptions stemming from geopolitical tensions and trade disputes. To ensure the security and reliability of our energy grid, we must advocate for diversified sourcing strategies that reduce our dependence on specific suppliers or regions.
Moreover, the inherent intermittency of wind and solar energy generation poses substantial challenges to grid stability, as these sources fluctuate based on weather conditions and time of day. It is essential that we prioritize the implementation of energy storage solutions and demand-response measures to effectively manage these fluctuations and uphold grid reliability.
To safeguard our energy security, we must embrace a diversified energy mix that includes not only renewables but also natural gas, hydro, clean coal, and potentially nuclear energy.
I urge you to draft legislation to implement a statewide moratorium on any new renewable energy projects. Such a strategic pause would provide us with the opportunity to conduct a comprehensive review of our existing energy portfolio, identify vulnerabilities, and develop a robust energy strategy that prioritizes security, resilience, and sustainability.
In conclusion, let us approach this critical issue with the wisdom and foresight Oklahomans expect from our esteemed legislative body. By instituting a statewide moratorium on renewable energy projects and reevaluating Oklahoma’s energy strategy, we can pave the way for a more secure, reliable, and environmentally responsible energy landscape that protects the best interests of our citizens and future generations.
Oh. My. Word. Here’s where we are today; flipping through pages of social media postings about a school choice mouthpiece who has recently been accused of having a former life as a gay, adult film star.
So let’s break this latest phenomenon down, shall we?
NUMBER ONE: If you’re a professing Christian, you shouldn’t be using this story to bolster any of your own personal political points.
Every one of us is human and 90% of us have done something crazy/awful/horrifying/creepy when we were young people. We are certainly right to judge other professing Christians for their behaviors – and even call them out on them – but I don’t recall DeAngelis being one of those. In fact I have no memory of any of his talking points revolving around Jesus Christ or Biblical living.
I’ve never been a DeAngelis fan because I’m not for giving taxpayer money to other taxpayers so they can put their children in private schools at my expense, but in all honesty, I can’t imagine being Corey DeAngelis right now. He apparently married last year. He’s been wined and dined and admired as an expert by many thousands of people over many years. What a screeching halt to a rather charmed life. The kind, in fact, that should probably make each of us internalize the notion, “there but by the Grace of God go I“.
NUMBER TWO: People can change. Granted, some people never do, so there’s that, but the world is full of stories in which people overcame a life predicated on bad circumstances and/or choices to become better people – changed people. It matters not the circumstances, if they’ve rebuked their former lives and done a 180, it’s the Christian perspective to ‘forgive and forget’.
When I was in high school, I spent most of my time hanging with the stoners. I drove stoned. I went to work stoned. I was stoned a lot.
At 20, I was a married mother of one and my whole high school hanging with the stoners lifestyle went out the window as I took up the mantle of respectable, homemaker and mother. I then went on to become a respectable divorced parent putting myself through college while simultaneously raising a small person (who, incidentally, became a respectable adult).
The stuff I learned from my high school years kept me from doing further stupid stuff as an adult. The world didn’t end because I did stupid stuff, it could have actually made it a bit better because I learned some hard lessons about the consequences of doing stupid stuff that I have never forgotten.
Look, I get that acting in gay porn movies when you’re spokesman for a group touting parental ’empowerment’ and bettering kids, isn’t a small deal, but bad is bad is bad. Let’s avoid getting into an argument – for now – over what’s ‘badder’ in a ‘previous life’ – doing drugs or performing gay porn.
NUMBER THREE: We should NEVER take people who put themselves in the role of ‘expert’ on anything, at face value.
It happens over and over and over again. It’s a story as old as the hills.
A Music Man comes into town and says he’s created the world’s biggest band – with 76 trombones no less – and can do that for them! The townspeople, amazed at his eloquence, believe his pitch, throw their lot – and their money – in behind him only to find out that their marching band expert is nothing more than a conman trying to make money off the backs of naive Midwesterners.
Today, people are all too willing to believe the words of people who are deemed experts by others – or deem themselves as experts. We don’t even have to mention Anthony Fauci or anyone at the UN, or WEF here. After all, everyone knows these people are experts who deserve our complete faith, because, well, ‘science’ and all that.
Corey DeAngelis (and every other ‘school choice’ ‘expert’) is no different in any singular way.
NUMBER FOUR: There are about 99,999,999 things more important in this world than Corey DeAngelis right now and one of them is to note who IS using this information for their gain.
When the left comes out of the woodwork with all kinds of garbage about anyone on the right, you know it’s to shiv them politically and skewer public opinion and trust in whatever topic it is they’ve shiv’ed them over.
IN THE END: So, all of those things, but of all of those things – this; STOP BELIEVING IN EXPERTS. People in power, STOP COURTING THEM; stop wining and dining them and giving them your Citizenship Awards, or bringing them into your office at the capitol and predicating [flawed] education policy on them.
Believe it or not, there are REGULAR people out here in the real world of non-experts who have become everyday experts just by our own experiences and we might have a thing or two to say, but we can’t because…well…experts.
I sat there quietly as a Democrat legislator and the head of the task force, Chairman, AJ Ferate, explained the work his group had done to satisfy the Governor’s EO. At one point during his presentation, Mr. Ferate mentioned how “his friends in Washington DC” didn’t like one of the proposals the group had made, and, after all, everyone should know that every DC swamp rat is an expert in ethics.
After all the experts in the room had spoken, the head of the Ethics Commission, Lee Anne Bruce Boone asked if there were any comments from attendees. I asked if I could go to the mic and was allowed to say a few things about what I had uncovered in my research on Dark Money in Oklahoma.
I was fascinated – but not surprised – by how many of the experts in the room seemed disinterested in what I had to say, yet they had asked Ferate and others, several questions during the session. But then again, who am I? I’m no expert. And why? Probably because the ‘real’ experts don’t want me to be.
So, instead of using the DeAngelis scandal for political gain, let’s use it to inform ourselves about what it means to be an ‘expert’ in today’s political space. Then, let’s use that knowledge to remind our elected officials that we citizens can be experts just as knowledgeable as those on FOX, or in DC – and we don’t have quite so far to fall off our pedestals.
