Because I’ve written extensively on Dark Money in Oklahoma elections, it felt like a truly amusing way to pass what little free time we all have left as we try and navigate today’s skyrocketing inflation, making up titles and concepts for the Dark Money mailers sure to inundate our mailboxes right before the June 16th Primary Election.
But first, let’s take a poll:
Maybe some of our political consulting friends will opt in to the poll!
Here’s a clip of the ROPE Report podcast from Wednesday, May 6th, where Michael and I had fun making jokes about this very thing:
So, if you’d like to join in on the fun, make sure to drop YOUR idea for a dark money mailer against Jenni in the comments below! (PS: please make them clean, funny and not gross or mean – we’re just having fun here!)
Though I haven’t edited the video to shorts yet, if you didn’t see this morning’s live video with former legislator and current author of The Oklahoma State Capitol on Substack, Jason Murphy, I suggest you do. You can find it on our YouTube and Rumble channels. If you’re not paying attention to the Oklahoma legislature, she better be. They’re not only not acting very “Red”, they’re also not acting very ethically either.
The following is an Op-Ed I received after the video.
Where Is the Oklahoma Ethics Commission When We Need It Most?
By Domesticated Warrior – domesticatedwarrior@gmail.com
When we think of government ethics, we often assume there’s a safeguard in place to ensure that public officials are held to the highest standards. In Oklahoma, that safeguard is the Oklahoma Ethics Commission—an independent agency charged with enforcing rules around conflicts of interest, campaign financing, and transparency in public service. But lately, many of us are asking a very simple question: Where are they?
This session alone, we’ve seen several troubling examples of apparent conflicts of interest among our lawmakers:
Senator Lonnie Paxton, the new President Pro Tempore, has drawn scrutiny for his close ties to PACs and dark money groups, particularly from the energy sector. He also reportedly brushed off concerns about conflicts of interest during a recent Senate Education Committee hearing, suggesting such conflicts were acceptable—rather than disqualifying.
Senator Paul Rosino filed a resolution to oust the head of the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health—while his wife works there whether directly or via a contractor. That’s not just poor optics. That’s a textbook case for recusal, and one that should have triggered an immediate ethics review.
Representative Josh West, co-chair of the mental health caucus, is actively involved in mental health policy while his wife owns a mental health practice. This isn’t about questioning his passion for the issue. It’s about whether his votes and advocacy may directly benefit his family’s business.
Representative Brian Hill, a vocal champion of workforce reform, sits on the Workforce Committee and frequently collaborates with the Oklahoma State Chamber. The same Chamber that holds exclusive $350 fundraising dinners and pours money into legislation favorable to their corporate agenda. Hill’s workforce bills align tightly with the Chamber’s interests, raising red flags about policy being steered by private influence instead of public need.
And most recently, House Speaker Kyle Hilbertviolated House rules and called for a bonus vote on a bill that directly benefited initiatives pushed by the State Chamber. It was a maneuver that should have been stopped—not rubber-stamped. Hilbert has received donations from Koch PAC, a major financial backer of the State Chamber and local business chambers throughout Oklahoma. If that’s not a conflict of interest, it’s certainly one that deserves real scrutiny.
Yet in all these cases, the Oklahoma Ethics Commission has remained silent. No public inquiries. No investigations. No statements.
We shouldn’t have to be the ones filing ethics complaints just to get accountability. That’s literally the job of the Ethics Commission—to proactively monitor, investigate, and respond to behavior that threatens public trust. When those charged with protecting integrity fall asleep at the wheel, the system begins to erode from the inside.
We’ve allowed a dangerous narrative to take root in our Capitol: that conflicts of interest are normal, that they’re manageable, or worse—that they’re nobody’s business. But they are our business. Every piece of legislation passed by conflicted lawmakers risks being tainted by undue influence. Every ignored conflict of interest sends the message that the rules don’t apply to those in power.
This isn’t partisan. This is about restoring a basic expectation of fairness and accountability in Oklahoma governance. And if the Ethics Commission is unwilling or unable to do its job, then maybe it’s time we ask a more fundamental question:
Who watches the watchdog?
We need structural reforms: increased funding and independence for the Ethics Commission, greater transparency on legislator financial and familial ties, mandatory recusals in cases of direct personal benefit, and timely public reporting of ethics violations. Because right now, ethics in Oklahoma politics looks less like oversight—and more like a cover-up.
If you’ve lost faith in the system, I don’t blame you. But silence will only allow these problems to deepen. Speak up. Push back. And as we head toward the next election cycle, ask yourself this:
Did your legislator work for the people—or for the people who fund their campaigns?
Apparently, at some point, our Oklahoma legislature voted to allow NON-CITIZENS TO BE OKLAHOMA LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS.
This morning, the Oklahoma House voted NOT TO REPEAL THAT LANGUAGE.
Here is the bill – HB1190. Please note; this is an amendatory bill – meaning that somewhere in the existing bill’s language, you’ll find language that is stricken through (repealed) or underlined (added to law).
Oklahoma conservative stalwart, Representative Rick West, authored the bill, which exists of only the repealed language on page 18 – below:
E. 1. No person shall be eligible for employment as a peace officer or reserve peace officer until the employing law enforcement agency has conducted a background investigation of such person consisting of the following:
i. such person has provided proof of United States citizenship or resident alien status, pursuant to an employment eligibility verification form from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.
And this NEW language on pages 23 and 24 – below:
F. No person shall be certified as a police or peace officer by the Council or be employed by the state, a county, a city, or any political subdivision thereof, who is:
Is a permanent resident alien; provided, however, any person who has been trained and certified by the Council and is actively employed as a full-time peace officer as of November 1, 2025, shall not be subject to the provisions of this paragraph.
This morning, Representative Jay Steagall texted me the following X post:
So yesterday, Oklahoma rep. Rick West got a floor vote on HB1190, which would bar non citizens from being state law enforcement officers. Republicans have an 80-19 majority, yet only 33 of them were willing to vote for the bill.
I get it that many of them are uncomfortable
Along with the link to the X post, Rep. Steagall texted, “Imagine living in a state, where just last year the People voted to ensure that ONLY citizens could vote, yet the Oklahoma House of Representatives defiantly ensures the ability for non-citizens to enforce the law. This makes absolutely no sense to me.”
As Horowitz said in his post, “I get it that many of them are uncomfortable excluding legal permanent residents. Yes, all private sector jobs are opened to them. However, we are a nation of citizens and we should not have non citizens with law enforcement powers over citizens.”
AMEN! How in the world does allowing a non-citizen of Oklahoma – let alone AMERICA – arrest me protect my rights and my liberties? What’s the point of being a citizen of this state or nation then?
So, in case you can’t see it on the X post, I’m pasting the NO votes below because we need to know ALL the HOUSE members in the SQUISHY MIDDLE without enough guts to stand up to the PC crowd who tells us we can’t discriminate against people WHO AREN’T CITIZENS IN THIS COUNTRY!
FYI: This passed through the Public Safety Committee with the following votes:
YEAS: 5 – Hardin, Humphrey, Kelley, May, Turner
NAYS: 1 – Lowe (J)
It passed through the Public Safety OVERSIGHT Committee with the following votes:
Think on that a second: Culver, Duel, Ford, Harris, Kane, Manger and Sterling voted to allow the bill to pass from committee to be heard on the floor, where they voted against it. Yes, it’s great these Reps allowed the bill to be debated on the floor, but it’s very sad they didn’t have the guts to vote FOR it on the floor.
Truly, this is NOT OK, but virtually the same thing was done on the Senate side yesterday when they voted to allow anti-Semitism to become a legal offense in Oklahoma, invalidating every Oklahoman’s First Amendment Right. Here are the Senators who voted FOR that:
NOW YOU HAVE THE NAMES OF THE SQUISHY MIDDLE IN BOTH THE HOUSE AND THE SENATE. Let’s work to educate the newbies in the Senate (Gillespie, Grellner, McIntosh and Wingard) and toss out the rest.
Representative Rick West responded to my request for comment. Here’s the gist of what he said.
Rick said he’d run the bill twice or three times before at the request of a constituent and it had always passed out of the house before, but never got a hearing in the Senate. This time he was shocked that it went down in the House. He knew the Democrats would vote against it, but he was pretty shocked at the attitude some House members had about non-US citizens going through CLEET training.
“They can’t vote, but we’re going to allow them to go through CLEET?” he sked.
He told me he thinks that this particular law has been on the books as long as Oklahoma has had the law establishing CLEET.
I asked him if he knew whether or not we had non-citizens in any of our Oklahoma law enforcement arms since the provision has been in law so long.
“When I first ran this bill I did the research. No, I don’t know of any that are hired in law enforcement. I know the OSBI doesn’t have any, I know the other law enforcement don’t have any. Someone made a good point – you have to be a US citizen to be hired by all the US law enforcement services, so what are we doing here in Oklahoma allowing non-citizens to be CLEET certified and carry a gun and arrest US citizens?” he asked.
He said that some of the pushback he received from House members was from some in law enforcement who felt that interpreters were needed, but he made it clear that anyone wanting to be an interpreter can interpret without going through CLEET training.
The oddest thing to Rep. West was that, though the Democrats asked the same questions they always have, the mood was different with the Republicans this time. They told him things like – we need these people, we have a shortage of law enforcement – and that surprised him.
He told me that he’s had bills getting voted down, that wasn’t the issue. It was the mood of the legislature this time on this issue that struck him more than anything and that, I think, should concern ALL conservative Oklahomans.
Friday, March 21st, former Oklahoma Representative Jason Murphy came on with Michael and I to talk about legislation making its way through the Oklahoma legislature. I would really urge you to watch this particular FULL video (Rumble or YouTube) because we talked about a number of bills. Here, in this synopsis, I’ll touch on the ones we felt were most important.
HB2289 is the one Jason calls, “the thin-skinned congressman bill” because it sounds like one of our elected congressional whiners (that would be all of them but Josh Brecheen and Kevin Hern ) made it up and asked leadership to run it. It basically gives an entire list of things you can’t do/say about our elected federal officials. Bad. And NO. Please contact your Senators at this point and ask them to watch for this crappy bill. Here’s Jason talking about it.
Feel free to go directly to this video clip on YouTube and share to friends and Senators from there.
Another thing Jason wanted to stress, is that the grassroots is rising. More and more people in Oklahoma are paying attention to the games being played at 23rd and Lincoln and who holds power and why. This is such a great thing because it will allow us to finally get our LIBERTY back – finally control our destinies a bit as our forefathers expected us to do. So many of us – like Jason and ROPE – are creating Substacks and media channels that tell the public what is actually going on and not what the legacy media is telling us is going on. The spread of this kind of information is VITAL to an educated populace, so SUBSCRIBE to as many new media authors as you can stand, get educated, educate others and stand up against the global mindset that wants to subjugate us!
As I said, check out the full video where we talk about what happened with new Representative Jim Shaw – absolutely ZERO of his bills were heard in the House this year as payback for beating out entrenched RINO Kevin Wallace – and other bills that weren’t heard, as well as those that were heard but voted down. He even had a few GOOD ones in the mix, like HB1162 – to allow raw milk sales – and HB1515 – the one by new Rep Molly Jenkins that would have allowed absentee voting for only those Oklahomans who had a reason to vote absentee. Interestingly a number of conservatives voted against the bill.
Rep. Steagall and I have been arguing back and forth most of the day over the bill – though it’s too late for this session. My argument is that we KNOW – certainly in Edmond – that absentee ballots have changed election results. Having absentee ballots sent out in the mail indiscriminately (which has happened) allows nefarious people to use the ballots toward their end. In addition, having as many absentee ballots as are used now, over the days that they are allowed to turn them in, poses real issues for chain of custody. It used to be that, unless you had an excuse as to why you couldn’t turn up at the poll, you had to turn up at the poll.
Rep Steagall believes that it’s no one’s business why anyone votes absentee and that it’s a security risk to the family of the deployed to have to disclose that they are not in the country or otherwise deployed. We’re still arguing…LOL.
The bottom line here is that this session – certainly in the House – has been very difficult to follow with the ‘new’ (old) committee system of ‘oversight’ committees (that didn’t work the last time they were used) and that leadership still seems to have the same lock on legislation – cutting out “we the people” – that they always have. We’ll continue to ask Jason back to give us updates when he’s able. In the meantime, make sure you’re following people who are following legislation and follow Jason’s substack at OklahomaStateCapitol.substack.com! We’re only half-way through the session.
“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
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?
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?
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.
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?
WhatOur 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,
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.
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.
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.
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 PrioritizeInstead
The legislature MUST:
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.
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).
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.
Stop giving money to public schoolsthat 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
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.
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.
Every week for our newsletter, I compile a list of news articles and add a bit of commentary. Because I just need another thing to do in the week, I’m going to begin posting those here on the website as well. Hopefully, this posting will make it easier for readers to share!
KTUL Tulsa – A really good story about how Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters has allowed school report cards to be changed to show students performing MUCH better than they are in reality. This is truly awful and yet, not only has it happened, but even after the public has been notified, nothing appears to be in the works to restore transparency and solve the problem.
Jason Murphey – Recently, our new speaker-elect, Kyle Hilbert, chose to make sweeping changes in the way committees in the House are constructed. Murphey explains the problem with the new system – basically that the people will be locked out (which is what Representative Tom Gann warned when he ran against him for Speaker). Please read and share.
Oklahoma House Media – Tom Gann essentially explains what he would have done if he were speaker and what SHOULD be done now that speaker-elect Hilbert will take the reins of the House (unless there is a mutiny and the House members turn on Hilbert and vote for Gann – I suggest we all get on our knees and pray for that outcome). Again, please read and share. Knowledge can translate to power if it is used correctly.
Oklahoma Voice – From the article: “Drones and unmanned aerial systems are an exciting new industry here in Oklahoma,” Stitt said. “We want to make sure that industry has room to thrive.”
Because the technology is new, the state doesn’t have all the measures in place to ensure protection from those who wish to cause harm, Stitt said.
“The activity happening in New Jersey and across the country is unsettling,” Tipton said in a statement. “While we’ve only had a few reports of drone activity in Oklahoma, we want to be ready in case the need arises.”
If you don’t see how absolutely RIDICULOUS the nonsense in yellow is, I’m not sure what to do to help you. Drones are absolutely the WORST for breaching personal liberty/privacy and here is our Governor using unknown tax dollars for unknown surveillance purposes. FILE UNDER REALLY BAD FOR OKLAHOMAN’S PERSONAL LIBERTY AND PRIVACY.
Breitbart – If you’ve not seen the movie Terminator (and if you haven’t, where have you been?) you’ll not really understand the horror AI can become. Once Skynet became aware, it declared war on humanity, creating robots with titanium skeletons covered in human skin, to seek out and destroy any humans who had survived the nuclear war it started to remove them from the earth.
I get it. It was a movie. But I would like to draw attention to one thing – a person actually – George Orwell. If Orwell could so accurately predict the hell of authoritarian government that today we’re able to describe many government programs as ‘Orwellian’, let’s not be so quick to overlook Cameron and Gayle Hurd’s tale of computer programming gone awry.
Not only that, but AI is a HUGE energy hog and will require “even more energy than we thought“. Where will that come from? Wind turbines? Solar installations? Toxic lithium batteries? Oklahoma legislators must get a handle on this NOW and we must make sure they do.
Robert Bryce; Substack – While this is certainly a win for the Osage tribe, who have been fighting this fight for years apparently, this is also a spectacular win against WIND ENERGY if for no other reason than this; Enel (the Italian wind energy company responsible for the turbines) has said it will take 300 million dollars to remove 84 turbines. That’s 3.6 million dollars per turbine.
Now think…you are a landowner who signs a contract for a wind turbine on your property. Are you going to be required to come up with 3.6 million dollars to remove that turbine once it’s broken beyond repair? Food for thought, huh?r
FOX 23 News – So THIS is why Governor Stitt was in South Korea recently – to sign yet ANOTHER OUT OF STATE company to come here. So glad Oklahoma is “open for business”, Governor Stitt. Thanks to the dispersal of MORE tax dollars to new, private businesses – this time by the DOE in the amount of 100 million dollars – Blue Whale Materials can come into Bartlesville and recycle lithium batteries. Lithium is toxic to humans and the environment and has been the cause of numerous fires from solar installations to airplanes. Why do we keep chasing the GREEN AGENDA and putting Oklahomans at risk? I’m gonna guess dollars, because Blue Whale is – at best – only going to employ 100 people. But then, isn’t that what Canoo said, only to leave Oklahoma high and dry on every one of its promises?
HSLDA – Representative Amanda Swope and former Representative Joe Dorman of the Oklahoma Institute For Child Advocacy (I won’t help them out by providing a link to their organization), spent an entire interim study warning legislators about the hidden dangers of homeschooling, more than likely in preparation for legislation to curtail the practice in order to ‘make Oklahoma children safe’. Of course this is nonsense. Oklahoma is the only state in the union that promises unfettered homeschooling by way of its constitution and if you don’t believe me, visit our friends at the Constitutional Home Educators Alliance. Homeschoolers aren’t the ones in the news on a continual basis facing allegations of sexual – and other – misconduct with students. We need to watch out for this kind of legislation that would stifle the liberty Oklahoma homeschool students are famous for. Amanda Swope has since left the legislature, but OICA will not rest until the practice of schooling our own children has been hamstrung in the name of…wait for it…’safety’. Please continue to follow us for updates.
PJ Media – Just another reason why Governor Stitt should abandon his whole, “more of everything” approach to energy in Oklahoma. CO2 is good. Climate changes on a regular basis. End of discussion.
Oklahoma Senate Media – Legislators to anyone asking them for public school legislation that would stop Common Core, or SEL, “We believe in LOCAL CONTROL. That’s for the school board to decide.” Oh, okay, WELL WHAT ABOUT THIS THEN? Massive overreach. Individual school boards should decide cell phone policy. What a giant bunch of baloney! Let’s make sure to tell Ms. Seifried that school boards decide school policy and that she should quit meddling in school board business.
Last Friday, Michael and I had former attorney and non-profit wrangler, Ken Malloy on the ROPE Report to talk about the NorthStar Project and how NorthStar is influencing Tulsa Public Education. From recruiting and helping school board candidates to run on a campaign of reforming TPS, to writing White Papers detailing TPS educational legacy, this new Think Tank formed last year is off to a running start.
Ken and his wife Maria Seidler (of Legal Overwatch For Parents Rights), both retired attorneys, migrated from the East Coast to Oklahoma to be with family.
During the interview, Ken talked about how different the culture is in New York – where litigation against governmental entities is more commonplace – compared to here in Oklahoma where few of our governmental officials are ever called on the carpet and therefore, are not at all responsive to the citizens they represent and who pay their salaries. In fact, Ken likens Oklahoma’s citizens to mushrooms because we’re kept in the dark and fed ‘crap’, by our government officials.
Ken’s comments in the video struck such a chord with viewers that the first comment wanted to know “how we can get involved” and the second comment said this:
Jenni’s heard me say this approximately 386 times, but…once again: As a fairly recent transplant from the west coast who took the time to study OK and visit here TWICE before moving–I’m shocked at the complacent attitudes of most Oklahoma conservatives. I’ve heard, “Oh, that won’t happen here–it’s OKLAHOMA, not California!” more times than I can count, seriously.
I tell them I lived through “the fall of California”, was a young adult during the Reagan administration, saw the decline of that red state. I tell them I see Texas purpling. I tell them I see the exact same signs I saw in CA 40 years ago and if Oklahoma isn’t careful, vigilant, aggressive in defending it’s freedoms–it will be faced with attempting to take back ground instead.
We all know how much more difficult that is.
Instead of being well-received, or taken at least a bit seriously, my words are often pooh-poohed, and I’m treated as though I know nothing, as though I’m somehow “mistaken”. Many folks aren’t even old enough to know what California USED to be like.
“That won’t happen HERE, Lisa–THIS IS OKLAHOMA!” may be the last thing some of these folks remember thinking “back before the statists took over” if they’re not careful.
And THEY STILL WON’T LISTEN.
Sadly, the first video of the week on Wednesday found ROPE Report Regular V1SUT – instead of telling us how school officials are molesting students and seemingly getting away with it – telling us that our Attorney General, Gentner Drummond, hasn’t signed on to the Supreme Court case (Missouri V Biden) that COULD put an end to government interference in social media -for example, requesting the censoring of users whose opinions and ideas might be contrary to the state’s.
In addition, our own state legislators are using the recent suicide death of Owasso student Dagney Benedict, to to create language – in a gutted, already-filed bill – that could substantially chill free speech in Oklahoma. Please read SB1100 and then let your Representative know that this bill isn’t right for Oklahoma and that free speech MUST stand.
