Tuesday, April 29th, SB224 – Creating the Oklahoma Education and Workforce Statewide Longitudinal Data System – was brought to the floor for a House vote following passage in the Senate 33 to 13. The bill failed in the House 35 to 56 with 7 absent.
At that time, author Representative Caldwell captured the bill to be reheard at a later time.
Thursday, May 1, the bill came to the House floor again, where it was voted down Ayes: 46 Nays: 37.
Then, a Motion to Rescind THAT vote was adopted Ayes: 51 Nays: 32.
The measure THEN passes Ayes: 51 Nays: 36 without the emergency clause.
Representative Tom Gann – who argued against the bill on the floor – wrote a Press Release concerning the unprecedented THREE votes the bill received on the 1st. That press release was read live on the air after it was sent, but Gann was advised that it would NOT be placed on the House website for publication. Please see below for a copy of that press release.
Rep.-Tom Gann, R-Inola Issues Statement on Bonus Vote of SB224 and Warns of the Dangers of Setting New Policy
Representative Tom Gann released the following statement on the unprecedented bonus vote taken by the house on Thursday on Senate Bill 224.
“On Thursday, May 1, 2025, Representative Kyle Hilbert, Speaker of the House, took actions regarding SB224 that did not align with the House Rules of the 60th Legislature.
House rules dictate that once a bill is defeated it is not eligible for additional consideration. The House vote to defeat SB224 was considered final action under the rules.
However, Hilbert, while presiding over the house allowed an additional bonus vote to occur by which the bill was approved. This breaks with years of clearly established House precedent that prevents never ending bonus votes on failed legislation and opens up a Pandoras box of potential abuse.
What other bills will be allowed a bonus vote?”
The relevant house rule and written precedent are attached to this release.
House Rule 6, Bills And Resolutions,
6.8 – Final Action
(a) The following action shall constitute final action on any bill or resolution:
1. committee recommendation, including any oversight committee recommendation or any policy committee recommendation of “Do Not Pass”;
2. if a motion to reconsider the vote on Third Reading orFourth Reading fails to prevail or expires;
3. if a motion to table the motion to reconsider prevails; or
4. if a vote is taken on Third Reading or Fourth Reading and no notice is served to reconsider the vote.
(b) If final action is such as to defeat a bill or resolution,no other bill or resolution having the same effect and covering thesame specific subject matter shall be considered by the House ofRepresentatives during either session of the current Legislature.
Page 53
On page 209 of Precedents
6.8 – 4 (2010) Motion to Rescind May Not Be Used to Avoid Final Action
Rule – House Rule 6.8, paragraph (a) states in part:
(a) The following action shall constitute final action on any billor resolution:
…a motion to reconsider the vote on Third Reading or FourthReading [that] fails to prevail…
History – Representative Nelson moved to reconsider the vote whereby Senate Bill 2207 failed, which motion failed of adoption. Representative Nelson moved to rescind the vote whereby the reconsideration motion failed.
Representative Reynolds raised a point of order stating that the motion to rescind was dilatory.
Oh, don’t get me started on this two-tiered committee system dreamed up by the House leadership this year. If you haven’t seen my critique of the House on Organizational Day, you might want to take a bit to at least listen to that. It was a phenomenal specter of what we’ve now seen as the House and Senate begin to hear each other’s bills and head for the legislative finish line.
You might even follow that up by reading this overview of what happened to at least one of our House members this year – not a single one of Representative Jim Shaw’s bills were heard on the floor. Not. A. One. In fact, I make the argument that, in a way, everyone in his district should throw their own little Boston Tea Party because I couldn’t find a better current day example of Taxation Without Representation. Honestly, disgusting – but again – I think those of us who have watched politics for a time could have seen that coming.
Navigating even one committee in the House’s smoke-and-mirrors system is challenging enough, especially when certain privileged legislators can kill bills without proper consideration. Navigating two committees, however, is mighty difficult for grassroots legislation lacking institutional support. Such legislation will most certainly struggle to pass through the closed-door decisions of two separate committee chairmen, either of whom can single-handedly halt a bill’s progress.
This essentially created a new layer through which grassroots legislation could be killed without the people closest to the Speaker having to get their hands dirty by refusing to give the bill a hearing before the full house.
So, back to Murphy’s article? What was that case-in-point bill, killed by the system?
It was House Bill 1043. And it was a vital proposal, based on an already enacted Florida law, that closes the loophole by which illegal invaders of our nation are using blue-state driver’s licenses to drive on Oklahoma roads.
Nineteen states reportedly offer driving privileges to the invaders, including New Mexico and Colorado, states that border Oklahoma.
The need for House Bill 1043 became very apparent when Oklahoma City Democrat Arturo Alonso-Sandoval, in declaring his opposition to the reform, reportedly claimed that “many” are using out-of-state licenses.
If Alonso-Sandoval is correct, Oklahoma’s roads are likely buzzing with those who have been enabled by blue states to bypass our driving laws and regulations. They are presumably living in Oklahoma but aren’t following the requirement that Oklahoma residents must obtain an Oklahoma driver’s license to drive on our roads. They’ve found a blue-state-enabled loophole and once again, a way to get around the laws and regulations by which the citizens are governed.
This disrespect for our laws, is sure to have consequences. Anyone who has been in Oklahoma City traffic recently, has no doubt taken note that something is now very wrong: it’s almost impossible to drive through that city without encountering an insane driver who has no regard for the traffic laws—almost as if they have no reason to respect the laws or fear of their enforcement.
House Bill 1043, by Jenkins of the House and Bullard of the Senate, would have closed that blue-state-enabled loophole by refusing to recognize these illegal alien driver’s licenses.
The bill was heard in the public safety committee where it was unanimously approved.
At that point, the legislation should have advanced to the house floor for a hearing before the full house.
But that’s where Hilbert’s new system—and one tyrannical super committee chairman—stood in the way. That chairman, Robert Manger, recently eked out a narrow election win after declaring to his constituents that he was 100% conservative. How, or what he based that on, is unclear, but it was just enough of a head fake to eke out a victory. But what is known, is that according to The Oklahoma Constitution’s Conservative Index—which since 1979 has been Oklahoma’s gold standard for gauging the voting of legislators—Manger actually scored a mere 60% conservative score in 2024.
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But no, the self-declared 100% conservative, Manger, simply refused to as much as give the bill a hearing in his committee.
Thus House Bill 1043 provides us with the perfect case-in-point of how Kyle Hilbert’s new committee system is functioning. It’s another new hallway of smoke and mirrors added to the already crazy house that is the House of Representatives.
So, if after reading that, you can’t see your way to become involved in the 2026 elections in order to get some of the worst offenders of this system out, then please move to another state – like Colorado or California – they’re already ruined. In the meantime, follow those of us reporting on grassroots efforts and let’s push back with everything we have. This is getting nuts.
Carolyn McLarty was our guest, Friday, March 7th. She has worked with the Oklahoma Republican Party where she was the State Committee Woman for 12 years, but she’s also worked with Eagle Forum, a citizen lobbying group begun in the 1970’s by Phyllis Schlafly of ERA fame. Check out the full video, here on YouTube and also on Rumble.
This year, Carolyn is working to ramp up Oklahoma’s Eagle Forum group again. This is great news.
Over the years, I’ve met so many people who want to get involved with ‘politics’, but don’t know how to begin. I saw COVID wake people up to the realization that other people were running their lives, and that those people were in our Government. Many of those newly-awakened decided they wanted to get their lives back by getting involved beyond just posting angry screeds to social media and yelling at the television. Now, with the influx of the green agenda and serious issues like eminent domain coming to the forefront of their everyday lives, lots of people are getting interested in legislation and who is representing them in the state and Washington, D.C.. Unfortunately, since Oklahoma quit teaching civics long ago, many of them aren’t quite sure how to do that.
I’ve known Carolyn many years. She was active in the Common Core fight and provided so much guidance and help toward finally getting that repealed.
On Friday she gave a bit of a breakdown on things that Citizen Lobbyists should do.
She even shared with us a poem she’d written about lobbying:
If you’re interested in getting more information on lobbying from Carolyn – and/or helping her get Eagle Forum back up and going again, please email her! She’d LOVE to hear from you – carolyn.eagleforumok@gmail.com.
This week (and last, since I wasn’t able to post last week due to a farm emergency) there are a number of new posts to the blog. Most of these are about legislation since we’re quickly reaching the date (3.6.25) for bills to switch houses (from House to Senate or vice-versa).
This is the most infuriating situation. Citing “political drama”, Governor Stitt fired three members of the State School Board on February 12th. The “political drama” apparently had to do with an agenda item on the previous week’s State School Board agenda wherein the Board would vote to find a way to count the number of ILLEGAL immigrants in Oklahoma classrooms. There is definitely some “political drama” here if not “political intrigue” and I hope to expose all that in upcoming weeks. This all stems from a very influential man in Oklahoma politics who has an R after his name, who believes illegal immigration is essentially fine and works deals with elected officials to create policies – written or not – that protect them in this state. The saddest part here is that these three board members were doing Yeoman’s work ridding Oklahoma public education of school employees that sexually abuse students. Our governor is – AGAIN – completely wrong. Read the blog for information on who was selected to replace the three removed members. None have any educational experience whatsoever, so, there’s that.
Unfortunately, we’ve lost several lambs on the farm this winter season, so I used them as the backdrop to talk about the horror show that is spreading human waste on cropland in Oklahoma. This is as bad as it sounds and now the EPA and other organizations, have shown that this material contains ‘forever chemicals’, cancer-causing molecules cause PFAS. Unfortunately, an excellent bill to stop the practice, written by new Representative Jim Shaw (from Lincoln County where this has been done regularly for many, many years) has been denied a hearing in Committee this year. This will not just hurt farmers and ranchers who use the stuff, but PFAS and other chemicals have been shown to migrate from where they were dumped and into water sources, effecting neighboring farmsteads as well. Please read the blog to find out more about the practice and why you should want this stopped even if you live in a city.
Former Representative, Jason Murphy knows a lot about the legislature, having served there a full 12 year term. Today, he is making the most of that knowledge by writing a Substack called, “The Oklahoma State Capitol“. He joined Michael and I on the podcast last week to talk about how the legislative process – at least the way its been run in recent history – is simply a shell game to keep the citizenry appeased and the lobbyists/big business interests that run the state, happy. You’ll want to read the blog to see who all these interests are so you can keep your eye out for them.
We’ve had Robert on the show before and his descriptions of what happened to him during his campaign for SD15. It was eye-opening. Here, he gives us some updates on his current case. This blog is SUPER IMPORTANT to read because I’ve embedded Robert’s Supreme Court documents. These documents include photographs and specific instances of the Oklahoma State Election Board irregularities over which Robert took them to court. These are MORE than eye-opening. It shows that there are real concerns with our State Election Board and the processes that govern election law in Oklahoma – and this knowledge is important to EVERY Oklahoman.
This last week, Senator Lankford has hit social media hard to capitalize on the Elon Musk/DOGE efforts at right-sizing government. Over and over again he’d Tweet (X) out a message about how government is ‘fumbling’ (a take on his 5th Federal Fumbles, just out) with spending. Unfortunately, it hit me as being pretty disingenuous because he’s never seen a budget he didn’t like. After Tweeting back at him a couple times, I decided to stop and actually write a piece on his voting record and why Lankford needs to leave DC and find a new job. In order to be fair, I went to the VOTE SMART website and looked through every one of the votes they had posted there. While some of his votes are quite good, all but one time, he’s voted for the budget and for continuing appropriations. Check out the article. Lankford may be one of your very favorite people, but at least read this knowing that I’ve been fair. If you’ve never seen his voting record, it might be pretty interesting….
This is a SUPER IMPORTANT article because HB1937 is still alive. Contact your Representative immediately and tell them that this must be a NO vote if it’s brought to the floor. This bill basically undoes the good legislation former Rep. Sherrie Conley had passed before she left the House that prevents public school employees from communicating with a student without the knowlege of a parent. Unfortunately, perennial public school employees Lowe and Sterling, felt that this created an undue burden for public school employees and created a bill to allow parents to ‘opt out’ of the law’s requirement. This is a really bad idea and if you’re not quite sure how, please read the piece where Michael, Mary from V1SUT and I spell it out clearly.
We’ve talked about this fact many times on the podcast – the fact that we all seem to think that public schools were created to educate children – but they’re not. Here, Julianne Romanello, Michael and I talk about what public schools actually do and what the educational trend will be for students over time if we don’t STOP it now.
If bills were not assigned to a Committee for the upcoming week (2.24), they will not get a hearing in the Oklahoma legislature this year. NONE of new Representative Jim Shaw’s bills received a hearing in a committee. Why? I make the case that Shaw’s defeat of Kevin Wallace (former House Appropriations Chair) is at the epicenter of this situation in which citizens of HD32 will be taxed without representation during the 2025 legislative session. This is unforgivable. Personal pettiness should NEVER stand in the way of the democratic process in America and certainly not in a ‘red state’ like Oklahoma.
LEGISLATION
So much legislation has been passed through Committees this session, with more coming up this week. The cell phone bill is still in play (Usurping Local Control – Cell Phone Restrictions In Oklahoma – NO on SB1389 and HB1276). Please read the article to find out the many reasons this is a BAD bill that needs to be voted down by the House and Senate both.
To be honest, with the new two-tiered committee structure in the House, it’s been hard to follow bills. I’ve been hoping that different groups following bills would let me know what’s out there and what needs to be followed, but I think the system is doing it’s job and making it hard for people to follow the legislation they want to see stopped or followed.
OKLAHOMA SUBSTACK AUTHORS
Don’t forget to check out our Substack authors this week!
So interesting today to see that Governor Stitt has fired three members of the state school board because, “…it’s clear that our education infrastructure has fallen prey to needless political drama.”
Political drama. What does that actually mean? But then the Governor loves to use catch phrases – you know – like political animal – the term he used when he was out in Chairman of the House Appropriations and Budget Committee, Representative Kevin Wallace’s district, trying to get him re-elected over the grassroots, common family man the people preferred, Jim Shaw?
Seriously. What political drama? Literally. What exactly was the DRAMA the Board was engaging in?
I never saw a one of them talking about their jobs outside the Board in a way that invoked DRAMA. None of them were going before a camera to talk about their jobs or to condemn the Superintendent or the Governor or creating MAGA videos in their cars. SO WHAT DRAMA?
I think he means the DRAMA of removing the teaching certificates of taxpayer-supported public school employees who were preying upon children. THAT drama!
Seriously, does anyone realize that we’ve had a drag queen principal with a drunk driving and child pornography charge – who only went away because of outside pressure by local media outlet V1SUT – and a Superintendent in Shawnee and a coach in Shawnee and incidents in Kingfisher and Ninnekah and Salina and Perry and Wewoka where districts are being sued because NO ONE WOULD PROTECT STUDENTS FROM EMPLOYEES WHO WERE HURTING CHILDREN? THAT kind of drama Mr. Stitt?
Kendra Wesson – one of the removed Board members – is one of the most transparent, hard-working, smart, committed women I know. She was always prepared for a meeting and truly had a heart for kids – a not-so-surprising-fact when you find out that she has eight of her own. Her removal is absolute NONSENSE. She wasn’t engaged in any kind of political drama in any way. All she was trying to do in her position was go over and above to help Oklahoma kids.
WHO IN THE HELL FIRES SOMEONE LIKE KENDRA WESSON????
She and this Board were actively involved in attempting to remove teachers and other public school personnel who were a danger to children – and now all of them but two – Governor Stitt’s attorney at Gateway Mortgage, Sarah LePak – and Zach Archer – who, like Governor Stitt, works in the financial industry – are left. What do they know about education? Apparently, they know how to be an attorney and a financial analyst – but, dang it – that is the kind of person our Governor admires!
So what about these new Board members?
Michael Tinney is the husband of Ginger Tinney of Professional Oklahoma Educators. Mr. Tinney is an oil and gas attorney with Ames, Ashabranner, Taylor, Lawrence, Laudick & Morgan in Oklahoma City. I guess we should be happy that he’s at least CONNECTED to someone who knows about education, ‘cuz at this point, we’re 0-2 there.
If he is from Kingfisher, he is resident of the Kingfisher Public School system where the district was slapped with a $5 million dollar lawsuit over charges of abuse by Kingfisher Football Coach Jeff Myers. Myers, who was banned from any further activity with the team and whose contract was not to be renewed by the Board, was still employed as of December, when Kingfisher had to let go 22 positions to pay the settlement from the suit after the Kingfisher County Excise Board refused to pass the settlement cost on to tax payers.
And then we found this:
Apparently, in the 20-teens Deathridge was associated with the electric ‘car’ tax credit craze. And yes, there were federal income tax subsidies taken for the vehicles.
What an interesting choice for the State School Board. He has no education experience either.
And then there’s Chris VanDenhende who is listed in the Governor’s press release as being from Tulsa. According to VanDenhende’s LinkdIn page, he is from Stroud, Oklahoma, in Lincoln County, where he is Chief Financial Officer at Southwest Fuel Systems, LLC. and Mint Turbines.
Interesting choice Mr. VanDenhende. Apparently, he is friendly with Mr. Stitt’s friend, Kevin Wallace.
In a Lincoln County News Herald “Report From Kevin Wallace” on April 6, 2022, Mr. Wallace says, “I was fortunate to be invited to dinner on the eve of this event with many representatives from the industries. Chris VanDenhende, chief financial officer and chief strategy officer for Southwest Fuel Systems and Mint Turbines in Stroud, also attended. VanDenhende spoke recently at the Stroud Chamber banquet. It was a pleasure to get to see him again and to discuss his company’s growth in our House district.”
But, that’s not all (I feel like Monty Hall). Mint Turbines has been collecting Oklahoma Quality Jobs Incentive Payments since 2020. In 2024, his company got a ‘shout out’ from the Oklahoma Commerce Department, that included the following text:
Strategic Public/Private Partnerships and Industry Engagement
With nearly 72,000 square feet of factory and warehouse space, Mint Turbines is one of the few certified MRO facilities in North America. Known for its commitment to quality and customer service, the company serves both commercial and military sectors, ensuring top-tier turbine engine performance and reliability. Mint Turbines has partnered with ACES at numerous trade shows to boost their visibility within the aerospace industry and showcase their capabilities to key industry leaders.
They also received about $100,000 in training reimbursements from Department of Career and Technology Education and a 2 MILLION DOLLAR Federal Loan from the Export Bank.
So, no one on the State School Board has ANY EDUCATION EXPERIENCE at all and only attorney Mike Tinney is involved with someone who does. I’m sure that will be SUPER helpful to Oklahoma’s kids and will put us well on the way to improving our NAEP scores.
What’s even more interesting, is that Senator Julia Kirk put out THIS press release shortly after the “shake up” occurred.
Followed shortly by Senator Mark Mann.
Well thank God the DEMOCRATS are happy! That’s certainly why we elected another Republican Governor – to make Democrats happy!
The only other thing that sounds SUPER FISHY here, is that the Governor would decide TODAY, the day that Auditor Cindy Byrd was to make her audit of Tulsa Public Schools public, to make this School Board ‘shake up’ announcement based on the stupid premise of “political drama”. The Governor just had Bixby Superintendent Rob Miller stand with him for his state of the state address – touting the equally stupid cell phone bill (even funnier…Supt. Miller created his district’s policy without a law, yet the Governor pointed to him for support of the bill) and, as we all know, the Governor is from Tulsa.
Interestingly (I know, I keep using that word), Auditor Byrd was unable to release the findings because a truckload of lawyers working for TPS invoked an obscure law to halt its release. At her press conference she said the findings are significant and that she wasn’t allowed to provide the results to the public because of a law that no one had ever used in her 28 years as an auditor.
People, this state is in trouble. The people who run it do NOT HAVE OUR BEST INTERESTS AT HEART.
In fact, did you know that Governor Stitt still had financial interest in Gateway Financial Services and other Gateway entities as of 2019? Did you know that Oklahoma has given Gateway First – the fusion of Gateway Mortgage and Farmers Exchange Bank of Cherokee – hundreds of thousands of dollars in Quality Jobs Incentive Payments since 2019?
This State Board of Education ‘shake up’ was WRONG. Dead WRONG. It won’t help our NAEP scores, but I guarantee it’ll help score political points with someone somewhere – and that has to be what ALL of this is about. So, make no mistake, none of this was about helping Oklahoma kids!
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.
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.
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
It is a very sad thing to have to say, but we’ve come to a point in our country when the basic values held by so many in America – particularly rural Americans – of hard work, faith in Jesus Christ, love of family, patriotism, being neighborly and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps without bending the knee and kissing the ring of government, are being out right demonized.
And not just demonized by a media many Americans today have begun to realize merely manufacture government propaganda rather than reporting actual news, but by their own elected representatives and fellow citizens.
This primary season, a young man from HD32 – a district which bumps up against the border of eastern Oklahoma county where I live – decided he had great concerns about what was happening in his backyard.
Plans are being enacted by private ‘green energy’ companies (which get American tax-payer subsidies and couldn’t exist in the free market without them) to create wind generation installations in the back 40’s of these Oklahomans – some of whom have maintained family ownership of their properties since statehood. Most landowners don’t want that, yet absentee owners have sold out for the promise of the dollars they think they can collect while ruining the health and vitality of the land of their on-site neighbors with giant, bird-killing, non-compostable, oil-leaking monstrosities and they’re nervous about keeping their land intact. [If you’re interested in the problems with this ‘technology’, you can find a full podcast on the issue here.]
His own Representative, Kevin Wallace (Chairman of the House Appropriations and Budget Committee – a very powerful position in state government because it holds the purse strings to how Oklahoman’s tax dollars are spent), admitted to dumping human waste on his property as fertilizer twice and then defended it by saying that it was legal in Oklahoma to do so.
Biosludge is a nightmare. It smells so badly that neighbors who live downwind of an application often can’t take full breaths outdoors, it draws flies and it contains everything that goes down the sewers in Oklahoma county from pharmaceuticals to industrial chemicals. Like many of his neighbors, this young man had developed great concerns about what this substance could do to the health of his family and his neighbors, but also the health of the aquifer from which we ALL draw in this region. [If you’re interested in the problems with biosludge, you can find a full podcast on the issue here.]
And these are just a few of the concerns residents in the district have had for years.
After realizing that no one – including Wallace – seemed to be confronting the issues that affected them beyond giving them lip service, entrepreneur and family man, HD32 resident, Jim Shaw, decided he needed to run against his politically powerful representative to try and do something about these issues for his neighbors and himself, running on a platform of Land, Livelihoods and Legacies.
The incumbent conducted his campaign abysmally. Wallace called Shaw (a political newcomer and a neighbor) a liar and a hypocrite via social media, direct mail and video ads nearly daily, and – late in the campaign – posted a Google Earth photo of Shaw’s farm with his address clearly labeled for the public to see, calling him a hypocrite for coming out against ‘green energy’ initiatives when he used a small solar panel bank for personal sustainability. According to one writer, Wallace’s construction company has undertaken numerous state jobs, “raising questions about whether Wallace’s legislative position has intersected with his business interests”. But then, Wallace is no stranger to public money, having accumulated about $68,000 in disaster and commodities subsidies over the last 10 years.
During the run-off election, House Speaker Charles McCall, Governor Kevin Stitt, Marathon PAC Chairman Thomas Tillison (a PAC which contributed $5k to Wallace in the run-off and whose family contributed $7,600 during the primary), Senator Grant Green and Speaker-elect Kyle Hilbert all came to the district to stump for Wallace. (Photos taken from public posts to Kevin Wallace’s Facebook page)
The article in the Oklahoman labeled those of us who supported (and still support heartily) candidate-now-Representative, Jim Shaw, “far right-wing”.
The video (below) was from a man I’ve become friends with while supporting Jim Shaw for election. He lives on his family’s long-held farm in the district, is wildly intelligent and salt-of-the-earth as they come. This is a timeline he created from pictures he’d taken from start to finish of the campaign featuring all the neighbors, friends and now-friends who came together wanting a leadership change in the district.
THESE are the “political animals” – the “far right-wing” people who overturned a powerful member of the Oklahoma legislature when they believed he didn’t have their best interests in mind.
Call us what you will, but we’re God-fearing, loyal, patriotic, self-sufficient and loving. We’re proudly American. We’re your neighbors. We’re everything all Americans USED to be.
So as the propagandists seek to minimize us, demonize us and destroy us, they should just understand one thing with every fiber of their being;
WE’RE THE FOUNDATIONS OF RURAL AMERICA AND WE’RE NEVER GONNA TO CHANGE.
Video audio: Sturgill Simpson Coal Miner Family From Kentucky.
