But Republican candidates haven’t gotten that memo.
The other day I listened to another candidate who touted all his skills and what he wanted to do if elected. And then he made this bomb of a statement. It went something like this, ” I want to reach across the aisle and compromise to get things done.”
Boom. Just like that he lost me and my vote.
You see, I have heard this kind of nonsense since the 70’s. Republican after Republican pretending to be the bigger, more rationale, more civil person. Pretending to fight for me and the causes I hold near and dear while surrendering right from the start.
And I’ve had enough.
Look where compromise has gotten us. All of our major institutions are corrupted by Marxist programs and ideologies. Our legal system has been turned on its head, protecting criminals and persecuting law-abiding citizens. Our economy is being destroyed through a deceptive administration and complicit medical system. Socialism is taking hold in our major cities and states such as New York, California, and yes, Maryland. We once again get involved in a foreign conflict that we have no interest in. The destruction of our law enforcement, schools, energy sector, and our moral code is happening rapidly.
It is rapid but it wasn’t sudden. It was slow and incremental. It has been guided, steered and allowed by compromising, “reach across the aisle” Republicans who wanted so badly to be the mediators, the beloved of the left, that they would do and say anything to get along. The list is long. Ryan, Romney, Bush, McConnell, Cheney to name a few of the more recent nationally. Statewide Hogan comes to mind immediately. But there are many more.
As one Democrat legislator in Maryland said, “Republicans have no balls. Therefore, we can do whatever we want. ” And that legislator is correct.
Again, I’ve had enough.
If you are a candidate and your initial stance is to brag how you will work to get along and compromise with the other side to “get things done,” You won’t get my vote.
You see, there is a difference between actively working to implement policies that are good for this country and giving in to people who hate us and hate the United States.
Maybe you don’t care if you don’t get the Conservative vote. Maybe you are going after the middle, the undecided, the Independents. You think that by muffling your opinions, blurring the moral line of your beliefs and saying what the “moderates” want you will get their votes.
I’m sure that is what the GOP leadership has told you to do. They see those voters as the difference makers. They see the rest of us as “in the bag.” This is a game to them. They compete to see who can get the most money and most power while seeking the love of the mainstream media, leftists and Hollywood no matter who they have to destroy in the process.
And still, the left the media and Hollywood will hate these sellouts.
You might get the independent votes. But remember this old saying, ” Dance with the one that brung ya.” If you ditch all the Conservatives with your stand to compromise with Marxists, you may be standing alone with no date at the dance. Actually, you will be outside the dance looking in.
Think about that. And think about the fact that Marxists are destroying this country one Republican compromise at a time. Grow “a set.” Do it quickly.
*To Conservative voters: Stop voting for lukewarm candidates just because they are possibly better than the other guy. An official with no values, no balls, no conviction is just…another gutless loser. Hold candidates’ feet to the fire. Be a force!
I didn’t always appreciate my Mom. She was too fussy, she nagged us about so many things, warned us about the dangers of the world, and designated her white velvet couch in the living room as a “no sitting unless you are company” area. She was an Air Force wife, spending her life supporting my father’s career; packing up and moving every four years.
She put up with my brother and me and all the bickering between us and the back talk to her (trust me, it wasn’t much back talk.) She sewed all of my clothes even though I begged her to buy me the latest fashions. She even made my bridesmaid’s dresses for my wedding. She did a great job, but I didn’t appreciate it. She planned my wedding since I lived 14 hours away from the venue. It was her chance to have the wedding she didn’t get to have since she got married right after World War II.
She and my father were Depression survivors. They learned what being poor and hungry was really about. She had five sisters and her father was a mailman and then an insurance salesman. He was a stern German who wouldn’t pay for her appendix to be removed until it burst, and she nearly died. Therefore, she was absolutely fastidious about our home, our possessions, and our health. She held on to each penny as if it was her last, only buying items that were high quality and would last a long time. She remained that way her entire life.
She was a talented seamstress and crafty designer. She ventured into creating home decor like a big bunch of grapes and a lamp she made out of resin. The fumes from her work in the basement would get you high! She arranged flowers, designed Christmas ornaments and wreaths, and any other craft you can think of. I didn’t appreciate how talented she was.
There are so many other things she did. She wrote a book about her life. She saved every single greeting card and letter my brother and I sent her. Her pinto bean soup and Thanksgiving dinner was to die for. And her hair was always perfect, even into her 90’s. She would cover her head with scarves and sleep on satin pillowcases to keep her hairdo looking its best.
She predicted Trump would be President way back in 2014.
I could go on.
I’m sure you could tell me similar things about your Mom.
The best thing about my Mom was that she was a Mama Bear. I knew she was on my side no matter what. That didn’t mean she gave me blanket approval, far from it. She and my Father held my brother and me to a high standard, and if we didn’t meet it, we found out immediately. I always wanted to make them proud of me, even when I was a stupid teenager who thought I knew it all.
And she would fight for me and my brother in every way she knew how. She yelled at my brother’s teacher when he was young because the teacher was doing a crappy job of teaching him to read and was blaming it on him. She fought with the officials of a track competition when they broke the rules to allow someone else to place higher than I did. She never missed a teacher conference day and she didn’t let anyone hurt one of us, not for a second.
Between my Mom and Dad, I knew that they were the two people in the world who would put everything on the line for my brother and me. And my Mom, the one who fussed over her hair, make-up and velvet couch, would be the iron fist in the velvet glove. If she was alive now, she’d be furious at what is being done to children in our country.
I’ll bet many of you had Mama Bears too. Even if some of them weren’t your Mom. Maybe they were aunts, older sisters, grandmothers, friends.
Mama Bears have been around for a long time. We just didn’t know and appreciate it as much as we should. But now we see how important they are. Let’s keep supporting them, encouraging them, fighting with them. And those of us who are Mama Bears also, let them know that someday their kids will appreciate them, even if they don’t show it right now.
Happy Mother’s Day Mama Bears! Keep Fighting for OUR KIDS!
Larry Hogan dragged his three chins across the country yesterday to speak at the Reagan Presidential Library.
Ronald Reagan was probably doing a little more than spinning in his grave. He was probably clawing his hands to get out so he could punch Larry Hogan. He certainly would not have approved of Hogan’s tirade.
And, if he read the article in the Washington Com-Post he would have been furious.
See, Larry decided to declare himself as the new face of the Republican Party. This is funny because he polled at BELOW 0% at the recent CPAC. It’s as though people not only didn’t vote for him, they begged and pleaded to vote against him.
In his interview, Larry decided to start out by slamming Trump and even Ron DeSantis calling the latter a “cheap impersonation” of the 45th President. He boldly predicted that Republicans wouldn’t win the White House if we supported Trump in 2024. He presented a “sharply worded speech” that demanded a “course correction” and a “more hopeful leader. The Post then proclaimed Hogan as a potential contender in 2024. Boy, he’d better get humping. Less than zero percent isn’t going to go far.
This is no new course for Larry, who decided a while back that he just didn’t like Trump. I’m not sure why, but I think it’s because Trump has balls and Hogan, well, he doesn’t. He proclaimed Trump’s term as “the worst four years for the GOP Party since the 1930’s, even worse that Watergate.”
He may be right. After all, Trump exposed all the RINO’s like Hogan and didn’t sing along with Mitch and the boys to toe the party line. He actually wanted to do good things for this country. He built a strong economy, a strong defense, and a strong presence in the world. And the Uniparty (Dems and Repubs) in Washington and Larry in Annapolis HATED that. They preferred an aging, senile fool named Biden who would drool his oatmeal all over them as he pinched their cute little cheeks. Trump didn’t kiss their asses.
If we are going to be fair, let’s talk about the eight-year term of Mr. Hogan and judge its effectiveness and leadership. In eight years can you name ONE THING that Larry and the gang (including Kelly Schulz) have done to make this state and the lives of its citizens better? Have taxes gone down? Are our schools better? Is crime reduced? Did Larry even TRY? Nope. He just sighed and said his hands were tied.
But he did lower bridge tolls. Way to go Larr. Whoopee!
Not only did he NOT do anything good, but he also almost destroyed the state with his Covid lockdowns and mandates. The Committee to Unleash Prosperity and the Wall Street Journal gave him a “D” in his actions regarding the economy during and after the Pandemic and Maryland ranked 48 out of 50 in education during and after that time. All because Larry liked being “large and in charge.” Little fat boy complex don’t ya know.
He called Trump a loser. Even if you think the election was legit, which it wasn’t, Trump won at least 74 million votes in the election. Below Zero Larry really hates that. If Trump is such a loser, Larry, how did he get that many votes? Better rethink that. You also might want to pay attention to how Trump endorsed candidates are doing in many state and local races. Maybe that is what gets you upset because Candidate Barbie Schulz is losing in the polls to Dan Cox. She won’t even debate him. I guess she’s fearful of hearing the voices of real Maryland citizens and that scares her. How will she answer their questions? I don’t see this ending well. Your fall off the wall is coming. Strap up!
It seems that you have an obsession with Trump, Larry. I mean, seriously, you tell Republicans to move on, but you can’t. It’s like you want to be like him so much but you just can’t. It’s actually pathetic.
Here’s the bottom line, Larry. I don’t care how many times you speak at Reagan’s library or create a fundraising arm for your Presidential aspirations, you are NOT getting the nomination. You say that you got the votes of Blacks, Hispanics and Independents in this state. I wonder how many you would get now. Better not poll small businesses or the middle-class Conservatives. And those Dems who “love” you. They can’t wait to see you gone.
See, here’s the difference between you and Trump. You are a “make nice” RINO who just wants all the popular kids to love him while he reaches his hand across the aisle and gets NOTHING done. Your supporters are the same. You and they love the status quo. (Yes, I’m pointing at YOU Republican Central Committee.) You’re so afraid to stand for Conservative values, to speak the truth, and to fight. In short, you’re a wuss.
And you hate us, the normal, average working people who want someone to fight for them. You called us “fringe whackos.” You insult us, abuse us, and almost destroyed us. We won’t forget.
Trump, for all his flaws, cares about this country and real people, not the big-time fundraisers and political operatives you (and Ms. Schulz) love so much. He puts America first, something you find hard to stomach. Remember all the millions on faulty Korean Covid tests? And he fights for us. He has balls.
You don’t.
Your article in the Post just reconfirmed it.
So, take your minus rating and waddle on out of here. And take Candidate Barbie Schulz with you.
I wrote this blog entry in February 2021. I saw things happening then that I couldn’t believe THEN. NOW I see even worse things going on EVERY SINGLE DAY.
They want OUR CHILDREN and want to GROOM them for PEDOPHILES.
As a child, I never was exposed to many of the adult themes and knowledge that kids are exposed to now. Nowadays, we see children as young as those in Kindergarten being told about sex and even how they can change sexes if they feel like a different sex than what they are biologically.
It seems to be part of a campaign in the last thirty years to make things that were once considered abnormal, normal. To be clear, if you are an adult and you are gay, a transexual, a transvestite, etc. I am not talking about you and your preferences for yourself or with a consenting adult partner. I say live and let live.
But, when it comes to children, I draw a huge, red line.
I will never consider abortion normal. In my opinion, there are too many ways to prevent pregnancy for anyone to have a child they aren’t ready for. Not to use them is irresponsible. But, if you should fail to use them, I would hope that you would consider allowing the child to have a life with another family who would adopt him/her. No baby deserves to be killed.
And now, with different states allowing babies to be killed even at nine months, the only moral choice is to allow the child life.
Equally or even more frightening is the slow moral crawl towards pedophilia being normalized. We watch young children sexualized while some experts are moving to make ” man boy love” and other pedophiliac pursuits as just a sexual preference. They have national conferences. They ask us to pity pedophiles. Saturday Night Live the other night had a comedy sketch where pedophilia was the punch line of the joke. This is not just unacceptable, it is disgusting.
Consider the recent discovery of Epstein’s Island and the transportation there, the Lolita express. As we hear more and more, it’s clear that political, business, and entertainment personalities have participated in that sick enterprise. We have even seen the daughters of political appointees and elected officials allow their daughters to be publicly “caressed” by a Vice President of the United States. His defenders passed it off to ” that’s just how old Joe is. He’s a hugger. ” No, he’s not just a hugger. He’s an inappropriate old man using his office to manhandle young girls. His son has been accused of sexually assaulting underage girls. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Lest I am accused of being biased, I also point out the recent arrest of a Republican operative for pedophilia. Apparently sick crosses party lines.
It makes you wonder if this is just part of the normalization of the most despicable of acts. When will start to see shows and movies portraying pedophiles in a sympathetic light? When will the AMA and the APA write articles stating that this is just another sexual preference? When will judges start removing charges from pedophiles based on their abusive childhood? ( Side note: When will we see a Supreme Court Judge confirmed who made a habit of reducing sentences of child pornographers? When will a company that entices children and their families promote teaching young children about SEX? Oh wait, that has already happened.)
I hope I am wrong. But, if you examine all of the things that would have been considered wrong thirty years ago and their journeys to normalcy, you may see the similarity.
I wrote this blog last December in response to the fact that State Senator Eckardt wasn’t responding to emails I and other people sent to her regarding mandates. When her staff did respond, it was with the same non-specific generic, politically correct crap politicians spew.
I did some research and found some videos of interviews with Addie about this issue. There are links below. In these interviews, Addie said some things about her constituents (like me) who didn’t support vaccine mandates. So I did what I do, I wrote about it.
Last night, our Family Advocacy Alliance had a candidate’s forum for those running for local office such as County Council and Board of Education. We invited a few other candidates such as Johnny Mautz (running for State Senate) and Nicole Acle (running for State Delegate in 37B, and Tom Hutchinson, also running for delegate in 37B). The last three candidates had been at local events and some of our meetings.
You have to understand that Addie had NEVER shown up at any of our meetings or even pretended to know we were having meetings.I guess education and parental rights isn’t a big deal to her. But she showed up last night out of the clear blue.
I wonder why? Why would a State Senator that I had not seen for at least a year suddenly come to a meeting? I know why, but you will have to read to the end to find out what I think.
(Clue, it may be because of Johnny Mautz)
Get in the Way Back Machine for Last December’s Blog Entry:
State Senator Addie Eckardt believes her constituents are a bunch of rubes who can’t think for themselves.
The first time I met Addie was in a Republican Committee Meeting at the Easton Fire Hall. It was memorable. I mentioned that I thought the Democrats were using Covid 19 as a way to make political moves and a switch went off in her head and she started yelling at me about how stupid I was, how this was the worst disease ever, the vaccines were amazing, and she can’t believe that we would listen to medical professionals who disagree. I put up my hand while she screeched and walked away.
I don’t know if she had a bad day, if she was overly tired, or I hit her trigger point, but it was clear that yelling at a constituent she had never met before was okay with her. I knew then that I would NEVER vote for this person for anything ever again.
So, fast forward to yesterday. I got a copy of the article and video below. While I was shocked that any politician would say what she said on the record, it didn’t surprise me that Senator Eckardt would say that. It’s a paraphrase of what she said to me that night.
As you watch the video, you’ll hear her devolve over time from being politically correct and saying that people don’t understand to the point where she actually calls the people she represents, rural folk, uneducated. She calls parents who live down here, “misinformed.” She’s angry that we would dare to be non-compliant to her and all of our other government masters as they put the hard sell on us to get this experimental DNA therapy injected into us and our children. After all, she’s told us it’s safe. And she used to be a nurse. That should be good enough. It’s not.
She even derides other medical professionals, some much more accomplished than she, for providing the needed information about the jab that the public has a need and right to know. Some of them are Nobel Prize winners and well respected world wide. I think one of them is Ben Carson. He has a bit of medical cred, don’t you think Addie?
To hear her talk about those nurses and doctors who have followed their personal moral and professional ethics and given up their jobs rather than take or promote this shot, you would think they were a bunch of gap toothed snake oil salesmen and women. All because they disagree with her.
Listening to her talk to her other committee members, especially those from the other side of the bridge, you might think she actually cared about us. But then, as she continues you see that all she is doing is attempting to distance herself from us. The implication is that it’s not her that is the problem, but these stupid people she represents. Another politician who just wants to be one of the “popular kids.” The Democrats will still hate you, Addie. Remember that. You’ll never be one of them.
But, she tries to fit in. She states that the mandates are coming. She pretends that she doesn’t want them either but, oh well. She says that this gene therapy is the same as any other vaccine from the past. It’s not. VAERS data show us that it is not. Is she unable or unwilling to look at the overwhelming data about the many adverse reactions to the shot? Has she missed the video of Fauci telling us that this is an “experiment” and we are the participants?
Or maybe she’s not as smart as she thinks she is.
Here’s the thing Addie. I haven’t known you long, but from what I see you are just another elitist politician who enjoys ruling. You like the power, the influence, and perhaps the money.
And it’s time for you to go.
You don’t realize that the people who question the jab here on the Shore and everywhere are professionals, accomplished people with IQ’s that dwarf yours. They are parents, teachers, medical staff, etc. who have researched the topic, looked at all sides, and made a decision for themselves and their children. You won’t even LISTEN to us, just like you wouldn’t listen the day I met you.
Like a child with your hands over your ears shouting “la la la” while we talk, you have no respect for us, our ideas, our thoughts. How immature, especially for a woman of your age and experience. We expect more, and we aren’t getting it. We expect you to fight for our Constitutional rights, and you won’t.
You have lost touch with us and because of that, you no longer represent us.
If you are counting on our votes to re-elect you next year, forget it. We are tired of you and your ilk.
And we will vote you out.
Oh, and as a side note, how about you and our delegation meet with us and have a press conference over this topic? We challenge you to do that. Put your disregard for us out there so we can hear it in person.
We’ll wait.
By the way, if you’d like to contact me, my contact info is available. Be ready, because I am a thinking, educated person. And it won’t be pretty if you try that screeching thing again. You can find me on Larry Hogan’s list of “fringe whackos.” I’m there right next to Dan Cox, a gubernatorial candidate who believes in the Constitution.
I’ll wait.
But, since I’m one of those rural rubes you dislike so much, I won’t hold my breath.
I promised I would tell you why Addie is suddenly showing up like some kind of pink royalty out to grace us with her presence.
It’s obvious. Addie has a Republican opponent for State Senate. And it’s not just ANY opponent, it’s someone who is popular here on the Shore, who gets out and listens to people, who works to understand and fix the issues we have with State Government. Someone who respects us AND our opinions.
You see, Johnny Mautz is running against Addie. And from what I see, he is making a HUGE impact on the voters here on the Shore.
And so now Addie has decided to show up. It may be too late. Marching in a parade in Oxford and coming to ONE meeting isn’t going to cut it.
We aren’t that stupid. We see right through you. We’re kind of pissed.
It’s a conversation I’ve had many times this year. While I am talking to someone about our group of approximately 150 people who meets every month to learn about what is going on in the education system in our county and what needs to happen, this question will come up. “Why don’t we have more parents involved in the meetings? Why aren’t they energized?”
At that point we usually go through the normal excuses, they are too busy, it’s a bad time for the meeting (7 p.m. on a Tuesday night), they are intimidated and don’t want their children targeted by the school system, and on and on. Someone will bring up the fact that many parents have pulled their children out of the government schools into private schools and homeschooling. Someone else will say that the parents can’t sit and listen to information for long OR that we are not entertaining enough for them. We get “too much in the weeds” for them.
I’ve heard them all. Sometimes I feel guilty. If only I would work harder, do more, be better, they would engage. It reminds me of a gymnastics coach I knew once who was bemoaning the fact that his kids weren’t elite level gymnasts even though they practiced hard. He told me, “They just don’t seem to care enough.” I pointed out to him that the athletes he was discussing practiced five nights a week for at least two hours. Obviously, the kids were committed. Then I would say to him, “But you can’t want it more than they do.” My point was that those athletes had to be the ones who had the motivation, the drive, to do what they needed to be at an elite level. The athletes needed to feel the urgency. Coaches can’t do that for them.
And I feel the same about the young parents in our area. For some reason, the dire conditions of our public schools aren’t dire enough. The scores aren’t low enough, the academic progress isn’t lagging enough, the violence isn’t bad enough. For some reason, we haven’t hit that point where parents feel compelled to do something. Some may not know the reality of the situation.
The ones who have fled from the system feel safe in their private schools and homeschooling, because as of right now the government hasn’t taken control of those two avenues of escape or forbidden them altogether. But it’s just a matter of time.
Frankly, if you look at the private schools, many of them are buying into the government schools’ model and the “woke” nonsense just as much as the public schools.
But the time will come when the early sexualization of young children, the indoctrination into Marxist ideals, the rampant racist division, and the total lack of academic instruction will finally hit a crisis point and these parents will stand up, look around, and decide to take action.
By then it might be too late. Like the picture at the beginning of this blog, they will find that the government now owns and controls their children. And they won’t be able to do a thing.
Those excuses won’t mean much then, will they.
If you want to get involved, make a difference, come to the Candidate’s Forum on Tuesday, April 26th, 7-9 at the Easton Fire Hall. It will be a chance to get to know people who are running for county and state office.
Or, you could make an excuse not to come. It’s up to you.
Today I am going to do things a bit differently. Today I am going to share a video from an excellent website that promotes parental rights and empowerment.
As I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts the other day, Mojo50 yesterday, I heard an interview with Sam Sorbo. If you don’t know who she is, she is the wife of actor/producer Kevin Sorbo and an advocate for homeschooling and educational freedom. Her website is Samsorbo.com. She also has a nationally syndicated radio show, The Sam Sorbo Show.
One of the first things she said in her interview was the fact that a huge population had been indoctrinated by the government school system. That population is…PARENTS. As she talked, she detailed the fact that this indoctrination of parents has been going on for a very long time. Parents had been taught this lesson, “You need to let decisions about your child to US, the educators. We know best and you know nothing.” It wasn’t everyone in the school system, but it was a majority of the people making money off the control of our most precious children.
I went to her website and found so many resources. The video interview below is just one of them. So, instead of writing about it, I’m directing you to the video below and many more resources on her website.
If you are a parent, grandparent or community member and you are concerned about the well-being and education of children your eyes will be opened. If they were already open, you will find the strength to fight what is going on.
I’m going to lose some friends over this blog, but I hope that many of them will understand what I am saying and change what is going on in this election. I may get kicked out of the Republican Party locally. No big deal. But it is time for some tough love for candidates.
I went to a Candidate’s Forum the other night to hear the Republican County Council candidates address questions from the audience. It was organized by the Republican Central Committee and… well let’s just say it was uninspiring. It was sort of like having Neville Chamberlain show up when you needed Churchill during World War II.
I have some friends who are running and I truly admire their guts in putting themselves out there as candidates during these contentious times. Hey, I’m not running for a variety of reasons, one of which is that I like having freedom of speech to say things the way I see them in the way I want them said.
But, based on this forum only two or three of them convinced me that they WANT the job much less can DO the job. And whoever set the format of this night and rules did NOTHING to help these candidates as all.
So let’s start first with some tough love for the organizers of the candidates’ forum.
Don’t spend the beginning of the evening virtue signaling. It’s a waste of time and annoying. Unless you are going to have a moment of silence for every population that is caught in war or violence, don’t do it for one.
Make sure the moderator has access to the questions prior to the start so he can read them clearly. Whether it’s the handwriting of the questioner or the reading skill of the moderator, stumbling one’s way through questions is not a good look and it is confusing.
Make ALL candidates answer ALL questions. The format of candidates raising their hands to answer the questions they wanted to answer allows some candidates to hide their weaknesses and others to monopolize the night. Force them to answer in a different order each time. Listening to a candidate agree with another candidate or repeat his/her answer is not productive.
If the crowd wants a certain question answered and all the submitted questions have been used, then let the candidates answer that question. It’s not up to the moderator to decide that he doesn’t like the question and won’t let it be answered.
Stop protecting your candidates from “spies” from the other side because you don’t want answers used against them. This just makes your candidates weak. Sooner or later, they will have to stand in front of lefties and answer questions.
Supply microphones that work.
Know your audience. These are tough times which require tough questions.
Now for the candidates.
I know you are nervous. Many of you haven’t spoken publicly since High School, if then. But, you are running because of what YOU can offer. Remember that when you speak. So, here goes.
Do your research. Understand what people are worried about right now. When I hear that a candidate’s main pressing issue this year is finding a new office for the Sheriff and the Health Department, it’s clear that candidate hasn’t been talking to people in the county. Yes, people want to support law enforcement. No, they don’t care which building they are housed in unless that building is falling apart. As for the Health Department, they care even less about their physical office. People are worried about inflation, high energy costs, good jobs, high taxes, the education their children are getting, law enforcement, government accountability to the taxpayers, maintaining the quality of life of our county and maintaining their Constitutional rights. And, sorry guys, the statue on the Courthouse lawn is gone. If that is the only thing that fires you up, you are in trouble.
Know the issues. Study how things currently work and THEN propose answers. Saying “it’s out of our hands” over and over doesn’t cut it. If it’s out of your hands and you have no ideas how to fight that, why are you running?
Don’t contradict yourself. How many times do Democrats do this and we jump all over them? It’s the same even when Conservatives do it. (By the way, we are not stupid. Don’t tell us you have done certain things when you haven’t or that you are against something you have publicly supported.)
Show some personality, some passion, some willingness to do battle. We are in a war right now and we need someone who will fight for us. You don’t have to be a raving lunatic, but you need to inspire people, not lull them to sleep. We don’t have to agree with you all the time, but we need to know you will stand for us.
Be yourself. All the data, figures, degrees, platitudes, etc. don’t mean a THING if people can’t connect with you somehow. Winston Churchill was not a bland personality. Many people didn’t like him. But in a time of crisis, he was able to connect with them as a LEADER. One candidate made a comment that he was not a politician, that he was who he was, and he cared about this county. People can connect with that because they believe he will fight for them.
Take off the RINO muzzle. Party leaders are just that, party leaders. They are NOT candidates. Some of them have NO idea what the regular people want. They just want to manage and control the party and make sure no one says anything slightly controversial. They are political beings and quite frankly that’s not working right now. We need warriors, not clerks.
Remember WHY YOU ARE RUNNING. I watch “Bar Rescue” while I work. It’s a show about a Jon Taffer who goes to failing bars and helps the owners run them so they actually make money. After he reams them out over all the issues in their business, he then sits with them and asks them, “Why do you do this?” They usually have answers such as, ” I want to provide for my family,” or ” I want to leave something for my kids,” or ” My Father owned this bar and I want to honor his memory.” Upon hearing that answer, Jon says, “You need to remember that every day and FIGHT FOR IT.” It’s such a great motivation. I know most of you up there and I KNOW that you want to run to make things better, to save our country, to fight for our rights.
I would never have known that about most of you based on that forum. If you want to connect with people, get back the fire. Remember who you are and why you are here. Don’t be afraid to show that fire to people, regardless of what you are told by political managers. Some of you say, ” I have to get elected first before I can do and say what I want. “
A little secret, if you don’t show who you are, then you will never be honest. You’ll get elected and be no better than all the jaded politicians in Annapolis and Washington D.C. because you will NEVER stop lying to yourself and your constituents.
Like I said, this is “tough love.” I give like others have given to me from time to time. You decide what you want to do with my advice. It’s up to you.
I know you can do what you need to do, just do what you know how to do.
With Love,
Me
**Side Note** I know some great people on the Central Committee who work very hard and do the right thing. I know they are NOT “politics as usual” and are not responsible for muzzling candidates. To them, thank you for fighting to prevent mediocrity.
When my daughter was four, I tried to get her reading. So, I bought a series called “Hooked on Phonics.” The point was to get young children reading phonetically to prepare them for school. Schools at the time had removed phonics from their reading strategies.
My daughter would have NOTHING to do with it. I bought the game and she resisted every opportunity to play the game with me. As usual with her, everything had to be done on HER time when she wanted to do it. And it had to be the games SHE wanted to play.
For some reason, the recent tendency for everyone to show their love and support for the Ukranian people against Russia reminded me of this. Every time I run through Oxford, look on social media, or watch the cable channels, people are hooked on Virtue Signaling. But, like my daughter, they want to choose WHO and WHAT they virtue signal for. And I think that shows so much about them and who they are.
While Ukraine is all anyone talks about, it wouldn’t be far-fetched for people to think that this is the ONLY place in the world where innocent people are being killed. But, with a little research this is what I found;
According to a review by the site “worldpopulationreview.com” there are twenty-one conflicts going on in the world that are experiencing either armed battles between different countries or different groups in a country or a sustained campaign against an undesirable situation or activity. According to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program the definition of war is that it is a conflict which reaches 1000 battle related deaths in a specific calendar year. These fatalities are among combatants as well as any civilians killed by deliberate, war related attacks.
Let’s look at some of the conflicts named in the cite listed above.
Afghanistan – Civil War-Casuality range 2020-2021 : 10,000
Colombia – Civil War/Drug War- 1,000-10,000 casualties between 20-21
Ethiopia – Civil War – 10,000 casualties in 20/21
Libya- Civil War – 1,000 to 10,000 casualties in 20/21
Mexico – Drug War – 10,000 plus casualties in 20/21
Myanmar- Civil War – 1000 to 10,000 casualties in 20/21
South Sudan – Ethnic violence -1,000 -10,000 casualties in 20/21
Yemen – Civil War – 10,000 plus in 20/21
Many wars in different countries have been going on for decades. Somalia has had Civil War since the 80’s and has had at least 500,000 deaths. Libya’s war has been going on since 2011 and over 30,000 people have been killed.
And, let’s not forget that the Chinese Communist Party has oppressed the Uyghurs (Muslims), and has imprisoned more than one million people since 2017 and subjected millions of others to intense surveillance, religious restrictions, forced labor and force sterilizations. (cfr.org) And as bad as that is, it doesn’t even touch the millions killed in China’s history of the last 30 years.
And, by the way, this is not to belittle the Ukranian conflict which has killed approximately 15,000 people including combatants and civilians.
What I wonder is why does the Ukraine conflict cause so much angst and empty virtual signaling here in our country while these other conflicts are ignored. Is White Privilege at play here because the victims in Ukraine are White? Look at all the other wars and we see that most of them are in countries with non-whites, “brown” people as AOC likes to call them. I guess all the virtue signaling rich folk in Oxford either don’t care about Brown people or are just too lazy to pay attention to the events of the world. The only flags and signs I see are blue and yellow.
Yeah, I know, to say their efforts are racist is unkind and unfair.
But I do wonder about the intensity of this now. There was a Russian incursion into Ukraine in 2014, and I don’t remember Ukranian flags or a foreign President speaking at the Grammy Awards about it. So, why this time?
Shoot, they aren’t even letting Russian citizens get on social media or allowing them to buy Dior pocketbooks. Yes, it’s true.
If I was a jaded Pessimist, I would say that it’s because this war is good cover for an inept Administration and a President facing criminal charges that actually involve Ukraine. I would say that the media is working their hardest to promote the conflict and to demonize Putin and the Russians, (obligatorily stated opinion and side note, yes, Putin is a Commie and a really bad man). I would say that there are connections between Ukraine and the crime families of our country, the Clintons, the Bidens, the Obamas, etc. And there’s always that “New World Order” thing and how they supposedly hate Putin. This is all conjecture of course since I, like everyone else, don’t really know what’s true and what’s propaganda.
Even weirder is that the same media that was talking about the NAZI’s in Ukraine in 2017 suddenly has selective memory and walks that claim back, even in the face of proof.
But, for the virtue signalers, none of this matters. What does matter is putting up the yellow and blue flag and taking a picture in front of it to prove your international empathy on Facebook. As someone said, “These are people who care about caring but not fixing.” I know this is out of their range to fix, but still, they don’t even fix situations in our country that they COULD fix.
We’ll see them this Spring. I know at our annual Oxford Day Celebration they’ll be out in full force with newly adopted patriotic colors, yellow and blue, oh, and a sunflower. I wouldn’t even be surprised to see them march in the parade behind a Ukrainian flag. That’s their right and it really makes them feel good.
But, I have a suggestion. If they REALLY want to prove how caring they are, if they want to win the virtue signal Olympics, they may want to carry these flags as well:
I left the names of the countries off the flags. Wait, signalers don’t know which country is which? How can they virtue signal if they don’t have that information?
I guess they had better start a search online huh?
Or maybe they want to virtue signal for who they want, when they want.
If you had any doubt about the reasoning behind so many of the school policies being implemented in our district and across the country, the following news story may help you see what is going on.
If you read the article, you’ll hear a new phrase, “culturally responsive discipline.” This phrase is the twin to the phrase “culturally responsive teaching.” You may have heard the latter in reference to teacher training in the recently passed “Blueprint for Maryland Education.” One of the skills new teachers will have to learn will be “culturally responsive teaching.”
Culturally Responsive Teaching, or the new CRT, is defined as using a student’s cultural background and experiences in order to teach more effectively. The first two premises are teaching must yield academic success and teaching must help students develop positive ethnic and cultural identities while simultaneously helping them achieve academically. Sounds fairly benign until you read the third premise which is “teaching must support students’ ability to recognize, understand and critique current social inequalities.” While I will agree that we must educate all students in a way that works for them, that third statement will have the exact opposite effect than what is desired.
Let’s break that third premise down. What does supporting student understanding and critique of current social inequalities look like in a classroom?
For those who have never taught, a class or a lesson always begins in a couple of ways. Some begin with an overarching question that the students will discover the answer to. Others begin with a teacher telling students what their objective is for the lesson; what they hope to know or be able to do at the end.
So, imagine the teacher starting a lesson in a math class in the following way:
” Good morning class. Today we are going to learn how to use algebraic equations to solve complex problems. But first, we need to answer the following question: ‘How is your math education being impeded by current social inequalities in math?’ “Or even better, “How is algebra racist?”
Inspiring, huh? If I’m a minority student in this class, I’m now discovering that society doesn’t want me to learn math, therefore, I won’t be able to learn math. I don’t know about you, but most of the students I had in class had to be convinced every day why they could and should learn what I was teaching. Telling them that society stands in the way of them learning algebra because of their race, gender, or sexual preference wasn’t going to boost their achievement, especially if that premise was discussed ad nauseum, every single day. If I am a student who already struggles in math, telling me math is racist won’t help me learn.
Even if there might be an occasional student who would look at this as a challenge and therefore try harder, this strategy will cause most to shrug their shoulders and disengage.
Not only that, but this is going to handcuff a teacher and prevent them from using strategies he/she feels will work. How is the teacher going to address all the different cultures in his/her classroom? Which ones would have obstacles and which ones wouldn’t? And how is the teacher to know if the minority students had obstacles while the white ones didn’t? In my years, I had minority students who were privileged and White ones who weren’t.
It’s one thing to think of students as individuals. It’s quite another to lump them all into groups based on presumed cultural “truths”. They will end up with teachers making assumptions about students based on skin color and gender. That’s called stereotyping and it is a BAD thing to do in any walk of life. It’s racist, classist, sexist and any other “ist” you can think of.
Culturally responsive teaching is based on and promotes racist attitudes. It paralyzes educators in their classrooms and keeps them from getting to know the students behind the cultural labels.
Even worse is culturally responsive discipline.
To understand this concept, it’s important to know the rationale used by the school board in question to implement it. The district in question, Clover Park School District, said that “students of color” are disciplined in disproportionate rates in their schools and that makes them have a negative feeling about school.
So, let me get this straight. Because Black students are disciplined in a percentage that is more than their percentage of the general population, the school board wants to throw out policies that dictate the same consequences for everyone for the same infractions. So, in order to prevent disproportionate discipline, they want to implement racially motivated discipline. A caste system so to speak.
Let’s do an analogy. Let’s say that people over 6 feet tall speed more than other drivers. Let’s say they are ticketed in a higher proportion than their share of the driving population. This makes them angry, and they don’t like driving as much. Should the police then adopt a policy that is “culturally responsive” to people who are over 6 feet tall and drive? Should they give them a different, less punitive consequence for speeding so they will like driving more and potentially drive more? How would this be received? You know the answer. There would be outrage among the driving public. If you think road rage is bad now, wait until drivers find out there are different consequences for different drivers depending on how tall they are. The bottom line is that the drivers over 6 feet tall will still speed as much or more than they always have, but now the other drivers will take note and lash out against police and the tall drivers.
Somehow, the Clover Park School District doesn’t understand basic human nature. Most humans want to believe that the rules are the same for everyone. We get upset when that isn’t true, even if it doesn’t affect us personally. This has been the basis for every social equality movement throughout history. Martin Luther King Jr. wasn’t marching for different rules and treatment for Black people. He was marching so that Blacks would have the same rules and treatment as Whites. Have we forgotten that? Has it gone out of favor to think that way?
The goal Clover Park School District is trying to achieve, “a safe, inclusive environment,” isn’t going to happen by making consequences for certain students less than others. Their other goal, to increase equitable educational opportunities, won’t be realized either. If a student discovers that he can avoid consequences because of his race, he won’t stop offending. Chances are he’ll do more.
As for the other students, whichever race they may be, once they discover that the rules aren’t the same for everyone, they will react angrily. There goes your school environment. The differences create different school “tribes” who will war with each other.
The race industry will say in response that unequal consequences have always been in place and that usually White students were the beneficiaries of the practice. They will say that it’s time to “even the score.” Even if that is true, do we solve the problem by using the same practices that were unfair before? Is this some kind of crazy reparation or revenge motive? Or is it just another way for systems to make money with federal grants or to virtue signal that they are solving lagging Black achievement even when they aren’t?
Wouldn’t it be better to examine and try to solve the root causes of discipline issues in the minority population? Wouldn’t it make sense to teach students that certain infractions will incur specific consequences?
Quite frankly, this school board is just saying out loud the truth that exists in many school systems right now, even our own. Many educators have concluded that they must think long and hard before disciplining minority students. In fact, many don’t discipline them at all, allowing them to “work out their anger” while endangering other students, destroying school property, and disrupting the education of themselves and others.
I’m reminded of an Assistant Principal in a school where I taught. The AP was in charge of something called the “Ninth Grade Academy,” a section of the high school that was created to keep 9th grade students self-contained so they would learn to be good school citizens before being exposed to upper-level students. The Assistant Principal in charge was very invested in the concept. So, he made a point of using the system to make the numbers look better so the academy would be continued.
When a teacher wrote a referral on a 9th Grade student, this AP would call the student to his office, give him/her a piece of candy, talk to them, and then send them back to class. No consequences, no punishment. The referral, which was required by State Law to be addressed with both the student and the teacher before the student returned to class was ignored. It was supposed to be entered into a data base to track how or if the academy was positively impacting the behavior of the students.
When it was clear that the discipline referrals didn’t decrease at all, he just started shoving them in a desk drawer without addressing them at all. When teachers asked, he told them he’d get back to them. The data looked great, but it was wrong.
It wasn’t too long before students got the idea that nothing would happen to them if they misbehaved. So, they kept doing what they were doing. The teachers figured out that their referrals were useless, so they stopped writing them. The behavior got worse; the data got “better”.
And the students learned nothing about how to behave. In fact, many learned nothing. The whole point of the “Ninth Grade Academy” was lost and the practice was discontinued. Tons of money and time wasted.
And that seems to be the way the educational bureaucracy is handling racial issues in the schools. They have known about the Minority vs. White achievement gap for over 20 years. Yet through all the meetings, seminars, and lip service they have given the issue, they haven’t closed the gap one bit.
All they have done is paralyze the teachers, the administrators, and the system with claims of “inherent” and “systemic” racism. They have divided our children into different sects divided by race, gender, economic status, and sexual preference, setting them against each other like a big educational Tower of Babel. They have also set themselves as the authorities while discounting the role of parents in the lives and education of children. Educators can see it’s not working, but like insanity, they keep doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result.
Who is deciding this and promoting this nonsense? How is something so illogical and harmful being promoted by school boards such as the one in Washington?
It starts at the Federal level, with grant money sent to states from various government agencies. This grant money is in the billions, but it comes with big strings. As it comes down to the local level, those strings don’t go away. You can find them in the presentations of local Superintendents. The strings get different names every time the general public figures out what is going on. For a while it was Critical Race Theory. Now it is social emotional learning, culturally responsive teaching (the new CRT), ant-racism, and culturally responsive discipline.
These strings are carefully placed there by what I call the “racism” industry. These are people like Ibram X Kendi, Gloria Ladson Billings, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Patrisse Cullers, etc. and organizations like Black Lives Matter, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. There are so many more and they make a ton of money promoting racism in our schools and society. (And by the way, there are groups locally who belong and exploit racism for status and money.)
And we haven’t even discussed the sexual indoctrination of young children in Pre-K and Kindergarten.
Local school boards and Superintendents do the bidding of the race and gender industry. They even lie to their constituents about what they do in the name of money. (see article from THE FEDERALIST below). Think they don’t do it here? You are either blind or not paying attention.
And that is why we are where we are. Students are not achieving, and they are out of control. And the only answer the race industry has is more racism, sexual indoctrination for young children, and different standards for different population subgroups.
So, again people ask me what can be done? What are we doing?
First, be very careful about who you elect locally, statewide and nationally. Ask the tough questions and make candidates commit to positions. For example, ask a candidate, “How should students be disciplined for violent and disruptive behavior in school?” Follow that up with the example from the district in Washington State and ask the candidate if they approve of that approach and why they have that opinion. Attend candidate forums when you can.
Find the school district’s discipline policy. If you can’t find it online, ask them to send it to you. If they won’t, do a Freedom of Information Act application.
Remember, the schools will not share any information about individual students and how they were disciplined for infractions. However, if YOUR child is disciplined for behavior, ask questions about their consequences and whether or not those consequences are consistent with the policy and those meted out to the student body in general.
Talk to other parents you know and find out what is going on in the schools. Don’t tiptoe around the issue with minority parents. One of the strongest opinions I heard about the Clover Park District policy was from a Black parent who stated that she didn’t want her child being given greater or lighter consequences because he is Black. She included academic expectations in that as well, as she had to speak to teachers in the past because they were not holding her child to the same high standards of other students because he is Black.
Parents know that children must learn that poor behavior has negative consequences, or those children will be out of control when they are adults.
The bottom line is that racism is not its own solution. Pretending that it is condemns us to decades of hatred, failure, and division.
PS: The Talbot County Family Advocacy Alliance will be hosting a candidates’ forum on April 26th, 2022. Look for more details at our Family Advocacy Alliance Facebook Group or this blog! Candidate invitations will be going out this week.
