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promoted to primary 7/15

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azcentral

anti-government group with Arizona ties takes credit for weather radar sabotage

Portrait of Richard RuelasRichard Ruelas

Arizona Republic

Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer, leader of the anti-government group Veterans On Patrol, took credit for the sabotage of a TV station's weather radar system in Oklahoma City.

Meyer believes the military and media use radar systems to control weather and considers destroying them "God's work."

Meyer previously led a homeless veterans aid group in Arizona and made unsubstantiated claims about child sex trafficking at an abandoned cement plant.

A man who, years ago, became convinced a child sex-trafficking ring was operating at an abandoned cement plant in Tucson has moved to Oklahoma and found a new target: radar systems he believes the military and media use to control the weather.

Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer, who leads the anti-government group Veterans On Patrol, claimed credit for the July 6 sabotage of the weather radar system of KWTV-TV, Channel 9, in Oklahoma City. Meyer did not vandalize the station’s radar system himself, but had posted pleas on his group’s Telegram channel asking for others to join his cause.

Security footage posted by the television station showed a man tossing a bag over a chain-link fence, climbing it and damaging a power supply. The video then showed the man spray painting over the lens of a security camera.

Oklahoma City police arrested a man on July 8, believed to be the person in the video. He was initially held on unrelated misdemeanor charges, but felony counts were added July 10, including causing damage to a "critical infrastructure facility." A department spokesperson did not confirm whether that was the television station's weather equipment.

Meyer, in an interview with a reporter with the TV station, said his group was "absolutely" responsible for the act.

It is not clear how many people are associated with Meyer's group, outside of his social media following. In group posts on Telegram, Meyer has spoken of an unknown number of aligned "Brothers and Sisters."

Speaking to The Arizona Republic on July 10, Meyer said he and those in his movement were doing nothing wrong.

“Eliminating directed energy weapons that are embedded in our infrastructure is not going to harm a single American,” he said. “It will take away a loaded weapon pointed at the American people.”

Before moving to Oklahoma, Meyer caused a stir in southern Arizona by calling law enforcement to investigate an abandoned cement plant where he was convinced children were being sex trafficked. Police found nothing.

Meyer, on the Veterans On Patrol channel on Telegram, has posted about the government using chemical weapons and vowing to destroy equipment. But the postings took on a more urgent tone after the July 4 flooding in central Texas. The sudden swelling of the Guadalupe River has killed more than 120 people, including dozens of children.

Meyer said in postings that the U.S. military intentionally caused the floods.

Meyer, in a Telegram post on July 6, showed a yellow flyer posted on a chain-link fence with a radar tower in the background. The flyer said the radar tower was “targeted for elimination by victims of U.S. military weather experimentation.”

The flyer gave a name to the project: Operation Leaning Tower. It also listed Meyer’s name and phone number, inviting anyone to contact him “with any questions or concerns.”

Two days after the television station's radar system was vandalized, Meyer posted a video of himself walking into the Oklahoma City Police Department headquarters. At the front desk, he identified himself as “the one commanding the operations,” according to the video.

Two men came to the lobby to speak with Meyer, according to his video, but did not appear to take his statement or question him about his claim of responsibility.

In the lobby, Meyer again asked his audience to join his group’s efforts in destroying radar towers.

“You’re doing God’s work if you’re eliminating the military’s capabilities of playing God with the weather,” he told his viewers. His Telegram channel has about 6,600 subscribers. The video of him in the police lobby had been viewed more than 2,200 times as of July 10.

Group previously aided homeless veterans in Arizona

Eight years ago, Meyer lived in Arizona. The Veterans On Patrol group was known then for starting camps that offered aid to homeless veterans in the Phoenix area.

That effort moved to Tucson. In May 2018, Meyer became convinced about trafficking at the abandoned cement plant. After nine days of occupation on the site, Meyer was arrested for trespassing.

Meyer told The Republic he spent time along the Arizona border with Mexico before moving to Oklahoma. He described himself as a “homeless transient.” Videos on his Telegram channel show him near a tent with his dog.

Meyer said he would like to focus on helping veterans living on the street, but continued to find other, more pressing matters.

“I’d love to do good things,” he said. “But now I have to go destroy equipment because the military will not stop violating (federal law.)”

The chief meteorologist for the television station, David Payne, said the radar only monitors the weather.

“I wish we could turn it on and say, 'Oh, let's make that tornado go away,’ but our weather radar and all of the weather radars in the U.S. are built strictly to inform and warn the public, and to keep the public safe,” he said in an interview that aired on the station.

EPA creates websites to challenge conspiracy theories about weather

Meyer has planned his Operation Leaning Tower, targeting radar towers for months. He posted photos of the yellow fliers announcing the targeting of certain towers in April. That same month, he posted videos of himself walking through the state Capitol in Oklahoma, trying to speak to staffers of lawmakers and the governor about his plan.

In May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned employees at the National Weather Service of the threats, according to emails obtained by the Washington Post.

The emails, according to the Post, suggested maintaining "increased vigilance when at or near radar sites. Out of an abundance of caution, we are asking all regions to notify their field offices and radar technicians to maintain increased vigilance when at or near radar sites,” NOAA’s central office informed leadership across the country in a May 1 memo, which advised weather service staff to notify local law enforcement of any suspicious behavior.

On July 10, the Environmental Protection Agency created two websites that debunked the notion that the government was working to control the weather, including through “chemtrail” emissions from airplanes.

The websites were part of an effort by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to take a hard look at the conspiracy theories. “Instead of simply dismissing these questions and concerns as baseless conspiracies, we’re meeting them head-on,” Zeldin said in a video posted on X.

The man arrested by Oklahoma City police on July 8 was accused of violating a protective order and damaging property. But a spokesperson for the department said those accusations had nothing to do with the damage to the television station’s radar, though the man was considered a suspect in that crime.

On July 10, the website for the Oklahoma City Detention Center showed he was being held on additional felony counts, including one for trespass and damage to a critical infrastructure facility.

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A spokesperson for the Oklahoma City Police Department, Capt. Valerie Littlejohn did not immediately return an email on July 10 asking whether the new accusations involved the TV station.

Littlejohn said investigators had not determined whether that man was associated with Veterans On Patrol.

On that group’s Telegram channel, Meyer called the man a “patriot.”

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NO LNX

'Veterans on Patrol': Inside MAGA's new assault on reality and bizarre conspiracy theory

Thom Hartmann July 12, 2025

In Oklahoma, a domestic militia calling itself “Veterans on Patrol” is systematically targeting weather radars. Their leader, Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer, claims the military is controlling the weather through Doppler radar systems and that these machines are part of a divine affront — a “weather weapon” — that is “mocking God Himself.”

He’s encouraging his followers to sabotage these radars under an operation he calls “Leaning Tower.” This isn’t just fringe paranoia: it’s part of a growing anti-reality insurgency that threatens our democracy itself.

Let’s be blunt: this is insanity. Not just in its content, but in its consequences. And yet, it’s not isolated. It’s one of many conspiracy-fueled campaigns that now animate parts of American life, often backed by violence or intimidation. From QAnon to flat-earth nonsense to vaccine “skeptics” now within the Food and Drug Administration, we’re watching a dangerous erosion of truth, a collapse of shared facts, and an outright assault on the institutions that protect life and liberty.

What’s happening here isn’t just about weather radars: it’s about reality itself.

When people are told not to believe their own eyes, not to trust scientists, doctors, journalists, or even the National Weather Service, society begins to crack. And the people exploiting those cracks — including some of the Trump administration’s most senior officials (see: Bob Kennedy and Stephen Miller, among others) — know exactly what they’re doing.

Veterans on Patrol isn’t just anti-science or anti-government; it’s anti-democracy. It joins a growing list of extremist groups peddling lies and hatred: anti-immigrant, anti-Indigenous, antisemitic, misogynist, anti-Catholic, anti-Muslim. It wraps its destruction in the flag and cloaks its violence in religion. And when Meyer boasts about being responsible for “a lot more than” taking down a radar, we’d be fools not to take him seriously. Oklahoma, after all, remembers Timothy McVeigh.

This latest attack rendered a critical radar system “instantly obsolete,” according to meteorologist David Payne. That radar was designed to save lives, particularly in tornado-prone Oklahoma. When it’s destroyed, people will die. Period. This is not free speech: this is domestic terrorism.

But here’s the deeper issue: this attack is only a symptom, not the disease. The disease is the deliberate poisoning of the American mind with fantasy and fear by a network and system of media and social media owned by anti-democracy rightwing billionaires and filled with Russian trolls. And when truth dies, democracy soon follows.

Because democracy — as Thomas Jefferson so accurately pointed out (“Whenever the people are well informed, they may be trusted with their own government”) — depends on an educated public operating on the basis of shared truths and actual facts.

You can’t have a functioning republic if half the country believes extreme weather is a “liberal weapon” and the other half knows it’s the result of an atmosphere warmed by fossil fuel emissions. You can’t govern when reality itself is disputed. And you certainly can’t maintain civil peace when people are being radicalized into acts of violence based on complete and utter delusion.

The fossil-fuel-billionaire-funded radical right’s war on truth isn’t new, but it’s accelerating. When lies are repeated often enough, they become gospel to those who want to believe them.

Right-wing media outlets, extremist influencers, and opportunistic Republicans have learned — as Josef Goebbels famously preached — that a lie can be more powerful than the truth when it aligns with grievance, fear, and identity and is repeated often enough.

The problem isn’t just gullibility. It’s that these lies are weaponized. And when they take hold, facts become negotiable, science becomes suspect, and even saving people from storms becomes controversial.

Just look at how the “mainstream media” consistently omits from their reporting on Trump’s tariffs that they’re a clear violation of the Constitution and was explicitly called that in an unanimous decision by the US Trade Court, as Robert Hubbell points out so eloquently.

Or when the media ignores the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 14th amendment violations of ICE’s random, masked, warrantless arrests and incarceration of brown-skinned people, including those with Green Cards at the “Alligator Alcatraz” concentration camp, along with those with full, court-ordered permission to be here in America.

What does this mean for democracy?

A shattered consensus on truth makes informed voting impossible. If voters can’t agree on basic facts — like whether the atmosphere is heating up or whether a vaccine works — how can they make rational decisions at the ballot box?

The weaponization of delusion breeds violence. Just like the January 6th attack on our Capitol, these radar attacks are fueled by conspiracy and rage. They don’t just damage property, they destabilize the rule of law.

When truth is optional, tyranny becomes inevitable. Autocrats thrive in the fog of misinformation. The more confused and divided a people are, the easier they are to control, thus the daily Trump Reality Show.

Public trust collapses. Scientists, educators, journalists, and public servants all become suspect. That vacuum gets filled by cult leaders, armed militias, and political demagogues.

:{:{Democracy becomes unrecognizable. Without a shared sense of reality, debate becomes pointless, compromise becomes impossible, and elections become battlegrounds instead of ways to determine a rational direction for our shared future.}:

So what do we do?

We fight back with truth. Unapologetically. Loudly. Persistently.

We stand up for science. For journalism. For civic education. For basic decency.

We hold platforms accountable that spread lies, tweak their algorithms secretly to promote anti-democracy messages, and reject the persistent “mainstream media” cowardice of both-sidesism. There aren’t “two sides” to facts. There is reality and there are lies.

We support platforms, networks, media, newsletters, programs, writers, speakers, politicians, and movements that promote the truth and push back against the creeping fascism that is rapidly overtaking our nation.

So we must loudly and persistently call this out for what it is: an attempt — which has so far been successful at destroying democracy in nations like Russia, Hungary, and Turkey — to engage in social and political sabotage. It’s radicalism, a form of domestic terrorism whose target is democracy itself.

And it’s time to say: enough.

Because without truth, we don’t just lose the weather forecast.

We lose our nation.

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AN 6 25

Donald Trump’s second term is shaping up to be just as much about the past as the future. Not the past as it unfolded, but the version of events as he wants them remembered.

*This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access.

There are a few troubling examples of how the president and his allies are actively attempting to reshape public views of the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection — and how these efforts are starting to affect real people and real institutions.

Take Oklahoma. Teachers there are now facing updated social studies standards that instruct students to “identify discrepancies in 2020 elections results” — not to examine election systems or to discuss voter confidence, but to presume that the election was flawed.This language is a quiet but profound distortion: It accepts Trump’s false narrative of fraud and requires educators to teach that falsehood as fact.

This illustrates the insidious consequences of partisan narratives hardening into policy. Oklahoma’s education chief, Ryan Walters, has aligned himself with efforts to eliminate so-called left-wing indoctrination in schools. But he’s supporting these new standards, which contradict the facts made plain in every credible post-election review, from Trump’s own first-term Department of Justice to GOP-led audits. Courts, including those with Trump-nominated judges, rejected dozens of spurious legal challenges, and officials in every state certified the results.

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These facts have been sidelined in shaping what schoolchildren learn, which has long-term implications for public trust in elections.

Or consider the protests against aggressive immigration raids in Los Angeles. Trump has called the demonstrators there “insurrectionists” and is moving military forces into the city.

And what about the convicted insurrectionists who participated in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol? Trump issued them pardons and commutations as one of the first acts of his second term, erasing the crimes and violence of that day — including threats to execute his vice president — from the historical record. (A plaque honoring law enforcement officials who defended the Capitol that day still hasn’t been installed, despite pleas to House Speaker Mike Johnson.)

Trump’s administration is also reportedly developing a plan to pardon the “fake electors” and other Trump allies charged or convicted in connection with attempts to overturn the election, as well as the plot to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic governor, as part of a broader effort to shield MAGA supporters from legal consequences, and perhaps convey the sense that these events never happened.

That is, the president is using both his immense influence and his constitutional authority to bend justice, public education, and public memory toward a false understanding of the past. And his allies are bending to his will.

What does this tell us about Trump’s capacity to reshape perceptions in the face of actual facts? And can anything stand in his way?

Some answers may come from a federal courtroom in Denver, where one of the more surreal chapters of the 2020 fallout is still playing out. That’s where the defamation trial against Trump ally and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell — brought by former Dominion Voting Systems executive Eric Coomer — is underway.

Lindell, who has claimed that Dominion and Coomer were part of a scheme to steal the election from Trump, once promised that this trial would prove him right. But his lawyers seem to be arguing now that he’s so erratic, so impulsive, that nothing he says could be taken seriously enough to count as defamation.

“It’s just words,” said Lindell’s attorney, according to a Denver reporter covering the trial. “All Mike Lindell did was talk.”

That’s a hell of a defense, and itself a rewriting of history. The problem with it is that millions of people did believe Lindell, and still do.

Coomer may get to clear his name in the case against Lindell, but the broader effort to rewrite the past is gaining ground where it matters most: in classrooms, in Congress, and in the minds of voters. Juries and the judiciary can punish lies, but they can’t reach every classroom or undo every pardon.

With so many institutional guardrails already buckling under pressure, the remaining checks are public memory, a free press, and a willingness — from enough of us — to keep insisting on saying what actually happened.

Jessica Huseman is Votebeat’s editorial director and is based in Dallas. Contact Jessica atjhuseman@votebeat.org.}:

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization covering local election integrity and voting access. Sign up for their newsletters here.

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AN 6 25

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma National Guard is not planning on participating in the nation’s largest military parade.

The June 14 parade will feature tanks rolling through the U.S. capital’s streets, thousands of soldiers marching and military fly overs to celebrate the Army’s 250th birthday. Additionally, it will also be President Donald Trump’s 79th birthday.

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RWW 05/19/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

Trump is promising tax cuts and a new golden age. Here’s what’s really inside it.

Oklahoma high school students studying U.S. history learn about the Industrial Revolution, women’s suffrage and America’s expanding role in international affairs. Beginning next school year, they will add conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election.

Pardoned Capitol Rioters have 'worked to profit from their connection to the day’s chaos, recording podcasts, announcing runs for public office and advertising merchandise lines.'

The Trump administration has agreed to pay millions to settle a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of Ashli Babbitt.

The tech CEO isn’t exactly gone yet, but Republicans have stopped bringing him up.

Grand Canyon University misled students about the costs of its doctoral programs. Now it's off the hook.

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05/05/2025 rww

by

Kyle Mantyla

The president complained that due process rights are interfering with his mass deportations.

President Donald Trump attempted to take credit for parts of the economy which he considers “good,” while blaming former President Joe Biden for other parts he considers “bad.”

President Donald Trump offered a message of support to the Jan. 6 insurrectionists when he met with a former Proud Boys militant in Mar-a-Lago over the weekend.

State Superintendent Ryan Walters bypassed oversight to push Christian Nationalism and right-wing conspiracies into public classrooms.

In this segment, I examine the notion that there was something exceptionally Christian about America's founding era. Last week, I fact-checked Charlie Kirk's viral video defense of the belief that America was founded as a Christian nation in the legal sense. Most of what Kirk had to say was irrelevant or incorrect.

The 9/11 truther denounced Trump’s nominee for U.S. surgeon general and claimed the COVID-19 vaccine is “killing millions of people.”

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an 5 25

'North Korea-level propagandizing': OK schools to teach Trump's debunked claim 2020 election was rigged

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an 4 25

GOPers mull bill to reject OK academic standards that include 2020 election 'discrepancies'

Nuria Martinez-Keel, Oklahoma Voice

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an 3 25

Oklahoma subcommittee rejects MAGA Republican’s $3 million request for Bibles in classrooms

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AN 2 25

Irate parents taught an Oklahoma lawmaker a life lesson I bet he’ll never forget: Do not mess with the education of public school children who have been diagnosed with a disability.

Republican Dusty Deevers emerged last week from the dustup with parents, educators and therapists with a metaphorical black eye, reminding him that Oklahomans don’t like schoolyard bullies.

In case you missed all the hubbub, somehow Deevers got the idiotic idea that too many Oklahoma children are receiving special education services through the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA. That’s the federal law that protects children’s right to a “free appropriate public education” and guarantees that they have access to special education and early intervention services.

He pointed to estimates indicating that as many as 1 in 6 Oklahoma school children are currently on Individualized Education Programs, better known as an IEP, which provides them access to services such as speech, language, physical, occupational and behavioral therapies to help them succeed in school.

Generally, legislators have tacitly acknowledged that these programs help students succeed academically even though state and federal leaders have long provided only a fraction of the funding necessary to operate them at their maximum potential.

But rather than urging his colleagues to ramp up funding and bolster support for those children, the lawmaker from Elgin hatched a harebrained plan to reduce participation numbers by removing eligibility for in-school services. The proposed law would have required parents to seek services on their own dime after school hours. If parents couldn’t afford it or find qualified therapists, too bad, so sad.

The plan also would have prohibited Medicaid from helping to pay for those in-school services as well as covering the costs of sight screenings.

At first the proposal flew under the radar, obscured among nearly 3,100 bills filed for consideration for the 2025 legislative session, but then the ramifications of Deevers’ plan began to dawn on folks and outrage exploded on social media.

Deevers swiftly discovered that there might be one thing almost as scary as incurring the wrath of God — Oklahomans furious that legislators are impeding on their “parental rights.” (You know, that popular buzzword that Republicans like to bandy about.)

Deevers tried to clean up the mess by promising to amend the bill because he said it wasn’t doing what he intended. However, he dumped gasoline on the raging Dumpster fire thanks to a lengthy post on X that revealed that he believes we might have “far over-diagnosed students;” that he wants to audit IEP spending; protect “parental rights;” force schools to stop providing students on IEPs “hormonal birth control;” and exclude “non-educationally necessary services.”

That unleashed a second torrent of anger because any parent who has a child on an IEP knows that schools are not willy-nilly thinking up ways to place children into services they don’t need. And that anybody who has set foot in a school knows how rare it is to hear parents complain that a school is doing too much and overperforming.

It’s much more common to hear they’re not doing enough.

They know that to get a child evaluated for a disability takes a considerable amount of advocacy work from adults in a child’s life, numerous meetings with the school, months of evaluations and tons of paperwork.

Based on the complexities of even qualifying for an IEP, I’d say probably more students need specialized services than are receiving them. Our numbers should probably be much higher.

They also know that parents have an enormous amount of rights when it comes to how children with disabilities are educated. Schools don’t randomly place children on IEPs without parental involvement. Parents have to agree to the placement and can also choose to end those services at any time. Parents get to set the parameters of how often they meet with school leaders and determine how often their child receives services. They can demand a meeting at any time to discuss perceived problems.

And anybody with an iota of sense knows that IEPs are not prescription pads that allow educators to dole out medication or birth control. Medical doctors prescribe that, not speech therapists. In fact, it’s such a farfetched idea, I’ve never heard of that being a concern in Oklahoma. Schools are required to operate within the confines of the IEPs, which parents must sign off on.

But who are we to allow facts to stop some good old fashioned fear mongering?

To Deevers’ credit, he appears to have taken parental feedback seriously. Last week, he announced plans to withdraw the bill and vowed that it wouldn’t be considered in the Legislature.

I hope that more lawmakers will take note, because we often see an unwillingness to take public feedback seriously and plenty of excuses why it should be ignored. A common excuse is they’re only interested in feedback from their constituents.

It’s time for that foolhardy mindset to stop, and the voices of Oklahomans to be taken seriously. People affected by legislation don’t necessarily live within a specific lawmaker’s legislative boundaries, but their tax dollars are keeping the lights on in every office.

I’m glad their message came through loud and clear: Picking on 116,000 children that have diagnosed disabilities is just wrong. And their Legislature shouldn’t be weaponized against them.

YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE. SUPPORT

Oklahoma Voice is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: info@oklahomavoice.com.

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an 1 25

Lawmakers challenge OK superintendent's Bible initiatives after test scores tank

rww

01/29/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

Right-wing pastorJesse Leon Rodgers is the founder and chairman of the Christian nationalist organization City Elders, which seeks to "establish divine order in spiritual and civil governance" by bringing local pastors together with elected officials and religious-right activists. Rodgers himself is a hardcore theonomist who believes that far-right Christians such as himself are to be responsible for "installing people in civil government."

During a recent City Elders event, Rogers bragged that while his organization already has significant influence over determining who runs for office in his home state of Oklahoma, as it expands its efforts, it will be able to "determine who gets in public office."

"Increase, multiply, subdue; that's the divine pattern," Rogers said. "Increase has to do with expanded spheres of influence and control. I use that word editorially, I use it intentionally, but control is not in the sense of you have to dominate people; we have to dominate the devil. We have to control and be in control of the powers of Hell and darkness. That's the reason for expanded spheres of influence."

"We have a far greater sphere of influence than our numbers presently are in Oklahoma," Rogers bragged, saying that those considering running for governor "regularly call" and ask him if they should run for office.

"As a matter of fact, we had one this past week that's in a very significant office and called and said, 'I just want to get feedback from City Elders whether you guys think I should run for this office,'" Rogers said. "This past week, I had three different ones running for office contact me."

Rogers said his organization is working toward establishing "spheres of influence in every county" in Oklahoma and once that is accomplished, "it won't just be people running for lieutenant governor or for Senate or House, there will be people running for offices across the state of Oklahoma that will go to that local City Elders council and say, 'I want you to pray for me because I'm running for office.'"

"At some point," Rogers declared, "we will determine who gets in public office."

"That's God's design," Rogers added. "That's God's intent. Not that the church be some little group on the other side of the tracks scratching out a little bit of influence. God gave the keys of the kingdom to the ekklesia. It should be godly men and women who determine who gets in public office."

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AN 1 25

In his frenetic first week back at the White House, President Donald Trump allowed immigration raids at schools, sidelined federal employees focused on diversity and ended civil rights investigations into book bans.

*This story first appeared at The 74, a nonprofit news site covering education. Sign up for free newsletters from The 74 to get more like this in your inbox.

But the biggest education story of the week — one that could change public schools forever — broke late Friday afternoon at a building two miles away.

The U.S. Supreme Court, backed by the conservative supermajority Trump secured in his first term, agreed to hear an Oklahoma case over whether the law permits public dollars to flow to an explicitly religious charter school. A decision in favor of the first-of-its kind Catholic school could further entangle the government and religion, dramatically altering the historic balance between church and state.

“The stakes really couldn’t be higher,” said Derek Black, a law professor at the University of South Carolina. While there are Catholic schools that have converted into secular charters, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School’s “ultimate goal,” according to its website, is “eternal salvation.”

“The issue,” Black said, “is whether a religious entity can operate a charter school that teaches religion as truth.”

Related #### Oklahoma Supreme Court Knocks Down Bid for Virtual Catholic Charter School

Trump supports Christianity in the classroom and has vowed to bring prayer back to public schools. But he’s just the most recognizable face of a larger movement that has been building toward this moment — one that includes governors and state lawmakers, right-leaning think tanks and wealthy donors. Those donors have not only financed campaigns to seat conservative justices, but also helped fund the years of legal work that ultimately landed the school’s application before the high court.

Some evangelicals believe the courts have long misapplied Thomas Jefferson’s famous words about “a wall of separation between church and state.” Dismissed by most constitutional experts, this view holds that Jefferson’s aim was to keep the federal government from interfering with religious freedom — not to protect the government from the church.

The debate over the school will culminate in oral arguments before the Supreme Court in late April.

Governors in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, who advocate for weaving the Bible into classroom instruction, have long awaited such a case. “Denying St. Isidore a charter solely because they’re religious is flat-out unconstitutional,” Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt posted on X. “This will be one of the most significant decisions of our lifetime.”

But his state’s GOP attorney general disagrees. Gentner Drummond’s office will argue that both state and federal laws clearly require charter schools to be non-sectarian. That view was summed up by American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who said reversing the Oklahoma court’s decision “would drive a dagger into the very idea of public education and strike at the heart of our nation’s democratic foundations.”

One justice who won’t be involved in the decision is Trump’s most recent Supreme Court appointee. Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from deliberating over whether to hear the case. While the court offered no explanation, Barrett is a longtime friend of Nicole Garnett, the Notre Dame University law professor who advised the Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa on the charter application. Garnett, who had no comment on Barrett’s recusal, also sits on the board of the Federalist Society, a conservative and libertarian legal organization that has influenced Trump and previous Republican presidents on judicial appointments.

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from deciding whether to hear the case. She is a longtime friend of a Notre Dame law professor who advised the Catholic church on the charter application. (Sarah Silbiger-Pool/Getty Images)

But attorneys for the school may not need Barrett’s vote. Four of the other conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch — have all voiced support for greater religious freedom. Over a decade ago, Thomas wrote an opinion suggesting states could establish their own Christian denominations. More recently, in 2022, Gorsuch referred to the “so-called” separation of church and state in a case over whether Boston should fly a Christian flag outside City Hall.

While Chief Justice John Roberts takes a more cautious approach to court precedents, he has sided with the conservative majority in all of its most recent church-state cases. Two of them, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue and Carson v. Makin, focused on choice programs at religious schools.

Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents the state’s charter school board, draws on those cases to conclude that charter schools are inherently private organizations — not “state actors.” By keeping St. Isadore closed, the Alliance argues, Oklahoma is discriminating against religion and denying families more options.

“Oklahoma parents and children are better off with more educational choices, not fewer,” Jim Campbell, the Alliance’s chief legal counsel, said in a statement.

Related #### Choice Supporters to Catholic Charter School Backers: ‘Proceed with Caution’

In a brief in support of the charter school, eight GOP-led states said that prohibiting the funding of religious charter schools would compromise their ability to award grants or contracts to other sectarian organizations, like orphanages and groups providing scholarships.

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools dismissed that fear and said a charter is not “merely a grant program.”

“The charter school is a state-created public school under Oklahoma law, and its actions are state actions,” the organization wrote in its brief.

Black agreed, saying that the school’s argument “has no grounding in facts or law.”

The court’s decision to take the case left the law professor with an “enormous pit” in his stomach. Black worries the justices don’t fully understand the complexities of public education funding, particularly the differences between charters, vouchers and education savings accounts.

“That leads to either honest errors, misunderstandings or the ability of other people to lead you astray,” he said.

Experts say it’s hard to ignore the strides evangelical Republicans have made at elevating the importance of Christianity in the classroom.

Red states aren’t just passing voucher programs that allow parents to pay tuition at faith-based schools; they’re also incorporating Bible lessons into the curriculum. If the court rules in favor of the school, Preston Green, a University of Connecticut education and law professor, predicts religious organizations would suddenly “clamour” to open faith-based charters.

Related #### In Close Vote, Texas Approves Reading Program Laden With Bible Lessons

“We’re on the verge of a new system where religious organizations are going to be among the players” running schools, he said. “How do states deal with that reality?”

In addition to allowing public education funds to support a specific faith, a decision in favor of religious charters could also have a devastating financial impact on traditional districts fighting to prevent enrollment loss, Black said. Oklahoma already offers a tax credit scholarship program for school choice, but it doesn’t always cover the full tuition at a private school. Families who want their child to have a Christian education might be more likely to flock to a religious charter school where the cost is fully covered, he explained.

Robert Franklin, a former member of the state’s charter board, is already thinking about those ramifications. Like public school advocates in other red states, he’s concerned that expanding private school choice will hit rural schools the

“Oklahoma is a deeply red state,” he said. “I don’t think we have an appetite for raising taxes around here to support schools.”

Franklin has a unique vantage point on the constitutional dispute that began overtwo years ago. He voted against St. Isidore’s contract in 2023 and says he felt “vindicated” last year when the state’s high court struck it down. But he’s less confident the U.S. Supreme Court will rule the same way.

“It’s a tumultuous moment,” he said. “There are a lot of forces pulling the other direction.”

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'Reject this rule': OK schools want to make parents report citizenship status to enroll kidshardest and leave less funding for traditional schools.

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Even 'devout Christians' are appalled as OK mulls $3.3 million bid on 'Trump Bibles' for schools

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Oklahoma State Schools Superintendent Ryan Walters, a far-right Christian nationalist and MAGA Republican, has drawn scathing criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Americans United for separation of Church and State, and others for trying to impose Christian fundamentalism on students in public schools. And Walters has been clashing with journalists as well, including reporters for KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City.

Walters excluded KFOR reporters from press conferences, and the station responded with a lawsuit.

But on Wednesday, December 11, KFOR reported that it had "won a legal battle" against Walters and his allies.

READ MORE:'The next recession starts here': Trump team weighs abolishing bank regulators

According to KOSU-FM (a National Public Radio-associated station in Oklahoma), "State Superintendent Ryan Walters and his press secretary Dan Isett have agreed to allow KFOR journalists into all of the Education Department's news conferences and meetings. The leaders have also agreed to pay attorney fees and damages of $17.91 — a symbolic amount, as 1791 was the year the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified."

According to KFOR, Walters and Isett agreed to "add KFOR to" their "e-mail list for press releases."

KFOR noted, "Attorney fees have yet to be determined, but Ryan Walters and his attorneys did agree to pay them."

Charles Miller of the Institute for Free Speech said of the ruling, "This is a huge victory for journalism."

READ MORE: 'Chomping at the bit': Trump victory has red states feeling 'emboldened' to push far-right agendas

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t rump’s branded $60 Bibles are made in China for less than $3 apiece

3.5 million?

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oklahoma state superintendent says pastor and right-wing commentator suggested his new Bible mandate in public schools

Conservative media figures promoted the new policy as a way to “impose Christian values on the pagans” and encouraged other states to follow suit

WRITTEN BY PAYTON ARMSTRONG

PUBLISHED 07/08/24

Right-wing media figures are praising Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters’ mandate that the state’s public schools teach the Bible, including declaring that the government needs to “impose Christian values on the pagans” and encouraging other states to follow Walters’ lead.

Following his announcement of the new Bible mandate for Oklahoma's public schools, Walters has spoken with Fox News and other right-wing media to promote the policy, including appearing with a right-wing commentator and pastor who has promised to “embrace Christian Nationalism” and apparently “reached out” to Walters about mandating the Bible in schools. Notably, Walters has a history of taking education policy advice from right-wing media figures.

Video

CitationFrom the July 3, 2024, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room

Video

CitationOn the July 2, 2024, edition of Real America's Voice's Just the News No Noise

Video

CitationFrom the June 28, 2024, edition of Fox News' Fox News @ Night

Video

CitationFrom the June 28, 2024, edition of Newsmax's Chris Plante The Right Squad

Related

  1. ### Oklahoma's top education official has a cozy relationship with BlazeTV host Steve Deace, who likens public schools to “Satan’s youth ministry”

10/06/23 12:18 PM EDT

  1. ### Top Oklahoma education official Ryan Walters cheers conspiracy theorist while appearing on her show

01/02/24 5:10 PM EST

  1. ### Remarks from Oklahoma public schools superintendent mirror far-right extremist talking points on the Tulsa Race Massacre

07/12/23

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July 8, 2024 rww

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Oklahoma Superintendent Orders Public Schools to Teach Bible as White Christian Nationalists Go ‘On Offense’

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MAGA state superintendent backs chaplains in public schools – but not from all religions - Alternet.org

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Oklahoma woman facing murder and kidnapping charges chaired rural county’s GOP - Alternet.org

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:{:{T.W. SHANNON (FORMER OKLAHOMA HOUSE SPEAKER): Listen to this: We've had 2 million people cross into this country illegally because of this open border policy. Many of them are from al Qaeda. I just did an op-ed on Fox.com that talks about how Chinese nationalists — the Chinese party is actually in the United States in rural Oklahoma. }:

:{:{And the worst that he can come up with as a threat to democracy is his political opponent. That sends shivers down my spine. Every American should be concerned when the president of the United States, the most powerful man in the world, considers his political opponent a threat to democracy. }:

That's a problem. Our Founding Fathers are rolling over in their graves. Joe Biden should be ashamed. And the truth is the real threat to democracy are the policies of Joe Biden like the open border that's destroying this country. It is poisoning the bloodline in this country because we are allowing illegals to vote. We're supplying them with all types of resources.}:}:

HARRIS FAULKNER (ANCHOR): Alright, T.W. I'm going to step in for one second. We're going to go now, I'm asking my team. This is the former president.

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in August of 2023, Politico reported that right-wing billionaire Leonard Leo is "best known as Donald Trump's White House 'court whisperer," having "played a behind-the-scenes role in the nominations of all three of the former president's Supreme Court justices and promoted them through his multi-billion-dollar network of nonprofits."

Caroline Ciccone, president of the watchdog Accountable.US, told Politico "Leo spent years stacking the court with ideological kindred spirits. Now he's funding a dark web of special interest groups to push an extreme agenda."

According to a Monday, March 18 report published by Rolling Stone, the billionaire — "long averse to media attention" — in a recent podcast interview first reported by Accountable.US "spoke about his $1.6 billion dark money fund, called the Marble Freedom Trust, explaining: 'We’re trying to really institute a lot of legal and social change through philanthropy.'"

READ MORE:How GOP activists sway SCOTUS to boost 'their historical narrative' with 'no real vetting process': report

The conservative activist, according to Rolling Stone, "also offered his thoughts on how billionaires can help conservatives limit regulations, take over corporate C-suites, reshape America’s education system, and influence our culture," and as a "devout Catholic, additionally discussed his interest in reforming religious institutions."

Speaking "with Joe Lonsdale, the co-founder of surveillance company Palantir and the University of Austin, a conservative alternative college he started with journalist Bari Weiss," Rolling Stone notes, Leo said, "It’s really important that we flood the zone with cases that challenge misuse of the Constitution by the administrative state and by Congress," urging "the ultra-wealthy to support these litigation efforts."

Referring to the conservative-majority high court, he emphasized, "We have a great Overton window in the next couple of decades to really try to create a free society. And I think we should take full advantage of it."

Additionally, as a proponent of the effort to establish a publicly funded religious school in Oklahoma, Leo also "talked about the need to reform the clergy," during the interview, saying, "This is one that I just started thinking about, there’s the whole issue of clergy, and this is a tough one to crack. This may not be for everybody, but my own perspective is: God made us to know him, to love him, and to serve him. And I think our religious leaders need to center more on that, and less on knowing, loving, and serving ourselves, and whatever personal desires or affections we may have."

READ MORE: 'Watershed moment' as group of Christian conservatives find 'sympathetic audience' at US Supreme Court

Furthermore on the subject of education, the billionaire added, "We need to create talent pipelines for K-12 education and for higher ed, something like you’re doing with the University of Austin, so that we remind people that the purpose of higher ed, for example, is to basically build a citizenry that’s committed to the Constitution as it was originally written."

Rolling Stone reports "Leo explained this means recruiting teachers and working to influence education board races, 'so that we can begin to have some sanity and local education.'"

READ MORE:Leonard Leo allies lead effort to establish publicly funded religious school

*Rolling Stone's full report is availableat this link (subscription required)

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Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters campaigned with influencer rejected by school system for video encouraging anti-trans violence | Media Matters for America

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Finally, what happens when you elect a Christian nationalist pastor like Dusty Deevers to a seat in the Oklahoma state Senate? You get lectured about how pornography is a tool of Satan and must therefore be outlawed so that people “can be set free” and give their lives to Jesus.

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Meeting to censure Oklahoma GOP senator was 'held illegitimately': report - Alternet.org

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Far-right pastor Dusty Deevers was elected to a seat in the Oklahoma state senate during a special election in December. Deevers ran as an unapologetic Christian nationalist, vowing to apply “the word of God to every issue” and to push to abolish abortion, pornography, and no-fault divorce, Upon taking office, Deevers immediately introduced legislation that seeks to enshrine those campaign promises into law.

Last Friday, Deeversappeared on the “Conversations That Matter” program, where he perfectly encapsulated the Christian nationalist worldview and bluntly laid it out for everyone to see.

:{:{“Governing is about the use of authority and what is the standard for the use of authority,” Deevers[declared]}:

(https://youtu.be/HYPd7YHE8iI).

“God prescribes servants of his to govern as his mediators on this Earth. So, he has prescribed governing and then he has also prescribed the means for our governing and that means is in accordance with his word. If we do otherwise, then we are essentially usurping the sovereign role of God through Christ, who has been seated above every power in Heaven and on Earth and under the Earth.”}:

“So, that’s our marching orders, and it’s pretty straightforward,” Deevers added. “If you want to talk about Christian nationalism, [this is] what we mean by a Christian nation.”

Deevers asserted that forcing non-Christians to live in country governed exclusively according to the Christian nationalist interpretation of the Bible is an example of Christian “grace,” as such a system of government leads to “the best life for anyone and everyone whether they believe in [God] or not.”

“They’re getting a measure of grace from being in proximity to the true Christianity,” Deevers declared. “Whenever Christians are voted into office, it’s not just good for Christians, it’s good for the wicked as well.”

“[God has] spoken his word how the world is to be ordered and that ordered good is the best life for anyone and everyone whether they believe in him or not,” he continued. “So, it is a grace to all under the jurisdiction of a Christian leader who will bow the knee to Christ, it’s a grace to all of them.”

There is no room for compromise or consensus in politics, Deevers stated.

“Either you’re coming under the rule of God, your Creator, who is also gracious and sent his son, or you’re going to come under the rule of the serpent,” Deevers proclaimed. “So, it’s a serpentine theocracy or a rule of God, and there’s not a space in the middle.”

“Jesus is king and we obey him, and anything he says to do is what is best, and it will happen and accordance with his will and his timing,” Deevers said. “I won’t play politics if you think that there’s a space to take God’s rule and reign and to tamper with it and to practice cunning with the Scriptures.”

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william Vaillancourt @ The Daily Beast: Newsmax Airs Alarming Discussion of Civil War With Federal Government.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and Newsmax host Carl Higbie mused Thursday about a potential “force-on-force” conflict between Texas and the Biden Administration after the Supreme Court ruled against the state’s Republican governor by declaring that federal agents can remove razor wire laid along the border with Mexico.

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Chaya Raichik—who doesn’t even live in Oklahoma—was tapped for her expertise on the “radical left” and “woke indoctrination.”

The controversial Oklahoma state superintendent of schools suggested, without evidence, that the state teachers union and educators were creating a culture that allowed for rampant sexual misconduct against students.

Woodfill has been endorsed by Attorney General Ken Paxton despite his connection to Paul Pressler, a prominent religious figure accused of rape.

After fist-pumping for Christian Nationalism and running away from the truth, Hawley doubled down on his effort to undo our constitutional system.

A new transcript from a key Hunter Biden witness undercuts many of the claims Republicans are making about “Biden corruption.”

The former president resorted to sound effects when explaining missile defense systems during a campaign rally in New Hampshire.

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2016

oklahoma](https://ballotpedia.org/Oklahoma) held an election for the president of the United States on November 8, 2016. The Democratic and Republican parties held primary elections for president on March 1, 2016.

HIGHLIGHTS

General election candidates and results

Candidates

See also: Ballot access for presidential candidates

The candidate list below is based on an email exchange between Ballotpedia and a public information officer for the Oklahoma State Election Board on September 19, 2016. The candidate names below appear in the order in which they were provided to Ballotpedia—not necessarily the order in which they appeared on the ballot in November.

Presidential candidates on the ballot in Oklahoma

☑ Donald Trump/Mike Pence (Republican) 65%

☐ Gary Johnson/Bill Weld (Libertarian) 7%

☐ Hillary Clinton/Tim Kaine (Democratic)

2020 United States presidential election in Oklahoma

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › 2020_United_States_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_election_in_Oklahoma)

In this election Trump also became the first presidential candidate ever to win more than a million votes in Oklahoma. Biden, however, came within 3,326 votes* ...

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2017

while about seven in 10 Americans identify with some branch of Christianity, the share of U.S. adults who describe themselves as Christians dropped by nearly 8 percent between 2007 and 2014, according to a survey by Pew Research Center.

But while Americans as a whole have become somewhat less religious in recent years – largely due to an increase in the share of people who do not belong to any organized faith – those who are religious are even more devout than they were a few years ago, according to the Pew report. (The sum of the percentages of the population that practices each religion may not equal 100 because of rounding.)

These are the most religious states in America, according to the Pew survey.

  1. North Carolina

In North Carolina, 65 percent of adults are highly religious, according to Pew’s index. While 39 percent attend worship services at least weekly, nearly three-quarters say they believe in God with absolute certainty. Of North Carolina adults, 77 percent are Christian, 20 percent are unaffiliated with any religion and about 3 percent are non-Christian faiths, the largest share being Jewish.

8 (tied). Oklahoma

Pew categorizes 66 percent of Oklahoma adults as highly religious because 65 percent pray daily and 71 percent say they believe in God with absolute certainty. Of Oklahoma adults, 79 percent are Christian, 18 percent are unaffiliated with any religion and about 2 percent practice non-Christian religions, with those of Jewish, Islamic and other faiths each making up less than 1 percent of Oklahoma adults.

}:

8 (tied). Georgia

Two-thirds of Georgia adults are highly religious, according to Pew, because 74 percent of adults say they believe in God with absolute certainty and 64 percent say religion is very important in their lives. Of Georgia adults, 79 percent are Christian, 18 percent are unaffiliated with any religion and about 3 percent are non-Christian faiths.

  1. West Virginia

About 69 percent of West Virginia adults are considered highly religious because while 46 percent attend worship services at least weekly, 77 percent of adults say they believe in God with absolute certainty and 68 percent pray daily. Of West Virginia adults, 78 percent are Christian, 18 percent are unaffiliated with any religion and about 3 percent are non-Christian faiths.

  1. South Carolina

Pew considers 70 percent of South Carolina adults highly religious because 69 percent say religion is very important in their lives and two-thirds say they pray daily. Of South Carolina adults, 78 percent are Christian, 19 percent are unaffiliated with any religion and about 3 percent are non-Christian faiths.

  1. Arkansas

In Arkansas, 70 percent of adults are categorized as highly religious by Pew’s index because 77 percent of adults say they believe in God with absolute certainty and 70 percent say religion is very important in their lives. Of Arkansas adults, 79 percent are Christian, 12 percent are unaffiliated with any religion and about 1 percent are non-Christian faiths.

  1. Louisiana

About 71 percent of Louisiana adults are considered highly religious by Pew because 75 percent say they believe in God with absolute certainty, while 68 percent pray daily. Of Louisiana adults, 84 percent are Christian, 13 percent are unaffiliated with any religion and about 2 percent are non-Christian faiths, the largest share being Buddhist at about 1 percent.

  1. Tennessee

Pew considers 73 percent of Tennessee adults highly religious – 78 percent say they believe in God with absolute certainty, while 51 percent attend weekly worship services. Of Tennessee adults, 81 percent are Christian, 14 percent are unaffiliated with any religion and about 3 percent are non-Christian faiths.

1 (tied). Mississippi

In Mississippi, 77 percent of adults are classified as highly religious because 74 percent say religion is very important in their lives and 75 percent pray daily. Of Mississippi adults, 83 percent are Christian, 14 percent are unaffiliated with any religion and about 2 percent are non-Christian faiths.

1 (tied). Alabama

Pew categorizes 77 percent of Alabama adults as highly religious because 82 percent of adults say they believe in God with absolute certainty, while 73 percent pray daily. Of Alabama adults, 86 percent are Christian, 12 percent are unaffiliated with any religion and about 1 percent are non-Christian faiths.

10 Most Religious States

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Oklahoma gives education job to far-right influencer linked to bomb threats at schools - Alternet.org

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Crazy alert! Oklahoma GOP files bill to ban those very scary 'furries' from schools - Alternet.org

Trump is leaning hard on SCOTUS, just like he did on Mike Pence. Will members of the Supreme Court get the Pence “gallows” next? Will they cave to his threats and promises?Trump’s ability to avoid going to jail for his many crimes, and to get revenge on those who’ve tried to hold him to account, is now largely in the hands of the Supreme Court. They’ll soon be hearing cases deciding both his claim of absolute presidential immunity and whether he can be kept off the ballotby state authorities under the 14th Amendment’s provision declaring that any person who’s engaged in or provided aid and comfort to an insurrection can’t hold public office. And now he’s lobbying them hard, from trying to sweet-talk them on Hannity’s show to threatening them with “chaos and bedlam” if he doesn’t get his way.

Mitt Romney’s book tells how multiple Republican senators chose to vote against impeaching him because they were terrified that he’d send his foaming-at-the-mouth hoards against them like he did Romney, two Black election workers in Atlanta, and Nancy Pelosi’s husband. This is how fascists typically seize and hold power: using intimidation and the fear of violence, using well-publicized but controversial people as examples.

Judge Cannon in Florida is acting like she’s been cowed by his threats. He’s apparently loving how E. Jean Carroll is describing the terror she experienced (he amplifies it at every occasion by showing up in the courtroom and discussing it in the media), as he did with Shea Moss and Ruby Freeman: in both cases, Trump’s calculation is that those stories will cause anybody who may cross him to think twice. Like a mob boss, he wields fear more effectively than any other emotion.

So far, it looks like the Court is inclined to help him out; they could have decided either case quickly but are dragging them both out for weeks, presumably to help him get to the election without a conviction and with the stay in place on ballot removal. None of these judges want to be the ultimate villain: the person who prevented Donald Trump from becoming president with the stroke of a pen. Keep an eye on these cases.

— “Largest presidential grift in history”: House Democrats dropped the hammer on Trump and Kushner.Congressman Robert Garcia (D-CA) told the nation, during a floor speech before the House of Representatives, that “Donald Trump and his family, especially the Kushners, participated in the largest presidential grift in history.” And, following up on an investigation and report from the House Oversight Committee, Garcia brought the receipts:

“We have records of 24 governments funneling millions into Trump properties and into Donald Trump’s pockets while he was president, all in violation of the U.S. Constitution,” Garcia claimed, noting Trump was in violation of the Constitution’s emoluments clause that forbids presidents from taking payments from foreign governments. “And,” Garcia added, noting that most of Trump’s transactions are still secret, “this is just the tip of the iceberg.” He added:

“Despite the attempted cover-ups, we can still prove that Trump and Jared Kushner were making national security decisions while he and his family were getting bribed and paid by the same foreign powers.”

Meanwhile, Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are desperately trying to tie President Biden into some of the skeezy deals his son was involved with; so far they have no evidence, but claim that won’t stop them from trying to impeach Biden so Trump can claim he’s not the only impeached candidate running in 2024. Just like their sudden opposition to funding Ukraine, these pathetic members of the house and Senate put their reputations and their careers over their country. That’s as craven as it gets.

— A new report finds half of the inflation America has experienced since the pandemic is caused by corporate price-gouging.A new report from the think tank Groundwork Collaborative documents how obscene corporate profits caused about 53% of the inflation we all suffered under during the second and third quarters of last year. While prices consumers paid last year went up 3.4%, for example, the “input costs” (raw materials, rent, electricity, wages, benefits) to big corporations only went up 1%, drawing from data supplied by the Bureau of Economic Analysis and National Income and Products Accounts.

This is happening because in 1983 Ronald Reagan instructed his DOJ, FTC, and SEC to stop enforcing the Sherman Anti-Trust and other anti-monopoly laws, leading to a decade of “Mergers & Acquisitions Mania” as was documented in Michael Douglas’ “greed is good” movie, Wall Street.

The first president since then to begin enforcing century-old anti-trust law is Joe Biden, although his administration has only put their toe in the water: they’re blocking new mergers, but have not yet begun breaking up giant companies like Roosevelt and Taft did at the turn of the 20th century and Gerald Ford did with AT&T in the 1970s. The only solution to this problem will be for Biden to get more aggressive and, by breaking up America’s corporate monoliths, restore some competition to the marketplace.

— Billionaires ask for higher income taxes and even a wealth tax: is anyone listening?A group of over 250 billionaires and multimillionaires presented an open letter to the attendees of the “Billionaire Woodstock” at Davos, Switzerland this week. Calling for higher taxes on the morbidly rich, these wealthy people wrote:

“Our request is simple: we ask you to tax us, the very richest in society. This will not fundamentally alter our standard of living, nor deprive our children, nor harm our nations’ economic growth. But it will turn extreme and unproductive private wealth into an investment for our common democratic future.”

Valerie Rockefeller and Abigail Disney led the charge, with a letter that was both blunt and concerned:

“We are also the people who benefit most from the status quo. But inequality has reached a tipping point, and its cost to our economic, societal and ecological stability risk is severe — and growing every day. In short, we need action now.”

The group Patriotic Millionaires published a new poll of rich people showing that fully 74% are in favor of higher taxes on their own class. An additional 58% supported a 2% wealth tax like Elizabeth Warren has supported for years, and 54% said straight out that extreme wealth is a threat to democracies around the world. Nonetheless, Republicans will go to the mat to protect or pass tax cuts for the morbidly rich, no matter how badly they damage our economy and the American middle class.

— This is what happens when rabid anti-abortion freaks take over: a woman gets 30 years in prison after her baby dies.Lilian was 19 years old when she went into labor with complications and gave birth in a hospital. Her baby was struggling from the beginning and, despite the neonatal unit and incubator, died after a few days.

The local prosecutor — without any evidence — decided on his own that the baby’s death was “proof on its face” that Lilian must not have been “careful” during her pregnancy and charged her with homicide: she was just released from prison after serving 8 years of her 30-year sentence. Lilian is one of nearly a hundred women who’ve had this happen over the past decade in El Salvador, the country that Ronald Reagan famously and illegally“saved from socialism” by supporting rightwing death squads, leading to the death of more than 75,000 civilians in a bloody civil war.

The rightwingers have run the country ever since, and one of their first accomplishments was to put draconian penalties on abortion that have, for decades, been enforced against women who had simple miscarriages or complex births leading to fetal death. The country is now re-examining some of the cases, most of which have no evidence other than the prosecutors’ assertion, leading to as many as 70 women being released from long prison sentences over the ongoing objections of outspoken rightwing legislators, some will affiliations to the American Republican Party.

This is the vision the GOP has for America, and is already being acted out in some states, like with the case of Brittany Watts, who had a miscarriage at home; one of Ohio’s rightwing county prosecutors nearly sent her to prison last month until nationwide publicity forced him to back down. From the Republicans’ point of view, on the issue of abortion and birth control, they’re just getting started.

— Why the discovery that Greenland is losing ice faster than we knew is concerning.Scientists with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratories have foundthat Greenland’s massive ice sheets are shedding fresh water about 20% faster than earlier believed. The island nation is now dumping around 33 million tons of fresh water into the North Atlantic every hour, threatening to shut down the Great Ocean Conveyor Belt thermohaline ocean circulation patterns that bring warmth to northern Europe and stabilize crop yields all over the world. The movie The Day After Tomorrowis premised on just this scenario, although it collapses decades of weather transition into a few days. This could be one of the most dangerous and dramatic consequences of our ongoing addiction to fossil fuels.

— Crazy Alert! Oklahoma Republican submits legislation to deal with the crisis of kids using litter boxes in school.He’s not the first to be freaked out: ever since a group punked a group of conservatives who’d taken over a school board by claiming that kids were becoming “furries,” the story has acquired an outsized following on rightwing hate media and with GOP politicians. In New Hampshire, for example, US Senate candidate Dan Bolduc told supporters at a campaign event:

“We have furries and fuzzies in classrooms. They lick themselves, they’re cats. When they don’t like something, they hiss… and get this, get this, they’re putting litter boxes [in schools] for them.”

While there’s never been a case of “furries” ever documented in any school anywhere in America, the worry about them continues to provoke Republican legislators seven years after the joke was revealed and debunked. The most recent suckeris Oklahoma Republican State Representative Justin Humphrey, the same guy who earlier introduced legislation require women seeking an abortion to get written permission from “the fetus’ father.” These guys are a living, breathing advertisement for the need to teach civics and critical thinking skills in our public schools.

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Top Oklahoma education official Ryan Walters cheers conspiracy theorist while appearing on her show | Media Matters for America

Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters praised conspiracy theorist DeAnna Lorraine during a nearly 25-minute interview on the December 19, 2023, edition of her show. Walters and Lorraine also spread a conspiracy theory about supposed Marxist infiltration in Oklahoma public schools, and Walters touted his efforts “to ensure that we're running the left wing out” in order “to put folks that share our conservative values in this agency.”

Lorraine is a former Infowars host and failed congressional candidate with a long record of spreading outlandish conspiracy theories, including Pizzagate and the QAnon conspiracy theory. (In recent posts, Lorraine said that “Q is the greatest Psyop ever told” and “we’ve been played.”) She also attended the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and has proposed that we “arm our children” to stop school shootings. Her streaming show, Shots Fired with DeAnna Lorraine, is part of the media network of white nationalist Stew Peters, who has spread extreme and violent rhetoric including calling for the deaths of LGBTQ people, journalists, Democratic politicians, and Catholic charity workers.

As Oklahoma’s state superintendent, Walters has pushed right-wing propaganda into public school curriculum and used far-right media programs to attack the state’s education system and teachers. Walters appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press days before his interview with Lorraine, arguing that he is responding to a “higher education push to drive left-wing, Marxist propaganda into classrooms.” Walters previously suggested that he has taken education policy advice from right-wing media personalities, including the anti-LGBTQ social media account Libs of TikTok and a BlazeTV pundit who disparages public schools as “Satan’s youth ministry.”

In the December 19 Shots Fired interview, Walters claimed that Oklahoma’s “education system has been run by Marxists for far too long” and the host agreed, suggesting there has been a communist plot since the 1950s to take over public education. Lorraine also compared the left to “cockroaches” after Walters claimed that “liberals embed themselves” in government agencies. He referred to the state superintendent’s office under his Democratic predecessor as “a captured entity,” and bragged to Lorraine: “I fired over 100 people from our agency in the first six months, and we are continuing to ensure that we're running the left wing out, and we're going to put folks that share our conservative values in this agency.”

Walters also claimed that George Soros — a frequent target of antisemitic conspiracy theories — has “financed” school boards and “government bureaucratic apparatuses.”

:{:{Video}:

CitationFrom the December 19, 2023, edition of Stew Peters Network's Shots Fired with DeAnna Lorraine

DEANNA LORRAINE (HOST): Ryan Walters, I'm excited to talk about you and all of these great wins under your belt. You are just slaying the Marxist left back and forth. Welcome to Shots Fired, how are you?

RYAN WALTERS: (OKLAHOMA STATE SUPERINTENDENT): Look, I appreciate you having me on. I appreciate the work you're doing. And, you know, I mean, that's the thing in education — to get the education system back on track when it's been pulled so far to the left, we have got to operate with a sense of urgency. And so we're playing offense here in Oklahoma. We're going to be aggressive and we're just getting started. But I'm telling you, this education system has been run by Marxists for far too long. Parents know it, our taxpayers know it, and it's time to get going.

LORRAINE: Oh 100%. And some people somehow still believe that this is sort of some big conspiracy theory that the education systems have been hijacked by the Marxist left and, you know, this all sort of happened organically. No, it's not. It's literally in the communist goals. The 45 communist goals for America way back in the 1950s. They state that they want to hide, they're going to hijack the education systems and schools and transform them into Marxist, communist curriculum. So it's not a conspiracy and it's actually happened, and they've been very successful at it.

…

WALTERS: I think that's so important for your viewers to hear is that we are in a very red state, very red state. Every single one of our counties voted for Donald Trump twice, so we are a very red state. But let me tell you, we also have a teachers union who is very well-financed and continue to block legislation and push legislation at the state capital. They have captured a lot of Republican legislators who listen to them alone. And so we've had to fight back against some of them, some folks in our own party who have fought school choice, fought parents rights. We had a legislator that’s Republican that fought to keep pornography in the classroom. And so we have these pockets of influence the teachers union has. But I'm going to tell you, the other thing that's so important is now that I run the education agency is liberals embed themselves in these agencies. So you've seen this with the way —

LORRAINE: Like cockroaches.

WALTERS: George Soros has financed these district attorneys. They've done the same thing with school boards, and they've done the same thing with the government bureaucratic apparatuses. So when I got here, you know, we would pass laws and it wouldn't be enforced because again, my predecessor, a Democrat, loaded this agency up with a bunch of liberals that were never going to hold districts accountable. They were never going to push back on the teachers union. And frankly, this was a captured entity. I mean, the left had captured the state superintendent. So you can pass whatever laws you wanted, they were never going to be enforced on the schools. So it has been a dramatic shift. I fired over 100 people from our agency in the first six months, and we are continuing to ensure that we're running the left wing out, and we're going to put folks that share our conservative values in this agency. And we're going to continue to fight for parents, and we're going to continue to fight — it’s frankly common sense. We're going to keep fighting for common sense to come back to the classroom.

Lorraine and Walters ended the interview praising each other, with the host telling Walters, “You are on fire. I love what you’re up to. I love what you’re doing. Keep going at it because we need strong fighters like you to fight for our schools and our children.”

Walters replied with effusive praise, telling Lorraine, “I love your show, love what you’re doing,” and “I appreciate you fighting for conservative principles and values and your fight for our kids. So really appreciate the time on the show and thank you for the work you’re doing.”

:{:{Video}:

CitationFrom the December 19, 2023, edition of Stew Peters Network's Shots Fired with DeAnna Lorraine

LORRAINE: Ryan Walters, you are on fire. I love what you're up to. I love what you're doing. Keep going at it because we need strong fighters like you to fight for our schools and our children. Tell everybody again where they can find you and follow your awesome work and achievements.

WALTERS: Well, I appreciate that. I love your show, love what you're doing.

...

WALTERS: But look I appreciate the time. I appreciate you fighting for conservative principles and values and your fight for our kids. So really appreciate the time on the show and thank you for the work you're doing.

LORRAINE: Thank you so much, Ryan.

Walters promoted the interview on X (formerly Twitter) by reposting a link from Lorraine to the interview with the caption “OK Superintendent of Education is on FIRE slaying the Marxists!”

//

  1. ### Oklahoma's top education official has a cozy relationship with BlazeTV host Steve Deace, who likens public schools to “Satan’s youth ministry”

10/06/23 12:18 PM EDT

  1. ### Remarks from Oklahoma public schools superintendent mirror far-right extremist talking points on the Tulsa Race Massacre

07/12/23 12:06 PM EDT

  1. ### Public schools are the latest target of the right’s con culture

09/07/23

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/04/bless-your-heart-klansplaining-crt blackburn

 [[ https://www.mediamatters.org/white-nationalism/remarks-oklahoma-public-schools-superintendent-mirror-far-right-extremist-talking

https://www.alternet.org/oklahoma-judge-rulsa-race-massacre/ judge toss case 100 yo 3x

https://boingboing.net/2023/07/07/oklahoma-schools-superintendent-says-tulsa-race-massacre-wasnt-um-about-race.html ]]

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https://www.alternet.org/the-right-wing/unconstitutional-oklahoma-superintendent-calls-for-framed-copy-of-10-commandments-in-every-class/

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an 4 23  // alt rt macho shitposting?

https://www.alternet.org/appalled-and-disheartened-oklahoma-governor-demands-resignation-of-officials-who-condoned-and-lynching/

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recall trump hdhs ice head was tracking menstrual cycles

They're whining that "globalists" are trying to control everyone. Meanwhile, the Republicans in Oklahoma are pushing a bill that would create a database for pregnant women so they can track if they get abortions.

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an 12 21

deep red Oklahoma, one of the state’s top Republicans, along with his wife, is facing multiple felony charges and the possibility of up to ten years in prison if convicted, according to the Associated Press.

The Republican is Terry O’Donnell, who serves as speaker pro tempore of the Oklahoma House of Representatives. O’Donnell, AP reports, is accused of “misusing his power to change state law so his wife, Teresa, could become a tag agent.” But Mack Martin, O’Donnell’s attorney, told AP that O’Donnell denies breaking the law in any way.

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an 10 21

why a second high-profile Republican in Oklahoma just left the GOP

Jon Skolnik Salon

A second Oklahoma GOP gubernatorial candidate has switched party affiliations over the GOP's opposition to COVID-19 health precautions, inviting other "like-minded...

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https://theintercept.com/2020/08/27/black-lives-matter-protesters:{-terrorism:(style="background-color:#ffcc66ff"):}:-felony-charges

prOSECUTORS AND LAWMAKERS in several states have responded to mass protests against police brutality by charging demonstrators with committing felonies, including terrorism charges. The trend of criminalizing protest has been on the uptick since the 2016 protests against the Dakota Access pipeline at Standing Rock, during and after which numerous states upped charges for protests “near critical infrastructure” as felonies. 

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Since 2016, 14 states have enacted new laws to restrict the right to peaceful assembly,a**ccording to the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, which tracks related state and federal legislation. But in the wake of the nationwide movement in support of Black lives, numerous states have increased the severity of criminal penalties for protesters along political lines and are prosecuting them more aggressively, as demonstrations continue with no sign of slowing down.

just last week, following more than 60 days of demonstrations outside the State Capitol, Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed a law that made it a felony to participate in some types of protests, including camping out overnight on state property.Charges for the same activity were previously classified as a misdemeanor. In Tennessee, people convicted of felonies lose their voting rights — making the new law a tool for disenfranchisement. 

Earlier this month, police in Muscatine, Iowa, apprehended two people they say were attempting to drive a vehicle into the city Public Safety Building and got stuck on a planter. They charged both men with numerous counts, including terrorism. That follows an Oklahoma district attorney’s pursuit ofterrorism chargesagainst five young people, including three teenagers and two people in their 20s. The fourth-term prosecutor also threw felony charges at numerous other people in relation to protests and damage to local and police property in late May. 

The terrorism charges reveal a “false equivalency between people who kill, and people who commit acts of property damage,” said Kate Chatfield, policy director at the Justice Collaborative, a policy and media organization focused on mass criminalization and incarceration. “Maybe not a great thing.” 

“To say that the power of the state will be wielded in this way against political enemies is incredibly frightening,” Chatfield said, drawing a parallel to the post-9/11 era, when many people who had never committed an act of violence were prosecuted for terrorism. “Let’s not ignore the fact that we have a history of this in this country. A very recent history. And a continuing history, unfortunately.”

The nationwide protests prompted by George Floyd’s killing have continued through the summer, though at a lower intensity over the last month — before picking back up this week. Streets across the country swelled with demonstrators after police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, shot 29-year-old Jacob Blake in the back seven times, in front of his children. Blake is paralyzed from the waist down, his father told the Chicago Sun-Times on Tuesday. Protesters burned down a state Department of Corrections building on Monday. The following night, armed white members of a militia group organized counterdemonstrations to protect local property. Video footage from Kenosha shows the militia members chatting with the police. Shortly after the video was captured, one member of the militia shot and killed two protesters, and left a third in serious condition. Police arrested 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse in Illinois on Wednesday and charged him with first-degree intentional homicide. 

“When you hear our president talk about Black Lives Matter as a terrorist organization, or antifa as a terrorist organization, it is the kind of thing that — his statement holds no weight in law, but it sends a message to prosecutors like this that they’ll be supported,” said Thomas Harvey, justice project director at the Advancement Project, a non-profit civil rights group. “And even more frighteningly, I think it sends a message to people like the militia members we saw in Kenosha, and gives them the state and the latitude to commit even more violence than what we see on a daily basis in this country against black and brown folks.”

IN SOME STATES where police have charged protesters en masse with felonies, prosecutors have swiftly dropped them, calling into question the reasoning behind the original charges. 

In Louisville, Kentucky, police arrested 87 protesters who had staged a sit-in on the lawn of a home belonging to state Attorney General Daniel Cameron last month — part of an ongoing  call for accountability in the killing of Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old EMT whom three Louisville police officers shot at least eight timesinside her home in March. (The officers were acting on a no-knock warrant in connection with a suspect who did not live at Taylor’s residence. The police department fired one of the three officers who were involved in June. Local activists including Louisville Black Lives Matter worked with Taylor’s family to develop a list of demands, including firing, charging, and convicting the three officers.) Three days later, Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell dismissed the felony charges and said his office would consider misdemeanors and other violations for prosecution at a later date. On Tuesday, Louisville police arrested another 68 protesters and charged them with obstructing a highway and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors.

Earlier this month in Washington, D.C., police arrested 41 protesters in the Adams Morgan neighborhood on charges of felony rioting and assaulting police officers. The Metropolitan Police Department said in a tweet on August 14 that it only arrested people “engaged in rioting behaviors.” Between May 30 and June 1, District police arrested more than 100 people on charges of burglary, destroying property, and violating curfew, including at least 40 charges of felony rioting.Prosecutorsdropped most of the charges in both sets of arrests.

In Salt Lake City on Friday, a judge droppedpossible life sentence charges facing protesters who poured paint, broke windows, and posted signs at the District Attorney’s Office building, reducing some charges to lower-class felonies and misdemeanors. In June, West Valley police and FBI agents arrested two men in Salt Lake who had allegedly threatened officers and were headed to protests armed with multiple weapons. Prosecutors later charged one man with terrorism. 

Also in early June, police officers in Columbia, South Carolina, arrested more than 80 protesters and charged three men with instigating a riot, typically a low-level felony or misdemeanor. 

Elected officials participating in the protest have also been caught in the crackdown.In Portsmouth, Virginia, on Monday, sheriff’s deputies delivered a summons charge to the vice mayor, after a resident pressed misdemeanor criminal charges against her for calling on the Portsmouth police chief to resign. Earlier this month, police brought felony charges against the Virginia State Senate pro tempore, a local school board member, local NAACP leaders, and public defenders for injury to a monument and conspiracy, in relation to the destruction of confederate statues in June.

Federal authorities have also carried out their own crackdown on demonstrations, arresting protesters in Portland, Oregon, and New York City in recent months. The FBI has opened some 300 domestic terrorism investigations since late May. Last year, according to the agency, most federal arrests for domestic terrorism involved white supremacy, though the FBI’s Domestic Terrorism Analysis Unit has also investigated a fictional “black identity extremists” movement. The FBI has also quietly investigated white supremacist infiltration of law enforcement in recent years, The Intercept reported. 

AMONG THE MOST serious recent charges against protesters are those of terrorism in Oklahoma.  There,Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater charged three teenagers and two other people in their 20s with terrorism related to their alleged activity during protests in late May. 

“We found it especially inappropriate — and unconstitutional — because it was made with the explicit purpose of silencing protesters who are standing up for Black lives,” American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma Staff Attorney Megan Lambert told The Intercept, regarding the recent terrorism charges. “We didn’t even see terrorism charges for the Murrah bombing,” she added, referring to the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City.

Read Our Complete CoverageProtests for Black Lives

The terrorism charges, which were filed in June and July, stem from allegations that protesters set fire to a sheriff’s van and caused damage to a local bail bond business. Last month, Prater charged two other teenagers with terrorism in connection to demonstrations at the end of May, bringing the total to five. The DA also charged multiple people with rioting, assaulting officers, andat least five others for incitement to riot for painting murals in the city’s downtown area in June.

Oklahoma Democratic Party Chair Alicia Andrews, the ACLUof Oklahoma, and Oklahoma City Black Lives Matter founder and Executive Director Rev. T. Sheri Dickerson slammed Prater’s move, saying that the charges of terrorism were far too harsh. During a press conference early last month, Andrews said she didn’t condone vandalism or destruction of property but that Prater was using the charges to silence protesters. “‘Use your First Amendment right in a way that we don’t like, and we will ruin your future.’ These charges are an attempt to send a message, ‘We’re tired of hearing about Black lives,’” she said. 

Prater took office in 2007 and is currently serving his fourth term as DA. His current term ends in 2023.He started his career in law enforcement at age 19 as a deputy sheriff, according to his bio. “These people are speaking out against violence that Prater himself has largely been complicit in,” Lambert said. “This is just another example in a pattern from David Prater’s office of upholding white supremacy.” Prater’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Last May, Prater declined to charge officers who killed 17-year-old Isaiah Lewis, who was in the middle of a mental health crisis when police shot him in Edmond. Over the last few months, local activists have brought renewed attention to Lewis’s killing, which has been a focus of some demonstrations in the area. Other cases have gotten less attention, Dickerson pointed out. Derrick Scott, 42, died last May after being apprehended and restrained by Oklahoma City police. In video footage of the arrest released in June, Scott tells officers he can’t breathe and asks them repeatedly to give him his medicine. An officer replies, “I don’t care.” 

“The Scott family is not receiving any justice,” Dickerson said, adding that Scott’s killing was eerily similar to Floyd’s. Earlier this month, police shot 32-year-old James Harmon in the head, saying that he had a weapon in his hand (Oklahoma is an open-carry state). Harmon is still in the hospital. 

“Systemic racism, institutional racism, and white supremacy is so deep-rooted,” Dickerson said, agreeing with Lambert’s characterization of Prater’s office. “There’s really nothing more Oklahoman than that.” 

“This was a state that was formed basically for them to literally lump Natives and Blacks here together,” she said. “And so it has always been very intentional and deliberate, for us to be victims of what I consider state-sanctioned violence and state-targeted violence.”

For the Oklahoma City teens and young adults facing terror charges, “what’s next is they fight for their lives,” Lambert said. The statute carries a maximum of life in prison. “Many of these charged protesters are young teenagers. … So they are facing spending their entire lives in prison simply for, in some cases, attending a protest to try and hold police accountable.” Criminal defense attorneys are still working to get those charges dropped or significantly reduced.   

“Some of the young people were saying, ‘We should go to Kenosha and stand with the young people there,” Dickerson said. “And I was like, ‘How do you choose?’”

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320 new drilled/heated

...

In Oklahoma, students are told "Having no petroleum is like a nightmare!"

Before her retirement in 2016, Tara Barker was a public school science teacher in Oklahoma for 33 years. Throughout her tenure, she taught her kids about fossil fuels using Petro Pete—a little boy who looks like an old man dressed as an oil worker.

Petro Pete is part of an education series on fossil fuels proliferated by the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board, a state agency funded by oil and gas producers. According to The Guardian, the OERB “has spent upwards of $40 million over the past two decades on providing education with a pro-industry bent, including hundreds of pages of curriculums, a speaker series and an after-school program—all at no cost to educators of children from kindergarten to high school.”

Barker said the industry’s lesson plans and workshops were helpful to her. “I loved getting the materials,” she said. But the outcome of the lessons always left her feeling like something was missing. “I just felt like they didn’t finish the story,” she said. “They didn’t tell the whole thing.”

The missing things, it turns out, were climate change and renewable energy. Neither is mentioned in “Petro Pete’s Big Bad Dream.”

In this widely taught story, Pete drifts off to sleep and wakes up unable to find anything he normally depends on. He has no clothes; no toothbrush; no comb. His schoolbus never comes, so he walks to school, and when he gets there the clock has a sad face on it. During lunch, Pete wants strawberry ice cream, but there is none. Later, he goes out to play soccer, but there are no soccer balls. “Pete is disappointed,” it says.

Eventually, Pete’s science teacher—the appropriately named Ms. Rigwell—explains that all the things Pete was missing were either made by oil or made possible by oil. “Having no petroleum is like a nightmare,” Pete concludes.

Barker said saw Petro Pete have an impact on students. “It makes the kids feel like, ‘Oh wow, we really need this,’” she said. “It scares them that we’re going to run out.” She said she wanted to make sure she was teaching about the possibilities of renewable energy, too—but the oil industry didn’t provide free material on that. She had to develop that curriculum herself, on her own time.

Today, that alternative curriculum is called the Oklahoma Renewable Energy Education Program. “We call it the other side of the story; the compliment to it,” Barker said. Barker’s group is trying to hold workshops for teachers across the state just like the oil and gas industry does, and have the curriculum accepted in all of Oklahoma’s school districts. But she’s struggling with funding. “We don’t have a grant right now, so we’re using leftover materials and we’re working on what we have.”

The oil and gas industry, of course, does not have this problem. And its bid to influence public education extends far beyond Oklahoma.

Creating pro-fossil fuel kids across the country

There are many more state-specific examples of fossil fuel industry and interest groups funding educational material. The Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Educational Program, for example, is an industry-funded effort to provide workshops and educational material for Ohio teachers. These materials include a worksheet on the environmental benefits of crude oil and gas, a crude oil word find, and an activity placemat for kids.

Culver Company, a consulting firm for energy and natural gas utilities, provides educational material for schools, including aworkbook from kids Grade 3-6. In Natural Gas: Your Invisible Friend, “youngsters explore where gas comes from, how it’s used, and why it’s important to be careful around natural gas,” the description says.

Then there’s the National Energy Education Development Project, or NEED Project, which is sponsored by more than 100 corporate partners, including nearly every major U.S.-based oil and gas company and oil industry interest group. The NEED Project “publishes thousands of pages of K-12 energy lessons online,” according to the non-profit education news publication the Hechinger Report. Those lessons include one where students learn “how to frack a frozen layer cake using chocolate syrup and a syringe-like turkey injector.” Another guide tells the story of Sue Ann, “a sticky pool of oil waiting to be freed.”

These educational materials are not all misleading in their own right. Many actually contain scientifically robust information about how fossil fuel extraction and power generation work. But when these materials aren’t paired with robust climate change education, they paint a false picture in students’ minds about the benefits of fossil fuel use.

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PRUITT STARTED IN RAGA

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fed overreach BS?

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https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/how-an-oklahoma-prosecutor-launched-malicious-probes-against-criminal-justice-reformers/

no lnx

How an Oklahoma prosecutor ‘launched malicious probes against criminal justice reformers’

Photo of DA Prater via Oklahoma County DA’s office

Written by Filter October 28, 2019

by Rory Fleming

Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater stands accused of firing his investigator for refusing to conduct a bogus criminal probe into supporters of decarceration efforts.

That is according to a Notice of Claim?—a legal document that must be submitted before suing Oklahoma’s state government?—filed on October 24 and reviewed by Filter.

Oklahoma County includes Oklahoma City and, with around 750,000 residents, is the most populated county in the state. DA Prater’s reported general behavior has echoes of McCarthyism and the Red Scare.

William Muller?—a former Oklahoma County DA office investigator, whose law enforcement career includes time on President George W. Bush’s security detail?—alleges that DA Prater demanded he obtain a Multi-County Grand Jury Subpoena for the financial records of Oklahomans Criminal Justice Reform, a nonprofit advocacy organization.

Kris Steele, the former speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, is the executive director of this organization; a probe of Steele was separately ordered. Prater also started a retaliatory probe against the American Civil Liberties Union, focusing on its financial contributions to reform efforts.

Muller initially complied but later refused, saying there was no probable cause—the usual legal threshold for a criminal investigation. Prater also exhibited apathy toward the legal rules about the proper handling of evidence, the Notice claims.

When Muller told Prater that he couldn’t sniff anything out, Prater gave him the cold shoulder. Then, in late January 2019, Muller gave an internal presentation on an unfurling political corruption case. Seemingly out of nowhere, Prater “called two Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Deputies into the office where then [he] lost control of himself and began to yell and curse uncontrollably,” states the Notice.

Prater also personally seized Muller’s firearm, it is alleged, then had the deputies kick Muller out of the building. He then announced Muller’s firing to a law enforcement email list that spans the entire state.

In the context, none of this is even surprising.

A 2015 article from the Oklahoman recounts Prater’s reputation for “tackling crime,” or at least defendants he is prosecuting. He ignores the political decorum expected of prosecutors, having once endorsed Reverend Paul Blair, a hateful fundamentalist who spreads Islamophobic conspiracy theories, for state senate. He has been accused by fellow lawyers, most notably those working on Richard Glossip’s potential innocence case, of witness intimidation.

And he despises even the mildest positive changes to the criminal justice system, as exhibited by his war against his own voters. When Oklahomans, including his constituents, voted by ballot initiative in 2017 to make drug possession a misdemeanor (rather than a felony), Prater unsuccessfully labored alongside anti-reform allies like former Sen. Ralph Shortey (who shortly thereafter went to federal prison for child sex trafficking), to reverse the popular mandate.

Robert D. Gifford, II, the attorney representing William Muller, is a former Assistant US Attorney who has dedicated most of his career to getting justice for the most defenseless victims. One of his most notable cases was the prosecution of Matthew Durham, the young missionary who raped Kenyan orphans as young as six years old.

In a conversation with Filter, Gifford likened Prater to Richard Nixon and called him “the poster boy for prosecutorial misconduct.” He added that, “but for a whistleblower, Mr. Prater’s misuse and abuse of secret grand jury subpoenas would have never come to light.”

On top of being an example of how prosecutors can wreak havoc on their communities when given too much power, Prater’s alleged misconduct shows how it is crucial for district attorneys to have opponents when they come up for re-election.

Prater skated to re-election in 2018 without an opponent, despite a cornucopia of reasons for him to be booted out of office. Hopefully, 2022 won’t tell the same story. Or the Oklahoma State Bar wises up and disbars him, before he does anything worse.

This article was originally published by Filter, a magazine covering drug use, drug policy and human rights. Follow Filter on Facebook or Twitter.

==

desmog

Oklahoma

Earthquakes caused by fracking wastewater injections were a major topic in the race for corporation commissioner in Oklahoma. The corporation commission oversees the oil and gas industry in the state.

One of the main issues Ashley McCray, a 34 year old former activist, was running on was limiting fracking wastewater injection wells to reduce related earthquakes in Oklahoma. Her opponent was the Republican Bob Anthony, who has held the position for 30 years and whose campaign was financed with help from railroad and energy companies, including BNSF, Chesapeake Energy, American Electric Power, and Koch Industries, as well as from fracking pioneer and billionaire Harold Hamm.

While McCray only managed to gain 34 percent of the vote, the local paper The Journal Record credits her campaign with shedding more light on just what the powerful corporation commission does. Industry-caused seismic activity has been a hotbed issue in Oklahoma for years and has managed to cross typical party lines.

==

In the midst of the colossal upset that saw progressive African-American Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum win the Democratic nomination for the Florida governor race, another lesser-known but huge development unfolded in Oklahoma, giving Democrats a clear chance to win the governor's mansion there.

In the runoff elections on Tuesday night, pro-Trump Tulsa businessman Kevin Stitt defeated Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett to win the GOP nomination. He will now face off against former Democratic state attorney general Drew Edmondson, who already won the nomination in June — which is shaping up to be a truly competitive race.

Republicans blew a huge potential advantage by not nominating Cornett, who has campaign experience and is known for bringing the NBA to his state. Stitt, by contrast, has never held elected office, faces questions about his mortgage company's business practices, and said he opposes the badly-needed recent pay increases that ended the state's teacher walkouts.

Edmondson, by contrast, is the Democrats' dream candidate — a Vietnam veteran who has already won statewide office multiple times and has decent name recognition. One poll released in July showed Edmondson leading the race by one point with Stitt as the nominee.

Oklahoma is one of the reddest states in America. It is one of only two stateswhere President Donald Trump carried every single county. But Democrats have held the governor's mansion as recently as 2011.

Republicans in Oklahoma are also reeling from voter resentment amid the massive unpopularity of retiring Gov. Mary Fallin, who oversaw reckless tax cuts that collapsed the state's finances and crippled state agencies. The teacher strikes only scratch the surface — under Fallin's tenure, rural hospitals have shuttered, waiting lists for community help for the elderly and disabled have stretched to 10 years, and there is even a driving limit on state troopers to ration fuel.

In an ominous sign for Republicans, Tuesday night's runoffs also saw the defeat of half a dozen GOP state lawmakers who voted against the tax increase to fund teacher pay— which cannot inspire confidence for a gubernatorial nominee who claimed he would not have signed it.

The upshot is that Democrats now have a real chance to win in a heavily red state, and punch deep into Trump territory. They should heed the anger of voters hurt by GOP misrule, and fight for them.

==

COAL

Okla. firm tops midterm donations

E&E Daily: Thursday, August 23, 2018

Incumbents on Capitol Hill have gotten more money from magnate Joe Craft and his coal company than any one else in the industry, the Center for Responsive Politics found.

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april 2018

walkout in Oklahoma — which could stretch for days — is part of a wave of educator revolts striking states where tax cuts have drained state funding for schools.

In Kentucky, teachers rallied Monday in Frankfort, the state capital, against teacher pension reforms, shutting down schools in a dozen districts. In Arizona, teachers have threatened to strike if they do not get a 20 percent raise and an infusion of money into schools. On Monday,**Gov. Doug Ducey (R**) said it would not happen, raising the likelihood of a standoff between the two groups.

The job actions in Oklahoma, Kentucky and elsewhere were inspired by West Virginia teachers, who won a 5 percent raise after a nine-day strike, emboldening frustrated educators across the country....Oklahoma has faced some of the deepest cuts to education in the nation. Adjusted for inflation, state spending per student has fallen nearly 30 percent over the past decade, according to the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The result? Oklahoma teachers ranked 49th in teacher pay in 2016, according to the National Education Association, a leading union.

In 2015, Oklahoma spent a little more than $8,000 per student, far below the national average of $11,400. The cuts also took a toll on school budgets.

When their state funding took a hit, administrators trimmed electives, programs for struggling students and money for teachers to buy supplies. Eventually, many were forced to cut positions, pushing class sizes and workloads for counselors higher...

Many schools reduced classes to four days a week because they could no longer keep the lights on [literally?]for five. The basics that are a given in most U.S. classrooms — textbooks, curriculum materials, staples, printer ink — are often in short supply in Oklahoma schools.

“I came to the Capitol not just for myself, not just for a raise, but for my students,” said Misti Vann, who teaches at Belfonte Elementary in the tiny community of Belfonte. She ticked off a litany of problems that the dearth of funding has spawned: leaky roofs, drafty windows, balky heaters. “My classroom, my books are falling apart,” she said.

After lawmakers this year again cut the education budget, a fed-up superintendent began polling his colleagues to see whether they would be interested in backing a strike. Then, inspired by West Virginia’s educators, teachers in Oklahoma — who in 2016 made less money on average than their counterparts there — began planning their own walkout, organizing on Facebook. Teachers demanded a $10,000 raise for themselves, a $5,000 raise for other school workers and an additional $200 million in education funding.

...

seemed to have worked: Last week, state lawmakers passed a measure increasing teacher pay by an average of $6,100 and giving schools an additional $51 million in funding — with $33 million of that set aside for textbooks.

“I hope they can come up here and say ‘thank you’ on Monday and go back to the classrooms,” Gov. Mary Fallin (R) said at a news conference last week, a remark that infuriated educators.

Instead, many teachers remain frustrated that the state dedicated only $51 million more for schools, which does little to reverse a decade of cuts. And while some said they were satisfied with their raise, they said they will remain out of the classroom until the state boosts funding.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2018/04/02/fed-up-with-school-spending-cuts-oklahoma-teachers-prepare-to-walk-out/

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https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/oklahoma-gop-candidate-denies-advocating-euthanasia-poor-and-disabled-people

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Official PAC Name:

Location: , 

Industry: FEC Committee ID: C00167213  (Look upactual documents filed at the FEC)

okla leadrship council GOP

https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/expenditures.php?cycle=2016&cmte=C00167213

1Republican Party of Florida$132,0002Direct Mail Systems$32,8933Renaissance Hotels$31,9704Republican National Cmte of Pennsylvania$30,0005Mayo Hotel$18,8316Marriott Tulsa Hotel Southern Hills$13,8257Brogdon, Randy$8,5178Hilton Hotels$7,5009Petroleum Club of Okc$7,22510Vanco Payment Solutions$6,172

==

http://www.alternet.org/environment/oklahoma-sues-epa-calling-clean-air-rule-unconstitutional

Oklahoma sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday, claiming it exceeded its powers by proposing new rules to reduce pollution at coal-fired power plants.

Attorney General Scott Pruitt sued the EPA in Federal Court, claiming its plan to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions in the next five years is unconstitutional.

Oklahoma claims the agency's timeline for its Clean Power Plan is unrealistic, and that it will need a minimum of eight years to implement the changes.

[clean pwr plan video 101]

RELATED: U.S. Supreme Court Strikes Down Obama's EPA Limits on Air Pollution

"In sum, due to the EPA Power Plan, simply maintaining electric service across the State of Oklahoma requires substantial expenditures of time, effort, and money by the Oklahoma Legislature, OCC [Oklahoma Corporation Commission], ODEQ [Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality], and other state actors, as well as private utilities," the complaint states.

"These expenditures cannot be recouped. If the State does nothing while EPA implements anything like a 35.5-percent reduction in carbon-dioxide emissions from Oklahoma's coal-fired power plants, the lights will go out in many Oklahoma communities, impacting State governmental operations, as well as the health and welfare of citizens. The same is true of the 33 percent 'interim goal' set by EPA and would be true of even a substantially smaller goal, on the order of 15 or 20 percent."

Pruitt claims that the plan would require "the complete restructuring of Oklahoma's power sector even though it has no chance of surviving eventual judicial scrutiny."

RELATED: GOP Congressman Lamar Smith Declares War on NASA and EPA Climate Science Research

He claims the plan violates at least three statutory bars and two constitutional limitations on federal power. Pruitt said the state can challenge the plan in the D.C. Circuit under Section 307 of the Clean Air Act, but expects it would take at least nine months for a final decision to be issued.

"Even if Oklahoma is able to obtain a stay of the EPA Power Plan in the D.C. Circuit, that is still likely to take months," according to the 19-page complaint. "By that time, Oklahoma will have either implemented or taken irreversible steps towards implementing most, if not all, of the changes described above, meaning that they will be implemented even though the EPA Power Plan is certain to be invalidated. The ordinary petition process under Section 307 is not an adequate means of obtaining the relief required if Oklahoma is to maintain its power sector in anything like the form it exists today and if it is to forgo the massive expenditure of resources required to accommodate the EPA Power Plan."

Federal officials could not be reached for comment after business hours Wednesday.

RELATED: EPA Moves to Regulate Airplane Emissions Under Clean Air Act, Citing Danger to Human Health

Pruitt said in a statement late Wednesday that the plan "forces Oklahoma into fundamentally restructuring the generation, transmission, and regulation of electricity" in a way that threatens the "reliability and affordability" of electricity in the state. He said that decisions on power generation and emissions reductions are best made at the local level.

"The EPA does not possess the authority under the Clean Air Act to accomplish what it proposes in the unlawful Clean Power Plan," Pruitt said. "The EPA is ignoring theauthority granted by Congress to states to regulate power plant emissions at their source. The Clean Power Plan is an unlawful attempt to expand federal bureaucrats' authority over states' energy economies in order to shutter coal-fired power plants and eventually other sources of fossil-fuel generated electricity."

Pruitt seeks declaratory judgment that the EPA Power Plan violates the Clean Air Act and "exceeds Congress's Article I authority and violates the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution." He seeks an injunction preventing its enforcement.

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Citizens Can Sue Fracking Companies for Earthquake Damage, Says Oklahoma Supreme Court

==

http://www.alternet.org/personal-health/5-most-dangerous-states-live-and-5-safest

According to the study, the five safest states to live in are Massachusetts, Vermont, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Hawaii.The least safe states to live in are New Mexico, Tennessee, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Mississippi. Massachusetts is the state with the lowest share of residents who lack health insurance, the second fewest number of fatal occupational injuries, and the second lowest rate of fatal automobile accidents.=

==

Oklahoma scientists pressured to downplay link between earthquakes and fracking

Oil company execs and university bigwigs leaned on the Oklahoma Geological Survey so it wouldn’t blame quakes on fracking techniques.

==

former AG, gov cand: BS  BS: Okla dem  http://ballotpedia.org/Oklahoma_Attorney_General_-_Drew_Edmondson

Drew was personally involved in overseeing the tobacco litigation, involving multiple defendants and billions in damages, as well as the state’s litigation against the poultry industry alleging violations of state and federal environmental laws. He was also involved in the state’s prosecution of Bernie Ebbers in the Worldcom case.

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alternet 5/14

3. Oklahoma Bans Increases in the Minimum Wage

While the Obama administration raises the minimum wage threshold for private contractors working with the government, Democrats in Congress push for a $10.10 minimum wage, and Seattle votes in the country’s highest minimum at $15.00 an hour, Oklahoma is going in the exact opposite direction: not only is Oklahoma not considering a statewide increase, but it banned individual cities [6] from even considering such a raise on their own.

The move was widely viewed as a preemptive attack on a movement by the Central Oklahoma Labor Federation to raise the Oklahoma City’s wage to $10.10, in line with that being called for by President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats.

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin and her fellow Republicans in the legislature argued [7] the bill created a “level playing field for all municipalities in Oklahoma” and protected against “artificial” raises in the minimum wage, whatever those are.

"Mandating an increase in the minimum wage would…would create a hardship for small business owners, stifle job creation and increase costs for consumers," Fallin said. "And it would do all of these things without even addressing the goal of reducing poverty."

Not quite. The statistics on the relation of minimum wage to job creation or loss are murky, but most studies find raising the wage’s overall affect on employment to be negligible. Two things raising the minimum wage definitely does: increases earnings for lower-income workers (by $33 billion in the case of a nationwide raise to $10.10) and lifts almost one million people out of poverty. Neither is something metropolises in Oklahoma are going to find out about any time soon.

4. Oklahoma Punishes Solar and Wind Power Producers

Oklahoma wasn’t done. Unhappy with people who install their own solar panels or wind turbines, an action that helps the utilities by easing the pressure on the companies during peak hours, the state is now penalizing private energy producers through a surcharge [8].

The extra charge applies to those who sell excess energy generated by the panels or turbines back to the grid, known as net metering. It was snuck in as a rider on another bill at the last minute, catching lawmakers and alternative energy groups off guard. It passed without a single dissenting vote.

It didn’t take long for Oklahoman owners of small businesses to point out the absurdity of a law that punishes in-state producers of energy.

“Oklahoma offers tax credits for large wind turbines which are built elsewhere, but wants to penalize small wind which we manufacture here in the state?” Mike Bergey, president & CEO of Bergey Windpower said [8]. “That makes no sense to me.”

Who would support such a bill? The ultra-conservative advocacy group ALEC, which has framed people with solar panels as “freeriders on the system,” though they actually contribute to the city’s power resources. ALEC is in good with Fallin. Thanks to this cozy relationship, Oklahoma is set to become the first state to pass a law of this kind. Where states have deals worked out between utility companies and individual power generators, ALEC is set on repealing them. They now have a template in a last-minute sabotoage in Oklahoma.

==

alec win

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/04/16/3427392/oklahoma-fee-solar-wind/

Oklahoma residents who produce their own energy through solar panels or small wind turbines on their property will now be charged an additional fee, the result of a new bill passed by the state legislature and expected to be signed into law by Gov. Mary Fallin (R).

On Monday, S.B. 1456 passed the state House 83-5 after no debate. The measure creates a new class of customers: those who install distributed power generation systems like solar panels or small wind turbines on their property and sell the excess energy back to the grid. While those with systems already installed won’t be affected, the new class of customers will now be charged a monthly fee — a shift that happened quickly and caught many in the state off guard.

“We knew nothing about it and all of a sudden it’s attached to some other bill,” Ctaci Gary, owner of Sun City Oklahoma, told ThinkProgress. “It just appeared out of nowhere.”...

As the use of solar power skyrockets across the U.S., fights have sprung up in several states over how much customers should be compensated for excess power produced by their solar panels and sold back to the grid — a policy known as net metering. Net metering laws have come under fire from the secretive American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a group backed by fossil fuel corporations, utility companies, and the ultra-conservative Koch brothers. Forty-three states and the District of Columbia currently have net metering policies in place and ALEC has set its sights on repealing them, referring to homeowners with their own solar panels as “freeriders on the system.” ALEC presented Gov. Fallin the Thomas Jefferson Freedom award last year for her “record of advancing the fundamental Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism and individual liberty as a nationally recognized leader.”

Oklahoma “could be the first complete defeat for solar advocates in their fight against utility efforts to recover costs lost to DG [distributed generation] use,” writes Utility Dive. Net metering survived attacks in Colorado and Kansas and Vermont recently increased its policy in a bipartisan effort. Last year, Arizona added what amounts to a $5 per month surcharge for solar customers, a move that was widely seen as a compromise, particularly after ALEC and other Koch-backed groups got involved.

While any extra charge placed on potential customers is a concern, Gary hopes that like Arizona, Oklahoma’s fee is modest enough to protect her business from serious damage.

Matt Kasper, energy research assistant at the Center for American Progress, contributed to this piece.

==

Oklahoma

Titled, the “Scientific Education and Academic Freedom Act,” H.B. 1551 is also essentially a copycat of Tennessee's version of the ALEC model bill — it failed to pass. A Senate version of that bill, S.B. 320, was also proposed in 2009, but failed to pass through committee.

Key clauses of that bill read (emphases mine),

    "[T]eachers shall be permitted to help students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories pertinent to the course being taught."

    "[N]o student in any public school or institution shall be penalized in any way because the student may subscribe to a particular position on scientific theories."

Notice how the first bullet is exactly the same in both the Tennessee and Oklahoma bills — also notice how similar bullet number two is in both language and substance in both states' bills.

Rep. Sally Kern (R-84), sponsor of H.B. 1551, is a member of ALEC, according to CMD. She received $12,335 from the oil and gas industry in the 2008 and 2010 election cycles, in total, according to FollowTheMoney.org. Sen. Randy Brogdon (R-34), sponsor of S.B. 320, while not a member of ALEC, received $22,967 from the oil and gas industry while running and losing for Governor of Oklahoma in 2010, according to FollowTheMoney.org.

On the whole, sponsors and co-sponsors from the six states in which the ALEC bill was proposed were recipients of $44,409 in campaign money from the oil and gas industry, a miniscule down payment for some of the most lucrative corporations known in the history of mankind.

==

ALEC Assembles "Most Wanted" List, and Oklahomans Say "ALEC Is Not OK"

by Brendan Fischer [1] — May 6, 2013 - 7:44am

[6]

-- by Brendan Fischer and Nick Surgey --

In anticipation of protests at ALEC's recent meeting in Oklahoma City, state legislators were handed a set of talking points [7] that read "The American Legislative Exchange Council recognizes the first amendment rights of free speech and assembly, and asks that ___ do the same," apparently to prepare legislators for press questions about citizen activism. But ALEC didn't live up to those spoon-fed talking points: ALEC assembled a dossier of disfavored reporters and activists, kicked reporters out of its conference who might write unfavorable stories, and managed to boot a community forum critical of ALEC from its reserved room.

In what might be the biggest anti-ALEC rally yet, the ALEC legislators and lobbyists arriving at the Renaissance Hotel on May 2 were greeted by awave of protesters [8] that outnumbered the conference attendees.

More than 600 firefighters, teachers, environmentalists, and church leaders carried signs reading "ALEC is Not OK" and chanting "backroom deals are ALEC's game/sweetheart deals for corporate gain," while a giant inflatable pig wearing a banner reading "Hi, my name is ALEC" floated overhead. Two big rigs adorned with Teamsters logos circled the convention center, honking their horns and blowing air brakes. Harold A. Schaitberger, President of the International Association of Fire Fighters, told the crowd that ALEC's "sole purpose is to develop the most anti-worker, anti-employee, anti-union, anti-middle class, pro-business, pro corporation policies, legislation and agenda possible."

Inside, white men in dark suits milled in the lobby of the Renaissance Hotel and the neighboring Cox Convention Center. Laughter floated through the hotel bar as corporate lobbyists (with a "private sector" tag on their name badge) huddled with state legislators (wearing "public sector" tags).

Fresh-faced interns hustled through the crowds, appearing exhilarated to be in the midst of dealmaking and power brokerage. Oklahoma City Police Officers in full uniform -- but reportedly off-duty and paid by ALEC -- stopped anyone not wearing a name badge from entering ALEC's sections of the convention center.

"We Know Who You Are"

On the morning of May 3, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin -- an ALEC "Legislator of the Year" in 2009 -- gave the ALEC meeting's keynote address. The short, relatively generic speech was the only portion of the ALEC event open to the press: the task force meetings where prospective "model bills" are discussed and adopted were entirely closed-door and guarded by police.

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TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma and Texas have argued for years about which has the best college football team, whose oil fields produce better crude, even where the state border should run. But in a hot, sticky dispute that no one wants to win, Oklahoma just reclaimed its crown.

After recalculating data from last year, the nation's climatologists are declaring that Oklahoma suffered through the hottest summer ever recorded in the U.S. last year— not Texas as initially announced last fall.

"It doesn't make me feel any better," joked Texas rancher Debbie Davis, who lives northwest of San Antonio.

In the new tally by the National Climatic Data Center, Oklahoma's average temperature last summer was 86.9 degrees, while Texas finished with 86.7 degrees. The previous record for the hottest summer was 85.2 degrees set in 1934 — in Oklahoma.

"I'm from Oklahoma, and when you talk about the summer of 1934, there are a lot of connotations that go with that," said Deke Arndt, chief of the NCDC's climate monitoring branch in Asheville, N.C. "That whole climate episode — the Dust Bowl — that is a point in our state's history that we still look back to as transformative."

Yet the summer of 2011, "was warmer than all those summers that they experienced during the Dust Bowl," Arndt said.

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Need That ‘A’ Grade? Try Denying Climate And Evolution

It’s happening in Oklahoma – again.

A bill that would prevent teachers from marking down students who turn in papers that dispute ideas like climate change and evolution was approved by the Oklahoma Common Education committeeon Tuesday by a 9-8 vote.

HB1674 states that students in science classes would be able to make totally unscientific and unfounded faith-based claims, and not be penalized for it. This is a horrible travesty of education, one that I’m sure most teachers would protest vigorously.

From Mother Jones:

Gus Blackwell, the Republican state representative who introduced the bill, insists that his legislation has nothing to do with religion; it simply encourages scientific exploration. “I proposed this bill because there are teachers and students who may be afraid of going against what they see in their textbooks,” says Blackwell, who previously spent 20 years working for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. “A student has the freedom to write a paper that points out that highly complex life may not be explained by chance mutations.”

Really? So I can declare that God created the world around six thousand years ago, even though my textbook says something quite different, and get an ‘A’ in science class? Whatever happened to the inquiry method, in which students are required to develop a solid argument based on proven facts?

Of course, this is Oklahoma, the same state that has brought us Senator James Inhofe who famously stated, “Climate change is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.”

Twenty-five years after the Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law that mandated religious instruction in science classes, lawmakers in many states are still trying to water down the teaching of science and push creationism into the public schools.

It’s not just Oklahoma. Just a few weeks into the 2013 legislative session, there are already anti-evolution bills circulating in Missouri, Montana, Colorado, Indiana, in addition to Oklahoma. And in some cases, like this one, climate change has taken a prominent place, along with evolution, as a target for creationists.

These lawmakers have also changed their tactics. Take the bill proposed byMissouri State Representative Rick Brattin: HB291 would require that intelligent design and “destiny” get the same amount of textbook coverage in Missouri schools as the theory of evolution. Brattin insists that his bill is not influenced by religion. After all, the legislator has declared: “I’m a huge science buff.”

Again from Mother Jones:

Eric Meikle, education project director at the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) in Oakland, California, says Oklahoma has proposed more anti-evolution legislation than any other state, introducing eight bills with academic freedom language since 2004. (None has passed.) “The problem with these bills is that they’re so open-ended; it’s a kind of code for people who are opposed to teaching climate change and evolution,” Meikle says.

“An extremely high percentage of scientists will tell you that evolution doesn’t have scientific weaknesses,” says the NCSE’s Meikle.

As Bill Nye the Science Guy puts it, denial of evolution is unique to the United States. The fundamental ideas behind the theory of evolution have been scientific gospel for decades — and yet, defying Darwin, creationists refuse to go the way of the dinosaurs.

Let’s hope this egregious bill never passes.

Related Care2 Coverage

Louisiana Uses Public Funds To Teach Creationism

And On The Seventh Day, God Created A Museum

My Senator Denies Climate Change And Oklahoma Pays The Price

http://www.care2.com/causes/need-that-a-grade-try-denying-climate-and-evolution.html

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koch

Oklahoma Facts

Based in Wichita, Kan., Koch Industries, Inc. is one of the largest private companies in America according to Forbes magazine. It owns a diverse group of companies involved in refining and chemicals; process and pollution control equipment and technologies; minerals; fertilizers; polymers and fibers; commodity trading and services; forest and consumer products; and ranching. Koch companies have a presence in nearly 60 countries and employ about 70,000 people. Since 2003, Koch companies have completed more than $32 billion in acquisitions and investments, and nearly $11 billion in capital expenditures.

Companies in Oklahoma

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AN 6 25

Former GOP gubernatorial nominee and state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin) has introduced legislation seeking to ban conceptual geoengineering techniques he falsely links to the “chemtrail” conspiracy theory.

In a pitch for his bill, Mastriano associated the theoretical techniques aimed at combatting climate change have been falsely associated with the baseless conspiracy theory that some condensation trails, or contrails, left by high-flying aircraft are being used to introduce toxic substances into the atmosphere.

The “Clean Air Preservation Act” would outlaw “solar radiation modification or sunlight reflection methods” in Pennsylvania and impose strict penalties on violators. Sen. Camera Bartolotta (R-Washington) is a cosponsor of the bill.

Joshua Horton, project manager at the Harvard Solar Geoengineering Research Program, told the Capital-Star that research behind solar geoengineering aims to identify ways to mitigate climate change by reflecting sunlight back into space. Solar geoengineering methods are largely conceptual and there is little evidence to suggest these methods would harm the environment or public health.

“To be clear, there is no geoengineering going on. There’s no solar radiation modification going on,” Horton said. “So to the extent that this bill is premised on the belief that it’s happening, it’s just factually incorrect.”

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

In a memo in December seeking support for the bill, Mastriano said the “release of unknown, experimental, and potentially hazardous substances into the atmosphere without the consent of the people of Pennsylvania is a clear violation of Article 1, Section 27 of the PA Constitution.” He has previously proposed similar legislation.

Mastriano’s memo also cited a 2023 White House report on potential future solar geoengineering research, falsely claiming it proves the federal government “may conduct solar radiation modification or geoengineering experiments involving the release of air contaminants into the atmosphere, and those activities may occur within the Commonwealth.”

That report “focused on potential research and its governance, not authorizing any deployment or specific activities,” according to Michael Thompson, managing director at the nonprofit Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Engineering. “The report explicitly aimed to guide how research could be approached and managed, emphasizing transparency and risk assessment, and to reduce the risk that research is perceived as a step towards inevitable deployment.”

Thompson’s organization seeks to promote “just and inclusive deliberation” on the research and possible future employment of solar geoengineering. He told the Capital-Star that controversy surrounding the theoretical practice is “amplified when state-level discussions wrongly link scientific inquiry into solar geoengineering with debunked ‘chemtrail’ hoaxes.”

“For solar geoengineering, public concern is understandable,” Thompson said. “People rightly want to know what is being researched and would be alarmed by pollutants being added to the skies for nefarious reasons, but that’s just not happening.”

A spokesperson for Mastriano did not respond to requests for comment.

On May 31, Mastriano held a virtual roundtable to rally support for the bill, which is awaiting consideration in the Senate Agriculture & Rural Affairs committee.

Jolie Diane, who runs a website called Zero Geoengineering, called in from California to give a presentation riddled with falsehoods on “weather modification policy and the governance of geoengineering experimentation.”

Diane has a history of lobbying state legislatures to ban solar geoengineering. She does not hold any scientific credentials, despite Mastriano calling her a “leading expert in weather modification.”

During the roundtable, which garnered thousands of views across social media platforms, Mastriano rallied against theoretical methods such as stratospheric aerosol injection.

Horton explained that stratospheric aerosol injection, or SAI, is a conceptual solar geoengineering method that would involve aircraft introducing aerosols into the upper atmosphere to “reflect a small fraction of incoming sunlight back to space.”

“It’s pretty simple technology, but it doesn’t exist yet. It’s been explored almost exclusively through computer models,” he said. “The research tends to show it would produce net benefits globally.”

Mastriano also spoke against cloud seeding, a common practice employed for decades to increase rainfall that would be banned under the bill. A 1967 state law already requires anyone who wants to try cloud seeding to apply for a license from the state Department of Agriculture.

No one has ever applied for this license, nor has the state’s agriculture department ever investigated unauthorized cloud seeding, press secretary Shannon Powers said in an email.

While cloud seeding is not practiced in Pennsylvania, “there are … cloud seeding weather modification activities that have been ongoing for 75 years, and involve putting silver iodide in clouds to enhance rainfall,” Horton said. “A lot of small counties all over the west, and places beyond the U.S., pay for services for pilots to go up there and spray this stuff.”

Mastriano and Diane both alluded to the debunked “chemtrail” conspiracy theory, which alleges that nefarious actors are spraying toxic substances into the atmosphere via contrails created by high-flying aircraft. He claimed that normal contrails should dissipate within minutes, falsely suggesting that if contrails are visible for longer, it’s an indication they are infused with toxic substances.

According to the National Weather Service, contrails form as hot, moist air from an aircraft’s engine mixes with freezing outside air. That moisture condenses and forms a contrail, which can be visible for hours depending on factors like humidity and wind.

“These clouds are not part of a global conspiracy,” Thompson said. “Lawmakers know better than this and should do minimal homework before bringing bills to their legislative bodies.”

Mastriano has a history of sharing “chemtrail” misinformation. In a November 2022 Facebook post, he shared a photo of contrails with the caption, “I have legislation to stop this … Normal contrails dissolve / evaporate within 30-90 seconds.”

“When these bills appear, given there is no active nefarious geoengineering taking place

… one has to assume they are brought forward primarily for political reasons, rather than a misunderstanding of the facts,” Thompson said.

“We worry that these kinds of politically motivated legislative efforts, by fostering confusion and fear, make such nuanced and forward-looking consideration far less possible.”

Similar legislation restricting solar geoengineering has been proposed in more than two dozen states. Tennessee lawmakers passed a law banning the practice last year.

“We are concerned generally that legislation aimed at governing or banning non-existent activities, such as non-existent chemtrails, disempowers and distracts rather than enabling citizens to engage with decisions being made now that will impact them in the future,” Thompson said.

Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Tim Lambert for questions: info@penncapital-star.com.

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AFP has debunked other claims about the Los Angeles fires.

//

cbs

U.S.

Wildfire conspiracy theories are going viral again. Why?

By

Laura Doan,

Erielle Delzer

January 16, 2025 CBS News

While investigators workto find out what caused multiple wildfires in the Los Angeles area, some conspiracies about the fires' origins have spread on social media platforms.

Posts about baseless theories — ranging from celebrity involvement to secret government weapons — have racked up millions of views.

Despite fact-checking efforts, researchers say conspiracies of this kind regularly emerge after large wildfires.

"I think that the more emotionally overwhelming it is, the more likely we are to just see high volumes of conspiracy theories to cope and make people feel like they have control," said misinformation researcher Abbie Richards.

Directed energy weapons conspiracy resurfaces

Misleading videos have fueled false claims that directed energy weapons, often referred to as DEWs, ignited the flames. The conspiracy theory suggests that governments or secret organizations use lasers or microwave systems to ignite fires.

Experts have repeatedly debunked these claims, attributing irregular burn patterns to natural factors like wind, terrain and vegetation.

While the U.S. has developed and tested DEWs for military applications — such as disabling enemy drones or missiles — there is no credible evidence of DEWs being employed in civilian settings, including for igniting wildfires.

The DEW theory also surfaced during the California wildfires of 2018, with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene claiming in a now-deleted social media post the fires could be caused by lasersfrom space. And online users spread the conspiracy during other disasters including the Canadian and Maui fires in 2023 and the Texas Smokehouse Creek wildfire in 2024.

"Most people will see this sort of stuff and completely reject it because it doesn't match with how they already view the world. But there are people who view the world through a conspiratorial lens," said Joseph Uscinski, co-author of "American Conspiracy Theories."

Claims that weather is manmade

Claims have circulated that the government could have geoengineered rain to stop the Los Angeles wildfires.

Theories that the government has some control over the weather have surfaced after several natural disasters, including hurricanes Helene and Milton. And meteorologists and agencies including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have debunked these claims.

People blame the government or company executives because it's easier than facing structural problems, like drought conditions," Geoff Dancy, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, told CBS News.

"That is more attractive to people that are desperate for order amid catastrophe," Dancy said.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a December assessment on cloud seeding at least nine states are using the technology, which is "primarily funded at the state level or below" and there is little federal intervention.

For cloud seeding to be effective, the atmosphere around greater Los Angeles would have required more moisture in the clouds for water vapor to be condensed, Katja Friedrich, a cloud physics expert and professor at Colorado University at Boulder, told PolitiFact.

"The L.A. area is currently so dry that there is not enough water that you could condense," Friedrich said.

Land grab conspiracy

Another unfounded claim shared on social media suggests the Southern California wildfires were started to clear land so officials could make way for what are called "smart cities," aligned with United Nations' goals.

The U.N.'s agenda to cut global emissions includes making cities more sustainable. And the Los Angeles Area's SmartLA 2028 initiative suggests renovating the city's transportation systems, among other technological changes, to make the city greener — but the plan does not involve mass demolition or rebuilding.

This conspiracy also gained traction after the wildfires in Maui, when a video of Hawaii's governor was clipped, taken out of context and shared to bolster the false claim the state was aiming to create a "smart city" on scorched land. And similar theories were debunked after wildfires in Canada and Spain's Canary Islands.

Celebrity crime cover-up conspiracy

Some posts that reached millions of people on TikTok falsely claim the wildfires were sparked to destroy evidence in the sex trafficking case against Sean "Diddy" Combs — falsely claiming his mansion was consumed in flames.

In reality, Combs' mansion remains intact and outside the evacuation zone as of Jan. 16.

His home was raided in March by federal agents who seized evidence on the property, and People reported the home was listed for sale in September.

In an aerial view, the home of Sean "Diddy" Combs is seen during a raid by federal law enforcement agents on March 25, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. MEGA/GC Images/Getty Images

False claims about celebrity homes also spread after the Maui wildfire, with some users sharing baseless claims that Oprah Winfrey helped start those fires.

Addressing the spread of conspiracies

By coincidence, on the day the wildfires started, Facebook announced it was ending its third party fact checking program and loosening its automated systems that police policy violations, instead relying more on users to report issues before they take action. The platform is adopting a crowdsourced "community notes" system, similar to Elon Musk's X.

Dancy said conspiracy theorists are "benefitting from the information revolution" we live in. "It's an attention economy, and conspiracy theories get attention," Dancy said.

He advocates for regulating social media algorithms that prioritize sensational content.

Richards, who wrote a thesis about climate conspiracy theories circulating on TikTok, agreed.

The Storm Is Coming: Climate Change and Conspiracy Theories on TikTok Written by Abbie Richards 1048585 MSc. Thesis Environmental Policy Group Supervisor: Dr. Mattijs Smits December 2022

590388

DL file:///C:/Users/patmc/OneDrive/Documents/BOOK/storm_is_coming_climate_change_and_conspiracy_the-groen_kennisnet_590388.pdf

"You're fighting against algorithms that are designed for profit and not for creating a well-informed and healthy society," she said.

Figure 1 illustrates the percentage of users on popular social media

platforms who regularly get news on the platform (Pew Research Center, 2022). TikTok’s

dramatic increase in users seeking news is strikingly in opposition with other, more established

platforms 23 TO 33%! ALL OTHERS SOC MED FLAT OR DOWN

Figure 1 illustrates the percentage of users on popular social media

platforms who regularly get news on the platform (Pew Research Center, 2022). TikTok’s

dramatic increase in users seeking news is strikingly in opposition with other, more established

platforms.

We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty! -Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Climate Action Against Disinformation coalition and to Friends of the Earth for their support. Many thanks to the kind researchers at the Algorithmic Transparency Institute who allowed me to use their tool Junkipedia. Special thanks to Dr. Rhianna Rogers for her mentorship. To EcoTok, thank you for teaching me about the power of community.

Abstract

:{ :{Conspiracy theories are sense-making tools that frequently arise during periods of high anxiety and uncertainty. It is a reasonable assumption that they may proliferate in response to the increasing devastation caused by anthropogenic climate change. While previous research into climate change conspiracy theories has explored the relationship between conspiracy theories and climate change denialism, little is known about their broader relationship with climate change as an experience of the material and social worlds.}:

To examine this interaction, this thesis provides a qualitative analysis of 96 socio-ecological conspiracy theories on the social media platform TikTok. Collected via a user-centric, exploratory research methodology, these videos were found to contain :{:{six dominant themes: anti-oil, }::{weather manipulation,}::{ fear of a “green agenda,” supply control, science rejection, and apocalypse.}:

Further analysis found that conspiracy narratives related to climate change in either cause, significance, effect, or response. These conspiracy theories were found to provide a means of interpreting climate change outside of a climate science framework. }:

This conspiratorial framework of interpretation seemingly allowed users to experience climate change without attributing it to anthropogenic causes such as the dependence on fossil fuels. Using theoretical elements from political ecology as well as system justification theory from social psychology, these major themes were largely found to dismiss the need for urgent systemic climate action. While the consequences of climate change were recognized, users frequently attributed them to scapegoated groups or higher powers rather than to systems in which they are complicit.}:

... By applying system justification theory to the conspiracy themes

identified, I examined the conspiracy narratives’ relationship to support for climate action. I

:{:{found that these narratives provided users with a framework for experiencing and processing climate change outside of a climate science framework.}:

Furthermore, most of these conspiracy}:

narratives implicitly rejected the need for climate action and frequently offered alternative

solutions to climate change such as scapegoating or spiritual solutionism.

Using a political ecology framework to interpret this phenomenon within a socio-ecological

context, I identified the implementation of conspiracy frameworks as means of interpreting

:{:{climate change outside of the scope of climate science.}:

These frameworks allow for the lived}:

experience of anthropogenic climate change to coexist while still justifying a societal

dependence on fossil fuels. In this sense, these frameworks serve as extensions of traditional

climate denialism.

As climate change continues to impact society to increasingly devastating degrees, causing

feelings of existential threat, conspiracy frameworks of interpretation may become a means of

sense-making. These frameworks may provide mEANING AND CERTAINTY IN THE FACE OF

74

existential threat while simultaneously relieving believers’ feelings of complicity and

responsibility. Furthermore, the tendency of the conspiracy narratives in the data set to blame

environmental problems on an out-group is extremely concerning, both for the implications for

support of climate action as well as for potential harm to vulnerable groups. Conspiratorial

scapegoating during moments of societal crisis has historically been a motivating factor for

violence committed by individuals as well as by state governments...

...

6.3.3 Spiritual Solutionism

One interesting theme which tied together seemingly unrelated conspiracy theories was

spiritual solutionism. Regardless of whether the narratives feature the Earth shifting into a new

universe, an Anunnaki alien princess warning of climate catastrophes (Figure 24), or language

about “awakenings” and “spiritual warfare,” their relationships to climate action are similar.

While these narratives may present climate change as real (though often not anthropogenic),

the solution they offer is one of internal contemplation and the spiritual unification of humanity.

While this sounds lovely, it alone does not address any causes of climate change. Presenting

spirituality as the solution to the climate crisis may address some of the anxiety of the climate

crisis, but it may also discourage participation in solutions.

Spiritual solutionism seemingly allows for believers to experience anthropogenic climate

change but attribute it to the actions of some higher power. This framework of interpretation

functions as a reinforcement to the fossil fuel status quo. If the effects of climate change are

attributed to an act of God, intergalactic energetic forces, or a shift into a higher dimension,

then they must also be interpreted as beyond humanity’s control. Not only do these conspiracy

57

theories appear to negate the role of fossil fuels in climate change, but they comprehensively

reject the possibility for mitigative action through legislation. No international environmental

policy, no matter how vast, could change the planet’s fate as determined by God (or aliens or

galactic rotations or lapses into parallel universes PIX OF UFO PRINCESS BABE...

...

Weather manipulation

With 25 instances in the data set, weather manipulation conspiracy theories were one of the

most numerous I identified. These are conspiracy theories that ascribe weather and, more

broadly, climate to groups allegedly capable of altering or controlling atmospheric systems.

Like many other popular conspiracy theories, these contain elements of historical fact. Weather

modification is the act of intentionally manipulating weather and it is most commonly used in

the form of cloud seeding in certain drought-prone regions to stimulate precipitation. Similarly,

geoengineering (sometimes called climate engineering) refers to carbon dioxide removal and

solar radiation management when applied at a planetary scale. Weather modification is a

regional and local practice, whereas geoengineering is a global one. I found that both terms

were incorporated into conspiracy discourse on TikTok, frequently used interchangeably and

vaguely.

These videos also frequently incorporated chemtrail conspiracy narratives (the belief that the

condensation trails formed from the jet engines of aircraft consist of biological or chemical

agents). This theory has persisted despite extensive debunking for decades, and it can fit into

climate discourse positioned as either a cause of weather events or as an oppressive and violent

measure used against the public under the guise of geoengineering. Within the data set,

chemtrails functioned both as an explanation for weather, usually as a component of weather

engineering, as well as a supposed response to climate change by malevolent elites. As most

of the discourse was concerned with regional and local weather, I grouped chemtrails and

geoengineering under the umbrella of weather manipulation.

Many videos positioned chemtrails as a component of a larger weather manipulation

conspiracy theory, explaining weather events as man-made or controlled. For instance, in one

video (Figure 11), a woman holds a lighter up to a snowball—an act that leaves a black residue

on the snowball from the gas emitted by the lighter. The user considers this to be evidence of

unnatural weather and speculates about the involvement of chemtrails.

26

The user details their process of testing the snow:

Alright, so I saw a video on TikTok the other day, and it said go outside and get some

snow … it just snowed. It’s still snowing. I’m in southwest Missouri. It feels super fluffy.

But anyways, I saw this video the other day that said go outside and get some snow.

Someone said the snow is fake. Ball it up. It's cold ... it's definitely cold. And then they

said to burn it, and they said it's not real so let’s ... here we go. And it'll turn black and

it'll smell like plastic (holds lighter up to a ball of snow). Look at that! And it smells like

plastic. Really bad. That's not snow, and don't let your kids eat that, that's for sure. A

lot of people been talking about chemtrails. Whether you believe in those or not,

something's going on, but I'm from Minnesota and that is not what snow does.

Something's going on, guys.

The video, which used the hashtags “government,” “man-made,” “chemtrails,” “conspiracy

theory,” “fake,” and “snow,” demonstrates the connection between chemtrail and weather

manipulation conspiracies. It is unclear precisely what fake snow means and what mechanisms

could create it.

Another frequent component of weather manipulation conspiracy theories was solar radiation

management, often described as “blocking out the sun.” Figure 12 illustrates a TikTok

claiming that Bill Gates and the World Economic Forum are using chemtrails to “block the

sun” and manufacture food shortagES..

---

home of cancer alley

an 5 25

Two bills to ban weather modification in Louisiana have quietly moved their way through the state legislature this session, as a cohort of other states have moved to do the same with technology that purports to encourage rain or alter temperature.

Senate Bill 46, sponsored by Sen. “Big Mike” Fesi, R-Houma, and House Bill 608, by Rep. Kim Coates, R-Ponchatoula, would ban the intentional release of chemicals into the atmosphere to alter the weather or climate. Coates’ measure includes a $200,000 fine for any violation.

Weather modification is a wide-reaching term and often marbled with deep veins of misinformation. Human efforts and theories that attempt to alter precipitation or temperature are real but largely new areas of scientific study. The concept of weather modification has produced solid science along with skepticism and conspiracy theories in the decades since studies began.

The Louisiana bills specifically reference cloud seeding, or attempts to encourage rainfall with aerosols sprayed into the air. They also cover solar radiation modification, which tries to deflect sunlight away from Earth to curb increasing temperatures and associated climate change.

Cloud seeding experiments are exceedingly rare along the Gulf Coast, and solar radiation modification exists only as a theoretical concept. Robert Rauber, an atmospheric scientist and professor emeritus at the University of Illinois, said cloud seeding simply doesn’t have widespread use in Louisiana, where rain is relatively abundant.

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“The Gulf Coast doesn’t need rain,” Rauber said, unlike the mountainous or desert states where cloud seeding is a more attractive option. “The reason why they cloud seed out west is to increase water supplies.”

Rauber has participated in a variety of cloud seeding experiments in mountainous regions of the western United States and said the types of clouds along the Gulf Coast aren’t really conducive for seeding.

“It’s never been proven to work” at scale with the puffy, cumulus clouds more common in the South, said Rauber. “These clouds form wherever the heck they want … you can’t target an area very effectively.”

Cloud seeding can’t alter the paths or intensity of hurricanes either, said Rauber. He cited failed experiments in the 1940s when scientists seeded hurricanes with dry ice to see if they could weaken their intensity. Although researchers learned valuable information on how hurricanes formed and traveled, they were not able to change their path or intensity.

One business has conducted cloud seeding experiments along the Gulf Coast, according to Rauber, who stressed that the science is shaky.

Rainmaker Technology Corp., a geoengineering company based in El Segundo, California, has conducted experiments along the Gulf Coast as recently as March, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration records. The company claims to use charged water particles to promote rain instead of aerosols.

“It’s magic as far as I’m concerned because I have not seen any scientific research done in a proper way that shows that any of that is effective,” Rauber said. Misinformation and unproven methods that Rainmaker Technology and other companies promote adds to public fear and conspiracy theories surrounding weather modification, the professor said.

Rainmaker Technology did not respond to calls for comment.

Cloud seeding with silver iodide has been practiced for more than 70 years, and the scientific consensus is that the amount used is relatively effective, with the right clouds, and environmentally safe. Sprayed into clouds as an aerosol, silver iodide freezes and gives moisture-heavy clouds something to grab onto, coaxing its water molecules to condense and fall from the sky as rain.

James Diaz, a medical toxicologist and professor emeritus at the LSU Health Sciences Center School of Public Health in New Orleans, said silver can prompt reactions when ingested in large doses and lab experiments suggest the heavy metal could be harmful to aquatic life in large amounts over time, but he said the amounts used for cloud seeding do not alarm him.

“These toxicities are unlikely after cloud seeding,” Diaz said.

It’s a similar story with iodide. Large amounts over long periods of time can do environmental and health harm, but Diaz said the amounts needed for cloud seeding aren’t worrying.

“We should be more concerned about petrochemicals and pesticides,” he said.

Fesi’s bill doesn’t apply to firefighting aerosols or pesticides used for agriculture. Coates said in an interview she intends to amend her bill so that it would not apply to pollutants emitted from the burning of fossil fuels.

Fesi mentioned in his floor speech that sulfur dioxide is among the chemicals he believes are being sprayed into the atmosphere. There is no evidence that cloud seeding uses sulfur dioxide. The burning of fossil fuels, namely coal and oil at power plants and industrial facilities, is one of the largest sources of sulfur dioxide, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Coates and Fesi clarified in interviews their bills will not regulate industrial emissions.

Coates said she considers her bill to be part of the wider push in Republican-led states to ban weather modification, adding she believes the issue to have bipartisan appeal. Florida recently approved legislation similar to what’s under consideration in Louisiana, and Tennessee approved a ban on weather modification in 2024.

“I just decided that I wanted to bring the bill because I don’t feel like anyone in Louisiana gave someone the right to do research in the air above us,” Coates said. “That’s our air above us, and we haven’t given anybody permission, anybody the right to spray or do any modification above us.”

When asked about the lack of widespread weather modification experiments in Louisiana, Coates said her bill is more precautionary.

“Why mess with Mother Nature?” she added.

Coates’ bill advanced from the House Committee on Natural Resources and Environment with unanimous support and awaits debate in the full House.

Fesi testified on the Senate floor April 28 during debate over his bill that he believes “certain agencies within the federal government are doing cloud seeding and geoengineering.” In an interview Friday, the senator was asked what evidence he had to support his claims.

“Look up in our sky,” Fesi answered.

In an interview, Fesi later said he sees “just tons and tons of cloud seeding” above his backyard and described it as “all of the stripes across the skies.”

Neither bill specifically discusses banning contrails, short for condensation trails. The thin, white cloud streaks that stretch behind airplanes are created as warm exhaust from jet engines meet the icy cold atmosphere, similarly to how warm breath briefly creates a fog in cold air. Unsubstantiated contrail theories attempt to connect weather modification and contrails, alleging jets are spraying chemicals for reasons ranging from weather alterations to population control.

Sen. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, was the only lawmaker to question Fesi’s claims on the Senate floor. He responded that “32 different agencies collect money for geoengineering of our weather.” Pressed by Barrow for details, Fesi shared a widely debunked conspiracy theory that the federal government is spraying aerosols to block sunlight, and that the materials – namely aluminum oxide – have been found in agricultural fields from contrail chemical spraying.

No evidence exists of a government program that conducts or collects money for cloud seeding or solar radiation modification experiments.

With no one else challenging his statements, Fesi’s bill advanced from the Senate on a 27-12 party line vote, with Republicans prevailing. The measure awaits committee consideration in the House of Representatives.

Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.

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an 5 25

CNN reports a violent militia-style group is targeting Doppler weather radar towers, believing them to be dangerous weather control devices.

Emails from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s security office reveal the group Veterans on Patrol, which the Southern Poverty Law Center defines as an anti-government militia organization, views the National Weather Service network of Doppler radars as “weather weapons.”

“This group is advocating for anyone and everyone to join them in conducting penetration drills on NEXRAD sites to identify weaknesses which can be used to ultimately destroy the sites,” the email stated, using an acronym for the weather radar network.

READ MORE: Trump ally reportedly set to arrest journalists who revealed his secret pact with gangs

“The group referred to the NEXRAD system towers as ‘weather weapons,’ and claimed there were no laws preventing American citizens from destroying the ‘weapons,’” the email states.

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The email, sent to the general National Weather Service workforce on May 1, was unclear about what the group believes the radars are capable of doing. The emblematic ball towers of NWS’ NEXRAD, or “next generation radar,” network have been in place since the 1990s and detect precipitation in the atmosphere.

Tower sensors can also pinpoint the presence of tornadoes and severe thunderstorms and prepare the way for life-saving storm warnings and intervention. The Federal Aviation Administration and the US Air Force system also use the system for anticipate weather.

“We obviously deal with some fringe folks every now and then (chemtrails mostly), but specific threats to target facilities is pretty rare,” one anonymous NWS staff member told CNN. “Given the general temperature of the country right now, this is stuff is especially concerning.”

READ MORE:Trump just issued a threat to all of us

Among other actions, NOAA’s security office advised NWS implement a buddy system when working at remote sites and to be alert for suspicious activity.

Read the full CNN report here.

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// hurric BS?

alternet-

Extremists posing as aid workers urge NC locals to tear down cell towers and hit military

Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer booking photo from 2018

Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer booking photo from 2018 (Courtesy Tucson Police Department)

Jordan Green November 02, 2024

A group of anti-government extremists who showed up in western North Carolina promising to provide disaster relief after Hurricane Helene is now threatening to destroy cell-phone towers and sabotage military vehicles.

The group, Veterans on Patrol, attracted attention by setting up a disaster relief staging area in the parking lot of the Ingles grocery store in Lake Lure, about 50 miles from Asheville.

But locals, including some who initially cooperated with the group, began to complain about threats and harassment.

Over the past three weeks, members of the group, which falsely claims that Helene was caused by a “weather weapon,” have been making conspiracy-driven claims that the U.S. military is attempting to kill U.S. citizens with “directed energy weapons.”

ALSO READ: Inside the grift that could cost Donald Trump the election

Veterans on Patrol’s channel on the encrypted social-media platform Telegram posted a message on Thursday displaying photos of what appears to be a cell tower on a mountaintop. The message asserted that locals “are in Live Exercises where the United States Military is permitted to destroy your homes, bodies and minds,” while suggesting that equipment on the tower “is solely for providing the U.S. military the means to murder Americans.”

“Focus on tearing down their weapons,” the message reads. It continues, “All it takes is one weapon tower being toppled with the stated reason spoken boldly.”

Another message posted in the group’s Telegram channel appears to advocate for sabotaging military vehicles and assets.

“Simple acts of pouring sugar into fuel tanks of military equipment, backup power systems, and personal vehicles of military personnel can wreak havoc on those who murdered all these people out here,” reads the message, which was posted on Wednesday.

Soldiers from Fort Liberty and Fort Campbell have deployed to western North Carolina to assist in the disaster response, along with National Guard members from nine states.

Veterans on Patrol is led by Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer, who has a long history of anti-government extremism, dating back at least 10 years. Meyer, according to the extremism watchdog group Southern Poverty Law Center, is not a veteran.

Reached by phone on Friday, Meyer doubled down on the threats.

“Jesus used bullwhips and flipped tables,” he told Raw Story. “We’re going to use our bullwhips and topple towers.”

At first during the interview, Meyer argued that the Telegram messages weren’t advocating for targeting cell towers, saying instead that the group would “surgically” remove the supposed “directed energy weapons." He went on to say that they would provide Appalachian residents with generators and Starlink boxes so they could maintain power and communication links.

Asked about the message referencing “pouring sugar into fuel tanks,” Meyer told Raw Story: “We’re going to destroy your tanks…. You want to get dirty? That’s what we should be doing.”

Veterans on Patrol has promoted multiple conspiracy theories based on false claims since arriving in western North Carolina.

One message posted on Telegram on Oct. 22 claimed that “Helene was a Weather Weapon steered to destroy the area, while also claiming that the investment fund BlackRock is attempting a “land grab” and describing the storm and its aftermath as “an act of war perpetrated against the People.”

As the final day of voting in the presidential election approaches, posts on the group’s Telegram channel have taken on an increasingly urgent tone.

The Oct. 22 post claimed that “stolen elections” are a real phenomenon, along with “weather weapons,” “Satanic pedophiles” and “adrenochrome," which refers to a QAnon conspiracy theory that a cabal of elites tortures children to extract a chemical from their bodies which is then used as a recreational drug.

In another post last week, a Veterans on Patrol member nicknamed “Shepherd” claimed that the U.S. Air Force command is instructing pilots “to deploy additional weather weapons.” The post goes on to say, “These people don’t have 2 weeks to wait for vote and 3 months to hopefully wait for a Regime change.”

Another message on the group channel that was published on Wednesday suggests without basis that Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff is the beneficiary of BlackRock’s supposed landgrab.

Speaking to Raw Story, Meyer seemed to all but dare law enforcement to intervene.

“For people to go and do something to prevent weapons from being deployed — that’s not a crime,” he said. “If they want to bring this to court and charge us with conspiracy, then let’s go.”

The FBI did not respond to an inquiry about Veterans on Patrol's activities, but Meyer told Raw Story in an email that he "would imagine the FBI knows full well what we are attempting through Operation Leaning Tower."

Meyer told Raw Story that he notified the office of Gov. Roy Cooper about his "operation." Cooper's office did not immediately respond to a voicemail message from Raw Story.

Phone calls from Raw Story for this story to officials in Lake Lure and Rutherford County, which surrounds the town, went unreturned.

Meyer’s history of extremism dates back to the Bundy Ranch standoff, when armed militants faced down the FBI and other federal agencies in 2014 during a dispute over rancher Cliven Bundy’s refusal to pay grazing fees. Meyer’s involvement in the Bundy Ranch standoff came to light later, when the Oregonian reported that he and a group of friends got into a brawl with other anti-government extremists during the standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, which Bundy and a group of armed supporters had occupied.

Meyer founded Veterans on Patrol in Arizona in 2015, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Prior to presenting itself as a disaster response group in the aftermath of Helene, Veterans on Patrol has claimed its efforts were directed towards rescuing children from sex trafficking, addressing veteran suicide and dubious claims that the military is maliciously harming civilians. Meyer’s activities have frequently landed him in trouble with law enforcement.

Meyer was arrested twice in 2015 after emergency responders talked him down from a light pole in Surprise, Ariz. in 2015.

In 2018, was arrested by the police in Tucson, Ariz. for trespassing and an outstanding warrant for an assault charge, after occupying a tower on an industrial property. A press release from the Tucson Police Department claimed that Meyer “found an abandoned homeless encampment” on the property, “and fictitiously declared, without evidence or corroboration, that the area was the site of a sex-trafficking ring.”

The Tucson police said they received complaints from Tucson residents that Meyer and his followers had threatened and intimidated them, and Meyer made “multiple threatening and hostile remarks directed towards various elected and appointed officials” through social media.

In the summer of 2024, before Hurricane Helene, Veterans on Patrol was active in Spokane, Wash. In Telegram message from July 2, 2024, Veterans on Patrol announced to the police that it “would no longer be safe” for one of its officers “to work his beat.” The channel also posted the home addresses of city council members.

NOW READ: Fox News is the reason the race is close

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mma

The 11th Hour Faith Leaders Meeting is organized by conspiracy theorist Clay Clark, who once suggested that Trump’s son-in-law might be a Chinese clone

Written by Payton Armstrong

Research contributions from Eric Hananoki

Published 10/18/24

Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to address a group of extreme right-wing media “prophets” and pastors who have claimed that “demonic forces” are behind the popularity of the Harris campaign, declared that Trump is “anointed to be king,” and said that Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz “go to churches that are synagogues of Satan” because they are Baptist and Lutheran.

The 11th Hour Faith Leaders Meeting, scheduled for October 21 in North Carolina, is apparently being organized by Clay Clark, co-founder of the ReAwaken Tour, which holds events across the country that have featured QAnon influencers, pro-Trump“prophets,” Christian nationalists, and figures who have praised Hitler. Clark has promoted numerous conspiracy theories, including that Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, may have been replaced by a clone created by the Chinese government and that the U.S. government created or worsened Hurricane Helene through “weather manipulation.”

Clark revealed in a recent interview that Eric Trump had asked him to organize the event because “we need to get together the nonwackadoodles.” “That was the phrase Eric used, ‘nonwackadoodles,’” said Clark, “the serious faith leaders, the people that are actually committed to saving this country. And he said, ‘Clay, we need to get them together, my father needs to be able to address this community.’” He added that the event is “an invitation-only thing” and “we're vetting everybody very carefully.”

Clark claimed in an interview with Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec (who also stated during the interview that he will attend the event) that “of the faith leaders and the pastors that are committed to coming to this event — which is an invite-only, you can’t buy a ticket — so far, we have over 300 million YouTube subscribers represented in the audience, so that means we have some of the biggest, needle-moving pastors and faith leaders that are coming from all across America to hear directly from Donald J. Trump.”

Although a list of attendees does not seem to be publicly available, Clark has suggested multiple pro-Trump “prophets” and outlets will be in attendance and even speaking alongside Trump. Promoting the event, Clark said that “some of America's leading pastors will be in attendance — people like Jonathan Cahn, Mark Driscoll, Robin Bullock. I mean, it's going to be incredible. Steve Shultz, ElijahStreams.” Clark also noted in a separate interview that “prophet” Amanda Grace would be in attendance.

The figures Clark mentions as planning to attend notably stem from an influential “prophetic” charismatic Christian movement that has been mobilizing supporters ahead of the election and reportedly believes reelecting Trump is part of a spiritual war against demons.

Here are some of the extreme media figures and supposed “nonwackadoodles” that Trump will be addressing, according to Clark:

Eric Trump has promoted the 11th Hour Faith Leaders Meeting to several prophetic media figures, including on ElijahStreams and in an interview withAmanda Grace, during which Trump said Clark had been “the backbone of so much of this event.”

Since Donald Trump left office, he and his family and allies have increasingly engaged with and embraced extreme prophetic media, including figures who have asserted that Trump has been “anointed” by God. Clark even bragged last year that “Trump’s inner circle is embracing the prophets.”

Members of Trump's “inner circle” also appeared at another event organized by Clark on October 18. The two-day event is also supposed to feature right-wing commentators who have pushed the conspiracy theory that Hurricane Helene was a controlled or manipulated weather event.

---

MMA 10 24

Members of former President Donald Trump’s “inner circle,” including Lara and Eric Trump, are scheduled to appear at a North Carolina event featuring right-wing commentators who have pushed the conspiracy theory that Hurricane Helene was a controlled or manipulated weather event. The tour’s organizers, who have close ties to the Trump team, have claimed that “weather manipulation is real” and said the recent storm proves “the globalists are pulling out all the stops.”

The government did not control or manipulate the deadly hurricane. Such claims have caused significant harm to officials and first responders who are working on recovery efforts in North Carolina.

Clay Clark and Mike Flynn — who served as Trump’s national security adviser — are co-founders of the “ReAwaken America” tour. Their next stop is on October 18 and 19 in Selma, North Carolina. A promotional flyer for the event lists numerous Trump allies and surrogates as scheduled speakers, including Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump, Eric Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Kash Patel, Peter Navarro, Alina Habba, Christina Bobb, Devin Nunes, and Roger Stone. (Clark said on October 11 that Lara Trump would be in attendance.)

ReAwaken America has a toxic history: Media Matters previously documented that the tour has featured at least five Hitler-promoting antisemites.

Clark, who organizes the tour, has billed the North Carolina event as featuring “basically President Trump’s inner circle.” He made similar remarks before, including saying that “Trump's inner circle is now going, they're all reaching out to our tour, to the ReAwaken America tour.”

Team Trump is sharing a stage with numerous speakers who have pushed the conspiracy theory that Hurricane Helene was the result of weather manipulation or control.

The following speakers are scheduled to speak in North Carolina, according to the ReAwaken America tour’s most recent promotional poster, and have promoted weather manipulation conspiracy theories.

Clay Clark is “a dear friend” of Eric Trump who said during an October 3 interview: “Weather manipulation is real, and the town or the area that was most devastated by the flood happens to be in a town that sits on America's largest lithium deposits.” He also encouraged people to look into HAARP.

Notably, Clark is also organizing another event in North Carolina this week: the 11th Hour Faith Leaders Meeting, which is hosted by former President Trump.

Mike Flynn is Donald Trump's disgraced former national security adviser. Trump told Flynn last year that he would bring him back if he is reelected to the White House. On social media, Flynn shared a video on October 7 which claimed that “Hurricane Helene was an ATTACK caused by Weather Manipulation!” He also suggested that “the mountains of N.C.” show that “the globalists are pulling out all the stops. Don’t worry, the real storm is coming.”

Julie Green is a “prophet” who issues bizarre and pro-Trump commentaries. Eric Trump has told Green that she’s “so incredible,” called her a “warrior,” and thanked her for their “friendship.” She claimed on October 9 that the Lord told her that the recent hurricanes were “all man-made” and that the weather events were deliberately created or manipulated as a form of “election interference.”

Seth Holehouse is a podcaster who gained fame when Donald Trump boosted an election denying video featuring him. Holehouse spent his October 3 podcast pushing conspiracy theories about the hurricane, stating: “To me, it looks like the people controlling our government and controlling these officials, whoever it is — we’re not going to get into it on this show — that what they did is they created a massive storm or they took an existing storm and they amplified it. They steered it just over top of the region they needed to absolutely destroy. Then they seized control of all the aid to make sure that nothing could be salvaged there.”

Lara Logan is a widely discredited right-wing commentator. She shared a conspiracy theory-laden video on October 6 essentially claiming that Helene was the result of weather manipulation and control and wrote: “What happened in North Carolina with Hurricane Helene? Make up your own mind. But listen to everything.”

Jane Ruby is a health misinformer and podcaster who posted a video on October 5 supposedly proving that the government steers hurricanes and wrote: “HURRICANE HELENE IS A DIRECT ATTACK ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE BY OUR OWN GOVERNMENT”. She also wrote on September 26, “IS #Helene A GOVERNMENT OPERATION? SEE ENERGY BEAMS FROM THE GROUND SHOOTING AT STORM,” and later asked: “Were Direct Energy Weapons To Supplement Hurricane Helene?”

Sherri Tenpenny is a health misinformer who has shared numerous antisemitic claims, including Holocaust denial. On October 3, she wrote: “What do Maui and North Carolina have in common? Pesky residents who won't get out of the way of the lucrative deals our government wants. In Maui, it was land. In North Carolina, it is lithium.” She also shared a post claiming, “Cloud seeding or manipulating the weather is real. Think Hurricanes Helene and, now, Milton on its way. Kills Americans, catastrophic events JUST BEFORE AN ELECTION. Voting becomes impossible for many. October surprise??” She then commented: “Weather Warfare is next level Covid.”

Ann Vandersteel is a far-right podcaster. She promoted the conspiracy theory that the hurricane was an attempt to steal lithium deposits in North Carolina and wrote: “Just hide your weather manipulation in plain sight.”

Lara and Eric Trump-backed “prophet” claims God told her the hurricanes were “man-made” and “they” will also “set off” an earthquake

Written by Eric Hananoki

Published 10/11/24 mma

“Prophet” Julie Green told followers that the Lord told her that the recent hurricanes were “all man-made” and that the weather events were deliberately created or manipulated as a form of “election interference.” She added that “they” will “set off” an earthquake at some point.

Green isn’t a random grifter: She’s connected to Trump’s inner circle and has been heavily endorsed by Eric Trump. The former president’s son told Green that she’s “so incredible,” stated that he’s saved one of her messages, called her a “warrior,” and thanked her for their “friendship.”

Green has also spoken with Republican National Committee co-Chair Lara Trump, who told Green that she was “so honored” to be on her podcast. She also said: “On behalf of our whole family, thank you for all of the prayers, thank you for believing in my father-in-law, and for fighting alongside of us.”

During a recent podcast appearance, Green — as she does — pushed far-right conspiracy theories while telling people what “the Lord had talked about” regarding the country, including that the Lord supposedly said that the recent hurricanes were “deliberate,” “man-made,” and “another form of election interference”:

Video

CitationFrom the October 9, 2024, edition of His Glory TV's Take Five

JULIE GREEN: This is exactly one of the things that the Lord had talked about. I have to get out which prophecy it was. I think it was the one from yesterday or Monday. He was talking about how this is the same thing as Maui. This is all on purpose. This is all done for complete devastation. And one of the things that He actually had on there and I have to — I'll look it up, of which one it was because I have several of them pulled up here again.

But He said it was blatant. It was deliberate. What happened in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and those really hard areas, those areas were hit for a specific reason. And again, this is all man-made. All of the stuff, we know they can modify weather, and they're doing this on purpose. This is another form — and I hate to say this, but it's so true. This is what the Lord was saying. It's another form of election interference. This is another form to weaken people, to destroy people more, it’s more to get us to the point where we are so broken spiritually, physically, financially that we will not fight them back. This is another tactic and a strategy of war.

Green then said that California would soon experience an earthquake so “they” can “bury us financially and get ourselves over burdened and way down and so broken and devastated that we will just accept anything they do from here on out.”

JULIE GREEN: California, the Lord had given me prophetic word, and it's an earthquake — is what my understanding is, that He said something will be “set off.” It doesn't say it's going to “go off.” He said it will be “set off.” So if they can make hurricanes, they can also set off, well, an earthquake. So this is something that we're — and I don't know where all the hurricanes are at. It's not really surprising me that they are doing this because God said it was going to be the darkest before the dawning, and people — I don't think they realize what all that entails.

That also means all this historic, unprecedented hurricanes, these storms or whatever, and that is to bury us financially and get ourselves over burdened and way down and so broken and devastated that we will just accept anything they do from here on out. Or they can put us in like an emergency state where, “Oh, well, I'm sorry. Right now there's so many things going on. We just cannot hold elections.”

Numerous Trump allies have promoted the conspiracy theory that Hurricane Helene may have been controlled or manipulated, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Georgia GOP official Kandiss Taylor, Veterans for America First official Lucretia Hughes, Trump event organizer Clay Clark, and commentator Wayne Allyn Root.

And two other pro-MAGA “prophets,” Lance Wallnau and Hank Kunneman, similarly suggested that God said the hurricanes were unnatural and election interference.

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Two pro-Trump officials pushed conspiracy theory that Hurricane Helene was done through weather “manipulation”

Georgia GOP official Kandiss Taylor also alleged that Helene was created or manipulated “to keep Mark Robinson from that governorship”

Written by Eric Hananoki

Published 10/08/24 mma

Far-right commentators Kandiss Taylor and Lucretia Hughes, respectively officials for the Georgia Republican Party and pro-Trump group Veterans for America First, pushed fringe conspiracy theories about Hurricane Helene, including claiming that it “could have been done by the government” through weather “manipulation” and as a “land grab” to steal lithium.

On her podcast, Taylor also claimed that the hurricane was created or manipulated “to keep Mark Robinson from that governorship because he understands … the Constitution” and that “terrifies every single establishment politician in this country.”

Numerous conspiracy theories have circulated about Hurricane Helene and have included claims that the government somehow created or manipulated the hurricane through weather modification or weather control. (Media Matters reported yesterday that Clay Clark, a Trump event organizer and close friend of Eric Trump, also pushed the “weather manipulation” conspiracy theory.)

Taylor is the elected District 1 chairwoman of the Georgia Republican Party, a “key” post in the state. She has met with former President Donald Trump and is helping his election efforts in Georgia.

Taylor has a history of making antisemitic remarks: She complained that Jewish people are “controlling everything” and alleged that “we have some Marxist trash using our R who pander to the Jews.”

Hughes is a national ambassador for Veterans for America First, a right-wing group that’s supporting Trump. The group recently said that Hughes will “speak with President Trump” at an upcoming event. The Trump campaign has touted her endorsement and listed her as part of its Gun Owners for Trump coalition. Turning Point USA, a key Trump campaign ally, also lists Hughes as one of its “activist partners.”

The two appeared on Taylor’s October 5 program, where they promoted conspiracy theories about Hurricane Helene. (Taylor’s show airs on the Stew Peters Network, an outlet led by Hitler-praising Holocaust denier and Taylor’s “best friend” Stew Peters.)

Hughes began by calling the hurricane “a land grab,” saying, “I'm so angry with all of this. This is not the United States that I grew up in. This is the United States that has gotten into bed with the global society, trying to rip us off for our sovereignty and get illegal land grabs at the same dang old time.” Taylor responded by stating: “Yeah, lithium specifically. I'm so disgusted with North Carolina and what's going on there.”

Taylor later said that the hurricane “could have been done by the government if they'd been doing the weather manipulation, which we know there were acts passed. There's been things printed and done in the legislation for weather modification. So how do we know, how do we know that all their manipulation didn't cause this?”

The government has not controlled Hurricane Helene through weather manipulation and has not attempted to steal lithium from North Carolina through this tragedy.

Further into the program, Taylor bizarrely claimed that “the whole thing in North Carolina” was somehow done “to keep Mark Robinson from that governorship.”

Video

CitationFrom the October 5, 2024, edition of Jesus. Guns. And Babies

KANDISS TAYLOR (HOST): I really did think about this, Lucretia. Like the whole thing with North Carolina, I know though it’s a grab for the land — land grab and they want the lithium. But I also believe they don't want the voters turning out that are all around Asheville. Those Republican, red voters. They didn't, they are trying their best to keep Mark Robinson from that governorship because he understands — oh, I feel the Holy Spirit — he understands the Constitution. He understands state sovereignty. He understands we are the United States of America. And as a state, we're sovereign. As a state, we should be able to function on our own. As a state, we can push back. We're joined because we choose to be. But a state has sovereignty, and Mark understands that. And it terrifies every single establishment politician in this country.

Toward the end of the show, Hughes added to the weather manipulation subject by stating:

LUCRETIA HUGHES: That's so scary, to know they can manipulate our weather. To know they have the equipment and the satellite images and the satellite stuff to do it. To know that 5G is a real thing. Knowing that HAARP antennas is literally up there in the Arctic right now. I don't understand how people not know when you can type in seeding a cloud, or rain cloud machines, and there are video after video of them turning on a big old machine. And it's huge. And next thing you know, smoke just start coming out this machine and it spits clouds, spits clouds. And they keep it on for about one or two hours and all of it just goes up in the air. He said about, he said, “I give it a day. It’s going to be two states over.” The United States has patents in the patent office for them been doing this for decades now. Decades, y'all. This ain't new.

Taylor replied by saying, “It’s not new, and we're just learning about it because they didn't want us to know about it.”

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mma 10 24

North Carolina Trump event organizer Clay Clark pushed Hurricane Helene “weather manipulation” conspiracy theory

Clark is organizing two pro-Trump events in North Carolina this month

Written by Eric Hananoki

Published 10/07/24

Pro-Trump ally Clay Clark, who said that he was recently “tasked by Eric Trump” to organize an upcoming meeting hosted by former President Donald Trump in North Carolina, also pushed the conspiracy theory that the government was behind Hurricane Helene through “weather manipulation” so that it could apparently seize control of a North Carolina town’s lithium deposits.

Clark appeared on the October 3 edition of The Pete Santilli Show, where he said: “Weather manipulation is real, and the town or the area that was most devastated by the flood happens to be in a town that sits on America's largest lithium deposits.”

Video

CitationFrom the October 3, 2024, edition of The Pete Santilli Show

CLAY CLARK: HAARP, look it up, folks. HAARP, H.A.A.R.P. You might not know about it. It stands for High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program. Weather manipulation is real, and the town or the area that was most devastated by the flood happens to be in a town that sits on America's largest lithium deposits.

And lithium is what makes electric cars slash the Green New Deal possible. Right? So the local people don't want to move out of their homes because they don't want to have their backyard turned into a mining site.

And so the locals who live in a small town, they don't want to leave their town and turn their community and town into a mining site, basically a big hole in the ground. And so that just happens to be the town that was impacted by the floods.

He added: “Weather can now be weaponized. So we're in a unique time.”

He also wrote on social media: "#NorthCarolinaFloods | The U.S. Has Over 6 Million Tons of Identified Lithium Resources. The Majority of This Lithium Has Been Identified In Kings Mountain, North Carolina.' - U.S. Geological Survey + Weather Modification 101? What Is Weather Modification?"

Clark’s conspiracy theory is false. The government has not controlledHurricane Helene through weather manipulation and has not attempted to steal lithium from North Carolina through this tragedy.

Clark recently wrote that “I have been both honored and tasked by Eric Trump and Doctor Ben Carson with organizing this 11th Hour Faith Leaders Meeting hosted by the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump and Doctor Ben Carson.” The event is on October 21 in North Carolina. He has numerous other ties to Team Trump:

Clark's next stop on his ReAwaken America tour is also in North Carolina and, according to Clark, will feature “basically President Trump’s inner circle, so Peter Navarro, Eric Trump, Gen. Flynn, Kash Patel, Alina Habba.”

Another key Trump ally, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), also recently used Hurricane Helene to claim that “they can control the weather.”