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Ryan Walters Okla Sup Bak

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RWW

12/18/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

Bongino told colleagues more than a week ago that he would not be returning to Washington headquarters this year, according to people familiar with the matter.

The billionaire president’s delivery grew frantic as his speech on the economy wore on, ending with him practically shouting.

He says he did “some very bad things.” But in Trumpworld, that’s a plus.

The president has tried to minimize their friendship, but documents and interviews reveal an intense and complicated relationship. Chasing women was a game of ego and dominance. Female bodies were currency.

State partners with Turning Point USA to form clubs in every Tennessee school.

Katie Miller, the wife of Trump henchman Stephen Miller, is trying to reinvent herself as a squeaky-clean model for MAGA women. People who knew her growing up saw someone far different.

The president’s obsession with self-aggrandizement and self-glorification is pitiful, and it’s getting worse.

The judges rejected a Christian Nationalist curriculum that downplayed systemic racism, spread election lies, and pretended the Bible was history.

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yikes an 7 25

critics of far-right Oklahoma Schools Superintendent Ryan Walters often attack him as a highly performative MAGA troll. Walters' antics include purchasing Donald Trump-themed Bibles for classrooms and promoting the false, repeatedly debunked conspiracy theory that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump.

But Slate's Molly Olmstead, in an article published on July 22, emphasizes that Walters' buffoonish qualities don't make him any less dangerous. And she emphasizes that his plan to screen education applicants for MAGA purity shouldn't be taken lightly.

"This month," Olmstead explains, "Oklahoma's education department announced an innovative new approach to screening aspiring teachers in the state: any applicants from 'woke' states would need to first pass an ideology test created by the right-wing group PragerU. It was an announcement that seemed engineered to draw national news coverage and inflame liberal audiences. Under this plan, teachers from states with 'progressive education policies' would be tested on the U.S. Constitution, American exceptionalism, and 'the fundamental biological differences between boys and girls.'"

READ MORE: This White House lie shows they know Trump is in trouble

Olmstead continues, "The screening is guaranteed to test teachers for a deeply MAGA-inflected understanding of U.S. history, government, and society: PragerU, a right-wing group with a stated mission of countering leftism in education, is already known for its white nationalist-adjacent content for schoolchildren."

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PragerU is the brainchild of Dennis Prager, a far-right talk radio host and Trump supporter.

"Walters' proposals for the school system have included a mandate that all public schools teach the Bible; a plan to collect children's immigration status when they register for public school; and new social studies standards proposals that would have high school students 'identify discrepancies in 2020 election results,'" Olmstead observes. "Each of these announcements solidified Walters' reputation as a relentless attention-seeker, calculating every action from his office to appeal to the power players of the MAGA movement…. These stunts have paid off. Walters has been profiled in outlets all over the country, and he has become the face of the Christian nationalist campaigns into public education."

The MAGA Republican's stunts, Olmstead argues, raise the question: "Is Walters all superficiality, a media-obsessive without the stamina or standing for real, transformative politics? Or is he actually capable of remaking Oklahoma's schools — and signaling what MAGA could bring to schools across the country?"

READ MORE:GOP sen tells constituent he’s 'not obligated to listen' after she’s denied care over marital status

"In sign of just how bizarre American politics have become in this second Trump era," Olmstead warns, "Walters may be a bit of both. As traditional institutions and procedures buckle under MAGA politics, Walters has proven that with the right national climate, slapdash own-the-lib pronouncements can become serious policy. He's a performer, but he also happens to be a major change-maker…. It may be tempting not to take people like Walters seriously, but he has proven that with enough volume, some gimmicks stick."

READ MORE:'Errand boy': Trump official reveals what president talks about during nightly 1 AM calls

*Molly Olmstead's full article for Slate is available at this link (subscription required).

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an 3 25

OKLAHOMA CITY — Calling the inquiry a “manufactured political drama,” Oklahoma’s attorney general declined state Superintendent Ryan Walters’ request for a legal opinion over whether a presidential order blocks federal education funds from benefiting undocumented students.

Walters had asked the attorney general whether any Oklahoma school programs are affected by President Donald Trump’s Feb. 19 executive order blocking taxpayer-funded benefits from supporting undocumented immigrants. He also asked how his administration at the Oklahoma State Department of Education should comply with Trump’s order if any school programs are affected.

Gov. Kevin Stitt similarly has accused Walters of causing “political drama.” Although Attorney General Gentner Drummond borrowed the governor’s phrasing, he also took aim at Stitt in his response letter to Walters.

“I am very thankful for President Trump’s leadership on this critical issue, and I am very disappointed in Governor Stitt’s failures that have cost Oklahoma taxpayers billions and put our families at risk,” Drummond wrote. “(The executive order) should be a model for Oklahoma and every state to ensure their services are delivered only to those legally eligible to receive them.”

Drummond criticized the governor’s support for resettling 1,800 Afghan refugees, whom the attorney general accused of being poorly vetted, in the state and Stitt’s collaboration with the government of Mexico to establish a Mexican consulate in Oklahoma City, which Drummond said serves undocumented immigrants as well as lawful residents.

He accused Stitt of taking “no substantive action to address illegal immigration here in Oklahoma.” He called Stitt’s Operation Guardian initiative, which aims to deport undocumented immigrants in state prisons, an attempt to “save face.”

The governor has been a vocal supporter of Trump’s immigration policies.

“Sadly, once again, we are just getting noise from people campaigning for their next political promotion,” Stitt said in a statement through his communications office. “Being governor has been one of the greatest honors of my life. I will continue to do everything in my power to protect both Oklahomans and the innocent children in our communities.”

Stitt will be term-limited in 2026 after eight years in office, and Drummond is running to succeed him as governor. Walters hasn’t announced a political campaign for reelection nor for another office, but many consider him a potential candidate in a 2026 race.

The round of comments on Monday deepened the ongoing conflict between Oklahoma’s Republican governor, attorney general and public schools leader.

Drummond declined Walters’ request for an opinion on the impact of Trump’s order because a state attorney general has no jurisdiction to interpret federal law, according to his response letter.

Walters said he is “disappointed but not surprised” at Drummond’s response.

“He has a responsibility to offer opinions on all laws, not just the ones he deems worthy,” Walters said in a statement through a spokesperson. “Once again, he is refusing to support President Trump’s executive order on illegal immigration at a time when we all need to move forward with a unified front to protect Oklahoma families.”

Attorney general opinions interpret state law and sometimes are legally binding. An interpretation of a presidential order is “for the federal executive branch to determine,” Drummond wrote.

“Notwithstanding your rumored aspirations, you are not part of the federal executive branch,” he wrote, hinting at allegations that Walters sought a position in the Trump administration.

Drummond said Trump’s order could direct the actions of the federal Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which provide hundreds of millions of dollars supporting various school services in Oklahoma, including cafeteria lunches, English learner programs and support for impoverished students.

He encouraged Walters to cooperate with federal agencies to “faithfully implement” the executive order.

“In the meantime, I suggest you devote increased energy and focus on improving the test scores and reading proficiency of Oklahoma students,” Drummond wrote. “The people of this state entrusted you with the critical responsibility of administering and managing public education. Fulfilling that responsibility should be your only focus.”

Walters has supported Trump’s executive actions and advanced his own policy to “no longer allow sanctuary schools in the state of Oklahoma.” He proposed a new rule at the state Education Department to require schools to collect students’ immigration status and report the information to the state.

“Taxpayer dollars should be used to support the education of American students, not to subsidize or create a magnet for illegal immigration,” Walters said.

States are required to provide public education to children regardless of their immigration status under a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Many Oklahomans have advocated against the rule, which is now before the state Legislature for consideration, and warned it could drive immigrant students away from public education.

Stitt pledged to block the rule from being enacted and accused Walters of using “kids as political pawns” to launch a campaign for higher office.

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11/15/2024rww

by

Kyle Mantyla

What Hegseth does have are connections to the TheoBros, a group of mostly millennial, ultra-conservative men, many of whom proudly call themselves Christian nationalists. Among the tenets of their branch of Protestant Christianity—known as Reformed or Reconstructionist—is the idea that the United States should be subject to biblical law.

Pete Hegseth, the co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend whom Donald Trump intends to nominate for Secretary of Defense, made several appearances on a YouTube show called Reformation Red Pill. The show’s host, Joshua Haymes, is a Christian nationalist who believes surrogacy should be banned, and abortion and gender-affirming care should be punishable by death.

While Democrats have long embraced some of the reforms RFK Jr. endorses when it comes to regulating aspects of the agricultural industry, like factory farming and pesticides, his other outlandish, crank science beliefs have Democrats and Republicans concerned about how he would run the federal public health department.

Huckabee's anti-Palestinian rhetoric has made him a leading figure among Christian Zionists in America.

Just days after Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters canceled his request for bids to purchase 55,000 bibles for public school classrooms—perhaps because his plan to spend $3 million in taxpayer money on bibles Donald Trump endorsed and has a financial stake in appeared to be backfiring—he’s gone ahead and found a different way to suck up to the next president.

A potentially bombshell report into allegations that Matt Gaetz used drugs and had sex with a 17-year-old should never be published, Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday–hours after he partied with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

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Pastors for Trump leader: “The Antichrist will be a political leader of Jewish descent. That is how the Jews will worship him.”

Written by Eric Hananoki

Published 10/10/24 mma

Pastors for Trump leader Jackson Lahmeyer, a key Trump ally who has been visited by members of Trump’s inner circle, recently warned followers that a Jewish politician will be the Antichrist.

Lahmeyer stated: “The Antichrist will be a political leader of Jewish descent. That is how the Jews will worship him. The false prophet, I believe, will be an Islamic imam.”

Lahmeyer is a right-wing commentator and the pastor of Sheridan Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is the founder and leader of Pastors For Trump, which, as its name indicates, seeks “to continue to build the relationship between Christian leaders and President Trump during his bid for the Presidency.”

Lahmeyer has a history of making toxic remarks, including calling Vice President Kamala Harris a “lying whore”; claiming Democrats are “demonic”; and lobbing bigoted attacks at LGBTQ people, Jewish people, and Muslims.

He continued that pattern during a sermon that was posted online on October 8, which carries the headline “Revelation 13 | Verse-By-Verse | Antichrist + False Prophet | Pastor Jackson Lahmeyer.” During the sermon, Lahmeyer portrayed Jewish and Muslim people as a future threat to Christians:

Video

CitationFrom an October 8, 2024, video by Jackson Lahmeyer

JACKSON LAHMEYER: This is the opinion of Jackson Lahmeyer. The Antichrist will be a political leader. This is just Jackson's opinion. The Antichrist will be a political leader of Jewish descent. That is how the Jews will worship him.

The false prophet, I believe, will be an Islamic imam. I believe that the false prophet will be an Islamic religious leader who will lead the people to worship the beast. That's just Jackson's opinion. And he will implement some form of one world religion, an Islamic caliphate. And if you do not take the mark, you will have your head chopped off.

There's only one group of people today that still chop off the heads of people, and that's radical Islamic extremists. And I believe they will implement that form of religion when the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is gone. So it's my opinion that the future Antichrist will have some form of a Jewish descent, that the false prophet will be an Islamic religious leader.

Lahmeyer is heavily tied to Team Trump

Images from Jackson Lahmeyer's Facebook page.

Lahmeyer recently hosted Donald Trump Jr. at his church. He is scheduled to host Eric Trump as well as Donald Trump's legal spokesperson Alina Habba next week.

He also said that he’s scheduled to speak at a pastors event with former President Trump in North Carolina on October 21, which is being organized by conspiracy theorist Clay Clark.

Lahmeyer has numerous other connections to Trump and his orbit:

Ryan Walters, the controversy-laden Oklahoma school superintendent, is also connected to Lahmeyer.

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an 10 24

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

3.5 million?

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3.5 million $?

10/07/2024

by

Kyle Mantyla

A new document limits the types of bibles that the state will purchase. Only the Trump Bible appears to meet the criteria.

The MAGA congresswoman’s post comes as FEMA finds itself fighting against fake information about the disaster.

Turning Point’s representatives have made two things clear in meetings with state and local Republican leaders — Donald Trump has blessed their conservative organization to help lead his get-out-the-vote effort, and local party officials ought to use the group’s new voter mobilization app. Both prospects terrify fellow Republicans.

Trump didn’t venture far from his typical tropes on Sunday: He fear-mongered about migrants (“the horrible people that we’re allowing into our country that are destroying our country,” he claimed of migrants, saying the issue was the most important of this election); claimed that if he loses, the U.S. is over (“If we lose this election, this country’s finished,” he claimed); kept up his obsession with crowd sizes; and he also inexplicably decided to revisit his unhinged admission that he wants to be dictator for one day.

A year ago this week, Donald Trump complained about migrants “poisoning the blood of our country.” Now, he's concerned about those with "bad genes," too.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, right-wing media falsely claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris and the Biden administration are ignoring millions of Americans impacted by intense flooding. Media personalities and MAGA influencers have falsely and dishonestly claimed that victims are only entitled to $750 in aid, when in reality that is just the start of federal benefits.

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September 30, 2024 rww

Former President Donald Trump has escalated his long-running assault on the integrity of US elections as the 2024 presidential campaign enters its final stretch, using a new series of lies about ballots, vote-counting and the election process to lay the groundwork to challenge a potential defeat in November.

In effect, we were like other lobbyists and pressure groups, only our visits to offices included saying a prayer or reading a Bible verse with the occupant. Clergy, often arrayed around the stately benches where members of both houses of Congress sit during official proceedings, accompanied us to more formal meetings.

During yet another anti-migrant rant, the former president falsely claimed crime is up and so cops should be allowed to be “extraordinarily rough.”

Robby Starbuck, the former music video director behind clips like “Super Collider” for Megadeth, has a new job: hectoring companies to drop their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs and cut their ties to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and the organization’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI).

Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ryan Walters, always looking for new ways to shove Christianity into public schools, now wants to spend $6,000,000 on New King James Version bibles for teachers across the state.

Author Jessica Pishko on how two Arizona sheriffs created an entire mythology — and a dangerous movement.

Peter Montgomery of Right Wing Watch tells how Christian nationalist media are radicalizing their viewers.

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msnbc press show chuck todd? prager u ryan walters says schools unions tcher marxist 5x no challenge?

prager says back to basics many times, schools 1930’s socio pts out segregated

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AN 7 24

Do you know about Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order 13950? If you don’t, be afraid. Be very afraid.

Just weeks before he was fired by America’s voters in 2020, President Trump issued this piece of nastiness which was quickly rescinded by just-inaugurated President Biden.

The Executive Order is a “DCL,” what the right-wing brilliantly calls a, “Divisive Concepts Law.” These DCL’s terrorize teachers with the threat of losing their jobs if they dare teach the truth of America’s racial history: That white people enslaved Africans, that the Klan enforced racial vote suppression with the hanging rope. And God forbid, they teach that women were banned from the vote until the 20th Century. The Executive Order bans teaching any historical facts if,

“….any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex….”

As a practical matter, it means teaching the truth of America’s racial stain will get you fired. In 2021, Tennessee high school teacher Matt Hawn lost his job because a student accused him of teaching—cover your children’s ears—“Critical Race Theory.” Hawn said he’d never heard of Critical Race Theory when he was canned.

(Critical Race Theory, taught in law schools, says many of America’s laws and their enforcement, contain a racial bias. Well, D’oh!].

On Thursday, Vice-President Harris told the American Federation of Teachers convention in Houston, epicenter of the anti-CRT hysteria,

“While you teach students about our nation's past, these extremists attack the freedom to learn and acknowledge our nation's true and full history; including book bans! Book bans — in this year 2024! Just think about it: we want to ban assault weapons and they want to ban books.”

It was a century ago, that Tennessee was the laughingstock of the nation for prosecuting a schoolteacher for telling his class about human evolution, a story recounted in the film, Inherit the Wind. Now, a hundred years later, Trumpsters are again passing wind over Tennessee.

And he’s baaaaack! Trump has put his fixation with censoring “divisive concepts” into the GOP platform. Details are provided in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 master plan for the master race.

This ill wind originated in Georgia when Gov. Brian Kemp signed HB1084, threatening the jobs of teachers for teaching ‘divisive concepts’ that could make a white child feel “discomfort.”

Who would feel “discomfort” about the uncensored history of Georgia? Well, maybe it’s Gov. Kemp himself. Because it was the Kemp family, then known as the Habershams, that first brought Africans in chains to Georgia.

Maybe Kemp and family should feel a bit of discomfort. I spoke with Janie Banse, who told me she is she is heartsick that her cousin, Gov. Kemp, won’t admit that their family’s wealth originated in the African slave trade. Kemp’s ancestors held the largest auction of human beings in American history, still remembered by Black Georgians today as “Weeping Time,” when 436 men, women and their children were separated and sold.

Georgia’s HB 1084, passed in 2022,

Prohibit[s] the use of curricula that addresses the topics of slavery, racial oppression, racial segregation, or racial discrimination, including topics relating to the enactment and enforcement of laws resulting in racial oppression, segregation, and discrimination in a professionally and academically appropriate manner and without espousing personal political beliefs;

And what if a teacher expresses a personal distaste for slavery?

Since Georgia was among the first to pass a “DCL,” and at least 16 states have followed.

In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis, dubbed his DCL the “Stop WOKE Act.”

He banned the College Board’s AP African American Studies course and supported new Black history standards that include the requirement to teach, “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

I can’t make this up.

Since 2021, at least 27 states have imposed or proposed bans or restrictions on teaching topics related to race and gender. Mississippi, Alabama, Arizona and Oklahoma all passed these Divisive Concepts laws. What do these states have in common? According to rankings by US News and World Report, they are all in the nation’s bottom third in educational achievement. Apparently, they won’t teach uncensored history—but then, it’s not clear that they teach much history at all.

Trump’s DLC brigade is not just putting a blindfold over students regarding slavery and Jim Crow. Oklahoma’s Divisive Concepts Law has effectively silenced the true story of the state that was once known officially as, “Indian Territory.”

Jim Gray, former Principal Chief of the Osage Nation, told me that teachers throughout the state have been yanking copies of David Grann’s book Killers of the Flower Moon off their classroom shelves. Killers, on which the Martin Scorsese/Leonardo DiCaprio movie is based, tells the true story about how, in the 1920s, over 100 Oklahoma Osage were murdered for their oil rights.

The insidious brilliance of the Oklahoma law is that it has a fuzzy general prohibition on “divisive” concepts—with teachers facing loss of their teaching credentials and the entire school district losing funding. Because teachers have to guess which books or films will get them fired, the result is mass self-censorship, with Killers culled from classrooms across the state.

A RAND corporation study found that a breathtaking two out of three K-12 teachers, “have decided on their own to limit instruction about political and social issues in the classroom.” Can you blame them?

Any student or parent can put a legal gun to a school principal’s head. But when the law says, “students,” as a practical matter, they don’t mean young kids on the Reservation. Every year, on April 22, Oklahoma celebrates “Sooner Rush Day”, the day in 1889, when any white man could simply stand on a plot of land and seize the surrounding 160 acres of what was, by treaty, Indian Territory. Indigenous kids have to re-enact the theft of their property whether they feel discomfort or not.

I have included this story of the Sooner Rush land grab in my documentary, Long Knife: the Osage Nation, Koch Oil and the new Killers of the Flower Moon. And for that alone, says Chief Gray, the chance it will screen in an Oklahoma school, even a state university, is zilch.

But some states are not shy about creating Black Lists of books to ban. Assigning anti-racist classics Huckleberry Finn or To Kill a Mockingbird, could kill a teacher’s career. PEN America counted 3,132 books banned in nine states in the 2022-23 school year.

Cui Bono? Who benefits from historical amnesia? Kemp alone was not the only white boy to make his fortune from a slaver’s whip. Historic amnesia is a profit center covering many historic misdeeds from Jim Crow to union busting to corporate corruption.

I found this out when I was physically ejected from the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah. I was having a polite interview with the Society’s in-house historian, Dr. Stan Deaton, who was explaining that the Klan took over control of the South when, in 1876, Republicans lost both the popular vote and the Electoral vote—yet a pact between the Klan-backed Southern Democrats and northern Republicans used a sly maneuver to overturn the vote and install the GOP candidate as President. It came down to one official, Dr. Deaton noted, then added, “We saw Mike Pence in that situation recently.”

The second the historian uttered the words, “Mike Pence,” the door flew open and the Society’s PR man halted the interview and expelled me from the building, saying, “We have to protect the new corporate donors on our board.”

I was curious. Who were these “donors” needing protection from history? I found their gala dinner on YouTube with their tuxedoed corporate money men: Georgia Pacific (owned by Koch Industries), Home Depot (owned by right-wing union buster Ken Langone), and Southern Company, whom I investigated some years ago for racketeering and the inexplicable death of whistleblowers. And the Chairman of the Historical Society? Gov. Brian Kemp.

Just below Savannah, at the Kemp family’s old plantation, I spoke with caretaker and Councilman Griffin Lotson whose own great-grandmother was sold at Weeping Time by Kemp’s progenitors.

Lotson emphasizes the connection between this legally enforced historical amnesia and the fight for voting rights. He says, “Suppressing history is suppressing the vote.”

Back in Oklahoma, the current Principal Chief of the Osage, Geoffrey Standing Bear, explained that if Oklahoma were to admit that its “Sooner Rush” was simply theft from the indigenous owners of the land, then it would force open eyes to what he calls, the “military occupation [of Native land] that continues today.”

Napoleon famously said, “History is a set of lies agreed upon.” Trump’s DCL crusade sees history as a set of truths silenced.

*Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers including The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. His latest film is Vigilantes Inc.: America’s New Vote Suppression Hitmen to be released in September. GregPalast.com

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Will David Barton Fill Oklahoma’s Curriculum With Lies and Disinformation?

By Kyle Mantyla | July 22, 2024 rww

Earlier this month, Oklahoma’s Christian nationalist state superintendent of education Ryan Walters announced that he was creating an executive review committee to overhaul the state’s social studies curriculum and that it would be stocked with far-right activists and ideologues.

Among those appointed to the committee was Christian nationalist pseudo-historian David Barton, a longtime religious-right activist who has repeatedly misrepresented his academic credentials and whose scholarship is so shoddy that one of his books was pulled off the marked by his own publisher in 2012 after it concluded that “basic truths just were not there.”

Barton is notorious for misrepresenting history in order to bolster his right-wing political agenda and for continuing to repeat his false claims long after they have been debunked. Both of these tendencies were on display when Barton appeared on “The War Room” over the weekend.

David Barton Discusses President Trump's "Providential" Head Turn

“According to University of Houston, they did a 10 year study,” Barton said. “They collected the writings the Founding Fathers in the founding era—15,000 they used—and they found in those 3,154 direct quotes. They said, ‘All right, now let’s see who the Founding Fathers quoted.’ The number one source for their quotes was the Bible. Thirty four percent of all those political quotes came out of Bible verses, and the number one Bible book [was] the book of Deuteronomy.”

“So, this is not hyperbole,” Barton insisted.

While it might not be “hyperbole,” Barton’s statement is certainly misleading, as Right Wing Watch has pointed out time and again:

This claim is a deliberate misrepresentation of a 1984 study conducted by professor Donald S. Lutz of the University of Houston that sought to identify which writers and sources of ideas were most cited in “the political writings of Americans published between 1760 and 1805.” Lutz found that the Bible was cited most frequently solely because many of the pamphlets included in the research were sermons that had been reprinted for mass distribution. Once the sermon pamphlets were excluded, Lutz reported that quotes from the Bible appeared no more frequently in the political writings of the era than citations of the classical or common law.

More importantly, Lutz also noted that when the focus was solely on the public political writings from 1787 to 1788, when the U.S. Constitution was written and ratified, “the Bible’s prominence disappears” almost completely.

Undaunted, Barton continued to spread claims that were debunked years ago.

“I was involved in 13 cases at the U.S. Supreme Court,” Barton stated later in the interview. “Even [former Supreme Court Justice] Stephen Breyer said, ‘We all know the due process rights of the Constitution came out of the Bible.”

“The right to confront your accusers comes out of John 8:10,” Barton insisted. “The right to compel witnesses in your behalf comes out of Proverbs 18:17. The right to speak in your own defense [comes out of] Acts 22:1. If you don’t know scriptures, you’re not going to understand how the Constitution works.”

Right Wing Watch first debunked this claim nearly a decade ago, pointing out that what Breyer actually said in his 1999 concurrence in Lilly v. Virginia was merely that “the right of an accused to meet his accusers face-to-face is mentioned in, among other things, the Bible, Shakespeare, and 16th and 17th century British statutes, cases, and treatises.”

The Court’s effort to tie the Clause so directly to the hearsay rule is of fairly recent vintage, compare Roberts, supra, with California v. Green, 399 U.S. 149, 155—156 (1970), while the Confrontation Clause itself has ancient origins that predate the hearsay rule, see Salinger v. United States, 272 U.S. 542, 548 (1926) (“The right of confrontation did not originate with the provision in the Sixth Amendment, but was a common-law right having recognized exceptions”).

The right of an accused to meet his accusers face-to-face is mentioned in, among other things, the Bible, Shakespeare, and 16th and 17th century British statutes, cases, and treatises. See The Bible, Acts 25:16; W. Shakespeare, Richard II, act i, sc. 1; W. Shakespeare, Henry VIII, act ii, sc. 1; 30 C. Wright & K. Graham, Federal Practice and Procedure §6342, p. 227 (1997) (quoting statutes enacted under King Edward VI in 1552 and Queen Elizabeth I in 1558); cf. Case of Thomas Tong, Kelyng J. 17, 18, 84 Eng. Rep. 1061, 1062 (1662) (out-of-court confession may be used against the confessor, but not against his co-conspirators); M. Hale, History of the Common Law of England 163—164 (C. Gray ed. 1971); 3 W. Blackstone, Commentaries *373. As traditionally understood, the right was designed to prevent, for example, the kind of abuse that permitted the Crown to convict Sir Walter Raleigh of treason on the basis of the out-of-court confession of Lord Cobham, a co-conspirator. See 30 Wright & Graham, supra, §6342, at 258—269.

Needless to say, there is absolutely no historical evidence to support Barton’s claims that our due process rights came out of John, Acts, or Proverbs. More importantly, Barton has never even bothered to cite any historical record to support his claim, nor has he ever had any incentive to do so. And this is because Barton has built his career on exploiting the biblical and historical ignorance of his own audiences, knowing that they are unprepared to question his assertions and will get no traction even if attempt to do so.

Now that Barton has been tapped to overhaul the academic standards in Oklahoma, it is entirely possible that these sorts of bogus claims will work their way into the state’s social studies curriculum, indoctrinating future generations with a Barton-esque Christian nationalist worldview that is built on lies and intentional misinformation.

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July 16, 2024 rww

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Oklahoma’s top education official Ryan Walters praises right-wing media figures as among “the best minds” to develop the “best history standards in the country”

07/11/24

On July 9, Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction Ryan Walters announced that a number of people — many of them key figures in right-wing media — would be rewriting the social studies curriculum in the state. The list includes right-wing hosts with ties to Walters like Steve Deace, Dennis Prager, and Stacy Washington RENTA THOMASINA PJT 21, as well as Kevin Roberts, the head of The Heritage Foundation, which has organized Project 2025. (For more on the right-wing figures helping guide Oklahoma's curriculum, see here.)

Walters appeared on the July 11 episode of Jenna Ellis in the Morningand discussed the plans for a new curriculum, using rhetoric that appears to mirror Christian nationalism and expressing excitement with the group of right-wing figures that will help develop the curriculum.

Oklahoma’s top education official Ryan Walters praises right-wing media figures as among “the best minds” to develop the “best history standards in the country”

JULY 11, 2024

Audio

CitationFrom the the July 11, 2024, edition of American Family Radio's Jenna Ellis in the Morning

JENNA ELLIS (HOST): I’m speaking with Oklahoma state superintendent Ryan Walters, who is overhauling the curriculum for schools to simply reflect the truth of our national heritage, to explain civics.

...

And yet, the left, who clearly they haven't read the Bible because they think that this is just, you know, a bunch of fairy stories that have nothing to do with reality. They don’t understand that the Bible is actually a history text. It’s actually so much more than that that gives a chronology of world history up until, of course, the New Testament, but then we also have Revelation, the end of all things.

I mean, they just think of this as a purely religious text that is trying to push the Christian religion onto students rather than, as you rightly point out Ryan Walters, the Bible actually is so much more than that and should be studied if kids actually want to understand our American heritage.

…

And so talk about this curriculum more that you have proposed, and I know that people like my good friend Steve Deace are already working on this. What was the design for, you know, bringing in some of these really great — I think just civics philosophers — like Dennis Prager, Kevin Roberts, Steve Deace?

RYAN WALTERS (OKLAHOMA STATE SUPERINTENDENT): Yes. What we’ve seen in education is education has been controlled by the radical left, by these left-wing institutions. You see them all the way down. You see it at the federal level with the Department of Education, but you see it all the way down to the local level. You see it embedded in state departments of education.

Jenna, when I came into the office, I fired 130 of the staff there. And we had embedded left-wing bureaucrats. And so we’ve come in and said, listen, you know, the left has completely tried to control everything, all the way down to curriculum.

So what I want is I want folks that understand American history, understand how to articulate that in a way that kids are going to be able to understand it. And we’re going to come in here, and we’re going to have the best history standards in the country. We’re going to find the best minds from around the country to come in here and help us develop out that story of America. We want our kids to be able to truly understand it. We don’t want any of our history censored from our kids.

We want them to truly understand that because, you know, you look at it too — And when the left has taken away any type of moral, religious reference in our history, you know, you look at folks like Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, who were very clearly — you know, you think about some of John Adams quotes about, you know, this constitution was made for a moral or religious people. And part of — so much of what they articulated was an equation that, yes, our rights come from God, we maximize those individual liberties. And there’s also the citizenry has to be moral or religious so that they can self govern. That’s how maximizing individual rights work.

Well, generally, we don’t tell half of that story. We’re lying to our kids. Our kids aren’t getting that picture. And Winston Churchill said the further back you look is the further ahead you can see. And how in the world are we going to move this country forward and continue to be the greatest country in the history of the world if our kids don’t even understand the history of where we came from? And that’s where we are so excited with this group that we have to help us develop these standards.

Related

  1. ### Oklahoma is having right-wing media figures rewrite its social studies curriculum. Here’s what you need to know about them.

07/10/24 1:21 PM EDT

  1. ### Oklahoma state superintendent says pastor and right-wing commentator suggested his new Bible mandate in public schools

07/08/24 9:59 AM EDT

  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

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rww

Ryan Walters Taps Christian Nationalists and Right-Wing Propagandists To Overhaul Oklahoma’s Social Studies Curriculum

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post_author/kyle-mantyla/)By Kyle Mantyla |}:

Last month, Oklahoma’s Christian nationalist state superintendent of education Ryan Walters announced that the Bible must be taught in all public schools in the state. Now, Walters is taking things a step further, announcing that the state’s social studies curriculum will be overhauled in order to further promote his Christian nationalist worldview.

“The revised standards will incorporate the introduction of the Bible as an instructional resource that Superintendent Walters announced last week as well as the ensuring that social studies reflect accuracy and not political slanted viewpoints,” stated the press release issued by Walters’ office on Tuesday. Walters’ claim is laughable, given that the state’s new curriculum will undoubtedly reflect the “political slanted viewpoints” of the various far-right activists he has appointed to the executive review committee.

Among the participants is Kevin Roberts, the hard-right activist who has pushed the Heritage Foundation into increasingly extreme MAGA territory and is leading the Project 2025 effort to seize control of the federal government should former President Donald Trump win the 2024 election.

In 2023, Right Wing Watch reported:

In a speech celebrating the 50th anniversary of Heritage’s founding, Roberts said the 2024 election “may be our last, best chance to rescue this nation from a woke, socialist left bent on its destruction,” mocked “non-vaccine vaccines” and “useless masks,” declared that there must be no bargaining with the “woke left,” and asserted that “dismantling the woke and weaponized Administrative State” is a matter of national survival. A Heritage ebook about critical race theory suggests that systemic racism cannot exist because racial discrimination is illegal.

Joining Roberts is Everett Piper, the former president of Oklahoma Wesleyan University, a right-wing commentator, and self-proclaimed proud “right-wing religious nut.”

In 2017, RWW reported:

Everett Piper is the president of a Christian college who has found success on the Religious Right speaking circuit by attacking the “ideological fascism” of gay-rights supporters and other liberals, who he says area waging a “war against Christians” in academia and the broader culture. Piper gave a rousing culture warrior’s closing keynote to the 2015 summit of the World Congress of Families, which works to restrict LGBT rights and reproductive freedom around the globe. Piper has described WCF’s critics as “a hateful people who hate anyone who dares stand in their way of hating God.” At a 2015 conference organized by anti-gay activist Jim Garlow, Piper described the Obama White House as “seemingly more aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood than Franklin Graham.” Piper was listed earlier this year as a member of the education committee of the secretive far-right Council for National Policy.

Commentator Dennis Prager will be lending his “expertise” as well, which is ironic given that the educational materials produced by Prager’s own organization are rife with disinformation and right-wing propaganda.

In 2023, RWW wrote:

Dennis Prager is a prominent far-right propagandist whose PragerU videos have been viewed billions of times. Prager argued against the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from the U.S. Capitol. Prager is allied with Christian nationalists and promotes their false claims about U.S. history. When Keith Ellison became the first Muslim elected to Congress and chose a Quran for his ceremonial swearing in, Prager slammed him for not using a Bible, saying, “If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book, don’t serve in Congress.”

Unhinged far-right broadcaster Steve Deace has also been named a member of Walters’ committee, despite his repeated calls for violence against his political opponents, including openly declaring that he wants to see “antifa members hanging from gallows in Trump ties.”

IFrame Content

Finally, and most alarmingly, Christian nationalist pseudo-historian David Barton has been named to Walters’ committee. As RWW has noted before, Barton is almost single-handedly responsible for creating the Christian nationalist myths that the far-right uses to justify its push to enact harmful public policies that weaken the separation of church and state, undermine women’s rights, and deny legal equality to LGBTQ Americans.

RWW profiledBarton in 2023 after Rep. Mike Johnson, who credited Barton with having a “profound influence on me and my work and my life,” was elected Speaker of the House:

David Barton has built an entire career out ofmisusing, misrepresenting, and outright falsifying history, the Bible, and current events and doing so to promote his Christian nationalist political agenda. He has been highly influential not only within Republican politics, where he has many fans among current and former GOP legislators, but also internationally. On top of that, Barton’s Christian nationalist pseudo-history is shaping both Christian and secular educational institutions across the country.

Barton, who has repeatedly misrepresented his academic credentials and personal history, had his book on Thomas Jefferson pulled by his own publisher in 2012 after it concluded that “basic truths just were not there.”

Undaunted, Barton has soldiered on, repeatedly declaring that Christians who share his far-right worldview are supposed to be choosing our elected leaders and ruling the world because everything must operate according to biblical principles.

Barton falsely insists that our Constitution and entire system of government are based on the Bible and thus asserts that everything from the minimum wage to the income tax to the teaching of evolution are unconstitutional because they supposedly violate Biblical teachings. Barton also believes that there should be literally no limits on the Second Amendment, meaning that average citizens are entitled to own tanks, fighter jets, and even nuclear weapons.

Predictably, Barton takes a far-right position on issues like abortion—going so far as to proclaim that life actually begins *before* conception—and on LGBTQ issues, asserting repeatedly that AIDS is God’s punishment for sin and therefore a cure will never be found.

In his press release, Walters’ proclaimed that the “unparalleled expertise” of these panelists “will help craft new academic standards that will serve as a mode for the nation and help Oklahoma students for years to come.” In reality, what will likely emerge from this process is a curriculum warped by political bias and riddled with intentional disinformation designed to indoctrinate students with right-wing propaganda.

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mma 7 24

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

  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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rww 6 24

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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yikes influencers get gov’t jobs?!

January 23, 2024 rww

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

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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