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Florida School Districts Now Have One Day To Drop Mask Mandates Or DeSantis Will Strip Funding

DeSantis is preparing to strip the funding of school districts violating Florida law by requiring students wear face masks

Earlier this year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis banned mask mandates for schools. Still, some school districts sought to openly flaunt the rule of law by instituting their own mask mandates, provoking DeSantis to take action on Friday and give them 48 hours to rescind their mask mandates or face being stripped of funding. Now, the school districts have just over one day to respond.

On Friday, DeSantis gave the first two school districts flaunting the rule of law 48 hours to reverse course and drop their controversial mask mandates. Now, almost a day later, these schools have continued to defy the Florida governor and have just over one day to stop breaking the law. At present, it appears these school districts have yet to comply.

Should they refuse, “The Florida Department of Education said it will then start gradually withholding state funds – equal to 1/12 of the salaries of the school board members, monthly – ‘until each district demonstrates compliance,’” per a statement released to the media.

To make the order more punishing for the school board members who made the unscientific decision to mask children, the order prohibits the lack of funding from impacting “student services or teacher pay” and will instead directly take money meant to pay those behind the decision.

Earlier this month, DeSantis announced a policy that would allow parents to remove their children – and their taxpayer funding – from these school districts and instead send them to private schools who do not require masks in violation of Florida law with a voucher representing the taxpayer funds tied to the students. This, predictably, resulted in uproar from public school advocates and teachers unions, who sought to defend the right of school districts to break Florida law.

Also this month, the CDC admitted it over counted Florida’s COVID-19 case numbers by nearly 10,000 by attributing an entire weekend’s worth of cases to a single day. While the CDC eventually corrected its mistake, it never offered an apology, and local media used the error to slam DeSantis and his pro-freedom COVID-19 policies.

CRT: America’s Cultural Revolution

(American Thinker) Nowhere is the abuse of power in directing government manpower and spending more blatant than in the Biden administration’s promotion of Critical Race Theory (CRT) training throughout all federal government agencies. The Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Education (DoE) — two agencies that have the most people under their administration and instruction — have incorporated this divisive Marxist ideology-based indoctrination in the training curricula for their staff members, and to all the enlisted in the case of the military. Given that warfighting capability can be critical to a nation’s survival, and that the youth of today represent the nation’s future citizens and leaders, these decisions are not without serious repercussions.            

The job of teachers and schools is straightforward: It’s to train students to achieve competence in the basic subjects of reading, writing, verbal, math, science, history, and geography.  Yet according to the latest Nation’s Report Card, only 23% of 12th-grade public school students in America reach basic proficiency. So with our nation’s public school system failing in its primary mission there is no justification for diverting resources and manpower away from essential education curricula and teaching to a controversial program like CRT.

Many parents across the country passionately shared this position just months ago when the school year was coming to a close.  In May and June, various videos produced by parents meeting and confronting school administrators and school boards demanding that CRT indoctrination programs be dropped went viral, being streamed cross country throughout social media.  Yet the two national teachers’ unions, the NEA and AFT, whose influence reaches all 50 states, remain committed to supporting their members teaching CRT.  As the academic year 2021-2022 gets underway, parents should be aware that the DOE is continuing its state grant programs that provide support for CRT. And while 21 states have introduced bills that would control teaching critical race theory or keep a tab on how teachers can discuss racism and sexism, only six states have passed legislation or had governors deliver executive orders banning explicit CRT curriculum from public schools. 

With regard to problems in the military that have resulted from CRT training, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a senior member of the Armed Services Committee recently disclosed that since he launched a whistleblower tip line in May, hundreds of enlisted soldiers from all branches of the military have reported problems. Numerous sailors say that the Navy brass seems to be prioritizing diversity over combat training.  94% of those interviewed reported that the Navy now has a crisis of leadership.  The recurring complaint about CRT training pushed on them is that it sets military members against one another and denigrates patriotism, which has prompted a number of soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and guardsmen to resign.

In summary, CRT training brings division to the classroom and to military ranks. And in the case of the military, CRT appears to violate the 1976 Supreme Court decision recognizing that a civilian-controlled military requires it to be neutral and apolitical. 

When things make no sense, one simply has to dig deeper to find out what’s going on.

First, it’s essential to understand that the CRT training agenda has all the trappings of a “false flag” operation being run by an enemy. That is, it preys both on peoples’ ignorance and their desire to do well, virtue signal, and stand with justice, while the real agenda is hidden and can be best understood by seeing the program’s effects.  According to program feedback, CRT promotes far more racial division than racial sensitivity.  Further, much CRT curricula distort America’s history and its progress by the inclusion of incorrect narratives surrounding the 17th-century introduction of slavery, while omitting the accomplishments of Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement of the 20th century. 

There is no denying that CRT’s ideology is rooted in Marxism and uses race as a means of evoking moral, social, and political division, while also stoking reverse racism by impugning whites as racial supremacists. As for its history component and vision for America, CRT maintains that America is an irredeemably and systemically racist nation, with an illegitimate government based on a constitution written by white founders and ratified by six slaveholding states, which made up nearly half of the original 13 states. 

What is most astonishing about the CRT project is that it shows how gullible and out of touch so many liberal elite administrators and officers are and how disrespectful they are toward the vast majority of people they oversee and serve. The debacle in Afghanistan reflects the utter failure of the armed services leadership in their main mission to manage military power to protect both strategic national interests and the welfare and American servicemen and women. The fact is that race relations among the enlisted are often exemplary, with blacks having a fast-track for promotion based on merit and blacks being overrepresented relative to their numbers as a percentage of the civilian population. It’s hard to believe that the Pentagon brass doesn’t know the state of affairs among the troops they oversee.  A majority of military enlistees who go through boot camp, combat and teamwork mission training, and live and sleep in barracks or in tight quarters on ships almost all say that their experience makes the military one of the least racist institutions in America. 

So if CRT training takes time, manpower, and resources away from the main missions of schools and the military, while also demoralizing most of its participants in the process, why is this happening in America at this time?

Xi Van Fleet, a Chinese immigrant mother of a child who went through Loudoun County, Virginia public schools, thinks she knows.  She had a déjà vu with CRT and “wokism” being analogous to what she witnessed in Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution in China that displaced and caused the death of some 20 million during the 1960s and 1970s. At a raucous public meeting in June 2021with the Loudoun County School Board, Van Fleet spoke up, drawing parallels between what she had witnessed in China and what she sees going down with CRT in the U.S. today. ” The Communist regime used the same critical theory to divide people,” she said. “The only difference is they used class instead of race.”

“Growing up in Mao’s China, all of this seems very familiar,” she said, describing how the Cultural Revolution caused “students and teachers to turn against each other, and school names changed ‘to be politically correct,’ as they were taught to denounce our heritage.” Going further, Van Fleet said, “The Red Guards destroyed anything that is not Communist — statues, books, and anything else.” 

Although her time to speak was cut short by the Loudoun County School Board, Van Fleet was tracked down by a reporter the next day and summed up her feelings: “To me, and to a lot of Chinese, it is heartbreaking that we escaped communism and now we experience communism here.”

The takeaway from so many who have lived through communist revolutions is that it appears that communists are now emboldened to commence the end game against America. They have adopted the terminology of being woke and high-minded sounding programs like Critical Race Theory, but it’s the same old playbook of the four overlapping stages of communist revolution: first, demoralize society; second, bring about societal division and destabilization; third, bring on crisis and collapse; and fourth, bring about a new normalization of the communist fait accompli.

The reach of Chinese communism into the United States is far greater today than Soviet communism ever was, when at its peak there were at most about 150 Soviet agents working mainly in the federal government, with high-profile people like Alger Hiss serving as FDR’s key trusted advisor at Yalta. The chief reason for the blooming of woke culture and CRT acceptance throughout the United States may in part be related to far larger numbers of Chinese agents operating in the U.S.  Analyst Charles High reports that there may be as many as 100,000 Chinese working within U.S. companies, mainly in the technology sector.  Some of those conduct conventional spying to steal U.S. intellectual property and military secrets, while others are sleepers or agents of influence, whose purpose is to protect and promote various narratives in the interest of China.

Additionally, there are direct parallels between what happened in China during the Cultural Revolution and what is happening right now in America.  And this is all the more disturbing with our current president, Joe Biden, who seems to have been more “installed” than elected and now — with declining mental competence — appears controlled by people behind the scenes.  And of course, the real question is who has the most control over Joe Biden. The silence about the implications of Chinese money received through son Hunter’s $1.5 billion Chinese “private equity deal” on father Biden’s presidential administration is troubling and has no good explanation.  

Americans have overcome many daunting challenges throughout their nation’s past, often waking up at the 11th hour before taking action and prevailing.  Protecting our citizens’ freedom and saving America as a beacon of freedom in the world should be our top priority.  That starts with overcoming denial about enemies foreign and domestic. Then we need to deal with these enemies with courage and dispatch, and proceed with correctives using skill and resourcefulness greater than that of the destroyers, but with none of their malice.

Labor shortage has employers scrambling to offer new perks

Companies are rolling out perks at a feverish clip to lure employees.

Why it matters: The economy is roaring back. Companies are pulling out all stops to win over the workers they need to meet demand.

What’s happening: Walmart and Target say they will pay tuition for certain college programs for millions of employees.

  • Businesses are also offering extended time off, free Pelotons or one-time bonuses to attract workers — and keep the ones they have.

Yes, but: What’s actually enticing workers is the most old-fashioned perk: higher wages.

  • “After we made our announcement [to raise pay] back in April, we’re getting close to full staffing levels,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski told investors.

The intrigue: Nearly 2 in 3 workers say they are looking for a new job, per a new survey by PwC. Employees said more money was the top reason they considered quitting.

  • The survey also finds a huge gulf between what employees want and what companies are offering.
  • Touting company values and culture, plus offering location flexibility, are the most common ways employers say they are trying to retain and attract workers.
  • But that’s on the bottom of the priority list for employees. At the top: more flexible schedules, higher pay and expanded benefits.

By the numbers: Employers are meeting the moment by steadily raising wages. In July, pay was 4% higher than this time last year.

  • Wages in the hospitality sector — where worker shortage complaints are most acute — are 10% higher from last July as hiring rebounds.

Biden Names Nicholas Burns as Envoy to China, Rahm Emanuel to Japan

President Joe Biden has nominated former State Department diplomat Nicholas Burns as US ambassador to China and Rahm Emanuel, former mayor of Chicago and chief of staff to President Barack Obama as US ambassador to Japan, the White House announced on Friday.

“Today, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to serve as US ambassadors,” the White House said in a statement. “Nicholas Burns, Nominee … to the People’s Republic of China [and] Rahm Emanuel, Nominee for Ambassador … to Japan.”

Burns served as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, ambassador to NATO and Greece, and on the National Security Council staff on Soviet and Russian Affairs. He also worked with the Chinese government on Afghanistan and US policy in the Indo-Pacific, the statement said.

Emanuel advised Obama on all key national security decisions during his first two years in office. From 2003 to 2009, he served in the US House of Representatives and earlier served as Assistant for Political Affairs and Senior Advisor for Policy and Strategy to President Bill Clinton, the statement said.

Biden also nominated Michael Battle, a former State Department Bureau of African Affairs adviser, as the next ambassador to Tanzania, the statement added.

Leftist filmmaker Michael Moore likens the Taliban to Southern Baptists: ‘They’re religious nuts, but we’ve got those here, too’

Following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan — culminating with the fall of the capital of Kabul last weekend — far-left filmmaker Michael Moore gave an interview to Variety and let loose with a particularly jaw-dropping observation.

The bloodthirsty, misogynistic Taliban — who lop off the heads of infidels and torture and rape whomever they please — are comparable to Southern Baptists.

Say what?

At one point in the interview, Moore acknowledged his concern that the Taliban might erase progress for women in Afghanistan — but as leftists often do, he appeared to try his hand at softening that natural observation by emphasizing that America also has problems with “religious fundamentalism,” as the magazine termed it.

“They’re religious nuts, but we’ve got those here, too,” Moore told Variety. “But [the Taliban] said yesterday in their press conference that girls’ schools are going to remain open. Okay. We’ll see. They also said they are going to operate under Islamic law. That’s exactly how a lot of Southern Baptists want it to be here, too. In a lot of parts of the country, we are following dictates of conservative Christians. It’s wrong there, and it’s wrong here.”

Moore didn’t offer examples of Southern Baptists taking over cities from coast to coast and murdering, raping, and pillaging in the process, so the basis for his comparison isn’t quite clear.

Anything else?

Elsewhere in the interview, Moore had nothing but praise for President Joe Biden despite his administration’s failure in Afghanistan — and added to the magazine that the fellow Democrat made the correct decision.

“Biden will not have one more American soldier die for something that the Afghans don’t even want to die for,” Moore told Variety. “Ninety-five percent of people agree with what Biden did this week, but if you listen to the reporters in the White House press room, you realize that 95 percent of them seem to be opposed to it.”

While Moore campaigned for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) during the 2020 presidential race, the filmmaker told the magazine he’s “pleasantly surprised” with Biden in regard to the child tax credit, increasing food stamps, and other left-leaning causes.

“I am so pleased with Biden,” Moore also told Variety.

With Delta Variant, Vaccines Don’t Reduce Peak Viral Load: UK Study

Those who caught the Delta Variant of the CCP virus after being fully vaccinated carry a similar level of peak viral burden with their unvaccinated counterparts, a new UK analysis suggests.

This suggests that a vaccinated and an unvaccinated individual, while infected with the variant, would shed similar amounts of the virus at any given time during the peak of their illness.

It’s in contrast with the results seen when the Alpha variant was dominant in the UK.

“With Alpha, people with two doses had really low levels of virus,” Sarah, co-author of the Oxford University-led study, said.

“When Delta started to come in, the first thing that happened was that the virus values went up and now we really don’t see any difference in the amount of virus people get if they get infected after vaccination,” the medical statistics and epidemiology professor said.

Therefore, she added, if a fully vaccinated person does get infected, “you will have similar levels of virus as someone who hasn’t been vaccinated at all.”

However, the study (pdf), which is not yet peer-reviewed, said it’s still unclear how much this would translate into new infections.

“A greater percentage of virus may be non-viable in those vaccinated, and/or their viral loads may also decline faster as suggested by a recent study of patients hospitalized with Delta, leading to shorter periods ‘at risk’ for onwards transmission,” the preprint reads.

The Oxford study analyzed data from more than three million swab tests taken from random households across the UK. It echoed the findings of an earlier analysis by Public Health England, which looked at data from England.

Three CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus vaccines are currently available in the UK: Pfizer/BioNTech, which was rolled out on Dec. 8 last year; Oxford-AstraZeneca, which was rolled out on Jan. 4 but is no longer recommended for under-40s since May 7; and Moderna, which was available since Apr. 7.

The efficacy of Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines in preventing infections had slipped to 75 percent and 61 percent respectively 90 days after a second shot, the study found.

That was down from 85 percent and 68 percent, respectively, seen two weeks after a second dose. The decline in efficacy was more pronounced among those aged 35 years and older than those below that age.

The researchers would not project how much more the effectiveness would drop over time but suggested that the efficacy of the two vaccines studied would converge within 4–5 months after the second shot.

Are US citizens being asked to pay $2,000 for evacuation flights out of Kabul?

After the State Department issued an alert over the weekend saying U.S. citizens could have to pay $2,000 or more for evacuation flights out of Afghanistan, a report indicated people hoping to escape are being asked to pay up.

Although U.S. officials told Politico evacuation flights out of Kabul would be free, its National Security Daily newsletter reported some sources said otherwise, including one who said State Department staff were asking for up to $2,000 per U.S. citizen and more from noncitizens.

But, in a statement shared with the Washington Examiner on Thursday, State Department spokesman Ned Price said, “In these unique circumstances, we have no intention of seeking any reimbursement from those fleeing Afghanistan.”

A security alert published on the website of the Overseas Security Advisory Council, part of the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, was issued over the weekend on “repatriation assistance” for U.S. citizens in Afghanistan. The bulletin published on Saturday — one day before the Taliban swept into Kabul and Hamid Karzai International Airport became a chaotic scene of crowds desperately trying to escape Kabul — encouraged U.S. citizens to take advantage of commercial flights while they remained an option, offering guidance on eligibility requirements for those who sought charter flights.

One part of the alert said: “Repatriation flights are not free, and passengers will be required to sign a promissory loan agreement and may not be eligible to renew their U.S. passports until the loan is repaid. The cost may be $2,000USD or more per person.”

A separate State Department webpage , which focuses on crisis situations, also said that generally, such flights would not be free.

“In extreme situations, if there are no commercial transportation options (planes, trains, boats/ferries, etc.) available, and if we have consular officers at the embassy or consulate, and if the conditions permit, we may help U.S. citizens seeking to depart by working with the host government, other countries, and other U.S. government agencies to identify — and in some cases arrange — available transportation. Regardless of the method of transportation, or who provides it, U.S. citizens (and others who are eligible for U.S. government assistance) are generally responsible for reimbursing the government for the cost of their travel,” the page says.

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul warned people  on Wednesday that the U.S. government “cannot ensure safe passage” to the airport for evacuation. The bulletin also included a message about every American citizen needing to fill out a “Repatriation Assistance Request” form .

The second page of the form tells each applicant that evacuation flights are not free and the cost could exceed $2,000 per person. Each U.S. citizen is prompted to fill out a checklist to say he or she understands the conditions or chooses not to continue with filling out the form.

“All passengers will need to reimburse the U.S. Government for the flight. A promissory note for the full cost of the flight, which may exceed $2000 per person, must be signed by each adult passenger before boarding,” the form says. “No cash or credit card payments will be accepted.”

The next question addresses loan repayment, stating that U.S. citizens “who have signed a loan agreement for repatriation may not be eligible for a new passport until the loan is repaid.”

The form was still accessible and live on the webpage for the U.S. Embassy in Kabul as of late Thursday evening, the Daily Caller reported . The Washington Examiner found an information page on the State Department’s main website dated Thursday that also directed people to fill out the form.

Prior to the statement by Price, Politico reported a spokesperson for the State Department did not deny that U.S. citizens were being asked to pay for flights out of Afghanistan.

“U.S. law requires that evacuation assistance to private U.S. citizens or third-country nationals be provided ‘on a reimbursable basis to the maximum extent practicable.’ The situation is extremely fluid, and we are working to overcome obstacles as they arise,” the representative said.

The report drew outrage from at least one member of Congress, Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney of New York, who called on President Joe Biden to resign and said she was drafting legislation to ensure no U.S. citizen would have to pay for an evacuation flight out of Afghanistan.

A White House official said on Wednesday evening the United States, which sent thousands of troops back to assist with the effort at the Kabul airport, has evacuated nearly 6,000 people since Saturday. Price said on Thursday that there were 6,000 people at the airport in Kabul who have been “fully processed by our consular team and will soon board planes.”

Biden told ABC News on Wednesday that U.S. forces will remain in Afghanistan until all U.S. citizens are evacuated, even if that means keeping them there past the Aug. 31 deadline for a complete withdrawal.

Sixteen million mystery ballots demonstrate the need for vote-integrity efforts

A new report from the Public Interest Legal Foundation, a conservative group specializing in voting laws, makes abundantly clear why widespread mail-in balloting is a horrible idea.

In sum, election officials nationwide mailed out 14.7 million ballots in 2020 that, one way or another, went unaccounted for. And that’s just the start of the problems.

PILF mined numbers compiled by the federal Election Assistance Commission , an entirely neutral outfit set up by Congress to provide voting guidelines and a clearinghouse for election information and statistics. The numbers are reported to the EAC by the states themselves, and PILF did no extrapolations of its own. In other words, these are not biased guesstimates but hard numbers, virtually irrefutable.

By “unaccounted for,” PILF means that EAC reports the ballots “were not returned as voted, were undeliverable, or were otherwise ‘unable to be tracked.’” Nobody knows whether someone actually tried to vote with those ballots only for the Postal Service to lose them or whether would-be voters decided not to bother or whether the ballots were mishandled by “ballot harvesters” (including well-intentioned ones) or whether some were part of a fraud scheme.

PILF isn’t claiming some massive vote fraud, and it is not trying to relitigate the presidential election. Its point is that a combination of human error, systemic sloppiness, and perhaps even a bit of skullduggery together make it almost impossible to know if some close election counts actually were accurate.

“We shouldn’t be allowing the Post Office to determine who our elected leaders are,” said J. Christian Adams, president of PILF and also one of the eight members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights .

Additionally, another 1.1 million ballots were returned to election officials as undeliverable, meaning the addresses on file were wrong, and another 560,814 were “rejected” as otherwise invalid. These are huge numbers. These 1.7 million ballots and the other 14.7 million together show massive potential for future election results to be tainted and for more controversy and chaos of the sort this nation experienced (some of it for valid reasons, some based on lies) in the 2020 elections.

The first lesson is that mail-in voting should be limited, not encouraged, and certainly not seen as the main way to cast ballots. For years and years, through several bipartisan study commissions, the dangers of widespread mail-in voting came to be understood. Before mail-in systems became a favorite of national Democrats, the New York Times was reporting as basic fact, not opinion, that “votes cast by mail are less likely to be counted, more likely to be compromised and more likely to be contested than those cast in a voting booth.”

The second lesson, at least equally important, is that efforts to maintain accurate voter lists and to scrub them of ineligible voters are absolutely necessary. The political Left tries to portray even legally mandated voter-list maintenance as “voter purges” or “vote suppression,” but that is nonsense. If the fate or accuracy of more than 16 million ballots are a mystery, that means many poll commissioners are using outdated or inaccurate information. This isn’t systemic fraud, but it would be a massive systemic failure not to update voter lists.

To ensure both accurate results and public confidence in our election system, thorough and regular list maintenance is a necessity, and mail-in voting should be a last resort.

Biden’s approval has dropped to 46%

(Ipsos) Americans increasingly believe the country is off on the wrong track. Meanwhile, Biden’s approval has dropped to 46%.

Only a quarter of Americans believe the country is heading in the right direction. More Republicans (83%) and independents (66%) believe that the country is off on the wrong track compared to the last time this question was asked.

track

The economy (18%) continues to rank as the top concern for Americans, followed by public health (14%) and the healthcare system (10%).

Main issues Americans are facing

Public health (21%) remains the top concern among Democrats, followed by the healthcare system (14%), the economy, and the environment (both 13%). Republicans’ key concern continues to be the economy (19%), closely followed by immigration (16%), and crime or corruption (12%).  Among independents, the economy reigns with 28% noting it as the most important problem, followed by the healthcare system at 16%.

Main issues Americans are facing by party id

President Biden’s approval rating has dropped to its lowest standing yet at 46%.

Biden Approval

Approval for President Biden has dropped across the parties, with Democrat approval at 81%, Republicans at 11%, and independents at 42%.

Biden Approval by party id

About the Study

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between August 18-19, 2021. For this survey, a sample of 1,002 Americans age 18+ from the continental U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii were interviewed online in English. The sample includes 429 Democrats, 365 Republicans, and 122 independents. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample’s composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Americans been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including but not limited to coverage error and measurement error. The poll also has a credibility interval of ± 5.4 percentage points for Democrats, ± 5.8 percentage points for Republicans, and ± 10.1 percentage points for independents.  

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