THE RHEA COUNTY REPUBLICAN

ADVANCING THE CONSERVATIVE CAUSE

Vol. 5 – No. 5 July 2021

Wishing you a Happy and Safe Independence Day! Please take time to remember what it’s all about and how it came to be!

Table of Contents

Editorial ——————————————————————— 1

Thank You Dr. Rosemary Biggio ———————————– 2

Ted Engel Announces His Candidacy—————————–9

Is Tennessee a Trafficking Hub for Illegal Aliens————–9

Your Tax Dollars At . . . WORK?————————————11

Warning – An Escapee From Communist China Speaks—11

Comments From Representatives——————————— 12

Comments From Correspondents ——————————– 13

Legislative Report —————————————————— 15

Rhea County Republican Party News—————————- 20

Lagniappe – Are Americans Becoming Sovietized———- 21

Contact Your Representatives ————————————- 22

EDITORIAL

Reflections on Independence Day

Kris Bancroft, Editor, and Publisher

Here’s wishing for you and yours a wonderful celebration of our 245^th year of independence, the date of the signing of our Declaration of Independence, and the beginning of what would come to be known as “the Great Experiment” – an experiment to determine whether people could, in fact, be left to govern themselves. We (properly) celebrate it as “Independence Day.”

INDEPENDENCE: What does it mean?

There are many answers but, in general, it equates with Freedom and Liberty.

In no other country on Earth are all its Citizens totally free to: pursue their hopes and dreams; ascend to heights never imagined by their ancestors; acquire an education if they so desire it; work at their chosen trade or profession unencumbered by, and not beholden to, any master or cabal; amass limitless wealth; own property, and; hold elected office. In no other country on Earth are the God-given rights of all its citizens – the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – guaranteed by their government.

As we consider our independence – freedom, and liberty, if you will – we are wise to reflect upon the history of our great nation, we are rightfully humbled by the heroism and the sacrifices so many have made – and continue to make – to give, and preserve, this priceless gift. Knowing our history inspires us to strive to preserve this gift we have been blessed with and to know Freedom is never free.

Yes, our individual rights are greater than those accorded to any other citizen of any other country, but we must also understand that with rights come responsibilities, and among those responsibilities is to continually strive to preserve this gift for all those Americans who follow us. As President Ronald Reagan reminded us: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

THANK YOU DR. ROSEMARY BIGGIO!

Dr. Rosemary Biggio earned her PhD in English, from St. John’s University, in Queens, New York, and enjoyed a successful career in teaching. Since her retirement, she has authored critiques of various authors’ writings, and has written a book of short stories and poetry entitled Crockpot Cooking. She is currently working on a novel that will (hopefully) be published by summers end. More on that later!

This month, we are most fortunate to have a three-part article from Dr. Biggio that addresses and clarifies the topics of School Choice, Critical Race Theory, and the 1619 Project. This article provides crucial information with an action plan for those who are concerned about the quality of their children’s education, and especially to those who are concerned about the corruption of our history by the so-called “woke” progressives and democratic socialists who are on a mission to indoctrinate our children by advancing Critical Race Theory the 1619 Project.

Read and Learn and Take Action NOW! – Editor

Imagine School Choice

By Dr. Rosemary Biggio, PhD

The two unions for teachers in the United States are the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). The COVID-19 virus unmasked all of the unions for lack of concern for students that they teach. Parents became “woke” about the tenacity of union bosses. However, one of the unions the AFT (The American Federation of Teachers) influenced Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The emails show that in February the CDC was contacted by the union representative on school re-opening, lobbied, and even suggested the language for the school-reopening. The muscular union pressed the CDC to put the brakes on a full re-opening of in-person classrooms. On 5/1/21 the emails confirm that communication between top CDC, AFT and White House officials. These emails were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the conservative watchdog group Americans for Public Trust and provided to The Post.

Infuriated parents have urged school boards to open schools but, they refused and jockeyed for more taxpayer money. Senator Tim Scott refers to school choice as a civil rights issue. The indoctrination that began in colleges and universities has trickled down to high schools and primary schools.

Benefits of Schools Choice

Parents have dreamt of school choice for years. They list school safety as one of their primary reasons. School safety is a particular concern in communities where violence is common. School choice options can help students escape communities where bullying, gang related violence, or other school violence is common.

Five empirical studies have found that students participating in private-school choice are safer and receive better schooling because it gives students an education tailored to their needs. It means access to a quality education which isn’t conditional on a family’s ability to purchase an expensive home or dependent on a zip code.

It offers lower cost to taxpaying Americans than the typical public-school model. Mechanisms like vouchers, tax credit scholarships, and education savings accounts cost a fraction of what is spent in the public system so, this is a win-win for taxpayers.

School choice leads to higher graduation rates. It puts pressure on public schools to be more competitive and makes them directly accountable to parents. It gives schools a strong incentive to meet the needs of their students since unsatisfied parents can take their children and education dollars elsewhere.

School choice helps cultivate citizens. Private schools do a better job than traditional public schools at cultivating civic virtues in their students, such as civic participation and tolerance. They also tend to give more focus to character and moral formation, something parents value in schools, according to a recent Ed Choice study.

Here are the 5 common types of school choice, in order from most to least government involvement, with a description of how each works:

First, there are open enrollment programs, sometimes known as “public school choice.” This means that families can choose from many different public schools, as opposed to being assigned a public school based only on zip code. In certain states, there is “mandatory” open enrollment for students in areas the state considers low performing, where students in those underperforming areas can transfer to other districts (pending state approval). While this is certainly a kind of school choice, it is limited in several ways. This choice is limited to public schools. Those wanting to take advantage of it generally have to fill out an application that the state must approve, and the state can regulate who may and may not apply as well as who gets priority.

Next, there are charter schools. Charters are privately run schools that agree to be part of the public school system in order to provide students some choice. Since these schools are privately run, they are often exempt from some of the constraints of traditional public schools (they can structure their daily schedules and teacher contracts any way they like). But since they are part of the public system, they receive tax money (rather than tuition) and generally their students must take the same standardized tests and follow the same curricular standards as other public schools.

Voucher programs are the third type of school choice; they provide more choice and less role for the state. In a voucher system, the state gives vouchers to families in proportion to their number of school-age children. The families can use those vouchers to purchase schooling from any private school eligible to receive voucher money (including many religiously themed schools).
Most voucher programs are targeted, either only available for students in certain (generally poor urban) regions, or to families below a certain income level. Unlike with charters, schools that accept vouchers are private schools who accept tuition money directly from the parents. The government still has a role, though, in determining which private schools may be eligible for voucher money.

The fourth school choice option is Scholarship tax credits; they function in a similar way to vouchers, but with a more convoluted accounting method. The main difference is that the money is not dispensed to families or schools by the government. Instead, the family generally gives money to a “scholarship fund” for their child, then receives an equivalent tax credit from the government. (Corporations can also donate money to scholarship funds that students in general)

Number five, and probably the least government-heavy system of school choice that currently exists, is the education savings account. ESAs allow families to use money designated by the government for their child’s education for private educational services. (Parents can generally contribute additional money to the child’s educational savings account.)
They can use this money not only for school tuition but also for other educational services like online courses, tutoring, private lessons, or educational technologies (for instance, technologies that aid students with disabilities to access educational services). Also, any money the family doesn’t use one-year rolls over to the next. While the state oversees how the money is spent in order to guard against fraud, this is a much less active role than in a voucher or tax-credit system.
This system gives families very wide choice and keeps government decision-making to a minimum.

In home schooling situations, parents often use “learning pods.” (Lately, these have come to be known as “pandemic pods.” Home schoolers that use learning pods may refer to them as a “micro-school,” “nano-school,” or “home-schooling pod.” This is a small group of students gathering together to learn. Learning pods are similar to homeschool cooperatives, in which neighbors or families join together to share in the education of their children. This approach could be considered a sixth type of school choice but some states and municipalities are beginning to impose minimum standards on home schoolers to ensure home schooled children meet educational standards for grade level.

What is CRT?

Dr. Rosemary Biggio, PhD

Critical Race Theory (CRT) upends civil rights and equal protection under the law by treating people differently, according to their race or ethnicity.

CRT’s origin in Marxism and support for the Soviet Union are clear and easy to document. The direct intellectual ancestor of CRT is Critical Theory, a discipline that began in Frankfurt, Germany, in the 1920s and 1930s at the University of Frankfurt’s Institute for Social Research. Known as “the Frankfurt School,” the institute was founded in 1923 after the failure of German radicals to establish a socialist state around the same time that the Bolshevik Revolution succeeded in what would become the Soviet Union.

The Frankfurt School was one of the so-called Neo Marxist, or Western Marxist, schools, patterned after the Marx–Engels Institute in Moscow. In the word salad of the Democrat party, they replaced “class” with “race” or ethnicity.

CRT has its intellectual origin in Critical Theory, which is a philosophy based on applying Marxism to every area of life—counter to America’s promise of freedom and equality under the law. It replaced equality with equity, a more word salad. Equality provides freedom of opportunity whereas equity promotes racial spoils of the outcome. Think of Affirmative Action.

CRT Training and Curricula.

CRT, like Critical Theory before it, is a strategy to undermine Western, and in the case of CRT, American, norms, principles, and institutions in order to subvert society and install new political, economic, and societal systems. The CRT training and curricula that have awoken such animus in American society must be seen in the context of:

The goal of radically transforming society.

The subsequent need to instill grievances and a sense of victimhood by explaining the world only in terms of the oppressed and the oppressors.

Criticism of the classical liberal tradition.

Examples such as these are common in K-12 schools today. When educators treat students differently because of their skin color or say children are guilty of oppression because of their race, it violates existing law. It should go without saying, but such dogma is also dispiriting for all children, white or non-white.

These ideas of oppression and systemic racism come from a Marxist doctrine called “critical theory.” Over the past 40 years, college professors and activists expanded critical theory into what is now called “critical race theory,” a worldview that “questions the very foundations of the liberal order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism, and neutral principles of constitutional law.”

What is the 1619 Project?

Dr. Rosemary Biggio, PhD

The 1619 Project is a long-form journalism project developed by Nikole Hannah-Jones, writers from The New York Times, and The New York Times Magazine, which aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of the United States‘ national narrative. The project was first published in The New York Times Magazine in August 2019 for the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in the English colony of Virginia. The project later included a broadsheet article, live events, and a podcast. The project has sparked criticism and debate among prominent historians and political commentators.

Arthur Milikh, former Associate Director of the Heritage Foundation’s B. Kenneth Simon Center wrote a revealing expose’ of The 1619 Project, and one of its principal activists, demonstrating how the organization unabashedly falsifies important parts of American history.

“Its lead essay, written by activist Nikole Hannah-Jones, falsifies important parts of American history with a view to engineering this new approach. While it has been roundly debunked by a chorus of renowned academics for gross factual and thematic inaccuracies, its most outlandish claim is that the American Revolution was fought to protect slavery. The preeminent historian of the American Revolution, Gordon Wood, points out that he does not know “of any colonist who said that they wanted independence in order to preserve their slaves.” Nor does anyone else. There is no historical record . . .” Read more at the following link: The Real Goals of “The 1619 Project” | The Heritage Foundation.

For at least a generation, many colleges and universities have taught students that America fundamentally is a white supremacist regime in need of deconstruction. By offering an accompanying school curriculum, the 1619 Project explicitly targets middle- and high-schoolers, so far largely untouched by this propaganda. But since the 1619 Project’s publication last August, tens of thousands of students in all 50 states have been taught parts of its curriculum.

The overriding lesson is clear: young people must learn to despise their nation—its Constitution, ideals, economic system, and its Founders. They must resent and reject their past; possess an aggressive, contemptuous, and disobedient attitude toward the present; and strive forcefully to create a triumphant future where the enemies of old are punished, and the innocent finally rule. Teaching young people that they have no country, that there is neither God nor justice, but only their own anger to right wrongs leads not to civilized self-rule, but to fanaticism and self-destruction.

The message that “anyone who does not believe in systemic racism is part of the problem” is sadly permeating all the literature on race in America today.

These ideas of oppression and systemic racism come from a Marxist doctrine called “critical theory.”

State lawmakers and local education officials must make sure new K-12 lessons do not discriminate by race.

How would you feel if your child came home from school and said her teacher had told her that everything that happens in the world is “racist” and that she’s part of the problem because of the color of her skin?

That may sound far-fetched, but such disturbing ideas are coming to your children’s schools, if they are not there already.

Because progressives have pounced on these moves as proof that conservatives are practicing cancel culture and intolerance, we released a report that explains why any reasonable interpretation of the 14th Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 means that implementing critical race theory in the manner described in the examples cited violates existing laws. The Civil Rights Act specifically prohibits discrimination based on race, sex, or national origin.

Teachers have a responsibility to help students understand different perspectives on controversial issues, and we should not ban the teaching of critical race theory for so long as full disclosure as to its origins and meanings is included. But increasingly, parents, policymakers, and the media are uncovering instructional materials that apply critical race theory, proclaiming that America is systemically racist and that people should be treated differently based on the color of their skin or their national origin.

Those ideas will not create a national identity that the future lawyers, doctors, and lawmakers—not to mention parents, neighbors, and co-workers—can share. State officials, local school board members, and educators have the power—and the right—to prevent this new material from telling students that there is no America, only tribes competing for power.

Seriously, the issues of race and equality under the law, but Americans also need to recognize the difference between separate racist acts and a legal system stacked against individuals from certain ethnicities.

Racist acts are deplorable and should be condemned. Yet, declaring Americans to be systemically racist today is a sign of disrespect to those brave souls who marched in civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s, fought to defend our way of life overseas, or are protecting our streets and communities now.

What Parents Can Do

Do not assume a private school or religious school share your values.
Examine the texts and assignments for your children.
Teach your children to appreciate education.
Become an advocate for vocational courses.
Attend Board Meeting and make you voice heard.
Run for the School Board
Learn to spot indoctrination of CRT and the 1619 Project.

Books

Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic. Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, 3rd edition. (New York: New York University Press, 2017).
Rebecca Friedrichs. Standing Up to Goliath: Battling State and National Teachers’ Unions for the Heart and Soul of Our Kids and Country Kindle Edition.
Martin Jay. The Dialectical Imagination: A History of the Frankfurt School and the Institute of Social Research, 1923–1950. Boston: Little, Brown. 1973.
George F. Will, The Conservative Sensibility (New York: Hachette Books, 2019), Kindle edition, pp. 361 and 362.

Articles

Selim Algar and Kate Sheehy, “NYC Public School Asks Parents to ‘Reflect’ on Their ‘Whiteness,’” New York Post, February 16, 2021, https://nypost.com/2021/02/16/nyc-public-school-asks-parents-to-reflect-on-their-whiteness/ (accessed April 8, 2021).
Jonathan Butcher. Keep Racist Critical Race Theory Ideology Out of K-12 Classrooms @JM_Butcher Will Skillman Fellow in Education and Mike Gonzalez @Gundisalvus Senior Fellow, Angeles T. Arredondo E Pluribus Unum Fellow. Heritage Foundation Apr 22nd, 2021.
Arthur Milikh, Former Associate Director, B. Kenneth Simon Center and conducted research on America’s founding principles at The Heritage Foundation. A Critique of “The 1619 Project” Mar 5th, 2021.
Equitable Math. “A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction: Dismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction,” 2020, p. 8, https://equitablemath.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/1_STRIDE1.pdf (accessed April 8, 2021).

Advocacy Groups

Ian Prior: Critical race theory in Virginia schools needs to end. I’m a parent watching this unfold.
Erika Sanzi Parents Defending Education
Shantel Cooper Concerned Parents against Critical Race teaching

Conclusion

This brainwashing has been going on for decades maybe since the 60s. However, the pandemic stirred or “woke” the slumbering people. I don’t blame the Democrats who always use a crisis to further the party agenda. Republicans are complicit by permitting Democrats to seize education and media markets. John Milton coined idiom “every cloud has a silver lining” traceable to the year 1634, when he penned his masque Comus. Perhaps that phrase applies now!

RANDOM THOUGHTS

The founder of Dubai, Sheik Rashid, was asked about the future of his country, and he replied: “My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel; I ride a Mercedes. My son rides a Land Rover, and my grandson is going to ride a Land Rover. But, my great grandson will ride a camel again.”

When asked why that is, he replied: “Hard times create strong men. Strong men create easy times. Easy times create weak men. Weak men create difficult times. Many will not understand it but, you have to raise warriors – not parasites.”

TED ENGEL ANNOUNCES CANDIDACY FOR PUBLIC DEFENDER 12^th DISTRICT

Dear Friends,

I have always marveled at the rights we enjoy as Americans and as Tennesseans. We possess a degree of freedom unknown in almost all of human history. We are the beneficiaries of centuries of struggle and resistance by our forefathers against princes and potentates, kings and dictators. The liberty we know and often take for granted could scarcely be imagined by our ancestors.

Liberty is precious and prized, but it is never safe. The guarantees of both the United States and Tennessee Constitutions are only as good as those willing to stand up for them.

I have dedicated my career to the defense of that liberty—laboring in court before judges and juries to do my small part to ensure its survival. I relish every opportunity to hone my skills, sharpen my wits, and become the best defender of freedom I can possibly be.

For many years, I have done this as an assistant public defender in Hamilton County. I love my job, and I love my coworkers. But lately, I have felt a calling to instead serve the people where I live, in the hills and valleys of rural Tennessee—in the hills and valleys that I call home.

After months of reflection, prayer, and consultation with close friends and family, I today announce my candidacy seeking the Republican nomination for Public Defender of the 12th Judicial District. I look forward to spending the next fourteen months traveling the district and better coming to know the people of Bledsoe, Franklin, Grundy, Marion, Rhea, and Sequatchie Counties. I am eager to make my case to you, the voter, that I am the right person for the job.

I humbly ask for your prayers, your support, and your vote as I embark on this journey. I want to work tirelessly to make sure you have the best Public Defender’s Office in the state. With your help, we can make it happen.

Sincerely yours,

Ted Engel

IS TENNESSEE A TRAFFICKING HUB FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS?

Within days after we learned that illegal aliens had been trafficked through Chattanooga, and housed on the campus of Tennessee Temple University (a violation of Title 8 U.S. Code – Section 1324 (a) and (c), a report came from Knoxville over WVLT that a flight carrying unidentified children arrived at a Knoxville airport Thursday night. [27 May 2021]

Flight records show the plane originated in Long Beach, California, and landed at McGhee Tyson Airport at the TacAir terminal just after 11:15 p.m. According to reports from CBS affiliate KCAL, hundreds of children found at the border were being held in a convention center in Long Beach, California.

WVLT captured video of people walking from the plane and loading onto two different busses at TacAir. The video appeared to show primarily pre-teen and teenage children. WVLT News blurred the faces of the individuals to protect the identities of anyone on the plane.

WVLT followed one of the buses along Interstate 75 as it crossed over the Kentucky border. The other bus traveled south on Alcoa Highway.

WVLT has made several phone calls in an attempt to gain more information into the situation.

When contacted by phone, the Malone Bus Company based in Cleveland, TN, hung up when asked questions about why its buses were being used. Later calls to the company were then sent straight to voicemail. The Malone Bus Company was the same company that was hired to transport migrants last week from Chattanooga.

A McGhee Tyson Airport spokesperson said they did not have any information because the plane landed at TacAir, a fixed-based operator that works with private aircraft. WVLT also spoke with airline officials who said policy prevents them from sharing a comment.

Governor Lee’s Press Secretary Casey Black said the governor was not made aware of the flight, nor was anyone on their team.

“We have made numerous requests for information and transparency from the Biden Administration since March they have not responded to those requests. Everything we have learned has come from news reports like yours,” the governor’s office stated.

Many Tennessee lawmakers responded to the event, calling on the Biden administration for more clarity. They drafted a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense to “figure out what is going on.”

Governor Bill Lee made the following statement in response to earlier reports that unaccompanied migrant children were passing through Tennessee:

“When we demanded answers, they cut off transparency & emboldened one of the worst human trafficking crises we’ve seen at our border in the last 20 years. I commend Senator Hagerty and Senator Blackburn for calling this out. Tennesseans deserve to know who is coming into our state.”

Governor Lee said Tennessee declined, “the Biden Administration’s request to house unaccompanied minors and called on the administration to secure the border and stop scattering children across the country.”

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki also addressed the reports during a press briefing. She commented on the administration’s goals for the flights.

Jen Psaki said: “Tennessee is a state right in the middle of the country and some kids have to travel through there to get to their destination and we’ve been very clear that our objective is to treat these kids humanely, get them to safe homes especially homes of loved ones and sponsor families.”

RANDOM THOUGHTS

“What ‘multiculturalism’ boils down to is that you can praise any culture in the world except Western culture – and you cannot blame any culture in the world except Western culture.” – Thomas Sowell

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT . . . WORK?

Did you know the National Institute of Health and the Department of Veterans Affairs have recently spent $4,575,431.00 to traumatize drunk rats by spraying them with bobcat urine?
When you stop screaming at the computer screen I hope you’ll take a moment to let your elected representatives know your thoughts. Here’s a handy link that will help you get in touch with them: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials

A WARNING – AN ESCAPEE FROM COMMUNIST CHINA SPEAKS

Xi Van Fleet, a woman who survived the brutal Chinese communist regime of the dictator Mao Zedong, is warning Americans that the same things that happened during the Chinese Cultural Revolution are now happening in the United States.

Xi Van Fleet, whose impassioned speech to a Virginia school board went viral earlier this week, was interviewed by Fox News host Sean Hannity to further elaborate on the similarities between what happened in China and what is happening in the U.S. right now.

“Okay, I just want to let the American people know that what’s going on in our school and in our country is really a replay of the Cultural Revolution in China, and I want people to see the similarities and the similarities are terrifying,” Van Fleet said. “They use the same ideology, and same methodology, even the same vocabulary. And with the same goal. The ideology is Cultural Marxism. And we were divided into groups as the oppressor and oppressed. And here we use race, and they’re the use class. And the people here who have a different review, were labeled racist. But in the Cultural Revolution, the label is counterrevolutionary. So it is a hat that fits all. And once the hat is on your head, your life is ruined.”

“And the take out methodology is also very similar. It’s cancel culture, we basically canceled the whole Chinese civilization pre-communism,” she continued. “And we changed our school names, street names, store names; we changed even our personal names. My name is Xi and I was named after the city I was born, Xi’an. Xi means West; it also refers to the imperialism. So I wanted so bad to change my name because I want to be more communist. I’m glad my parents convinced me not to. And the vocabulary is even the same wokeness. And to be specific, we use class wokeness. In Chinese it is [phrase spoken in Chinese], your level of wokeness determine your chance to get the promotion or to get benefit and who decide your level of wokeness and is the party leaders.”

In closing, Van Fleet warned Americans of a fact we must constantly keep in mind that “freedom is fragile, and we can lose it anytime if we don’t defend it.”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-survivor-of-maos-china-stuns-school-board-with-chilling-warning-about-critical-race-theory

RANDOM THOUGHTS

They’re not teaching kids their rights in school anymore because it’s easier to take their rights away if they don’t know what they are.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

A nation in debt has no business borrowing money to give other nations and expecting Taxpayers to fund the interest and the debt but, according to a recent report from Senator Rand Paul, this is what our government has been doing for years!

COMMENTS (AND NEWS) FROM REPRESENTATIVES

Elected Representatives from all States and all levels of government are encouraged to share their thoughts, opinions, ideas, and announcements by emailing them to pyrope84045@mypacks.net . Your constituents want to hear from you! – Editor

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) sent the following:

One of the biggest security, economic, and humanitarian challenges our nation is currently facing continues to be the crisis at our southern border, which is a crisis of President Biden’s own making. For my first official trip abroad as a U.S. Senator, I visited Guatemala and Mexico to meet with their government officials and discuss solutions to the crisis. Leaders from both countries felt that promises made by American politicians—a moratorium on deportations, amnesty, and $1,400 stimulus checks for illegal aliens—are being used by human smugglers to persuade vulnerable people to pay exorbitant prices to smuggle them into the United States. Leaders in both Guatemala and Mexico underscored to me that this poses not only a national security crisis for our own nation, but for theirs as well. It is evident that the United States must work with a sense of urgency to put a permanent end to mass migration and our border crisis. I wrote an op-ed recapping my trip in Newsweek.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) posted the following:

Researchers at Stanford University have used funds from a grant through the National Cancer Institute, an institute of the National Institutes of Health, worth $6,973,057 to create what they call a “smart toilet.”

The purpose, as researchers put it, is to develop “easily deployable hardware and software for the long-term analysis of a user’s excreta through data collection and models of human health.”

What makes it smart? The toilet operates with artificial intelligence, includes three cameras (including one video camera), and features a urinalysis strip. The toilet’s AI collects the health data and then stores it in a digital cloud system.

The toilet would use fingerprint technology and a photo of the user’s nether regions to identify the user, and the toilet’s in-bowl video camera would track various metrics, including the time between sitting and first bowel movement, and other metrics relevant to bowel health.

Ultimately, however, no matter how good the technology is at achieving its goal, nobody is going to use a toilet that has three cameras and takes a video . . . to identify the user, never mind one that stores that data in a digital cloud that hackers could access. Because that’s exactly what you want, right? A photo of you like that floating around in the cloud.

What would possess the NIH to issue a grant for a toilet that takes such videos, you ask?

Well, the NIH issued the original grant under the premise that a noninvasive monitoring procedure called molecular imaging could be applied to Graphics from Stanford University researchers demonstrating how users were to use the toilet, where the pressure sensor and camera is, and part of what the video camera would record early detection and management of cancer.

COMMENTS FROM CORRESPONDENTS

You are invited to become a Correspondent and share thoughts, opinions, ideas, and announcements with subscribers to this newsletter. Please state your city, state, or country in your submissions and email them to: pyrope84045@mypacks.net . Your fellow Conservatives want to hear from you! – Editor

Col. Don Jenkins (Ret.) Chairman of the Henry County Republican Party shared this message forwarded this message to the leaders:

Please note the op-ed article written by your colleague Senator Todd Gardenhire. https://onthehill.tnjournal.net/gardenhire-says-resettlement-of-migrant-children-is-being-politicized/

Every adult I know of cares for children and no one wishes them harm. However, if the good Senator from Chattanooga cannot differentiate and see the distinction of what is going on he has failed as a representative of the people.

Last week, at the Lincoln Co GOP meeting, we spoke about this very subject and it was absolutely clear the “people” want legal immigration. This practice of dropping kids off in the middle of the night is as much a violation of the US Immigration policy as is breaking and entering is to the criminal code.

The Senator uses “heart strings” to rationalize his position. Having served a life-time in the Armed Forces I have seen poverty and despair up close in many parts of the world. Yes, it is heartbreaking and I wish I could snap my fingers and make it not so. But as Christ himself said “the poor will always be with us”.

If Senator Gardenhire really wants to help the poor he can do so in any number of ways. Suggest he go into the inner city of Chattanooga along I-24 and Rossville Blvd and offer aid to any number of poor people living on the street, or he could travel to California to Nancy Pelosi’s district where there are ample poor people for him to assist, or any other city, town, or suburb throughout the country.

Moreover, he could use his influence, as a State Senator, to suggest a change to the US Immigration Policy. The one thing the good Senator should NOT do is to thumb his nose at US Law and US Citizens which is what he is doing. His “high-sounding”, holier-than-thou” verbose op-ed is both condescending and non-Biblical. The good Senator is free, in my view, to sponsor any number of “legal” immigrants into this country as he wishes, but he did not mention burdening himself. His position was: 2 to sponsors, and 6 to—-the “system”. He is the one “politicizing” taking care of children in a most hypocritical manner. Please suggest he care for children the right way.

Rita Johnson, Wolfeboro, NH

Why do I need a Passport to leave the United States when I don’t need one to enter?

Phyllis Reid, Los Angeles, CA

The attitude of people in LA has changed drastically over the past three years. People I have known for years both through work and socially have become dismayed by the way our beautiful state – and our hometown – has basically been left to rot.

You can’t walk down the street anymore without being in danger of being mugged, or worse! The streets are filthy with garbage including needles and human feces and the Bureau of Street Services simply cannot keep up. They’re told they have to get permission from the homeless people to clean a street and the homeless people have to move their tents, cardboard boxes, and stolen shopping carts before the Street Department can go in.

If you’re planning a vacation, I would also advise against going to Venice Beach, the homeless people have taken it over too.

I’m getting ready to move to Arizona, as soon as I can find a job and a place to live. I was born in Los Angeles and it breaks my heart to see how my hometown has been ruined by Democrats.

Larry Carpenter, Nashville, TN

I’ve always wondered why citizens don’t demand that each proposed tax increase doesn’t have to pass a referendum. Someday, I hope people will wake up to realize our “representatives” work for us; we don’t work for them! That means we get to tell them what they can or cannot do – not the other way around.

This was published by the Tennessee Star: Nashville Mayor John Cooper says voter control over property tax rollbacks and increases is unconstitutional – and that voters are uninformed for supporting it. The mayor made this assertion during a Wednesday press conference explaining Metro’s new budget.

David Ben Greely, St Louis, MO

I was very happy to see H.R. 983 Preventing Crimes Against Veterans Act of 2021 passed by a vote of 416/5 but I was shocked to learn that 5 Democrats voted against this bill! Who in their right minds would not want to prevent crimes against men and women who have served in the military? When I read who voted against it I got really mad. Their names are Ayanna Pressley [D-MA], Ilhan Omar [D-MN], Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [D-NY], Jamaal Bowman [D-NY], and my very own Congressman – Cori Bush [D-MO]! I will definitely be voting against him in 2022.

LEGISLATIVE REPORT

The Legislative Report provides information on some of the more remarkable bills that have been introduced in Congress. Its purpose is to provide the reader with information about pending legislation that may prompt the reader to contact their representatives to express their views.

In the emailed version of the Legislative Report, you will see markers + and + on certain bills. The red icon is placed to encourage the reader to contact their representatives and ask them to vote against the legislation. On bills marked with the green icon, the reader is encouraged to contact their elected representatives and ask them to support the legislation. The reader is always encouraged to keep informed about all legislation from other sources so they may be aware of bills that affect our lives. Decide today that you will make your voice heard. If you remain silent, your representatives will never know your thoughts! – Editor

Tennessee

Following the Biden regime’s clandestine operation that transferred an unknown number of illegal alien children into Chattanooga, who was then temporarily housed on the campus of Tennessee Temple University, it appears Tennessee lawmakers are searching for ways to prevent a repeat of such an occurrence by enacting laws that would penalize an individual or organization from violating Title 8 – U.S. Code 1324, paragraphs (a) through (c). https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1324

Thanks to the Tennessee Star for their report on this matter.

https://tennesseestar.com/2021/05/28/tennessee-lawmakers-drafting-legislation-to-prevent-traffickers-cartels-from-taking-migrant-children-under-guise-of-sponsorship/

Odd, isn’t it that our Federal government systematically FAILS to uphold the laws it prescribes for the non-politically connected?

Washington DC

+ S 1867 COVID-19 Origin Act of 2021 (Joshua Hawley, R-MO, 5 pages).

This bill would require the Director of National Intelligence to declassify information relating to the origin of COVID-19, and for other purposes. This bill passed in the Senate on 26 May and has been forwarded to the House of Representatives for consideration.

+ STAY TUNED! Securing America’s Land from Foreign Interference Act (Chip Roy, R-TX, 2 pages.

News of this bill arrived on 11 June 2021. As of this entry, the bill does not yet have a number but a draft of the bill is available at the following link. Essentially, the purpose of this bill is to direct the President to take such actions as may be necessary to prohibit the purchase of public or private real estate located in the United States by members of the Chinese Communist Party.

untitled (house.gov) See also Rep. Chip Roy Introduces Bill To Ban Chinese Communist Party From Buying U.S. Real Estate | The Daily Wire

+ HR 1734 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act Amendments of 2021

(Matthew Cartwright, D-PA, 4 pages).

The stated purpose of this bill is to “amend the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 to allow the Secretary of the Interior (DOI) to delegate certain emergency reclamation activities to the States and Tribes, and for other purposes,” but this statement is misleading; here is why:

The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 established strict guidelines on private concerns who may wish to bid on contracts authorized under this legislation; these guidelines not only ensured the contractors who conducted such work for the government were thoroughly qualified to perform all required tasks, it ensured that both the contractor and government agencies and politicians acted in accordance with strict ethical guidelines. Oversight on such contracts were overseen and audited by the Secretary of the DOI.

Section 3 of this bill relieves the Secretary of the DOI of the responsibilities to call for bids from qualified contractors, oversee the work performed, and ensure ethical behavior in the contracts let to reclaim abandoned mining sites by passing that responsibility to either State or Tribal governments.

Section 4 of this bill authorizes said State or Tribal governments to contract, oversee, and approve of all work done by the contractors of their choice without having to meet the criterion established by and for the DOI. State or Tribal governments who oversee such reclamation activities are awarded a budget of $5,000,000 in administrative fees for each project.

Payouts to contractors selected for work that State or Tribal governments may deem necessary are covered in Rep. Cartwright’s companion bill HR 1733.

+ HR 1733 RECLAIM Act of 2021 (Matthew Cartwright, D-PA, 18 pages).

This Act may be cited as the Revitalizing the Economy of Coal communities by Leveraging local Activities and Investing More Act of 2021 or the RECLAIM Act of 2021. Rep. Cartwright’s definition of “more” is up to $200,000,000 for any site designated by a State or Tribal government that, in their opinion (i.e. not meeting the specifications established by any entity of the Federal government), needs “reclamation.”

This bill amends the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 to provide funds to States and Indian tribes for the purpose of promoting economic revitalization, diversification, and development in economically distressed communities through the reclamation and restoration of land and water resources adversely affected by coal mining carried out before August 3, 1977, and for other purposes.

What could possibly go wrong? – Editor

+ S 186

The Migrant Resettlement Transparency Act (Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), with co-sponsorship in the House of Representatives from Chuck Fleishmann (R-TN 3^rd District) Text not yet available.

This legislation would require the Secretaries of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security to:

Consult with governors and mayors of affected jurisdictions before any federally directed, administered or funded resettlement, transportation, or relocation of illegal aliens; and
Submit to Congress and governors and make publicly available a monthly, state-specific report regarding resettlement, transportation, or relocation of illegal aliens that is federally directed, administered, or funded or that involves aliens subject to federal supervision pending immigration proceedings. The report must include:
- The number of aliens resettled, transported, or relocated, disaggregated by the number of single adults, members of family units, and minors, age, sex, and country of origin, and whether they are being resettled, transported, or relocated on a temporary or permanent basis;
- The methods being used to determine the age and familial status of such aliens;
- The types of settings in which such aliens are being resettled, transported, or relocated;
- The number of federal resources being spent on resettlement, transportation, or relocation;
- Whether educational resources are being provided to such aliens; and
- Whether such aliens are being granted work permits, and if not, how they are supporting themselves.

+ HR 1187 ESG Disclosure Simplification Act of 2021 (Juan Vargas, D-CA, 12 pages).

To provide for disclosure of additional material information about public companies and establish a Sustainable Finance Advisory Committee, and for other purposes. One of those “other purposes” is to allow public access to a company’s business practices which allows the businesses competitors to copy their innovations.

HR 2726 VA FOIA Reform Act of 2021 (Ruben Gallego, D-AZ, 2 pages)

This bill directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a plan to reduce the backlog of requests for information made to the Department of Veterans Affairs pursuant to section 552 of title 5, United States Code, and for other purposes. The troubling part of this bill is that it gives the VA five years to fully comply with a requirement that should be standard practice. This is an indication perhaps of how poorly the Veterans Administration has been managed for far too long!

HR 2016 Federal Disaster Coordination Assistance Act (Jennifer Gonzalez-Colon, Resident Commissioner for Puerto Rico, Republican, 2 pages).

To amend the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 to develop a study regarding streamlining and consolidating information collection and preliminary damage assessments, and for other purposes.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, President Trump allocated nearly $13 Billion in relief aid to the island. Following the gross mismanagement of the financial and material aid sent by the Trump administration to Governor Wanda Vasquez, the citizens found themselves without electricity, basic shelter, food, and water. It was later revealed that the cash received by Governor Vasquez had largely been used to restore her home and the homes of her political allies. It was also revealed that vast quantities of the material items sent by the United States – food, water, sheltering supplies, generators, fuel, etc. – were still in the warehouse they were offloaded from upon their arrival. Ms. Gonzalez-Colon’s bill would correct the errors made by Governor Vasquez and ensure oversight and better coordination among disaster relief agencies.

Political Unrest In Puerto Rico After Discovery Of Unused Hurricane Aid : NPR

+ HR 610 San Francisco Bay Restoration Act (Jackie Speier, D-CA, 6 pages).

Ms. Speier and her California Gang are trying to pull a fast one on the People of the United States!

This bill’s stated purpose is to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to establish a grant program to support the restoration of San Francisco Bay. In actuality, this bill would provide an open checkbook from the Federal government to finance 75% of any project the State and municipal government may deem “necessary.”

+ HR 290 To amend title 38, United States Code, to render an individual, who transfers certain educational assistance, to which the individual is entitled because of an agreement by such individual to serve in the Armed Forces, to a dependent of that individual, and who fails to complete such agreement, solely liable for the overpayment of such educational assistance. (Mike Bost, R-IL, 2 pages). The title sufficiently explains the content of the bill.

+ HR 3684 INVEST in America Act (Peter DeFazio, D-OR, 1249 pages!)

To authorize funds for Federal-aid highways, highway safety programs, and transit programs, and for other purposes. A quick glance into Section 1104 – “Apportionment,” reveals that $12 Billion will be up for grabs for “mitigation of congestion and air quality improvement,” which should be an indicator as to which states will receive the lion’s share of all the funding. And then, of course, there are those unspecified “other purposes;” in one-thousand, two-hundred, and forty-nine pages we can be certain there are many “other purposes!”

+ HR 2225 National Science Foundation for the Future Act (Eddie Johnson, D-TX, 71 pages). This bill authorizes appropriations for fiscal years 2022 ($11.5 Billion) through 2026 ($18.3 Billion), increasing by approximately $2 Billion per year. The appropriations are made to various school systems – from pre-schools to universities – not based on merit but based on expressed need – and pressure applied to the National Science Foundation by various politicians. The bill rejuvenates the “America COMPETES Act” of 2007, which created more than 30 new programs that are mostly duplicative or counter-productive – including the Department of Energy – and also provided excessive authorizations that support existing programs, e.g. Human-Caused Climate Change.

It is not coincidental that Ms. Eddie Johnson has also sponsored:

+ HR 3593 (A Bill) to Provide Guidance For and Investment In the Research and Development Activities of the Department of Energy Office of Science, and for “Other Purposes.” (Emphasis mine.) Eddie Johnson, D-TX, (text not yet available). See remarks on HR 2225 (above.)

HOO-RAH!

+ S.1 For the People Act of 2021 (Jeff Merkley, D-OR, 888 pages). This bill was previously titled: A Bill to Expand Americans’ Access to the Ballot Box, Reduce the Influence of Big Money in Politics, Strengthen Ethics Rules for Public Servants, an Implement Other Anti-Corruption Measures for the Purpose of fortifying our Democracy, and for Other Purposes was DEFEATED and all Patriotic Americans should give thanks to all those who worked to defeat it!

What’s not to like, eh? Plenty!

This bill would have:

enabled people to register to vote via the internet
made voter registration “automatic” for certain individuals
permitted people to register and vote on the same day (no period of time for authenticating their credentials)
removed interstate cross-checks (one of the primary checks necessary to ensure people are not voting in more than one state . . . or country
encumbered the US Postal Service to send mailers to individuals to remind them to register in their new district when they move
encouraged minors to “participate” in election activities and provide registration information to secondary school students [a’ la “Hitler Youth”]
required states to install privacy programs that prevent inquiries on individuals who have registered to vote
promoted “motor voter” registration
allowed certain inmates (including felons) to vote while incarcerated and provides funds to prisons specifically for that purpose
expanded early voting time constraints

In general, Mr. Merkley’s bill would have pretty much nullified the 10^th Amendment with respect to State’s rights in managing their elections.

RHEA COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY NEWS

Rhea County Republican Party Executive Committee

Bitsy Gryder – Chairman Kris Bancroft – Vice Chairman

Judy Bancroft – Secretary Ted Engel – Treasurer

Marvin Keener Sr. – Vice Treasurer

The Rhea County Republican Party Monthly Meeting

The next meeting of the Rhea County Republican Party will be a regular meeting, held on 8 JULY 2021, at 7:00 PM, at the Sheriff’s Training Center, 711 Eagle Lane, Evensville, TN.

We will have two guest speakers at this month’s meeting: Cyril Ostiguy, Carroll County Republican Party Chair, and David Shinn, Assistant District Attorney for Rhea County, who is a candidate for Judge. The primary for this office will be held on 3 May 2022, and the election will be held on 4 August 2022.

Mr. Quentin Kaus, Vice President of the McMinn County Young Republicans, will be our guest speaker on 9 September – the topic will be: How to start a Young Republican’s organization in Rhea County. Please be sure to attend!

LAGNIAPPE

Tough Questions for the Biden regime and the Left-Wing Media

Karen Kataline

Isn’t it about time the Left and their media minions were asked some tough questions? We know they won’t answer them, but we should keep asking anyway.

Here are the first twenty just to start us off:

Why do you claim to have such concern for our health and safety but you want to open our borders and let criminals out of jail?
Why is it “misinformation” and a “threat to Democracy” to tolerate and encourage independence of thought rather than suppressing it? (How arrogant does a person have to be to believe he’s the final arbiter of truth?)
How does it fight racism to encourage hatred and bigotry toward white people?
How does it help black people to constantly tell them they are victims?
Why are all your gun laws aimed at law-abiding citizens rather than criminals?
What’s the real reason you want to disarm law-abiding citizens while at the same time doing everything you can to make their lives more dangerous?
Why did accusations of racism accelerate exponentially after Barack Obama was twice-elected President of the United States?
Why do you accentuate the race of a minority person if he is a victim of a crime but demand that we ignore a minority person’s race if he is the perpetrator of a crime? For that matter, why do you ignore crimes altogether when the victim is white?
How is it racist to want a secure border for everyone regardless of their race?
How is it racist to require all voters to show an ID regardless of their race?
Why isn’t it racist to claim that minorities are too dumb to figure out how to get an ID?
How would you gauge progress in your declared fight against racism? What would that look like and would you ever acknowledge it?
What are you trying to accomplish by over-broadening the term, “racist” until it encompasses inanimate objects? (Birds are racist, toys are racist, food is racist, etc., etc.)
Why did the media ignore good news related to COVID-19 but continued to push the panic button for a year and a half? The loss of loved ones by suicide, bankruptcies have been incalculable. Are you at all culpable?
Why is it a riot to “march peacefully and patriotically” to protest congress’s refusal to examine voter fraud, but it’s not a riot or insurrection to burn and loot major cities and take over 6 blocks of downtown Seattle?
Why are we discovering that the opposing ideas you have censored most (Voter fraud, Origins of the virus, Hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin, danger of vaccines, the efficacy of masks… etc.) are the ones that have turned out to be true?
If you are censoring the truth on purpose, isn’t it reasonable to conclude that you are deliberately perpetrating a fraud on the American people? If so, Why are you doing this? What is the ultimate purpose and who’s calling the shots?
Why won’t the media mention Biden’s obvious and growing dementia?
How can you claim to be morally outraged by slavery while advocating policies that treat us all like slaves?
How aware are you that the ideology and tactics you are supporting are textbook communism and that it will lead to your own destruction as well as ours?

You can probably think of a lot more, but at this point, my next question would be:

If you are aware of any of the things in these first twenty questions but refuse to alter your behavior or your views, how do you sleep at night?

Karen Kataline is a commentator, talk show host, and Columbia University-trained social worker. She hosts a live, call-in talk radio program called Spouting Off.

CONTACT YOUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES TODAY!

Regardless of where you live you can find your elected representatives at any level of government by visiting the following link. Remember: While they might be fairly bright, none of them can read your mind, so it is your duty as a citizen to express your thoughts (and to urge all your friends and family and like-minded folks to do the same!)

https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials

Here’s a handy guide for Tennesseans in the 4^th Congressional District:

Joseph Robinette Biden (a.k.a. the “Big Guy”)

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington D.C. 20500

Phone: (202) 456-1414

Fax: (202) 456-2461

e-mail

http://www.whitehouse.gov

president@whitehouse.gov

U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty