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30 May 2025

VERSE AND VOICE FROM SOJOURNERS 30MAI25

 

Oklahoma parents fight new curriculum on 2020 election ‘discrepancies’ 29MAI25

 


The best way to "teach" others Christianity is to live it, not mandate it through lies, deception and manipulation. The gop / greed over people-republican "christianity" with it's alt-jesus and gospel of selfishness and self-righteousness promoted by ryan walters is the kind of witness that drives people from the Church, not to it. And ryan, watch your prayer video again and reflect on the New Testament lesson on grandstanding public prayer. From the Washington Post....

Oklahoma parents fight new curriculum on 2020 election ‘discrepancies’


A lawsuit alleges that state superintendent Ryan Walters added a provision on election questions without notifying some board members before they voted.


A battle is roiling Oklahoma over new social studies standards that include teaching high-schoolers that there were “discrepancies” in the 2020 presidential election, as a legal fight unfolds over allegations that the state superintendent added the provision to the standards without notifying some education board members before they voted to pass them.

An Oklahoma County judge is considering a request to block the standards from being enacted and heard arguments Wednesday in the lawsuit, which was filed against state education officials by a group of teachers and parents. Meanwhile, other parents opposed to the standards’ content are circulating opt-out forms to remove their children from the future lessons.

Under the curriculum, high-schoolers would be asked to analyze debunked theories related to the 2020 vote and election security, such as “security risks” of voting by mail and “batch dumps” of ballots — references to the disproven theory circulated by President Donald Trump that he did not lose that election.

High-schoolers will also be instructed to “identify the source of the COVID-19 pandemic from a Chinese lab,” a theory that Trump has pushed but on which intelligence analysts and scientists remain divided. The standards also mandate teaching about the Bible in history lessons, escalating an ongoing debate over the use of the Bible in public schools in Oklahoma and elsewhere.

Oklahoma’s public schools have been launched into the national news repeatedly by state superintendent Ryan Walters (R), who made a push to put Bibles matching those endorsed by Trump in classrooms, asked school districts to show students a video of himself praying for Trump and backed the effort to create a publicly funded religious charter school in Oklahoma that went to the Supreme Court last week.

Walters has argued that the state’s new standards will remove alleged “liberal indoctrination” from classrooms. Opponents say Walters is the one trying to push false information on their children. (Walters has denied allegations of impropriety in the standards’ passage.)

“People are asking, ‘How do I make sure my kids don’t get taught this?’” said Erica Watkins, who leads We’re Oklahoma Education, a parent group that has circulated the opt-out letters.

As the Trump administration seeks to influence public school curriculums and right-leaning states move to incorporate Christianity into public schools, the Oklahoma standards present a possible test case. The inclusion of lessons rooted in a conspiracy theory has also raised questions among some Oklahoma parents about Walters’s leadership.

The new standards were passed by the state education board in February — but at least three board members said afterward they did not know Walters had added the election-related item to the standards before the 5-1 vote, the Oklahoma Voice reported in April.

“We were unaware that the version we received (almost 400 pages of documents) at 4 p.m. the day before the meeting had changes to what the public reviewed,” Christopher Van Denhende, one of the three board members, told The Washington Post.

Walters did not announce the changes to the publicly reviewed version at the meeting where the board voted, the suit alleges.

On Wednesday, Oklahoma County Judge C. Brent Dishman declined to rule on the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary block of the standards. A permanent ruling is expected within the next two weeks, said Michael J. Hunter, an attorney for the group that brought the lawsuit.

The draft shown to the public only mandated that high-schoolers “examine issues related to the election of 2020,” according to the lawsuit.

The version that was approved says students will “identify discrepancies in 2020 elections results” and will be instructed to analyze information including “the sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states, the security risks of mail-in balloting, sudden batch dumps, an unforeseen record number of voters, and the unprecedented contradiction of ‘bellwether county’ trends.”

The board members received a copy at 4 p.m. the day before the morning meeting, and some raised concerns that they hadn’t had enough time to review the standards before Walters urged a vote, according to the lawsuit.

That prompted protest among some parents, who lobbied the legislature to send the standards back to the board — but a Republican-led attempt failed to get enough support in the GOP-controlled legislature, allowing the standards to move forward.

Through a spokesperson via email, Walters said the process was “fully transparent and above board for many months.”

“School board members were never denied access to the process at any point from the moment the standards were written to the moment they were voted on,” he told The Washington Post on Wednesday.

Van Denhende, the board member, said there should be transparency in the state’s development of the standards. He also said he believed the election language was “unnecessary” to include.

“The bigger issue is Oklahoma is 49th in the national for educational outcomes, and we need to be talking about how to improve reading and math scores, not the 2020 election,” Van Denhende said.

Hunter, the attorney for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said they are “confident that we’re going to be able to show the court the calamity which was the board’s review of the rules.”

He told The Post, “The process was completely mishandled and inconsistent with the responsibilities of the superintendent and the board.”

Valery Drazek, 31, an Oklahoma City mother of a 6-year-old who is not involved in the lawsuit, said she found We’re Oklahoma Education’s opt-out forms on social media and has been passing them out to fellow parents.

“I’m trying to raise a kid, and as she gets older, she will be going to these social studies classes. I don’t want her to think the 2020 election was rigged or that covid was man-made, things of that nature,” Drazek told The Post.

“I don’t want there to be a sentiment of distrust in our voting system,” she added. “I would like her to grow up to be an active member of society and know that her voice and her vote matters.”

There is no evidence that widespread corruption tainted the 2020 election results, and judges repeatedly said that Trump and his supporters did not provide evidence to back up their assertions, which included false accusations such as impropriety in Michigan’s ballot counts and illegal voting in Nevada.

In the email to The Post, Walters argued the curriculum on the 2020 election doesn’t “pressure or persuade students to have one opinion or another.”

“These academic standards will be based on facts as students are given graphs, charts and data points of the 2020 election and they can come to their own conclusion on what they believe the outcome was,” he said.

“Any critical thinking individual will look at the 2020 election and would understand there were discrepancies,” Walters added.

Melanie Larson, 42, a substitute teacher in Edmond, Oklahoma, said she feels Walters is “overstepping the will” of teachers and parents. She has opposed efforts to incorporate the Bible into public schools.

She said her two children, who will be in middle and high school in the fall, asked questions about how the state could put “untrue things” in the standards, referring to the item on the 2020 election results.

“I understand, because I feel that way, too,” Larson said. “I had to talk to my kids about how the things you’re learning in class may or may not be true. This is wild.”

Justine McDaniel covers national news. She joined The Washington Post in 2022 after reporting for the Philadelphia Inquirer

Anumita Kaur is a national breaking news reporter for The Washington Post. She was previously a reporter for the Los Angeles Times and Guam Pacific Daily News.

Michigan Gov. Whitmer says Trump promised not to pardon kidnapping plotters 29MAI25

 


Really Gov, you fell for his deception and allowed yourself to be manipulated for his benefit? Duh you! But I must confess you successfully deceived me into believing you were an intelligent and trustworthy woman. Duh me! From the Washington Post.....

Michigan Gov. Whitmer says Trump promised not to pardon kidnapping plotters


On Wednesday, Trump told reporters that he would “take a look at” pardoning the men, saying the trial looked “like somewhat of a railroad job.”



Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said Thursday that President Donald Trump would be breaking a promise if he went through with pardoning the two men who were convicted of plotting to kidnap her, claiming that he pledged not to do so during a conversation last month.

In 2022, Barry Croft Jr. and Adam Fox were convicted of plotting to kidnap Whitmer in 2020 in one of the highest-profile domestic terrorism cases in recent memory. Prosecutors cast the men as violent anti-government extremists who planned to kidnap the governor from her vacation home over what they saw as overly restrictive pandemic policies, detonate a bridge to disrupt responding officers and ignite a civil war ahead of the 2020 election.

On Wednesday, Trump told reporters that he would “take a look at” pardoning the men, adding, “I did watch the trial. It looked to me like somewhat of a railroad job.”

Responding to Trump’s comments, Whitmer told Michigan Public Radio, “I talked to the president about a month ago and he asked me how I’d feel about this, and I said, ‘I think it would be the wrong decision.’

“And he said, ‘Okay, I’ll drop it,’” she added.

“When I talked to him before, we had a thoughtful conversation about it, and he said he’d drop it. So, I’m not sure what to make of this new revelation,” she said in Thursday’s interview.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Whitmer, who pointed out that she was one of the first politicians to condemn the assassination attempt Trump faced at a 2024 rally in Pennsylvania, said she would make her thoughts on the issue known to the White House over the weekend.

Federal and state officials originally charged multiple people in the plot against Whitmer, arresting the men in an October 2020 sting that involved the use of informants and undercover FBI agents. The officers embedded with the men, who were associates of a militia group known as the Wolverine Watchmen.

Among the six men who faced federal charges, two men — Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks — pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors ahead of an initial trial. In that trial, the jury could not reach a unanimous decision on Croft and Fox but acquitted two other alleged co-conspirators, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta. In a second federal trial, Croft and Fox were convicted on two charges of conspiracy — one related to the kidnapping scheme and another to obtain and use a weapon of mass destruction. Croft also was convicted on another explosives charge.

Prosecutors told jurors that Fox compiled a list of tools the group would need to carry out the kidnapping, including handcuffs and a hood to cover Whitmer’s head, and plotted where to place explosives to destroy the bridge near Whitmer’s home. Jurors saw video of Croft making explosives and heard testimony of how he believed God had given him permission to kill.

Jurors in the earlier federal trial seemed to agree, at least in part, with defense lawyers’ arguments that FBI agents entrapped the men in the violent plot, pointing to how one of the undercover federal operatives offered explosives to the men.

In the wake of the case, Whitmer repeatedly blamed Trump for stoking mistrust and anger over coronavirus restrictions and refusing to condemn extremists such as those implicated in the plot. But since Trump has retaken the presidency, she has been one of the rare Democratic politicians who has sought to build a working relationship with him.

Their partnership has yielded some results for Whitmer’s home state, such as a new fighter mission at Selfridge Air National Guard Base. But that effort to work together has also posed challenges for the potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, particularly in scenes with Trump in which she has seemed to be caught off guard.

During a speech at the base to announce the new mission, Trump praised the governor and then invited her to speak at the lectern to deliver remarks she said she was not planning to make.

“I am so, so grateful that this announcement was made today, and I appreciate all the work,” Whitmer said, without specifically praising Trump.

When she went to lobby Trump last month on Selfridge and other state-related issues, she found herself standing in the Oval Office while the president signed executive orders targeting his political opponents. The New York Times later published a photo showing her shielding her face from the camera. (Her office said she was invited into the Oval Office without knowing what Trump was about to do, and clarified that she did not endorse his actions by being there.)

During his second term, Trump has deployed pardons in a wide-reaching campaign to recalibrate a justice system he calls corrupt and says has politically persecuted him and those who support him. Shortly after being sworn in, Trump pardoned virtually all of the defendants convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and commuted the sentences of the remaining 14.

In front of a conservative crowd in 2022, Trump sought to connect the legal plight of the Jan. 6 rioters with the individuals who plotted to kidnap Whitmer, suggesting that the governor was never in danger.

“Just like those who instigated January 6th,” he said at the time, “it was a fake deal.”

Trump’s Air Force One deal with Qatar not final, despite U.S. claims 28MAI25


 HERE'S a big surprise, NOT MY pres drumpf / trump and his fascist administration LIED to us about how this "gift" from the brutal authoritarian government of Qatar came to be. Qataris are not our friends, they are not even trust worthy allies. But then NOT MY pres drumpf / trump, NOT MY vp vance and their fascist authoritarian administration, all corrupt, all greedy aren't our friends either, and that is sad. We can only continue to fight to save our democratic Republic in the courts, the U.S. Congress and the upcoming elections and pray for help in defeating our ongoing national nightmare. From the Washington Post.....

Trump’s Air Force One deal with Qatar not final, despite U.S. claims


The delay reflects lingering concerns about legal liabilities stemming from a White House maneuver to transform what was originally a sale between two countries into a “gift.”



Despite claims by the Defense Department to the contrary, legal teams representing the U.S. and Qatari governments have not finalized an agreement for transferring the luxury Boeing 747-8 jetliner that President Donald Trump wants for Air Force One amid outstanding requests by Qatar for Washington to clarify the transaction’s terms, said officials familiar with the matter.

Qatar is insisting that a memorandum of understanding between Washington and Doha specify that the aircraft’s transfer was initiated by the Trump administration and that Qatar is not responsible for any future transfers of the plane’s ownership, these people said.

The delay reflects lingering concerns about legal liability stemming from the White House maneuver to transform what was originally a sale between two countries into a “gift” that Trump continues to tout as a major deliverable from his recent trip to the Middle East.

“[I] got a beautiful big magnificent free airplane for the United States Air Force,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “Very proud of that.”

The outstanding legal work is not expected to scuttle the plane deal, the officials said, but the clarifications are likely to invite further scrutiny of the administration’s claims about how the deal originated.

Trump initially said it was Qatar that reached out and offered him the luxury jet free of charge. In fact, it was the Trump administration that first approached Qatar this winter about acquiring the plane through a sale after the president made clear to aides that he was upset about delays of two Boeing jets purchased during his first term for $3.9 billion, officials said. Discussion about the sale later evolved into Qatar agreeing to provide the plane as a gift, a development reported previously by CNN and the New York Times.

A White House official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic, confirmed that the details of the plane transfer are still being finalized.

Anna Kelly, a spokeswoman for the White House, said there is no question, however, that the plane will be given to the United States free.

“As the president has said, this will be a sovereign-to-sovereign gift to the U.S. Air Force,” Kelly said in a statement to The Washington Post.

In recent weeks, Qatar has faced intense criticism from Democrats and some Republicans for the luxury jet arrangement. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) and a group of fellow Democrats introduced legislation to block $1.9 billion in arms sales to Doha unless the offer was rescinded.

“It’s an illegal bribe that the President of the United States is champing at the bit to accept. That’s unconstitutional and not how we conduct foreign policy,” Murphy said at the time.

House Democrats, led by Rep. Gregory W. Meeks (D-New York), have introduced their own legislation that would block federal funds from being used to transfer a foreign country’s plane to the U.S. government or to Trump’s presidential library, as administration officials suggested he would do upon leaving office.

Democrats were particularly outraged about plans for the jet, appraised at roughly $180 million, to be transferred to Trump’s presidential library. Trump suggested on Wednesday that his critics were wrong to worry about that, noting that the mega jet would be far too large for personal use.

“They tried to say, ‘Oh, it’s Trump’s airplane,’” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “Oh, yeah, sure. It’s too big. It’s frankly, it’s too big. Much too big.”

White House Counsel David Warrington, however, wrote a memo in early March stating that the Defense Department could accept a gift of the plane from Qatar in two phases, initially to the U.S. government and then later to the Trump Presidential Library Foundation once Trump left office, said two people familiar with the matter.

It had appeared that the legal work was finalized last week after Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that the “secretary of defense has accepted a Boeing 747 from Qatar in accordance with all federal rules and regulations.” But the last communication between the legal teams was May 9, and they had not concluded their work, officials said.

The Defense Department declined to comment.

Trump’s determination to complete the deal has been apparent to his aides since he toured the aircraft on Feb. 15 at the Palm Beach International Airport and admired its interior, officials said. “They’re giving it to me,” Trump remarked to those around him.

Trump “loved it,” when he saw the aircraft in person, finding it far more updated, modern and spacious than the existing planes used for Air Force One, and appreciating that there were “more work stations” available on the new jet for him and his aides to use, a second White House official said.

Scrutiny of the plane deal since it was announced, just before Trump’s visit to Qatar, has not deterred the president or his team, the White House official added. “Everyone thinks that we’re scared of the plane situation, that we’re not really going to do it,” the official said. “We’re looking forward to it. Everyone is going to love it. The press is going to love it. We’re not cowardly.”

The Trump administration has commissioned the defense contractor L3Harris to retrofit the Qatari plane and bring it into compliance with the rigorous safety and security standards for presidential transport. The work is to be done in Texas.

After Trump toured the jet, Air Force officials reviewed the aircraft and found that it was “very poorly maintained” and would require millions of dollars just to bring it up to satisfactory maintenance conditions, said one person familiar with the matter. The Air Force assessed then that there was no way the jet could ferry the president in its current state.

The Air Force estimated then that it could cost $1.5 billion to meet those requirements. To then remove the military gear and convert it for civilian use after Trump leaves office could cost an estimated $500 million, said two people familiar with the matter.

One of these officials said it was unclear if those estimates still hold true, because the president has the authority to waive certain requirements, former U.S. officials said.

“If the president said, ‘I want this in a year and a half, and I don’t care what capabilities it has as long as it’s a luxury flying palace with my colors on it,’” then it can be done, said former Air Force secretary Frank Kendall. But he’ll have to waive some security requirements, which he can do, Kendall said. “He’s the commander in chief. Nobody’s going to make him have those features.”

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