It Does Come Around

In case we’ve forgotten him, former OK Schools Supt. Ryan Walters did a lot of really expensive, very crazy stuff in the schools, later getting caught watching porn on school property; he was caught while chairing a meeting with Board members. I promised Scottie that I’d post whenever I found something about Ryan Walters. I read this here, where there is plenty more news.

Ryan Walters had ‘history of mismanaging tax dollars,’ AG says as he calls for audit

Alexia Aston, The Oklahoman Thu, October 2, 2025 at 9:17 AM CDT

Attorney General Gentner Drummond has called for an investigative audit into the Oklahoma State Department of Education following the resignation of Ryan Walters as the state’s top education official.

In a letter sent Wednesday, Oct. 1, to Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd, Drummond ordered an audit covering Walters’ tenure from January 2023 to September 2025. The attorney general said several current and past state education employees had raised concerns about spending practices under Walters’ leadership, adding that the former superintendent has a “history of mishandling tax dollars.”

A spokesman for Byrd confirmed her office had received Drummond’s letter.

Walters, the controversial former state schools superintendent, resigned Tuesday to lead a new professional organization that touts itself as “an alternative to union membership” for teachers. The former education leader drew national attention Oklahoma through ultra-conservative, Christianity-focused initiatives. During his tenure, he ordered public schools to teach from the Bible, honor Kirk with a moment of silence and show students a video of him praying for President Donald Trump.

Madison Cercy, spokeswoman for the Department of Education, did not respond to a request for comment.

Grand jury findings blamed Ryan Walters for misspending COVID funds

Drummond, a Republican who’s running for governor, cited the state’s multicounty grand jury findings in 2024, which blamed Walters for misspending pandemic relief funds.

“You are well aware that the former superintendent has a documented history of mismanaging tax dollars, as it was your office that exposed Mr. Walters for granting ‘blanket approval’ for families to purchase non-educational items like Xboxes and refrigerators,” Drummond wrote in the letter to Byrd.

At the time, grand jurors did not issue any indictments, saying they found insufficient evidence to establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, that a crime was committed.

The grand jury specifically blamed Walters for the misspending of federal funds in a program called Bridge the Gap. The program fell underneath the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund. Bridge the Gap’s purpose was to help children get supplies to learn at home during the pandemic. Some parents used funds from the program to buy things for themselves.

Walters has faulted ClassWallet, the out-of-state company hired to help disburse the federal funds.

Democratic lawmaker files ethics complaint against Walters

Drummond isn’t the only elected official requesting a state agency to investigate Walters’ oversight.

State Rep. Ellen Pogemiller, D-Oklahoma City, filed a formal complaint with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission on Sept. 29, saying Walters’ hiring as chief executive officer of the Teacher Freedom Alliance – which he announced during an appearance on Fox News Sept. 24 – raises ethics concerns. Walters repeatedly touted the organization in the months leading up to his hiring.

“This development strongly suggests that his prior actions were motivated by personal financial or professional gain, further underscoring the need for investigation,” Pogemiller wrote in her complaint, which was addressed to Lee Anne Bruce Boone, the Ethics Commission’s executive director.

(This story was updated to add new information.)

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: After Ryan Walters resigns, AG calls for audit of education department

Titled: Come Clean Epstein

A Sad Anniversary This Date In Peace & Justice History

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryoctober.htm#october7

About The ADL & The SPLC

This is bad news, probably very bad news. SPLC and ADL do so much work against anti-semitism, and SPLC lobbies against and informs of hate of all people. I do lobbying work with SPLC. Maybe the Quakers are more gentle than SPLC, but only by a hair! So this is bad news for many reasons now.

FBI cuts ties with Southern Poverty Law Center, Anti-Defamation League after conservative complaints

By ERIC TUCKER

WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director Kash Patel says the bureau is cutting ties with two organizations that for decades have tracked domestic extremism and racial and religious bias, a move that follows complaints about the groups from some conservatives and prominent allies of President Donald Trump.

Patel said Friday that the FBI would sever its relationship with the Southern Poverty Law Center, asserting that the organization had been turned into a “partisan smear machine” and criticizing it for its use of a “hate map” that documents alleged anti-government and hate groups inside the United States. A statement earlier in the week from Patel said the FBI would end ties with the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish advocacy organization that fights antisemitism.

The announcements amount to a dramatic rethinking of longstanding FBI partnerships with prominent civil rights groups at a time when Patel is moving rapidly to reshape the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency. The organizations over the years have provided research on hate crime and domestic extremism, law enforcement training and other services but have also been criticized by some conservatives for what they say is an unfair maligning of their viewpoints. snip-MORE on the page)

Republicans In Other Times, & Demos Against Use of Cassini in Peace & Justice History for 10/4

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryoctober.htm#october4

Getting Through My Tabs …

https://www.gocomics.com/closetohome/2025/10/02

Sharing A Snippet From Rep. Ocasio-Cortez

Click on the link to read the whole thing which is funny/scary/as only-Jeff-Tiedrich can do it; I’m sharing the message as snipped below.

dunk-tank clown and demented pantload lecture actual soldiers on soldiering by Jeff Tiedrich

what the fuck was that? Read on Substack

(snip)

look, this is all scary shit — so here’s AOC to talk us all down off the ledge.

“I think there’s two things that are happening at once: one, there absolutely is an unprecedented abuse of power, destruction of norms, erosion of our government and our democracy in order to prop up an authoritarian style of governance however, they are weaker than they look, and it is important that we remember that because what they rely on is the impression of power, the perception of inevitability in us giving up in advance. Donald Trump is at record levels of unpopularity in his tenure. the Republican house is at record levels of unpopularity. they are underwater across the board and they know it. and that is causing them to double down in public. but it is backfiring. that is why whether it’s a shutdown, whether it’s all of this, they want us to blink first and we have too much to save.”

steady on, folks. we will get through this.

Trump’s America: Rising Beef Prices And Farmers Going Broke

Some clips from recent Majority Report that I enjoyed.

“There may be a subset of people pissed off that Kimmel is back on Sinclair’s airwaves, but you can bet even more would be pissed if they couldn’t watch LSU play Ole Miss on Saturday. That would hurt Sinclair’s real primary principle: always maximize profits.”

Sinclair Backs Down, Will Resume Airing ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ on Local Stations

The outrage machine has moved on.

By AJ Dellinger Published September 26, 2025

In a classic Friday news dump move, Sinclair announced that it will end its unofficial boycott of Jimmy Kimmel and will once again broadcast the comedian’s late-night show, ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live,’ to its ABC affiliate broadcast stations, ending its completely principled and not at all politically motivated stance to pre-empt the show after all of two days.

“Our objective throughout this process has been to ensure that programming remains accurate and engaging for the widest possible audience,” the company said in a statement. “We take seriously our responsibility as local broadcasters to provide programming that serves the interests of our communities, while also honoring our obligations to air national network programming.”

Sinclair—which operates 30 ABC affiliate stations in 27 markets, including cities like Portland, Baltimore, and Minneapolis—announced last week that it would choose to air “news programming” in place of Kimmel’s show, which returned to the air Tuesday after a brief hiatus. The program, which was briefly suspended by ABC after Kimmel made a frankly pretty innocuous comment about the political ideology of the person who allegedly shot and killed conservative influencer Charlie Kirk in Utah earlier this month.

Sinclair, along with fellow media conglomerate Nexstar, announced they would pull Kimmel’s show from the air following a statement from Federal Communications Commission head Brendan Carr, who warned broadcasters, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” and said, “These companies can find ways to change conduct to take action on Kimmel or, you know, there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

Both companies currently have business in front of the FCC and are pretty motivated to show fealty to the Trump administration to ensure their deals get pushed through—not that they need that much motivation, considering both companies are owned by conservative-aligned media magnates. Sinclair CEO David Smith has been shifting its editorial coverage to the right for years, and Smith reportedly told Trump in 2016, “We are here to deliver your message.” Likewise, Nexstar chairman Perry Sook has repeatedly praised Trump and poured money into the coffers of GOP groups.

Sinclair attempted to get in front of the obvious criticisms that it would face as a result of both its initial decision not to broadcast ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ and its latest call to bring him back to the airwaves in Sinclair markets.

“Our decision to preempt this program was independent of any government interaction or influence,” the company said. “Free speech provides broadcasters with the right to exercise judgment as to the content on their local stations. While we understand that not everyone will agree with our decisions about programming, it is simply inconsistent to champion free speech while demanding that broadcasters air specific content.” It apparently took the company a solid week to remember that commitment to free speech, but it got there.

The reality is that Sinclair was going to back down eventually, if only for legal reasons. As a broadcast executive explained to Deadline, local affiliates contractually can only preempt a program so many times before it breaks the contract and loses the ability to broadcast the show entirely. Sinclair’s “principled stance” was destined to last for exactly as long as it didn’t actually cost them anything and likely not a second longer.

Once word started spreading that Disney might threaten to withhold live sports broadcasts from affiliates who pulled Kimmel, it was only a matter of time before Sinclair suddenly found its unwavering belief in “free speech” again. There may be a subset of people pissed off that Kimmel is back on Sinclair’s airwaves, but you can bet even more would be pissed if they couldn’t watch LSU play Ole Miss on Saturday. That would hurt Sinclair’s real primary principle: always maximize profits.