Florida education officials William Allen and Frances Presley Rice, members of the group that crafted the standards, released a statement in response to the backlash. “The intent of this particular benchmark clarification is to show that some slaves developed highly specialized trades from which they benefitted. This is factual and well documented,” the pair wrote. “Any attempt to reduce slaves to just victims of oppression fails to recognize their strength, courage and resiliency during a difficult time in American history.”
The statement includes several examples of such historic figures, including blacksmiths, shoemakers, fishing and shipping industry workers, tailors, and ironically enough, teachers. But, it appears these Florida educators didn’t do their homework.
As critics were quick to note, many of the “examples” listed in the statement were never slaves, or they launched their respective professions only after gaining their freedom. The Tampa Bay Times pointed out several examples, including Booker T. Washington, listed in the statement as a teacher. “Washington was enslaved but did not gain his skills until after being freed at age 9,” the paper notes.
Right Wing Watch had written about Rice years ago when she was chairman of the National Black Republican Association, an organization that once ran radio ads and erected billboards falsely claiming that civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. “was a Republican.”
In 2008, the NBRA produced a series of radio ads declaring that “the Democratic Party is a racist party” and attacking then-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama for being “an arrogant elitist who turned his back on poor blacks and his own country.”
In the wake of Obama’s election, the NBRA took it upon itself to issue a “White Guilt Emancipation Declaration” in which the organization unilaterally declared that all “white American citizens are now, henceforth and forever more free of White Guilt” because the nation had elected “a socialist who does not share the values of average Americans and will use the office of the presidency to turn America into a failed socialist nation.”
Here is Frances Rice claiming that the GOP's Southern Strategy "was designed to get the fair-minded people in the South to stop discriminating against Blacks … Those fair-minded ones who migrated to the Republican Party did so. They joined us. We did not join the racists." https://t.co/2LE1TZWaHjpic.twitter.com/K6caIWAGtz
Amateur and professional historians are shredding a list of "examples" Florida educators cited to show how some Black people benefited from skills they supposedly acquired while enslaved. https://t.co/4hsDCN79vs
Half of the examples were not slaves and others only as children. They came up with 16 examples to cover over 200 years of slavery for hundreds of thousands. — Benefited from slavery? Critics say some of the state’s examples were never even slaves. https://t.co/BTTS10toPZ
These laws are being blocked by the courts because it clearly is an attempt to stop people from dressing in a way that fundamentalist conservatives don’t like. It is a way to attack trans people without saying trans. Drag is their word for men dressing as women, or women wearing the fabric of men. Notice they outlaw reading to kids or being in public wearing flamboyant clothing. Quote below. Glamorous or exaggerated costumes. So what are they protecting kids from, color? Are we all to wear drab Amish type clothing? There goes any dress up and make beleive. It is basically the Christian Taliban enforcing the dress code conservatives hope to push back to the stereotypes of the 1950s. What it comes down to is making laws to outlaw things that displease the most uptight right wing religious aunt in a family. Hugs
The law also made Montana the first state to specifically ban drag kings and drag queens — which it defined as performers who adopt a flamboyant or parodic male or female persona with glamorous or exaggerated costumes and makeup — from reading books to children in public schools or libraries, even though the performances do not have a sexual element.
The ruling will allow Montana Pride to advertise and hold some of its events in public places.
Scenes from a drag show at the Montana Capitol held in protest against a slate of bills aimed at how trans Montanans live, April 13, 2023, in Helena, Mont. | Thom Bridge/Independent Record/AP Photo
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
07/29/2023 01:08 PM EDT
HELENA, Mont. — A federal judge in Montana temporarily blocked a new law that restricts drag performances just days before thousands of people are expected to attend Montana Pride’s 30th anniversary celebration in Helena.
The way the law is written “will disproportionally harm not only drag performers, but any person who falls outside traditional gender and identity norms,” including transgender people, U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris said Friday.
The law seeks to ban minors from attending what it calls “sexually oriented” performances, and bans such performances in public places where minors might be present. However, it does not adequately define many of the terms used in the law, causing people to self-censor out of fear of prosecution, plaintiff’s attorney Constance Van Kley with Upper Seven Law argued Wednesday.
“Plaintiffs, along with the approximately 15,000 Montanans who wish to attend the (Montana Pride) events, cannot avoid chilled speech or exposure to potential civil or criminal liability,” without the temporary restraining order, Morris wrote.
The ruling will allow Montana Pride to advertise and hold some of its events in public places, said Kevin Hamm, president of Montana Pride. The annual LGBTQ+ celebration — which includes a parade, street dance and drag brunch — begins on Sunday and runs through Aug. 6.
“The language used in the (temporary restraining order) is both impressive and should serve as a warning to discriminatory actions by legislators in the future,” Hamm said.
A lawsuit filed on July 6 challenges its constitutionality, and seeks a preliminary injunction to block it. The complaint was later amended to add the city of Helena as a defendant and Montana Pride as a plaintiff in order to request the more urgent move for a temporary restraining order. Montana Pride worked with the city to get permits to hold its public events.
The city of Helena supported the restraining order, saying the law put the city in the position of infringing on Montana Pride’s constitutional rights of free expression by denying the permit, or subjecting city employees to civil and criminal liability included in the law if it granted the permit. The lawsuit allows a minor who attends a drag performance that violates the law to file a civil lawsuit against organizers or participants at any time over the following 10 years.
The complaint — whose initial plaintiffs include a transgender woman, two small theaters and a bookstore that holds drag queen reading events — calls the Montana law “a breathtakingly ambiguous and overbroad bill, motivated by anti-LGBTQ+ animus.”
Judge Morris found that the law did not adequately define actions that might be illegal and appears likely to “encourage arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.”
Montana’s law is flawed — like similar laws in Florida and Tennessee that have been blocked by courts — because it regulates speech based on its content and viewpoint, without taking into account its potential literary, artistic, political or scientific value, Morris found.
“Drag is definitionally political and artistic speech,” said Diana Bourgeois, president of the Imperial Sovereign Court of the State of Montana, an organization that puts on drag reading events and one of the plaintiffs. “The court’s order today protects our right to be commentators and artists and to create a safe, joyful and welcoming environment through our expression.”
Like many Republican-led states, Montana’s conservative lawmakers have passed other laws targeting transgender people. The state is among those to ban gender-affirming care for minors — which is also being challenged in court. It also passed a bill to define sex as only “male” or “female” in state law.
The law also made Montana the first state to specifically ban drag kings and drag queens — which it defined as performers who adopt a flamboyant or parodic male or female persona with glamorous or exaggerated costumes and makeup — from reading books to children in public schools or libraries, even though the performances do not have a sexual element.
The judge said the law does not define “flamboyant,” “parodic” or “glamorous,” among other terms.
Morris has scheduled an Aug. 26 hearing on the lawsuit’s request for a preliminary injunction, which could continue to block the law while the case moves through the courts.
“We look forward to presenting our written response and full argument at the upcoming preliminary injunction hearing to defend the law and protect minors from sexually oriented performances,” Emily Flower, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice, said in a statement.
The bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Braxton Mitchell, has said that to him and his constituents, “keeping hyper sexualized events out of taxpayer funded schools and libraries” does not violate the First Amendment.
Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during the Family Leadership Summit, July 14, 2023, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
PUBLISHED: July 26, 2023 at 1:25 p.m. | UPDATED: July 28, 2023 at 4:43 a.m.
Long before Moms for Liberty, there were the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Their passion and influence kept generations of Southern children ignorant of how slavery had caused the Civil War and how cruel it had been. The “war between the states” was rather over “states’ rights” and tariffs. Confederate soldiers were the heroes of a “Lost Cause.” Kindly masters had been considerate to contented slaves.
Reconstruction was bad. The Ku Klux Klan was a benevolent civic organization.
The Daughters didn’t have to pull the truth from shelves. Its influence with state boards kept offending books from ever being printed or bought. When a University of Florida professor wrote that the South had been more in the wrong in the Civil War, the Daughters of the Confederacy got him fired.
In Florida, more than a century later, Southern revisionism is at it again.
Here’s one of them: “Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
Another is worse: “Instruction includes acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans but is not limited to (the) 1906 Atlanta Race Riot, 1919 Washington, D.C., Race Riot, 1920 Ocoee Massacre, 1921 Tulsa Massacre and the 1923 Rosewood Massacre” (emphasis added).
Andby?
In each of those massacres, Black residents were not the instigators. It is a fraud on history and a libel on them to imply that they were. There were cases where residents of African American communities took up arms to defend their homes, their families and themselves. But they were guarding against armed mobs, seething with racism, bent on arson and murder.
Feeding a fiction
From Donald Trump on down, contemporary Americans playing on race for political advantage have been trying to denigrate the Black Lives Matter movement by accusing it of responsibility for violence. The “and by” phrase, unnecessary and gratuitous and now officially part of the Florida social studies curriculum, feeds that fiction.
Stephen Hudak/Orlando SentinelWilliam Maxwell, a Vietnam-era veteran and resident of Ocoee for two decades, kneels at the gravesite of July Perry in Greenwood Cemetery. Perry, who encouraged Blacks to register to vote, was lynched by a white mob after the Ocoee Massacre in 1920.
The mob that ravaged Ocoee in Orange County, where 25 homes burned and at least eight people died, was incited by two Black men attempting to vote. The massacre at Rosewood, which erased the settlement, was set off by a married white woman’s claim that a Black man had attacked her. The official state history cites Black survivors, who said the assailant was a white lover. (For a link to the Sentinel’s 100th-anniversary coverage of the Ocoee Massacre and images of our 1920s coverage, please visit our web site at orlandosentinel.com/opinion. We’re making that historic coverage, along with other fascinating local history, free for everyone this week.)
For Black history, Florida’s previous standards were extensive and objective, unlike Southern propaganda of the 1900s.
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These images reflect the contemporary coverage of the Ocoee massacre by the Orlando Sentinel.
But one rotten apple can spoil a barrel, and this one has two. There was nothing beneficial about slavery, except to the masters. When slaves learned a trade, such as blacksmithing, carpentry, or caulking wooden ships, as Frederick Douglass did, it was not for their benefit but for the convenience and profit of their masters. And many of them arrived on these shores with those skills already mastered.
Vice President Kamala Harris accurately described slavery in her speech at Jacksonville, which was aimed at DeSantis without mentioning him.
“Adults know what slavery really involved,” Harris said. “It involved rape. It involved torture. It involved taking a baby from their mother. It involved some of the worst examples of depriving people of humanity … It involved subjecting to people the requirement that they would think of themselves and be thought as less than human… How is it that anyone could suggest that in the midst of these atrocities … that there was some benefit?”
A defense from DeSantis
After DeSantis first said he “wasn’t involved” in writing the standards, he is now defending them.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is arguing that some Black people benefited from being enslaved and defending his state’s new African American history standards that civil rights leaders and scholars say misrepresents centuries of U.S. reality. https://t.co/LQwYSaqhPw
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 23, 2023
This would be a good time for him to begin admitting he was wrong. His critics are feasting on this one.
DeSantis owns this horrific mistake, even if he didn’t personally write the standards. It is his education department, run by his appointees.
Cues are obvious in the dog whistles he’s sent. He banned critical race theory in schools (where it wasn’t even being taught.) He signed a law meant to banish all talk of the relevance of past or present racism from Florida schools and workplaces. He’s made it easier to purge school library shelves of innocuous books some people found to be objectionable because they reflected other cultures or talked about the history of civil rights.
The Department of Education’s attempt to document the “personal benefit” issue backfired. Of the 16 historic Black people it cited, as many as half had never been enslaved, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Others, notably the educator Booker T. Washington, acquired their skills after they were freed.
Douglass’ master kept most of the money he earned caulking ships in the Baltimore yards. Fearful of being sold South, Douglass made his escape to become an eloquent, world-famous advocate for the millions in chains.
His memoir recalled how the master, Hugh Auld, rebuked his wife for teaching him the alphabet when he was 11.
Literacy would “forever unfit him for the duties of slave,” Auld said. He should “know nothing but the will of his master and learn to obey it.” This harsh reality, which viewed high-quality education for African Americans as a threat to Caucasian control of society, echoed for decades as Black students were forced into segregated schools. Even now, some schools in high-poverty areas with large minority populations can lack access to options such as advance placement or International Baccalaureate programs.
This is the hideous legacy DeSantis is trying to revive. And no matter how much he squirms and dodges, he can’t erase the stain his actions are leaving on Florida’s reputation.
Coming later this week
DeSantis’ attempts to weaponize racism are turning Florida into a laughingstock and, at long last, turning fellow Republicans and donors against him. Why did it take so long?
The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board includes Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson, Opinion Editor Krys Fluker and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney and Anderson. Send letters to insight@orlandosentinel.com.
Wow, oh wow. This is so informative and full of information I had to go over some spots several times. The host talks rather quickly, more than I am used to and I did not check the CC as I was listening only as I was doing something else. But my dogs that love gravy she has this stuff down. Hugs
A minority of a minority with in a minority is trying to force a religious strict moral view of what is acceptable in society. These small groups of driven fundamentalist, who think any advances in society since the 1950s angers their deity they are desperate to please, use threats and violence to take the rights away from everyone else. This one man is demanding the right to decide what everyone’s children get to read and see. Removing other parents rights to bring up their children as accepting of others and themselves. Please note the harm he claims will happen because of this book, damaged souls. One line about playing spin the bottle. Tell me what five year even knows that could be sexual. Kids start playing that as preteens as they go through puberty, daring each to kiss someone. So it is an innocent line, there is no description of what it is. If a kid asks, the adult says it is a game played with the bottle to see how long you can keep it spinning or something. Even worse if they lose their attempts to get a book removed all they have to do is keep filing complaints which keeps it off the shelves or the book get removed as too much of a problem. Hugs
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The children’s book is under review in one school district after a local conservative activist ranted that one aspect of it could “DAMAGE SOULS.”
A lone parent filed a complaint to a Florida school district that a book in the Arthur series—yes, the same Arthur from the beloved PBS animated show—contained references to Spin the Bottle, and now it’s possibly on the district’s chopping block.
A member of the Clay County School District community, based in Green Cove Springs, filed the challenge on July 12 to Marc Brown’s Arthur’s Birthday, a children’s book geared towards students in kindergarten to sixth grade. District spokesperson Terri Dennis told The Daily Beast that it was among 45 challenged titles now “pending oversight committee review.”
On Wednesday, the district provided The Daily Beast with the stack of challenge forms the school district had received for July. At least eight book challenges filed that month were submitted by a local conservative activist named Bruce Friedman.
Arthur’s Birthday details the title character’s upcoming birthday and how it falls on the same day as another party for a classmate, who happens to be a girl. Arthur wants all of his friends to show up, and figures out a plan to combine the parties together. At the end, Arthur receives a “Spin the Bottle” present from one of the girls.
On his form, Friedman wrote, “PROTECT CHILDREN!! IT IS NOT APPROPRIATE TO DISCUSS ‘SPIN THE BOTTLE’ WITH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN. THIS BOOK IS FOUND IN ALL/ALMOST ALL [DISTRICT SCHOOLS]!”
Friedman continued to scribble across the form how “SPIN THE BOTTLE” is “NOT OKAY FOR K-5 KIDS!” and how the content could potentially “DAMAGE SOULS.” He also included images from the book that he felt were not suitable for its intended audience.
“The entire book is about being inclusive of all friends and not only inviting boys or girls (based on your gender) to your birthday party,” literary watchdog Florida Freedom to Read Project wrote on Twitter.
Reagan Miller, a member of Florida Freedom to Read Project, said she believes book banners are just trying to create “chaos in the education system” and make a boogeyman out of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“I think it’s more to keep feeding a narrative,” she told The Daily Beast, suggesting that even Barney & Friends could be the next target.
And just like that, 20 additional titles have been added to the 23/24 list in @oneclayschools.
— Florida Freedom to Read Project (@FLFreedomRead) July 17, 2023
Friedman wrote disapproving notes on other book challenge forms. However, he also included disparaging comments about librarians, suggested that district administrators needed to be fired, and consistently berated some authors for being “repeat offenders.”
Dennis told The Daily Beast that “95 [percent] of the book challenges in Clay County come from one individual in the community.” She didn’t specify who that individual was, but Friedman is responsible for nearly all book challenges in the county, according to independent newsletter Popular Information.
Friedman is the president of Florida’s chapter of No Left Turn in Education, a group known for fear-mongering the teachings of Critical Race Theory. According to the group’s website, its goal is to “use all forms of media to expose the radical indoctrination in K-12 education.”
At a Florida Department of Education meeting in December, Friedman bragged about creating a list of over 3,600 books that he felt contained “concerning content,” Popular Information reported. In June 2022, Friedman’s mic was cut off when he attempted to read a rape scene aloud during a school board meeting.
Friedman declined an interview request with The Daily Beast on Thursday. “No thank you,” he wrote in an email.
Clay County School District’s Library Media Services Manual states that “challenged materials should be presented to the District Curriculum Council.”
“Materials under question will be held until a decision has been made,” the manual reads. “A decision to remove materials from the library media center is based on the recommendation of the District Curriculum Council and the final decision of the Superintendent or designee.”
If a book is resubmitted as part of a complaint, the oversight committee—media and academic administrators within the district—can choose to completely chuck the book from schools’ libraries or dismiss the challenge. If the person who filed the complaint wants to appeal the group’s decision, then the school board schedules a hearing and they make the final call.
According to district records, as of Thursday, Arthur’s Birthday is still “Pending Oversight Committee Review.”
So many of the horrible things happening in America right now, like teaching our children slaves were lucky to learn skills, or allowing women to bleed out in hospital parking lots, or pushing migrants into rivers to drown, could be stopped by the women who look exactly like me.
These white men won’t quit until the US is a Christian theocracy policed by Christian Taliban moral police thugs. Some important quotes that show their mindset. Regardless of the legislative strategy, the panelists agreed changing the culture of America to take on a Christian biblical worldview, which will require all pastors to take the same position on abortion as their own. Also week-long series of events hosted by Operation Save America, an anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ and anti-Muslim religious group that wants all Americans to follow “God’s law” and their interpretation of the Christian gospel. The panel was part of a week-long series of events hosted by Operation Save America, an anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ and anti-Muslim religious group that wants all Americans to follow “God’s law” and their interpretation of the Christian gospel. The moderator of the panel, Derin Stidd, opened by asking, “Why do you all hate women?” to which the men laughed. Hugs
Florida's new African American history standards include a requirement that middle schoolers learn "how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit." @goni_lessanhttps://t.co/DCjauBVLbV
Enslavers defended slavery by claiming it was a “positive good” for Black people. Today Florida’s Board of Education approved new Black history standards that note enslaved Black people developed skills that “could be applied for their personal benefit.”https://t.co/xNEIZoK4o3
^ That captures it in a nutshell. The education of slaves was to benefit the people holding them in bondage as property.
Some of his fans are disappointed they don’t get to see him in action.
So DeSantis and his followers trash talk and urge boycotts against a company in which the trust fund HE oversees invests; and when his followers boycott the company and crash the sales, he threatens to sue the company. What a maroon.https://t.co/UcBeyANmTL
If I’m understanding this correctly, DeSantis praised the Bud Light boycott, claimed he’d never drink the beer again, and now wants to sue because … the boycott he endorsed and engaged in had consequences? https://t.co/cKJyHkvZVB
It seems entirely premature, but the looming Oct. 1 deadline for state parties to submit delegate changes to the RNC has the Trump team moving to lock down their support now—and know where they might stand if there’s a 2nd ballot on the floor. https://t.co/E4LE7i5we6
Texas A&M University said on Friday that its president would retire “immediately” after fallout surrounding political pushback of a new director of its journalism program because of her work promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.
Germany’s 1933 civil service law applied to university professors as well as elementary and secondary-school teachers. … Scholars who were Jewish or supported left-leaning parties struggled to find research and teaching positions in public, government-supported German universities and often worked in private ones instead. With the passage of the new law, the Nazis attempted to root out any dissent to their policies and ideology that remained in German higher education.
They call it other things, like “Protecting Children” or “Academic Freedom”. None of which is their actual goal, but it’s just bigotry and racism repackaged to make it more palatable.
Honestly, who would be against diversity? Racists… that’s who.
🚨BREAKING: Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signs new congressional map that does NOT contain the second majority-Black district that the U.S. Supreme Court required.
Again this shows the republicans in congress don’t care about national security, about law enforcement, intelligence assets, or even justice. Instead they want power and to destroy their enemy at any cost. They are teens playing a video game holding nothing back. They can’t see past their petty trolling and snarky insinuations. Hugs
‘We have repeatedly explained to Congress, in correspondence and in briefings, how critical it is to keep this source information confidential,’ the FBI tells The Messenger
Published 07/21/23 02:08 PM ET|Updated 07/21/23 03:45 PM ET
Stephen Neukam
The FBI repeatedly warned lawmakers not to share the contents of a sensitive document related to a Department of Justice investigation of Hunter Biden, The Messenger has learned.
In spite of those warnings, congressional Republicans have made the document a central focus of their investigation of President Joe Biden and his son. One senior Senate Republican on Thursday publicly released a semi-redacted version of the FBI report, which contains an informant’s allegations of bribery against the Bidens.
FBI officials cautioned lawmakers on several occasions about the dangers that releasing the document could pose to confidential informants and others, according to materials obtained by The Messenger.
“We have repeatedly explained to you, in correspondence and in briefings, how critical it is to keep this information confidential,” the FBI said in a June 9 letter, obtained by The Messenger, to the Democratic ranking member and chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., who has been scrutinizing the Biden family.
“We are concerned that Members disregarded the Committee’s agreement that information from the document should not be further disclosed,” the FBI said in the letter, which came one day after lawmakers on the Oversight Committee were permitted to view the document in a secured room.
Other documents obtained by The Messenger show that the FBI’s warnings not to release the confidential information extended back to May — before Comer and others were allowed to view the FBI form.
The FBI told lawmakers that protecting the secrecy of the FBI form is “critical” to the “physical safety” of the source and others, according to a May 30 letter sent to Comer.
The letter cited a May 22 meeting the FBI had with Oversight Committee staff, in which “the Deputy Assistant Director expressed the FBI’s concern over the chilling effect that could flow from the wide dissemination of investigative files.”
US President Joe Biden participates in the US-Nordic Leaders’ Summit at the presidential palace in Helsinki, Finland, on July 13, 2023.ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
“As you know, confidential sources are critical to the FBI’s ability to build cases, including those against violent gangs, drug cartels, and terrorists,” the letter said. It explained that “closely protecting” information about the source could “prevent chilling of FBI’s recruitment of sources and their candor in reporting, and also to protect sources and individuals associated with them from being physically harmed or even killed.”
The FBI document in question, called a FD-1023 form — which is used by FBI agents to record unverified raw information from informants — has been at the center of Comer’s committee’s investigation of the Bidens. The FBI form contains allegations that Hunter Biden and another Biden family member received money from a Ukrainian energy firm in exchange for foreign policy decisions.
Lawmakers viewed the document behind closed doors last month, before Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released the document to the public on Thursday. Grassley said he obtained the document through a Justice Department whistleblower.
Members of Congress were also provided with a warning that the information contained in the document “should be treated confidentially,” before they viewed the form on June 8, saying the agency “expressly does not consent” to the release of the material.
The FBI also raised concerns that lawmakers were taking notes in the meeting, which was prohibited, according to the letter.
The document released by Grassley on Thursday was even less redacted than the one viewed by lawmakers, a Democratic source familiar with the form told The Messenger. The material released by the Republican senator revealed that Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Burisma, the Ukrainian energy firm named in the alleged bribery scheme, was the source of the information.
Asked for comment, the FBI told The Messenger on Friday that throughout the agency’s dealings with Congress over GOP committee investigations of Biden family matters, the “release of the 1023 – at a minimum – unnecessarily risks the safety of a confidential source.”
“We have repeatedly explained to Congress, in correspondence and in briefings, how critical it is to keep this source information confidential,” the FBI statement said, adding that “safeguards the FBI placed on the production of this information are necessary to protect the safety of confidential sources and the integrity of sensitive investigations.”
Grassley’s office on Friday defended the GOP senator’s public release of the sensitive FBI form, noting that the version released by Grassley included redactions and that the actual FBI document was marked “unclassified”
“Democrats and the media sought to link the FD-1023 to the Bidens’ activity in Ukraine long before this document became public, citing information that only the FBI and DOJ could have known,” a Grassley spokesperson said in a statement issued to The Messenger. “Those public statements exposed the source to those he or she communicated with. The FBI can’t cite risks to sources while thwarting congressional oversight in one breath and leak selective information to the news media in another.”
A spokesperson for Comer struck a similar note, saying criticism from the FBI was “a last-ditch effor… to thwart legitimate congressional oversight.”
Another letter obtained by The Messenger, sent from the agency to Comer on May 10, explained the “great risk to themselves and their loved ones” that confidential sources take on when providing information to the bureau.
“Significant harm to investigative work—and to the program as a whole—could result from dissemination of FD-1023s or other similar documents,” the letter said.
This about bigotry and erasing LGBTQ+ people from history. These same people refusing to teach kids about an openly gay political claiming he was a pedophile, insinuating he was abusing little children. He was said to be in relationships with a couple of older teens who were well over the age of consent. In NY at the time the age of consent was 14. But these same bigot haters have no trouble promoting the teaching of republican politicians who have been charged and found guilty of child sex abuse. Also there is a double standard. No one refers to Elvis as a pedophile or pederast. Priscilla Beaulieu was only 14 years old when she met 24-year-old Elvis Presley. At the age of 40, Elvis dated Reeca Smith, then 15 years of age. There are scores of examples of male celebrities and their 16-year-old girlfriends. This is just an excuse to prevent children from learning that gay people exist and are leaders in government. These haters want to wipe out any mention of gay or trans people from history and society. Plus these bigots refused to use the new textbooks with Milk in them even after the parents overwhelming told them to do so. Quotes below. Hugs
The repeated decisions by board members have drawn the ire of many Temecula parents, who have taken to city streets to protest the decision. They’re upset by the board’s conscious disregard of public opinion in which 98.8% of TVUSD parents voted to support the adoption of the new curriculum, according to data from the Governor’s office.
“Once again, it is clear that you are a homophobe,” the woman said while speaking during the public comment portion of the meeting.
California Governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday announced that the state would be fining the Temecula Valley Unified School District in an ongoing battle over a social studies curriculum that involves gay rights activist Harvey Milk.
On Tuesday, the TVUSD board voted against the new curriculum, which has been endorsed by the state, adding to what has been a tumultuous span of weeks in which the governor and district have been trading jabs.
A 3-2 vote saw the board again reject the material solely based on the mention of Milk, a gay rights figure who paved the way for LGBTQ+ members today, becoming the first openly gay man elected into office in California. Board members and a group of parents are upset over allegations that Milk was a pedophile and had a relationship with a teenager while he was in his 30s.
As a result, Gov. Newsom imposed a $1.5 million fine for the district, in what he calls a “willful violation of the law.” He also plans on providing the new textbooks to TVUSD students prior to the start of the new school year, which begins on Aug. 14, along with the estimated $1.6 million price tag to acquire the textbooks.
“The three political activists on the school board have yet again proven they are more interested in breaking the law than doing their jobs of educating students — so the state will do their job for them,” Newsom said in a statement. “California will ensure students in Temecula begin the school year with access to materials reviewed by parents and recommended by teachers across the district. After we deliver the textbooks into the hands of students and their parents, the state will deliver the bill — along with a $1.5 million fine — to the school board for its decision to willfully violate the law, subvert the will of parents, and force children to use an out-of-print textbook from 17 years ago.”
OFFICE OF GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM
The repeated decisions by board members have drawn the ire of many Temecula parents, who have taken to city streets to protest the decision. They’re upset by the board’s conscious disregard of public opinion in which 98.8% of TVUSD parents voted to support the adoption of the new curriculum, according to data from the Governor’s office.
“They embrace the fact that Governor Newsom is getting involved because it’s almost like that’s their goal,” said Aaron Cook, a TVUSD parent. “Rather than doing what’s best for the students.”
On top of that, their current textbooks are dated and don’t contain an accurate representation of the state’s history, preventing children from receiving a thorough education.
“This is not a religious school district,” said another TVUSD student. “It’s a public school district that has to abide by California Public Education Code.”
In what was yet another emotionally charged meeting on Tuesday, a video shows one woman being escorted out of the room after confronting board members.
“Once again, it is clear that you are a homophobe,” the woman said while speaking during the public comment portion of the meeting.
Other members voiced their full support for the efforts of the board members.
“I can tell you know that you have more support than you’ll ever know,” said one man, whose comment was met by cheers from others in the crowd.
Upon request for comment, TVUSD issued a statement on behalf of Board President Komrosky, which said:
“I speak personally here and not on behalf of the entire TVUSD Board when I say, the Temecula Valley Unified School District is not done with its work on curriculum for the 2023-2024 school year. We continue to engage our parents and work diligently towards finding the right solution for our community, and every day we make progress towards that goal. We still have the time to continue this critical process and meet all state and federal mandates before the next school year begins. Throughout this process, we have put a high value on Board priorities such as curriculum & instruction as well as family & community. One such policy priority of the Board is that “Our families and community members will feel connected, informed, and welcome to participate as true partners in the education of our students.” We take that policy seriously and intend for those words to have actual meaning. Additionally, parental feedback is critical in collaborating with our educators, and executive staff to find agreement on what standards will best achieve educational excellence.
A critical component of that exercise is to determine the subject matter’s age appropriateness for any curriculum and the specific grade level at hand. While engaged in this process, I am confident that while reviewing any curriculum for use in this District, TVUSD will select the best material that emphasizes our mission of, “High-Quality Teaching and Learning for All”, but that also avoids any teacher-to-student conversations related to sex and sexual activity at the elementary school level. These conversations are better left to the parents and their children.
Despite our continuing work and commitment to core values, Governor Newsom has taken unilateral action to intervene in the middle of our work without even contacting the school district first to understand what the school district may be further doing to meet all of the curriculum needs of our students. What he calls inaction we see as responsible considerations for all of our community’s viewpoints as we come to a final decision and with time left to do so. To that end, I will be calling a Special Meeting of the Board for July 21, 2023, to consider a culmination of our work on this issue and the potential adoption of curriculum that meets all state and federal mandates. We do not appreciate Governor Newsom’s effort to usurp local control and all that will apparently result from these tactics is a waste of the taxpayers’ money. We sincerely hope he has a 14-day return policy with the publisher of the books he just purchased.”
“My question is, why even mention a pedophile?” he said at the highly contentious meeting.
In the time since, Newsom has directed public comments towards the school board, referring to Komrosky as “an ignorant person.”
Komrosky responded to the governor, in a rhetorically-charged statement of his own.
“I assure you that I am anything but ignorant regarding what you said. Governor, you said it right when you said this isn’t Texas or Florida as we could be so much better than these states if we had better leadership than the top levels of government…,” Komrosky said.
This is the latest instance of the California governor’s attempts at preventing book banning, both in the Golden State and nationally, after interjecting himself into ongoing debates in Republican-controlled states like Texas and Florida.
The mention of LGBTQ+ material has been highly-divisive in school districts across the United States, with several notable instances taking place in Southern California in recent months.
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