Hunter Biden&#8217;s memoir is framed as a howl of mourning for his brother, Beau, who died of cancer at age 46. But a day after Beau&#8217;s funeral, his cocaine-addicted sibling believed that his tragic passing might create an opening to run for office himself.
In &#8220;Beautiful Things,&#8221; his book released Tuesday, he recounts an interaction with his then-wife Kathleen as they returned home from the funeral:
<blockquote>I pulled the car over and told Kathleen that maybe politics was now an option for me. “You know, as horrible as I feel, I have a feeling of real purpose,” I said. It seemed so many people were more willing to forgive my past mistakes—relapses with drinking, administrative discharge from the Navy Reserve—than I was willing to forgive myself.
I suppose her response—Are you serious?—was entirely warranted. We didn’t say another word to each other for the rest of the ride. Or, really, ever again.</blockquote>
Hunter idolizes Beau throughout the book, at one point gushing, &#8220;He had the longest eyelashes to go with those striking blue eyes. He had great hair.&#8221;
In Joe Biden&#8217;s own memoir, the now-president once wrote, “I was pretty sure Beau could run for President some day, and, with his brother’s help, he could win.”
But Hunter didn&#8217;t just want to help Beau. At times, it seems he wanted to be him.
He proceeded to shack up with Beau&#8217;s widow, Hallie. &#8220;By the time we returned to Delaware at the end of the week, we were no longer just two people bound by shared grief. We were a couple,&#8221; he writes.
Then he married another woman only a week after meeting her, instantly professing his love to her on a blind date, based seemingly on her physical similarity to his brother:
<blockquote>We both smiled as I sat down. I spoke up first.
&#8220;You have the exact same eyes as my brother.&#8221;
Then, not long after that, having no idea what I was going to say until it jumped out of my mouth: &#8220;I know this probably isn&#8217;t a good way to start a first date, but I&#8217;m in love with you.&#8221;</blockquote>
Beau&#8217;s cancer diagnosis also helps Hunter justify his five-figures-a-month paycheck from a Ukrainian gas company:
<blockquote>I want to be clear: Beau’s health problems didn’t prompt me to do something I wouldn’t have done otherwise. The money was helpful, but I could’ve figured out another way to make it. I wasn’t desperate. Yet it did provide me the ability not to work as hard at continuing to develop clients, the most time-consuming part of my work—drilling twenty dry wells to finally hit pay dirt. That gave me more time to tend to Beau.</blockquote>
Instead, the money was “a major enabler during my steepest skid into addiction” that allowed him to “spend recklessly, dangerously, destructively,” including using cocaine on a Burisma board trip, he says.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hunter-biden-homeless-crackhead-bicycle">Hunter Biden Was ‘Odd Couple’ Roommates With Crackhead Mother of 7 Named ‘Bicycle’</a>
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Hunter Biden Thought His Brother’s Death Opened The Door For Him To Run For Office

Hunter Biden

Hunter Biden&#039;s memoir is framed as a howl of mourning for his brother, Beau, who died of cancer at age 46. But a day after Beau&#039;s funeral, his Hunter Biden&#039;s memoir is framed as a tribute to his deceased brother, Beau. But a day after Beau&#039;s funeral, his crack-addict sibling believed that his tragic passing might create an opening to run for office himself.

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Hunter Biden Thought His Brother&#039;s Death Opened The Door For Him To Run For Office

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Hunter Biden&#8217;s memoir, billed as a recovered drug addict&#8217;s acceptance of his mistakes and journey to inner peace, is instead laced with partisan rage, displaying a seething hatred for Republicans who he continues to blame for his problems.
Just days after he had last used crack, the son of the president viewed the prospect of leadership by those with different preferred policy positions as more frightening than a soulless life of depravity, saying Donald Trump&#8217;s reelection is what he &#8220;feared most,&#8221; constituting a &#8220;threat to democracy.&#8221;
The son of the now-president had been criticized for taking a lucrative position on the board of Ukranian gas company Burisma while his vice-president father was deeply involved in the affairs of that country, where corruption is rampant. Burisma proudly put a picture of Joe Biden on its <a href="https://thepostmillennial.com/hunter-bidens-business-partner-asks-him-to-remove-joe-bidens-photo-from-ukraine-energy-firm-website">website</a>.
Hunter admits that his five-figure-a-month board fees were &#8220;a major enabler during my steepest skid into addiction&#8221; that allowed him to &#8220;spend recklessly, dangerously, destructively,&#8221; including using cocaine on a Burisma board trip.
Yet he justifies his actions with partisan rhetoric, saying that &#8220;Burisma was opposed to the direct interests of the most dangerous person in the world—Vladimir Putin,&#8221; and he still thinks it was unfair for Republicans to question his big-money international deals.
In his world, opposition to Republicans seems to justify everything else.
&#8220;If I was going to pick a side—and if I was going to get paid to pick a side—I’d choose the same way again, rather than back the person President Trump has sided with,&#8221; he writes, saying a company official told him, “You can get paid by the Russians or the people who are fighting them.”
&#8220;Do you think if any of the Trump children ever tried to get a job outside of their father’s business that his name wouldn’t figure into the calculation? My response has always been to work harder so that my accomplishments stand on their own,&#8221; he writes, even while detailing how he laid on the couch for days with a jerry-rigged bottle of vodka propped to his mouth, or spent his days lounging by the pool while going to the bathroom to smoke crack every fifteen minutes.
An email involving another potential business scheme involving China said that &#8220;H,&#8221; or Hunter, would get 20% and also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/harris-gov-cuomo-other-top-democrats-listed-as-key-domestic-contacts-in-alleged-hunter-biden-email-exchange">hold 10% for &#8220;the big guy,&#8221;</a> which a participant on the email thread, Tony Bobulinski, has said referred to Joe Biden. Hunter simply says comments by Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani questioning the propriety of the arrangement were part of the &#8220;up-is-down, self-dealing universe cooked up for political and personal gain by Trump and Giuliani and their circle of bandits,&#8221; part of &#8220;the ever-swelling club of Trump’s conspiratorial delusions.&#8221;
In the end, the elder Biden &#8220;beat back a vile man with a vile mission,&#8221; Hunter writes, and &#8220;I became the beneficiary of the absurdity and transparent criminality of my pursuers. &#8230; Every bogus whistleblower, out-of-context email, salacious photograph or video clip (manufactured or real), made me feel nearly invincible to their slings and arrows.&#8221;
Partisanship superseding morality and being more important than other aspects of life appears to be a recurring theme in Hunter&#8217;s memoir &#8220;Beautiful Things,&#8221; which was released Tuesday.
Decades ago, former Senator Mike Mansfield taught Joe Biden an important lesson, Hunter writes: &#8220;you can question a colleague’s judgment, whether it be a Democrat or a Republican, but you should never question his or her motives. Everybody comes to the Senate for a reason, he went on, but nobody comes for the sole purpose of being mean-spirited or un-American.&#8221;
But that no longer applies now, the president&#8217;s son writes. &#8220;Trump’s motives can and should be questioned because, hell, most of the time he flat-out states them. And take my word, those motives ain’t pretty.&#8221;
When Joe Biden joined the Barack Obama ticket in 2008, the family believed he would be the &#8220;most influential vice president ever—that is, if you discount Dick Cheney, who had the advantage of manipulating his commander in chief,&#8221; Hunter writes — before detailing how Joe Biden repeatedly shouted &#8220;Goddammit!&#8221; when his attempts to influence the Obama administration were thwarted by other advisers.
Hunter calls Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz &#8220;someone once arrested for driving under the influence in his daddy’s BMW, and who later had the charges mysteriously dropped.&#8221; However, he sneers that it is &#8220;ridiculous&#8221; to speculate that his own connections played a role in a dropped investigation against him when Arizona police found paraphernalia in a rental car alongside a Secret Service card and his brother&#8217;s attorney general badge.
Hunter&#8217;s inability to decide whether to take responsibility for his actions or skirt the details and blame Republicans is a fatal flaw for an addiction memoir, as well as possibly for his sobriety. Letting go of resentments and being honest about one&#8217;s mistakes is a key part of twelve-step programs.
Hunter writes that &#8220;The greatest value to being in rehab is the opportunity to be honest with yourself and&#8221; others, but that in his attempts, &#8220;it almost felt like I was playacting—performing a facsimile of my story rather than confessing it.&#8221; It&#8217;s not clear that anything had changed by the time he wrote the book.
He &#8220;had become resistant to traditional twelve-step-based rehabilitation—or too burned out on it, or too proficient at gaming it—for that method alone to seem like much use. It had worked for me for extended periods in the past, and there’s much about it I believe is invaluable—I still employ many of its tenets to stay sober,&#8221; he writes.
Some of his attempts an alternative approach to sobriety simply consisted of taking other drugs. &#8220;I was certain that my getting clean depended on more than just being told addiction is a disease and that it requires 100 percent abstinence,&#8221; he says, detailing how one rehab in Mexico consisted of taking the hallucinogen ibogaine, which is illegal in the U.S., and another entailed doing DMT, a drug derived from the glands of a toad.
After he drove the rental car to the treatment center in Arizona where the police found paraphernalia, he simply abstained from crack for a week and then left to go to a resort spa, proclaiming himself &#8220;physically and mentally purged.&#8221;
What is billed as his final cure consists of meeting a South African woman on a blind date, saying he loved her within minutes, and then getting married to her a week later.
In the book&#8217;s final pages, Hunter concludes that &#8220;I took solace in being attacked by such despicable opposition. When you’re assaulted by people with the capacity to take away an infant suckling from his mother’s breast and place him in a cage—well, I knew I was playing on the right side.&#8221;
But a world in which those with different political priorities are perceived as cartoon villains to be crushed is not so far off from the one he inhabited not long before, when his crack-addled roommate Bicycles believed that a serial killer was hiding in the walls.
And in a world like that, lasting serenity could be hard to find.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hunter-biden-homeless-crackhead-bicycle">Hunter Biden Was ‘Odd Couple’ Roommates With Crackhead Mother of 7 Named ‘Bicycle’</a>
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Joe Biden Sworn In As 46th President Of The United States At U.S. Capitol Inauguration Ceremony

Hunter Biden Seems To Justify His Ukrainian Paycheck By Saying He Was Fighting Trump’s Buddy Putin

Hunter Biden&#039;s memoir, billed as a reformed drug addict&#039;s acceptance of his mistakes and journey to inner peace, is instead laced with continuing partisan rage, displaying an unhinged hatred for Republicans who he continues to blame for his problems.

Hunter Biden Seems To Justify His Ukrainian Paycheck By Saying He Was Fighting Trump&#039;s Buddy Putin

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Hunter Biden shared his Logan Circle, D.C., apartment with a crackhead named &#8220;Bicycles&#8221; for five months, where &#8220;the two of us interacted with a deranged, crack-addled version of the Odd Couple,&#8221; the president&#8217;s son wrote in his memoir.
Bicycles had seven children, &#8220;one on death row, another in prison for life. She didn&#8217;t know the whereabouts of the five others,&#8221; the book said.
&#8220;Almost anyone who lives or works in DC has at one time or another seen Bicycles&#8211;also known as Rhea, a homeless, middleaged Black woman&#8211;weaving in and out of traffic or swerving around sidewalk pedestrians&#8221; with a &#8220;piercing voice that can be heard a block away as she shouts for everybody to get the hell out of her way, which she does almost continuously,&#8221; Biden wrote.
Biden had a decades-long relationship with Bicycles, buying crack from her in a park near the White House when he was a Georgetown University student in the 1990s.
Decades later, Biden would throw change out of his apartment window to her and she would go to the store to buy him cigarettes.
In 2016, Biden relapsed on cocaine while in Monte Carlo for a meeting of the board of Burisma, the Ukranian gas company that paid him five figures a month after getting angry that Europeans discussing Brexit did not heed his warnings about the &#8220;rise of far-right populism.&#8221; When he returned to the U.S., he admitted the cocaine use to a drug counselor but refused to take a drug test, instead returning to the park and buying crack from Bicycles, which he smoked outside a downtown coffee shop.
Bicycles eventually moved into his apartment, with Biden giving her keys. &#8220;She commandeered the TV and only watched those true-crime shows, with the volume turned way up,&#8221; he wrote, at one point believing a serial killer was hiding inside the walls.
But Bicycles had her act together more than Biden in some ways and &#8220;got mad when I left dirty clothes on the coffee table or spilled vodka on the rug,&#8221; he wrote.
Later while living in Los Angeles, Biden was repeatedly shooed from hotels for the disruptive behavior of himself and his guests, which he blamed on racism by hotel staff. He wrote:
<blockquote>An ant-trail of dealers and their sidekicks rolled in and out, day and night. They pulled up in late-series Mercedes-Benzes, decked out in oversized Raiders or Lakers jerseys and flashing fake Rolexes. Their stripper girlfriends invited their girlfriends, who invited their boyfriends. They’d drink up the entire minibar, call room service for filet mignon and a bottle of Dom Pérignon. One of the women even ordered an additional filet for her purse-sized dog. When they finished, two or three days later, they&#8217;d walk out with the hotel&#8217;s monogrammed towels and throw pillows and comforters and ashtrays.</blockquote>
But when the &#8220;front desk informed me that guests were complaining about the parade of ne’er-do-wells traipsing in and out of my room and asked me to leave[,] I saw it as blatant racism and let them know it.&#8221;
Biden&#8217;s book &#8220;Beautiful Things&#8221; was released Tuesday.
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Hunter Biden Was ‘Odd Couple’ Roommates With Crackhead Mother of 7 Named ‘Bicycle’

Hunter Biden shared his Logan Circle, D.C., apartment with a crackhead named &quot;Bicycles&quot; for five months, where &quot;the two of us interacted with a deranged,

Hunter Biden Was &#039;Odd Couple&#039; Roommates With Crackhead Mother of 7 Named &#039;Bicycle&#039;

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/hunter-biden-homeless-crackhead-bicycle/

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A public relations firm hired to promote Papa John instead conspired to destroy its own client because the firm’s “woke” staff did not like his political views, according to allegations in a lawsuit and newly disclosed evidence that supports the claim. The lawsuit alleges that an executive threatened to &#8220;bury&#8221; Papa John unless the pizza firm paid the company $6 million.
Pizza firm founder John Schnatter was the subject of negative media coverage in 2017 for remarks related to NFL players kneeling for the national anthem. Schnatter said in an earnings call that &#8220;by not resolving the current debacle to the player and owners’ satisfaction, NFL leadership has hurt Papa John’s shareholders,&#8221; because it had depressed football viewership and the company is a major NFL advertiser. Media coverage portrayed this as being insufficiently supportive of players&#8217; racial cause.
PR firm Laundry Service, which was involved in advertising for Papa John&#8217;s and tasked with burnishing Schnatter&#8217;s image, held a call on May 22, 2018, in which it ambushed him with questions about race while secretly recording, according to a lawsuit and documents obtained by The Daily Wire.
During the call, the company appeared to mute their line to mock Schnatter, with Laundry Service founder Jason Stein saying, &#8220;This is what happens when a sociopath spirals,&#8221; as a colleague laughed, according to a <a href="https://thepapajohnschnatter.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/05_22_18_-Transcript.pdf">transcript</a> of the call.
Schnatter eventually expressed frustration and bafflement that his remarks—which were aimed at &#8220;NFL leadership&#8221; and called for &#8220;satisfaction&#8221; of the players—were portrayed as racist. &#8220;What bothers me is Colonel Sanders called blacks n******. I&#8217;m like, I&#8217;ve never used that word. And they get away with it&#8230; Yet we use the word debacle and we get framed in the same genre. It&#8217;s crazy,&#8221; he said.
After the call ended, the recording continued as Stein said, &#8220;I hope he gets f***kin&#8217; sent out to the pasture on this sh**. I really, really f***kin&#8217; do.&#8221;
A female, apparently a Laundry Service employee, said he had expressed insufficient support for NFL players. &#8220;To me the players saying that they&#8217;re still going to protest is because they&#8217;re saying this is a real issue&#8230; It&#8217;s like a lack of self-awareness and a lack of curiosity, and a lack of trying to like change his view, or attack it in his life, because if you just want to live in this box, then that is the ingredient to racism.&#8221;
On the call, Stein—in his capacity as a PR adviser trying to make Schnatter look good—had told him he &#8220;thought it would be smart to do a live interview on Twitter with Darren Rovell.&#8221;
But after the call, he seemed to reveal that his was a setup. &#8220;Make sure it&#8217;s an hour-long conversation, so that he says sh&#8211; like he said here. It&#8217;s gonna come out,&#8221; Stein said, while a colleague added, &#8220;I want whatever we recorded to be like the actual interview.&#8221;
The transcript suggests that the apparent setup was in the works since before anything Schnatter said on the call. &#8220;I told Darren by the end of it, it needs to be viral,&#8221; Stein said.
Laundry Service staffers&#8217; indignation seemed to have at least as much to do with politics as it did with race.
Referencing that Schnatter had said he supported the libertarian group Americans for Prosperity, one Laundry Service staffer said, &#8220;That&#8217;s a f***king super right wing, like crazy.&#8221;
&#8220;So, he&#8217;s BFFs with Pence,&#8221; then-Laundry Service employee Tim Polder said, according to the transcript.
Laundry Service has cultivated a &#8220;woke&#8221; environment, even though, according to its website, <a href="https://247laundryservice.com/about/">none of its own</a> current leadership team is black. In 2020, Randi White, then vice president of client services, gave an <a href="https://www.adforum.com/interviews/culture-is-our-business-randi-white-laundry-service">interview</a> about how she believed corporations should be involved in politics.
&#8220;Culture is our business, at Laundry Service. It’s how we build relationships with people and inspire action&#8230; Brands can engage authentically by making the cause a part of who they are, and ensuring there’s a long-term plan to continue to support the cause,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I’ve been involved in the Black Lives Matter movement by advising my clients on the core issues, the long-standing history of systemic racism, personal experiences, and the lasting effects of not only overt racism but covert racism and prejudices/microaggressions,&#8221; she added.
But this is not always good for business. Laundry Service lost Papa John&#8217;s as a client, and on July 9, 2018, 10% of its staff &#8212; some 40 to 60 people, including Stein &#8212; received notice that they were being <a href="https://digiday.com/marketing/laundry-service-lays-off-10-percent-staff-founder-jason-stein/">laid off</a> by Wasserman, a sports marketing firm that is its parent company.
Two days after the layoff announcement, a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/noahkirsch/2018/07/11/papa-johns-founder-john-schnatter-allegedly-used-n-word-on-conference-call/?sh=5357a0ef4cfc">thinly-sourced story</a> appeared in Forbes that said that &#8220;John Schnatter — the founder and public face of pizza chain Papa John’s — used the N-word on a conference call in May.&#8221; Schnatter resigned as chairman of the company immediately afterward.
But something else had happened before the layoffs, Schnatter&#8217;s lawsuit alleged: In June 2018, &#8220;Casey Wasserman, the CEO of Laundry Service’s parent company, told Papa John’s then-CEO Steve Ritchie that he would &#8216;bury the founder&#8217; (i.e., Mr. Schnatter) if Laundry Service was not paid $6 million dollars.&#8221; The lawsuit said:
<blockquote>Following this threat to &#8220;bury the founder&#8221;—and in apparent retaliation for Papa John’s refusing to pay Laundry Service $6 million—Defendants leaked to Forbes magazine excerpts of their May 22, 2018, call with Mr. Schnatter. But rather than provide the true context of what Mr. Schnatter actually said, Defendants provided information out of context, suggesting he had used a racial slur against African Americans. In short, they created an impression that Mr. Schnatter had communicated something opposite to what he said.</blockquote>
Laundry Service has contended it was owed money for services rendered, but Schnatter&#8217;s representatives say the amount in dispute was never that large.
The lawsuit said the contract had confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses and that Laundry Service&#8217;s &#8220;conduct was in bad faith and defeated one of the bargained for benefits of the Service Agreement: the enhancement of Mr. Schnatter’s image and brand.&#8221;
Requests for comment to Laundry Service and the Wasserman firm were not immediately returned, but Laundry Service has previously denied leaking the recording.
&#8220;Now, almost a year and a half after Schnatter suffered public backlash for his own conduct, he sues defendant Laundry Service, … and defendant Wasserman Media Group … in an effort to blame them, contrary to facts, for allegedly leaking Schnatter’s use of racially explosive language,&#8221; Laundry Service said in a court filing.
Laundry Service has worked for firms including Adobe, Amazon, Fox, Hennessy, Major League Baseball, the NBA, Nike, and Tic Tac, according to its website.
Related: Poll: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/poll-64-of-americans-see-cancel-culture-as-a-threat-to-their-freedom">64% Of Americans See ‘Cancel Culture’ As A Threat To Their Freedom</a>
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Papa John’s

‘Papa John’ Says PR Company Planted Racism Allegations After He Would Not Pay $6M

Racism

Woke Culture

A public relations firm hired to promote Papa John instead conspired to destroy its own client because the firm’s “woke” staff did not like his political

&#039;Papa John&#039; Says PR Company Planted Racism Allegations After He Would Not Pay $6M

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A quasi-official body tied to the Loudoun County, Virginia, public schools on Friday pledged to &#8220;silence the opposition,&#8221; apparently referring to parents who question the schools&#8217; adoption of controversial racial ideologies, as officials seemed to double down after revelations of a list, the stated purpose of which was to &#8220;infiltrate,&#8221; &#8220;hack,&#8221; and &#8220;expose&#8221; such parents.
The LCPS Minority Student Achievement Advisory Council (MSAAC) <a href="https://twitter.com/LCPSMSAAC/status/1375575224675151877">wrote</a> on Twitter and Facebook:
<blockquote>There is strength in numbers and we believe wholeheartedly, that united, we can and will silence the opposition. We ask that you please support our call to action by engaging in these 5 small, but impactful actions to help us in our mission of Advancing Equity Through Action!</blockquote>
The &#8220;call to action&#8221; consisted of items such as: “refrain from opening/clicking or sharing any article/tweet/facebook post from any group that seeks to sow seeds of untruths, hate and distrust.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-teachers-target-parents-critical-race-theory-hacking">Teachers Compile List Of Parents Who Question Racial Curriculum, Plot War On Them</a>
MSAAC is an advisory board whose activities are hosted on LCPS property and which operates according to bylaws approved by the school system. Many of the racial policies at the heart of the controversy came from the school board&#8217;s Equity Committee, which is comprised of both school board members and citizens, with MSAAC appointing four of the citizens.
The &#8220;equity&#8221; policies, often consistent with a philosophy called &#8220;critical race theory&#8221; (CRT) that is opposed by <a href="https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/the-miseducation-of-americas-elites">many liberals</a> and conservatives, have drawn unease from some parents, while some in the school system have responded with efforts at censorship. On March 4, Equity Committee member Tara Hewan called for “a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-teachers-attack-parents-protected-free-speech-mulls-banning-trump-flags">system-wide ruling&#8221; banning</a> students from wearing Donald Trump insignia because &#8220;it’s a marginalization.&#8221;
Beth Barts, an elected school board representative, promoted the &#8220;silence the opposition&#8221; message.
<div id="attachment_204463" style="width: 276px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-204463" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-204463 size-large" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/20210326-266x576.jpg" alt="" width="266" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/03/20210326-266x576.jpg 266w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/03/20210326-139x300.jpg 139w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/03/20210326.jpg 473w" sizes="(max-width: 266px) 100vw, 266px" />Loudoun County school board member Beth Barts / Facebook</div>
Taxpayer-funded educators echoed the call. Jen Evans, whose twitter handle @JenEvansLCPS lists her as &#8220;Supervisor, Student Assistance Services at Loudoun County Public Schools,&#8221; retweeted it. <a href="https://twitter.com/SusanMHayden">Susan M. Hayden</a>, a fourth-grade teacher at Mill Run Elementary School who <a href="https://www.lcps.org/Page/229221">volunteers</a> &#8220;with the LCPS Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee,&#8221; did as well.
The enemies list began after Barts was censured by the school board for failing to “welcome and encourage active cooperation of Loudoun County residents,” and then retreated to a private Facebook group called &#8220;Anti-Racist Parents of Loudoun County,&#8221; whose members include current and former teachers and elected officials.
&#8220;I am very concerned that this [anti-] CRT &#8216;movement&#8217; for lack of a better word is gaining support. It is difficult for me to bring attention to it without calling out specifics which may violate our code of conduct,&#8221; she wrote to the group.
Members &#8212; including most prolifically former Loudoun teacher Hilary Hultman-Lee &#8212; listed parents who were critical of, or even &#8220;neutral&#8221; towards, critical race theory. Member Jen Durham wrote that the purpose of the list was to use &#8220;hackers who can either shut down their websites or redirect them to pro-CRT/anti-racist informational webpages&#8221; and &#8220;expose these people publicly.&#8221;
Barts cheered them on. “Thank you for the response to my posting this morning,” she wrote. “Thank you for stepping up. Silence is complicity.”
School public information officer Wayde Byard did not immediately return a request for comment.
On March 19, Interim Superintendent Scott Ziegler sent a message to all parents saying “It has come to my attention that individuals, including some identifying themselves as LCPS employees, have made statements across social media about parents and their thoughts about the school division’s equity work. LCPS recognizes the right of its employees to free speech, but does not condone anyone targeting members of the community for their viewpoint.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/with-children-fully-indoctrinated-schools-have-a-new-target-parents">With Children Fully Indoctrinated, Schools Have A New Target: Parents</a> 

In September, Ziegler presented a policy to the school board that would have banned school staff from disagreeing with the school system’s views on “systemic racism” and other racial issues, even off-campus. “An employee’s First Amendment right to engage in protected speech … may be outweighed by the school division’s interest in &#8230; [protecting] class equity, racial equity, and the goal to root out systemic racism,” said the draft policy. It was withdrawn following media criticism.
On March 13, Barts wrote to the Equity Committee to name a parent who she said had donated to a parents&#8217; advocacy group that opposes CRT.
On March 23, &#8220;the School Board met in closed session at the end of Tuesday’s meeting to discuss &#8230; disciplining of a board member,&#8221; Loudoun Now reported, but &#8220;<a href="https://loudounnow.com/2021/03/24/as-students-return-to-classrooms-school-board-again-under-fire/">no action</a> was taken after the session concluded.&#8221;
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(Photo by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)

In Aftermath Of Enemies List, School Committee Pledges To ‘Silence The Opposition’

Education

A quasi-official body tied to the Loudoun County, Virginia, public schools on Friday pledged to &quot;silence the opposition,&quot; apparently referring to parents

In Aftermath Of Enemies List, School Committee Pledges To &#039;Silence The Opposition&#039;

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/after-enemies-list-school-body-pledges-to-silence-the-opposition/

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Teachers have exclusive advocacy groups in the form of unions, including the National Education Association (NEA), the largest labor group in the country. They are so powerful that they helped keep many schools at least partially closed for a year, despite mounting evidence that with basic preventative measures schools pose little risk of increasing coronavirus spread.
But if the struggling parents who pay their salaries hoped for an organization of their own, they&#8217;re out of luck: What might have been the parents&#8217; association was coopted by teachers, too – who injected a &#8220;T&#8221; and turned it into the PTA.
As has become clear in the last year, teachers&#8217; interests are often different than those of parents. But in July, the NEA and the PTA co-wrote a letter opposing a push to open schools, writing, &#8220;The president should not be brazenly making these decisions.&#8221; With one possible exception &#8212; support for standardized testing &#8212; the PTA’s priorities appear to mirror those of teachers’ unions.
A Daily Wire review of tax filings and labor disclosures provides clues as to why: Across the country, there is evidence that PTAs have been hijacked not only by teachers, but by teachers&#8217; unions.
National PTA board member <a href="https://www.pta.org/home/About-National-Parent-Teacher-Association/PTA-Leadership/Board-Officers-Members/erik-champy">Eric Champy</a> was on the board of the <a href="https://www.unionfacts.com/employee/National_Education_Association/ERIK/CHAMPY%5d%20and%20was%20elected">NEA</a> for years. After losing a race for president of the Massachusetts teachers’ union in 2018, he was elected to the National PTA Board of Directors in June 2019.
National PTA&#8217;s executive director Nathan Monell, who is paid <a href="https://www.pta.org/docs/default-source/files/why-pta/2020/2019-form_990-public_disclosure.pdf">$347,000</a>, was previously executive director of Learning First Alliance, a group with ties to both national teachers’ unions, the NEA and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).
There are seemingly endless examples of similar overlap in state, regional and local PTA chapters across the country.
In Fairfax County, Virginia, the teachers’ union’s aggressive posture &#8212; insisting that teachers be given the right to stay home even after receiving vaccination &#8212; has drawn <a href="https://www.banking.senate.gov/download/cooper-testimony-3-25-21">outrage</a> from parents. The union’s president is Kimberly Adams, a Democratic activist who ran for Congress in 2018. Incredibly, that is not the only position she has held: Adams was president of the union from 2013 to 2016. That same year, she became president of the Fairfax County Council of PTAs. Then she went back to being president of the union.
In Colorado, Ami Prichard is both vice president of the Colorado PTA and sits on the national board of the NEA, where she represents Colorado teachers. The Colorado PTA voted to support a ballot measure that would direct surplus funds to schools rather than a potential rebate to taxpayers.<a href="#_ftn11" name="_ftnref11"></a>
A 2014 picture under the title, <a href="https://m.facebook.com/AmiPrichardCO4NEA/photos/a.891061677575703/891061864242351/">&#8220;Ami Pritchard- Colorado NEA Director&#8221;</a> shows her wearing a union-red blazer and holding a sign that says &#8220;Vote yes on Amendment 66&#8230; I want quality teachers with resources!&#8221;
A 2020 photo shows her wearing what appears to be the same red blazer under the title &#8220;Education Finance 101&#8230; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=820533482086678">Ami Pritchard, vice president of marketing and communications for Colorado PTA</a> shares how getting involved in your child&#8217;s school district can help you learn more about the education finance policies in your area.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_203907" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-203907" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-203907 size-large" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/pritchard-1024x323.png" alt="" width="1024" height="323" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/03/pritchard-1024x323.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/03/pritchard-300x95.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/03/pritchard-768x242.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/03/pritchard-1536x484.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/03/pritchard.png 1541w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Ami Pritchard / Facebook</div>
In recent months, her NEA persona has continued to press teacher priorities such as cancelling tests and postponing school re-opening.
In California’s Bay Area, Jennifer Shanoski is the outspoken president of the Peralta Federation of Teachers. At Peralta Community College, whose staff are part of the union, Chancellor Regina Stanback Stroud resigned in July, accusing members of the college&#8217;s board of trustees of &#8220;<a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/peralta-college-district-chief-resigns-in-dispute-over-hiring-unions/ar-BB16T0E4">collusion with the unions</a>&#8221; that made it impossible to run a functioning institution. But that was not the only example of potential blurring of the lines between a union and an oversight group.
In December 2019, Shanoski was &#8220;campaign co-chair&#8221; for an initiative with Berkeley’s <a href="http://www.berkeleypta.org/content/berkeley-pta-council-december-meeting">city-wide PTA</a> that turned parents into activists for an initiative generated by a teachers’ union. &#8220;Campaign for Measures E, G, and H – how PTAs can get involved,&#8221; her presentation said. &#8220;This is a nuts-and-bolts organizing session. Gail and Jennifer will help each school plug into the campaign’s plans for phone banking, door-to-door leafleting, and other tasks. There’s something for everyone to do!&#8221;
Measure E was conceived of by teachers&#8217; unions and entailed raising taxes to give teachers a 12% raise; the other measures extended another tax increase and raised funds for schools. Teachers&#8217; unions funded a campaign promoting the measures through a group simply titled The Committee for Berkeley Public Schools.
The East Bay Times editorial board blasted the <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/01/29/editorial-unsorting-berkeleys-maze-of-school-tax-measures/">&#8220;shameless audacity&#8221;</a> of pushing three measures that would cost taxpayers to benefit educators, all in one election. It said backers &#8220;would prefer voters don’t have the complete picture,&#8221; such as that the progressive, high-tax area had already showered educators with numerous giveaways.
But Shanoski had the parents where she wanted them, and the measures passed.
When teachers&#8217; union officials also have roles in the PTA, it is impossible to know where one job stops and the other begins. Shanoski is also treasurer of the PTA of Malcolm X Elementary in Berkeley, where a major PTA initiative consists of asking parents to <a href="https://www.malcolmxelementary.org/mxfund">bring checks</a> for $500 per student to Shanoski&#8217;s house to &#8220;pay for the important programs not covered by public school funds&#8230; [e]ven though Berkeley schools are well-funded.&#8221;
She gathered in front of Malcolm X with children holding union-printed signs saying &#8220;You can&#8217;t put students first if you put teachers last&#8221; and &#8220;We stand with Oakland teachers.&#8221; On Facebook, she promoted flyers saying &#8220;Teachers unions are preparing to strike this winter&#8221; and &#8220;Don&#8217;t make kids pay for adult mistakes!&#8221;
In New York state, Bridget Englehard was treasurer of a PTA while also serving as treasurer of the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk teachers union. On Facebook, her posts alternate between encouraging parents to buy merchandize for school fundraisers, asking people to &#8220;please stop&#8221; talking about whether schools will reopen next year, and posting union materials that say things like &#8220;YOU COULD LOSE YOUR PENSION! VOTE NO.&#8221;
In Stockton, California, Kadie Collette was both treasurer of the PTA of the elementary school where she taught, and treasurer of the teachers&#8217; union, for whom she was a key bargaining negotiator. She gave a speech at a statewide union conference about how her strategies &#8220;helped their local unions win better contracts.&#8221;
In Alaska, Amey Tamagni was bylaws chair of the statewide PTA, while also serving on the board of the statewide AFT union. Outside of San Diego, Kerry Strong was both head of programs for the PTA at the school where she taught and vice president of the union, in which role she took part in negotiations.
The examples go on and on.
Parents told The Daily Wire that teachers, including union officials, often take an outsized role in its leadership. They, after all, have a financial stake in what happens in schools and are paid to spend their days immersed in the issues. Parents, on the other hand, have to make time to volunteer in the few free hours that they have.
That leads to an imbalance of power, in which PTA chapters are often dominated by a combination of teachers and activists pushing pet causes. Ordinary, moderate parents who simply have an interest in ensuring that their child&#8217;s school is functioning as well as it should be are easily elbowed out.
And parents who assume that PTA is a place to advocate for their and their children&#8217;s interests &#8212; like getting them back to school &#8212; might find themselves instead told to bake cupcakes to raise money for teachers who are working from home.
This is the last in a three-part series on the Parent Teacher Association.
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/with-children-fully-indoctrinated-schools-have-a-new-target-parents">With Children Fully Indoctrinated, Schools Have A New Target: Parents</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-the-pta-sold-out-parents-for-politics">How The PTA Sold Out Parents For Politics During Schools&#8217; Biggest Crisis</a></li>
</ul>
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers

Teachers Union Honchos Infiltrate PTAs, Depriving Parents Of Their Own Group

Parent Teacher Association (PTA)

Teachers have exclusive advocacy groups in the form of unions. But if the struggling parents who pay their salaries hoped for an organization of their own, they&#039;re out of luck: What might have been the parents&#039; association was coopted by teachers, too -- who injected a &quot;T&quot; and turned it into the PTA.

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/teachers-unions-infiltrate-pta/

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K-12 schools are in the biggest crisis in memory. Some have not been fully open in a year, despite evidence that schools do not increase the rate of coronavirus in a community when prevention strategies are used. Women have had to leave the workforce to watch their children. Academic achievement is cratering. Some impoverished students have simply dropped off the grid. Meanwhile, magnet schools have taken to deliberately lowering academic standards in the name of social justice.
Everyone is talking about it — except, it seems, the Parent Teacher Association. The PTA has been essentially absent from the public debate on reopening schools (though it does not hesitate to make its thoughts on <a href="https://www.pta.org/home/advocacy/ptas-positions/Individual-Position-Statements/position-statement---furniture-tip-over-prevention">&#8220;Furniture Tip-Over Prevention&#8221;</a> known). And in some cases, as with schools&#8217; embrace of divisive racial rhetoric that has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-teachers-target-parents-critical-race-theory-hacking">alienated parents</a> and led to situations such as the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/09/11/an-unfair-push-racial-equality-thomas-jefferson/">overhaul</a> of America&#8217;s highest-scoring math school because too many Asians were succeeding, it has contributed to the discord.
A Daily Wire review lends insight into how one of the most prominent advocacy groups in the country, which claims to speak on behalf of broad segments of America, has taken a backseat role in the fight for a basic priority — to reopen schools — while taking more forceful positions for partisan causes that alienate much of its membership.
The National PTA is based near Washington, D.C., and has $18 million in assets. Most of its money comes from membership <a href="http://online.fliphtml5.com/dtoi/apfq/#p=22">dues</a>, and 15 percent goes to <a href="http://online.fliphtml5.com/dtoi/apfq/#p=20">advocacy</a>.
From March 9 to 11, the National PTA held its annual <a href="https://www.pta.org/home/events/National-PTA-Legislative-Conference/schedule">Legislative Conference</a>, and the agenda focused not on getting kids back into school, but on a series of liberal political priorities, some wholly unrelated to education – including using the organization to subject parents to ideological training.
At 3:15 p.m. on the first day, virtual conference-goers took part in &#8220;Empowering Parents to Mitigate the Adverse Impacts of Climate Change.&#8221; At 5:15, they attended a session on “Supportive and Inclusive Practices,&#8221; where they heard about &#8220;practices that ensure equity for every student, are grounded in social justice and support the whole child and every family.&#8221;
At 6:10, they continued on to &#8220;Courageous Conversations in Diversity and Inclusion,&#8221; in which &#8220;attendees will analyze the critical role of PTA in developing diversity initiatives in your school buildings, in PTA units and in communities.&#8221;
In its own words, in 2020 — a year defined, for millions of parents, by many teachers&#8217; refusal to return to school with a series of ever-shifting demands — the PTA &#8220;virtually <a href="http://online.fliphtml5.com/dtoi/apfq/#p=13">shower[ed]</a> teachers with appreciation for the pivotal role they play in our children&#8217;s lives, especially during a pandemic.&#8221;
Dr. <a href="https://noleftturn.us/">Elena Fishbein</a>, an education activist who is president of a parents’ group called No Left Turn in Education, said the PTA&#8217;s conspicuous absence as children&#8217;s basic right to an education fell victim to a power struggle between teachers unions and policymakers merely highlighted a more longstanding problem.
The PTA, she said, has long diverted parents, as an organizing force, into roles as mere cheerleaders for teachers and school administrators, instead of watchdogs and advocates for their children.
“You know what PTA usually does. They sell wrapping paper and raise money for teachers,” she told The Daily Wire. “Being involved in education is not selling wrapping paper to help teachers. That’s what the role of parents has been reduced to by the PTA. Parents would be asking tough questions, because there are a lot of problems in schools. Yet the supposed parents&#8217; association is sitting there planning parties?”
<h4>Does PTA represent parents?</h4>
The PTA&#8217;s statements on school reopening have been largely devoid of content, except to say that schools should get more money — a teachers&#8217; union priority. In <a href="https://www.pta.org/home/About-National-Parent-Teacher-Association/PTA-Newsroom/news-list/news-detail-page/2020/06/12/national-pta-adopts-position-statement-on-reopening-of-public-prek-12-schools-for-the-2020-2021-school-year">June 2020</a>, it said it &#8220;calls for any decision to reopen schools to involve parents, families, students, educators, school employees, public health experts, health practitioners and community members&#8230; It also calls on federal and state governments to provide the funding necessary to ensure that schools have the resources they need.&#8221;
In <a href="https://www.pta.org/home/About-National-Parent-Teacher-Association/PTA-Newsroom/news-list/news-detail-page/2020/06/12/national-pta-adopts-position-statement-on-reopening-of-public-prek-12-schools-for-the-2020-2021-school-year">February 2021</a>, it said, &#8220;Reopening schools for in-person learning is vital to ensure the continuity of education for every child, particularly those who do not have adequate access to technology. However, health and safety must continue to be the utmost priority.&#8221; It added, &#8220;More resources continue to be needed to help pay for the costs for schools to reopen safely and successfully.&#8221;
Many private and charter schools were open for much of the 2020-21 schoolyear without significant issue, while many traditional public schools remained closed. But there is little evidence of the PTA asking why that was. Instead, it has pushed policies ensuring that only the wealthy can afford to go to such schools.
According to its policy position paper, the PTA supports public charter schools only if they &#8220;do not exceed and <a href="/www.pta.org/home/advocacy/ptas-positions/Individual-Position-Statements/Public-Charter-Schools-Position-Statement">do not divert funding</a> from non-charter public schools&#8221; – seemingly wanting existing schools to receive funding for services they are not performing.
It <a href="/www.pta.org/docs/default-source/files/advocacy/2016-letters-to-policymakers/feb.-2-2016-national-coalition-for-public-education-expresses-strong-opposition-to-private-school-vouchers.pdf">&#8220;strongly opposes&#8221; vouchers</a> that would allow some families to use a portion of the taxpayer funds currently earmarked for their child to pay for private school tuition. One of its top priorities for 2021 is “taking steps to eliminate funding for the <a href="https://www.pta.org/docs/default-source/files/advocacy/2020-letters-to-policymakers/dec-3-national-pta-biden-team-transition-letterf06a4bf1aa3e63899f67ff00009b2bd9.pdf">D.C. voucher</a> program” that provides that option for some low-income residents.
As a group speaking on behalf of &#8220;parents,&#8221; the PTA&#8217;s lobbying efforts carry considerable sway with Congress. But a 2020 survey found that more than <a href="https://www.edchoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/2020-SIA-Wave-2-Final.pdf">three-quarters</a> of parents support school vouchers.
That is not the only instance of the PTA seemingly functioning as a parents&#8217; group that takes positions opposite those of the majority of parents.
In 2017, it partnered with GLSEN (formerly the Gay, Lesbian &amp; Straight Education Network) to write a &#8220;friend of the court&#8221; brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board in support of allowing <a href="https://www.pta.org/home/About-National-Parent-Teacher-Association/PTA-Newsroom/news-list/news-detail-page/2017/03/08/National-PTA-GLSEN-Education-Organizations-Submit-Joint-Amicus-Brief-to-Supreme-Court-in-Support-of-Gavin-Grimm-and-Transgender-Students">transgender</a> students to use school bathrooms of the sex with which they identify. In 2016, a poll found that <a href="https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/lifestyle/general_lifestyle/may_2016/most_school_parents_oppose_transgender_bathroom_policy">fewer than a third of parents</a> of school children wanted that, suggesting that the PTA’s stance defied a strong majority of its members, including people of all political persuasions who worried about boys in locker rooms and bathrooms with their daughters.
More recently, the PTA has become a major proponent of racial rhetoric that has both conservative and liberal parents up in arms about its potential psychological effects on children. The National PTA employs five <a href="http://online.fliphtml5.com/dtoi/apfq/#p=12">&#8220;Equity Fellows.&#8221;</a> Frances Frost, a board member, is known primarily for her racial activism.
It advocates for &#8220;culturally responsive teaching,&#8221; and calls for schools to &#8220;develop <a href="https://www.pta.org/home/advocacy/ptas-positions/Individual-Position-Statements/position-statement---inclusive-curricula-in-k-12-education">critical consciousness</a> by recognizing racism, classism, and other issues in the world and developing a student’s awareness to openly address these situations.&#8221;
It backed regulations that would establish implied <a href="https://www.pta.org/docs/default-source/files/advocacy/2018-letters-to-policymakers/final-ccd-disproportionality-comments-may-14.pdf">racial quotas</a> for the discipline of students who are deemed special ed. In the past, school districts have met these mandates by turning a blind eye to severe instances of violence in schools, in some cases leading to tragedy.
The PTA&#8217;s priorities sound less like something one might hear on the sidelines of a soccer game and more like a speech by professional progressive activists.
“Our education system must be firmly centered in the belief that equity in education is not just a vision or a goal, but rather a necessity,” its December 2020 <a href="https://www.pta.org/docs/default-source/files/advocacy/2020-letters-to-policymakers/dec-3-national-pta-biden-team-transition-letterf06a4bf1aa3e63899f67ff00009b2bd9.pdf">letter</a> to the Biden transition team said. “National PTA recently adopted two positions statements, ‘Say Their Names, Addressing Institutional or Systemic Racism’ and ‘Inclusive Curricula in K-12 Education’ which speak to PTAs [sic] commitment around the crucial work of [Diversity, Equity and Inclusion],” it wrote.
Fishbein said that this language mirrors the words of school system bureaucrats and that it is hard to imagine that a large portion of parents asked the PTA to do such things. In that respect, it is no different than the wrapping paper sales, she said.
“Think about the activities they’re engaged in: None of the events are really what the parents want to do, it’s what the school wants them to do,” she said.
Political Priorities 
If 2020&#8217;s struggles over whether schools should be open or not made one thing clear, it&#8217;s that two constituents of the PTA — parents and teachers — sometimes have competing interests.
&#8220;What does it mean to have a parent-teacher association? What in that relationship says we’re going to advocate for parents? It&#8217;s totally diluted. It has nothing to do with the teaching or what goes on with the kids,&#8221; Fishbein said.
There are actually three competing interests in the education world: parents, teachers, and school administrators. It is the school administrators, who collectively control more than $700 billion a year, with whom the teachers’ unions often do battle. Perhaps the PTA’s role is to represent parents and teachers in their shared priorities against administrators.
But that’s not the case, either: The PTA often appears to operate as an adjunct of schools, rather than an independent check on them, Fishbein said. National board member Dr. Renée LaHuffman-Jackson is a school <a href="https://www.pta.org/home/About-National-Parent-Teacher-Association/PTA-Leadership/Board-Officers-Members/renee-lahuffman-jackson">administrator</a>, and board members Dr. <a href="https://www.pta.org/home/About-National-Parent-Teacher-Association/PTA-Leadership/Board-Officers-Members/sylvia-reyna">Sylvia Ramirez Reyna</a> and Dr. <a href="https://www.pta.org/home/About-National-Parent-Teacher-Association/PTA-Leadership/Board-Officers-Members/emma-violand-s%C3%A1nchez">Emma Violand-Sánchez</a> are former administrators.
While the PTA may represent no discrete interest group in the education policy world, many PTA staff and board members have one thing in common: politics. Personal campaign contributions from members of the PTA headquarters’ full-time staff have gone <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/national-pta/recipients?toprecipscycle=2020&amp;id=D000054321&amp;candscycle=2020">exclusively to Democrats</a> in recent years, according to OpenSecrets.org.
National PTA&#8217;s executive director is Nathan Monell, who is paid <a href="https://www.pta.org/docs/default-source/files/why-pta/2020/2019-form_990-public_disclosure.pdf">$347,000</a>. His biography describes his &#8220;daily motivation&#8221; as creating &#8220;<a href="https://www.pta.org/home/About-National-Parent-Teacher-Association/PTA-Leadership/Board-Officers-Members/Nathan-R-Monell-CAE">equity</a>&#8221; for all children. <a href="https://www.pta.org/home/About-National-Parent-Teacher-Association/PTA-Leadership/Board-Officers-Members/Anna-King">Anna King</a>, its president-elect, is a former activist with Moms Demand Action, a Michael Bloomberg-funded political group whose affiliate, Everytown for Gun Safety, has spent tens of millions of dollars electing Democrats.
A spokesperson did not make Monell or its president, Leslie Boggs — who shares a similar passion for the gun issue — available for an interview for this story.
The PTA, despite representing a broad membership with diverse views, has not hesitated to wade into contentious partisan battles that are only peripherally related to schools, supporting restrictions on firearms that would apply to all Americans, including a waiting period and a ban on &#8220;military-style semi-automatic <a href="/www.pta.org/home/advocacy/ptas-positions/Individual-Position-Statements/Position-Statement-Firearms">assault weapons</a>.&#8221;
The organization&#8217;s political preferences seem to extend to its preferred presidential appointments. It opposed the nomination of Betsy DeVos to be President Trump&#8217;s <a href="https://www.pta.org/docs/default-source/uploadedfiles/advocacy/devos-concern-letter-postinghearing-1-30-17.pdf">secretary of education</a>. By contrast, its December 3 letter to the Biden transition team had a different tone.
“We look forward to working with the Department of Education and the Biden Administration to fully realize the power of” — it said — “the parent voice.”
This is the second in a three-part series on the Parent Teacher Association.
<ul>
<li>Tuesday: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/with-children-fully-indoctrinated-schools-have-a-new-target-parents">With Children Fully Indoctrinated, Schools Have A New Target: Parents</a></li>
<li>Thursday: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/teachers-unions-infiltrate-pta">Teachers Union Honchos Infiltrate PTAs, Depriving Parents Of Their Own Group</a></li>
</ul>
A previous version of this report incorrectly described Anna King as the former president of the PTA; she is the president-elect. 
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

The 2020 National Parent Teacher Association (PTA) Legislative Conference

How The PTA Sold Out Parents For Politics During Schools’ Biggest Crisis

The PTA has been essentially absent from the public debate on reopening schools. A Daily Wire review lends insight into how one of the largest advocacy groups in the country has taken a backseat role in the fight for a basic priority -- to reopen schools -- while taking more forceful positions for partisan causes that alienate much of their membership.

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/how-the-pta-sold-out-parents-for-politics/

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It&#8217;s no longer a surprise to hear about public schools using their access to impressionable children to push divisive ideas about politics and race. But now it has escalated to a new level: using their taxpayer-funded budgets to shape the views of adults who live nearby.
For example, in Pennsylvania, Seria Chatters, Director of Equity and Inclusivity for the State College Area School District, wrote to parents to have them &#8220;learn more about race and racism&#8230; through the Parent and Community Book Club!&#8221; The book club would not be for cultivating a love of literature; rather, the choices were &#8220;White Fragility&#8221; by Robin DiAngelo, &#8220;Between the World and Me&#8221; by Ta-Nehisi Coates, &#8220;EveryDay AntiRacism,&#8221; edited by Mica Pollack, and &#8220;Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence&#8221; by Derald Wing Sue.
Even more surprising, it is often the Parent Teacher Association (PTA), a group that seemingly represents parents&#8217; interests, that has instead taken to gathering adults so they can be influenced by the growing mass of school race or &#8220;equity&#8221; departments.
In Pinellas County, Florida, diversity honchos are subjecting parents of elementary school students to optional anti-racist training. The recurring event &#8220;Let&#8217;s Talk About Race: An educational series for North Shore families, friends, and teachers,&#8221; is &#8220;a training series hosted by the North Shore Elementary PTA about race and racism [and] how it affects almost every aspect of American life,&#8221; according to materials obtained by The Daily Wire.
Although the series is &#8220;hosted&#8221; by the school’s PTA, it originated from an ideological school system office that was seeking to operate on parents and is &#8220;co-sponsored&#8221; by the school system&#8217;s Equity Professional Development Department. Teachers can attend the same training in order to meet continuing education requirements.
The training is conducted by Community Tampa Bay, an activist group that is funded by the school system and runs an <a href="https://www.communitytampabay.org/advocacy-academy-about">“Advocacy Academy.”</a> Community Tampa Bay&#8217;s work with the school system includes <a href="https://www.communitytampabay.org/pinellas-county-schools">&#8220;cultural humility&#8221; training</a>, three-day long sessions for teachers, and &#8220;all-day empowerment experiences&#8221; for students.
For the 2016-17 schoolyear, the Pinellas schools paid Community Tampa Bay $212,000, according to a contract obtained by The Daily Wire, in part for &#8220;cultural competence training&#8221; for &#8220;school leaders, educators, parents, students and community stakeholders.&#8221;
The PTA sessions are led by Samira Obeid, Community Tampa Bay&#8217;s program director. On her LinkedIn profile, Obeid describes herself as &#8220;a masculine performing, Indian lesbian raised Hindu on my mother’s side and Muslim on my father’s side. My identities and lived experience not only make up who I am but inform what I do. I moved to the U.S. in 2007 where I earned my second and third master’s degrees in Multimedia Journalism and Gender Studies, respectively.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-teachers-target-parents-critical-race-theory-hacking">Teachers Compile List Of Parents Who Question Racial Curriculum, Plot War On Them</a>
The ideas being promoted are not merely to be kind to everyone and not to discriminate. Instead, schools are pushing bizarre and controversial views about race.
One Pinellas training material given to teachers and obtained by The Daily Wire suggests that employees should expect minorities to be late for appointments. “Families of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) background may value punctuality differently than mainstream cultures,” it says.
A &#8220;Civics Equity Lesson&#8221; for middle schoolers in the district asks &#8220;How do laws create a system of inequality?&#8221; It has the teacher &#8220;project the definition of systemic inequality — unequal outcomes built into our institutions, like schools, that will produce inequality.&#8221; Then it asks students, “Is equal fair?”
It is apparently important to educators that parents hold similar beliefs.
Across the country, some parents argue that the PTA has become not so much a group advancing its members’ interests but rather one operating as an adjunct of schools and seeking to change the views of its members.
In Wake County, North Carolina, the PTA Council&#8217;s office is located at the school system&#8217;s headquarters complex.
On Saturday, the Wake PTA Council held a conference for parents on topics such as <a href="https://ladyliberty1885.com/2021/03/13/wake-county-pta-council-holding-diversity-and-equity-inclusion-conference/">&#8220;Transgender 101,”</a> &#8220;Becoming an LGBTQ+ Youth Ally,” and &#8220;how to embrace diversity equity and inclusion through cultural competencies,&#8221; journalist A.P. Dillon reported.
The keynote speaker at the &#8220;Diversity and Equity Inclusion Conference&#8221; was the past president of the organization, who has also run trainings for Raleigh Organizing Against Racism and served as chair of a National PTA committee.
PTA dues fund such events. The North Carolina statewide PTA organization had nearly $500,000 in assets in the year ending June 2019. It spent more than $137,000 on conferences and $20,000 on lobbying that year, but gave out only $12,500 in grants, Dillon reported.
These groups appear to be following cues from their parent organization, the National PTA.
In December, the National PTA wrote to then-president elect Joe Biden’s transition team letting him know that “National PTA has engaged in, and is committed to, deep, program-wide work and advocating on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) for parents and students alike. We fully embrace this belief and the work of over 22,000 PTAs around the country reflects the importance of equity both inside and outside the classroom.”
“National PTA believes that it is our duty to <a href="https://www.pta.org/home/advocacy/ptas-positions/Individual-Position-Statements/position-statement---addressing-systemic-or-institutional-racism">disrupt</a> the systems that propagate institutional racism. We call upon our PTA members to listen, educate and advocate to demand meaningful change to end institutional racism. Our efforts must be intentional, purposeful and relentless,” it says.
The National PTA says &#8220;Race and bias affects everyone&#8221; and encourages parents to read an article called &#8220;Your <a href="/www.pta.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/how-to-talk-about-race-justice-in-americaaa2a48f1aa3e63899f67ff00009b2bd9.pdf">5-Year Old Is Already Racially Biased</a>, Here&#8217;s What You Can Do About It.&#8221;
Are parents asking the PTA to accuse their young children of racism?
Elena Fishbein, a former social worker who is now president of a parents’ education advocacy group called <a href="https://noleftturn.us/">No Left Turn in Education</a>, says the PTA is encouraging activity from which most parents would want to protect their children.
Fishbein told The Daily Wire that she has seen “equity” lesson plans in which teachers are told to expect that kids will feel sad, helpless and traumatized because of what they hear. She said she has spoken to parents whose children did have such reactions and likened it to the abuse and trauma she saw as a social worker.
“The emotional abuse that kids of all colors undergo hearing constant talk of oppression in nearly every class — what kind of emotion does that stir among kids? What kind of relationship do you think any kid identified by the color of their skin can have with someone else?” she asked.
“It’s shoved on them by the schools. This is not being asked for by any significant number of parents,” she said. “Which parent would want this for their kid?”
This is the first in a three-part series on the Parent Teacher Association.
<ul>
<li>Wednesday: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-the-pta-sold-out-parents-for-politics">How The PTA Sold Out Parents During Schools&#8217; Biggest Crisis</a></li>
<li>Thursday: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/teachers-unions-infiltrate-pta">Teachers Union Honchos Infiltrate PTAs, Depriving Parents Of Their Own Group</a></li>
</ul>
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1616274728675000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHWUh6MSSHlD5wNlIWAJsno7wfHmw">member</a>.

With Children Fully Indoctrinated, Schools Have A New Target: Parents

Public schools are increasingly using their taxpayer-funded budgets to attempt to shape the views of adults who live nearby.

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/with-children-fully-indoctrinated-schools-have-a-new-target-parents/

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Loudoun County, Virginia’s school superintendent said Friday that the First Amendment prevents him from doing anything about teachers&#8217; involvement in a secret enemies list targeting parents who are concerned that the schools’ “equity” policies amount to political indoctrination.
But earlier this month, a member of the school board’s Equity Committee proposed banning students from wearing clothing with a Donald Trump insignia, asking to make “a system-wide ruling and write that into the policy.” And the superintendent last year played a key role in a proposed policy that would have explicitly stripped staff of their constitutional rights to ensure that they conformed with “equity” policies. 
The Daily Wire&#8217;s March 16 expose, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-teachers-target-parents-critical-race-theory-hacking">&#8220;Teachers Compile List Of Parents Who Question Racial Curriculum, Plot War On Them,&#8221;</a> documented how members of a Facebook group that included current and former teachers, among others, intended to take action against parents who were critical, skeptical or even neutral about the schools’ focus on race. A call to action pledged to &#8220;Infiltrate&#8230; shut down their websites… expose these people publicly.&#8221; 
On March 19, Interim Superintendent Scott Ziegler sent a message to all parents in response, titled &#8220;Rumors Concerning LCPS Equity Work.&#8221;
&#8220;It has come to my attention that individuals, including some identifying themselves as LCPS employees, have made statements across social media about parents and their thoughts about the school division’s equity work. LCPS recognizes the right of its employees to free speech, but does not condone anyone targeting members of the community for their viewpoint,&#8221; the message read.
&#8220;In explaining LCPS’ equity priorities, it might be helpful to state what they are not. They are not an effort to indoctrinate students and staff into a particular philosophy or theory. What they are is an effort to provide a welcoming, inclusive, affirming environment for all students,&#8221; it added.
Loudoun officials’ concern about the Constitution and desire to be welcoming, however, appears to be selective.
On September 22, 2020, Ziegler — who at the time led the human resources division — <a href="https://www.loudountimes.com/news/possible-changes-to-lcps-professional-conduct-policy-prompt-backlash/article_348ac8f8-08fd-11eb-a73c-671c4189c2ba.html">presented a policy</a> to the school board that would have banned school staff from disagreeing with the school system’s views on “systemic racism” and other racial issues, even off-campus.
&#8220;An employee’s First Amendment right to engage in protected speech&#8230; may be outweighed by the school division’s interest in&#8230; [protecting] class equity, racial equity, and the goal to root out systemic racism,” said the <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/jnswire/jns-media/0e/61/11477272/policydraft.pdf">draft policy</a>.
“Actions that are not in alignment with the school division’s commitment to action-oriented equity practices” include “off-campus speech, social media posts, and any other telephonic or electronic communication.” Any employees who “have witnessed such conduct, should notify their supervisor immediately.”
Faced with withering <a href="https://thenewamerican.com/virginia-school-board-pauses-plan-to-punish-teachers-who-criticize-critical-race-theory/">criticism</a>, the school board did not adopt the policy. But this was not apparently because the school system had a newfound understanding of the Constitution. 
On March 4, at the most recent meeting of the school board’s Equity Committee, which consists of both school board members and citizens, member Tara Hewan called for the school system to ban students from wearing materials related to former President Donald Trump (at 1:11:00 of <a href="https://vimeo.com/519507972">video</a>).
Director of School Administration Douglas Fulton was discussing how equity fits in to &#8220;flexibility in [the] dress code policy by saying that any organization that does represent hate or hate towards others will not be allowed in school because it could create a disruptive environment.&#8221;
Hewan spoke up: “I think, I&#8217;m wondering about the Trump 2020 flag, and how it started off as a, you know, wanting people to vote for Trump, and then I would say after the insurrection that it has became [sic] a symbol of hate. So I&#8217;m just wondering about how we can not necessarily make this about principles, individually trying to determine, but make the, ah, system-wide ruling and write that into the policy,” she said.
There were 24 people on the call, and some nodded, while none interjected to express disagreement.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/citing-fear-that-someone-might-fly-a-qanon-flag-county-proposes-rules-that-restrict-american-flags">Citing Fear That Someone Might Fly A ‘QAnon Flag,’ County Proposes Rules That Restrict American Flags</a>
Fulton said Ziegler might take similar action on his own. “We can bring that back to the committee. I would say some of this may come more from a superintendent&#8217;s directive, because those can occur after a policy has been put into place. And that the superintendent has a feeling that it&#8217;s becoming disruptive maybe it can come from a message from the superintendent.”
Hewan replied, “When we&#8217;re thinking about identity-affirming spaces, we also have an obligation to really attend to our students who have been marginalized, especially historically marginalized, so I could see that that expression makes students feel uncomfortable and it&#8217;s a marginalization and oppressive language.” 
Brenda Sheridan, the chairwoman of the full school board, replied, “Thank you.”
In addition to serving on the committee of &#8220;citizens,&#8221; Hewan worked for LCPS as a professional “equity specialist” until last year, when she took the same job for neighboring Fairfax County. Hewan&#8217;s new supervisor described her as showing &#8220;<a href="https://www.fcps.edu/aggregator/sources/4">grace</a>, consciousness and humility&#8221; and coming &#8220;from a place of reality.&#8221;
The Daily Wire’s story detailed how after Beth Barts, a far-left school board member, was disciplined by colleagues for her social media conduct, she sought refuge in a private Facebook group called “Anti-Racist Parents of Loudoun County,” where she encouraged others to “call out statements and actions that undermine our stated plan to end systemic racism.” After members began naming parents, she wrote, &#8220;Thank you for stepping up. Silence is complicity.&#8221;
Barts also doxxed at least one parent off of Facebook, according to an email newly obtained by The Daily Wire. On March 13, Barts wrote to the Equity Committee for that purpose, while claiming that she was doing so not as an elected representative, but “as a parent… This is why I am using my personal email.” 
“The group [Parents Against Critical Theory] (P.A.C.T)  has become bolder in the last few months. They post in many parent forums,” she wrote, before naming a parent who she said had donated $1,000 to the group. “I refuse to stand by as a parent in LCPS and not call this out. Without a clear rebuttal the general public will continue to hear from this group and form opinions based on misinformation. Silence is complicity.”
Ziegler’s message to parents in response to the furor over the enemies list said that &#8220;LCPS has not adopted Critical Race Theory as a framework for staff to adhere to&#8230;. but does have a <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C-g24K0U2-jwyyhPeCmX6b6oe9cM0mcYD3veFB292lk/edit#heading=h.cah3njfbhkod">Culturally Responsive Framework</a>.&#8221; That 28-page document echoes key critical race theory concepts and was written in part by Hewan.
His response also sent readers to a web page about the schools&#8217; <a href="https://www.lcps.org/equityoverview">Equity</a> program, which under the header &#8220;Resource [sic] for LCPS Community,&#8221; linked to sources like Learning for Justice (previously Teaching Tolerance), which offers a lesson plan called &#8220;Critical Race Theory,&#8221; and to a National Museum of African American History and Culture site with pages for educators such as one called &#8220;Whiteness,&#8221; a key critical race theory term. It also linked to a list of books such as &#8220;How to Be Antiracist,&#8221; by Ibram X. Kendi, a well-known <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-the-cure-for-racism-really-more-racism-11602535839">practitioner</a> of critical race theory.
His full statement is below:
<blockquote>Dear LCPS Community,
Today, I am releasing the Interim Superintendent’s Update: Rumors Concerning LCPS Equity Work. I hope this statement will help to clarify many of the misperceptions being reported by certain media outlets and social media and reemphasize our commitment to equity for all LCPS students and staff.
In recent days, media reports and social media posts have sought to distort the equity work by Loudoun County Public Schools. Misconceptions and misinformation persist. I want to take a moment to clarify LCPS’ efforts to ensure every student, employee and member of the community is treated in an equitable, respectful manner.
In explaining LCPS’ equity priorities, it might be helpful to state what they are not. They are not an effort to indoctrinate students and staff into a particular philosophy or theory. What they are is an effort to provide a welcoming, inclusive, affirming environment for all students.
LCPS’ equity plan is outlined on the <a href="https://www.lcps.org/equityoverview">Equity webpage</a> on the LCPS website.
LCPS is not alone in this work. The <a href="http://www.virginiaisforlearners.virginia.gov/edequityva/">Virginia Department of Education</a> and school divisions across the Commonwealth and America are engaged in similar efforts.
To start the process to improve its learning environment, LCPS hired The Equity Collaborative in 2019 to perform a <a href="https://www.lcps.org/cms/lib/VA01000195/Centricity/domain/60/equity_initiative_documents/LCPS_Equity_Report_FINALReport12_2_19.pdf">Systemic Equity Assessment</a>. This assessment asked students, parents and educators about their experiences with LCPS based on social and cultural factors and their race. The assessment, submitted to the school division in June 2019, identified five barriers that could prevent students from attaining the world-class education LCPS strives to provide. These barriers included race, poverty, learning disabilities, academic expectations and discipline practices. Of these five factors, the assessment identified race as the most prevalent problem.
Areas where LCPS was found to need improvement included accountability, hiring practices and professional development. The Equity Collaborative recommended professional development for staff in the area of recognizing the social and cultural differences in our diverse student body. Professional development was undertaken using both nationally recognized consultants and LCPS staff trained to facilitate such work. The goal of this work was to raise the racial consciousness and equity literacy of LCPS’ staff.
The professional development offered to LCPS employees explores issues that have traditionally been ignored in professional development. It asks employees to examine their own personal biases and how they might affect student instruction and interactions with the community. Concepts such as white supremacy and systemic racism are discussed during professional development. LCPS has not adopted Critical Race Theory as a framework for staff to adhere to. Social media rumors that staff members have been disciplined or fired for not adhering to the tenets of Critical Race Theory or for refusing to teach this theory are not true.
It should be noted that students do not receive equity training. LCPS has not adopted a uniform equity curriculum, but does have a <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C-g24K0U2-jwyyhPeCmX6b6oe9cM0mcYD3veFB292lk/edit#heading=h.cah3njfbhkod">Culturally Responsive Framework</a>. This framework speaks to providing a welcoming, affirming environment and developing cultural competence through culturally responsive instruction, deeper learning, equitable classroom practices and social-emotional needs for a focus on the whole child. Individual schools incorporate these best practices to meet the needs of their school community. This framework is in-line with emerging guidance from the Commonwealth of Virginia and <a href="https://www.virginiaisforlearners.virginia.gov/cultural-competence/">Virginia Department of Education</a>.
LCPS’ work on equity is a journey that requires the commitment of staff at all levels. I feel the staffs’ work, which has been sustained, honest and undertaken in good faith, has been misrepresented recently by some members of the public.
It has come to my attention that individuals, including some identifying themselves as LCPS employees, have made statements across social media about parents and their thoughts about the school division’s equity work. LCPS recognizes the right of its employees to free speech, but does not condone anyone targeting members of the community for their viewpoint.
LCPS remains committed to its equity work. At the outset, we knew this work would create many hard, but necessary, conversations. I ask only that these conversations be based in fact. In the near future, LCPS will be sharing more communications about our equity work so that our community has a deeper understanding of the journey we are on to provide the best education for all of our students.“
Best wishes,
Scott A. Ziegler, Ed.D. 
Interim Superintendent</blockquote>
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Trump 2020 Flag

Loudoun Says Teachers Who Attack Parents Protected By Free Speech, Mulls Banning Trump Flags

First Amendment

Free Speech

Loudoun County

Loudoun County, Virginia’s school superintendent said Friday that the First Amendment prevents him from doing anything about teachers&#039; involvement in a secret enemies list targeting parents. But a member of the school board’s Equity Committee proposed banning students from wearing clothing with Donald Trump insignia, asking to make “a system-wide ruling and write that into the policy.”

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-teachers-attack-parents-protected-free-speech-mulls-banning-trump-flags/

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Classroom

Teachers Compile List Of Parents Who Question Racial Curriculum, Plot War On Them

A group of current and former teachers and others in Loudoun County, Virginia compiled a lengthy list of parents suspected of disagreeing with school system actions, including its teaching of controversial racial concepts — with a stated purpose in part to “infiltrate,” use “hackers&quot; to silence parents&#039; communications, and “expose these people publicly.”

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-teachers-target-parents-critical-race-theory-hacking/

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The wife of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio wants citizens to personally &#8220;physically intervene&#8221; to stop violent crimes, nine months after she <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/06/09/chirlane-mccray-was-behind-decision-to-shift-nypd-funding/">convinced her husband</a> to get aboard the &#8220;defund the police&#8221; movement by redirecting money from police to “youth initiatives and social services.”
Shootings in New York City <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/01/06/nyc-shootings-and-homicides-soared-in-2020-crime-data-shows/">doubled</a> in 2020 and were up <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/03/04/nyc-shootings-surged-in-february-despite-snowfall-nypd/">75 percent</a> last month compared to a year prior. Burglaries have also increased, and violent, unprovoked crimes against Asians have become endemic.
&#8220;As attacks on Asian American communities continue, we’re asking New Yorkers to show up for their neighbors and intervene when witnessing hateful violence or harassment. I know that can be frightening when you aren’t sure what to do or say, but you can learn,&#8221; New York City’s First Lady Chirlane McCray <a href="https://twitter.com/NYCFirstLady/status/1368269969293799424">wrote</a> on Twitter March 6. &#8220;Fear is a normal feeling when stepping into a confrontation, but being prepared can help.&#8221;
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As attacks on Asian American communities continue, we’re asking New Yorkers to show up for their neighbors and intervene when witnessing hateful violence or harassment. I know that can be frightening when you aren’t sure what to do or say, but you can learn.
&mdash; Chirlane McCray (@NYCFirstLady) <a href="https://twitter.com/NYCFirstLady/status/1368269969293799424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 6, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
She suggested that witnesses step into the middle of a “hate crime or incident” and engage directly with the person who is being targeted by asking a question like, &#8220;What time is it?&#8221;
She also advised that witnesses “respond directly to the aggressor or physically intervene and only after assessing the situation. Be confident, assertive, calm. This is risky, but sometimes all we can do is speak up.”
They could also &#8220;support a person in crisis by recording on your phone&#8221; and &#8220;check in with the survivor after the incident. This shows them that they are valued.&#8221;
Her remarks came about a week after Yong Zheng was killed in Brooklyn intervening in <a href="https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2021/03/03/yong-zheng-brooklyn-memorial/">just such a situation</a>, attempting to help a stranger, who was also Asian, whom he saw being robbed.
McCray, a major figure in city government in her own right, has frequently decried anti-black racism and has a fractured relationship with the city&#8217;s police. In April de Blasio named his wife, who is black, as co-chair of the city&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bill-de-blasio-picks-wife-to-head-new-coronavirus-task-force-on-racial-inclusion-and-equity">Task Force on Racial Inclusion and Equity</a>.
In June, de Blasio put her in charge of a &#8220;Commission on Racial Justice and Reconciliation&#8221; that will examine whether monuments and buildings honoring founding fathers like <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/06/19/chirlane-mccray-will-judge-nyc-washington-jefferson-statues/">George Washington</a> and Thomas Jefferson should be removed or renamed because of their association with slavery, the New York Post reported.
That came after she overrode residents&#8217; vote to erect a statue honoring Mother Frances Cabrini, an Italian-American nun. The statue would have been just one of seven, three of whom were black. McCray said that though the nun “set an example of compassion and leadership that resonates powerfully today&#8230; it will take many more years to correct centuries of neglect and the glaring gender and ethnic imbalance in our public spaces.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/actor-rips-de-blasios-racist-wife-for-snubbing-italian-american-statue-winner-for-more-diverse-women">Actor Rips De Blasio’s ‘Racist’ Wife For Snubbing Italian-American Statue Winner For More ‘Diverse’ Women</a>
NYPD statistics list 20 arrests for alleged anti-Asian hate crimes in 2020. Most of the suspects were black.
On February 25, 2021, 23-year old Salman Mufihi allegedly stabbed a 36-year old Asian man and said, &#8220;If he dies, he dies. I don&#8217;t give a f***,&#8221; <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/26/us/hate-crime-stabbing-attack-asian-man-new-york/index.html">CNN</a> reported. De Blasio called it a &#8220;horrible act of violence against an Asian American man out of nowhere, just pure hatred&#8221; and said &#8220;we have to stop hate.&#8221; Mufihi was not charged with a hate crime.
In 2015, NYPD officers turned their backs to de Blasio outside the funeral of officer Wenjian Liu, who was killed by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who was angry about perceived injustice against blacks and abuses by police. “The man who killed my husband believed the lie told <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-wenjian-liu-widow-speaks-out-support-cops-20201021-barn32xcuneajhbz2gbnufgcca-story.html">by the politicians</a> and the radicals that police are evil,” his widow said.
Activists who have frequently protested police abuse and black oppression have appropriated assaults on Asians to promote their causes, with one group blaming &#8220;white supremacy&#8221; for an alleged black-on-Asian crime. As Intercept reporter Lee Fang noted, New York activists on February 20 held a rally titled, &#8220;End the violence towards Asians: Let&#8217;s united against white nationalism&#8221; in Washington Square Park to attain &#8220;Justice for Vicha Ratanapakdee.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
There’s a “March Against White Nationalism” today in NYC re recent violence against Asians, and this is the social image promoting it. Uhh is there a shred of evidence that 84 year old Vicha Ratanapakdee was killed by “white nationalism”? <a href="https://t.co/rsFW2qZQwx">https://t.co/rsFW2qZQwx</a> <a href="https://t.co/XE3VMv0Uy1">pic.twitter.com/XE3VMv0Uy1</a>
— Lee Fang (@lhfang) <a href="https://twitter.com/lhfang/status/1363247763174035457?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 20, 2021</a></blockquote>
Ratanapakdee, an 84-year old man from Thailand, was killed January 28 as he walked in his San Francisco neighborhood at 8:30am. Antoine Watson, a 19-year old black man, was charged with murder.
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McCray De Blasio

After ‘Defunding The Police,’ NYC First Lady Pleads For Citizens To Intervene In Violent Crimes As Assaults Spike

Amy Cooper

Bill de Blasio

Black Lives Matter

Chirlane McCray

New York City

New York Police Department (NYPD)

The wife of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio wants citizens to personally &quot;physically intervene&quot; to stop violent crimes, nine months after she convinced her Chirlay McCray, wife of New York mayor Bill de Blasio, is asking for citizens to personally intervene in violent crimes, nine months after she convinced her husband to get aboard the &quot;defund the police.&quot;

After ‘Defunding The Police,’ NYC First Lady Pleads For Citizens To Intervene In Violent Crimes As Assaults Spike NYC Asking Citizens To &#039;Physically Intervene&#039; In Crimes After Defunding Police

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/chirlane-mccray-deblasio-asks-citizens-intervene-crime-after-defund-police/

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twitter:image

A Virginia county planning commission will vote Wednesday on restrictions that would ban residents from flying American flags larger than six feet by four feet and from displaying more than two flags.
The Planning Commission of Fairfax County, a 1.1 million-person jurisdiction just outside Washington, D.C., is weighing a plan by staff to limit the size of flags that homeowners may fly to 24 square feet, lower the maximum height of flagpoles to 25 feet, and limit the number of flags to two.
Zoning administrator Leslie Johnson <a href="http://video.fairfaxcounty.gov/player/clip/1991?view_id=10&amp;redirect=true">said</a> February 10 that her agency came up with the plan because the county believes that it may not treat the American flag differently from banners displaying political opinions, and rules that allowed large American flags would also allow flags that could be objectionable. “Somebody may want to fly the Confederate flag, the American flag, the QAnon flag,” she said.
Resident Adrienne Whyte told commissioners in a public comment session, “It seems like a solution in search of a problem,” particularly during a pandemic.
Johnson acknowledged that though flags have largely been exempt from zoning regulations, it had seldom been an issue in the past. “I would note we don’t get a lot of complaints on this, we&#8217;ve had a few&#8230; we&#8217;d be remiss if we didn&#8217;t at least look at this and put some kind of <a href="https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/planning-development/sites/planning-development/files/assets/documents/zmod/flags-pc-presentation.pdf">regulation</a>,” she added.
Resident Bill Denk told the commissioners that to honor his military-vet father, he once flew the flag that adorned his casket. Those flags are five-by-ten and, like the more common five-by-eight flags, would no longer be allowed.
“I do not think any of us would like to envision Fairfax County code compliance officers ripping the American flag from flag poles of individual homeowners because the flag was more than 24 square feet? Or do you?” he asked.
Planning board member Walter Clarke asked, “Since we live in the United States, shouldn’t the United States flag be an exception?”
“If someone&#8217;s national origin is from Australia and they want to fly an Australian or Canadian flag, I don’t know if we can say pick which two flags you want to fly,” Johnson said. “Historically people look at that as an American flag, corporate [city] flag and state flag, but with all of the changes that have occurred&#8230; we felt like we had to make those changes.”
Commissioner Phillip Niedzielski-Eichner said, “I hope to goodness we find a way to exempt our American flag from any suggestion that it&#8217;s comparable to any other flag. I understand the content [neutrality] issue, but particularly in these times where as a country, it’s important that our symbols matter, I hope we don’t make an equivalency between our American flag and all other flags.”
If the planning commission <a href="https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/planningcommission/sites/planningcommission/files/assets/calendar/2021/3-3-21.pdf">approves</a> the restrictions, they will go to the county board of supervisors for county approval.
Fairfax County has increasingly landed in the national spotlight for controversial decisions, including last month, when it hired low-paid &#8220;classroom monitors&#8221; to watch children in school while some teachers, despite having received the coronavirus vaccine, refused to return to work.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/schools-hire-classroom-monitors-to-fill-void-created-by-fully-vaccinated-teachers">Schools Hire ‘Classroom Monitors’ To Fill Void Created By Fully Vaccinated Teachers</a>
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American Flag

Citing Fear That Someone Might Fly A ‘QAnon Flag,’ County Proposes Rules That Restrict American Flags

Patriotism

QAnon

A Virginia county planning commission will vote Wednesday on restrictions that would ban residents from flying American flags larger than six feet by four feet, and from displaying more than two flags.

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/citing-fear-that-someone-might-fly-a-qanon-flag-county-proposes-rules-that-restrict-american-flags/

https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/03/American-Flag-1200x800.jpg

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Luke Rosiak