Month: August 2020

President of Citizens United, David Bossie, on Tuesday pointed out the Democrat Party was abnormally obsessed with President Donald Trump during their national convention.

“The one thing that the American people are going to take from this week is that the Democrats have no positive policy agenda for the American people,” Bossie said. “All they have … is their hatred for this president.”

Bossie, who serves as an advisor for President Trump’s re-election campaign, discussed the conventions during an interview with Breitbart News Political Editor Matthew Boyle on Breitbart News Tonight on Sirius/XM Patriot 125.

The two exchanged their views as the second night of the Democrat convention unfolded.

“These losers have nothing else to offer the American people, they hate this president, they hate him viscerally, they hate him with every fiber of their being, and they will do whatever it takes,” Bossie continued.

He mocked the Democrat Party for bringing out old political figures like John Kerry and Chuck Schumer to speak to voters.

“This is a travesty for the American people that they have to watch the same old politicians being trotted out,” he said.

He also ripped the corporate media for giving the speakers and the convention rave reviews despite an increasingly negative tone.

“The mainstream media, they’ve just lied for the last five years about Donald Trump, they’ve really become a Super PAC for the Democrats,” he said.

The Tennessee Department of Education has withdrawn a $1 million effort to perform “child wellbeing checks” during school shutdowns after parental uproar.

The program received quick and sharp condemnation from members of the Tennessee legislature and parents across the state as a vehicle of government intrusion and overreach.

“The Department of Education has withdrawn an optional toolkit that helps guide public school districts in addressing the needs of vulnerable students who are facing extended time away from the classroom,” spokesman Gillum Ferguson told the Center Square. “There is not a program or any sort of check-in being administered. This optional guidance is being re-written to make this clear.”

Ferguson added the child wellbeing initiative is not a program intended for homeschoolers or independent schools.

The goal of the original program, a creation of a 38-member Child Wellbeing Task Force, was for every child in the state, from age birth to 18, to receive a “well-being check” via email, phone call, or home visit.

“The Child Wellbeing Task Force will work to ensure that the needs of Tennessee children are met during and after extended periods away from school, and to empower local communities to meaningfully engage in ways that support child wellbeing,” said Commissioner Penny Schwinn, who was charged with developing the initiative by Gov. Bill Lee (R).

The Center Square reported:

According to original guidelines, a well-being check could include an email, phone call or a home visit from a well-being liaison. Well-being liaisons would need a parent’s permission to speak with a child, and if a parent refused, the refusal would be noted in a database. Local education agencies would implement the initiative and report aggregated data back to the state Child Wellbeing Task Force.

On August 12, Tennessee state Rep. Scott Cepicky (R) posted to Facebook:

Today our education committee was informed of this well-being program. We firmly oppose this type of data collection and overreach by the state government. We are working right now to get a repeal of this program. This mandate from the government coming in and talking to our children is totally unacceptable and I will work to oppose any form of this program being forced on our children and families. If you are asked to participate in this program please let me know.

On Thursday, Cepicky followed up with the announcement the original “Child Wellbeing” check initiative had been withdrawn:

To all concerned citizens in regards to the Well being checks program. Thank you all for your steadfastness in getting this program reversed. The protection of your privacy and liberty are my major focus. As always, we will stay on guard and be vigilant when the new information is rolled out.

Some state and national health leaders have encouraged a return to in-person learning at schools this fall by observing that many child abuse reports are initiated by school personnel and that some children from low-income families receive meals at school.

“The danger to our children is not being in school,” Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told Fox News Channel’s Fox News @ Night in July:

The danger to their health is not being in school. Our kids get health care, they get mental health services, they — many of them get nutrition services, they get — mandatory reporting of child and sex abuse from school officials comes there. That’s in addition to the social, physical, and intellectual development these children need from being in a physical education environment. The health risk to them of not being in school are — definitely outweigh the risks of being back at school.

Kerry McDonald, a senior education fellow at the Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE), wrote Monday that as remote learning becomes more commonplace, school and state officials “are clinging to control however they can”:

From sending Child Protective Services (CPS) agents to investigate charges of neglect in homes where children missed Zoom classes last spring, to proposing “child wellbeing checks” in homes this fall, government schools and related agencies are panicking over parents having increased influence over their children’s care and education during the pandemic.

McDonald noted a 2018 report by the Hechinger Report and HuffPost, that revealed “schools increasingly use child protective services as a ‘weapon against parents’ — especially parents who lack the means to fight back.”

With more school districts adopting virtual or remote learning models due to continued fears about the coronavirus, she expects more parents of children who miss their online classes will be the subjects of criminal investigations into child neglect, and cited the Tennessee “child wellbeing checks.”

“As parents pull away from state-controlled education and assume greater responsibility for their children’s learning, the state will hasten efforts to maintain and expand its authority through its monopoly on the use of force,” McDonald added. “From virtual truancy claims and increased CPS investigations that disproportionately target poor parents and families of color, to calls for child wellbeing checks and more homeschooling regulations, the state will not willingly yield control of children’s education to parents.”

Christian leader Rev. Franklin Graham announced he will hold a Prayer March in Washington, DC, on September 26.

“I hope thousands of Americans who believe in the power of prayer will join me,” he tweeted Wednesday.

Graham continued, “Our country is in trouble like we haven’t seen before in our lifetime.”

“We have no hope, outside of God,” he said. “We will not make it unless God’s people call on His Name for help.”

Graham, the president of Samaritan’s Purse, an international disaster relief ministry, expressed concern that, each day, Americans hear about more “destruction and violence related to protests and riots.”

He tweeted the story of Black Lives Matter and Antifa rioters in Portland who dragged a white man from his vehicle Sunday and beat him until he was unconscious.

Last week, the evangelical leader said it “should be a great concern to all Christians” that pro-life leaders are labeling former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris as “the most pro-abortion presidential ticket in the history of our nation.”

“Join me in Washington, DC, for Prayer March 2020 on September 26 at noon,” Graham invited, “as we begin at the Lincoln Memorial and end at the Capitol. We’re going to pray for America, its leaders, and for God to intervene and save this nation.”

Kevin Hart knows what it feels like to be “cancelled.” The actor-comedian was invited to host the Oscars two years ago but was forced to step down before the job even began after the media dug through his old tweets and accused him of homophobia. Now Hart is hitting back at cancel culture’s practitioners, saying they leave no room for growth or redemption.

“We’re letting people control and dictate the start and finish of people’s lives,” Hart said in an interview with Deadline. “If people [have done something] wrong, the idea of canceling those people, and ending whatever career or thing they have…If it’s just over, then what’s the teachable moment for them? What, it’s over, and then you can’t do nothing else for the rest of your life, because you made a mistake?”

Kevin Hart spoke to Deadline to promote his Emmy chances for his Netflix special Kevin Hart: Don’t F**k This Up. But the lengthy conversation turned toward more controversial subjects including cancel culture and his friend Ellen DeGeneres, who is facing her own cancel mob.

Hart said that cancel culture doesn’t allow people to make mistakes and to learn from those mistakes.

What happened to the days of making a mistake, learning from the mistake, not doing that, and educating others on what not to do because of your mistakes? Isn’t that parenting? Isn’t that the world of raising a kid? How do you know what to tell your kid to do or not to do? You have to be in a position of experience to say, “Don’t touch that stove because it’s hot,” because you touched it when it was hot. I can’t give you that lesson if I don’t have the experience. “Hey, in the corporate world, this is how you move and maneuver, and you make sure you do it accordingly. You make sure that you treat every woman with respect. You make sure that you do not act a certain way in this and that,” and it’s based off of what? Knowledge, experience. It’s based off of growth. It’s based off understanding.

Hart is the latest comedian to publicly denounce cancel culture. Fellow funny men Ricky Gervais, Dave Chappelle, John Cleese, and Eddie Murphy have all spoken out against the left-wing phenomenon.

The comedian also struck an apologetic note when asked about the Oscars dust-up from 2018. “I think that my cockiness got in the way,” he said, referring to his initial refusal to apologize and bow to the cancel mob. “I think that my apology for my past remarks would’ve come sooner, instead of me thinking that people still had the wrong idea.”

He added: ” My growth and progression, after mishap and mistake, is one that’s on display as well, but I think here, what helped me was just being vulnerable and real.”

Hart also defended his friend Ellen DeGeneres, whose long-running daytime talk show has come under fire from former employees who alleged a toxic work culture where some were sexually harassed and assaulted. He also defended Nick Cannon, who was recently fired by ViacomCBS for making anti-semitic comments.

“Well, I don’t lose sight of the definition of friendship, and in our business, it’s one thing that people don’t really hold on to,” he said. “When it comes to Nick, and it comes Ellen, I know who they are, and I know who they’ve been for the years that I’ve been around them, and I can only speak to that. Those are two of the most amazing people that I know.”

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