California Will Fine Schools That Ban Books About Race, LGBTQ+ Issues

 

On Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a bill into law that will fine schools that ban textbooks based on their teachings on race, sexual orientation and gender identity. 

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The legislation, AB 1078, will punish school boards that choose to reject these kinds of textbooks for their students. Newsom called the measure “long overdue,” according to NBC News.

“From Temecula to Tallahassee, fringe ideologues across the country are attempting to whitewash history and ban books from schools. With this new law, we’re cementing California’s role as the true freedom state: a place where families — not political fanatics — have the freedom to decide what’s right for them,” Newsom said in a statement. 

On X, formerly known as Twitter, Newsom said that Republicans are pushing “extremist book bans” and described it as “discriminatory.”

CA has now banned the extremist book bans the GOP are pushing.

We will be fining schools that block textbooks and school library books for discriminatory reasons.https://t.co/tPA4z0Uvih

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) September 26, 2023

In a video signing the bill, Newsom said that it’s “remarkable that we’re living in a country right now in this banning binge” and said that school boards are “banning books, banning free speech, criminalizing librarians and teachers.”

California is banning book bans and textbook censorship in our schools.

In partnership with @AsmCoreyJackson and @TonyThurmond, we’re cementing CA's role as the true freedom state: a place where families—not political fanatics—have the freedom to decide what’s right. pic.twitter.com/0br2MQN2rm

— Office of the Governor of California (@CAgovernor) September 26, 2023

Townhall previously reported how Newsom announced that his administration will fine a school district $1.5 million after its school board voted to reject state-endorsed curriculum that includes a biography of a gay rights leader. 

In an interview this week, Nicki Neily, the president of Parents Defending Education, said that “saying that a sexually explicit book doesn’t belong in an elementary school is not the same as burning a book in Berlin in 1933.”

“We’re seeing activists on the left, teachers unions, politicians really try and muddy the water intentionally to confuse parents,” Neily. 

Saying that a sexually explicit book doesn’t belong in an elementary school is not the same as burning a book in Berlin in 1933.

Activists are intentionally muddying the water to curb parental involvement and gain more control.

📺@jsolomonReports pic.twitter.com/P5qu931XZh

— Nicki Neily (@nickineily) September 26, 2023

This week, it was announced that Newsom would debate GOP Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running for president in 2024, in November.

Major Media Mogul Headed to See the Disaster at the Border

 

Elon Musk, the owner of giant social media platform “X” (formerly known as Twitter), is headed to the U.S. southern border with Mexico as the illegal immigration crisis continues to get worse by the hour. 

I spoke with Rep Tony Gonzales tonight – he confirmed that it is a serious issue.

They are being overwhelmed by unprecedented numbers – just hit an all-time high and still growing!

Am going to visit Eagle Pass later this week to see what’s going on for myself.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 26, 2023

“Should be an interesting visit,” Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales, who represents Congressional District 23 along the border, tells Townhall. 

In recent days Musk has expressed concern and outrage over the ongoing catastrophe, which is playing out at the border and in cities across the country. He also lamented a lack of media coverage and vowed to amplify the situation with his platform. 

This is a severe crisis https://t.co/9JHpAQX2ma— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 26, 2023

!! https://t.co/4z6Iqeiwtj— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 22, 2023

Strange that there is almost no legacy media coverage of this.

About 2 million people – from every country on Earth – are entering through the US southern border every year.

The number is rising rapidly, yet no preventive action is taken by the current administration. https://t.co/EF7HTS1ktT— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 20, 2023

Meanwhile, the Texas National Guard continues efforts to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the country while the White House refuses to put a cap on the number of people entering unlawfully. 

REPORTER: “How many people coming into this country is enough for president Biden?”

JEAN-PIERRE: “Enough for what?” pic.twitter.com/4Awzvx5dQS— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 21, 2023

House Judiciary Hearing Highlights Surging Violent Crime in Chicago

 

On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing focused on violent crime in Chicago, Illinois. Three individuals who’ve seen Chicago’s crime crisis firsthand shared their shocking experiences with members of Congress.

Fox News commentator Gianno Galdwell spoke at the hearing. Last year, he lost his younger brother in a shooting in Chicago.

“I truly wish that it was not my place to be before you today. But, I believe I have no choice,” Caldwell said in the hearing. “I unfortunately understand the pain of thousands of victims whose families have been destroyed. On June 24 of last year, I received a call that my innocent teenage baby brother Christian had been murdered. Shot down in the street by a stranger…the police have repeatedly said that my brother was not the target, that he just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. But in Chicago, being at the wrong place at the wrong time could be sleeping in your bed and a bullet comes through your window.”

.@GiannoCaldwell lost his innocent teenage brother to Chicago’s violent crime crisis.

Listen to his powerful testimony ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/VHZVTig5lX— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) September 26, 2023

“Soft on crime policies come with a mentality, where criminals just simply take over and they have no fear or regard for repercussions of breaking the law. We have to change that immediately…law and order is the only way we’re going to change the situation here in the city of Chicago,” he continued, adding that many Democratic politicians who said “Black Lives Matter” did not show up to the hearing.

Later in the hearing, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) asked if “what we’ve seen from prosecutors who don’t charge cases appropriately” has made it more difficult to get witnesses of violent crime to come forward. 

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“Do the witnesses potentially fear that despite their participation in the criminal justice system, they might be subject to some retaliation?” he pressed.

“Definitely, 100 percent,” Chicago Police Officer Carlos Yanez, Jr. answered. “You know, especially with this cash bond, you’re going to be releasing offenders and the first thing their lawyer tells them is, ‘there’s no victim, no witness, there’s no crime.’ So all they’re going to do is retaliate and threaten and at worst, maybe kill some of these re-victims – they’re going to basically re-victimize these victims and witnesses so they don’t have to have a trial or court.”

Yanez is a victim of violent crime himself. On Aug. 7, 2021, Yanez and other police officers were fired upon by a repeat offender during a traffic stop. The criminal had acquired the weapon through a straw purchaser. He killed one police officer, Ella Grace French, 29, and shot Yanez five times, four of which were aimed at his head. Yanez lost his vision in one eye, some hearing in both ears, and is partially paralyzed on the left side of his body.

🎥 Retired Chicago Police Officer Carlos Yanez, Jr. outlines how violent crime has destroyed communities in Chicago. pic.twitter.com/g2WXKM8EeI— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) September 26, 2023

“What would you do to warn other communities about some of the early things that they would want to rebuff so that their streets aren’t turned over to the criminals like Chicago’s have been,” Gaetz asked. 

“It’s very difficult because I would also fear for their safety,” Yanez said. “After the incident that happened to me, I had my family, and me, move out of the city…I just felt like I couldn’t protect my family the way that I used to, if that answers your question.”

Retired Chicago Police Lt. John Garrido chimed in.

“At the very basis of it, is to pay attention to who they’re voting for,” Garrido, who served in the police force for over 30 years, said. “It’s the mayor, the prosecutors, our judges, our legislators, even our alderman…it’s become such a cesspool of ill intent. It makes no sense when people are repeatedly voting against their interests and putting people in place that are having such a negative impact on our communities and it just almost appears as though everybody’s somewhat blind to it.”

Caldwell pointed out, “if the leadership doesn’t start changing, if the folks in Chicago don’t start voting differently and demanding justice instead of becoming numb to what we see is a daily slaughter, then we can’t get anything done.” 

Last week, Townhall reported how an Illinois law took effect that eliminated cash bail entirely in the state. Going forward, people charged with the state’s lowest level offenses will most likely never set foot in a jail cell, including at a police station, after their arrest. They will likely be released with a citation and a court date. Law enforcement will be allowed to take certain individuals into custody if they cannot be properly identified or if they believe the person is a danger to the community. Police will be required to explain why the person was held. Opponents of the legislation pointed out that violent criminals could slip through the cracks.

“On the first day of no-cash bail last week, individuals charged with violent crimes were released without any restrictions. Two people were charged with robbery and a guy was accused of punching a Chicago police officer in the face…another offender was sent home without any restrictions after being accused of attacking four police officers and sending two to the hospital,” Garrido explained.

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Lt. John Garrido has seen Chicago’s crime crisis firsthand. Unfortunately, it will only get worse until the city BACKS THE BLUE and supports its officers. pic.twitter.com/nbTqTuOwb3— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) September 26, 2023

“Despite Gov. Pritzker’s and the Democrats’ assurances that the SAFE-T Act would not result in the release of violent offenders, initial reports tell us a different story. The first individual released under this new policy had been arrested for pepper spraying four police officers,” Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) said. “The release of such an individual who clearly poses a significant threat to the community without requiring bail, it clearly shows Gov. Pritzker lied to the people of Illinois.”

Post-Postmodern America

 

When the progressive woke revolution took over traditional America, matters soon reached the level of the ridiculous.

Take the following examples of woke craziness and hypocrisy, perhaps last best witnessed during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution.

The Biden administration from its outset wished to neuter immigration law. It sought to alter radically the demography of the U.S. by stopping the border wall and allowing into the United States anyone who could walk across the southern border.

Over seven million did just that. Meanwhile, Biden ignored the role of the Mexican cartels in causing nearly 100,000 ANNUAL American fentanyl deaths.

Then border states finally wised up.

They grasped that the entire open-borders, “new Democratic majority” leftwing braggadocio was predicated on its hypocritical architects staying as far away as possible from their new constituents.

So cash strapped border states started busing their illegal aliens to sanctuary blue-state jurisdictions.

Almost immediately, once magnanimous liberals, whether in Martha’s Vineyard, Chicago, or Manhattan, stopped virtue-signaling their support for open borders.

Instead, soon they went berserk over the influx.

So now an embarrassed Biden administration still wishes illegal aliens to keep coming but to stay far away from their advocates—by forcing them to remain in Texas.

That means the president has redefined the US. border. It rests now apparently north of Texas, as Biden cedes sovereignty to Mexico.

Precivilizational greens in California prefer blowing up dams to building them.

They couldn’t care less that their targeted reservoirs help store water in drought, prevent flooding, enhance irrigation, offer recreation, and generate clean hydroelectric power.

Now an absurd green California is currently destroying four dams on the Klamath River. In adding insult to injury, it is paying the half-billion dollar demolition cost in part through a water bond that state voters once thought would build new—not explode existing—dams.

The Biden administration is mandating new dates when electric vehicles will be all but mandatory.

To prove their current viability, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm led a performance art EV caravan on a long road trip.

When she found insufficient charging stations to continue her media stunt, she sent a gas-powered car ahead to block open charging stations and deny them to other EVs ahead in line.

Only that way could Granholm ensure that her arriving energy-starved motorcade might find rare empty charger stalls.

In some California charging stations, diesel generators are needed to produce enough “clean” electricity to power the stalls.

The state has steadily dismantled many of its nuclear, oil, and coal power plants. It refuses to build new natural gas generation plants.

Naturally, California’s heavily subsidized solar and wind plants now produce too much energy during the day and almost nothing at night.

So the state now begs residents to charge their EVs only during the day. Then at night, Californians may soon be asked to plug them in again to transfer what is left in their batteries into the state grid.

Apparently only that way will there be enough expropriated “green” electricity for 41 million state residents after dark.

One of the loudest leftist voices to defund the police, and decriminalize violent crimes in the post-George Floyd era, was Shivanthi Sathanandan, the 2nd Vice Chairwoman of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

She was recently not shy about defunding: “We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department. Say it with me. DISMANTLE.”

But recently the loud Sathanandan was a victim of the very crime wave she helped to spawn.

Four armed thugs carjacked her automobile. They beat her up in front of her children at her own home, and sped off without fear of arrest.

The reaction of the arch police dismantler and decriminalizer on her road to Damascus?

The now bruised and bleeding activist for the first time became livid that criminals had taken over her Minneapolis: “Look at my face. REMEMBER ME when you are thinking about supporting letting juveniles and young people out of custody to roam our streets instead of HOLDING THEM ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS.”

Andrea Smith was an ethnic studies professor at the University of California, Riverside. But now she has been forced out after getting caught lying that she was Native American.

Prior to her outing, she was well known for damning “white women” (like herself) who opted to “become Indians” out of guilt, and (like her) for careerist advantage.

The common theme of these absurdities is how contrary to human nature, impractical, and destructive is utopian wokism, whether in matters of energy, race, crime, or illegal immigration.

There are two other characteristics of the Woke Revolution.

One, it depends solely on its advocates never having to experience firsthand any of the nonsense they inflict on others.

And two, dangerous zealots with titles before, and letters after, their names prove to be quite stupid—and dangerous.

Two Sets of Laws for Two Americas

 

Two sets of laws now operate in an increasingly unrecognizable America.

Consider the matter of unlawfully removing and storing classified papers.

Donald Trump may go to prison for removing contested White House files to his home.

So far Joe Biden seems exempt from just such legal jeopardy.

But as a senator and Vice President with no right, as does a president, to declassify files, Biden removed and, as a private citizen kept for years classified files in unsecure locations.

Biden’s team strangely revealed the unlawful removals after years of silence.

It did so because the Biden administration found itself in the untenable position of prosecuting the former president for “crimes” that the current president committed as well—albeit far earlier and longer.

Impeachable phone calls?

Donald Trump was impeached by a Democratic House for delaying foreign aid until the Ukrainian government guaranteed that Hunter Biden and his family were no longer engaged in corrupt influence peddling in Kyiv.

In addition, the Left charged that Trump was targeting Joe Biden, his possible 2020 rival.

Yet Biden, with impunity, bragged that he had fired a Ukrainian prosecutor looking into his own son’s schemes by promising to cancel outright American foreign aid.

And the Biden administration’s Justice Department is now targeting Trump, currently the frontrunning challenger to Biden in 2024.

Election denialism?

Trump was indicted by Special Counsel Jack Smith, in part for supposedly conspiratorially “unlawfully discounting legitimate votes.”

Will Smith then also indict Stacey Abrams? For years Abrams falsely claimed that she was the real governor of Georgia. She toured the country in hopes of “discounting” the state vote count.

Or maybe Smith was referring to the conspiracist and former president Jimmy Carter.

He alleged that Trump in 2016 “lost the election, and he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf.”

Will Smith charge Hillary Clinton?

She serially libeled Trump as an “illegitimate” president.

Clinton hatched the Russian collusion hoax, and bragged she joined the “Resistance” to continue her attacks on an elected president.

Or maybe Smith meant the Hollywood crowd.

Lots of actors cut commercials after the 2016 election—begging viewers to pressure the electors to ignore their constitutional duties to honor their states’ popular vote and instead swing their ballots to Hillary Clinton?

Was not that “insurrectionary?”

Or was Smith thinking of January 2005?

Then 32 Democratic House members and Sen. Barbara Boxer tried to nullify the legally certified vote in Ohio—to thereby elect the loser John Kerry.

How about destroying evidence?

Trump was also indicted for allegedly attempting to erase video material from his own cameras in his own house.

Yet Hillary Clinton with impunity eliminated subpoenaed communication devices and thousands of emails.

Violations of security? Trump was indicted for supposedly loosely talking about classified material to visitors at his home.

So will prosecutor Smith’s indictments also extend to Hillary Clinton? She sent classified documents illegally over her unsecure private server.

FBI Director James Comey memorialized a confidential president conversation.

Then he deliberately leaked what properly was a classified document to the media. It was all part of Comey’s Machiavellian gambit to prompt the appointment of a favorable special prosecutor.

What about subversion of the electoral process?

Donald Trump was indicted for supposedly undermining the election of 2020 by questioning the integrity of the balloting.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton’s campaign illegally hired two foreign nationals Christopher Steele and Igor Danchenko to compile falsehoods about her opponent Trump.

Clinton hid her payments behind three paywalls.

Her team, along with the FBI, helped leak the counterfeit dossier to the media and high officials to undermine her opponent—and thus subvert the election itself.

Lying and perjury?

Two Trump aides and Trump himself are indicted for supposedly stonewalling federal investigators by claiming either amnesia or ignorance.

That tact is exactly what James Comey did 245 times while under oath before Congress.

What do former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former Director of the CIA John Brennan, and former interim FBI Director Andrew McCabe all have in common?

All three admitted they flagrantly lied either under oath to Congress or to federal investigators.

The three were never indicted for their false and perjurious testimonies.

We have now serially devolved from the 2016 election “Russian collusion” hoax, to the 2020 election “Russian disinformation” laptop hoax, and down to the 2024 election weaponized indictments.

Out of pathological hatred or fear of Donald Trump, the Left has crafted one set of laws for themselves, and another for all other Americans.

They smugly believe their own moral superiority grants them such a right to apply laws unequally—or to ignore them altogether.

To retain power at all cost, and to destroy a political rival, leftwing Democrats are systematically dismantling the constitutional foundations of the United States as we once knew them.