The president has two faces.


	Here's one paragraph

<blockquote>
	
		My support for Israel’s security is long-standing and unwavering—including its right to defend itself against attacks. &nbsp;Over these recent days, Israel has&nbsp;defended its people from indiscriminate rocket attacks launched by the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the United States is proud of our support for Israel’s&nbsp;Iron-Dome, which intercepted hundreds of rockets and saved countless lives. &nbsp;I commend Prime Minister Yair Lapid and his government’s steady leadership throughout the crisis.&nbsp;
</blockquote>


	Here's the next one

<blockquote>
	
		The reports of civilian casualties in Gaza are a tragedy, whether by Israeli strikes against Islamic Jihad positions or the dozens of Islamic Jihad rockets that reportedly fell inside Gaza. &nbsp;My Administration&nbsp;supports&nbsp;a timely and thorough investigation into all of these reports, and we also call on all parties to fully implement the ceasefire, and to ensure fuel and humanitarian supplies are flowing into Gaza as the fighting subsides.
</blockquote>


	Biden giveth from one side of his mouth and taketh away from the other.


	After supposedly endorsing Israel's right to defend itself, a boilerplate talking point that even Obama regularly brought out, there's a call for "a timely and thorough investigation". Who will be doing the investigating? International bodies? The same State Department smear campaign that occurred during the&nbsp;Shireen Abu Akleh, in which implication and innuendo were used in the absence of evidence?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;


	A statement of support followed by a call for an investigation is self-negating.&nbsp;


	Biden isn't expressing support for Israel. Like Obama, he's cloaking his opposition in generic positive statements while the specifics are a stab on the back.

Biden Calls for Investigation Into Israel Strikes on Terrorists

The president has two faces.


	Here's one paragraph


	
		My support for Israel’s security is long-standing and unwavering—including its right to

Biden Calls for Investigation Into Israel Strikes on Terrorists

The<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/08/06/levin-dynasty-stevens-00049864"> occupation</a> continues.

<blockquote>
	
		"A further irony blossomed on Tuesday night: The Chestnut map has resulted in a general election field where&nbsp;neither&nbsp;Detroit-based seat is likely to elect a Black member of Congress come 2023. Rep.&nbsp;Rashida Tlaib&nbsp;swapped districts to run in the new Southfield-Detroit-Dearborn seat, opening up the 13th district’s Democratic nomination, which was won by Indian American businessman and state Rep. Shri Thanedar. (Indeed, it’s quite possible that the only Black member from Michigan in the next Congress will be a Republican representing a new toss-up district in heavily white suburban Macomb: John James.)"
</blockquote>


	Is that ironic?


	If black congressmembers had been displaced by white Democrats, the media wouldn't be describing it as ironic. But since it's Tlaib who is perpetuating the Arab-Islamic oppression of black people, that's fine.


	And really can't be talked about.


	Tlaib defeated three black candidates, all of them black women, on the back of bloc voting. The black vote was split, the Jihad vote wasn't.&nbsp;


	And so black voters will be disenfranchised in Michigan while the Jihad vote will be super-franchised.&nbsp;

Thanks to Rashida Tlaib, the Only Black Congressman in Michigan May Be a Republican

The occupation continues.


	
		"A further irony blossomed on Tuesday night: The Chestnut map has resulted in a general election field where&nbsp;neither

Thanks to Rashida Tlaib, the Only Black Congressman in Michigan May Be a Republican

It's not just Biden. American companies spend all of their time trying to appease a murderous Communist dictatorship over claims that it has the right to take over another country.


	First up, <a href="https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/05/apple_warns_suppliers_in_taiwan/">obviously Apple</a>, a company that relies on Chinese contractors to produce garbage products that are then oversold at vastly inflated prices&nbsp;to Americans.

<blockquote>
	
		Apple, which celebrates its self-professed commitment to free expression and human rights, has reportedly told its suppliers in Taiwan to label their components so they describe Taiwan as a province of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

	
		According to Japanese financial publication Nikkei, Apple on Friday&nbsp;warned its suppliers&nbsp;that China has ramped up enforcement of a long-standing import rule "that Taiwanese-made parts and components must be labeled as being made either in 'Taiwan, China' or 'Chinese Taipei.'"

	
		The Register&nbsp;asked Apple to comment on this report and the iGiant used its free expression to say nothing. Were Apple to respond, it would presumably say something like, "We follow the law in countries where we do business," or "we were only following orders."
</blockquote>


	And then Warren Buffett's <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/snickers-maker-apologises-advert-suggesting-121850682.html">candy corp</a>.

<blockquote>
	
		Mars Wrigley, maker of the Snickers candy bar, apologised on Friday for a Snickers product launch which Chinese social media users said suggested that Taiwan was a country.

	
		Videos and pictures showing a Snickers website promoting a limited edition Snickers bar and saying the product was only available in the "countries" of South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan triggered an outpour of anger on Chinese microblogging platform Weibo on Friday.

	
		Mars Wrigley later published an apology on its Snickers China Weibo account and said the relevant content had been amended.

	
		"Mars Wrigley respects China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity and conducts its business operations in strict compliance with local Chinese laws and regulations," Mars Wrigley added.

	
		However, the social media backlash did not abate as many users were irate that the U.S. company's statement did not say Taiwan was a part of China, a cornerstone of Chinese foreign policy.

	
		"Say it: Taiwan is an inseparable part of China's territory!" read one comment underneath the post on Snickers China Weibo account that received 8,000 likes.
</blockquote>


	You will kowtow. And then we'll rip you off anyway.


	But at least Mars is <a href="https://www.mars.com/news-and-stories/press-releases/mars-accelerates-work-racial-equity">accelerating</a> work on "racial equity" while it's appeasing a murderous dictatorship bent on invading and conquering another nation.


	&nbsp;

US Companies Can't Stop Appeasing Communist China

It's not just Biden. American companies spend all of their time trying to appease a murderous Communist dictatorship over claims that it has the right to take

US Companies Can't Stop Appeasing Communist China

Florida State Attorney Andrew Warren made a written pledge that he wouldn't enforce state laws transgender child sex mutilation and abortion.


	Gov. DeSantis suspended him. Now the Soros DA is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fired-florida-attorney-being-punished-laws-not-on-books-yet-2022-8">complaining</a> about the "Orwellian thought police".

<blockquote>
	
		Former Florida State Attorney Andrew Warren who was suspended by Gov. Ron DeSantis last week said he's being punished for laws that are not even on the books yet.&nbsp;

	
		"This is Orwellian Thought Police, where I'm being punished for not enforcing laws that are not even on the books yet," Warren told&nbsp;MSNBC's Katie Phang&nbsp;during a Saturday interview.&nbsp;
</blockquote>


	Warren wrote down his "thoughts". That means they're not thoughts anymore, they're formal pledges by an official to disregard the law.&nbsp;


	The Soros DA doesn't actually seem to have read Orwell, which was about a lefty political machine terrorizing everyone, or understand that an official making a formal pledge to do something is not simply a stray thought.


	But Warren doesn't seem to be clear on<a href="https://nypost.com/2022/08/05/desantis-ousted-da-andrew-warren-insists-hes-still-working-despite-suspension/"> how anything works</a>.

<blockquote>
	
		&nbsp;The Florida state attorney suspended by Gov. Ron DeSantis insisted Friday that he still has a job — but the Republican governor’s office said he can’t even get into his old office.

	
		Andrew Warren, who served as Hillsborough County’s top prosecutor until DeSantis&nbsp;announced his ouster Thursday,&nbsp;insisted to CBS that he was still on the job.

	
		“He does not have the authority to suspend me,”&nbsp;he told the network,&nbsp;adding that “the people elected me to serve in this position and I am going to continue doing it to keep our neighborhoods safe.”

	
		Warren asserted that the move was “unconstitutional” and that he refused to recognize its legitimacy.

	
		Those comments drew a Twitter rebuke from DeSantis spokesperson Christina Pushaw Friday, who said Warren was being “delusional.”
</blockquote>


	It's okay. Warren identifies as still being on the job. As long as he thinks so, it's still okay.

Soros DA, Who Refused to Enforce Laws, Accuses Gov. DeSantis of Policing His "Thoughts"

Florida State Attorney Andrew Warren made a written pledge that he wouldn't enforce state laws transgender child sex mutilation and abortion.


	Gov.

Soros DA, Who Refused to Enforce Laws, Accuses Gov. DeSantis of Policing His "Thoughts"

How did De Blasio stay in office for so long? The media covers up the clownish incompetence and lies of elected officials on their side of the aisle until the whole thing hits a critical mass.


	Take this<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/07/eric-adams-texas-migrants-new-york-00050235"> Politico article </a>which describes, with a straight face, Mayor Eric Adams' clowning.&nbsp;


	The background is that Adams falsely accused Gov. Abbott of Texas of sending buses of illegal aliens to New York City. That wasn't actually happening. But in response to the libel, Abbott decided to send a bus to New York City.


	And Adams showed up to grandstand.

<blockquote>
	
		"Mayor Eric Adams condemned Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday for sending buses of asylum seekers to New York City — some of them against their will.

	
		“This is horrific, when you think about what the governor is doing,” Adams said in an early morning visit to the Port Authority bus terminal, where he greeted a bus transporting arriving migrants.

	
		Adams said migrants were being forced onto buses — even if they wanted to go to destinations other than New York. Some were falsely told they would be taken to their desired destination, only to find themselves bound for New York, he said.

	
		“Some of the families are on the bus that wanted to go to other locations, and they were not allowed to do so. They were forced on the bus,” Adams said. “Our goal is to immediately find out each family’s needs and give them the assistance they want.”
</blockquote>


	Here's Politico, casually mentioning in its own story, that Adams is once again lying, and that his staged reception for the illegal aliens was a farce, without coming out and saying it.

<blockquote>
	
		"Fourteen people were dropped off at the bus station Sunday morning, after three days of travel. Adams said officials expected 40 people to be on the bus, but others appear to have gotten off at other stops along the route."
</blockquote>


	Those illegals who were "forced" on the bus to go "where they don't want to" just got off along the way where they wanted to.


	Since we're in New York City, that reminds me of this Seinfeld scene.

<iframe width="541" height="451" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5s7mF3KM5zQ" title="Kramer - people kept ringing the bell!!" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>

<blockquote>
	
		Cosmo Kramer&nbsp;:&nbsp;The bus is outta control. So I grab him by the collar, I take him out of the seat, I get behind the wheel, and now I'm driving the bus.

	
		Jerry&nbsp;:&nbsp;Wow.

	
		George Costanza&nbsp;:&nbsp;You're Batman.

	
		Kramer&nbsp;:&nbsp;Yeah, yeah, I am Batman. Then the mugger, he comes to and he starts choking me. So I'm fighting him off with one hand and I kept driving the bus with the other, ya know. Then I managed to open up the door and I kicked him out the door, ya know, with my foot, ya know, at the next stop.

	
		Jerry&nbsp;:&nbsp;You kept making all the stops?

	
		Kramer&nbsp;:&nbsp;Well, people kept ringing the bell!
</blockquote>


	Unimaginable!

<blockquote>
	
		“It is unimaginable what the governor of Texas has done, when you think about this country, a country that has always been open to those who were fleeing persecution,” Adams said. “We’ve always welcomed them. And this governor is not doing that in Texas. But we are going to set the right tone of being here for these families.”
</blockquote>


	This whole thing started when Adams demanded Biden intervene because of all the illegals showing up in New York City. Adams has only doubled down on his lies while claiming that he now welcomes illegals.

NYC Mayor Claims Texas Forcing Illegals To Go To New York, Only to Find Illegals Got Off At Other Stops

How did De Blasio stay in office for so long? The media covers up the clownish incompetence and lies of elected officials on their side of the aisle until the

NYC Mayor Claims Texas Forcing Illegals To Go To New York, Only to Find Illegals Got Off At Other Stops

The slumbering giant is stirring.


	I’m referring to the no-longer-silent majority of Mainers who are beginning to understand that our state is in trouble.


	Serious trouble. And it begins in our schools. Government-run K-12 schools.


	We’re in trouble because we’ve allowed politicians and bureaucrats to transform these public institutions into indoctrination camps, churning out graduates who are unprepared either for the workplace or for further education. The dumbing down has been so successful that most Maine high-school graduates who apply for admission to local community colleges need to take remedial courses before they’re ready for entry-level college work.


	But that’s not the worst of it.


	Not only are most of our recent high-school graduates well below minimal expectations in reading, science, and math – they’re woke, and proud of it.


	Barely literate in civics and profoundly ignorant of history, these kids are woefully unprepared for the obligations of American citizenship.


	<img height="1296" width="999" style="width: 278px; height: 360px; float: left;" class="media-element file-default" data-delta="1" src="https://cms.frontpagemag.com/sites/default/files/uploads/2022/08/ll.jpg" alt="" />


	After years of K-12 indoctrination in the radical Left’s malignant narrative of America as a systemically racist nation, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. It’s no exaggeration to say that many of these kids are better prepared for a lifetime of picketing and protests than for responsible citizenship – much less any acknowledgement or appreciation of American exceptionalism.


	The good news – the silver lining, you might say – is that the Left’s aggressive overreach and brazen irrationality have roused many Mainers from their slumber.


	I think the tipping point may have been the revelation that kindergartners are now in the crosshairs of an unspeakably evil campaign to plant the seeds of gender-bender madness in the next generation of Mainers.


	<a href="https://mainefirstproject.org/transgender-lesson-plan-for-kindergartners-is-the-last-straw/">Maine First Project</a> has been on the frontlines of the battle to expose the rotten curricula that are the rule rather than the exception in Maine’s public schools.


	<a href="https://www.facebook.com/shawn.mcbreairty">Shawn McBreairty</a>, our Director of Special Projects, has done more than anyone I know to shine a bright light into the darkest recesses of the K-12 swamp for the past two years. He is the guy who blew the whistle on the Maine Department of Education’s<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxlupC7LAZg"> loathsome online lesson for kindergartners, </a>featuring a woke teacher telling five-year-olds that sometimes the doctor makes a mistake in determining whether a newborn baby is a boy or a girl.


	The “LGBTQ+ Activism” video for kindergartners also included grotesque rainbow-colored cartoon characters singing about “queer” and “pansexual” families.


	Nevertheless, administrators and school boards have not taken kindly to parents and taxpayers pushing back against this sort of dangerous, demented nonsense.


	The school board at Regional School Unit (RSU) 22 in Hampden was so ticked off with McBreairty’s persistence in exposing x-rated pornography in the district’s recommended reading lists and libraries that <a href="https://freebeacon.com/campus/parent-who-exposed-pornographic-library-books-sues-after-school-bans-him-from-property/">they served him with a “no trespass” order</a> on May 4th. The notice barred him from school board meetings – and even forbade him to set foot on campus.


	McBreairty punched back twice as hard, and scored a first-round knockout.


	He not only sued in US District Court for violation of his First Amendment free speech rights, but moved for an emergency Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against the district — a very high bar for any plaintiff in federal court.


	On July 20th, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/father-attorney-blast-maine-school-district-banning-meetings-power-drunk">Judge Nancy Torresen granted McBreairty’s motion</a>, and noted that he is likely to prevail on the merits when the case comes to trial.


	This is a huge victory, not just for McBreairty, but for every forgotten parent in Maine who’s been bullied and belittled by the Leftist tyrants who dominate the K-12 swamp.


	Looking back at the past two years of conflict and controversy swirling around K-12 instruction in Maine, it appears that the tide began to turn against the woke administrators when they bowed to pressure from the teachers’ unions.


	The mindless COVID-19 restrictions — including mandatory face diapers in the classroom – were very unpopular with parents. But in retrospect, it was shutting down classroom instruction and moving to so-called “remote learning” that gave parents a window into the indoctrination and brainwashing of their children.


	With their kids attending school in the kitchen or living room, many parents got their first sneak peek at the rampant Left-wing bias in Maine’s K-12 government-run schools.


	Parents began showing up at school board meetings to speak out against Leftist political indoctrination and Queer Theory propaganda, at which point the know-it-all educrats and their woke allies in the Legislature knew they had to muzzle the opposition.


	Teachers’ union boss Grace Leavitt railed against <a href="https://www.bangordailynews.com/2020/09/09/news/bangor/bangor-teacher-faces-backlash-after-lesson-on-race-privilege-is-shared-to-pro-trump-facebook-page/">two parents in Bangor </a>who had the audacity to record and share a brief video presentation by a silly 7th grade teacher sharing her various “privileged” and “targeted” identities with students, and then claiming victim status because she’s a woman. The one-minute video clip was shared thousands of times on social media during Labor Day weekend in 2020, triggering shrieks of outrage against the parents from all the usual suspects on the Left. They even launched a boycott campaign against the offending parents’ small retail bakery business.


	Next, <a href="https://legislature.maine.gov/bills/getTestimonyDoc.asp?id=154210">Leavitt testified</a> in favor of LD 864, <a href="https://legislature.maine.gov/bills/display_ps.asp?snum=130&amp;paper=HP0632PID=1456">“An Act to Protect Teachers’ Privacy While Delivering Remote Instruction,”</a> when it came before the Judiciary Committee of the Legislature in April of last year. The gag order on uppity parents was enacted on a party-line vote, with civil penalties up to $500 for anyone who shares a recorded session of remote instruction without permission from the school.


	Make no mistake: claiming a right to privacy for what teachers say in a public-school classroom is delusional. Clearly, Leavitt needs professional help, or she’s off her meds. Perhaps she should just retire.


	Whatever she does, this much is clear: enacting a statute to punish parents for sharing what goes on in the classroom is a sign of weakness, not strength.


	From local school officials to statewide office holders in the State House swamp, all the way up the food chain to the Biden crime family and the derelict US Attorney General Merrick Garland, the woke zombies are hell-bent on muzzling parents. Even going as far as labeling them “domestic terrorists.”


	They went after Shawn McBreairty with a vengeance, trying to bar him from his daughters’ high-school graduation, banning him from school board meetings, and even targeting him with a frivolous lawsuit for allegedly harassing a woke teacher in the Hermon school district.


	The Left's objective? Force McBreairty to back down and go away. And perhaps more important to them, make an example of him in an effort to intimidate other parents.


	But McBreairty hasn't backed down. In fact, he's doubled down instead.


	And now, a federal judge has handed the RSU 22 school district a stunning defeat. Much to their dismay, board members can’t blame “Orange Man Bad.” It was an Obama-appointed judge who slapped down their unconstitutional restraint of McBreairty’s free speech.


	McBreairty’s attorney Marc Randazzo <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/father-attorney-blast-maine-school-district-banning-meetings-power-drunk">summed it up succinctly </a>when he called the school board members “power drunk”:


	"Government apparatchiks can’t banish people from public life because they don’t like being challenged," he said in a statement. "Serving in the government means you have to accept criticism. If you can’t do that, you have no business in that position…. I hope that this slap across their totalitarian faces sobers them up and they start behaving like American government officials, not soviets."


	Amen to that.


	Maine First Project supporters will continue to fight fire with fire, and we will take no prisoners in these culture wars.


	And one more thing: we have not yet begun to fight.


	Lawrence Lockman of Bradley served four terms in the Maine House of Representatives (2012-2020). He is co-founder and president of the non-profit <a href="http://mainefirstproject.org/invest">Maine First Project</a>. He may be reached at larrylockman22@gmail.com.

Woke Maine School Board Gets Busted for First Amendment Violation

The slumbering giant is stirring.


	I’m referring to the no-longer-silent majority of Mainers who are beginning to understand that our state is in trouble

The dysfunctional government-run monopoly known as “public education” in Maine suffered a serious setback on June 21st when the US Supreme Court struck down a state statute that bans families from tuition assistance if they choose to send their children to accredited private schools that teach religion.


	In sparsely-populated rural districts without high schools, the state offers a stipend to parents to enroll their children in a high school of their choice. The tuition assistance payments can be used for any type of public or private school, even out of state, or outside the United States.


	Except if it’s a religious school.&nbsp;


	The 6 to 3 decision held that discrimination based on the religious identity of a school violates the Free Exercise of Religion clause of the First Amendment to the US Constitution.


	But rather than engaging in any honest self-assessment, the lawyer representing the public-school monopoly railed against the decision, and began plotting <a href="https://www.pressherald.com/2022/06/21/state-weighing-impact-of-supreme-court-ruling/">more legislative roadblocks to school choice.</a>


	In his public comments after the SCOTUS decision in Carson v. Makin, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey came across as a sore loser. His attack on the two Christian schools that successfully challenged the Maine statute was breathtaking in its ignorance and arrogance. <a href="https://www.maine.gov/ag/news/article.shtml?id=8075979">Frey’s remarks</a> amounted to a declaration of war.


	His overt anti-Christian bigotry came across loud and clear, but in his zeal to condemn the plaintiffs as religious fanatics, he inadvertently indicted himself and the state. Here it is:


	“The education provided by the schools at issue here is inimical to a public education. They promote a single religion to the exclusion of all others.”


	Bingo!


	That’s exactly what the Maine Department of Education (MDOE) does, with the able assistance of the office of the Attorney General over the past 30 years. They promote a single religion to the exclusion of all others.


	Frey and his fellow left-wing fascists have enshrined a new state religion in K-12 classrooms: Cultural Marxism.


	It’s a fact-free, faith-based dogma with its own scripture and&nbsp; sacraments, saints and sinners, heroes and heretics, salvation and damnation. Above all, it is intolerant of dissent.


	Cultural Marxism divides all of humanity into just two classes: the oppressed and the oppressors. The oppressed are the BIPOCs (black, indigenous, and people of color) and the entire spectrum of the LGBTQ+ alphabet people.


	The oppressors are anyone who’s white – but especially white male heterosexual Christians.


	Before the self-loathing Leftists imposed CM as the state religion for K-12 students, they spent several decades dumbing down the curriculum. The objective was to soften up students’ intellects and prepare them for the simple-minded, emotion-based superstition and pseudo-science that the woke cultists embrace.


	As far back as 2007, only 36% of Maine 4th graders in public schools were proficient at grade level in reading. The same year, only 38% of 8th graders were proficient at grade level in reading.


	Ten years later, in 2017, 4th graders were still stuck at 36% reading proficiency, while 8th graders advanced to a dismal 43%.


	This embarrassing data has been scrubbed from the MDOE website. The only reason I have access to it is because I saved the hard copies of reports the swampy non-profit <a href="https://www.educatemaine.org/research-reports">Educate Maine</a> distributed to legislators during my tenure in the Maine House of Representatives.


	The introduction of Cultural Marxism into Maine’s K-12 government-run classrooms began in earnest in 1996, when the office of the state Attorney General launched a pilot project in 18 schools. Students were recruited to join so-called “Civil Rights Teams,” ostensibly to think and talk about issues related to “race and skin color, national origin and ancestry, religion, disabilities, gender (including gender identity and expression) and sexual orientation.”


	While the AG’s office paid lip service to being all-inclusive, <a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ui=2&amp;ik=69adc760f5&amp;attid=0.1.3&amp;permmsgid=msg-f:1736572910014103564&amp;th=18198bdc63f5000c&amp;view=att&amp;disp=inline">they openly admitted</a> that “we especially want students of color, immigrants, religious minorities, students with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ students to participate.”


	Of course! The Cultural Marxists in the AG’s office want the “oppressed” students keeping a watchful eye on the “oppressor” students.


	Today more than 200 Maine schools, public and private, have Civil Rights Teams. These teams are under the direct supervision and control of the AG’s staff of fully woke CM cultists.


	Then, beginning just over two years ago, as Black Lives Matter rioters burned and looted America’s big cities, the MDOE website front-loaded teacher training material that can be best described as BLM propaganda condemning America as a systemically racist country.


	Promoting the sacred texts of the high priests and priestesses of Cultural Marxism, the Department dropped all pretense of intellectual diversity.


	Say hello to Ibram Kendi and Robin DiAngelo; say goodbye to Thomas Sowell and Shelby Steele.


	The MDOE website today is a dumpster load of <a href="https://www.maine.gov/doe/learning/content/socialstudies/resources/DEI">racist propaganda</a> and <a href="https://www.maine.gov/doe/learning/content/socialstudies/resources/DEI/LGBTQ">LGBTQ+ gender-bender madness</a>.


	Exhibit A: a <a href="https://www.pressherald.com/2022/05/20/teacher-who-made-lgbt-friendly-kindergarten-lesson-speaks-out/">state-approved video lesson for kindergartners</a> – paid for with federal COVID funding – where the imbecile teacher explains to 5-year-olds that sometimes the doctor makes a mistake in determining whether a newborn baby is a boy or a girl.


	My conservative non-profit Maine First Project <a href="https://mainefirstproject.org/transgender-lesson-plan-for-kindergartners-is-the-last-straw/">blew the whistle on this scandal</a> two weeks before it landed on the front pages of Maine’s lamestream daily newspapers. Under pressure from outraged taxpayers, MDOE took that particular video down. But there’s plenty more transgender lunacy where that came from.


	I believe Maine’s terminally woke AG is in full-blown denial about what’s in store for his dysfunctional monopoly.


	Here’s the demographic nightmare facing him and the other parasites who feed in the K-12 education swamp:


	Fewer than one third of Maine households have children enrolled in K-12 government-run schools. Many of the two-thirds majority of households without kids in school are comprised of retirees on fixed incomes.


	These Mainers are looking down the barrel of $6+ per gallon home-heating oil, $5+ per gallon gasoline, and skyrocketing grocery prices.


	As these retirees become aware that their rising property taxes are paying to brainwash their neighbors’ children and their own grandchildren, does anyone seriously believe they’re going to vote for bigger and bigger school budgets every year?


	K-12 enrollment in Maine’s public schools has been in decline for decades, down from 213,569 in 1995 to 173,158 today. While enrollment has been in a free fall, spending goes up by hundreds of millions of dollars a year.


	Bottom line: Maine’s K-12 indoctrination camps are about to be liberated, as students and teachers head for the exits, and taxpayers balk at being flogged and fleeced to pay for educational malpractice.&nbsp;&nbsp;


	And that big red wave in November may just hasten the day of reckoning.


	Lawrence Lockman of Bradley served four terms in the Maine House of Representatives (2012-2020). He is Co-founder &amp; President of the conservative non-profit <a href="http://mainefirstproject.org/news">Maine First Project</a>. He may be reached at larrylockman22@gmail.com.

Maine Enshrines Cultural Marxism as State Religion in K-12 Public Schools

The dysfunctional government-run monopoly known as “public education” in Maine suffered a serious setback on June 21st when the US Supreme Court struck down a

The alien invasion across America’s porous southern border has turned every state into a border state – and every Fake News editor into an agent and a cheerleader for a foreign occupation army.


	Here in Maine, 2400 miles northeast of the Texas border, we are the final destination for thousands of illegal immigrants who are being resettled here at taxpayer expense, to the applause of all the really smart people in both political parties.


	When I attempted a few weeks ago to push back against a fellow Republican’s praise for the invasion and the invaders, I was confronted once again by the cowardice and ignorance that are the rule rather than the exception in Maine’s lamestream newsrooms.


	My dealings with the imbeciles who work in these propaganda mills often remind me of the cheering that erupts at Trump rallies when The Donald derides the Fake News media as the enemies of the American people.


	Trump’s characterization fits the Kennebec Journal in Augusta, Maine, and its editorial page editor <a href="mailto:bbragdon@centralmaine.com">Ben Bragdon</a>, to a tee. In fact, Ben’s loathing for his native country is so deep-seated he’s convinced himself that the burst of inflation we’re experiencing is the result of <a href="https://twitter.com/benbragdon/status/1513887853306073090?t=_CvKDcpC_K_adRYFkzfdjQ&amp;s=19">TOO FEW immigrants</a> coming to America.


	Bragdon flat-out refused to publish my op-ed about the alien invasion, and falsely accused me of making many previous “bigoted and untruthful remarks about immigrants.”


	To top it off, the lame excuse he invoked for banning me from the op-ed page was a political cartoon created by my brother <a href="mailto:lockmanjohn63@gmail.com">John Lockman</a> that I published at my <a href="http://mainefirstproject.org/news">website</a>.


	<img height="612" width="660" style="width: 291px; height: 270px; float: left;" class="media-element file-default" data-delta="2" src="https://cms.frontpagemag.com/sites/default/files/uploads/2022/04/yy9.gif" alt="" />I’ll let you be the judge, dear reader. Here’s the cartoon [on the left], and here’s the op-ed below that Maine’s very Fake News media don’t have the balls to publish:


	Expedited work permits for asylum seekers won’t fix immigration crisis


	At the risk of being instantly labeled a hard-hearted xenophobe, I have to dissent from the chorus of voices calling for a relaxation of the work rules that govern the many hundreds of asylum seekers who have settled in Maine during the past few years.


	With all due respect to Shawn Moody for his entrepreneurial spirit and decades-long record as a job creator, <a href="https://www.pressherald.com/2022/03/31/shawn-moody-lets-seize-opportunity-to-help-legal-immigrants-build-better-life-in-maine/">his March 31st op-ed column</a> touting more federal legislation as a possible solution to Maine’s workforce shortage not only misses the mark, it muddies the water.


	Maine certainly has a workforce problem, but it pales in comparison to Maine’s immigration crisis.


	And make no mistake, it is a crisis.


	It was three years ago this summer when <a href="https://www.pressherald.com/2019/12/16/recent-influx-of-asylum-seekers-has-portland-scrambling-to-find-daytime-shelter/">an estimated 500 foreign nationals, most of them from central Africa</a>, crossed the southern border in Texas and boarded buses for Portland, where they were housed at the Portland Expo while state and local officials scrambled to find permanent housing for these asylum-seeking “new Mainers.”


	Over the past year, <a href="https://www.amjamboafrica.com/asylum-seekers-face-hard-winter-in-motels/">another 1,000+ non-citizen newcomers</a> have made their way from the southern border to Portland, overwhelming the city’s homeless shelters. Many are being housed at taxpayer expense in hotels across Cumberland and York Counties. <a href="https://www.pressherald.com/2022/01/14/south-portland-hotel-transformed-to-take-in-asylum-seekers/">One hotel in South Portland houses more than 400 non-citizens</a>, half of them children, many of whom are now enrolled in local public schools.


	Moody supports <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/3665">legislation introduced by Senators Susan Collins and Angus King</a> that would make asylum seekers eligible for work permits starting 30 days after filing their asylum claims.


	As <a href="https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/2022/02/16/senate-section/article/S754-1">Sen. Collins noted</a>: “Under current law, asylum seekers must wait extended periods of time after filing their applications before they are allowed to apply for work permits. These long waiting periods were originally adopted by the Clinton administration – and then extended to a full year by the Trump administration – out of concern that some migrants might apply for asylum primarily as a means of getting a work authorization.”


	Exactly.


	Asylee status was never intended as a fast track to getting a job in the United States while your application is pending. <a href="https://www.justice.gov/eoir/file/1216991/download">Statistics from the US Department of Justice </a>indicate that out of every 100 aliens who claimed a credible fear of persecution between 2008 and 2019, only 14 were granted asylum.


	Given that history, the waiting period for work permits made perfect sense under the Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations. And it makes even more sense today under the Biden administration, with tens of thousands of non-citizens entering the country every month across America’s wide-open southern border.


	Moody, to his credit, wants to match the newcomers to available jobs and job-training. But even if large numbers of the so-called “new Mainers” went to work tomorrow for good wages, where are they going to live?


	Maine currently has <a href="https://maineequaljustice.org/blog/maine-equal-justice-testifies-in-support-of-ld-473-bill-to-help-more-mainers-find-and-keep-stable-housing/">25,000 households on its joint Section 8 waitlist</a> for subsidized housing that covers most of the state. Many of these families wait years for needed assistance. In addition, more than 11,000 seniors are on Avesta Housing’s waitlist for senior housing projects across the state.


	Anyone who’s paying attention knows that Maine has a monumental shortage of affordable housing. So why would we want to encourage poor people who aren’t citizens – and most likely entered the country illegally – to settle here by making it easier for them to take entry-level jobs?


	And what happens if, after several years, their pending asylum applications are among the 86% that are not granted? Even if a mere 50% of them turn out to be ineligible for asylee status, does anyone seriously believe they will voluntarily self-deport?


	The inconvenient truth is that Maine people cannot afford to provide housing, health care, and education for wave after wave of non-citizen newcomers, whether they came here legally, or as many have done, waded across the Rio Grande and filed a defensive asylum application before getting on a bus to Portland.


	Mainers have no legal or moral obligation to facilitate the invasion across our southern border. So let’s not pretend that we do.


	Lawrence Lockman served four terms (2012-2020) in the Maine House of Representatives. He is Co-founder &amp; President of the conservative non-profit and school of political warfare, <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1F-I5cLZjGPCbTZYdl3xuvT4mleCCqtIf2vQv-X5Bj1s/edit">Maine First Project</a>. He may be reached at larrylockman22@gmail.com.

Maine Overwhelmed by Asylum Seekers

The alien invasion across America’s porous southern border has turned every state into a border state – and every Fake News editor into an agent and a

How dare Maine parents raise questions about the education of their children!


	Who do they think they are?


	After all, Maine’s K-12 public schools are doing an outstanding job preparing the next generation of Mainers for meaningful careers, further education, and good citizenship. We’re getting a great return on the hundreds of millions of dollars we spend every year on public education, aren’t we?


	OK, I’m being sarcastic.


	In fact, I believe sarcasm and ridicule are entirely appropriate in response to a lame Leftist hit piece attacking me for calling attention to what’s going on in Maine’s failing and dysfunctional public schools.


	Titled, <a href="https://mainebeacon.com/opinion-marginalized-people-deserve-to-have-their-stories-told/">Book bans: Marginalized people deserve to have their stories told,</a> the column by Aspen Ruhlin was published by the Maine Beacon, the online propaganda organ of the radically woke Maine Peoples Alliance. Ruhlin is a self-proclaimed “queer” transgender advocate who uses the plural pronouns “they” and “their,” and works at a Bangor abortion clinic.


	Ruhlin cites the Hampden school district (Regional School Unit 22) in eastern Maine as a hotbed of right-wing opposition to what she refers to as the “bogeyman” of Critical Race Theory, and she singles me out as one of the leaders “in the fight against literature” at Hampden schools.


	Here’s the rest of the story.


	Three years ago, during my last of four terms in the Maine House of Representatives, I sponsored a bill to outlaw political indoctrination in Maine’s K-12 public-school classrooms. Based on model legislation drafted by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, the proposed legislation would have barred teachers from singling out one racial group of students as responsible for the suffering or inequities of another racial group of students.


	In a nutshell, that’s exactly what Critical Race Theory (CRT) does.


	The public hearing on the bill drew strong support and voluminous testimony from scores of parents and taxpayers across the state, who provided first-hand accounts of the overt left-wing bias in K-12 classroom instruction. But the education committee sided with the teachers’ unions and their allies in the Maine Department of Education who opposed the legislation, so the bill never made it to the full Legislature for a vote.


	Last year the bill was introduced again, prompting another round of passionate testimony in committee that resulted in a party-line vote to advance the bill to the full Legislature. After a robust floor debate in the House and Senate, the bill was defeated on a party-line vote in both chambers, an outcome that sets the stage for making CRT indoctrination an issue in state legislative races this year.


	With that legislative history in mind, let’s examine Ruhlin’s claim that conservatives are pushing for “book bans” in Hampden and elsewhere across Maine.


	First of all, nobody I know is proposing to “ban” any books. Parents who want their children exposed to the racist, revolutionary claptrap known as Critical Race Theory are free to purchase that material on their own dime. The same goes for the demented LGBTQ+ propaganda that encourages kids in elementary school to pick their preferred pronouns and choose among dozens of different genders.


	Let’s not “ban” these books. Just keep that woke rubbish out of public-school libraries, and off teachers’ recommended reading lists. That’s all parents are asking of their servants who sit on local school boards.


	In Hampden, I filed several Freedom of Access Act (FOAA) requests to find out the extent to which the district was engaged in CRT brainwashing. After some initial foot-dragging and stone-walling, superintendent Regan Nickels provided me with the requested public records.


	What I discovered is that the school district paid thousands of dollars for teacher training material that reeks of racial profiling, racial stereotyping, and racial scapegoating. Hosted by the Augusta-based non-profit Cultural Competence Institute, these online trainings are grounded in the sacred texts of the CRT cult, including the rabidly racist “White Fragility” by Robin Diangelo.


	My FOAA request only confirmed what was already obvious: that the Hampden school district is deeply infected with the twin plagues of CRT indoctrination and LGBTQ+ gender-bender madness.


	That became clear late last year when the Maine Department of Education (MDOE) named Kelsey Stoyanova, a middle school teacher in the district, the Maine Teacher of the Year. The educrats in Augusta specifically cited Stoyanova’s recommended reading list for students as a key factor in her selection.


	<a href="https://mainedoenews.net/2021/10/13/media-release-hampden-eighth-grade-teacher-named-2022-maine-teacher-of-the-year/#:~:text=Kelsey%20Stoyanova%2C%20an%208th%20grade%20teacher%20at%20Reeds,Department%20of%20Education%E2%80%99s%20Teacher%20of%20the%20Year%20Program.">The MDOE press release</a> praised Stoyanova for highlighting BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, &amp; People of Color) and LGBTQIA+ authors. Silly me! I thought showing preference for someone based on their skin color is the textbook definition of racism. But never mind.


	Stoyanova’s copied-and-pasted-from-the-internet reading list is a mother lode of woke propaganda that promotes racial scapegoating and normalizes kinky sex for minor children. One of the children’s books she recommends is titled “Middle School’s a Drag,” a fun-filled fictional celebration of a 13-year-old drag queen.


	I could go on and on and on detailing the pornographic content both on Stoyanova’s reading list and in the libraries of the Hampden school district, but I think I’ve made my point. In any case, Ruhlin herself puts a bold-faced exclamation point on this madness with her praise for “Gender Queer”, an illustrated book with graphic depictions of minor children engaged in fellatio. It’s on the shelves of the Bonny Eagle High School library in rural Cumberland County in southern Maine.


	In closing, consider this: Maine’s K-12 public schools have dumbed down students to such a degree that educational assessment test results are in the tank. And they were in the tank long before the COVID lockdowns. Whether it’s reading or math or science, our local indoctrination centers are stuck in a rut where more than half of Maine students are below or well below grade level in these basic subject areas.


	That’s a scandal in and of itself. Coupled with partisan political indoctrination and X-rated kiddie porn, “scandalous” is much too mild a term to describe what’s going on in Maine’s government-run K-12 schools.


	Lawrence Lockman of Bradley served four terms in the Maine House of Representatives (2012-2020). He is Co-founder &amp; President of the conservative non-profit Maine First Project (<a href="http://www.mainefirstproject.org">www.mainefirstproject.org</a>). He may be reached at larrylockman22@gmail.com.

Racial Profiling and Kiddie Porn Replace the Three Rs in Maine’s K-12 Classrooms

How dare Maine parents raise questions about the education of their children!


	Who do they think they are?


	After all, Maine’s K-12 public schools

Editors' note: The following op-ed is by Lawrence Lockman, a Republican who served four terms in the Maine House of Representatives from 2012 to 2020. He is co-founder and president of the conservative non-profit <a href="https://www.mainefirstproject.org/">Maine First Project </a>- which trains activists and candidates to fight fire with fire. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:mainefirstproject@gmail.com">mainefirstproject@gmail.com</a>.


	Maine parents who want Critical Race Theory and other noxious species of political indoctrination banished from their K-12 public schools were counting on Republican state legislators to help them push back against the Left’s malignant agenda.


	What a shock to the parents when those lawmakers slapped them across their faces last week.


	For the second time in as many years, the Maine Legislature is considering a bill to enact a statewide Code of Ethics for K-12 teachers in public schools. The proposal, based on model legislation drafted by the <a href="https://www.stopk12indoctrination.org/">David Horowitz Freedom Center</a>, would explicitly ban singling out one racial group of students as responsible for the suffering or inequities experienced by another racial group of students. In addition, teachers would be required to refrain from partisanship, and present both sides in any discussion of controversial issues.


	How’s that for a revolutionary proposal?


	During the public hearing earlier this month, the Education committee heard compelling testimony from scores of Mainers who are disgusted with the rampant racial stereotyping and racial scapegoating that goes on in public school classrooms. If there were ever any lingering doubts that the racist, anti-American, Marxist ideology known as Critical Race Theory is deeply embedded in Maine’s public schools, the public hearing blew those doubts away.


	The heart-felt, <a href="https://legislature.maine.gov/bills/display_ps.asp?snum=130&amp;paper=HP0395PID=1456">fact-based testimony</a> came from parents in school districts across the state, imploring legislators to pass LD 550,&nbsp; <a href="http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/getPDF.asp?paper=HP0395&amp;item=1&amp;snum=130">"Resolve, Directing the State Board of Education To Adopt Rules Prohibiting Teachers in Public Schools from Engaging in Political, Ideological or Religious Advocacy in the Classroom."</a>


	Eighty-four percent of the 78 pieces of testimony submitted to the committee were in support of the bill, from Mainers in 40 different towns.


	The opposition testimony came almost exclusively from Leftist institutional swamp critters, not from parents. The teachers’ union and the ACLU of Maine were among the most vocal, joined by a far-Left outfit called the Maine Curriculum Leaders Association. Even the American Atheists chimed in with opposition.


	When it came time for Education committee members to vote on the bill during last week’s work session, the Democrats unsurprisingly voted in lockstep: ought not to pass.


	Republicans also voted in lockstep, but not to pass the bill before them. They chose instead to throw the bill in the legislative shredder, and replace it with a toothless requirement that teachers get annual training on how to handle controversial issues in the classroom.


	Democrats must be having a good laugh at our expense after watching this pathetic spectacle. “Hey, look at that, the stupid Republicans think the swamp is gonna drain itself!”


	Our team apparently learned nothing from what happened two years ago, during the last session of the Maine Legislature.


	In February of 2019, Republican members of the Education committee voted to kill the same bill in committee in exchange for a promise that a lobbying organization for school superintendents that opposed the bill would send a letter to all the districts reminding them to be fair and balanced in classroom discussions of current events.


	How did that work out?


	Judging by the testimony submitted to the committee this year, the depth and extent of political and ideological indoctrination in K-12 classrooms across Maine is worse, much worse than it was two years ago. In fact, it’s crossed the line from indoctrination to brainwashing in many districts.


	To be clear, the pending legislation has no chance of being enacted even if Republican legislators spontaneously generated brains and backbones. With solid Democrat majorities in both houses of the Legislature, and an unreconstructed 1960s radical Governor who’s been on the government payroll her entire adult life, Maine is suffering from one-party rule by aspiring totalitarians.


	The purpose of introducing legislation such as LD 550 is to get a public hearing so constituents can submit testimony that becomes part of the permanent public record. Then the bill moves to the floor of the Legislature for a robust debate, followed by a recorded roll call vote. That vote then becomes ammunition for our team to fire at vulnerable incumbents in the 2022 election cycle.


	This isn’t rocket science or quantum mechanics. It’s Politics 101. Why is it so hard for Republican legislators and their leaders to understand?


	We still have a shot at getting a full debate and a roll call vote on LD 550. It’s just that Republican members of the Education committee have made that task more difficult by giving members of their caucus an excuse to let the bill go “under the hammer” without debate.


	Sadly, Republican legislators in Maine are showing the rest of the country how NOT to be effective advocates for parents who want political indoctrination banished from their K-12 public schools.


	And if GOP lawmakers here in Maine keep it up, they are cementing their minority status in place for generations to come.

Republican State Legislators Run for Cover on K-12 Indoctrination Bill

Editors' note: The following op-ed is by Lawrence Lockman, a Republican who served four terms in the Maine House of Representatives from 2012 to 2020. He is co

Maine people were given yet another lesson last week in what sort of thinking our home-grown Thought Police will tolerate on the subject of immigration.


	Here’s the lesson in a nutshell: under no circumstances will Big Brother and his minions permit anyone to connect the dots between the reality of a massive influx of foreigners across our southern border from poverty-stricken Third World countries, and the potential for outbreaks of contagious diseases here. Even asking about a possible connection between unchecked immigration and the spread of disease is a Thought Crime that will get you labeled as an irredeemable bigot, and banished from polite society.


	Portland mayor Ethan Strimling played the role of prosecutor for this Orwellian exercise. The defendant was Waterville mayor Nick Isgro, who also serves as Vice Chairman of the Maine Republican Party.


	Isgro’s alleged Thought Crime was committed on Twitter, where he had the audacity to say “we need a serious talk” about the record number of immigrants crossing the border, and the potential risk of them bringing contagious diseases with them. Isgro cited Portland in particular for its crisis of homelessness, driven by an unprecedented surge in the number of immigrants who have arrived there in the past year


	Mayor Strimling took notice of Isgro’s heresy and immediately fired off an indignant text message to the Portland Press Herald, a reliably liberal media outlet Strimling knew could be counted on to amplify and echo his attack on Isgro. And that’s exactly what happened.


	Strimling’s text message trashed Isgro’s comments as “disgusting and straight out of the anti-immigrant playbook.” The Press Herald followed up with an angry editorial excoriating Isgro for his “hateful tweets,” his “baseless, bigoted posts,” and his “disgusting statements.”


	Within 24 hours of the tweets, the bandwagon effect kicked in, enticing others to pile on. It was a strange cast of characters, ranging from the Left’s online mob of cyber jackals to the entire GOP caucus in the state Senate.&nbsp;&nbsp;


	Despite the barrage of insults and demands for his resignation as party Vice Chairman, Isgro held his ground, and punched back. He may be a condemned man in the eyes of the mob, and an object of hatred by the limousine liberals in Augusta and Portland, but he survived the ordeal of guilt by accusation. Not only did he survive, he triumphed, and may be more popular today than he was before Big Brother singled him out as a heretic.


	And here’s why.


	The facts are on Isgro’s side, and Mainers who have their eyes open and their common sense intact are perfectly capable of connecting the dots.


	FACT: Portland has a city ordinance that forbids city employees from asking anyone about their immigration status, making the city Maine’s premiere “sanctuary city” for illegal immigrants. Portland’s municipal social workers aren’t allowed to ask welfare applicants whether they’re in the country legally.


	FACT: Portland’s homeless shelters are overrun with so-called “asylum seekers” from Third World countries. Officials in Texas were surprised to learn of Portland’s generous welfare programs for noncitizens, so Texas continues to send them our way from their own crowded, overflowing shelters. In fact, more than <a href="https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pressherald.com%2F2018%2F12%2F23%2Fasylum-seekers-travel-to-portland-in-droves-overwhelming-city-services%2F&amp;data=02%7C01%7C%7C4390152040334454790f08d6ae3b90b5%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636887968179286358&amp;sdata=cZGhaI363MvR6b%2BwC4gIJRk7uwbfYQQw8XA65icyyhs%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">90 percent</a> of the residents in Portland’s family shelter are noncitizens. Mayor Strimling boasted that he’s proud of Portland: “Our issue isn’t that too many are coming here – it’s that we don’t have the housing to put them in.”


	FACT: Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers say that more than <a href="https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftownhall.com%2Ftipsheet%2Fbethbaumann%2F2019%2F03%2F11%2Fthousands-in-ice-custody-are-being-quarantined-for-n2542951&amp;data=02%7C01%7C%7C4390152040334454790f08d6ae3b90b5%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636887968179296369&amp;sdata=GlIQR731tO6aMnKAuUk5t8Y3cwmIWPY50vd1zjlbpgA%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">two thousand</a> illegal immigrants currently being held in ICE custody on the southern border are quarantined for exhibiting signs of infectious diseases, including the mumps.


	FACT: Legal immigrants receive a medical exam. Proof of vaccination is mandatory for measles, mumps, rubella, polio, and other communicable diseases. Obviously, none of these screenings are carried out on people who enter this country illegally and undetected.


	Given these facts, no rational Mainer who cares about public health and public safety can deny that we need a robust, wide-open, free-wheeling discussion about immigration and its impact on public health. Any attempt to shut down that debate, such as the media-driven campaign of character assassination waged against Nick Isgro, is dangerous and despicable.


	Big Brother and his Thought Police be damned. Let the debate begin.


	* * *


	Lawrence Lockman, R-Bradley, is serving his fourth term in the Maine House of Representatives. He is co-founder and president of the conservative nonprofit Maine First Project. He may be reached at <a href="mailto:larrylockman22@gmail.com" target="_blank">larrylockman22@gmail.com</a>

ORWELLIAN SPECTACLE OVERSHADOWS IMMIGRATION DEBATE

Maine people were given yet another lesson last week in what sort of thinking our home-grown Thought Police will tolerate on the subject of immigration.

ORWELLIAN SPECTACLE OVERSHADOWS IMMIGRATION DEBATE

Editors' note: The following op-ed is by Lawrence Lockman, a Republican currently serving his 4th term in the Maine House of Representatives. He is co-founder and president of the conservative non-profit <a href="https://www.mainefirstproject.org/">Maine First Project</a> - which trains activists and candidates to fight fire with fire. He can be reached at&nbsp;larrylockman22@gmail.com.


	If there were ever any doubt that many teachers in Maine’s K-12 public schools are using their classrooms to indoctrinate students in Leftist politics and ideology, those doubts were blown away during a public hearing at the Statehouse a few weeks ago.


	I had long suspected that Leftist indoctrination was fairly common, but the evidence was for the most part sketchy and anecdotal. The accounts of classroom bias were often second- or third-hand reports accusing self-styled “progressive” teachers of taking cheap shots at President Trump or GOP members of Congress.


	A news report three years ago seemed to confirm my worst suspicions, and started me down the path to sponsoring legislation earlier this year to impose a Code of Ethics on K-12 teachers.


	In December of 2015, an assistant principal at Camden Hills Regional High School in Rockport posted a racist, anti-Christian comment on his Facebook page.


	Get a load of this:


	“The only terrorists we need to fear are domestic white ‘Christian’ men with easy access to guns. Vote Bernie. That is all. Enjoy your day.”


	At the time, I wondered if that sort of Leftist hate speech ever spilled over from the faculty lounge into the classroom. After all, if this guy posted that kind of crap in a public forum on Facebook, what’s going on behind closed doors in the classroom?


	He deleted his hateful post after the school was deluged with phone calls and emails. Administrators then circled the wagons around the perpetrator, so he was able to hang onto his job, despite his trifecta of racist, sexist, Christo-phobic hate mongering. Not to mention his overt hostility to the 2nd Amendment.


	Fast forward to last month in the Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs.


	A public hearing was held on my bill, LD 589, “Resolve, Directing the State Board of Education to Adopt Rules Prohibiting Teachers in Public Schools from Engaging in Political, Ideological or Religious Advocacy in the Classroom.”


	Legislators got an earful from parents who are fed up with their kids being bullied and browbeaten by teachers with an ideological ax to grind. Some of the most egregious abuses occurred last year during the national student walkout that was pushed and promoted by Leftist gun-control advocates.


	As <a href="https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273091/battle-against-leftist-indoctrination-public-matthew-vadum">previously reported by FrontPage</a>, the committee heard about numerous instances of teachers using their classrooms as taxpayer-funded bully pulpits to spew Leftist propaganda. That unrebutted testimony is now part of the permanent public record.


	So I’m not the least bit discouraged by the fact that the bill was killed in committee. Disappointed, yes, in my GOP colleagues on the Education committee, but not discouraged.


	And here’s why.


	The proposed legislation sparked an outpouring of public support that was so intense even Maine’s lying, dying Fake News industry couldn’t ignore it. The debate in committee on my Code of Ethics bill garnered statewide TV, radio, and newspaper coverage, and generated tons of traffic on social media. It seemed at times like every other parent or grandparent who commented had a horror story to share about partisan bias in the classroom.


	We intend to harness that energy and frustration.


	My populist/conservative nonprofit <a href="https://www.mainefirstproject.org/">Maine First Project</a> has launched the Forgotten Parents Initiative. Our aim is to engage parents at the local level and help them push back against classroom indoctrination. And we’ll be back with another piece of legislation at the earliest opportunity.


	FrontPage readers understand that American public schools have produced two generations of graduates steeped in the toxic brew of identity politics. Conservatives are late to the game, or rather, late to the battlefield. But we cannot afford to let another generation of young Americans be marinated in Leftist politics, ideology, pseudo-science, Christo-phobia, and racial scapegoating.


	So I would encourage state legislators across the country to join the fray. Work with the David Horowitz Freedom Center on this existentially important project. Then watch what happens when voters discover that a member of the legislative branch of government “gets it.”


	We have not yet begun to fight.

Maine K-12 Indoctrination Sparks Populist Push Back

Editors' note: The following op-ed is by Lawrence Lockman, a Republican currently serving his 4th term in the Maine House of Representatives. He is co-founder

Editors' note: The following op-ed is by Lawrence Lockman, a Republican currently serving his 4th term in the Maine House of Representatives. He is co-founder and president of the conservative non-profit <a href="https://www.mainefirstproject.org/">Maine First Project</a> - which trains activists and candidates to fight fire with fire. He can be reached at&nbsp;larrylockman22@gmail.com.


	Should teachers in Maine’s public schools be allowed to push partisan politics and ideology in the classroom?


	I don’t think so, and neither do many parents who have contacted me. That’s why I sponsored LD 589, proposed legislation directing the state board of education to draft a Code of Ethics for K-12 teachers.


	Simply put, the Code of Ethics would forbid teachers from endorsing candidates as part of their classroom instruction, from introducing controversial material not germane to the subject being taught, and generally from using their classrooms as bully pulpits for political, social or religious advocacy. The bill I sponsored is based on model legislation drafted by the David Horowitz Freedom Center.


	There’s abundant evidence that students in Maine’s K-12 government schools are being subjected to Leftist indoctrination in the classroom. “Progressive” teachers, administrators, and textbook publishers have been working overtime to ensure that students practice “correct thinking” on subjects such as racial guilt, gender identity, illegal immigration, and other controversial issues.


	As soon as the Code of Ethics bill was referred to the Education committee for a public hearing in late February, all the usual suspects announced their opposition. The head of the statewide teachers’ union insisted that teachers never engage in political advocacy in the classroom, while the far-Left ACLU defended the right of teachers to do exactly that.


	Mallory Haar, a teacher at Casco Bay High School in Portland, is one of the bill’s most outspoken critics. She took to Twitter to express her opposition to a provision in LD 589 that would prohibit teachers from “singling out one racial group of students as responsible for the suffering or inequities faced by another racial group of students.” Haar&nbsp;<a href="https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fmarsh_mallory%2Fstatus%2F1095713572498354177&amp;data=02%7C01%7C%7C6bd138c41c04421fd6dc08d6a10ca44c%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636873472994000460&amp;sdata=tT8w7B3m54tgva8Jqs85BeVtch1BU1NMOShMsLIiImA%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">claims</a>&nbsp;this proposed rule would institutionalize “white fragility,” the most recent&nbsp;addition to the Leftist lexicon of identity politics, and a close relative of “white privilege.” .


	One can only imagine the level of racial scapegoating and educational malpractice that goes on in Haar’s classroom.


	Based on what I’ve heard from parents since I introduced the bill, and from what I’ve seen on social media directly from teachers, Haar is hardly exceptional. Too many teachers and administrators view the classroom as a taxpayer-funded soap box to promote their personal opinions on politics. Members of the Education committee heard testimony from dozens of parents about the rampant Left-wing indoctrination of their children in public schools.


	Such as the elementary school teacher in southern Maine who used her classroom whiteboard to bash Gov. Paul LePage for “his ridiculous denial of the science of climate change.”


	Or the high school in eastern Maine where a teacher agreed (out loud) with a student who labeled Trump voters “white trash.”


	Last year, teachers at Cape Elizabeth High School facilitated a student walkout specifically aimed at passage of more restrictive firearms legislation. School officials&nbsp;helped plan the rally and even modified the school schedule to accommodate the gun-control lobbyist who spoke at the event.


	Here’s how a student described what happened in her class on the day of the national walkout: “At the appointed time, no students walked out so the teacher stopped talking, looked at the clock, and said, “Aren’t you supposed to be walking out?” That induced about half the class to depart. Then the teacher said, “I’m surprised more of you aren’t going.” That induced another quarter [of the class] to depart. To the remaining students she said, “There’s no point continuing with the lesson because so many aren’t here."


	Testimony submitted to the Education committee established that students across the state were used as pawns: "Most didn't know why they were walking out or that they were part of the Woman's March agenda."


	"This was a taxpayer-funded protest rally, pure and simple," said one parent.


	The Education committee also heard from a parent concerned with his 7th&nbsp;grader’s social studies homework: “The assignment was to research the website&nbsp;We the Future, which describes only leftist causes including Black Lives Matter, gun control, open borders, the Women’s March. Each student was to pick a cause and answer, ‘How can you get involved?’ I was shocked to see the teacher attempt to openly recruit students to support these causes.”


	All of this compelling testimony fell on deaf ears at the public hearing. I was hardly surprised that all the Democrats on the Education committee were strongly opposed to the Code of Ethics bill. The Dems tend to do whatever the teachers’ union bosses tell them to do. But why did all the Republicans on the committee choose to ignore the overwhelming evidence of deeply embedded Leftist identity politics in Maine classrooms?


	GOP legislators cited concerns about “local control,” and their aversion to state mandates on local school districts. Yet state government pays more than half the cost of K-12 public education, and that amount goes up year after year despite a declining school population, and below-grade level student achievement across the board.


	In practice, the “local control” argument advanced by GOP lawmakers means they’re really not interested in protecting the civil rights of students and their parents. It means these Republicans are OK with ethics being optional for Maine teachers. These legislators are well aware that local school boards controlled by self-styled “progressives” in Maine’s major population centers (Portland, Lewiston, Bangor) will never rein in teachers who are spewing partisan propaganda in the classroom.


	In exchange for their “ought not to pass” votes in committee, GOP legislators secured the flimsiest of fig leaves. That came in the form of a promised letter to local school districts from the Maine School Management Association, a private nonprofit that's been around since 1971 lobbying for superintendents and school boards.


	Sounds to me like Republican lawmakers expect the swamp critters to drain the swamp.


	Off camera and away from the microphones, these legislators&nbsp; confessed that their biggest concerns about the bill were strictly political. They know ethics shouldn’t be optional for teachers, but were afraid that a recorded vote by the full Legislature would hurt Republican legislators running for re-election next year. So they agreed with Democrats to kill the bill in committee.


	Seriously.


	I suppose that when you’re always tucked into a defensive crouch, and want to be well thought of by the Democrats and the Fake News media, you would have good reason to be scared of losing your next election campaign if you voted against the wishes of the ACLU and the union bosses.


	But what if our side played offense for a change?


	What if we hammered the union bosses for all they have done to wreck public education and indoctrinate our kids? What if we went to bat on behalf of parents and students who are being cheated by the rigged system?&nbsp;&nbsp;


	What would happen if we decided to fight fire with fire?


	We’ll never know until we try.

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