Jan. 23, 2022 - Epoch Times
19:52
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| Good evening, and boy do we have a lot to discuss today. | |
| To start with, over in Michigan, an organization called the Public Interest Legal Foundation, they conducted an analysis, and they found that nearly 26,000 dead people are still on Michigan's voter rolls, with the vast majority of them being marked as active. | |
| They are now in the process of suing the Michigan Secretary of State to get these people removed. | |
| Meanwhile, schools around the country are getting more and more blatant with pushing critical race theory, with even, for instance, third graders being asked to deconstruct their racial identities and then rank themselves according to their power and privilege. | |
| However, the state of Florida is beginning to fight back. | |
| That's because last week, Governor Ron DeSantis introduced a new piece of legislation which would not only criminalize the teaching of critical race theory, but it would also give parents the tools to fight back. | |
| Let's go through it all together. | |
| This is your daily Facts Matter update, and I'm your host, Roman, from the Epoch Times. | |
| And now let's begin today's discussion over in Michigan, where a very interesting question is currently being debated. | |
| And that question is, how many dead people should remain on Michigan's voter rolls? | |
| Now, naturally enough, you might assume that the answer is zero. | |
| However, it'll actually have to be decided by a federal government. | |
| judge. | |
| Specifically, what happened was that last month, on November the 3rd, a non-profit called the Public Interest Legal Foundation, which focuses on election integrity measures, they filed a lawsuit against Michigan's Secretary of State because allegedly she failed to remove from the voter rolls the names of 26,000 registered voters who had either they filed a lawsuit against Michigan's Secretary of State because allegedly she failed to remove from the Here's specifically what they wrote in their legal complaint. | |
| Quote, The Foundation's analysis of Michigan's voter roll and verifiable death records reveals that, as of August 2021, 25,975 potentially deceased registrants are on Michigan's voter rolls. | |
| Of those, 23,663 registrants have been dead for five years or more. | |
| 17,479 registrants have been dead for at least 10 years. | |
| And 3,956 registrants have been dead for at least 20 years. | |
| And according to the Public Interest Legal Foundation, by failing to remove these names from the rolls, it, quote, Furthermore, in the text of this lawsuit, it also alleges that once their foundation combed through all the data, all the voter data, they found that 334 people they had registered to vote after having died. | |
| Here's specifically what it says, quote, Thank you. | |
| Now, we here at the Epoch Times, we reached out to Ms. | |
| Jocelyn Benson, who is the Michigan Secretary of State. | |
| She's a Democrat. | |
| She's the person actually being sued in this lawsuit. | |
| And her office got back to us saying that they don't comment on pending litigation. | |
| However, someone from her office did respond to another request from Fox News, and here's what they said. | |
| Michigan maintains its voter registration list in accordance with all state and federal laws. | |
| As we've seen throughout the past year, meritless lawsuits serve as press releases for those seeking to further election misinformation and undermine American democracy. | |
| And the stance that was articulated in that statement is exactly the same stance that they are taking in the courtroom. | |
| because just last week, the Secretary of State's office, they filed a motion to dismiss the case, and in that request to dismiss, they denied any failures on their part to perform voter list maintenance as required by federal law. | |
| Specifically, according to Ms. Benson's lawyer, they made the argument that according to the National Voting Rights Act, the state of Michigan is only required to, quote, conduct a general program and make a responsible effort to remove the names of ineligible voters from the official voter registration list by notice of death, change of residence, or the voter's request, to which conduct a general program and make a responsible effort to remove the names of To which the lawyers for Ms. | |
| Ms. Benson added in their actual response letter to the court, quote, the National Voting Rights Act does now require a state to enact an exhaustive program to remove every voter who becomes ineligible. | |
| And this is essentially one of the main issues of legal contention in the case, because while the Michigan Secretary of State, she's arguing that they're following the letter to the law, they're following it to a T, the National Voter Registration Act. | |
| And even if you can claim that they're doing the bare minimum, she says that that's all that they're required to do. | |
| On the flip side, however, the Public Interest Legal Foundation, they are arguing that Ms. Benson, who is the Michigan Secretary of State, she is violating Section 8 of that particular law. | |
| And for your reference, Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act, it requires the state of Michigan to, quote, And furthermore, | |
| this lawsuit alleges that the Secretary of State's violation of this particular law, it's not a simple technicality, but rather, here's what it says, quote, Benson's violations of the National Voter Registration Act have harmed and continue to harm and frustrate the Foundation's purpose of protecting the integrity of the electoral process, ensuring that accurate and current voter registration rolls are maintained, and educating the public about the same. | |
| The foundation's expenditure of significant time and money in Michigan, seeking to rectify the defendant's failure to clean up the voter rolls by removing the surfeit of deceased registrants from such rolls, has also forced the foundation to divert its limited resources from other states with similar issues. | |
| Meaning, in plain English, that this non-profit is being forced to do what the government is actually required to do under this law and is diverting their limited resources from other states that they could be focused on. | |
| So, we'll see how that plays out, but let's get back to the studio. | |
| And besides the debate on the technical meaning of the National Voting Rights Act in this case, the water gets a little bit muddy in another respect. | |
| because even if technically the state can get away with performing the very bare minimum voter list maintenance, it is the case that the Public Interest Legal Foundation, they have already done all the work and they identified about 26,000 people who should be removed. | |
| And therefore, in theory at least, it would require, as the lawyers argue, an exhaustive program to identify all the ineligible voters because again, those voters have already been identified by the Legal Foundation. | |
| All it would require is the willpower, the political will to remove them from the voter rolls. | |
| In fact, here is what the legal complaint from the Public Interest Legal Foundation Here's what it says on this particular front. | |
| Quote... | |
| When more than 25,000 deceased registrants are identified on the qualified voter list and not removed for an extended period of years, the list maintenance program is not only unreasonable, it is failing. | |
| The National Voting Rights Act does not simply require a percentage or portion of dead registrants to be removed. | |
| It requires a program that actually detects dead registrants and removes them. | |
| And therefore, among several other requests that are being made in this lawsuit, the Public Interest Legal Foundation, they are asking the court to require the Secretary of State To, for one, remove the names of the dead voters from the voter rolls, and then secondly, to set up a more transparent system which would allow for the inspection of records pertaining to the actual implementation of any voter cleanup programs that they put into place. | |
| Now, in terms of the next steps in this particular lawsuit, at this moment, that's up to the judge. | |
| Because if the judge agrees with the Secretary of State and they dismiss the case, then the Public Interest Legal Foundation would have to start the process again at the appellate level. | |
| They would have to appeal this decision. | |
| However, if the judge refuses to dismiss the case and instead allows it to continue, well, then we will just have to see how it plays out in court. | |
| Now, we here at the Epoch Times, we do have a great reporter covering this case out in Michigan, and as soon as any developments emerge, I'll let you know right away. | |
| Until then, if you'd like to read more about this particular case, including the actual text of this lawsuit, which, by the way, is fairly interesting. | |
| It's very well laid out, and the evidence seems to be quite solid. | |
| I like the way that they break down their process of figuring out which voters are dead or not. | |
| And if you'd like to check out the full text of this lawsuit, I'll throw a link to the PDF version of it into the description box below this video for you to check out. | |
| And all I ask in return is that you vote with your finger and smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm. | |
| And now... | |
| Let's move on over and discuss how the state of Florida is beginning to fight back against both critical race theory as well as the woke culture in general. | |
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| And now Roman in the studio, back to you. | |
| And now let's move on over to the state of Florida. | |
| Last week, Governor Ron DeSantis introduced a new legislative proposal that would give businesses, employees, children, as well as their families the tools to fight back against what he referred to as woke indoctrination. | |
| Now, this new proposal is officially called the Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act, otherwise known as the Stop Woke Act. | |
| And if it actually passes and becomes law, this piece of legislation would be the strongest law of its kind in the entire nation in terms of empowering people to fight back against critical race theory as well as other such ideologies. | |
| Here's in fact how Governor Ron DeSantis described the need for this new bill during his speech. | |
| In Florida, we are taking a stand against the state-sanctioned racism that is critical race theory. | |
| We won't allow Florida tax dollars to be spent teaching kids to hate our country or to hate each other. | |
| We also have a responsibility to ensure that parents have the means to vindicate their rights when it comes to enforcing state standards. | |
| Finally, we must protect Florida workers against the hostile work environment that is created when large corporations force their employees to endure CRT, which is critical race theory, inspired training and indoctrination. | |
| Now, to pause here for a quick moment, critics of this proposed legislation are saying that it's fighting a problem that doesn't actually exist. | |
| They are essentially arguing that critical race theory is not being implemented in either school settings or in workplaces, and that people are just overreacting. | |
| However, to be frank with you, I've been following this story for a while now, and the evidence seems to be overwhelming that whether or not you call it critical race theory or not, the ideology itself is in fact being implemented across the entire country. | |
| Let me just give you a few recent examples. | |
| An elementary school over in Philadelphia, it forced fifth graders to celebrate black communism, and they even simulated a black power rally to free Angela Davis from prison. | |
| And by the way, that very same school over in Philadelphia, 87% of their students have failed to achieve basic literacy by the time of graduation. | |
| Then, over in Washington state, the Seattle Public School System, they held a training session wherein the teachers, they were told that the education system is guilty of spirit murder against black children and that white teachers, they must bankrupt their privilege in acknowledgement of their thieved inheritance. | |
| Then, over in the state of California, the San Diego Unified Public School System, they held a training program where a speaker came in and accused the white teachers of being colonizers on stolen Native American land and told them that you are racist and you are upholding racist ideas, structures, and policies. | |
| They were also recommended that the teachers undergo anti-racist therapy. | |
| Likewise, over in Cupertino, California, an elementary school, they had their third graders deconstruct their racial identities and then rank themselves according to their power and privilege. | |
| Over in Missouri, a middle school in the city of Springfield, they had teachers attend a training in which they had to locate themselves on an oppression matrix, and further, they claimed that white heterosexual Protestant males are inherently oppressors and must atone for their covert white supremacy. | |
| Then, over in the city of Buffalo, New York, students were taught that all white people perpetuate systemic racism, and then they even had kindergartners watch a video of dead black children warning them about racist police and state-sanctioned violence who might kill them at any time. | |
| Over in Arizona, the state's Department of Education created an equity toolkit which claimed that babies show the first signs of racism at three months old and that white children become strongly biased in favor of quote-unquote whiteness by the age of five. | |
| And the list goes on and on and on and on. | |
| Those were just some recent examples that I had lying around. | |
| And by the way, that was only in the realm of education. | |
| However, within the modern workplace, you are seeing a very similar trend. | |
| For instance, just a few weeks ago, Raytheon, which is America's second largest defense contractor, they launched a critical race theory training program which encouraged white employees to confront their privilege, reject the principle of equality, and to defund the police. | |
| Now think about that for a moment. | |
| You show up to work, you're excited to make the best, most lethal bombs and missiles, but then you are subject to critical race theory training. | |
| Regardless, the list goes on and on with the companies as well. | |
| I mean, if you follow the news, you know that this is happening across the entire country. | |
| However, as we mentioned earlier, in the state of Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis is pushing back against this trend. | |
| Here's again what he said when he was announcing the Stop Woke Act. | |
| Nobody wants this. | |
| You are not doing that here in the state of Florida. | |
| And so the Stop Woke Act would actually outlaw critical race theory training as an employment practice, meaning that employers would not be allowed to implement such training programs in the state of Florida. | |
| And if they do, according to this new piece of legislation, it will be a violation of the Florida Civil Rights Act if they subject their workers to any sort of training that espouses stereotypes based on either race or sex. | |
| Furthermore, in regards to the schools, Governor DeSantis said that this new piece of legislation, it will give parents the ability to file lawsuits to quote, enforce the prohibition on critical race theory and they get to recover attorney's fees when they prevail, which is very important. | |
| And on this point, in regards to schools, Governor DeSantis further added that in his opinion, school districts fear lawsuits from parents a lot more than fines from the state because a lawsuit brings with it the process of discovery. | |
| And during the discovery phase of a lawsuit, well, it brings out the truth of what is really going on behind the scenes. | |
| Here's what Governor Ron DeSantis said. | |
| So I think that gives parents the ability to go in and ensure that our state standards are being followed. | |
| Furthermore, besides the lawsuit aspect of it, this proposed piece of legislation would recognize that critical race theory training under the guise of professional development is actually a discriminatory practice when applied in education in places like K-12 schools, universities, as well as college campuses. | |
| And it will require that school districts, they have to adhere to professional development frameworks that are consistent with both Florida law as well as the adopted state standards. | |
| Meaning essentially that you cannot go to a training program and be told that since you are white, you are inherently racist. | |
| In fact, here is what a statement from the governor's office said about it. | |
| Quote, Furthermore, Mr. | |
| Jeff Childers, who is an attorney in Central Florida, and he is known as one of the first in the entire country, actually, to challenge both the mask and the vaccine mandates in court, and he came out in great support of this new piece of legislation. | |
| Here's what he wrote, quote, As a lawyer who fields calls from anxious parents all the time, I feel blessed to have such a forward-thinking governor. | |
| Solving the critical race theory problem is going to take all hands on deck, and that's just what Governor DeSantis is proposing. | |
| Furthermore, Mr. | |
| Childers noted that because under this new piece of legislation, both teachers as well as parents, if they sue the school district for teaching critical race theory in the classroom, and if they prevail in the courtroom, they will be able to recover their attorney fees. | |
| And he said that that fact is actually a big boon for being able to help parents and teachers fight back. | |
| Here's what he said, quote, That will help lawyers like me stand up for parents throughout the state who otherwise could not afford to take on big, well-funded school districts. | |
| If you'd like to read more about the STOP WOKE Act, or if you'd like all the links to the different manifestations of critical race theory that are happening across the country that I went through earlier in the schools as well as in the workplace, I'll throw all those links into the description box below this video for you to check out, and I'll ask in return is that you take a quick, quick moment to smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm. | |
| And now, since you've completed this episode of Facts Matter, but if you'd like to continue this discussion of Woke culture and this critical race theory being taught in schools, well, I would highly recommend that you go on over to Epic TV and check out an awesome episode of Wide Angle, where Brendan sat down with a great journalist named Lee Smith, and they discussed the reality of what happened when the state basically overrides parental decisions, such as when 12-year-olds are coached into joining LGBTQ clubs in secret. | |
| Here's a trailer for that episode. | |
| This child was recruited into an LGBTQ club without a parent's knowledge or parent's consent. | |
| You took away my ability to parent my child, even before I had any knowledge. | |
| I didn't even get to show support. | |
| You asked for support, I didn't get a chance. | |
| Meanwhile, New York has a bill in the works that would give the state authority over parents to vaccinate their children. | |
| These developments are on opposite sides of the country, but perhaps not unrelated. | |
| The idea that our authority is being overridden here by outsiders, this is terrible. | |
| If you want to check out that awesome episode, as well as all the other phenomenal content over on Epic TV, I'll throw a link to it. | |
| It'll be right there at the very top of the description box. | |
| I hope you click on it. | |
| I hope you check it out. | |
| I hope you subscribe. | |
| And I hope that you join us on this journey of exploring this beautiful, beautiful world through honors journalism that is based in truth and tradition. | |
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| And then, until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epoch Times. |
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