In an Outright Act of Totalitarian Overreach, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is Under Attack from the Biden Administration.  

While parents around the country are speaking out against Critical Race Theory (CRT) and mask mandates in the schools, the Biden Administration has tossed out its First Amendment right to do so. On October 4th, Attorney General Merrick Garland took the unprecedented step of unleashing the full force of the Department of Justice to counter what it called “a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence” against school board members, teachers, and other school system employees.

However, in its press release, the DOJ did not provide any evidence of this “rise in criminal conduct” or define what constituted “harassment” and  “intimidation.” The memo even inferred that the First Amendment does not extend to “efforts to intimidate individuals based on their views.” Assuming that angry parents are viewed as “intimidating” to school board members, does that mean that they should not be allowed their First Amendment rights to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances?”  

Moreover, the memo was issued only five days after the National School Boards Association (NSBA) wrote a letter to President Joe Biden, asking federal law enforcement to “investigate, intercept and prevent the current threats and acts of violence against our public school officials” through “extraordinary measures,” including the use of “the PATRIOT Act in regards to domestic terrorism” (emphasis added).

While the letter included numerous footnotes, citing examples of the threats posed by parents at school board meetings, local law enforcement had no difficulty responding to the uncivil behavior in any of these cases. And yet the letter cites, without explanation, a threat to “interstate commerce” as justification for bringing in federal authorities. Is the FBI going to be knocking on the doors of parents, who testify that they do not share the political views of school board members and call them “domestic terrorists?”  

It is clear that the Biden White House used the NSBA letter as a pretext for the DOJ memo: The NSBA letter requests state and local coordination with the DOJ’s National Security Branch and Counterterrorism Division. In dutiful compliance, the DOJ press release promises coordination with local law enforcement “in the  next 30 days” and promises to create a “task force” with a wide range of DOJ departments, including the National Security Division.

America First Legal has even uncovered damning evidence that the White House engineered both the DOJ memo and the NSBA letter due to concern that the parents’ advocacy for their children would redound negatively for the Democrat Party in the upcoming midterm elections. This coordinated effort, which began in early September, was a blatant attempt to chill speech that the Biden Administration did not like.  

While we condemn any acts of violence directed towards school officials, these acts have thus far been ably prosecuted by local law enforcement officials. On the other hand, there have been a large number of credible threats made by school officials against parents. In Pennsbury, PA, there were so many examples of parents prevented from speaking at school board meetings that the Institute for Free Speech has filed a First Amendment lawsuit on their behalf.

In Loudoun County, VA, the epicenter of the national outcry against CRT, an “antiracist” Facebook group that included teachers, school board members and the county’s top prosecutor, went after parents in the anti-CRT groups, even after hackers shut down their websites and the Southern Poverty Law Center listed them as “hate groups.” That designation would give the school board enough “ammunition” to ban them from speaking at meetings.  

Merrick Garland’s memo is a brazen attack on the ability of parents to exercise their First Amendment rights to critique what school systems are teaching their children. The Attorney General’s actions are even more outrageous, given his obvious conflict of interest: Garland’s daughter is married to the co-founder of Panorama Education, a company that collects social and emotional data from k-12 students. Such data-mining is considered an aspect of critical race theory, because the survey questions its focus on identity politics and sexual identity.  

We call on the Attorney General to rescind his October 4th memo immediately. As the Senate Minority Leader stated, “Telling elected officials they're wrong is democracy, not intimidation.”

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Amy Waychoff is a Member of the Montgomery County Republican Party Central Committee.

HELP LEAD THE PARTY

The Republican Party through its elected board, the Montgomery County Republican Central Committee (MCGOP) is currently recruiting qualified applicants to fill a Committee vacancy for Legislative District 20 (Silver Spring area). Eligible individuals must be registered Republican voters who reside in LD 20.  You may check to confirm your LD by Clicking Here .

If interested in applying, please submit your letter of interest and political/professional resume to the MCGOP’s Party Secretary Lori Jaffe NO LATER than 5 PM November 25, 2021.  Interviews will be scheduled at a later date.

Following interviews, if nominated to fill this vacancy the full MCGOP Central Committee will vote to consider the nomination at a date to be determined.  If elected to serve member volunteers are to be active participants in all MCGOP efforts: attend regular meetings, promote the election of Republican candidates, organize and operate effective political organizations in your Legislative District, engage in fund-raising activities and build grass-roots political support within Montgomery County. You would fill the remainder of this term until the Maryland General election in 2022.  It is fun, challenging, yet rewarding work.

This is your chance to help lead the Republican Party.

It’s the start of election season … When politicians of all ilks promise to do the impossible, without an increase in taxes, while giving us free stuff…

Don’t believe it…

• Look around… we see our legislators continuing to allow Montgomery County to be used as the ATM for the state, allowing the failing Baltimore schools to get $30,000 in state funding for each student while Montgomery County gets approximately $5,500 per student.
• Look around … Maryland and Montgomery County's sanctuary policies are making us a dumping ground for illegal aliens.
• Look around … The County Council is working to defund the police - as crime increases dramatically.
• Look around … The Montgomery County Public School System is teaching principles of critical race theory (CRT) in our schools.
• Look around … The County Government is instituting “Thrive 2050” which will shape our communities to eliminate single family homes without increasing infrastructure and promoting $600,000 “affordable housing”.

We are the local Republican Party, MCGOP, and we want to make a change in our county. There are over 100,000 registered Republicans in Montgomery County and scores of unaffiliated/independent voters who are fed up with the way our county is headed.

We have an unparalleled opportunity to make a difference in Montgomery County and counter the actions of the County Council and Legislators. Our goal is to make a difference by educating our citizens, digging deep, past the sugar-coated propaganda that the County Government is feeding us and getting a simple, common-sense message out to the voters.

Help us to make progress by volunteering:  I want to Volunteer 

Help us to make progress by donating: I want to Donate

Thanks for being a great Republican. We need you. 

I’d love to hear from you. Send me a note at [email protected].  Your thoughts and notes mean a lot and I appreciate them.

HELP LEAD THE PARTY

The Republican Party through its elected board, the Montgomery County Republican Central Committee (MCGOP) is currently recruiting qualified applicants to fill a Committee vacancy for Legislative District 20 (Silver Spring area). Eligible individuals must be registered Republican voters who reside in LD 20.  You may check to confirm your LD by Clicking Here .

If interested in applying, please submit your letter of interest and political/professional resume to the MCGOP’s Party Secretary Lori Jaffe NO LATER than 5 PM October 29, 2021.  Interviews will be scheduled at a later date.

Following interviews, if nominated to fill this vacancy the full MCGOP Central Committee will vote to consider the nomination at a date to be determined.  If elected to serve member volunteers are to be active participants in all MCGOP efforts: attend regular meetings, promote the election of Republican candidates, organize and operate effective political organizations in your Legislative District, engage in fund-raising activities and build grass-roots political support within Montgomery County. You would fill the remainder of this term until the Maryland General election in 2022.  It is fun, challenging, yet rewarding work.

This is your chance to help lead the Republican Party.

MONDAYS WITH MOCO SPEAKER’S SERIES

OCTOBER TOPIC: “BIDEN’S ILLEGAL ALIEN TSUNAMI AT THE SOUTHERN BORDER – IMPACT ON MARYLAND AND THE NATION” 

MONDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2021, 7:30PM, ZOOM SEMINAR

SPEAKERS: Sheriff Chuck Jenkins, Director Tom Homan, Dale Wilcox

FIRST SPEAKER - FREDERICK COUNTY SHERIFF CHARLES “CHUCK” JENKINS

Sheriff Chuck Jenkins is currently serving in his fourth term as Sheriff of Frederick County, Maryland. He was first elected to the Office of Sheriff in 2006. The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office is a full-service law enforcement agency, the primary and largest of five agencies in Frederick County. As Sheriff, he also has responsibility to oversee the Frederick County Adult Detention Center including Central Booking and Work Release and security for the Frederick County Courthouse, which includes the service of all civil processes for the county. 

Sheriff Jenkins is a 2007 graduate of the National Sheriff’s Leadership Institute. He is actively involved with the Maryland Sheriff’s Association testifying many times before the Maryland Legislature on legislative issues that impact public safety, corrections, and law enforcement. Sheriff Jenkins actively serves on three standing committees of the National Sheriff’s Association - Homeland Security, Immigration and Border Security, and School Safety. 

Under his leadership as Sheriff, the agency has effectively partnered with DHS/ICE to participate in two major programs, the 287g Delegation of Authority Program and the Inter-Governmental Services Agreement ICE detainee housing program. He has previously testified before Congressional subcommittees on issues involving illegal immigration. In the summer of 2014, he visited the McAllen, Texas border sector to view first-hand the surge of illegal immigrants across the open border and the impact to local crime and public safety.  Sheriff Jenkins is currently participating in a long-term project sponsored by the U.S. Army War College’s Homeland Defense and Security.

https://www.frederickcosheriff.com/

Note: Sheriff Jenkins has recently announced his candidacy for re-election as Sheriff of Frederick County.  www.chuckjenkinsforsheriff.com

SECOND SPEAKER - THOMAS D. HOMAN, SENIOR FELLOW, IMMIGRATION REFORM LAW INSTITUTE

Thomas Homan served as Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) , the principal investigative agency of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), from January 30, 2017 until his retirement on June 30, 2018. In this role, Mr. Homan advanced ICE’s mission to promote homeland security and public safety through the criminal and civil enforcement of approximately 400 federal laws governing border control, customs, trade and immigration.

Since 2013, and until his retirement, Mr. Homan served as the executive associate director of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). In this capacity, he led ICE ‘s efforts to identify, arrest, detain, and remove illegal aliens, including those who present a danger to national security or are a risk to public safety, as well as those who enter the United States illegally or otherwise undermine the integrity of our immigration laws and our border control efforts.

Mr. Homan is a 33-year veteran of law enforcement and has nearly 30 years of immigration enforcement experience. He has served as a police officer in New York; a U.S. Border Patrol agent; a special agent with the former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service; as well as supervisory special agent and deputy assistant director for investigations at ICE. In 1999, Mr. Homan became the assistant district director for investigations (ADDI) in San Antonio, Texas, and three years later transferred to the ADDI position in Dallas, Texas.

Upon the creation of ICE, Mr. Homan was named as the assistant agent in charge in Dallas. In March 2009, Mr. Homan accepted the position of assistant director for enforcement within ERO at ICE headquarters and was subsequently promoted to deputy executive associate director of ERO.

Mr. Homan holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and received the Presidential Rank Award in 2015 for his exemplary leadership and extensive accomplishments in immigration enforcement.  Tom is a well-known and respected contributor on Fox News. 

https://www.irli.org/

THIRD SPEAKER - DALE WILCOX, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & GENERAL COUNSEL, IRLI

Dale Wilcox joined IRLI (the Immigration and Reform Law Institute) in 2014 as its chief executive officer and is responsible for the overall management of the organization. He is a distinguished litigator who has dedicated his career to protecting civil rights and promoting accountability, transparency, and integrity in government and fidelity to the rule of law. Prior to joining IRLI, he served as State and Local Director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) where he developed and executed a successful legislative program to advance FAIR’s mission to stem unlawful immigration and promote legal immigration levels consistent with the national interest.

Prior to FAIR, Mr. Wilcox worked with Judicial Watch, Inc. (JW) for more than ten years where he served as counsel and Executive Director of Judicial Watch’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia. In this regard, he was involved in several seminal JW investigations that uncovered government corruption, waste, fraud, and abuse, including the Filegate, Chinagate, Commercegate, and Pardongate scandals, litigated numerous FOIA lawsuits that forced release of important government records, including the CCTV camera footage of American Airlines Flight 77 hitting the Pentagon on 9/11 and documents establishing government abuse and incompetence relating to the handling of the anthrax letters sent to members of Congress. 

He is a cum laude graduate of the Regent University School of Law and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in political science with a minor in philosophy from the University of Louisville. He is a member of the bars of the United States Supreme Court, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh and District of Columbia Circuits, United States District Courts for the District of Columbia and Northern and Southern Districts of Indiana, Supreme Court of the State of Indiana, and District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

https://www.irli.org/

MODERATOR - DENNIS MELBY

Dennis Melby, who is a former Party Chairman, Town Councilmember and Association President, will serve as moderator.

TONIGHT’S TOPIC:

For the past nine months, the Biden Regime has systematically uprooted, turned off, and eliminated the plethora of effective policies, regulations, agreements, and executive actions by the Trump Administration regarding illegal immigration, the southern border and internal enforcement.  We have gone from near completion of the Border Wall, ever declining numbers of illegal entries through the “Remain in Mexico” policy and elimination of the foolhardy “Catch and Release” program, increasing internal arrests and removals of illegal alien criminals and gang members via 287g and other programs, to a Biden sponsored national disaster.  A virtual tsunami of illegal crossings by citizens of nearly every nation combined with dramatically less domestic enforcement and removals, with no end in sight!  If trends continue unabated, we will receive more than two million uninvited 'guests' to our country in 2021.  From the Biden Regime perspective, that means of course potentially 2 million new Democrat voters.  

With the aiding and abetting of the movement and sustainment of these illegal border jumpers by federal agencies and hired non-government organizations, illegal aliens are being bused, flown, feed and housed in all 50 states including Maryland without our knowledge or consent.  Given no more than a good luck pat on the back (vaya con dios) and a meaningless piece of paper that says to show up in federal Immigration Court 2-3 years from now, these unknown, uneducated, non-English speaking persons, not tested for COVID or other diseases, are in the wind nationwide. Headed of course for our Maryland (often sanctuary) communities, public school systems, social welfare programs, low wage jobs and voting facilities.  Makes life easier for cartel members, human and drug traffickers, terrorists, and gang members who are exploiting the reckless incompetence of the Biden White House.

Our speakers tonight, Sheriff Chuck Jenkins, Tom Homan and Dale Wilcox are all too familiar and experienced with this ongoing national crisis and with provide our audience with insights, possible solutions and potential actions we can take as concerned citizens.  The future of America hangs in the balance until we solve this all-encompassing problem. 

Register in advance for this webinar HERE or go to

For this important discussion of “BIDEN’S ILLEGAL ALIEN TSUNAMI AT THE SOUTHERN BORDER – IMPACT ON MARYLAND AND THE NATION” 

To support our speakers series and the Republican Party click HERE.

JULIE STRAUSS-LEVIN URGES TEACHING CHILDREN AMERICAN HISTORY EARLY

By Kathy Gugulis

The Potomac Women’s Republican Club warmly welcomed Julie Strauss Levin as its special guest speaker at its June 30th luncheon. 

Among her many other accomplishments, Julie Strauss Levin, a lawyer experienced in the non-profit and for profit arenas, was appointed by President Trump to the 1776 Commission, as well as the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. She is a proud mom and daughter, and the wife of conservative author, TV and radio host Mark Levin.

The room full of nearly 100 guests had a lively discussion with Mrs. Strauss Levin about how to raise conservative children in today’s world, voter integrity, and the tragic developments earlier this year in Israel which has led to a reprehensible rise in anti-Semitic attacks both in the U.S. and around the world, as well as anti-Semitic statements from some Democrat members of Congress.

Strauss-Levin encouraged parents and grandparents to start teaching American history, talking about the Declaration of Independence and Constitution at home as soon as kids can begin to comprehend these concepts.

“Your kids should not be learning about the Declaration of Independence at school. They should learn about it at home.  Kids need to understand that the Constitution is the roadmap for limited government, to make sure that that We, the People, are in charge and that our inalienable rights are protected,” she said. 

Asked if there is any hope left for public schools, especially regarding the teaching of history, Strauss-Levin said, “Kids are never too young to talk about that on the soccer field or day care.  Discussing American history and who we are as Americans should be done as soon as kids can comprehend.  I know that I talked to my kids when they were 3,4, and five years old. Go to the primary documents, show them the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. We live here right near the city, take them around.”    

Another guest asked what we in Montgomery County could do to counter Leftist, Marxist ideologies.  Strauss-Levin urged people to prepare and become informed so they could push back during every day conversations. She suggested that an organization called The Policy Circle prepares issue papers on different subjects and makes them available for community leaders who establish conversation circles to find local solutions.  

How can we get more Republicans to win in Moco?  “Do what you are doing every single day, talking to people about your values—freedom, liberty. It all goes back back to conversation.  Having people in the comfort of your home where you can talk about issues, I really think you can change minds.”

“Marxism is here in our country,” she said.   “It is frightening.  The Left is on the march.  Nancy Pelosi says jump, they ask how high.”

“I am asked, why can’t we [conservatives] do that?  We are wired to believe in individualism.  We are not government centric.  We believe in liberty. It is easy for the Left to follow in lock step, follow the line.” 

“You see Marxism everywhere.  You can’t even let your kids watch TV today without seeing Disney propaganda or Sesame Street.” 

“Why do they push CRT?  Why do they embrace climate change?  This is a way for the Left to tell us what to think, what to do, where we can go,” she said. 

“They’ve stolen our language and then they censor us.”  An audience member noted that “Critical race theory—cute words—sounds like a good idea.  But it is an evil ideology.  CRT says the Constitution and Declaration of Independence are White supremacist documents created to give power and influence to white people, and that is why we have to trash these documents.  It is just awful.”

“This is why we have to get to our kids first,” Strauss-Levin said. “The first time they should learn about Declaration of Independence shouldn’t be at school, it should be at home, so when they get to school, they know how to think critically.”

Strauss-Levin encouraged the audience to get to legislators first with your own message and not let the Leftists take the lead.

The 1776 Commission, to which Strauss-Levin was appointed by President Trump, did a study and submitted the report to the president, symbolically on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  

“The media attacked us as racists.  We were vilified,” she said. Not surprisingly, Biden signed an executive order abolishing the 1776 Commission on January 21, 2021, right after Inauguration Day.

_______________

Kathy Gugulis is Treasurer of the Potomac Women's Republican Club, a member of the Montgomery County Charter Review Commission and resident of Legislative District 39.

Sponsored by the Rural Republican Women's Club ~