I was going to take a day off, but this was just too much. For $10 you too can learn the “truth” tomorrow from the “experts” at the Greyhound Park and Event Center in Post Falls. Here’s the link to the ad online: https://allevents.in/post%20falls/the-truth-election-analysis/10000179024054767 . Equipped with the “truth” attendees will feel fully justified in bearing arms to the elections office any time their preferred candidate doesn’t win. They are laying the groundwork for an insurrection broader than January 6. The three “experts” are making a living peddling this tripe, and a certain segment of the population is gobbling it up. None of the “experts” has an internet presence that rivals their current gig. See “Suspended NMSU professor hits the road promoting election fraud claims after defying COVID-19 mandates” or https://celebpie.com/seth-keshel-wikipedia/ None of them has anything but self-declared expertise in their subject while Glen Morgan, the moderator, runs a toxic website of steeply slanted Washington State Republican propaganda that presents itself as news and reads like a political version of the old National Enquirer.
The image below is from an event that already occurred (on September 25). Note the familiar faces of former and current state legislators and the interweaving of politics, anti-mask and vaccination sentiment, and right wing religion. In addition we have Caleb Collier of the John Birch Society and John Jacob Schmidt of Radio Free Redoubt. Dr. Olp (not an M.D.) you can watch here. Be sure to click the SHOW MORE button to catch the associations. You can’t make this stuff up. This anti-mask, anti-vaccination rally was held just blocks away from downtown Spokane hospitals where Covid patients lay dying. These people and any candidates who pander to their malignant anti-scientism deserve to be shunned in life and at the ballot box.
Supposed opponents on the ballot for Position 5, CVSD, Pam Orebaugh and Rob Linebarger, celebrating the filing of their recall petitions against the three members of the CVSD Board who are not up for election on November 3.Note what is essentially a political endorsement by the tax shielded Washington Citizens for Liberty in the doorstep flier. In Pam’s and Bret’s blurbs “CSE” stands for “Comprehensive Sex Education”—they, of course, are against it, preferring that children remain in the dark.
Pam Orebaugh and Rob Linebarger in Spokane valley are fomenting a hostile takeover of the entire five person School Board of Central Valley School District (CVSD). Their campaign is based on religio-political, anti-science rhetoric against mask mandates, masks, and vaccinations. Pam and Rob appear as supposed opponents for Position 5 on the CVSD Board on the November 2 general election ballot—but they are allies, partners in their attempt to replace the entire Board. In a sleepy August Primary in which only a quarter of the registered voters bothered to turn in a ballot, Pam garnered 5951, Rob 4962 and their opponent 4674 votes out of the 15761 votes cast. These are not large numbers, but Pam and Rob apparently see them as a mandate.
Mr. Linebarger’s conspiracy-laden oration speaks for itself. This is not a man interested in the intricacies of school budgets and discussion under Roberts Rules of Order. This is a man who sounds primed for revolution, armed, if necessary. Rob’s partner in this plan, Pam Orebaugh, takes a quieter role at the unofficial gathering. She is seen intermittently sitting to the far right in the screen view and referred to by Rob as an ally. At 01:54 she walks across the room behind Mr. Linebarger.
This video should, and did, set off alarm bells. Stan Chalich, a retired Central Valley coach and civics teacher, stepped up as a popular write-in candidate for Position 5. Winning a write-in campaign is an up hill battle, but if you watch the video you will likely agree that the stakes are high.
Bret Howell (seen in the flier above), encouraged by Rob and Pam, is running as a write-in candidate for Position 2, the only other CVSD board seat on the ballot in November. The only candidate already on the ballot for that Position 2 seat, Teresa Landa, Pam and Rob apparently think of as insufficiently right wing.
There’s more. On August 24th Rob and Pam, with Rob in the lead, filed an application with the IRS for 501(c)(3) [tax exempt non-profit] status for their “Washington Citizens for Liberty.” As “citizens4liberty.org” they began soliciting tax-deductible donations to pay for legal council immediately, counting on the IRS to validate and backdate the tax-deductible status for which they had applied. Visit “citizens4liberty.org” and see for yourself the far right news rathole on which these people rely as well as the wacko anti-vaccine rhetoric they espouse. Money gathered by the citizens4liberty “non-profit” is to be used to pay legal costs incurred to threaten the other three sitting CVSD school board directors with a recall election. Those directors, Debra Long, Cindy McMullen, and Keith Clark, in addition to their other volunteer board duties, now will need to defend themselves in court against a recall.
Contemplate for a moment the reaction you might have if you had been serving your community as an unpaid member of the school board with all the attendant meetings and homework—and then you were faced with hiring a lawyer and defending against a legal threat as the price you must pay for continuing to donate your time and good will.
The September 28 Spokesman article written by Jim Allen announcing Rob and Pam’s recall petition filings against all three of the remaining CVSD Board directors left me puzzled (as newspaper articles often do) about the steps involved in an attempted recall. Recalls of “elective officers” in the State of Washington are addressed in Article I, Sections 33 and 34 of the Washington State Constitution. The details of the process are filled in by state law in the Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 29A.56.110thruRCW29A.56.270. It is a complex process with many steps and deadlines, a process which, in the case of Linebarger’s three recall petitions, will hardly have started by the time the November 3 General Election voting is complete one month from now.
The substance of these recall petitions is very thin. It consists of allegations that Debra Long, Cindy McMullen, and Keith Clark each
committed acts of misfeasance, specifically misuse of power and wrongful use of lawful authority in the exercise of her office where she and her fellow Board Members, as a matter of policy, have mandated the use and placement of a medical device, specifically a mask, and now require District staff to have the first publicly available mRNA vaccination as a condition of employment
Essentially, Pam, Rob, and company allege that the CVSD’s Board directors are committing “malfeasance” by carrying out state level executive orders—a preposterous claim that will likely be thrown out, just like a similar recall against Governor Jay Inslee was thrown out when a judge ruled the alleged charges were “legally and factually insufficient last June.”¹
In summary, we have two candidates for the same Position 5 spot on the CVSD School Board, Pam Orebaugh and Rob Linebarger working together not only to get Pam elected to the board, but soliciting tax deductible unreported donations to their nonprofit, Citizens4Liberty, to 1) Support Pam’s and write-in candidate Howell’s candidacies and 2) Launch and fund dubious recall petitions against the other sitting school board members, petitions that function as a combination of grandstanding and legal harassment.
Whether or not you live in the Central Valley School District, this school board election is a consequential issue. It is one of the most blatant local manifestations of an organized national campaign. (Also in the Washington Post.) Watch the Rob and Pam video referenced above. Understand where Pam and Rob are coming from by visiting the News page at Citizen4Liberty.org . Then visit Stan Chalich’s website, check out the impressive endorsements on his Facebook page. Donate to his campaign. Tell your friends about the Stan Chalich write-in campaign.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry
P. S. I have obtained pdf copies of the recall petitions Linebarger filed on September 24, but I’ve been unable to attach them to this post. If any of my readers wants to see the pdfs request them of me by hitting “Reply” to this email and I will endeavor to send them to you electronically.
P.P.S. Pam Orebaugh draws points for herself as a faculty nurse educator for obstetric nursing at the Washington State University College of Nursing. However (and for good reason) she notes that she is “not representing WSU or speaking for WSU in my stances.” Her anti-mask, anti-vaccination stances do not represent reasoned medical opinion.1
Debra Long, the board president and one of the three board members defending against recall, is also accused of not meeting residency requirements for her position—while the other two are accused of knowing this and not tattling on her. This accusation is detailed in Jim Allen’s Spokesman article. It seems likely that the Superior Court Judge who, according to the RCW, will need to sign off on the petition for Rob, Pam and company to start gathering signatures will find this accusation “factually insufficient” as well, but who knows?
Unlike most elected positions in local government, serving on a school board (at least in Idaho or Washington) is an unpaid, volunteer position. On top of that, school board service requires time and effort spent on an election campaign, and, after winning a seat on a board, it requires many hours of meetings dedicated to budgets, levies, and other issues, often with little thanks or notice from the community served. We, as voters and members of our communities, have tended to take the service, selflessness, and goodwill of school board candidates for granted.
You might be pardoned if all that makes you wonder who on earth would put themselves through an election campaign–and then endure seemingly endless meetings—as an unpaid and often unthanked community servant. If you take the time to meet currently serving school board members (in most communities) it turns out they are mostly altruists, people with a genuine interest in providing our youth with a quality education. They have day jobs, children, and families that they juggle just like the rest of us.
This year many school board members all over the U.S. are enduring intimidation that threatens to drive these altruists away from serving their communities, tipping the balance in favor of ideological extremists who pander to the intimidators (or are the intimidators) while they present themselves to the voting public as reasonable people.
Case in Point:
After rowdy, confrontational anti-mask protestors forced the cancellation of a School Board meeting scheduled to address the issue of mask mandates, about three dozen of the protesters then invaded the Coeur d’Alene School District offices and frightened staff, actions that prompted a 911 call and a building lockdown. (See videos here and here if you have any doubt about the threatening, intimidating nature of this crowd). A Spokesman headline on Friday, October 1, read “Two [of five] CdA school board members announce resignations following mask controversy.” Board Chair Jennifer Brumley and Trustee Tambra Pickford announced their intention to resign one week after the special board meeting cancellation.
Board Chair Jennifer Brumley was appointed to the CDA School Board in 2018. Her term ends this December, but her resignation will be effective a month early. She had spoken out about the stress of intimidation and bullying before the protests depicted in the videos. One is left to imagine the subsequent stress that precipitated Brumley’s rushed resignation. The other resigning board member, Tambra Pickford, was elected to the Coeur d’Alene School Board in 2015 and re-elected in 2019. Her second term doesn’t end until December, 2023—yet she is resigning two years and a month early alongside Brumley. Brumley and Pickford were part of the 3-2 majority that had voted on September 13 to “strongly recommend” mask wear in schools in the face of the rapid spread of Covid 19 that has forced North Idaho hospitals into triage mode. Neither Brumley nor Pickford was candid in their resignation letters about the threats they faced for even this watered-down recommendation—but it seems that the bottom line here is that the belligerent anti-mask, anti-science, anti-protect-your-neighbor crowd has won.
The remaining Board (two of whom voted against making any mask recommendation) will name a “successor resident” to the School Board per Idaho State law to finish Pickford’s two years of remaining term, probably ensuring a 3 to 1 like-minded, anti-mask majority on the board. The occupant of the fifth seat, Brumley’s, will depend on the results of the November general election. Brumley and one other of the four candidates originally on the ballot, Jeff Zember, have withdrawn from the November election. (See Zember’s response to a rowdy school board meeting in July.) Zember filed on August 31 to run for Brumley’s seat after he penned his response to the July meeting, but, after the recent belligerence protests, he changed course and withdraw his name for the November election.
In our neighboring Kootenai County the animosity and intimidation extends to higher education. On September 22 a 3-2 majority of the trustees of North Idaho College fired the President of the College, Rick MacLennan. The firing was officially “without cause”, but it came after MacLennan’s imposition of a mask mandate, the trustees rescinding of the mandate, and a few week’s delay, presumably to disconnect the firing from the rescinding in the mind of the public. MacLennan is not taking it his firing lying down. On October 1 MacLennan filed a lawsuit against the three members of the Board of Trustees who voted to fire him, Board Chair Todd Banducci, Vice Chair Greg McKenzie and Trustee Michael Barnes. The article in the Bonner County Daily Bee on the firing and the lawsuit is illuminating. (Click here.) The malignant interference of the far right Kootenai County Republican Central Committee (KCRCC) in establishing the 3-2 majority that fired MacLennan is made clear in this letter.
Intimidation and conflict over mask mandates and other cultural issues (like the bogus dustup over “critical race theory”) are obviously enough to discourage many reasonable people from running for and serving in these suddenly thankless volunteer positions. And such capitulation is exactly what the far right Republican ideologues fomenting these protests want to see. Ultimately, these ideologues want detailed control over public school curricula.
Spokane County school boards are not immune from intimidation. Protests have shut down school board meetings in the Central Valley and Spokane Public Schools Districts. Extremist candidates for the school board in Central Valley are trying to engineer a full takeover of the board (more in a post later this week). Some candidates for School Board for the two open seats in Spokane Public Schools (District 81) are more subtle than those in Central Valley, but are cut from the same cloth.
It’s time to pay attention to School Board races. The altruists who volunteer their time and expertise on our School Boards are coming under increasing pressure and intimidation from the far right. School Board members deserve our thanks and our support—and more than ever we owe it to the current members to scrutinize the candidates running for positions on those boards before casting our ballots.
In the meantime, send a note to your current school board indicating your support for their efforts to keep our children safe.
Here’s the page with the email addresses for the Board at Spokane Public Schools:
There is inherent evil and inanity in the concept of corporate personhood. Unlike the Roman god Janus, the god of two faces, the public face and lobbying face of a corporation doesn’t even share a brain. If all the faces of a corporation did so it would be harder to trot out a sincere spokesperson who can issue pronouncements without a hint of hypocrisy—while another arm of the corporation spends money, time, and lobbying effort to defeat precisely that legislation for which the spokesperson is publicly declaring their corporation’s support.
Judd Legum, an independent researcher publishing on Substack, is doing a terrific job highlighting the hypocrisy of corporate public and legislative faces. I urge my readers to sign up to support and receive Legum’s work, but in the meantime I’ve copied below Legum’s post from September 30. In addition, I recommend an earlier post of Legum’s on the same topic, The corporate campaign to tank reconciliation.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry
Walmart calls for “strong climate policy now,” backs campaign to kill strong climate policy
Doug McMillon, Walmart President and CEO (Photo by Rick T. Wilking/Getty Images)
In a new post on LinkedIn, Walmart’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Kathleen McLaughlin, underscored the company’s commitment to addressing climate change. But McLaughlin noted, correctly, that “even the most ambitious voluntary individual and collective actions are not sufficient” and “[b]old domestic climate policy action is needed now if we are to meet the demands of this generational moment.”
McLaughlin went on to say that effective climate policies are included in the reconciliation package pending before Congress:
In the U.S., Walmart is encouraged by the many climate-related policy proposals being debated by Congress, including proposals made through budget reconciliation and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, as well as additional ideas being surfaced in policy circles. We urge our national leaders to find ways to enact much-needed legislation to enable the U.S. to move forward on climate action now to avoid the worst effects of climate change in the future.
…As the IPCC report affirms, global warming is not just a challenge we must address for tomorrow, but one whose effects are already being felt by many communities today. We need to act now and with urgency.
The centerpiece of the climate policy in the reconciliation bill is the Clean Energy Standard. The proposal would allocate about $150 billion to incentivize utilities to shift to cleaner sources of power. The goal of the Clean Energy Standard in the reconciliation package would be to reduce carbon emissions from the power sector by 80% by 2030 and 100% by 2035.
While McLaughlin is urging Congress to “act now and with urgency,” her boss, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, is leading a multi-million dollar campaign to defeat the reconciliation package.
McMillon is the current chair of the Business Roundtable, a group of influential CEOs who are participating in a “massive lobbying blitz” to kill the reconciliation package and its Clean Energy Standard. In a press release this week which featured quotes from McMillon, the Business Roundtable said its efforts to defeat the reconciliation bill would include “direct CEO engagement to Capitol Hill and the Administration, as well as high-frequency radio print and digital ads in over 50 media markets across the country, generating calls and letters from constituents in target states.”
Walmart is also part of another well-funded campaign to defeat the reconciliation bill by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Walmart did not respond to Popular Information’s request for comment.
GM endorses reconciliation bill; GM CEO takes over Business Roundtable
GM released a statement on Tuesday officially endorsing the reconciliation bill, also known as the “Build Back Better” plan. The company says that the bill presents a “once-in-a-generation opportunity for our nation.”
General Motors applauds those who have worked tirelessly to advance the Build Back Better Plan, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework, and urges Congress and the Administration to move forward legislation that will bring critical improvements to the country. Build Back Better lays the foundation for sustainability policies that will help address climate change and improve environmental quality and resiliency. GM supports those goals and, critically, we support those provisions that accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles and establish the U.S. as a global leader in electrification today, and into the future.
Soon, Barra will lead a company that says the reconciliation bill is “critical” and a lobbying organization doing everything possible to defeat it. The media coverage of Barra’s appointment ignored this contradiction.
Under increased scrutiny, Apple stays silent
Walmart’s conduct is similar to Apple’s contradictory approach. Apple’s VP for Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives, Lisa Jackson, put out a statement supporting “the enactment of a Clean Energy Standard (CES) that would decarbonize the power sector by 2035.” This is the exact policy in the reconciliation bill. Jackson called taking action on this issue “urgent.”
But, as Popular Information reported earlier this week, Apple CEO Tim Cook sits on the board of the Business Roundtable. So Apple is describing the climate provisions of the reconciliation bill as “urgent” while also participating in a campaign to kill the legislation.
Apple did not respond to our request for comment but Popular Information’s reporting caught the attention of MSNBC’s Chris Hayes. On his program Tuesday night, Hayes said Apple also ignored MSNBC’s inquiry:
Today, journalist Judd Legum points out in this newsletter Popular Information that Apple CEO Tim Cook sits on the board of the Business Roundtable along with at least 12 other influential CEOs. The group is running ads on Facebook attacking the reconciliation bill’s higher corporate tax rate.
We reached out to Apple for comment. They did not get back to us….
Manchin snaps at reporter who asked about his financial conflicts
The reconciliation bill does not need any Republican votes to become law. But it is opposed by Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and a handful of other Democrats. On Wednesday, Manchin released a lengthy statement criticizing the bill seeks to “vengfully tax” in pursuit of “wishful spending.”
Manchin did not mention it, but he reportedly also objects to the climate provisions in the bill, which would transition the energy sector away from fossil fuels by 2035. Manchin wants a policy that would give “a lifeline to the fossil fuel industry.”
As Popular Information reported earlier this month, Manchin has a financial conflict. He continues to hold an ownership stake in two coal companies that would likely be put out of business if the country stopped generating power from coal. Manchin has recieved hundreds of thousands of dollars in dividends from these holdings since he became a Senator.
