Kendall Tietz on November 24, 2021

• Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD) is reportedly infusing Critical Race Theory (CRT) into its teacher training, which says “America is oppressive” and that “White supremacy is everywhere,” Carlos Turcios, an activist who spent four years on FWISD’s Racial Equity Committee and now organizes parent protests, told Fox News.
• The school district has asserted it does not teach CRT, but it advertised a class for teachers and staff that introduced CRT into the curriculum, according to the “Overview of Service Provided by the Division of Equity & Excellence,” from September 2020. The overview outlines “Critical Race Theory (CRT) in Fort Worth ISD: An Introduction.”
• The overview explains CRT’s central tenets as “Counter- storytelling, the permanence of racism, whiteness as property, interest convergence, critique of liberalism,” to discuss the “endemic nature of racism and white supremacy” in the U.S. from its founding “into the present.”

Teacher training at a Texas public school district teaches the tenets of Critical Race Theory, according to a document obtained by Fox News and videos provided by an education activist.

Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD) is reportedly infusing Critical Race Theory (CRT) into its teacher training, which states that “America is oppressive” and “White supremacy is everywhere,” Carlos Turcios, an activist who spent four years on FWISD’s Racial Equity Committee and now organizes parent protests, toldFox News.

CRT holds that America is fundamentally racist, yet it teaches people to view every social interaction and person in terms of race. Its adherents pursue “antiracism” through the end of merit, objective truth and the adoption of race-based policies.

The school district has asserted that it does not teach CRT, but it advertised a class for teachers and staff that introduced CRT into the curriculum, according to the “Overview of Service Provided by the Division of Equity & Excellence,” from September 2020. The overview outlines “Critical Race Theory (CRT) in Fort Worth ISD: An Introduction.”

The overview explains CRT’s central tenets as “Counter- storytelling, the permanence of racism, whiteness as property, interest convergence, critique of liberalism,” to discuss the “endemic nature of racism and white supremacy” in the U.S. from its founding “into the present.”

The course is self-paced, where participants learn that racism “is prevalent in all aspects of our society,” including the educational system. The “culminating activity” of the course involves participants developing “their own Racial Equity Strategic Plan to move more deeply into critical self-reflection and work towards implementing their plan into the participants current roles.”

“The superintendent and the bureaucracy are doing a disservice to the students by teaching them that color is everything, that America is oppressive, and that White supremacy is everywhere,” Turcios told Fox News. “Last time I checked, critical race theory doesn’t help kids learn how to pay the bills, pay their taxes, or pass that job interview.”

The school district’s overview also discusses “Students Organized for Anti-Racism (SOAR),” implemented to encourage students to do “anti-racism” work. The SOAR description says students in “predominantly White settings” should be “particularly open to alliances with students of color” and “not further isolate students of color, who are already historically marginalized and hypervisible within the system.”

SOAR advisers, the faculty members guiding the groups, should be “prepared to host racial affinity spaces as needed,” which involves segregating participants by skin color, according to the district’s overview. Advisers should also “be able to practice culturally responsive teaching” and “have an internalized understanding of critical race theory,” the document says.

At an optional district “Racial Equity Summit,” in March 2019, attendees had to divide themselves by race into “African, Biracial, African American/Black, Hispanic/Latinx, American Indian, Asian and White” groups, according to a videoshared by Turcios.

At the district’s school board meeting in November, FWISD Superintendent Kent Paredes Scribner discussed the “Introduction to Critical Race Theory” and “how to create an anti-racist classroom” by addressing implicit bias and microaggressions.

At the 2020 FWISD “Racial Equity Summit,” an instructor discussed a quote, “a little white man deep inside all of us,” attributed to James Baldwin, on a slide titled “Internalized white supremacy.”

During the session, the black speaker said many black people are “guilty of” hosting “internalized white supremacy” by thinking “our own traditions are not as good, somehow,” which is “internalized racism, because we internally believe that white is supreme.” She also said, “it requires a constant process of ridding ourselves of this colonized mentality.”

Turcios told Fox News that Scribner should resign, along with several other school district leaders who allegedly created a “toxic environment.”

On Nov. 9, at a FWISD school board meeting, a pro-CRT parent, Malikk Austin, told attendees that he has 1,000 soldiers “locked and loaded” for those who “dare” question the need for race-based curricula.

“Look at the word racism, this is something deliberately done to people of African descent to shackle us down, this hate, fear mongering ain’t gonna work no more,” Austin said. “It’s over with, we are not our ancestors. I got over 1,000 soldiers ready to go.”

When reached for comment, FWISD told the Daily Caller News Foundation that its offices would be closed until Nov. 29.

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“What is the fundamental role of government? Ask everybody running for office that,” he told us when we talked to him this week. “And Ron Paul told me that years ago when I asked him and I’ve got him in my office. The fundamental role of proper government is always to defend your liberty—your God-given liberty—and everything else is secondary. And that’s a fact.”

As a state Senator, he was known for eliminating entire agencies of government, such as Dallas Public Schools, which didn’t run any schools but did have “over 3000 employees, over $100 million annual budget”.

“It was a remnant from when the state of Texas used to have nothing but county schools versus independent school districts. And it was a fluke. They were never eliminated by the legislators. There were two left—one in Dallas County and one in Harris County. It had been a holdover from before independent school districts took over education in the area.”

It was the “largest political corruption scandal in the modern history of Texas,” according to Huffines.  “And bottom line, we got six people that went to jail, including the City Mayor Pro Tem of the city council in Dallas” for things such as kickbacks through this remnant agency, now eliminated. And as a Dallas County resident, it is no longer on my property tax bill.

Which is another notable portion of his candidacy; his proposal to end property taxes in the state.

We had to ask— You’ve proposed eliminating state property taxes completely by phasing them out long term. You’ve said that by the time you leave office, you plan to fully remove the public school portion. Texas has no income tax and you said income tax is “off the table”. Texas has a balanced budget amendment. How exactly would you plan to pay for the state to fund education given all that?

Huffine’s response?

“Yes. Well, the best way to start whittling that—it’ll take about a decade to get rid of all the property taxes. You cap state spending at a small level, which is like increasing state spending at 2%. And state revenues generally are growing at about 7-8%. And then you take that growth in revenue that’s not being spent, and you can buy down sales tax or property tax. You can move some of the burden on property tax over to the sales tax bucket. And then buy that down with the growth in government. And eventually, it’ll all match up where revenues coming in equal the amount of money we’re currently getting from property taxes, and at the same time, fully funding education and the political subdivisions that are dependent on property tax.

I think that the thing to remember here is that, in Texas, in every state in the nation, you never own anything as far as real property. Every building, every piece of land, every ranch, every farm, every business building, it’s all owned by the government. All we do is rent it from the government, and that rent goes up every year. We don’t even know what the rent’s gonna be. All we know is it can increase in taxes.

Well, how would you imagine the prosperity we will create, if we don’t have any of it? Imagine how much wealth will be created overnight, when truly, Texans can own their own property and use that money for other things. I mean, half of the property taxes are paid by businesses, half paid by residents. So it’s a massive economic stimulus beyond comparison. And people tell me, they say ‘hey, Huffines, every state’s got property tax, you can’t do it’. And I’ll say, I don’t ever say the C-A-N-T word. This is Texas. We can do anything. Everything is possible in Texas. And I’ll say finally, we’re going to get our swagger back. And we’re going to do something that that no state’s ever done before and we’re going to show the world what it’s like when you have real economic freedom.”

Texas is known for being, well, the belt buckle of the Bible belt, and the conservative powerhouse attracting all those pesky transplants from California and Chicago. But in Huffines’ mind, many Republicans in government are anything but conservative.

“I think that we have a lot of people that call themselves Republicans, and they really are not. And they don’t really believe in it. The Republicans have controlled everything in Austin for 20 years—the House, the Senate and the Governor’s mansion, and the Governor’s seat—and we barely get anything passed that the grassroots wants done.”

Case in point? “I’m the one that filed the ESA bill, the Education Savings Accounts bill. We’ve got a long way, I’ve always supported school choice and different ways to do it. Tax credits, education savings accounts, things like that. But we don’t go anywhere with it, because our Republican leadership doesn’t want to go anywhere with it.”

And nowhere does Huffines seem to see leadership more lacking than in the position he’s running for, and he hits Abbott on this point often. “The future of this country rests with the states. It rests with Texas. And I could go on about that—without leadership at the Governor’s level, we’re lost.

We’re being invaded on the border with millions of illegals this year. And Texas will definitely be lost and if Texas is lost, the US is lost, and the free world is gone. The only hope we have, the only chance we have, of saving liberty, our God given liberty, and what the country was created and founded on, rests on the Governor of Texas. And a Governor who’s got courage, tons of courage, and I do. And that’s why I’m running. Because the job’s not getting done. And I’m going to get it done. It’s about leadership and no excuses. You know what an excuse is, don’t you? Just the skin of a lie.”

This border issue is one of the animating issues of Huffine’s campaign. Fellow candidate for Texas Governor in the Libertarian Party, Dan Behrman, wanted to ask about just this, and we passed on his question. “Hypothetically, if there were no welfare benefits for illegal immigrants, and if there was no job shortage to speak of for American workers, would you still prioritize the wall and border security as a major campaign theme?”

“Yes, we have to have secure borders. I’m a firm believer in having secure borders and law and order. Right now that border is being overrun by cartels. In Mexico, the Mexican cartels, these are the most dangerous criminal organizations, really, in the world. And no one crosses that border without paying them. They’re human trafficking. Everyone, everyone that crosses the border is being human trafficked… paying off the cartels, sex trafficking, murder, rape. It’s rampant in Mexico and along the border. And I think your listeners or your print media, whatever… needs to understand what an invasion this is. And the last month alone, last trailing 30 days, it looks like 400,000 illegals have come into Texas without being caught. Another 175,000 were apprehended just on the Texas border. So this literally is an invasion by almost any definition.”

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your view, it’s a theme Huffines repeatedly returned to. When we asked what he thought of Trump’s recent endorsement of Abbott?

“You know, he’s just always such a wild card. I supported the President, but you just don’t know, never know where he’s coming from. And, look… it doesn’t change the facts. Texans are smart. And the Abbott administration’s a failed administration. The border’s more open than it’s ever been. Abbott’s never cared about the border until he had to politically. He’s a political wind sock. This is a guy who’s a career politician, been in office 31 years. You know, he’s always been on the on the Texas taxpayer payroll.

I’m going to secure that border. I’m going to finish Trump’s wall, build a Texas wall. And I’m going to close that border down in one day. And I’m not going to be asking permission from the federal government do anything. Nothing. And I’m certainly not going to ask them permission to close Texas’s border. I’m going to take Texas off to a level that hasn’t been seen before. It’s an exciting day for Texas. It’s a new chapter. A new day is dawning for Texas. And that means it’s dawning for the rest of the country.”

Huffines didn’t hold back on his primary opponent. As far as he’s concerned about Greg Abbott? “He’s not a champion of anything. It’s just, he has no leadership at all. This state’s leaderless. It’s like I said, a sailboat sailing around with no rudder in it… just wherever the wind blows him.”

One of the areas he hits Abbott on was his response to COVID. “I’ll just say Abbott was a disaster for Texas. His response was a disaster. And it’s important that everyone understands that every way the state responded to COVID was directly… he was directly responsible for that. It’s all on him. He destroyed 3 million jobs in one day, he put 3 million Texans on the unemployment line in one week. He destroyed thousands of businesses.

Constitution didn’t give him the authority to do that. But he did it anyway. He unilaterally decided which ones were essential, which ones weren’t. He picked businesses that, you know, donated to his campaign or which lobbyist got to him last. It was very unconstitutional. He shredded the Constitution, a document that he swore to defend and uphold. He shredded it…

He was just following along what all the elitists would tell him. All the elitists and all the crony capitalists and all the know-it-alls from the Austin swamp all the way up to the Washington DC/New York swamp. He listened to them all. He wasn’t going out and doing anything different. He was just following right along with the pack. And the bar is really low. And you know, even closed our churches. He closed churches on the holiest day of the year at Easter. I mean, holiest week of the year. It was a disaster for Texas. It was a disaster for our Constitution and our liberty.”

To find out more about Don Huffines, you can visit his campaign website here.

The post Texas Gov. Candidate Don Huffines on Abbott, Property Taxes, and the Border appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

The post Matthew McConaughey Holds Double-Digit Lead Over Greg Abbott in Texas Gubernatorial Poll appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

One Texas gubernatorial candidate made the exact opposite journey, traveling from a beach house in Cancun to Austin for a campaign rally where he illegally sold insulin on the Texas Capitol grounds to make a point about healthcare. Upon his arrival, he encountered hotels without power, a disruption with the sound equipment rental companies who were to service the rally, and many who were set to attend the rally had to stay home due to road conditions.

Daniel “Taxation is Theft” Behrman held his “Rally to Free Healthcare” (as opposed to rally for free healthcare) in order to highlight what he describes as a big healthcare/big pharma monopoly inflating the cost of essential medicines through regulatory capture of government. Following the rally, the boogaloo bois brought needed food, water, and warmth to those affected by the winter storms crippling the state for days and killing over fifty people.

During the rally, he sold insulin for $12. Why $12?  As he explained during the rally,

“Insulin costs about $3 to manufacture a month’s supply, and they sell it to us here in America for $100. Now, of course, if you live close enough to the border, you can actually walk right across the border over to Mexico, and you can buy the same insulin for $12. An 88% discount. Now, of course, if you don’t live by the border, you have to pay these really high prices. If you’re lucky enough to have insurance, well… your insurance isn’t just coughing up that money for free—that’s built into your premium. That’s one of the reasons premiums are so high.

A lot of people say ‘oh, but if Mexico has insulin for $12, it must be some cheap knock off stuff’. No. Actually, the stuff that they sell, the insulin they sell in Mexico is the exact same stuff that they sell in the United States. In fact, it was manufactured in the United States. It is FDA approved to be sold in the United States, but they export it to a place that cannot afford the $100 price tag that we have here.

So, I went down to Mexico. And in the United States, you need a permit from the government. And that permit has to be given to you by a doctor. They call it a prescription. It’s a government permit to get medication to save your own life. I went down to Mexico, I walked into a pharmacy… and I was a little bit scared because I was worried that what I was doing was illegal. I was going to try to buy some drugs and bring them back to the United States. Sounds scary, right? We’ve seen all these movies where people try to do that. The feds are after them, all this crazy stuff goes on, 100 years in prison.

So, I walked into a pharmacy. And man, I was like a teenager with a fake ID trying to buy alcohol. I went up to this pharmacist and I was trying to speak broken Spanish to him. My Spanish is already not that great, but I was trying to make it worse just to be like, ‘Okay, this gringo was given what he’s asking for’. And of course, that whole plan went south when I realized the pharmacist spoke perfect English. And he was just rolling his eyes at me. But it was funny because there was nothing odd about that to him.

Because in Mexico, there’s no requirement for government permission to get medication, or most medications to keep you alive. This is super important. Because in the United States, there are people dying because they don’t have access to lifesaving medication. Sometimes because they don’t have the right prescription. Sometimes because they don’t have the money to pay the extortion—the extremely high costs that our government imposes.

So this stuff, you can go to Mexico, you can get it for $12 and bring it across to the United States. Sounds great. I was only able to bring a little bit with me because if I brought a whole lot of it, that might give me some problems. So, some people reached out to me and they said, ‘so what’s your solution to this problem?’ I said, ‘Well, if you get rid of the government regulations, you might have have somebody in Mexico or another country who has access to this insulin for $12, who might open up an online pharmacy, and send it to the United States for $12 plus shipping.”

Right now, that’s illegal. It’s not for your safety—the government wants to tell you it’s for your safety. It’s not for your safety. It is to protect the extortion from Big Pharma, so they can charge you $100 for insulin that they’re already selling in other countries for $12.”

Is his sale of insulin to diabetics during a campaign rally on the Texas Capitol grounds illegal? He thinks that’s the wrong question to ask.

“Martin Luther King said, if a law is unjust, we not only have a right to ignore the law, we have a duty. This law is unjust. It’s telling us that even though we can buy lifesaving medication for what we can actually afford, it’s illegal. And so many Americans have so fallen for this brainwashing that they are afraid to save their own lives.”

But, even if he’s right, isn’t he running for a state level position? If the feds enumerate the rules of the road for healthcare, what could he even do as Governor about it?

“I’m running for governor of Texas, and we’re here at the Texas State Capitol. And a lot of this is federal law. So what can the state do if this is federal law? Ignore it. We can ignore it. We can nullify it. I mean, if we wanted to, we could build our own bridge across the Rio Grande and allow cars to drive right over… we could send helicopters and allow state protection against federal agents. We have the power to do that. A lot of people don’t like that idea. But do you like the idea that people are gonna die because they don’t have access to health care?”

Were those $12 sales making him money? Nope. That was the exact price he could buy it for in Mexico. And the extra?

“And whatever I have left? Actually, some of my friends here—what should I say—the boys with the guns? They’ve got food and water for the homeless. So we’re gonna head out and we’re going to distribute that after this. And when we do that, if we run into any diabetics who are homeless and in need, we will give them access for free. We’re not going to charge them for any leftovers that we have here.”

You can follow Daniel Behrman’s Texas gubernatorial campaign on Facebook and Twitter.

The post Texas Gubernatorial Candidate Travels from Cancun to Austin to Illegally Sell Insulin at the Capitol appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Mary Margaret Olohanon December 2, 2020

The mayor of Austin, Texas flew private to Cabo San Lucas where he filmed himself telling citizens to “stay home.”

Austin Mayor Steve Adler hosted 20 guests at an outdoor wedding and reception for his daughter at a hotel in downtown Austin in early November, the American-Statesman reported. The following day he boarded a private jet with seven of the wedding guests and flew to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for vacation at the family timeshare.

“We need to stay home if you can,” Adler said in a Facebook video message to Austin residents. “This is not the time to relax. We are going to be looking really closely. … We may have to close things down if we are not careful.”

Adler filmed the Facebook video message from Mexico, one night into the trip, the publication reported.

The mayor told the American-Statesman that his family carefully considered how to host the wedding and vacation safely and consulted interim health director Dr. Mark Escott before the wedding. Guests under-went rapid COVID-19 tests and social distanced, he told the publication, though he said that the guests were “probably not” wearing the masks that were distributed.

“At that point, I am with my family group and people who just tested,” Adler told the publication. “It is not perfect. Obviously, there are infections that could happen, but I think all of us should be minimizing risks as best we can.”

Interim health director Escott said at a press briefing the day after the mayor’s party went to Mexico: “If you’re going out to a restaurant, go out with your family, the people who live in your household, not with family and friends outside your household and start to decrease those travels outside of your home that are not necessary.”

The mayor also told the publication that he did not violate his regulations and his actions were not inconsistent with his message at the time. Adler did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Everyday since March, I repeat that being home is the safest place for people to be,” Adler said in a Wednesday statement, according to the American Statesman. “Only at our most trying moments, like around Thanksgiving, have I asked people not to travel as part of extra precautions. It is safest to stay home. However, we aren’t asking people to never venture out. We ask everyone to be as safe as possible when they do.”

The post Austin Mayor Flew Private To Cabo San Lucas Where He Filmed Himself Telling Citizens To ‘Stay Home’ appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Thomas Catenacci on October 23, 2020

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden promised Thursday that if elected he would both “transition from the oil industry” and not ban fracking.

The former vice president said his administration would phase out the oil industry, but denied saying he ever opposed fracking during the second and final 2020 presidential debate.

“I do rule out banning fracking,” Biden said.

President Donald Trump responded saying that in the past Biden had supported a fracking ban “on tape.”

“The fact of the matter is, he is flat lying,” Biden said. “I have never said I oppose fracking.”

Biden promised “no new fracking” during a CNN Democratic debate in March. His climate plan calls for an “emissions-free power sector” by 2035.

The topic of fracking led to the candidates’ views on the oil industry more broadly during Thursday’s debate.

“Would you close down the oil industry?” Trump asked Biden.

Biden responded: “I would transition from the oil industry, yes.”

“Because the oil industry pollutes,” Biden added after debate moderator Kristen Welker pushed him on the topic.

Trump called Biden’s comments on the oil industry a “big statement” later noting that it would not help the former vice president’s election prospects in Pennsylvania, Texas or Ohio.

The post Joe Biden Denies Ever Saying He Opposed Fracking But Promises To Eliminate Oil Industry appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Mary Margaret Olohan on October 12, 2020

Schools have not become the super-spreaders that officials feared, according to Brown University economist Emily Oster.

“It’s now October,” Oster wrote in an Atlantic op-ed. “We are starting to get an evidence-based picture of how school reopenings and remote learning are going (those photos of hallways don’t count), and the evidence is pointing in one direction. Schools do not, in fact, appear to be major spreaders of COVID-19.”

Oster wrote that she has been collecting data on 200,000 children in 47 states in collaboration with school principal and superintendent associations as well as data scientists at the technology company Qualtrics. This data, which is from the last two weeks of September, found that students had an infection rate of 0.13% and staff had an infection rate of 0.24%.

The post Schools Haven’t Become Coronavirus Super-Spreaders, Economist’s Analysis Finds appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

As part of these types of orders, decisions have been made by government in deciding what is or isn’t essential, and what is or isn’t an acceptable level of allowable risk. State and local governments have been making hard choices, generally between two sets of awful options with limited knowledge about what to expect. The trade off has been described, depending on one’s thoughts of what it entails, as a difference between lives and livelihoods, or lives and money, or between lives and lives.

For one local business owner, Shelley Luther, this forced shutdown became too much. If she followed the law, she had to make her own choice… between paying her mortgage or keeping her business. So she made a choice to not follow the law, and to illegally reopen.

Today, her salon looks much different than it once did. There are more customers, given her shop is the only one in the county currently running. Some are sitting outside, socially distanced from one another, while Shelley goes out with a mask and gloves to take their temperatures before letting them inside.

(Image courtesy Murdoch Pizgatti)

Oh… and then there’s the group open carrying rifles right outside her door.

Given the current national debate, a story involving openly defying stay at home orders to give literal haircuts against the law with the support of an open-carrying anti-government group, well… I had to reach out and talk to her and them.

“TLR: Dallas County has a stay at home order, an order that you’ve chosen not to comply with.

SL: Correct.

TLR: You said that even if you’re fined or jailed, your salon will remain open.

SL: It will remain open.

TLR: Can you tell me why you’re not complying and what you expect the consequences to be?

SL: I am not complying because it’s against the Constitution to keep me from making money for my family and for my stylists to be making an income.

TLR: Your argument is that it goes against freedom of assembly and due process?

SL: No. I mean, they’re they’re actually allowing people to come out and do those things, but it’s definitely due process and the… they do not have the right. It’s like the pursuit of happiness. It’s all of our civil rights that they’re violating by shutting down the salon, not giving us any governmental help, and expecting us to be able to feed our families.”

Are stay at home orders unconstitutional? Well, they haven’t been ruled so yet. The Supreme Court, during a smallpox epidemic, allowed for greater restrictions than one might expect under the 1^st or 14^th amendments (among others), including mandatory vaccinations. However, if enough people defy these stay-at-home orders and receive actual penalty, it does make it more likely that SCOTUS could revisit the issue or at least the courts could put the specifics through a strict scrutiny test if it seems to conflict with enumerated rights.

“TLR: You currently have people outside your business who are open carrying rifles. Why?

SL: Oh, I don’t know. That’s their choice, I feel like it’s part of them showing their freedom to open carry and it all kind of goes hand in hand as far as freedom. But I don’t have any kind of say in what those guys do.

TLR: Do you welcome their support?

SL: I welcome anyone’s support that can assemble in a peaceful manner, in a peaceful way, and who supports the constitution. I welcome that, yes.”

So what are they trying to accomplish?

The group in question calls themselves “Don’t Comply”. They’re best known for an annual event where they provide food, clothes, and blankets to the homeless while well-armed. Why armed? Well, as one member who helps organize the event, Murdoch Pizgatti, puts it,

“It is illegal to feed homeless people if you don’t jump through all the hoops and licenses. So we come down here well armed because we’re not going to let anyone stop us.” Essentially, they intentionally carry guns to protests because they believe that such a show of arms is a deterrent to police interrupting their events.

Their “PR director”, Matthew Short, described the overall aim of his group to me this way:

“Don’t comply is an organization that is driven by the NAP, and defenders of it too. We don’t comply to laws or edicts from tyrants. We do freedom. We believe in the natural rights of man, and live by them.”

A common dismissal of many of those who have attended the recent “Open Up” protests across the nation is that the protesters by and large don’t seem to be social distancing or wearing masks. Meaning, it’s hard for them to make the case that some of the restrictions they are opposing are unnecessary because people will take reasonable precautions voluntarily, when they seem unwilling to do so at events they hope will be well attended.

However, that doesn’t seem to be the case at Salon A la Mode.

“TLR: It sounds as though while your business does operate, you’re wearing masks, social distancing, taking temperatures, and taking a lot of reasonable precautions. How seriously do you personally take COVID-19 as a public health threat?

SL: I definitely feel like it’s a real thing. But I don’t think that we as Americans should completely stop our lives because of it. There’s definitely different precautions and different social distancing and things like that, that we need to be more aware of and maybe be a little bit more responsible because we do know that this exists. But it definitely does not mean that we have to shut down our entire lives and our livelihood and hide from it.

TLR: Back before everything was shut down, about how many customers tended to be in your salon at one time?

SL: Before COVID? Well, our stylists have their own individual business. So usually it’s by appointment only, and my booths are already pretty socially distant. The stations are already six feet apart anyway. And they had one client coming in at a time. We actually didn’t have very many walk ins before all of this happened. So the social distancing inside the salon was actually pretty good.

TLR: Who is your salon essential to, and do you see a greater risk for those coming into your salon than going to other businesses which Dallas has allowed to stay open?

SL: I think that our salon is one of the cleanest public facilities that anyone can go to. I don’t know if you know about salons and Cosmetology license, but they go, you know, to for two years of school, half of that being about sanitation and hygiene. And I can guarantee that most of the workers in the “essential businesses”, obviously besides hospitals, and dentists offices and things like that… They are nowhere near to having the knowledge that my stylists have about hygiene and making sure that people stay safe.”

(video courtesy Murdoch Pizgatti)

One thing that struck many at the salon seemed to be what distinctions were made on what is considered essential. The salon is located in a shopping center, next to a dog grooming business that has been allowed to stay open as an essential service. Meaning, of course, that the law recognizes dog grooming as more essential than services provided by the salon.

Many have dismissed valid concerns of some “Open Up” protesters across the nation by saying they selfishly “just want a haircut” rather than having valid fears about their ability to pay their rent or mortgage or feed their children without income coming in. Are haircuts essential? Well, they are to hair-stylists if they’re relying on that work to feed their family. They are to people that own hair salons. They are to the children of those workers.

Much of Shelley’s frustration seems to be based on a lack of access to government assistance at a time government isn’t allowing many individuals and businesses the ability to assist themselves. Many people haven’t received their stimulus checks, and the unemployment lines have been overloaded to the point that many can’t get through.

“TLR: What has local government done the most wrong, and how could they be handling the pandemic better in terms of what rules they put in place?

SL: Well, as far as the local government, I would say the Texas Workforce Commission is just a mess. And it’s not helping enough people right now when we need it. And they definitely needed to make that a bigger priority. Two, the government, local government, they’re all looking at each other and don’t know who’s in charge. And because this situation is so unprecedented, they don’t know how to handle it and they don’t know the consequences. And, honestly, they are in conflict with each other about their beliefs. Which makes it a muddy situation for us as well.”

Only time will tell whether these lockdowns across the nation are worth it. Whether they flatten the curve and prevent hospitals from being overloaded, minimize hotspots, and whether combating the disease is worth whatever final cost we pay. But for many small business owners like Shelley, there simply doesn’t seem to be the time to wait in order to find out.

You can view Shelley’s speech at a rally, starting at about 16:00 in this Facebook live video:

The post Texas Salon Defies Closure Order With Haircuts, Guns, and PPE appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

“This was a grassroots operation where the YAL team decided to head over and make sure our message of getting back to work was conveyed.”

As you scan the entire country and take note of how different states are handling the Coronavirus concern, the Texas governor Gregg Abbot is not one of the most tyrannical in his solutions. So, why protest him?

“Governor Abbott has of course not been as heavy-handed as other governors in the Coronavirus Lockdown. However, there is still full reign at the county and city level to pass whatever they want –whether it is unconstitutional or not. Here in Austin, we are getting slammed with orders.”

Greiss clarifies that, “living in Austin is much different than living in God’s country of Texas (rural Texas).” He admits that parts of Texas are not being harassed that much. However, he adds, “in almost every state, businesses are still closed, but it is nothing like we’re seeing in Pennsylvania and Michigan.”

Most of the heavy-handed policies that Greiss takes extreme issue with are from different governors and localities throughout the country, and Austin’s mayor particularly, but “ultimately the governor is going to have the power to put the state on the right track. But I wouldn’t say it was a traditional protest in the way that we are mad at him. It was a way for YAL to send a message to Governor Abbot that people want to get back to work.”

Greiss is adamant, “this is a health crisis [Covid-19]. There is no conspiracy here; it is a health concern.” He goes on to say, “that doesn’t mean we can’t intersect that with a very valid concern for the looming economic crisis that this has caused and –possibly most importantly– the civil liberties crisis.”

“To be clear: this is a health crisis, economic crisis, and civil liberties crisis.”

“Our message is we need to give people choice to get back to work. People across the country are practicing social distancing. When it was voluntary people were thinking twice about handshaking, were diligently washing their hands, and generally avoiding unnecessary touching with other people. There is nothing wrong with that.”

He points out that stores were making changes months ago by taping the floor to show customers the proper distance to stand from one another. The innovations in the way stores operate continue to change including, “small-town hardware stores limiting how many people can be inside at once.” As Greiss puts it “the market provides because businesses want to keep their doors open and they’re willing to make sacrifices to do that.”

Another concern that all those at YAL have is, “70% of Americans have less than 100 dollars in their savings account”. There are ways to prevent a deadly virus outbreak without completely destroying livelihoods and civilization as we know it. “Nobody that is having a rational conversation is advocating that we go back to carefree living. People do not want to get sick. People who are in the vulnerable populations can/should stay home. Let people who are not in those vulnerable categories go back to work.”

It is helpful to remember that the sort of wide-spread shutdown of our country has never been done before and “automatically assuming that we should try the heavy-handed approach is fundamentally wrong.” When this wreaks economic havoc and oppresses civil liberties, “I don’t see where the [heavy-handed] argument stands at that point.”

After vigorously defending voluntary social distancing, Greiss tells me that civil and economic liberties ultimately rest on the individual who is responsible for him or herself. “Those in government are not going to know what’s better for me than myself.”

This is a health crisis. This is an economic crisis. This is a civil liberties crisis. It can be all three at the same time. You can advocate for smart policy that relies on the free market to handle many of these problems while trusting Americans who are pursuing their American dream.
– Justin Greiss

The post “This Is A Health, Economic and Civil Liberties Crisis” appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

At the time of this writing, the Coronavirus deaths in the United States are 6,059 and counting. The economic loss is in the trillions and counting.

U.S. deaths just topped 1,000 in a single day. For people who want to continue to say this is just like the flu, this is more deaths in a single day than one of our more deadly flu seasons, as well as lung cancer deaths, combined.

USA Today cited those numbers:

“Lung cancer kills 433 people each day in the U.S. – that’s the same number of seats on a Boeing 747 airplane, according to the Lung Cancer Foundation of America. Breast cancer kills about 116 Americans a day.

The flu, a chronic killer that the nation has come to expect in yearly cycles – and the reason millions of Americans get flu shots – killed an estimated 508 people per day in the U.S. during the 2017-18 flu season, the nation’s worst in the last decade, according to the CDC. This year’s flu season has recorded an average of 383 deaths per day, CDC figures show.”

This number is only going up for the foreseeable future. Today it was a third of the 9/11 casualties. Next week it may be two thirds per day. The week after? We may have a 9/11 casualty event daily.

I’m no warmonger. The long running War on Terror has been a waste of lives and money. People may skim the headline and assume that’s what I’m talking about without reading the body of the text. Let them make fools of themselves in the comments and parade their illiteracy.

But a response is absolutely warranted. China has purposefully misled the world and hidden their own cases and fatalities. They have allowed that tainted data to be the basis of the WHO’s recommendations for the rest of the world.

So what is to be done? It seems like Civil Action is the usual Libertarian go-to response, and a number of lawyers have started to file class action lawsuits against the Chinese government. The bad news there is that an American civil court cannot compel a foreign government to pay. And China will not.

So I propose 2 measures that I think could be useful.

First, expel the Chinese Consulates from California, Illinois, New York and Texas. This would leave just the Embassy in Washington DC.

Consulates are satellite extensions of the Embassy, and are geared toward issuing visas as well as handling Chinese citizen affairs for those who live in the United States. Force all of that work back onto the Embassy, that was geared towards pushing Chinese influence and policy in the United States. Make them take care of their own instead of promoting themselves.

Second, ban Chinese nationals (or institutions) who are not US Permanent Residents or dual citizens from purchasing residential properties in America. I couldn’t care less if they are involved with commercial properties, but cease their purchases of residential properties. People seem to be keen on talking about rent strikes as of late, after being put out of work. So let’s talk about it. How about none of your rent money goes back to China? 

They’re the reason you’re out of work.

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