Live from Music Row, Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – guest host Cunningham welcomed 400-meter world champion and member of Team USA Cynthia Monteleone to the newsmaker line to describe her experience running against transgendered males and the media’s refusal to acknowledge the issue.
Cunningham: We do have a guest on the line this morning, Cynthia Monteleone. Cynthia, am I pronouncing that correctly?
Monteleone: That’s right on. That’s it.
Cunningham: All right. Well, great. Thanks so much for joining us this morning. We really do appreciate it. You have got a very interesting story about how you and it turns out your daughter has been put in competition against men, so-called transgendered men, and you both have had to run against them. Tell us a little bit about the history of that.
Monteleone: I am a 400-meter world champion masters track athlete. I run for Team USA.
Cunningham: Wow. That is a tough race.
Monteleone: It is right? At age 45, I’m actually running faster than I did in college and still faster than all the high school girls in the state of Hawaii. So that’s great.
Cunningham: Congrats.
Monteleone: Yeah. But it takes a lot of hard work and determination to get to that point, especially as we age. I’m constantly training, and my specialty is metabolic health. That’s my job. I’m a metabolic practitioner.
I tell people what to eat and what supplements to take for performance and things like that. There’s a lot we know that goes into a good performance.
Cunningham: Yes. Yes.
Monteleone: In my 2018 world Championship in Malaga, Spain, I was running the 200 as well as the 400. And in my 200 heats, I had twice because they run rounds, I ran against this individual who I had researched because a good athlete researches their competition.
And I had discovered that they were openly a transgender athlete, male to female. Very large bone structure, large muscle mass. And so I started to raise questions as to the fairness of this issue and nobody wanted to talk about it.
It was kind of swept under the rug. I was actually told that for my own safety, perhaps I should keep my mouth shut, which did not sit well with me at all. And so, as you can see, three years later, I’m still not keeping my mouth shut. (Chuckles)
Cunningham: That is so strange. You see that so often where women bring up this issue and they’re met with almost anger at the fact that they would even bring it up. It’s just a weird kind of dynamic going on.
Monteleone: It is really really strange. And I was told that I was just being a sore loser and that’s why I was speaking up. And I said to that person, well, I’m sorry you didn’t get the memo, but I didn’t lose, actually. (Chuckles)
Cunningham: Great way to put it.
Monteleone: I managed to squeeze out a win against this person by a few tenths of a second. But honestly, you could tell that they were possibly not properly trained. And six months later, with more training and at a shorter rate, over hurdles, this person about 6’3 I would say, over hurdles, this person took a spot on the podium, a metal where my Team USA teammate should have been.
Just because this individual didn’t beat me doesn’t mean that it’s not an issue because with proper training, comparably gifted and trained athletes, the male athlete will always win. And so fast forward a year and a half. My daughter lines up for her very first high school race, which was last year.
She was in grade with a biological male identifying as a female. So it’s happened now to a mother and a daughter. And the mainstream media will tell you, it’s not happening. It’s not a big deal. It’s not happening.
Cunningham: It is happening. And thank you for having the courage to step out because it does take courage because you’re met with so much really angry opposition these days. It’s just amazing. This is not a rational discussion.
Typically, people are angry and they think that you’ve violated some kind of universal code. And it’s a very strange dynamic, and many people simply won’t speak up.
Monteleone: That’s right. We live in a society of cancel culture. So people are worried about losing their jobs and athletes are worried about losing sponsors. I am proud to say that all of my sponsors, immediately when people come up to me, have one of my clothing sponsors that is Directional Force.
I had a meeting with the owner, and the first thing I said to him was, listen, I speak up for fairness in women’s sports. And if that’s going to be an issue, I’m not going to wear your clothes. And this individual was like, oh, no, he said, absolutely. Please do. We are behind you 100 percent.
So I am lucky that I choose sponsors, and they choose me because they support what I do and who I am and not something like a large company that would cancel an athlete for speaking up because come on, this is women’s rights. And I work with a coalition that even has Democrat feminist groups.
This is across the board. It’s not a partisan issue. I don’t know why the current administration is polarizing this issue and making it partisan because it’s a women’s rights issue. And that goes across both parties. My daughter and I had a great visit to the Senate and Congress last week. The Senate and the House.
Cunningham: Great.
Monteleone: We were able to meet with lawmakers and share our story. The Independent Women’s Forum hosted us and we met with all the different representatives. I mean, dozens. And I got to be the guest speaker for the Republican Study Committee luncheon, which was fantastic. And we were very warmly received.
We were told that they were going to keep fighting, keep fighting hard. And that one of the hang-ups was that even though they knew that their Democratic colleagues who were athletes themselves and have daughters and granddaughters that are athletes, that they personally feel the same way and that they are just strictly voting on party lines right now. And this is really an injustice.
And it doesn’t represent their constituents, because when you see the polling even Democrats agree that males should not be competing in the female category. So like I said, it really shouldn’t be a touchy issue. It shouldn’t be a sensitive issue. It should just be science.
Cunningham: Absolutely.
Monteleone: They follow the science, but they’re cherry-picking what they want to follow the science on.
Cunningham: And it is nice to hear that some of the feminist groups are taking up the cause. You would think this would be an absolutely natural issue for them to advocate for.
Monteleone: Yeah. There are several. Wolf is one of them. But, you know, they’re being silenced, just like we’re being silenced. The media will not report on this. We had one major publication decline our story, and then two days later come out and say, this is not happening. There are hardly any instances of this happening.
And when I talked to Congressman Steube from Florida, he said that their office gets several calls all the time. I can’t tell you exactly the number. But I would say in the hundreds of stories where these girls and these parents are reaching out and they’re saying, hey, my girl also had to race a biological male, blah, blah, blah or compete against. So he said, I confirmed that. You’re right. It is happening all the time and no one’s reporting on it.
Cunningham: And for me, that really is not an issue. The fact that it is happening at all is the issue. Whether the trend is up or down or whatever, the fact is, it shouldn’t be happening. And anyone with daughters that are out there training hard and trying to be good athletes, this has got to be an issue for them. Any parent, grandparent that’s involved with daughters and granddaughters.
Monteleone: Let’s talk about safe care for our girls. Not only for my daughter’s case, but it was also her first high school race. She trained really hard. She came in second. The person she raced was ahead of everyone by about 50 meters.
Cunnigham: You are kidding me? That much?
Monteleone: Yes. And my daughter had trained since she was 11. She was actually the one that got me inspired to run again at age 40 after 20 years of not running at all. (Chuckles) She’s been training for years for this high school debut race. And this individual she raced had only started trying track two weeks earlier and was not properly trained in the 400.
Cunningham: Cynthia, we really appreciate you joining us. We have got to run, unfortunately. Thank you so much for your courage and your bravery. Willing to step out. Where can people contact you or get more information?
Monteleone: Iwf.org. They have a petition they can sign and a video of our story.
Cunningham: Thank you so much. And we will follow that. And hopefully, you can come back on and report some progress
Monteleone: Instagram is Fastover40 in case anyone wants to follow me.
Cunningham: Thank you so much, Cindy, I appreciate you joining us this
Listen to the full second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Cynthia Monteleone” by Cynthia Monteleone.
Live from Music Row Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the Co-President of the (NeW) Network of Enlightened Women at the University of Florida, Ophelie Jacobson to the newsmakers line to discuss her recent op-ed on cancel culture and being a conservative student in college today.
Leahy: We are joined now on our newsmaker line by Ophelie Jacobson. She’s a University of Florida sophomore studying journalism and political science. She’s co-president of the Network of Enlightened Women chapter at the University of Florida.
She penned an op-ed that was first published at the Sarasota Herald Tribune. That’s a Gateway-Gannett publication in Sarasota on March 7. The title is, Can We Just Cancel the Cancel Culture? Good morning over Ophelie.
Jacobson: Good morning. Thank you so much for having me on.
Leahy: Are you in Gainesville today or are you at home?
Jacobson: I’m currently at home in Orlando, Florida.
Leahy: Do you go back to classes in the fall and will they be regular? Will you have to wear masks and will you be in dorms?
Jacobson: So I attend the University of Florida. I’ll be back in person. I was in person for the past year, actually staying in a dorm for my sophomore year. A lot of my classes were online over Zoom, but just recently, actually, on Monday, the university sent out an email saying that masks will not be required on campus for those who are vaccinated, and they’ll be strongly suggested for those who are not vaccinated yet. I’m really excited to see a return to normal on campus in the fall.
Leahy: How weird is it to go to college and do most stuff online and have to wear these dopey masks? What was that year like for you?
Jacobson: It’s definitely different. It definitely has its ups and downs. But with online classes you can wake up 10 minutes before your class, roll out of bed and hop on Zoom. But with in person classes you have to get up, get ready.
But I’m really looking forward to going back to in-person classes because you really get that connection with your professors, with your fellow peers, and students. And you’re also able to concentrate more when you’re in a classroom setting rather than just staring at your computer for hours on end.
Leahy: Let me read the first few lines of your op-ed. It was excellent by the way.
Jacobson: Thank you.
Leahy: Florida State University removed a statue of Francis Epps VII, the former Mayor of Tallahassee and grandson of Thomas Jefferson. Protesters in Chicago tried to tear down a statue of Christopher Columbus. A statue of President George Washington was vandalized and knocked down by seven people in Los Angeles. All of this during the year 2020 alone. What was their sin?
Jacobson: I think their sin was definitely the cancellation of America. Cancel culture, as we’ve seen in the past year, it ceased to destroy a person or a company’s image based solely on personal disagreement. So I would argue in the year 2020 alone, we saw a direct attack on America and American history.
And so the canceling of America is very concerning in our country because if we’re not able to have statues that just simply represent our past as a nation, that yes maybe it has negative parts in American history, but it’s our history nonetheless.
And we should be upholding those basic principles of our history in order to teach our future generations. If you just think about what we’re going to teach the next generation of leaders, they’re not going to have anything to base their history off of if they walk down the street and all the statues are torn down.
Leahy: I learned something from your piece about this fellow, Francis Epps VII. He was a grandson of Thomas Jefferson, born in Monticello and moved down to Tallahassee when he was, I don’t know, 27, 28. A young man when there wasn’t much there in Tallahassee.
Turns out he was a slave owner. But also he donated the buildings and land upon which Florida State University was built. Did they have a list of his sins when they removed his statue? What was the controversy in Tallahassee surrounding that?
Jacobson: The main controversy was that he was a slave owner. And that, for them, that was enough. They said, “We have a long history of addressing difficult racism and inclusion issues on this campus and we know there is so much work to do as the nation faces great unrest and an urgent call for change. We as a University will continue to listen, learn, and evolve.”
And that was said by President John Thrasher of FSU. So that was one of their ways, I guess, of evolving in the wake of everything that was happening in 2020 was to remove this statue, which is unfortunate because like you said, he donated a lot to the University.
I think the students at the University owe him a lot as well for studying there and for using the buildings that he donated. It’s unfortunate to see that just because he was a slave owner in the past, that’s enough for him to get canceled and for a statue to be torn down.
And we saw that again, as I mentioned with Christopher Columbus, President George Washington. It’s super sad to see the cancellation of tangible reminders of those aspects of American history, which, according to these people, are deemed offensive and derogatory.
And by doing that, we actually cancel the opportunity for like I mentioned, future generations to learn about our country and to learn from our past. People always say history repeats itself. How are we supposed to learn from our past if we cancel all tangible reminders of it? And we can’t really learn from our past in order to prevent history from repeating itself in the future.
Leahy: Did you go to attend public schools in Orlando before you went to the University of Florida?
Jacobson: I was actually born in Boston. I attended some public schools there. I lived in San Diego, California, for nine years. I attended some public schools there. And in my last two years of high school, were in Melbourne, Florida.
Leahy: How was American history taught in these public schools that you attended?
Jacobson: For the most part, American history was pretty basic. We learned a wide variety of topics. Everything from the Civil War up until the late 20th century. I think it was pretty basic. But now what we’re seeing with critical race theory, the 1619 Project is a direct attack on our American history.
And again, every single country has its flaws but that doesn’t mean we should exclude that from the history that is taught in classrooms.
Leahy: You’re finishing your second year at the University of Florida. A beautiful campus, by the way, I’ve been down there. I like the University of Florida. When you get to be there I’m sure you’re enjoying the campus there, I would imagine.
Jacobson: Yes, it’s beautiful.
Leahy: What’s it like being a traditional American who likes to study American history? What’s it like at the University of Florida with your peers and the professors there over the past? What has your experience been?
Jacobson: It’s definitely a challenge that has its ups and downs. Being a journalism student as well definitely has its personal challenges. Just last year, I was in a reporting class, and I had a Professor and one of the first assignments that we had to do was to write a profile story about ourselves, our goals and aspirations, and what we wanted to do in the future.
And in that profile story, I’d mentioned that I want to work at a conservative media organization such as One American News or Newsmax. And two days after I submitted the assignment, I got a lengthy email from the professor criticizing my career goals and saying that OANN was fake news. I shouldn’t aspire to work there.
And it was really disheartening to see. Normally, you see professors attack students for their political beliefs. But for a professor to attack my career goals, that was something that I’d never really experienced. I found myself I wasn’t defending my political belief at that moment, I was just defending again my career goals.
But because those goals happened to relate to conservative media outlets, I was automatically targeted. So what I did was I compiled a list of lawsuits that CNN and MSNBC have faced. And I sent that back to him. And I said, if we want to talk about fake news, let’s talk about CNN. Let’s talk about MSNBC.
And so he sent me an email back saying that oh actually, you’re a great journalist now, and I’m looking forward to seeing your work. (Leahy chuckles) And the rest of the semester, I worked really hard to prove him wrong. I gave 100 percent of my all my assignments, so he didn’t have anything to dock me for simply for being a conservative.
This is just one of the many examples. I know I’m not alone. A lot of the girls in our organization have shared similar experiences. So it’s just really unfortunate to see that Conservatives are being targeted on our campuses.
Leahy: What grade you get in that class?
Jacobson: I got over 100 percent. (Chuckles)
Leahy: Well, very good. He was biased, to begin with, but at least you showed him through fact and hard work, and they couldn’t give you a bad grade.
Jacobson: Exactly.
Leahy: I like that. When we come back, I want to talk a little bit more about what’s going on on campuses. Critical race theory and what it’s like to be a conservative in college today.
Listen to the full first hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Ophelie Jacobson” by Ophelie Jacobson. Background Photo “Florida Campus” by WillMcC. CC BY-SA 3.0.
Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Congressman Scott Cepicky to the newsmakers line to weigh in on Major League Baseball’s decision to withdrawl from Georgia, cancel culture, and the upcoming agenda in the Tennessee General Assembly.
Leahy: We are joined on our newsmaker line, by our good friend, state Representative Scott Cepicky from Maury County. Scott, welcome to The Tennessee Star Report.
Cepicky: Michael, how are you doing today?
Leahy: Well, I’m doing great. You are, of course, our favorite state legislator who is a former professional baseball player. You played for the AA Nashville Express and the AAA Nashville Sounds and almost made it to the bigs had not been for a trade between the Chicago White Sox and the Montreal Expos that brought Tim Raines to Chicago. I just got to ask you, what are they thinking in Major League Baseball to cancel the All-Star Game in Atlanta?
Cepicky: Well, you know, Michael it is very troubling what’s happening in professional sports right now and the hypocrisy of all of these other corporations. So you know as well as I do and your listeners, let’s talk about Delta Airlines. If you’re going to go pick up your ticket at Delta Airlines the first thing they ask you for is your ID. Or if you’re going to go to a Nashville Sounds baseball game and you are going to pick up your tickets at will call the first thing they’re going to ask you for is your ID to prove who you are.
I think Georgia has done just common sense. What people are wanting is, hey, we’re not denying anybody the ability to go vote. Just make sure you bring your ID to prove who you are so you’re able to vote. And I think Major League Baseball is really overstepping the boundaries here. And then you mentioned how they are going to Coors Field in Colorado that has voter ID laws.
Leahy: It doesn’t make any sense to me. And what’s troubling to me, you are a member of the Tennessee General Assembly, and according to the United States Constitution and the Tennessee Constitution, election procedures and election laws are the responsibility of the Tennessee General Assembly for federal elections and for state and local also for the Tennessee General Assembly and the governor. What is it with these Fortune 500 companies that are so woke and they think they are the ones who set the rules about elections? What’s happening with that?
Cepicky: Well, my dad taught me a long time ago, he said, Scott, always understand what role you play and stay in your lane. And you’re right. The General Assembly is the one that affects the laws on elections. And the corporations are the ones that hire people to work in Tennessee. Michael, the last time I checked, we don’t have a problem with corporations or people moving to Tennessee because of the laws we have and the lack of oversight of laws.
We have no state income tax and the loan tax structure here in Tennessee is very attractive for corporations to move here. And for that matter, if you look at Georgia with the environment they have Coca-Cola is there. Delta Airlines is there. CitiBank is there and major corporations are there because of the laws that they all live under, but they’re very quick to bite the hand that provides those opportunities.
Leahy: What is the general attitude among your colleagues in the Tennessee General Assembly when they see a woke ridiculous decision by Major League Baseball, by Delta, and by Coca-Cola, to try and force sovereign states to do things that they think are better for the general population?
Cepicky: Well, I don’t speak for all the members, but I know a great deal of us are concerned about how this whole culture is and this cancel culture. If you disagree with them, they want to shut you down right away. And that’s not the way our country was founded. We were founded on differing opinions and trying to find the middle ground. And now there’s no middle ground either.
If you agree with them, then they give you the thumbs up. If you disagree with them, then they want to cancel you out and they want to call you a racist or a bigot. I think we’ve got to get past that as a country. I mean, do you see the poll just like I do? This is probably the most divided our country has ever been, and we need to start to work together towards making our country as great as it used to be.
Leahy: Yeah, I agree with you completely. If I can turn the corner a little bit on that topic and go to the Tennessee General Assembly. I think the chairman of the Education Committee is doing a great job there. What is going to be happening in the last couple of weeks of the Tennessee General Assembly? What’s on your agenda?
Cepicky: Well, in education we worked very hard to make sure that we just don’t overburden our teachers and administrators with just more things to do. We are laser-focused on K-3 education, trying to make sure that all kids, no matter where they come from, no matter what background they have, all children will be able to read, write, and do math so that they can prosper in the four through 12-grade levels.
We are working on textbooks, making sure that they align with our standards and curriculums are aligned to our standards. And lastly, the supplemental materials that you hear that teachers will inadvertently pull something off the Internet that’s confrontational or questionable, and it gets the LEA in trouble that now supplemental materials will have to align the Tennessee standards and our values.
So a lot of work has been done in education. We had a special session with literacy and going back to summer school and getting kids help with tutoring. We are all in. We are all in with making sure our kids know how to read, write, and do math. And then yesterday on the House floor I thought we did something rather appropriate as we recognized Dolly Parton as the first lady of literacy in Tennessee with all she’s done with the Imagination Library.
I think over 152 million books have been distributed through the Imagination Library and 1.7 million Tennesseeans have had the opportunity to experience Imagination Library, including my two children. So a lot of things happening. We’re probably four weeks away from wrapping up the session.
Leahy: You mentioned Dolly Parton. It’s interesting because Scooter and I were talking a little bit about Dolly Parton. Everybody in America thinks highly of Dolly Parton. She’s done a remarkable job not just for the state of Tennessee, but for the country with her literacy efforts.
Cepicky: Oh, absolutely. I mean, as an elected official, I don’t want to get caught up in your position here. I can talk for two hours on education, but Dolly Parton can come up to a microphone and speak for two minutes which weighs 10 times more heavily on literacy. And so we just wanted to make sure that Dolly knew that we appreciated her efforts in education. She knows how important it is for Tennessee to be able to read, write, and do math. And we just wanted to make sure that she felt appreciated by the state of Tennessee.
Leahy: What other big things do you see happening in the final three or four weeks of the Tennessee General Assembly?
Cepicky: Well, you know, the permitless carry. And I’m going to say its permitless carry has passed the House and Senate. It’s gone on to the governor’s desk. There are other bills. Criminal justice reform. There’s a bill coming through the pipeline.
Leahy: I have one question for you. I saw that the House passed what I think is a very good bill yesterday to provide a formal review process for the constitutionality of executive orders from the president. What’s your take on that?
Cepicky: You read my mind. That was the one I was trying to remember. Government operations, the House passed and we’ll have the ability to look at all the executive orders or, for that matter, any law that’s passed by the federal government to make sure it doesn’t infringe on our Tenth Amendment rights or, for that matter, it’s constitutional. There was another bill that’s making its way that will be filed here shortly on vaccine passports opposing those in the state of Tennessee.
Leahy: I saw the bill to review the constitutionality of executive orders coming out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the office of the President. The bill passed 70 to 23, mainly along party lines. But there were two Democrats who voted for the bill. State Representative Johnny Shaw from Boliver, but also John Mark Windle. What a great guy he is.
Cepicky: He has been there, I think since Abraham Lincoln was born. (Leahy laughs)
Leahy: I will tell him you said that if we get him in here.
Cepicky: He has his principles and he will not be swayed from his principles, which is very admirable to him. And sometimes his principles do not align with this party, and he’s not afraid to stand up and take that vote. And he sits two spaces in front of me on the House floor. He’s very well respected up there, the General Assembly. And obviously, he’s well respected by his constituents because they keep sending them back up there year after year after year.
Leahy: When you sit down next to him today on the House floor, just say tell him, hey, please, come in. Michael Patrick Leahy wants you to come in studio on The Tennessee Star Report. Will you do that for us?
Cepicky: I will do that Michael.
Listen to the full second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the founder of Pajamas Media Roger Simon to the studio to discuss the energy and reception at CPAC and how Dr. Seuss is the recent victim to fall prey to the cancel culture.
(Trump Clip Plays)
I said that I think he should have 10,000. I think I gave the number. I definitely gave the number of 10,000 National Guardsmen. I think you should have 10,000 of the National Guard ready. They took that number from what I understand. They gave it to the people at the Capitol which is controlled by Pelosi and I heard they rejected it because it wouldn’t look good.
Leahy: That was Donald Trump talking about the generally sixth event. In-studio Roger Simon my former boss at PJTV now a columnist at The Epoch Times. And of course, Andy Ogles mayor of Maury County in the studio with us. I want to ask you this question, Roger. So you’re with The Epoch Times. It seems to be the juggernaut of conservative reporting these days supplanting, the old staple like National Review and The Wall Street Journal. What was it like being a journalist at CPAC for The Epoch Times?
Simon: Well the bottom line is what journalists need is access. You want to be the one to interview a Mike Pompeo or someone like that. And to be with The Epoch Times now, it’s simple. they all want to be on The Epoch Times. And the reason is that it’s the only kind of serious newspaper online and in your mailbox on the right anymore because The Wall Street Journal sort of deserted it. So we’re growing like crazy. And I can tell your listeners here if you haven’t subscribed be there or be square as we used to say.
Leahy: So who did you interview down there?
Simon: Oh, I talked to all of them Jim Jordan. All of them. My job is not to do that. That’s (Inaudible talk) job who had the video.
Leahy: You do the reporting. You are actually a commentary.
Simon: I’m the wise guy who gives you the sense of the ‘room’.
Leahy: So Andy, let me tell you why Roger Simon is a wiseguy. Like one of the other people in this anti-lockdown party in our studio today he’s an Ivy Leaguer. He went to Dartmouth. Dartmouth is in the news today.
Simon: Yes.
Leahy: You’ve got to tell our audience about this.
Simon: We all love the cancel culture. Anyway, who’s your favorite children’s author? Well, chances are if I would say 50/50 it’s Dr. Seuss. Have you ever read Dr. Seuss to your kids? Anyway, Dr. Seuss was just canceled. Six of his books have been rescinded by the publisher. So I don’t know which ones I haven’t read the full article yet, but I hope…
Leahy: Was it green eggs and ham?
Simon: I hope it’s not If I Ran the Zoo said Gerald McGrew because I love that one.
Ogles: But anyway, I do think that is one of them, but I mean, we’ve lost our collective minds. Mr. Potato Head. It’s not inclusive enough?
Leahy: It can’t be Mr. Potato Head. It has to be Potato Head.
Simon: Right.
Leahy: Unbelievable. So Dr. Seuss’s real name was Theodor Seuss “Ted” Geisel, a Dartmouth graduate.
Simon: Who donated the copyrights to all his books in his will. He’s dead. And there are the guys at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and it was a lot of money he gave him.
Leahy: He gave the rights to Dartmouth.
Simon: As a royal alum. Let’s hope Dartmouth complains.
Leahy: So the publisher says we’re canceling six Dr. Seuss books. Andy, can you imagine Dr. Seauss being politically incorrect. Is it anti-green eggs?
Ogles: Again, we’ve lost our minds. This cancel culture of inclusivity or non-inclusivity. I mean look, if you are a dude and you want to wear a dress, wear a dress. I don’t care. But you are still a dude. (Laughter) I’m sorry. That’s the way God made you. And maybe that’s the problem that you don’t have a relationship with God and you need to get woke with yourself. If you want to get woke read scripture follow Jesus and be woke. But at the end of the day, I’m not going to hold your hand and pander to you because you’re a dude in a dress. You’re still a dude.
Leahy: Yeah, absolutely.
Simon: But it is something that Michael said that occurs to me that it’s Dr. Seuss who came up with green eggs and ham. The left should love him.
Ogles: I don’t know.
Leahy: The left should. But again this is like the French Revolution. We have of the French Revolution and we’ve got this permanent class funded by various left-wing nut case billionaires of all these activists who don’t have any common sense whatsoever.
Simon: There may be a guillotine here in 15 minutes if we go off the air. (Laughter)
Leahy: If there is dead air when the show opens at 5:00 a.m. tomorrow morning you’ll know what happened. So I want to go back to the CPAC adventure. It’s interesting what you said as very upbeat. Now, why do you think it was upbeat? And where do you think that leads us?
Simon: Well, I think that part of the reason is up rate is that Trump is absolutely back. And he looked really good physically. A lot of people on the comments section of my Epoch Times piece were saying how much weight he lost.
Leahy: You know, it’s the old thing about Nixon back at after he lost the 1960 presidential race. Lost the governor’s race in ’62 for California. But then in ’66 and ’67, he was back. He was tanned, rested, and ready. That was the phrase. Trump you can tell just on the camera that he looked tanned, rested, and ready.
Simon: But he’s always tan. (Leahy laughs)
Leahy: That’s another story.
Simon: Yeah, but I think that dominated the whole thing and I think people have sort of figured out that the left has really overstepped and because they have overstepped it’s time to take things back and to get things on. And also it’s time to get on some of these wishy-washy Republican officials in our state and other states. One of the great things is DeSantis’s state. Everybody was saying that DeSantis should be the template for Republican governors across the country. And I really agree. How do you feel?
Ogles: Absolutely. I think DeSantis has done a great job managing COVID and defending liberty. Early on in March and April when we were all terrified he took action. But as soon as the data said otherwise, he reversed those actions and that took real courage.
Simon: The other thing that was true about CPAC is that Fauci became a curse word. (Laughter) Quite literally at the Reagan dinner Larry O’Connor who was the host.
Leahy: Larry O’Connor used to work for Breitbart and is now with the WMAL in Washington D.C. doing a great job in the afternoon.
Simon: He does a great job on the radio. But he is a funny host and he used Fauci as a replacement and as the new F-bomb. (Laughter) Fauci you!
Leahy: Now that’s funny.
Simon: I won’t go on with the whole thing.
Leahy: We might get in trouble. We don’t want to do that.
Simon: We don’t want to go off the air before they cancel us.
Leahy: What’s interesting to me Roger is I think people had a lot of fun down there.
Simon: They did. I mean, I kept saying, When can I go outside? It was 80 degrees out there. But aside from that it was great and everybody was super friendly. Another interesting thing about what’s happened with CPAC is that there now is a Korean CPAC, French CPAC, and various others.
Leahy: In those other countries?
Simon: Yes, and they had videos of their events that were shown to us. CPAC as a movement is spreading globally as the conservative movement of the kind of Trump direction it’s going. The populist direction is spreading. It’s very heartening.
Leahy: Of the speakers there, which one’s got other than Donald Trump, of course, who capped it off with an hour and 20 minutes. It was very well received. Which of the speakers also were received with that same level of enthusiasm?
Simon: The same level, no one. But I would say very high-level was Kristi Noem. What’s interesting to me about her is she’s a really good public speaker. And she knows how to underplay lines like an actress. And I come from that world so I watch that. She underplays everything just well. She said very quietly like to the audience. I don’t know if you agree with me, but I think Dr. Fauci makes mistakes a lot.
Simon: The place broke up! (Leahy laughs)
Leahy: She knew how to play it. She knows how to deliver a line. And she knows pacing.
Simon: Yes. She knows the line’s good. Don’t scream it.
Listen to the full third hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed retired attorney and blog creator of Misrule of Law Mark Pulliam to the studio to discuss the inconsistencies between Tennessee universities and their conservative legislators.
Leahy: And that’s governor of South Dakota Kristi Noem. A rising star in the Republican firmament. And she’s talking about Joe Biden’s reckless decision to cancel this Keystone pipeline. We are talking with Mark Pulliam in studio who is a blogger and a refugee from California. And then later a refugee from the People’s Republic of Austin Texas who’s come to East Tennessee and is sending out warning signs about the complacency of conservatives which needs to be addressed here.
But we’re talking a little bit about how the country will survive the next two years of the Biden administration between now and the midterm elections. One of my theories Mark is that we need in those 35 states where freedom is still possible, by the way, California is not on the list of those 35 States. You’re shaking your head. you agree with that.
But in those 35 states, we need to return to federalism. We need those states, the state legislators, and the governor’s states to be strong proponents of state sovereignty and push back against the usurpations of the national federal government. Kristi Noem in South Dakota I think it’s done a very good job of that. She didn’t do any lockdowns.
And is a great rising star. At CPAC I think she was in the top four-five of potential presidential candidates. My question to you you’ve lived in California recently. You’ve lived in, Texas and now you live in Tennessee. How would you rate the governors of those states in terms of their exercise of authority pushing back against the usurpations of the national federal government?
Pulliam: Well federalism is important. And in Washington, we have gridlock. We’ve got Chuck Schumer. We got Nancy Pelosi. We got a lot of complicated problems and it’s hard to get things done there. But in states like Tennessee where you have an overwhelmingly Republican electorate, where you have a Republican super-majority in the legislature, and where you have statewide elected officials who are all Republicans, we should be able to chart a different direction to run things differently.
And just because the federal government is in bad shape doesn’t mean that we cannot enact good policies at the state level. But we have to have the will and the resolve to do so. And what is disappointing and this was disappointing in Texas and I’m beginning to feel becoming disappointed about in Tennessee is that even though you have this Republican establishment that is in charge at the state level they don’t govern like Republicans should be governing.
Leahy: So when we talk about that, I think one of the areas that we’re talking about of air during the break has to do with how higher education here in Tennessee is being subjected to the kind of left-wing, critical race theory indoctrination that you are seeing in California, New York, and these other states. Can you elaborate on that a little bit?
Pulliam: Well, the legislature has plenary power over the state universities because they fund them. And the governor has a great deal of authority over state universities because he points to most of the members of the boards of trustees that oversee them. Nevertheless notwithstanding the fact that we’re paying for it, and we’re overseeing it across Tennessee at the flagship campus and at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, but at the other campuses, we see critical race theory.
We see the whole diversity agenda. LGBTQ. All of the elements of wokeness being woven into the curriculum. And our children are being indoctrinated right here in Nashville. At Tennessee State, Al Sharpton this semester is being paid $48,000 to be a lecturer and an adjunct professor in social justice. . . Why are the taxpayers and Tennessee paying him $48,000? He’s a despicable character and by bringing him in we are legitimizing him. But it’s not just Tennessee State. Its athletes taking a knee and being praised by University administrators.
Leahy: This is East Tennessee?
Pulliam: Well, not just East Tennessee the women basketball players at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. And at the men’s basketball players. In fact, all of the athletes at the University of Tennessee marched during the George Floyd protest, and this was during a COVID shutdown at the time. And the university administrators applauded it.
Leahy: That was back in the summer. But the one in the news now is the East Tennessee State University men’s basketball team took a knee recently to protest the national anthem.
Pulliam: And the coaches are defending them. And when the GOP legislators senators wrote a letter criticizing it the university administrators are pushing back and saying oh you’re violating these athletes’ First Amendment rights even though most of them are on taxpayer-paid scholarships. They’re wearing taxpayer-provided uniforms. They are representing the state of Tennessee.
Leahy: So is it a first amendment right? You are an attorney.
Pulliam: No. I think that what student-athletes do on their own time. That’s a First Amendment Right. What you do on the court while you are literally representing the state is rules can be set.
Leahy: So let me just stop. I think that’s a very good point. So the First Amendment basically gives freedom of speech but doesn’t require that people have an opportunity to hear you necessarily and you can go on a soapbox and say whatever you want. But if you’re working for an employer or if you’re representing an employer or an institution there are rules and regulations that bind your conduct at that time. Is that right?
Pulliam: Yes. And for all intents and purposes, they are employees performing a job when they are athletes playing basketball. And so what they do in their capacity as basketball players is subject to management and regulation by the state. and making people stand respectfully during the national anthem I think is part of that. The NFL is making people do that. If you want to take a knee stay in the locker room etc. There’s no reason why the University of Tennessee can’t do it or others.
Leahy: So let’s talk about that a little bit. And this is kind of one of the things that I find interesting. So in theory, it’s the state legislature that sets the law in the state?
Pulliam: Right.
Leahy: Signed by the governor.
Pulliam: And appropriates all the money.
Leahy: So here’s what I find. So the state . . . when we talk to the state legislators, it’s about two-thirds Republican in the House. It’s more than that in the Senate like I think 27 Republicans and six Democrats in the state senate. But if you talk to them they all are very conservative and very supportive of the Constitution. As an example, there’s a law that says the Constitution will be part of the curriculum.
But if you go in and you try and find that curriculum and find teachers telling teaching it, you don’t really find it in the way that the state legislature intended. We know this because as you know, we’ve done this Constitution Bee for four years now going on five written a book about it. Complimentary text Guide to the Constitution the Bill of Rights for Secondary School Students.
We are not getting a lot of teachers in public schools that really care to use that content, even though it hits all of the elements that the state legislature says should be hit in teaching the Constitution. So we see a lot of times the state legislature will say this is what should be done. But the implementation of it doesn’t seem to happen that much.
Pulliam: Well speaking of how a conservative legislature should manage taxpayer-funded universities. So five years ago there was a controversy at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville regarding gender-neutral pronouns and sex week activities.
Leahy: The sex week, we did a lot of stories on it. But they were really kind of bizarre.
Pulliam: Well it’s no more bizarre than a lot of other stuff that’s part of this curriculum. Well, so it got controversial the legislature defunded the diversity office. It got a lot of attention $400,000 taken out of the budget. What people didn’t realize it was only for one year. So after one year that the vice-chancellor of diversity is back.
All of the money is back. And in fact, it’s gotten a lot worse. Now, they have diversity officers in every academic department. Every department has to have a diversity plan. Critical race theory is being promoted throughout the school. And so they sort of pushed away a lot of this controversy by taking some action, but it was illusory action.
Leahy: We’ll have more with Mark Pulliam blogger at the Misrule of Law and Refugee from California here on The Tennessee Star Report.
Listen to the full first hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Mark Pulliam” by Mark Pulliam.
