Live from Music Row Thursday 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 Professional Educators of Tennessee Executive Director and CEO J.C. Bowman in-studio to discuss the implementation of the Instructional Practice Guide for only Williamson County public school teachers, forcing them to stick to a “script.”
Leahy: Right now, ladies and gentlemen, a Marine Corps veteran, all-American guy who is the President of Professional Educators of Tennessee.
That’s the conservative or good alternative to the teachers’ unions. His name is J.C. Bowman. He’s in the studio with us. Good morning, J.C.
Bowman: Good morning, Michael. How are you doing today?
Leahy: Well, I am puzzled, J.C. I am puzzled. What on earth is going on in Williamson County Public Schools? What are they doing?
It’s hard enough being a teacher in K-12 public schools in Tennessee now as it is, but they’re kind of doing some odd things down there, and I think it’s only happening in Williamson County. You’ve been talking to some teachers about it. This thing is called what, IPG? What is that?
Bowman: Yes, it’s like a term called Instructional Practice Guide. And one of the things they’re making sure you’re doing is sticking to the script. And I find it odd now that it’s not an evaluation.
Leahy: Are you toeing the propaganda line? Is that really what it is?
Bowman: Yes, basically, my phone has blown up about this a little bit because we’ve had five or six teachers specifically really concerned. We know that one teacher at Grasslands Elementary School, it was on Channel 17, quit. She said, I’m done. They bring in two people from the central office …
Leahy: Now, how long have they been doing this IPG? What is it again?
Bowman: It stands for Instructional Practice Guide. Okay. And it’s a team. You’re supposed to be teaching your guide all the way through. It’s scripted learning. So basically, I hand you a script, and it would be like every morning you walk in here and I hand you a script to say, hey, Michael, this is what you’re speaking on today.
And you look at me and say, that’s just not happening. And we hire professionals. Williamson County has got some of the best teachers in the state, and we don’t trust them to do the job well.
Leahy: And they seem to be, I think it’s a very frustrating job right now to be a teacher, particularly in Williamson County, because they’re getting all of these instructions from the top that don’t make any sense, and the parents are unhappy, and it’s just a tough gig, it seems to me.
Bowman: Oh, it’s absolutely a tough gig. And like I said, these teachers are beyond frustrated. And I mean, I’m hearing as many as, they could get into the double digits.
Leahy: When did they start the Williamson County Public Schools? Headed up by Jason Golden, an attorney.
Bowman: An attorney, right.
Leahy: When did they start doing this IPG thing?
Bowman: Apparently it started this year.
Leahy: This year? Just this year? In August?
Bowman: Yes. So remember last year when we had the teachers at Edmondson Elementary School that got in trouble for deviating off Wit and Wisdom this year?
Leahy: And Wit and Wisdom is sort of, I don’t know, the Woke curriculum.
Bowman: Well, it was brought in by our commissioner.
Leahy: Our woke commissioner, education commissioner.
Bowman: I’m not going to go there.
Leahy: Our UC Berkeley grad, Penny Schwinn, woke commissioner. P.S., Governor Lee, why did you appoint this UC Berkeley grad to be commissioner of education? It’s still a head-scratcher, but go ahead.
Bowman: I don’t want to bring up the Dianne Feinstein connection, but hey, she also interned for Dianne Feinstein, but that’s neither here or there.
Leahy: Yes, let’s not bring up the Dianne Feinstein connection that she interned for.
Bowman: But in seriousness. After she approved it, she pushed that particular curriculum into our schools, and for God knows what reason. It was adopted and the curriculum got chosen by Williamson County and depending on who you talk to, whether it’s a fair process or not, Williamson County comes in, they start doing it, and now they’re going to make sure these teachers are sticking to script.
If you say the word “short” or you use a different word and explain, that is not in that practical guide, you’re in trouble now. This is not an evaluation. This is just an observance. And I’m going to tell you something, it’s intimidating a lot of teachers.
Leahy: So the plan of Williamson County Schools is to intimidate teachers to follow a script, and otherwise there’s a problem. And I guess they’re only doing it in Williamson County Schools right now?
Bowman: As far as we can tell, we’ve not heard any other complaints.
Leahy: Very bizarre.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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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 “J.C. Bowman” by J.C. Bowman.
Live from Music Row Friday 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 Democrat Caller Carl to the newsmaker line to weigh in on Nancy Pelosi’s future as Speaker of the House, her recent comments to athletes regarding the Olympics and China, and elements of the NFL racial discrimination lawsuit.
Leahy: We welcome to our newsmaker line, our very good friend Carl, who’s been listening and a longtime caller. Welcome to The Tennessee Star Report. Thanks so much for calling in.
Carl: Listen, man, first of all, be careful driving home. Everybody else, be careful. Thank you for the invite.
Leahy: Hey, Carl, some of our listeners may not be familiar with the bet that you and I had. And you stomped me on the bet.
Carl: I did.
Leahy: And I paid it off, didn’t I? (Chuckles)
Carl: Yes, you did. And you were respectful of the time period in which I wanted to take care of it. And we did.
Leahy: The bet that we had when the new President was inaugurated on January 20, 2021, you bet five months before it that it would be Joe Biden and I bet it would be Donald Trump, and the loser would have to pay for a steak dinner at Rafferty’s. I lost and we had a great lunch, didn’t we?
Carl: Absolutely. What a great lunch.
Leahy: Crom Carmichael is here and wants to say hello.
Carmichael: Hey, Carl, how are you doing?
Carl: Good.
Carmichael: Carl, now my question is on behalf of Mike. He doesn’t know I’m doing this, but do you want to place a lunch bet on who will be the next Speaker of the House? Which party?
Carl: No, because I don’t know who will be the Speaker, but if it trends the way they’re supposed to be, the way it always has gone, it will go back to the party that’s out of power, out of the White House, but that’s yet to be seen.
Leahy: Carl, something about the program or something in the news prompted you to call because you’ve got something to say. What is it that prompted you to call in today and what is it you’d like to say?
Carl: I don’t disagree to be disagreeable. I do agree with your take on Nancy Pelosi. I believe that you have to be respectful of being a good guest. I was taught that. I’m pretty sure all parents taught the same thing.
Be a good guest. But still, in the spirit of the Olympics, especially with the precedent of the ’68 Olympics, protest your ass off.
Leahy: (Chuckles) So you disagree with Nancy Pelosi on that?
Carl: Yes, yes, yes. Protest your ass off. Now here’s the thing, though. When I found out the Miami coach was fired, that was shocking.
I was stunned because I thought that if the coaching staff, with the job they did here in Nashville, if he didn’t get the coach of the year, I thought it was going to go to the guy in Miami.
Leahy: I agree with you completely, Brian Flores. I was shocked that he was fired.
Carl: Fired. And then when I listened to the lawsuit, first of all, the lawsuit is long overdue. Very long overdue. That’s number one.
Number two, when I listen to the things that were in it, it’s believable because you don’t fire an up-and-coming young, hot, head coach that turned your team around two years in a row unless you’re pissed at him. And the owner was mad at him for not taking those games and getting a better draft pick a couple of years ago.
Leahy: I saw that in the complaint. And that is obviously inappropriate behavior. And if true, inappropriate. But here’s the big question just on the Miami incident for a moment.
If that’s true, if you tell your coach to tank the games, that’s kind of a violation of some NFL rules. But here’s my big question: how is that evidence of racism?
Carl: That’s just one part of the thing. That’s one part of the suit. Then the other part is the giant thing that’s the most damning – you have this man come in for an interview after you knew you hired someone else. That’s not cool at all.
Leahy: He sued three teams, right? Miami, Denver and Giants. I don’t see the claim of racism in Miami. But let’s go to New York now for a moment. So walk the audience through what you’ve read about that.
Carl: So what happened was his name is Brian. Another former coordinator. Bill Belichick’s named Brian as well. Bill Belichick texted him and thought he was talking to the other Brian and texted him and said, “Hey, congratulations on getting the Giants.”
And Brian was like, well, did you hear something? Because I don’t interview with them until Thursday, two days later. And he was like, oh, well, damn, I made a mistake. Brian then takes it back and says, “Are you talking about me or the other Brian coordinator in Buffalo?”
And then Bill Belichick said, “Man, I f’d up.” This is literally what he said, “I f’d up. My bad.” The lawsuit part of that is valid because he learned about it through Bill Belichick for congratulating the guy.
What is Bill Belichick doing knowing about what’s going on with the New York Giants and that hire in the first place? Number one. And number two, you don’t bring someone in as a token interview when you already hired someone else. At the very least, it’s not cool, right?
Leahy: Yes. I see the line of reasoning there.
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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 Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles in the studio to discuss Tennessee’s stance on Critical Race Theory and questioned why the state is not leading like Florida in the representation of its values.
Leahy: In studio mayor of Maury County. Yes, the bastion of freedom in Tennessee. (Laughs)
Ogles: Turbocharged.
Leahy: Oh, we got to change that. The mayor of Maury County, the turbocharged bastion of freedom.
Scooter: I see tourism posters now. (Laughter)
Leahy: Yes, the turbocharged. That’s very good.
Ogles: About every two weeks, we’re adding phrases to this. Another month from now, this is going to be like a whole paragraph of descriptors for Maury County,
Leahy: Maury County the turbocharged bastion of freedom. You know, Andy, I am the unofficial ambassador for the state of Tennessee to people who live outside of Tennessee, because every time we have a guest who’s a good conservative-minded, I point out to them that wherever they’re living, if they live outside of Tennessee, that we have no state income tax here. And they all start whining and say, when can I get there?
Ogles: That’s right. Book me a ticket.
Leahy: So I suppose I’m also kind of a subset of that. I may be perhaps not an ambassador, but a promoter of Maury County as well. That turbocharged, bastion of freedom in Tennessee. I wanted to talk to you about this and get your reaction, Andy.
The rally last on Saturday night in Ohio, attended by now it looks like around 30,000 people. The former President began by lambasting the absolute disaster that the five months under Joe Biden have been.
The first thing he listed was the disaster at the border where the current maladministration is refusing to enforce immigration law. By the way, that refusal is probably an impeachable offense, in my view.
But he also mentioned the fact that they’re trying to force Critical Race Theory everywhere in K12 schools as well as in the military of all places, because, you know, nothing says defending the sovereignty of America like having a woke military.
I want to bring this back around to Tennessee. A couple of stories at The Tennessee Star today on Critical Race Theory. I wanted to get your reaction, Andy. So Corinne Murdock our ace reporter and Hillsdale Graduate has this story.
Part of the Wit and Wisdom Curriculum May Violate Tennessee’s Critical Race Theory Ban, According to Moms for Liberty. The parent coalition is concerned that the Wit and wisdom curriculum approved for use in 33 counties and promoted by Governor Bill Lee’s handpicked Secretary of Education Penny Schwinn, may violate Tennessee’s K-12 Critical Race Theory ban.
My question to you is, why does Governor Lee pick a Secretary of Education who’s promoting a curriculum that looks like it violates the new law banning the teaching of the tenants of Critical Race Theory in K-12?
Ogles: Wow, that’s a loaded question.
Leahy: I’m just asking. inquiring minds want to know what, Andy?
Ogles: But you even go back before that. Why would we have a Commissioner of Education, Penny Schwinn who puts forth this well-being initiative where every child zero to 18 would be interviewed by an agent of the state without their parents’ permission or presence?
And why wasn’t she fired then? And so why would we be surprised? And keep in mind, Critical Race Theory is a label that represents an agenda. It’s not necessarily a curriculum. And so we’ve got to be careful with these labels because then they say, well, wait a minute.
Well, this isn’t Critical Race Theory. It’s wit and wisdom. We’re simply trying to educate your child. We’re trying to educate your child on this agenda that totally undermines our country.
And so why she hasn’t been fired by either the governor or by the General Assembly demanding her resignation is a travesty of the values that represent Tennessee?
Leahy: Why would somebody who purports to be conservative hire such a person?
Ogles: He’s not. At the end of the day, the governor is a nice guy, but he’s not a conservative.
Leahy: Well, I think there’s a general consensus that he’s a nice guy. Asterisk, my question to you is if he’s such a nice guy, why does he never respond to The Tennessee Star inquiries?
Why has he not shown up on our radio program? We can get an exclusive interview with the former President of the United States, but we can’t get Governor Bill Lee to return our phone calls.
Ogles: Right.
Leahy: That’s a mystery.
Ogles: I would love to sit in studio across the desk and have this debate. The three of us. It’s an open invitation to talk about some of these substantive issues facing this country in the state of Tennessee.
Tennessee should have been leading the past 18 months the way Florida and Ron DeSantis have led. And when you compare Tennessee to Florida, we have failed across the measure.
Leahy: Yes. Florida is kind of the standard, isn’t it? Isn’t Ron DeSantis, the kind of governor that every state needs? Every state needs a Ron DeSantis pushing against the egregious intrusions upon state sovereignty and the violations of the fundamental concept of federalism that are coming out of the mal-administration of the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Joe Biden. That’s my view. Why can’t every state have a Ron DeSantis?
Ogles: Well, again, I think one it’s a difference in personality and it’s a difference in core values. Ron DeSantis did not back down during COVID when you had the cruise industry trying to mandate and require vaccines.
He stood up to the cruise industry, a multi-billion dollar industry forcing them to change their policies. Meanwhile, in Tennessee, we don’t have the courage, if you will, to take a stand and protect individuals from these mandates.
I just saw in The Tennessee Star that you have a college in Memphis that’s going to require all students to get the vaccine. You have to show proof of vaccination in order to come to the University.
College students aren’t at risk for COVID. Let’s identify the vulnerable and make sure it’s available to them. Then we’ve got to move on and move forward but these mandates are a direct infringement on liberty and medical freedom.
This vaccine now has a warning on heart inflammation. So now we’re a year and a half into this thing, and we know more about this vaccine than we knew just a few months ago and they’re having to put warning labels on it.
And yet the government is requiring and mandating it. Holy crap! This is not acceptable.
Leahy: It’s very interesting how the bureaucrats are playing this Critical Race Theory ban on the tenants of Critical Race Theory. I kind of get the impression that the Educrats who are almost all lefties running the major school systems in Tennessee, the big ones, I think they’re kind of playing us.
It’s my view, anyway, but they say one thing, and then I think they kind of do another. Let me just get your reaction to this story, and we ought to have these guys in if they’ll come in. It’s interesting.
The spokesperson for Metro Nashville Public Schools ideologically, not necessarily what we’re aligned with will talk to The Tennessee Star. Governor Lee will not. I don’t know if I told you, but former President Donald Trump will exclusively talk to The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Just in case, for a matter of comparison right now, interestingly enough.
Here’s the headline. Metro Nashville Public School Says It Won’t Implement Critical Race Theory by our great reporter, Corinne Murdock. Metro Nashville Public Schools informed The Tennessee Star that it doesn’t plan to implement Critical Race Theory.
Metro Nashville Public School spokesperson Sean Braisted. Do you remember him? He used to be the spokesperson for Megan Barry.
Ogles: There you go.
Leahy: That guy. He responded to The Tennessee Star about remarks from the district’s diversity, equity, and inclusion Executive Officer Astrid Hughes. Did you know that Metro Nashville has a diversity, equity, and inclusion executive officer? (Ogles giggles)
Now you do. We asked whether Hughes would implement any of the banned tenants in Metro Nashville’s forthcoming Equity Roadmap. And if Metro Nashville Public Schools plan to implement Critical Race Theory.
Here’s what Sean Braisted responded. “Mr. Hughes was not suggesting those reading materials be a part of the school curriculum, but rather that those interested in discussing the subject read about what they are discussing.” Really? Really? I’m not quite buying that, Andy. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just too skeptical about Educrats.
Ogles: When you look at this trend that’s taken place over the last 10, 20, 30 years, the Educrats as you say, first got into the universities. Now they’re pushing it into the seminary.
They’re pushing into our high school and now or even our elementary schools. And once you capture the minds of the children, you’re changing the next generation. You’re affecting politics.
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 2nd Vote Advisors Dan Grant in studio to explain how banks, Congress, and Democrats are colluding to create a barrier for new competition through legal legislation.
Leahy: We are joined in studio by our good friend Andy Ogles, mayor of Maury County, and also Dan Grant, head of 2nd vote Advisors. Andy, I just want to bring you in here for a second. What do you think of all this stuff he’s talking about here?
Ogles: Well, it’s amazing because I think people do want options. They want choices because so many of these corporations are going woke and you’ve got your banks now that are leveraging their resources to work against We the People.
Leahy: It’s crazy. They’re trying to crush small businesses by putting all these regulations, all these ESG regulations that cost money. And it’s a barrier to entry to new competition. And it’s anti-American. And that’s what Larry Fink and BlackRock and all these Democrats running in Congress and the regulators are trying to do Dan.
Grant: And that’s the goal. So let me tell you a little bit about how they’re trying to do it. So the banks are all announcing that they’re joining the Partnership for Carbon Financial Accounting right now.
Leahy: I got a headache already. Carbon accounting? Is that a new kind of accounting?
Grant: Is that going to impact Tennesseeans? And I’m here to tell you that it is absolutely going to do it. And this is how they’re doing it. So 110 of the largest banks in the world have joined this.
The third had their press release a couple of months ago. And basically what they’re doing is they are reporting the carbon footprint of their customers, of their loan portfolios.
Leahy: Of their customers.
Grant: Of their customers.
Leahy: It’s none their business.
Grant: So what they’re doing as an industry group is they’re saying, okay, this customers carbon footprint we do not like. They are going to raise the pricing of those loans. And ultimately what they’re going to do is…
Leahy: Is that legal?
Grant: It’s legal. And they’re doing it. And ultimately, what they’re going to do is they are going to throw these companies out of the bank. Well, you can sit there and hear that and say there are 4,500 banks in this country, big deal.
They’re going to go to a smaller, medium-sized bank. And I would say, au contraire mon frere. That is not going to happen. Because what they’re doing is these ESG regulations.
Leahy: ESG. Environmental, social governance. Translation, left-wing junk.
Grant: Right. So the Partnership for Carbon Financial Accounting, this industry group is voluntary for these large banks.
Leahy: Like we’re talking Bank of America, we’re talking Wells Fargo. We’re talking to all these big banks where most people do their banking.
Grant: So what they’re doing is they are doing the societal good. They’re raising loan pricing on bad companies with high carbon footprints and throwing them out of the bank.
Leahy: This is anti-free market! Didn’t Adam Smith talked about the invisible hand of the market and it’s that invisible hand that ends up in the best good for all the economy. Andy, I see you wanted to jump in here on this. You’re a free-market guy, right?
Grant: That’s not what they’re saying to Congress. I can promise you, these banks are not going to Congress saying exactly what you said. What they’re saying to Congress is we are doing this for the good of society.
These customers we’ve thrown out of the bank are going to small and mid-sized banks now. Those money-grubbing midsized companies are not looking out for the greater good of society.
They need to be regulated. So what is voluntary at the large corporate level is regulatory at the small and mid-size companies.
Leahy: Are those regulations in effect now?
Grant: The House just passed the Corporate Governance Improvement and Investor Protection Act.
Leahy: Okay, let me just say whenever the Democrats pass a law that says X, you can be sure that it’s actually going to accomplish not X. That’s an example.
Grant: No, no, no. Maxine Waters was out there last week disagreeing with you, Michael. And she said, “It is surprising that to this day, there are no explicit ESG requirements and our investors are left to piece together the story of a company’s material risk with insufficient information.”
And I will tell you, if there is a material risk to any publicly traded company, it must be disclosed. I’ve been doing nothing but working with the SEC and attorneys for years on these ETS’s.
And if there’s a material risk, it needs to be in writing. But Maxine Waters, she’s here to help. She’s from the government. And she’s going to tell you that there is a whole new risk cloud out there that you need to be aware of.
Leahy: And the government needs to regulate it.
Grant: That’s right.
Leahy: And in other words, crush small businesses, small banks. That’s the plan. This is scary. Now for those listeners who want to do something about it, one of the things they can do is they can buy your ETFs.
Grant: Right.
Leahy: Exchange-traded funds. Now walk me through it. We talked about one, which is like the Second Amendment. Let’s talk about the pro-Second Amendment fund. Describe what that fund invests in.
Grant: There’s a corporate scale of one to 5, 1 and two Liberal, 3 neutral, four or 5 conservatives. And what we’ve done, we’ve rated all publicly traded companies, and we stick to mid and large-caps. So larger U.S. companies, nothing small-cap for now.
Leahy: When you say a mid-cap company, that would be a company with maybe half a billion in sales?
Grant: It’s more market cap driven.
Leahy: Market value?
Grant: So it would probably be 2 billion and up.
Leahy: In value. That’s a mid-cap. So anything 2 billion and up is something that we would consider.
Leahy: So my company Star News Digital Media would not be a mid-cap company.
Grant: You’d probably be a large-cap. (Laughter) A 100 billion and up.
Leahy: We will be a mid-cap company someday. (Laughs)
Grant: It’s mostly intangible unfortunately for you but highly valued nonetheless. We’ve rated these companies on a scale of one to five. And we’ve done that on issues that conservatives care about.
The First Amendment, Second Amendment, and life. And that is how we issue our security. We have a Second Amendment fund and it’s not necessarily companies that are out there supporting the Second Amendment.
Leahy: It’s companies that aren’t hurting it.
Grant: Aren’t hurting it.
Leahy: The rating would be either three neutral?
Grant: Three or four or five are going to be eligible.
Leahy: Now, there are 1500 companies that you look at?
Grant: So the S&P 500 is a large-cap. There are 400 that are mid-cap. So we look at the S&P 900 for our funds.
Leahy: Of those 900 how many are three, four, or five on the ratings?
Grant: I would say about 600, probably.
Leahy: That many? I’m surprised.
Grant: 90 percent of those are neutral.
Leahy: A three.
Grant: So there are very few companies that would rate a four or five to give you a sense.
Leahy: Do you invest in three, four, and fives?
Grant: We invest in three, four, and five.
Leahy: So I want to buy this. So what do I do?
Grant: Let’s say you have an E-Trade account or a Robin Hood Account You put in the ticker symbol EGIS.
Leahy: So I go to EGIS.
Grant: That’s right.
Leahy: I want to buy it because I like what you’re doing. How much does it cost?
Grant: So the share price today is probably about $30 a share.
Leahy: So I could buy one share for $30.
Grant: And if you didn’t like it the next day, you could sell it. It is a very liquid stock. You’re not buying it and you’re stuck with it.
Leahy: So I could buy today.
Grant: You can buy it today.
Leahy: One share for 30 bucks or more. And it’s liquid.
Grant: That’s right.
Leahy: But it’s liquid. It’s improved, hasn’t it? If I would have bought this when you started this, where was it?
Grant: So we launched the two funds publicly on November 18. By the end of the first quarter, Egis was up 20.8 percent compared to the S&P 500 at 10.7. And the other fund, LYFE which is a fund that supports life, obviously pro-life. The ticker LYFE, it was up the point versus the S&P 500 at 10.7 points, I think.
Leahy: And you got more of these coming, right?
Grant: We do. We’re launching more funds.
Leahy: When you launch the next one, tell us. But I think what I’m gonna do, I think I’m going to go after the show and I’m going to go buy myself some EGIS.
Grant: That would be great.
Leahy: That’s what I think I’m going to do. And we’ll track it. I think it’s going to do well personally.
Grant: We don’t have to be the size of Larry Fink to be effective. A guy like me can call a lot of these companies and say, hey, we are an owner.
Leahy: You know, one thing that I don’t like that’s going on in Congress right now is the efforts that a lot of these companies that are influenced by Larry Fink’s ESG left-wing junk are then sending letters to Congress.
Andy, we saw this story at The Tennessee Star today. Over 70 companies signed a progressive groups letter supporting the ‘For the People Act.’ Tell us why that struck a nerve with you.
Ogles: This For the People Act has to do with voting.
Leahy: By the way, let me just say they name it the For the People Act. But the real name is the Political Corruption Act.
Ogles: That’s right. They stole an election, and now we have all these audits going on. And so what’s plan B what’s plan C? How else can we try to influence elections? And so what these 70 companies are trying to remove, you have to be able to prove who you are to vote.
And it names race as an issue. But it says, working-class people. They say this in their press release are barriers to voting. Now, wait a second. If you’re working class, I’m assuming that you have a job. In order to get open a bank account, you need identification.
To have utilities, you need identification. All the basic things that we have to do day in and day out require a Photo ID. So why wouldn’t when you go vote, you’d be required to have a photo ID. Because you know what?
I want to make sure that my vote as Andy is cast by me. And so if someone just shows up at the ballot box and says, well, I’m Andy, and I want to vote, I want to be able to them to turn them away.
And so this idea that this is a barrier to voting is nothing more than more this virtue signaling and PC have gone awry.
Leahy: Dan Grant, head of 2ndvoteadvisers.com with these ETS. Electronic exchange-traded funds.
Leahy: See this is the guy that’s been doing this for a while. I stumbled through exchange-traded funds. Okay, so that’s one thing you do.
Listen to the 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 Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles in the studio to weigh in on the recent rogue staff situation at the Department of Human Resources that has quietly implemented equity and inclusion councils across the state agencies.
Leahy: In studio or very good friend, Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles. Andy, our top story at The Tennessee Star today follows up on this rogue staff at the Department of Human Resources that’s decided on its own without telling the Tennessee General Assembly or apparently the governor, that they’re going to set up equity and inclusion councils all across the state of Tennessee and every state agency.
And we’ll get to that in a bit. Apparently, they’ve implemented it. Here’s what State Representative John Reagan, who is the chairman of the Government Operations Committee in the House said. This is, according to our lead store at The Tennessee Star. He’s formerly asked the Tennessee Department of Human Resources, the Commissioner there, Juan Williams, to explain the Diversity and Equity Council program he wants state agencies to enforce.
In the letter, Reagan requested that Williams justify his actions in a timely manner and explain how much it will cost taxpayers. Reagan told The Tennessee Star that Williams and members of his staff acknowledge receiving the letter, but they’ve yet to formally respond. I’ll give you this quote and see what your thoughts are.
This is from State Representative John Reagan, the chairman of the Government Operations Committee in the House of Representatives. “My concerns about the Diversity and Equity Council will fall into two categories. First, I want to know whether this is an internal policy that is only going to affect people inside their Department or if it is going to affect people outside their Department.
My concern there is because I chair the Government Operations Committee. The second thing of concern to me is I did not see anything related to cost. What is this going to cost in terms of expenditures of doing training or having meetings or whatever they’re going to do? And then does it take away also from their doing of their current jobs?” What’s your reaction to that?
Ogles: Well I think you start at the beginning of a rogue employee. I don’t buy into that. I just don’t. This is now the third Commissioner who allegedly has gone off-script. And at some point, you’ve got to sit down with your commissioners and give them a clear direction and tell them this is how I expect you to govern. And so this is unacceptable. And Commissioner Juan Williams should resign. This does not reflect Tennessee values. And at what point are we going to have faith that our government is actually representing Tennesseeans and not representing some agenda from the left?
Leahy: It sounds like an agenda from the left. And the commissioner is making it appear that Governor Lee endorses this agenda from the left. They had a meeting yesterday, apparently. Now, to me, since this entire program, and I’ve got some more information. It has already been implemented and I’ll give you some of those details on it. I don’t see how one, Williams can stay as Commissioner having misled the Tennessee General Assembly on this program.
Ogles: Of course not. The Commissioner is working at will for the governor. You can be fired at any time. We’re a right-to-work state. But there’s the cause here. End of story. How much it does or doesn’t cost to the Tennessee taxpayer is really a moot point. The bigger issue is this isn’t California. This isn’t Washington and this isn’t Oregon and this isn’t New York.
Anecdotally I had a board meeting yesterday and it does a lot of nonprofit good stuff. But it’s a quasi-state board. It’s for a regional thing. And the federal government had pushed down some language that they ‘recommended’ that we insert into our bylaws. And one of those words is that as far as the discrimination clause is that we won’t discriminate against transgender individuals.
Well, hold on a minute. That hasn’t fully been adjudicated in our courts. And by inserting that into the bylaws, now if you have a situation where a man wants to use the bathroom with a little girl, you can’t tell them no.
Leahy: That is about as crazy as you could possibly get.
Ogles: But I refuse and I object to it. And we did not amend our bylaws to reflect that. And at some point, if we have to, we go to court over it. But this has got to stop. These agendas being pushed down by the federal government and the media. Tennessee needs to be a firewall state. It’s time. We’re at war. We’re in a cultural war. We’re in a spiritual war. We’re in a political war. And buckle up, Buttercup, because it’s time. And we’ve got to start taking stands in Tennessee. Tough stands. And this is emblematic of what’s happening across the country.
Leahy: So yesterday, the head of the Tennessee House Government Operations Committee asked the Commissioner of the Department of Human Resources if this diversity and equity program was just limited to the Department of Human Resource. Andy, a source has provided us with a document. This document comes from…
Ogles: Uh oh. (Laughs)
Leahy: Uh oh. (Laughs)
Ogles: I don’t think they expected it to get out. And then suddenly they got caught red-handed with their hand in the cookie jar. And so here we go.
Leahy: Here’s the cookie jar we’re opening up. So here’s the thing. The Department of Human Resources provides human resource guidelines to every department of the state. Public safety, transportation, and there is another department called the Department of Human Services. That’s separate from the Department of Human Resources. This is a document from the Department of Human Services. I’ll just read this to you.
In the wake of social justice protests and conversations last year, the Tennessee Department of Human Resources, that’s the overarching one, not the Department of Human Services that we got this one from, started a new initiative across state government to foster conversations around diversity, equity, and inclusion, to strengthen the employee experience.
All state agencies, including the Tennessee Department of Human Services, have been encouraged to take steps to further this effort. At the Department of Human Services, we are committed to providing an environment in which employees thrive because it’s the right thing to do. Wait for it…in November of 2020, the Department of Human Services, a separate Department from the Department of Human Resources, launched a series of diversity, equity, and inclusion listening services.
I don’t know where the budget was approved for that. I don’t think there was any budget for that. In which nearly 300 employees attended to share their feedback and thoughts. In addition to the subset of the population who attended, 186 employees also participated in an optional session survey after each listening session. Here’s what this resulted in.
There’s a need for additional diversity, equity, and inclusion training, said the employees at the Department of Human Services, following the lead of the recommendation not approved by anybody or any budget, but instigated by the Department of Human Resources. They want to focus on inclusive language in the workplace.
They need more opportunities for listening sessions, education on listening skills, more diverse recruitment teams, more advocacy to diversify teams, and more community outreach efforts. Now, this program has been implemented, according to this document across the state of Tennessee, without the knowledge, apparently, of anyone in the Tennessee General Assembly.
Ogles: Well, again, I can see how the General Assembly would be unaware of some of the things that are happening in government buildings because they’re part-time legislators. Obviously, there should have been some disclosure during the budget sessions, but I go back. You said 300 and 186 participated. So almost 500 employees participated.
Leahy: 300 participated and were in the listening session. This is just in the Department of Human Service. One of a dozen or so departments. And then 186 and filled out surveys after that participation.
Ogles: We’ve got hundreds of employees that participated in this and you’re telling me that somehow someway this didn’t get back to the governor.
Leahy: I’m not telling you that. I’m just saying it happened. It didn’t get back to the Tennessee General Assembly.
Ogles: And so, again, my question is, where are the governor’s people engaging with his respective departments? I mean, you have over 300 employees that are participating in that and someone didn’t call in? This is ridiculous.
Leahy: That was back in November by the way.
Ogles: How about you have fewer meetings with Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg and focus on the business of Tennessee. I’m really troubled by this. This is, again, emblematic of what’s been going on with this ‘third-row commissioner’ in about six months with this administration.
Leahy: So the other rogue commissioner, Penny Schwinn who did this debacle of the well-being checks, that was her idea. They stepped back and stopped that. Who was the other one?
Ogles: So the other one and not a lot about this has been discussed in the media, but you have the former Commissioner of Veterans Affairs who had to resign from office due to a scandal within that department.
Leahy: A scandal?
Ogles: That’s right.
Listen to the 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.
