Advocating for individual liberty and medical freedom for all Arkansans
After hearing overwhelming feedback from Arkansas taxpayers, several versions of an anti-FOIA bill were withdrawn. The current bill is SB 10 / HB 1012 (mirror bills), which addresses the security issues without removing the people’s FOIA rights.
You can read the current bill here:
https://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/Home/FTPDocument?path=%2FBills%2F2023S1%2FPublic%2FSB10.pdf
While we appreciate the governor’s efforts, the new vaccine bill does very little.
1.) Despite claims in the media, the bill ONLY applies to state employees.
2.) It creates a specific exemption for federal money, meaning that the state can choose money over the health autonomy of its employees. The current law only allows healthcare facilities to force-jab; the new law will allow ALL state entities to force-jab if federal money is involved. More detail from Conduit: https://conduitnews.com/2023/09/08/mandates-for-money/ “Under the 2021 law, only a state owned or state controlled medical facility could request approval to mandate a vaccine. Under the new bill, the state, a state agency or entity, a political subdivision of the state, or a state or local official can request permission to mandate the vaccine if the mandate is necessary for federal funding.”
3.) The bill does not protect employees of private or public businesses. This is a big step to the left of the Ballinger “Don’t ask don’t tell” vaccine bill of 2021. Our state clearly prioritizes Walmart, Tyson, and the State Chamber of Commerce (big business) over the rights of private individuals to make their own healthcare decisions.
Read the bill here. Pay particular attention to Section 1(f), page 3, lines 15-25.
Contact your legislators here:
The state legislature will convene in special session this week to consider several bills, one of which intends to reduce the people’s right to know what their electeds are doing. If you are concerned about transparency in government, please make an effort to be at the state capitol. There is strength in numbers. You can speak against this atrocious bill or stand with those who do speak. There are two ways to help. #1:
#2: Contact the sponsors and let them know that the people aren’t happy with this egregious takeover of our FOIA law. Ask them whether they think they work for the governor or the people. (They will argue this is about the governor’s security, but that’s a cover. Sending a FOIA request for a trip she took six months ago does not compromise her security.)
all legislators’ phone numbers: https://staging.reopenarkansas.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2023-legislators-all-by-name-PDF.pdf
Valid points to make to legislators: * If this FOIA bill were about safety, then it wouldn't have the extra provisions added. We already know that any FOIA's that were sent are about PAST trips. We also know that ASP released everything except the passenger list. If there is a need for an exemption for safety, I would happily support it. We also have never seen or heard of FOIA being the cause of any security threats. * Can you imagine if something happened in our state like the child abuse scandal at Penn State several years ago? It is proven that this exemption helped hide any communication that could have helped catch Gary Sandusky sooner. This exemption is overused and abused. This is a dangerous precedent that could have serious consequences. What happens if we have a Democrat Governor or Democrat majority in a few years? Will you be comfortable with them having this same power to exempt anything they don't want the public to know? * The issue seems to be related to something the Governor does not want made public, and I fail to understand how releasing the passenger list of a flight she has already taken equals a security threat. It seems to me, and a lot of others, that this is an excuse to destroy FOIA and our Governor is using the legislature to hide what she doesn't want made public. * If this bill were championed by Chris Jones or any other Democrat - the exact same bill, with the exact wording – not a single Republican would vote YES. That is because it gives the Governor the power to hide anything desired. This bill is wrong. * I am asking that you please reconsider your support for this dangerous bill. This bill is anything but what we would expect from a Republican legislator who believes in transparency. * This bill absolutely destroys any public trust. This bill is anti transparency. Transparency in government is essential to liberty of the people. I am asking you, as your constituent and supporter, to please reconsider your support of this bill and do the right thing by voting NO. * “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety” - Benjamin Franklin
More background info from Professor Robert Steinbuch:
RESOLUTION URGING A “RETURN TO EXCELLENCE” IN AMERICAN VOTING
AND ELECTIONS
Researchers everywhere are doing work that raises hard questions about the safety of mRNA Covid shots. Everywhere except the United States, that is. Why?
https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/on-the-cowardice-of-american-scientists
QUOTE: A summer surge of COVID-19 has some wondering aloud if we should return to mask mandates. For now, the official line, despite the media effort to rekindle coronavirus hysteria, is that it’s unlikely. But we heard that before, in 2020, right before public health officials dropped their mask tyranny on us. If they do it again, we have an obligation to say no.
Are we calling for civil disobedience? Are we suggesting that Americans resist orders that are not laws but are instead decrees issued by despots? Absolutely, and without reservation.
Masks are dehumanizing.Masks project fear. Masks are vehicles for virtue signaling.
For all the fighting over masking, there’s no evidence that mask mandates work.
We understand that a small portion of the population is vulnerable to COVID-19 and other diseases that can be contracted in a similar way, and that proper face coverings can in some cases keep these people healthy. Anyone who needs to wear a mask, or simply prefers to, has every right to do so.
The rest of us, though, should refuse to be masked ever again. When government feels no resistance to its dictates, it knows it’s free to tighten the yoke another notch.
Members of the state committee of the Republican Party of Arkansas have an opportunity on August 19th to elect a long-term leader for the party. Sarah Dunklin is the ultimate representative of “We the People.” She stands firmly on the party platform and brings years of strong leadership experience to the table, having worked tirelessly for her county, district, and the state. Sarah has an unparalleled, proven track record of working for the people and advancing Republican party principles. Sarah 100% supports medical freedom, religious and personal liberty, and parental rights. She has been a leading voice for closed primaries, so that Democrats can no longer choose Republican nominees. Sarah is ready to lead immediately with no learning curve or ramp-up period. She has volunteered to serve the party for free, taking no salary for the position. This election is an opportunity for the party to represent the people rather than the establishment. No individual is more qualified to lead the Republican Party of Arkansas than Sarah Dunklin. That’s why Reopen Arkansas enthusiastically and formally endorses Sarah Dunklin for Chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas.
QUOTE: The Board held a specially called meeting and voted to execute a hand count using the human-readable portion of the ballots for all future Spalding elections. The hand count would then be compared to the counts reported by the machines. If the hand count does not match the machine count, the election would not be certified.
On July 10th, residents and members of the Spalding Board of Elections were shown how hand counting proceeses could be efficiently used in Spalding elections.
The next day during the Board of Election meeting, a Board member moved that Spalding commit to using only voting processes that could be human verified and that would increase voter confidence in the elections. That motion was ultimately tabled in order to provide public notice prior to consideration of such a step.
Since Dominion voting machines produce ballots that include bar codes which are not human-readable they would not satisfy the requirements of that motion, consequently the County would likely have to choose another method of voting – perhaps hand marked ballots and hand counting. One speaker this evening pointed out that a U.S. District Court found Secretary of State Raffensperger’s claims “not credible.”
During public comments, a number of speakers from counties across Georgia, provided examples of erroneous voter registrations, “phantom” voters, and votes cast by people who had previously died.
During the hand counting demonstration, attendees were shown simple systems which facilitate counting by teams of two people – one democrat and one republican. The process for each team is videotaped from above and cross-checked after each batch. Any concern could be quickly reviewed via the video and corrected in a few seconds. Each hand count workstation uses readily available technology and is said to cost of fraction of the thousands in cost represented by each current voting machine.
Earlier this year, the City of Milton voted to stop using Fulton County to administer their elections after reviewed a study of the cost of voting. They found that by moving away from elections using machines (administered by Fulton County) the City could capture a savings of $250,000 in the first year.
QUOTE: A liberal college town announced that it would pay $300,000 to a group of Christians in Idaho who were arrested for holding an outdoor church service without wearing masks during the pandemic.
The city of Moscow, Idaho — home to the University of Idaho — announced the settlement in the churchgoers’ civil lawsuit last week.
Three churchgoers with Christ Church sued the city after they were arrested in September 2020 at an outdoor “psalm sing” with their church outside Moscow City Hall. The singing protest lasted about 20 minutes. Gabriel Rench and Sean and Rachel Bohnet filed the suit in March 2021, alleging that their First and Fourth Amendments rights were violated.
Footage of the arrests went viral on social media and showed police officers taking Rench’s hymnal away from him before handcuffing him and taking him and the two other people to the county jail. The three were detained at the jail for several hours.
Then-president Donald Trump condemned the arrests at the time, tweeting that Democrats want to shut churches down “permanently.”
The three were charged with violating the city’s public health emergency ordinance, but a judge dismissed the city’s case against them.
A federal judge later denied the city’s request to dismiss the lawsuit from the three people arrested, noting that the city’s pandemic ordinance had an exception for activities protected by the Idaho and U.S. constitutions, such as religious services. The judge said the three never should have been arrested in the first place.
“Somehow, every single City official involved overlooked the exclusionary language [of constitutionally protected behavior] in the Ordinance,” the judge wrote.
Christ Church is a congregation of about 1,000 people and part of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches.