The Liberty Update Ep. 19: Electronic voting machines banned

Hey everyone, welcome to this week's episode of the Liberty Update with Jake and Bree. Today we will be covering Arizona legislators banning electronic voting machines this week, as well as Biden saying that students have a civil right to look at sexually explicit books. We will cover maternity services that are shutting down in a major wave across US hospitals, and we will touch on the FBI abusing its surveillance in over 270,000 instances on American citizens. All that coming up today, thanks so much for tuning in. This week Arizona legislators banned electronic voting machines by passing the authority of the governor. Arizona continues to be a hotspot for the election integrity battle between Republicans and Democrats. In Wisconsin and North Carolina, the Arizona legislature is controlled by Republicans, while the executive branch is controlled by Democrats. The Arizona state legislature used its authority on Monday to prohibit all counties in the state from using electronic voting machines in any future federal elections. The Democrat governor, Katie Hobbs, vetoed an election integrity bill in April after the Senate and House passed the measure, causing the Republican-dominated legislature to respond with a new approach this week. In a letter sent to all 15 counties in the state, Senate Majority Leader Sonny Barelli said Hobbs is putting Arizona and the nation in a vulnerable and dangerous position by using the state's electronic voting systems made with components from countries considered adversaries. The legislature is using its authority granted in the US Constitution to bypass the power of the governor. They claim the resolution is non-binding and overrides state law as a matter of national security. They cited a 2017 report from the US Department of Homeland Security that deemed election infrastructure critical to the nation. As a result, the resolution has now been transmitted to the Secretary of State's office rather than the governor's office. Part of the letter reads, no electronic voting systems in the state of Arizona may be used as the primary method for conducting, counting, tabulating, or verifying federal elections unless those systems meet the requirements set forth in SCR1037. One of the advocates behind this effort, Senator Wendy Rogers, said on Monday that they are prepared for a legal battle. The Attorney General and Secretary of State, who are both Democrats, said the resolution does not have the force of law, meaning a legal battle is already underway. So there's disagreements at hand between the two branches and we will have to wait and see how this plays out in court. In one of the most shocking headlines of the week, the Biden administration is now openly pushing to keep pornographic books in schools and within children's reach. Last year, a school district in Georgia banned several LGBTQ books that contained sexually explicit content after severe backlash from parents. The Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights launched an investigation into the schools and last week concluded that it quote, created a racially and sexually hostile environment by failing to provide books with diverse authors and characters. Of course, they simply ignored the fact that it was not simply diversity that made the books controversial but shocking sexual content. Works on the band list included extremely loud and incredibly close, all boys aren't blue and the blue skies. These books include depictions of oral sex, dist taste for intercourse with one's spouse, an odd affinity for masturbating with pets, and graphic descriptions of pleasurable intercourse. Shockingly, one of these books was featured in Joe Biden's 2024 presidential reelection campaign announcement in which he blasted quote, mega extremists for banning multiple pornographic books. Ironically, at the same time, childhood classics, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach and the BFG are being edited with gendered language references to guns and insults such as fat, ugly and crazy being removed. So while it is okay for woke publishers to alter beloved, family-friendly classics, if parents object to obscene content in schools, they are called extremists. Of course, Common Sense says that sexually explicit books never should have been in schools to begin with, but now Biden is actively seeking to subvert the will of parents, forcing those books back into the hands of their children. This is yet more proof of the dangers of allowing a radical federal government the power to steer education. Ultimately, it is the parents' right and responsibility to raise and protect their kids. Any government that cannot recognize this simple fact has clearly overstepped its bounds. So as reports of declining birth rates continue to rise in the news, dozens of medical departments and services at hospitals across the nation have shut down in recent months, but the key finding is that the majority of these healthcare facilities serve expecting mothers. A healthcare website is tracking the latest hospitals to close down departments. The report outlines 32 hospitals that have closed a department since the beginning of February 2023. Of the 32 closures, 15 revolve around labor and delivery. The reasons include finances, changing demographics, birth declines, and consolidation of services at other clinics. All 15 of the hospitals closing labor and delivery departments are listed on the blog at conventionofstates.com. As a conservative member of the British Parliament recently pointed out, liberal individualism ideologies have failed to deliver one critically important thing essential to the future of the world. Babies. Take a listen to what Miriam-Cates said. None of these traditions has a future. None of our philosophical musings or policy proposals will amount to anything long-lasting. Unless we address the one overarching threat to British conservatism and indeed the whole of Western society. No, it's not climate change. It's not Russia or China or Iran. It's not the neo-Marxist ideology that is so weak in that institutions. It's not inflation or taxation or poor productivity. No. There is one critical outcome that liberal individualism has completely failed to deliver. And that is babies. So while politicians go on about climate change, Russia, Ukraine, China, or even inflation, one of the largest concerns for the future of the world that authorities really aren't acknowledging is the birth rate. At Convention of States, we're not just working to reign in the power of the federal government. We're also working to raise up servant leaders who are more focused on the group and the nation as a whole, rather than the individual temporary fulfillment of today's world. Unfortunately, a theme of this week seems to be government corruption and oversight. As you may remember on last week's podcast, we reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation showed up at the childhood home of a pro-life activist who alleged that the federal government was attempting to intimidate her. She called the scary incident proof of the weaponization of our government. Frighteningly, a new report suggests that the FBI abused its authority to collect information about US citizens over 278,000 times between 2020 and 2021 alone. According to a bombshell court document obtained by The Washington Post, the federal government frequently access the surveillance database in violation of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Acts, which dictates that the FBI may only search the database for foreign intelligence information when they have a compelling reason to believe that their search will yield such information. Shockingly, the agency instead used the surveillance tool to dig up dirt on suspected January 6 and BLM rioters and a congressional candidate's donors. After the January 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol, an FBI employee ran batches of inquiries that amounted to 23,132 separate queries of presumed Americans. The Post reported, Ultimately, Justice Department officials concluded that there was no specific factual basis to think the searches would turn up foreign intelligence information or evidence of crime. Reportedly, these queries involved probing suspects' private communications, including emails and texts. In the case of investigating the donors to a congressional campaign, 19,000 queries were made. The violation was allegedly justified by the false pretext that the campaign was being targeted by foreign intelligence, which was ultimately debunked in court. So not only has the FBI shown an audacious willingness to intimidate everyday Americans who engage in unapproved behavior, but we now know that it is also violating the federal protocol to search through our private messages. Is there any question that the FBI is out of hand? Is there any question that a government that investigates non-criminal activists and political donors has become a threat to its people? The good news is that it's now clear, than ever, that America needs convention of states. We the people of the United States must stand up to our government while we still have the freedom to do so. To join convention of states in the fight to preserve liberty and in federal corruption, go to conventionofstates.com today and get involved. That's all the news for today. Thank you guys for joining us for another episode of the Liberty Update. I know sometimes it can get discouraging to hear all that's going wrong in the country, all the bad news. But guess what? Here's the good news. We still have hope. We cannot give up this fight. If you're looking for inspiration, go to conventionofstates.com today and learn how you can get involved in the fight to preserve liberty. Thank you guys again for joining us. Go to conventionofstates.com, follow us on social media and like and subscribe to this podcast to stay up to date. God bless you guys. Today you have a blessed Memorial Day as we remember those who gave their lives to hand down the torch of liberty to those of us who are defending it today. God bless you guys. God bless you guys. ♪♪♪♪