An unlikely pairing. The post The rappers Paul Simon said he felt were a kindred spirit: “It’s hard to find” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

When I first saw the Grateful Dead play, I was just shy of 17, on December break, my junior year in high school. Bob Weir, who just passed away last week, was 21 at the time, close enough in age to identify with, both then and now as well. He always approached his work and his audience with unpretentious love. I’ve spent most of my adult life studying Judaism’s classic texts and practicing and teaching its truths to the best of my ability. Why I am writing for a second time about founding members of the Grateful Dead on their passing? I’ll give the brief version, which must suffice for now. The Grateful Dead scene was the catalyst for my journey into my calling. I can’t think I would have traveled the road I did were it not for the beauty and power that was present in that scene (along with plenty of other all-too-human foolishness, for as the rabbis of old taught, no one sins until a spirit of foolishness enters them). That scene had the great good fortune of attracting the attention of a formidable talent to chronicle its birth, Tom Wolfe. Satirist non pareil, the man who identified and skewered wokeness long before it even had that name, Wolfe was attracted to the wildness of the scene that emerged around Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters, and wrote about it in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Kesey was a young married grad student in Stanford’s creative writing seminar along with such others as Larry McMurtry and Wendell Berry. To make a few bucks, he volunteered to be an experimental subject to find out the properties of some new drugs (later, it FOIA requests showed the test was covertly run by the CIA, who were seeking to find out what drugs might disorient enemies). That’s where Kesey met up with LSD, completely unknown and still perfectly legal. Kesey was so impressed that he found ways to get hold of it himself and share it with friends. As Wolfe writes, Kesey’s early parties eventually morphed into free-form events open to the public, featuring an immersive atmosphere. Driving them was the rock and roll band Kesey invited, a brand-new group called the Grateful Dead. As much as their sound shaped the event, the event shaped the band and set it on its course. Wolfe writes about the scene developing a religious core, in the midst of the wildness. He quoted one of the slogans that Kesey and his crew would use to guide themselves — “Put your good where it will do the most!” and then noted: Gradually the Prankster attitude began to involve the main things religious mystics have always felt, things common to Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, and for that matter Theosophists and even flying-saucer cultists. Namely, the experiencing of an Other World, a higher level of reality. And a perception of the cosmic unity of this higher level. And a feeling of timelessness … This had been noted by other writers who had experimented with psychedelic drugs (all still legal) in the previous decades. Aldous Huxley, the author of the prophetic, dystopian Brave New World, wrote about his experience taking mescaline, as well as the role of peyote (the natural source of mescaline) in the worship practices of some Native Americans: Sometimes they hear the voice of the Great Spirit. Sometimes they become aware of the presence of God and of those personal shortcomings that must be corrected if they are to do His will. The philosopher and theologian Alan Watts wrote in a similarly serious way about his LSD experiences, just a few years before the Acid Tests. But something more than seriousness is needed for true religious breakthrough. Jordan Peterson specified that in his portrayal of God’s calling to Abraham as the beckoning spirit of adventure. The pursuit of truth is adventure of the highest sort. Adventure it was for Kesey and those who joined in. Instead of writing books about the experience, they undertook to share it in all its wildness and compelling power. They evolved a repeatable free-form gathering in which people were improvising music, light shows, open mics, and costumes, all designed to break through together into a higher vision. Religious vision all mixed in with a party groove and musicians following the vision in the moment in the tradition of American improvisational music — and at fifteen years old, Bob Weir was in the center of it. Weir described himself in those early days as an “acid evangelist.” As one of the early original songs of the Grateful Dead went, “It’s a party every day.” People in the party felt it was much more than a party, so the band tried to bring the party to everyone. In the words of the Martha and the Vandellas hit that Bob sang in those heady days: Everywhere around the world Get ready for a brand-new beat… This is just an invitation across the nation A chance for folks to meet There’ll be laughing, singing, and music swinging Dancing in the street… All we need is music, sweet music There’ll be music everywhere There’ll be swinging, swaying And records playing and Dancing in the street. But the flowering of early days fell apart. The Haight Ashbury district, where Weir lived in a house with his bandmates for a while, collapsed into a grim area of addicts selling whatever they could for meth and heroin. Woodstock within half a year morphed into Altamont, the rock festival of bad vibes and murder that went so bad that Weir and his bandmates closed it down before they even took the stage. In a song written about that time, the band looked at the darkness and vowed to carry on. One way or another One way or another One way or another This darkness got to give. A limit had been reached. Not everything in life can be experimented with. Whatever power drugs had, they could not substitute for what people had to bring from the depth of their souls. There is a need for the disciplines of storytelling and songs, things which can be passed down and repeated without losing their light. The religious theme had been taken up directly by the band before. Great shows from their late Sixties experimental music era would often end by facing the terrifying realities of life through a song by the Harlem street preacher, Rev. Gary Davis: “Death Don’t Have No Mercy in This Land,” leading eventually to an a capella rendering a Bahamian gospel tune, “I Bid You Good Night.” But after Altamont, the band turned a corner into Americana; short, crafted story-songs that summoned up the spirit of real America, dipping deep into blues and country and western and old-fashioned rock and roll. Weir stepped forward with a classic rock feel, joining Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly to look at America’s love of music and good times with cosmic affection. In lyrics which he wrote, Weir would place Saturday-night America into the mind of a joyous divine MC: Then God way up in Heaven, for whatever it was worth Thought He’d have a big old party, thought He’d call it Planet Earth Don’t worry about tomorrow, Lord, you’ll know it when it comes When the rock and roll music meets the risin’ Planet Sun. One more Saturday night! Around this time, Weir went to Harlem to meet Reverend Davis, and he picked up a song of the reverend’s that became permanent in the repertoire: “Samson and Delilah,” a powerful retelling of the tale from the Book of Judges in a rock and roll idiom, with the chorus a prayer of Samson’s: If I had my way If I had my way If I had my way I would tear this old building down. Around this time, Ken Kesey was facing the darkness by writing his list of “tools from the chest” that were of proven worth in facing the darkness in life. As a dedicated scene member, I bought his new offering hot off the press. The first tool he wrote about was the Bible, which he strongly recommended everyone to read from every day for the rest of their lives. As well, he wrote about the modern Jewish mystic, Martin Buber, whose insights in the book I and Thou he felt could change everyone’s life for the better. This turn towards tradition at first shocked me, but I soon took it into heart and practice. Just as the musicians in Kesey’s house band were deepening their roots in the musical traditions in which they had first trained themselves, so Kesey was pointing to the religious traditions, in their broadest sense, that had carried forward the entire endeavor of human life and all its aspirations. I took Kesey’s advice and soon found myself deep in the tradition to which I had been born, and grateful for being able to see all of it through fresh eyes. In a song that Bob Weir composed, he sang lyrics about the music as he and we felt it: “The music plays the band.” That esthetic keeps religion alive as well. It seems aligned with Martin Buber’s conception of the most important choice we make is — do we relate to the others in our lives as mere useful instrumentalities or are they shaping us even as we shape them, and we all together are joined by the divine purpose permeating all things? The latter opens us up to being a letter in the scroll, a player in the music. While that did set me on a well-worn professional path, it did prepare me for life as an unfolding adventure. It did prepare me to listen to the music playing in others’ lives. It did give me an acute sense of the musicality of religious life as people live it, seeking to give voice to the indispensable connection each moment begs for us to do and to be the word in action, making a life of ever-deeper harmony, undeterred by any dissonance. Bob Weir developed his music in response to this deep drive, coupling an ever-growing dedication to craft to his keen sense of fun. The band tried to fire him back in 1967, thinking him not capable of growing as they were. He refused to be fired, just kept coming to rehearsals, and didn’t stop listening or improving. He made something unique out of his rhythm guitar, sounding like John Coltrane’s stellar pianist McCoy Tyner in setting down a framework of chords upon which the twisting vines of Garcia’s solos enwrapped themselves and grew tall. He wrote songs with weird time signatures that rocked. He wrote suites that held the attention of rock audiences. He always approached his work and his audience with unpretentious love. And in the end, he had the respect of his own craft. His bandmate from the start, drummer, Bill Kreutzman, wrote of him this week: I once heard Bobby refer to himself as “the greatest rhythm guitar player in the world” and it made me chuckle lightheartedly at my brother’s boastfulness. The thing is … he was probably right. In the end, what more was there for him to do? He played it all … and never the same way, twice. I think he had finally said everything he had to say and now he’s on to the next thing. I just hope he was able to bring his guitar with him or otherwise he’ll go crazy. And the last word, with a loud amen, will go to Paul McCartney, just seen on the feed today: Bob Weir was a great musician who inspired many people of many generations.… His humour, friendship and musicianship inspired me and will inspire many people into the future. Our family’s thoughts go out to Bob’s family at this time of loss, and I know they will remain as strong as he would wish them to be. God bless you, Bob. See you down the road. Love Paul READ MORE from Shmuel Klatzkin: The Captor Who Fell Silent In Defense of a Judeo-Christian America The Lie That Destroys

At the dawn of the 1950s, as atheistic communism was seeping into the West from the Soviet Union and as godless secularism and hedonism were on the rise in America, achieving the disastrous watershed known as the Sexual Revolution some years later, a Catholic bishop stood before a camera, a chalkboard over his shoulder, ready to preach to the largest congregation he had ever spoken to: the United States of America. Nearly 75 years later, that same Catholic bishop is on the verge of being beatified, an important step in reaching canonical sainthood. “There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be,” According to a report from The Pillar, the Vatican is preparing to announce a date for the beatification of Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. Born in Illinois in May of 1895, the young Sheen served as an altar boy at his home parish before determining in early adulthood to become a Catholic priest. Even after having been ordained a priest and distinguishing himself as a theological scholar, Sheen’s youthful visage prompted a local priest to ask him to serve as an altar boy during Mass, unaware that the younger priest was, in fact, a priest. In the 1920s, Sheen became the first American to win the Cardinal Mercier Prize for theological studies, thanks to his doctoral thesis, “The Spirit of Contemporary Philosophy and the Finite God.” Sheen studied at the Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, D.C. before going on to the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium and the Pontificium Collegium Internationale Angelicum. Both Columbia University in New York and Oxford University in England lobbied for Sheen to teach theology in their classrooms, but Bishop Edmund Dunne of the Diocese of Peoria in Illinois had promised Sheen to CUA. After a brief stint in priestly ministry in Illinois, where Dunne noted Sheen’s humility and obedience, the young priest was permitted to teach, but chose a post at St. Edmund’s College in England for about a year, before returning to teach at CUA, where he was a theology instructor for the next 22 years. In 1930, Sheen began hosting a Sunday-night NBC radio program, The Catholic Hour, which he would host for another 20 years. The show became widely popular, reportedly receiving anywhere from 3,000 to 6,000 letters per week. Over the course of the program’s two-decade run, Sheen addressed everything from cultural issues to catechesis to explaining Catholic beliefs and practices for non-Catholic Americans. Two years after The Catholic Hour concluded, shortly after having been named an auxiliary bishop in the Diocese of Rochester, Sheen began hosting a television show, Life Is Worth Living. The show featured Sheen speaking extemporaneously, often using a chalkboard, again addressing a wide range of subjects, from current events and culture to theology and evangelism to politics and the threat of communism. Life Is Worth Living was slated for primetime and competed against the Frank Sinatra Show and the Texaco Star Theater, starring Milton Berle. The Frank Sinatra Show was soon cancelled, while Sheen’s show only skyrocketed in popularity. The bishop won an Emmy Award during his first year on-air and the number of stations carrying Life Is Worth Living climbed. Sheen forcefully denounced the Soviet Union and the threat of communism on his program, saying during a February 1953 show, “Stalin must one day meet his judgment.” Within days, Stalin suffered a stroke, dying just days later. Famously, Sheen was responsible for the conversion of Bella Dodd, who had once been a card-carrying member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and a covert operative for the Soviet Union in the U.S. The bishop offered weekly catechism to a number of prominent individuals, mostly anti-communist intellectuals, like playwright Clare Boothe Luce, and ex-communists who later became staunch opponents of communism’s influence, such as Dodd and Louis F. Budenz. Life Is Worth Living drew roughly 30 million viewers per week, predominantly non-Catholics, many of whom were introduced to Catholic principles aright for the first time in their lives. “There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be,” Sheen once declared. Life Is Worth Living ran until 1957, earning Sheen three Emmy nominations and one win. The Catholic apologist returned to television in 1961 with The Fulton Sheen Program, which followed essentially the same format as Life Is Worth Living and ran until 1968. In addition to hosting his radio and television programs, Sheen also wrote extensively, authoring over 70 books, including Communism and the Conscience of the West, Three to Get Married, and The World’s First Love, a literary portrait of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1969, Sheen resigned as bishop of Rochester and was named the titular archbishop of Newport, Wales. When Pope St. John Paul II met Sheen in New York City in 1979, a mere two months before Sheen’s death, the pope warmly embraced the bishop and said, “You have written and spoken well of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are a loyal son of the Church.” Sheen died on December 9, 1979, kneeling in a chapel and praying before the Blessed Sacrament. In 2019, Sheen was to be beatified, until Rochester Bishop Salvatore Matano alleged that Sheen may have mishandled a case of clerical sexual abuse. However, the abusive priest at issue, Gerard Guli, was never given an assignment by Sheen and had been removed from ministry before Sheen took over as bishop of Rochester. According to The Pillar, all concerns surrounding allegations of mishandling of abuse cases have been resolved to the Vatican’s satisfaction and the American Catholic televangelist is likely to be beatified in September. READ MORE from S.A. McCarthy: College of Cardinals To Meet Annually Under Pope Leo XIV Is Hostility Against Christians Going to Increase in 2026? What the Left Doesn’t Get Right About Christmas

Despite all the congratulations and fanfare, the capturing of Maduro and wife may not have produced the effect many have assumed. Everything went well in Donald Trump’s Venezuela operation. An alleged narcoterrorist dictator was captured and brought before the bar in a New York court. Moreover, Venezuela and the world’s largest oil reserves are now controlled by the US — at least, according to Trump. If Trump wants to actually take control of Venezuela’s oil wealth, capturing its autocratic leader and seizing oil tankers won’t necessarily accomplish that. The problem is, not everyone agrees: Big Oil doesn’t see it quite that way. The chief executives of Exxon/Mobil and Conoco/Phillips were clear: they are not inclined to rush back into Venezuela. Trump called the oil chiefs to the White House last Friday to urge them to invest $100 billion in upgrading Venezuela’s petroleum and gas industries. Decades of U.S. economic sanctions are thought to have caused the country’s industrial infrastructure to deteriorate. There is a history between the U.S. oil giants and Venezuela’s previous two presidents; and it’s not a pretty picture. Venezuela’s oil business (essentially developed by Big Oil) was nationalized between 2004 and 2007 by former socialist President Hugo Chavez — a policy continued under his successor, Nicolás Maduro. With operational control and authority placed in the hands of state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), Exxon/Mobil and Conoco/Phillips ceased operations in the country. Both U.S. oil behemoths subsequently brought suit against the State of Venezuela in U.S. courts; the latter ruled that Venezuela owes the U.S. companies damages amounting to $13 billion in expropriated assets, while overall debts are significantly higher — $150-$170 billion. The third largest U.S. oil company, Houston-based Chevron, chose to continue its operations and do business in Venezuela in partnership with PDVSA. At the White House oil summit last week, Exxon/Mobil’s and Conoco/Phillips’s executives told the U.S. president that they were not ready to resume operations and investment in Venezuela, because essentially the risk was too great relative to the investment required. Exxon/Mobil boss Darren Woods described Venezuela in disparaging terms. Woods said: “We have a very long history in Venezuela…. We’ve had our assets seized there twice.” He added: “If we look at the legal and commercial constructs and frameworks in place today in Venezuela, today it’s uninvestable.” Exxon/Mobil’s  comments were echoed by Conoco/Phillips’s boss, Ryan Lance. The comments from Big Oil reflect the reality on the ground in Venezuela. Due to its immense wealth and influence, the industry has its own assessment capability involving “intelligence assets” around the world, especially in hot spots like Venezuela and Iran. What this means is that Venezuela and its oil is not necessarily under U.S. control, and thus some distance from recent comments emanating from the White House and the media. The dictatorial leader of the Venezuelan regime may have been abducted, but the Venezuelan government continues under former vice president and current interim President Delcy Rodriguez (a protégé of Maduro) — it is the same administration as when Maduro was in office. Rodriguez and her top aides, including Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, have been outspoken, condemning the U.S. aggression — demanding the safe return of Maduro and his wife. Venezuela has neither collapsed nor capitulated, and its socialist government has not been overthrown. The scores of warships, over 150 aircraft and 15,000 troops, as well as special operations commandos deployed to extract Maduro, have been successful no doubt — but success needs to not develop into a Pyrrhic victory for President Trump. From the viewpoint of Big Oil, it’s not “mission accomplished.” To categorize the situation in Venezuela as “uninvestable” is the corporatist way of saying, there was no change in the government of Venezuela sufficient to give the oil companies what they want — substantive US control over Venezuela’s hydrocarbon wealth without the risk of losing their investment for the third time. Big Oil backed Trump’s election campaign in 2024. But from what the chief executives are telling the president — he failed to deliver enough for them to feel confident about returning to the South American country. Trump’s obviously irritated reaction to Big Oil’s rebuff at the White House was not surprising. On returning to Washington from Florida this week, the president was asked by reporters about Exxon/Mobil’s reticence to invest upwards of $100 billion into a country that still owes them $13 billion from previous asset seizures. His response to reporters on Air Force One: “I didn’t like Exxon’s response … they’re playing too cute.” As a sign of his displeasure, Trump said he would block Exxon/Mobil from returning to Venezuela in the future. What President Trump didn’t like was Big Oil tainting his “political victory” concerning the success of the Venezuela operation. But this need not have occurred. Those charged with the responsibility of advising Trump should have cautioned him to heed the concern of any lawyer: “never ask a question the answer to which you do not want.” Big Oil should have been given a heads-up regarding Trump’s proposed $100 billion investment scenario just to make sure everyone was on the same page. Obviously, they were not, and President Trump was on the receiving end of Big Oil’s rebuke at a major White House event in front of the American people. From this point forward, President Trump needs to be cautious with statements about Venezuela. Spectacular though it was, the military assault to snatch Maduro did not change the government in Caracas. “I’ve seen caricatures on Wikipedia about who rules Venezuela,” Venezuelan interim President Delcy Rodríguez said. “Well, here there is a government that governs Venezuela. Here there is an interim president, and there is a president held hostage in the United States,” she added. Rodríguez said her government was reaffirming Venezuela’s sovereignty and independence while continuing to pursue international relations “based on respect and within the framework of international law” to defend the country’s rights. The executives from Big Oil seem to be in agreement with Rodriguez’s assessment and at odds with the White House. If Trump wants to actually take control of Venezuela’s oil wealth, capturing its leader and seizing oil tankers won’t necessarily accomplish that. The U.S. president may very well need to send U.S. troops into the country in numbers sufficient to overwhelm the existing Venezuelan government. No doubt the U.S. military can accomplish that task and even install a new regime. But this will take time and likely come with huge, and potentially significant political and military costs. Is Trump willing to embark upon his own Iraq or Vietnam war – risking an untenable defeat in the U.S. midterm elections as Americans focus on “bread-and-butter” — not “bombs-and-ballistics”? READ MORE from F. Andrew Wolf Jr.: The Smart Way to Get Greenland Trump’s First 12 Months: The Economy, Venezuela, and the American Electorate Britain’s New Economic Policy: Get Used to Being Worse Off  

President Donald Trump has threatened to “institute the Insurrection Act” and deploy the military after ongoing confrontations in Minneapolis between residents and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including a recent incident where a Venezuelan immigrant was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries while being pursued by DHS. President George H. W. Bush was the last one to invoke the act, doing so in 1992 in response to the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. The act gives the president the power to “Whenever there is an insurrection,” deploy into “Federal service such of the militia of the other States, in the number requested by that State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to suppress the insurrection.” However use of this power is conditional, justified only “upon the request of its legislature or of its governor if the legislature cannot be convened,” or “Whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings.” Despite their vocal opposition to ICE’s actions, neither Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz nor Minneapolis Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey appears to grasp that they, not the federal government, are ultimately responsible for the city. Their milquetoast reaction to the civil unrest on the streets of Minneapolis is unbecoming of the positions of leadership they hold. (RELATED: White Girl George Floyd Isn’t Working) Walz announced last Monday that he is ending his reelection bid. In the same week, he began preparations to mobilize the state National Guard “in the event they are needed to assist local and state authorities.” Too little, too late. (RELATED: Five Quick Things: Minnesota Goes to Hell (Again)) Earlier this month, DHS launched the “largest immigration enforcement operation ever carried out by the agency,” deploying 2,000 federal agents and officers, according to the Associated Press. A thousand more were just sent to the city, according to the New York Times. (RELATED: The Media Are Agents of Propaganda) The initial deployment was a response by the Trump administration following reports of widespread fraud involving Minnesota’s Somali community. Minneapolis is just the latest American city to serve as a battleground between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and protesters. Before its Minnesota deployment, DHS employed similar operations in Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, and Washington, D.C. (RELATED: When Law Enforcement Becomes Political) In all of the aforementioned cities, excluding Portland, the president also called up the state’s National Guard to assist federal officials carrying out immigration enforcement. His deployment of National Guard troops, in some cases against the express wishes of the governor, has been hotly debated in the courts. In December, the Supreme Court blocked the president’s attempt to use federalized National Guard troops in Chicago. In its ruling, with Justices Alito, Gorsuch, and Thomas dissenting, the court found that the Trump administration “failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois.” Later that month, President Trump announced, “We are removing the National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, even though CRIME has been greatly reduced by having these great Patriots in those cities, and ONLY by that fact.” The president also threatened to “come back,” with a federal presence, “perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again,” calling it “Only a question of time!” (RELATED: The Eisenhower Precedent: Is Trump Justified in Deploying the National Guard to Chicago?) Minnesota’s refusal to work with the federal government on immigration detainers would stretch even the staunchest federalist. The Department of Homeland Security claims that “Governor Walz and Mayor Frey REFUSE to cooperate with ICE law enforcement and have released nearly 470 criminal illegal aliens back onto the streets of Minneapolis.”  However, a Minnesota Department of Corrections spokesperson told Minneapolis Fox 9 that they “honor all federal and local detainers, including those from ICE.” The Department of Corrections also pointed to a requirement in state law that mandates the department “notify ICE when an individual committed to their custody is not a U.S. citizen,” including the “anticipated release date so they can arrange transfer from DOC custody if they so choose.” Minnesota’s refusal to work with the federal government on immigration detainers would stretch even the staunchest federalist. Hennepin County, which Minneapolis is a part of, states on its county website that its sheriff’s office does not “participate in civil immigration enforcement and does not work with federal agencies on civil immigration enforcement.” This week, Walz issued a lengthy statement in which he described the deployment of federal agents as part of a “campaign” that “claimed the life of Renee Nicole Good,” adding, “We’ve all watched the video. We’ve all seen what happened.” (RELATED: The Death of Renee Nicole Good: Why the Democrats Will Fail Step Three in the George Floyd Script) Walz’s claim that the president “wants this chaos… confusion, and yes, he wants more violence” suggests his “direct appeal to the President” to “turn the temperature down” is less a balm for the moment than a false panacea. His recent shift in stance coincides with a significant dip in his approval. His 48 percent disapproval rating in Minnesota is reportedly the “lowest” recorded in the 20 times the KSTP/SurveyUSA has conducted a poll during his two terms as governor. READ MORE by Tosin Akintola: Senate Holds Hearing on Biden Admin Failures to Vet Afghan Evacuees California Union Behind State Billionaire Tax Has $68 Million in Assets

As the Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in two cases concerning state bans on men in women’s sports, supporters and opponents of the bans faced off outside the building in competing demonstrations. The demonstrations came as the court considered two legal challenges to state laws governing male participation in women’s sports. This issue pushed many Americans to support Donald Trump and deliver him a landslide victory in last year’s presidential election, due to their shock at the blatant unfairness of allowing men to compete and dominate in women’s sports categories. While supporters of the legislation viewed the issue as one of protecting women’s rights, critics argue that the laws discriminate against male athletes identifying as transgender. (RELATED: Trump’s Ban on Males in Female Sports: What It Does, Why It’s Justified, and the Left’s Outrage.) The cases before the court stem from state laws enacted over the past several years restricting biological boys and men from competing in girls’ and women’s sports. One of these cases challenges Idaho’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, passed in 2020, which bars boys and men who identify as transgender from competing in female athletic categories from elementary school through college. The law was challenged by 24-year-old Lindsay Hecox, a biological man who wanted to compete in women’s cross country and track at Boise State University. A second case involves a West Virginia law challenged by the mother of an 11-year-old biologically male middle school student, identified in court filings as B.P.J., after the child was barred from participating in girls’ sports. (RELATED: Religious Liberty Cases Return to Supreme Court) Those rallying outside the Supreme Court to oppose men’s participation in women’s sports based their arguments on competitive fairness and safety for female athletes. Tammy Fitzgerald, executive director of North Carolina Values, brought three buses of people from North Carolina to support the state laws. Fitzgerald acknowledged the potential for nationwide changes as a result of the court’s decision, stating, “This is going to be applied in a lot of different places. Being able to decide that as a country, as a nation, as states, ‘we believe in only two sexes.’ That has ramifications that ripple across all the laws in every state.”  Other demonstrators come at the issue from broader perspectives. Margot Heffernan, an activist with the Women’s Liberation Front, said she attended as a “radical feminist” to “protect the rights of women and girls.” She argued that “women have had our own sports granted to us legally … for quite a few years now” and then explained “women need their spaces. We cannot compete against men. We are totally different.” Lauren Leggieri, co-executive director of LBG Courage Coalition, took aim at the activists on the other side of the aisle, saying, “LGBTQ is a myth! There is LGB, which is based on reality-based, sexual attraction, and the rest is a political agenda.”  “If you’re so sure of your beliefs, you should be able to articulate them clearly and defend them in a debate. Refusing to debate is not a winning strategy.” Several rallygoers on the side of protecting women’s sports expressed frustration with the refusal of many dissenting protesters to engage in civil dialogue and debate their ideas. Teresa Pregnall, Concerned Women of America’s (CWA) Virginia state director, said, “We need to be able to talk to one another. That’s the mature way of dealing with things. I encourage those who oppose what we stand for, ‘Let’s talk about it.’” Faith Ozenbaugh, national student director for CWA, articulated concern for the counterprotesters. She said, “We know that a lot of their behavior, their vitriol, comes from abuse and brokenness in their own lives. Our desire for them is healing.” When asked what message she had for protesters on the other side, Leggieri echoed a similar sentiment: “If you’re so sure of your beliefs, you should be able to articulate them clearly and defend them in a debate. Refusing to debate is not a winning strategy.” Former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines was among the many athletes, activists, and lawmakers who addressed the crowd. Gaines stated, “[The other side] loves to hide behind words, like ‘compassion’ … It’s not compassionate to ask a young girl to strip down naked in front of a man, while he simultaneously undresses.” She continued, “They love to use the word ‘progressive’ … This is utterly regressive, it is taking us back at least half a century.” Toward the end of her speech, Gaines said she hoped that this fight would make for her daughter’s world a better place. In attendance with her husband and daughter for the rally, she remarked, “It’s a pretty a wild thing when you have to dress your 3-month-old baby in a bulletproof vest.” Another speaker exclaimed, “Trans don’t exist. There are only men, women, and confused, abused children.… We’re done with that!” While she said this, she taunted the other side, who tried to drown her out with constant noise. One lawmaker, explaining the urgency of the issue, put it very bluntly: “If we don’t make a stand now, our country will go down so fast, our heads will swim.” (RELATED: Spat Between Gaines and AOC Shows What’s Wrong With the Democrat Party) For some rally speakers, the issue was deeply personal. Macy Petty, a former collegiate athlete and legislative strategist with Concerned Women for America, told The American Spectator her involvement began during her high school volleyball recruiting season, when she competed against a male athlete in the women’s category while college scouts were present. “He got to bypass the rules and rob all of us [female athletes] of our opportunities to compete safely,” Petty recalled. She spent four years trying to change the NCAA from the inside, but “the NCAA would have nothing to do with me,” she explained. On Monday, Petty invited NCAA president Charlie Baker to join the stage with her at the Supreme Court. She explained, “If you really and truly want to empower female athletes, stand for female athletes, and I will see you on the steps of the Supreme Court.” Charlie Baker did not attend the rally.  Petty believes the cases before the Supreme Court reflect concerns female athletes have raised for years without being taken seriously by Congress or athletic institutions. “Back [in] 2018, this wasn’t really an issue anyone was talking about … I, at the time, was honestly confused. I didn’t understand how someone could so easily cheat and get away with it,” she explained. Petty explained that she supports allowing athletes who identify as transgender to compete in the male category. “I think that a man, even if he identifies as transgender, should still have the opportunity to compete and train. He just doesn’t get to be exempt from the rules,” she said. When asked about the changes she would like to see in America if the court rules in her favor, Petty replied, “I hope that it would embolden Congress … It would legitimize our concerns as female athletes … We are often dismissed … The highest Court in our nation is taking our concerns seriously. That is gonna be a huge shift.”        Another group of demonstrators argued that these state laws unfairly target transgender-identified males and frame their participation in sports as an attack on their “human rights.” Rushad Thomas, who said he attended in support of “transgender brothers and sisters who are being scapegoated by the Right in the United States,” explained “That’s all that transgender people want. They just want to be able to exist in society and live their life” and “We need to stop all these attacks on them because they are a tiny percentage of the population.” Rushad further stated that he has “friends who are transgender” and “I don’t think you need to have personal experience of people to commiserate with them and empathize with their plight.” A member of the Episcopal Church, Rushad said, “I believe that trans people are beloved by God.” The National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) also attended the rally. Along the sidewalk adjacent to the Court, an NCJW spokeswoman addressed a small crowd of supporters holding signs depicting Jewish symbols warped by pro-trans colors. The spokeswoman began, “Trans [sic] rights are under attack. It’s an attack on our trans siblings, our trans selves, all of us.” She then attempted to rebrand Donald Trump’s famous line, as she exclaimed, “We will fight, fight, fight to save lives.” She went on, “As a closeted trans kid, sports were life-saving for me. They let me be one of the boys.” When asked for his message to people on the other side of this issue, one NCJW supporter said, “It’s not that deep. Why are you so pressed? Why are you obsessed with this?” The majority of activists opposed to the bans on men in women’s sports refused to be interviewed. Many of these individuals alleged that one must first visit the “press table,” who were “filtering out our requests” before interviewing any of them. Once a transgender activist media person was identified, the woman said, “We’ll circle back and see who’s available.” Upon returning to the table to find who was available, she was more standoffish, saying, “Yeah, we already spoke. We will definitely connect you,” before ending the conversation there.  As demonstrators dispersed from the court’s steps, the legal questions at the center of the rally remained unresolved. Based on the oral arguments presented, it appears that the court will uphold Idaho and West Virginia’s state bans on men in women’s sports. Justice Alito appeared to represent the sentiment of the majority of Americans in his response to a lawyer representing the biological male from Idaho, “How can a court determine whether there’s discrimination on the basis of sex without knowing what sex means for equal protection purposes?” READ MORE: ‘Experts’ Warn US Is on Brink of ‘Trans Genocide’ Prepare to Say Goodbye to the Transgender Moment Image licensed under Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic

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