State superintendent steps up after Oklahoma school district forbade teen to fly American flag from truck



The state superintendent of Oklahoma public schools has stepped up after a school district tried to prevent an Oklahoma teenager from flying the American flag on the back of his pickup truck.

A couple weeks ago, Caleb Horst arrived on the campus of Edmond North High School in Edmond, Oklahoma, with an American flag affixed to the back of his truck. Though the newly minted high school senior claimed the flag had been there "for quite a while," school administrators told him that the flag was against the rules and that he needed to remove it sometime in the next several days, Blaze News previously reported.

These reports should include 'specific measures' administrators are taking to 'integrate' these demonstrations of American pride into 'school culture.'

Edmond Public Schools, a district located just north of Oklahoma City, said at the time that, as a general "practice," students were forbidden to bring any sort of flag onto campus to ensure safety and prevent "disruptions and distractions during the school day."

At 7 a.m. on August 26, a group of more than 50 patriots from the school and around the community came out to Edmond North High School to protest the flag ban and to support Horst.

Now, Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters has intervened on behalf of Horst and other students of like mind and created guidelines for districts to protect students' rights to display the American flag.

According to Walters' new guidelines, all Oklahoma school districts must develop a policy that "ensures the U.S. flag ... can be flown and displayed on all school campuses without infringement." Walters also encouraged districts to adopt a policy that will promote a "respectful presentation of the flag" so that students and staff give the flag the "honor it deserves."

The guidelines further require districts to submit reports to the Oklahoma Department of Education about their new flag policies as well as their level of compliance with a state law mandating at least weekly recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. These reports should include "specific measures" administrators are taking to "integrate" these demonstrations of American pride into "school culture," said the letter detailing the guidelines.

— (@)

"No school in Oklahoma should tell students they can't wave an American flag," Walters said in a statement released Thursday. "Americans have fought and died for the right to carry our flag, and no student should ever be targeted for exercising that right. Our young people should never have to fear displaying their patriotism and I will fight every day so that when our students want to express their love for America, they can do so boldly and proudly."

The letter from his office similarly stated that "no student should ever be targeted for their patriotism."

Meanwhile, the Edmond district continues to defend its previous ban on flags. In a letter issued since patriots gathered to protest the district's severe restrictions on the American flag, Superintendent Angela Grunewald claimed that the practice was implement seven years ago after the flag was being "displayed improperly and grossly disrespected," KOCO reported.

The district also insisted that its members are "proudly patriotic" and that they will work to create a clearer policy going forward, KOCO said.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Pro-Hamas Agitators Burn American Flag and Foist Palestinian Flag Over Union Station as Bibi Addresses Congress

Thousands of anti-Israel protesters, who have received praise from Vice President Kamala Harris for their "human emotion," descended on Washington, D.C., Wednesday afternoon where they waved terrorist flags, clashed with law enforcement, and called for armed resistance.

The post Pro-Hamas Agitators Burn American Flag and Foist Palestinian Flag Over Union Station as Bibi Addresses Congress appeared first on .

Democrats' media allies once again think they've nailed Justice Alito on something damning



Undaunted by weeks of duds, exponents of the public-private campaign to neutralize Justice Samuel Alito on the U.S. Supreme Court believe they've finally got their hands on a bombshell: an audio recording wherein Alito can be heard both expressing a hope for healing in the face of political polarization and acknowledging that in the culture war underway, one side might ultimately prevail.

This time around, the sensational headlines were made not by Obama hagiographer Jodi Kantor at the New York Times but rather by leftist blogger Lauren Windsor, a self-described "advocacy journalist" on the team at Robert Creamer's Democrat-aligned Democracy Partners who helped the Lincoln Project stage a fake white supremacist rally in 2021 to smear then-candidate Glenn Youngkin ahead of the Virginia gubernatorial election.

Pretending to be a religious conservative at the Supreme Court Historical Society's annual dinner on June 3, Windsor approached and surreptitiously recorded brief conversations with Justice Alito and his wife, Martha-Ann Alito.

As with the various flag stories pushed by the Times and other liberal publications, Windsor's apparent aim — and that of Rolling Stone, the libelous publication first provided the audio recordings, which are now on X — is to paint Alito as ideologically compromised and incapable of dealing with cases related to the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 protests as well as regarding the question of former President Donald Trump's immunity in U.S. v. Donald Trump.

The trouble for Windsor and other Democratic-aligned public-private campaigners is, once again, that notwithstanding their framing and manufactured hoopla, the recording is relatively benign. In fact, it undermines the public-private campaigner's previous narrative and reveals Justice Alito has no aspirations of weaponizing the high court, even against criminal leakers.

Windsor, taping Alito without his consent — legal in D.C., which is a one-party consent state — suggested at the outset that her imaginary husband implored her to "tell Justice Alito that he is a fighter and we appreciate him and he has all the grit."

After blowing more smoke, Windsor raised the matter of political polarization and how to repair it.

"Considering everything that's been going on in the past year, you know, as a Catholic and as someone who, like, really cherishes my faith, I just don't know. I don't know that we can negotiate with the left in the way that needs to happen for the polarization to end," said Windsor. "I think that it's a matter of like, winning."

Justice Alito said, "I think you're probably right. On one side or the other, one side or the other is going to win. I don't know."

"I mean, there can be a way of working a way of living together peacefully," continued the justice. "But it's difficult, you know, because there are differences on fundamental things that really can't be compromised. They really can't be compromised. It's not like you're going to split the difference."

In response to Justice's Alito's observation regarding the incommensurability between contemporary liberal and rightist worldviews, Windsor stated, "It's just, I think that the solution really is like winning the moral argument. Like, people in this country who believe in God have got to keep fighting for that, to return our country to a place of godliness."

Justice Alito responded, "I agree with you. I agree with you."

'It's easy to blame the media, but I do blame them because they do nothing but criticize us and so they have really eroded trust in the court.'

Upon the justice's supposedly controversial affirmation that the country should aspire toward spiritual purity and virtue, the remainder of the first audio clip concluded with Windsor bloviating.

In a second recording, apparently taken last year, Windsor again asked Justice Alito about how to remedy political polarization in America, to which he responded, "I wish I knew. I don't know. It's easy to blame the media, but I do blame them because they do nothing but criticize us and so they have really eroded trust in the court."

"I don't know, I really don't know," continued Justice Alito. "American citizens in general need to work on this, to try to heal this polarization because it's very dangerous. I do believe it's very dangerous."

When Windsor began to beat around the bush about possible judicial activism, Justice Alito said, "I don't think it's something we can do. ... We have a very defined role and we need to do what we're supposed to do. But this is a bigger problem. This is way above us."

Later in the secretly recorded 2023 conversation, Windsor asked whether the radical who leaked a draft of the Dobbs decision would ever be "ferreted out." Justice Alito dispassionately reminded Windsor that such work is neither the business of the high court nor within its authority.

"We're not a law enforcement agency, you know," said Justice Alito. "So, law enforcement agencies can issue subpoenas and get search warrants and all that sort of thing, but we can’t do that. So, you know, our [U.S.] marshall, she did as much as she could do. But it was limited."

While in both secretly recorded conversations, Justice Alito said nothing compromising, Rolling Stone suggested, "Alito's comments add to the controversy surround the conservative justice."

Liberal publications, likely cognizant they were serving up another nothing-burger, leaned on Windsor's surreptitious recording of a conversation with Martha-Ann Alito at the same June 3 event last week — even though they ultimately reveal Justice Alito works to maintain neutrality as well as the perception of neutrality while respecting his wife's autonomy.

Windsor expressed sympathy for the ordeal the liberal media had put Mrs. Alito through, to which the justice's wife said, "It's okay! It's okay! ... It's okay because if they come back to me, I'll get them. I'm gonna be liberated, and I'm gonna get them."

Mrs. Alito clarified that by this, she means that she may seek to hold the liberal media accountable for perceived defamation.

Windsor asked about the manufactured scandal over the inverted flag at her house and Appeal to Heaven flag at her beach house. Mrs. Alito made clear that contrary to the presumption of "femi-Nazis," she is an agential woman whom Justice Alito "never controls," thereby bolstering Justice Alito's previous statements following the New York Times' false flag reports.

Later in the conversation, Windsor noted, "They're persecuting you and you're like a convenient stand-in for anybody who's religious."

"Look at me. Look at me. I'm German, from Germany. My heritage is German. You come after me, I'm gonna give it back to you," said Mrs. Alito. "And there will be a way, it doesn't have to be now, but there will be a way, they will know. Don't worry about it. God — you read the Bible — Psalm 27 is my psalm. Mine. Psalm. 'The Lord is my God and my rock. Of whom shall I be afraid?' Nobody."

When the question about polarization came up, Mrs. Alito allegedly said leftists "feel ... they don't think," then noted, "I want a Sacred Heart of Jesus flag because I have to look across the lagoon at the pride flag for the next month. ... And [Justice Alito] is like, 'Oh, please don't put up a flag.' I said, 'I won't do it because I'm deferring to you. But when you are free of this nonsense, I'm putting it up and I'm gonna send them a message every day. Maybe every week, I'll be changing the flags."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

San Francisco flew the 'Appeal to Heaven' flag for 60 years — then along came the New York Times' smear campaign



Democrats and their allies in the liberal media launched a smear campaign against Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito earlier this month in an effort to prompt his recusal from upcoming cases related to former President Donald Trump and the Jan. 6 protests.

Jodi Kantor, running lead on the initiative for the New York Times, failed to land a decisive blow with her May 16 flag story, which the Washington Post had years earlier wrote off as a nothing-burger. Meatless, but desperate for results, Kantor found another flag to concern-monger about: the "Appeal to Heaven" flag, also known as the Pine Tree Flag, which had apparently been flown above Alito's beach house in New Jersey last year.

This line of attack proved similarly ineffective. Alito told Democrat Senators Dick Durbin of Illinois and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island that he personally flew neither flag and that he would not be recusing himself, prompting Democrats to rage impotently.

Democratic lawmakers' feelings and the New York Times' remaining credibility were not the only casualties in the unsuccessful smear campaign.

The offending "Appeal to Heaven" flag has effectively been transmogrified in the popular liberal imagination from a patriotic banner — designed by an aide-de-camp to then-General George Washington and flown by proud Americans ever since — to a loathsome symbol of an imagined wrong.

It has 'since been adopted by a different group — one that doesn't represent the city's values.'

The "Appeal to Heaven" flag was one among a collection of 18 flags reflecting different moments in American history flown in Civic Center Plaza outside San Francisco City Hall. According to the SFist, despite being flown for 60 years with "zero controversy," the flag has been removed by the city's Recreation and Park Department.

The flag's fate appears to have been sealed not only by its presence among the myriad of different banners present at the Capitol on Jan. 6 but on account of is recent association in the Times with a Supreme Court justice detested by the left.

City parks officials told the San Francisco Chronicle in a statement that whereas the flag originally signified the "quest for American independence," it has "since been adopted by a different group — one that doesn't represent the city's values."

The "Appeal to Heaven" flag has been replaced by an American flag, which also appeared at Justice Alito's home and at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

The flag's removal comes just days after users on social media indicated Democrats were effectively whipping stones at Alito from a glass house and months after a Palestinian flag was sent up a pole at the Golden Gate Bridge.

According to the U.S. National Park Service, the "Appeal to Heaven" flag "became familiar on the seas as the ensign of the cruisers commissioned by General Washington and was noted by many English newspapers of the time."

Republican Illinois state Rep. Chris Miller's office noted years before the flag became controversial:

The pine tree had long been a New England symbol being depicted on the Flag of New England flown by colonial merchant ships dating back to 1686. Leading up to the Revolutionary War it became a symbol of Colonial ire and resistance. The colonists resented the restrictions on the timber used for their needs and livelihoods. Prohibitions were disregarded and they practiced 'Swamp Law,' where the pines were harvested according to their needs regardless of statutes.

In New Hampshire enforcement led to the Pine Tree Riot in 1772, one of the first acts of forceful protest against British policies. It occurred almost two years prior to the more well-known Boston Tea Party protest and three years before open hostilities began at the Battles of Lexington and Concord. The pine tree was also used on the flag that the Colonists flew at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775.

The flag was subsequently adopted by the Massachusetts Navy and used until 1971.

Concerning San Francisco's quiet removal, Utah Sen. Mike Lee (R) joked online, "'Quick, we can't let the unwashed masses see that the Appeal to Heaven flag isn't a call for violent insurrection!"

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Democrats mount another desperate attack against Justice Alito — with the election in mind



Democrats and their allies in the liberal media are desperately working to undermine the U.S. Supreme Court and blunt its conservative edge. This public-private campaign has been focused on painting Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas as ideologically compromised culture warriors, incapable of weighing impartially on cases relating to the Jan. 6 protests or to former President Donald Trump.

The same partisans who were silent in April on the matter of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's partiality in the Idaho case related to gender, have impotently demanded in recent weeks that Alito recuse himself from various cases — cases in which House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), and other critics are politically invested.

Getting increasingly desperate and having failed to manufacture sufficient outrage over Alito's American flag and divestment from Bud Light's parent company, the public-private campaigners found another item to take issue with: the "Appeal to Heaven" flag, which was allegedly flown over the justice's New Jersey beach house last summer.

This latest attack, centering on a flag designed by an aide-de-camp to then-General George Washington and flown by American patriots in the Revolutionary War and patriots since, may similarly prove fruitless.

Background

Blaze News previously reported that Obama hagiographer Jodi Kantor kicked off the latest leg of the private-public campaign on May 16 with a piece in the New York Times entitled, "At Justice Alito's House, a 'Stop the Steal' Symbol on Display."

The so-called "Stop the Steal" symbol in question was the American flag, which Alito's wife, Martha-Ann Alito, supposedly flew "in response to a neighbor's use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs."

Alito told the times he had nothing to do with the incident and Kantor produced no evidence tying the alleged flag inversion to support for the Jan. 6 protests. That did not, however, stop Kantor from insinuating a connection, leaning upon the interpretation of a partisan neighbor and adopting the accusatory framing of leftist "experts."

Once the Times established the narrative, Democratic lawmakers ran with it.

'He must recuse himself from cases involving the 2020 election and former President Donald Trump.'

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said, "Justice Alito should recuse himself immediately from cases related to the 2020 election and the January 6th insurrection, including the question of the former President's immunity in U.S. v. Donald Trump, which the Supreme Court is currently considering."

Adopting the same script, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said in a statement, "Samuel Alito should apologize immediately for disrespecting the American flag and sympathizing with right-wing violent insurrectionists. He must recuse himself from cases involving the 2020 election and former President Donald Trump."

The Times followed up with another piece building upon Kantor's initial framing with the help of former Marshall Project activist Abbie Vansickle.

Various other Democrats and leftist publications joined in, suggesting that Alito's future involvement in cases even peripherally related to Trump or Jan. 6 would shake public confidence in the Supreme Court.

Failing to arouse the mass indignation they apparently wanted, the public-private campaign tried a new angle on Monday. Law Dork published a blog post entitled, "Justice Alito sold Bud Light stock amidst anti-trans boycott effort."

CNBC and other left-leaning outlets carried this story along with the suggestion that Alito's divestment from Anheuser-Busch InBev — months after it became clear the company would not soon recover from the boycott over its collaboration with a transvestite activist — was "suspicious" and again evidence of partisanship on the justice's part.

"If the sale was in response to the Bud Light controversy last year, he might have an appearance-of-bias problem when it comes to future court cases related to trans rights," Gave Roth, executive director of leftist activist outfit Fix the Court, told CNBC.

Forty-five Democrats sent Alito a letter Tuesday demanding he reuse himself from the cases of Trump v. United States and Fischer v. United States, complaining that his decisions might otherwise "profoundly affect the future of a past and potentiality future President, and of democracy itself."

Again, their efforts appear to have been in vain.

Another offending flag

Kantor penned another alarmist piece Wednesday, this time aided by former Bellingcat research director Aric Toler and former Washington Post researcher Julie Tate.

'[The justices'] decisions will shape how accountable [Trump] can be held for trying to overturn the last presidential election and his chances at regaining the White House in the next one.'

The article again insinuates political bias on the part of Alito, and a link between the justice and Jan. 6 on the basis of his alleged possession and hoisting of a nonpartisan flag of historic significance.

In July and September 2023, someone snapped a photo of "An Appeal to Heaven" flag allegedly flying above Alito's New Jersey beach house.

Long before the New York Times decided it was controversial, the U.S. National Park Service indicated why a maritime residence might be an appropriate spot to hoist such a flag: "This particular flag became familiar on the seas as the ensign of the cruisers commissioned by General Washington and was noted by many English newspapers of the time."

Ahead of the 2019 National Day of Prayer, Republican Illinois state Rep. Chris Miller's office noted that this flag, which features a pine tree along with the Lockean motto "An Appeal to Heaven" or "An Appeal to God," was "used originally by a squadron of six cruiser ships commissioned under George Washington’s authority as commander in chief of the Continental Army in October 1775."

"The design of the flag came from General Washington's secretary, Colonel Joseph Reed," continued the statement from Miller's office.

The pine tree had long been a New England symbol being depicted on the Flag of New England flown by colonial merchant ships dating back to 1686. Leading up to the Revolutionary War it became a symbol of Colonial ire and resistance. The colonists resented the restrictions on the timber used for their needs and livelihoods. Prohibitions were disregarded and they practiced 'Swamp Law,' where the pines were harvested according to their needs regardless of statutes.

In New Hampshire enforcement led to the Pine Tree Riot in 1772, one of the first acts of forceful protest against British policies. It occurred almost two years prior to the more well-known Boston Tea Party protest and three years before open hostilities began at the Battles of Lexington and Concord. The pine tree was also used on the flag that the Colonists flew at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775.

Ted Kaye, secretary for the North American Vexillological Association, told the Associated Press that the Massachusetts Navy adopted the pine tree flag in 1776 and used it until 1971.

Jared Holt, a senior analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue — a foreign think tank that has been accused of labeling mainstream conservative views as disinformation — told the Associated Press this historic flag has been linked to a "patriot" movement that obsesses over the Founding Fathers and the American Revolution.

"Others adhere to a Christian nationalist worldview that seeks to elevate Christianity in public life," the liberal outlet warned, echoing Holt who went on to call Alito's alleged flying of the flag "alarming."

Holt, evidently ready with a blanket accusation, said that those who fly the flag tend to support "more intolerant and restrictive forms of government aligned with a specific religious philosophy."

Former Vice President Mike Pence, no fan of the Jan. 6 protesters, has underscored that the flag is part of "our proud heritage of Faith and Freedom and every American should be proud to fly it."

In her piece for the Times, Kantor concern-mongered that the same justice who allegedly flew this historic American flag will rule on a case that "could scuttle some of the charges against Mr. Trump, as well as on whether he is immune from prosecution for actions he took while president."

'This is a threat to the rule of law and a serious breach of ethics, integrity, and Justice Alito's oath of office.'

Kantor appears to clarify what is ultimately at the heart of the effort to neutralize Alito, referenced also in Democratic lawmakers' Tuesday letter: "[The justices'] decisions will shape how accountable [Trump] can be held for trying to overturn the last presidential election and his chances at regaining the White House in the next one."

Once again, Democrats are doing their part.

House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) — whose adult son was arrested and charged in January 2023 with assault and battery on a Boston police officer — said in a statement Thursday, "Justice Alito has displayed flags at his homes that support insurrection against our government, promote religious nationalism, and attack free and fair elections."

"This is not just another example of extremism that has overtaken conservatism. This is a threat to the rule of law and a serious breach of ethics, integrity, and Justice Alito's oath of office," continued Clark, absent any confirmation Alito flew the flag. "At minimum, he must recuse himself from any cases involving January 6th, Donald Trump, and the security of our elections. Anything less will tarnish our judicial system and democracy."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

NYT Attacks Alito A Second Time Over Well-Known American Revolution Flag Flown At Private Residence

The Times continues to attack Alito over flags flown at his home in a blatant attempt to undermine and discredit the Supreme Court justice.

Anti-Israel Protesters at UNC Replace Stars and Stripes With Palestinian Flag

Students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill replaced the American flag in the center of campus with a Palestinian flag, as protests continued at the school Tuesday despite dozens of arrests and detainments. 

The post Anti-Israel Protesters at UNC Replace Stars and Stripes With Palestinian Flag appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

WILD theory about why LSU ditched national anthem in game against Iowa



In one of the most viewed women’s college basketball games in history, the Iowa Hawkeyes beat the LSU Tigers in a 94-87 victory, which will advance them to the Final Four.

But Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese weren’t the only subjects of conversation.

LSU made a point to leave the court before the national anthem — as is their habit — while the Hawkeyes “stood holding hands.”

“LSU coach, Kim Mulkey, said that it wasn’t intentional” and that “they have a routine of leaving the court at a certain time,” according to reports.

However, LSU’s heartbreaking loss is what Sara Gonzales calls “karma.”

“That loss couldn’t have happened to a more deserving team,” she says.

While Kim Mulkey certainly has her critics, she also is known as “an antichrist to the left,” says Grant Stinchfield. “She dresses like a female; she doesn’t want dating between girls on the team; she is literally hated by [liberals].”

“I actually believe [Mulkey] when she says they went in before [the song],” he says, but regardless, “you should know when the national anthem is, especially in the political climate we live in.”

“I guess, then, my question would just be why is the routine time always coinciding with the national anthem?” asks Sara.

Grant may just have a theory that answers Sara’s question.

“Is this a setup job on her because she’s so despised?” he asks, noting that “there’s something fishy going on between Iowa and LSU.”

“Conspiracy theories in this day and age end up always being true, so that's a fascinating one,” says Sara.


Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara's no-holds-barred take to news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

FACT CHECK: Video Claims To Show Man Arrested For Waving British Flag In Front Of Pro-Palestinian Protesters

'He was arrested for a racially aggravated public order offense and homophobic abuse, according to police. The police said that he was not arrested for waving the flag'

FACT CHECK: Did Texas National Guard Forces Replace The American Flag With The Flag Of Texas?

The image predates the recent border dispute between Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the federal government