Fighting the MAGA crowd in order to protect Public Education.
The story of my support for our local schools, as part of a national effort
This is a bit of a lengthy TAT. To make it easier to consume, it’s broken into three parts:
Introduction
Letter to the NEISD Board of Trustees
The story of the research, with background
Walking through the research
Introduction
Today’s TAT is a topic quite dear to me. During recent research into the three NEISD Trustees sponsored by a murky pac aligned with anti-public education movements, I came to understand the severity of these movements as national security threats. It’s a perfect fit for this publication, which is and as the name states, the truth about threats.
The other issue is that my family traditions darn near require me to take up this cause. In the case of the School district in question, it’s the district my wife retired from last year, after 25 years of dedicated service to the district and our children.
This piece, in a couple of different formats, will also be sent to a variety of other publications and organizations. The intent is to share knowledge, methods and narratives about the truth of political extremists attempting to run roughshod, over a couple of our most prominent constitutional rights. Those most involved in these movements or recipients of their campaign donations, are defrauding voters by not declaring their intentions during campaigns. Instead, they are the proverbial “Trojan Horses” of a mercenary army of fake patriots attempting to undermine both the US and Texas Constitution.
If you are fighting this fight or know those that are, and if you find any valuable insights in this piece, please share them with others.
Good public education is our birthright. Sustaining it is our responsibility, protecting it is our citizen’s duty.
Next, a letter that will be sent to our local School Board’s, Trustees
Dr. Maika, the Board and to the voters in the NEISD school district,
We must stop electing Trustees that are attempting to undermine our children’s constitutionally guaranteed right, to a free public education. This letter to you is part of the story of Trustee’s, Steve Hilliard, Marsha Landry and Diane Sciba Villareal, and their alignment with, and their publicized use of funds, from a murky PAC, Parents United for Freedom. This letter is designed to inform voters and is based on my preliminary research, which I will also put into perspective, based on my professional knowledge. Informing voters from a professional perspective, rather than a political position may be beneficial to them understanding very real threats.
What follows is the narrative of the preliminary results into my research and analysis, regarding the local reporting, that three members of the NEISD Board of Trustees are supported by a less than forthcoming, PAC. I don’t care if someone is conservative, liberal or otherwise, but I do expect citizens to be “principled.” In the case of Stephen Hilliard, Marsha Landry, and Diana Sciba Villareal, it’s hard to use the term “principled,” so long as they are taking campaign donations from a murky PAC that research shows is aligned with a multitude of far-right sites. Like most MAGA type movements, their intent is to subvert the US and Texas Constitutions, regarding public free education. By default, supporting an anti-constitutional position renders these three unqualified to sit on a public school, Board of Trustees. For that matter, unless they can publicly state publicly, their rejection to vouchers and the other items on the far-right agenda to undermine public education, they should resign. After all, they knew the requirements of the Trustee’s role when they ran for office, didn’t they?
Texas Public education, is but one target on the target list of a national movement based on MAGA ideology. This ideology flourishes in Texas because Governor Greg Abbott is competing with Ron DeSantis, in a race to the bottom nationally for who can be the most extreme in undermining public education. These are not American values nor Texas values.
To be fair, at least Trustee Villareal did vote with the other Trustees, to pass the recent resolution opposing vouchers, savings accounts or any of the other euphemistic terms the MAGA folks and their PACs use for defunding public education.
I don’t use words like extremism gratuitously, for the simple reason that CT, counterterrorism was my focus, in and outside of combat zones until retirement from the US Army, in 2015. I still write, teach and mentor those still engaged in this profession. When I call the MAGA movement extremist, it is a professional opinion. When I say that I understand networks for extremists and violent extremists, it’s because I have long experience dealing with them. The MAGA movement is just one of several, global far right movements, that are undermining other western democracies with the same ideology, strategies and tactics.
Book banning, gender issues, alleged parental freedom complaints are all common themes. Things like having dark money enablers that advance candidates willing to advance the ideology is a very common tactic. The false narratives and themes, are the same, regardless of nation, belief system or language. Things like gender, public education, racism, authoritarianism are but some of the same narratives used globally.
This global network is extensive and includes financial support. Here in the US, and as proven during countless investigations of Russian influence during the 2016 election, major donors come from American billionaires and their organizations, about as frequently as Russian oligarchs and their foot-soldiers. Here in TX, big oil, individuals and corporate accounts, are the American oligarchs, supplying much of the backing that Greg Abbott and Co. use to expand and sharpen their attack on American democracy, including public education.
For the record, I have no issue with the oil industry outside of their full-fledged commitment to keep dishonest and corrupt anti-patriots like Abbott, Paxton, Cruz, Cornyn Patrick and so many others in office. Of course, there’s the decades long lying about Climate threats too. The price we pay… failing public education, a rape epidemic, out of control crime, failed healthcare, assaults on minority voting rights, high poverty levels and vigilante abortion laws, abuse of Texans over energy policies etc. This could be a much longer list, but today, it’s about those failing local, tax paying citizens, by stealing our tax dollars for an unconstitutional threat called vouchers.
Now I’m no preacher or religious leader to be sure, but being raised in a family overflowing with Midwestern teachers and preachers, and with dad’s and my own interest in comparative religion, I have some insight into the differece between Christianity and Christian Nationalism. If you want to see what religious nationalism looks like, look no further than Iran, Afghanistan or Russia. Any religious ideology that requires hating and excluding other human beings, is not religion, it’s extremist ideology. This is what describes today’s movement in the US, headed up by the likes of Mike Flynn and his “holy warriors.”
Now that we have a better sense of who these Trustees are funded by and the character of their extensive affiliation with far-right extremist movements, allowing this type of influence on our NEISD Board of Trustees is unconscionable. As described above, their agenda isn’t only incompatible with that of the district, but actively opposes it. They are Americans with rights to their own opinions but when those opinions oppose, undermine or fail the goals of the district, they should have no say in district business.
What I find personally repulsive is that, Mr. Hilliard, a former Air Force officer would be backing an un-American/ unconstitutional ideology, since he is sworn to protect our Constitution.
All who wish to support our constitutional right to free public and reject the assault on that constitution, I’m asking that we get to the heart of this threat by:
Asking for a declaration from Trustees, Hilliard, Landry and Villareal that states that they will reject the extremist agenda of:
Vouchers or any related scheme
Securing our schools responsibly, not turning them into prisons because the Legislature is ignoring the wishes of the people of TX regarding common-sense gun regulation
Targeting children dealing with gender/ sexual orientation issues
Book banning
Putting religion back into public schools
Restricting curriculum in public schools that doesn’t identify with MAGA ideology
And further issues
That they will fully support the agenda of the Board and the advancement of public education
That they resign if they can’t abide by their duties, responsibilities and obligations
It doesn’t have to be my way, but the bottom line is, if we do not stand and confront this cancer, it will continue debilitating public education until it succumbs. I fear that Hilliard, Landry and maybe Miss Villareal just may be, the proverbial foxes in the henhouse. If we don’t want to lose our birthright, it’s time to boot the foxes out of that henhouse.
I thank you for your attention to this matter,
Sincerely,
Paul Cobaugh
NEISD resident
The story of the research follows,
As I sat in the crowded waiting room a couple of Monday’s ago awaiting my turn to offer public comments, on three Board members sabotaging NEISD, something more than just the facts of the topic were on my mind. Something was really eating at me, something intensely personal. Before me sat three Board of Trustees for the same NEISD my wife had retired from, just the year before. The core of what was bothering me started from the very beginning of my life.
Not only was I married to a remarkable and dedicated teacher but I came from a family dominated by professional educators. In order to make my point more poignantly, I must give you a couple of paragraphs about my background first.
I am the son of, husband to, father and father-in-law of three more educators. Not only was dad a professional educator, but my family heritage includes the same for the last 5 generations. I am also a cousin to a couple of dozen teachers too. These selfless, dedicated educators span the spectrum of education, from teaching elementary school to college professors at prestigious universities, running major programs and everything in between.
Yes, supporting public education is a family tradition and our support is ironclad. Family tradition also carries a prominent gene for public service, based on religious and American values. For these reasons and more, I have an alarm that goes off when someone claiming to be a patriotic American, works stridently to overturn, not only our constitution but the true national values of our nation. In my heart, they are one in the same.
I retired from the US Special Operations Command in 2015. Both the ethics of teaching and defending the nation are the core of our national power. The reason this is true, is that both are based on constitutional requirements, which reflect our true values.
As we can see in Ukraine, having all the right weapons does not help if there is no core set of national values. Russia has or rather had all the tools and men to win in Ukraine. They are losing because Ukraine fights for who they are, and to defend the values of their nation. Committing war crimes for Putin is not fighting for real Russian values.
In fact, a very successful argument could be formed that says that protecting public education is, along with our national values, the heart and soul of our national identity. School is where the rich, diverse, human fabric of our nation comes to life. It’s where people from all backgrounds learn what our national values mean and how the constitution that guarantees them, comes to life.
I have chosen to make the rebuilding the resilience of those values, as the key to putting an end any domestic extremism, one of my personal retirement goals. As I write this on Memorial Day weekend and after losing dear friends during multiple combat deployments, I refuse to allow fake patriotism to steal the constitutional rights my friends and well over a million of other American service-members before them, gave their lives for.
This letter though, is not about me. The overwhelming majority of Americans, and Texans too, oppose the extremism of the MAGA crowd currently, controlling Texas government. Undermining the US and Texas constitutions is extremism, pure and simple, hence, un-American and fake patriotism, not principled conservatism. Destroying public education, is only one of the unconstitutional objectives, currently billed as one of “patriotic” pillars of Texas conservatism, in the 2022 GOP Midterm Platform. Also for the record, there are several other ridiculous piles of manure, masquerading as conservatism that are built into that platform. Nothing says un-American, like pushing for religion in government but, their platform clearly states that “religion must be put back into our public schools.” To be fully transparent, they are not talking about the religious pursuits of all Texans. Their interests only include the aberrant versions of Christian Nationalist ideology, suited to the MAGA crowd.
Damn near everything about k-12 public education in TX, is a mess and in many cases, a hot mess. Teachers and staff are under immense pressure from all quarters. Already insufficient budgets, are always strained. The last thing that NEISD needs is 3 of our 7 Trustees, undermining what the other 4 are doing.
Before beginning this section, please understand that I am well qualified to offer expert commentary on the following, since I not only have been a recognized practitioner, researcher, teacher, mentor and a conceptual designer on matters of influence, in support of national security objectives but also in the defense of them. This case fits nicely into my wheelhouse.
Let’s walk through and build on some digging:
Since PUFF, Parents United for Freedom is deceptive on their website regarding what they are really about, let’s see who they are connected with. Often when I am researching national security threats and their website is deceptive, looking at who they are connected with, gives us some important insights into what is being hidden and why. Let’s see where PUFF’s website takes us.
The Texas general PAC registration is to Melanie C. Hutzler
There are only two persons by this name in San Antonio and both have LinkedIn Profiles that appear to be fake. No other digital footprint could be found. These are always important to note when peeling back layers on extremist networks. Most people, especially if they run a PAC have substantial digital footprints
Considering that fake or deceptive accounts are extremely common in the type of influence operations that are ongoing, this is no surprise. And yes, this decades-long assault on American Education, exponentially more dangerous under SEC of ED, Betsy Devoss, is a long-term influence campaign, that now should be considered an acute threat to all public education
Trustees Hilliard, Landry and Villareal are only the local manifestations of this heinous threat. This this agenda threatens all public education in the country.
There is no specific information on PUFF’s website that offers a hint of what they are working on and how they go about it.
The only indicator of their interests comes in the form of a handful of links to stories on a website called, “Rumble”
Rumble is often where malconents go because they have been banned on mainstream platforms but there are legitimate communities as well
One thing common to Rumble or any similar websites and based on a Pew Research, in-depth report, is that the demographics and links are most often demographically and ideologically aligned with the Trumpish/ MAGA movements
The aforementioned links, are to a Rumble user that goes by the name, Rocketman420
The links on PUFF’s website lead to Rocketman420’s, and are all “hit pieces,” designed to support a variety of false narratives of the extreme right, by implying all sorts false narratives about NEISD and the other Trustees.
There are distinct similarities to a disgraced organization called Project Veritas, found guilty of lying to their audiences via fakes, dishonest editing, in order to make someone or some organization look bad when they are actually doing nothing wrong. Founder, James O’keefe, no stranger to arrests, convictions and more, was finally booted out of Project Veritas for financial malfeasance.
The reason that the similarities between Veritas and PUFF matters, is that this is the key indicator of close coordination with outside and well sourced training, sharing of tactics and other cooperation between other elements of the MAGA ideology
The questions are, who is providing such support, why and for whom?
Taken all together, Hilliard and the others are all playing a role in a much larger movement and being dishonest with their colleagues on the Board of Trustees and the voters in their respective districts
So long as the three Musketeers of disaster lie about their motives, intentions and connections, I would rate the opportunities for NEISD to continue to make advances in public education, to be a longshot. Until we have 7 Trustees that are honest and rowing together, NEISD will continue to have progress disrupted and undermined by the MAGA crowd
Since the umbrella movement for a majority of Rumble users is MAGA and PUFF apparently is repeating the propaganda and false narratives of MAGA Republicans, public education advocates have much to fear, and rightly so.
Another strong indicator of the intentions of a person or group, is which advertising supports a site and what type of videos, and other links are available on their site.
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So, we already know that PUFF is PAC, registered to Melanie C Hutzler. We also know that NEISD’s agenda is under attack by PUFF, via videos hosted by Rockstar420. Between Rumble ads, Rockstar420’s videos and the Rumble recommended videos beneath Rockstar420’s anti NEISD post, you can find the crowd they hang out with. The old proverb, “tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are,” applies here.
The bottom line, to this lengthy, woven series of stories into a narrative, tells a sordid tale of three Trustees who operate on dishonesty, ill-intent and worst of all, no intention of honoring the responsibilities of their office. Regardless of what they say, those who support them, influence them and like the old proverb, tell us quite a bit about their intentions.
This fight is for our future, the future of our children and grandchildren and in fact, our nation. It starts at the local level, where we must demand more transparency from candidates and their funding sources. We must expect candidates to clearly and honestly state the positions that they will support. If the district voters knew that their agenda was to defund public education, they would not have been elected but I doubt that the truth is what they espoused during the campaign.
We must also expect Trustee members to do their own work. In Hilliard’s case, he’s been publicly challenged over his wife contributing to the writing of district policy. No one voted for Mrs. Hilliard.
Finally, we must expect voters to do their part in digging into candidates. Are they who they say they are? Do they really represent what you want them to, will they honor the commitments, obligations and responsibilities of their position? Democracy is a team sport and only works when team members do their part. Now, the question is, how to limit any negative impact from these three until they resign or are voted out of office. The first step. We must work together to restore TX public education from the depths it has sunk to, in the Trump era. Abbott’s culture wars are driving TX ED even lower in national rankings. He and his party have exclusively controlled TX ED for nearly three decades but still blame everyone else for failure.
My friends and fellow citizens, this long and oft times deep piece has been a labor of love. Love for country, family, friends and frankly, everyone who depends on our nation to uphold its honor, commitments and above all, it’s constitutional values. The only way to do this, is to put country over party and try to truly understand truth rather than whatever it is that a politicians or pundit says.
This intention of this piece was and will forever be, informing honestly and with the least possible bias I can muster. I ask only, that you join me in seeking truth. After all, the hard part will be acting on truth, rather than political ideology.
As noted at th beginning, this will be sent to my local Board of Trustees. Parts will be disseminated to groups and organizations supportive of defending public education from the folks like, Parents United for Freedom. Parts will also be sent to select, news entities. Together and regardless of political affiliation, we can remove public education from Greg Abbott’s target list and ensure a better future.
If you have reached this far, I thank you for the endurance and dedication.
Sincerely,
Paul