Dear Patriots,

We appreciate the kind words and encouragement from our faithful readers.

Folks,
I have grown to feel that Defending the Republic is a modern day version of Radio Free America. I depend on your messages to maintain my sanity, so, keep it coming.

God bless you all, and especially God bless and save Sidney Powell.

Much appreciation to all,
D.D.

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Now, on to some GOOD NEWS!

1- Warriors can come in all sizes. Twelve year old Jaiden is smarter than his charter school teachers on the history of the Gadsden Flag. And he won this battle.

Although, there should never have been a battle to fight, as free speech is a freedom guaranteed to all. The teacher in this story is ill-educated.

Congratulations, Jaiden. Thank you for holding fast. Fight on!

Don’t Tread on Me!

Red State

The Gadsden Flag Kid Just Secured Total Victory

QUOTE: On Monday, the story of a Colorado child being booted from school for having a Gadsden Flag patch on his backpack went viral. As RedState reported, school officials claimed the flag was prohibited because it had its “origins in slavery.”

The mother of the young boy, who is named Jaiden, filmed the meeting she had with the director of the school. In it, you can hear her push back on the idea that the Gadsden flag is about slavery, noting that its origins are in the Revolutionary War. The director remained combative throughout the video, claiming that she had to enforce the policy provided by the district.

Then, there were some updates:

First, we’ll start with the hero of our story. Jaiden remains undeterred and has decided he’s going to walk back into the school with his bag and patch still attached. Jaiden says he will refuse to remove the patch and will conduct a school sit-in if it comes down to it.

According to Connor Boyack, who first reported on this story, two law firms have now offered to assist Jaiden and his family if it comes down to lawfare, and will fight this clear discrimination against Jaiden and his beliefs. The story has also reached Colorado Governor Jared Polis who posted about the story seemingly taking Jaiden’s side but there has been no word on Polis actually doing anything about it.

In a very surprising turn of events, the members of the school board called an emergency meeting and affirmed their respect for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. In doing so, they also decided that the Gadsden patch is a valuable part of American history and that Jaiden may keep it on his backpack if he so chooses.

It’s worth noting that this probably goes a different direction without the reach of social media and conservative sites like RedState. Without the immense amount of eyes placed on this story, who knows if the school board even meets at all? Congrats to Jaiden and to those who publicized this story so that the required amount of pressure was applied.

2- We were blown away by the advice 17-year-old Ruby LaRocca gives in her prize winning essay. It was directed to fellow teenagers but it is advice we all should be considering.

Thank you Ruby for being so wise. The world needs you desperately.

Read the entire wonderful essay at the link and share it with the young people in your lives and their parents. If you are in a position to do so, help a young person work towards any of these goals. Meanwhile, we are going to try to live by her fifth item!

Ruby LaRocca at The Free Press

A Constitution for Teenage Happiness

QUOTE: from The Free Press Editor: Back in June, when we announced our first-ever high school essay contest, we invited teenagers to describe a problem troubling American society—and how they would fix it. We told young writers that we were especially interested in hearing about challenges older generations have misunderstood, missed, or maybe even created.

More than 400 teenagers entered our competition. But out of the hundreds of essays we read, one writer really stood out: 17-year-old Ruby LaRocca from Ithaca, New York.

Ruby is a homeschooled rising senior. She told us she entered the contest because she believes in our mission of finding “the people—under the radar or in the public eye—who are telling the truth.”

RUBY BEGINS: When people ask me why I sacrificed the sociable, slightly surreal daily life at my local school for the solitary life of a homeschooled student in 2021, I almost never reveal the reason: an absence of books.

For many students, books are irrelevant. They “take too long to read.” Even teachers have argued for the benefits of shorter, digital resources. Last April, the National Council of Teachers of English declared it was time “to decenter book reading and essay writing as the pinnacles of English language arts education.”

But what is an English education without reading and learning to write about books?

3- Reading this you see the massive pressures put on corporations to support crazy proposals unrelated to the core business. But, it appears that these huge conglomerates are backing off the insanity. The far left is not happy. That is always a good sign.

The Epoch Times

Vanguard Joins BlackRock to Cut Back Support for Shareholders’ ESG Proposals

QUOTE: Index fund giant Vanguard on Monday said it has narrowed support for shareholder resolutions on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, backing only 2 percent of such proposals at company meetings across the United States during the 2023 proxy season.

In a report on its most recent voting history, the $7.2 trillion asset manager said this year has seen a record number of ESG proposals being brought up for a vote.

According to Vanguard, U.S. shareholders submitted a total of 359 proposals on environmental and social topics this year, an increase by almost quarter compared to 290 in the previous year. “The funds supported just 2 percent of such proposals in the 2023 proxy year, down from 12 percent in the 2022 proxy year,” the Pennsylvania-based company said. Many of those ESG proposals went “beyond requests for disclosure” and instead “sought specific actions from companies, including changes in company strategy or operations,” Vanguard explained, stressing that it evaluated and voted against such proposals.

Vanguard noted that 150 shareholder proposals were related to environmental matters, among which the most common subject was setting greenhouse gas emission goals. Other common proposal topics focused on climate lobbying and fossil fuel financing, according to the report. There were also 274 proposals on social topics such as “racial equity, reproductive rights, and pay gaps, with several notable proposals in the sector concerning unionization and worker safety,” the investment firm added.

Despite the declining support for shareholders’ ESG agendas, Vanguard insisted that its approach to evaluating proposals “has been consistent over time.”

The drop in Vanguard’s support for ESG proposals follows similar disclosures by other large competitors, most notably BlackRock, the world’s largest money manager.

In a report released last week, BlackRock said it backed about 7 percent of ESG proposals at company meetings in the 12 months to June, a sharp drop from last year when it supported 22 percent and 2021 when it voted in favor of nearly half.

BlackRock’s voting choices have drawn ire from progressive Democrats, who accused the company of failing to resist the pressure from anti-ESG Republicans. In Republican-led states from Texas to West Virginia, treasury officials have pulled billions of dollars in public pension funds out of BlackRock in distrust of the ESG-obssesed investment strategy.

4- Common sense at last prevails. Tennis star Novak Djokovic stood firm on refusing the worthless injection. He stood firm that his own immunity was substantial. He stood firm against the FAKE science. For that he lost the opportunity to play in United States tournaments. What he gained was his health!

Dr. Joel Zinberg at The NY POST

Djokovic can compete in the US Open again — after Biden finally ended his unscientific travel ban

QUOTE: The US Open tennis tournament has begun in Queens, and one of the world’s best players will finally be allowed to compete again.

Novak Djokovic, who’s declined COVID-19 vaccination, was barred from entering the United States for nearly two years, forcing him to miss multiple major tournaments including the 2022 US Open. Like many others, Djokovic suffered under public-health decision-making that did everything but follow the science.

Joe Biden, by presidential proclamation, banned the entry of unvaccinated noncitizen air travelers into the country starting Nov. 8, 2021.Apparently unvaccinated citizens and land travelers did not pose any risk. He finally lifted the restriction May 12, 2023.

But the ban never made much sense for Djokovic or anyone else who could document recovery from COVID infection.Djokovic tested positive for COVID twice, in June 2020 and December 2021.Before the pandemic, most infectious-disease experts said natural immunity usually confers better protection than vaccines.

But the Biden administration experts were so intent on pushing vaccination that they refused to acknowledge the existence of natural immunity following infection.

Djokovic was deprived of the right to play, an injustice but not a catastrophe in the overall scheme of things. But many first responders such as firefighters, police and medical personnel who could document earlier infections but refused vaccination also lost their jobs, and society as a whole suffered. And schools that mandated vaccination regardless of prior infection ensured some of their students — who were never at high risk from COVID — unnecessarily lost valuable education.

5- It is always good to have a plan.

Newsmax

Conservatives Draw Up 1,000-Page Plan to Gut Deep State in Favor of Trump Vision

QUOTE: With more than a year to go before the 2024 election, a constellation of conservative organizations is preparing for a possible second White House term for Donald Trump, recruiting thousands of Americans to come to Washington on a mission to dismantle the federal government and replace it with a vision closer to his own.

Led by the long-established Heritage Foundation think tank and fueled by former Trump administration officials, the far-reaching effort is essentially a government-in-waiting for the former president’s return — or any candidate who aligns with their ideals and can defeat President Joe Biden in 2024.

With a nearly 1,000-page “Project 2025” handbook and an “army” of Americans, the idea is to have the civic infrastructure in place on Day One to commandeer, reshape and do away with what Republicans deride as the “deep state” bureaucracy, in part by firing as many as 50,000 federal workers.

“We need to flood the zone with conservatives,” said Paul Dans, director of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project and a former Trump administration official who speaks with historical flourish about the undertaking.

“This is a clarion call to come to Washington,” he said. “People need to lay down their tools, and step aside from their professional life and say, ‘This is my lifetime moment to serve.'”

The unprecedented effort is being orchestrated with dozens of right-flank organizations, many new to Washington, and represents a changed approach from conservatives, who traditionally have sought to limit the federal government by cutting federal taxes and slashing federal spending.

Instead, Trump-era conservatives want to gut the “administrative state” from within, by ousting federal employees they believe are standing in the way of the president’s agenda and replacing them with more like-minded officials more eager to fulfill a new executive’s approach to governing.

6- It is rare to see judges uphold The Constitution these days, which is why we add this ruling to the pile of Good News.

Revolver News

Trump and Obama-appointed judges uphold First Amendment, sending brutal message to woke left…

QUOTE: Every so often, our legal system surprises us and manages to prioritize justice and the law over politics and activism, a welcome break from what we’ve come to expect, right? That’s precisely what unfolded in a recent First Amendment case in Washington, D.C. The case involved a pro-life group that wanted to chalk a pro-life message on a sidewalk. They were denied this right even though BLM supporters had been allowed to use spray paint to leave their mark on public property. Fortunately, the case found its way to the D.C. Court of Appeals, and the pro-life group emerged victorious. All thanks to judges committed to genuine justice. Quite refreshing, isn’t it?

Here what legal eagle Mike Davis had to say about the surprise ruling in a tweet:

ICYMI:

Cheers to DC Circuit Judges Neomi Rao (appointed by Trump) and Michelle Childs (a principled liberal who Biden should’ve appointed to the Supreme Court instead of Ketanji Brown Jackson) for their important First Amendment ruling.

For months, DC let BLM protesters spray paint and deface public and private property with “Black Lives Matter,” “Defund the Police,” and other graffiti.

At the same time, DC arrested a small group of pro-life protesters for their one-time use of washable chalk to write “Black Pre-Born Lives Matter” on a public sidewalk.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit (second highest court in the land) correctly held the pro-life protesters can sue DC for viewpoint discrimination for DC’s policy or practice of selective enforcement of DC’s criminal code on graffiti, in violation of the First Amendment.

This is an important warning to woke Democrat politicians across America:
You will face significant civil liability, if you have policies or practices of arresting or not arresting Americans based upon our political viewpoints.

7- Sharing information is the best way to help people find truthful information. If you do nothing else, do that. It matters a lot.

Intellectual Takeout

COVID-19 Lies and What to Do About Them

QUOTE: The fall of Fauci and the unravelling narrative about COVID-19’s origins is something of a slow-motion train wreck.

As recently as 2021, White House Chief Medical Advisor and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci was hailed as a national hero and an icon of science. To be fair, Fauci did much of the hailing. “I represent science,” he infamously boasted on CBS’s Face the Nation. Just months earlier, he had assured MSNBC host Chuck Todd, “Attacks on me quite frankly are attacks on science.”

Now Fauci is the subject of an official Department of Justice criminal referral by Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky. Senator Paul has credibly accused Fauci of lying to Congress about his use of U.S. taxpayer dollars to fund risky gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Fauci had all the motive in the world to scuttle the lab leak theory because if it turned out to be true, it was he who helped fund the creation of SARS-CoV-2 using American treasure.

All of this news can rest heavy on everyday people. What can the average punter do about such high-level corruption?
Three things.

1. Find and support alternative, independent media. The fact that you’re reading Intellectual Takeout suggests you’re already doing this. Keep doing it. If you stumbled upon this page by accident, read related articles and find other trusted outlets that challenged COVID-19 narratives from the start. By spending years singing Fauci’s praise and promoting Proximal Origin uncritically, the corporate press has shown its hand. Unplug from the lies and tune in to the truth.

2. Tell a friend what you’ve discovered—or more precisely, what the FOI requests have exposed. Word-of-mouth is more powerful than talking heads on TV. Post this article on social media or email it to a friend and ask their thoughts. It could be the key that unlocks the prison of their mind.

3. Be encouraged that the truth is coming out. It always does.

8- Updates on two companies that continue to be boycotted by sane people.

Breitbart

Wokelash: Bud Light Sales Continue to Crater as Modelo Widens Lead as Best-Selling U.S. Beer

QUOTE: Next time you feel like a beer latest data shows the chances are you’ll reach for a Modelo Especial, as the Mexican product continues to outsell Bud Light after its disastrous partnership with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney. The latest NielsenIQ data provided to FOX Business by Bump Williams Consulting shows Bud Light sales in off-premise locations such as grocery stores and gas stations tumbling 15.9 percent on a dollar basis and down 20.1 percent on a volume basis year to date as of Aug. 19. Modelo was up 10.3 percent in sales and 9.6 percent in volume.

=============

You may have seen the photos this week of what is happening when parents take toddlers to Disneyland. Disney continue to groom our children. Continue to boycott them.

Newsmax 

Disney Stock at 9-Year Low, Anti-woke Boycott Continues

QUOTE: The slogan “go woke, go broke” applies to the Walt Disney Co. after a turbulent 17 months has resulted in its stock price hitting a nine-year low.

Disney, which became a symbol for wokeism after protesting Florida’s parental rights law in March 2022, hit a stock price low of $83.53 on Monday.

The company’s market cap has fallen from $350.09 billion on March 22, 2022, to $154.04 billion. That’s a decline of $196.05 billion — or a 56% drop in market cap.
Earlier this month, Disney missed Wall Street’s expectations for quarterly revenue.

The company’s financial troubles follow Disney’s March 2022 to condemn and fight Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, which forbids any instruction of sexual matters for children in kindergarten through third grade.

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