The “Extremists” of Williamson County or the New Normal?
How self-styled Resistance, Militia and Government Officials seek to restore Constitutional Values through Activism, Preparedness and Privatization
PART III
Earlier this week you learned of the secret plans to take down Williamson County Schools Director, Dr. Looney. The talk of the “ugly stuff” that was meant to be kept out of the press unfortunately started showing up all over the media, in blogs, on Facebook pages, and in more leaked emails (see below).
What you may not have realized is that these plans go broader and deeper than just one Superintendent trying to do his job. A sleepy but relatively affluent county in middle Tennessee has woken up to find government officials and candidates at all levels aligning to what the mainstream would consider extreme right.
To understand it, we first need to observe the reaction to this story that started with a leaked email.
The Initial Surprise
This author released the first Williamson Secrets story on Friday night, July 18, 2014. It was emailed and tweeted selectively to a few potentially interested parties of all political leanings, some media, some private citizens, some candidates.
Facebook posts are estimated to have an average half-life of 90 minutes (within this timeframe, half the people who will ever read the post will have read it); tweets have an average half life of less than 24 minutes.
For some reason this is a longer run story that has been engaging the community. The half-life of the first article has proven to be about 30 hours, or 2000% of a typical Facebook Post. More than 6000 people have read the story, and new views are still coming in every day; while you are probably familiar with tweets and retweets alike, this article was shared and reshared and reshared hundreds of time in succession. Either these are thousands of bullies all “spreading lies” or just concerned citizens curious about why the emails were written and what they contained, and feeling like the content was at least worthy of sharing with their friends.
The Tennessean article which followed achieved similar social media numbers on of course a much larger viewer base, so it’s probably safe to say this story is certainly making the rounds.
While not everyone liked the story (although if you go back to the original article you’ll eventually realize there is literally nothing more in it than restating what’s in the email and a few public sources that no one would deny in isolation; somehow the packaging of the story together touched a nerve). The second article provided much deeper speculation on what might be next for Williamson County, but again all the sources are public and generally reputable in their own right and little additional information is provided beyond those sources (which makes the story all the more real).
By the way, for those critics who find publishing a private email somehow unfair, just remember that it is public record; while perhaps not in time for this election for the average citizen, the email contained several tn.gov addresses for the State officials who are part of the group, and so can be retrieved by anyone in person with a Freedom of Information Act request.
Those who claim not to even know Kent R. Davis are particularly intriguing. One can understand someone on the recipients list maybe seeing these emails in the past and just letting them continue as friends of friends. But if the story broke, wouldnt you email him and call Debbie Deaver, Jennifer Luteran etc. and ask to be taken off their lists?
Quite the contrary occurred it seems, the email trail has continued all week with Mr. Davis giving edicts like “I have no personal need to communicate with these people but if this is the best they have we will win. Any of you are completely free to engage as you might wish.” (presumably another reference to do ugly stuff). In talking about other under-the-table stuff he talks of the “secret planning stages” and “I also blew our cover early so the number of secrets seems to be shrinking.”
Which brings us on to Don Beehler, the PR communications expert who has been retained. Of Beehler, Mr. Davis writes “Don just got involved last week (a friend of Jill and Glen) he has received a baptism under fire which he did not deserve.”. This author actually has grown to like Mr. Beehler.
The Initial Reaction
Rather than follow Emergency Communications 101, and immediately issue an acceptance of the email, perhaps a mild apology on behalf of each of the public candidates and those holding public office, and a firm denial of the broader implications, Mr. Beehler chose instead the unusual course to blog about it on a Facebook page called Williamson Strong, and in fact threw his new friends under the bus.
At almost the very same minute on Sunday afternoon that Maria Giordano published an article in the Tennessean, stating how none of the DeaverDavis24 would return her calls or respond with anything other than a refusal to comment, Mr. Beehler wrote on Facebook “As a former reporter, I started asking questions to try to find out the truth for myself. Apparently that is very threatening to some people. In my experience, only people who have something to hide fear questions and accountability.” Nice.
His Facebook page by the way gives a sense of the strength of beliefs of this set. Not like other communications consultants this author has seen, there are very few posts at all and the very first dives right into a debate with some very strong language on “homosexuality and bestiality, along with other forms of immorality, as examples of what the Bible calls sin.”
In any case, the reader will have started to notice a connection with Rep. Glen Casada with the “Jill and Glen” reference. This is a theme that reoccurs frequently (and dates back to an infamous heated discussion between Dr. Looney and Rep. Casada more than a year ago which is when the story really started). Surprising therefore to see a spokesperson for Casada tell the Tennessean yesterday “Mr. Davis’ emails appear to be sent indiscriminately to a host of officials from across the state”, when the emails imply there is a much deeper friendship (and agenda) here. It is however remarkably similar to the explanation that Dr. Beth Burgos, Dan Cash, Susan Curlee, and Candy Emerson just provided. Perhaps Don Beehler is indeed being strategic behind the scenes.
The Cheerleaders’ Club
Debbie Deaver took a different take on the article, writing as if publicly to Friendly Fire, “this is laugh out loud funny!”
Susan Curlee
Victoria Jackson
Candy Emerson
Four candidates just held a press conference on it (unusually with no actual questions allowed by the press). Dan Cash is the most strongly linked to Davis, as he has been supported by Davis for the past year (according to Davis). The others clearly hold some personal distrust for Looney; why, for example, would Susan Curlee take a screenshot of Dr. Looney liking a post about the successes of Williamson County Schools in his Facebook feed and then weeks later have Victoria Jackson post it in her blog. Why would Victoria Jackson write an article called “Fire Looney” and then her friend James Amundsen respond “awesome”.
What Curlee probably didn’t realize is that when you take a screen shot on Facebook it actually shows the account of who is logged in and recording it. Perhaps that might also explain why her more recent posts going after the founders of Williamson Strong (mentioned above) show one screenshot on an AT&T phone, one on a Verizon phone. No collusion or coordination here?
The plot thickens
Thursday July 24
Perhaps the most recent email at time of writing will shed the most light to confirm the facts of this story. It also lists all the names you might recognize.
Curlee says she doesn’t know Davis and yet from the email he seems to be in direct contact with her about reasons for not talking to the press, and even lurks on her Facebook page.
In the email, Davis provides further commentary on the progress of his six candidates, four for School Board, and alludes to his outsourcing plans for the county.
The political maneuvering of this machine is more involved than this, but all in the same vein, so rather than continue with a play by play, let’s move to the real part of the story, which is just emerging.
The Resistance and Militia of Williamson County
Extreme views are typically those that either change the course of history (like those that started World War II), become the mainstream (like those that started the Revolutionary war), or dwindle and die. It is Darwinian evolution applied to political beliefs.
Extremists never consider themselves as such, as to them it is their “normal”, and those of their friends and co-conspirators. The mainstream always consider themselves mainstream, until their view ceases to be widely held.
This author means no disrespect in terming the protagonists extremists. Others might call them revolutionaries. They call themselves the resistance or even militia. Probably you’ve heard of some of them as just Christ-following conservatives, against common core (the latter issue used simply to polarize an unsuspecting electorate, per the strategy in Davis’ email above).
Susan Curlee has some interesting beliefs. While she has closed public viewers to her Twitter Stream, the modern search engines keep everything archived and so we can all observe her past behaviors. Her pseudonym or alias is @ISaidKnow.
Candidate for WCS School Board
Williamson Secrets apologizes for showing the content of this tweet above, and does not condone non-factual, race-based, personal insults like this, regardless of political beliefs, but it makes one ask, is this what I want to see from my elected officials in their election year? Ones that will represent our children’s interests?
In case you thought Curlee is looking forward to working closely with the Superintendent if elected, her tweets to him directly might indicate otherwise @ISaidKnow: “@wcsDirofSchools Not ALL hype! To say so is dismissive to concerned parents who are doing their homework.”
On the other hand, these are just tweets without the full context of what she was thinking at the time. What is more concerning to this author is her linkage to the Three Percenters Club. She is a supporter of the club on Facebook and is on record for having attended demonstrations and that is where she writes she became friends with the founder.
“III% seek to restore a limited Constitutional government to the people of the United States in keeping with the principles of our founding fathers”
The About page on Facebook describes how “the Three Percenter’s Club’s capability compliments [sic] the other militias and resistance groups capabilities”.
This is a group that is on a stated mission to overthrow the United States Government and is one to be taken very seriously. People sometimes say “think big . . . act local”, and so one could applaud this group for systematically starting to replace the elected and appointed officials in Williamson County, until a few of us woke up. This is real.
The first part of this story showed that there appears to be a group determined to dismantle the leadership of the School Board and Williamson County Schools’ Superintendent. The second part provided insight into the resources and motives of one of the key masterminds with a demonstrated track record of privatization and outsourcing in other states, and a national operator Leona Group that is ready and waiting for the call to come to Tennessee. Hopefully, one can now see a picture that there is more beyond schools at stake, with talk of “militia” and “resistance” groups among us.
This author would not normally link spouses unless they specifically took action to enter the fray. In Curlee’s case she’s previously posted images that shows she believes they should be considered in politics.
All I can suggest is doing a Twitter Search on her husband, best found with the January tweet “Proud of my wife @ISaidKnow for protesting during the…” The #ProudAmerican quotes will might give you a flavor of the topics at the Curlee dinner table. However, you may not want to read these tweets if you are gay, of color, Jewish or Muslim.
Finally on Curlee, the #UglyStuff was in full swing this week. In the district in which she is running against Vicky Vogt, flyers were illegally placed in mailboxes in the middle of the night. This was probably illegal both on the grounds of postage unpaid on deposited matter, but also because it seems to be a political action group that is funded and not registered or making the necessary election transparency filings.
posted in district with candidates Vicky Vogt, and Susan Curlee
Which brings us on to the 912 Project, again linked to the protagonists of this story. The project endorses Dan Cash and Glen Casada and lists Candy Emerson, Dr. Beth Burgos, Susan Curlee, and Steve Gawrys as 912ers.
The 912 Project goes beyond any political party, in fact declares “our group recognizes no political party. Our aim is to elect any man or woman who can unwaveringly defend these ideals and understands that he works at the pleasure of the people as part of a true republic.”
The question is whether Williamson County is ready to be such a republic?
Cover Photo Revolution of Darkness by Elena Landi (license)
Williamson Secrets represents the views of an individual author publishing on medium.com. It is not associated with the Williamson County Republican Party, the Williamson County Democratic Party, Williamson Strong, or any candidate or group associated with state and local elections in Williamson County.
Corrections can be submitted on Twitter @WilliamsnSecret or to williamsonsecrets (gmail)
Sources
- The Tennessean July 20, 2014 Emails show bid to oust Williamson Schools superintendent http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/williamson/schools/2014/07/20/leaked-email-shows-local-race-heating/12917667/ accessed July 24, 2014
- WiseMetrics March 5, 2014 Your tweet half-life is 1 billion times shorter than Carbon-14′s http://blog.wisemetrics.com/tweet-isbillion-time-shorter-than-carbon14/ accessed July 24, 2014
- Shared Count for https://medium.com/@WilliamsonSecrets/well-funded-conservative-groups-secret-game-plan-to-for-williamson-county-schools-e2babb252899 https://www.sharedcount.com/
- Emails from Kent Davis, Debbie Deaver, and others during week of July 25, 2014 https://d262ilb51hltx0.cloudfront.net/max/600/1*i7Xs_jrH7pBroEAEeiZuBw.png
- Don Beehler Facebook Page Top Post as of July 24, 2014 https://www.facebook.com/don.beehler/posts/10203174421823307 accessed July 24, 2014
- Williamson Strong Facebook post comments by Don Beehler https://www.facebook.com/williamsonstrong/posts/1477042862535593
- Article by Vicky Jackson titled “Vote for Awesome Amundsen — Fire Looney” commented on by James Amundsen https://www.facebook.com/jamesamundsenTNGOPSEC/posts/561339350564977
- Screenshot by Susan Curlee taken June 7 2014 11:49PM shared by Victoria Jackson http://victoriajackson.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Screen_Shot_2014-06-07_at_11.49.23_PM.png accessed July 24, 2014
- Susan Curlee @ISaidKnow Tweet http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:9IY_gfSsSygJ:https://twitter.com/ISaidKnow/status/417010977809649664+&cd=20&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
- Susan Curlee @ISaidKnow Tweet https://www.google.com/search?q=tA3Nq8Zb2u&es_sm=119&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=1mbQU-HlFJTJsQS2s4LIDA&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAw&biw=1287&bih=705#facrc=_&imgrc=XI2yrMYQt3KeQM%253A%3BgqRh8nA6_KluxM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fpbs.twimg.com%252Fmedia%252FBSwliKLIEAErOWx.jpg%253Alarge%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Ftwicsy.com%252Fi%252FJ6hTae%3B960%3B960
- Facebook Post and Likes by Susan Curlee on Three Percenters Club Facebook page January 31 2014 https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=197584190449969&id=137281786480210 accessed July 24, 2014
- 18 U.S. Code § 1725 — Postage unpaid on deposited mail matter http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1725
- Anti Vicki-Vogt flyer posted by Williamson Co. Friends in Susan Curlee district
- The Three Percenters Club About Page https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Three-Percenters-Club/256267297740139?sk=info accessed July 24, 2014
- 912Project Tennessee Home Page http://www.912projecttennessee.com/County_Activities/Williamson_County/
- 912 Project Urgent Bulletin (listing 912ers in current candidate set) July 21, 2014 http://www.tngovwatch.org/nine-12-project-nashville-urgent-bulletin/
