The World and Everything in It - August 5, 2021

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Traditionally Democrat-voting counties along the southern border of Texas are turning red. It could be a game changer.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Also the T in LGBT is ripping through school districts. We’ll talk about one in Virginia.

Plus a Tik Tok trick shot sensation!

And commentator Cal Thomas on dereliction of duty by the federal government.

REICHARD: It’s Thursday, August 5th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

BUTLER: And I’m Paul Butler. Good morning!

REICHARD: Up next, Kent Covington has the news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Florida Gov. fires back at Biden criticism, Ill Gov. announces new mandates » Debate rages on across America about how best to attack the current wave of COVID-19 infections.

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Wednesday fired back at President Biden who criticized his state a day earlier for its handling of the latest surge.

DESANTIS: We can either have a free society or we can have a biomedical security state. And I can tell you Florida, we’re a free state. People are going to be free to choose, to make their own decisions about themselves, about their families, about their kids’ education.

But some governors argue that mask mandates are necessary in some situations to avoid endangering others.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, announced Wednesday that school children K-12 will have to wear masks in the classroom.

Republican Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson is backtracking on a measure he signed into law that prohibits mask mandates in schools. He said he now regrets it.

HUTCHINSON: I signed it for those reasons that our cases were at a low point. Everything has changed now. And yes, in hindsight, I wish that had not become law.

He called this week for a special session to lift that ban and leave the decision up to local school districts.

New cases are back up to February levels, around 100,000 per day. That’s an 800 percent increase since late June. Hospitalizations have quadrupled over that span.

Deaths have also ticked up, but not nearly at the same rate. COVID-19 fatalities have increased about 60 percent since early July.

Majority of NY Assembly members support impeaching Gov. Cuomo following investigation » New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he does not intend to leave office after a state investigation affirmed sexual harassment claims against him.

But state lawmakers may take that decision out of the Democratic governor’s hands.

A majority of state Assembly members now support beginning impeachment proceedings against him if he doesn't resign.

Democratic Assemblyman Ron Kim …

KIM: At this point, I can confidently say there are no Democrats at the local, state or federal level who are supporting or would stand with this governor.

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the findings of the independent probe on Tuesday. Investigators determined that Cuomo did in fact sexually harass at least 11 women. The governor refuted those findings.

Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin of New York said Wednesday …

ZELDIN: The president of the United States himself, as well as today, a number of his top allied unions are all saying that it’s time for him to go. As far as what should happen next, it should be an impeachment and removal.

A simple majority of Assembly members is all that is needed to authorize an impeachment trial. 

Trump team asks court to halt handover of tax returns to House Dems » Former President Trump’s legal team is taking action to try and stop House Democrats from obtaining his tax returns. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown reports.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: The Justice Department said last week that the IRS must turn over Trump’s tax documents to Congress.

But on Wednesday Trump’s legal team filed a motion asking a federal court to halt the handover of his returns to the Democrat-led House Ways and Means Committee.

His lawyers said the panel’s request for the documents are not “valid oversight requests” and they’re not “pertinent to legislation that is within the Committee’s jurisdiction.”

They said it is rather an effort “to expose the private tax information of one individual for political gain.”

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

Belarus Olympic sprinter arrives in Vienna amid safety fears » A plane carrying an Olympic athlete from Belarus seeking refuge from her country’s government landed in Vienna on Wednesday.

From there, Krystsina Tsimanouskaya was expected to travel on to Poland, which has offered her a humanitarian visa.

The 24-year-old sprinter asked police at the Tokyo airport for help this week after Belarusian officials allegedly tried to force her onto a plane to return home.

She believed the country’s authoritarian government planned to punish her for criticizing team officials.

Mark Adams is a spokesman for the International Olympic Committee. He told reporters Wednesday …

ADAMS: Further development today is that the IOC is opening a disciplinary commission to establish the facts in this case and to hear the two officials who have been allegedly involved in this incident.

Tsimanouskaya’s husband fled the country quickly this week when he realized that his wife would not be returning to Belarus.

Christian baker appeals ruling over gender-transition cake » Jack Phillips, the Christian owner of a Colorado bakery, has announced that he is appealing a recent ruling in a case centered on his refusal to bake a custom gender-transition cake.

For nearly a decade, Phillips has been ensnared in cases that pit LGBT accommodations against First Amendment religious rights. He won a legal victory at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 in a separate case.

But in the most recent court battle, a Colorado trial court ruled against him in June.

Alliance Defending Freedom tweeted, “We have appealed this decision and look forward to defending Jack in court once again.”

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Republicans make gains in traditionally blue Texas counties.

Plus, defining the problem at the Southern border.

This is The World and Everything in It.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: It’s Thursday the 5th of August, 2021.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Paul Butler.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

First up: changing the minds of Democrats.

In the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrats have a slim, six-vote majority. It wouldn’t take much of a shift in party loyalty in the upcoming midterm elections to tilt the balance of power to the Republicans.

BUTLER: Hispanics in South Texas point to the 2020 general election results as evidence that deep blue areas can flip. But was that part of a trend or a one-off? WORLD correspondent Bonnie Pritchett reports.

FEMALE REPORTER: In Texas there is still a Republican governor, a Republican Senate and a Republican House. The state did not flip for former vice president Joe Biden.

REPORTER, BONNIE PRITCHETT: It came as little surprise that Donald Trump won Texas in the 2020 Presidential election. He did so without the support of the consistently blue urban areas and the more sparsely populated counties lining the state’s southern border.

But what did surprise Republicans—and concern some Democrats—was the margin by which Trump lost in those border districts.

Granted, losing is losing. But conservative Hispanic voters in the region see decreasing margins of Democrat victories in some counties as a trend, not a fluke.

JENNIFER THATCHER: No, I believe that it's  been going on for years already. That, you know, the Latin community has become disenchanted with the Democratic Party.

That’s Jennifer Thatcher. She’s among those optimistic Republicans. The 44-year-old Thatcher was born and raised in Zapata, Texas. She didn’t pay much attention to politics until she had kids. Now she chairs the newly established Zapata County Republican Party.

JENNIFER THATCHER: It's just, they've taken advantage of the fact that we've been Democratic for so many years that they didn't think that people were going to have a change of heart.

Hispanics represent 84 percent of the population in South Texas. Four of the five U.S. congressional districts that span the Texas-Mexico border consistently elect Democrats—from the presidential candidate all the way down the ballot. So entrenched is the Democrat Party in South Texas that some years, elections for local or state offices don’t include a Republican on the ballot.

That may be changing.

In 2016 Trump lost Zapata County to Hillary Clinton by 33 percent. In 2020 Trump won the county by 3 points. That prompted state Republican Party officials to establish a county office and appoint Thatcher as its chairwoman.

County and State Democrat Party representatives did not respond to multiple interview requests to add their perspective to this issue.

FEMALE REPORTER: While President Trump flipped five counties in the Rio Grande Valley, researchers say Biden picked up the Latino vote in urban areas and among youth.

In Hidalgo County, Republican newcomer Monica De La Cruz-Hernandez ran against two-term Democrat Vicente Gonzalez for the 15th U.S. Congressional District. No Republican has held that seat since it was established in 19-0-3.

And they still don’t.

De La Cruz-Hernandez lost—but only by three percentage points. Gonzalez won that seat in 2018 by 21 points. De La Cruz-Hernandez said she’ll challenge Gonzalez again next year.

All five U.S. Congressional seats along the border are up for election in the 2022 midterms. Could South Texas be a battleground for control of the U.S. House?

JONES: The valley is probably not going to be in play.

That’s Mark Jones, a fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute and a professor of political science at Rice University. He, literally, wrote the textbook on Texas politics. He isn’t convinced the 2020 election represented a seismic shift in Latino voting patterns in South Texas.

Jones refers to “The Valley” and the “R-G-V.” That’s the Rio Grande Valley, the southernmost region of Texas.

JONES: What they have to keep in mind is that yes, Republicans are doing well in the valley. But to win all these seats requires winning the majority of the vote. And that's what Republicans don't have either at the state House level, the state Senate level, the U.S. House level or the county level in any of the parts of the RGV.

In Brownsville, Moises Molina disagrees. He’s a bi-vocational pastor. Earlier in his career, he spent four years working a 23-county swath of South Texas for then Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott.

Molina said Hispanics are conservative and once they learn where the two parties stand on issues like abortion, law enforcement, gun rights, and border security they tend to vote Republican.

MOISES MOLINA: And so, we have to be smart about being informed. So, it's not about letting people know how they should vote or who they should vote for. It's about creating awareness of what the platforms are, for the people running for office.

Jones said most Democrats representing South Texas in state and federal legislatures are more conservative than their Democratic colleagues. He suspects gains by Republicans last November were buoyed by poor Democratic messaging at the national level.

JONES: And then also where the Democratic Party got itself in a lot of trouble in the 2020 election is not only was it associated with sort of a coastal Democratic elite that's way to the left of the South Texas Democrats. But it also was pushing several policies that really resonated negatively with South Texas Latinos.

Joe Biden’s pledge to reduce fossil fuel production didn’t sit well with South Texans whose livelihood depends on a robust oil industry. And calls to defund the police grated against South Texas Latinos, many of whom work for the police, Border Patrol, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Jones believes the 2020 results revealed something other than a partisan shift among South Texas Latinos.

JONES: They're a very diverse population, and that if you consider them to be sort of one big monolith or glob of people, you're going to make egregious errors in terms of their partisanship, in terms of their policy preferences, and a host of other issues.

And that’s the point Molina and Thatcher are making—the 2020 election revealed Hispanic political diversity.

THATCHER: Fifty-two percent of our population flipped the county. So, you know, we got it, it's there. And we keep we keep on trucking no matter what happens. We do have support. They're coming out little by little and that's what makes what makes us happy.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Bonnie Pritchett.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Up next … Transgender school battles go local in Virginia.

A dispute over gender identity guidelines for a Virginia school will likely rip through the state’s other districts. That after a judge in Lynchburg last week dismissed a lawsuit against the state.

Back in March, the Family Foundation of Virginia challenged the state board of education's process in adopting the guidelines.

The Foundation argued that the board failed to address critical public comments. Many people expressed concerns about free speech and religious liberty. Teachers may need to use preferred pronouns and schools may have to open up private spaces like restrooms to students based on gender identity.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: But Circuit Judge J. Frederick Watson last week rejected the lawsuit.

Joining us now to explain what’s going on and what it will mean for religious liberties is Steve West. He’s an attorney and writes about religious liberty issues for WORLD Digital. Good morning, Steve!

WEST: Good morning, Mary!

REICHARD: Steve, first of all, just to give our listeners are brief overview of how this case came to be, last year, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, signed into law legislation ordering the state Department of Education to develop model policies on transgenderism. And that meant what? What did that do?

WEST: So it required all of the 133 local school boards in the state to adopt rules that are “consistent with or more comprehensive than” the model policies by the start of this school year—which is upon us now.

These are all things we have seen before: school administrators are required to keep a student’s gender identity confidential from other students, parents, or school personnel; dress codes have to be gender neutral; schools have to stop segregating students by gender for activities; and they have to open access to restrooms and locker rooms to all students based on gender identity. As we have also seen elsewhere, schools would compel all school staff to address students by their asserted name and pronouns—a practice already ruled a free speech violation elsewhere.

REICHARD: And then what led to this particular lawsuit?

WEST: Well, just the simple passage of this led to the lawsuit . The Family Foundation of Virginia, along with Sarah Via, a Hanover County parent of two, filed the lawsuit to contest the process used by the state in adopting the model policies—really a move to slow things down so parents and schools could have time to understand what this was all about and try to keep it from happening. Two-thirds of the comments received by the state were critical, yet the state made no significant changes. Not only that, Education Department officials didn’t even address the concerns in any adequate way. Typically, rulemaking agencies have to address comments, even when they don’t make a change as a result of them. That didn’t happen here.

REICHARD: What was the judge’s reasoning in rejecting this lawsuit?

WEST: He said that none of the parties bringing the lawsuit—the Family Foundation and Sarah Via—had standing to bring the lawsuit—meaning, in his view, none were aggrieved or injured by the model policies, which he said were directed at the local school boards. The boards are the only ones who could complain.

REICHARD: But the Family Foundation of Virginia said the ruling had a silver lining. How so?

WEST: Yes, because the judge treated the model policies as guidelines, not binding laws. He may not be right about that, but some counties are taking him at his word. At last count, seven school districts have rejected the guidelines. Some have adopted policies similar to them, and many have not yet addressed them. Yet even if the judge is not correct and these policies are binding, there is no enforcement mechanism in the law—meaning no school district will lose funding if it fails to comply. And so there doesn’t appear to be any risk to districts that don’t go along.

MR: Okay, so what happens next? And what will this mean for teachers and students in Virginia?

WEST: That’ll vary, county by county. The Family Foundation’s Victoria Cobb told me that there will be lawsuits filed in select counties that adopt the guidelines. But you can also bet that once sleepy school board meetings will be packed with parents, as this fight is a very local one.

The progressive agenda is not far off in Washington but hitting people where they live, affecting their kids.

Listen to what Augusta County’s Beth Jenkins told her local school board:

JENKINS: I believe parents want to have your backs if you stand up and vote no to the liberal agenda. They do not trust the government. They want to send their children to public school, but they will not be told how to raise their children.

REICHARD: That’s a strong statement.

And let’s face it: There is no more potent force than a mother protecting her child.

Steve West writes about religious liberties for WORLD Digital. You can read his work at wng.org. You can also subscribe to his free weekly newsletter on First Amendment issues, Liberties. Steve, always great talking to you!

WEST: Always fun, Mary.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Well, trading sports cards is making a comeback.

An autographed rookie card of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes recently sold at auction.

Even Mahomes himself was impressed when he found out how much it sold for. He told WDAF-tv...

MAHOMES: That’s a lot of money. I’ll say that. I knew that it was going up for auction. I found out. But for it to go for that much, it shows that that business has been growing.

The 2017 mint condition card sold for—are you ready for this?—$4.3 million dollars!

That surpassed the previous record by more than a million bucks. A Tom Brady rookie card sold at auction for $3.1 million back in March.

REICHARD: I need to change up my hobbies.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Today is Thursday, August 5th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Paul Butler.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: a trickshot artist.

If making insanely difficult trickshots was an Olympic sport, Michael Shields would be a gold medalist.

Shields’ feats of eye-hand coordination have earned him more than 3 million followers on TikTok. But, as WORLD’s Sarah Schweinsberg reports, he’s hoping his page points people to someone higher than himself.

SARAH SCHWEINSBERG REPORTER: It’s March 2020, and Michael Shield’s office has sent him home. He’s kind of bored.

SHIELDS: I could still work during that time, but work was a lot lighter. And so I spent some free time just thinking, you know, what, what other things do I enjoy doing?

What the 31-year-old has enjoyed doing since he was a kid has been designing and making trick shots. Things like flipping a book backwards over his shoulder onto a shelf.

SHIELDS: That's something I've done, you know, probably since middle school.

So, as a joke, he decides to start doing some tricks with—of course—a roll of toilet paper. And if he’s going to put time into devising a trick shot with toilet paper, it’s only logical that people should see it, right?

SHIELDS: So I looked for where's the easiest place to grow right now. And it was TikTok. And the rest is history.

He named his TikTok page “That’ll Work.” In his first video, he and his wife goof around with a roll of toilet paper around the house, throwing it off of walls into baskets, onto toilet rolls, and into a basketball hoop.

SOUND: MUSIC FROM VIDEO

SHIELDS: We had a disclaimer at the end that no toilet paper was harmed during the making of that video.

He kept going with the toilet paper theme. Until one really took off.

SOUND: MUSIC FROM VIDEO

In the video, Shields is standing on a bed with a golf club. He’s using it to hit a roll of toilet paper at a toilet paper holder. He keeps missing. Over and over and over again, until he finally sinks the shot.

SHIELDS: That's what I would consider my first, I mean, it wasn't even viral. But my first in my mind, viral trickshot.

That trickshot proved to Shields that he could do this. He could make strange objects flip, land, and fit into hoops, wii game consoles, toasters, cups, bottles, and toilet paper holders.

SHIELDS: If I would have never hit that shot, I probably wouldn't have continued because I spent, I spent like three hours on that just late one night. So that was kind...the turning point of me actually pursuing this a little bit further.

Shields was a financial adviser by day. And became a trickshot artist by night. He began posting up to five videos a week. Throwing bread over his head into a toaster, stacking golf balls, and throwing disks into a wii console from 24 feet away.

Sometimes his wife jumps in to participate. In one video, they try to throw magic markers into the top of a glass coke bottle. Markers cover the floor, evidence of hundreds of misses until…Yep.

SOUND: GASPS

Shields has to work around a busy family schedule. He has four kids under 4.

SHIELDS: I have a very flexible job. So I can go take off, do those kinds of trick shots that need to be done during the day during business hours. But after that, I'm really not doing any other trick shots until probably nine or 10 at night.

His tricks take a lot of patience. Some take days to film. In one of his most popular videos, Shields uses a baseball bat to hit a kickball off a softball tee. He’s trying to hit the kickball 150 feet through the air into a basketball hoop.

SHIELDS VIDEO NARRATION: I spent days. Hitting this over and over over again.

He keeps missing. And chasing down the ball. Until sweet victory.

SHIELDS: SOUND OF SCREAMING

SHIELDS: It did take 12 hours and it was over four days. And on the fourth day I finally hit it.

What does it feel like to be successful after 12 hours? Shield’s hands pump above his head, and he lets out excited hollars.

SHIELDS: It's a mix of emotions. You're excited because you finally made it. And the second emotion you feel is relief, because I'm finally done.

Michael Shields often shows a lot of misses in his videos before the one that works. That’s intentional. First, it builds suspense for the make. But it also shows how many failures he has before a victory.

SHIELDS: I get a ton of messages, especially from younger kids. They're saying, man, I love what you do. You really inspire me to, you know, to never give up. I love how you never give up.

But he has given up a few times.

SHIELDS: There's been, there's been probably four or five that I have quit on. Just couldn't get it.

Shields videos all of his tricks himself.

SHIELDS: So my film crew is mostly me. Me and a tripod.

There aren’t many people who want to stand around and watch him attempt a trick for hours on end.

That’s why one day, he’d love to make his side-gig into a full-time job with a team.

SHIELDS: If I could have a team around me that that also is, you know, enjoying having their job, getting out and hitting a baseball into a basketball hoop. I mean, it just sounds amazing.

A growing audience is helping him do that. Followers and views help him generate ad dollars and sponsorships. But Shield’s also wants his page to be about more than money and personal fame.

At around 50,000 followers, he decided to let his audience know what was most important to him. He put “Jesus Saves” in his bio.

SHIELDS: I realized, you know, this could turn into something bigger and, and I want it to be something bigger than me, you know, something bigger than myself.

Though as corporate interest grows, he says he definitely feels pressure to take Jesus out of his bio.

SHIELDS: I'd be lying if I if I said I wasn't wrestling with, you know, our ad partners, not, you know, partnering with me, because I have that on my page. Is Tiktok gonna suppress some of my videos because of that?

But in the end...

SHIELDS: There have been a few instances where I've gotten to share Jesus with people and explain why I believe what I believe. I mean, that's, that's worth everything that I've done.

Shield’s says even if he can’t go full-time someday, he’ll keep his hobby going. He can’t turn his mind off. Even at 2 a.m. the ideas will keep coming to him for another trick that just might work.

SOUND: SHIELDS CHEERING

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Sarah Schweinsberg.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, August 5th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. Good morning to you! I’m Mary Reichard.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: And I’m Paul Butler. Commentator Cal Thomas on the dereliction of duty by the federal government.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: Semantics are important for how we communicate and define issues. The one who controls words controls the narrative.

Take the words migrant and invader. Is there a difference? It’s all in how they are perceived, and the effect their illegal border crossings have on the United States.

Here’s one definition of invasion: “The entrance or advent of anything troublesome or harmful…”

Does anyone want to argue that the tsunami of humanity coming across our southern border is not troublesome or harmful? Two motels in La Joya, Texas, are housing migrants who have tested positive for COVID-19. Others are getting bus tickets to fan out across the country. How many of them are carrying the virus?

Instead of securing the border, the Biden administration’s Justice Department sued Texas and its governor, Greg Abbott, “seeking to block an executive order that restricts the transport of migrants through the state and authorizes state troopers to pull over vehicles suspected of doing so.” On Tuesday, a federal judge temporarily blocked Abbott’s order. Is the administration trying to encourage more lawbreakers to come? And coming they are by the tens of thousands. Is there to be no end?

What about the rights of American citizens and their property along the border? Texas rancher Brent Smith, who is also an attorney for Kinney County, told Fox News he sustained thousands of dollars in damage to his property from trespassing migrants. The administration has money to help the migrants. Who will help Smith and other property owners?

Gov. Abbott has ordered state police to arrest migrants as trespassers, but they are likely to have only minimal success due to the overwhelming numbers. He also ordered chain-link fence installed along some of the most porous sections of the border. But experience shows that won’t help much.

The problem as well as the solution begins at the top, with the Biden administration. Despite Biden’s claims that entire families who seek to cross the border illegally are being turned back, most are not.

It’s no accident. By now it can only be called administration policy. The Biden administration appears to want to flood America with people from other countries—Central America, Mexico, even Africa.

How much more—how many more—can we take?

A rose by any other name is still a rose. And an invasion by any other name is still an invasion. We cannot sustain a country with what amounts to an open border no matter what it is called.

I’m Cal Thomas.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Tomorrow: The pressures of social media on young athletes. Think: gymnast Simone Biles. John Stonestreet joins us to talk about that for Culture Friday.

And a documentary about a woman who’s dedicated her life to preserving sharks.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Paul Butler.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio.

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Jesus said, "Enter by the narrow gate. The gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few." (Matthew 7:13)

Go now in grace and peace.

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