Our Historic Moment to Build a Pro-2A Supreme Court Majority

“Our time is now. This our historic moment to go on offense and restore American greatness… and put a pro-Second Amendment majority on the Supreme Court that will defend individual freedom for generations to come.” —Wayne LaPierre

This Ohio County Swung From Obama to Trump. Here’s What 8 Fair Attendees Think, 2 Years Later.

CANTON, Ohio—Attendees of the 169-year-old Stark County Fair in Ohio don’t come out to see politicians, and politics aren’t on the forefront of their minds, but a large portion of the folks here had strong opinions on both when asked.

The political climate of Stark County, known for its rural, farming areas and also home to the Pro Football Hall of Fame housed in Canton, has flipped in recent years.

In the 2008 presidential race, then-Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois won 51.59 percent of the vote in Stark County and his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, won 46.14 percent. Obama won the county again in 2012 with 49.21 percent of the vote, inching past Republican nominee Mitt Romney, who had 48.74 percent.

But in 2016, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democrat nominee, received 38.68 percent of the vote, while Republican nominee Donald Trump received 55.85 percent.

Some cities in Stark County such as Alliance, Massillon, Canton Township, East Canton, Navarre, and Perry Township all went for Obama in 2008 and 2012.

These cities flipped to Trump in 2016 and support for the president was strong among the attendees roaming around the fairgrounds.

While harness racing, baking contests, and pavilion concerts were vastly more popular than any politician who stepped on the premises in Canton, the young and old who shared in their thoughts on the 45th president and their own political journeys had a lot to say.

Grounds at the Stark County Fair (Photo: Rachel del Guidice)

Harness racing at the Stark County Fair. (Photo: Rachel del Guidice)

Baking contest commences at the Stark County Fair. (Photo: Rachel del Guidice)

The pavilion concerts were a popular event among Stark County Fair participants. (Photo: Rachel del Guidice)

  1. ‘I’m a Conservative Democrat and a Liberal Republican’

Fred O. Davis (Photo: Rachel del Guidice)

Fred O. Davis, a Stark County resident who has been attending the fair for 70 years, considers himself to be out of the box politically.

“I’m a conservative Democrat and a liberal Republican,” Davis told The Daily Signal in an interview Tuesday at the Stark County Fair, saying that he gets his fair share of of pushback from folks who don’t understand his conservative-leaning views.

“The backlash I get from is liberal Democrats,” Davis said. “They think I’m crazy.”

His family, however, is starting to see his fascination with conservatism, Davis said.

My brother, he’s liberal … But he’s changing. He’s understanding. I said, ‘Well, Trump’s doing what he got elected for.’ And he is. He’s one of the very few presidents went in there and did what he said he was going to do.

Obama didn’t even like this country. And maybe he still doesn’t. I don’t know.

He said that he is frustrated by policies of Obama that have been continued in Trump’s administration.

“We got too many people on welfare,” Davis said. “If you want to go on welfare, and you’re willing to do some work, fine … but we don’t need it at the limits it’s at now, and that’s what Obamacare is.”

“And if Obama … had gotten all of these people on welfare he wanted, then they’d be dependent on, it’d be a communist country,” he added.

The 77-year-old said he thinks the county needs to return to more traditional and socially conservative values, including re-defining marriage as being between a man and a woman as well. He’s also concerned that rights for people who identify as LGBT are superseding other’s rights.

“Don’t get me wrong, they should be treated equally, but equally,” Davis said. “Not overly-equally.”

Davis said he is also frustrated with the media’s coverage of Trump, which almost prompted him to cancel his subscription to the local newspaper.

The “Canton Repository, I almost canceled it for some of the things in it,” he said. “It’s terrible the way they’re covering. They don’t even say the good things he does, they only say all the bad things he does. I mean, the bad things in their opinion.”

  1. ‘My Parents Were Strict Democrats. But Now I’m Republican.’

Ruth French (Photo: Rachel del Guidice)

Ruth French, who attends the fair every year with daughter Susan Kaw, said she switched her party from Democrat to Republican in 2008 because she couldn’t stand by how Obama was running the country.

“I positively did not approve of Obama, Mr. Obama,” French said, adding, “My parents were strict Democrats. But now I’m Republican.”

The 86-year-old Stark County resident said she is disheartened by the media’s treatment of Trump.

“I thoroughly support President Trump,” she said. “I believe that the news media needs to give us a break … I thank God that he is in control. That is the big thing in my life. God runs me.”

She also said she is frustrated by the coverage the media has given to recent school shootings.

“They build it up and build it [up]… all these shootings,” French said. “If they would not publicize it [and] show the people’s pictures that did it. Sympathize, grieve for those people that are shot or killed or however. But drop it. Don’t keep it in the public and get these young kids especially, ‘Oh, look, that looks cool. I’ll go do that, too.’”

Sometimes, French said, she will align with and support Democrats, but said she 100 percent stands behind Trump.

“My mother, like I said, was a strict Democrat, but she voted who she thought was a good party person … and I do the same, ’cause there’s Democrats I will vote for,” French said. “I definitely, I’m a Trump person.”

  1. ‘I Just Wish People Would Be a Little Bit Kinder to the President’

Susan Kaw (Photo: Rachel del Guidice)

French’s daughter, Susan Kaw, said she thinks the media’s coverage of Trump has been unfair.

“I just wish people would be a little bit kinder to the president, and support him a little bit, and give him a chance,” Kaw said. “He’s done a lot already, but help him out a little instead of fighting everything he does, and give him a little help and support.”

Kaw, who has been coming with her mom each year since grade school to walk the grounds while children are in school, said she wants to see Trump’s wall on the U.S.-Mexico border built.

“Sounds cliché, but I’d like to see the wall built,” Kaw said, adding:

I have no problem with immigrants if they come here legally, and do what they need to do, but all these ones … are coming in, and we’re supporting them. It has nothing to do with coming here to get better jobs. It has to do with coming here to get our welfare, and food, and medical, and ship a lot of the money back to Mexico. So, I’d like to see that done, and better immigration laws.

Kaw, who said she had a “a family full of Democrats and now we’re all Republicans,” is pleased with the Republicans’ tax reform plan, which went into effect Jan. 1.

“I think the tax reform has been good … it’s helped a lot of businesses and a lot of people have got more money in their paychecks, even if Nancy Pelosi says it’s crumbs,” Kaw said.

“It’s not,” she added. “It’s helping a lot of people out, from the bottom all the way to the top.”

  1. ‘Obama Created a Lot of Divisiveness in Our Country’

Brooke Karmie (Photo: Rachel del Guidice)

Brooke Karmie, a 22-year-old recent college graduate, says she’s seen an economic boom in her town due to Trump’s trade deals.

“I think everything he’s done economically has very noticeably changed our country for the better,” said Karmie, who spent some of her time working the Stark County Republicans’ booth.

“I’ve seen the benefits in my town. So, that’s the president changing local businesses. Especially here in Ohio, steel is coming back. We have a lot of people in the steel industry who are coming back to our state, which is benefiting our economy.”

Karmie, whose grandfather, Frederick Karmie, came to the United States from Syria and went through the immigration process legally, says she is passionate about immigration issues given her grandfather’s experience.

“I know we hear a lot about how it’s wrong of us not to welcome these immigrants,” Karmie said, adding:

But that’s not we’re doing. We are welcoming the immigrants. And Donald Trump is making sure that people have a way to come into our country legally. And making sure that the people who are coming here to be up to no good are not coming, so that the rest of us have opportunities where they’ve been taken from us in the past.

Karmie, who majored in government and foreign affairs at Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio, said she is passionate about legal immigration because she wants America to stay a secure place for citizens as well as immigrants.

“If we allow crime to come into our country, then there’s no safe haven for the immigrants who come the right way,” Karmie said. “So I really respect that he’s taking action on that. And then, just overall how he’s upholding all of his promises that he talked about in the campaign.”

Karmie said she hopes Trump will help mend the divide she says that Obama instigated.

“I think President Obama created a lot of divisiveness in our country with every single policy he enacted,” Karmie said. “So it’s something that’s very hard to undo, because of the way our media is. But I think that Donald Trump is fighting in the right direction against all that divisiveness.”

  1. Trump ‘Just Doesn’t Seem to Have the Working Family in His Thoughts’

Stevan Pickard (Photo: Rachel del Guidice)

Stevan Pickard, a union member, said he is skeptical of how Trump’s policies like tax reform will play out in the long run.

“We don’t know what is going to happen because of that—because the tax break, of course, that means less money from the government,” Pickard said. “So if that’s less money for the government, which funds do they cut? Do they cut children’s funds, … cut teacher’s funds, that’s what we are worried about is the effects later on.”

The Stark County resident also said he wishes the president wouldn’t use Twitter.

“He needs to stop his tweeting,” he said. “No two ways about it, I have talked to staunch Republicans and they say the same thing. To us, he just doesn’t seem to have the working family in his thoughts. That’s really [the] bottom line.”

  1. ‘No Matter What [Trump] Does or How Good Stuff Is, They Just Downplay It’

Scott Rinkes and his wife, Donna. (Photo: Rachel del Guidice)

Scott Rinkes, who took his 7-month-old grandson to the fair with his wife Donna, said he is encouraged by Trump’s trade and foreign policy.

“[We support] the fact that he’s keeping everybody in control and getting us better trade deals. The fact that he’s picking up the economy and the stock market,” Scott Rinkes said. “My 401k plan has increased by one-third.”

Rinkes said he is concerned, however, that the country’s lack of support for Trump will end up sparking widespread disagreement.

“It just makes you sick when the opposite side is pushing prejudice and fights and division,” Rinkes said. “This country is headed for a revolt. No matter what he does or how good stuff is, they just downplay it and try to divide us and turn us against him.”

The Stark County resident also said he is worried about how the media coverage of Trump could damage the president’s potential success.

“It’s just worse since Trump came out and called them out and got in a fight with them,” he said. “Now it’s who’s going to die first? Is he going to kill the news or is the news going to kill his political chances?”

  1. ‘Never Seen a President Cut Down So Badly by the Press in All My Life’

Becky Sheen (Photo: Rachel del Guidice)

Becky Sheen of Stark County told The Daily Signal that the media’s coverage of presidents has been the most hostile with Trump.

“The news people used to be so respectful. I don’t care who you’re with or who it was, or whether you voted or not. People would be respectful,” Sheen said. “Everybody in America would sit around their TV when the president’s on TV. Nowadays people don’t even know what he does. It’s sad. A sad state.”

While Sheen said she isn’t completely sold on the idea of a border wall with Mexico, she said “it’s a start.”

Sheen also said that she would like to see Obamacare ended.

“Get rid of Obamacare,” Sheen said. “I was never for that in the beginning and I’ve seen so much bad come of that.”

She added:

I work and have my insurance, but I’ve seen a lot of family members who can’t afford insurance, and they got that and it was crazy. They had to pay twice as much for everything to have anything. And then having to have insurance—yeah, you should. But there’s some people that, let’s face it, just can’t afford it. When insurance companies know you have to have it, they jack all the prices for it. Crazy.

She also said the the media’s coverage of Trump has not been fair.

“Oh my gosh, I’ve never seen a president cut down so badly by the press in all my life,” Sheen said, adding:

Every president has good and every president has bad, but it’s like I haven’t yet seen them tell the good. It’s like they’re just constantly looking for him to do bad, instead of trying to give some credit where credit is due. If he’s wrong and does wrong, I can understand that. But on the same sense, show the good, too, because there’s some out there.

  1. ‘My Dad, My Brother Are Both Republicans Now’

Nathan Moore (Photo: Rachel del Guidice)

Nathan Moore, a recent graduate of Perry High School in Massillon, Ohio, who was helping work Stark County Republicans’ booth at the fair, said ending Obamacare is a major issue for him.

“I know my grandpa, he’s always been a Democrat, but a whole lot of people lost their insurance and had to do that wait period until they get into Obamacare,” Moore said. “It just took entirely too long, and they’re a lot of money in debt.”

Moore also says he sees a distinct difference between how the media covered Obama and how they cover Trump.

“I think it’s been biased. I mean, you look at some of the coverage for Obama in his first term, and it was extremely like, ‘Hey, good for you, great,’” Moore said of the media coverage of Obama. “Nothing bad. Then Trump comes in, and it’s been kind of, ‘Hey, …he’s horrible, don’t listen to him.’”

The 18-year-old said he tried to communicate his conservative convictions by making light of politics and having serious discussions when appropriate.

It appears to be having some influence, as he said his dad and brother have switched their party from Democrat to Republican.

“If you’re like me and my family, we’re very sarcastic and we joke a lot,” Moore said. “So I would just say make a game out of it. Make jokes about it, if you can, just try to have a serious discussion about it every once in a while to make something happen. Ever since we started joking and talking about it and stuff, my dad, my brother are both Republicans now.”

COLUMN BY

Portrait of Rachel del Guidice

Rachel del Guidice

Rachel del Guidice is a reporter for The Daily Signal. She is a graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville, Forge Leadership Network, and The Heritage Foundation’s Young Leaders Program. Send an email to Rachel. Twitter: @LRacheldG.


The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. Donate now.


EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is of Ruth French, 86. (Photo: Rachel del Guidice/The Daily Signal)

VIDEO: Killers Inspire Killers. The Media Turn Killers Into Rock Stars.

TRANSCRIPT

So when are we going to be completely honest and acknowledge the awkward, bullied, sexually frustrated, psychotropic drug-laced, suicidal, mass shooters in the room for what they are? Or are we just going to keep acting like we don’t know what’s going on in the name of not confronting the miserable reality that they are a creation of our so-called progressive culture and media?

These shootings can’t get any more predictable. They’ve had the same damn MO for years now, and every time the same type of person commits the same type of carnage, our media swan dives into a promiscuous exploration of who these killers are under the guise of, ‘wanting to learn why they did it?’ We’ve known why these kids shoot up schools since Columbine. The kids from Columbine left an entire manifesto about why they did it.

Yet our moronic media in their blind pursuit for ratings will post every picture they can find of the shooter and repeat the shooters’ name habitually, turning the kid into a damn rock star within hours of the damn shooting and they will keep asking why these shootings keep happening in a country obsessed with celebrity culture raising a generation of kids with an inability to cope with anything.

It doesn’t take a clinical psychologist to see what’s going on and no it’s not guns, we’ve had guns in this country since its inception. Hell, 60 years ago I could order a gun out of a magazine and they’d send it to my house no questions asked. This country didn’t have these school shootings back in the day, and those kids were allowed to bring guns to school. Nothing has changed except our culture and the way our media handles these events when they happen.

We are creating every subsequent school shooter with every mention of their name and every posting of their picture. Nearly every single school shooter suffered from the same type of social ostracism and social neglect. Yet, we are somehow dumbfounded as to why a kid who no one paid attention to unless he was being bullied or picked on decides to go out in a blaze of glory and after spending weeks turning that kid into an infamous demigod, are then even more surprised when another kid dealing with the same issues goes out and tries to do the same thing but only worse!

We can’t be this stupid!

Instead of teaching our kids how to cope with the harsh realities of life, we shield them in safe spaces and give them participation trophies incentivizing mediocrity and tell our young boys that their masculinity is toxic, and our young girls that being a woman means acting like a man further confusing the hell out of kids who are naturally going to struggle with their identity as is.

Anyone screaming for gun control in response to this last shooting is just not being honest with themselves. The kid used a shotgun and a revolver that he took from his parents because he wasn’t old enough to buy a gun legally.

Ask yourself, what is the more likely a reason this latest killer decided to secretly build improvised explosives in order to murder his classmates in cold blood … “loose” gun laws, or our culture?

Then again, I don’t blame us. We’re merely doing exactly what we teach our kids to do. Ignore reality and blame everything else even if it means blaming a lifeless tool because apparently personal responsibility and accountability is just too high a price to pay for freedom.

VIDEO: Left or Liberal?

Tell the average American you’re a liberal and they’ll assume you’re on the political left. Yet, leftists and liberals hold very different positions on key issues. In this video, Dennis Prager explains how the tenets of liberalism like a belief in capitalism and free speech have more in common with conservatism than with the identity politics and racial resentment preached by the left.

Click here to take a brief survey about this video.

EDITORS NOTE: The featured photo is by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash.

Labor Unions Set Workers at War with Each Other

Every Labor Day, unions claim credit for every laborer’s gain, equating union members’ gains with benefits to all workers. However, that is impossible to square with what happens when some special union privilege is threatened, as with “right-to-work” legislation–unions quickly turn to threats, intimidation and violence against other workers. In fact, unions rely on coercion, actual or threatened, at all times to extract gains at the expense of other workers, by lowering the wages they can earn and raising the prices they pay as consumers.

If we agree with Emerson’s assertion that immoral means cannot achieve moral ends, such behavior should lead us to re-evaluate unions’ claims of benefitting labor. One excellent guide is philosopher Auberon Herbert, who saw unions’ effects clearly in “The True Line of Deliverance,” over a century ago:

“Unionism…is founded on distinctly wrong principles…the sacrifice of one section of the laborers to another.”

“[A nonmember]…is a real danger to the unionist, as when any quarrel occurs, he may take his place…Here begins the temptation to coerce.”

“Just as the union means a kind of war upon those in the same trade…[who] do not wish to be admitted, so it also means war on outside labor.”

“[As] unionists restrict production…the labor of other trades will exchange for less…Taking advantage of their position, these monopolists take advantage of their fellow-workmen at a lower price, whilst they charge a higher price for their own.”

“There are many other forms of restriction which…spring up whenever men begin regulating for each other the conditions of their labor…because the first restriction is found to be incomplete without the second, and the second without the third; and because men who once lend themselves to restriction acquire the temper of betaking themselves to restriction in the face of every difficulty.”

“[Some] wages may be pushed up for a time…yet is this a sufficient compensation for the state of war that is established between men of the same trade, between different trades, and between employer and employed; for all the individual inconvenience and restriction, and the loss of individual free action; for all the arbitrary things done by those in power, and the temptations towards coercing others?”

“It is the interest of all…to make the free‑trade footing universal for all. I do not mean that A and B should accept work on any terms other than those that they themselves approve; but that they should throw no dam round their labor by preventing C from…accepting terms which they decline. That is the true labor principle, universal individual choice.”

“The labor of the country never can obtain for itself, except at the expense of other labor, more than the free and open market will yield…in extracting more, he is behaving with something that is very near to dishonesty, since he is forcing this higher price at the expense of others.”

“Leave every man free to settle his own price of labor…In the case of a serious disagreement between an employer and his men, the union would remove all such men as wished to leave…But there would be no effort to prevent the employer obtaining new hands…There would be no strike, no picketing, no coercion of other men, no stigmatizing another fellow‑workman…because he was ready to take a lower wage…all this would be left perfectly free for each man to do according to what was right in his own judgment. If the employer had behaved badly, the true penalty would fall upon him; those who wished to leave his service would do so…Further than that in labor disputes has no man a right to go. He can throw up his own work, but he has no right to prevent others accepting that work.”

Auberon Herbert made the compelling case for liberty, enabling greater production and increased incomes, rather than coercive monopoly unionism, whose restrictions harm other workers. If we understood that, we would recognize union coercion as inherent rather than exceptional, and their consequences as harmful rather than beneficial. And we would not endorse such immoral means to immoral ends.

COLUMN BY

Gary M. Galles

Gary M. Galles

Gary M. Galles is a professor of economics at Pepperdine University. His recent books include Faulty Premises, Faulty Policies (2014) and Apostle of Peace (2013). He is a member of the FEE Faculty Network.

Auberon Herbert

Auberon Herbert

Auberon Herbert (1838-1906) was an English radical individualist who was influenced by the work of Herbert Spencer. With a group of other late Victorian classical liberals he was active in such organizations as the Personal Rights and Self-Help Association and the Liberty and Property Defense League. He formulated a system of “thorough” individualism that he described as “voluntaryism.”

Countdown to Civil War

On January 26, 2018 Daniel Greenfield gave a brilliant speech in South Carolina in which he argued that politics make civil wars – not guns. “Guns are how a civil war ends. Politics is how it begins.” What does that mean?

“Two or more sides disagree on who runs the country. And they can’t settle the question through elections because they don’t even agree that elections are how you decide who’s in charge. That’s the basic issue here. Who decides who runs the country? When you hate each other but accept the election results, you have a country. When you stop accepting election results, you have a countdown to a civil war.

This is no small thing. The United States of America has distinguished itself by the peaceful transfer of power through elections for 242 years. Opposing parties compete in an election – one side wins and the other loses. The country reunites after the election in support of the office of the President and competes again four years later.

In 2016 Hillary Clinton competed against Donald Trump for the presidency and lost. For the first time in American history, 22 months after a presidential election the losing party still refuses to accept the election outcome. We are in a countdown to civil war. What changed?

The losing party of leftist Democrats began believing their own narrative of political correctness, moral relativism, and historical revisionism. They live in the world of subjective reality where facts do not get in their way. Let me explain.

Subjective reality is a dreamscape where saying is the same as doing, all ideas are equal, and trying is the same as achieving. In the surreal world of subjective reality FEELINGS are the determining value. So, if you feel like Hillary should have won then in your mind she did win. If you feel that Donald Trump should not have won then he didn’t win – he is not your president.

In the objective world of FACTS Donald Trump won the election and is now the 45th president of the United States. He is President Donald Trump and is America’s president whether you like him or don’t like him, whether you agree with him or don’t agree with him, and whether you voted for him or didn’t vote for him. That is what it means to accept an election outcome – you accept the fact of it no matter how you feel about it.

As Tiger Woods so concisely pointed out, “He’s the president of the United States and you have to respect the office,” Tiger said. “No matter who’s in the office, you may like, dislike the personality or the politics, but we all must respect the office.”

Thought precedes behavior. If you do not accept the election outcome and behave as if Hillary won and Donald Trump lost, you are not only out of touch with objective reality, you are participating in the breakdown of the established American social order and are part of the countdown to civil war. How did this happen?

During the 1970s parenting and education shifted the focus from preparing children for adulthood to the elusive goal of assuring happiness for children. Happiness was no longer the consequence of competence and achievement – it became the goal itself. A seismic shift in the standards for behavior was launched. Those of us who had young children in elementary school in the late 70s and 80s witnessed a perplexing change in educational standards. Feelings replaced facts for what determined acceptable and unacceptable behavior. This is how it works.

Competence was abandoned as the mother of self-esteem and replaced with contrived methods of feel-good dialogue. Bolstering children’s self-esteem and protecting their feelings was the metric by which all things were measured. Trying was equivalent to achieving, all ideas were equal, cooperative learning replaced individual study, participation trophies were awarded, and there was no such thing as winning and losing.

Whatever made your child feel good was acceptable and whatever made the child feel bad was unacceptable. The problem, of course, is that children who are socialized in this artificial way do not develop the necessary coping skills and practice to deal with real loss and real disappointment outside the controlled atmosphere of their surroundings.

The destructive leftist regressive slide from facts to feelings as the determinant for behavior was manifest at home and in the classroom. Parents had abdicated their authority to “experts” and followed their feelings-based advice which inappropriately empowered the children robbing them of the attitudes and impulse control required to cope with loss and disappointment in the adult world of objective reality.

Three decades later the situation was so out of control that satirical films were written to highlight the absurdity of it. In the classic 2012 satirical comedy “Parental Guidance,” Diane (Bette Midler) and Artie Decker (Billy Crystal) play the “other” grandparents who go to their daughter and son-in-law’s home in Atlanta to babysit their three grandchildren so the parents, Alice and Phil, can get away for a business trip.

The old school, straightforward, authoritative parenting style of the grandparents immediately clashes with the parents’ indirect, tentative, over-involved, feel-good style. Alice instructs her parents on the rules for discipling the children, “We don’t say No – we say think of the consequences. We don’t say quit your whining – we say use your words.” The scenes are hilarious but extremely telling.

In one scene Turner, the middle child, is pitching at his little-league baseball game. Artie, a minor-league sportscaster who was fired because of his old school style instinctively starts to call the game. When he calls the batter out after three strikes it causes a ruckus. The umpire walks over and says, “There are no outs in this game.” No outs? Why not? The umpire explains that the kids keep swinging until they get on base and they don’t keep score so every game ends in a tie. WHAT?

The movie is farcical but the social implications are actually quite serious. Kids raised in this contrived manner are not accustomed to winners and losers – so why would they think elections outcomes are any different than baseball games when they are older? The problem is that the subjective reality they were raised with eventually clashes with objective reality – election laws – and there are consequences. When election laws are not respected we are in the countdown to civil war.

What about limits? Children who are raised without limits have great difficulty in abiding by limits including the limitations defined by laws. In an equally hilarious scene the family is at the symphony and Barker, the youngest boy, starts running through the audience chased by Artie completely disrupting the performance. Eventually Artie catches Barker and throws the child over his knees and raises his arm in exasperation, the entire audience gasps fearful that Artie will spank him. Artie looks up and and gives an impassioned speech mocking the parenting phrases “use your words” and when he finally exclaims, “The only words these kids never hear is NO!” the audience breaks into thunderous applause. Artie’s point highlights the consequences of indirect, tentative, feelings-based parenting.

Ironically, Turner stutters and has great difficulty using his words. He is in therapy with an arrogant condescending young woman with a worthless PhD from Yale who applauds Turner when he circles the room making airplane noises. Artie points out that none of the children are speaking and she smugly explains that the therapy is to make them “feel” safe enough to express themselves – Artie says he thought the point was for them to speak. Why is this important?

Comedy is an extremely effective way to expose the absurdity of behavior – so it is with “Parental Guidance.” The film is a masterpiece of comedy but also a cautionary tale. When feelings and effort are substituted for facts and achievement the consequences are a generation of young people who actually believe that their personal feelings are the metric for determining what is real and what is acceptable behavior. They live their lives in the alternative world of subjective reality and take advice from “experts” schooled in feelings rather than facts. In the dramatic conclusion of the film Turner steps up to the microphone and recites the famous play-by-play from Bobby Thompson’s stunning 1951 home run that won the pennant for the Giants. Turner had found his voice with Artie’s old school guidance. Why is this important?

Feelings define identity politics. Identity politics are the foundation of today’s leftist Democrat party. Feeling like a victim defines you as a victim. The Democrat party is the party of self-defined victimhood that embraces people of every color, age, religion, gender, sexual preference, and socio-economic status. What they do not tolerate is anyone who thinks differently. What binds these disparate groups together is their hatred for President Trump and refusal to accept the 2016 presidential election outcome. They do not accept President Trump as their president because they don’t like him and since their feelings are more important than facts they behave as if he is not president. They are participating in the countdown to civil war.

Two generations of Americans have been deliberately indoctrinated toward collectivism in the leftist narrative that prioritizes feelings over facts. The Democrat leaders are deliberately exploiting the compliant and unaware young people that leftist indoctrination has produced. Anti-American Americans who refuse to accept the election outcome are the social justice warriors that have been duped into supporting the fiction of leftist socialism. Their leaders knowingly created divisiveness to produce the social chaos that will make the United States ungovernable. Why? Social chaos leads to civil war. Politics makes civil wars – not guns.

It is worth repeating, “Two or more sides disagree on who runs the country. And they can’t settle the question through elections because they don’t even agree that elections are how you decide who’s in charge. That’s the basic issue here. Who decides who runs the country? When you hate each other but accept the election results, you have a country. When you stop accepting election results, you have a countdown to a civil war.”

President Donald Trump is demanding a return to the Constitution and rule of law. He is demanding that America honor and accept election outcomes because without acceptance there is only civil war to determine who runs the country. The leftist Democrat party is the hypocritical party of feelings. They only accept election outcomes if their preferred candidate wins. Only their own feelings matter!

Those of us who did not like or vote for Barack Obama accepted the 2008 and 2012 election outcomes. Because we are Americans first we accepted Obama’s victory regardless of our personal feelings. We did not “resist” and leaders of the opposition party did not participate in a coup to overthrow him. We waited until 2016 and cast our votes for President Donald J. Trump – the duly elected 45th president of the United States of America.

America is at a tipping point – if we allow the FEELINGS of the left to supersede the rule of law the country will tilt further toward anarchy and there will be civil war. Accepting the FACTS of election outcomes is a far better choice. It’s time to go old school – there are winners and there are losers. Get used to it!

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the Goudsmit Pundicity. The featured image is by CBS/AP.

Muslim Soldier Wanted to go ‘to downtown Honolulu and Waikiki strip and start shooting’

HONOLULU/US Department of Justice/ August 29, 2018  – Ikaika Erik Kang, 35, a Sergeant First Class in the U.S. Army stationed at Schofield Barracks, pleaded guilty today in federal court to four counts of attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization.

Kang was indicted on terrorism charges on July 19, 2017.  As part of a plea agreement reached with the United States, Kang agreed to serve 25 years in prison and at least 20 years, and up to life, of supervised release.  Kang will be sentenced on December 10, 2018 by Senior U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway.  If Judge Mollway accepts the plea agreement at that time, the 25-year term of imprisonment will be binding.

The announcement was made by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney Kenji M. Price for the District of Hawaii, and Special Agent in Charge Sean Kaul of the FBI’s Honolulu Field Office.

“Kang swore to defend the United States as a member of our military, but betrayed his country by swearing allegiance to ISIS and attempting to provide material support to the foreign terrorist organization,” said Assistant Attorney General Demers.  “With today’s plea, he will be held accountable for his crimes.  I want to thank all of the agents, analysts and prosecutors who are responsible for this case.”

“This Office will vigorously prosecute anyone who attempts to provide material support to terrorists who seek to spread fear and cause mayhem in our communities through senseless acts of violence,” said U.S. Attorney Price.  “The prosecutors and law enforcement agencies who brought the defendant to justice in this case work shoulder-to-shoulder, every day, promoting our national security interests and keeping our communities safe.”

“This is the first case in the State of Hawaii where someone was convicted of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization,” Special Agent in Charge Kaul.  “This should serve as reminder that even though we are 2,500 miles from the U.S. Mainland, these crimes can and do happen everywhere.  I would like to personally thank the United States Attorney’s Office, the Unites States Army, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the Honolulu Police Department, and the entire Joint Terrorism Task Force Community here in Hawaii for bringing this investigation to a successful conclusion.  Today, our community is a safer place due to their tireless efforts.”

According to court documents and information presented in court, Kang became sympathetic to ISIS by at least early 2016.  He regularly watched ISIS propaganda videos online, including videos that depicted ISIS members violently executing civilian and military victims.  Kang made numerous statements in support of ISIS, expressed a desire to join ISIS, and spoke approvingly about committing acts of violence.  At the time, Kang made these statements, he owned an AR-15-style assault rifle and a pistol, both of which he kept at his residence on Oahu.  Kang was under ongoing physical surveillance by law enforcement from the beginning of the investigation until the time of his eventual arrest.

In late June and early July of 2018, Kang met numerous times with undercover FBI agents who he believed had connections to ISIS.  He provided them with sensitive, non-public military documents, some of which were classified at the SECRET level, which he intended that they later provide to ISIS.  The documents included, among other things: classified air traffic control documents that describe call signs, aircraft types, route points, directives, mission procedures, and radio frequencies; the U.S. military’s “weapons file,” which describes all the armament capabilities of the U.S. armed forces; details about a sensitive mobile airspace management system used by the U.S. military; and documents containing personally identifiable information of U.S. service members.

Kang later provided the undercover agents with a commercially purchased small aerial drone, a military chest rig, and other military-style clothing and gear.  Kang described how ISIS could operationally utilize the drone to track U.S. troop movements and gain tactical advantage by evading American armored vehicles.  Kang then met two additional undercover FBI personnel, one who purported to be a high-ranking ISIS leader, or “sheikh,” and another who played the role of an ISIS fighter.  Kang lead them in a hand-to-hand military combatives training session using his weapons, in order to train the purported ISIS member in fighting techniques.  The sessions were video-recorded, with the understanding that the video would be taken back to ISIS-controlled territory and used to train other ISIS fighters in hand-to-hand combat and weapons techniques.

On July 8, 2017, Kang swore an oath of loyalty, known as “bayat,” to ISIS and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in a ceremony conducted by the purported ISIS sheikh.  After the ceremony, Kang kissed the ISIS flag.  Kang then said that he wanted to get his rifle and go and fight; just go to downtown Honolulu and Waikiki strip and start shooting.  Kang was subsequently arrested and taken into custody.

The case was investigated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Honolulu, the FBI, and the U.S. Army, Criminal Investigative Division, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kenneth M. Sorenson and Marc A. Wallenstein of the District of Hawaii, and Trial Attorney Taryn M. Meeks of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.

RELATED ARTICLE: Former Wheeler soldier planned to shoot up downtown and Waikiki for ISIS, U.S. attorney says

15 Ideas to Ponder

Here are 15 ideas/statements you should consider and share:

1.  Senator John McCain was not a war hero.  He was not a true conservative.  McCain was a traitor to America and especially to missing POW’s in Vietnam.  He did everything he could and achieved the goal of not allowing classified material from the Vietnam war era to be released to the American public.  He did this because the intelligent reports would have shown his collaboration with North Vietnam.  Simply crashing your military aircraft (which he had done so on 3 prior occasions) and becoming a POW does not make one a hero.  McCain was at the very bottom of the Naval Academy when he graduated (bottom five of 894).  He should have never been allowed to become a pilot.

2.  Islam is not a religion of peace.  It is an ideology of economic, political and military characteristics and uses religion as a tool to achieve their ultimate goal of an Islamic nation worldwide and under Shariah law.  Islam is a grave danger to not only America but to the world.  Islam is a satanic cult which needs to be destroyed.  Never ever trust a person who aligns with this cult. Deception and lying are principals to this cult.

3.  Be proud of your culture and race regardless of how the media portrays you.  It is an honor to be a white person as well.  You should hold no shame for being born white and you should teach your children to be proud.  If you are born black you should also be proud.  Stand up for your country and your race.

4.  America is the greatest country in the world.  Be proud of your country and always be willing to die for her if need be.

5.  Slavery is an evil that has taken roots in our world since the beginning of civilization.  Slavery has been a world wide pandemic in virtually every country and still flourishes in every Islamic based country to this day.  Do not be ashamed of Americas past involving slavery.  Slavery was not a white mans invention.  Blacks in African based countries introduced slavery for economic profit.  Whites in America fell into the trap of accepting slavery, but always remember you had nothing to do with this, nor do your children.  Do not allow liberals (communists) make you feel guilty.  Remind the critics that blacks sold their own to many countries 250 years ago and to this day slavery exists in Africa and in many countries throughout the world.  Islamic based countries still have slavery to this day.

6.  Saudi Arabia controls all of Sunni Islam and Iran controls all of Shia activities around the world.  Never trust either of these countries.  They are the major enemies of America.  They are not in anyway friends of America.

7.  Always support Israel.  The Israelis are true friends of America and they will always support Americans.

8.  Israel, Canada, and England are the only countries we can rely on in time of war.  Do not trust any other country regardless of their propaganda messages.

9.  Islamic mosques throughout the world are nothing more than safe havens for military operations carried out against their enemies around the world, and yes this includes America.  There are now over 3000 mosques in America and their ultimate goal is to destroy America.

10.  Organizations such as Black Lives Matter and Antifa are communist controlled organizations.  Beware of them and never trust any person involved with these organizations.

11.  American media organizations are primarily supporters of liberal (communist) ideas and never should you listen to them for non biased information.  This includes Fox News and their personalities.  The people employed by all major news networks do so for ratings and significant paychecks.  Yes again this includes FOX.  The majority of media personalities are true communists.  They will do or say anything for personal profit.  a good example is the former Fox News personality Megan Kelly.  She came across as an honest conservative, but behind her mask she was a liberal.

12.  President Trump is the best President our country has ever had, except for possibly Ronald Reagan.  He is not perfect, as no person is, but he loves America and the American people.  Support him or we will lose America.

13.  Educators in American schools from the earliest grades through college are primarily liberal and they are teaching your children to hate America and to embrace communism.  Do not trust them.  If possible self educate your children or place them in the few select private schools that are conservative.

14.  Always support the U.S. Constitution.  The right to bear arms is a fundamental American right.  Enemies within our government know that they can only go so far in instilling communist ideas because they realize the American conservatives own millions of firearms and will protect this country with their blood before they allow America to be taken over by Islamic or communist groups.  Never ever disarm.

15.  Martial law will engulf our country whenever we next have a liberal (communist) in control of our government.  Martial law will be the warning sign that true conservatives need to realize is the signal to take America back even if it means giving your life.  Children are the future of America.  Protect them by showing your love for America and control what liberals are trying to teach them.  Teach them that the Constitution is the only true law of the land.

Follow the 15 points above and America will flourish.  If you choose to not do so you will see in your lifetime the fall of our great country.

EDITORS NOTE: This column on We Are Not Afraid.

Facebook Flags, Censors NPR Report on Inflated Government School Shooting Statistics

Earlier this week, NPR reported on the high number of school shootings alleged by the U.S. Department of Education. The 240 school shootings detailed in the department’s report on the 2015-2016 school year was significantly higher than other estimates. So NPR, with the assistance of the non-profit group Child Trends, began doing what good journalists do: they collected data.

Over a period of several months, they contacted every school. What NPR found was startling.

“[More] than two-thirds of these reported incidents never happened,” NPR reported.

A colleague of mine, Sean Malone, shared NPR’s article—which carried the headline ”The School Shootings That Weren’t”—with a few thousand Facebook friends and followers on Tuesday.

It was flagged as spam and removed.

Facebook’s crackdown on fake news and “hate speech” has been well chronicled.

There are many reasons to be wary of such censorship: Who decides what’s true? Who decides what’s fake? Who decides what’s hateful?

What’s most troubling about this case is that it strongly suggests that Facebook is censoring information that conflicts with particular political narratives. This is dangerous.

Social media tech giants have claimed in court the right to censor users for any reason—even “on the basis of religion, or gender, or sexual preference, or physical disability, or mental disability.” During an April court hearing, attorneys for Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey assured California Superior Court Judge Harold Kahn the power would be used judiciously.

Recent events suggest otherwise.

Silicon Valley’s clumsy and partisan censorship practically invites intervention from Washington, D.C. This would be the worst case scenario.

Matt Taibbi, writing in Rolling Stone earlier this month, warned about where the slippery slope of social media censorship would take us.

[P]oliticians are more interested in using than [in] curtailing the power of these companies. The platforms, for their part, will cave rather than be regulated. The endgame here couldn’t be clearer. This is how authoritarian marriages begin, and people should be very worried.

The solution isn’t for lawmakers and Silicon Valley whiz kids to decide what speech is appropriate. The solution is for Facebook and Twitter to return to being open platforms faithful to their original visions.

(Editor’s Update: As of Friday afternoon, the NPR article was back in Sean Malone’s Facebook feed.)

COLUMN BY

Minnesota Republican candidate for governor says he would seek to end refugee resettlement in his state, if elected

And, I was surprised to see that in a recent poll he is only five points behind the Democrat candidate for governor.  Minnesotans who want to save their state need to get to work!

For inspiration, re-visit this 2015 post where Minnesota’s present Democrat Governor told Minnesotans to leave the state if they didn’t like the diversity he was welcoming!

By the way, in every state and district, all of you concerned about immigration should make sure that someone is at Democrat campaign stops from now until November to bring up the question of refugee resettlement, the border wall, sanctuary cities, migrant crimes etc.  Get the candidate on the record!

This is your best chance this year to get YOUR views out past the mainstream media filter!

From Michael Patrick Leahy at Breitbart:

Minnesota GOP Gubernatorial Nominee: Time to End Refugee Resettlement in State

Jeff Johnson make MN red

Minnesota Republican gubernatorial nominee Jeff Johnson.

Minnesota Republican gubernatorial nominee Jeff Johnson says it is time to end the federal government’s refugee resettlement program in the state.

Johnson told Breitbart News’s deputy Washington political editor Amanda House on Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Sunday that if elected he will go to Washington, D.C. and deliver that message to the Trump administration officials in charge of the Refugee Admissions Program.

“Here, we have the issue of becoming a sanctuary state or not. My Democrat opponent actually has signed on to becoming a sanctuary state, which I think is absolutely insane,” Johnson said.

“We also have a refugee issue in Minnesota. We have been more generous and accepted more refugees than any other state in the country. Not by a little, but by a lot,” he added.

“What I have called for is that we end our participation in that [federal refugee resettlement] program, at least until we get answers to the questions of cost, and start addressing the issue of whether the refugees that are here are succeeding or not, because many of them aren’t. The unemployment rate is extremely high among the Somali population in Minnesota,” Johnson said.

“If you include state and federal spending, [the cost of supporting refugees is] in the hundreds of millions of dollars. We don’t know what the number is though, because the Legislative Auditor, which is a very well respected non-partisan office, was charged with trying to figure that out, and the answer they came back with was, well no one keeps track of that and no one asks the right questions,” he added.

On this issue of getting at the costs of refugee resettlement. Every time someone who wants to restrict refugees asks, he or she is told there simply is no good data on what refugees cost the taxpayer.

Then I want to know how the Open Borders gang, like Welcoming America!, comes up with studies that say unequivocally that refugees BENEFIT the economy.  Where are they getting their numbers? Or are they just not trying to find out the true costs?

Leahy continues:

“There is an existing lawsuit that Tennessee has gotten involved with. Would you be willing to jump on board that lawsuit?” House asked.

“Absolutely I would consider that,” Johnson responded.

Leahy then tells readers about two big issues for Minnesota involving refugees: health issues especially high rates of TB, and the issue of MN producing jihadists!

The latest poll shows Johnson trails his Democrat rival in the governor’s race, Rep. Tim Walz (D-MN-01) by five points, 46 percent to 41 percent.

More here.

I’ve written literally hundreds of posts on Minnesota over the last 11 years and have been to the state twice to see for myself.  Go here for my Minnesota archive.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Trump Administration likely to come in at half the number of refugees they had signaled could be admitted

Invasion of Europe news: Spain orders deportations of African migrants

Another Uzbek refugee sentenced to prison on terrorism charges

The Base of the Democratic Party is Socialist/Marxist — How they’re infiltrating our public school system

A pamphlet by the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), in conjunction with the Democratic Socialist Labor Commission, outlines a push for socialists to “take jobs as teachers” as a way to move teachers unions “in a more militant and democratic direction.”

The blood-soaked history of socialism is no longer brought up in history classes so it’s unknown by millennial’s, leading them to identify as supporters of the movement.

Campus Reform reported that the YDSA’s 11-page pamphlet notes teachers are able to use their relationships with students to discuss “campaigns around police brutality, immigrant rights, and environmental justice.” In an article titled “YDSA urges socialists to infiltrate public education” Zachary Petrizzo reports:

The Young Democratic Socialists of America organization is urging socialists to “take jobs as teachers” in order to exploit the “political, economic, and social potential the industry holds.”

“Why Socialists Should Become Teachers,” an 11-page pamphlet crafted jointly by YDSA and the Democratic Socialist Labor Commission, contends that education is “a strategic industry to organize,” and offers prospective socialist educators “a basic roadmap for how to get a job in education.”

“Even in West Virginia, where teachers experienced some of the lowest pay in the nation, they were sometimes the highest-paid workers in their communities.”    ]

The pamphlet begins by outlining the “success” of the recent West Virginia teachers strike, which it attributes to “creative shop floor organizing” from teachers who believed in “socialist politics.”

“Our immediate win in West Virginia was a 5% raise for all public sector workers, plus halting charter school legislation and attacks on seniority,” the document boasts. “But crucially, our movement’s demand was that the money come from highly profitable corporations that have long exploited West Virginia’s natural wealth.”

The Democratic Socialist platform was championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) two years ago on the campaign trail.

Using the same platform, young political newcomer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won a shock victory in June over Rep. Joe Crowley (N.Y.) in a Democratic primary. A new Gallop Poll revealed that more Democrats have a positive view about socialism than those who express a positive view about capitalism. Gallop found:

For the first time in Gallup’s measurement over the past decade, Democrats have a more positive image of socialism than they do of capitalism. Attitudes toward socialism among Democrats have not changed materially since 2010, with 57% today having a positive view. The major change among Democrats has been a less upbeat attitude toward capitalism, dropping to 47% positive this year — lower than in any of the three previous measures. Republicans remain much more positive about capitalism than about socialism, with little sustained change in their views of either since 2010.

The following are the Gallop Poll numbers:

  • 47% of Democrats view capitalism positively, down from 56% in 2016
  • 57% of Democrats now view socialism positively, little changed from 2010
  • Republicans very positive about capitalism; 16% positive on socialism

Views About Capitalism and Socialism: by Political Party

Positive view of capitalism Positive view of socialism
% %
Democrats/Leaners
2018 47 57
2016 56 58
2012 55 53
2010 53 53
Republicans/Leaners
2018 71 16
2016 68 13
2012 72 23
2010 72 17
GALLUP

Radio host Michael Knowles said on “Fox & Friends” that Democratic Socialists are urging Socialists to become teachers because they can’t win a “fair fight.” Knowles said Saturday that he believes Democratic Socialists are targeting the public school system and as a result, the students, because they can’t win against their parents.

“They can’t win in the battle of ideas, Democratic Socialists are trying to cut off any thought of freedom by students and replace it with socialist ideology. “They’ve got to indoctrinate an ideology rather than educate in history because if they teach history, they’re going to lose,” he said.

The pamphlet notes that organizing in schools is a way to “win concessions from the millionaire and billionaire class.”

“Teaching is proving to be one viable way for socialists to get into the labor movement and wage class struggle in a key industry that is under attack by capital,” it reads.

RELATED ARTICLES:

No. 2 ranked U.S. law school study finds conservative profs shunned by elite schools

Harvard Prof: Merit-based admissions ‘reproduce inequality’

Progressivism Takes Its Place Among the Major Religions

RELATED: Democratic Socialists set up shop on campuses nationwide

Radicalized Democrats: Destroying the Country and Their Own Party

VIDEO: There Are Terrorists in Our Midst

“[Terrorists] are here. They are among us. And it is time for our law enforcement to quit ignoring the realities of the fact that there are terrorists in our midst.” —Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, Family Research Council

A Postmortem of the 2018 Florida Primary

The Florida primary was held last Tuesday (Aug 28, 2018), and the field of Republicans and Democrats have been whittled down to one per party.

The number of votes cast, and the delegates selected give us a glimpse as to what to expect November 6th, not just here in the Sunshine State, but around the country.

The candidates now include:

U.S. SENATE
Rick Scott (R)
Bill Nelson (D)

Comment: This will be a contest between an out-going GOP Governor who reduced unemployment and created jobs, versus a career politician (22 years in the House (11 terms), 18 years in the Senate (3 terms))who followed party lines. Because of his tenure and voting record, Nelson is vulnerable.

U.S. HOUSE, DISTRICT 12
Gus Bilirakis (R)
Chris Hunter (D)

Comment: Bilirakis is the incumbent, serving since 2007, and is a strong advocate for veterans. He faces a serious challenge in Hunter, a former federal prosecutor and FBI agent.

U.S. HOUSE, DISTRICT 13
George Buck (R)
Charlie Crist (D)

Comment: Former Governor and Republican Crist is the incumbent and ran unopposed as a Democrat. Newcomer Buck has an up-hill battle on his hands.

GOVERNOR
Ron DeSantis (R)
Andrew Gillum (D)

Comment: This will be the most visible race in the state and will set the tone for all others. Rep. DeSantis is pro-Trump (having been endorsed by the President), versus anti-Trump candidate Gillum. Gillum surprised a lot of people by defeating Gwen Graham in the primary. His experience primarily includes serving as Mayor of Tallahassee. He is a Progressive and endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders.

ATTORNEY GENERAL
Ashley Moody (R)
Sean Shaw (D)

Comment: Moody possesses an extensive legal career, including commercial litigation, Federal prosecutor, and Circuit Court judge. Shaw’s background is as the state’s Insurance Consumer Advocate. Hand’s down, Moody has more experience.

AGRICULTURE COMMISSIONER
Matt Caldwell (R)
Nicole “Nikki” Fried (D)

Comment: Caldwell pulled off a bit of a surprise by defeating Denise Grimsley and Baxter Troutman. Caldwell is endorsed by Sen. Marco Rubio and the NRA. He is also an avid Constitutional Conservative. Fried is from Miami, an attorney, and helped expand access to medical marijuana. She claims, “Our politics and our government is broken.”

And from around the Pinellas County area, we have:

STATE SENATE, DISTRICT 16
Ed Hooper (R)
Amanda Hickman Murphy (D)

Comment: Murphy is a former member of the Florida House. She will be running against Hooper, a career politician who has generated a lot more campaign funds than his opponent.

STATE REPRESENTATIVE, DISTRICT 64
James Grant (R)
Jessica Harrington (D)

Comment: Harrington, a school teacher, will be running against incumbent Grant.

STATE REPRESENTATIVE, DISTRICT 65
Chris Sprowl (R)
Sally Laufer (D)

Comment: Former Assistant State Attorney and incumbent Sprowls faces Progressive newcomer Laufer.

STATE REPRESENTATIVE, DISTRICT 66
Nick DiCeglie (R)
Alex Heeren (D)

Comment: Heeren is another former teacher looking to support his community. He will face DiCeglia who is a business owner and GOP county head. Hard to read this one; could be a coin-toss.

STATE REPRESENTATIVE, DISTRICT 67
Christopher Latvala (R)
Dawn C. Douglas (D)

Comment: Douglas is a newcomer and another school teacher vying against incumbent Latvala. She may be without the financial resources to adequately fight.

STATE REPRESENTATIVE, DISTRICT 68
Ben Diamond (D)
Comment: Running unopposed, incumbent.

STATE REPRESENTATIVE, DISTRICT 69
Ray Blacklidge (R)
Jennifer Webb (D)

Comment: Blacklidge is a local attorney and businessman, as well as life-long Republican. Webb is active in her community.

STATE REPRESENTATIVE, DISTRICT 70
Wengay “Newt” Newton (D)

Comment: Running unopposed, incumbent.

NOTE: This list does not include candidates for County Commissioners, School Board, or Fire Commission.

For the complete list of candidates, including the Pinellas County School Board, click HERE.

CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS

Although the election day data has not yet been posted, showing votes by counties and party, the final numbers are in in terms of Votes-by-Mail (absentee) and early voting. The data shown here is most illuminating.

Here we clearly see Republicans like to vote by absentee ballot (write-in), and Democrats prefer early-voting in person.

According to the Florida Department of State, Board of Elections, the number of registered Florida voters eligible to vote in the Primary included:

This means Democrats had the advantage going into the primary election, but allowed Republicans to cast more votes. This implies Democrats still do not like to vote in mid-term elections.

Over 2 million people voted in Florida prior to election day, an admirable number, but it pales in comparison to the 2016 presidential year figures which is typical.

There were 832,052 less early-votes in the Tampa Bay area than the 2016 election (1,326,728); in other words 62.8% less.

In Florida, 4,510,659 less early-votes in Florida than the 2016 election (6,511,678); in other words 69.3% less.

       REP    DEM    OTHRS
2016   39.5%  38.0%  19.5%
2018   45.7%  43.8%  10.4% 

In other words, from a percentage perspective, Republicans were more active than 2016, and the Democrats did not keep pace. However, notice the “OTHRS” figure, representing independents; as this was a primary, the percentage is down; again, this is to be expected as the primary is a race for the parties. The Independents though are the real prize as that number will go up for the November 6th election.

SO WHAT CAN WE EXPECT GOING INTO THE NOVEMBER ELECTION?

It appears the Republicans are cognizant of what is at stake in this election and are not taking anything for granted. If they lose, and the Congress falls into the hands of the Democrats, they fear their president will face impeachment. They are also deeply satisfied with the economic changes in the country since Mr. Trump entered the White House. As such, Florida Republicans are unified and determined. They are rallying around their President and are showing up in force to vote. At the state level, they fear a liberal agenda will force higher taxes and threaten the second amendment.

If you read the campaign pages of the Democrats, you’ll notice a common theme: “Florida is broken,” and, “We need to put the interests of the people above those of special interests.” The question is, will Independents buy it? The Democrats’ problem is they have yet to devise a compelling argument to vote for them, other than to resist President Trump. They also offer the enticement of more freebies, particularly college education, but the taxpayers know they will get stuck with the bill. In other words, the Democrats are stuck in a rut. And please, forget the mantra of Socialism; it will simply not fly down here where people have worked hard all their lives to retire.

What we are about to witness here in Florida, as well as elsewhere across the country, is an ugly brawl pitting the pro-Trump forces against the anti-Trumpers. The real fight is over the votes of the Independents. If they believe the country is better economically and in need of tougher laws on immigration, they will side with the GOP. If not, they will go with the Democrats.

Frankly, I see a “Red Tide” coming to Florida in November, certainly not blue. I would like to believe the other states will follow suit, but I will only comment on Florida herein.

Keep the Faith!

Note: All trademarks both marked and unmarked belong to their respective companies.

RELATED ARTICLES: 

MAGA Candidate Ron DeSantis Wins. Will face Democrat Socialist Gillum for Governor of Florida.

Mainstream media declares Democrat socialist Andrew Gillum is a monkey!

In Wake of Jacksonville Shooting, ‘News’ Outlet Recycles Article Calling for Firearm Confiscation

It’s sometimes said that insanity can be defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If that’s true, it doesn’t speak well of gun control advocates’ mental health, insofar as they repeat the same ritual after every high-profile firearm-related crime, with little or no lasting impact on public opinion or national policy. Their standard procedure is: immediately misreport basic facts of the incident; unleash the indignation of antigun politicians and celebrities on social media; condemn the NRA and anyone else who offers thoughts and prayers while awaiting reliable information; demand the same types of gun controls that failed to prevent the incident; insist that the gun debate has reached a turning point; and abruptly stop talking about the incident when emotions cool and facts emerge that show how existing gun controls failed.

The defining tactic in this whole chain of events is to seize and define the narrative in the immediate aftermath of the event before anybody actually knows what happened.

The website Vox.com, however, took this tendency to new depths by using a double-murder/suicide that took place at a video game competition in Jacksonville, Florida, to re-run nearly word-for-word an article the outlet had published in May after a firearm-related crime in Sante Fe, Texas. In both cases, the author used his limited propaganda window to express opinions that gun control advocates usually shun in the calm, cold light of reasoned debate. “What America likely needs,” he wrote, “is something … like Australia’s mandatory buyback program — essentially, a gun confiscation scheme — paired with a serious ban on specific firearms (including, potentially, all semiautomatic weapons).”

Yet if it’s crazy for gun control advocates to expect different results from doing the same thing, it’s equally crazy for Second Amendment supporters to ignore what the opposition says when they believe they have the leeway to really speak their mind. Simply put, when someone tells you he wants to take your guns, the only safe bet is to take him at his word.

This is the reality of the gun control agenda: its adherents see guns as the problem and the absence of guns as the solution. Everything they do is geared toward the goal of reducing and eventually eliminating civilian firearm ownership. The only variable is the speed at which they’re willing to accomplish this objective. Sometimes they’re willing to do it by attrition, with an eye toward the gradual tapering off of new gun owners. But the temptation to extol mass firearm confiscation is one many simply cannot resist when their outrage is in full bloom.

To be fair, the Vox author admitted that his plan is not viable in the short term and that “[p]art of the holdup is the Second Amendment.” He was quick to endorse whatever “milder” gun control the U.S. will tolerate in the meantime, while it works up the will “to take the action it really needs.”

But again, let’s not kid ourselves about what this “milder” gun control really accomplishes.

It’s certainly not public safety, a fact illustrated by the Jacksonville incident itself. According to media accounts, the alleged perpetrator bought the pistol he used in his crime in Maryland, which has one of the nation’s strictest gun control regimes. He then reportedly used that pistol to commit a multiple-murder/suicide in a state known for a more lenient approach to gun control. The scene of the crime was also a gun-free zone. And while the media is indulging in its usual obsession about what “should have” stopped him from buying gun, the alleged perpetrator cleared every “evidence-based polic[y]” the Vox author suggested might at least lead to “reduced injuries and deaths.” This includes Maryland’s licensing and background check requirements, its expansive mental health disqualifiers for firearm ownership, and even its “assault weapons” and “large capacity” magazine bans.

This was “state of the art” gun control in 2013. It was Maryland’s “solution” to “preventing” something like what happened the year before in Newtown, Connecticut.

And now that it has failed so publicly, the Maryland legislature is said to be considering – you guessed it – even more restrictive gun control.

Because, ultimately, the only thing that gun control accomplishes is conditioning the public to accept ever more gun control under the false premise that we’re somehow just a few laws short of overcoming the problem of human evil.

Come to think of it, that’s a pretty good definition of insanity, as well.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Dick’s’ Sales Soft Following Anti-gun Efforts

Giffords’ Gun Control Activists Plot Rollout of Next Generation Firearm Restrictions

The Arms Trade Treaty: Where 46% Eat Free

Oregon Teen Shoots Down Discriminatory Walmart Gun Policy

VIDEO: There Were No FISA Court Hearings on Carter Page Warrants

No wonder the Deep Staters plotting the overthrow of Donald Trump were able to get as far as they did. The secret court meant to protect all of us from the government’s massive spy machinery was asleep at the switch. At least, I hope that’s all it was.

In response to our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, the Department of Justice (DOJ) admitted in a court filing last night that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court held no hearings on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) spy warrant applications targeting Carter Page, a former Trump campaign part-time advisor who was the subject of four controversial FISA warrants.

[National Security Division] FOIA consulted [Office of Intelligence] … to identify and locate records responsive to [Judicial Watch’s] FOIA request…. [Office of Intelligence] determined … that there were no records, electronic or paper, responsive to [Judicial Watch’s] FOIA request with regard to Carter Page. [Office of Intelligence] further confirmed that the [Foreign Surveillance Court] considered the Page warrant applications based upon written submissions and did not hold any hearings.

The warrants were first issued in 2016 and subsequently renewed three times.

The Department of Justice previously released to us the heavily redacted Page warrant applications. The initial Page FISA warrant was granted just weeks before the 2016 election.

The DOJ filing is in response to our lawsuit for the FISA transcripts (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:18-cv-01050)).

In February, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee released a memo criticizing the FISA targeting of Carter Page. The memo details how the “minimally corroborated” Clinton-DNC dossier was an essential part of the FBI and DOJ’s applications for surveillance warrants to spy on Page.

We recently filed a request with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court seeking the transcripts of all hearings related to the surveillance of Carter Page.

It is disturbing that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance courts rubber-stamped the Carter Page spy warrants and held not one hearing on these extraordinary requests to spy on the Trump team.

Perhaps the court can now hold hearings on how justice was corrupted by material omissions that Hillary Clinton’s campaign, the DNC, a conflicted Bruce Ohr, a compromised Christopher Steele, and anti-Trumper Peter Strzok were all behind the ‘intelligence’ used to persuade the courts to approve the FISA warrants that targeted the Trump team.

Most School Shootings in Federal Report Just Didn’t Happen

This is one for the annals of fake news. A federal agency is blundering around with erroneous but inflammatory data on a major topic of national contention, it gets called out by a government-supported news outlet … and it does nothing about it. Our Corruption Chronicles blog peeks into the window of this fun house.

In an amusing story, a government-funded media outlet notorious for its liberal slant found that the overwhelming majority of school shootings listed in a federal report never occurred. The embarrassing blunder involves Department of Education (DOE) figures stating that schools around the U.S. reported an alarming 235 shootings in one year.

National Public Radio (NPR) launched an investigation and actually contacted every one of the schools included in the DOE data, which was gathered by its Office for Civil Rights. The figures focus on the 2015-2016 school year and reveal that “nearly 240 schools…reported at least 1 incident involving a school-related shooting.”

Three months later, after every school was contacted by NPR, the stats changed drastically. More than two-thirds of the reported gun incidents never happened, according to the news outlet. “We were able to confirm just 11 reported incidents, either directly with schools or through media reports,” the article states. “In 161 cases, schools or districts attested that no incident took place or couldn’t confirm one. In at least four cases, we found, something did happen, but it didn’t meet the government’s parameters for a shooting. About a quarter of schools didn’t respond to our inquiries.” A program director at the nonprofit research organization that assisted NPR in analyzing the bogus government data is quoted in the piece saying: “When we’re talking about such an important and rare event, [this] amount of data error could be very meaningful.”

Even though the DOE is the agency responsible for disseminating the erroneous information, in typical government fashion, it shrugged it off as no big deal. When asked for comment by reporters, the agency said it relies on school districts to provide accurate information. Evidently, the federal agency doesn’t bother checking data before publishing it as fact. In the meantime, the DOE has no plans to correct the errors. The article points out that the confusion comes at a time when the need for clear data on school violence has never been more pressing. Dozens of school safety measures have been enacted nationwide on the heels of high-profile school shootings in Texas and Florida and public districts are allocating large sums to boost campus security. “Our reporting highlights just how difficult it can be to track school-related shootings and how researchers, educators and policymakers are hindered by a lack of data on gun violence,” the NPR piece reads.

This is hardly an isolated incident of government inefficiency, but the seriousness of the matter should inspire the feds to provide the public—and policy makers—with accurate information. Instead, the DOE, a typical bloated agency with a $59 billion budget, passed the buck to the so-called civil rights data collection division which apparently plays fast and loose with facts. In the report with the skewed stats, schools were asked: “Has there been at least one incident at your school that involved a shooting (regardless of whether anyone was hurt)?” The DOE should have known better than to blindly publish the information. All it had to do was check out the easily available figures provided by a reputable group that maintains a reliable gun safety database. For the same school year that the DOE listed 235 shootings, the group had only 29. “There is little overlap between this list and the government’s, with only seven schools appearing on both,” the NPR story says.

Portland Mayor Endorses an Attack on Law Enforcement

There is a dangerous lawlessness among leftist politicians and activists. And, in the case of Portland, it is putting at risk the safety of law enforcement. Here’s the latest outrage from Portland, courtesy of Judicial Watch’s Corruption Chronicles blog:

During aggressive protests by criminal Occupy Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rioters at federal facilities in Oregon, Portland’s Mayor implemented dangerously restrictive police procedures that ordered officers to ignore calls for help from federal law enforcement personnel under attack.

Instead of proactive support, Portland Police Bureau (PPB) were limited to a passive “liaison” role with the Federal Protection Service (FSP). According to records obtained by Judicial Watch, PPB officers were only allowed to respond to life-threatening attacks and 911 calls made by ICE agents and FPS officers. Portland’s Mayor Ted Wheeler also serves as the city’s Police Bureau Commissioner. Wheeler has been a vocal proponent in his commitment to protect criminal illegal aliens, restrict gun rights and support burdensome climate policies. Under his direction, tensions among protestors and federal law enforcement officers started in mid-Junewith a camp at ICE facilities in the downtown area and ended in late July with piles of trash in the street. ICE Council leadership reported hard-left Antifa members were an active contingent among protestors who besieged the federal immigration processing offices, damaged property and injured officers.

Documents obtained by Judicial Watch indicate an alarming hands-off approach instituted by PPB management. On June 19, FPS Commander Lopez asked PPB Deputy Chief Robert Day for assistance. Day’s refusal in the highly redacted document was clear: “At this time I am denying your request for additional resources from PPB.”  Officers were directed “not to proactively patrol the area of the demonstration” and to “only respond to calls at the demonstration site that have an immediate life safety concern.” On June 21, the mayor’s direction was “for PPB to not get involved unless lives are in danger.” ICE agents on the ground reported these were the daily orders given at briefings to rank-and-file PPB personnel.

Mayor Wheeler’s selective enforcement order conflicts with PPB rules. The Biased-Based Policing Policy states, “The Bureau is dedicated to offering courteous and professional service delivery and providing equal protection, a fundamental right under the Constitution, to all members of the community.”  Additionally, all employees are expected to “reduce crime and the fear of crime by working with all citizens.”  Police officers and managers are mandated to “respond to requests for police assistance.”  Law enforcement sources familiar with the situation communicated, “When local police disengage from proactive responsibilities and assistance, one can expect masked, helmeted and shielded protestors to assault and endanger federal officers.” On July 31 the National ICE Council sent a cease and desist letter to the Mayor.

In contrast to the stated commitment of city government to provide equal and effective protection, the owner of the ICE processing building, Stuart Lindquist, was singled out among taxpayers. He received a limited and restrictive law enforcement response during the Occupy ICE demonstrations.  Portland Police documents confirmed, “If Stuart Linquist [sic] or any other Linquist [sic] calls for police assistance that doesn’t fit the ‘life safety concern’ criteria, please refer him or her to the Mayor.”  Mr. Lindquist told Judicial Watch, “It’s quite an issue and of course we were without service for a month and a half. It’s something. This is a liberal town but even so.” Judicial Watch filed two other public records requests with the PBB to determine if Wheeler’s denial of assistance violates federal contractual or Memorandum of Understanding obligations.