And You Wonder Why Conservatives Hate Republicans, Part II

 By Rich Kozlovich

Here was Part I, which brings me to Part II:  This election cycle is a RINO hunt that will continue in 2028.  With some legitimate trepidation, I have to say the more I see of Rubio the more impressed I become.  He's run for President in the past, and it's clear he wants to be President, and truthfully, he's more than qualified, but he's not willing to foul the water to get there.  

He's going to support Vance, and he's a class act, but Vance is treading water with a lot of people over these failed negotiations with Iran and his friendship with Tucker Carlson, who claims he wants to start a third party, and it appears so to does Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, which I find laughable as she's demonstrated she's capable of a massive level of instability, but perhaps she's in cahoots with Tucker Carlson.  In Carlson's case, I've concluded he will have no trouble getting funding for such a party from leftist billionaires, the Middle East nations, and China.  It won't go anywhere but they'll fund him. 

•  Good Riddance We are a day or two late bidding farewell to Tucker Carlson, but, given the attention we have paid to his descent, a few comments are in order. Carlson says he is leaving the Republican Party. This is from Axios: “I’m out,” Carlson said on an episode of the “Can’t Be Censored” podcast that aired Thursday but gained traction online Monday. * “And if I’m out, then I think a lot of people are out".......

Having said that, I do predict the Republicans will increase their numbers in the House and they will retain the Senate. The insanity from the left is turning the normals completely off, in spite of the misfit Republicans.   

• Somebody up there likes Trump, because he’s blessed with some crazy opponents on the other side.  In fact, it’s like the Democrats have a “draft a crazy of the week” contest going on coast to coast.  They don’t get crazier than the guy running in Maine.  Let’s check this, from Miranda Devine:......

As I watch the world spinning I marvel at how the left has managed to make insanity the cultural norm for so many uninformed, misinformed, and ignorant people.  Yet this was exactly what George Orwell, the Socialist, predicted, today’s ruthless American socialism, as the author notes their only real adversity is reality.  

Our Socialist Fellow-Citizens - The gulf between Republicans/conservatives and Democrats/socialists has grown to the point where it may be unbridgeable. Check out these recent poll data from CNN. Democrats are now firmly in the socialist camp: 

This is a problem many on the Right don't want to accept The Left is no longer "just like us they just want to have more welfare" The left is abandoning Capitalism, Christianity and all of the values we used to hold as a Country,(and the right still does) This isn't a "difference of opinion on tax policy", the left wants a full scale reimagining of our country into a Socialist/Communist Utopia they think could exist if we "just did it right this time"........ 

Is this the last hurrah of the RINO establishment?  As the author notes:

As usual, congressional Republicans are not united because too many are not real conservatives and have more in common with Democrats than with President Trump. Also, congressional Republicans like to talk, promise, and campaign, but they almost never deliver legislative victories.

 Sadly, too many GOP members of Congress prefer to be in the minority, where they can make noise but are not responsible for anything.

As usual, Republicans want to be liked and play nice with the Democrats and their opponents in the media. The result is that important legislation never gets passed, and the MAGA faithful get annoyed.

The "Old Guard" is leaving, some primaried out like Tellis, Cornym, and Cassidy, and in the case of Mitch McConnell, he's apparently had a heart attack and needed to be revived.  He's in the hospital and might not be back, which his coterie kept quiet about as long as they could.  The "old Guard" has done everything they can to block just about all the President has attempted to do, and those who are leaving are not going quietly into the night.  In fact they've doubled down in their resistance, and most importantly, since their political power days are over, they're exposing themselves for who and what they are, and it's not been pretty.  

They promised to fix the Affordable Care Act.  They didn't.  They refused to end the filibuster, which if the Democrats win the Senate they will do the first day they're in control, as a result, nothing gets passed that they promised to do.  It seems clear the Republican leadership would rather lose the Senate than support the President, and that's especially true in the various states, including Ohio, as both Governor DeWine and former Governor Kasich has demonstrated.  Both of whom are disgraces on their best days.  

•   90,000 Haitians Live in Massachusetts and Only 10,000 Are Working

And Ohio's Republican leadership isn't the lone ranger here.  They reside among a cabal of nitwits. In Tennessee Republican buffoons are helping the left push it's twisted agenda.  In Georgia Republicans refused to take up the, "Redistricting and Election Protection for American Integrity and Representation (REPAIR) Initiative, said the legislature ought to be ashamed."

The Republican-controlled Georgia General Assembly didn’t merely abandon its plans for redrawing racially-gerrymandered congressional districts, it did so to the applause of radical leftists. And the Peach State RINOs basked in the far-left approbation. 

Georgia's Republican leadership has in effect openly betrayed their base, which can potentially have a serious impact on the 2028 election, even refusing to take calls from the President.

Matt Vespa calls Senate GOP a train wreck, because it's still loaded with spineless trash. Harsh?  Yeah, but is it true? Let's take a look at the Republican majority leader, John Thune:

....sent his colleagues home for a long Memorial Day holiday because of his anger at the $1.776 billion fund that was created to compensate individuals who claim they were victims of government “weaponization.

 

Thune is also upset that the President endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in his GOP primary against incumbent U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), another longtime RINO who deserves to be sent packing.

 

The RINO Senators and their GOP establishment colleagues see MAGA as their political enemy, not Democrats. This old guard is using the political battles of 2026 to lay the groundwork to reassert control of the Republican Party in 2028.

Fortunately, this effort will fail; this is their last hurrah. The Republican Party will never return to the days of losing and capitulation. President Trump and MAGA supporters will not allow it. 

 

Senator John Thune Is a Complete Failure - Senator Thune is underwater in his home state in the latest poll because of his poor leadership in the Senate. He’s a complete failure. His goal appears to be to kill the president’s agenda. Thune refuses to pass the SAVE Act, won’t fund ICE, and has blocked access to recess appointments. Now, Thune is sending everyone home on a 10-day vacation. If he is not a Democrat, he might as well be.

Pack Your Bags, Thune  - Now, with Trump furious that the SAVE Act still isn’t passed, Thune has reportedly sent senators home again while major pieces of Trump’s agenda sit there collecting dust. No recess appointments. No SAVE Act. No clean win on election integrity. No major border funding victory locked down. Just more of the typical GOP games, excuses, and yet another taxpayer vacation while the country waits for something to be done.

People are furious...............The SAVE Act isn’t some obscure bill. It’s one of the only bills lately that has sweeping bipartisan support. Voter ID is popular, even with plenty of Dem voters. ..........Trump wants action… everybody wants action, yet the Republican Senate always seems to find a way to turn obvious momentum into a chaotic traffic jam.  Meanwhile, Thune is giving conservatives every reason to believe he either can’t control his people or doesn’t really want to............And if Republican senators keep choosing vacations, excuses, and internal drama over the agenda voters demanded, Bannon’s call to oust Thune seems like the next logical step.

The SAVE Act isn’t some obscure bill. It’s one of the only bills lately that has sweeping bipartisan support. Voter ID is popular, even with plenty of Dem voters. The only people fighting it are left-wing politicians, their activist cronies, and the Republican co-conspirators like Thune and Cronyn.........

If you thought Matt Vespa's article was harsh, take a look at these comments by Rep. Tim Burchett who "erupted" in fury, after a spineless GOP cut":

".........a backroom deal [that] let Democrats control what they do! "We're going to BLOW IT because we're not acting like we're in the majority! [We] allow the Democrats to tell us what to do. It's just UNBELIEVABLE!" "At some point we're going to have to give some guts. This town is crooked as a dog's leg and I'm disgusted." "Had some amendments that were cutting regulation things that we should, as Republicans, do. Because of backroom deals they cut, they won't allow any amendments on the bill because the Democrats didn't agree to it! So here we are in the majority and we're not allowed to do that!" "And I guarantee you when the Democrats are in the majority, which they very much could be because of this kind of garbage — [they won't do this]."

So, c'mon man, what's the big deal?   Well, maybe it's a case of  the Evil party versus the Stupid party? Mark Lewis asks, If Half of the Body Is Saturated With Cancer, What’s the Prognosis?

 I don’t want to be a droll pessimist here, but I don’t want to be an unrealistic optimist, either. America is a country today where half the people hate the very civilization (Western Civilization) that gave them every single right they’ve got, including the right to hate their civilization. What hope is there for the survival of that civilization when half the people want to destroy it?..........

 When half your country sees unlimited immigration of anybody and everybody as their means to the political power they crave, with no clue of the eventual consequences of a Muslim—or communist—theocracy…well, pardon me if I have trouble being optimistic. If it were only five or 10 percent of the body covered in cancer, I might think it could be cured. Or at least isolated.

But we’re talking half the country here. That doesn’t bode well for the future.......

Now again, which party controls the Congress?   

 

Democrats Scramble to Get Joe Biden on the Ohio Ballot

Bending one state’s election laws doesn’t bother the defenders of democracy.

By Graham J Noble | May 29, 2024 @ Liberty Nation News, Tags: Articles, Opinion, Politics

As precarious as Joe Biden’s chances of winning a second White House term in November seem now, there is one significant obstacle standing in his way. This particular roadblock, if not overcome, could prove decisive in his bid for re-election. The incumbent is not on the general election ballot in one of the most important battleground states, Ohio. If the Democratic Party fails to resolve the issue and Biden’s name doesn’t appear on the Ohio ballot, the Buckeye State’s 17 Electoral College votes – down from 18 in 2020 – are as good as gift-wrapped for Donald Trump.

Trump supporters need not get too excited, though, because it appears that Democrats have come up with the solution to the problem. Biden was set to officially receive his party’s presidential nomination at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, which is scheduled to be held in Chicago, Aug. 19-22. Ohio law states that political parties must confirm their presidential nominees 90 days prior to the general election — meaning Democrats were on track to miss that Aug. 7 deadline.

The new plan, announced by Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Jaime Harrison, is for Biden and Kamala Harris – presumably – to be nominated via a virtual roll call, which will be held before the convention – and, of course, before the Ohio ballot deadline.

Ohio Ballot Snafu Was Whose Fault?

Harrison, in a statement, laid the blame for the snafu squarely on Republicans. “Joe Biden will be on the ballot in Ohio and all 50 states, and Ohio Republicans agree,” he said. “But when the time has come for action, they have failed to act every time, so Democrats will land this plane on our own.” It’s a somewhat disingenuous statement. The Republicans’ failure to act, as Harrison puts it, was, in fact, their refusal to alter or at least bend Ohio law to accommodate Biden.

However, that bill also contained a ban on foreign contributions to ballot initiatives, which was rejected by Democrats. Two other bills that would have created a permanent fix for the Ohio ballot deadline problem both failed to make it as far as a vote on the Ohio House floor.

Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose wasn’t having any of the Democrats’ blame-shifting. In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, he wrote:

“As Ohio’s chief elections officer, I refuse to bend the rules to benefit a candidate. Critics allege that my decision to uphold the law will deprive Ohio voters of the opportunity to choose their president. Never mind that I didn’t create this problem, nor do I wish for that outcome.”

Perhaps the scheduling of the DNC convention to a date after the Ohio ballot deadline was a mere oversight. Against a backdrop of near-constant objections by Democrats to any measures that secure and protect the integrity of US elections, however, an outside observer could be forgiven for thinking that this is one more example of the contempt they appear to hold for state-level election laws.

 

Read More From Graham J Noble

Is Biden Bucking the Buckeye State?

Risky presidential strategies afoot in Ohio. 

By Mark Angelides May 23, 2024 @ Liberty Nation News, Tags: Articles, Good Reads, Opinion, Politics

Editor's Note:  Ohio's Governor DeWine is all upset over this, and isn't going to tolerate it, as is demonstrated in this article.  RINO Dewine Demands Ohio Change Election Law to Accommodate Biden.  Make no mistake, if this was in New York, California, Washington, Oregon, Illinois, or any one of the other leftist sewers, and it involved Trump, they would celebrate him not being on the ballot, and would not make one bit of effort to change it.  DeWine is a disgrace and has always been a disgrace.  Governor DeWine is a Disgrace, and He's Not Alone: Part I,  Governor DeWine is a Disgrace, and He's Not Alone: Part II.  RK

The Ohio Democratic Party has been put on notice that President Joe Biden risks not being on the November ballot. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose this week issued the latest in a string of warnings that unless the party gets its act together, the commander-in-chief might just miss out on the deadline to file as a candidate.

Ohio law requires that candidates are certified by their parties at least 90 days before voters go to the polls; however, the Democratic Party Convention will not take place until August 19, when attendees will converge on Chicago – just 65 days before Election Day. The question has become: Who will jump first?

Is Biden the Nominee or Not?

Officially, Joe Biden will not become the nominee for his party until the national convention, which means he will miss the certification cut-off date. LaRose warned in a statement that:

“I’ve said from here to Colorado that it’s in the best interest of voters to have a choice in the race for president. I’m also duty-bound to follow the law as Ohio’s chief elections officer.

“As it stands today, the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee will not be on the Ohio ballot. That is not my choice. It’s due to a conflict in the law created by the party, and the party has so far offered no legally acceptable remedy.”

One might argue that the state could change its rules to accommodate the sitting president, but there appears no such appetite in the Ohio legislature for this action. The process for doing so, however, was already nixed by local leadership.

Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens, a Republican, said: “There’s just not the will to do that from the legislature.” His position was echoed by his Democrat counterpart, Minority Leader Allison Russo, who held out little hope that a solution would come through bipartisan legislation. “We’ve seen the dysfunction here in this place,” she stated. “And I think we’ve seen that folks have not been able to put aside partisanship and hyper-partisanship and infighting… I think at this point, you’re probably going to see either, you know, some sort of inner party effects or perhaps court action.”

The Governor Disagrees

Republican Governor Mike DeWine believes that the state apparatus can resolve the situation, however. He argued:

“I have every confidence that it’s going to get done. No one should worry, they’re going to be able to vote for the president or the former president, whoever they want to vote for. You know, this is not going to be a situation where the president’s name is not on the ballot. So, it’s either going to be done by the court, or it’s going to be done by the legislature.”

While the legislature has been working towards a solution, efforts in that arena are currently stalled.

A Biden spokesman assured voters in response to LaRose’s plea that all would be well come Election Day. “Joe Biden will be on the ballot in all 50 states,” he said. “Election after election, states across the country have acted in line with the bipartisan consensus and taken the necessary steps to ensure the presidential nominees from both parties will be on the ballot.”

Indeed, Alabama faced a similar situation earlier this month and came to an agreement to move the certification deadline from 82 days before the election to 74.

But what can the American public glean about the players in this quasi-farcical comedy of errors?

Ohio Matters

As Kyle Kondik – managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball – writes in his book The Bellwether: Why Ohio Picks the President, the Buckeye State has only deviated by roughly two points from the national voting average in the last 30 presidential election cycles. In fact, Ohio has the best track record of electing presidents of any other state since 1896 – missing out on only Thomas Dewy in 1944, Richard Nixon in 1960, and Donald Trump in 2020.

The lack of action to the repeated requests by Secretary of State LaRose hints at a hubris within the administration and the state Democratic Party, almost a sense of entitlement that states should fall in line behind the federal government’s lead. Yet, this presents a fundamental misunderstanding of how the nation works.

It is not one grand election for the president of the United States but rather 50 state elections. It is not the states’ responsibility to ensure that a candidate has access to the electorate, but the candidate’s duty to ensure he or she complies with the individual rules.

 

Read More From Mark Angelides

Buckeye Institute Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 24, 2021 Lisa Gates, Vice President of Communications, (614) 224-3255 The Buckeye Institute: Emergency Powers Are Not Limitless Columbus, OH – Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute, issued the following statement upon the Ohio General Assembly’s override of Governor Mike DeWine’s veto of Ohio Senate Bill 22.   “The Buckeye Institute has consistently asserted that governors have broad—but not limitless—constitutional authority during a state of emergency. The use of extraordinary emergency powers must be subject to democratic checks and balances, and Buckeye applauds Ohio’s General Assembly for enforcing this check while still allowing Ohio to respond to genuine emergencies.”  # # # Founded in 1989, The Buckeye Institute is an independent research and educational institution – a think tank – whose mission is to advance free-market public policy in the states. The Buckeye Institute is a non-partisan, non-profit, and tax-exempt organization, as defined by section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue code. As such, it relies on support from individuals, corporations, and foundations that share a commitment to individual liberty, free enterprise, personal responsibility, and limited government. The Buckeye Institute does not seek or accept government funding. Donate Today! Support The Buckeye Institute Support The Buckeye Institute by setting us as your designated charity through AmazonSmile. Every time you make a purchase, Amazon will donate 0.5% of the total to The Buckeye Institute at no extra cost to you! AmazonSmile and the AmazonSmile logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

BREAKING: Republican Lawmakers Override DeWine Just One Day After SB22 Veto

March 24, 2021 Jack Windsor @ Ohio Star

COLUMBUS, Ohio – One day following Governor Mike DeWine’s veto of Senate Bill 22 (SB 22) – legislation aimed at rebalancing power by giving the Ohio Legislature oversight of government rules and orders – the Senate and House both took up the bill and both chambers voted to override the veto.

SB22 will become law in 90 days.

The Senate was first and voted 23-10.  Minutes later the House began floor debate and then voted to override 62-37.

House Majority Floor Leader Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) addressed questions about the constitutionality of SB22 in a floor speech Wednesday citing the Joint Commission on Agency Rule Review (JCARR) – a bicameral, bipartisan commission primarily responsible for reviewing rules of Ohio’s 100-plus agencies.  Seitz surmised that if a joint commission can make decisions regarding agency powers, then SB22 can check administrative rules and orders with a concurrent resolution (the law allows the General Assembly to cancel orders by concurrent resolution – which wouldn’t require a governor’s approval).

Seitz acknowleged the bill isn’t perfect, but noted that “changes down the line” that lawmakers could make “shouldn’t obfuscate the reason” SB22 was passed.

House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes (D-Akron) delivered a speech against the bill, claiming that voting to override the veto was akin to “dragging 11.7 million Ohioans” into an argument over whether someone [DeWine] didn’t call you back [legislators] – saying that the General Assembly is out of their lane in matters of public health, as evidenced by non-mask wearing, non-social distance honoring members.

Senator Terry Johnson, SB22 co-sponsor, said during his floor speech in the Senate “it intrigues me when the word science is brought up.”

Johnson, a student of science who has practiced medicine for over 30 years, pointed out that opinion and emotion are not science – and the fact that the votes for and against the bill go along party lines is “politics, not science.”

Johnson, as he did in his first floor speech in favor of the bill before it went to DeWine for a veto, highlighted the 300 Ohioans who testified in favor of the bill when it was in committee.  “These are people who wanted to be heard.”  He continued, “I challenge the media to not do the stories about Terry Johnson” but to look into the 300 proponent testimonies.

“Ask them, ‘What happened to you over the last year?’ ‘What’s your opinion?’ Crickets are what I hear from the media.”

Major elements of SB22 include:

• 90-day limit to declarations of health emergency unless General Assembly chooses to extend
• General Assembly can act to rescind emergency declarations after 30 days with a concurrent resolution
• Orders and agency rules can be rescinded immediately by concurrent resolution of the House and Senate
• Oversight of orders applies to all state agencies, not just the Ohio Department of Health
• Oversight of orders applies to not just the Governor, but every state employee empowered to issue an emergency rule or order
• Ohioans who contest an order, rule or mandate will have the court case heard in their home county, as opposed to a Franklin County court
• Ohioans who bring legal action against rules, orders and mandates will be reimbursed for legal fees if the citizen wins the case
• Health departments cannot issue public health emergency orders or rules against a broad group or class of people – SB22 defines quarantine and isolation and thus applies lockdown restrictions to people infected or in direct contact with a medically diagnosed person
• Health orders have no automatic expiration date – a 120-day expiration is already part of Ohio Revised Code

The Ohio Star reached out to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine for comment on the override and to find out if he intends to legally challenge the law.  Through his Press Secretary Dan Tierney, DeWine released the following statement:

It is too early to tell if there will be legal action. Governor DeWine will review the issue with legal counsel.

Governor DeWine, through his letter Monday and his veto message yesterday, made his serious concerns regarding Senate Bill 22 known to the members of the General Assembly and to the public.  In addition, those who provide healthcare and public health services across Ohio, as well as colleges, local officials, and community organizations, also expressed their deep concerns about Senate Bill 22. Governor DeWine remains focused every single day on doing all he can to ensure every Ohioan who wants a COVID vaccine can get one in the coming weeks, which is truly what will help Ohio put this pandemic behind us.

Jack Windsor is the Statehouse Reporter at The Ohio Star. Windsor is also an independent investigative reporter. Follow Jack on Twitter. Email tips to jwindsor@theohiostar.com.

EXCLUSIVE: One Year Into Mandates Ohio Still Can’t Back Up Policies When Under Oath, Maurice Thompson Says

March 19, 2021 Jack Windsor @ Ohio Star

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Monday will mark one year since Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced the statewide stay at home order signed by then-Director of the Ohio Department of Health Dr. Amy Acton.

Soon after, the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law began litigating to challenge the lawfulness of the orders, “winning many cases,” according to Maurice Thompson, an attorney for the firm.

“One year later, the Department of Health – when under oath – still cannot justify the Director’s ‘Stay at Home Orders,’” said Thompson in a press release similarly titled that he shared exclusively with The Ohio Star on Friday morning.

The 1851 Center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan legal center dedicated to protecting the constitutional rights of Ohioans from government abuse. The 1851 Center litigates constitutional issues related to property rights, regulation, taxation, and searches and seizures.

The press release states that the 1851 Center won a preliminary injunction in 2020 stopping the state from forbidding the opening of amusement parks. During that case, the State of Ohio was asked to provide responses to legal questions under oath and penalty of perjury.  Those responses were just recently provided.

In them, Thompson contends, it is displayed that “the State remains unable to provide evidence supporting policies, failed to track relevant data and was at times outright ‘bluffing’ to the public.”

The full press release can be viewed below. The summary of its points is as follows:

• Ohio Department of Health (ODH) stands by Ohio Attorney General’s statement to a federal court that 29% of confirmed COVID cases result in hospitalizations and approximately 4% result in death;
• ODH still maintains no evidence that “non-essential” businesses and activities increased the risk of COVID, cannot identify a single instance of COVID-related harm caused by non-essential businesses and presented only “rational speculation” as reasoning behind the related mandates.
• ODH asserts stay at home orders reduced serious harm based solely on the assertion that cases statewide never reached initial “guesstimates” Amy Acton provided at the beginning of the pandemic.
• Despite saying regulations were driven by hospital capacity, ICU bed capacity and hospital staffing, ODH concedes it has no metric or benchmark to determine what constitutes an “overwhelming” and “no information” as to capacities of hospitals.
• Despite providing no evidence that non-essential businesses and activities constituted a risk, Governor DeWine and the Attorney General’s office deride Ohioans wishing to open and operate, saying they are putting profit over the lives and health of employees and patrons.
• State continues to declare that non-essential business restrictions did not cause any public or private health harm or economic harm.
• ODH concedes it failed to track data related to coincidence of hospitalizations and deaths with comorbidities, such as obesity.
• ODH evidence in support of the efficacy of the mask mandate and the curfew policies is “evidence of reduced cases, hospitalizations and deaths after mask and curfew orders went into effect.”
• ODH refuses to disclose to Ohioans the process involved in producing orders, who writes them and who reviews them, citing “attorney client privilege.”
• The end-date of the pandemic will be determined by the Governor alone and not public health experts.

A recent study revealed effects of COVID misinformation – particularly the deep misunderstanding of the severity of the virus for the average infected person and the misrepresentation of deaths per age group.

According to the report, the percentage of people infected needing hospitalization is somewhere between one percent to five percent.

The essence of the finding is that COVID knowledge, policy preference and behavior is shaped by political alignment and media consumption.

Despite early warnings that COVID would be 10-times to 20-times deadlier than influenza, the fatality rate is much lower, measuring  0.1% – 0.35% per the Center for Evidence-Based Medicine; while the CDC estimates a rate of .0003% to 5.4% (based on age).

“We have not faced an enemy like we are facing today in 102 years. You have to go back to the 1918 influenza epidemic,” DeWine said in a briefing the day the order was issued.  He compared the state response to a war and said it was a crucial time in the battle – the order was issued to slow the spread of COVID so healthcare systems would have time to treat COVID patients and others needing care.

In the order, Acton chose essential businesses and shuttered those she deemed nonessential; the order was set to expire two weeks later.  Businesses closures were not designed to be punitive but were also “not a suggestion,” said DeWine.

Just prior to issuing the stay-at-home order DeWine declared a public health state of emergency, saying “I wouldn’t read too much into the state of emergency,” that it was a “legal necessity” making it easier to procure medical supplies without going through the required state bidding process.

Dr. Acton’s modeling drove policy decisions in March 2020.  The Health Director guessed that the medical community could face 62,000 cases per day by mid-to-late March if Ohioans didn’t follow mitigation strategies. According to Acton and DeWine, if people heeded State of Ohio guidance, cases would be spread out and lessened,  predicting a peak in mid-April of 10,000 cases per day. A third guess revised that number down to 2,000 cases per day.

DeWine said hospitals would need  to scale up their capacity to double or triple their norm in order to handle the rush. According to Ohio COVID dashboard data, cases were registering over 300 in March and around 500 per day in April (with one blip due to concentrated prison testing).

Nonetheless, an emergency was declared, shelter-in-place ordered, nonessential businesses closed, an election canceled and in-person education stopped.

An early investigative article pinpointed the economic dangers of closing businesses, the mental health impact of stay-at-home orders, the certain spike in suicides and the differences between COVID and the 1918 flu pandemic.

However, shut-it-all-down policies were implemented instead of exact measures that protected the most vulnerable, accounted for economic, emotional and physical consequences of focusing only on COVID.

A study of all 50 states and the District of Columbia ranked each locale by mandates and COVID outcomes. Ohio came in at number 23 of 51 despite being one of the first states to intervene and impose mandates with legal consequences for violations.

There were states with fewer restrictions that did better at handling the virus – but the opposite was also true.  A set of findings that proves the words of Ohio Senator Terry Johnson (R-District 14) during his floor speech in favor of Senate Bill 22 (providing legislative oversight of Governor and agency orders).  Johnson said stopping the virus is like telling the waves to stop or stopping the wind; and the varied results around the world given different mitigation strategies proves the efficacy of strict mandates are “a farce.”

In Ohio, the statewide mask mandate was imposed July 23 when cases were already on a downward slope.

The Star reported, according to Ohio Department of Health records, the high point in cases occurred on November 30, 2020 when the state logged 13,468 – this after a statewide mask mandate had been in effect for 131 days with the Ohio Investigative Unit measuring mask compliance at well above 90% around the state.

While the mask mandate was in effect with high compliance, Ohio racked up its worst numbers in cases, hospitalizations and deaths according to the Ohio COVID dashboard.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released results of their tracking project spanning March – December 2020 that showed masking stopped COVID spread by two percent.

Thompson said that one of the State’s arguments was that their mitigation efforts resulted in fewer cases and helped deter the early estimate that Ohio would lose more than 100,000 people to death from COVID.

However, the State’s case estimates without mitigation were astronomically inaccurate (62,000 at a high point) and their case estimates with mitigation were still exponentially incorrect. Additionally, there isn’t a state in America near a death toll of 100,000 people, regardless their mitigation strategies. In fact, a couple states near the top in death toll – California, New York and Pennsylvania – enacted comparatively strict mandates.

However, DeWine still urges Ohioans to mask, even after vaccination – guidance echoed by President Biden.

The Ohio Restaurant Association estimated 60% of Ohio establishments would close and never re-open. The Star reported on four non-essential businesses and the impact to their businesses, employees and families.

60 minutes came to Columbus to report on the “unequal recession” caused by the shuttering of non-essential businesses (restaurants, hotels, theaters, shops, to name just a few) and how those policy decisions disproportionately affected women and minorities – and how the Congressional Budget Office estimates the first to lose their jobs will be the last to recover, reporting it will take until 2024.

Ohioans filed more unemployment claims in 2020 than they did the previous five years combined. To make matters worse, school closures exacerbated unemployment woes – unemployment is 12% higher for parents whose children learn remotely as compared to parents whose kids learn in-person.

This despite the American Academy of Pediatrics pleading for kids to get back in the classroom, the CDC repeatedly indicating that kids were not extending the transmission of the virus and a large amount of data showing very low COVID infections among enrolled school children (and evidence that teachers contract the virus at rates similar to their non-teaching contemporaries).

Meanwhile, a crisis from COVID policies grips our kids – masses of students from Mason to Hilliard were hospitalized for suicide ideation, mental struggles and a prestigious medical journal reported that 13.8 million of years of life will be lost in kids aged five to 11 due to education disruption from, not COVID, but COVID policies.

Read the full statement by the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law:

– – –

Jack Windsor is the Statehouse Reporter at The Ohio Star. Windsor is also an independent investigative reporter. Follow Jack on Twitter. Email tips to jwindsor@theohiostar.com.
Photo “Small Business” by spurekar. CC BY 2.0.

 

 

DeWine lifts curfew as COVID-19 numbers continue to fall

By J.D. Davidson | The Center Square

 

Ohioans no longer have to live under a curfew, but things are far from back to normal and stronger restrictions could return at any time.  Gov. Mike DeWine’s statewide curfew put in place in November was lifted late Thursday as COVID-19 indicators continued to fall. He warned, though, the curfew could come back if numbers spike.

“We may in the future, we don’t know, have to put a curfew back on,” DeWine said. “It’s very important to continue to do what we’ve been doing. Let’s get the vaccine into our arms as quick as we can, but at the same time, we have to continue to wear a mask and continue to keep the distancing.”

DeWine imposed the 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew Nov. 19. It originally was supported by the Ohio Restaurant Association. In July, he ordered bars and restaurants to stop serving alcohol at 10 p.m. That order expired in November but 10 p.m. service stoppage continued under the curfew.........To Read More....

 

DeWine is a Conservative on the Same Order as John Kasich! Both Are a Disgrace!

By Rich Kozlovich

Editor's Note:  This was forgotten sitting in my draft file, so some of the information is dated.  I came across it today and it's dated but the thoughts are current and valid, especially in light of Kasich's current comments and De Wine's tyrannical decisions regarding this coronavirus issue.  RK

Governor Mike DeWine is fond of telling people he's a conservative.  He seems to have the same problem John Kasich had:  Defining conservatism as they see fit.  Which in the case of both of them is to act like far left Democrats.

On July 19, 2016 Eric Scheiner posted the article, Gov. Kasich: We Want Immigration - Population is Stagnant in Ohio saying: 

Ohio Gov. and former Republican presidential candidate John Kasich (R-Ohio) told an audience in Cleveland that he looks at immigration as an opportunity because Ohio has a “stagnant growth of population – we want people to come to Ohio.”  “When I look at immigration I look at a new level of energy,”....... “I look at immigration as an opportunity. One of the things that we face in Ohio is a stagnant growth of population – we want people to come to Ohio.

 

Okay....I wonder who this "we" is he's talking about?  And why do we need more people in Ohio? Are we getting a bunch of new factories to replace all those that closed over the last 20 years?  I haven't seen them.   And why are they immigrants and not people from other states?  There's a reason why is it Ohio is in the top five states people are moving out of?  Does anyone besides me think there's something wrong with Kasich?  I think he's weird and stunningly arrogant. 

He's gone from being a "conservative" - at least that's what everyone thought until he became Governor of Ohio, then he started acting like .....well..... Obama!  He bypassed the expressed will of the legislature regarding Obamacare issues, which will end up costing Ohio billions of dollars we don't have.  His justification?  He says he has to support Obamacare otherwise he'll have to answer to God for not doing so.  Is this another Twilight Zone episode? 

He claims he cut taxes, but what he did was shift them to the "rich".  He cut taxes on small businesses, but he didn't cut the volumn of taxes being collected - he merely shifted them to bigger companies.  That's classic leftist class warfare, and claiming to have cut taxes is a lie. He subsidized large corporations that threatened to move out of Ohio, like Bob Evans, thereby forcing all the other restaurants in Ohio to support Bob Evans financially - along with the rest of us.  Did anyone see Bob Evans cut their prices as a result?  No, and you won't. 

There are some consolation to all of this - he's not going to the convention, so we won't have to listen to his gibberish and logical fallacies, and he's term limited.  He's gone after 2018 and we won't have to listen to anything he babbles about again.  In the meanwhile - It appears to me John Kasich is now in the service of Mordor and the dark lord Sauron. 

He claims we're isolationists when we "just take care of us", but the fact of the matter is when we take care of us the rest of the world benefits.  If we throw more good money after bad money we'll go broke and the world will spiral into dystopia. 

Personally - I think there's something seriously wrong with him, and I'm not all that crazy about his Lieutenant Governor, Mary Taylor.  She actually thinks after accepting Obamacare they can (and I heard her say this in a meeting I attended) back out of it if they please.  Is it possible she's not the brightest pebble in the brook either?  Or is it she's just another political hack?  

Then we come to DeWine.  What a prize he's turned out to be.  The booby prize!

List Of Cowardly Republicans Who’ve Deserted Trump...Asked Him To Concede To Basement Joe

By Patty McMurray | Nov 29, 2020 Read More Here

When Republicans across the nation needed help to boost their popularity during an election, they knew they could rely on President Trump to have their backs. Even two-faced, insanely jealous Republicans like Mitt Romney got the backing of the most powerful Republican since Ronald Reagan during his run for US Senator in Utah.

The Red Elephants– Many republicans that hold office today, were elected solely because of the support from President Donald Trump. Now that they hold office, many of them have completely turned their backs on the President, even going so far as to publicly call for him to concede the election to Joe Biden before any audit can occur.

Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia for example owes his entire election victory to President Trump. Since November 4th, Kemp has done little to help the President in his fight to overturn an election that most Republicans and a plurality of Americans agree was stolen.

Lin Wood, who’s been fighting to uncover voter fraud in Georgia, has been threatening that he will expose ties to Dominion with Governor Brian Kemp, whose former chief of staff is a top lobbyist for Dominion and Republican Secretary of State Raffensperger.  Wood has also been coming down pretty hard on Rep. Doug Collins for abandoning President Trump.

 

Rep. Doug Collins, formerly a staunch defender of President Trump, has remained silent on the battle Trump and his lawyers have been fighting in GA. conceded to GOP rival Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) on the eve of the election.................

Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio, who Trump brought up on stage during his rallies on several occasions, is another Turncoat according to Trump’s supporters. Recently DeWine urged President Trump to allow a peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden.

Here’s a List of Republicans Who Have Turned Their Backs on Trump, Calling for Him to Concede

Outside of Kemp and DeWine, there are countless others who refuse to support Trump in his challenging of the election, and the list has been growing over the past several days.

Here’s a list of elected republicans who either have directly called for Trump to concede, called for a peaceful transfer of power and for Biden to receive intel briefings, or outright attempting to sabotage any real audits of every single signature and vote.

Mitt Romney – UT

Marco Rubio – FL

Mike Shirkey – MI

Mike DeWine – OH

Brian Kemp – GA

Brad Raffensperger – GA

Pat Toomey – PA

Liz Cheney – WY

Doug Ducey – AZ

Larry Hogan – MD

Fred Upton – MI

John Cornyn – TX

James Lankford – OK

Lisa Murkowski – AK

Ben Sasse – NE

Susan Collins – ME

Jim Durkin – IL

Dan Young – AK

Francis Rooney – FL

John Shimkus – IL

Adam Kinzinger – IL

Paul Mitchell – MI

Don Bacon – NE

Tom Reed – NY

Will Hurd – TX

John Kurtis – UT

Denver Riggleman – VA

 

Ohio Notes: Massive Political Corruption in Ohio, and DeWine Never Noticed! Imaging that!

By Rich Kozlovich 

Daniel Greenfield is one of my favorite writers, who I refer to as a friend, and who I think is brilliant!  We've exchanged e-mails over the years, and he allows me to publish his work when it appears on his personal blog,  Sultan Knish Blog.   I don't know if this will be one of them so I linked this piece from the original post on FrontPageMagazine to P&D.  How a Trump Prosecutor Took Down a Third of the Cincinnati City Council.  

Also, you may wish to review my Daniel Greenfield file. The question that keeps coming to mind as all this corruption in Ohio's political realm keeps turning up is this: How is it our last Attorney General, AKA, Governor Mike DeWine, never noticed all this corruption?  In both parties!  Did all this corruption just start after he was no longer the Attorney General?  It appears, as far as I can tell, was ongoing while he was Attorney General!   Corruption so massive every lobbyist in the state knew it was going on, but Mike DeWine didn't notice. 
To quote the kid in the Little Rascals - Remarkable! 

I found him to be contemptible when he was in Congress, and I think he's still contemptible.  Humm, it appears consistency counts to Republican leaders because they chose him to be Governor, although he just barely beat one of the most far left candidates ever to run for the Ohio Governorship.  The conservative base wasn't fooled and didn't vote for him in large numbers, and conservative friends say they will not vote for him again.... if he runs.   So what does that say about the Republican leadership? Which brings me to the second question we should be asking:  What's wrong with Ohio's Republican leadership?  

Kudos to Senators Rob McColley (R-01) and Kristina Roegner for their bill to bring DeWine's tyranny under rein.  The fact this took from May until now for this bill to come to fruition is - at least in my mind - a clear indication there's something rotten with Ohio's Republican leadership as they can't seem to find a Ronald Reagan.  

Maybe we need a Maggie Thatcher! I have more coming but I've been in so much pain I find it hard to read, to think and correspondingly, I just can't seem to write, but I've saved a ton of information regarding this fraudulent election, along with this coronavirus fraud, and I want to deal with them both this week.  In the meanwhile you may wish to review my DeWine file.

Gov. DeWine Did a Number of Things to Address COVID-19 This Week

September 20, 2020 Ben Kolodny @ Ohio Star

 Governor Mike DeWine’s office released a review of the state’s COVID-19 status and response as well as a list of actions taken by the state.

The governor updated this week’s coronavirus numbers, which saw 69 counties remain at their current level of exposure, and Preble County being downgraded from a level 3 to a level 2. In other COVID-19 news, the state has it’s own dashboard for COVID tracking of children and schools in conjunction with the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association and local health departments.

A “Rapid Response Guide for Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers” was released to “support local health districts in developing culturally appropriate plans to respond to outbreaks in the migrant and seasonal farmworker communities.” The guide advises farms to utilize onsight testing, education, and smaller cohorts to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

DeWine announced the expansion of the states “Coronavirus Wastewater Surveillance Network” from 30 cities to 50 in the next month. The release stated that “The state will continue to closely monitor the wastewater data and ensure communities are aware of trending increases in gene copies to assist with quick response and prevent further spread of disease.”

Adding to the existing health concerns in Ohio, the governor reported that the state has documented the first case of the flu in Putnam County and reminded Ohioans to get a flu shot.

Two programs to help Ohio’s struggling economy were announced this week. The “Ohio To Work” initiative and a lost wages assistance program are aimed at helping the 8.9% of Ohioans currently unemployed. The Ohio To Work program seeks to “help connect Ohioans looking for a job to a new job opportunity,” by bringing together “employers, nonprofits, educators, and training providers to help Ohioans reskill and restart their careers.”

The lost wages assistance program distributes $300 a week to eligible unemployment insurance recipients. The state says that “this assistance is available to Ohioans who received traditional unemployment benefits, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), Trade Readjustment Assistance, SharedWork Ohio or extended benefits for weeks ending August 1 through September 5.”

– – –
Ben Kolodny is a reporter for The Ohio Star and the Star News Network. You can follow Ben on Twitter. Tips can be sent to BenM1Kolodny@gmail.com.

 

‘Patently Absurd:’ Governor DeWine’s Office Says of Ohio State Rep. Becker’s 10 Criminal Charges Against the Republican Governor

September 29, 2020 Jack Windsor

During a Tuesday COVID press conference Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine was asked by WMFD-TV:

Governor, Five Texas Republicans sued Texas Republican Governor Abbott over a $295 million contact tracing deal signed during the early months of Coronavirus pandemic. Legislators say the Governor skirted separation of powers , agreeing to a contract without following state statutes.

As you know, I’ve been waiting for months now for information on our contract with the company assisting Ohio with contact tracing – Partners in Health. I have to assume that is a multimillion dollar contract and our audience is interested in understanding the length and value of the deal.

How much have we paid Partners in Health, how much are we obligated to pay them and how long is the contract?”

Governor DeWine answered:

I don’t know the answer…but we certainly can get that answer. I don’t see any reason why we can’t get that answer next – on Thursday.  I would point out Partners in Health – while you’ve kind of highlighted them with some questions – and I talked about them several times because they have done this worldwide, this type of activity.

But, the tracing relies really on our local health departments – they’re the ones that are doing most of the hiring.  We have come in and hired tracers so that we can – if a county is overrun, if something happens – so that we can put tracers in there. So we hire, they hire, Partners in Health have played some role as far as advising because we respect the work they do in that particular area. But we will get you that information.

A record request was made to the Ohio Department of Health on April 26 regarding the state’s agreement with Partners in Health (PIH).

On May 21 the reporter from WMFD-TV asked Governor DeWine about the relationship with Partners in Health, particularly if it made sense given the organization’s penchant for altering the fundamentals of capitalism, citing it as a source of structural violence resulting in many societal ills.............To Read More.....