That first tax had a top rate of 3.5 percent, but politicians quickly
became addicted to this new source of tax revenue. By 1984, the top
rate had jumped to 9.5 percent.
That’s the bad news.
The good news is that Ohio has been moving in the right direction over the past two decades.
The top tax rate was over 7 percent in 2005. This year, it’s less than half that level.
But the even-better news is that Ohio is shifting to a low-rate flat tax.
Here are some excerpts from a report by Mike Gaunter for WFMJ.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Monday approved the state’s new
two-year spending plan, which includes a major shift in how Ohioans pay
state income taxes. This change, pushed by Republican lawmakers, aims to
make the tax system simpler and reduce the amount of money people owe.
The thrust of the tax plan is a move towards a 2.75% flat income tax
rate…
This flat rate is set to be fully in place by the 2026 tax year.
Before the flat rate officially starts, the budget also lowers the
highest income tax rate immediately. For the 2025 tax year, the top
rate, which currently stands at 3.5%, will go down to 3.125%. A benefit
for many Ohio residents is that if their income, after certain
deductions and exemptions, is $26,050 or less, they will not pay any
state income tax at all.
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.
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.
Editor's Note: This first link is the most important, because history is everything, and America, along with western civilization, is blatantly ahistorical now.Cartoons added by me. RK
Why Write a Book About American History Now? - The Left isn’t a new threat. For over two centuries, America has confronted the enemy within. The David Horowitz Freedom Center is launching the pre-sale of my first book, ‘Domestic Enemies: The Founding Fathers’ Fight Against the Left’. I call it a ‘1619 Project for the American Left’, telling the untold
story of the rise of the movement and how America’s greatest leaders,
from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln, faced down against it in the
halls of power and even in street battles. Some may wonder if this is the right time for a book about American history. Yes, because history is repeating itself. Everything we’re dealing with has happened before. And America prevailed then. It can prevail now..........
Academia, Defund Police
Parents Pay for Private Security on Violent College Campuses- The real winner in the Defund the Police movement has been private
security. And California is Ground Zero for private security firms,
which often employ off-the-clock cops, and assorted mall cops, some of
them heavily armed can be seen all over major California cities. Now
private security paid for by parents is showing up on college campuses. Parents of students at the University of California
Berkeley have reportedly hired private security for their children,
prompting consternation from school officials. SafeBears, which ended on Saturday, paid six guards a total of about
$42,000 to patrol at night near student housing and south of campus in
response to increases in some types of crimes, including property
crimes, the Times reported...............
Bidenomics, Inflation
The ‘Bidenomics’ Myth That Americans Keep On Spending Money- Inflation
in action. One of the big arguments that the media makes
is that the economy must be good because consumer spending keeps
roaring along. Even though in poll after poll, Americans talk about how
the economy is good, the media and its experts act like people don’t
really believe it because… they keep spending money. There are two
factors at work here. One is that everything tends to cost more so
spending keeps rising.
That’s inflation in action. When food prices are up 30%, spending will
rise because people need to eat. The other side of the coin is that we
have two economies. And some people are doing quite well while a lot of others are not.........
DEI
New Boeing CEO Candidate Stephanie Pope Pushed DEI- Woke leads to broke.
There’s plenty of drama at Boeing. The DEI-ridden corp looking for a
new CEO appeared to have settled on current COO Stephanie Pope. That’s
now in doubt for various reasons, but there’s every reason to
believe that Pope won’t turn around a culture that had drifted away from
engineering excellence and into corporate identity politics pandering.
Consider Pope’s touting of its DEI report last year while using woke buzzwords.........
Immigration
The Illegal Alien Crime Wave (VIDEO) - “Illegal aliens routinely commit crimes” I joined the Immigration Reform Law Institute on their podcast
earlier to disprove the myth that illegal aliens are not committing
crimes. First of all, illegal entry is itself a crime. Secondly, illegal
aliens routinely commit crimes as part of their presence in this
country. Thirdly, illegal aliens piggyback on cartels and other
organized crime groups that are either moving them into this country
and/or using them to commit crimes once they’re in America. Illegal migration is one key element in the high crime rates in this country..............
While Biden Fundraises in Texas, Illegal Aliens Attack Border“100 migrants broke through razor wire and knocked over guards.” After years of denouncing the term “invasion” as fearmongering and
claiming that the mass invasion of America by millions of illegal aliens
is just “migration” by “refugees” suffering from “root causes” like
poverty, we’re seeing the reality here. Tellingly this is happening to the Texas National Guard, not the
federal authorities who have been ordered to keep the border open,
because they’re actually trying to secure the border. This is the moment when TX National Guard became overrun by migrants rioting to get across the border here in El Paso today. We were there and saw it all happen. Absolute chaos here. pic.twitter.com/VN6Kf663ie......
Is the Baltimore Bridge Collapse Really an Argument for ‘Open Borders’?Was Baltimore really suffering from a shortage of low-wage and low-skilled workers?
The Left never wastes an opportunity to exploit a crisis and faced
with the Baltimore bridge collision and collapse, it quickly trotted out
two narratives. 1. The bridge collision was caused by systemic racism.
Baltimore had
been discriminated against and so its infrastructure wasn’t up to spec.
2. The illegal aliens killed on the bridge show that we need open
borders. Let’s address the second one..............
Islam, Russia, and Ohio
My Take - There are, at least in my opinion, five big takeaways over this terrorist attack in Russia.
First,
this clearly demonstrates there's no getting along with Islamists.
There's always one irrational violent group of Muslims ready to commit
murder in the name of Islam, and Islamist are always in an unending state of outrage over something. Putin's been playing patty cake with
Islamists and here's the result. You cannot appease the insane, and
Islam is an agar dish for the unbridled growth of insanity.
Second,
we now know, when it comes to Islam, Putin is as gutless as Biden, and I think the world recognizes it.
Third,
that will play big in the future. Gutlessness is a conditioned
response to crises, and I think that will play out in other crises
involving Putin, the Ukraine War, and even China. Putin's ruthless, brutal, and looks tough surrounded by his military and secret police thugs doing his dirty work, but standing alone, we see the real Putin.
Fourth,
this further demonstrates Putin's not the brightest pebble in the
brook. Wanna be generals talk about strategy, great generals talk about
logistics. In the Russo/Ukrainian War, Putin failed at both.
Fifth, this is a worldwide problem, and the world needs to recognize Islam is a criminal political movement masquerading as a religion, which needs to be declared a terrorist movement, and all Muslim immigration into their nations outlawed. See, simple! RK
Putin: Terror Attack “by Radical Islamists Whose Ideology the Islamic World Has Been Fighting” - “Are radical and even terrorist Islamic organizations really interested in striking Russia?” Despite the hype about how tough and serious Putin is, his speeches
about the Islamic terrorist attack in Moscow could have been written for
George W. Bush. The officially translated remarks after the attack made no mention of
Islam, but a follow up one on measures being taken after the attacks do
mention Islam in a way Bush and Obama would have been fine with. “We know that the crime was committed by the hands of radical
Islamists, whose ideology the Islamic world itself has been fighting for
centuries,” Putin initially stated. That’s not a bad translation. he said, “radikalnih Islamistov” or “radical Islamists”...............
Why Russia Is No Better at Fighting Islamic Terror Than We Are - America and Russia could fight Islamic terrorism but that would be politically inconvenient. After the Islamic terrorist attack in Moscow, Russia’s basic response (stripped of blaming Ukraine) looks a lot like ours. There’s a narrow focus on the handful of direct perpetrators, threats
of consequences, retweets of statements of support from Muslim
countries (Hamas has also expressed sympathy), and a calculated refusal
to mention the “I” word. While people expect a more vigorous response from Putin than they
would from the White House, Russia is no better at fighting Islamic
terrorism than we are. Russia can bomb terrorist camps, but so can we.
And while bombing the occasional terror enclave is fine, terror attacks
depend on a domestic infrastructure.....
Putin Blames Everyone Except Islam for Islamic Terrorist Attack - Putin lets his people die to cover up the truth about Islam. Biden and the EU says that Vladimir Putin is nothing like them, but in at least one area, he’s very much like them. After the Islamic terror attack in Moscow by Muslim migrants, Putin,
the Russian regime and its online ‘IRA’ influencers are choosing to
blame everyone, from Ukraine to America and Israel, rather than Islam. Putin claimed that the Islamic terrorists were headed for Ukraine.
Why go to Ukraine when there are plenty of Islamic enclaves in and
around Russia? After having hosted a terror summit that included Hamas and Islamic
Jihad in order to fight Israel, he offered a generic ‘Bush’ style
statement that, “we will stand united against this common enemy
international terrorism no matter where it shows its ugly head.”......
Spielberg Equates Israel and Hamas- March 27, 2024 - “Decry the killing of innocent women and children in Gaza.” Contemptible but not surprising. In his movie, ‘Munich’, a fake revisionist version of Israel’s
campaign against Islamic terrorism, Steven Spielberg made a point of
equating the Israeli counter-terrorism operatives and the terrorists. And it’s not just Israel. When he considered making ‘American Sniper’, he wanted to focus on a
terrorist sniper who would be “a mirror of Chris on the the other side.”.......
Muslims Firebomb Store Over “Allah Socks” - “Several pairs of socks emblazoned with the word ‘Allah’ were put on sale.”Islam is a peaceful religion. It’s not in any way associated with
violence except in response to Jews, Christians or Hindus defending
themselves against it, or really serious issues like socks. Allah socks...........Five pairs of socks. Also, Muslims have a history of seeing their deity where he isn’t. Like on ice cream. Burger King recalls ‘sacrilegious’ desserts......The chain is being forced to spend thousands of pounds redesigning the
lid with backing from The Muslim Council of Britain. It apologised and
said: “The design simply represents a spinning ice-cream cone.”......
State Dept Complains Israel is “Writing Off Their Reputation Damage” - “The Israelis seemed oblivious to the fact that they are facing major, possibly generational damage to their reputation.” When your country has invaded and over a thousand of your people have been murdered, do you.
A. Smash Those Responsible
B. Focus on Your Reputation
America initially went with A after 9/11. And then decided to spend the next 20 years on B mode. Israel is now understandably in A mode after spending even longer in B
mode after the Oslo Accords. This is understandable to anyone who is a
normal human being and therefore unemployable at the State Dept.....
Biden Admin Creates Muslim Census Category- March 30, 2024 - And next up, the census will be asking about sexual orientation and gender identity.
Islamic groups had been demanding a special census category for a while
and now they’re getting one. The Biden administration signed off on
“Middle Eastern or North
African” checkbox on the next census. While in theory the checkbox
applies to non-Muslims (including me, as I was born in Israel), it’s
meant to be a category that Muslims will claim to represent. Much like
the term “Asian” in the UK came to be co-opted by Islamic
groups, Muslim organizations will claim to represent and speak for those
in the MENA category, amplifying their power and influence. We at the
Freedom Center have been warning about the MENA category for some time.
Here’s Bruce Thornton in 2016................
RIP Senator Joseph Lieberman - Sen. Lieberman’s opposition to Islamic terrorism had so infuriated the Left that it did everything possible to topple him. Unlike a lot of elected officials who stay on well past the point of
faintest competence, Sen. Joseph Lieberman left public office a long
time ago. And yet when I spoke to him some months ago, he was remarkably
sharp and on the ball. At an age where a lot of his former peers,
including Biden, ramble, freeze up and go in circles, he gave considered
answers, spoke at length but in depth, did not need to consult notes
and never lost focus..........
My Take - I've seen a lot of flattering commentaries about Joe Lieberman, and all because he got something right, and took a lot of heat over it. But I put him in the same category as Senator Everett Dirksen who allegedly said "a billion here and a billion there, and the first thing you know you're talking about a lot of money", who was considered a fiscal conservative, and a social liberal. Talk about cognitive dissonance. Did he really think you can support liberal policies and not spend a ton of money?
Did Joe Lieberman not notice the disaster his party was creating for America, a disaster he was part and parcel of? These are smart men, how could they not see the failure they supported going on around them? I'm sorry, just because someone got something right doesn't give a pass on the rest of life. RK
Israel/Hamas War
Kamala Warns Israel of “Consequences” if it Destroys Hamas- “I am ruling out nothing.” The Biden administration is doing every possible thing to save Hamas
by depriving Israel of arms, threatening it with political and economic
consequences, and going after Netanyahu personally to stop a Rafah
operation. But there’s no way to finish off Hamas, which has the bulk of its
brigades in Rafah in occupied Islamist territory in Gaza, without going
in......
Yes, the fallback position for the terrorists was the maternity ward. Then again, Arafat bragged that, “the womb of the woman will be our strongest weapon against the Zionists!” And the Arab Muslim invaders have found so many ways to make that so........
Chicago Politician Stands in Front of PLO, Iraqi Flag, After U.S. Flag Burned - This isn’t a political opposition. This is treason. After Alderman Byron Sigcho Lopez went viral for taking part in a
pro-terrorist rally at which an American flag was burned, he claimed
that he was far too patriotic for such a thing. According to the Chicago socialist, and a close ally of failed Mayor
Brandon Johnson, “as a proud naturalized American immigrant, Alderman
Sigcho Lopez is sensitive to any perception of disrespect towards the
country that has provided him with numerous opportunities. He
categorically denies ‘choosing’ to speak in front of a burned American
flag.”.................
Israel Won Major Victory by Ignoring BidenHamas had not been expecting Israel to hit a ‘hospital’ on Ramadan without warning. The current Israeli government made the same mistake after Oct 7 that
so many previous ones had by assuming that it would retain the support
of the White House if it followed its parameters. Instead of a
comprehensive siege and rapid forceful assaults, Israel waited. When
there were complaints about casualties, it slowed down, sent warnings
and put its own soldiers at risk. And lives were lost. But none of that worked. There was a ticking clock and Biden was bound to eventually pull support. It was only a matter of time.,..................
Biden Sells Out Israel in UN ‘Ceasefire’ Resolution- A ceasefire doesn’t protect Israeli civilians. It protects Hamas. The draft UN resolution from the Biden administration calls for “an
immediate and sustained ceasefire to protect civilians on all sides,
allow for the delivery of essential humanitarian assistance, and
alleviate humanitarian suffering, and towards that end unequivocally
supports ongoing international diplomatic efforts to secure such a
ceasefire in connection with the release of all remaining hostages”. Describing a “ceasefire in connection with the release of all
remaining hostages” rather than a ceasefire in exchange for is
deliberately ambiguous......................
Goodbye Candace – Part 2 - Daniel Greenfield - The Daily Wire dumps Candace Owens. Back in November, the David Horowitz Freedom Center made the decision to dump Candace Owens. In our article, Goodbye Candace,
we pointed out that we “honored her with an Annie Taylor Award for
Courage in 2018, and hosted her at multiple events. That’s why we are so
disappointed in what she has become.”..............
Chicago May Replace Columbus With Obama- A street named for the Great Explorer will be renamed for the Great Destroyer. Columbus may have discovered America, but Obama destroyed it. And to the winner go the spoils. Obama’s radical acolytes tore down Columbus monuments during the BLM hate riots while the city’s former mayor threatened Italian Americans and city officials if they tried restoring them. “Get that f—— statue back before noon tomorrow or I am
going to have you fired,” Lightfoot allegedly yelled at a government
lawyer who had tried to negotiate a deal with Italian-American groups to
restore the statue.. ......
The Islamist Transformation of Ohio in One Video-- Open borders is just the first step. This is the next step.......This is how Ohio and America are being transformed at the state level. Open borders is just the first step. Our Election Jihad report
shows how the next step works. Refugee resettlement nonprofits and aid
groups sponsor and set up community groups for the new arrivals. Those
groups transition into political and voter turnout operations meant to
elect Democrats. The process takes much less time than you might think. And the consequences are catastrophic........
Biden Admin Pushing “Peacekeeping Force” to Protect Terrorists in GazaIt will turn Gaza right back into a terrorist enclave. Israel has had plenty of experience with peacekeeping forces on its
borders before. Whether it’s in Jerusalem or Lebanon, international
peacekeeping forces do nothing to stop attacks on Israel and provide
cover for Muslim attackers. And with a record of generations of failure,
somehow this terrible idea is being rebooted yet again. Biden administration officials are in preliminary
“conversations” about options for stabilizing post-war Gaza, including a
proposal for the Pentagon to help fund either a multinational force or a
Palestinian peacekeeping team...........
Judicial Corruption
Kamala Donor Judge Disbars John Eastman for Representing Trump- Corrupt California State Bar which protected corrupt lawyers, targeting Trump’s lawyer.
Corrupt. Totalitarian. Par for the course. I was privileged to listen to
John Eastman speak twice and lay out his case at David Horowitz Freedom
Center events, including at the Restoration Weekend in New Orleans
and at an event in Los Angeles. Both times, Eastman spoke compellingly
about what he had gone through in the lawfare campaign to destroy him
for representing Trump. That includes the California bar’s effort to disbar him. An effort that has at least temporarily succeeded.................
Media corruption, bias, and hypocrisy is beyond description.
NBC’s Ronna McDaniel Meltdown- No one can be allowed to represent Republicans on NBC News. Like so many other useless RNC and DNC bosses, Ronna McDaniel left
off running the RNC into the ground for a gig at NBC News. Michael
Steele, who long ago came out as a Dem, is on MSNBC these days. And FOX
News had hired ex-DNC head Donna Brazile (for a brief while anyway) to
spout off. There’s nothing unusual here. RNC and DNC heads are mostly useless
people and that makes them perfect as talking heads with impressive
titles. But nothing is normal anymore and so NBC News’ people threw a fit over Ronna McDaniel.......
NBC News Officially Bans Republicans From Working There - “No organization, particularly a newsroom, can succeed unless it is cohesive and aligned.” For the longest time, the media played this game of pretending that
it doesn’t consist entirely of a bunch of leftist activists who exist to
promote their political agenda and attack those of their political
opponents. The pretense is wearing thin. And who knew that Ronna McDaniel of all
people would be the breaking point? But it’s kind of like the way that
the media’s attacks on dishwater liberals like McCain and Romney,
portraying them as Hitler 2.0 just because they posed a threat to Obama,
helped kill the media’s credibility.....
My Take - First, Ronna is a nitwit, and in my opinion, an incompetent traitorous RINO nitwit who not only mismanaged the RNC misspending their money, which should be investigated, and actually worked against conservative candidates in collusion with Mitch McConnell. But what I get a kick out of is the fact NBC is using Al Sharpton, the dullest pebble in the brook, and an even bigger corrupt nitwit than Ronna to promote this biased clabber!
What would I do if I was running NBC?
First, I would start by placing their biggest names, all mostly under contract, in far lesser positions, even copy boys or girls, and they would stay there until they apologized for their behavior to the management, to their fellow employees, and then to the general public. As for anyone of those who weren't under contract, and who through their protests were in effect making demands about management decisions; they would be fired. See, simple! RK
Media: Only Reason Americans Think the Economy is Bad is COVID PTSD- After years of failed efforts to convince
Americans that the economy is great, the media has listened to the vast
majority of the country… and decided that they must be crazy for
thinking the economy is bad. “America is in a funk, and no one seems to know why.”......
Transgenderism
Sacramento to Become Sanctuary City for Child Abusers- But what about a sanctuary city for mutilating kids? Sacramento just got done passing a resolution demanding that Israel
stop attacking Hamas by an almost overwhelming margin (with the
exception of the lone Jewish councilwoman) so now it’s time to get even
edgier. Sanctuary cities for illegal alien invasions are old news. But what about a sanctuary city for mutilating kids?......No one criminalizes adults seeking to have their own genitals cut
off.....And no Republican state criminalizes adults getting themselves
mutilated either. There are only restrictions on children being
mutilated before the age of consent.......
While Biden Fundraises in Texas, Illegal Aliens Attack Border -March 22, 2024 - “100 migrants broke through razor wire and knocked over guards.”After years of denouncing the term “invasion” as fearmongering and
claiming that the mass invasion of America by millions of illegal aliens
is just “migration” by “refugees” suffering from “root causes” like
poverty, we’re seeing the reality here. Tellingly this is happening to the Texas National Guard, not the
federal authorities who have been ordered to keep the border open,
because they’re actually trying to secure the border............
The Islamist Transformation of Ohio in One Video -
March 21, 2024 - Open borders is just the first step. This is the next step. If you’re wondering why they’re wearing blue, that’s the color of the Somali flag. Rep. Ismail Mohammed was one of the state legislators whom the Freedom Center covered in our Election Jihad report..............
Ex-CIA, UN Firm Backed by Hamas Sponsor Linked to Gaza Pier Project
-
March 21, 2024 -
“We look forward to the port transitioning to a commercially operated facility over time.”Last week, I wrote that Biden’s announcement of a two-month project to build a pier to transport aid to Gaza was a “trojan pier” that made no sense.“Why not just use those existing ports and have Israel
look at what’s going through and bring it in? It seems like this is a
lot of work for 60 days out when there are people starving, frankly,” a
reporter asked. And the spokesman responded with a confusing word salad because he had no good answer..............
We Need Chinese Products to Fight a War With China
- March 21, 2024 -
“Among the deficiencies: components of solid rocket motors, shell casings, machine tools” Between the “peace dividend” and “outsourcing”, our defense industry is reliant on Chinese products. But a swift response may not be possible, in large part
because of how shrunken the U.S. manufacturing base has become since the
Cold War. All of a sudden, Washington is reckoning with the fact that
so many parts and pieces of munitions, planes, and ships it needs are
being manufactured overseas, including in China. Among the deficiencies:
components of solid rocket motors, shell casings, machine tools, fuses
and precursor elements to propellants and explosives, many of which are
made in China and India. There’s nothing sudden about this...........
Gen. Milley: “I Don’t Know the Exact Number of Americans That Were Left Behind”
- March 20, 2024 - Miley took his disputes with Trump public when no lives were at stake and kept his private with Biden when lives were at stake. We have court martialed men for less, but there’s no accountability at the top.At the Congressional hearing on Biden’s disastrous Afghanistan
disaster, Gen. Milley showed the presence of mind and command of detail
that he was famous for. “I’ll be candid, I don’t know the exact number of Americans that were
left behind, because the starting number was never clear,” Milley
admitted. “Same is true of at-risk Afghans, SIVs the commandos, other
Afghans that served with us — those numbers varied so widely that they
were quite inaccurate.” The upshot of the testimony
from Milley and Gen. McKenzie is that the whole thing was a mess
because of the State Department which refused to evacuate until the last
minute....................
Illiterate Kids Will Go to School to Learn Nothing in Electric Buses
-
March 20, 2024 - Finally, there’s some good news out of the Bronx. here was a time when the Bronx was known for literary
giants like Edgar Allan Poe, James Baldwin, Mark Twain, Mary Higgins
Clark and Stan Lee amongst others. Today, the Bronx has the lowest
literacy rate across the five boroughs and, until recently, no
bookstores. Oh wait, not that good news. This good news. Mayor Eric Adams announced Monday kids in the Bronx will
be saying goodbye to diesel school buses and hello to 180 new electric
ones. Due to a $77 million federal grant, the Federal Bipartisan
Infrastructure law is quadrupling the number of electric buses already
present in the city. It’s also funding the nation’s first-ever electric
truck charging depot to be placed at the Hunts Point Market..............
Sen. Schumer Attacks Trump’s Comments on Israel
-
March 20, 2024
-
‘Jews for Hamas’ strike back. After Sen. Schumer took to the floor
to the Senate floor to claim that Israel, along with Hamas was an
obstacle to peace, and to threaten that unless there was regime change
and a terror state in Israel, there would be sanctions, he’s back
complaining about President Trump’s comments. So is the rest of the ‘Jews for Hamas’ caucus. Including the No. 2’s number two.
Biden Admin Denies, Confirms It Doesn’t Want Israel to Defeat Hamas
March 19, 2024
“That’s just nonsense.” The Biden administration has continued
rolling out a pressure campaign against Israel in order to save Hamas.
The despicable Schumer speech was just one prong of a larger effort that
includes political and economic pressure, as well as implicit threats
of even worse things to come, even as the administration continues to
lie about its goals and agendas. Here’s Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan at a press
conference claiming that Hamas can somehow be defeated without defeating
it.........
It Takes the World’s Largest Plane to Deliver Green Energy Wind Turbine Blades
- March 19, 2024 -
And specialized runways too. Remember, we need to build solar panels and wind turbines for “clean green energy” to save the planet. Now those turbine blades are not really recyclable, have a limited shelf life and delivering them will require the world’s largest plane (which doesn’t run on wind or solar) and it will require special airport facilities.......
Anti-Racism Training Fails to Cure AI of Racism -
March 19, 2024
-
What hate crimes did the AI commit? Racism is everywhere. Highways are racist. Milk is racist. AI is racist. And even trying to subject AI to struggle sessions doesn’t work. A small team of AI researchers from the Allen Institute
for AI, Stanford University and the University of Chicago, all in the
U.S., has found that dozens of popular large language models continue to
use racist stereotypes even after they have been given anti-racism
training. What hate crimes did the AI commit?.....
Supreme Court to Decide First Amendment is Null and Void
- March 19, 2024 - Supreme Court Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson
is getting some attention for stating that, “my biggest concern is that
your view has the First Amendment hamstringing the government in
significant ways.” But the only problem there is that Jackson was dumb enough to say the
quiet part out loud in which the Supreme Court, notably including Chief
Justice Roberts and Justice Kavanaugh appear to be leaning on the idea
that the government has a right to tell companies to censor particular
individuals for political reasons, as long as the government doesn’t do
anything more than say it, without making further blatant threats to the
company. Yes, Jackson is terrible, but consider the obnoxiousness of Justice
Brett Kavanaugh, Justice Elena Kagan and Chief Justice John Roberts snickering together about the idea of government censorship.
Akron, Ohio’s first Pakistani Muslim mayor is convinced that America is racist.
Despite
winning a challenging mayoral election by 97% in which he was the only
candidate on the ballot after the Republican candidate was disqualified,
Shammas Malik has never stopped talking about how racism is everywhere
in the country and the city that elected him.
“He’s going to be the face of equity and diversity,” a Malik ally claimed.
And
the face of diversity believes that everything about Akron, including
its Innerbelt defunct highway system, is racist. “The choice to build
the Innerbelt is a great example of systemic racism,” he claimed.
“Projects like the Innerbelt explain our sickening racial wealth gap,”
he contended elsewhere. And “one great example” of Akron’s racism, he
lectured, was the Innerbelt which “was designed to help suburban
commuters get to downtown Akron quicker.”
Malik’s solution to most problems, from highways to law enforcement, is to blame racism.
In
2022, Jayland Walker, who had led police on a chase the previous night,
shot at officers and then tried to flee while wearing a ski mask, was
shot and killed leading to BLM race riots.
Malik
showed up at a protest against the grand jury’s refusal to indict the 8
police officers for shooting a man in a ski mask who had opened fire at
them and was reaching into his waistband and then raising his arm
before they finally opened fire on the suicidal man.
“There
can be no justification for the brutal amount of force in the video of
Jayland’s last moments,” Malik insisted while not making it clear what
the correct amount of force police should use when they think a man
wearing a ski mask in June is about to shoot at them.
Malik
started his time in office by appointing a Director of Diversity,
Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and doubling down on his claim that the
country and the city are deeply racist hellholes.
“The
very real history of racism in America is more than just history, it
shapes the systems and institutions around us today,” Malik claimed.
Those
are the same systemically racist institutions which allowed Shammas
Iqbal Qammar Malik, the 32-year-old son of a Pakistani immigrant, to
head one of the largest cities in Ohio. Institutions so deeply racist
that they elevated him above all the other white primary candidates and
then gifted him an uncontested election after less than four years on
the City Council.
Malik
claimed that the “history of racism means that the race of a baby born
in Akron today will have a huge impact on their life experience – from
the likelihood that they will live past infancy, to the amount of money
they will earn in a lifetime.” What did Malik’s own race determine?
Mayor
Shammas Malik’s father, a Pakistani immigrant, who used different
names, left him and his American mother, a liberal University of Akron
professor, had other secret kids, and was later arrested for wire fraud
and impersonating an Air Force officer.
Despite
that, both Malik and his brother Najim were able to intern at the
Senate. Malik went on to intern at the Department of Defense, attend
Harvard Law School and get the highest possible position in city
government after only a few years on the job.
That is how incredibly racist America and Akron are.
After
working as a government and policy intern for MPAC, Malik moved on to
the leftist Center for American Progress and then as an intern in the
Pentagon’s legal office working on federal litigation involving national
security and military commissions trials for Al Qaeda terrorists.
And he has learned one thing from all his experiences. America is terrible.
Malik
Shammas claimed that America “killed thousands of civilians through
drone and airstrikes across Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen,
Somalia, etc. across the last 20 years – feeding into the recruitment of
horrific terror groups like Al-Qaeda and ISIS.”
White
people, like his mother and her family, an environmentalist who married
his wealthy Pakistani dad, according to Malik, have far too much money
because of systemic racism.
“White
families have almost 10 times as much wealth as black families, in
large part because of systemic barriers that prevent black families from
accessing home ownership and creating intergenerational wealth,”
Shammas Malik argued.
One
reason Shammas Malik is the mayor is that he dominated the Democrat
party mayoral primaries by outraising all the other candidates with over $300,000: a record setting amount for a local election. Wealth is evil and racist except when it comes from his old law firm.
Malik claimed white people suffer from “implicit bias” to be remedied with critical race theory.
“The
reason we need a true and accurate teaching of race in school is
because there’s unconscious bias,” Malik argued. “When folks talk about
critical race theory being taught in public schools, we know by now that
they’re not actually talking about critical race theory,” he argued
another time. “What they’re alarmed about is a more honest, fuller
accounting of race in our history.”
By
“our history”, he doesn’t mean the incredibly racist system in Pakistan
where a foreigner of another religion would never have a chance at a
top position, and would be lucky not to be killed for even trying, but
in the country that gave him every possible opportunity and advantage.
During
the pandemic, Malik’s priority was racism. “Certainly it will be very
important to find out how much race and class plays into this virus,
here and nationwide,” he urged.
After
the Supreme Court outlawed racial discrimination in college admissions
(known by the misleading name of ‘affirmative action’), Malik, a Harvard
Law alum, complained that, “systemic racism is real. To fix it, we have
to be willing to acknowledge the problem in the first place. Today’s
decision is a huge step backwards in the fight for freedom and justice
for all people.”
Even the rising crime caused by pro-crime activists like him, was blamed on systemic racism.
“Like
many cities, Akron is facing a crisis of gun violence, with 26
homicides so far this year, as well as necessary calls for reimagining
our policing and oversight processes to address systemic racism and
increase public trust,” the future mayor contended.
Ending
the murders would require empowering the police to fight crime.
Instead, Mayor Shammas Malik appointed a new DEI director and blamed
systemic racism and the cops.
There
was a time when immigrants would be grateful for the opportunities of
this country, but many have since learned that it’s much more effective
to be ungrateful and hateful instead.
“The
vote for someone who is not the traditional white male profile is
something that we as a community should celebrate,” a Malik ally
claimed.
In
politics and in so many other areas, merely not being white is its own
achievement. And by being only half-white, Malik has achieved half of
something.
Editor's Note: I've not asked for nor have I received permission to publish this in full. If the author or American Conservative object, I will break this down to a link, however, I think this piece needs the broadest distribution possible. RK
The only thing less sacred than the republican government in the state of Ohio is an unborn child. Tuesday’s dalliance with direct democracy in the Buckeye State led to
a double-digit win for a radical ballot proposal amending the state
constitution to sanction abortion with almost no limits. Favored by 57 percent of voters, Issue 1 is only the 20th ballot proposal Ohio has approved since 1912.
The trouncing of unborn children’s rights has already been celebrated
as a win for democracy. As one abortion writer put it on her Substack, “F*** You, We Win.” It would be easy at such a moment to sink our teeth into all the
ugliness of the anti-life side, but it is much more necessary now to
learn how to win. Nothing else will stop these heinous crimes from being
repeated.
Winning is a skill that has eluded the pro-life movement from the beginning.
The very existence of Roe was proof the movement had lost
the rhetorical battle before it had begun. Its overturn in 2022 came far
too late to matter in terms of public opinion, which was settled in
favor of elective abortion many years prior. Results like Tuesday’s are
just the latest in a long line of proofs that what has been done to take
back the public square since 1973 has been insufficient.
J.D. Vance, the junior U.S. senator from Ohio, zeroed in on this in a social media post
on Wednesday: “We've spent so much time winning a legal argument on
abortion that we've fallen behind on the moral argument,” he wrote.
Vance is right. Not only have we fallen behind on the moral argument,
many have all but abandoned it. The pro-life movement has been
rhetorically apologizing for Dobbs ever since itwas
handed down, trying to prove its moderation with compromise and
side-stepping, as though suddenly ashamed of the belief that human life
begins at the moment of conception. To this end, a mere 15-week abortion
ban has been touted as the winning measure in moderate precincts. In Virginia on Tuesday, it lost.
In order to win, the pro-life movement must first reflect on the causes of its repeated failures, as The American Conservative’s managing editor Jude Russo pointed out in August. Then, it must regain confidence in the rightness of its own cause.
Pro-life leaders seem to have forgotten that second part especially.
In the lead-up to the Issue 1 vote, Ohio’s Republican Governor Mike
DeWine campaigned against its radical terms by moderating
his own stance on abortion. Issue 1 permits abortion procedures all the
way up to birth, allowing future legislation to limit only those
abortions performed after an unborn child can survive outside the womb,
typically no earlier than the 24th week of pregnancy. In cases of rape,
incest, and when the health of the mother is at risk, again the
constitutional amendment reverts to safeguard abortion rather than human
life even after the 24th week of pregnancy.
Yet rather than champion the moral case for protecting the most
vulnerable children, DeWine offered something of a quid pro quo to
voters. He promised to draft a new abortion law with exceptions for rape
and incest if Issue 1 should fail. (It is hard to imagine very many
voters changed sides as a result of this political equivalent to a
parent saying, “If you don’t get into the cookies, I’ll give you a
gluten free fig bar instead.”)
This type of maneuvering is typically motivated by issue-specific
polling, but it broadcasts weakness to voters, not to mention a lack of
conviction in one’s own cause. Nothing suggests “there is no real moral
case against abortion” like pro-life leaders continually moving the
goalposts on when it is acceptable to kill an unborn child. The logic of
moderation, which finds the middle point between two opposed ideas and
sets up camp, is unconvincing always, but especially when life and death
are involved.
Meanwhile, the pro-death camp is racking up fantastic wins, not by
compromise or moderation but by precisely the opposite tactic. The
extremism of Issue 1 is a perfect example of this. A mother’s “health”
is defined sweepingly: In the past, Ohio courts ruled
it to include factors as tangential as her general wellbeing and
preferred family size. Moreover, the amendment does not limit itself to
abortion alone.
Along with potentially invalidating state laws which
require parents to be notified that their child is seeking an abortion,
the amendment to the Ohio constitution applies this subversion of
parental authority to all “reproductive medical treatments.” Very
likely, this could be construed to include gender-affirming therapy,
which harms male and female reproductive health.
Let me say this as clearly as I can. Abortion is a sin against God and man. It's the murder of the innocent unborn. When reports about the horrors perpetrated on innocent babies in Israel by Hamas the outrage was palpable, among the sane and moral.
Truthfully, I foolishly felt this would certainly impact Issue 1 in Ohio demanding unlimited and unbridled murder of these innocents. How wrong can you be?
Abortion foes suffered a grave defeat in Ohio Tuesday. A referendum to establish
abortion as a protected right in the state’s constitution was
overwhelmingly approved by voters. With 97% of the voting in, the
measure was coasting to passage by a 56-44% count.........
We know that Issue 1 does not represent Ohio values. It took $35 million in out-of-state funding and ads filled with fear
and deceit to push through the most radical abortion agenda in the
country. An agenda that will cement late-term abortion in our
constitution, strip parents of their rights, and wipe out health and
safety protections for women. This is not the Ohio way, and we are
united in our fight against these extreme policies.
My question is this. Why would all that funding by out of state misfits influence anyone? The issue isn't funding, the issue is a matter of fundamental morality. The issue is the willing acceptance to allow the murder of the innocent unborn. That's a fundamental moral value, and now we know 56% of Ohioans have no moral values that can't be bought and paid for.
Now Ohio has a Constitutional Amendment, via a ballot initiative, that permits abortion even at nine months. I failed to realize the number of immoral and insane people out there. While the moral and sane were outraged at the horrors perpetrated on Israel by Hamas, another foolish view was my failure to realize the untold thousands who celebrated these outrages right here in America (and they weren't all Muslims) wasn't just a mere fraction of society organized and paid for by a handful of wealthy leftist elitists.
With all the insanity being imposed on the nation and the world by the Democrat party you would think society would be outraged and act accordingly. Another foolish thought by me.
From Liberty Nation News it's being reported that in spite of the excellent work done in Virginia by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin the Democrat party now controls both houses of the General Assembly and Democrat Gov. Andy Beshear won re-election won in Kentucky, and it seems this might well be a trend, in spite of the Republican victory in Mississippi's Republican Gov.
Tate Reeves won a second term. Also, in spite of all the outrageous judicial overreach and corrupt decisions, Democrats win Pennsylvania’s statewide judicial races.
Don't let the censuring of Rashida Tlaib by the House fool you. It's quite possible they House will go right back to the radicals in 2024.
America's in crisis because of massive corruption in Congress, a corrupt judiciary, illegal Democrat immigration polices that allow anti-American misfits to ignore our immigration laws, an educational system, from Kindergarten to advance degrees, that has been contaminated with far left misfits who hate the American culture, people, economy, and the Constitution, and an out of control federal bureaucratic deep state.
Ohioans vote Tuesday on
Issue 1, a referendum question that would write abortion on demand
through birth into the state constitution. Buckeyes: Don’t let pro-abortion advocates lie to you about the extremes of this amendment. This amendment legalizes abortion through birth for any reason. No restriction on abortion prior to birth would be constitutional in Ohio. Anybody
who claims that is not true is lying. The amendment pays lip service
to the notion of “viability” — i.e., the point at which a fetus is
capable of surviving outside the womb, generally about 20 weeks (5
months).
But the amendment’s “restriction” is no restriction at all. Why? Three reasons:
The amendment itself carefully does not say when viability occurs.
It does say that determination is up to the person
performing the abortion — i.e., somebody who has a vested interest in
removing that restriction.
And the amendment says the restriction can be waived in
the name of the mother’s “health” — but does not define “health.” That
definition is not self-evident or common sense. We know from nearly
fifty years of Roe v. Wade that the Supreme Court stretched
“health” to include emotional and psychological satisfaction. So if
you’d be unhappy that you can’t have an abortion when you want it? Your
“health” is endangered. That’s not fantasy. That’s not fiction. That’s almost half a century of precedents.
Do you believe that abortion should be
legal for any reason at seven, eight, or nine months of
pregnancy? Issue One guarantees abortion at those stages. ............To Read More....
When You Search ‘Pregnancy’ On Google, The Top Result Is For Planned Parenthood - By Leif Le Mahieu DailyWire.com - New study from Media Research Center finds that Google consistently favors pro-abortion sources over pro-life ones. Google’s search results consistently favor pro-abortion sources over pro-life ones, according to a new study that tested the search engine giant against its competitors. A
new report by researchers at the Media Research Center’s Free Speech
America says that a pro-abortion bias exists across Google’s search
engine, its AI chatbot Bard, Google Ads, and company policies.
Researchers at the MRC compared Google results to those of Bing and
DuckDuckGo, saying that results from Google tilted in favor of a
pro-abortion perspective......
Editor's Note: I've not asked for nor have I received permission to publish this in full, but I agree with the author this needs as wide a distribution as possible, and as an Ohioan, I find that more compelling. If he objects, I will break this down to a link. RK
Dr. Sherri Tenpenny has had her license suspended by the Ohio Medical
Board and they won’t tell her why. Recourse is limited as the Attorney
General’s office under Republican David Yost has refused to help, opting
instead to side with the Board in a conspiracy against Dr. Tenpenny.
She has retained freedom-loving attorney Tom Renz to fight represent
her...........Here’s Renz laying out what’s at stake:
In
an egregious assault on the 5th & 6th Amendments the Ohio Medical
Board has suspended Dr. Sherri Tenpenny’s medical license without even a
pretense of due process. So absurd was this action that the assistant
AG from the #REPUBLICAN #Ohio Attorney General’s office literally argued
in an open hearing that @BusyDrT does not have a right to know what
she’s been accused of & that due process in the courts would
“breakdown the processes of investigations.”
We are
calling for legislative reform in Ohio & for the #GOP Governor –
Mike DeWine – and GOP AG David Yost to state for the record whether they
believe licensed professionals like doctors and lawyers should receive
due process before their rights are taken away.
To be
clear, this is really an action to censor Dr. Tenpenny for speaking out
about COVID and the #vaccines. The state medical boards appear to be
acting on behalf of the corrupt #Biden admin to continue to censor
people. PLEASE HELP GET THIS OUT. #WeThePeople MUST stand against this
corruption. Full interview below.
When patriots tell me the solutions to our problems rest in electing
Republicans, I point out people like DeWine and Yost as examples of how
the UniParty swamp works on both sides of the aisle. We need America
First freedom defenders, not RINOs. There’s a huge difference, as Dr.
Tenpenny is now learning.
Let’s get the word out. Share this with
friends and family so we can get as much coverage of this story as
possible. By denying Dr. Tenpenny has rights, they are attempting to
sweep this under the rug. Let’s not let them. Sound off about this on my Substack.
We reside in Ohio
and were front and center of the special election for Issue 1 in Ohio on
August 8, 2023. This issue was to make amendments to the Ohio
Constitution more difficult. Making things more difficult for the
government to accomplish anything is a good thing for citizens
regardless of the issue.
This issue was marketed by both sides of
the issue incorrectly and deceptively. The Pro side stated that it was
Pro-Gun, Pro-Family, etc. Blatant flag waving. The Con side
continuously stated that approval of Issue 1 would reduce our rights,
eliminate “one person/ one vote” and “shred the Constitution.” The
contents of the Issue were clear and concise if one only went to the
Secretary of State’s website and read for themselves. There were many
people who voted against Issue 1 (a majority) that are Pro-life, Pro- 2nd
Amendment and Pro-family. These voters voted against their own
interests and beliefs. The failure of Issue 1 now creates the
opportunity to advance abortion parameters to late term, trans-gender
rights in our public schools and a variety of other issues. The failure
of Issue 1 has now weakened Ohio and began the process of turning our
state Blue and on the model of Illinois and California.
If Ohio
voters had just taken the time to read the simple issue, the outcome
would have been drastically different. Instead, the Ohio voter chose to
listen to the advertisements and social media posts promising the
Apocalypse and now have a State Constitution that is vulnerable to
special-interest pressure. The Con side won and won dirty.
The
moral of this story is for every voter to do their own study regarding
proposed laws and bills. It is not difficult and required by all levels
of government to disclose prior to an election. Without the basic
research, every voter is susceptible to the propaganda, deception and
“sales pitch” of every special interest and will have to bear the
consequences of their votes. Uncharacteristically, Ohio’s Secretary of
State Frank LaRose post-election statement said it best:
“I’m grateful that nearly 1.3 million
Ohioans stood with us in this fight, but this is only one battle in a
long war. Unfortunately, we were dramatically outspent by dark money
billionaires from California to New York, and the giant ‘for sale’ sign
still hangs on Ohio’s constitution. Ohioans will see the devastating
impact of this vote soon enough. The radical activists that opposed
Issue 1 are already planning amendments to shut parents out of a child’s
life-altering medical procedure, force job killing wage mandates on
small businesses, prevent law abiding citizens from protecting their
families and remove critical protections for our first responders. I’ve
said for months now that there’s an assault coming on our constitution,
and that hasn’t changed. I’m just getting started in the fight to
protect Ohio’s values.”
Ohioans and all other citizens of the United
States, study and learn before you vote or don’t complain when Ohio is
unrecognizable.
Ohio voters shut down a Republican attempt to stop “pro-choice” advocates from constitutionally protecting abortion
in the Buckeye State. Had Issue 1 passed, the Ohio Constitution would
have been amended so that any future changes require a 60% supermajority
in the popular vote. And that would have made it nigh
impossible for abortion advocates to enshrine a constitutional right to
abort – and thus render the new six-week abortion ban
“unconstitutional.”
Ohio and the Meaning of ‘Constitution’
Ohio is one of 38 states in which a simple majority popular
vote is all that’s needed to amend its constitution. There are 11,
however, that demand some form of supermajority or, at the very least,
some special requisite beyond just 50% of voters plus one. New Hampshire
has the highest required “supermajority” at two-thirds (66.67%).
Florida comes in second with 60%, and Colorado is next at 55%. In the
other eight, a simple majority does the trick only if some other special
qualification – which varies by state – is met. Oregon, for example,
requires that any rule changing the vote threshold on the constitutional
amendment process meet whatever new level the measure in question
proposes. So an amendment that calls for a 60% vote to change the
constitution in the Beaver State would only pass with 60% or more of the
popular vote. Delaware, on the other hand, is the only state in the
Union that doesn’t compel the people to vote on whether to amend the
constitution.
Those looking to pass ballot Issue 1 had hoped to
make Ohio the 12th to require some form of supermajority – in this case,
tying Florida for second place at 60% – in hopes of making it harder to
pass an amendment safeguarding the right to have an abortion in the
Buckeye State. That attempt failed, and now those same people can only
hope the simple majority takes their side on the issue of abortion in
November.
But, ignoring the ulterior motive in this particular
case, there is one good reason to demand more than a simple majority to
modify a constitution: the tyranny of the majority. The Founders knew
well the danger of “pure” democracy, of allowing 50% plus one person to
rule over the rest.
(Photo by Maddie McGarvey via Getty Images)
Changing the US Constitution
requires either an Article V convention called by two-thirds of the
state legislatures or an act of Congress passed by a two-thirds
supermajority of both houses. Then, regardless of which path was chosen,
three-quarters – or 38 out of 50 – of the states must ratify the new
amendment-to-be before it is added to the federal register as an update
to the Constitution. For that reason, it has been successfully amended
only 27 times in 236 years – with the first ten in 1791 being approved
by the same folks who wrote, passed, and ratified the initial
Constitution itself.
One doesn’t see the same picture when looking
at the states. When the figures for all 50 are tallied up, the “average
state” is on its third constitution and has amended that most recent
one 130 times – which is precisely what one might expect when just a
simple majority of voters is all that’s needed. While it’s certainly not
the case for a small handful of states, the constitutions of most are
little more than state law that’s altered by a popular vote rather than
by legislators. Such flimsy “constitutions” pale in comparison to the
relatively unchanged federal example, providing little real protection
against the mob rule of popular political movements.
The Left’s Urban Advantage
Does
this make most state constitutions pointless? On the contrary, it means
they can be used in special situations to thwart the legislature. This
is precisely what abortion advocates hope will occur in November. A look
at just about any election map shows that, no matter how red the state
may be, most urban areas tend to vote blue. So while a state may have
enough red, rural counties to result in a GOP majority in the
legislature or the presidential electors going to the Republican
candidate, there’s still a good chance, if there are enough heavily populated cities,
that the slight majority of voters in the state are either Democrats or
at least lean somewhat statist and socially progressive.
Will
that urban advantage be enough to render a six-week abortion ban
unconstitutional in Ohio, where Republicans have dominated for years,
with a current GOP trifecta and veto-proof supermajorities in both
chambers of the General Assembly? It’s a tall order, but the failure of
Issue 1 means it could be close.
,
