Category: conronavirus

Why I Support Michael V. Ryan for Butler County Commissoner Over Roger Reynolds: The Spooky Nook Sports Complex and vision for the future

In the ever-evolving landscape of local politics, decisions about leadership are rarely simple. They require reflection, vision, and a deep understanding of what a community truly needs to thrive. As someone who has stood by Roger Reynolds through difficult times and considers him a personal friend, my decision to endorse Michael Ryan for Butler County Commissioner was not made lightly. It stems from a clear-eyed assessment of the future of Butler County and the kind of leadership that can best guide us there.

A Legacy of Loyalty and Friendship

Let me begin by acknowledging my longstanding support for Roger Reynolds. I’ve stood with him through challenging moments, and I’ve always appreciated his dedication to public service. Roger has contributed meaningfully to Butler County, and I personally like him. But politics isn’t just about personal loyalty—it’s about choosing the right person for the right job at the right time. And in this moment, I believe Michael Ryan is that person. Roger has announced his run for this office knowing the political situation, and he did it anyway, ultimately making it more about what he wants and needs, over what is best for this commissioner seat. He has a desire to justifiably clear his name from a rough period of time. But in that process, he showed a lot of bad judgment in pushing away people who stood by him the strongest through that process, and we don’t need that kind of trouble in a commissioner office.

The Spooky Nook Sports Complex: A Symbol of Visionary Leadership

One of the most compelling reasons I’m supporting Michael Ryan is his instrumental role in the development of the Spooky Nook Sports Complex in Hamilton. Located on the site of the old Champion International Paper factory, this facility is more than just a sports venue—it’s a symbol of economic revitalization, community engagement, and visionary leadership.

Hamilton has long needed a spark to reignite its downtown economy, and the Spooky Nook project has provided just that. It’s the largest sports complex of its kind in North America, and it has transformed a once-depleted industrial site into a vibrant hub of activity. Michael says it’s the second largest, but who’s splitting straws?  It’s a pretty spectacular venue on the Hamilton, Ohio riverfront.  Weekends at Spooky Nook are packed with volleyball tournaments, basketball games, and conventions. The facility includes a hotel and event center, drawing visitors from across the country and injecting new life into local businesses.

This kind of transformation doesn’t happen by accident. It requires leadership that can bring people together, facilitate investment, and create a shared vision for the future. Michael Ryan, as Vice Mayor and City Council member, played a key role in making this happen. He didn’t just support the project—he helped create the conditions that made it possible.

The Power of Communication and Connection

Michael Ryan’s greatest strength is his ability to get people talking. In today’s political climate, shaped in many ways by President Trump’s deal-making influence, the leaders who succeed are those who can build coalitions, foster dialogue, and unite diverse groups around common goals. Michael Ryan is that kind of leader.

He’s personable, approachable, and genuinely interested in what others have to say. When you put him in a room with people from different backgrounds, he doesn’t create division—he creates conversation. That’s a rare and valuable trait in politics, and it’s one of the reasons why the Spooky Nook project was able to move forward. Investors felt confident that the city government would support their efforts, and that confidence was rooted in the kind of leadership Michael Ryan exemplifies.

A New Generation of Politicians

Michael Ryan represents a new generation of politicians—leaders who don’t wait for opportunities to come to them but actively seek out ways to improve their communities. He was elected in 2017, during Trump’s first term, and he brought with him a fresh perspective and a proactive approach to governance.

This isn’t the era of traditional politics anymore. The days of sitting in an office and waiting for constituents to come knocking are over. Today’s leaders need to be out in the world, building relationships, attracting investment, and thinking creatively about the future. Michael Ryan understands this, and he’s already demonstrating it—even before officially becoming commissioner.

Aviation and Economic Development

A perfect example of Michael Ryan’s forward-thinking approach is his involvement with Joby Aviation. He’s been working to establish connections with the Dayton International Airport area, where a new factory is being built to produce air taxis. This is cutting-edge technology, and it represents a major opportunity for Butler County to position itself as a hub for innovation and transportation.

Michael Ryan isn’t waiting for someone else to take the lead—he’s already out there, laying the groundwork for future partnerships and economic growth. That kind of initiative is exactly what we need in a commissioner.

The Contrast with Roger Reynolds

Again, this isn’t personal. Roger Reynolds has had his time in office, and he’s done some good work. But his approach is rooted in a more traditional style of politics—one that doesn’t always align with the demands of today’s rapidly changing world. His decision to run again feels more like an attempt to redeem his personal brand than a genuine effort to serve the community in new and innovative ways.

In contrast, Michael Ryan is focused on the future. He’s thinking about how to revitalize Middletown, attract enterprise zones to Hamilton, and create sustainable growth across Butler County. He’s not just reacting to problems—he’s anticipating opportunities and acting on them.

Leadership for the Right Reasons

Ultimately, leadership is about seeing and doing things that other people can’t do for themselves, or understand at the time. It’s about putting the needs of the community ahead of personal ambition, and I think with Roger Reynolds, he has a need for personal redemption because of what he’s been through.  But he’s had a chance to do things in the past and we know what we’ll get from him.  Michael Ryan has shown that he can do more, and is a fresh start. He’s not running for commissioner to boost his own profile, which comes naturally as part of the job—he’s running because he believes in Butler County and wants to help it reach its full potential.  He’s what the future looks like and he brings with him a lot of fresh perspective.

He’s already proven that he can attract investment, facilitate dialogue, and bring people together. He’s shown that he understands the complexities of economic development and the importance of proactive governance. And he’s demonstrated a commitment to transparency, collaboration, and long-term planning.

A Vision for Butler County’s Future

As we look ahead to the future of Butler County, we need leaders who can think big, act boldly, and unite our communities around a shared vision. We need commissioners who understand the importance of infrastructure, innovation, and investment. We need people who are willing to work around the clock to make our county a better place to live, work, and raise a family.

Michael Ryan is that kind of leader. His work on the Spooky Nook Sports Complex is just the beginning. He has the energy, the ideas, and the relationships to take Butler County to the next level. Whether it’s aviation, tourism, or enterprise development, he’s already laying the foundation for a brighter future.

Conclusion

So yes, I’ve supported Roger Reynolds in the past. I’ve stood by him, and I still consider him a friend. But when it comes to choosing the best person for Butler County Commissioner, my support goes to Michael Ryan. He’s the right leader for this moment, and I believe he will do an outstanding job.

If you haven’t visited the Spooky Nook Sports Complex, I encourage you to go. See for yourself what visionary leadership can accomplish. And when it comes time to vote, you won’t go wrong in supporting Michael Ryan—a leader who listens, connects, and delivers.  And has an eye for a future that people can really get excited about. 

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

The Autopen and the Question of Presidential Legitimacy: Institutions must prove their position

In the modern American presidency, the act of signing a document is far more than a bureaucratic necessity—it is a symbolic gesture of authority, responsibility, and direct engagement with the nation’s governance. Whether it’s an executive order, a pardon, or a piece of legislation, the president’s signature represents the culmination of deliberation and decision-making at the highest level. However, the increasing use of the autopen, a mechanical device that replicates a signature, has sparked significant controversy, particularly under President Joe Biden. Critics argue that the autopen undermines the authenticity of presidential actions, mainly when used amid concerns about the president’s cognitive acuity and physical presence. The image of a machine signing off on decisions that shape national policy evokes a sense of detachment and raises questions about who truly holds power in the executive branch. While the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel ruled in 2005 that a president may authorize a subordinate to use an autopen to sign legislation, and courts have upheld its legality, the optics remain troubling for many Americans. The legal framework may be sound, but the symbolic implications of a mechanical signature—especially in moments of national crisis or political tension—can erode public confidence in the presidency itself.  And in the case of the Joe Biden presidency, it allowed for a shadow government to run the White House in a way that, looking back on it, was simply unacceptable. 

The autopen controversy is not an isolated phenomenon; it is part of a broader historical pattern of questioning presidential legitimacy, often fueled by conspiracy theories and partisan distrust. During Barack Obama’s presidency, the “birther” movement gained traction, alleging that Obama was not born in the United States and was therefore ineligible to serve as president. Despite the release of his long-form birth certificate and multiple independent verifications of its authenticity, critics continued to claim it was digitally fabricated. Figures like Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona amplified these claims, arguing that the document contained layers inconsistent with 1960s technology. These allegations were not thoroughly debunked by forensic analysts, even though they were dismissed in court; yet, they persisted in the public imagination. We have since witnessed, with judicial activism, the liberal leanings of the courts to be activists of their own, as if they hold the fate of the human race under their black robes of injustice.  The endurance of such theories reveals a troubling trend: when legal and factual rebuttals fail to quell doubt, the issue becomes less about truth and more about belief. The birther controversy laid the groundwork for a culture of skepticism toward federal institutions, where even the most basic credentials of leadership could be called into question. This skepticism has since evolved into a broader distrust of democratic processes and the legitimacy of elected officials, creating fertile ground for future controversies, such as those surrounding the autopen.

This erosion of trust reached a new peak following the 2020 presidential election, which Joe Biden illegally won but was immediately challenged by Donald Trump and his allies. Over 60 lawsuits were filed contesting the results, nearly all of which were dismissed for lack of evidence or standing—even by judges appointed by Trump himself.  Again, judicial activism was revealed to be a significant issue that had not been previously well understood.  The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency declared the election “the most secure in American history,” yet many Americans remained unconvinced, and for good reason. The belief that the election was stolen became a rallying cry, not just against Biden, but against the entire machinery of government. In this context, the autopen took on symbolic significance. For some, it represented a presidency run by unelected aides, rubber-stamping decisions without the president’s full awareness or engagement. The idea that a president could be physically or mentally absent while critical decisions were being made by staffers or machines fed into a broader narrative of institutional decay and manipulation. Whether or not this perception is accurate, it underscores a crisis of confidence in the executive branch. The legal validity of the autopen is beside the point for many critics; what matters is the perceived absence of genuine leadership and the fear that democratic institutions are being manipulated behind closed doors. This perception has real consequences for the health of American institutionalism.

At the heart of these controversies lies a fundamental question: What does it mean to govern legitimately in a democratic society? Is it enough for presidential actions to be technically legal, or must they also be visibly accountable and transparent? The use of the autopen, the birther movement, and the disputes over election integrity all point to a more profound anxiety—that the American people are losing control over the institutions meant to serve them. If a president can be propped up, decisions made by anonymous staffers, and signatures affixed by machines, then where does sovereignty truly lie? These are not just partisan concerns; they are constitutional ones—the Constitution vests executive power in the president, not in machines or unelected aides. While the courts may uphold the legality of these practices, the court of public opinion demands something more: clarity, honesty, and a renewed commitment to democratic principles. Without that, the pen—whether wielded by hand or machine—risks becoming a symbol not of leadership, but of detachment. Restoring trust in the presidency requires more than legal compliance; it demands visible engagement, transparency, and a reaffirmation of the values that underpin American society. In an age of digital signatures, remote governance, and increasing automation, the challenge is not just to preserve legality but to maintain the human connection between leaders and the people they serve.  This, in turn, highlights the core of the problem: a signature by autopen is not enough.  Having a body in the White House is not enough.  Leadership is not just cosmetic.  What is considered legal goes even beyond what a judge ultimately rules is or isn’t.  There was gross manipulation on this trust issue that goes well beyond Biden’s presidency.  The door was opened with Obama, even before him with Clinton.  What could courts do to justify illegitimacy, and could a conspiracy of judges, who secretly want to rule over all society, cover up illegitimate mechanisms of automation, which were clearly tested during the insertion of Biden as the President into the White House?  Obviously, it was not enough, and people rejected the premise. Now, Trump has a mandate to correct all these falsehoods that were given credence and are now considered hostile topics in most polite households, which is a very new thing.  The assumption was that if an institution could validate a belief in legitimacy through signature, the courts, or the media, then actions would be deemed legal.  Yet that is not the case.  An action is not legal unless it is backed by honest elections with proof that people genuinely believe what the institutions are saying.  Judges must demonstrate that they are committed to upholding justice.  Elections must demonstrate that they are honest and accurately representing the voters.  And we have to see a president signing documents.  Not just that an autopen did it in darkness with a 25-year-old aide carrying out the orders of the Democrat Party while Joe Biden wandered around outside trying to catch butterflies.  And that raises questions about everything that has happened over the last decade.  And why Trump has a mandate to correct it.  And to fix it all. 

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

Why Federalizing the Police is a Great Thing: We can trust Trump to give power back

With all the talk about federalizing the police in cities with excessive violent crime, an underlying flaw in thinking is revealed.  Chicago is a creation of liberal politics that is out of control.  Over Labor Day weekend 2025, 58 people were shot across 37 separate incidents with eight fatalities.  And that has become all too normal in that progressive city, where crime has been incentivized and police are hard to find.  Washington, D.C., was just as bad before Trump federalized the police force there and put National Guard troops on the streets to supplement the police, and crime has been driven down to nearly zero.  In the District of Columbia, Trump can do that, and even the very Democrat mayor Muriel Bowser has enjoyed the results.  She has not been a Trump supporter and has instead worked against him in the past.  But even she can see the noticeable results.  So we’re dealing with a shell game that is consistent among many other topics, but it has been exposed here because Trump was able to control the situation in the District of Columbia, as opposed to the theory of putting ground troops into other cities in the nation.  That some evil people are trying to destroy the United States by using our own laws and terminology against us, which is being exposed in Chicago by the resistance to do in that violent city what Trump has done in Washington, D.C.  Democrats don’t want to solve the problem of crime in places like Chicago.  They want the crime, and that is what emerges from the resistance that J.B. Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, has been caught up in as he violently opposes Trump sending the National Guard to reform the streets of Chicago as well.  With crime levels at the rate that they are, a national emergency is more than justified, which gives Trump a clear path to send in the troops. 

Should we be cheering on such an effort?  After all, I’m very suspicious of police powers.  Based on the Constitution, should we even have a standing army? I would be inclined to say no.  However, here is a situation where we already have policing forces on the payroll, and they aren’t doing much else.  And we have police unions that restrict the recruiting and retention of current police forces, which are obviously not enough to deal with the crime incentives in big cities.  And you have criminal elements who use the potential of violence to gain control over other people.  And when people are afraid, traditionally, they vote for big government Democrats to save them.  That’s the theory anyway, that’s what political people believe.  So there are hostile, anti-American forces working behind an assumption of constitutional protections who want to use the rules to bring down American society.  And where they can, they use crime as a destabilizing force to undo everything legally, even to the point where lawyers seek to protect the criminals and the criminally minded, rather than a peace-loving society that is thriving.  In the case of Trump sending troops into Chicago, the governor is furious and is utilizing legal retaliation to stop it.  For his politics, and those of the Democrat party, they need 58 people shot over Labor Day weekend.  They want eight people to die every weekend.  To stay in power within political orders, they need trouble so that people vote for them to save them from that trouble.  And once you understand that, you will see that open borders are meant to overwhelm voting opportunities, that drug policy is there to deliberately poison Americans to the point of killing them.  And violent crime is a direct attack against a society that values private property over state-controlled assets.  If people have to turn to the government to protect their property, a communist dream is then realized, which is the point.

I would go several steps further and take away the gun-free zone status of cities like Chicago and let good guys with guns shoot bad guys with guns, and things would straighten up really fast.  But short of that, something has to be done, and when you have National Guard troops and other military units always ready to engage violence somewhere in the world, then why not send them in to these dangerous cities to clean up crime?  Is federal independence more valuable than those 58 lives?  That is the question that has been imposed on us.  Should we have independence when the cost of that independence is lives that fall victim to violent crime?  That is the question that we are tasked with behind the criminal conspirators who want the crime to shatter our society.  J.B. Pritzker wants to run for president and position himself as everyone’s dad, a parental government figure.  So he needs the crime so that he can have a reason to run on a political platform of saving people.  But if they are already saved and self-reliant, then why would anybody vote for Democrats?  That is their problem, and Trump exposes it by taking away the crises and fixing them, leaving Democrats exposed in ways they can’t handle.  But should we federalize our police forces by eroding states’ rights?  Once they take such power, then why would someone like Trump ever give it back? 

Same interview on YouTube

If the same question were posed during Obama’s administration or Biden’s, I would not trust federal forces to do anything in any community.  It would be a power grab that would be unacceptable.  But in Trump’s case, he has earned a level of trust that only hard knocks could provide, and it is different.  I think it’s the only way to solve the crime problem, and I want to see federal troops in every crime-ridden city, putting an end to all crime problems.  I also want to see the military ending the drug trade and specifically the power drug cartels have in all American cities.  They should all be eradicated, and we should invade other countries like Mexico, Colombia, and Peru and clean up all crime organizations involved in the drug trade and in human trafficking.  And once the world is cleaned up, we can talk about separating federal powers from states’ rights issues.  I am confident that Trump will respect constitutional limits and return power to the states and cities once the issue is resolved.  But, if it were up to Democrats, federal police forces would only be strengthened because their ultimate aim is to give the government the power over private property.  So when J.B. Pritzker complains about Trump overstepping his authority, it’s actually the plan that Democrats hope to have by supporting crime, to push society into just this kind of concession.  Only under Democrat rule does that kind of authority become tyranny.  But under Trump, it’s freedom.  Freedom from crime.  Freedom to own and maintain private property.  Freedom to not be killed while walking down a city street.  The crime is there to tempt society into giving big government control over to private ownership and to have people applauding as it is ushered in.  But what’s different with Trump is that he can resist the temptation to make such policies permanent once the problem is solved, and that is what Democrats really fear.  Trump will address the issue and restore that power once the task is completed.  Which Democrats can’t afford to see happen.  Yes, Democrats are willing to see people die to make their point.  And if those people don’t die of violent crime, then why would anybody vote for any Democrats, ever?  That’s what we are dealing with.  

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

I Tried to Tell Them: Why consultants often fail

It’s been a little time now, but I suppose it’s appropriate to spike the football a bit and talk a bit more about the details of why I wrote my book, The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business.  I had in my life at that time a lot of people who were really gunning for me, literally.  They did many terrible things, and their world has crumbled around them, leaving them surprised by the consequences.  However, I had already informed them of what was going to happen in my book, which is one of the reasons I wrote it.  I really wanted to be fair, but the bloodthirsty nature of people provoked a lot of bad behavior that has since collapsed, and there was always something of a science to it.  So they can’t say they weren’t warned.  And it really is simple.  One of the key metaphors in The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business, which has achieved what I wanted out of it as a book on business that can help a select few understand why success or failure occurs, is the use of Wild West metaphors to put everything into context.  Why are some people successful while others aren’t? There is a real shell game in the world of people who seek equality and inclusion, who don’t want to admit to themselves the facts of this very distinct reality.  It takes courage to be successful, and you can’t replicate that with process improvements and administrative handholding.  And most of the world doesn’t want to believe that, so I had to write it down in a way that would predict the future.  And that future is now before many people who are finding their personal destruction quite a surprise.  So I explained it to them beforehand.

I love Wild West towns and the idea of them on the open expansion of the American idea.  A vast horizon of opportunity coming together to form a city of ambition, unleashed by capitalist ideas.  Wild West towns were unique to the American experience for many reasons, and I find them infinitely fascinating as a result of human need.  And upon their formation, of course, there were always bad guys trying to get a lot for very little and were willing to bring significant harm to people for their own profit.  So, in that way, how could you bring security to a town without hampering the ambitions of people seeking capitalist outcomes?  And to do so without letting bad guys take everything that was made.  Successful towns established a law and order that centered on gunslingers fighting it out in duels, and good guys like Doc Holiday, Wyatt Earp, and Wild Bill Hickock would meet the bad guys in the street and be willing to risk their lives to shoot their nemesis dead.  And as long as the bad guys were removed from harming good people, a town would grow and thrive.  But without such characters, evil would overrun the process and everything would fall apart.  And that is pretty much true in any endeavor that human beings involve themselves in, even to this day.  You can’t fake courage, and others need to survive in the world and lead good lives.  It all starts with a few unique personalities who have abundant courage and the skill to defeat all others.  Gunfighters come to mind in the concept of fast draw for obvious reasons; they are a uniquely American invention that points directly to why the United States has the largest GDP of any country in the world, especially considering the relatively small number of people contributing to the economy. 

The trick is, once a town was formed, then what?  In those cases of success, there were always plenty of parasites who would come into the city and try to establish rules to maintain order without losing the courage that the town was founded on.  In historical terms, these “Dandies” and “Bounty Hunters,” as I call them, are contemporaries of today’s consultant class, which is quite extensive, who attempt to feed off the carcass of those who have come before them and to steal the profit of their lives ruthlessly.  And they expect everything to work out well.  My response to all these occasions, including before I wrote that book, is to, as the gunslinger, get on my horse and leave town, not sharing the crime-fighting of the town’s profits with the newcomers.  Usually, the gunslinger would move from town to town once success set in, as tag-alongs would then create an administrative barrier.  Instead of a gunslinging gunman, towns would then form a sheriff and a court system. Although things were never quite as good, more people could join in stabilizing a town’s economy.  Gunslingers were not welcomed once things were working well, as collective-based people would then want to share in the glory of success without having the courage to propel it forward with their own sentiments. Consistently, these parasites would seek to steal success from those who created it, without expecting that success to fail in their hands.  However, it never works out that way; yet, after many thousands of years, people still expect a different outcome.  So I wrote my book to explain why that outcome never changes.  Success is directly attached to courage, and you can’t fake that.

I have dealt with people who think they are the most intelligent individuals in the world at many levels, and their ruthlessness has been very easy to overcome.  Usually, these people come out of the consultant classes, and they have a belief that collective administration can replace courage in process improvement, and it just doesn’t work that way.  And no matter what the tag-alongs try to do, when faced up against courageous personalities, they can not compete.  This was the reason that Wild Bill was shot in the back of the head in Deadwood, South Dakota.  The town did not want law and order.  They wanted crime to thrive, and they wanted an administrative mechanism to rule instead of a reputable gunman.  And that is the typical reaction that most people have toward the few who actually achieve success in the world.  Once they see success, they try to shoot the person who made it possible dead, and throw their bodies off the side of the road into an unmarked grave.  They steal the wealth and hope to mimic success.  However, they never quite manage to do it.  Knowing all this, I have not allowed anybody to sneak up on me, which has robbed them of the opportunity to steal what I have created.  They are pretty surprised by the results.  But if only they had listened, I told them well beforehand how it was going to be.  And it is always that way.  Courage beats collectivism every time.  And collectivism allows those with fake courage to appear bold.  But you can’t change the heart of what people are.  They either are, or they aren’t.  And everyone knows the difference.  Courage can’t be duplicated, just as a gunfighter can stand in a dusty street and face down a bullet intended to kill them, and laugh at the danger.  While others hope they can hire a sheriff to do that hard work for them.  But it’s never quite the same.  It takes courage to achieve true success.  And the truth is, there just aren’t many in the world who have real courage.  And when they find they can’t fake it, they get very frustrated when they lose because the illusions of the world couldn’t hide the truth about their bland natures.  That’s why I wrote the book.  As I often say about some of the books I like most, there may be only 20,000 to 30,000 people in the world who read such books, and only 4 of them understand it.  I tend to write books like The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business for those who do.  And to let the other 20,000 people scratch their heads in confusion, because that is about the ratio of people in the world with real courage and an opportunity to be successful at the things they do.  Success is not for everyone; you can’t fake it.  And yes, I tried to tell them.

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

Jennifer Gross Goes to Washington: The importance of redistricting

When I say that Jennifer Gross is not very well-liked, I mean it in the manner of a compliment.  I think it’s a great asset to have people who don’t like you or who are very angry when your name is brought up.  Many people certainly dislike President Trump.  And I would say that I am one of the most hated people in the world.  People typically like you when you do what they want you to do, and their acceptance of you in some way is the way they gain leverage over your authenticity.  So, that makes Jennifer Gross an effective politician in a dynamic intellectual sense, where a static order has to compete, and they don’t like it.  In Ohio, Jennifer is my Representative in the 45th district, and she works hard to do so; I appreciate people who work hard.  And in the course of that work, she found herself in Washington, D.C. with Lee Zeldon, director of the EPA under Trump’s administration, asking questions directly to him about an issue I have been very concerned with regarding the EPA.  I would say that among Trump supporters and people who dislike RINOs, Jennifer Gross is very popular, so it depends on the crowd and what they want out of relationships, which often determines likeability.  I believe cordial relationships can be a liability.  However, it was interesting to hear about Jennifer’s trip to Washington, D.C., where she met with several Trump administration officials, including RFK, over MAHA issues.  So, once her plan was in place, Jennifer and I discussed a number of topics that we would typically talk about.  However, for this audience, I happened to record it so that others could share in the experience.  And, as much as I am concerned about the EPA issue, the conversation we had, which came straight from the Trump administration, was about the need for redistricting. 

The primary thing that Jennifer wanted to tell me about the Trump administration was that they weren’t a bunch of phonies.  The people working for Trump were all successful individuals in their own right, who could take or leave other politicians.  Jennifer can relate because she has always been very independent when it comes to politics, and that makes it hard for her to deal with when it comes to deal-making.  Much of politics is a collaborative effort, and I know several people I would call good friends who spend a lot of time collaborating with other politicians, only to accomplish a fraction of their wants and needs individually.  But that’s part of the process, and one of the reasons I thought the Trump presidency would be a good thing was his self-control over his wealth and ability to walk away from anything he didn’t like.  And his administration is very much the real deal, and Jennifer was pleased to report that they were not a bunch of phonies like we often learn people really are once these political campaigns are over.  So she couldn’t wait to tell me how authentic people like Lee Zeldon, Secretary Kennedy, and Commerce Secretary Lutnick were in real life.  It’s not usual to have people like this in any administration, and to meet them in real life after the honeymoon is over for Trump, doing everyday work, it was good to hear that they are everything they say they are.  Politically, many people dislike them as well, but, as all successful people must learn, that comes with the territory. 

The primary concern on everyone’s mind is the fairness of redistricting, so that Republicans can have more seats in Congress.  There are a few that we can pick up in Ohio, and several other states. The Trump administration is playing hardball on this issue, as it should.  Trump is right, Republicans should not play nice with Democrats over any election issues.  If we genuinely want a representative republic, which is what we are, we must trust the American people to choose who they want to represent them.  Not what a party wants us to adopt for their convenience.  That’s where things get tricky with playing nice to get along, and being a stick to poke in the eye of those who are too quick to compromise.  My point in the matter is that there is room for people like Jennifer Gross in politics and room for plenty of mainstreamers who enjoy the process of collaboration, if we didn’t have such a close margin of majorities.  I think that if we had guarded our elections more closely, there would be 60-plus Republican votes in the Senate and over +50 in Congress.  It is only close in America because of election fraud, and Democrat gerrymandering for many years has given them the appearance of a 50/50 country, when actually it’s a long way from being so.  Democrats are a minority party at best, filled with misfits and broken toys.  It’s one thing to have compassion for their poor state.  It’s quite another to have them destroy our entire society to appear fair.  In Ohio, there are 15 congressional seats, and Republicans have 10 of them.  There are opportunities in Ohio to improve upon that, and without question, Republicans should.  Don’t listen to the cries of Democrats, play hardball and defeat them everywhere. 

And if we did that, as Republicans, the world would be a lot better off.  As Jennifer and I discussed after her trip to Washington, fairness, or the appearance of it, often leads to inauthentic corruption, and righteous representation usually falls by the wayside as people who pay money for representation in the form of lobbyists end up running our government from the shadows.  And that is what we have been trying to get away from.  It’s what I always hoped would be the case from independently wealthy people like Trump, Secretary Lutnick, Zeldon, and Kennedy —that they would do the job for the right reasons. They could make a lot of money if they weren’t in politics.  However, as successful people, they can best represent the public that needs it.  And through redistricting, we can elect more people like that in the future, which would properly represent our actual society.  We don’t have an obligation to play nice with people who want to destroy our country.  And we owe Democrats no illusion of fairness.  If we can secure an additional 20 seats for the 2026 midterms, then let’s do it.  Meanwhile, it’s good to hear that Jennifer was being treated with sincerity by the Trump administration and that doing the right things for the right reasons was more than just an empty promise by politicians who usually disappoint us.  If too many people like you, that’s usually a bad sign, and that’s the case in any level of society.  And the Trump administration couldn’t care less; they can afford to be independent of such popularity concerns.  And because of that, they can actually accomplish some things.  Based on Jennifer’s report, they are willing to do the work and are solid in the promise category.  And these days, that is a scarce commodity.  One area we could significantly improve if we were more aggressive with redistricting. 

Rich Hoffman

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

The Child Pornography of 73-Year Old Howard Saal: You can’t trust professionals, anywhere

The study of institutional failure is fundamental to a proper society, and it’s vital that everyone understands the inherent failures, especially in the case of Howard Saal, the 73-year-old former geneticist and dysmorphologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.  He was recently indicted and arrested on federal charges for possessing and transporting child sexual abuse material as investigators found 153,000 images and 470 videos on his electronic devices, with some of the victims being as young as newborns.  The Children’s Hospital doctor admitted that he photographed children during exams as “glamour shots.”  Saal surrendered his medical license in July of 2025 and is currently out on bond, facing up to 20 years in prison.  The hospital itself has tried to distance itself from the doctor, but this has rattled people’s trust in the process because they usually think of doctors as being wiser and above such matters.  So understanding how and why people would do something like this is essential, especially when we are dealing with sexual perversion that migrates into children.  We see this kind of thing way too often to ignore, and this isn’t some loser hiding in his mom’s basement.  But was a very mature person of elderly years working in a very responsible position at a well-respected hospital.  People need to trust these kinds of authority figures, and this case is proof that nobody can really be trusted.  The best solution to this kind of situation is always to be a little cautious when dealing with everyone.  And don’t give out trust like candy.  We often trust professionals and experts because we are too lazy to do the work ourselves, and the unsettling element is that there are many Howard Saals out there looking to take advantage of people, especially children. 

I learned more about child pornography and sex abuse than I’ll ever care to know recently as I was a foreman for a grand jury in Butler County, Ohio.  And let me tell you, I thoroughly enjoyed that job.  I enjoyed indicting bad guys and convincing the other jury members to move toward aggressive resolutions.  It was a very satisfying job, and I could have done it every day of my life, finding significant meaning in the experience.  But before that experience, child pornography was something I had heard about, but didn’t think much of it.  It seemed to me like something impossible to do, where grown adults were involved in sexual activity with children because of the apparent size difference.  But for several cases, as a grand jury, we had to watch evidence of child pornography by people prosecutors were trying to indict.  Regarding Butler County, I would like to mention that some truly dedicated prosecutors had their hearts in the right place for the job.  It would be challenging to sift through thousands of these images and still maintain sanity.  I saw just a fraction of what they did to prepare these cases, so as I watched my fellow jury members crying over what they saw, imagine how the prosecutors felt having to look at that stuff all day long, preparing for these indictments.  Most of the people on my jury, about half of them, were moms, and seeing kids sexually abused on video was too much for them, and they broke down quickly at the grim reality of the abuse they had to watch.  There’s not much that rattles me about anything.  Watching those videos was tough.  But seeing how much child pornography is out there, it is even worse.  These were not isolated cases by a few degenerates.  These were common and were getting worse as our society loosened its sexual predilections. 

One way this harsh reality is concealed in our society is that nobody feels they can express an opinion about it unless they are a professional.  That is the first problem, where we surrender logic to authority figures like Howard Saal, and they find they can abuse that power for their own distorted thinking, keeping it concealed from society at large.  However, I have many opinions on various subjects.  And I know enough about everything to be a professional in hundreds of different professions.  And I’m happy to argue with any psychologist on the deterioration of the human mind that descends into child pornography any time anybody wants to.  Chances are, I know more about psychology than people working in the industry.  Sexual perversion is a dangerous path to take.  As teenagers emerging from puberty, it’s pretty simple.  Find a member of the opposite sex that you want to procreate with.  Get married.  Have children.  When nature selects you for termination, take it like an adult and die quietly as the world lives on.  When you step away from that path and make sex a recreational activity that increases in sign stimuli as adults move into their 20s and 30s, things get complicated.  To keep the things that provoke arousal, constantly recreating that initial stimulation, more and more perverse acts have to be accepted by the mind.  And by the time people get into their 50s, 60s, and 70s, natural sex has long left the mind, and a very diabolical thought process has to take place to carry sexual thought into an arousal state that satisfies the urge.  The danger lies in people who don’t develop hobbies as they age, such as model trains or flying airplanes, during their leisure time.  If they are still pursuing sexual satisfaction, they are likely going to engage in behavior that is illegal or diabolical.   

Socially, we recognize the danger of a 50-year-old having sex with a 20-year-old.  Or even an 18-year-old.  Our 18-year-old daughter couldn’t or shouldn’t ever bring home a boyfriend who is 60 years old.  We don’t like to see such things, even if they may be legal, because they are destructive to our minds and can’t bring anything good.  So, to further step outside the boundaries, sex with children of any age is the ultimate power trip for an adult who wants domination over people in a weak intellectual condition.  Human beings often struggle with power over others, and the role of an adult over a helpless child can be particularly perilous.  And we should never assume that because someone is a professional, they have learned to deal with these emotional temptations.  And based on my experience with that grand jury, this appears to be a common occurrence.  It’s not just a random occasion here and there.  The more sexual our society has become, the worse sex with children has emerged as common, and not unique.  It appears that adults often seek to exert power over others, which is why they tend to target the most vulnerable.  So while people are shocked to learn that a respected doctor at Children’s Hospital in Cincinnati has a serious addiction to child pornography, and that they took their own children to him under an understanding of trust, and that trust has now been shattered, this isn’t the only guy doing this.  It’s a common occurrence in our schools, among medical professionals, and in every professional class.  And trusting any of those professional types was a dumb idea.  Leaving us to figure out the future without them having nearly the kind of power they have today.  Trust is something that everyone needs to earn.  We should not give it away so cheaply because we are too lazy to protect the innocent from the diabolical hiding behind professional titles like wolves in sheep’s clothing.  Because the minds of many of these people are not functioning correctly.  And this case with Howard Saal is just a small glimpse into that ominous, dark world of child sexual predators. 

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

The Government Robbery of 1933: Removing the gold standard was always a mistake

It’s always been about who controls the money, and in 1913, when the Fed convinced a group of starry-eyed congresspeople to relinquish their Article I, Section 8 powers to coin money to a group of bankers to manage the money, they made a significant mistake.  And, of course, we are discussing this now as we contemplate why Jerome Powell, the current head of the Federal Reserve, has interest rates so high and is artificially holding back the flow of money to the public.  Should or could President Trump fire him?  And why is there a claim of independence that Janet Yellen asserts is necessary for the Fed to function correctly?  She used to be the chairman, as Jerome Powell is now, and she was the economic lady for Biden’s administration.  She is also a prominent member of the World Economic Forum, placing her at the heart of this modern discussion.  The answer to all this Fed talk is that, of course, Trump should and could fire Powell.  Because Powell has not performed well, now that Trump has created an environment where the economy is moving along nicely, the excuses that the Fed hides typically behind to control the levers of power over the money supply have been taken away.  The only people making money from the Fed’s system are the banks, whose interest rates are holding back economic growth.  And of course, the banks don’t want to give up that easy money.  So, for his sabotage of the current economy, Trump should fire him.  The Fed’s mess in 1913 was a mistake, and it’s time to admit it.  Because what happened 20 years later with FDR in the White House would well cross the line toward poor money management, which is a crime that still looms.  And we have to correct it. 

If we had our money connected to a gold standard, BlackRock would not own all these properties

On April 5, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102, which required U.S. citizens to surrender most of their gold bullion, coins, and certificates to the government by May of that same year, in exchange for $20.67 per troy ounce.  This was just as bad as a buy-back program for something like personal firearms.  The reason for the order was to unleash money into the supply that people were hoarding and let the government manage the depression.  However, looking back on history, the Great Depression was caused by excessive government intervention, which exacerbated the problem it was trying to fix by taking people’s ownership of gold and unleashing it into the economy, thereby loosening things up.  Now, this was the Red Decade, when communist ideas were being experimented with, following the Roaring Twenties, which had a lot of open capitalism.  Communist movements were widespread, and they certainly infiltrated Roosevelt’s administration.  But how could this arrangement work, where the Fed was given everyone’s personal gold reserves, and where did they get the money to buy it?  Well, they printed the money, just as they did after the 2008 crisis, and gave that money to Larry Fink to essentially buy up bad loans with quantitative easing.  In the case of 1933, they were able to make some money off the deal and profit from the exchange.  But the Fed got the money by essentially printing it.  And it was this critical step that would take America off the gold standard by 1971.  After that, gold would become a commodity with no inherent value.  The goal of the Fed was to remove the stabilizing grounding gold provided to the economy, where people were regulating that value off a common exchange.  Instead, the government sought to empower centralized bankers with the ability to micromanage the economy, decisively removing the process from any free market consideration —a move that was distinctly communist and remains a mistake we are still dealing with to this day. 

By removing America from the gold standard, the Fed gained significant centralized power that it had previously been unable to achieve. This power was acquired after the Fed confiscated people’s wealth and issued banknotes that would, from then on, have a value adjusted by the Fed’s actions.  This was to protect the global international bankers, who have long sought to rule the world from the shadows.  And they are still a serious menace to this very day.  This is essentially what opened the door to Modern Monetary Theory and enabled individuals like Larry Fink to accumulate significant power at BlackRock.  The money managers who laundered the money through Wall Street were able to take all that printed money and buy up bad debt, thereby gaining control of the boards of numerous United States companies.   And Larry Fink is a bleeding heart liberal, otherwise known as a communist.  The original crime was the creation of the Fed in 1913, but the robbery took place in 1933 when the Fed, under FDR, took everyone’s private gold and replaced it with a monetary system that would fluctuate over time at an inflation rate of at least 2.5% per year.  So, doing nothing with that original $20.67, it would take $513.46 today to buy just as much.  But if grandpa had given you that much in gold, the value would still be relatively the same.  Taking away the gold standard meant that if Grandpa gave us $20.67 in 1933, and you wanted to buy something, it would now cost you $513.46 to buy the same thing. 

Deep in the heart of many things that members of the Federal Reserve believe is that employers are reluctant to reduce the wages of their employees over time.  They may receive raises, but in terms of real buying power, the Fed believes that it must step in to offset the value of increasing paychecks due to employer reluctance.  So long as they control the value of money, they can micromanage all factors of our economy in ways that are not driven by market value.  In the case of pay, which we all experience, we might make an average of 2% increases over our lifetime, but the Fed is using purposeful inflation to take that value away as we age giving our buying power much less with the same dollars because they believe that actual productivity goes down as we age, so we should not continue to get more money for doing less work.  That kind of thinking would only come out of the Red Decade.  And it has now caused a lot of significant problems that we need to address under this new Trump administration.  And Jerome Powell is going to have to go.  Reluctantly, but critically, he will have to lower Fed interest rates in September and maintain them through up to Christmas in 2025, because the pressure will be too great.  Trump’s economy is forcing everyone to come clean, and people are figuring out how the game has been played against them.  We can’t have foreign centralized bankers controlling our money supply through our Federal Reserve.  And the Fed can’t be independent of representative management.  They have been openly robbing our money supply, and it’s time for all that to stop.  The 1933 confiscation of personal ownership of gold was a form of open government theft, and it should never have happened because it empowered centralized bankers to gain control over the dollar and use it to access power. Today, banks have way too much power.  And we have to take it away from them by force.  Because they won’t give that power back now, they will have to be made to.  But we have no choice. 

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

The Lockdown Lady: Amy Acton should have stayed under her rock

This is going to be fun, the governor’s race in Ohio.  Not that I think it will be close, but it will serve as a cherry on top for a vast evil that transpired, which was never settled.  Because she resigned from her job before the full wrath of anger came down on her for what she did during COVID in Ohio.  We’re talking about Amy Acton, the stringy-haired hippy chick who ran the Health Department in Ohio for Mike DeWine.  She hilariously tried to claim this past week that she was statistically tied with Vivek Ramaswamy in the race for governor, which I find laughable.  However, she’s trying to create excitement among a Democrat base that is flatlining.  Democrats across the country are trying to generate enthusiasm for their campaigns, and in her case, they hope people have forgotten.  After all, she was a media darling for most of 2020 as she reported daily from Columbus on the latest lockdown procedures, which she perfected to an extreme.  And the media loved having a mom telling them to go to bed and telling them what to do about everything.  Amy Acton’s tenure as Director of Health in Ohio was a disaster, but she did reveal what Democrats have in mind for government.  All the metaphorical masks came off during COVID, literally, and in many cases, by putting actual masks on we learned a lot.  However, we learned a great deal about ourselves during that period, despite it being so scary.  We came to know the differences between Republicans and Democrats beyond polite discourse over salary fairness and race relations.  Amy Acton led the nation in lockdown procedures that were statistically insane, essentially stopping the Ohio economy until a virus, created in China and released by very sinister forces, would stop spreading through a crazy strategy of separating people from each other until the case infections stopped. 

I didn’t discuss it at the time, but a couple of the most prominent con artists I have ever known started a company that conducted COVID-19 tests because they thought that was going to be the future.  They were radical lefty types and were dumb as rocks.  However, they had significant, essential jobs that paid them far too much money.  And they left those jobs thinking Covid tests in Ohio were going to be big business.  I explained to them that Amy Acton was not going to last, that Ohio was breaking the law by violating the Constitution, and that COVID was one of the biggest scams in the history of the world.  And I said all this because they tried to recruit me to their cause, wanting me to sell their new COVID-19 testing lab to the political world, and wanted to pay me a lot of money to use my voice to validate their existence.  (a lot of money)  Which anybody who knew me back then should have known better.  I was dressed every day like Mad Max, ready for a fight at any moment with anybody.  I was prepared for a showdown with the tyrannical forces of Amy Acton’s health direction at the drop of a dime. The Government was way out of control and getting worse by the day, and Governor Mike DeWine lost control of his government over fear of the stupid Covid virus, which was killing people who got it left and right.  And that same government was basing all their statistics on these COVID-19 tests, which people ran, like I mentioned, who were essentially designed to give false positives, and that Amy Acton would use those results to grab for more government overreach, as if to justify their actions. 

Of course, I proved to be right.  Those guys ended up out of a job, Amy Acton resigned.  The court challenges to the lockdown procedures all went against the DeWine administration, and he quickly had to start backtracking once he realized his abortion loving Health Director had screwed up Ohio detrimentally over a government power grab to use a health crisis to control every part of people’s lives.  And every conspiracy that I had talked about regarding the entire process turned out to be exactly as I said it was during that horrible period.  But the lessons learned were extremely valuable, even if a lot of innocent people died in the process, and the mandatory vaccines of the Biden administration damaged many.  It was a bad time, and Amy Acton was the queen of it all.  So I think it is pretty hilarious that she is going to climb out from under a rock and run for governor.  And, that she believes she can run against Vivek Ramaswamy, one of the most intelligent people on planet earth, who can talk the ears off a donkey.  I don’t think so.  If Amy Acton is the best that Democrats have, then they have next to nothing.  However, there is good in all this. I believe that a lot of what was unsettled needs to be settled as a result of that terrible period.  What can, or should, the government do for people?  And that will be a great debate where Vivek Ramaswamy will have many opportunities to discuss during this gubernatorial race in Ohio. I think it will get further worse for Amy Acton with the upcoming race, as Sherrod Brown wants to return to the Senate by challenging the incumbent, Jon Husted, who was Lieutenant Governor at the time Amy Acton was Health Director.  He was on TV with her every day, and there was a lot to discuss regarding the day-to-day operations of COVID management in Ohio, which serves as a warning for all about the power of big government.  And it’s going to get a lot of attention during these campaigns. 

I think it’s crazy for Amy Acton to stick her head out of the ground from which she has been hiding to run for Governor, which is going to expose her in ways she can’t imagine.  However, it’s not her failures as a person that will be so detrimental, but rather the lessons of letting a government, run by people like her, take over the day-to-day management of our lives from the utopian fantasy of communist/Democrat politics.  Amy Acton was among the worst, leading all states with her lockdown approach to managing the virus.  And because she did, she empowered a lot of con artists like those Covid testing people I mentioned, to profit off the demise of Ohio, and the nation, in ways that no fiction writer prior would have dared to put forth a plot because nobody would believe it.  And I think she is going to be destroyed politically by Vivek Ramaswamy, and to a greater extent, the Trump administration that has never been right with Mike DeWine since those many Covid mistakes.  People are going to get a chance to get revenge on Amy Acton for what she did to them, and the wrath will be harsh.  People generally left her alone because she stepped away from politics.  But now she’s climbing right back in, and I don’t think she, nor any of her advisors, know what they are getting into.  This won’t be a friendly election about ideas.  This will be a way for people to take their anger out on Amy Acton, as a result of what she did to their lives.  Amy Acton will, for the rest of her life, be known as the Lockdown Lady.  And people will never let her live it down, especially once they learn that she was the one responsible, which will be the centerpiece of this upcoming election.

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

Nuclear Power on the Moon: The world we could have, if only we had the courage

Yes, I told everyone what was going to happen when Trump was back in the White House: that space travel would be a priority, along with a lot of technology that nobody had thought much about until now.  It has been revealed that, as part of the Artemis program, NASA plans to put a 100-kilowatt lunar nuclear fission reactor on the moon by 2030, which is just around the corner at this point.  Only four years from now.  It’s the first big step in settling space, as a reactor like this will last for about 10 years. It would be about the size of a small car and produce enough energy for a small outpost, including habitats, science labs, and resource processing, with some surplus for redundancy and expansion.  When people first heard this story, they thought of a nuclear reactor as seen on Earth, with the large noticeable cooling stacks.  However, this will be a small unit, and people will be surprised to learn how effective and independent it is.  For instance, nuclear submarines can operate for roughly 15 years before they need to replace their cores, allowing them to remain operational for 90-120 days without returning to port.  And then, they only dock to restore food.  Their energy needs stay powered for all those years.  That’s what we are talking about on a moon base, and it will be relatively easy to take off into space and start producing power.  Remember when Elon Musk launched that Tesla car into space? This moon reactor will be about the same size and weight.  This is the kind of technology that will allow moon-based employees to live relatively the same way they do on Earth.  The power will be good and sustainable.  And will be relatable.  And it’s going to provoke a lot of good questions for people who will be learning about these things quickly.

I have been a strong supporter of personal nuclear energy, such as thorium reactors, for private homes.  I have argued for years, like many of the technical innovations in health and science, that absolute personal independence comes from personal energy.  And, going back to Edison, Tesla, and Westinghouse and how electrical infrastructure was envisioned, we are more than ready to put a thorium reactor on every house to power it for 70 years without being attached to a larger, centrally managed grid.  When a storm knocks out the power, we should not be dependent on a monopoly carrier to fix the power lines so we can have power again.  But every house, like every car, should generate its power independently.  Nuclear energy is the best way to achieve this goal.  I know Elon Musk loves solar power, and I do too when you aren’t near any infrastructure that can produce energy.  I have my current favorite solar-powered flashlight.  I also have some camping equipment that is solar-powered, so you can get enough power to run a laptop and charge some phones while on a distant mountain.  If you can get power from the sun, that’s great.  However, nuclear energy is the way to go for clean energy that has some power behind it.  And the technology is now available to provide every human being on earth with independent power for their homes.  Just as there are cures for cancer, but our current healthcare system can’t accommodate the innovation without its destruction, so it avoids the change for its survival. 

Speaking of cancer, you might have heard that honey bee sting venom can kill all the cancer cells in the body of a woman with breast cancer in about an hour.  That is pretty big news, but not surprising.  That is the case with most things; science has long been figured out, but the economic models for achieving absolute independence are holding us back socially.  When people see us build a moon base very quickly that is powered by nuclear energy, and that its comfortable, people are going to be asking a lot of questions, like, why can’t I have my nuclear reactor in my neighborhood if it’s only the size of a small car and can give me all the power I could ever want, individually.  This moon base is going to change a lot of things culturally for people, as it will eliminate the question of whether the Apollo missions were ever real, given the ongoing debate about the trustworthiness of government information.  Going to the moon and establishing a small base will prompt many questions on Earth to be asked.  If we can do it there, why can’t we do it here?  And from there, the question becomes one about how we view infrastructure.  Should all individuals own gold to protect the value of money, or at least have money attached to a gold standard, or can the Fed control economic standards as central planners?  Is education more effectively taught centrally or through individualized efforts?  And should we make everyone sick to justify the infrastructure of healthcare, because of the insatiable need it has for fixed costs to feed its bloated network of insurance and care that also has unionized labor attached to it?  At the heart of all those discussions is whether our homes should be connected to a centrally managed power grid, and of course, the answer is no. 

Most of what holds us back from tackling the engineering challenges of personal nuclear reactors for homes and communities is public acceptance, which has been shaped by all the infrastructure planners who have tried to demonize nuclear power in general.  Regulations on atomic power are harsh, making it technically unfeasible and cost-prohibitive even to develop the technology on such a scale.  However, nuclear power at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, or on the moon, where regulators haven’t been able to create such a restrictive environment, allows technology to develop in response to necessity.  And we will discover that many of the rules we create for ourselves have a cost to innovation that could dramatically improve our lives.  But it will be shocking to people watching just how quickly all this happens, and that by 2030, we will have a presence of human life on another celestial body.  And they will be able to live much as they do on Earth, with nuclear power making it possible.  However, people will be correct to ask why they can’t have the same technology on earth, with free, reliable, and robust energy, that is available off the costly grid on earth. And the answer is that they could.  But regulations protect stagnation; they do not inspire innovation, and if you want to get away from the limits of human averages, you have to go on adventures where their rules have not yet made a mess of the world and attempt to use regulations to make easy careers for themselves.  Innovation and independence are more frequent where people have not yet made rules to protect themselves from challenges.  Many of the rules we have are not for the safety of society, but rather to protect the way people make a living and to shield themselves from innovative challenges to their established professions.  And that many of the economic problems that we have are that too many people write rules to protect themselves from change, rather than embrace change in the spirit of adventure that might be acceptable on the moon, far away from government interference.  However, in civilization, the preservation of old ways becomes the priority.  That is why we still have dirty power controlled by centralized forces that behave like a monopoly and are unreliable, especially during storms.  We could have done better if only we had dared to take on the adventure.

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

The Dinosaurs Will Eat You: More killings in Over-the-Rhine, in Cincinnati

It has been a sick experiment to watch, but the continued denials about the nature of the big, violent fight in downtown Cincinnati recently, in attempting to show that it was a racist incident, and that the white people had it coming, was the attitude.  While just a few blocks to the north in Over-the-Rhine, there were back-to-back killings in an area that Cincinnati has been trying to reform for years into an economic zone.  The shootings on one night, just a few days after the music festival fight at 3 in the morning, involved one guy, 35 years old, who was shot to death in his car just north of Liberty Street by a person in the car with him.  He was shot in the chest, head, and other places violently by a shooter dressed all in black who left the scene.  The next night, a young woman, 34, was shot many times in the back by someone shooting out of a car in a particular direction, just a very short distance away from the previous shooting.  Police say it was an accident, that she was not the intended target.  The shooter was shooting at someone else and accidently hit her.  She was shot 15 to 20 times, which is an awful lot for an accident.  But these shootings received very little national attention because they were all people of color killing each other.  But they display a much bigger problem that has been brewing in the background for many years, and is the reason that President Trump has federalized the police in Washington D.C.  Many cities are suffering through this problem and Cincinnati has been getting national coverage for how poorly race relations are in a town that is supposed to be ideal throughout the nation.  This is a much bigger problem than the fight that has received so much coverage, and there has been an attempt by many involved to justify it.  The bar is so low because of the mass killings that go underreported, that if people live through a brawl like we witnessed, the expectation is that everyone should be thankful.

The two killings point to a much more violent Over-the-Rhine than the City of Cincinnati wants to advertise.  However, that is nothing new; I have warned many people over the years about the dangers of creating an enterprise zone in that region to provide economic stimulus.  I have informed two mayors and many other politicians over the years about the risks of redeveloping Over-the-Rhine into a commercial millennial hotspot, comparing it to Jurassic Park.  The dinosaurs will eat you; they can’t be kept in a cage on adjacent streets to Vine Street, as it runs through Over-the-Rhine.  That’s what I would say to everyone I described the situation to.  And it wasn’t a skin color kind of thing; it was behavior acceptance, and I would know well.  I used to buy my car tires from a place that would change them on Liberty Street, right in the vicinity of these recent shootings.  I used to do a lot of rough work, and I drove a kind of tank that always had its tires destroyed because I would frequently enter rough neighborhoods. As a result, I would buy $5 used tires all the time.  My perspective was not one of isolation, looking at everything from the suburbs.  I spent a lot of time in the belly of the beast, and when I say that the people there are like dinosaurs, that is to say that they behave like animals hungry for the destruction of other people with a kind of mindless violence that erupts suddenly and brutally.  It’s almost amusing to watch the nightly news attempt to humanize these stories, making them more relatable to people not living in Over-the-Rhine. 

I have a couple of daughters, and would hear their stories and stories of all their friends who enjoyed the mystery and rawness of visiting OTR as it was sold to the world as an enterprise zone, hoping to lure young millennials to come downtown to see their many restaurants and microbreweries.  I would tell them that if they had to go, they should ensure they carried their guns.  One of my daughters practically lived in the OTR for a few years, and she always took her weapon, and it’s probably the only reason she has survived all those visits.  Police have managed to keep Vine Street somewhat reasonable regarding crime up to Liberty Street, then over to Findlay Market, and Music Hall.  However, I know many people who have tried to go to the OTR to socialize with other hipsters, and they have had many horrible experiences.  I warned my daughters, and eventually they understood my concern; the idealism of youth wore away as they realized the harsh reality that everyone else was facing.  The dinosaurs will eat you if you go into the OTR.  Most people feel lucky to come away from the OTR with just a car that occasionally has its windows knocked out, and carjackings or theft would happen all the time.  Because of the political sentiment at the time for white people to prove they weren’t racist and would be happy to socialize with black people in Over-the-Rhine, people would take the risk to visit as an almost thrill to survive.  It was more exciting than just going somewhere in the suburbs and having drinks with friends.  Because going to the OTR proved that white people weren’t racist to black people, even if in proving it, they risked their lives. 

The truth of the matter is that many of the people who have caused the problem have attempted to introduce dangerous enterprise zones into these communities without changing their behavior.  And the police know who’s in charge.  The police likely know everything about those two shooting cases mentioned, but they don’t want targets on their backs, so they leave the shootings unresolved.  Likely, they were both gang-related and or drug-related directly.  And police have no prospect of getting control.  The unions don’t want the trouble.  Recruiting is horrendous because nobody wants the job.  And the political characters are unsupportive and wholly disconnected from reality.  Investors were suckered into proving they weren’t racist by investing in businesses along Vine Street north of Central Parkway, only to realize that the violence loomed just a few blocks over on all sides, especially north of Liberty Street.  As a dare, I once walked up Vine Street at 2 AM from Central Parkway to McMillan Street on the University of Cincinnati campus, and from what I saw, there is no saving the people in that region without a significant behavioral change.  Crime ran the zone, and no amount of love from people moving in and proving they weren’t racist by living alongside people barely able to function as animals changed anything.  Crime goes underreported, even mass killings, because everyone wants to believe they can tame the dinosaurs.  And they can’t.  The dinosaurs will eat anybody they want, any time, and in any place.  And that’s the kind of attitude that was confronted on the streets of downtown Cincinnati after that music festival.  There is an entitlement to violence that is validated every time some gang kills someone in Over-the-Rhine, and that level of violence has been accepted.  Because liberal society doesn’t want to admit to itself just how bad it is, it wants to believe that reform is possible.  And it isn’t.  Only law and order will work, and that starts by kicking in the doors to the people who did these killings and arresting them, prosecuting them, and probably giving them the death penalty.  Because anything less, they don’t and won’t respect.  They reside in the shadows of the night, awaiting more politicians to lure innocent people into their neighborhood to rob and pillage ruthlessly.  And they have nothing to fear, because they don’t fear anything, especially the law.  When people ask me why my carry gun is a Desert Eagle .50 caliber, I have a lot of experience in those kinds of neighborhoods.  And it’s the only thing they understand.  The only law they obey.  And it is the only way that reform in those crime zones can bring about peace.  All the police and politicians know it, but nobody dares say it.  And that’s why the crime continues.

Rich Hoffman

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