Category: George Lang

It’s All About Family: Why Michael Ryan is Right for Butler County Commissioner

It was a successful fundraiser for Michael Ryan on the West Side of Hamilton, Ohio, where he has served as a vice mayor for several years.  Ryan is running for Butler County Commissioner, so a fundraiser was held at the Shooter’s Event Center, which was very well attended and well represented among donors, showing a great early sign for his campaign.  Under normal conditions, a person like Michael Ryan would be an easy one to vote for.  However, this campaign represents a significant shift in direction for the Republican Party, as two incumbent candidates are running for the same position.  Cindy Carpenter is already a commissioner, and it’s her seat that is up for election.  There are some serious issues with her that we’ll address specifically.  But as to who is best for this commissioner seat, Michael Ryan is the easy favorite.  Then there is the latecomer to the race, Roger Reynolds, whom I have supported a lot in the past.  For him, this is the wrong seat at the wrong time for a lot of reasons.  Things I’d rather not discuss, but he put himself out there for a public seat, so it’s going to get uncomfortable.  As for the Michael Ryan fundraiser and why he is the best pick for the seat, as well as the future of the Butler County Republican Party being best represented by him, there is no question.  The task will be to show the average voter the differences between those three Republicans in name.  It really comes down to how we define what the “Grand Old Party” is, and I would say its economic viability as best represented by the MAGA movement and political figures like J.D. Vance, Vivek Ramaswamy, and locally, Michael Ryan.  They are all around the same age, and the young Republicans, who were well represented at Michael’s event, are looking toward the next generation.  Not the over-50 crowd.  Many people are seeking Republicans for a fresh start, and that is why Michael Ryan is the best candidate for consideration.

Lots of great options on High Street in Hamilton, Ohio

As I met Michael’s parents and his wife Amanda’s, I couldn’t help but notice a pattern in the kind of politician I most support, in virtually all cases.  They are good families with working relationships with their spouses.  One thing that really stands out about Michael is that his wife, Amanda, is very engaging, and they make a strong political couple, working together as a team to meet the needs of a political office.  For instance, there is a lot that goes into a political job that goes well beyond the function of doing the job itself.  Being a representative means talking to a lot of people all the time, and it is best when there is a supportive spouse to help with that task as a team.  And Amanda fits right into that role very well.  However, what’s also noticeable is that they both have very supportive and intact parents who are deeply involved in the process.  That’s great when it comes to Michael and Amanda, but it’s something I notice among all the political people I support.  They all have strong families that help them in the background, and for me, that is the first ingredient for success in a political position.  How can you offer yourself as a manager of the public trust if you can’t work with the trust within a family unit?  That is certainly the case with George and Debbie Lang, a compelling political couple who are supporting Michael Ryan’s campaign very early in the process.  George was supposed to attend the fundraiser, but was held up in Columbus and was running late. 

There were other notable couples present as well. Mark Welch has been very supportive, as a West Chester Trustee.  And Nancy Nix, who has a great relationship with her husband, Bob, ended up covering for George’s absence.  But what they all have in common, which I think a lot of, is that they have functional relationships with their spouses, which I would say is the foundation of any political office.  If you can’t work well together with your spouse, how can you work together with other people in the party, or the community as a whole?  Even more than that, I had a chance to talk to the Butler County Young Republicans, who were there to support Michael from Miami University, all dressed up in suits and ties. All of them were inclined toward that kind of life, including a healthy marriage, good personal decisions, and taking responsibility for themselves. Ben Nguyen, a very young man running for the Lakota school board, was there to support Michael Ryan as one of those young Republicans. He represents the new generation of hopeful people joining the Republican Party, which is very family-oriented. I am very encouraged by meeting them; they are part of the party that has emerged from Charlie Kirk’s efforts at Turning Point USA.  Gone are the days when the public would support scandalous figures who used a powerful political office to nurture sexual affairs and financial despondency by abusing the public trust.  No, these were all people who expect the best from those running for public office, and they are being judged on how well they handle their affairs, starting at home.

Downtown Hamilton is Thriving These Days

And whether it’s fair or not, for people to know what a good family is, it starts with having a good family, so it’s no surprise that Michael and Amanda Ryan both had their parents at this event, and they were very engaging.  They actually reminded me of a younger version of George and Debbie Lang, in terms of a couple who work well together.  When you deal with the public, you really need a good partner in life to help keep everything sorted out. Typically, that’s what I look for when supporting a political person: how well they maintain a relationship with their spouse.  If they are bouncing around between girlfriends or boyfriends and wearing gold rings on their pinky fingers, I likely won’t be endorsing them because, in my experience, those types of people don’t fare well in politics.  And ultimately, the measure of a good office holder is in what they have done, and for Michael, because he has a happy home life, that has translated into being an outstanding city council member who has helped build a good team that has brought excellent economic value to a city that has needed it.  Hamilton, Ohio, is on the uptick economically largely because Michael Ryan has been very effective at attracting investment interest to the town, and it all starts with being a good person who doesn’t get swept away by the tides of influence that often accompany such activity.  Having a good spouse to help keep everything grounded is a key to being successful when those pressures are applied.  And they are usually the difference between success and failure.  And upon meeting the family of Michael Ryan, it becomes obvious very quickly that the headlines that emerge from his public life will lean in the positive direction, rather than the negative, as people who lean into an office to fill a void inside them often do.  In my experience, to run a successful public office, you need a good private life with a supportive spouse as a partner.  And Michael Ryan certainly has that.

Rich Hoffman

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

Vote For Mark Welch on November 4th 2025: Its all about keeping West Chester great and taxes low

I think it’s an easy decision to vote for Mark Welch for West Chester Trustee.  He has been in that position since 2013 and is running for another term. West Chester has thrived during his tenure.  Several other people are running for Trustee this time as well, including another incumbent, Lee Wong, and a few others who are various degrees of Democrats.  Mark is a solid Republican who carries several endorsements, including those of Warren Davidson.  Given the nature of the 2025 election in November, I think Mark is the best pick, but we can’t take anything for granted.  There have been many new people from more Democrat areas who have moved into the area, and the hope of the opposition is that they’ll be able to take over the West Chester trustees, as they have been trying to do for many decades now.  However, we’ve managed to keep the politics relatively good, anchored behind Mark, which has created a very pro-business environment in West Chester, resulting in significant revenue and low taxes.  However, we have had some people fall off the rocker over the years, and Mark could use some help as a trustee.  But first, he needs to get re-elected.  And his message is one that everyone can understand. If you like West Chester, as many do, and see it as one of the best places in the world to live, which it is, then vote for Mark Welch, because he’s a big reason that it has been great for so long.  When rival people who want to run for his seat say we need to “change,” consider what that means.  To change from good to bad.  Because that is the only kind of change they intend.  The only type of change Democrats could give West Chester is to make it change from good to bad. 

The foundation was set when Mark Welch joined Senator Lang as a trustee all those years ago.  Before that, it was just George Lang who fought off two other trustees, one of whom was Lee Wong, who is also up for re-election.  When Mark won, he replaced one of the two liberals, and suddenly there was a two-vote majority. Over the last decade, they have kept taxes low and business interactions very friendly, which has helped maintain home values and made the township one of the most competitive anywhere, earning it the title of ‘best place to live’ many times.  George Lang has since moved on to other political positions and taken the West Chester message to the Ohio Statehouse, where he has done a great job as the current Senate Majority Whip.  And Mark has held down the fort.  We replaced George’s seat with a tea party-type person who was good for a while.  But people change over time, and she has gone wobbly in the knees and is more Democrat these days.  So Mark needs help.  Lee, even with all his problems that have been well chronicled over the years, votes with Mark a lot.  However, without Mark on the board, Lee will likely vote for the Democrats, which is the current situation.  Mark is the one who stands between success and failure in government in West Chester.  Democrats, seeing some of the changing demographics in the area, are licking their chops at a chance to interrupt a Republican foothold position, as they have on the Lakota school board, which just voted as all Democrats do, to implement the most significant school tax increase in Ohio history, which is also on the ballot for the November election.  They hope that enough Democrats will vote for the levy to carry some of these Democrat challengers over the top and to knock off Mark, after many years of trying. 

The meet and greet for Mark Welch was held at Lori’s Roadhouse, which is an excellent spot for that kind of thing.  Those who attended had a chance to really get to know what Mark and his wife, Karen, are like.  I filmed Mark’s speech and some of the activities at the event, so that people who weren’t there could have the opportunity to see the person beyond the yard signs.  Many people asked me what I thought about the race while we enjoyed the atmosphere.  There were a lot of GOP officeholders there to support Mark, so he is well represented with great enthusiasm.  However, many people were nervous about this one because the Democrats seem more confident than usual that they’ll pick up that critical seat.  And what I told everyone was that I thought Mark would win his seat back.  That people weren’t willing to change West Chester into something less desirable, and that they would keep Mark in his position as long as he wanted to run.  But it will come down to engagement.  Republicans need to show up to this election and vote against the Lakota levy, vote for Lakota School Board candidate Ben Nguyen, and, of course, vote for Mark Welch, as everything points to.  Low taxes and a resistance to Democrats, who always want to expand government, spend money, and micromanage people in detrimental ways.  Republicans will need to treat this election as if it had Trump on the ballot.  And if they do that, many good things will happen in this election.  However, people must take it seriously and show up; they can’t sit out on this election.  In many ways, it’s more important than last year’s when Trump was running for President. 

It’s challenging to raise money at fundraisers, and it’s expensive to print signs and host some of these political events.  And Mark and Karen have done the work.  I thought it was very classy that Mark called Ben Nguyen up on the stage, who is a very sharp young man, and introduced him as the future of Butler County politics, which I tend to agree with.  And Ben said something very true: it is cheaper to give money as a donation to these Republican politicians who will stand in the trenches and hold back tax increases than to pay for the massive tax increases that Democrats always want to put forth.  And that is certainly true of Mark.  If he had not been a West Chester Trustee, taxes would have gone up in West Chester a long time ago.  But because he was there over the last 10 years, West Chester, Ohio, has thrived in ways that are unique to the rest of the country.  As a result, people have had opportunities for truly fulfilling lives.  As I listened to Mark’s speech, I thought about all the charming aspects of West Chester that I enjoy, such as taking clients to Top Golf, going out to dinner at Jags, and the many books I buy at Barnes & Noble.  The nice roads, the many businesses, the parks, the hospitals, and the excellent highway access.  The low taxes.  Mark is at the center of all that and is a big reason why West Chester has remained great all this time.  And we want to keep it that way with a vote for another term.  Supporting Mark is significantly less expensive than the taxes that all the Democrat challengers wish to implement.  Nobody should take this election for granted.  Show up and vote.  Don’t give the Democrats a seat at the table because the only change they can bring with them is various degrees of bad.  And we certainly don’t want that.  So, vote to keep Mark Welch as trustee of West Chester and keep the community as the one that the world needs to watch and emulate for themselves. 

Rich Hoffman

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

Dismantaling the Department of Education: The Ohio House overrides DeWine’s veto on property taxes

Remember, I told you this was going to happen, and now it is.  However, with the July 14th ruling by the Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision, the court granted the Trump administration’s request to temporarily pause a federal judge’s order that required the Department of Education to reinstate nearly 1,400 employees fired as part of a reduction-in-force.  The majority ruling lifted the injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Massachusetts, who had concluded that the administration’s actions aimed to dismantle the department without congressional approval and couldn’t be done.  A lot was happening with this ruling, which is why I am so proud of the tie clip I always wear that people comment on so much. I got it at the Supreme Court when I visited there in March, ahead of all these significant rulings.  Regional district judges were not going to be able to stop the Trump administration, and the mass layoffs that would dismantle the Department of Education were going to happen, sending the management of education back to the states, where, in Ohio, we know what that means with the incoming new governor, Vivek Ramaswamy.  Many education-oriented individuals point to a decision like this and argue that we are becoming a country not committed to education.  However, it’s the exact opposite; we need to get the administrative types out of the way so that positive reform in education can happen. This is why a Governor like Ramaswamy in Ohio is so important, as he has many fresh ideas that would improve education.  And getting the Department of Education types out of the way makes all that possible.  There is a lot to be happy about, but it’s hardly a surprise.  I’ve been warning about it for years, and as of 2025, everything is right on schedule. 

I would also add on July 21st 2025 in the state of Ohio the Ohio House voted 61-28 to override Governor DeWine’s vetos on property tax measures in the 2026-2027 budgets, specifically Item 66 which eliminates the authority for political subdivisions to levy replacement property tax levies and restricts school districts levying certain types of levies such as fixed-sum emergency, substitute emergency, and combined school district income tax and fixed-sum property tax levies.  That measure is now headed to the Senate, where I fully expect it to pass, and change the way the state sees property tax in general—another benefit of the upcoming Vivek Ramaswamy administration.  Property tax is no longer the crutch for big government that it has been.  Trump’s administration is headed in a similar direction, viewing property as something precious and not forcing owners to become perpetual renters of their property through excessive taxation.  DeWine was concerned about the budget submission, specifically how property taxes are used to fund schools.  What all this means is that public school districts are going to face numerous changes, including how they collect taxes to fund union-run public schools.  It’s not just the elimination of the centralized Department of Education that is coming to them, but also in how they collect funds from local property taxes to run their progressive endeavors.  What is happening here is that education is being redefined into a marketplace value as opposed to what it has been, which has been a kind of Brave New World socialist indoctrination center that seeks to produce more Democrats as voters.  Many people believe that the previous rules have been fueling our nation’s destruction.  And across many changes, that perception is headed in a different direction.

When the Department of Education was created in 1979, it proposed using the power of the central government to protect union employees from the scrutiny of judgment while teaching children the same socialist values.  Such as taking the category of History in school and changing it to “Social Studies.”  And during this period, kids were being taught not that the creation of America was a great thing, but that it was built on the backs of enslaved people, corrupting thousands of children in the process through central government oversight, taking away from the states the ability to compete with other states for a better education system.  Because essentially, everyone was being taught the same flawed information.  Now, the priorities for education will be decided at the state level.  School Choice will become much more common, as it was well represented in Trump’s recent Big Beautiful Bill, meaning that we are moving toward a society where tax money will follow the student, not the zip code.  And that’s why this veto override in Ohio was so important, because it initiates a process of shifting away from property taxes funding all this centralized government and its growing expansion, to the point where people can no longer afford to own their property.  The public schools have, for years, not had to manage their finances well, which the teachers’ unions have been delighted with.  However, it has driven the per-pupil cost of teaching children out of the realm of reality and is too high.  This makes it impossible for the state to determine how to fund education for students, as the costs are so high and dependent on property taxes to cover the state’s funding gaps.  To achieve a truly competitive cost structure, the Department of Education must relinquish its power and be decentralized. 

What that means for public schools like Lakota, which I discuss frequently because they are in the district where I live, is that they will have to rethink everything they do.  And they will have to compete with other schools in the immediate area for the right to teach a student.  This year, in 2025, they have some costly levy requests that add up to half a billion dollars for infrastructure, the building of new schools after tearing down some of the old ones.  And for what, for teaching jobs that are changing dramatically and are being pushed by A.I. for ability.  When states like Ohio apply funding to students, rather than to the zip code institution, the fat cow that government schools have been living on will be gone.  And they are going to have to earn their dollars, which they are not used to.  This union-dominated structure was always poised to fail.  You can see it when you visit the White House; all the big unions are in the buildings just outside the front gates.  Government unions view the collection of taxes from an ever-growing government as the foundation of their existence, which means low performance standards for all involved.  However, we don’t like what these government schools have been producing, and we have been intent on changing it for the better.  And that starts with mass firings at the Department of Education by the Trump administration.  And for all the government school administrators who are tempted to cry foul, I warned you, and you should have listened. They were mad that I said such things, and now they are going to find themselves extinct. And the fault for that will be theirs, because they were told what was going to happen and did not prepare for it.   Reforms to education are necessary because what we have had has been inadequate and expensive.  And at every level, from funding to curriculum, significant changes are coming.  And schools will have to adapt, or fail to exist at all. 

Rich Hoffman

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

Showing Courage on Ohio Property Taxation: It was always a socialist game that should have never started

It takes a lot of guts to try to override a governor’s veto, and that is just what Matt Huffman and the House Republicans are poised to do on July 21st, 2025, in Columbus, Ohio.  They have been trying to reform property taxes in House Bill 96 in three key areas, eliminating replacement levies, which often lead to tax increases.  Republicans want to phase them out.  The second thing is that they wish to implement county-level cuts, giving county budget commissions the authority to lower property taxes if the local governments or schools collect more than they need.  Then the third thing is to adjust the 20-mill floor, changing how the formula is calculated to reduce school funding as property values continue to rise, potentially.  DeWine vetoed these parts of the bill, arguing that they’d create enormous problems for schools by disrupting funding stability.  It takes a lot of guts for Huffman and other Republicans, including the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, to stand behind these reforms and push for a 60-vote majority.  It will be close.  If the House can get it over to the Senate, the Senate has the votes, so it really will come down to whether Republicans dare to part with DeWine and override him as they should.  Many people talk tough on the campaign trail, and this is one of those times when real courage is needed.  It would be beneficial if Republicans could step up and take the lead at this critical juncture.  Many people would take pride in a good government headed in the right direction.  Because what DeWine is protecting is loaded with bad government misery that is headed for reform regardless.  There is no stopping the reforms to private property that are going to take place. 

I feel like everywhere these days, I have to say it, and there are a lot of people who don’t think about these things very much who don’t want to hear it.  However, I’ve been pointing it out for years, so the road to this July 21st vote is a very long one.  And it’s just the start of many things to come.  The next governor, Vivek Ramaswamy, whom I had the chance to discuss this very topic with just a few weeks ago, is looking at major reforms on private property taxation.   President Trump is discussing the same concept, namely, the elimination of private property taxation all together.  It will take several years to get there, but that’s where the current sentiment is headed.  And people like Mike DeWine, who have been a part of building that old system, know that it will disrupt the way they envisioned funding for government and services.  However, those old trends are what have put us in our current budgetary situation.  We are going to have some tough discussions, just as we are currently with the Federal Reserve.  A group of independent bankers can’t be allowed to strangle billions of dollars of opportunity cost out of our economy just to protect lenders’ profit margins, when the growth potential of reform could generate so much more than the old static measures.  For those who think that punishing property ownership is the way to fund the level of government we may want as a society, it essentially comes down to choice: do you trust the free market, or the minds of humanity to impose burdens to pay for government services, such as school funding?  For DeWine, he’s just never going to be ready to admit that years and years of socialism are behind the creation of property tax penalties to pay for public education.  And, of course, the teachers’ unions control that entire industry, leading to cost overruns that our out-of-control local governments must deal with, leaving behind expensive chaos.

So you can’t help but talk about socialism, communism, and Marxism in general when we discuss how taxation against private property came into our culture to begin with, because we have gone through a period where Democrats and soft shelled Republicans didn’t want to believe to what level Karl Marx influenced legislative policy making going back to the beginning of the last century.  Much of the American expansion period, from 1850 on, saw a significant influx of European socialists who entered the country and introduced their Karl Marx-inspired ideas, which ultimately infected our free enterprise system with penalties against private property.  And it has gone on for so long that we just assumed that’s the way it has to be.  However, this has led to runaway costs, as we have seen in public schools currently, and penalties against those who own property, as they pay more for the same services than, say, an apartment dweller who requires far more tax services, far more than they pay.  It’s a very unfair system that undermines the premise of private property, destroying the American idea, and it was baked into all the progressive taxation policies that came with the creation of the Fed in 1913, a mistake at its inception that has only worsened over time.  There are old politicians, like DeWine, who have carried these mistaken ideas throughout their entire political life, and they are trying to preserve them for all kinds of unhealthy reasons.  However, the temperament lies in reforming that basic concept. 

Of course, what would replace these revenue devices would be a use tax of some kind, as well as sales tax in general.  However, that relies on the market’s growth mechanisms, similar to Trump’s tariffs.  People were against those for the same reason, and only now, a few months into his second term, are people beginning to see the logic, fruitfully.  After a few years of Trump, many significant economic developments will become a reality that people cannot see now.  Yet, as with the trend on private property, we should incentivize people to own as much private property as possible.  The taxes on it are part of a socialist scheme from the beginning that was always part of the plan to grow government.  There is no way to determine the correct funding model for public schools if property owners bear the burden for the benefit of those who can’t afford property.  It’s a wealth redistribution scam that’s baked into the policy of collecting taxes to grow government in ways that nobody can reliably control, because it’s a tax against the few for the needs of the many.  And it takes away the incentive to invest and create.  What we know now is that encouraging growth would generate significantly more revenue through optimism, as opposed to the current system of oppression.  In short, take the socialism, communism, and Marxism out of the legislative process, and the economy works far better, and at that point, you can see what your actual revenue stream would be, and can make much better decisions for how to construct society, such as elements of school funding and per-pupil budget needs.  With the system as it is, we can’t even have the discussion.  There is a significant chance for the Ohio House to take a bold, Trump-like action.  However, the trend, regardless, is working against old politicians like DeWine and is moving away from penalizing private property ownership.  Whether that happens on July 21st, 2025, or at a later time, the taxation of private property is headed for significant reform and disruption of the current methods.  It would be better sooner if people could find the courage.  But eventually, it’s happening anyway, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it.  Because it never should have been created in the first place.

Rich Hoffman

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

Vivek Ramaswamy’s Ohio Campaign for Governor is all About Family First: Getting rid of red tape in Liberty Township

Vivek Ramaswamy discussing taking the red tape out of a red state!

It was good to see Vivek Ramaswamy again.  Mark and Leslie Williams had a nice, private event for him to talk about the campaign status and the going-forward steps and probably the best thing I have heard in politics so far was what Vivek said about Ohio, that it was a deep red state, but that it would not be the state of red tape.  That his run for governor was committed to restoring Ohio to the nation’s greatest status in wealth generation among all the states.  And given his understanding of things and personality, I think it is very much possible.  The moment I found out that he was running for governor, I was excited about it.  And since he launched his campaign just a few months ago, he has turned his efforts into a nice running machine that will cascade into many exciting opportunities that many have never thought possible.  Vivek Ramaswamy understands, and as I have watched these GOP events develop over the years, there was something very different going on that was exciting —a festivity to it that was not politics as usual.  But before we get into all that, I have to say, Mark and Leslie did a great job with the event, including the fantastic food table set up with finger foods that they had in the middle of the gathering space, established for this meet and greet for Vivek.  I took a picture of what was left of it after a few hours, but it was quite something to see.  All the little things in the event were done with just a little extra flair that makes spending time with people on a Saturday night of political talk more enjoyable.  And once Vivek gave his speech, took pictures with people, and had to get on to the next thing, people stayed around talking and catching up because they didn’t want to leave such a wonderful occasion.

When this started it was quite an exhibition. It was a lot of food!

I was one of them, I was happy to see so many people I like to talk to all in the same place.  I enjoyed seeing most of Nancy Nix’s family there, mom, sister, aunts, grandchildren, her husband Bob, we all like each other naturally, and it was nice to catch up under those conditions.  Everyone knows I love Nancy Nix; she is one of the best for a reason, and a lot of it is that she has a nice and loving family, which is evident to everyone who can see.  I had just spent time with one of my favorite trustees, Todd Minniear, a few nights before.  With his wife Jamie, they are a couple of my absolute favorite people and they were there.  Thomas Hall and his family were there too.  His mom and dad are good, solid people, and if you haven’t noticed, there is a pattern to my accolades.  I often judge the value of people by the kind of families they come from and are creating for themselves, and for me, it was a great evening because I had a break from the broken dysfunction that often comes with associating with a lot of people from diverse backgrounds and social structures.  Here, almost everyone shared the same strong family values that I greatly appreciate, making it a great evening for me.  My wife doesn’t always get to come to all these events.  When we launched the campaign event for Vivek a few months prior, she had to miss it due to other family commitments that we had.  However, this time we were able to coordinate things in a way that allowed her to attend, and she enjoyed herself as well.

As usual, I always enjoy seeing George and Debbie Lang when they are in a place where things go as well as the Williams event allowed.  Where the accommodations are set up thoughtfully, so that people can easily discuss essential political matters.  As a critical Senator in Ohio, everyone wants to talk to George, so my time with him is often spent with me looming in the background to discuss as many important things as possible.  However, in a large group like that, it’s not easy to convey everything in brief statements, as time may not allow.  But when people wonder why I like George and Debbie so much, it’s that core value system again. They are a great family that really loves each other, and I value their sincerity, both with each other and with the world around them.  When people wonder why George Lang is good at his job, a common theme among those who have come out in early support of Vivek Ramaswamy for Governor of Ohio is that they see the state in the same way they see their families, with love and care.  And those are their primary political motivations.  No matter what personal success they have had in life, and I know that is the case with Mark and Leslie Williams too, who hosted the event, they want to put that same effort into making Ohio the top state in the country, and the world, for people to live in and raise good families.  If you are a family-first kind of person, knowing these kinds of people makes sense.  And I enjoyed myself for all those reasons.  One of the primary values that everyone I knew shared at this event was a love of family, and they all did just a little bit more than average to have good families. 

I enjoyed catching up with Darbi Boddy.  People have been wondering about her since her time as a Lakota school board member concluded in legal gymnastics.  People have asked me a lot why I like Darbi so much.  She is a good mom who talks to God frequently.  And since she left the Lakota school board, she has been hanging out with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago.  My wife noticed the pin she was wearing, and it was the same one that she had.  Let me say, Darbi is doing some great things that will manifest into goodness in a few years.  She is more deeply engaged in politics than ever, and I am very happy and proud of her for all that she has accomplished.  A common theme I have been discussing is that many people are unaware of Darby: she loves her family, and her involvement in politics is aimed at helping more families emerge in the world. I have a lot of respect for her hard work in this regard.  I like her kids, and I like her husband.  I want to see people like that succeed in the world.  I also enjoyed catching up with Bob Hutsenpiller.  We have a long history together. Similarly, he and his wife have been together for a long time, and his business has been a family affair throughout his long career.  And he’s just a good person trying to make things just a bit better in the world.  My joke with Bob is that he usually comes to these political events with work shoes because he is always on construction sites and has worked hard all the years I have known him.  And I would say that was the common theme among all the people I mentioned, and many more that there isn’t enough time to discuss.  But Vivek Ramaswamy makes it easy, just as President Trump has; these are all people who value family, and they are treating their state and country with the same love they pour into their families.  And it shows.  I met Vivek’s parents and got to know his wife at the event we had at CTL Aerospace, and I was happy that he recognized me out of all the people he has spoken to over the last several months.  But Vivek loves his kids.  He loves his wife.  He loves his parents.  And anyone who is that caring about the people in their life can show the same love to the state they are running.   And for me, that’s why I care so much about the people who were at that event.  The common theme was family first, even if nobody explicitly stated it.  You won’t catch any of the people I mentioned in some sex scandal where they are cheating on their spouses for power and prestige.  In most cases, everyone at that Vivek event already had power and prestige.  But what they were fighting for was something much more important: the power of family and the values that come from it, and carrying that attention over into political office, where it can genuinely make a significant impact.  And for me, being around such people is the best evening I could hope for.  I’m very much looking forward to Vivek Ramaswamy being the governor of Ohio.  That will be a good day!

Rich Hoffman

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

Re-elect Mark Welch to West Chester Trustee: The excitment about the future of air taxis

It began with a discussion about the new Trump executive order on air taxis and exploring how West Chester, Ohio, could become part of this exciting new trend.  But halfway through our conversation, it became apparent to me that Mark Welch was up for re-election, and it would be a good idea to continue the discussion on camera so that people could see how the spaghetti is made politically, because West Chester is at a critical time.  It has been very prosperous, and Mark, as a trustee, has been exceptionally effective in contributing to that success.  He is what remains of a long-standing government relationship that balanced power and innovation in just the right way over an extended period, resulting in great success.  I don’t think he will have a difficult time re-winning his seat.  However, there are challengers, and quite a few of them lean toward Democratic politics, and we all know what that means.  It’s a second-generation kind of thing, where the governing we do ends up being second-generation concerns.  They know they like the success, but they don’t know how to earn more of it for themselves.  And under the traditional campaign platform approach, there isn’t much opportunity for someone with extensive experience and success, like Mark Welch, to demonstrate why he is so much better than everyone else.  During our conversation, I suggested to Mark that we record the rest of our talk on camera so people could listen in and see what goes into being a good trustee.  These kinds of races cost a lot of money, because you have to buy print media, do the yard signs in a big district, and do radio and television to maintain a brand expectation that the public has for a front-running political figure.  However, the best thing Mark Welch has in his favor, campaign-wise, is his own experience, allowing people to hear it for themselves without interruption. 

One thing that Mark has always been good at is understanding the passions that business owners have and embracing a go-forward path toward fulfillment, which is why we were discussing flying cars and a vertiport in West Chester.  Over the last 14 years or so, there were numerous decisions made, including Mark’s election as a trustee, that contributed to West Chester, Ohio, becoming one of the best places to live in the world. Welch knows his stuff.  Every time I speak with him, he rattles off an enormous amount of detailed information about the subjects we’re discussing, and he finds a way to get along with just about everyone.  So he was undoubtedly the right guy to talk about an abandoned property that I had been thinking about that could use a repurpose to be a vertiport for the new Joby Air Taxi service which would take visitors to and from the local airports, CVG to the south, and Dayton International to the north, to avoid the heavy traffic that is typically associated with both routes.  Joby Aviation has relationships with Uber, Toyota, and Delta Airlines to advance personal transportation along these frontiers. All they needed was a presidential administration like Trump’s to sign an executive order allowing them to proceed, and FAA certification to advance.  Mark and I were talking about what a shame it was that Saudi Arabia and, specifically, Dubai, were going to be the first to market for this exciting new transportation system.  This is no longer science fiction, like the Jetsons cartoon or Back to the Future.  These vertical takeoff vehicles are real, very efficient, and can safely transport up to four passengers right now.  All they need at this point is the FAA certification, which they are expected to receive later in 2025.  Now was the time to discuss how West Chester, Ohio, could become part of this exciting new trend.

The reason West Chester would be a great place to start an American hub is that Joby Aviation has a manufacturing facility where it will build thousands of these sky cars in the Dayton area for many years.  And as it stands, Toyota has invested over $500 million in a partnership with Joby, which means that Japan will be using these sky cars soon, as will China.  It would be a real shame to have all these far-away places using something that was being built right down the road from West Chester.  I have people who come from all over the world to see me often, and their number one complaint is that it takes too long to get to the area airports from West Chester.  They’d rather not worry about renting a car once they get to Cincinnati to visit a business associate in West Chester.  They’d like to fly in on Delta, catch their direct shuttle service to the Joby air taxi at the Delta hub, and fly directly to West Chester, so they can walk to their hotel without worrying about traffic.  West Chester has a lot of hotels, but the other complaint is that they are always booked, so there is a genuine business need to solve this transportation problem.  It’s great to have such excellent highway access as West Chester does.  But the hour spent either to the north or the south getting to the airport could be used in a much better way, and these Joby Air Taxis are just the right thing. 

Air taxis will play a significant role in the future American economy.  The best way to deal with traffic is to fly over it; as a result, many parts of America will likely utilize air taxis after just visiting Washington D.C. I can say that they will be instrumental in flying people in and out of the city from many directions, as the traffic on the highways is always so thick.  People don’t travel long distances for business meetings only to sit in traffic.  And it happens all the time in West Chester: people from out of town want to go to a Reds game, but everyone has worked all day at their business and doesn’t have time to drive down to the stadium to sit in traffic for an hour and a half during rush hour.  If they could take a Joby air taxi to the stadium, they would do it without hesitation.  Mark and I were discussing that old building in West Chester that would make a great skyport for the southern Ohio region.  Because establishing those would be the very next problem that Joby Aviation would have to overcome, they had the technical parts worked out.  Now they had the political support.  Now, all they needed were vertiports to create a network of use that these flying cars could be a part of, so that commercial travel could begin.  But that was new information.  Mark has been down this kind of road before, with many thousands of similar enterprises that just needed a friendly place to set up shop, which is why West Chester became one of the best places in the world to live.  Mark Welch embodies the perfect politician, and if we want to protect what is so good about West Chester, Ohio, re-electing Mark Welch to his trustee position is crucial and a wise decision.  There is a lot of fun coming on the horizon for those bold enough to put their arm around innovation.  And when it comes to government leadership, Mark Welch excels at doing just that.

Rich Hoffman

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

Michael V. Ryan is Running for Butler County Commissioner: There is no reason to put up with wilted flowers

It was a surprise that so many people attended the Michael V. Ryan press conference at the Courtyard by Marriott in Hamilton, Ohio.  The current Vice-Mayor of the city and city council member announced that he was running for Butler County Commissioner, and it was good to see such a diverse group of people coming out to show him support on a Monday afternoon.  There were people of all ages and a nice, even number of men and women from all kinds of backgrounds, which showed broad support early in the process.  When I first heard about it, I thought it was a great idea that someone from the group of anti-liberal rebels on the City Council would migrate into the commissioner seat that is coming up, where the incumbent, Cindy Carpenter, is up for re-election.  Recently, she had been caught in Middletown, Ohio, campaigning for Democrats, and that pretty much sealed her fate among the many who have been unhappy with her over the years and have been calling her a RINO.  Well, now people had more than speculation on the matter, and they were looking for alternatives.  And Michael Ryan was making himself available, and people were excited about it.  It was also surprising that several officeholders also showed up to lend their support.  When you see Bruce Jones at a political event, you know something significant is brewing, because he tends to associate with emerging vigilance over the years that I have come to trust for several decades now.  And as I peeked around the crowd to the back of the room, I saw Mark Welch, the West Chester trustee there, whom I wanted to talk to.  It was a good crowd that had run out of seats, leaving many standing in the background and doorways to hear the future commissioner speak.

After the announcement, I took the chance to speak with Mark because I knew he was also thinking of running for commissioner, so it showed some significance that he was willing to come out and support Michael Ryan running.  The other two seats for the commissioner have a few years left on them, so for Mark to show public support this early in the process was very admirable.  And as we discussed, he has challengers for his trustee seat, which is up for re-election this year.  And he is committed to protecting that seat, which I thought showed great teamwork by the GOP to help in several races, which I’d like to see more of.  West Chester has been great because it has had some significant policies from the trustees over the years, which worked best when George Lang and Mark Welch served in West Chester simultaneously.  The best path forward, which has made West Chester one of the best places to live in the world, occurred during this period.  But since then, George has moved on to become State Senator, leaving Ann Becker to fill that void, which we all thought was going to be a good thing, as she used to be the President of the West Chester Tea Party, and the Cincinnati Tea Party, and she was a good friend.  She was on 55 KRC all the time announcing on the radio Tea Party events and was a key to implementing fiscal small government ideas back into the Butler County Republican Party.  But time has a way of eroding at people, and the person she once was isn’t quite so much anymore, and she has been siding with Democrats a lot these days, which has been a concern.  Because the other guy, Lee Wong, is a known Democrat.  So the trustees have moved more toward the Democrat side of things in dangerous ways.

Mark knows the situation, and he doesn’t feel like he can step away from the West Chester Trustee race because he needs help, so things don’t get out of control.  At a minimum, Mark needs to win one of the two seats this year, with Lee also up for re-election.  So while everyone is excited about Michael Ryan running for commissioner, the Republican Party needs to protect some of the best spots, which in West Chester is how the MAGA movement evolved in the Butler County area and set the foundation for what a prosperous community with good politics should look like.  Ann Becker and I used to be close during all this, and I was very supportive of her in that other Trustee spot George left behind.  And back then, we all planned to keep West Chester conservative by tag-teaming who would run and maintain a two-vote majority.  It meant a lot that Mark was doing that with this Butler County Commissioner race because that’s how you get good management at these positions.  It doesn’t do any good for everyone to beat each other up in primaries only to wonder why some knuckle-dragging Democrat ends up winning in the end, pretending to be a Republican, such as what we had for a long time in Cindy Carpenter.  I can say that in Ann Becker’s case, she didn’t start badly.  She and I parted political ways a bit when Trump came into the picture, and I was in full support of him early, while it took others a while to get there.  Ann eventually did, but over the coming years, it got increasingly complex to hold the same Tea Party political philosophy, as life has a way of chipping away at our foundational beliefs.  And at times like that, political challengers are healthy and needed.  But knowing when to work together and when to challenge for the betterment of a party that serves the needs of a representative government can be tricky, and takes good people to do things for the right reasons. 

Many great things are happening where Michael Ryan, as a commissioner, could be inspiring, especially given that Vivek Ramaswamy will soon be the governor of Ohio.  Butler County is one of the biggest counties in Ohio, with high population density, so having Michael Ryan as one of the commissioners is a rare opportunity.  Trump in the White House setting economic policies flowing down into all levels of government is showing great promise, which Vivek’s future administration will take full advantage of.  Then, having an enterprising commissioner like Michael Ryan engage in that excitement is a great opportunity.  What he has done with the City Council of Hamilton has been fun to watch; they have done things that have brought life back to the city that I never thought I’d see in my lifetime.  And he could do so much more as a commissioner.  But we don’t want to lose the West Chester seats, because that would be a step backward.  So it was good to see some teamwork at key positions, covering each other with support where it counted.  Elections are always opportunities.  It’s rare to have such good people running for politics simultaneously in the same room, but that was certainly the case here.  Michael Ryan and his very nice wife, Amanda, are good, solid people who bring a lot of pride to Republican politics and have a very bright future that is well deserved.  But authentic leadership doesn’t just come in election wins; it comes in setting the table for victory on many fronts.  It was also good to see that happening in the background at the Michael Ryan announcement for County Commissioner on a bright day in May 2025 was unfolding a new strategy, where so many opportunities were blooming everywhere.  And in the Republican Party, several flowers have lost their luster and are wilting.  Cindy Carpenter is one of them, and she needs to go.  There is no reason to put up with wilted flowers who are Democrats in disguise when we have so many good, solid Republicans who are aligned with the MAGA movement.  But everyone will need to support each other in these efforts. 

Rich Hoffman

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

More Kristi Noem Please: The best torture of drug cartel members is to have to look at the Secretary of Homeland Security in those tight pants

I was surprised by Megan Kelly’s obvious girl jealousy of Kristi Noem when the Secretary of Homeland Security went to the El Salvador Terrorism Confinement Center maximum security facility and stood before the recent prisoners there, just dropped off by Noem and the Trump administration for their terrorist connection to the government of Venezuela in the form of drug cartels.  I thought it was great; one of the reasons I wanted Kristi Noem to be Trump’s VP was that she has a great sense of style.  I will never forget how proud I was of her for riding her horse onstage at the town square in Deadwood, South Dakota, during the Sturgis motorcycle rally, carrying an American flag and waving it proudly in the air.  Kristi Noem gets it, and I am glad that President Trump put her in a position to utilize her talents for the security of America.  After all the controversies over those prisoners and whether or not a district judge had the power to intrude on President Trump’s Article II powers, Kristi Noem had the guts to visit the prison personally dressed in skin tight jeans, a very tight shirt to highlight her female attributes, while wearing a $50K Rolex and forced all those shirtless, tattooed drug gang members to look at her from behind knowing they weren’t going to have any female company for a long time, and listen to her spike the football right in front of their faces.  As I like to say, that is how you make spaghetti in the kitchen.  That’s the only kind of language that these violent drug cartel members understand, and it’s about time that we start playing the game better than them.  Kristi Noem was wearing lip gloss and had her hair nicely styled, further demonstrating her excessive femininity. As a result, the world came unglued, including Megan Kelly, the former Fox host and current podcast commentator. 

Let me go on to say that with all the talk about Noem’s costly Rolex watch, there is much more to that than anybody wants to admit.  The jealousy among various members of the media society, raised on Marxism, was overtly ostentatious.  Kristi Noem is a successful person who has survived numerous hardships, and she is now in her grandmother years, looking like a pretty hot tamale.  She hasn’t let herself go like many women of her age, and to all those who have, and look like rotting potatoes left two weeks too long in the cellar, Kristi Noem has exposed the heart of the problem.  That when we talk about girl power and all this equality nonsense, the real motivation isn’t for excellence, but it’s to bring down all the pretty women in the world to the level of most everyone else who don’t look so good.  It’s a communist assumption that expresses jealousy for those who have and the mob’s ability to take it and to destroy it, or redistribute it under the flag of equality.  Where everyone is equally ugly.  Megan Kelly’s reaction was the jealous socialite who is concerned that a woman like Noem might steal her man with expressions of feminine charms, so she thought she needed to pile on to all the left leaning media attacks, because as the head of Homeland Security Kristi Noem looked like too much of a woman and not enough of an authority figure.  Sure, Noem could have worn a baggy jacket to cover her body, but she wanted to show off a bit, just as she does at rodeos and public appearances like motorcycle rallies.  She knows what America likes, and they like women with very tight jeans, tight shirts, long hair, and lip gloss.  And to rub a little salt in the wound, Kristi wore her charming Rolex watch.

Who are we trying to impress with a less-than-excellent appearance anyway?  Playing down to the crowd and trying to look more “professional,” which in this case is the same as saying, “more average” lets other people know that you are just like them, butt ugly, lazy, and broke.  But that’s not the message here.  Kristi Noem is a good-looking woman who knows she’s attractive, and she took to the streets to lead raids against dangerous drug cartels, helping to make America safe again.  Most of the prisoners she was standing in front of are dangerous people.  It sounds like there were a few mistakes mixed into that prisoner population, but so what?  What matters is that we commit Homeland Security to get rid of drug cartels who are operating as a hostile foreign insurgent within our borders and openly trying to poison Americans for conquest.  Sheriff Jones once tried to get me to do an article to show just how bad the border violence is, where these drug cartel members are in open war with border property owners and openly cut off the heads of people who stand up to them and stick them on fence posts.  And if they see a woman they like, they take her and rape her and dare anybody in law enforcement to do something about it.  And it happens every day along the border.  That’s the kind of stuff that Megan Kelly should be worried about.  Not how good Kristi Noem looks as a very hot grandmother.  When I see Kristi Noem, I think of American pride.  When I see Megan Kelly, especially after her reaction to Noem, I see a woman who appears to be jealous and insecure about her ability to keep the men in her life interested in her, which is at the heart of the criticism.

I told the Sheriff that I couldn’t use the violent pictures he showed me, because they were just too horrible.  As a media contributor, that is my editorial judgment because it crosses the line.  I don’t mind writing about it, but the visuals are horrible and more people should see them.  There are ways to do so, but the media’s responsibility is to let people know that the border violence that happens with these drug cartels is open warfare.  And it’s not just on our borders anymore, it’s in the middle of America, in just about every city in North America.  They are a purposeful invasion of our country, and we should rub it in their faces when we catch them, deport them, and put them into maximum security prisons for containment and punishment.  And yes, for a bunch of dudes stuck in a rigorous prison system, having to bunch together with a bunch of shirtless dudes and stare at the back of Kristi Noem’s tight jeans is torture in a good way.  And I’m glad Kristi Noem had the guts to do it, and the showmanship.  The Secretary of Homeland Security has written best-selling books and achieved great success in life.  What else is she going to spend her money on?  A Rolex is a symbol of success, and she should wear it proudly and audaciously.  Especially if it makes lazy people jealous and insecure people reveal who they are. Which is what Megan Kelly revealed about herself.  Women, no matter who they are, tend to be very jealous of women they think are prettier than they are, and they adopt levels of Marxism in their lives to make things “fair” for them.  So they can go to the grocery store without makeup and dress in sweatpants and a dirty old T-shirt without feeling bad about themselves, until Kristi Noem walks by in a cowboy hat, tight jeans, long cowboy boots, and a perfumed body, complete with gleaming lip gloss.  And when their men look and admire how attractive Kristi Noem is, women like that punish their men for all the things they didn’t do, and want the world to be just a little bit lazier so they don’t have to feel bad about themselves.  Nope, that’s not how we make America great again.  More people like Kristi Noem do, however, and I am very proud of her for what she has done and plans to do in the immediate future.  More Kristi Noem, please!

Rich Hoffman

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

Good on the Ohio Senate: Getting DEI out of colleges

Good on Jerry Cirino in the Ohio Senate for introducing the SB1 Bill, which Governor DeWine just signed into law.  And good work to the GOP in both Houses at the Ohio Statehouse.  SB1 is the Enact Advanced Higher Education Act, which targets reform of higher education by banning diversity, equity, and inclusion programs (DEI), prohibiting faculty strikes, and implementing various other reforms at public colleges and universities.  DEI programs have been a disaster for our culture because they do not inspire greatness, but conformity to a standard that does not produce success in society.  This Bill is the first of many to come, which is necessary in public education in general because it has become so severe and out of control that there is no way to work with it any longer.  Equity and inclusion are not communist strategies, as clearly outlined in Marx’s written works, and do not inspire greatness in society.  It is a communist value system that does not belong in a competitive, capitalist culture.  What is disguised as fairness is a radical left-wing weapon designed to undermine our society from the inside out, and rot the minds of our children before they are ever able to fend for themselves as adults.  When this bill was first introduced, it naturally caused a lot of comment and protest. Therefore, it was good that the Senate stuck together and rallied behind Jerry Cirinio.  We need a lot more of these kind of bold bills in the Ohio Statehouse from both sides.  For too long, we let a small minority of communist oriented voices speak and cry for things because they were the only ones who showed up to the hearings, and politicians assumed that meant that they were in the majority.  And that the media would take up the cause and carry communist ideas that they would support by default.  But not this time.

To achieve the kind of competition that Vivek Ramaswamy aims to bring to Ohio through a merit-based pay system, we need significantly more of the 2025 version of SB1.  Most teachers, when you talk to them one on one, without the politics of a teacher’s union lingering in the background, agree with merit-based, competitive pay models.  They probably even vote for Republicans.  And increasingly they support Trump in the White House even if they don’t admit to it in public.  DEI programs have been horrible in the private sector, and they have slowed down the world horribly.  Everywhere we go these days, from drive-thru windows at McDonald’s to advanced manufacturing companies, we have a massive global society that can’t do much of anything right, especially hit a production target.  The quality of products in every industrial sector is declining, mainly because almost every HR department in the country has made DEI a priority, where compassion has become the standard, rather than practicality.  You can feel sorry for someone coming from a rough background, but do you want them making your hamburger at a drive-thru?  A society of broken people has given us production standards not focused on doing a good job, but on hiring people because of their skin color, sexual orientation, and even age status, rather than pushing employees to improve so they can compete for the best job and inspire great production.  Hard work has gone out of fashion mainly because DEI programs disguised as fairness have killed it, and Karl Marx is laughing in his grave at the poison he infected the world with, and many terrible people made into policy because they wanted to rule the means of production from behind a veil of control and influence.  DEI programs have been taught in schools for decades, and they have been horrible for the subsequent generations trying to make it in the adult world, and that compliance standard has been way off the mark. 

At a Lakota School Board meeting recently where they were complaining about just 9 million dollars in lost revenue due to charter schools providing options for kids to attend and to take their money with them, one of the new guys, Doug Horton said to the members of the meeting that he supports Ed Choice programs, but that he essentially didn’t, talking out of both sides of his mouth, because he didn’t think people were leaving the school due to a political exodus.  Parents concerned about Lakota’s support of DEI programs and Critical Race Theory did not believe these factors were the reason students were being pulled from the school to attend other educational options.  And as he said it, he said it with a straight face as if everyone was supposed to believe it.  That is precisely the kind of person that DEI has produced in the world, and why parents are growing increasingly dissatisfied with the public education environment.  I have heard for a long time at Lakota that school board members would deny that Critical Race Theory, which is a spawn of DEI programs, was even happening.  They would tell complaining parents that there was no evidence of Critical Race Theory.  You know why they said that?  Because they refused to look at it, and their public policy, established by many thousands of lawyers across the nation, has a standard policy when it comes to all DEI programs, which is to deny, deny, and deny, until you die.  And even then, continue the practice.  Lie to the parents.  Lie to the people who pay the tuition at these now worthless colleges, and make suckers out of them in public.  And when they talk about these things in public testimony, turn off their mic so there is no record of the exchange. 

School board people like Horton at Lakota know why parents are leaving the district, but what they say in public indicates an intent to mislead.  Just as they say that their purpose is to implement political DEI projects into the schools no matter what parents think about it, because that is their key to federal money, to build a management structure of DEI programs no matter what people really want, because as education institutions, they are all about money.  They don’t try to gain independence from federal mandates and state laws that are attached to funding because their teacher unions are primarily concerned with maintaining the lowest standard they can get away with to maximize their financial gain.  And DEI for them has been a massive cover story of corruption and deceit disguised as helpful fairness. It has been everything but fair, and it has made our students and our productive society much worse by bringing to our competitive workplaces communist ideas that have worked nowhere in the world, in any place.  They don’t work in China either, by the way.  The people there have a strong work ethic due to their culture, and they can afford to throw bodies at problems.  But communism as a DEI model doesn’t work anywhere, and any exchange program that partners with China should have never occurred in an education program.  China is a communist country, and there is nothing we need to learn from them.  The members of the Ohio Senate were wise not to take the bait and learn a valuable lesson from the Trump administration.  Stop listening to these communist fools, such as the dead weight protesting the signing of SBI in Ohio.  We don’t want losers like that setting the standards in Ohio, or anywhere.  Listening to them, as we have in the past, has not improved our world. Instead, they made it all, much, much, worse.

Rich Hoffman

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God Won’t Leave Me Alone: ‘The Politics of Heaven’

Absolutely, the number one question I get asked every week, without fail, is when I’m going to write another book.  And my answer is that I usually write them every seven or so years, which has been true throughout my adult life.  My two favorite things, reading and writing, are activities I spend a lot of time doing, so it’s natural that writing a book is something I tend to do.  But this one is different, because lately my answer has been that I’m writing one now.  It will take a few years, and I didn’t go into it with a publisher in mind or some means of distribution.  It’s currently in the raw writing stage, which is the most fun and where the quality of a project like this has the most impact.  And this one is different for me, as it’s a big project and will be a pretty big book. It’s called The Politics of Heaven. I feel I have to write it because God won’t leave me alone about it.  He talks to me constantly about writing this book and the urgency was certainly more frequent after a trip my wife and I recently took to Washington D.C.  We were on the fifth floor where they do their big presentations and enjoying the view of the Capitol and Mall in front of us when the urgency from God was nearly as loud as a screaming kid begging for a candy bar.  This project was one of those things I had planned to do in a few years, about on schedule with my usual 7-year pace between projects.  But this one couldn’t wait.  God wanted to express himself, and it just couldn’t linger.  So, we’ll see how things go and what options present themselves along the way.  However, for the sake of what I do, I am shifting my focus to this project, as well as several other urgent matters that have arisen in conjunction with it.

I saw this at the Museum of the Bible and remembered it from an article I read back in 2007.

Strategically speaking, I see an opportunity here that is unique, and it’s something I originally started thinking about heavily while I took my family to the Sainte Chapelle, with its high ceilings and magnificent stained glass windows, obviously mimicking Heaven and the human ascent into it.  Paris had been getting frequent attacks by Muslim radicals, and it was more than just a war going on over religion.  And I had been thinking that someone needs to write a book in a unique way that puts things in perspective with people.  What is excellent about Christian writers is that they produce a lot of material.  Some of the most prolific writers in the world are associated with Christian scholarship and have been in the business of analyzing scripture and its applications.  I enjoy them.  I look forward to every new addition to Biblical Archaeology Review that I get, and I hadn’t been thinking about it too much, just enjoying them.  But the problem is that this is a strategic necessity.  People with Trump in the White House are looking to fill a void that has been put in them, politically, and what I do that most don’t is deal with politics.  To me, politics is like baking a cake.  You make it, people eat it, then everyone sits down and watches a football game and falls asleep on the couch.  But these messages to me, and how do I know they are from God and not some random spiritual stranger like a homeless person begging for money, are urgent and time-driven.  I have some experience in this area, and this isn’t my first time.  And this time he certainly wasn’t shy about it, frustrated by the limited means that there are to communicate across dimensional time and space. 

It will be a very interesting book. Probably nothing like it in the world.

The Bible is selling very well, with a spike in sales directly tied to the expanding economy and the politics behind it.  For what people have witnessed over these last three decades, who could expect otherwise?  People want goodness in their lives, or at least the pursuit of it.  People were hungry to understand how to extract goodness from something, which, in most cases, is a relationship with the most essential piece of literature the world has ever known —the Bible.  But for most, these are very purposeful excursions into the battle for good over evil, and people usually keep it all to themselves.  But the time we’re in now is different; this is a political enterprise, and it involves a spiritual realm at war with each other, and we’re reflections of that war, where individual battles are erupting all over the landscape.  And politics is kind of my unique thing that is different from what anybody else writes.  Specifically I want to deal with the political problem of the spirit world constantly trying to attack God and his creation from the border of the firmament and to chronical the attack vector of many demonic entities as they were captured by the Apocryphal book The Testament of Solomon which I argue should have been one of the Books of the Bible where God gave him a ring to control the demons of earth and force them to build his temple.  I think this is more than a fantasy story by post-Second Temple early Christians.  I believe there is compelling evidence to support this story, which is very relevant to our present time. Many of the evils we have been witnessing can be firmly attributed to the influence of occult magic and the yearning for it, with numerous factions now working against us.  And is best captured in the Bible in Ephesians 6:12. 

It was stunning to see this in person. God was talking to me in a very literal way.

One of my favorite books in the history of the world is Graham Hancock’s “Sign and the Seal,” which is about the purported discovery of the actual Ark of the Covenant, allegedly located in Ethiopia at Axum.  I will have more to say on the recent revelations from the CIA on this topic soon, but needless to say, I think that book is one of the most fantastic adventure books I’ve ever read, and I’ve read a lot of them.  However, there is much more to the story, and I believe several steps can be taken beyond the adventure part of these stories. We know enough to peek behind the veil at a real war that has taken place and to understand our role in that war.  And part of that strategy is to enable people to form a relationship with the Bible and to continue gaining perspective on how it can improve their lives by helping them win battles they may not even be aware of.  It is my intention for them to figure it out, which is why this urging from me is so timely.  It’s a project that can’t wait.  Of course, I will continue to do all the other many things that I do.  This will be just another project to add to all the others.  However, due to the timing and necessity, I’m doing it now rather than five or more years from now, when I’ll be well into my sixties.  This is an effort that requires a voice that understands politics and can put it into perspective, so people can fight the battle that needs to be won by the forces of good.  And for that to happen, context is in short supply and needs to be made much more abundant. 

Very big stuff

Rich Hoffman

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