Category: Progressive

Why Trump’s War on Drug Cartels Is the Right Fight for America: Blow up more drug boats and dealers

For decades, America has tolerated a slow-motion disaster disguised as “due process” and “fairness.” While courts crawled at the speed of molasses, drug cartels pumped billions of dollars’ worth of poison into our communities. The result? Generations destroyed, families shattered, and a culture softened for collapse. President Trump’s decision to take the fight directly to cartel operations—blowing up drug boats in international waters—is not just bold; it’s necessary. This is not about policing petty crime. It’s about defending the United States from a military-grade invasion disguised as commerce. Fentanyl alone killed 73,960 Americans in the 12 months ending April 2025, according to CDC data. That’s more than the total U.S. combat deaths in Vietnam. When Trump authorized strikes off the coast of Venezuela, he signaled a new era: America will no longer play defense while cartels wage war on our soil. Critics in Europe wring their hands about “due process,” but let’s be clear—cartels are not misunderstood entrepreneurs. They are terrorist organizations, and their weapon is chemical warfare.

Why did it take so long to get here? Because cartels mastered the art of hiding behind our own institutions. They’ve turned the American legal system into their own version of a Trojan horse. Every time a kingpin gets caught, billions flow into law firms to stall extradition, manipulate loopholes, and buy influence. The Sinaloa Cartel alone generates up to $11 billion annually, and much of that bankroll fuels legal defenses and bribery. Lawyers addicted to cartel money are as dangerous as people with an addiction to heroin. This isn’t hyperbole—it’s systemic corruption. Court cases drag on for years, not because justice is complicated, but because money makes complexity profitable. Meanwhile, politicians posture about “comprehensive reform” while quietly pocketing donations from interests tied to the drug economy. The result? A judiciary that moves more slowly than a glacier, while cartels move faster than a hypersonic missile. Trump’s approach bypasses this charade. No more plea deals. No more courtroom theater. When a cartel boat crosses international waters loaded with fentanyl, it’s not a defendant—it’s a target.

If you think this is just about drugs, think again. Cartels are not mere suppliers—they are warlords. Since 2006, Mexico has recorded over 460,000 homicides linked to cartel violence, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. That’s nearly half a million lives erased in less than two decades. In 2021 alone, 18,000 people died in cartel-related conflicts. These aren’t sanitized numbers—they represent real atrocities: beheadings, bodies hung from bridges, families slaughtered to send a message. And it’s not confined to Mexico. Along the U.S. border, innocent Americans have been kidnapped, tortured, and killed—crimes that rarely make headlines because they don’t fit the narrative of “immigration reform.” Illegal immigration has been the perfect smokescreen for cartel operations, scattering enforcement resources and creating chaos by design. Every migrant caravan is a Trojan horse, hiding cartel scouts and smugglers among desperate families. This is not immigration—it’s infiltration. And every fentanyl pill that slips through is a bullet aimed at America’s future.

The time for half-measures is over. Trump’s strikes on cartel boats are a start, but they must be the beginning of a relentless campaign: destroy cartel mansions, burn their plantations, seize their offshore accounts, and dismantle their propaganda networks. Treat them as what they are—terrorists. Fentanyl is not a recreational drug; it’s a weapon of mass destruction. In FY2023, U.S. authorities seized 27,000 pounds of fentanyl at the southern border, a staggering 480% increase since 2020. That’s enough to kill every man, woman, and child in America several times over. Over 107,000 Americans died from overdoses in 2022, with fentanyl responsible for 70% of those deaths. This is not a market—it’s a battlefield. And the enemy is winning because we’ve been too polite to call this what it is: war. Trump called it. He acted. And for that, he deserves not just support but a mandate to finish the job. Blow up more boats. Raid more compounds. Cut off the financial arteries that keep this beast alive. America cannot afford another decade of courtroom theater while cartels wage chemical warfare on our streets. The choice is simple: escalate or perish.

History will judge this moment. Will we continue to let cartels poison our culture under the guise of “due process,” or will we fight back with the full force of a nation that refuses to die on its knees? Trump chose the latter, and that’s one of the reasons we elected him.  Drug dealing is not a harmless, free market enterprise; it is meant to feed the worst of any society, the slack-jawed losers who supply the poison and the diabolical menaces who use them, and make them both the moral imperative of all social structure.  Because of the United States’ power and its successful military, threats against it have taken the form of guerrilla warfare.  They have no plans to fight a direct war with America, but they indeed plan to subvert it, which has undoubtedly been the case of many socialist countries around the world, and yes, Mexico and Canada fall in that category.  They are OK to support a power like the drug cartels to cause the inward destruction of America, and even the lawyers play their part by putting their personal profit over the good of the nation.  Just like the drugs the cartels deal, the money that spawns from it has given significant amounts of wealth to the legal profession in America to keep the dealers out of jail, for the most part.  The drugs themselves aren’t the only addiction meant to exploit a culture to its own self-destruction, and many enemy countries to America have learned to use a much more passive-aggressive approach to military attack.  Venezuela certainly falls under that category.  So knowing all that, I would like to see more drug boats blown from the water.  I would like to see their drug mansions raided and destroyed.  I would like to see all drug assets eradicated and the perpetrators punished to the fullest extent.  Drug dealing and use is not an innocent crime; it’s the poison of society itself.  There is no innocent drug use when the destruction of human minds is the intent.  And when you look at the many socialist countries where many of these drug dealers spawn from, the endeavor is all too obvious.  They let the cartels be their military and chaos their agent of destruction as they seek to overthrow capitalism and to usher in communism as the replacement for sanity.  And in large sections of America, it has been working.  When you trace back the origin of many of the anti-ICE riots in America to its root cause, the perpetrators are primarily drug users who have had their minds poisoned by the cartels, and in many cases, they are proud of it.  The many members of all communist movements, in most cases, also have a relationship to drug use because, in their destroyed minds, they lose the ability to think for themselves and instead seek centralized authorities to do it for them.  And that is the reason why these drug dealers need a spectacular end to their life of crime and villainy.  And the Trump administration couldn’t destroy enough of them to make me happy.   But I am glad to see the intent headed in the right direction.  I am looking forward to a lot more blowing up of drug dealers, and if the Trump team ever wants any help, call.  It would be a privilege. 

Rich Hoffman

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

The No Kings Protests Are Going Nowhere: Simon and Garfunkel can no longer save the communist movement from free market needs

The No Kings Protests that were pushed uphill over this past weekend are really quite telling.  It’s the same communist losers from the George Soros side of the fence, the Simon and Garfunkel crowd of old pot-smoking hippies and lazy teacher union types who, like trained seals, look for an easy paycheck, show up with their dumb signs and beg for food like common dogs.  As I have said before, several of the biggest labor unions in the world have buildings just outside the gates of the White House, and they really want to think they have power over the means of production in the United States, and they clearly don’t, and won’t.  They have had a lot of influence in the past because people didn’t know that they were essentially the actions of Karl Marx himself.  On a good day, they wanted European socialism, but what they wish for, policy-wise, is outright communism in the style of China.  Their protests were far from organic as the media tried to shape them.  And as a footnote, most members of the media, primarily on the national level, are members of a labor union, even Sean Hannity, who is a member of SAG-AFTRA (the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio artists, and an AFL-CIO affiliate that represents broadcasters, journalists, and media professionals like radio and TV hosts.)  That is why so many media types are soft on coverage of these kinds of communist activities.  All labor unions are communist organizations, and they seek to rule by the mob and to take out the management of any organization.  And that’s precisely what’s going on here, with Trump.  He’s a strong executive type that union membership hates, and they are seeking to apply Karl Marx to the success America is seeing and to try to turn people against the good management we are witnessing in the White House.

I have to pick on Simon and Garfunkel for a minute because maybe one of the big keys to this new awakening we are enjoying in modern life is the degradation of the music industry.  Generally, I think the transition of contemporary music and entertainment has been a bad thing.  People used to share a favorite movie at least and a favorite song, and with the decentralizing of so many broadcasters and musicians, free markets have destroyed the common experience.  Everyone can have their own YouTube channel, and everyone can make a hit song.  But not everyone will hear it, so the chances of Simon and Garfunkel writing and singing some modern version of a hippie folk song about smoking pot and free love are much less influential. For instance, many people over 50 will know their song “Feelin’ Groovy” and the Bob Dylan song, “Rainy Day Women.”  People under 50, especially closer to 20, will get most of their information from YouTube, and the content likely won’t be repeated because it comes and goes so fast.  A lot of people might enjoy the entertainment experience, but it won’t be shared in the way that Simon and Garfunkel did, and it won’t be passed from generation to generation as a cultural staple.  So the ability for someone like George Soros to capture people’s minds through music has been greatly diminished in this new entertainment generation, which has as much to do with the sudden rise of the MAGA movement as anything.  A kind of spell has been broken from the capture of our entertainment culture over a long period of time.  Music was used to rally the masses toward communism throughout the latter half of the last century, without question.  And now no musical artist has that kind of influence, so people are waking up and away from those detrimental influences.

And that kind of brain-dead numbness was evident at the No Kings rally, which was as mad at Trump as the teacher’s unions are at moms and dads who insist that they run their children’s lives rather than the mob rule of the public school.  Trump has signed a lot of executive orders to undo essentially the progressive agenda.  There is a lot of legislative support that a supportive House and Senate will undoubtedly follow.  But to undo the mess that many of these embedded communists have imposed on our way of government, Trump has had to sign a lot of them.  And that’s what we voted for.  Trump was a successful executive who brought to the White House all the elements that made him great in the private sector.  And he hasn’t disappointed people. Instead, people have had to come to terms with the roots of their own past.  Many people think in the way that MAGA does, the Make America Great Again movement.  But what does that mean when people are listening to songs from Jefferson Airplane about overt free love, which was causing them to tap their feet to the music while going to work and trying to hold together a marriage?  When the common experience of entertainment gives them a contrary thought, they will likely produce in society, contrary values.  But people are waking up from that fog of contradiction and are enjoying the success Trump has brought to our White House.  And the communist labor union types are being lost in the dust as their influence is vanishing like fog on the horizon of a rising sun. 

So the coverage of this communist No Kings movement around the world was biased toward Karl Marx and not the free market influences of a society independent of the previous tyranny.  In America, we look to empower individuals to achieve above and beyond group associations, so leadership is a high-value enterprise.  We like innovative CEOs and entrepreneurs, like Elon Musk or Steve Jobs.  And Trump made his living being a shining example of outstanding business leadership.  That’s why we wanted him in the White House.  We wanted our government to run like one of his businesses.  And we don’t like the stringy-haired bra burners to weaken our society with the kind of communist drivel we have had to endure for many years, which has delivered us to so many global embarrassments.  At the end of his term, Trump will leave and turn everything over to someone else, which is how the American republic was designed.  We are moving away from the tyranny of the masses, where the common losers of society can have equality with the best and brightest.  We want the best to produce wonderful things we can all enjoy.  But without the exceptional, we get a society of the average, and that was never what America was going to be about.  And why the MAGA movement is moving away from influencers like the communist supporting George Soros and his little son, Alex.  Their money has been weaponized to shape our culture through old mechanisms like music and movies.  But not anymore.  That spell has been broken and will continue to be well into the future, as options have given people independence from the unifying communism of artistic control over the entertainment industry.  The labor union movement put out the call for their members to show up and carry signs against Trump, but it’s an old, tired crowd of people going nowhere.  And their communist movement is slipping through their fingers as the success of the Trump White House continues.  And there is nothing they can do about it, which is a joy to see.

Rich Hoffman

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

Public Schools Were Designed By Dumb People to Make More Dumb People: Dewey always wanted communism

I’ve always been consistent on homeschooling issues; I’ve never thought that the public education system was any good.  In a conversation the other day with some people, they asked me about this, and I always hate answering the question because the essential elements aren’t very complimentary.  The person I was talking to said about themselves, “I’m not very smart, I barely made it through school myself, so I wouldn’t want to harm my kids by teaching them.  I would rather have a professional do it.”  I hate that conversation because it forces you to admit to how stupid most people are, which makes it hard to deal with them willingly.  I don’t have that confidence problem.  I think I can do everything, including working on my car, better than other people and feel better equipped to do it.  Especially teaching my kids.  I think the public education system was set up wrong from the start, and I’ve never been a fan, including in my own school days. I was friends with several honors-type students who were very high-IQ, genius-level students, and I watched how the school leeched off them.  There was nothing for the school to add to their education because all the people teaching those kids were stupid.  And you don’t want to hurt people’s feelings, but usually, people who choose to become school teachers aren’t the best and brightest; otherwise, they would try to make a go of things in the private sector, where they could make a lot of money.  The people who end up teaching are often like the person who was talking to me about public school —they aren’t the brightest our society has to offer.  Neither my wife nor my children finished their senior year of school; they graduated during their junior year.  They did graduate, but they never attended the ceremony, and none of them has ever looked back. 

Government schools are big business. Look how much money was raised by Lakota schools to pass the biggest tax increase in Ohio’s history!

Both of my children spent their senior years traveling Europe to finish their education, and we never sit around wishing they had done anything different.  If anything, we talk about wanting to homeschool them earlier.  A few times during their junior high years, we tried it, but family members really got in the way and were grotesquely unsupportive.  The experience was so bad that we pulled our kids out of school anyway and just finished their education online.  And that was twenty years ago.  There are many more options available now.  We had a close-knit family, so it was hard to ignore their opinions, and back then, those opinions mattered a lot more than they do today.  And, as always, the public school experience —the other kids, the employees, the choice of what to teach—was all constructed by stupid people so that kids can grow up to become more stupid people, and I can’t support that process. Instead, my view of education is that it is far more valuable than the public school system was designed to facilitate.  As I have always said, when John Dewey designed public education, it was made to teach communism.  Not how to teach kids how to think.  And I find it despicable.  I have tried to let other people change my mind, but over time, I have become even more firm in my positions because nobody has ever been able to, even though I have tried to give them the space to do so.  They have never been able to change my mind, even when given more than enough of a fair chance. 

During one of the previous No Lakota Tax campaigns, years ago, the standard teacher’s union complaint has always been classroom sizes, and that was their justification for needing more tax money to hire more teachers to reduce classroom sizes.  I said on the radio, on television, and in public forums that the reason was that the teachers were too lazy to teach a lot of kids, and that all that extra money was essentially to fund laziness.  So they got mad and challenged me to come into the school to teach a class myself so I could find out just how hard it was.  So I went to Lakota East and sat down in one of the classrooms to accept the challenge.  Kids and staff from Spark Magazine, which is a published magazine for the Lakota school system that goes out to a lot of people in a big district full of over 100,000 people, met me to propose the challenge, which they thought I would shy away from at the last minute.  I told them I was ready to teach not just one class, but four at once.  Bring four classrooms into the auditorium, and I would teach them all personally, any subject they wanted to cover, for as long as they could handle.  Now you have to understand that I work an average of 15 hours a day, most days of the week.  And my mind never stops working.  I have been married for more than 37 years and now have grandchildren.  This challenge was about 10 years ago, but I was pretty much the same as I am now.  Teaching a class is something I would call very easy. 

They chickened out because the teachers balked at the proposal.  They didn’t want me to make them look bad, and whenever there has been a public debate on the matter, they never hold up and are easily defeated.  And not to rub salt in the wound, but I have never met a person better equipped to teach any of my children or grandchildren anything, better than me.  And I know a lot of people.  I know a lot of people who think of themselves as brilliant.  And I would say none of them are better at teaching my children anything.  It’s lazy to drop a kid off at school and turn that vital task over to a professional.  So with all that in mind, remember, public schools were designed to teach kids the emerging communism of Karl Marx in those pre-Civil War days.  They were never intended to produce the next generation of geniuses.  And I expect my kids and my grandkids to be the best people they can be.  To elaborate on the point, I will put up some videos here of one of my grandsons and his dad, who have a weekly YouTube channel that I think is pretty neat.   It shows just how important it is to teach a child from a parent, and it’s so much better than the public school experience.  I think that my youngest grandson has a chance to be the next Thomas Edison or Albert Einstein.  The public school system does not make those types of people, and if it were effective, they certainly would.  So if we want people to live up to their full potential, you have to get them as far away from the public school system as possible.  And the truth is, most parents are too lazy to give their kids that chance.  And it’s a shame.  I feel sorry for every kid whose parent is too lazy to homeschool them.  My experience with it is that kids become so much better when they don’t have to endure the corrosive effects of being taught by grown adults to be dumb.  Because public school was designed by communists who wanted to suppress intellect, not expand it, and until we deal with that truth, we will continue to be very disappointed by the results.

Rich Hoffman

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

Under New Management: Why companies fail and how leadership works

All over my town of West Chester, Ohio, there are signs everywhere indicating that new management is running a business.  Most of them are restaurants and bars, but they have been unusually placed in front of all kinds of companies, even manufacturing facilities.  Which was another thing I said would happen as a result of the catastrophic stupidity of COVID, where a global Marxist strategy of micromanaging how people were going to do work was imposed on all of us through the ridiculous means of a doctor’s office.  White coat losers in the form of health professionals were trying to scare us into open socialism, and it was always going to be a disaster.  And now, five years later, the world has turned to populism, specifically to capitalism.  If you really want to get philosophical about the Trump administration at this particular time, it’s because the human race knows what’s good for it, and all forms of Marxism have not been it.  There was never a plan for Trump to be in any authority position.  The plan was to take over mass society and make people afraid of a virus that was made in a Chinese lab, by people who wanted to make a bioweapon to use against the world, to steal elections, and take over economies.  People saw this happening, and they put Trump in office as the rest of the world has been supporting their own version of pro-capitalist populism.  Its not because they were that great of a candidate, but because people didn’t like the direction the world was turning, which brought about out of desperation, the Covid year of 2020 and the complete collapse of the global economy that was so tragic that most people didn’t even want to discuss what happened because they wanted so badly to put it out of their minds. 

So the mindset of the economic shutdowns has taken a few years to recover from, and it has taken a while for people to get their feet under them again.  And what we’re talking about are all the DEI hires and the work-from-home mentality that has been socially disastrous—social policy cooked up in a lab, with everyone’s books open to Karl Marx’s literature.  Even Microsoft was in on the gag, trying to push everyone into Teams meetings from home in their pajamas.  Nobody was betting on a complete economic recovery in those dark months of 2021, as Biden took office, Trump was forced into exile, and Covid protocols were imposing themselves on every one of us.  People should have been more intelligent to see the obvious.  We were under attack by an extensively laid plan of a complete Marxist takeover of the world.  And I said it at the time, and said all this was going to happen.  Nobody listened until it was too late.  And I would go around town and talk about all the businesses that were working from home, and how they were going to fail, and all the fast food places that closed their dining rooms because they didn’t have enough staff to stay open.  I told everyone what was going to happen, and now it is.  And I saw it clearly because of the way I live my life, in front of the train. At the same time, most of the world lives in the back, where it’s safe.  We’re talking about Robert Pirsig’s Metaphysics of Quality as he talked about it in the great book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.  It’s a very popular book, though largely misunderstood.  Its sequel, Lila, has not been read by millions, but by a very select few in the world who are audacious rarities. 

The metaphysics of quality, as I explained in my video with a train roaring by, is essentially a perspective on leadership and decision-making. Outstanding leadership is done at the front of a metaphorical train, where you can see what’s coming as it approaches.  You can turn the train, slow it down, tell people what you see coming.  But most people don’t dare to lead from the front.  So they have built an administrative bureaucracy in the back of the train to provide analysis, which is useful.  But it’s not leadership because by the time the moving train reaches the point of decision, the caboose has passed it entirely too late.  Decisions have to be made at the front to ensure the quality people expect.  That is why great generals who lead from the front are great.   Great business leaders are so rare.  And why political efforts succeed or fail.  If leadership is at the back of the train, a management effort will likely fail every time.  If, under scarce circumstances, an organizational leader is at the front of the train —where few people dare to be —then great success is possible.  Success that is often beyond people’s wildest dreams.  So when a business is failing and wants the public to know they are making changes, they put up signs saying they are under new management, hoping people will give them a second chance in the economy, implying that their leadership change will be different.  After COVID, a lot of companies got suckered and put their leaders all in the back of the train, where it was safe, and it was a disaster for the world’s economy under a hostile takeover. 

Karl Marx was always an idiot and a coward.  He died broke because he was a back-of-the-train theorist.  The world is full of them.  But because there were a lot of cowards in the world who ended up in government, health care, and were second-generation titans of industry who didn’t have the same guts their previous generation had, they adopted Marxism to hide what losers they were.  But in a marketplace where free will is expected, that kind of back-of-the-train micromanagement was never going to work.  And I said so all along.  And now that the money is flowing again and Trump is back in the White House, leading from the front, it has exposed this plan for the fraud it was.  And now everyone is scrambling to find people at the front of the train, and their “under new management” signs are hopes that people will assume that there is leadership at the front of the train instead of everyone functioning from the back, where all the wimps hang out.  And that’s why there are suddenly so many signs.  At least the owners of these businesses are trying.  But it shows clearly the danger that arises when we micromanage society, with back-of-the-train personalities who are not equipped to lead.  Even in a bar or nightclub, where leadership isn’t even considered.  People expect the lights to work and the beer to be cold.  And when everyone is hiding in the back of the train, they often order those things too late to arrive for a Friday night gathering that nobody thought would happen because of COVID social distancing rules.  Only people in the front of the train were ready, because they saw well in advance what a dumb idea everything was.  And most businesses that lacked those unique personalities failed, are now trying to recover, and want the world to know they are looking for front-of-the-train management.  And even if they haven’t yet found them, they are at least looking.

Rich Hoffman

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

Wells Fargo Analyst Matthew Akers Was Purposely Wrong: When bankers are more dangerous in the world than Hamas

There’s a very public case going on right now that I’m in the middle of, and all this is on public record so that people can judge for themselves the contents.  But when I have to explain it to people —many thousands of people —the only thing that comes to mind is pirates.  People who rob other ships at sea and kill the crew and steal all the wealth on the ship.  The case I’m referring to involves a huge bank, Wells Fargo.  But as I have learned, what they are doing in the finance world is very common, not unique to just them.  We have a lot of plundering pirates in the finance and legal world, who, to put it mildly, steal wealth for all kinds of radical reasons.   And they have grown so large over the years that they have turned to piracy as their mode of operation.  The system we have allowed to exsist has created pirates in the finance industry that are completely stealing the kind of wealth that Trump is trying to unleash and based on my experience, because none of these people will ever admit any of this in court, it all comes back to politics and radicalism of human beings who have been allowed by law to get too much power over industry standards.  In the case I am talking about, Wells Fargo published an analytical opinion in April of 2025 that indicated the aerospace industry was going to suffer through a tough year.  This opinion appeared in multiple trade publications aimed at investors, and, to make a long story short, the intent of the opinion and its publication across multiple fronts was to depress the aerospace industry as a whole.  The comment by Wells Fargo analyst Matthew Akers regarding the poor performance of the aerospace industry was way off the mark, and I knew it then.  But the reason for the comment is that the piracy begins there, and is no different than the robbery we know occurred on the high seas in 1690, or in the finance industry in 2025. 

Banks like Wells Fargo did not get to be so big by their own power, there is a whole corrupt story that involves BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard, and the Federal Reserve pumping a lot of printed money in the system that essentially gives public companies like Wells Fargo a pirate ship to attack the finance industry, while appearing to a media they largely control through advertising, to dress them up as good vessels.  Pirate ships used to perform this trick all the time: they would pretend to be a normal merchant vessel, then, just before they pulled up alongside another boat, they would hoist the Jolly Roger flag to scare the inhabitants of the ship they were trying to attack into surrendering.  And from there, the boat would be plundered for all its worth.  I see that happening to a lot of companies these days, especially after Trump was put back into office, which, based on the case I’m involved in, appears to be the motivating factor behind Matthew Akers’s statement.  I could have easily told him all about the aerospace industry and that he was incredibly wrong about his forecast in April of 2025.  But he wasn’t looking for the truth.  He was putting up a friendly flag to look helpful to the industry, to pull up alongside unsuspecting vessels to rob them.  That was the apparent purpose of his statement to the investment media.  And they thought they’d get away with it cleanly because they have for years, and have acquired more power, they believe, than our court systems can process.

There are a couple of strategies for why Matthew Akers and the people at Wells Fargo would make this prediction, knowing it was not the case.  2025 was projected to be a big year for the aerospace industry.  Trump was back in office.  The economy was poised to be red-hot.  And when people are happy and spending money, they fly to places.  Knowing a lot of people in this finance industry who are Democrat rats in disguise of pirates wearing suits, I would bet a lot of money that the purpose of the Wells Fargo statement to the industry was to attack the aerospace industry as a whole because they wanted to depress the incoming Trump economy.  If the Autopen president were still in office, I think the Wells Fargo forecast would have been the opposite.  And this is one of the primary reasons so many businesspeople are wishy-washy about politics.  They don’t want to be targeted by pirates who try to take over their business and industry.  So by depressing the industry, a large bank like Wells Fargo thinks it can actually shape politics.  And we see the same behavior wherever significant money is controlled by political radicals, such as in the pharmaceutical industry.  Only in aerospace, if you want to attack the military that Trump was to have access to, and the free flow of money into commercial aerospace because you want to protect the earth from the carbon footprint of a lot of new airplanes being built, you would if you could seek to tank the stock and harm the supply chain so that the industry would meet the expectations of a forecast that was not measured in real market value, but the strategic intent of the pirates involved at the front of the lending practices. 

Even worse than the political motivations is the ability to actually steal value.  In the case of the Wells Fargo April analysis, the mention was on the impact on Boeing stock, which a large bank’s opinion could greatly influence.  Such negative news could easily spark a mass sell-off and lower the price.  Only to have BlackRock, which owns a lot of Wells Fargo, sweep in and buy up all that stock for a very low cost.  And that money came straight from the Federal Reserve.  So we have a terrible game going on here that is really restricting a positive American economy and a global aerospace industry critical to Trump’s goals in the world.  In the case I’m involved in, the pirate ship is being fought; it was recognized well before they raised their pirate flag.  And the intention is to sink that pirate ship and bring disaster to all who are on it.  Ruthlessness has to be the means of proper conduct when its necessity is discovered.  But this practice isn’t unique; it’s common, and it is shocking how many court cases are spawned from this very behavioral practice.  These big banks have way too much confiscated power.  And Matthew Akers at Wells Fargo obviously is abusing that power for all kinds of political and financial reasons.  And the biggest threat to the American economy isn’t coming from foreign attackers, but from the banking industry that is entirely way too politically radicalized.  They keep their pirate flags lowered until it’s too late.  They pretend to be friends and helpful merchants.  But they are ruthless pirates by their conduct, and they intend to do anything to destroy positive financial growth in opposition to the politics they disagree with.  And in the case I mentioned, they went too far.  I know a lot more about the business of aerospace than Matthew Akers does.  So being wrong revealed a deeper problem, and it was easy to see in this case.  But often, nobody figures it out until it’s too late.  And if we want to have a good economy, we can’t let our bankers be more dangerous than Hamas. 

Rich Hoffman

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

What’s Behind the $55 Billion Electronic Arts Deal: Fighting the new method of empire building by investment firms

War never went away; the idea of conquering another nation, or its inhabitants, in the way that Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Hitler, or even the modern communist movement did, persists.  All that really happened was that the nations of the world were neutered; however, the desire for conquest went underground and has since emerged in the finance industry.  Why did Napoleon invade Russia?  Because he wanted to rule over the largest empire the world had ever seen.  And so it is the same desire that a modern bank looks at a good, privately owned company and seeks to raid it, destroy it, and collect its assets for its own use.  Why did the Vikings raid other territories and kill all the men, and rape their women brutally?  To show conquest over them, to capture them, and rule over them.  And in the communist movement, the way to destroy capitalism as the world understands it is to control the means of production.  So, when people want to know why Electronic Arts suddenly wants to go private after being public for so long, and everyone is scratching their heads over the $55 billion deal, the largest of its kind ever, I’m saying this is a trend to prevent invasion, rather than to conduct innovative business.  Publicly traded companies have been vulnerable to radical leftist politics, which ultimately destroy their brands, so the trend of tomorrow is to maintain good old private ownership.  And this is something I am all too familiar with.  And most people don’t see it until it’s too late because the invaders are the types of people who work outside the rules of good business conduct.  And those rules are usually defined by what happens within the four walls of a business.  But the invaders are just as aggressive and malicious as any empire seeker ever was, and that power and desire for control starts with companies like BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard, investment firms that run majority stock options to control the conduct of large companies that, in turn, control vast amounts of the population and their income. 

For instance, large banks like Wells Fargo have Vanguard, the investment firm, owning about 8% of their stock, BlackRock owns 7.9%, and State Street owns 4.1%.  Add them all up, and those huge progressive investment firms control a significant number of banks like that. We have seen very aggressive, woke policies embed themselves into those banking practices.  BlackRock isn’t shy about it; they are very aggressive about progressive politics, and when they own more shares of stock than the average 401K investor, they control the essential direction of the company, who they hire, and how they conduct themselves.  And it is that kind of menace that has essentially destroyed Disney as a company.  And they are doing the same to all large companies.  For instance, GE Aerospace has a nearly identical stock management portfolio, with Vanguard at 8.7%, BlackRock at 7.8%, and State Street at 4.2%.  See a pattern?  That translates to Vanguard controlling $27.4 billion, BlackRock $24.6 billion, and State Street at $13.2 billion.  Where did those investment firms get all that money to be able to buy up all that stock, and control that much of so many huge companies and banks, and to set policies of woke politics to steer them all in anti-American ways?  For Disney, it’s the same formula: Vanguard at $16.7 billion, BlackRock at $13.2 billion, and State Street at $8.2 billion.  Among the three, the same pattern emerges, and from there, power and control flow into every aspect of the industry.  The purpose of their enterprise was to control the means of production as Karl Marx envisioned it, and the method of achieving this was to be publicly traded. 

The crime of the century essentially started with the 2008 banking crisis, where the Fed began buying up a lot of bad debt. Through quantitative easing, the printing of money, they infused it into Wall Street, allowing people like Larry Fink to clean it up by buying up large companies.  To sustain the perception of value, they would clean up their portfolio by acquiring other companies and integrating them, attempting to conceal the inflationary trend of printed money that would lose its value on the open market.  It might look good on paper for everyone’s 401K plans, but what was lost as they imposed themselves on their conquered assets was the companies themselves.  This has become grotesquely obvious at Disney, where the public has rejected the new money-driven company in favor of Uncle Walt, who represented Main Street USA.  That vision was attacked by these big globalist bankers and investors who had the same motivations of invasion as any tyrant the world has ever seen.  However, the form of battle remains the same.  For those big companies mentioned, the conquered management hires people who facilitate the invading culture. Because of the nature of people to appease the powerful, they don’t question their reality so long as they can get a paycheck.  Who controls the paycheck, then controls the individual people.  But how did Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street get all that money?  Because they printed it by gaining control of governments, such as the United States, through the Federal Reserve.  Whoever controls the money supply can theoretically control the world, on paper. 

I’ve been dealing with this kind of thing very up close and personal myself, and I’ve had to explain it to many hundreds of people over these last several weeks.  And most people don’t understand it because the invasion is happening on a vast scale that is even bigger than the management at those investment firms.  Larry Fink is aware of what he’s doing, to a point.  But it’s even bigger than him.  However, it’s no surprise that a giant video game developer would want to step off the publicly traded treadmill and seek to go private, where it can have better control over its management.  EA has been successful for a long time, but it’s challenging for a company to maintain its momentum once it matures, showcasing flashy PowerPoints and spreadsheets that demonstrate the kind of profit that keeps investors engaged.  And the big firms and their radical leftist politics need that cover of publicly traded companies to hide their influence over all these big firms.  So, it’s no surprise, especially now that the trend is emerging to see huge companies like Electronic Arts stepping away from the publicly traded scam.  This all became very clear to me as I watched an enormous bank do some really dumb things that made absolutely no fiduciary sense, but in the context of conquest as outlined by those top three investment firms and their global objectives.  It’s not the value of the companies themselves that they are after, but the need to hide their efforts behind real manufacturing that has not yet become encumbered by woke politics, and can still produce tangible goods.  Because those large firms are dealing with fake money printed by an out-of-control Federal Reserve, the value of the money means nothing to them.  But what that phony money can buy under the assumption of publicly traded companies does give them power that nobody else without that kind of access to the money supply can fight off.  At least for now, until more and more companies do as Electronic Arts is doing, and that is to step back into private ownership so that they can hedge away the influence of the liberal monsters of Wall Street, these practices will be a danger to any economy.

Rich Hoffman

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

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

Nancy Nix and I Discuss Friendships, Corruption, and the Future of Politics: Why we can’t support Roger Reynolds for Butler County Commisioner

Nancy Nix and I have strong feelings about Roger Reynolds’ decision to run for Butler County Commissioner.  We have been very supportive of Roger after he found himself in a lot of trouble with a court case that accused him of abusing his office.  While we believe what happened to him was not fair, and we have both worked to help him restore his name, we have been surprised by his behavior, especially his attempt to return to public office in the way he is.  Politically speaking, we have moved on to the next generation of consideration and have selected Michael Ryan to be the next Butler County commissioner in a race that presents some challenges.  It involves an incumbent, so support for a challenger needs to be focused and have the backing of the party.  And now that Roger Reynolds, aware of these difficulties, has decided to split the vote even further, making it even harder for Michael Ryan, it has a personal aspect to it that Nancy and I chose to discuss in front of a camera, rather than on the sidelines somewhere.  Nancy had stood by Roger throughout his court case and was really the only friend he had left in county politics.  So when he turned around to sue her for his old job back, after she had stepped in as Butler County Auditor to make sure his old office didn’t fall off the rails, the hurt was quite defined.  We both wanted to see good things happen to Roger, but the way he was going about trying to restore his name was an all-too-grotesque reminder of what had gotten him in trouble to begin with.  Because, in truth, even though we feel that what happened to Roger was unfair, the cause of the problem in the first place was a personality issue that was now manifesting itself, working against the people who had tried to help him the most in the first place, and it was alarming to discuss.

Roger is not a political newcomer.  He understands what he’s doing by joining the commissioner race this late in the process, which is the same kind of self-centered action that got him into trouble in the first place.  Even if you have political enemies within the Republican Party, how you deal with that problem says a lot about the kind of person you are.  And that personality trait is what now has Nancy and me talking as an answer to the many people who think that we should automatically support Roger Reynolds because he decided to run for public office, due to our previous support.  While our opinions about the case didn’t change, the court case process did reveal elements of Roger’s character that give us pause.  I can promise I would never find myself in the situation that Roger Reynolds did.  I have a lot of enemies who are always looking for me to stumble upon something, and that is part of the cutthroat world we live in.  And when it comes to the testimony that was most damaging to Roger Reynolds in his dispute against Sheriff Jones and Ohio Attorney General David Yost, it was his personality that ultimately turned out to be his downfall.  The love of seeing his name in lights after winning a political seat and the feeling of redemption that such an office brings with it.  Obviously, the need to run for public office is mainly for Roger Reynolds, not for the benefit of the seat.  Because Nancy Nix stepped into his old auditor role and has done an excellent job, the job performance in that position actually improved, and the people of Butler County were well served in the exchange. 

And that is where things start getting nasty in this commissioner race.  Nancy and I have been thinking about the next generation, the kind of politicians who have a clean slate and many years ahead of them.  And we endorsed Michael Ryan because of the extended runway he has ahead of him, which doesn’t have court cases and corruption charges attached to it.  And honestly, as cutthroat as politics can be, I doubt Michael Ryan will ever find himself in the kind of trouble that Roger Reynolds did, because he knows how to work with people instead of against them.  One thing that got Roger in trouble, which is why Nancy and I decided to take a pass on him for an endorsement for the commissioner job, is that he seems to like the titles that politics gives him too much.  That certainly came out in the trial.  The testimony that Jenni Logan, the former treasurer of Lakota schools, showed in his trial was embarrassing to me.  As it turned out, I still supported Roger, but with considerably less enthusiasm.  Knowing Jenni as I have for many years, there are elements of that conversation that should have never happened.  I would never find myself in that same trouble, that is for sure.  And that is a sign of a deeper problem that Roger Reynolds needs to work out.  Private sector work is a good place to do that kind of thing.  Getting back into party politics in a helpful way would be another.  However, attempting to emerge with a crash-and-burn strategy to recover name recognition was the kind of bad decision that made the trial, with Jenni Logan’s testimony, so damaging. 

For Nancy, as we discussed on camera, the breaking point came when Roger sued her to regain his old job and decided to turn against her.  It deeply hurt her.  As we were talking, her eyes welled up as she fought back tears.  It took a lot of courage for her in the height of that political situation to go against the logic of self-preservation and to stay by Roger’s side during that complex court case, as a friend.  Because that same arrogance that got him in trouble in the first place was now being turned on her, because the title of a job that doesn’t pay that much was much more important to him.  And now, as she was trying to build a team in politics that actually got along and worked together for the benefit of voters in elected offices, Roger was seeking redemption by tearing it all apart for his own purposes.  And while we can certainly understand wanting to restore a name, we don’t understand burning down positive things as a means to do it, which is why he found himself in court in the first place.  We all have political enemies.  Some of them are vicious.  I have a lot of nasty enemies who would love to bring significant harm to me if they could.  But it’s up to me not to fall into those traps.  Nancy Nix is a very popular and influential character.  She has the Vice President of the United States just a phone call away, as well as Vivek Ramaswamy and many other national figures of great significance.  The chance to make the kind of mistakes that Roger made is frequent, yet she avoids them and maintains a good reputation, despite the desires of her political enemies to see her downfall.  And that begins with being a good person in all phases of life, not in seeking a public position to hide personality flaws at the expense of taxpayers and voters in general.  And that is why Nancy and I had a conversation about why we couldn’t support Roger Reynolds for this Butler County Commissioner position.  There are steps that he could have used and teams he could have been a part of building.  But instead, he went for the kind of slash-and-burn strategy that got him into trouble to begin with, which was a decision he clearly made on his own, regardless of the cost.

Rich Hoffman

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Ethics in Politics: Holding grudges won’t help win races, or maintain political management

Social interactions are at the heart of human discourse, and I speak from the perspective of someone who has spent a long time building relationships—not always easily, and certainly not always with universal approval. People often talk about love and unity, but I wouldn’t say I’m universally loved. In fact, I’m probably excessively hated by many, and I understand why. It’s not something I wake up hoping to change. I don’t start my day thinking, “I want people to love me today.” That’s not the goal. The goal is to make things work, and sometimes that means doing things others aren’t willing to accept. That’s when people get mad.

Recently, I’ve been vocal about supporting Ben Nguyen for the Lakota School Board. That’s stirred up some discussion. Lynda O’Connor has supported him, the former Lakota school board member who a lot of people are still very angry with.  I was at Ben’s fundraiser at Nancy Nix’s house, and Isaac Adi, another Lakota school board member was there too. I’ve seen Isaac at a few events, and we’ve had the opportunity to talk a bit. There has been tension between us, especially with the way his relationship with Darbi Boddy evolved, and how our policies got tangled up. That situation has many layers behind the scenes. If you want to talk ethics, you can justify being mad at people for what they do to each other.  I’ve been married for 37 years and have learned a lot about dealing with other people. I’ve dealt with all kinds of people—kids, grandkids, colleagues—and not everyone aligns with your goals. You have to find a way to make it work.

If you draw a hard line and say, “It’s my way or the highway,” you might be ethically correct, but you’ll lose people. And if you’re trying to influence something, losing people means losing effectiveness. Politics isn’t about making friends. When you’re trying to bring groups together, you can’t fall into the trap of friendship-based peer pressure. You have to rely on the strength of your ideas in a competitive environment. Politics isn’t a branding exercise. You can either withdraw from society or face the challenge of building teams to accomplish a task. It becomes dicey when political affiliations are based on relationships rather than ideas.

You want the best ideas to emerge. You want a competitive atmosphere where ideas collide. That’s the way you get an authentic system. You have to trust people to vote correctly, but only if you articulate your ideas properly. Sheriff Jones and I have supported other candidates within the Republican Party, and recently we have talked about the things we have in common. We want to help the Trump administration achieve its goals, even if there’s controversy—like the situation at the county jail over immigration policy. We agree on some things and disagree on others. We joke about it when we see each other to stay on ground we can work with. But ultimately, it’s not about building friendships or consensus. It’s about who can make the best argument.

Politics should be about argument, not popularity. If feelings get hurt in the process, that’s part of the election cycle. Politicians often use likability as a tool—they kiss babies, shake hands, and make themselves accessible to the public. But that’s just the first layer. You have to be confident in your ability to articulate a message. Many politicians get elected but don’t raise money or debate effectively. If you can’t engage with people who disagree with you, things fall apart. People get mad. I’ve had people mad at me just for being in a picture with Isaac. They say, “You know what he did to Darbi Boddy?” and assume that by being seen with him, I’m supporting him over her.

That kind of division doesn’t help a party win. There are all kinds of people with different thoughts. Isaac and I are not going to the movies together any time soon, but he represents a vote on the school board. He has opinions about how things should be done. I think he cares about kids and schools, even if I disagree with his methods. That’s what political faith is—believing in the process. If you base everything on popularity—“If you like me, vote my way”—you’re not making a real argument. You have to go further. If you can’t, things fall apart.

It’s essential to communicate with one another. Political candidates need to engage, not isolate. You don’t have to be best friends, but you need common ground. On immigration enforcement, for example, we can sit down and have a great discussion. It’s about positioning your statement and believing in what you’re saying. If you can’t win people over with your argument, people often fall back on popularity. That’s dangerous. You’re using your elected position to steer people through peer pressure, not persuasion.

That’s not sustainable. It’s why political parties struggle to work together. If you do that in your family, you’ll have a broken Thanksgiving dinner where people show up, but nobody likes each other. You might have money, but no real friends, they just hang around you for what they can get out of you. How you handle relationships determines your success in politics. Shared opinion has to go through the funnel of the party system. You can’t have 30% of people on one side and expect unity. You need at least 50% alignment. Even if you’re 40% apart on issues, you can still be on the same side of the line. Democrats are on the other side, and you have to be willing to work with people of different opinions.  Republicans might be at the center line of 50% and others are at 90%.  But their Democrat opposition might be at 40% on the other side of the line, and those kinds of Democrats and Republicans are closer together ideologically than the hard-core Republican at 90%.  But Republicans have to find a way to work with other Republicans if the party is going to do the work voters need. 

That doesn’t mean you abandon ethics or break promises. But you can’t get caught in “It’s either me or them.” That’s not a good place to make articulate arguments. Politics should be about fulfilling voter objectives. That’s the goal. I’ve disagreed strongly with how Isaac and Darbi’s relationship on the school board collapsed. It made me reluctant to get involved in school board issues again. But it’s not fair to someone like Ben Nguyen—a good young man who wants to make a difference. He’s trying to partner with other people to build something positive.

Looking at Isaac during Ben’s fundraiser, I  thought, “Maybe we can get another vote. Maybe we have a chance.” Not right away, but in the near future, we can build something. That’s how I’ve survived—by staying true to myself, relying on my ability to make an argument, and letting public debate shape opinion. It’s good to stay away from popularity contests. Fights don’t help anyone. They create a disjointed approach, and then Democrats win their spots because they unify—even if their ideas are really far apart.

Republicans need to figure this out, especially in school board races. When people see me in pictures with other political people they don’t like, they hold grudges. But that doesn’t solve problems. I want progress. I don’t care if people want to get a corn dog with me. What matters is whether they consider the arguments and make informed decisions. That’s what we’re trying to do—get the correct arguments into the public arena and give voters choices that reflect their lives.

Most people have excuses and fights along the way. However, it’s all aimed at uncovering the truth about what the public wants in representation. You have to trust that process. Make your case with confidence. Don’t rely on popularity. Don’t expect people to vote your way just because they like you. Win the argument. Let the best ideas rise. Let people make their own choices. That’s how things work out for the better and you get a civil society.  And much better political teamwork.

Rich Hoffman

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

I Endorse Ben Nguyen for Lakota School Board: What a smart young man with a great future

Ben Nguyen is in good company.  When Nancy Nix invites me to her house to meet people she thinks will be the future of politics, she has a pretty good track record.  And I felt bad; I was running late when she invited me over to listen to a speech from a bright young man by her pool, as I had in the past.  I was stuck on an overseas call, and the time zones didn’t match up to the schedule Nancy had given me.  But when I did arrive, it was just in time to hear a speech by Ben Nguyen, a former student at Lakota schools who had just graduated and was now running for the school board.  And as I watched him speak, he had picked a spot by her pool to talk to the crowd that was just like another young overachiever, J.D. Vance.  A few years ago I had listened to the future Vice President give a very similar speech as Ben did from that very spot, which was before he was even running for the senate seat, and of course Nancy was right about him.  Ben also reminded me of another bright young mind who she promised me had a great future in politics, which was Vivek Ramaswamy.  I think of these guys as young, even though they were in their late 30s when I first met them, because, to me, they are.  I’m not a young person, so everyone seems young to me.  But Nancy Nix has a knack for finding good people in the crowd and getting behind them with a bit of help.  I was not surprised to learn that Ben Nguyen was an intelligent young man, and I enjoyed listening to him speak about why he was running for the Lakota school board in the November 2025 elections. 

Essentially, Ben is against the upcoming Lakota levy, which is the most expensive school levy in the state of Ohio.  He is also against indoctrination in public schools, and he has fresh experience, having just left school to learn what is really going on.  And he wants to do good things in life with his obvious talents.  He has siblings still attending Lakota schools, so he is concerned about public education in general.  He plans to do many things in the future, as his life is currently an open book.  However, to run and win the school board seat would be historic; he would undoubtedly be one of the youngest ever to do so.  But as I listened to him speak, he possessed the wisdom of a much older person, and he was only going to improve with time.  I had just recently watched Bernie Moreno give a similar speech from almost the same spot in Nancy Nix’s backyard, and he’s close to my age.  And Ben sounded just as well-versed politically, and he was very articulate and well-spoken.  He’s already a better political figure than most people who have been doing this kind of thing for three or four decades.  As I thought about Ben, I was skeptical due to his age as I drove to Nancy’s home.  I am one of those people who think it’s better to be old and broken, looking like a wet towel discarded in the sun, than a beautiful young person with everything working, because of the essential ingredient of wisdom.  Wisdom is hard to get, and it’s worth the age it often takes to get there, and what you lose along the way.  So I’m not automatically impressed with young people.  However, it was clear that Ben Nguyen was something special because he possessed a remarkable amount of wisdom at a very young age, which was evident in his family background, as he discussed.

And he was right in his speech about why someone like him needed to be on the Lakota school board.  I have been intensely critical of the public education system.  My thought on it was to erase everything John Dewey ever did and to start the concept of education anew in American culture.  I don’t think people are nearly as educated as they should be, and I deal with a lot of people every day who hold advanced Master’s and PhDs.  People aren’t that smart in our culture, and it disgusts me.  I’m not excited to support more of the kind of education that leaves people so ill-prepared for the world.  However, to Ben’s point, the current school board does not represent the kind of people who live in Butler County, Ohio. If we are going to have a public school funded by taxpayer money, we should have representatives on the school board who represent us.  After speaking with Ben, I think he would be great, and I will certainly be voting for him.  Needless to say, I fully endorse him and would love to see him win a seat in this upcoming election.  It would be a step in the right direction.  I’ve been a part of a lot of campaigns to put members of the school board in place to represent conservatives, but the efforts have been discouraging, leaving me wanting to blow up the whole system with charter schools and the elimination of the Department of Education as a whole.  But Ben Nguyen reminds me of why I have worked for good school boards in the past, and his personality appears to be well-suited to withstand the intense scrutiny that comes with the job.

Isaac Adi was also there to show support.  Isaac is a current school board member for Lakota, and he consistently votes in favor of Republican positions.  But he’s currently the only one.  He and I have seen each other at a few events since the highly publicized fallout he had with Darby Boddy, a school board member I had supported a lot and still do.  The pressure of those positions, by the whispers that come into them, is hard to deal with, and I wanted those two to work better together instead of against each other.  And Isaac was one of the reasons I no longer thought school board races were worth dealing with.  But seeing him there to support Ben, I thought the beginnings of something good were forming.  Of course, to get a good school board, it would take a lot more than just Ben Nguyen.  However, this was a good start, because until there is a good school board, Lakota schools will continue to mismanage money and ask for tax increases, as they have more in mind than just this bond levy on the November ballot.  They are also considering an operations levy in the very near future, and we don’t want a liberal school board rubber-stamping more spending, as they have been doing.  We need smart people who are willing to engage in lively debate and continually ask essential questions. With Ben Nguyen in that school board role, I see a lot of opportunity for good things to happen.  However, people will have to show up and vote for him because the Democrats are counting on a low turnout to maintain the status quo on the school board.  So people are going to have to rally behind Ben.  And after hearing him speak and explaining what he wants to do and why, the Lakota school district would be in a much better position.  And Ben Nguyen is certainly somebody voters can get excited about.

Rich Hoffman

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