Tag: Bernie Moreno

The Shutdown Standoff and the Filibuster Flashpoint: A Political Reckoning with American communists

Speaking with Bernie Moreno recently, it’s clear that the U.S. Senate is at a pivotal moment. The government shutdown, now entering its 40th day, has become a crucible for ideological warfare, with President Trump urging Senate Republicans to reconsider the filibuster rule to break the impasse and reshape the future of American governance.  I think Trump has a good idea, and that the nuclear option should be used, never to let Democrats have power again, so there is no reason to play nice with them.  Democrats, most of them, and around 10-15 Republicans are the enemy of our country and should not be given a seat at the table. 

At the heart of the standoff are three distinct factions: a Democrat Party increasingly defined by its progressive wing, a MAGA-aligned Republican base pushing for aggressive reform, and a centrist bloc of senators hesitant to abandon institutional norms. The Democrats, led by figures like Chuck Schumer and bolstered by progressives otherwise known as “communists” such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have refused to support any continuing resolution (CR) that doesn’t include a vote on extending Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits. Their strategy hinges on leveraging the shutdown to galvanize their base and preserve key health care provisions.  They are not that unlike the terrorists who bombed New York City with the 9/11 terrorist action.  If they destroyed commercial air travel to maintain socialized medicine, they are all for it.  They would love to harm the economy to slow down Trump ahead of the midterms.  These are the same people who wanted to use COVID to shut down the economy during Trump’s last year of his first term.  So this kind of economic terrorism is typical for them.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans, under Majority Leader John Thune, have proposed a compromise: advance the House-passed CR and amend it with a “minibus” of three long-term appropriations bills, extending government funding through January 30, 2026. This deal, which has gained traction among at least eight Democrats, includes a future vote on ACA subsidies—a concession aimed at breaking the deadlock.  As I have always said, healthcare is a nasty hill to die on, because we are on the precipice of significant changes.  The way healthcare is today is not how it will be tomorrow, and the cost structure needs to be completely reinvented.  For Democrats, healthcare is about controlling the lives of individual people in a mass way, and has nothing to do with caring for people. 

Yet, the filibuster remains the elephant in the room. Trump’s call to eliminate the 60-vote threshold for passing legislation has reignited debate over Senate rules. He argues that the filibuster is a relic that Democrats have weaponized to obstruct progress, and that Republicans must act decisively to secure election reform, border security, and economic stability. “If we do it, we will never lose the midterms,” Trump declared, pressing for one-day voting and voter ID laws.  He’s right, there is no reason to play fair with the Democrats.  They almost went nuclear during Biden’s term, except for two senators who prevented it. Otherwise, they currently have 49 senators who were willing to go nuclear when they had power, a clear warning sign to Republicans.  So, if the shoe is ever on their feet again, they will do it; therefore, there is no reason to play fair now.  Don’t give them a chance at terrorism in the future because they are already thinking about it.  We are only here now because we dodged a bullet then.  Don’t expect that to happen twice.

Despite Trump’s pressure, Senate leadership remains divided. Thune and others have resisted the nuclear option, citing the need to preserve minority rights and avoid legislative chaos. A limited carve-out—lowering the threshold to 51 votes for clean CRs—was floated but appears unlikely to pass.

The shutdown’s impact is severe: over 1,000 flights have been canceled, SNAP benefits have been disrupted, and $5 billion in arms exports to NATO and Ukraine have been delayed. Air traffic controllers are stretched thin, and federal workers remain unpaid. The crisis has exposed the fragility of government-dependent systems and reignited calls for the privatization of critical infrastructure.  I’m certainly one of those who think we should not have a government involved in essential services like air traffic control.  Airlines should provide their own employees, and they would do a better job.  Sticking the government in the middle of critical infrastructure is a really dumb idea.  And to make matters worse, the pay scale and attitude of these employees are already poor, as they are unionized, which should be outlawed for all government positions.  In a short time, AI will be able to do a much better job with air traffic control than humans anyway, so why should we ever allow the government to stand in the way of human necessity?  It’s an incredibly dumb idea. 

In this climate, the filibuster debate is more than procedural—it’s existential. For Trump-aligned Republicans, eliminating it is a strategic imperative to prevent Democrats from regaining power and advancing what they view as radical, anti-capitalist policies. For moderates and institutionalists, it’s a dangerous precedent that could unravel the Senate’s deliberative foundation.  And that’s where the future of America is anyway, with Democrats moving hard socialist and communist as a party, we can’t let them have a seat at the table.  We have to draw the line somewhere.  Let the moderates be the new left-wing party, but don’t play nice with the communists and give them fairness.  Because they will destroy our country if given a chance, and that is at the heart of the debate.  Look at what they have been willing to do with the air traffic controllers.  If they can bring down American infrastructure to maintain control over healthcare, then they certainly will.  Those kinds of Democrats can never again be allowed to vote for the filibuster rule, because the next time, they will get it.  It’s been a race to beat the other to the punch for a long time, and we happen to be fortunate to have this impasse happening while Trump is in the White House. 

The stakes couldn’t be higher. The outcome will not only determine the fate of the shutdown but may also redefine the balance of power in Washington for years to come, regardless of any short-term CR. Whether the filibuster survives or falls, the political landscape is shifting—and the next chapter in America’s legislative history is being written in real time.  And you don’t want to lose your country by playing nice with those who wish to destroy it.  It was interesting to speak with Bernie Moreno about his first year as a senator.  Of course, we didn’t talk about any of these kinds of details; he’s a very level-headed person who was reporting on the lay of the land in the Senate.  But what is obvious is that we already have three parties, and one of them certainly wants to destroy the concept of a capitalist America and to push everything into communist control, much the way China operates.  And it’s me saying it, along with Trump, that we don’t want to be a sucker on this, we need to play tough, and forget playing fair.  This is a game of beating the other side to the punch, and that other side are radical communists, as exhibited by the newly elected New York Mayor, Zohran Mamdani. In a world where people like that are debating the Filibuster, they will go nuclear.  We are fortunate to be in a time when fairness still prevails, and we should be wise in utilizing that power while we still have it. Because there is nothing less patriotic than letting hostile agents destroy your country, and in case it’s still not known to the vast majority, the Democrats are the enemy. 

Rich Hoffman

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

Racism as a Weapon of Marxism: The violence in Cincinnati was about more than name calling

There is a lot wrong with what the mayor of Cincinnati, Aftab Pureval, did after the fight that broke out in the streets after a music festival that became a grotesque example of violence from minority communities.  And the reason for it was perfectly uttered by city councilwoman Victoria Parks, who said in the aftermath, “They begged for that beat down!  I am grateful for the whole story.”  Regarding some white victims of a horrible beating, where a mob of attackers consolidated on them ruthlessly.  A young woman by the name of Holly ended up sucker punched and knocked cold in the middle of the street, leading to what everyone already assumes: it’s dangerous for white people to walk around downtown.  Otherwise, they might get attacked like these people did after a music festival.  And they might not live through the encounter.  The whole incident has brought up something much worse that needs to be discussed, and that is how Marxism has been taught in these communities of color to destabilize capitalism in America and how they have hidden it behind skin color to always have a destabilizing element present to undercut American society.  It’s not a matter of skin color that is the problem; it’s what people believe and how racism has given them a victimized status that is always ready to advance elements of socialism to a cityscape environment, to destabilize it.  As the city leaders were getting vast amounts of criticism from Senator Bernie Moreno, Vivek Ramaswamy, Jennifer Gross, and many others, they dug in even deeper on the mob rule elements and justification for the beatings that took place on July 26th in the small hours of the morning.  It doesn’t matter what camera angle you look at; there was no justification for the mob that broke out to do what they did, because it wasn’t about words and feelings.  What they did intended permanent harm to the victims and was brutally hostile in its intent. 

There are very few people who get called as many names as I do.  Most of the people I know dislike me for some reason or another.  They might be nice to my face, but behind my back, they hate me very much and call me every name in the book, and even some in books that have never been written.  So I can say authentically that no amount of name-calling justifies the violence that we saw in Cincinnati.  It doesn’t matter what anybody said to anybody; nothing justifies a fight at that level. Remember, sticks and stones?  People would do well to teach that to young kids in school once again.  Instead, political movements like what we have experienced from Democrats have sought to use victimization status to weaponize entire groups of people, preferably by color, into doing their work of radicalism in overthrowing American society.  The things people say to me are that people wouldn’t say such nasty things about me if I fought people more.  But the truth is, I care so little for what people think of me that I don’t waste time on it.  To get violent with someone to convince them to change their mind, you have to care what they think, and I just don’t.  And for the people of color to react to something that a group of white Russians said to them that they believe provoked this level of violence, they would have to care what those white people thought of them to get upset about it.  I never get upset when people call me names because I don’t care what they think. 

And as far as conflicts, and I know Vivek Ramaswamy thinks this way as well, there is no reason to fight people with violence when you can destroy them with debate.  If you have to resort to violence to get your point across, you have already lost.  As I tell people who criticize me for my lack of engagement with my enemies, I say it’s because forcing someone to think something out of fear of a beating is an dishonest exchange.  I would rather want to know what they believe than to beat them into submission to make them think what I want them to.  The best tool for convincing people to accept your way about something isn’t to win them over the head with pain and suffering, but to convince them that what you think is in their self-interest.  So when there is violence like this, there is a lot wrong that indicates a very unhealthy society.  And racism isn’t the problem.  Racisim is the weapon of the Marxist movement in America that has been trying to advance socialism and communism in communities of color to use their lack of judgment to build armies on the street to drive through fear a social discourse, such as, white people aren’t welcome on the streets of Cincinnati, especially after dark unless they appease the tribal chiefs of the community like visitors from a foreign land.  Never forget, it was Republicans who freed the enslaved people, who fought a civil war to free people of color.  Democrats were fighting to keep people slaves, and that is still a problem, because people of color are still serving the political efforts of Democrats.  All the problems of this fight are Democrat problems.  Republicans have been the critics.

We’re talking about purposely not knowing what good conduct is in society and believing, because people on city council like Victoria Parks, or Mayor Pureval let them think it as social victims, that violence is acceptable as a means to restore to them as people of color, a restitution to the notion that all American society was built on the backs of slave labor.  Slave labor that those same Democrats utilized and fought a war to continue, against Republicans.  So racism in this case, and most cases, has been kept alive to drive forward Democrat complaints about the kind of society Republicans want to build, which then becomes a quest to destroy capitalism with Marxism, and that is the case with most race wars all across the world.  And people never get around to talking about it properly because Democrats need a hostile demographic that will fight for change, meaning a shift from capitalism to micromanaged socialism, or even communism.  A quick study around the world among most race troubles will have as its root cause provoked racism to create the ground troops for change, which is what was behind the fight in Cincinnati, Ohio, after that music festival.  White people aren’t allowed to say anything to people of color, otherwise they will get a beating down.  And that is the message of fear that is laying territorial claim to all that the taxpayer streets of Cincinnati belong to the mob, not the people with property value who pay for everything.  It doesn’t matter what anyone said to each other; there was nothing that deserved what happened.  The city was likely not well-prepared for the music festival.  It was Democrat incompetence on all levels.  But it wasn’t all because they were stupid.  Most of it was part of the planned attack against capitalist society by overt Marxists hiding their malice behind skin color to advance their diabolical cause.  And that was why there was violence in Cincinnati.  It’s not about fairness or equality.  It was exclusively about overthrowing our society and strengthening Marxist cells within American culture for power politics from a Democratic viewpoint.  And it is ruthless on all levels and can’t be tolerated. 

Rich Hoffman

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

Bernie Moreno is Doing Great as a Senator: The Fed interest rate should be at 2%, not 4

I am pleased with the work that my new Senator, Bernie Moreno, is doing in Washington, D.C. It’s almost a shame that Trump is doing such a good job that great people like Bernie Moreno are being overlooked amidst all the goodness.  But that’s a good problem to have.  Bernie, in particular, has been great at keeping up the pressure on the Fed, and specifically, Jerome Powell.  So, let’s answer a common question first: No, our Federal Reserve doesn’t need to be independent of politics.  That is the dumbest thing perhaps ever said.  That our political system needs to be separate from our fiscal policy is an entirely dumb idea that needs to be destroyed in our era.  The Fed’s independence is only suitable for one entity, and that is the banks.  It’s there for their protection and nothing else. And because of that assumption, banks and all financial institutions have gained way too much power in the world, and they need their teeth knocked out in substantial ways.  Old man Jerome Powell and all the rest who came before him at the Federal Reserve need a reality check, and I’m more than happy to see that Bernie Moreno has been leading the charge to reform.  Warren Davidson, my congressman, has also been excellent on this issue.  Criticism of the Fed is a very good thing, and here’s why.  I have recently received more education than I ever wanted regarding banking practices, and the more you learn, the more obvious it becomes that many of these banking types have been influenced by comfortable terms that have inspired very anti-American activity.  The way the Fed was created was outside our Constitution, and the belief over the years that it should be separate from other social concerns has only benefited banks by providing a stable environment for them, even if harm is being inflicted on the people who are voting. 

This idea that our elected government would not have direct control over fiscal policy is an absolute joke, but that has been the assumption.  When people say that Bernie Moreno, Warren Davidson, or President Trump should respect an independent Fed, they are smoking crack.  Currently, the economy is humming along nicely, with excellent job reports, energy costs coming down, and a significant amount of money being generated from tariffs. However, this activity has not had the intended effect of raising fears of inflation, as the Fed had anticipated.  Inflation, generally speaking, is when you have too much money chasing too few goods.  The Fed has been accused of printing too much money, which causes inflation to saturate the market.  The Biden administration had too many rules, which constricted market saturation for desired goods and services, leading to inflation.  Inflation is usually caused by standing in the way of human enthusiasm.  Price breaks occur due to market saturation, revealing the actual price that a person is willing to pay for a product or service.  You can usually figure that out if you have four fast food restaurants selling their version of a hamburger.  If you have only one, they can charge whatever they want for a hamburger.  However, if you have four places to choose from, then they must compete for your attention.  Therefore, when a government effectively removes barriers to market entry, a tangible value can be expressed.  However, when a government creates obstacles, we can say that we witness inflated values due to the restriction of that enthusiasm.  And that is precisely what the Fed is currently guilty of doing. 

Currently, the rates set by the Federal Open Market Committee, FOMC, are in the range of 4.25% to 4.5% which equates to about $600 billion of money generated for lenders.  Nobody is saying that banks and other financial institutions shouldn’t pay a fair wage.  Credit card companies make it extremely easy to spend money with the swiping machines and chips that we have today, where nearly every transaction for a mature adult is monitored by their computer systems, making it easy for all of us to spend money.  That is a valuable service, but it is currently being done at an artificially high rate because the Fed policy protects lenders at the expense of the public, the voters.  As Trump and Bernie Moreno have been saying, we are probably sitting on at least two interest rate points too high for what this Red-Hot American economy should be, holding back over a trillion dollars from money flowing into our financial system.  The excuse from Jerome Powell for keeping interest rates as high as they are is to keep inflation in check.  However, as it stands, the Fed has been contributing to inflation, rather than preventing it.  And that has been grotesquely obvious with their sinful relationship with BlackRock.  The Fed printed too much money, which was then distributed through Wall Street, as seen through people like Larry Fink, and this money was used to acquire companies, effectively taking away private ownership and control, which is why I have been discussing this issue so intensely.  The foundation of communism is to abolish the concept of private property, and the Fed has been facilitating the subversion of this foundation at the bank level in very detrimental ways.  And when we have tried to address it, we keep hearing that the Fed needs to be independent of political theater.  No, that’s only good for one party, the banks.

Trump’s approach to the economy has been brilliant.  Usually, we rarely find political figures who understand fiscal policy as well as banks do, so there is always an unfair advantage.  But in Bernie’s case, and Trump’s, they have had to slug it out with banks in the past and understand the games as opposed to the typical loser politician who has done nothing else in their life but get elected to a public position.  And once you know that the name of the game is to take away as much risk as possible from banks and to give them enormous power in the process, then the errors become very obvious.  If we got rid of Jerome Powell at the Fed and put in someone who truly represented the Trump administration, and would bring down interest rates into the 2% range, we would see wealth creation beyond the scope of what anybody thought previously to be possible.  And everyone would make a lot of money in the process, including the banks.  However, this 4.5% approach is excessively restrictive and primarily focuses on exerting power over the political process and securing international financing.  And no, the Fed doesn’t have to be independent of our elected representatives.  We need a monetary policy in America that is representative of the people, who seek representatives to run their government on their behalf.  And the Fed is only suitable for shielding international banks from the whims of political sentiment.  The only people profiting from these high interest rates are the banks.  However, in the process, they restrict economic output, such as having only one place to buy a hamburger, as opposed to four.  And if Powell wants to fight it out to hold his term to its close, he should feel the pressure that people hate him for artificially restricting their options.  Interest rates should be at 2%, not 4%.  And when that happens, the grip that socialism and communism around the world have on all this centralized banking will lose control over mass populations, and a real era of prosperity can begin.  And Bernie Moreno gets it, and I’m proud that he does.  The Fed stronghold is breaking, as it should.  And we are seeing the light on the other side, perhaps for the first time in all human history.

Rich Hoffman

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

Mitch McConnell is Out in the Senate: Making a point, and making a difference

I thought it was a pathetic speech, Mitch McConnell’s last one as a senator in any leadership position.  He gave it right before Christmas in 2024, and it came across as petty but very revealing.  As I say all this, I get high-level politics and understand all too well how tough it can be working with people who disagree with you.  I am used to spending most of my time overcoming the objections of people who disagree with me and working hard to turn them into my way of thinking.  Not through force, but by showing them how much they would benefit from doing so.  Some of my best friends are powerful politicians who have to do that every day.  They work with everybody and anybody.  And for that matter, I understand Trump because he has all these traits naturally.  And since he first ran for office, or talked about it, back in the late 1990s with the Reform Party, I thought Trump would be great in a political role because he knows how to get things done and overcome people’s objections while showing them the benefit of agreeing with him.  That’s more of an Art of the Deal than a political thing.  However, that is what Mitch McConnell talked about in his last speech.  Instead, he referred insultingly to what he thinks people in politics are or should be doing.  And he narrowed it all down to two key ingredients that everyone who gets into political office seeks to do, based on all his vast years of experience in the Senate.  He says there are two kinds of people who go to the Senate: people who want to make a point, and those who want to make a difference. 

Mitch came across as an old man trying to learn to play video games.  What I heard from him was a frustrated person who realized that the game had changed from underneath him, and he had no idea how to adapt to it.  He was at the end of his career and wouldn’t be a part of anything under these new rules, and he was frustrated.  The world was going to move on without him, and he was not being revered as a great Senator who had been a leader for many decades.  He was being viewed as an Anti-Trump loser who sold our country out and was the kind of person who put his name on that CR at the end of 2024 that had been 1500 pages and lost the battle to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy on the X platform in getting the bill crushed before a vote could be made.  What replaced that bill was a much more narrowly focused CR with many bells and whistles removed, which bothered Mitch McConnell.  And that frustration came out in his speech when he referred to those against his way of doing politics as just getting involved to make a point.  I think what he said revealed why so many members of the Senate and the House have problems because they never did understand what getting into politics was supposed to be.  I find Mitch McConnell revolting, not because he was anti-Trump but because he had so much power, but he never used that power to build a replacement bridge on I-75 going over from Cincinnati into Northern Kentucky.  At one point in 2012, he shared the powers of government with John Boehner, who was Speaker of the House and lived right across the Ohio River and was just as motivated.  But both men dropped the ball and got caught up in the Washington game of Beltway politics where the lobbyists rule the day, and they became part of the problem.  Certainly not a solution. We still don’t have a bridge after decades of trying.  And they had all the levers of power to make it happen.

It’s not like I don’t know the type of people I think should be in the Senate.  I would say I know J.D. Vance pretty well.  He’s from my area, and I’ve met him often.  He’s nothing like Mitch McConnell.  I also know the newly elected Bernie Moreno.  I was one of his very first supporters and was invited to have lunch personally with him in the early stages of his campaign, and I was able to talk to him about why he was running.  He did not run for the Senate to make a difference or a point.  He wanted to be a good manager in the Senate, representing Ohio along the way.  When we voted for him, we were not voting for a MAGA disrupter who just wanted to make a point.  We wanted President Trump’s management support in the Senate so he could be a better president.  I also asked J.D. Vance and Bernie Moreno the same question privately.  I said, “If you get in, are you just going to be another louse hanging out on K-Street making deals with scum bags who want to destroy this country in trade for the benefits of some whore standing on the street corner?”  In both cases, they said to me “no Mr. Hoffman.  Absolutely not.”  J.D. Vance kept his promise so far and was an excellent Senator until Trump picked him to be V.P.  So we know the difference between a J.D. Vance, who was new, and an old corrupt politician like Mitch McConnell. 

And yes, when I spoke to both of those guys and many others in the House and Senate, that was my typical question to break the ice.  I am always interested in how they answer, and I can tell a lot by nonverbal communication, whether they are lying to me or sincere.  That’s my way of doing things, and it’s always why I tend to be in a position to ask those questions in the first place.  People respect my opinion and like it when I’m part of the process, especially on the front end.  In doing this kind of thing for several decades, I have known Mitch McConnell, and many have liked him over the years.  And they take the easy way out and listen to all the lobbyists when they shouldn’t.  And they played their role in jacking up our debt to over 35 trillion dollars and adding another trillion in wasteful spending every 100 days.  And they do all that calling the effort compromise.  When what they are doing is packing vast amounts of evil in these bills, passing them so everyone can get what they want, and selling that corruption as a good government that compromises with the bad guys.  Then, they say to their critics that compromising is more virtuous than standing your ground on anything.  And those who do are the kind of people who want to make a point.  They don’t understand how government works, and they certainly don’t understand the Senate.  But to my eyes, all that McConnell said on his way out the door sounded like a 90-year-old grandpa with one foot in the grave trying to learn to play Fortnite with a 7-year-old, slow, crusty and complaining about how fast the world was moving because he didn’t have the skills to play the game.  And that is why Mitch McConnell is out of the Senate, and we are all happy that he is.   

Rich Hoffman

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

Bernie Moreno is Up 2 Points Against the Diabolical Sherrod Brown: The Senate Republicans are poised to win control

The last time I spoke to Bernie Moreno, a few weeks ago, he felt he had his campaign for the Ohio senate seat against long-time Senator Sherrod Brown well under control.  And regarding ad buys, you can’t turn on the TV or the internet without getting bombarded with a positive Bernie Moreno ad.  Bernie and his team are indeed working hard, which is what he told me way back in September of last year, way before this election of 2024.  I had just stepped off a plane from Japan and privately sat with Bernie and his people about this upcoming election.  At the time, I wasn’t convinced that Bernie Moreno would be able to beat Sherrod Brown, let alone win in a three-way race with two other Republicans in an upcoming primary.  At that time, I supported Frank LaRose.  But after many questions and measuring how Bernie Moreno answered those questions, I became a supporter. Now, here we are a year later, and most of the polling shows Bernie overtaking Sherrod Brown by two points, which is quite a feat in and of itself.  Bernie Moreno has essentially done everything he told me he would do at that little dinner, and I’m very happy about it.  I’ve wanted to see someone knock off Sherrod Brown in an election for a long time, and now someone is poised to do it.  Sherrod Brown has held that senate seat for over 30 years, and his voting record is among the worst progressives in government.  However, he was very popular among the labor unions until the past couple of years when Trump broke that wall in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan due to the massive letdowns in the car industry and the Biden EV mandates.  The unions have pulled away from supporting Sherrod Brown, and now there is a real vulnerability to losing his seat from Bernie Moreno, who is looking great for election day.

Again, we don’t want to take anything for granted when we talk about polling.  But it’s much better right now to be Bernie Moreno than Sherrod Brown.  Brown would be in a prevent defense if this were a football game, hoping to hang on to a lead.  Bernie Moreno is the hot-handed quarterback who can’t miss and is driving down the field to score a last-minute field goal with no time on the clock to win the game.  One thing that impressed me at that dinner a year ago was that he told me weeks before it happened that Don Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle would endorse him and that he was friends with them.  That I thought was astonishing because one thing the Trumps are, they don’t have a lot of tolerance for losers.  And to have personal affiliations as dinner friends means they didn’t think of Bernie Moreno as anything but a winner.  So that was impressive.  And Bernie also told me that Charlie Kirk and J.D. Vance would endorse him, which impressed me even more.  And now, over the last year, I have watched J.D. Vance personally put his arm around Bernie to carry him with direct support.  I’ve seen J.D. Vance and Bernie Moreno together many times since, and things have been lining up nicely for a major upset in the Ohio Senate race.  To make matters even better, Trump has not had to come to Ohio to defend himself or Bernie because the internals show that Bernie Moreno is well positioned to win, which Trump personally cares about.  That he hasn’t had to do many Ohio rallies says a lot about how good the Bernie Moreno ground game has been. 

The math works, as I have said about the Trump campaign nationally.  It will all come down to voter engagement and Democrats; all Democrats would have a hard time showing their numbers in 2020 this time around.  There aren’t that many voters out there who can do what they did to beat Trump the last time.  I’ve said since then just about every day that the Democrats cheated with mail-in ballots, and their loose COVID rules at the time allowed for the introduction of mass chaos, which they exploited to win several races across the country and push Trump out of the White House.  But now they have a problem, they have to at least perform at the 2020 levels.  Trump can; his voter engagement is excellent; we know at least 75 million people across the country will show up to vote for Trump.  In Ohio, Trump is somewhere around +8 in head-to-head polling. This means voter engagement for a much more exciting candidate will increase.  In most cases, people who show up to vote for Trump are also going to vote for Bernie Moreno.  Even Democrats who typically would vote for Sherrod Brown will likely cross over and vote for Trump and, subsequently, Bernie Moreno.  There won’t be many who will vote for Trump but then Sherrod Brown.  Because Brown is associated with Kamala Harris and Joe Biden by default, the union vote is peeling away toward all Republicans. 

During that nice dinner with Bernie and my head clear from travel in Japan, where I could step away from the American news cycle enough to see things with the big picture, we talked about this EV mandate issue that Sherrod Brown had been affiliated with.  And a year later, the results are pretty obvious.  The EV mandates were a killer for Brown; he didn’t try to protect Ohio jobs from an overreaching Joe Biden administration.  They thought they would never have to win another election at the time, and Brown got caught up in the hype.  And here was Bernie to break him by winning a race with Trump supporting the heavy lifting.  And the whole way, because of his relationship with Don Jr. and the future Vice President of the United States, J.D. Vance, Bernie has worked his ass off.  He has been great on the campaign trail, so things look great for him to win.  To be two points ahead, but even better, to be on the plus side of the engagement gap, show Bernie is well positioned on election day to beat Sherrod Brown.  People still need to vote in vast quantities, at least as they did in 2020.  But if they do, Republicans, not just in Ohio but all over the country, are going to destroy Democrats.  Because they cheated in 2020 with mail-in ballots, they won’t be able to duplicate that effort again.  Too many people are paying attention this time to get their total vote count much higher than in the 60 million range.  Essentially, at this point, for Democrats, it becomes a math problem, and they don’t have enough heads for the math.  As things look, Republicans can pick up 13 senate seats added to the 38 that are not up for reelection this time, putting them at 51, gaining control.  And Bernie Moreno is poised to be one of them and to bring with him support of the Trump platform in spectacular ways that seemed impossible a year ago, but now, he is poised to do great things just as he told me he would do way back then.  What I have learned about Bernie Moreno is that he keeps his word and does what he promises.  And I can’t wait for him to be Senator Moreno with a solid majority.

Rich Hoffman

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

The Gift of Debbie Lang: Americana to fill the hearts of free people crawling across the finish line of a tough political period

The flag at the GOP tent during the VOA Country Music Festival of 2024
Big stuff at a wonderfully patriotic night in Butler County, Ohio
This is the map of the election as it stands in August of 2024. The media wants everyone to think Harris has a better chance. She doesn’t have a path to victory.

I know there are a lot of scared people out there, and they are apprehensive about Kamala Harris and the Democrats of Doom.  And I keep telling people the truth behind the scenes so they don’t have to worry.  Yet, there is danger in that because while you’re trying to make everyone feel assured, you might take the energy out of the need we all have for them to show up and vote, to make this upcoming election too big to rig.  Most people live their lives daily and hope some decent people end up in the office to tend to their affairs.  But I am more than just a little involved in how things go on behind the scenes, and even I get a little tired of the constant pressure always to overcome some tyrant trying to take over the world, or as we have in the case of the Kamala Harris campaign, many tyrants who want communist all over the world to destroy our country and everything it stands for.  So I get a lot out of events like in West Chester, Ohio, in August of 2024 because it was undoubtedly a recharge as we head into these final days of the 2024 season.  Politics is complex, and it is a blood sport.  It’s tough to go out and raise money for all it takes to run for office and still be authentic to yourself and your promises to voters.  And it’s even more challenging when you have Central Committee appeasements to make, and you are in a primary with other Republicans running for the same office.  Things can get a little hot.  But let me just say this: it has been a challenging period from the time that Trump left the White House and the terror of a communist invasion into all our lives from the impending Biden administration, which Kamala Harris was a created sleeper cell terrorist nurtured along in that environment.  But I was very proud to see so many Butler County Republicans, several from Warren County, and many other places from all over the state, come together under a giant American flag to lead the way during the VOA Country Music Festival, where the entire weekend was packed with top musical artists putting on their best show to a massive crowd hungry for patriotism under the flag of the red, white and blue.

Thomas Hall, Matt Huffman, and Adam Mathews
The front of the GOP tent for Butler County. A foundation for the entire country.

I am unusually patriotic regarding the VOA park, where the Voice of America radio towers once stood.  As a kid, I could see them from my front yard about five or six miles west, and I loved that they broadcast American ideas to the world meant to topple communism and tyranny wherever they put their initiative forth.  Still, if truth be told, I go to the VOA Park almost every day for lunch and have read countless books on its park benches.  It has been my base of operations for this blog site for many years now, including right after Trump was removed from office, and I read from the Cleon Skousen book The Naked Communist the plots of what was happening in the world from a bench there in the park.  Running this blog from the VOA Park essentially was my way of keeping the spirit of that place alive for continued vigilance.  So I did not need much convincing to be invited to attend a GOP event under a nice airconditioned tent in the VIP area of such a magnificent occurrence.  At one end of a massive concert venue was the old broadcast building, which is now a wonderful museum where people can learn all there is to know about the magnificent Voice of America.  However, at the other end, where over 20,000 people had filled the space, was a large stage for several top country music acts that turned out to be an extraordinary reverence of Americana at its absolute best.  And I had a glimpse of what Making America Great Again could look like after these last several decades of political hell. 

The GOP tent attached to VIP access to the main stage
A great way to see everything behind the scenes and good people hard at work
Sheriff Jones working the crowd
Bernie Moreno, taking a much needed break

To get a feel for the quality of the event, I have included lots of videos and pictures for those who didn’t get that opportunity to give people an idea of just how good the Butler County Republican Party is and the people in it who make everything happen.  Any disputes that we may have had during the primary season are now behind everyone.  The GOP tent was under a giant American flag hanging high with a spotlight on it all night.  I was there well past midnight, and that flag never stopped flying, and in the end, that’s what everyone at that event, and specifically under that flag in the Butler County GOP tent, were fighting for and fighting in every way that people have fought for that flag since its creation.  And I can say to everyone who is wondering.  Are the members of the GOP as committed to the cause of preserving American freedom as the people outside that VIP area who were there to watch great country music performances under a setting sun umbrellaed by a magnificent starry sky?  The answer is yes.  I spent the entire evening talking to almost everyone, and I can report that their heart is in it to win it, and the goal of their existence is to Make America Great Again with a second Trump presidency that is right there for us to win and benefit from. 

A very large crowd under a setting sun
MAGA America is growing. These are not Kamala voters

I’m not going to lie; I certainly do love George and Debbie Lang, who were the hosts of the Butler County GOP experience at the VOA Country Music Festival.  If Debbie asked me to be a part of anything, I would do it because it’s her and I think a lot of her family.  They are just good people, and the public doesn’t get to see them the way I do.  So, the public might not understand.  Our friendship started when George was going through a phony perjury trial due to his relationship with John Boehner during his Speaker of the House period.  George was targeted as a way to get to Boehner, and I thought George was tough through the whole experience.  He stood tough when most Republicans hadn’t learned how to yet.  So, I have had a great relationship with the Langs out of that respect for many years now.  And George gave an excellent speech at the tent that I think people will benefit from and I wanted to share it.  I included many others from people many voters may not get a chance to see without the fancy politics masking who they are, as everyday people are just as concerned about tomorrow as everyone else.  George wasn’t lost on the significance of the Voice of America, and his wife Debbie understood it, too.  And they put on a fantastic event that restored the spirit of many people as they were struggling to gasp for a bit more air ahead of a finish line in Ohio that would set a course for the rest of the country in the years to come.  I took a minute in the ambitions of the evening to stand under that big flag in the comfort of the VIP area because you could get away from the crowd a bit to think, and I could see clearly what we had all been fighting for.  Sheriff Jones was there and feeling it, too, and I had a chance to catch up to him before he went onto the big stage to address the crowd with some patriotic flair that everyone was hungry for.  And I could see victory for everyone coming in a way that we could only dream of a few years ago.  Yet there it was, right in front of our face, for us to grab and take to preserve the future.  And it took a lot of vision and tenacity to capture it in a bottle for all to see, which is a unique gift that Debbie Lang has.  She has been through a lot with her husband, and that they can host such an event with all that stood in the way was truly magnificent and worth the most challenging endeavors that could only be unleashed under a free people fighting to keep that American flag held high, for all to see as it was epically at the VOA Country Music Festival in Butler County, Ohio in August of 2024—a benchmark in American history.

We went on until after midnight. Talked to a lot of good people about many positive things coming in the months to come

Rich Hoffman

Debbie Lang, Speaker Johnson, and Senator Lang

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Bernie Moreno is Poised to Win Ohio: Among voters over 50, he holds a 2-point lead

While discussing polling, let’s discuss the Bernie Moreno senate race in Ohio against Sherrod Brown, the entrenched Democrat who many have thought is unbeatable.  Based on current polling in August of 2024, there is a lot of very encouraging news ahead of significant media buys by Moreno in the fourth quarter to seal the deal.  Among voters over 50, Bernie Moreno is ahead of Sherrod Brown by 2.  Across the state, with all voters considered, Brown is up by 4, but he has had to spend many millions of dollars to lose a lot of ground to Bernie essentially.  I’ve talked about all that before, but these tight polls this early are very encouraging.  Because the over 50 numbers fall into what I have been saying are the keys for Bernie to beat Sherrod Brown and take from the Democrats that long-held senate seat.  If we’re going to make an honest pitch to defeat globalism, defeating Sherrod Brown’s seat in Ohio is essential.  So this is good news because when it all comes down to boots on the ground, and the too big to rig campaign that all MAGA Republicans have to understand is a factor that works against them, we know that people over 50 tend to vote more than those under.  So when we look at total voter engagement, things look very good for Bernie Moreno to swipe that senate seat away from the tentacles of the Democrat party.  Trump hogs all the air when talking about politics, but stories like this one in Ohio with Bernie Moreno say the most about what is happening.  When thinking about Bernie Moreno and the long history of Sherrod Brown, the first thing people think of is whether Bernie can win.  Is he worth the campaign donation?  Should I even knock on the doors trying to advocate for him to win?  Should I even put out a yard sign?  The answer is yes because not only can Bernie Moreno win, but he can win big, and the Sherrod Brown people know it. 

There is a lot going for Bernie Moreno.  He got into this race through his friendship with J.D. Vance who gave him an endorsement early in the process, well before Charlie Kirk and other national names did the same.  Bernie also has a personal relationship with Don Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle that extends beyond politics into a real friendship.  These are good names to know and point to a MAGA senate that would be unlike anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes as far as accountability and competence.  When you look at some of the other senate seats across the country and what J.D. Vance has already been able to do during his first few years, many Trump family picks could make a Trump White House spectacular.  Nothing like what was working against Trump in 2016-2020.  I mean there is a reason that “they” want to kill him.  Nothing else has stopped Trump and he is poised to win as his own polling shows him beating Kamala Harris without much of a fight.  There is some media fanfare, but again, when we talk about the reality of engagement, many more people are excited to vote for Trump than Kamala Harris.  She is a media creation designed to sell ad revenue to a horse race that appears much closer than it is.  And on the back of that effort, there are many senate seats that will get Trump voters to vote for them, like Bernie Moreno.  And there are opportunities for Republicans to pick up a massive majority in this upcoming senate. 

If the media doesn’t try to keep these political races looking closer to reality, they will lose a lot of ad revenue they count on for their sustainability.  And in Ohio, the close race between Brown and Moreno will be one of the most expensive in the country.  But at this point, the Moreno team has not spent much money.  I spoke to Moreno about this the other day, and he told me their plans for September and October, but Sherrod Brown will not be able to match them.  The Democrats have already spent a small fortune in Ohio to get the weak results we discussed in the opening of this article: a 4-point lead across the state but with voters over 50 leaning toward Bernie by 2 points.  And among independents, about a quarter of them are over 50.  So, in an election where engagement between the parties is not equal, Democrats don’t have much to be excited about, whereas Republicans do; they just had the head of their ticket almost killed on live television, and being the tough guy he is, took the shot to the head in spectacular fashion and got up and pumped his bloody fist in defiance to the sky.  And that guy has personally endorsed Bernie Moreno who is very close to the Trump family.  Sherrod Brown is distraught, perhaps for the first time in his long political career.  People are excited about Bernie Moreno’s potential.  But they know what they get from Sherrod Brown and the Democrat achievements over this last decade is something people are running from, not running to.

During the summer, I do a lot of traveling for competitive shooting events, most weekends through September, and early on, I have seen Bernie Moreno signs all over the place in what I think is too soon for politics.  However, it shows how excited people are for Trump and Trump-endorsed candidates.  There are not many Sherrod Brown signs.  I’ve seen a few here and there, but nothing like what is behind the Bernie Moreno movement, starting in July and moving into August.  I have been to every interstate exit along the Ohio highway system, except for the turnpike, which I avoid in upper Ohio.  So the Bernie Moreno signs are consistent, not just regionalized in Southern Ohio.  One day, I wondered about all this when I noticed a neighbor putting out his Bernie Moreno signs early, so I asked him why.  I hadn’t put mine out yet because I hadn’t been home really enough to do so.  And he said he couldn’t wait to get Bernie Moreno into the Senate with Trump in the White House.  And for him, that process started by putting a sign in his yard three months early.  You do not see people doing that kind of thing for Sherrod Brown.  Like I said, people know who he is.  Bernie is the opportunity for something better, and if everything is pretty even now, by election day, Bernie will only get better, while Brown will have a lot to lose.  Playing not to lose is not playing to win, and that’s where all Democrats find themselves.  So yes, things are looking well for Bernie Moreno.  We can’t take anything for granted, but as things are shaping up, Bernie Moreno has a great chance of beating Sherrod Brown and gaining that critical senate seat.  There is a lot to be excited about.  But take nothing for granted.  And do all the work it takes.  But in the end, everything will work for the better and be well worth it.

Rich Hoffman

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

The Truth of Why Biden is Stepping Down: Bernie Moreno is doing great in Ohio, leaving Sherrod Brown desperate

As everyone is consumed with the Joe Biden news of him dropping out of the race, they have not mentioned the real reason why.  It’s not because they are afraid of losing the White House, which many are.  But that’s not the critical thing.  As we have talked about often, the down-ballot races are starting to show erosion, and one such race is one they are concerned about in Ohio, which is the Senator Sherrod Brown seat.  Ohio is the future of a new economy where the battle plan is to bring jobs back from foreign markets, destroyed initially by globalism, and with J.D. Vance getting the VP pick by Trump, because of the story of Middletown, Ohio that is one of the best examples of this tragic aggression by global finance, Ohio is going to be the centerpiece of the MAGA movement trade policies over the next few years.  And Sherrod Brown, the long-time Democrat stronghold, is not polling well against his challenger Bernie Moreno.  Bernie is 3 points down in July without spending any money. At the same time, Sherrod Brown has spent a small fortune only to see his lead dwindle to a margin that is essentially within the margin of error.  I had an excellent chance to talk to Bernie in the backyard of a mutual friend’s house, fresh off his return from Wisconsin, where he introduced J.D. Vance as the Vice Presidential Nominee for Trump.  Bernie and J.D. have been tied at the hip for the last few years, and there are few political alliances closer to the MAGA movement than J.D. Vance and Bernie Moreno.  Always close in the background is Don Jr. and the next generation of Republicans who will fill the gaps once Trump does finally retire after this next term.  So we had a lot to talk about, and that was good.

I have been impressed with Bernie Moreno. It seems like a long time ago, but it was only September of 2023 when I had a call from a bunch of people who wanted me to have lunch with Bernie at a country club nearby and to hear his pitch.  I was tired after just landing from Japan, and I didn’t think much of what I considered at the time to be a third-place guy in the primary.  But I went anyway, and I was happy I did because I left that meeting thinking Bernie was a fresh shot in the arm which would be great if he could get through the primary process.  Which he did without much struggle.  And I became a Bernie Moreno supporter through his hard-earned efforts.  I have seen him on several occasions since then and have been impressed with his natural charisma and love for hard work.  He’s not a phony but a successful businessman who, like many people associated with President Trump, is getting into politics for all the right reasons.  He wants to Make America Great Again.  At that lunch meeting, I learned that Bernie was associated with Charlie Kirk from Turning Point USA and was personal friends with Don Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle.  So I quickly went from a “he doesn’t have a chance” to “he’s the right kind of guy” quickly, which is why it’s good to get to know some of these people.  We all hear stories of politicians who get into the business for all the wrong reasons and become embarrassed by them once they are elected.  So, I’m always interested in exceptional people who go way above and beyond to break that stereotype, so I came away from that first meeting with Bernie feeling great about him.  There are a lot of bad politicians out there, and Bernie isn’t one of them. 

One of the things we spoke about regarding the events that led up to the RNC Convention and his introducing J.D. Vance to the world as the VP for Trump was the dinner he had with Don Jr. just a few days before as we were talking about sincere people, and Don Jr. had taken the call from his daughter asking to speak at the Convention.  There are many people in the world that Don Jr. could be having dinner with, but he was with Bernie.  So Bernie has turned out to be the center of everything: MAGA.  And as we were talking about all that had happened over the last several months since that first meeting, fresh from my trip to Japan, was how the Ohio race was shaping up.  Sherrod Brown isn’t used to competition and has struggled with Trump’s MAGA movement.  It’s been a problem for Brown for a long time because the unions are influential in the north, and Trump is good with them.  Progressive politics doesn’t hold up well to Trump, leaving Brown to stay close and friendly to the President for his survival.  But the Trump family heavily endorses Bernie Moreno, and Brown knows how difficult that makes things for him.  So there is a panic in the Brown camp right now with the race being that close with several months to go and the Moreno team not spending any money yet.  By September, when the NFL season starts, the Bernie ad money will kick in, and people all over the nation, especially in Ohio, will meet the Bernie Moreno I have come to know, and they will want to vote for him.  He’s a good guy running for one of the most important seats in the nation.  And Ohio is ground zero for MAGA policies that will help Pennsylvania and Michigan become great again as an improved labor market for manufacturing and fossil fuels. 

So yes, there is more to Joe Biden dropping out of the race.  They have seen all these internals, the things we have discussed in these important backyard meetings for a while now.  And the reality is smashing them in the face, which I think is excellent.  Democrats deserve to lose; they have been deceitful and malicious, and their policies have destroyed American manufacturing toward globalism in vicious ways that they deserve to pay dearly for.  And, of course, Democrats can’t look in the mirror and apply blame to themselves; they think it’s because Biden has been a horrible president and that he is dragging down the ticket for all races, even dog catchers.  But the truth is, Republicans just needed good people like Bernie Moreno and J.D. Vance, who were privately very successful before they got into politics, to run as options, and suddenly, MAGA Republican politics is a fresh breath of air for the future.  And there aren’t many others across the country who are more MAGA than Bernie Moreno.  I enjoyed speaking with him again and am excited to see him beat Sherrod Brown in Ohio for that critical Senate seat.  Even Mitch McConnell is excited about Bernie as national fundraising for that seat has caught his eye, and he’s helping aggressively.  Bernie is uniting people; when you meet him, it’s easy to see why.  He’s a very likable person, and he’s smart.  And it will be people like him who hold the future of America in their hands.  After all that we’ve been through, it is wonderful to see.  We deserve Bernie Moreno for all the good he is and will be once he wins that Senate seat from Sherrod Brown and the Democrats of doom and their policies that have destroyed so much.  With Bernie, there is hope and a reason to think of the future in fresh, new ways.

Rich Hoffman

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Foreign Money in Ohio, The Rest of the Story: Why Governor DeWine wants Joe Biden on the Ohio ballot

Why would Governor DeWine push to get Joe Biden on the ballot in Ohio?  Why would Republicans again work to help out their political rivals while the other side is willing to cheat, steal, manipulate, and put in jail any of us?  When I first heard about DeWine calling a special session of the House in Ohio to resolve this matter, my first thought was, “No wonder we lose all the time as Republicans.”  And this isn’t the first time DeWine would let me down, acting more like a Democrat than a Republican.  I’m not a fan of Mike DeWine or any of the DeWines, for that matter, even in the Supreme Court in Ohio.  They are way too liberal for me.  But as the media was going crazy with the irony, I was getting more to the story from many people coming straight out of Columbus.  As I learned more, the smoke started to clear, and I found that this is a position in which I support DeWine.  We want Joe Biden to appear on the Ohio ballot for several reasons.  One big one is that Bernie Moreno and J.D. Vance want it because they don’t want to frustrate any Democrat turnout that will turn in their direction.  Bernie has a tough race with Sharrod Brown for the Senate, and Brown is a deeply entrenched political target.  But in hindsight of this upcoming election, none of us want Democrats to claim they lost to some technicality.  So we don’t want to be desperate and hope to win because not enough Democrats showed up. Instead, we want to win over Democrats and tip support in Republican favor because they think, J.D. Vance and Bernie Moreno, need all the turnout they can get to win over Brown. 

Yet, it’s more than that; it’s the essence of this endeavor.  There is still the problem that is quite extensive regarding the Issue 1 loss in August of 2023, where too late, lawmakers noticed that powerful foreign money was coming into Ohio to pass pot legalization with loose abortion laws in the wake of recent Supreme Court rulings, specifically regarding Roe v. Wade.  Once the Supreme Court finally did the obvious, and that is rule that only the states can regulate abortion, then Ohio became one of the prime targets because Constitutional amendments only required a 50+1 vote.  So, Issue 1 in August of 2023 was supposed to pass in a low-turnout election to protect Ohio’s Constitution with a 60-vote threshold.  But it failed, and that led to abortion and pot passing in November of 2023, which has fed the progressive anti-American destruction efforts of globalists and domestic cut-throats infinitely.  Meanwhile, still mending from a House coup that took out a Speaker of the House who would be much more supportive of an America First agenda. Instead, Speaker Jason Stephens was put in place with Democrats and RINOs to soften the Republican agenda in Columbus and essentially erode any leverage the GOP had with their majority.  It was a matter of some filthy politics, and locally, in Southern Ohio, Sara Carruthers got caught up in the mess as a part of the coup to put in place a more “Democrat” friendly Speaker.  And it cost her in the primary for 2024.  She will lose her seat this year because of her affiliation with Democrats.  Instead, it’s going to be Diane Mullins who will face off against the Democrat Vanessa Cummings in the November election for that Representative seat.  In Butler County, the GOP censured Sara because of her role in putting in place Speaker Stephens, a known RINO.  It cost her the party endorsement, which then went to Diane.  Are you following along, dear reader? This is not the kind of stuff you get from the newspapers anymore, if ever, or the radio.  But this comes straight from the halls of the Statehouse, a building I often say is much loftier and nobler than the people in it, but the effort is worth the consideration.

Republicans this time around are looking at their options, and they can make Biden getting on the ballot much easier for him, but they want something in return.  A few bills in the Senate, S.B. 215, have sought to deal with the foreign money problem that defeated Issue 1 with the amendment threshold and allowed so much foreign money to backdoor our political process for destructive purposes and make a deal with Democrats.  The House has a similar bill that is much more active at the moment, H.B. 114, which has been through the House, went to the Senate, and is now back in the House for a concurrence vote.  And that is where the impasse is, which Governor DeWine is well aware of and wants to break loose.  But, people like Sara Carruthers and her RINO-supported Speaker, Stephens, want to keep that foreign money flowing because there are a lot of corrupt politicians who feed off it for their sustenance.  And they don’t want to take it out of Ohio.  DeWine can afford moral clarity on this as he is in the final years of his second term.  So it’s no skin off his back, and the direction of politics is headed more in this kind of MAGA direction anyway.  Democrats have something they want from Republicans: they want Joe Biden on the ballot.  So, Republicans are looking to get foreign money out of the state for future elections.  And that’s where the impasse is. 

No matter what happens, Joe Biden will be on the ballot.  Republicans don’t want to win like Democrats are trying to do with Trump, and that is win in the courts and in a game of keep away.  When you beat someone, you should beat them fairly and squarely, leaving little doubt in the aftermath.  So, Republicans are playing this issue with H.B. 114 very well.  And on May 28th, 2024, DeWine is looking to push the issue toward resolution.  Likely, people like Sara Carruthers will vote to keep foreign money flowing into Ohio because, without it, all the progressive invasions will lose their funding and stall out.  But progressives know what they want to do, and Sara has proven she is one of them, which is how we ended up with Speaker Stephens, a Republican in Name Only—a (RINO).  Many of them would never get elected any other way, and once they are in office, they love access to all that foreign money, so they will fight to preserve it, which is why the issue has stalled out among the Representatives.  They’d rather play dirty tricks to keep the money flowing than make a deal to get their guy, Biden, on the ballot in Ohio.  But yes, DeWine is on the right side of this one, and so are many other Republicans looking to do the right thing in 2024 to beat Democrats fairly and squarely.  In the case of Bernie Moreno, to win Democrats over to Republican votes on the back of a strong Trump ticket that will help all the down ballots, the priority is voter turnout.  This happens best when you get voter representation that is fully engaged and pushes out the foreign influence and soft-shelled RINOs who work with the Democrats to undermine our system of government.  And that is, as Paul Harvey used to say……………..” the rest of the story.”

Rich Hoffman

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

How Bernie Moreno Wins Ohio as the Next Senator: The three key factors

The results of the Republican primary for the Ohio Senate, where Bernie Moreno won over Frank LaRose and Matt Dolan, will be similar to how Moreno will beat the entrenched Sherrod Brown.  It wasn’t that long ago when Jim Renacci ran against Brown, and I thought Jim had a great chance to win.  I knew Jim a bit and understood his personality.  And I’ve had a chance to get to know Bernie, and I think the lessons learned will undoubtedly fall in Bernie’s favor.  With Moreno getting just over 50% of the vote in that primary election against two other good Republican candidates, it is very telling how this will play out, which is something that many outlets have been considering now that the strength of the Trump pick had performed.  Can Bernie Moreno beat the dreaded Sherrod Brown?  The answer is yes.  Matt Dolan was a good sample of the anti-Trump vote, whether they be RINOs or Democrats, and statistically spreading them out from what we saw in the primary over into a general election should be pretty similar.  Looking at the voting results precinct by precinct, Bernie Moreno performed very well in the north, better than might usually be thought.  And, of course, in the south, Bernie Moreno dominated, which is somewhat expected.  Anything south of Columbus in a matchup with Sherrod Brown could be considered Bernie territory, while in the north, he is vulnerable because he’s not the Trump-endorsed candidate.  The Rust Belt unions want Bernie and Trump.  They will vote for the person Trump wants, which makes Trump the kingmaker in the Senate race if the anti-Trump forces couldn’t generate more than they did against Bernie Moreno, especially with all the negative ads that tell you everything you need to know about the matchup between Brown and Moreno. 

Additionally, this is something I discussed with the Moreno team during a private sit-down a few months ago.  Sherrod Brown may have been in the Ohio Senate for many decades and is a bastion for progressive politics on the radical left side, but he is vulnerable in ways that Jim Renacci didn’t exploit.  Jim got caught up in the classic high-ground strategy of not exploiting the problems with Sherrod Brown’s domestic violence issue.  The previous election results showed that Brown was vulnerable, but Renacci didn’t go there. In several debates, Brown turned the whole issue on its head and told Renacci he should be ashamed of himself for even bringing it up.  Since that election, Sherrod Brown has been much less ostentatious publicly, showing cryptic vulnerability.  Instead, being a crafty politician, he has pivoted towards Trump support as he was the president then and hasn’t run away from him.  Brown acts like Trump is his best friend to confuse voters into voting for a union ticket for further support.  However, a swing of 7-8 points could be eroded from Brown on the morality and ethics front, which could quickly put Moreno over the top in November.  So I don’t think it is as close of a race as the national pundits think using conventional wisdom.  I believe convention will be thrown out in 2024 because a new set of rules that nobody has ever seen before will be applied.  And Sherrod Brown doesn’t match up against that wisdom at all.  He is built for classic unionized politics where Democrats controlled the narrative.  But they have lost that narrative, which can’t be ignored when looking at any election results from around the country.

Then there is the Trump factor, which Sherrod Brown has not seen much of.  The first time around, Jim Renacci was the Trump pick.  I met them at the airport in Lunken, just outside Cincinnati, and Jim was very excited.  At that time, Trump was a popular president doing well, but the political left was in the middle of their Russia, Russia, Russia nonsense, looking for a hook to attempt to derail Trump.  Covid hadn’t hit yet, so nobody knew what to do about Trump’s popularity.  But Jim Renacci, as nice as he was perhaps, was too well-mannered for Sherrod Brown.  So even though Trump endorsed Renacci, the power of that endorsement was not fully realized, not in the way that Bernie Moreno will experience.  After seeing Bernie with Don Jr., J.D. Vance, and Vivek Ramaswamy over the last several months, I realized there is a much different atmosphere to this 2024 election that the Trump endorsement machine understands.  And Bernie has a personality that won’t waste it, whereas Jim just didn’t put the teeth into the effort to knock off Brown.  So Brown was more than a little lucky in that last election, that he didn’t have to face the Trump endorsement now that it has matured into a well-oiled machine.  And that endorsement means voter engagement, actual votes in a booth on election day and before.  I would say that the personality difference between Moreno and Renacci is worth about 8 points in a race like this.  Both were successful business people who were in the car dealership business.  But Moreno is much more like Don Jr regarding a likeability factor than Jim.  Nothing against Renacci, but personality means a lot and Bernie has a lot of it.  If people get to interact with him, they will learn it quickly.

So, three things identify Bernie Moreno as the best option for the Sherrod Brown senate seat: to join J.D. Vance as a Republican and MAGA member of the Senate.  First, Bernie is very likeable and people will want to vote for him, especially where Trump is also on the ticket.  Getting the Trump vote by itself will likely be enough to win this race.  Then there is the juice of the race, the ability to attack Brown and exploit his natural weaknesses due to poor family maintenance.  The media downplayed the domestic abuse conditions of Brown’s ex-wife, and even she gave him a pass publicly.  But there was plenty there to exploit and Moreno will be able to bring those weaknesses to the surface in much the way he stepped up and over Frank LaRose and Matt Dolan in this primary.  Then there is the geography of the situation.  Bernie needs to perform well in the north, north of Columbus.  He doesn’t even have to beat Sherrod Brown in the Cleveland area.  He needs to just do well.  Because in the South, it’s Trump country, and Bernie is the man.  It’s an easy math problem, one that Renacci wasn’t able to tap into.  There is just more pop for Bernie, and he has more endorsements from people who will hit the ground running for him.  Right before the primary election, Trump flew in, and Kristi Noem was in Dayton.  Then, the next day in Milford, Ohio, Kari Lake campaigned for Bernie with J.D. Vance.  Just a few weeks prior, Don Jr., Vivek Ramaswamy, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and others hit the trail, especially in the south, and put their arms around Bernie to secure a victory.  And when that is done for the general election, the results will be very healthy for Republicans up and down the ticket.  So I don’t think it will be close.  Bernie cracks over 50% while Sherrod Brown will be lucky to get into the 40s.  And there is undoubtedly a clear path for Bernie Moreno to become the next senator in Ohio. 

Rich Hoffman

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