Tag: Butler County

It’s a Wonderful Life in Butler County, Ohio: Because Nancy Nix is in it

I don’t usually talk about the social life that goes on at fundraisers for the GOP, but there were so many interesting stories at the latest Nancy Nix event at the Elks Club in Hamilton, Ohio, in Liberty Township. But there was a moment of absolute truth that was worth recognition. At this event, some hilarious comedians told great jokes that made the audience laugh hard. But hidden in those exchanges was talk about the movie It’s a Wonderful Life that was applied to the life of Nancy Nix and was very accurate. Like all comedy, the truest things are often the funniest because of their roots in the things many people hope to remain secret. But in talking about them in a comic setting, the mass exposure to truth sets off the relief valve, and people bond due to the shared experience. And ironically, then, while people are sharing those unique moments of honesty, it opens the door to profound truths, and that was the comparison of Nancy Nix to the character from that excellent Christmas movie to George Baily, the honest banker from the fictional town of Bedford Falls. Nancy is now the auditor for Butler County, Ohio, as she has been the treasurer for many years. And the people in the room at her fundraiser were all influencers to a vast degree, and it was a moment where your life flashes in front of everyone, and a potent truth becomes apparent, what would the world be like without you and in the case of Nancy, how much better is Butler County, Ohio because she is in it. And the answer is cinematically evident in the ways that happy endings to movies are most hoped for. Only this was reality.

Things have been contentious in the Butler County Republican Party this past year. You can tell that without a Republican in the White House to set the temperature in the room of politics; people have drifted. When Trump was president, more Republicans were unified toward an America First agenda than they have been in the year of indictments, now that Covid has been over and another election year was coming up. Biden has been a massive but predictable failure, and Republicans, through federal, state, and local elections, were finding themselves lost a bit, and there have been some significant disagreements. There was nothing so wrong that they couldn’t shake hands at the next event, such as the Nancy Nix fundraiser. But some of them were very serious and contentious within local party politics. And in some cases, there were very emotional disagreements, politics as a blood sport was messy, and people were hurt in the process, which brings up the entire problem of whether or not people should even get along if they’ve done terrible things to each other. Is it even honest, moral, or proper to think such things? In many ways, the problems that George Baily had at the end of It’s a Wonderful Life, the entire premise of the movie was that he wanted to commit suicide because he was being crushed by the immense evil in the world, and his good sensibilities just couldn’t hold up to the pressure. For a dramatic comedy, that is a severe way to start or end the movie. And those same themes were undoubtedly in the air at Nancy’s fundraiser. What was the purpose of party politics if so many people disagreed with each other within their party? Was it more important to be authentic to your beliefs or to find a way to get along?

Ironically, the solution to George Baily’s condition was to see how the world would be without him, to be shown how much his impact on his community was better because he was in it.  And if he had committed suicide, so many lives would fall apart, and much evil would be unleashed.  But authentically, that was what happened at the fundraiser for Nancy Nix; through the comedy of some very talented people, the life of Nancy Nix was put into a sharp focus by how the room had united behind her, and people put aside their differences, if just for a few hours because she is a genuinely good person who makes Butler County so much better. After all, she is in it.  And the comedy of the evening was essentially a celebration of her life, even if moment to moment it doesn’t feel like it, or it doesn’t seem as though anybody ever cares to do the right thing.  When someone like Nancy Nix is being celebrated, it all comes into focus, and the best in people finds its way to the surface.  And the world is indeed a much better place.  It is a wonderful life, and when many talented people find focus through friendships, it makes life better for everyone else, especially Butler County. 

I enjoyed talking to some people I hadn’t seen in a while, primarily because of all the contentious issues.  I stay pretty busy anyway, and my wife and I have been traveling for most of the summer.  So it was good to see so many people again in one place and to see them generally happy and unified.  That is what politics is all about, managing community resources and nothing more.  All the personal needs don’t mean anything because the entire effort is about ensuring people get what they need out of government.  It gets complicated because politics is a popularity contest, and you have to raise money, work with other people, and find a way to work with others who are all doing the same things.  Maintaining authenticity can be difficult under the best circumstances, so I’m pretty forgiving of mistakes because there is often so much pressure, and things go wrong.  But often, good intent does improve the world positively for people in general.  And I couldn’t think of anybody in that room, which is most of the major players of Butler County, who weren’t doing what they did with the best of intent, from their perspective.  When we talk about the path to Hell being paved with good intentions, that is often how everyone arrives there.  But what prevents hell from happening is when those good intentions are focused behind the efforts of a genuinely good person, such as Nancy Nix.  And she is the real deal.  Whatever preferences other people have, like in the famous Jimmy Stewart movie, their efforts are made better when a good person is the glue that holds them all together.  And that is the role Nancy Nix has in Butler County politics.  It’s why Butler County is one of the best Republican Parties in the nation and continues to do great work for the people who vote.  Butler County has many talents, which is always apparent when they find themselves in one place together.  The difference in leadership is when it becomes evident that Nancy Nix, like the fictional character of George Baily, is not such a fantasy but a reality in Butler County after all.  And sometimes, we do get happy endings, and everyone is better for it, which was evident at the Nancy Nix fundraiser.  We have much to be proud of regarding the Butler County Republican Party and that life is worth living, rather than jumping off a bridge because it doesn’t always feel that way.  

Rich Hoffman

Click to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business

In Politics Friends Come and Go: But why do political parties exist in the first place

When it comes to politics or anything in life, get a dog if you want a friend. Dogs are programmed to serve our human needs for friendship. But don’t expect friendships in politics ever to sustain some deep seeded need. There is only one purpose for politics, and that is the management of community resources. Finding meaning in it of some social value is a path in life that will obviously have many challenges, most of which will be unfulfilling. Even on the best day of political exchanges, there will be disappointments because it never works out how you might want it to. Yet one of the many traps that emerge in politics is when a person involved finds that they get to sit at the table with all the cool kids, which is how the lobby system works at the federal and state level. That appeal to be accepted by your peers can be very alluring. And all too often, it causes good people to go bad relative to what people think they voted for. This is how we end up with RINOs in the Republican Party. They may not start out that way, but they certainly turn out to be far off their original position over a number of years, and it’s at that point they have to figure out if they can still be useful to a voting public. But we are dealing with people here, and I can think of a few politicians that I have known for a long time and may personally like. But, due to life circumstances, they are not as conservative today as they were ten years ago or even five years ago. And when that happens, they have to figure out if they are in politics to serve some deep seeded need they have or if they are only doing it to gain some joy in social acceptance, presenting themselves one way, when ideologically, they have drifted into a more liberal view of the world. 

In politics, I still stand by former Speaker of the House Larry Householder, who was just sentenced to 20 years in prison over the FirstEnergy scandal. I found that case much like Sheriff Jones and Attorney General David Yost went after Roger Reynolds, the former Butler County Auditor. I feel sorry for the FirstEnergy people; they provide energy through a couple of nuclear power plants, and the political left is looking to destroy those companies and replace them with solar farms and wind power. I don’t think there was any justice in putting Householder in jail, I think its 100% politics, using rules to destroy your political rivals, and in that case, the FBI was weaponized just like it has been against Trump and the road to the start of the corruption leads to Mike DeWine’s door, the governor of Ohio who likely didn’t want a rival power in Columbus at the Speaker position. Look at the drama with the coup they had just this last year with the Speaker, so politics is a dirty game. People on the out go to jail, and millions of dollars get wasted in the name of acquiring power. I can say that as I just recently saw DeWine and his wife at a social event, and he’s turning back to his liberal ways again now that he’s in his last term and Trump hasn’t been in power for a while. And mentioning Sheriff Jones, you might remember all the drama between him and Representative Thomas Hall. They had been bitter enemies, but now they are getting along quite well. People move on positions all the time; the question always remains, can they actually do the public who votes for them any good, or is everything they show the public fake while what they do behind closed doors a different representation along the political spectrum? 

And that’s certainly the case of a few names within the Butler County Republican Party presently. Life happens, and people find that their political views of the world change, sometimes quite a lot. But when you hold leadership positions and hang on to those positions, why would they do it if they aren’t that conservative anymore? Politics is one thing, and it’s easy to have political opinions in a vacuum of reality, in an untested environment. But when you love your kids and the kids move in a direction that challenges those conservative beliefs, do you try to take the party to a hard left position, or do you give up the leadership roles to take care of your family? Loyalty isn’t the question, but it’s what is expected in public office that does matter. Because votes expect the brand of conservative opinion that reflects them, this is how the RINO problem began initially. I’ve been involved in many meetings where powerful politicians became upset with being called RINOs. Because they didn’t see that they had become more “liberal” in their political discourse. John Boehner, who lives in my neighborhood and is good friends with several people I know very well, comes to mind. He used to be Speaker of the House, but he had to resign due to heavy calls from people in the Tea Party who thought he was a RINO. It hurt him. I hurt for him, so I never really jumped all over him too much. The world wanted a more conservative representative, and he wasn’t it. So, he needed to step away. And that is certainly the case for other area Republicans who find themselves in a similar situation.

Doing the right thing is hard. But ultimately, politics isn’t for the representatives; it’s for the brand of the party, and the party exists for the people who vote. This fantasy that people have that Ron DeSantis might fill the void of Trump is ridiculous because the move toward Trump is because people have become frustrated with RINOs, and they are looking to purge them from their party. And the same thing will happen in the Butler County Republican Party if RINOs emerge and take leadership positions; the voters out there will work to get rid of them, just as they did John Boehner. There may be perfectly valid reasons that people become RINOs. John Boehner cries a lot, and once people learned that about him, it changed how they saw him. Voters want tough people, not compromised people who have lost their confidence socially, who have made mistakes that are embarrassing, and who seek to hide those things socially through party leadership. It ends up not helping anybody but worst of all; it weakens the voter impression of their Republican Party representation. The most important thing is to protect the brand, and forcing voters to accept more liberal leadership isn’t going to help engage voters in the polls. Telling Darbi Boddy to calm down and play nice with RINOs won’t help the party brand. It hurts it. Because people want more Darbi’s and fewer John Boehners. I’ve heard the complaints, and it’s a topic in need of perspective. Essentially, I do have friendships with people who have moved to the hard left. And I will still like them even if I disagree with them politically. But protecting the Republican brand should be something everyone can agree with. Sure, there will be political squabbles. But they come and go. In the end, what ultimately matters is whether voters have a party that represents them. And if they don’t, why does it exist in the first place?

Rich Hoffman

Click to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business

The Government Endorsed Attack on America: Sexual Perversion and drug poisoning to destroy our entire society

I can just say that I’m not going to put up with the kind of garbage that went on in Middletown, Ohio, over the last weekend of June 2023. There was a drag show in public that went on, which is shown in the pictures here, that was just disgusting. But these went on nationwide, this assault to desecrate sexuality with unhealthy lifestyles that this current government in America fully endorses. I see what these sexual deviants are doing as an assault. It’s one thing to have sexual lifestyle choices behind closed doors; it’s quite another to weaponize it and to stick it into all our faces as an assault on the very foundations of civilization. So on the very next day, I met with some friends down at the Courthouse in Hamilton, Ohio, for a stake in the ground of goodness to March for Children as a moral position as a response to these horrendous intrusions. It was nice to see so many people there, and I was surprised that there were so many officeholders present who weren’t afraid to put their names next to the issue. Essentially after some speeches, shown here, in front of the Courthouse, we marched around the old building three times, just as in the attack on Jericho. In this case, after three times, we didn’t want the Courthouse to fall, as did the walls in that Biblical city, but for the barriers to law and order to fall away so that justice could be established to protect children under full assault.

Without question, the most emotional speech of the day came from Mark Murphy, who is part of the leadership of the Republican Party of Butler County. Mark recently lost his daughter due to a fentanyl overdose. It only took one time for it to happen, and if it can happen to Mark, it can happen to anybody. What a lot of people fail to realize is that a lot of these evils that we are seeing, whether it’s the drag queen shows or the drug cartels deliberately poisoning our youth with drugs like fentanyl, these are military attacks against American culture. They are deliberately targeting the youth of our culture to destroy them and, as a result, American culture as a whole. Listening to Mark talk, the number of people losing children to fentanyl overdoses is astonishing. The silent killer is the biggest threat in the world today. If ground troops did these deaths with tanks and guns, we’d be outraged by the attack and would seek revenge for the aggression. But the attack is coming in a way we don’t typically think of as an attack, but as a leisurely activity, drug use. Yet the intentions couldn’t be more obvious. We have a media culture and a government that is actually helping the situation along, and there is no other excuse for it. Drugs have always been a problem for the attackers of Western Civilization; the motive is to exploit the free culture with poison so that the competing cultures of the world can then thrive without comparison. Usually, we’d hear about these stories as soldiers who died in the field somewhere. But this attack is on our doorsteps, in all of our neighborhoods, and is all too common. Unfortunately, Mark’s story is not unique. It is so common that people are numb to it that they’d instead think about everything else but this topic. That’s why it was nice to see so many people show up for the March for Children because until we admit that there is a problem, we will continue to be vulnerable to these globalist attacks run by the organized crime arm of that effort, the drug cartels. 

Who in their right mind wouldn’t want to stand up for children, but that is precisely the threat in our schools these days. Public education has become a predatory environment, which is most publicly articulated in the PRIDE event in Middletown. The outlandish behavior seen there is being bred into kids in public schools, and very few people are standing up to it, and apparent evil that is an all-out assault on cultural norms. Darbi Boddy was at the March for Children event as politicians like Jennifer Gross and Todd Minniear spoke about the challenges of doing what’s appropriate for kids despite grotesque social behavior that the masses have now accepted as a reality. But the kids are counting on the adults in their lives to protect them from these predators. And what else could you call people so obviously addicted to a sexual deviation with the intent to engage with underage children? It’s a clear case of evil as far as I’m concerned, and when we are confronted with such things, we must do something about it. There is no common ground with these types of people who have only destruction and mayhem on their minds. A purposeful corruption of the youth toward a life of ill-advised sex addiction; nothing good comes from such a lifestyle, yet we are expected just to take all this desecration politely and without anger? I don’t think so. Everyone who facilitates these types of activities, from officeholders to teachers in the schools, are accommodating sheer evil. It’s not tolerance to accept destructive sexual lifestyles; it’s irresponsible. 

For me, it’s not an option to be accommodating. If we are going to see these kinds of attacks against our American culture, then it should be expected to have an equally hostile response. When the attack vector is so apparent, and the death and mental destruction of an entire nation of people is the target, then nobody should expect to be treated nicely in their desecrations. We are not obligated to kindness when faced with such evil and the intentions of malcontents. If they are free to express themselves in such grotesque ways, then we are also free to have an opinion about it and to let them know that we are judging them on their bad behavior, at the very least. We are not obligated just to take it and accept it out of some guilt by a leftist definition of privilege. Sexual addiction is bad under any condition; nobody should be thinking about it as much as the trans show in Middletown clearly is. But the point isn’t health; it’s destruction. They are selling our own destruction to us through the temptation of pleasure, the most ancient door to evil known to all civilizations. Whether it’s through drug abuse or sexual lifestyles, our current government is helping America’s enemies destroy our country from within, and the casualties are real. And it’s not just the adults they are targeting, but our children. These days, they aren’t even bothering to hide any longer. They do it because they don’t respect us or think that we’ll do anything about it. So the effort is on us in this present time to engage the enemy and redefine the terms of destruction. We cannot co-exist with evil, nor should we expect to. Instead, we must make our opinions known, judge the bad behavior for what it is, and commit ourselves to save children to save our nation because the attack couldn’t be more obvious.

Rich Hoffman

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Yes, Lakota Schools Are Letting Boys Use the Girls’ Bathrooms: Why liberals hate Darbi Boddy

I think the only reason many anti-Darbi Boddy people hate her with so much conviction is that she does not look like the bottom of a foot, as most other education types do. Most people who do work in the field of education are not what you might call attractive. Instead, they look like potatoes that have been left in the basement too long on one side and are in a perpetual state of rot. That thought came to my mind as I saw Darbi Boddy, the second-year school board member from Lakota, at the Republican Lincoln Day Dinner, a glamorous event celebrating conservative values each April with Ron DeSantis speaking about his education reforms in Florida. Darbi was dressed well, and a long line of people wanted to take their pictures with her. There was quite a crowd, but we did get a chance to talk about how things were going and what she had in mind for the future as one of the most important political offices that any property owner could vote on. We send so much money to these public schools only to have them used against us as a backdoor for extreme liberalism distributed like a weed into our community with the intent to rot the minds of our youth. When you get a chance to meet Darbi, it would be hard to understand why so many people hate her. But it becomes apparent when you look at the line of people waiting to shake her hand and take a picture with her. Fellow school board members Kelley Casper and Julie Shaffer could never get a reception like that, and jealousy is undoubtedly a factor in the way that women get jealous of other women for obvious insecurities.

For all those reasons and more, Darbi Boddy is one of the most controversial figures in Cincinnati politics; she is a Butler County version of Marjorie Taylor Greene, only with a softer presentation. She and I did get a chance to talk about a few Lakota problems, and one was the transgender radicalism that is exploding in all public schools across America as a clear strategy by progressives that was unfolding. Darbi, unlike me, thinks that public education can be fixed or at least improved. Where I tend to think all elements of public education are ready for the junk pile, I am happy to see at least that people like Darbi want to try and make it work, especially considering how much money gets wasted on it in our community. And to that point, she told me about some of the challenges regarding boys and girls’ bathrooms that were trying to emerge again. Listening to her talk, she sounded very reasonable, leaving it clear to the mind of any decent person the precise point of view that people hated Darbi for purely cosmetic purposes and because she was a conservative more than any other reason. I was impressed with her statement that her main reason for dealing with many of the problems she has become wrapped up in is because she wants kids to have a stable environment to work in. And the liberal politics was intrusive to them, especially the trans bathroom issue where boys were using it as a means to get into the girl’s bathroom. Of course, at a recent school board meeting, the rest of the board stated clearly that they didn’t think that was happening. But then, after the meeting where Darbi brought the issue up for a vote to put the issue to rest, Lakota spokesperson Betsy Fuller stated that only under exceptional circumstances were boys being let into the girl’s bathroom and that the issue was distracting for students who would rather not think about those kinds of things.

After speaking with Darbi, I always leave with the thought about how bat-crap crazy women can be with other women, just over cosmetic looks, and how nuts Democrats are who are so full of hate, they want to protest the sun coming up. Darbi’s argument about removing political radicalism from kids so they can just be kids makes a lot of sense. But then again, Lakota schools are filled with radical, progressive liberals, from the school board down to the class-to-class teachers who are teaching CRT and are supporting trans activism, and those people, if left unchecked, are looking for a co-parenting relationship with the community’s kids, and to teach them all the wrong kinds of things. If Darbi wasn’t there to protect them, who would? The radicals would say that the best way to protect the kids would be to get rid of Darbi because she is the center of political controversy. But without Darbi, these people would have unhindered access to children, which is a terrifying thought, when you find out how radical some of these people really are. Darbi, in person, behaves very professionally and has genuine sincerity for the betterment of children in the classrooms. And the people who hate her hate that she’s a conservative who is not afraid to express it in public. And they hate her because of what they intend to do to innocent kids, which Darbi stands in the way of. 

You always have to watch it when the public relations people are controlling the message, and Betsy Fuller made it clear without trying, that boys were being allowed in the girl’s bathroom under unique conditions, as expressed in an email to the media after Darbi proposed a ban on the entire idea, for the safety of all kids. At a fundamental level, boys are dirtier than girls, and if they don’t sit down while using the restroom, they tend to make a mess of the seat, making it very inconvenient for the girls who have to use it after them and it’s just not fair to the girls. The other school board members were a bit outraged by Darbi, for all the reasons stated that they would be, but that didn’t change the fact that Lakota is supporting transgender radicalism, which is more of a religious issue than one of political inclusion, which is an entire problem of its own under a separation of church and state argument. Public schools have made it clear that religious references such as the Ten Commandments were not allowed to be displayed, but then they are very supportive of the rainbow flags of the Pride movement, which is a direct correlation to the Cult of Ishtar. That support was evident in Betsey’s statement to the press; they prioritize inclusion among kids that identify with gender questions, which are purely political in their progressive push culturally. And as Darbi made it clear to me, kids just want to be kids. Adults are trying to push all this sex agenda radicalism onto them, abusing that innocence between the child and adult relationship that is often detrimental to the child’s development. When you really peel back the layers of hate that have been applied to Darbi just for existing, it becomes clear that it’s not because she’s a bad school board member. Quite the opposite, I think she is the best out of the current four, and Lakota would do well to get four more just like her.   And if they did, at that point, Lakota schools might actually serve the community well and spend the vast amounts of money that are sent to them by the community wisely. And kids might be able to have one thing less to worry about than adults with radical political agendas who want to pervert children sexually for their own maniacal purposes. 

Rich Hoffman

Click to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business

DeSantis at the Butler County Republican Party Lincoln Day Dinner: For 2024, its still Trump, Trump, and more Trump

It’s all about the Constitution. The only trouble these days are governments who violate it unlawfully.

It’s all about the chaos; in fact, the political fights we are fighting are not the ones we think we are, and that has been a harsh reality for the Republican Party. We’re not looking for a fair fight against a battle of ideas but a resolute cage fighter with an addiction to winning and destroying the enemy, which is the key behind the 2024 election. Because the enemy thinks it knows Republicans, and they want them to play by the rules they control. And as long as Democrats and a liberal world order control those rules, they control politics, which is why Republicans have always been on their heels and acting as victims when they hold the majority opinion. It’s been a trick that the political left has utilized against conservatives for most of the last century, and it’s time to put an end to it. And that was obvious at the 2023 Butler County Republican Party Lincoln Dinner at the Savannah Center, where a line of attendees wrapped around the building to see Ron DeSantis speak as the guest. Anthony Munoz was in line behind me, along with many other influencers who came to unite over a nice meal, even though their politics might be spread across the conservative spectrum to various degrees. Everyone intends to have the right ideas about things, but as is often the case in life, there is usually only one correct answer. And finding it can be a painful process with many hurt feelings. But it was good to see many friends gathering together to discover common interests at a fabulous event by many good people. I enjoyed the company, the food, and the atmosphere. But at the end of the evening, as I spoke to everyone I could, the question most asked me was, is it time to consider Ron DeSantis as the Republican nominee for President of the United States? And to that answer, which I gave repeatedly, was an emphatic no.

It’s not that Ron DeSantis and his very sweet wife didn’t present themselves as the best that Republican politics could offer. Ron’s speech was great, it was good to see him in person, and it’s good to see he has a functioning relationship with his wife, who was just fantastic. But this 2024 election isn’t about such good people or policies. It’s about a radical global plot to destroy the dollar and America with it. It’s about massive election fraud controlled by foreign investment and a full push from Chinese communists to take over all commerce in the world under the tutelage of the World Economic Forum. Republicans have underestimated the world’s villains because they think we are still dealing with elections as a domestic matter. But that is not the opinion of the hostile nations of the world who are looking to overthrow America without firing a shot. China has invested in espionage, deceit, election tampering, and undermining cultures from within. That is how they fight, and they have an army of billionaires helping them with their plans, people like Ray Dalio, George Soros, Bill Gates, Larry Fink, and his BlackRock money management firm. We are dealing with some really nasty characters who have invested heavily in the destruction of America, and they expect a return. Canada just was found to have had their elections rigged by China tampering. The same certainly was the case recently in Brazil. The pattern for China is to support some beat-up old man who is compromised and would otherwise be in jail and have them loyal to whoever puts them in power. That’s certainly the case with Biden in America. And that is obvious in Brazil with Lula (Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva). That communist insurgent was in jail, and they let him out to run for president. The election fraud system in key districts did the rest of the work. 

As I moved around the room after the DeSantis speech, I was genuinely happy to see around 50 to 60 different people I have a long history with who greeted me with lots of hugs and fist bumps. It had been challenging in Butler County; not everyone has the same conservative commitment and understanding level. But we treated each other with respect, which was really good to see, even with people I had been sideways with in a big way during 2022. But I was concerned as I talked to them, and they were still elated with Ron’s speech. I told them I hated to see Ron DeSantis ruin his brand in a conflict with Trump when the real enemy was foreign investment into America, not just at the banking level but our election system. Trump was the only one who could run in 2024 because he was the only one willing to tackle the real problem, but he had the financial incentive actually to perform the task. And if DeSantis got caught in the crossfire, it would ruin him for 2028 and 2032. I kept saying to everyone that Republicans need a ten-year plan, not just to be looking at 2024. America is literally under attack, and this was no time for happy talk about reaching across the aisle to Democrats. Democrats, at this point, are assets of Chinese aggression, they are communists, and they want that for America, and we have to deal with them in that fashion, with the same vigor that we approach the trans issues in public schools and the destruction of our children with CRT learning. This is not a time for middle-ground politics.

I thought it was great that we could have had some of the debates in the Republican Party and still shake hands at the end of it and, in many cases, exchange a warm embrace. And after 2024, that will be the case in national politics, and I really want Ron DeSantis to have a place in it. But first, the rest of the country needs to see what authentic leadership is at the governor’s level. States need better governors; they need to focus on good, conservative secretaries of state. And they need to get control of their elections, especially in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. As long as massive election fraud is a way of life in Milwaukee, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Pittsburg, and Philadelphia, the election fraud network, which is controlled by Chinese infiltration and money, will not allow a Republican in the White House. That is the actual fight, and as of this election, the only way to beat the cheat is with a Republican who can generate over 75 million votes on election day. And it’s not suburban moms who are going to get Republicans there. It’s the beer drinkers, the monster truck drivers, the immigrants who came to America for an opportunity, who ran away from socialism and communism in their home countries. They need to go out and vote when they otherwise might not. But they will vote because of the Trump brand. If he were the nominee, DeSantis would only get a vote count in the 60 million range, just as Barack Obama had.

Only people educated on the matter will vote on election day, which is typical. Republicans in 2024 need and overvote much more than usual to overtake the cheating in those key battleground states who still have radical Democrats in their Secretary of State positions. And that is why I have been saying now, especially to the critical influencers in the Butler County Republican Party, its Trump, Trump, and more Trump, and only Trump for 2024. DeSantis was great at the Lincoln Day Dinner. I want to see a 10 to 15-year plan that has him in it and eventually in the White House. But we have to get there first, which requires understanding that we are in a global war with China, and they intend to control international elections to suit their cause. And that is the battlefield of 2024 and is something everyone must deal with in their own way of understanding.

Rich Hoffman

Click to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business

The Alvin Bragg of Butler County: Roger Reynolds was only guilty of trusting people too much

It’s a local issue, but I’d say it’s common around the country. It’s not just in the case of Alvin Bragg, the New York District Attorney paid for by George Soros, who abuses their power for purely political purposes. The case where I live in Butler County, Ohio, of Roger Reynolds is just as malicious an example of abuse of the law as the one leveled against President Trump. I’ve talked about the Roger Reynolds case before, he’s the former auditor for Butler County who was just sentenced to 30 days in jail after being found guilty of an improper interest in a public contract, and his sentencing came around the same time as the big public spectacle of the Democrats throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Trump to attempt to destroy his next run for President. I know more about the Roger Reynolds case than what Fox 19 News, who pushed the case along by blowing on it with the help of Sheriff Jones, will say in public. From the beginning, the case against Roger Reynolds was political. It was about two alpha political types who were fighting for supremacy within the Butler County Republican Party, and it was over family disputes more than anything. All the parties involved could be said to have an improper interest in public contracts with all the cross-pollination of family members that goes on in these cases, so what Roger did with his interest in a golf academy partnership with Lakota schools shouldn’t raise any eyebrows. Most reasonable people wouldn’t have given the matter a second look.

But Sheriff Jones obviously by his actions wanted to keep Roger Reynolds from running for another term and support another person for that auditor position, so he and David Yost, the Attorney General in Ohio, all of who consider themselves Republicans, decided to use the law to their advantage and knock off a political rival by applying it against Roger Reynolds. At first, they started with a number of allegations that caused the initial court case, all of which Roger was found innocent on. But at the end, right before the case went to trial, Sheriff Jones added another charge from way back into the last decade involving Lakota schools, which is always the source of some level of corruption in our community, and they added it to the prosecution’s pursuit of anything against Roger Reynolds to get him out of office. It was precisely the same kind of behavior that we witnessed from Democrats against President Trump, especially coming out of the office of Alvin Bragg. Legal analysis of the Bragg case has been laughable and is obviously all about abusing the law to knock off a political rival and to put them in jail to keep them from running for political office. Well, it’s not just Alvin Bragg or the Biden DOJ who are abusing their authority; we see the exact same thing going on in Butler County, Ohio, among Republicans fighting for power and abusing the law to do what they couldn’t do at a ballot box, destroy a person so they don’t have to deal with them within party politics. When it comes to Sheriff Jones, this behavior doesn’t surprise me. But the Attorney General of Ohio, David Yost, was pulled into it, which was very disappointing. Because you’d like to think that, as Republicans, they wouldn’t get themselves involved in that kind of behavior. Yet, here they were, throwing charges at a political rival until something sort of stuck. And that last charge involving Lakota only stuck because they didn’t give the defense much time to prepare for it. They arrived in court to listen to the witness from Jones, who has been close to the Sheriff for many years and were surprised by her testimony. I know all the characters very well, including the witness.   She was involved closely with the Matt Miller superintendent controversy and had just indicated that she was leaving Lakota schools as the treasurer because that story was about to explode. The Sheriff put his arms around all of them and helped them out in ways that could be scrutinized in the same way that Roger Reynolds was in court. But needless to say, the defense team for Roger Reynolds was put on their heels a bit, and a guilty verdict by the jury was applied because of the ambiguity left in the wake. It was an odd situation that left room for doubt. 

If the Roger Reynolds defense team could do it over, I think they would love to, but a judge batted away the request. The political pressure was too great to mount up any charge possible to ruin Roger Reynolds politically, and the court system wanted to move on. There was no pursuit of justice, as Sheriff Jones indicated, with many haughty comments in the wake of the sentencing. The Sheriff was gloating about his ability to destroy a political rival in the same way that Democrats have been in using the law to attempt to destroy President Trump. There was no pursuit of justice; it was all about destroying other people for purely political purposes. I see the fault in all these cases as more of a sporting problem. People trust the refs too much in these kinds of things, and there are always going to be malicious characters who take advantage of a gullible public to rig these games because they know people won’t pursue recourse because they want to trust the legal system, often to their own detriment. 

However, all too often, just like in sports, we see occasions where the refs rig the game for lots of reasons. It’s not the skill of the players in those games who win and lose; it’s how the game is called by the referees who do. Refs are only human; they have problems too. And they can get caught rooting for one team or another, and those calls for justice may not be equal depending on the players. As a society, we play sports as kids and learn team sports concepts, which I would argue ruins many people’s minds with the wrong values. But more than that, we learn to trust what the referees say, even if we don’t agree. And we take that malfunction into our adulthoods and then apply that same level of respect to the legal arena. We don’t typically question what a judge says or a sheriff. And we like to think that our state Attorney General would be above picking sides out of political alliances. But the truth is that they are not above such corruption. They are human, and when they have too much power, they are going to be tempted to abuse it. And that is clearly what happened with Roger Reynolds; he was the victim of an abuse of power by a political rival that wanted to knock him off the stage. And he probably trusted everyone involved in the process too much, ethically, which is an important lesson. He’s still the great guy that people voted for, and if he could run again, people would vote for him again. People see through this kind of phony prosecution, just as they do with Trump. But corruption is a very real thing, and it happens all too often. Just because they call themselves Republicans in Butler County, we have the same kind of thing going on that we find so objectionable with Alvin Bragg in New York. It happens more than people want to admit, and while it’s on everyone’s minds, it would be an excellent time to consider whether or not we want to trust what the refs say without more scrutiny. Because they are prone to human frailty, and if we trust them too much, they could ruin our society beyond repair. 

Rich Hoffman

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What the 1.1 Million Award to Kimberly Edelstein Means: A first-of-its-kind case in Butler County that celebrates individual Constitutional protections

I think we’ll find, as our society matures and grows into an understanding of its place in the universe as an up-and-coming power that is recognized as such, that the American Constitution is one of the greatest works of philosophy ever produced on earth or any place else. That is why I tend to love judges and the idea of law enforcement. Not necessarily law enforcement itself, especially once human frailties are introduced that are tied to social predilections rooted in collectivist causes, but the essential beauty of the Bill of Rights and what the concept protects in the realm of human imagination and its potential as a fully developed individual. That’s why this case where the former Butler County magistrate Kimberly Edelstein is painful because everything is wrong with the struggles of life everywhere. Judges in our culture are the ultimate philosophers in that they adhere circumstances to the application of Constitutional principles, which isn’t easy when the demands of collectivism are applied, ancient beliefs in protection within the herd (civic memberships, fellowship on a bowling team, back-slapping at the company picnic) and the conflict with the development of individual integrity. And no matter how the judgment that a jury found against Judge Greg Stephens is viewed, the failure has not been captured by any post-court analysis, which is a shame. Representing herself, Kimberly Edelstein made a successful argument to a jury over a two-week trial starting in January of 2023 and ending early in February, where they awarded her 1.1 million dollars for religious discrimination where Stephens behaved in a retaliatory manner when Edelstein requested eight days off for Jewish holidays. And from there, their relationship deteriorated, the application of law and order in Butler County, Ohio, was compromised, and over what, religious differences? 

By the time the dust settles on this case, it will likely cost the taxpayers over 3 million dollars. And when you look at the law firms who have been involved, it’s clear that they are the only ones benefiting. The way the legal community operates in the background of all this money reminds me of a case I was involved in years ago with Todd Portune, who would eventually become one of the county commissioners of Hamilton County. But in a serious legal matter that I was involved in, he was an attorney who was also on the Cincinnati City Council, and he was representing both the aggressive party and the victim simultaneously. When I confronted him about this, he simply explained to me that was how it was. Those were the rules of the game. And that is the case in this Butler County legal case; when it wondered why the media puts a spin on the story that doesn’t capture the real essence of it, that’s because they all have the same legal firms working in the background. The interpretation of the law, as I stated, is so beautifully captured in our American Constitution, specifically in our Bill of Rights is not the same as the feeble interpretation that comes to the minds of the compromised people who have not evolved well as individuals and find corruption at the heart of their decision making. And that’s what’s unfortunate with this case between Judge Stephens and Kimberly Edelstein. Instead of them using their religious faiths as a background of individual development to uphold the excellent standards of Constitutional preservation, it has turned into a religious dispute that a couple of kids in the first grade might have over baseball cards. Stephens, a former pastor and apparently a very devout Christian, found the Jewish holidays not conducive to the kind of bench he wanted to run, and peer pressure with those involved added their opinions to the matter into what became a “disruptive” work environment. And after Edelstein requested her Jewish holidays off for observance, she was terminated just a few days thereafter, leading to this court case six years later. 

When I hear numbers like 1.1 million dollars, it sounds like a lot of money. And there are disputes within Butler County, especially the prosecutor’s office, that want a redo. They want to rob the jury opinion away from the award because it’s an embarrassing loss for them. Kimberly already successfully argued the case; Stephens was found guilty in the matter, and it’s unusual in the audacity of it because usually, people don’t defend themselves the way the former magistrate did in this case, but the legal parameters are quite clear. A jury of her peers found that Kimberly Edelstein was improperly terminated, her own Constitutional protections were violated, which any judge in the world should have known better, and it harmed her for further employment. When you study as a magistrate, your employment options are sort of limited to civil service. It’s not like the next job is right around the corner. It tends to be a very specific field with limited employment opportunities. So taking a stand based on Constitutional foundations is risky. But I would say that our society is better for it. The case law in this situation should serve as a warning on how to behave in the office. If people need to take time off for religious observance, that’s one of their rights. Manage your subordinates appropriately and be as fair as possible in the process. That’s basic management 101. But don’t use power and position, then peer pressure from the local lodge to attempt to undo an award from a jury. When a mistake is made, admit to it and move on. 

Kimberly Edelstein has lost a significant portion of her life and income to this Constitutional stand, so if you divide up the money awarded to her by the amount, it’s not very much money for the six years she has been fighting it. I will never understand religious disputes. I have read most of the major religious positions worldwide, and there isn’t much to indicate that religions should be at war in their texts. In all their cases, the religious texts attempt to elevate the mind by reading them to more significant concepts of existence. They should never decline in value to an argument over work holidays. An individual obtaining spiritual development, no matter how they get there, makes for a better employee in the workplace. Not one that has to pick between spiritual enlightenment and an oppressive boss that has the ability to control your paycheck. And among judges in the legal community, this basic level of sophistication should be part of the formula before they ever put on a robe for court. Such silly disputes should never occur, and if they did, everyone should be learning a hard lesson here. The real cost to taxpayers is in the mismanagement of the employees and the burden that parasitic lawyers apply in the background. That is the essence of this case. Mistakes by public employees, such as judges, and disputes over the merits of religion, especially one with common root sources, only feed the lawyers who influence everything in the background. And it took guts for Kimberly Edelstein to represent herself, to not further feed the legal system that is rigged against the taxpayers and the Constitution, and to win. All judges and prosecutors should be celebrating such an action because it brings the purity of law and order to Butler County for the good of everyone. But the anger that has formed in the wake comes over the ability of social groups, peer pressure application of collectivism against individuals such as Kimberly Edelstein, to apply free will to a living life. And behind that assumption is a very sinister position that is as anti-Constitution as an example could be found anywhere. This is the real cost of a case like this and a warning to all applications of a society that seeks law, order, and fairness for individuals, not a legal community that is blowing millions and millions of taxpayer dollars to preserve a system of corruption that is just behind the curtain of civic duty. 

Rich Hoffman

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I Don’t Want Any Part of “The Club”: If Butler County Republicans aren’t serving the taxpayers, then they are serving corruption

Since the very corrupt prosecution of Roger Reynolds in Butler County, I have had more than a few people trying to rationalize it to me, “that the club likes musical chairs,” meaning they want a change in blood. And the sleight of hand that is going on with assigning Joe Statzer to the auditor role as a “temporary” assignment with a wink and a nod indication that after a short time, the Butler County Commissioners will just make that appointment permanent, is the kind of behavior that people have grown sick of. The media reporting on the matter made it quite obvious what was going on. The establishment types, I would go as far as to call them RINOs, lost now that Trump isn’t in the White House, are fighting for power and control. They don’t want people like Roger Reynolds looking through their books, and they have old scores to settle that go back to the David Kern days. It’s the kind of disgusting power people are afraid of in Congress presently, with the debate to not vote for Kevin McCarthy for Speaker of the House. People don’t trust these establishment politicians; in this case, I know most of them personally. They don’t see themselves as dangerous; they think of themselves as good people. But like the kind of horrible things we have seen come from abuse of power on the national level, we have certainly seen it applied to Roger Reynolds and to prevent Nancy Nix from being appointed that job by the Butler County Republican Party to keep the continuity of some very good work done at the auditor level, and rearranging the chairs that fit the party, not the voters who are supposed to be in charge. And people keep talking to me about this “club” idea as if it should matter to me. So let me just say I don’t work with politics to be part of the Club, to be invited to all the VIP events. I do it because I want to see good government in my town and for people to get what they expect for their taxpayer dollars. I personally like Joe, and I like the people around Joe, but he’s Sheriff Jones’ direct guy. It was Jones who wanted to push Roger Reynolds from his auditor’s office for all kinds of reasons, so this notion that two commissioners voted to appoint Joe Statzer as auditor of Butler County with a wink and a nod of making it a permanent position is not a good thing. 

Out of the three Butler County Commissioners who voted for Joe to step into that auditor role, two of them are what I’d consider hard Democrats, just as I consider Sheriff Jones a Democrat, a big union slug that is too expensive, and love to use power and force to intimidate political rivals into submission. And that kind of stuff works for people who want to be in the Republican Party “Club.” I am aware that people are only nice to me at social events because they’d like to invite me into the Club to have some control over my behavior. They certainly aren’t nice to me because they like me. I’ve been in business for many decades now and have dealt with a lot sharper tacks in the box than local politicians. Even national politicians. There are smart people out in the world, and these guys are not among them. I have sometimes played along because that’s what you do in all business meetings. You look for common ground and focus on that to build relationships. It’s my hope that those relationships end up working out well for the taxpayers, so it’s worth doing. But sucking up just to be in some stupid club, no thanks. I don’t need or want more friends, and I certainly would never put myself in a position to get a call late at night telling me how to think or feel so I could remain a member of a “club.” And it’s the “club” mentality that the commissioners were clearly protecting with the appointment of Joe Statzer to the auditor job. Only TC Rogers voted against Joe’s appointment; he understands what’s happening. The other two, Cindy Carpenter, might as well be the belt holding up Sheriff Jones’ pants, voted to protect the “club.” Take that belt away, and the Sheriff’s pants fall right off. And Don Dixon was the other one. Everyone keeps telling me what a great guy Don is as if I didn’t know him. As I say all the time, I love all Republicans until they aren’t. And for those who decide they are Republican all of a sudden, I welcome them. But it must be remembered that Democrats who become Republicans always have some Democrat still in them, and that is certainly the case with Don Dixon, who was a Democrat until 2000 when he switched parties during a time when it was obvious how things were going in Butler County, Ohio politically. 

I’ve known the Dixon family for a very long time. I see Don here and there, and I think he’s a pretty good guy. I don’t rush over to shake his hand for many reasons. I’ll always think of him as the guy who cost me the championship in the Soap Box Derby race in Hamilton, Ohio, in 1979, when I was around 10 or 11 years old. I was racing for the championship against Brent Dixon, Don’s son and the races were so close over three tries to determine a winner that the event judges just gave the win to the Dixons because of their political influence. That was told to my parents and me unofficially because that’s how the “club” works. That’s why many of these people want political power, so they can tilt the table in their favor when needed. In that Soap Box Derby race, we should have continued racing until a winner could be determined. But the judges were tired in the June sun and wanted to go home. So instead of another race, they just decided that the Dixon kid won. And I developed a hatred for “club” politics that would last the rest of my life. That next year Ronald Reagan ran for president, and I was the campaign spokesman in the 7th grade for our school and have been involved in politics ever since. My hatred for “club” politics likely started that day and still persists over 40 years later and will likely continue for another 40 years. (CLICK HERE to read more of this story.)

And that is what’s wrong with politics in general and why all the fuss over Kevin McCarthy. I live in a town where I have a lot of mutual friends who know John Boehner personally. I did not like John Boehner when he was the third most powerful person in the world, and I don’t like him now as a pot spokesman. It wasn’t personal, but I hated the “Club” as it was back then. And now, with Trump out of the White House, the bottom feeders have lost focus and are resuming their desire for corruption, to tilt the tables of power in their favor and with any means necessary, and they think that people will just put up with it. And I’d warn them otherwise. I have been watching this stuff for a long time, and people are much smarter about these things than they used to be. They don’t like corruption; this is why they voted for Trump because they want someone to stand up to this kind of behavior instead of just putting up with it. And on the local level, politics was never, and should never be, membership into a “club.” The only thing good about politics is what it can do for the people. The golf games, the fundraisers, and the “club” activity are all bad things in politics, and for my part, I have much better things to do with my life than to get my picture taken next to Sheriff Jones so that I can show people that I’m in “the club.” Butler County Republicans can keep their Club. They need to be worried about whether what they do serves the taxpayers. And if it doesn’t, such as this whole business of destroying lives just to protect “the club,” then they are doing the wrong things willingly.

And regarding that soap box derby race, even though I didn’t win the championship that day, I’d say because my family wasn’t in the “club,” I was very proud of what I did. I still have that car hanging in my garage, and I see it every day. My parents were proud of me; it was a fun day. My mom, who isn’t doing so well these days, brought it up as she was traveling down memory lane, and it was one of her good memories. And the lesson about the whole thing is that the Club might do everything to win. But people know who wins in life, and I’d rather live like that than be beholden to a bunch of corrupt people just to get the trophy. There are many kinds of winning in the world, and I view winning without the help of “the club” to be much more valuable than anything else in the world. Only weak losers need a “club” to help them along, which is precisely what we are seeing emerge in the Butler County Republican Party. And when those people are no longer with us, and the hearse goes by with their bodies headed to the graveyard, people won’t say, “look, there goes a great person who lived a great life.” They’ll say instead, “there goes a member of the “club” and one less corrupt person in the world who looked to politics to save their lazy selves from the scrutiny of public opinion.” Membership in the “club” disguises that reality from their minds, but when it is known what people really think, that is the reality that tyrants and the corrupt are hiding from with the illusion of social protocol. 

Rich Hoffman

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Killing the Sacred Cow of Military in America: Republicans have been suckers in supporting just another big government scam that only the United Nations benefits from

This one might be a little controversial, but we must discuss it because a trick is being applied that brings conservatives to mass collectivism and partners Republicans with diabolical America-hating Democrats with common ground. This was never more obvious than the bone that was thrown into the last bill that was passed in Congress to commit trillions of dollars more in debt over the nation just to get some defense spending that Democrats pretend to protest against. But in truth, it’s a bone they always throw to the dogs of Republicans they appease time and time again out of a misplaced sentiment toward the military. I’ve never been one of those “thank you for your service” kind of people when I meet people who serve. Entry into the military for me is just another government job, and I am always weary of the power government has to command individual lives toward mass collectivism. The first thing ritually that is done in the military during boot camp is to strip people of their individual selves, the people their parents made them, shave them, give them a uniform and integrate them into the system of the military, the yes sirs, no sirs of process and the blind compliance to a culture that gives orders and soldiers are to follow them without a thought. I don’t see much of anything good about that system, and I never have. But over time, the people who hate the American way have turned such a process into a representation of morality, and I find the whole thing reprehensible. 

Of course, when people hear my thoughts on it, they are quick to say, “but they died or committed themselves to it for your freedom.” Well, that is not how our military works, as exposed during the Trump administration, specifically in North Korea. The American Constitution is what gives me freedom, and our military isn’t fighting for it; they are fighting against it. The scam is that by selling themselves as advocates of American independence, our military then gets used as the world’s police, the military that the United Nations never could legally hold, and we do all that they have no power to do themselves. We get involved in all kinds of wars dedicated to globalism and disguise it as “global security,” and while everyone is too busy following orders to question it, or Fox News is doing the latest color ceremonies dedicated to those who serve, the real villains are stirring up war all over the world and counting on American troops to advance the needs of the United Nations one world government and using our money and troops to perform the task. When we were told for years that North Korea was the biggest menace on planet earth, then within a short time of taking office, President Trump was crossing the line into North Korea and shaking hands with the basketball fan who happens to love America very much, much more was revealed than just The Art of the Deal by Trump to break down barriers to negotiation. Our military, once the League of Nations was started in Europe and the United Nations was created, was not to serve the interests of America; it was built, funded, and populated with soldiers to fulfill the needs of progressive intent and then to use the reputation of America to take the hit as imperialists. And in that way, the political left could complain about American involvement in fighting communists in Vietnam while also pushing for big government solutions like what create a big military in the first place.  By default, Republicans filled that gap, just as the plan called for. American troops were now the empire builders England used to be accused of. Meanwhile, it was just announced that Vietnam is one of the fast-growing economies in the world, on par with China, another propped-up country by the United Nations types. The wars clear out political opposition, whereas international sympathy follows in the wake, and the communist regimes then take over in running those parts of the world. 

To get Americans to support such a structure, patriotism has been used to sell it, that our children join, get a free education, learn to become supporters of woke culture, take orders, wear the uniform, and in that way, we never asked the dreadful questions as to who does the American military support? If our borders aren’t important, as the Biden administration has made clear it’s not, then who does the American military support? Well, the amount of money we have been sending to Ukraine answers that question. Our military as it is today exists to advance the needs of the United Nations and big centralized governments all over the world. And it’s not patriotic to blindly support them. We should be looking to shrink their influence into something Americans could easily control with the Second Amendment. Because under the kind of political regimes we have in America today, as we have seen from our own FBI and CIA, our military is more of a threat than something we should be celebrating blindly. 

I’ve had to talk about our local Sheriff Jones a lot lately, and many people wonder why over time, I wasn’t closer to him within the Butler County Republican Party, just north of Cincinnati, Ohio. The truth is, we used to be until we found ourselves on opposite ends of a public union issue way back in 2012. At that point, our relationship had become very strained. Then we were at an event at the Ronald Reagan Center at the Voice of America in West Chester, and as he usually does, he led the ceremonies dedicated to the military, which he is very voraciously supportive of. As I usually do at these events, I shudder at the blind compliance that such people like him have to the saluting of the troops, the perfection of uniform compliance, and how quickly he was to accept that the individual is just a small part to a greater good, which in this case was the support of a military with the mask of the American flag on it. I have seen him perform such ceremonies at Republican events many times. Still, that particular time at the Ronald Reagan Center gave me the creeps, not just about him. Still, in how many people who call themselves Republicans are so quickly enticed like moths to the flame in supporting military service without a clear understanding of how that military service actually protects our Constitution when in fact, the people who most benefit from our military around the world want to see our Constitution destroyed. And there are plenty of Sheriff Jones types all over the nation, on Fox News, in every local parade, who sell the military to the public as something good. But I see it and always have as dangerous to the ideas of American values and the eventual erosion of Constitutional protections. Just as we saw during Covid, and forever supporters of the expansion of the NDAA, our military is the first body of government that often violates the Constitution they were sworn to protect. But in blindly supporting the orders of superiors, our own children are often used to shred that Constitution at every opportunity, especially when globalist forces like the United Nations declare something to be an emergency. Then, our military is turned on us, and we learn too late that it never served America. Our military serves the aims of globalism, and they have tricked us into supporting such a move by draping the flag over the effort and talking about sacrifice as if we were a civilization of bloodthirsty Aztecs. And we learn too late that our military never served us at all, but a sinister collection of globalism who fund the efforts of politics and have captured our elected officials in ways we could never have imagined. And because of blind patriotism, we never see the problem until it’s too late, and they are on our doorsteps kicking in our doors and violating our constitutional rights with a smile on their faces because they took us as suckers, and we proved them correct.

Rich Hoffman

Click to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business

Nancy Nix for Butler County Auditor: The bad guys don’t want smart people looking through their books

The big news this week, going into the 2023 New Year, was that Joe Statzer was appointed to replace Roger Reynolds temporarily in the Butler County Auditor position. That doesn’t look good because Joe is a very close political ally of Sheriff Jones, and in this situation and many others, that isn’t a good thing. And good on T.C. Rogers as the lone Butler County Commissioner for having the intellect to vote against Joe. I know all the people in this case personally; everyone likes Joe. But this is about more than likes and dislikes. As I’ve said from the beginning of the Roger Reynolds case in Butler County, Ohio, the goal was for officeholders to get rid of the very popular auditor because they didn’t want to live up to the high bar that Roger had set. None of the characters involved, not Attorney General David Yost, Sheriff Jones, or even the court members, could have withstood the kind of political assassination that Roger Reynolds had to go through with the prosecution continuing to throw charges against him until something stuck. And of all the charges initially filed, Roger was found innocent of all of them. It was the final one that involved Lakota schools, yes, that same Lakota schools with all the same characters involved in the Matt Miller case, that had enough ambiguity in it to leave questions in the jury’s mind and get a 4th-degree conviction in having an unlawful interest in a public contract. During the trial, Jenni Logan, the former treasurer of Lakota and personal friend of Sheriff Jones, gave competent testimony. The Reynolds legal team was obviously unprepared for it since it had been a charge tacked on over the summer of 2022. It was obviously purely politically motivated based on the Jones press conference at that time and wasn’t as defined as the core of the case had been. Roger’s legal team was very well prepared for the rest of the case, the condition of a property transaction involving his father and an old neighbor. 

When people look toward the police and think of corruption, it is over cases like this. When the Attorney General of Ohio gets involved in trying to push people out of office, you can see what kind of game is being played. And for what reason? Well, as people have explained to me, it’s all about Roger’s policies on full disclosure that had politicians mad, and you could see that as soon as the jury returned with a conviction. It doesn’t sound like the conviction will involve jail time, but likely probation for Roger Reynolds, but the politicians involved in pressing this case, which started with a political hit piece by Channel 19 News in Liberty Township, Ohio, just ahead of a big election, was about removing the snoopy eyes of Roger Reynolds. And knowing the personalities personally, as I do, the real deal with the case was the political power of two extremely alpha males, not the legitimacy of legal parameters. Roger Reynolds can come across as bullish when he knows he’s right about something, and Sheriff Jones likes political power for the sake of having it to apply to people around him. I see the whole matter as a human resource problem, two people who just don’t like each other, and the reasons for that dislike is one of competency and nothing else. Roger did his job too well, and that made a lot of politicians worried. So wherever Roger stumbled his toe somewhere, the prosecution looked for a window to slide in some ambiguity and see if something might stick. They wanted to convict Roger of a charge so they could designate him a felon and get Roger Reynolds off their back forever. When Roger refused to resign, they proceeded with this court case. And when it comes to wealthy people trying to explain millions of dollars of tax money wrapped up in a fancy country club, it’s hard to explain all that to a jury, even if most of the conversation was just high-brow talk. Jenni Logan knew what she was doing when she provided testimony which is why Sheriff Jones, who had special knowledge of the case fresh off his relationship with Lakota schools, so they tacked on this extra charge utterly unrelated to the previous charges in July of 2022, just ahead of the election a few months later. Roger’s trial for these matters was moved into December as a backstop in case he won reelection, which he did, easily. But one way or another, the legal machine was determined to get rid of Roger Reynolds, which they managed to squeak out one conviction out of the original seven. Once convicted, that meant Roger would have to vacate his post, which is what his political enemies wanted all along. 

And if there was any doubt about any of what I said, within hours of the conviction, the political enemies of Roger Reynolds repeated what Sheriff Jones said about the case once it was over. Immediately the attention was leveled at Roger’s replacement, who most people think will be Nancy Nix, the treasurer of Butler County and a very competent person in every way that a person can be. Bruce Jones from West Chester wants the job, and the last time I spoke to him, a few weeks ago, he was pretty sure he would get it. Sheriff Jones obviously wants Bruce. But for those who want continuity of the kind of great job that came out of Roger Reynold’s auditor’s office, Nancy Nix is the personality who could best achieve that. But she, like Roger, is a Certified Public Accountant. Who wouldn’t want a CPA to run the money of Butler County? Well, if you are a politician that doesn’t want such tight controls on the money, you don’t necessarily want a Certified Public Accountant. So immediately, the political posturing went forth to smear Nancy Nix, just as the campaign was clear to smear Roger Reynolds from the start. And yes, Roger and Nancy are very good friends, just as Sheriff Jones has been friends with them both. I’d call all of them friends, so friendship doesn’t determine merit. Only actions do, and the resistance to a CPA in the role of the auditor of Butler County should alarm everyone. Sheriff Jones was too happy about being able to call Roger Reynolds a felon than he should have been, and it was disgusting to see how the law could be so abused as to take out political rivals for personal reasons rather than in upholding what’s best for the community. Remember, this is the same sheriff’s office behind the Matt Miller story at Lakota schools, so we certainly have picking and choosing going on here for political power, not what is best for the community. 

What’s great about Nancy is that she is every bit as competent but what she has that many political personalities don’t have is a wonderful character. Not that Roger Reynolds didn’t but being a person who deals with millions and millions of dollars, there are personality traits that come out that most people find abrasive. It’s a common trait with most financial people, and from the perspective of Sheriff Jones, it’s an easy trait to exploit under court scrutiny, which was undoubtedly the case in this judgment against Roger. But Nancy doesn’t have that stiffness that is generally associated with financial people; she is super nice, very intelligent, engaging, and tireless. I just spoke to her the other day, and even when she’s down in the dumps, as she was very sad about what happened to her friend Roger, she has all the optimism of a person who doesn’t have a bad thought in her head. As angry as I was at the case, she was very levelheaded and composed, which was impressive. I expect that out of her, but even under these terrible conditions, she always manages to hold it together. So, I think she would be a great replacement to continue Roger Reynolds’ work in that auditor role. I’m sure Roger will do great in the private sector. Butler County will miss his great work, but Nancy could continue that great work. And that is what those who don’t want that level of competency are afraid of. You can always tell a lot about a person by the enemies they have, and based on the early reaction toward Roger, Nancy Nix, and CPAs in general, the anger is obvious. There are a lot of politicians who don’t want intelligent people snooping through their budgets. And in the end, that’s all any of this was about from the start—the desire for corruption and getting rid of the people who might stand in the way of it.

Rich Hoffman

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