Tag: Issue 2

I’m a Hard No on Issue 2 in Ohio: Legalizing marijuana is a horrible idea and an attack on American exeptionalism

I can’t think of a single good thing that could come from the legalization of marijuana in Ohio, which is what Issue 2 is all about in 2023.  Low-life losers who want to desecrate a red state with a significant liberal policy desire have been eager to exploit the lower threshold to change the Ohio Constitution to accommodate the legalization of pot.  When Issue 1 failed to pass earlier in 2023, which would have raised the 50+1 margin for amending the Ohio Constitution, the pot advocates grew eager to put the issue on a ballot as soon as it became apparent that the threshold would remain low.  Out-of-state money and influence have lost their advocacy on a federal stage, so suddenly, states that could easily change their Constitutions and are vulnerable to these kinds of policy attacks, which essentially bypass all legislative controls and give the law-making ability to radical lunatics, are seeing this legislative assault.  And already in some states where marijuana has already been legalized medically and recreationally, the degradation of their culture is obvious and Ohio has been a target for them because of its conservative nature.  Polling is undoubtedly in their favor as we now have a culture of people taught in public education to turn to every mind-numbing device that pharmaceuticals can market for relief.  Pot is one of the worst drugs that has ever been known because of its effects on the human mind.  You know you have a society that has gone to pot by the way they drive and giggle at dumb jokes.  In short, pot lowers the expectation level of any performance standard in society, which is the point of America’s enemies wanting to poison our culture.  And ultimately, why Issue 2 in Ohio is on the ballot.  It’s about desecration of something good, and turning to pot legalization is just the tip of the iceberg.  There is nothing good that can come of it. 

Oh, I’ve heard the ridiculous John Boehner talking points, the former Speaker of the House who stepped out of that office and into becoming a lobbyist for marijuana.  He and I have many mutual friends in the Butler County Republican Party, and his fall from grace has been embarrassing.  And how he was ever considered one of the most influential people in the world and a beacon of conservative value shows how flimsy that opinion is among most politicians.  So this isn’t just a Democrat thing, but it’s a RINO thing as well.  These people will talk about the benefits to business that marijuana legalization would bring to a state, the increased revenue that throws more money at politicians that don’t spend what they are given with much care at all.  And to talk about pot as a “pro-business” state platform is complete foolishness.  I get it; a lot of people have used pot recreationally and think they have to justify its destructive effects for the rest of their lives.  I see the impact everywhere in slow people, slow drivers, slow drive-thru workers, and slow-minded employees who have their minds turned off due to the detrimental effects of pot consumption on the human brain.  And pot advocates want more of that?  Of course, all capitalist-hating slugs of humanity want to slow down the threat of competition with poison, which is all pot is.  A malicious ingredient that is intended to destroy minds, not benefit them.  The pot lobby has hidden behind advocacy such as “you can make a rope with cannabis,” and that it’s a whole new industry that could bring revenue to the state as if those things justified legalization.  But what we know about marijuana far outweighs any conjured-up benefit of the plant itself as a cultivated new market share. 

Passage of the legalization initiative is looking in favor of this destructive drug; it’s trending about the same as what defeated Issue 1 earlier in the year and is supporting the new Issue 1, the death cult of abortion, for November of 2023, at around 56-57%.  There are a lot of people who like to kill babies and do drugs, and they are winning the culture war.  But it doesn’t help when Republicans join in the mess, which is undoubtedly the case with pot legalization in Ohio.  Full disclosure: I have never consumed marijuana.  That has been by choice; I’ve watched what it does to people.  I have lost many friends and family over my opinions on pot, and I’m perfectly fine with pushing people out of my life forever for their use of marijuana.  I am a strict no on marijuana consumption on any basis, even on the medical front.  The value of a human mind to me outweighs any physical virtue of numbing pain and pot without question, exacerbates depression in people, propels suicidal thoughts, and stimulates the tendency toward schizophrenia.  There are a lot of people who have tried pot and used it recreationally who will declare that it never impacted them in such a way.  But there is a percentage of people who do, and the effects are devastating.  But I am against all forms of intoxication.  If I had it my way, people wouldn’t be able to drink and get drunk.  I’m against it all, especially pot.  There is nothing good in destroying a mind, and that is what the consumption of marijuana does to people.  When foolish people without much knowledge of history say to me, “But the Indians used it, and they loved nature and were a peaceful people,” I reply, “That’s why the Indians were so easy to beat and destroy.  Because they smoked too many peace pipes and consumed marijuana.”  This is why the enemies of America want drugs legalized so that they can destroy the intellect of what makes America exceptional to begin with.

Nobody is doing to the business community anything beneficial with the legalization of pot.  Nothing makes more of a human resource nightmare than the sudden belief that a bunch of workers can go outside on break and smoke dope because they believe it’s legal in Ohio to do so, and return to the job site stoned and impaired.  Even though alcohol is legal, people can’t show up for work drunk or drink in an intoxicated state on the job.  But the pot sticks around even longer.  I travel a lot, and in states such as Colorado, where pot has been legalized, the degradation of the state economy is evident at just a casual glance.  A state that values impaired thinking over productive output is asking for trouble, and that is precisely what legalizing marijuana gives you.  It will hurt Ohio much more than it will help put more money into the pockets of politicians to waste on dumb projects at the expense of intellect.  More vape shops to promote a degraded state of social value will push away more business than it brings in through the newly created pot business.  The ultimate consumer is numbing their mind and body in ways that make them less than they could be, and that is never a good policy.  It’s not like I didn’t have options to try pot.  I decided a long time ago, based on extensive experience, that I could tell stories about for days and days without pause, my history with pot and my decision never to consume it and to push people who did out of my life, sometimes very violently, that I would never consume marijuana.  I’m a very hard no on Issue 2.  I consider legalization an attack by hostile forces on the American dream, and regardless of what a loser percentage votes in favor of, I will never be a supporter and will always speak against it.  So far, it’s not too late, but I’m prepared for that next stage with increased vigor.  I’m not just “vote no” on marijuana legalization and have strong opinions about its social use.  This attack only inspires me to be a much more vocal critic of it.  And if the odds against that opposition is a trillion to one, that’s fine with me.  A trillion brain-dead, pot-smoke-infested fools is no match for an unrestrained intellect.

Rich Hoffman

ISSUE 2 IS WONDERFUL: The gap is closing as good people come to their senses

The gap is closing on the controversial Issue 2 law which brings much-needed reform to the collective bargaining process in Ohio. Issue 2 was central to almost every conversation I had with the media on Tuesday, September 27, 2011 which was heavier than usual as the school levy campaigns have begun to take off.

The Cincinnati Enquirer did a tremendous piece on the front page of its paper which explored the reason behind the rash of tax resistant school board candidates running for positions all over Cincinnati. Michael Clark had interviewed me for that article weeks ago and had put a lot of work into gathering the scope of personalities in the article. You can read that article here for reference: CLICK THE LINK.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20110926/NEWS0102/109270305/Schools-face-anti-tax-candidates

Doc Thompson and I had one of our all-encompassing education discussions on 700 WLW the day The Enquirer article came out and much of the conversation centered on the new Quinnipiac University poll done with registered Ohio voters which also came out that very morning as a separate news story. It revealed that the people who favored repealing Issue 2 still had the majority at 51%, but showed that 38% strongly favored keeping it, leaving 13% of the voters still up in the air. In July, the numbers were 56% wanting repeal and only 32% wanting to keep it. This corresponds with what many of us who know what Issue 2 is all about and that’s when people learn how good Issue 2 is, they will want it. Issue 2 was forged out of frustration from the many failed school levies in pursuit of a long-term solution. Those tax resistance advocates of which I’m a part helped our elected representatives understand what we wanted them to do in order to solve the problems with school districts having virtually no influence over their budgets, because of the collective bargaining agreements that involve federal mediators and a very powerful union lobby, works aggressively against the taxpayers.

I have known all along that once the good people of Ohio understood that Issue 2 was greatly to their advantage, they’d begin to change their mind, which is what’s happening. Listen to the discussion with Doc and me by clicking the video below.

The public unions are losing ground because they have nothing new to say. They have no solutions to the problems they created, and virtually everything they gained over a 30 year period, they gained with violence, protests, and strikes. They collectively bullied their way into a situation where they now have wages and benefits that are 43.4% higher than the rest of us who pay their salaries in the private sector. CLICK THIS HOT LINK FOR MORE DETAIL. Over the next month, the unions will lose much more ground, because the facts in their behalf are not pretty. They are caught in their own misleading statistics. People have not forgotten what they’ve done even now that the public unions are pretending to be treated unfairly. It is the police and firefighters unions who have put themselves in front of the much more guilty teachers unions to attempt once again to push the emotional hot button hoping to keep support for repeal above 50%. But even the police unions are guilty of their share of violent intimidation of public officials, which over time has created great wages, overtime pay without any management control, and incredible abuses and double-dipping of the wages provided. Case in point is this outburst by the President of the Cincinnati FOP lashing out at Cincinnati City Council over just a PowerPoint presentation. The intent of this outbreak is to intimidate city council by preventing any discussion of cost management. This broadcast was done in December of 2010 a whole month before John Kasich took office. It is because of situations like this that many of us in the anti-tax groups all over Southern Ohio sat down with Shannon Jones, Bill Coley, Pete Beck, and Senator Cates to give us tools to help manage our costs. For me personally, after just defeating the recent Lakota Levy and needing a long-term fix to the situation it was this broadcast that convinced me something like Issue 2 was essential to a long-term fix on these public sector costs which were spiraling out-of-control. (GO AHEAD……LISTEN)

Shortly after my talk with Doc Thompson I met with Tiffany Teasley of Fox 19 for an interview about the new Lakota Levy. The Yes Lakota people were launching the first of their MOVE FORWARD seminars later that night and Tiffany wanted to know what I thought about it. You can see that interview at the link below.

http://www.fox19.com/story/15564133/campaigns-for-and-against-lakota-levy-gear-up

I told Tiffany exactly what the Yes Lakota people would say hours before she even had the opportunity to interview them. “They’ll say that they need this levy passed so Lakota can move FORWARD. Without the money they’ll fall backwards. Yet they can’t explain to anybody why. They just ask for money to be tossed into a bottomless pit as if by burning the money, education will move forward.” I knew what would be said because it’s the same tired public union rhetoric that has been used and proven false for decades. The assumption by public unions is that taxes can always be increased to fund excessively high expectations.

Off camera, Tiffany asked me, “So how do you view your role in this levy, this time around? I remember last time they (Pro Levy Lakota) accused the No Lakota People of just saying “no,” and not offering any solutions,” Tiffany asked.

“Issue 2 is the kind of solution I had in mind, and once the election was over, I started talking to elected representatives about creating legislation that would fix the problem. That was the start of Senate Bill 5, which would become Issue 2.  I was not alone in this as many others did the same thing contacting their representatives and demanding something be done. It was not created by some evil Republican conspiracy in some oppressive mountain of doom, where busting unions was the goal. It was started by people like me who asked our elected officials to provide relief from the incessant tax requests by cost overruns in the public sector. Kasich is simply doing what people like me asked him to. Shannon Jones wrote the bill listening to her constituents, who are simply sick of politics as usual and want an end to it. I know it because I know most of the people who were giving her an earful of complaints about this constant barrage of school levies year after year after year, and no matter how much money we give them, they find a way to spend a nickel more. That has to stop and Shannon listened to her constituents, at least the ones who bothered to let her know.”

Most of the people supporting a repeal of Issue 2 are people who profit from the squandering that has been going on. As I came back to my office after speaking with Tiffany, Bill Cunningham was stating that he would support a repeal of Issue 2 and that he stood with public workers. Cunningham like many of the cops and firefighters he’s defending have lived well off the government, so he really has no choice but to take a position against Issue 2. Through his legal work, and his wife who is a current Judge in Cincinnati, he has been a benefactor of public service, and cannot take a hard stand against it now, so he is part of that 50% who still support repealing Issue 2. But as the facts of the matter continue to come out, and it is realized that the public union position against Issue 2 is simply airless rhetoric, as credible as the Move Forward Campaign at Lakota, and dozens upon dozens of other schools all across Ohio, people are waking up.

None of those schools asking for another levy can justify more tax money with any facts, or figures. They cannot discuss how they have mismanaged their union contracts to arrive at the abuse that has wrecked community budgets everywhere. All they can do is ask for more money. That’s the extent of their entire plan. Tax somebody in order to feed them and when the money runs out they’ll still ask for more from someone else………TAX THE RICH!!!! THEY OWE ME SOMETHING!!

Over the next month some of those 50% will either convert their vote to a Yes for Issue 2 out of the guilt they feel deep inside, or they won’t show up to vote, unable to vote against themselves. Because good people will emerge in the final hours of Issue 2 and do the right thing. As more facts reveal the true extent of the public sector union abuse, the good among them will do the right thing and that gap will narrow even closer as the election looms near. The days where public unions rule our community budgets is over, because like I told Tiffany on the delightful autumn breeze that carried my voice during our interview, “It used to be that the school levies would just keep coming and coming and coming until they finally pass them. After all, that’s what’s happening here in Cincinnati. Well, I can say for myself, that if Issue 2 does not pass, then the public unions will see it come back again, and again and again, until it does pass, because we will not take no for an answer. Reforms of public service will occur now, or in the future, but reforms will occur.”

Is it arrogant to say such a thing? Absolutely not, I learned this attitude from the public sector unions themselves, and understand that this is the only way to deal with them. I was watching football over the weekend and thinking about how the public unions were behaving now that they’ve been caught. They looked like a lot of the players who hit a quarterback too late, or too hard, or committed a flagrant penalty which drew a flag. The caught player often becomes animated and acts as though they are innocent of any wrong doing, as if they hope to erase the crime from the minds of the referees. And that’s what I see happening with the public unions now that Issue 2 is that flag, a penalty they have to contend with. They are pretending they did nothing to deserve attention. They pretend that they have made sacrifices, but they conveniently leave out that anything they gave back to the community came out of the portion of their benefits that is already 43.4% over the rest of society, so to call it a sacrifice is insulting. Just as a football player tries to erase a 15 yard penalty so they don’t have to feel the wrath of their teammates from playing too aggressive. The public unions are guilty……….guilty as a collective whole by taking too much from the tax payer, and participating in aggressive extortion when they want more. Even the employees who sat quietly and let their union leaders do their bidding on their behalf are guilty because they knew all along that the money wasn’t free, and somebody had to sacrifice much so they could have a very comfortable job with excellent pay.

But if any doubt in your mind lingers even knowing what we know about Diana Frey, or any of the other public union debacles that we have seen in 2011, just go back and listen to that audio clip from the President of the Cincinnati FOP to hear how business was conducted by public unions before Issue 2 was even written. It is because of meetings like that when people like me said enough is enough. I’m personally done with public unions and I no longer recognize their authority. Issue 2 isn’t worded nearly hard enough for what I asked for and I am angry that Shannon Jones and John Kasich compromised as much as they did. They actually wanted to be fair to the public workers where I was ready to cut them all out to sea.

The public unions are lucky I didn’t write the bill. They should be happy that other people, with cooler tempers were a part of the process, because at least they really don’t lose anything with Issue 2. It just gives management control to elected officials in the future and takes away the ability to stop work from a public worker, which should have been done long ago. And that is a small price to pay for the terrible penalty that the public unions have committed. And it’s only a matter of time before they realize that and join those of us in favor of Issue 2.

For more information about ISSUE 2 here are additional articles that I have written about it. Feel free to read them to understand more clearly what Issue 2 will do for you and understand what is at stake, and how we arrived at this precipice in time.  (THIS IS A SMALL SAMPLE I HAVE OVER 400 ARTICLES ON THIS SITE JUST LIKE THIS ONE……………….If you take the time to read these articles and watch these videos, you will know more than 90% of all the politicians and media people anywhere…….so what’s stopping you?)

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/all-the-reasons-to-vote-yes-on-issue-2-being-bold-and-doing-the-right-thing/

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2011/09/20/public-workers-make-43-4-more-than-everyone-else-more-reasons-to-vote-yes-on-issue-2/

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/progress-ohio-spin-machine-calls-senate-bill-5-anti-worker/

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/s-b-5-would-have-saved-1-3-billion-in-2010-yet-the-oea-says-its-teachers-will-suffer-when-the-average-teacher-makes-55k/

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2011/02/20/union-violence-and-intimidation/

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2011/03/06/the-communist-manifesto-seiu-attacks-ohio-senators-while-they-eat/

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/bullwhips-and-issue-2-those-forefathers-from-the-70s-lol/

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2011/09/06/the-wookie-defense-class-war-is-here-public-unions-against-everyone-else/

 

For the answer to everything, CLICK THIS LINK:

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2011/09/18/the-answer-is-c-who-runs-society-the-engine-or-the-boxcar/

Rich Hoffman
https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

Public Workers Make 43.4% More Than EVERYONE ELSE: More reasons to vote YES on ISSUE 2

 

 

Let me guess. The pro union faction will declare the new report that Andrew Biggs from the American Enterprise Institute just released is false, which states clearly that public sector workers are being paid 43.4% more than private sector positions, and that many of the costs are the type of secondary costs that many in the private sector don’t even consider because they are only known in public sector service. The unions instead will declare that all the information contained in that report is somehow misleading and concocted by the “evil John Kasich” from his throne of power. (This shows what a poor grasp on reality those people function from)

That’s why I’m putting up the original video of Andrew Biggs where he explains how he arrived at the information and discusses how other information that had been floating around prior to this report is fundamentally wrong due to several errors of judgment, which this report corrected.

The public union supporters have been floating around for weeks, just as they do with school levies the fear that if Issue 2 stays law, then the public workers will stop their public service work and will leave those jobs to work in the private sector……………LOL. Let me make a prediction. (WHISPER) NO THEY WON’T, because as Mr. Biggs said, “Fears that public employees are being treated unfairly, or that many will quit their jobs and the government will be unable to recruit replacements, are almost certainly unfounded.”

Public workers even if they gave back half of all their benefits to the taxpayers in order to be more equal would STILL be out ahead of everyone who pays their salary. That is where all the hidden costs of state budgets are. They get lost in the chaos of big government and explain why those employees are so expensive. The more government workers there are, the less efficient they are, because personal accountability is decreased. That is the subject of this Doc Thompson discussion on 700 WLW in a recent broadcast where he reveals how inaccurate states have been in issuing unemployment insurance. Doc continues on to discuss the new AEI report after this stunning revelation. The terrible performance discussed in this broadcast could be translated to virtually any form of government. This is the problem with politicians who “create” jobs just for the sake of filling seats with bodies without any concept on performance.

For your own reference, feel free to read the whole report for yourself. You can read it at the link below:

http://issuu.com/communitypress/docs/brtcompensation/2

The basics of the report are this:

• Ohio public employees receive nearly the same wages as comparable private workers (2.5 percent less, although that’s an average disguising some of the education professions with lower level administrative work, such as those who issue the insurance payments. Teachers along with police and firefighters are very guilty of uncontrolled overtime payments, and double-dipping retirements which are paying the same employee twice and driving up the cost of staffing those positions.)

• Fringe benefits for Ohio public workers are more than twice as generous as those paid in the private‐sector, meaning that when pay and benefits are taken into consideration public workers receive 31.2 percent more in total compensation than private‐sector counterparts.

• Ohio Public employees enjoy significantly greater job security than private‐sector workers. That job security has an economic value equal to approximately 10 percent of compensation.

• Even if the provisions of SB 5 were implemented in full, it is very likely that Ohio public‐sector workers would continue to enjoy a substantial compensation premium over private‐sector Ohioans.

Seeing all this it’s not hard to see why the public employee unions are out chanting, screaming, and acting like a bunch of spoiled brats. They know they have a good thing going. The bigger government is, the less anyone pays attention to how much things cost and this is the direct reason that taxes are increased, because nobody is managing the costs. So when the union lobby says that Issue 2 will not directly save money, that is because they are not considering all the indirect costs, which make up a majority of the 43.4% disparity, and if each city and district can control their own costs, it will be much harder to hide these huge differences in compensation that are currently hidden in a massive bureaucracy.

For the public unions it is easier to make a villain out of Governor Kasich, as though Kasich is the one who wrote the bill, than it is to deal with any real facts. Sadly, the union lobby just like they do with their anger at Wall Street just don’t seem to understand that Kasich had very little to do with Senate Bill 5 known now as Issue 2. It was a bunch of Senators, many of whom I know, that wrote the bill based on what people like me told them we wanted to see happen. And if the public unions succeed in getting Issue 2 removed as a law, people like me are not going to go away. This is just getting started. This is the first step.

The reason for this persistence is that I’m not going to pay higher taxes to maintain a 43.4% difference in benefits. That’s just stupid. I’ve known this disparity existed for a long time, but I didn’t know it was even THAT bad as indicated in the AEI Report. I had been thinking it was around 30%, which I thought was too much. So this report reveals that it’s far worse than even I thought. And in my opinion if the public workers decided to leave public service, then good. We need a smaller government as it is, and if the pay wasn’t so good, then people wouldn’t want to work for the government so badly. Then maybe we’d get people working in government who do it as a sacrifice instead of trying to enrich themselves at tax payer expense. And before all the teachers, firefighters, and cops write me to say, “Oh, you are a big mean guy,” if what I said wasn’t true, then there wouldn’t be so many abuses of the retirement law. Double-dipping alone costs the state of Ohio millions and millions of dollars, and people in the private sector do not have that option. The retirement at 55 needs to be abolished, and with or without Issue 2, we’re coming after it. It doesn’t matter if it’s this year, or next year, or the year after, sooner or later those abusive privileges will be leaving, because I won’t shut my mouth until they are gone, and I’m not alone.

So public unions, go ahead and show videos of crying babies, and burning buildings and hope nobody looks too closely at the scam you and your unions have been running, which every single one of you know you are guilty of. Because the facts don’t lie, even though you wish they did. You have been cheating the taxpayer by 43.4% and you owe that back to each and every private sector worker sooner or later. Nobody in their right mind would vote to increase their own taxes now that they know you have been screwing them over in dramatic ways and hiding the crime behind their children, their sick, and the victims of crime. Such a thing is disgraceful, and not worth the money we pay you, even if it was equal with the private sector, which it isn’t.

For the answer to everything as to why labor unions fail, check out this link:
https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/why-public-labor-unions-fail-the-science-of-stagnation/

Rich Hoffman
https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com