Tag: Ohio

The Climate Change Cult of Larry Fink and his Desecrators of Davos Friends: We need a separation of church and state to protect Ohio’s powerplants

Think how ridiculous the concept is; for many years in America, we were told that we had to take the Ten Commandments out of our courthouses, that we couldn’t pray in public schools, that we had to have a separation of church and state. Then, we watch the Desecrators of Davos at their World Government Forum in Dubai use climate change religion as the primary means to attach all of us to their insane view of the world. They have introduced a religious cult to the world and suddenly think it mandates a necessity for change that ties all of us to it whether or not we believe it. Climate change, by no measure, is a science; it’s a cult of earth worshipers who have a maniacal desire to return to the primitive village of global habitation. And they want it for all the same crazy religious disputes that have taken place over the history of the human race, to control those villages during human lifetimes. It’s a ridiculous proposal, yet when it comes to the global management people who spoke in Dubai with Klaus Schwab and the usual Desecrators of Davos crowd who are using climate change speculation at creating fear and anxiety to drive change, we see those changes in our local communities. This is no longer a debate for the nightly news, it is attacking the infrastructure of the United States, and it’s all built on nonsense, just as Covid science was. It’s a scam, a power grab no different than some crazed religious fanatic pointing to the rapture as a reason to sell all our worldly possessions. The essence of the climate change religion is to advance their cause without any evidence whatsoever, only fear and made-up articles paid for by billionaires who donate the funds to their own version of a mythical armageddon. 

In Cincinnati, Ohio, we are losing another power plant, the Zimmer plant, which is actually up the river in Moscow from downtown Cincinnati. It was scheduled to close by 2027 purely over ridiculous environmental standards imposed on it by a government captured by the Desecrators of Davos, the Larry Finks of the world. They use ESG scores to impose changes to progressive businesses rather than political ones at the ballot box. They knew people would never vote to cut their own throats, so they attacked the boards of directors of power plants like Zimmer and gave them ridiculous standards to live up to based purely on the climate change religion. And knowing that the inevitable is happening anyway, the Zimmer people are just throwing in the towel and closing the plant early. Where is that extra power going to come from? The Desecrators of Davos intend to impose on us all wind and solar methods that may or may not work all the time. And when they don’t work, we are supposed to sacrifice our power needs to the gods of climate science and be happy about it. Their reasoning is just as crazy as some Mayan priests cutting off the heads and hearts of human sacrifices on a temple top in the Yucatan, hoping that the killing of people might help make it rain for their crops to grow. We might laugh at such notions now in the modern age, which the Mayans or Egyptians might have believed. But the climate change radicals are just as ridiculous. 

It’s one thing to look at people like the Descrecrators of Davos and laugh at their sheer stupidity in what they believe. For instance, I could have owned a condo in Florida in the 1980s and today measured the same distance from the porch to the high tide mark, and it wouldn’t have changed at all. I could also point to archaeological sites in England now covered by water across the English Channel and show that the sea level there rose several hundred feet from the last Ice Age. People could have walked then across to France without getting wet. Climate change is a condition of living on earth, and some cycles occur every 10,000 years, every 600,000 years, and every 10 million years. The climate will never stay the same whether or not humans are on it. Instead, the climate change religious lunatics have seen how well the phony science worked with Covid and have become encouraged to make their long-planned moves to control the world much more aggressively. It’s not that we can laugh at their stupidity from afar; they are in all our companies, our government, and running our country through finance, attaching all of us to their radical religion. Whether we agree with their religion of climate change or not, we are all being forced to live under their rule, just like some medieval dispute between the Catholics and Protestants. It is the dumbest thing in the world that we addressed in America upon its founding. Separation of church and state. 

Just as liberals protested that they didn’t want to see our Ten Commandments, we don’t want to see their stupidity over wind turbans and solar panels. We don’t want to be tied to their crazy cult, which isn’t any different than the fanatics of the Jim Jones massacre or the Helter Skelter murders. What the Desecrators of Davos believe is insane; their religion of climate change is the stuff of lunacy. They do not have a right to attack our infrastructure in America with it, so the same argument must apply in their direction. Climate change is not a science. There is no scientific evidence anybody can point to and show a need for any human action on it, any transfer of energy from a coal plant to a solar farm not while China is opening a new coal plant much dirtier than Zimmer every week as we allow the Descecrators of Davos through agents like Larry Fink to destroy the Ohio power grid leaving us all starving for power. What business will want to come to Ohio if they can’t get any power and have to wait for the wind to blow or the sun to come out to be able to microwave a sandwich in the breakroom? It’s insanity to allow a mindless cult to take over our energy grid in America by a bunch of religious fanatics who are just as superstitious as the many failed societies of the past who turned to sacrifice as the way to propel civilization forward. Not that a history lesson should be necessary, but it has never worked. And it won’t work this time. So it is time to call things what they are. Climate change is not science; it’s a religious cult advocated by losers who have no idea what they are talking about and expect the rest of the world to follow them toward our own destruction. When power plants in Ohio like Zimmer are shutting down over this nonsense, it’s time to call it for the good of the rest of society. The left has argued that they wanted protection from the religious founding of America with a separation of church and state. Well, we need the same to protect our businesses and our very lives from the religious cult of climate change. If they want to worship the earth, they can dress up in their stupid robes and chant to the ocean somewhere. But they need to stay out of our lives. Their insanity cannot be allowed to set policy for America or any of its people.

Rich Hoffman

Click to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business

Jennifer Gross Endorses Jim Renacci: The Overton Window in Ohio Politics

I’ve never been a “no government anarchist.” My thoughts on government management have always been a small but active legislature that is contentious, honorable, yet tenacious. Those who have read my Gunfighter’s Guide to Business know I view most group-oriented behavior as a competitive match, not an opportunity for back-slapping and friendship. Our republic form of government has been unique globally, and now that we understand the nature of the attack against our country, we can better understand the threat that has always been there. I have thought about this kind of thing a lot over the last year, especially while visiting Mt. Rushmore. I found that place to be a temple of intellect, and the bookstore they have there is better than a gold mine of infinite wealth. My thoughts on the matter have matured up to the present with this visit to the Statehouse of Ohio. The challenge has been to create as open a market as possible for business and individual rights while still defending the sovereignty of our states and nation from foreign aggression. Which, of course, is hard to do in an open market global economy. The hostile forces to the United States have attacked not the concept of any nation-states but the essence of our very economy. This corporate board room government within a government type of thinking is challenging the very nature of our Republic form of government. Understanding the nature of that attack is precisely why I have been pointing out Ohio politicians I know who are doing the job correctly, in their own unique way, so that we can see examples of how our republic government should look. And a fine example of how government should look can be found in my State Representative Jennifer Gross, whom I recently had a chance to visit at the Statehouse. 

It’s taken me a while to warm up to Jennifer Gross. During a rough election, she ran against my pick for that seat that Mike DeWine had screwed up with emergency power Covid rules. But in the short time Jennifer has been in the seat of the 52nd District; she has brought more of the Tea Party to Columbus than I would have thought possible. When I recently found her after Governor DeWine’s State of the State speech, she was very bubbly and enthusiastic, working the floor and talking to many different people. I know that many members of the House and Senate and many other politicians view Jennifer as a disruptive force and find her unsettling. I’ve heard lots of negative talk about her by several in the political class, but I have some other ideas about her that I wanted to confirm. So we spent some time together talking about the Overton Window and its role, which she more than understood. And we also talked about the challenger Jim Renacci whom she is one of the only official members of the Statehouse to endorse openly. I know there are a lot more, but I could see the pressure up close. At this event, where Jennifer and I talked, Governor DeWine walked around talking to people. People in the House and Senate know they need DeWine to sign bills they are working on. And DeWine needs them to, to look like he’s in charge. DeWine wants to take credit for the big Intel chip manufacturing plant coming to Ohio, announced just ahead of the primary for 2022. And he recently signed a controversial Constitutional Carry bill he would never have signed otherwise, except for Republican pressure to act more “conservative.” But the trade-off has been to show public support for DeWine in a very tight race against Renacci and other challengers. So there is a lot of double talk going on around the Governor. But Jennifer is not one of those double-talkers. She is right out in the open about it, and the Governor is well aware. 

And that is the value I see in Jennifer; she openly embraces that role of a disrupter, someone who will challenge the Overton Window on the political spectrum and yank it hard right away from the communism that has seeped into the process over the years. Back to the constitutional republic, we have needed and expected. Politics is not about friendships, it’s about doing the job correctly, and there is a real hunger from Jennifer to do a great job. She intends to represent all the people honestly in her district, including the people who didn’t vote for her, and that was the general vibe I picked up on as she showed me around where her desk was and other features of the House chamber. Things got pretty heated in Columbus as Jeniffer was on the front of legislation to prevent mandated vaccine requirements imposed by the Biden administration. We all learned a lot from that experience. It was a balancing act between a Chamber of Commerce view of the world, allowing corporate environments to impose rules on their workforce for their own needs and the individual’s rights. The workers have their own sovereignty. Jennifer represented the raw Tea Party small-government perspective against forces that didn’t want to be bothered with contentious debate during a government-imposed pandemic. But in hindsight now, after watching Klaus Schwab at the World Government Forum in Dubai recently, we see those vicious bandits plotting the demise of America out in the open. Their mode of attack has been through the corporate boardroom, our Chambers of Commerce, and our mom-and-pop businesses, dancing to ridiculous rules and regulations imposed by unconstitutional commerce clauses. If we ever needed a functioning republic to sort all these things out, it was now. And I have been increasingly happy that there is someone like Jennifer Gross who will ask the hard questions and force people to think out of the box without making it unnecessarily contentious. Jennifer walks that line quite well, I think. 

So how to put businesses first in Ohio and give corporations the autonomy to locate in our state and do great things is the problem of those lofty halls in Columbus. It’s why I wrote The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business and started passing out copies of it to people I talk to in the political world. We have to defend business and commerce, uphold law and order, and stand by our government and boardroom politics. We have to stand for executive-level leadership in business and politics. But we must also stand for individual freedom and to force the scum and villainy out of our lives without killing the host. Not an easy thing to do, and that is what that book is about, a guide on how to tell good from bad, right from wrong, and unprofitable activity from the driver of all things, profit and value. And to perform that task well, especially in organized government, I find great value in disruptive forces like Jennifer Gross. She will uncomfortably keep everyone honest without turning the dispute into a personal fight. Playing along to get along is not what makes any republic form of government great. But asking the right questions, most often the ones you don’t even know you need to ask, is the key to keeping a government working correctly. And in the world we have today, where the bad guys have been hidden behind the rules and regulations of corporate America and international partnerships, there is a significant need for more disruptive Overton Window types like Jennifer Gross in our grand Statehouse. I am glad to have her there, and I feel proud to have such an engaged representative with plenty of fire to fight the forces at work in our state for duplicity and malice. The need for good government is genuine, more so now than ever. And Jennifer Gross keeps honesty at the front of all conversations for the betterment of everyone. 

Rich Hoffman

Click to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business

Ohio’s Thomas Hall: The Man of Law Enforcement

It’s not hard now to know what we do about Sheriff Jones, why he dislikes the Ohio Representative of the 53rd District so much. I still tell all the people who now dislike the good Sheriff that he has done many good things over the years, and his brand has been good for the Republican Party and the first Trump term. Whether or not he continues to hold that lofty position is up to him. So far, he is turning hard left and headed for Mike DeWine country. But that’s his decision. Politics is a blood sport, and blood does get spilled. And that’s certainly the case with the feud between Thomas Hall and Sheriff Jones. Learning what I have, this problem goes far beyond just disagreements over sponsored bills or even kissing the ring by the youth to the elderly. Instead, it looks like insecurity that many older people go through when they realize a younger generation is replacing them. It can be hard to look in the mirror and acknowledge that you are no longer that guy. And for a guy with an ego the size of Sheriff Jones, of course, getting to the end of a long career in law enforcement will stir up emotions. After endorsing Thomas Hall for his next election, where Jones is trying to primary him out of contention, I stopped by the Statehouse in Columbus to see how Thomas was holding up. It’s been a rough campaign. Like many politicians, they have no idea really when the primary will happen. It’s set for May, but it might change to August. And in Thomas’s case, he doesn’t even know what district he’s running for because the Supreme Court might change it based on district mapping disputes. Yet, when I found Thomas in his natural habitat, I noticed that he was calm, cool, and sure of himself. And he quickly mentioned to me that Sheriff Jones’ labor union had endorsed him. 

Thomas told me all the measures he was taking to get re-elected, including all the door-to-door campaigns he had, regardless of how the districting broke down. We also talked strategy about the negative hits by Sheriff Jones. But now that the smoke had settled from the WLW incident back in November, where Jones went way out of his way to attempt to disparage Thomas in detrimentally belittling ways, the report from the outskirts of Butler County was that the Sheriff was losing his support. People in the rural parts of the county were always skeptical of Jones. They see him as more of a bully than a good cop, and that perception was already in place before Thomas Hall came into politics. The Sheriff is popular with the levy supporting Lakota moms and the big-government liberals, but not so much the rugged self-doers. When Jones supported Trump with them, they liked him. Now that he’s supporting Governor DeWine and is much more on the left than they are, they look at him with squinted eyes of skepticism. And in that way, most of Thomas Hall’s district falls under that category, so the attempts by Jones to disparage Hall have actually seemed to help the young congressman because he provides a protest vote to Jones.

Thomas and I spent quite a lot of time catching up, walking through the rotunda and eventually down into the atrium with the giant Greek pillars standing as testaments of law and order. We took a few pictures and continued to talk about the campaign and his goals for his second term. But along the way, the Governor was walking around in the rotunda, taking pictures with whoever wanted them, so there was a significant police presence everywhere. While we talked, Thomas Hall stopped by each one along our path, thanked them for their service, and showed them how much he appreciated them. They were highly appreciative and receptive. This went on with a frequency that stopped our conversation about every 30 seconds. My thought at the time was that Thomas was doing this for my sake, so I wondered if he did that kind of thing all the time. After taking a few pictures, he had to run off for a session, and we parted ways. But my curiosity wondered if, even in a bit of a hurry and without me around, he would continue to shake hands with all the officers on his way back to his office. 

It was a formal occasion that day, so I was dressed in a suit like everyone else. It was easy for me to hang way back and follow Thomas Hall to his office. He didn’t know I was following as I blended into the crowd. And sure enough, he stopped by every officer, not the same ones as before, of course, and shook their hand and showed them how much he appreciated them. Now Thomas Hall is the son of the old cop who stopped the shooting at Madison Schools a few years prior. Hall grew up with a love of law enforcement and public service, which is why as such a young man, he is already moving toward another term as a House Rep after a past as a trustee in his community. But this reverence for the police was not fake. He didn’t know I was watching him, yet he was very sincere about it. Like I say all the time, don’t listen to what people say; watch what they do. The police of Butler County know what kind of young man Thomas Hall is, and they like him. And that looks to be the problem Sheriff Jones has with him. It’s more a problem that Jones has than what Thomas has. And when the Sheriff’s own police union supported Thomas Hall despite of the activism of Jones, the direction of the campaign was clearly headed in a direction favorable to Hall. The police can see where the future is, and Thomas Hall is their guy. And deservedly so. 

I always enjoy learning these kinds of things about people. We live in a world full of fake people and broken promises. There are few people out there who actually exceed expectations. I already liked Thomas Hall before our meeting at the Statehouse of Ohio, in those grand chambers of intellect and the pursuit of justice. But after watching him work with people and his behavior when he didn’t know anybody was looking, I knew that there was a lot special about Thomas Hall. It’s a shame that Sheriff Jones is trying to put a rift in the Butler County Republican Party the way he is. I understand that fear of becoming irrelevant. I would even think of it as a forgivable situation. Nobody wants to see the memory of the Sheriff be like that old dog that bit some little kid at the end of its life, erasing all the good things that had occurred over its lifetime. But that is for the Sheriff to work out for himself. The police and voters where it matters were clearly happy with Thomas Hall, and he was certainly willing to do whatever it took to defend his House seat. And he was confident the way unbeaten people in life usually are. And when you are as good and sincere as Thomas Hall is, it looks clear that he will remain unbeaten for the foreseeable future. Thomas Hall is the man of law enforcement, and the police know it and will reward him accordingly.    

Rich Hoffman

Click to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business

The Lofty Expectations of the Ohio Statehouse: Senator George Lang is a politician it can be proud of

It was a great treat for me to get a day to visit the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus to see a good friend of mine, Senator George Lang. It was good for me to put things in perspective as some of the issues of the hour are intense and changing by the minute. The Ohio Statehouse is a grand vestige dedicated to a republic form of government, and it was built with love and ambition. I think all statehouses try to do the same thing. The Ohio Statehouse is a special place dedicated to intelligence, study, and the difficulties of a republic that spans thousands of years in the past. It’s a place of ambition and hope reflected in the Greek architecture, the various marble ornaments, and symbolic statues. Whenever I go there, I am reminded that much of the hard work that is done in politics, even when it often falls so short of expectations, is worth the effort. Even when people complain about the cesspool of politics and the corrosive elements of lobbyists, I see the work that goes on in places like the Ohio Statehouse as the best that there is in the world. I’ve been to the Parliament in London and other places where the work of politics is done, and I see the purity of the Ohio Statehouse as something special, unique. I am possessive that it exists to do the work all people in Ohio need done. Even if people disagree on what that work is, the place is there to make sure it has a chance to happen. 

Another friend of mine took a picture of me on the House floor, and that’s what I was thinking. I don’t usually get sentimental about those types of things, but I had just had a good meeting with Senator Lang with the door closed. I was very happy to hear what he was working on. But more than that, I saw the same eyes alive and well within him that I have known for many years as he was one of the original members of the West Chester Tea Party. George is still that same person who gives out copies of Atlas Shrugged at Christmas and believes in small government, fiscal responsibility, and a business-first political strategy which is the key to all wealth-building in any culture. George Lang is a good person, a very good person. And as I was thinking about the Ohio Statehouse and all its ambitions, most of the time, we resent politics because we give politicians all these great tools to work with, like the Ohio Statehouse.   Most of the time, the people we send to the congress and senate fall short of our expectations, leading to perpetual disappointment. But George Lang is one of those exceptions. He actually lives up to the lofty expectations. The building seems to have been built specifically for people like him.

I say all those nice things because I had an extended chance to watch him work with other members of the House and Senate. And to interact with Governor DeWine. George is friendly, engaging; he’s a great salesman. But while he is doing all those things, he’s also guarded and measured. He’s a hard nut to crack for a lobbyist because it’s hard to tell where to get a hook into him. What is the vice of George Lang? What makes him tick? Where is he vulnerable? It’s one thing to be sociable and even polite. George has been involved in Columbus politics for many years now. When our schedules match up, I speak to him quite a bit here and there, but he’s a busy guy. So, to be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect in his office with the door closed and talking about the business that needs to happen for the state. To talk about the upcoming primaries, his Business First Caucus, politics back home in Butler County, Ohio. But what I found was a person who loves doing a good job, that had not been swept away by any trace of corruption, and the same wide-eyed person I have known since he was a trustee in West Chester. And with all that has been going on, where the world presents us with disappointments at every juncture, especially in politics, that was refreshing. 

In that House chamber and its lofty contents, it was apparent that most of the members went to Columbus with big goals and that they were getting swept away by the ornate atmosphere. Just before that photograph, I had just heard from a politician who wanted me to know how smart he was and that he was reviewing the legal complications of a land purchase for a solar farm, filled with all kinds of rancid ESG requirements that he thought were great. He was a guy who had been chewed up and spit out of the meat grinder, and I could see that the chamber walls were almost ashamed of him. He did not live up to the expectations. But those big stone walls and finely carved woodwork would see many more like him over the years, as they had. But when George was in that room, the actual chamber seemed happy. There was a person worthy of the Statehouse. There was someone who would do the work and, when done, dash off to his wife and grown children at every opportunity. And I think that is the secret to George Lang working there. The Statehouse was built for people like him, who love their country, their state, and their communities, but more than anything, their families. When the rubber hits the road, that’s how he has managed to survive Columbus and live up to the lofty expectations that come with business there. 

It wasn’t just because I like George. Governor DeWine was walking around shaking hands and taking pictures. Most everyone he interacted with couldn’t wait to lick the shoes of DeWine and pander to him for the powerful seat he sat in. Those same people might badmouth DeWine the minute they were away from him, but when shaking hands and taking pictures, they were like little girls at a pop-rock concert backstage. Power was a seductive force, and they were undoubtedly under its influence when around the Governor. But not George Lang. While respectful, he stayed very true to himself and represented his district exceptionally well. And it wasn’t an act. I wasn’t always somewhere that George could see me. It was just how he was, and I was proud of him. It gave me hope that all the hard work in preserving our republic, first at the state level, then at the federal level, was worth it. That day at the Statehouse is how it’s supposed to be in politics. It’s an example of how to do it right. We build the temples to a republic that has taken us thousands of years to perfect. And our government in Ohio is supposed to be contentious. It’s not supposed to be a fraternity of consensus builders. The Statehouse was built to debate and flush out the best and brightest ideas from the weakest. And over the many decades that the Ohio Statehouse has been there, it has suffered many disappointments in the elected representatives who have gone there to do our work. But George Lang isn’t one of them. If the Statehouse could smile, it surely would when George walks into a room, for that is the reason the place exists.

Rich Hoffman

Click to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business

Mike DeWine’s State of the State Speech: He is the Dr. Fauci of Ohio and the leader of the lockdowns

It was a good reminder of just how bad Governor DeWine is for Ohio to see him at the statehouse in person at his State of the State speech in Columbus, Ohio.  Of course, DeWine canceled the public speech over the last few years because of Covid, which he led the nation in following Dr. Fauci’s advice, so this was his first speech since his first one, which was in 2019, a time when the world was somewhat normal.  Since then, BlackRock and other money managers have attacked the Ohio power grid with progressive intention and knocked out several politicians who had been powerful during that first DeWine speech.   On DeWine’s watch as governor, he has let the Desecrators of Davos in the backdoor of Ohio to shut down coal plants and advocate in favor of solar and wind, just as Al Gore has always dreamed of which has cost all of us a lot of money.  Ohio is number 1 now in corruption, which seems to follow DeWine in every office he has ever had.  But worse than all that, the destruction left behind because of how Governor DeWine behaved during the Covid pandemic.  He was the leader of the country in following United Nations sustainable development using health concerns to advance progressive causes in worse ways than any Democrat would or could have.  He was the leader of the lockdowns as he was the first to open that door, for which many blue-state governors followed.  Yeah, Mike DeWine has been a disaster in every way that a Democrat would have been for Oho, but worse, because the damage was done while people had their guard down thinking he was a Republican. 

Jennifer Gross, my Congresswoman, has openly endorsed Jim Renacci even though there has been a lot of pressure to back DeWine

This all came up as I spoke with Republican friends at that speech in Columbus and in the days leading up to it.  They asked me if I would vote for Mike DeWine now that he signed Constitutional Carry in Ohio and other Second Amendment types of legislation leading up to it.  It astonished me that they asked, but then I remembered that not everyone remembers who was responsible for Ohio’s terrible reaction to Covid, which took the nation into the lockdown frenzy that destroyed so many lives and is just now being calculated in terms of sheer destruction.  Many of these Republicans were more conventional put their finger to the wind types who only measure things from four months ago.  And DeWine is counting on that shallow memory to squeak him by in this primary that is supposed to happen in May of 2022, where Jim Renacci is polling well and, depending on voter turnout, could remove DeWine as the next option for governor.  As I told them and to everyone who has an ear to listen, DeWine only signed the Constitutional Carry bill because of Renacci’s pressure on his leadership.  He didn’t do it on his own.  If there wasn’t a serious Trump-like challenge to DeWine, he would be fighting against the Second Amendment, not signing things in favor of it.  But DeWine is hoping to use these last-minute Second Amendment red meat topics to hide his past, which I’ll never get over.  And seeing him in person trying to worm up support ahead of the election only strengthened my anger at him over what he had done to Ohio in just four short years, destroying so much industry, traumatizing so many lives, and allowing corruption to sink deep roots into our energy infrastructure that is unforgivable.  Rather than defend FirstEnergy and the progressive attacks on coal plants, he joined progressives in attacking other Republicans in a ploy to really remove them from power so they couldn’t challenge him later.  Mike DeWine has his own Game of Thrones going on, and it is evident that he hoped this State of the State speech would put all that into a distant memory.

The Great George Lang

The most significant danger of Mike DeWine is that he is essentially a carbon copy of Dr. Fauci.  Both were polling very well during the Covid pandemic, which we now know was created in a lab in Wuhan and released by China for all the intentions of creating an economic reset by the Desecrators of Davos people.  Hindsight has given a better vision into Fauci’s behavior with Bill Gates paving the way with money manipulating the media in favor of their global scam of progressive change state using the Covid virus to give more power to the Administrative State.  And the first person to fall in line with this “New World Order,” where the United Nations conducts all our local affairs at the state and county level and the World Health Organization was to become our new community doctor; Mike DeWine was the first to sign up for this new brand of tyranny which he imposed on Ohioans with a smile on his face and all the maliciousness of a power-hungry dictator.  The ultimate insult to all the Republicans who voted for Mike DeWine as an establishment type was that he did the unthinkable by putting Amy Acton, the abortion supporter, onto his staff to run his health department.  He followed her right over the Fauci cliff, making the lockdowns possible and leading the country in submission to the CDC and WHO, giving them power that no bureaucrat should ever have over people’s individual lives under any condition.  Not all states were as stupid as Ohio.  Ron DeSantis was great in Florida, and the results are easy to see looking back upon the last two years.  DeSantis resisted the Covid power grabs, whereas Mike DeWine fully embraced them.

Thomas Hall, the Future is Bright

I told my Republican friends that there was no way I would ever vote for Mike DeWine, even after seeing him in person trying his best to make everyone forget.  I had been on several conference calls with DeWine as he spoke to business leaders in Ohio during the lockdowns, and I will never forgive him for what he did to people, all in the name of safety.  DeWine attached himself to Dr. Fauci, and now that time and distance are starting to show how ill-advised that was, there is only one option.  With Jim Renacci, we have a Trump supporter who has promised to lead Ohio in the way that Ron DeSantis has in Florida, and that would be great for everyone, even liberals.  Always at public events like the State of the State speech, there is a ceremony-like atmosphere that focuses on all the positives that we want to feel.  But in truth, and this was obvious by DeWine’s over-emphasis on things that he does when he speaks in public to people he knows want to metaphorically cut him up into little pieces and feed him to some pigs someplace for the villainy he has conducted behind the scenes, the fluff about Intel, about spring, about his love of Ohio were thin masks to the administrative tyrant that is at the core of his personality.  Mike DeWine will go down in history as the arm of Dr. Fauci in Ohio, the mindless bureaucrat who punted Ohio’s fate to the gods of the World Health Organization, and ultimately the money of Bill Gates’ influence.  DeWine didn’t lead; he followed, as he does on all issues, including Constitutional Carry.  He thought the pressure from Republicans on other issues could be reduced if he gave them something they wanted.  And that is how we got into trouble in the first place, because DeWine wanted to make the Dr. Fauci types happy, the tyrants of the United Nations, and ultimately the economic terrorists who are behind it all who need people like the governor to give them power into all our lives.  No, I won’t be voting for Mike DeWine under any conditions.  To vote for DeWine is the same or worse than voting for a Democrat. 

Rich Hoffman

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The Watergate of Butler County: When politicians try to get rid of other politicians by abusing the law

There have been many problems with the Roger Reynolds case in Butler County, Ohio since Fox 19 did a story during the 2021 election season featuring several prominent Republicans in a corruption scandal. One of which was a guy I have known for a long time to be an excellent auditor for the county in Roger Reynolds. Reviewing some of the details of the case, I considered it a simple land dispute among long-time neighbors. Reynolds has lived in Butler County much of his life, and sometimes, relationships like Thanksgiving dinners can get wobbly. And when you have family involved and emotions, and you are trying to be a public servant still, sometimes the gray areas can blend in the lines a bit. But as I said, when I think of Roger Reynolds, I think of high quality, competent public service, the best that government can offer. I have always been and continue to be very proud to have Roger Reynolds as the auditor for my county. I am proud of how the public officials generally conduct themselves in Butler County. I understand everyone doesn’t get along all the time, but for government, I think the public officials in Butler County are some of the best in the country, so I took exception to the hit piece by Fox 19 in Cincinnati. And how that real estate case ended up with charges from a grand jury of three felony indictments and two misdemeanors related to corruption, which could lead to 7 years in jail, was baffling. That is until I read a fantastic book by Geoff Shepard about Watergate called The Nixon Conspiracy. 

We all know Watergate, the breaking in of the DNC headquarters by G. Gordan Liddy and others on behalf of President Nixon to do opposition research. As it turned out, Nixon was innocent of the whole thing. In documents released in 2018 finally by Geoff Shepard, who worked on the case for 50 years trying to defend President Nixon from the embarrassment pushed upon him, we have learned that the prosecution didn’t like Nixon. They conspired with the law to get rid of him. Nixon never knew what the prosecution had given by way of a “road map” to the Grand Jury. And that forced him to react in all kinds of ways that looked guilty, leading the court of public opinion to put so much pressure on Nixon that he just resigned for the country’s own good. And after getting to know the situation involved in this Roger Reynolds case, that is precisely what has been going on against him. The law has been abused by many political rivals, the mushy Republicans who just don’t like Roger for several reasons, which I’ll get into. But they have taken the complaint of someone and blown it out of proportion to fulfill a politically motivated manipulation of the law and gross abuse of power that really is unforgivable. How do I know? Well, I know the players on all sides. I generally like them all. I view the situation more like a human resource problem than a legal one. But the abuse of power and manipulation of the legal system to be weaponized is another matter. This one goes all the way up to the Attorney General of Ohio, David Yost. The pressure campaign coming out of Yost’s office was essentially the same applied to Nixon. 

I wouldn’t have let myself think any of that was possible until I found out about the Grand Jury submission by the prosecutors in the Nixon case that was completely fabricated. We all would hope that journalism would have figured all that out a long time ago. It shouldn’t have taken 50 years to figure it all out. But it makes you wonder how often that kind of thing goes on, especially by those who knew they got away with destroying a president. They tried it again with President Trump. And apparently, that tactic is used all over the United States by politically motivated prosecutors and law enforcement that think it’s their right to override the voters’ opinion by destroying the lives of the politicians they elect, just because they don’t like them. In Roger’s case, he’s really good at his job, which certainly makes politicians who don’t want to work that hard to be upset. Roger is a total disclosure guy who opens his books to show all how he spends money. And many don’t want to open their books up in such a way.

Additionally, politics can be friendly. Everyone shakes hands at the picnics. They hire each other’s family members out of kindness. That is until Covid comes along and re-wrote the attendance rules. Roger’s office let go some of those family members because they stopped showing up for work, and of course, that upset other elected officeholders who decided that they’d get Roger back. Now to me, that’s an easy problem to solve. People can shake hands and smooth things out. But things get out of control when they take the law into their own hands to try to destroy people’s lives out of pure meanness. Clearly, David Yost and his advocates wanted to force Roger Reynolds out of office just as Nixon had been pushed. Roger has done the right thing and stayed on the job to fight this out. And this past week, the Supreme Court supported him.

At the heart of these accusations of corruption is an audiotape, which I have included here. On it, Roger supposedly asked for a 200K consulting fee to help navigate the developers through this real estate endeavor. I’ve listened to that recording many times, and I only hear a very astute professional talking business with businesspeople. Now for some career politicians who want to destroy the life of a guy who is a pain in their neck, I think they heard what they wanted to hear. When you read the paper trail of the case against Roger Reynolds, it becomes quite clear that there are a lot of “feelings” articulated in the accusations. This is what courts are for, and without all the political tampering that has been injected into this case, resolutions would smooth out on their own. But what has happened is that the case was taken over by political activism in how rival employees try to sabotage each other in the workplace. And it is not reflective of the Butler County Republican Party. Instead, the pressure of an outstanding elected representative in Roger Reynolds has challenged many who aren’t so good and don’t like it and have plotted his demise. And that’s not how things are supposed to work in politics. Aside from the pending case, which is Roger’s business with the other parties involved, he is also up for reelection, making this recording all the more critical. I’ll be voting for Roger Reynolds again. I think he has done a fantastic job. I like his rival in this election, Bruce Jones. I have a lot of good history with Bruce. But on this election, the guy on the recording included here is the kind of guy I want doing the business of auditing in Butler County. And if he makes other politicians mad with the pressure of his greatness, then that’s all the better and a job very well done.

Rich Hoffman

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Jim Renacci is the Trump Candidate for Governor in Ohio: The corrupt DeWine counts on the swamp to protect him in a low turnout primary

I know it’s tough. Nobody likes Mike DeWine, the current Governor of Ohio. Even the establishment Republicans who have kissed his ring and endorsed him through the State Central Committee. Everyone I talk to would like to vote for an option, but they think the reality is defined by corruption and that DeWine’s money machine will win in the primary no matter what happens with Jim Renacci. Since the primary is near, I must remind everyone of how it was in 2016 when Trump was on the ticket. All the same, characters were backing John Kasich. He was the establishment guy, the unbeatable goliath. Trump didn’t stand a chance.

Nobody cared because Trump was just an old television celebrity who wrote a few books when I went to events and met Trump. In the political world, that’s how they saw him. What did he know about politics? I would go to VIP events and see seat reservations for all the well-known area Republicans who went unfilled. The people who ended up sitting in those seats were truck drivers, factory workers, and other pick-up truck driving, flag-waving patriots who were there for the same reason I was, to vote for a guy who most represented us, not the Deep State Swamp. Of course, after Trump beat Kasich in Ohio, the political world was shattered, and those empty seats quickly filled with supporters who were nudging in front of me to get a picture with President Trump. I didn’t care. I was happy to see it. Trump brought unity to the Republican Party in ways I had never seen before, and as for John Kasich, he disappeared from the earth quickly. Where is he today? Well, he and Dr. Fauci are likely in a hot tub together someplace hiding from the world, which would be good advice for them.

If the Trump Republicans show up to vote for Jim Renacci in the May primary, DeWine will be defeated. I know the risk is that whoever comes out against DeWine will be remembered. He’s like that. He is a powerful politician not because he is good but because he runs his place in the Republican Party like a mob boss. Get on his bad side, and you’ll find yourself swimming with the fishes. He won’t physically kill you. He’s a shrimpy little man and would be easy to swat away. But he has made up for that over the years with political command of the world around him.   There is a reason Ohio is the first state in corruption among all 50 states. It’s not just the FirstEnergy scandal driven by greenie weenie assaults on Ohio’s power grid; it’s because of how Mike DeWine runs his political circles. Nobody wants to work with Mike DeWine the day after an election where they got caught speaking out against him. It’s a huge risk to their careers. I get it. But just remember, fortune favors the bold, and the way politics is supposed to work is that these politicians work for us, not the other way around. Mike DeWine is number 1 in corruption because of this sentiment. He uses politics to gain power he doesn’t otherwise have, which we saw firsthand during Covid. Mike DeWine ran Ohio during his first term as Governor well to the political left of most Democrats. He runs as a conservative but the minute he wins an office; he legislates to the extreme left. 

I said months ago this was how it would be; all kinds of good Republicans smell the blood in the water and think they can beat DeWine because he’s so weak politically because of how terribly he destroyed people’s lives during the Covid shutdowns. Mike DeWine was just as bad as even the worse of the Blue State governors. In many ways, DeWine led all governors into the shutdown protocols, which opened the door for the massive devastation that occurred to Ohio businesses during Covid. Even more troubling, Mike DeWine asked the legislature for emergency powers a year before Covid happened in 2020.   DeWine has a history of serving the United Nations much more than he does the United States, and he seems to be involved in every Deep State scandal with his ear to the wind. We’ve seen some scary stuff from Mike DeWine during his first term as Governor of Ohio, and we have a chance to remove him and put someone much better in power. Someone much more Trump-like, or even more specifically, like Ron DeSantis of Florida. With Jim Renacci, we have a chance to have a candidate like that. If the Trump supporters show up on primary election day and vote, Mike DeWine wouldn’t have a chance. To me, it’s a low-risk endeavor. But the traditional machine politicians who have thrown themselves behind Mike DeWine know that primaries don’t have typical voters in them. They are the Central Committee types who care about politics seven days a week, not just one time a year or every four years like what we see in popular elections. So for them, voting for Renacci is a gamble many of them can’t afford to lose because it’s all about voter turnout, which they don’t think will be very robust.

Jim Renacci, who I have gotten to know a bit over the years, is the only candidate for Governor in Ohio who can call President Trump any time he wants. Blystone is a good guy in this Governor’s race. And I like Candace Keller and others who want to get involved. But in a tight race, and this is what the DeWine people know, all those challenges are going to split the rebellion vote, meaning the smart money will be left behind DeWine, and the Governor would then win a second term, even though he doesn’t come close to deserving it. DeWine has played this game before. He knows what the other establishment Republicans know, that primary elections are low voter turnout endeavors, and people likely won’t be thinking about Trump. So they will be shy to rally behind Jim Renacci and vote for him in the primary. The actual die-hards who want to see change and reform will split their votes up among the other challengers because none of them could get their act straight before the election, and chaos prevails, giving us more of Mike DeWine. That is how corruption stays in power. That is why we still have Mitch McConnell as the projected leader in the Senate. That is why more people in Congress do not fight to defend our border from illegal immigration. That is why the Swamp just gets deeper and deeper in Washington. In the end, the Swamp is deep because people keep voting for it. The fault ultimately falls on the voters for supporting it in elections like this one. People complain about how corrupt Mike DeWine is and how it would be great to get rid of him. They know that the 20 billion investments from Intel are coming to Ohio despite Mike DeWine, not because of him. Ohio is a great place. It just has had bad, bad governors, from John Kasich to now the extreme leftist from Yellow Springs hippie town, Mike DeWine. And with a perfect alternative right in front of our faces in Jim Renacci, the only Trump candidate on the ballot, the option we have is evident if only we have the guts to take it. 

There is a difference between supporting Trump and being a Trump candidate. I think most of the DeWine challengers are supportive of Trump. But when I first met Jim Renacci, for the very first time, it was coming off Air Force One with President Trump and Melania; the best First Lady America has ever had. Trump had asked Jim to run against Sherrod Brown in the Senate so that Republicans could gain a seat in the Senate. Jim almost beat the long-time progressive. He came very close. And in this case, DeWine is a very weak candidate. He is very weak with the Republican base, so if we are ever going to take down an establishment RINO, this would be the time. For those who want to vote for Trump and want an Ohio version of Ron DeSantis’s style of government, Jim Renacci is that person.   But first, people have to have the guts to show up and vote in the primary, at a time when most people are thinking about spring and summer and aren’t thinking about politics. It starts with voters. If they stay home and allow corruption to gain another term with Mike DeWine, then who is it to blame? Voters have a chance, but do they have the guts to take it? I certainly think it’s worth doing, and I will be voting for Jim Renacci no matter what, with great enthusiasm. 

Rich Hoffman

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Foreign Power Attacks Ohio’s Energy Grid: The Real story of corruption behind FirstEnergy, The Fed and Mike DeWine

ESG scores (Environmental Social Governance) are for business what CRT (Critical Race Theory) has been for public schools. Once parents found out what the game was in sliding CRT under the door and trying to program their children into outright Marxism using race as the mask, they became enraged and have started the process of retaking control of their public schools. Businesspeople, too are on the cusp of a similar necessity. That is why I have never accepted the FirstEnergy scandal as being what the FBI tried to paint it as. Over the summer of 2021, I watched pretty enraged at a press conference the Ohio FBI had boasting that they had received a settlement from FirstEnergy over a bribery scandal they had been investigating, which involved the Speaker of the GOP House, Larry Householder, and many others. It was a story that put Ohio in the number 1 state for corruption in the entire United States, and Governor Mike DeWine was right in the center of it. The FBI proudly bloviated that FirstEnergy settled the case with $230 million, which they indicated was an admission of guilt. The story for me was always about a much more sinister kind of corruption, one that actually points to ESG scores and environmental wacko policies that are an attack on our infrastructure in America from foreign interests. In this case, it all points back to the Party of Davos, the billionaire types who attack countries without a country of their own and seek to impose politics on those countries that bypass their elections domestically. What these finance companies like BlackRock, Blackstone, and Icahn Capital were doing to the nuclear power capability in Ohio was no different than if a country like China had attacked them with missiles and planes to take them out and destroy our power grid. And here was the FBI helping them do it. And the money for all the power leverage came straight out of the American Federal Reserve, created by Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen, and Jerome Powell over a ten-year period to put money behind ESG rankings to impose climate change politics on us all.

After that FBI press conference, around December of 2021, Blackstone bought up 1 billion dollars in stock, which will put yet another activist investment board member on the Board of Directors at FirstEnergy, which will continue to direct the company toward a zero-emission world, to get their ESG scores at the targeted range. Back in 2019, when this ESG imposition was just becoming a practice, the management of FirstEnergy thought the regulatory burdens were ridiculous as these money management firms were pushing them to implement zero-emission standards. Of course, these requirements come from the United Nations, which are driven by the World Economic Forum, which sets them with Al Gore, Klaus Schwab, and the BlackRock CEO himself, Larry Fink. These are extreme left-wing wackos who wouldn’t get the time of day in a political theater, but when they tie themselves to our money, now suddenly they have all the power in the world. And it is through those methods, FirstEnergy was imposed upon through ESG scores to move their coal and nuclear plants to zero emissions by a ridiculously impossible deadline, which would essentially shut them down. FirstEnergy tried to fight back; they funneled $61 million in donations to the GOP through Larry Householder to protect them from these United Nations standards reflected in the ESG means of measurement. The GOP created House Bill 6 to roll back some of the environmental burdens that were killing companies like FirstEnergy. Suddenly the FBI was busting members of the GOP, but not these radical investment firms connected to the United Nations and the World Economic Forum. They were clearly attacking the American power grid to destroy coal and nuclear and replace them with wind and solar. 

Many of my friends in the House and Senate in Columbus wanted to distance themselves from Larry Householder as he was strung up and ran from his seat. It looked like dirty politics to me, and internal power struggles between Householder and Governor DeWine. But some of the other people who took money from FirstEnergy were never-Trumper types leftover from John Kasich, so there wasn’t much of a desire to fight to defend them in public. But the issue continued to bother me. That year of 2021, my wife and I traveled extensively in the West, everywhere from southern New Mexico and Texas to Montana all the way out to Utah and Idaho. I wanted to get away and think about some of these big things clearly. And during that trip, I saw what many truckers have been talking about, the changes to our country that were happening, with these giant wind farms, everywhere, from Iowa to Texas and everywhere in between. This wind power thing was much more advanced than I had been led to believe. In fact, at the Iowa 80 Truckstop, the largest of its kind in the world, I had a chance to see up close the trucks bringing these massive wind turbine blades to their construction sites. This was an enormous project that was going on everywhere, yet not much discussion was happening about it on the news. How was all this happening? Indeed, Americans weren’t imposing this on themselves. 

Doing a lot of research from then until now, it’s quite clear what has been happening. These wind power farms were not coming from the people of America but from energy companies and states seeking better ESG scores to stay compliant with their shareholders, like Blackstone, Icahn Capital, and of course, BlackRock. And the rate of manufacturing has been consistent with all the money the Fed has been printing through quantitative easing over the last decade, creating a dangerous asset bubble that directly contributed to the rise in power of these money management firms. The leverage and power these gained in managed resources, which allowed them to buy all these stock options, to start controlling these companies at the level of the Board of Directors, came directly from the inflated wealth the Federal Reserve created through their ZIRP policies and quantitative easing. Otherwise, BlackRock would have never had the financial leverage to impose these ESG scores on all these companies. And how convenient was it for Blackstone to buy up $1 billion in stock after the settlement story broke about FirstEnergy driving the price down. And guess who pushed FirstEnergy to settle the case, Icahn Capital. 

So as everyone can see, the story is much more sinister than an Ohio energy company trying to prevent itself from being put out of business by ESG politics that come not from the American government but from the United Nations and the Party of Davos. They sought help from the GOP-controlled House because it was their only option. But obviously, the game was rigged against them from the start. And now we see too late that the United Nations fully intends to close down all coal and nuclear power plants in the country and switch us all over to these solar and wind options. We know from California wind and solar alone is not sufficient for the power needs of our economy. But for the enemies of America, that is kind of the point. These finance companies taking control of these Boards in companies all across America over ESG scores are not on an America First agenda. They seek a zero-emission world and massive wealth redistribution from rich countries to poor ones, where they have already leveraged their financial bets. And we have been the pawns in the game because we have let this attack happen, unchecked completely. 

The actions we can take immediately is to understand how ESG policies became part of our SEC rules, at the Federal and State levels.   Because those rules are directly attacking our business infrastructure from elements outside our county.  We need to remove those ESG policies, legislatively.  From there, we need to stop our Fed from funding Wall Street so that an open door to foreign investment can flow money into the backdoor of our country and buy our political system behind our backs destroying our vote through finance and attacking the very heart of our republic without a single shot fired by military aggression.  Make no mistake about it, it’s a war just the same. 

Rich Hoffman

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The Indictment of Roger Reynolds: Is it the pursuit of justice, or a political hit

I brag all the time about how great the Republican Party is in Butler County, and with the corruption indictment of Roger Reynolds that is the hot story this week, I still feel that way. Yet, I’ve known Roger for more than a decade, and I know him to be an excellent auditor for the people who elected him. As I said before, I view the land story that Channel 19 covered back in September of 2021 as a hit piece by Jennifer Edwards, who looks to target Republicans often in stories pitting people against each other to make news, not just reporting it. Her hit piece against Roger and other members of the Liberty Township trustees was obviously political, to attack the Republican brand ahead of the November election. Essentially as I see it, the Roger Reynolds story is one where old family entanglements can get mushy with the duties of an elected office. I find much of it hard to believe, and I think the story is mainly about emotions than logic. But for me, it doesn’t erase all the good work Roger has done over the years. And as I always say, the law is the same at 9 AM as it is at 9 PM or any other day of the week or year. If Roger broke the law, then the law should apply. However, watching Sheriff Jones’ face glow with glee during the indictment announcement made me think of some hypotheticals. Jones was too happy about the indictment, and some of the ways he said words in his presentation triggered questions that are worth consideration since what we are all talking about here are the ethics of an elected office and whether or not Roger Reynolds actually broke any laws, or that the case is a legal dispute between two parties over land. Did Roger abuse his office? Well, if we conclude that he did, doesn’t it open up a whole lot of questions about Sheriff Jones?

I’ve often thought of Sheriff Jones as a great asset to Butler County. But, since Trump left office and Joe Biden has been in the presidency, Jones has turned more into a Democrat than the guy who plays a Republican on TV and at public speeches. The way that Jones went after Congressman Thomas Hall over a voting record, with name-calling and sheer intimidation in public, comes to mind as an abuse of power of an elected office. Voters picked Thomas, yet the Sheriff made quite a public spectacle out of destroying his credibility on WLW radio to many thousands of people. I thought Thomas defended himself well, but the question remains about Sheriff Jones, what was he thinking in doing so? Was he trying to intimidate an officeholder, to exert power over the Republican Party of Butler County in ways that didn’t represent the voters? Surely not. But based on the kinds of things that Jones said in his press conference about the indictment of Roger Reynolds, doubt was indeed cast on the situation. Why would Sheriff Jones be so happy to bring about an indictment of a fellow Republican? His glee sounded as if he were a Democrat about to put a Republican in jail over some bogus charge, an allegation anybody could make against anybody. Given how the Sheriff treated Thomas Hall, might it not be logical to conclude that the Sheriff took a particular interest in the Reynolds case for some strategic move? For a local land dispute to make it to the Attorney General of Ohio directly, some political investment would have to be involved, raising eyebrows. 

Then there was the strange action on Sheriff Jones’ mask politics, where he had been leading the country against mandates. Suddenly, a few weeks ago, as the new school board at Lakota was getting set to vote to remove mask mandates, and the teacher’s union was all upset about it, Sheriff Jones flipped his position. It was an extraordinary move for him. What was going on? Well, I know more than I’m letting on here. But for the sake of the hypotheticals of this evolving case, questions are good to ask, especially in public figures who are declaring injustice among long-time Republicans in the team-building of party politics. I remember years ago when I published the pay rates of the local police departments, and I was shocked by how many family members Sheriff Jones had in many townships. It brought a question to my mind about Sheriff Jones himself and his relationship with members of Congress, senators, and area trustees. What was he really saying when he bragged about beating down some politician like Thomas Hall on city-wide radio? “Don’t get on my bad side. Or the same thing will happen to you.”  Whether or not that was the intention, I can say that I know many politicians who feel that way. Was that feeling created on purpose by the Sheriff? Is that part of his brand within the party? And is he really a Democrat trying to infiltrate the Republican Party with liberalism disguised as good ol’ fashion police work? 

Watching Jones stumble over the word “start” in his press conference, I couldn’t help but wonder if he was getting stuck trying to justify to himself how the investigation into Reynolds even started. By the way, I watched his body language. He acted like a guy who knew he was doing something wrong yet was trying to hide it behind justice. Thinking of all these things, I couldn’t help but wonder if some family member of Jones had worked in the office of Roger Reynolds and maybe had a falling out like many employees do with their bosses. With so much family on the government payroll, it would certainly be a conflict of interest if Jones was out in the county intimidating public officials into behaving the way he wanted them to, to protect his family members employed by some of those politicians. And if that were the case, which it may or may not be, how would it be different from what Jones was accusing Reynolds of doing, based on a Channel 19 report, meant to smear area Republicans and refer the investigation up the food chain to the Attorney General’s office, and smear the headlines all over the national news? It comes out looking like a lot of “unlawful use of authority” to me and many spoonfuls of “conflict of interest.”

If the law was broken, everyone should pay for their incursions. If Roger is guilty, then he is guilty. I would be surprised if he were, but I’ve seen plenty of railroad cases before, and this whole issue has the smell of a political hit. It looks like some kind of revenge scheme that is being hidden behind some token law and order façade. I hope that’s not the case. But if Roger is guilty, then where do we draw the line between public life and protecting family concerns? Roger might have made mistakes with his case because of family entanglements, things that he wouldn’t usually find himself involved in. But couldn’t the same be said when an officeholder, such as a sheriff, intimidates officeholders who employ family members? And what happens if there is some termination of employment? Would the Sheriff get personally involved? Would he retaliate? Well, he has shown the signs of that behavior. I’m sure we’ll find out. For now, I feel I need to defend my political party in my hometown from this embarrassment that the Sheriff has communicated to the world. Should we be mad at Roger? Or should we be angry at the Sheriff? Well, I want to see all wrongdoers get punished for their crimes. But are we talking about crime here, or are we talking about revenge? Time will tell, but politics is a blood sport, and to my way of thinking, I think these kinds of debates are necessary to make the best party possible under the most divisive circumstances that may emerge. 

Rich Hoffman

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Matt Dolan is a Great Guy: Sadly, we don’t have a political system that can appreciate him

I had a chance to have a personal meeting with Matt Dolan, who is running for Senate in Ohio, Rob Portman’s seat. He is one of many running for that seat; it’s a very tight field. He’s from Northern Ohio; his family is owners of the Cleveland Indians, who have just changed their name to the Guardians under a lot of pressure from the woke politics that are entangled in our sports these days, so going into the meeting with him, I wasn’t too excited. He wasn’t a particularly Trump type of candidate either, so to my mind, there wasn’t much to get excited about. The meeting was with a small group, Warren Davidson was part of it, so I went into it with the most open mind possible. Ultimately, I’m glad I did because it turned out that Matt Dolan was a really ethical guy. After meeting him, my impression was that it was a shame that we didn’t have a political system that could appreciate him. A vote for Matt Dolan was undoubtedly a good one, an honest one. After talking with him for a while, I came away thinking that he was one of the most honest and least corrupt people I had ever met in politics. He is currently working well with George Lang, whom I respect greatly as a Senator in Ohio, and has a proven track record of doing good, hard things in legislative practice. He’s a guy who will get down to work and pound out what is needed with always an eye to the constitutions of Ohio and the Federal Government in all the ways people hope politicians would. He is putting over 10 million dollars of his own money into the race and doesn’t need to do the job for power and finance. He already has access to both. Yet he wants to be a senator for all the right reasons, which left me liking him quite a lot. I wish we had a republic filled with people like Matt Dolan.

However, that wish is a wish for a reason because we don’t have that kind of political system. At least, not at this point of history. I am encouraged that we may have at some point in the future. But currently, the values of honest work alone are not conducive to our political environment, which is a shame. It would be great indeed if there were more places for people like Matt Dolan to work in politics, people who have done well for themselves and want to move into the public sector to give something back in making the world better. Too often, political people get into the business for all the wrong reasons, yet here was Matt Dolan, who wanted to be involved for all the right ones. But those right reasons are not sexy enough for the political world we are in these days. As a senator, one of the essential requirements would be to go on Fox News and other entertainment outlets and talk up legislation and convince people that what he was doing was good and beneficial. As a federal senator, there are only 100 of them, so every seat counts, and in Ohio, Rob Portman has wasted his seat for quite a while now. Portman had turned much more liberal over the years valuing team building more than getting things done, which many politicians fall into. And with the environment we are in now, where Democrats actually have shown they want to sell out our country and destroy our sovereignty to the United Nations under a Great Reset, we just aren’t in the kind of world where good legislation is valued. We are essentially at war, an undeclared war, but it’s war nevertheless. If we don’t meet that ruthlessness in congress, in the senate, on television, radio, and in the streets, then we can’t hope to have a chance to win that war, and that is unfortunate.

As I said, Warren Davidson was there too, and there were some excellent discussions within the small group about ethics in politics and actually getting things done. Warren Davidson, I would say, is a highly ethical and intelligent member of the House. He is by far one of the good guys in congress. But as he will report, even when Republicans had the House and Senate for some time when Trump was in the White House, conservatives were still weak on border security. There were still many Lindsey Graham types who were war hawks worldwide and wanted to stir up trouble wherever they could, much as the Bush administrations had been. There wasn’t a lot of interest in doing the right things in government, even if Warren Davidson wanted to do them. Not getting more people to join him was a constant problem. And the way to build those alliances was through the theatrics of television, where boring topics could be made sexy and build support from people who might not otherwise pay attention. But with all the victimization that is going on now, where Democrats have stolen the House, the Senate, and the White House through Covid rules on elections, with only a bit of a whimper from Republicans on the matter, at the level of Mitch McConnell, Republicans had shown that they couldn’t do much better when they had the power to do so. That leaves good people like Matt Dolan and Warren Davidson trying to do good in a cesspit of scandal where good values are turned on their heads and distorted every which way that can be imagined. 

When Trump was running, and throughout his term, I often said that the most qualifying aspect of the celebrity billionaire was not his experience on television with the popular show, The Apprentice. He was in the Hall of Fame for the Worldwide Wrestling Federation. Trump understood the theatrics of television, and he knew how to sell usually boring ideas to a public with the attention span of a nat. And it was that skill that allowed him to do so much in such a short time. It is also why people in the business hated him so much because he simply made the money machines that center in politics worthless. Because try as they might, nobody could out brand Trump on anything. Trump’s ability to build a brand was simply better than anybody else in politics, and people could see that and vote for him. And when they needed to go to war for him, as they are doing now, they do and will. Theatrics in politics is absolutely necessary; it’s not optional. And unfortunately, Matt Dolan presents himself as a person who hates that system. Probably as much or more than the rest of us. But it is the system we have in a culture that progressive politics have shaped for over a century. We might deep down inside want other options and a more stable republic. But we are not socially there now, nor will we be in the immediate future. Theatrics and sexy selling legislation are very much necessary for any politician who wants to do good in the world. Being a good person just isn’t enough. With all that said, I couldn’t blame anybody who wants a good person to vote for Matt Dolan in the upcoming primary. He’s undoubtedly a good person, and I do wish we had a whole lot more like him. But the reality remains, we don’t.

Rich Hoffman

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