Who's Playing Who For A Sucker?

The following text is from one of my two representatives in the 27th Legislative Dist. of Tacoma, WA. The way it's written - the choice of words and phrases - and the overall tone of the information is a perfect example, in my view, of just how misleading it is to the constituents. Granted, because most of them are dependent on the state government for their subsistence, or they're ideology aligns mostly with such tripe, so they're happy as clams to learn this information. However, those with conservative views may not care for what they see going on.

It will be my pleasure to make a few observational remarks regarding this message and lay out a few uncomfortable facts about it. Please scroll down to below the dashed line for these remarks. Immediately below is this reps. message:

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Dear friends and neighbors,

It's been just over a month since the 2018 session concluded, and all bills passed during the session have now been signed into law. Most go into effect on June 7th. For a complete list of bills signed into law this year or in previous years, click here.

In this newsletter, I'm focusing on a package of "Access to Democracy" bills signed by the governor on March 19th. These historic election reforms are one of the victories of the 2018 session. They will help increase participation and improve representation, both of which are necessary for a healthy democracy. I'm proud our state is leading the way on this. Last month, I spoke at the student-led March For Our Lives Tacoma event, and I can say with certainty that youth are paying attention and want their voices heard. This year, we're making it easier for them and for all Washingtonians who are legally eligible to vote to register.

See below for more details on each of the bills.

[Meeting dates & location have been omitted from this portion of the total message.]

It's an honor serving as your representative.

Sincerely,

Access to Democracy bills signed

State lawmakers passed several election reform measures this year, many with bipartisan support. These measures aim to improve ballot access, increase campaign finance transparency, boost turnout, give local communities the opportunity to elect more reflective and responsive leadership, and ensure the security and integrity of our elections:

The Washington Voting Rights Act (SB 6002) - Allows communities that are systemically disenfranchised in local elections to work collaboratively - rather than through litigation - with their local governing bodies on remedies, such as districted systems.

Same-Day Registration (SB 6021) - Permits same-day voter registration, allows in-person registration by 8 p.m. on Election Day, or online or mail registration within eight days of the election. 

Automatic Registration (HB 2595) - Provides for the automatic voting registration of individuals who have received an Enhanced Drivers license from the Department of Licensing.

Youth Voter Pre-Registration (HB 1513) - Authorizes youth to pre-register to vote at age 16. Once they turn 18, they will automatically receive their voter ballot.

DISCLOSE Act (SB 5991) - Requires disclosure of large donations to non-profit organizations who participate in political activities.

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First off, I wish to point out what some may not realize. When the Democrats were not in control of the Legislature, their messages were constantly harping on how the Republicans were screwing up their efforts to accomplish anything. Now that they took control of the legislature last session, all of a sudden everything they say is so positive and happy... as though whatever they do is all wonderful and helpful to everyone. NOT!!!

Just exactly what does this person mean when stating that their actions "... are necessary for a healthy democracy." What type of democracy is this referring to, the pure type where we have two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner, or is it a representative type where all views and issues are taken into consideration in order to make a decision? Notice that the word "healthy" sounds good, but isn't defined. The same goes for the phrase "Access to Democracy". Is this person implying that somehow the opposition party is deliberately taking steps to "disenfranchise" some of their constituency from participating in the governing process?

As for the paragraph just below the color graphic... a lot of good more laws about transparency are going to do; like the Democrats are honoring the existing ones! And reflective and responsive leadership? Puulleeeese!!!! What laugh it is that it is being claimed that the Democrats are ensuring and securing the integrity of our elections. Ever heard of the phrase... the fox is in the hen house?

Moving on to the next point, this person's involvement in the March for Our Lives event in Tacoma tells us plenty about her position is when it comes to promoting future radical leftist "non-thinkers", or ignorant followers of the anti-second amendment crowd. Note carefully the sentence which follows about voter registration! This is clearly implying that she is pushing for the popular concept floating around about getting voter age changed to an even younger age which will garner the left even more voter base beyond the illegal immigrants already in the country upon which Democrats can use and prey on to achieve their socialist agenda.

How can I say this? Simple, just look through the color graphic used in her message of "Access to Democracy" bills she's touting. Same day voter registration? Liberals must believe that ALL individuals registering to vote on election day - up to 8 pm - are as honest as the day is long. If you believe that, I've got property on the moon I'd like to sell you.

However, I've not gotten to the two big illegal manipulations they pulled off in the session's last days. In the final days of the session, the Democrats monkeyed with Initiative 940 and blocked people from voting on it. This established an extraordinarily dangerous precedent. Now, Tim Eyman has filed a lawsuit against the state on it. 

More importantly, the Democrats raided the "Rainy Day Fund" of $700 million. Why's this such a bad thing? Well, back in 2007 the Legislature and voters of the state passed a constitutional amendment establishing the Fund. In 2011, the Legislature passed another constitutional amendment strengthening the Fund. The Constitution mandates that extraordinary revenue growth "shall be transferred" to this Fund. This was in response to a circumstance the state went through in prior years whereby the state was teetering on the edge of insolvency. This legislative session the Democrats ignored this requirement. The Constitution stipulates that the Legislature is to take revenue out of the Rainy Day Fund with a 60% legislative vote. The Democrats ignored that too. Again, Tim Eyman has filed another lawsuit on this as well.

If this doesn't raise alarm bells for you, then you need to pay closer attention to what's going on under your noses folks!

The Destructiveness of Socialism

It seems that today's youth have been indoctrinated to believe that the more those we allow to lead us to dictate the level at which our "life blood" is drawn from our income as we struggle to maintain a decent standard of living, the more virtuous we should feel. This attitude is somehow more virtuous than the premise upon which this nation was founded and has thrived; the individual is in control and gets to determine how much we will allow our leaders to draw from us to support government.

The longer time moves on the more examples we see of leaders making moves to turn the traditional concept of the government being controlled and answering to the voters on its head. Two cases come to mind which have been in the news this week; Gov. Inslee's "Carbon Tax" initiative and Kshama Sawant's demand for the city of Seattle to impose a "head tax" on businesses.

This trend is dangerous in that it will ultimately lead to the destructiveness of the capitalistic economic model our nation used to become the world leader under. We eventually will become another among the many third world countries if this trend isn't stopped. Did the left in this country under Obama do that good of a job in slapping down my generation of Baby-Boomers back when the Tea Party - formed at the grassroots level across this great country - stood up and told him that we'd been taxed enough in 2011? Perhaps it was the mantra from the Republican Establishment which kept telling us that they needed to win the House, then the Senate, then the White House, in order to get the changes needed done. Oh yea, we know how that's turned out. We delivered for them, and they haven't.

So, are we continuing to press on and not give up, or, have we already given up and left our children and grandchildren to the horrors of self-destructive socialism?

Some Dreamers Are Nightmares

With DACA going nowhere due to the Democrats unwillingness to negotiate on the President's demands for keeping the country safe from criminals, the media is all but ignoring reporting anything involving those among this group who are committing criminal acts against innocent citizens.

In this report by Ann Coulter, several cases involving "Dreamers" - which are "Nightmares" for their victims - are cited which the media have essentially ignored.Note: Should any future reader get the impression that I'm anti-immigrant, don't jump to conclusions too fast. My family sponsored a family to naturalize into the U.S. back in the '60s when I was a child. I have no animosity toward foreigners who come into the country legally.

It's my personal belief that when Pres. Obama enacted D.A.C.A. he did so with the realization that this move was another in the many that would accomplish one of two things: either bolster Hillary's plans after being elected to move the nations without borders agenda forward, or in the likelihood that Trump won, would create a situation we are now witnessing on a monthly basis whereby those who support the left's ideology - whether it's a sanctuary city, or state - would make it difficult to eradicate those criminals from the country; thereby putting law abiding citizens and children at risk.

Do you, like me, get the crystal clear impression that Leftists today no longer give a damn about anyone else in our country but those who agree with their way of looking at what this country should be in the future? Long gone are the days when political parties which differed in their path to a better America understood it was necessary to get along in a civil and decent social manner.

Laura Ingraham Announces New Series

On Laura Ingraham's evening show, The Ingraham Angle, on FOX News last night, she introduced a new series she will be covering on the topic of suppression of free speech - one of our three first amendment rights - which the liberal/socialist leftists are exercising today. Here's the link to the opening segment explaining the problem of free speech suppression.

Here's the almost two minute announcement she shared at the end of her show last night. I share this because we've seen too many examples of this happening over the past several years, but it's only getting worse. In it, when she refers to Diamond & Silk's issue of being labeled by Facebook as "...an unsafe brand for the community." this is the clip to which she's referring. To me, it's obvious what was left out of this phrase of Facebook's. That was one word - "an unsafe brand for the liberal community." (Even this morning while watching the second day's congressional hearings on Facebook with Zuckerberg testifying, he was asked about these two women's case and flat out perpetuated the lie that Facebook had contacted them about the "mistake" it had made in censoring them.) As a result of this revelation, I permanently, rather than temporarily, terminated my Facebook account; like thousands, if not tens of thousands, have been doing.

Then, just this morning, I came across this local example where a professor is now being censored by the university administration. This is only one of many similar circumstances which are occurring across the nation on our college/university campuses. 

The focus of who's in control has been shifted by the left to the youth; inexperienced, delicate snowflakes who's characters have been given a weapon which is a very insidious and subtle bludgeon by which leftist ideology is allowed to dominate over traditional common sense. This, in my view, is the greatest tragedy of today's cultural climate. 

And then... there's the new bill just introduced in the California state assembly. Wrap you head in duct tape first before reading this. 

Update: On 4/19 Bill O'Reilly wrote this article about this issue, describing it as Stalinist.

Why Is the WEA Attacking Charter Schools, again?

This morning's ShiftWA report posted this teaser:

Finne with the Washington Policy Center writes: “The powerful union has filed another lawsuit against charter school families, arguing that the voter-approved and publicly-funded schools shouldn’t count as real public schools.  Union executives are angry because teachers at charter schools are the only public school teachers who do not have to pay them monthly union dues.”

There you have it! The last sentence by Finne is precisely accurate as to the reason why the WEA is attacking charter schools in WA. They are determine to maintain a monopoly on who educates - or should I say indoctrinates - the public's children/youth.

An excerpt from this article by Finne also hits the main nerve motivating the WEA to file lawsuit, after lawsuit:

The case is not about access to education – charter schools already provide that – it’s about money and power.  Union executives believe allowing non-union schools threatens their budget, and they worry the research shows charters provide a high quality public education for less money.

I agree completely with this writer's points as to why this too should be thrown out. I know from experience as a retired teacher of public schools. They only took my dues, but never benefited, or defended, me when I needed them.

Conditioning The Masses

This post was overlooked, and originally written on March 23rd.
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Kokito barked for two hours in his carrier after a flight attendant demanded that the luggage the dog was in had to go in the overhead bin during the 3.5 hour United Airlines flight. He quit barking before the plane landed in New York and when the carrier was taken out, they found the 10 month old puppy dead. And all the airline company is doing is apologizing!

So, because this happened on a private company public transport carrier service, the rules apparently don't apply to United the same way they would if a neighbor next door was secretly running a puppy farm in the backyard and was eventually found to have neglected them horribly, as we've heard about so many times in past news stories.

But for me, there's a more scary societal issue of concern, which is the conditioning of the public masses.. It was refreshing to hear Mark Stein on Tucker Carlson's show Thursday speak to this deeper, more disturbing issue.  What do I mean? Consider this point. The post 9/11 air travel industry has changed so much that the traveling public has been forced to take off their shoes (which has since been dropped), empty their pockets, put their carry-on luggage through a scanner while TSA agents - some of which may, or may not, have a high school diploma - stoically look at you as if they suspect you are the next terrorist about to down the plane you're about to board.

The conditioning has gone even further with the advent of cell phones in that, when a situation of serious consequence is occurring, people get out their cell phone to either record the event in audio, or video, as though they're going to be the next instant millionaire who sold their recording to the highest bidder media offer, rather than acting with any compassion or character to intervene in  the situation themselves!

Why is this so? Several factors, I believe, play into this modern phenomenon. One, the social norm nowadays, to me, seems to be that one does not intrude, or get into anyone else's business with perfect strangers. But more importantly, two, the conditioning which has now gone on for nearly twenty years since 9/11 has been a subliminal message to the public which makes them afraid to do anything; especially on an airline.

It wasn't but last year that an Asian man was physically removed by police from an airplane because he was not happy with the arrangement of his seating assignment. The media has aided in covering such events which consequently send the subtle message of; act up on an airplane flight and you'll face the legal implications of federal laws which can run as much as $250,000 in fines thanks to the FAA and laws on the books in an effort deal with the terrorist threat. Yes, when applied to this problem, these are unfortunate, but necessary evils.

There's also another aspect to this "collective attitude" which, I feel, was popularized and has now been promoted by the media, of speaking out, or protesting, as a movement by the former President. Remember Ferguson, MO? Now, it's deja vu all over again. On the one month anniversary of the Parkland massacre, it was "the thing to do" for high school, middle-school/junior-high, and even elementary, to participate in a walkout to demonstrate concern about gun violence. Like that's going to solve it! Yes, I understand it gives people who feel helpless something to do, but it creates a mindset that gets youth to believe protesting and demonstrating is a rational, constructive way to affect real change for the better; it doesn't! I know, I lived through the violent protest era of the late '60s of the Vietnam War and Pres. Johnson.

However, the public in the process has slowly been neutered from doing anything as common sense as opening the overhead bin and removing the barking dog who's suffocating because they're afraid it will lead to unwanted problems that wouldn't have come about in years prior. Like JFK's assassi-nation in my youth, the 9/11 event was another watershed moment which was yet another one of those events where everyone - assuming they were old enough - will never forget where they were on that fateful September day.

More Evidence: How Obama Sabotaged the Nation's Social Culture

I'll let this article speak completely for itself:

Exposed! Trump is ending HUGE Obama-era policy
 
by Frank Holmes, reporter

When Nicole Landers met with her daughter’s principal, she had only one question: Why is my 11-year-old girl being groped everyday in class?

Although her daughter’s assailant had been reported several times, he had never been punished a single time.

But Landers was shocked when the principal told her to her face that the groper would never get punished because, thanks to a controversial Obama-era rule, the sexual offender “has rights” – more rights than her little girl.

“I don’t understand how you can look at my daughter and tell me that she should tolerate her body parts being touched by this other student,” Landers said.

She can thank former President Barack Obama.

Under one of his controversial policies, the school district  be would disciplined – even lose all of its federal funding – if it punishes violent students, drug dealers, or predators.

And even though Obama’s been out of office for 16 months now, his policy is still getting poor children and their teachers groped, sexually molested, and beaten up – and letting abusers get away without even a slap on the wrist.

It started in 2010, when the Obama administration warned school districts against suspending or calling the police on unruly students.

But it really kicked into high gear four years later, when the Department of Education and the civil rights office wrote new guidelines that resulted in schools keeping violent students in the classroom.

In the “Rethinking Discipline” memo, Obama applied a doctrine called “disparate impact”: If school districts suspend too many minority students, Obama would prosecute them for “unlawful racial discrimination in school discipline” – even if it’s an overwhelming minority school district. [Emphasis mine]

Instead of protecting students who want to learn from being the victims of gangs or street thugs, Obama told schools to use “positive behavioral intervention supports” (PBIS).

Give violent teenagers nice talks in the office! Make them know they’re loved! Just don’t suspend them or call the cops to stop their rampages.

The school districts got the message, and young kids – especially minority children from poor neighborhoods – started paying the price.

“Students and staff are physically, verbally, emotionally, and mentally, sexually abused every single day in the building,” Kerstin Westcott told the Green Bay Area school board.

The Obama administration cracked down on Oklahoma City schools and forced them to tell teachers not to refer a student for discipline “unless there was blood.”

But by the time there’s blood, it’s too late. New York City’s far-left mayor, Bill deBlasio, passed an easy-going policy for the Big Apple’s schools – and it got a student stabbed and killed during his history class.

It was the first murder in the city’s public schools in 20 years, and the number of robberies and arsons inside the city’s schools exploded.

“New state Education Department data reveal there were more rapes and other sex crimes at NYC public schools during the 2017-2018 school year than any year since 2007,” Paul Sperry reported in the New York Post.

But the school only reported 10 suspensions that year, so – as far as Obama is concerned – mission accomplished.

Democrats defend this soft-discipline policy by saying it’s designed to fight “racism” – but minority students and veteran teachers say, “That’s bull.”

Gary Favors, a black teacher in Cincinnati also said that black students are “not being discriminated against” in his classroom. The only thing he punishes is their “behavior.” [Emphasis mine]

It’s a problem from coast-to-coast. Teacher surveys say the change isn’t working, from California to Tampa Bay, from Indianapolis to Denver, and everywhere in between.

One teacher revealed that violent students were given so much freedom in Milwaukee’s public schools that teachers were “offering me marijuana to help me cope with the job.”

And parents agree. “These policies are highly dangerous,” Landers told Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. “They are turning our schools into war zones.”

But a year after Obama left office, the feds still have more than 300 school districts under investigation for violating his dangerous rules.

Finally, the Trump administration decided that the Parkland shooting was the final straw. They are thinking seriously about pulling the plug on this Obama policy and restoring sanity in school.

Sources say that DeVos is considering repealing the rule this year, but the Trump administration doesn’t want to go halfway on this.

President Donald Trump wants to pull this policy up by the roots and salt the earth afterwards.

The administration plans to write a letter repealing “disparate impact,” letting schools punish anybody guilty of violence or sexual abuse, and protecting poor and minority children once-and-for-all, the New York Post reports.

It’s just waiting to get the wording air-tight, to survive the legal challenge that the ACLU has already threatened.

Students and parents everywhere – but especially in schools riddled with poverty and crime – should give thanks that Trump is about to make schools safe again.

Frank Holmes is a reporter for The Horn News. He is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”