Category: Government

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Kokomo Tribune Opinion

I had hopes the Kokomo Tribune Opinion page would become more moderate under the direction of a relatively newly named KT Editor. I was very wrong.

Just in the past couple of days there were pieces that are really far left. The longest one that bashed Sec HHS Secretary Kennedy is an example. In the past, many of the worst opinion pieces have originated from some conveniently unidentified writer at the Anderson Herald-Bulletin (another CNHI newspaper). The one about Kennedy is one of the worst. I would love to know the credentials of the writer about anything biological. The fact is the US is the sickest nation on earth and spends the most per capita on health care than any. So, I have serious doubt that the writer knows a damn thing about the wisdom of decisions made by Secretary Kennedy….. and I think my credentials are clear (M.S. Toxicology and Ph.D. Genetics – Purdue).

As it turns out the mRNA vaccines are a disaster still unfolding. Trump trusted Dr. Anthony Fauci et.al..; big mistake. We have not yet seen the full extent of the damage done by those vaccines for which big pharma has made billions. We should be grateful for HHS Sec Kennedy.

Oh… have you noted, too, the Surgeon General of Florida recently ended all vaccine mandates for Florida citizens? Others will follow. I am a total believer in some vaccines, but not the witches brew of what we are sticking into our kids and ourselves.

Then out comes the opinion piece in the KT about Indiana gerrymandering…. another far left piece. And who would guess about the author? A university political science professor from the University of Indianapolis who likely has never held a job in the private sector. My goodness! I already sent a piece about Indiana and gerrymandering to the KT Editor. It is time for Indiana to go 9-0. Democrats have gerrymandered many other states already to the point they no longer have any to gain. Look at Illinois for example. And I just sent a piece to the KT about the Kirk killing and what the Democrat Party now embraces. Likely, none will find their way to print.

We are in a war for this country, like it or not. I do not know how any thinking, compassionate person can claim membership in the Democrat Party. Evidence shows Republican registrations are going up and Democrat ones going down. CNHI (KT owner) is on the wrong side of history. What a shame.

Regards, Kent Blacklidge Ph.D.
Past Publisher/ Kokomo Tribune
When it was family owned.

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Never Again

Democrats and the Democrat Party must never again be allowed power. That Party must be squashed to the point of being only an irrelevant whimper. The Democrat Party and too many of its leaders and followers have become advocates of deadly violence. The assassination of Charlie Kirk is only the latest.

The Democrat Party far left wing has taken over. It tolerates…. no, embraces…. Communists and communism, Islamists, abortion to birth, transgender insanity, no-cash bail, defund the police, gun bans, illegal aliens by the millions, sanctuary cities, no voter ID, and more. I could go on and on. It has become the Anti-American Party wanting to bring down this nation.

Joe Biden et.al. in their four years almost got the job done. I cannot even bring myself to call him “President”. He and those around him proved themselves to be evil and traitors. Somehow, accountability must come.

Now, we learn of the firing from employment of many who made cruel and disparaging remarks about the killing of Charlie Kirk. They cheered his death. My hope is every one of them is sent into obscurity in self-imposed exile for the rest of their lives.

Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA stood and stands for the highest ideals of the United States of America. Charlie stood for peace with disagreement about all sorts of issues, but debate; not violence. He reached out specifically to the young who had been and are being propagandized by far left college professors. He embraced debate.

Charlie Kirk’s killing will not stop the people of the United States from fully taking back their country. The Turning Point message will only get louder and louder. Already, we learn that thousands have made inquiry about starting new Turning Point chapters. Charlie’s voice has been amplified thousands of times over.

The evil doers, the Democrat Party and its leaders and followers, must and will be sent into exile. The United States of America will again become the light on the hill for personal freedom, freedom of speech, and respect for one another. Charlie Kirk led the way. We all should thank God for Charlie Kirk having walked among us.

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Indiana All GOP

In the August 8th issue of the Kokomo Tribune, Ken de la Bastide wrote against Congressional redistricting in Indiana. Don’t be so sure.

Republicans currently hold seven of Indiana’s nine congressional seats. Redistricting could be done easily by the Indiana General Assembly Republican super majority if it wanted to do so. No Democrat votes would be needed for support and Democrats could not block such a move. Our state is already in tight control by Republicans. The only two Democrat congressional seats presently from Indiana are one in the Gary/Hammond area and one in Indianapolis. Both of Indiana’s Senators in the US Congress are Republican as well.

So, what is the issue? It is not within our state. Indiana is a solid RED state. The issue is power in the U.S. House of Representatives. There is a mid-term election coming in 2026. The current Republican control of the House is slim. It would not take many switches from Republican to Democrat representatives to give control of the House of Representatives to Democrats. In my opinion, this cannot be allowed to happen. That would be a disaster for the Trump administration and for the country.

The point nationwide is to do what can be done to increase Republican control of the House of Representatives. Republicans need to pick up seats wherever possible. Look at what is happening in Texas, for example. There may be a five seat pick up for the GOP from Texas through redistricting. That is a ten-seat swing. If the two Democrat seats currently held by Democrats from Indiana became Republican, that is another two seats or a four seat swing. There are other potential gains in other states. And Democrats are examining the possibility of adding to their side in states that could redistrict in their favor.

So, the fight is on. Timid behavior cannot be tolerated. Indiana should redistrict if, and only if, the two Democrat seats can be flipped without jeopardizing any currently held GOP seats. This requires very careful decisions. Mistakes cannot be tolerated.

If Indiana would be totally Republican in the United State Congress, we would have done our part in keeping the country on course.

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The Way is OUT!

Mass deportation of illegal aliens is underway. President Trump has seen to that. Thousands of new ICE agents are being hired to help with the roundup, detention, and ultimate return to home countries the 10-20 million people or maybe even more in the United States illegally.

Indiana Governor Mike Braun and the Indiana General Assembly have directed all Indiana law enforcement agencies and the Indiana National Guard to assist ICE (US Immigration & Customs Enforcement Agency) in all ways possible. Any persons arrested for law breaking for any reason and determined to be an illegal alien will be turned over to ICE.

The effort to remove illegal aliens (aka “undocumented immigrants”, “newcomers”, etc) from the United States was mandated by the citizens of the United States with the election of Donald J. Trump as President.

Indiana is helping with the management and removal of illegal aliens with the establishment of detention facilities at the Miami Co. Correction Facility, a medium security prison (“Speedway Slammer”), and at Camp Atterbury near Indianapolis. Each location is planned to be able to house up to about 1,000 detainees prior to their deportation to home countries.

Of course, the actions of ICE and of Indiana are being vocally criticized by left leaning, whining bleeding hearts as being inhumane. They simply do not know the difference between being a legal immigrant and an illegal one. Coming into the United States outside of a legal pathway makes one an “illegal” alien and one guilty of a US crime. Such persons do not have and should not have “rights” compared to a U.S. citizen. So, round them up, detain them, and out they go.

Really, no one really knows how many illegal aliens reside in Indiana. But for one community, there are strong clues. Logansport reported a couple of years ago there was a 30% increase in population in a two recent year period. Logansport is not known for being in a stage of significant economic growth and has not been. But, two meat processing plants are close by: Tyson and Indiana Packing Co.. Magnets for illegal alien employment? You decide. Logansport reported increased hospital loads and even cases of tuberculosis showing up. They, also, reported the possible establishment of night classes in high school for non-English speakers.

Logansport is not unique. Other communities have what appear to be increased numbers of illegal alien presence. One simply needs to see what is happening at schools, hospitals, and in the use of social services and benefits. The current 10-20 million illegal aliens are burdens to United States society, not assets. Even when productively employed —which is illegal for a non-citizen to be without proper immigration status or an Employment Authorization Document — aliens send part of earnings back to others in home countries typically via Western Union rather than spend those earnings in the United States to support domestic businesses.

So, it is time to return the United States to citizens. It is time for illegal aliens to either self-deport with the opportunity to return legally or to be rounded up, detained, and deported. No questions.

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Courts Slap Down

It is long past time for the Federal District Courts to get slapped down. They have been politically active in too many cases in issuing nationwide injunctions against actions taken by the President of the United State, President Donald Trump. In fact they have no such power under the Constitution of the United States.

To his cautious and careful approach to these injunctions, Trump has always stated he will abide by the justice system and its courts. The truth is he does not have to do that but does not want to create a Constitutional crisis.

There are three equal branches of the US government: the Congress, the Executive, and the Judicial. The Congress stands on its own. The Executive is headed by the President of the United States. The Judicial branch is headed by the Supreme Court of the United States. Those three are the equal branches of government. Nowhere do you see federal district courts mentioned. They simply are not at the level of the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. They are inferior and, therefore, do not have authority equal to those three.

If there are issues to resolved, the Congress and the Executive (President) and the Supreme Court must resolve them. The President is charged with enforcing the laws passed by the people’s branch, the Congress. If it is alleged the Executive is overstepping its authority under the laws passed by Congress or delineated under the Constitution, the Supreme Court becomes the judge and determining authority. The US district courts have no place in this system. Currently, rogue judges are gumming up the works and slowing down or stopping actions taken by the President. The Supreme Court is the only body with the authority to stop or reverse actions taken by the President by determining any actions are outside the authority granted by the Congress or under the Constitution. Nothing less.

So far, the Supreme Court has neglected its duty to clarify the situation. It has been cowardly. In not acting to reign in the federal district courts and its judges, the Supreme Court is putting the country at risk. It is long past time for that to stop.

President Trump, as the head of the Executive, has wide spread power to act to keep our country safe and to move the country forward to a better future. He cannot and must not be slowed down by a rogue justice system seemingly filled with leftist judges. No federal district court judge should be able to issue a nation wide injunction. Period.

It is time for the Supreme Court justices to get a backbone and act. If it does not, it is inviting President Trump to simply ignore federal district court rulings. So far, he has not chosen this course.

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Free Press

As the publisher of the Kokomo Tribune decades ago and a member of the family that owned that newspaper for 84 years, I feel compelled to respond to the May 7th editorial about a “Free Press”.

The editorial was entitled, “Free press must remain free”. I could not agree more, but do not agree with the complaint about the Trump administration concerning the structure of the White House press conferences. The editorial says the Trump administration “is drastically curtailing …. access to White House press conferences” for the Associated Press, Reuters, and Bloomberg Media. It further complains the Trump administration “is choking off the ability of an independent press to ask questions…… “, which is bologna.

Those three mentioned are so-called “wire services” that send information daily to hundreds of media outlets across the country. Their news is supposed to be the result of objective, unbiased journalism; which it clearly, presently is not, particularly regarding political issues.

The administration, any administration, has the right to say who and who will not be present in a press room at the White House. That space does not belong to the “White House Press Corps”. The Trump administration has decided to include new and different outlets from the traditional or legacy news outlets in press conferences. It has that right. And there is only so much physical space and so many seats in the press room.

And the complaint that the Trump administration is limiting the ability to ask questions is total bologna. President Trump responds to a flurry of questions daily. When compared to the Biden administration, the difference in access to the President for direct answers is stark. Trump is openly accessible. Biden never was.

In many cases, press reporters make fools of themselves when asking totally unrelated or stupid questions when President Trump is responding to reporters whatever the event. Frequently, they sound like a bunch of cackling chickens.

In decades past, there were two major wire services, the Associated Press and United Press International, which fed information to the nearly 2,000 independently owned newspapers across the country. Those services were responsible to governing boards comprised of people from those newspapers. The reporting was required to toe the line of independent, objective reporting. That has been lost. The dominance of independently owned newspapers has waned.

The time of the Internet came. New sources of information have emerged. So, it became time for new news outlets to be included with old ones. Then let the public decide where truth is found. In days of old, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post along with the Associated Press and United Press International were regarded as beacons of objective truth. No longer.

And, yes, every administration tries to influence what is reported about it and how it is reported. That is a given. The so called legacy media has in many ways lost the trust of the American people. So, it is time to openly include the new and the old. Maybe in that way journalism will return to being what it is supposed to be: independent, objective, and unbiased. A free press and an informed public are the very foundation of the United States of America.

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Our Toxic Food Supply

Agriculture growing season is coming rapidly upon us in Indiana. Soon, we will see tractors and planters and sprayers across fields. What is not immediately visible are the genetically modified seed (GMO), the poisons on the seed, and later the poison sprayed on the land and crops…. poison and genetic modification that follow into our food supply. Bayer/Monsanto and Syngenta have already been successfully sued for millions for disease caused by their pesticides. Monsanto for glyphosate (Roundup) and Syngenta for paraquat… both killer toxic chemicals.

We hear complaint from President Trump that other countries will not take our agriculture products. Why? They don’t want our genetically engineered corn and soybeans and other GM crops…. And they don’t want the poisons that contaminate them.

We have a new Secretary of Health and Human Services in Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He knows how sick our country is from our food supply. Hopefully he, with HHS and USDA, will change how we grow crops. The strangle hold of the big agriculture corporate giants must end. The constant escalation of the toxicity of agriculture poisons with the genetically engineered plants must end. It can be done.

Below is an excerpt from a book about a small community in northern Italy that went totally organic and saved their culture, people, and the health of their lands. We need to learn. What she writes about India largely applies to the United States of America.

[Exerpts from the Foreword from the book, “A Precautionary Tale”. Forward written by Dr. Vandana Shiva, a highly recognized and respected scientist in India]

For more than a century, a poison cartel has experimented with and developed chemicals to kill people, first in Hitler’s concentration camps and the war. These chemicals were later sold as inputs for industrial agriculture.

The poison cartel I refer to her is the handful of global corporations that push chemicals and genetically modified organism (GMOs) in farming — Bayer/Monsanto, Dow/Dupont, Syngenta/ChemChina. Killing is their expertise.

In India, a country of small farmers, the assault of the poison cartel has driven millions off the land and pushed 300,000 farmers to suicide due to debt for costly seeds and chemicals. The genetically modified (GM) seeds have failed to control pests and weeds. Instead they are creating super pests and super weeds, trapping farmers deeper in debt.

And it is not just farmers who are dying. Our soil organisms and pollinators are dying. Our soils are dying. Our societies are dying. Our children are dying — because of diseases caused by food loaded with toxics.

Pesticide pollution knows no boundaries, and the pesticide sprays contaminate entire ecosystems, our food, our water. These corporations take away our right to be free from harm.

They do not poison just people, our farms, and our food; they poison regulatory systems and science. Corruption of science, of regulation, of centralized government is their expertise.

The agrochemical industry and its new avatar, the biotechnology industry, do not merely distort and manipulate knowledge, science, and public policy. They also manipulate the law and the justice system.

That is why the movement for freedom from poisons in our food and agriculture is the most important freedom movement in our times. It is a movement for the rights of the Earth, the rights of all species, of all peoples to be free from harm, to be healthy. It is a movement to protect the diversity of species, of cultures, of economics, of knowledge, of decision making from the local to the global.

It is the movement for justice, for the right to life and livelihood. It the right to know about the potential harm from poisons and poison producing plants — GMOs. It is freedom from manipulated alternative facts and post-truths, which hide truth and try to bury it, as we are witnessing in the case of glyphosate and GMOs.

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The Chinese are Here

According to the Institute of International Education and Statista, in the 2023-2024 academic year there were 277,398 Chinese national students studying in the United States. And as of Spring 2025, there were 2,043 Chinese national students at Purdue University with 1,340 of them being graduate students. Indiana University had over 1,000 Chinese national students over the same periods.

There is a big issue. This has been going on for years. These students are in a position to steal all sorts of intellectual property and be involved in cutting edge technology, the life blood of the United States of America. Congress has told us over and over that billions of dollars of intellectual property are stolen each year and fed back to Communist China. I have to suspect part of it sources at Purdue.

And what is the big draw for universities? Money! Tuition and fees money are in the tens of millions of dollars yearly. Then there are room and board fees for students as well. More millions. Another word for this may be greed.

Purdue is one of the top national research universities in the country. Indiana University not so much. The largest on-campus student organization at the Purdue campus is the “Chinese Students and Scholar’s Association”. Even this suggests something is amiss.

It is not without note that the current President of Purdue University is Dr. Mung Chiang, a naturalized American citizen of about 20 years but from China. And the acting department head of the Forestry and Natural Resource Department for a time was Dr. Zhao Ma who was born in China and whose undergraduate education was in Beijing, China. She is now the head of the Human Dimensions Lab in the FNR department. I do not know if she is a naturalized US citizen. So, the presence on the Purdue campus of people either Chinese citizens or former Chinese and now US citizens is substantial.

There is more. Foreign entities own a total of 40 million acres of US farmland and China has bought up nearly 347,000 acres, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. We are well aware, too, that Smithfield Foods, an icon of the American food industry, was purchased by the Chinese in 2013 for $7.1 billion. More inroads into our food supply.

It seems the Chinese Communists are finding ways to infiltrate the US economy and society more and more with each passing day. They have been selling more product into our country than any other foreign country. And they have control of the precursor materials for literally all of our prescription medicines.

Fortunately, very recently it was announced that the Select Committee on the Communist Party in the US Congress is pursuing investigation about the presence and research activities of students from Communist China at Purdue University and several other universities. That has been needed for years.

The entanglement with and gradual encroachment of China into the United States cannot go on if we want to have a viable and vibrant Constitutional Republic. President Trump is well aware of this and is trying to take corrective measures. Democrats and RINOs are road blocking whenever possible. That must stop.

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Markets Plunge…. Balderdash!

Don’t you just love the language used by the Associated Press and other news outlets when the stock market overall goes down some. “Plunge”…. “Crisis”…. “Dropped” …. “Tumbled”….. “Slide”….. . What a bunch of balderdash!!!

The article headline said the S&P was down 6%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 5.5%, and the Nasdaq composite down 5.8%. Take a minute to think about it. If something you wanted to buy went from $1.00 down to 94 cents, would you think the world was coming to an end? That’s down 6%.

Ya’all need a lesson in economics, not panic. Stocks are pieces of ownership in companies. Whether stock values go up or down has no impact on the companies themselves. They don’t get money from stock purchases or from stock sales. They just continue on doing business as usual and doing their best to maximize profits.

The value of a stock is supposed to reflect the net earnings of the underlying company. This is expressed as a price of a share of stock when compared to the earnings of the company and is commonly known as the P:E ratio. It is estimated that the current P:E ratio of the stocks in the Standard and Poor index is about 28:1. The overall estimated P:E Ratio for the entire United States Stock Market is about 22.25:1. The healthy P:E Ratio over a long period of years is more in the 18-21 range, so by this measure, the stock market is over valued and due for what is known as a “correction”.

Everyone needs to calm down. President Trump knows what he is doing. The United States of America has been the ATM Piggy Bank for the world for decades. It cannot continue on this course or the USA will, indeed, go bankrupt and go in default on its debt obligations. Trump is standing firm on making trade fair with “reciprocal” tariffs on countries with which we trade. Sound fair to me given there has been such an imbalance to date. Every country wants to sell in the USA but does not want the USA to sell in their home countries. Won’t work any longer.

And you hear that the price of products is going to go up. Maybe. But the market is already paying about the maximum price it will for a given item. So, other countries will absorb most of the tariff applied to it. If the price of something goes up, the United States consumer has the ultimate weapon: don’t buy the object offered. Period.

Over time, we will see more and more production of things being done in our country by our workers under our worker safety laws and under our environmental protection laws at wages that support families here and not in some foreign country. Don’t you want that?

So, again, calm down about the stock market. It will recover and your investments and 401(K)s will be just fine. It may take a bit of time.

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End “Home Rule” of D.C.

With all that has gone on in Washington, D.C., it is time for Congress to take serious action. All of you and I know the governance of the District of Columbia is corrupt and incompetent. It is time to revoke “Home Rule” for the District; something Congress has the full power to accomplish.

Now we even have D.C. judges trying to over rule decisions made by the President of the United States. The worst of them is U.S. District Judge James Boasberg. He even ordered President Trump to turn plane loads of illegal criminal aliens around and bring them back into our country when they were headed for prison in El Salvador. I am thinking, “Just who in the Hell do these judges think they are???”. And this comes on the heels of J6 decisions a couple of years earlier that jailed American citizens for years when they peacefully stepped foot in the U.S. Capital in January 2021. Thankfully, President Trump pardoned most, but D.C. judges are responsible for incredible injustices and even suicides. And now those judges want to be President. They even resisted the release of citizens who had been pardoned. The U.S. Marshalls had to be sent in.

If I read things correctly, the establishment of “Home Rule” for the District of Columbia took place on December 24, 1973 under the President Richard Nixon administration. I’m not sure it has ever worked. The U.S. Constitution provides Congress has plenary (total) legislative authority of the federal district (District of Columbia). Home Rule delegated some of the day-to-day work of municipal government to local entities.

We know as of today, the governance is abysmal. We know the physical maintenance is terrible. We know crime is out of control. We know actions of judges and the courts are not only bad, but may be illegal themselves. And I was surprised to learn the D.C. judges are specifically appointed by the President of the United States.

It is time for Congress to take back control of and governance of the District of Columbia. I have no idea why this has not been done before now. If Congress does not take back control of the seat of the federal government, it is derelict in its duty. As for the federal judges; maybe they cannot be summarily removed, but Congress has total control of purse strings that support their courts. Time to bring those budgets to zero. And, frankly, Judge Boasberg should be impeached immediately.

We cannot have a country where the balance of power between the three branches of the United States federal government has been bastardized to such imbalance as presently exists. Federal District courts cannot rule over the Presidency and every decision coming out of the Executive Branch. My biggest issue is with the U.S. Supreme Court that has allowed all of the overstepping to happen. Too long Supreme Court justices have remained silent or cowards. The Supreme Court could stop all of the nonsense, but has not.

The Executive Branch through the President cannot act by itself to stop all of the roadblocks being put its way. The Congress and the Supreme Court have the power to correct all. It is time if we want to have a strong, healthy Constitutional Republic. Article II of the Constitution states, “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America”…… not in Congress or the Courts.