Category: Government

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Louisiana Strong

Louisiana is taking a stand….a strong and courageous stand. The Louisiana State Senate has passed a bill with a unanimous vote that shouts state sovereignty. Senate Bill 133 is now in the hands of the Republican-controlled Louisiana House.


This bill was crafted to block the implementation or enforcement of any rules, regulations, taxes, policies, or mandates from the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and the World Economic Forum. It shouts states’ rights and state power.

The United States of America is made of States; independent States. The federal government has only limited power over states. Louisiana has in effect, when passed by the House and signed into law, given the double middle finger to the Biden administration and the federal government when it, the state, does not agree with what is being pursued by the federal government.

Senate Bill 133 states “The World Health Organization, United Nations, and the World Economic Forum shall have no jurisdiction or power within the state of Louisiana. No rule, regulation, fee, tax, policy, or mandate of any kind of the World Health Organization, United Nations, and the World Economic Forum shall be enforced or implemented by the State of Louisiana or any agency, department, board, commission, political subdivision, governmental entity of the state, parish, municipality or any other political entity.”

The folks of Louisiana are making it crystal clear that no one is taking away the power of nor the freedom of Louisiana citizens. This clear message comes as the Biden administration makes noise and moves toward trying to cede decision making and enforcement power to such as the WHO, UN, and WEF. Isn’t going to happen in Louisiana.

It is my hope that other states will follow the lead of Louisiana to protect their own citizens.

Freedom is precious. The fight is on.

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Justice for All????

United States Supreme Court
1 First Street NE
Washington DC 20543

Justices:

Forgive me for not being polite…. It is time for you to get off of your collective asses and take charge!

The court system under you is failing and you seem to do nothing when you do have the power to address matters. The lawfare against former President Donald Trump stinks to high heaven. You know it and I know it…. and millions of US citizens know it.

Time is wasting. If you do not take bold action there is a chance our Constitutional Republic will not survive. That will be on you.

The trust in the federal government including the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches is fast eroding. I predict if it gets to a point there well may be civil war.

It seems much of the corruption of the judicial system began with January 6th, 2021. Now it is rampant and getting worse by the day. Again, you and I both know there was no terrorist attack or insurrection on January 6th. And hundreds who are in jail are there only due to a corrupt judicial system. Yes, some deserved conviction, but the vast majority did not. Even many in jail are not getting timely due process. You know it and I know it.  

You and I both know the court cases against Donald Trump are crap. They are costing taxpayers and Trump millions to pursue. Any baboon can see the Georgia case and New York cases are total farces. They are election interference by a Democrat machine that is attempting to bleed Trump of resources and prevent him from even being in the 2024 election for President.

Again, you have the power to intervene. If you choose not to, the consequences for the country are dire.

Sincerely,

Kent H Blacklidge Ph.D.

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Solar Sanity

There is a chance that solar sanity will ultimately be brought to Howard County. A ruling by Howard County Circuit Judge Lynn Murray for or against the development of a 1,800 acre solar field titled “Emerald” by ENGIE, a French multi-national company, is expected sometime in May.



This comes as a result of several Greentown area residents, who own properties adjacent to the prime agriculture land proposed to be covered with solar panels, taking their case to court. They challenged the legality of the approval of the solar project by the Howard County Board of Zoning Appeals on several grounds.

The ENGIE Emerald project had been denied twice earlier by the BZA. In the interim, one Board member who voted “no” was replaced by a Board member who voted “yes”. This member replacement or maneuver was questionable at the time. The final “yes” vote was a 3-2 yes/no vote; so the Board was split even in its final approval vote. Earlier it had been a 3-2 no/yes vote which denied the project.

The primary case for denial of the special exception for a solar field made by adjacent property residents rests in language found in county zoning ordinance itself. Under the Agriculture (AG) District section the Board of Zoning Appeals is directly addressed. The language states, “Board of Zoning Appeals: allow a special exception use (which specifically includes “power generation facility”) only when it is clearly a benefit to the adjacent properties.”

Further, under 7.08 Special Exception language states, “…. will not permanently injure other property or uses in the same district and vicinity….”

Any reasonable person would readily conclude the presence of a 1,800 acre solar field next door would not be “clearly a benefit” to adjacent properties, but would definitely damage adjacent properties in value and likely in physical ways. Judge Murray, however, need only conclude damage would come in the form of lower value for adjacent properties and not “clearly a benefit”. Who, really, would want to live right next to 1,800 acres of solar panels. The case is really simple as should be the decision by Murray.

Then there is yet another solar field proposal by another company to cover about 1,700 acres more of prime agriculture land. So, the decision by Murray is critical.

And as a former newspaper publisher, there remains a nagging question in my mind. That question is whether any local official or citizen, other than the landowners whose fields would be covered with solar panels, had financial gain from BZA approval of ENGIE: Emerald.

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Millions and Millions

There was a saying coined by Carl Sagan, the astronomer. It was “Billions and Billions!” when referring to the vastness of the universe and its population of galaxies, stars, and planets. We in the USA can now claim the saying, “Millions and Millions”, when referring to the number of illegal aliens having crossed the southern and northern borders into our country during the President Joe Biden years.

Some estimate the illegal number at 10 million or so. President Donald Trump believes the number is closer to twice that at 20 million with more to come in the next 11 months until such time as most now expect Trump to be the 47th President in January 2025.

There are only four states in the USA that have populations of 20 million or more. Those are New York, Florida, Texas, and California. Where I live, Indiana, the population in 2023 is estimated to be 6.8 million and Indiana is 17th in the list. So, 46 states have populations less than the number of illegal aliens estimated by Trump to have invaded our country and 33 states have less than even the 6.8 million of Indiana. This paints a dire picture.

What we do not know is where all of the illegal aliens are. The news seems just to report they are being flown and bussed to places all over the country. But have you even seen an accounting of the numbers being dumped where? We hear complaints from the city of New York and Chicago about the number of illegal aliens being brought there, but the numbers are not even close to the total of illegal aliens coming in. So, where are they?

The federal and state governments should, no – must, report numbers and where illegals are being dropped. We already hear stories of medical facilities and schools being overrun. We hear stories of Chicago, for example, housing illegal aliens at O’Hare airport. We hear stories of schools being closed to students so facilities can house illegal aliens. We hear stories of upscale hotels being occupied by illegal aliens. We hear stories of illegal aliens being housed on US military grounds.

Consider this: if you just look at the images of the masses of illegals crossing the southern border you will see that the majority is young men. The majority is not women, children, or older men. The majority is not families. It is young men of typical military age. Now we hear reports of substantial numbers of Chinese men and men from hostile Muslim countries flowing in. These pose military/terrorist threats.

In the end, Joe Biden and his administration need to be held accountable for failing their oaths of office. They have violated the Constitution. The NGO (non-governmental not-for-profit) organizations and those that have transported illegal aliens should be prosecuted for aiding and abetting the violation of our immigration laws. All should be in jail for a long, long time. This may not happen, but it should.

Finally, Donald Trump has said that when elected the 47th President, he will begin the largest deportation operation in the history of the United States. We can pray this will happen. And none of this addresses the devastation already wrought on the people of the United States from the deaths from fentanyl; a gift from China and the drug Cartels.

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However Delivered: POISON

Reason had a victory. This past week a US federal court in Arizona banned three weed killers (poisons; biocides) widely used by American agriculture, finding the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) broke the law in allowing them to be on the market.

Crop spraying


The ruling affects dicamba-based weed killers produced and sold by Bayer, BASF, and Syngenta. Dicamba killers have been blamed for millions of acres of crop damage and harm to endangered species and natural areas across the Midwest and South.

The court concluded the EPA had not followed law in granting approval of dicamba for use on genetically engineered crops, typically GE soy beans and corn, that were resistant to it use, but killed weeds around them. The problem is that dicamba is very volatile! This means it easily goes up into the air and drifts to areas afar causing widespread damage to crops and vegetation not resistant to the pesticide. Result: unintended consequences… death to vegetation, including crops, elsewhere and death to animals and insects (pollinators, for example) dependent on that vegetation.

All of this comes on the heels of massive law suits against Bayer/Monsanto involving the use of Roundup (glyphosate) pesticide. So far those suits have cost Bayer billions in jury verdicts and settlements. The plaintiffs allege Roundup causes non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
And Syngenta is already facing nationwide litigation over its paraquat herbicide which thousands of plaintiffs claim causes Parkinson’s disease.

Apparently enough lessons have yet to be learned following the debacle with DDT. Rachael Carson in her book “Silent Spring” brought that to headlines. Eventually DDT was banned everywhere. I am thinking the whole use of biocides (pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, etc) on crops needs to severely restricted. We are in the process of poisoning ourselves and the planet.

Of course, all one has to do is follow the money. The creators of the biocides are the same companies that genetically engineer the crops to resist their effect. This means they sell the biocide resistant seeds to create the resistant crops and then sell the poison to put on it. Pretty good racket if you can get by with it. In the meanwhile, you make people and the planet sick. Ask the bees.

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Safe USA & Hunters

I will confess, I’m pro guns.
America’s hunters — Pretty Amazing to think about.

The world’s largest army is America’s hunters. I had not thought about this before running into a Blogger that had added up the number of hunting licenses across the United States in 2023. The numbers are available from the Fish and Wildlife Service of the federal government.

There were over 669,000 hunters this season 2023 in the state of Wisconsin….. 669,000! Over the last several months, Wisconsin’s hunters became the eighth largest army in the world. More men under arms than in Iran. More than France and Germany combined. These men and women deployed to the wilds of a single state, to hunt with firearms, and no one was killed.

That number is in comparison to the 954,000 who hunted in Pennsylvania and the Michigan’s 661,000; all of whom returned home safely. Indiana had 273,000 licensed hunters. Toss in a quarter million hunters in West Virginia and it literally establishes the fact that the hunters in these few states alone would comprise the largest army in the world. And then add in the total number of hunters in the remaining states. That’s millions more. The total number of licensed hunters in the United States in 2023 was nearly 16,000,000…… that is 16 million!

The point? America will be forever safe from foreign invasion with that kind of home-grown firepower. Hunting — not just a way to fill the freezer. It’s a matter of national security. That’s why all enemies, foreign and domestic, want to see us disarmed.

Food for thought when we next consider gun control. Overall it’s true, so if we disregard some assumptions that hunters don’t possess the same skills as soldiers, the question would still remain: What army of say 2 million from afar would want to face tens of million armed citizens? And this does not even count the number of citizens who own firearms and are not licensed hunters. Maybe millions more.

This is the reason to guard the Second Amendment.

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Voter Registration

Let’s see, the Tribune-Star (Terre Haute, IN) editorial writer in the column published in the Kokomo Tribune on the 8th thinks that for folks having never registered to vote before, it would be a burden or too complicated to ask they present some photo identification and some address-verifying mail to establish Indiana residency in order to register to vote. Well now, this sure sounds pretty complicated to me only if one concludes prospective voters are stupid or deceptive. The writer claims this requirement would apply most to young people and naturalized citizens who more than likely would vote Democrat.

The other way to get through this extremely complicated maze of registering to vote is to provide a copy of a driver’s license and the last four digits of their social security number along with their registration application. This too sounds really ominous and very difficult to do, especially if you are young and/or naturalized.

The truth is that nothing in the above is complicated or burdensome. Anyone with half a brain can figure it out.

The writer then goes on to say, “Indiana’s elections are secure, as are elections in every other state. Election fraud is rare.” Frankly, the writer must live under a rock. Even in very red Indiana, there is election fraud.

I am grateful the Indiana General Assembly is taking steps to assure voting in Indiana is fair and accurate. I would be happier if Indiana would return to paper ballots, one day voting at one’s home precinct, rare and justified absentee ballots, and hand signature ballot registration books (the only way to match signatures). I do think that one way to promote more eligible people to vote would be to declare a state holiday for a voting day. No work obligation for that one day.

What the General Assembly has done does make elections more secure. They just need to do more.

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The Comet

North Central Indiana has just experienced a great loss. There was a small weekly newspaper, The Carroll County Comet, in Flora, Indiana, that had been published for many, many decades. It is now closed. Its owners’ family had been involved in newspapers in Carroll County for over 100 years. The Carroll County Comet itself came into existence in February 1974. It was published every week since then until the end of December 2023; close to a half century. Its owners were dedicated to serving their community.

The loss of the Comet is yet another in the grievous story of newspapers in the United States. Now we find many ‘news deserts’ around the country. In the last issue of the Comet, the owners point out that since 2005 over 2,900 local newspapers have closed. They reported the USA is on pace to lose one-third of all its newspapers by the end of 2024. What a catastrophe.

Thomas Jefferson said long ago, “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate to prefer the latter”. He knew the importance of an informed public to make a strong country.

The USA is in crisis times. In my mind, we may not survive as a strong Constitutional Republic. The loss of newspapers is yet another indication we are losing the glue that holds us all together. Electronic media and the Internet will never take the place of locally owned and operated newspapers that once put printed paper into the hands of citizens weekly or daily. Those papers told the story of a community from the minor to the major events, sports, and interests. They helped to create the feeling of knowing neighbors…. something now disappearing.

Where I live in Kokomo, IN, there still is a daily newspaper. But it is a skeleton of what it once was. In the days when I was directly in Kokomo Tribune management, we had about 185 employees and over 300 newspaper carriers that delivered the paper to doorsteps each day. Each edition was of many pages of extensive stories, photos, and editorials about local happenings and interests. Now the Tribune has maybe a dozen or so employees. Each edition is of a few pages only. Its coverage of happenings is very limited and its circulation is a fraction of what the KT used to be.

I sure don’t know the answer. An informed public is critical to the strength of our country.

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Legal Illegals

Now we learn that ole Joe has it within the power of the Presidency to confer a blanket pardon to all illegal aliens, which is in effect amnesty. This would mean no criminal charges could be levied against any who had crossed the US border illegally. What it does not mean, though, is citizenship. But what becomes very fuzzy is the question of deportation of any illegal border crossers. I think, though, such an act would mean suicide for the Democrat Party. But one never knows what ole demented Joe will do.

Now, too, we have the insanity possibly coming out of the US Senate. Senator Chuck Schumer and Senator Mitch McConnell have unveiled a 370 page “Border” bill in the Senate. It is expected to be brought to the floor of the Senate for a vote on Wednesday, 2/7. This bill is a $118 billion package that “overhauls” the asylum system at the border and at the same time gives massive military aid to Israel and Ukraine. It would send $60 billion to Ukraine and $14 billion to Israel. Oh… and more….. It would provide millions to the US defense industry, $5 billion to Asia-Pacific allies, and humanitarian aid to civilians in Ukraine and Gaza. What else could be thrown in? Maybe a new house for Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell! So, we shall see what Republicans vote in favor of this monstrosity of a bill. Of course, old Joe is urging Congress to pass this bill immediately. No surprise.

Fortunately, the indication from the House of Representatives is the Senate Bill is “dead upon arrival”. This message has come from House Speaker Mike Johnson and the House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. The expectation is the Senate Bill will not even be brought to the House floor for a vote. The House will vote on a separate aid package of $17.6 billion of military aid for Israel.

The truth: the USA is broke. The racking up of national debt continues unabated. This is not sustainable. The USA needs to entrench at home. Both the southern and northern borders need to be secured against any illegal immigration. There should be no allowance for amnesty for a time. The only immigration allowed should be legal and only for skills that benefit this country. Otherwise, close the borders.

We are in the fight for survival both internally and externally. Time to become “fortress America”.

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Declaration

“…..Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

I am wondering if we are coming close to a time again talked about in the Declaration of Independence? Our federal government is failing us. Many courts are corrupt and are political tools of the Democrats/Socialists/Communists. The residents of Washington DC vote something like 90% Democrat. They are the entrenched bureaucrats — the deep state — that have interest in larger and larger government to protect their own jobs. The Congress is mixed with many patriots, but just as many or more that want to feather their own nests and are corrupt. This includes about all Democrats and many RINOs including Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell. And I often have wondered how millionaires are made on Congressional salaries. And now we have a President who blatantly is corrupt along with his extended family. They are in fact openly criminals, but nothing has been or likely will be done about holding any to account under Department of Justice leadership. Even the move to impeach the President seems anemic.

The other elephant in the room issue threatening to sink the county is that of the illegal alien invasion of the United States. It is now up to an estimated 12-15 million illegal aliens now inside the country. Even major cities like New York and Chicago, who were openly “sanctuary cities”, are crying for more federal money and help. I say, too damned bad. You made your beds, now lay in them. In the end, if we are to survive as a country, there must be mass deportation of illegal aliens back to their countries of origin. No questions. No sympathy. Illegal border crossing = out.

Our country is failing. If patriots do not act soon, it may be too late. I have my doubts about waiting for the 2024 election. I think we are on the verge of a need to “alter or abolish” what we see before us now every day. I don’t like to think about armed action by citizens of the United States of America, but it may come to that. Hope that it does not have to.

American Flag