Moved to Substack

The Cleveland Tea Party blog has moved to Substack.  

New URL:  <https://clevelandteaparty.substack.com/>

Or click here.

If you’re a regular reader, bookmark the new location!  

You can also choose to request updates/notifications by email.

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Moving to Substack

 

To readers of the Cleveland Tea Party blog:

Starting today, this blog re-introduces itself on its new Substack platform.  For about two weeks thereafter, the blogs will post concurrently on this site as well as on Substack, to give readers time to update their “favorites” list.

Substack has attracted many posters, including high-profile contributors such as Dr Robert Malone, Steve Kirsch, Matt Taibbi, and Salman Rushdie. Many of these contributors have been censored or marginalized for questioning official narratives, challenging government policies, and the like.  When I visit these pages, I do not find critical content labeled as “misinformation.”

The Cleveland Tea Party blog is a small fish in the blogosphere, yet it has been censored as well.  Three times, there’s been a noticeable and otherwise inexplicable spike in web traffic; the spike lasts for a few days, and as far as I can tell, only a deliberate testing and manipulation of the algorithms can explain the phenomenon.  And in all three cases, when the numbers are no longer artificially inflated, the traffic reverts to approximately half of the previous averages.  After three such episodes, the most recent being in May, instead of getting hundreds of hits a day, it’s rare to get over 100 in a day.  It does seem to be a pattern.

Some readers have asked why they cannot find this blog doing an e-search:  they report getting links to a robot about tea-drinkers.

So we’ll be maintaining both sites for a couple of weeks before closing down the blogspot site.  The new Cleveland Tea Party at Substack is here. 

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The Future Success of the Republican Party of Cuyahoga County (RPCC)

Seen on social media over the weekend:

RALPH KING·SUNDAY, 7 JUNE 2020·READING TIME: 2 MINUTES

Dear Fellow Central Committee Member,

My name is Ralph King and I am a member of the Central Committee representing Bedford Ward 6. I have served the Republican Party of Cuyahoga County in excess of 15 years. Currently I also serve on the Scanning Committee. In addition to years of grassroots activism & organizing at the local, state and national level for conservative causes and candidates, I served as a Delegate for President Trump in 2016 and had the honor of also representing our area as a member of the 54th Ohio Electoral College for President Trump.

With my years of activism and dedication to the Republican Party at all levels, especially in Cuyahoga County, I can honestly say we here in Cuyahoga County face an important crossroads offering two very distinct yet starkly contrasting choices.

The Republican Party in Cuyahoga County has been run like a social club for many, many years. The county party is so incestuously intertwined with lobbyists, consultants, political patronage, etc... nothing can get done. This broken strategy of $100K salaries & cronyism consulting fees has left the party literally broke. Do not believe the recent claims that we are on stable financial ground, otherwise why would the RPCC do an emergency fundraising initiative to keep the doors open past June? See attached RPCC special funding initiative letter. (Click Here)

Their old strategy has not worked, will not work and most importantly the old strategy will not change unless WE change it with your VOTE. Elect the “CUYAHOGA FIRST” slate —led by Lisa Stickan as the Chairman — in charge of the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Cuyahoga County. VICTORIES are certain to follow.

Do we continue with the same strategy of being mired with the current swamp-filled ways of political patronage & this financially strapped County party unable to help candidates? Or do we stand up & embrace a new fresh Cuyahoga First leadership built on transparency, strong fundraising ability & grassroots support that will lead them to a path of vibrancy, success & winning in Cuyahoga County again!

This all important Central Committee chairman’s race is not as much about the candidates as it is about US — the members of the Republican Party of Cuyahoga County Central Committee & Republican voters in Cuyahoga County. And today with our vote together WE can choose a new path, a new successful way to start winning by electing the “Cuyahoga First” slate with Lisa Stickan as our new Chairperson.

In Liberty,

Ralph King

Cleveland Tea Party Patriots

Bedford Ward 6

Central Committee Republican Party Cuyahoga County

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Blogging for the Cleveland Tea Party

photo credit: pinterest

photo credit below: zazzle.com

Everyone is doing their Year-End round ups, think pieces, retrospectives, and so on. Here is mine.

Back in 2009, I signed on to the Tea Party because I agreed with its 3 core values:  [1] Fiscal Responsibility (don’t spend more than you have);  [2] Constitutionally Limited Government (big government is not the solution; keep the accountability as close to your backyard as possible); and  [3] Free Markets (as little regulation as is possible)

But for me, there is another motivator. And I go back to President Trump’s historic address in Warsaw, in which he talked about America’s role in global society: one of things he said was “we write symphonies.” Some of the media had no idea what he was talking about, but his comment struck me right where I live. 

The great divide in America is now a crisis: it's about the magnificent culture of Western Civilization versus a nihilistic movement to destroy that Western Civilization. We (today’s generations) can’t claim any credit for its development, but Rome and Greece are not at the forefront today, Europe is collapsing, and America is the de facto or default flagship and guardian of Western Civilization. Or at least it was.

But how long can America lead the Free World if our citizens do not acquire the skills of critical thinking and logic; learn our language and history; and embrace the American culture? The collectivist left has infiltrated, quite successfully, our major cultural institutions: academia, Hollywood, and the media. And it is weakening our once robust can-do culture. It may even be that in 50 years’ time, classical music will be performed only in the Far East, not in Europe or the United States. I am thinking here of Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Gershwin, etc. and dwindling support for the orchestras.  

I spent many years in the trenches employed by various performing and cultural arts organizations, and most of my erstwhile colleagues would be in the “left’ to “hard left” categories. I identify as a fiscal conservative. Not as a Republican, but as a fiscal conservative. Until I stood up and signed up for the Tea Party, I thought I was in some sort of socio-political Siberia. That changed with the emergence of the Tea Party.

All this ties into my thoughts about the cultural collapse of America, the disintegration of behavioral self-restraint, and why I am grateful beyond words that our President is Donald J. Trump. He treasures a culture that writes symphonies, and he wants to ensure that future generations inherit that culture. 

When you have a media that calls FLOTUS Melania’s Christmas decorations at the White House a “nightmare” that would scare little children, despite the grade-schoolers flocking to her for hugs, there is, I would say, something seriously wrong with that media and those who agree with their “narrative.” I am one of many observers who think we are witnessing some form of mass hysteria. When Morning Joe warns his viewers that Trump is "mentally unstable," Joe is exhibiting the phenomenon of projection: Accuse those with whom you disagree with what you yourself are doing.

What has all this to do with my cultural concerns? In the past several years, I’ve been involved in some projects that aim to preserve our cultural assets -- much as the early Catholic monks did. They labored in many ways, and some of them sat there in seclusion, attempting to preserve the artistic, intellectual, and literary accomplishments of their cultural heritage (not to say literacy itself), out of fear that the barbarians at the gate would destroy the flowering civilization.

Archival projects today tear off a page from those monks. Maybe the Golden Age of Musical Theater (think Rodgers and Hammerstein) is not your thing, but The Musical Theater Project here in Cleveland is dedicated to such preservation. Maybe your thing is the visual arts. Cleveland has a world-class Museum of Art that offers free admission. Maybe your thing is classical music. The Cleveland Orchestra excels in performing and preserving that repertory. Maybe you’ve heard them for free at Public Square on the Fourth of July. My work over the last 20 years involved research on Shakespeare and his biography. I am so lucky that we live in close proximity to the Cleveland Public Library – it is another cultural treasure trove. 

The point is: How long will these world-class institutions survive, whether in Cleveland or anywhere else in the United States? Where are their future audiences and readers? Many schools no longer require that students read any Shakespeare or Charles Dickens. Mark Twain’s masterpiece Huckleberry Finn is banned in many schools. I weep.

I was in a conversation about some of this recently with a friend and colleague who leans liberal, but we found ourselves on common ground when it came to our cultural history and traditions. I expressed some of my concerns, and he mentioned the monks. I took his point and mentioned them above. It is frightening to even have to think that we need those monks now.

So-called "Safe Spaces" are increasing, especially on campuses. The "Snowflake" population continues to insulate itself and reject critical thinking in favor of emotional self-gratification. Identity Politics are everywhere, and as groups like BLM and Antifa turn to violence, our cultural heritage is being destroyed. Attacked. Erased. Our historical monuments -- representing our very history -- are being destroyed. Literally.

Look at what’s happening to the legacies of George Washington; Christopher Columbus; and Robert E. Lee. We expect that sort of historical erasure from ISIS – destroying Palmyra’s sacred antiquities. But we do not expect it in the United States. Except that it is happening NOW before our very eyes. Even our language is being corrupted.

So I continue with my little contribution to the Cleveland Tea Party. Most of what I blog on is related to the three Tea Party core values, often to post Action Alerts for legislative initiatives at the local, state, and federal level that affect those three core values. But for me, it also impacts the heritage that has been entrusted to us, and I speak as a senior citizen who is so grateful to our forebears for our cultural inheritance.

I stand for our National Anthem. I recite the Pledge of Allegiance to our flag. And I blog for the Cleveland Tea Party (deferring always to Ralph King, who is my mentor on whatever is going on in the political world). For me, being a Cleveland Tea Party blogger is also about a devout reverence for our Judeo-Christian traditions and values; a profound gratitude for our freedoms; and a sense of responsibility to preserve and pass on to future generations our cultural endowment, history, and yes, symphonies.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

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The Consumer Financial Protection Czar and the Trump Administration

The Wall Street Journal has a report about the ill-advised Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and its director Richard Cordray. (The article link is to the CETUS website, since WSJ articles are usually behind a paywall). Cordray was appointed by the Obama administration in 2012 to head up this agency. Prior to that appointment, he had been Ohio Attorney General but had lost his Senate race against Mike DeWine.

In 2011, Cleveland Tea Party’s Ralph King pointed out that the position of the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is, “in more accurate terms Consumer Financial Protection Czar”:

The director of the CFPB is empowered to regulate almost any industry for any reason and cannot be removed for any reason other than malfeasance. The position is a five-year term, so the next president will have to deal with Cordray regulating our economy, despite the president’s wishes.

And now that next president, President Trump is having to deal with it. And the Wall Street Journal (article titled “Trump to Cordray: You’re Not Fired”) reports that the “Treasury Department has made an excellent case for dismissal.” Further in:

The problem is that Mr. Cordray won’t accept curbs on his power. Dodd-Frank states that the President may remove the director only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office” rather than at-will like other agency heads. Yet the report enumerates a litany of ways in which Mr. Cordray has flouted the law.

Treasury notes the “CFPB has avoided notice-and-comment rulemaking and instead relied to an unusual degree on enforcement actions and guidance documents.” The Administrative Procedure Act requires regulatory agencies to issue formal rule-makings, or at least formal guidance, to explicate law. Mr. Cordray says “facts and circumstances” guide the bureau’s legal interpretations.

. . .

Mr. Cordray’s term doesn’t end until July 2018, and implementing Treasury’s reforms as well as attendant rule-makings could take more than a year. Meantime, Mr. Cordray can continue shaking down businesses with enforcement that he hopes will propel his expected campaign for Governor in Ohio.

Some take-aways: The WSJ may point out the excellent case for Cordray’s dismissal (not to say the elimination of the agency itself), but it’s not about legal niceties, it’s all about politics and power. Mr. Trump is still surrounded by hostile deep state operatives, bureaucracies, and Congressional Uniparty opponents who ignore Obama Administration scandals and refuse to respect existing laws  (think Lynch, Comey, and the FBI; or Susan Rice unmasking of political opponents; or Lois Lerner’s IRS scandal, and on and on)….  So it may be obvious that Cordray and the CFPB are on the wrong side of the law, but The Uniparty and Corporate Media don’t much care. Trump is probably choosing his battles.

I decided to blog on this not only because the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and its director represent more of the swamp to be drained, but also because Richard Cordray may very well run for Governor of Ohio. Voters should know what he’s been doing. The full WSJ report is here.  

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Secretary of State Romney? Or not.

Cleveland Tea Party founder Ralph King is quoted in the Washington Examiner’s article “Mitt Romney wrong choice for Trump’s secretary of state, experts say”, published on Nov-23:

Mr. Trump’s transition team has floated the former Massachusetts governor’s name for appointment to the post, and the two men met privately over the weekend in New Jersey.

Some in the tea party movement and some prominent conservative Republican stalwarts don’t trust Mr. Romney to hew to Mr. Trump’s views on a number of policy issues that were central to his upset victory Nov. 8.

“I trust Donald Trump’s decision-making, but I don’t trust Mitt Romney policy views,” said Cleveland Tea Party founder Ralph King. “I think Romney will actually work against Trump on trade, good relations with Russia, avoiding wars in the Middle East. Trump can fire him, but will he want to do that?”

Mr. King said firing a top Cabinet official gives ammunition to the president’s enemies.

“I understand why people say, ‘Keep your friends close and your enemies closer,’ but you don’t want to give them a gun to shoot you with, politically speaking,” Mr. King said.

Read the rest here.

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America First Unity Rally for Trump report; Convention opens

If you missed yesterday's America First Unity Rally for Trump, you missed some outstanding presentations. Milo Yiannopoulos of Breitbart delivered an unapologetic and outrageously effective speech on "political correctness" and "Islam." It's up on You Tube here.

And Cleveland Tea Party's own Ralph King was in his usual excellent form:

For live streams of the prime-time speakers at the Convention yesterday evening, go to Treehouse's website here. I expected a mostly B-list roster, but the line-up was a powerhouse A-list all the way: Sheriff David Clarke, America's Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and an elegant and eloquent Melania Trump delivering the keynote, introduced by her husband. 

And don't miss Gov. Rick Perry's introduction of the Lone Survivor --  Marcus Luttrell's moving and powerful remarks are here. Wow! 

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Cleveland Prepares for the RNC: photos

                                                From photo album: RNC 2016 Friday before

Cleveland Tea Party's roving photographer, Pat J. Dooley, took a reconnaissance tour around downtown Cleveland today to check out preparations for the Republican National Convention that officially commences on Monday. You'll see crowd control barriers going up along the streets and in front of the Hilton Hotel, temporary cafes going up near The Q, various eateries on or near East Fourth Street that are now temporary headquarters for CNN, MSNBC, and other media, law enforcement presence on East Fourth St., and lots more.

The photo album "RNC 2016 Friday before" is here.

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