Good news from the Washington Times

The headline:

Kasich admits he couldn't beat Trump if election held today:

'But that's today. It's ever changing'

The report is here.  

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Yesterday’s headline from the son of a mailman

art credit: politicalclownparade.blogspot.com

The headline from Gov. John Kasich appearance on CNN’s “Newsroom” via Breitbart:

Kasich: ‘The Lord Doesn’t Want’ 

Americans Opposing the Migrant Caravan

How does he know this?

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Gov. John Kasich: who knew?

A.F. Branco cartoon via Powerlineblog

S. Noble at the Independent Sentinel reports:

Governor Kasich showed his true colors in a tweet, fully rejecting the President’s agenda. Kasich is a globalist and he’s with Hillary. He is opposed to Trump’s concept of America First because he wants to have his Kumbaya moment in history with the leftists of the world.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) criticized President Trump over his rebuke of “globalism” during remarks at the United Nations, while stealing a slogan from Trump’s 2016 Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

Kasich warned Trump that his policy of “America First” could result in “America Alone.” He added that the U.S. and other nations are “Stronger Together,” a nod to Clinton’s campaign slogan.

Forget sovereignty, forget borders, and let’s lead from behind. If anyone ever doubted Kasich’s loyalties lie with the left, doubt no more.

Read more here. And as of last winter, Gov. Kasich didn't rule out a 2020 run for the Presidency? 

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Gov. Kasich on Trump’s “chaos”

Breitbart reports:

Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) said President Donald Trump’s “chaos” was turning off “suburban women.”

Kasich said, “First of all, the chaos that surrounds Donald Trump has unnerved a lot of people. Suburban women in particular here are the ones that are really turned off. And you add to that the millennials you have it very close.”

(More of the report with video is here.)

Let's see. Chaos defined as “complete disorder and confusion” vs President Trump’s record since his election.  Below are a few accomplishments out of over 50 cited by Sean Hannity here:

• ·         Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court
• ·         Stock Market reached an all-time high
• ·         Consumer confidence at 17-year high
• ·         More than 2 million jobs created
• ·         Mortgage applications for new homes rise to a 7-year high
• ·         Unemployment rate at 17-year low
• ·         Ended war on coal
• ·         Bids for Border Wall underway
• ·         Changed rules of engagement against ISIS
• ··        Withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
• ·         Removed The United States out of The Paris Accord
• ·         Authorized the construction of The Keystone Pipeline
• ·         Food Stamp use at lowest level in 7 years
• ·         Would not certify the Iran Nuclear Deal
• ·         Recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital
• ·         Passage of Tax Reform Bill

If that’s “chaos,” some voters will want more chaos.

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HB 512 sets off alarm bells at PJ Media

image credit: youtube.com

The other day, Paula Bolyard at PJ Media ran a report “Kasich Power Grab Could Give Unelected Bureaucrats Almost Unlimited Power Over Education.” Here’s the opening:

Ohio Governor John Kasich and the Ohio legislature are fast-tracking a bill that that would consolidate nearly all educational departments into one unelected executive agency controlled by the governor. It's a giant power grab by Kasich and Ohio Republicans, who have become frustrated by their inability to control the Ohio Department of Education and the elected members of the State Board of Education.

HB 512, currently under consideration by the Ohio House, seeks to combine the Ohio Department of Education (ODE), Ohio Department of Higher Education, and Ohio Department of Workforce Transformation into a single new department organized under the governor. In addition, the elected State Board of Education (SBE) would be stripped of most its powers to promulgate rules related to K-12 education. The current board, which has 11 regionally-elected members and eight at-large members appointed by the governor, has purview over a wide variety of education issues, including standards, assessment selection, proficiency determination, state report cards, teacher/student ratios, private and homeschool regulations, and public school operating standards.

"What I really want... I want to be able to run the Department of Education," Kasich said at an Associated Press forum in early February, signaling his support for the move. "I don't think we should have this elected school board." Instead, he said the governor should be in charge of education in the state.

"We have no clue who these people are and they're running education policy," Kasich said. "And I'm governor and I can't tell them what to do. It's nuts."

That's the way democracy works, John.

. . .

The most egregious change, she warned, "is the transfer of authority from our State Board of Education to one person appointed by whomever the governor may be." As a result, "every four to eight years the focus and direction of [the agency's] broad scope of power can change, which is not conducive to stability," Elsey said.

Read the rest here -- including written testimony already submitted. Don’t just weep. Cleveland Tea Party blogged alerts on HB 512 earlier today here and on March 4 here. Please refer back to those blog links for Actions you can take to stop this monstrosity.

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Precision Idiocy

 art credit: pixabay.com

From John Ellis at PJ Media:

As you file your taxes, try not to think too hard about the revelation that your hard-earned money is helping someone achieve their dream of becoming a clown. Because, apparently becoming a clown requires going to college, and going to college requires taxpayers footing the bill. Next time you're at the circus, demand a "thank you" from a clown.

CNS News provides more information about the bad news regarding the gross misuse of our taxes: "The federal government is funding a clown school located in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco-based congressional district that has classes and workshops on 'Precision Idiocy' and how to act like a 'Buffoon,'" CNS wrote. "The school, which is called the 'Clown Conservatory' and is part of the nonprofit Circus Center, received a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts that runs from June 2017 through May 2018." Clown Conservatory claims to be “the United States' only professional training program for clowns and physical comedians.”

The rest of the report is here. And in related news at the LA Times:

Schwarzenegger, Kasich to team up in L.A.
for group seeking to reform California GOP

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ohio Gov. John Kasich will headline an event to debut a new group seeking to reform the California Republican Party.

The pair will deliver speeches and participate in panels on March 21 in Los Angeles at an event for New Way California, a group formed by Assemblyman Chad Mayes (R-Yucca Valley).

“They will be focused on reminding the Republican Party we need them to be successful, but in order to be successful, they need to choose policies and messaging that helps them grow rather than continue to shrink,” said Daniel Ketchell, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger.

Cue: “Send in the Clowns.”

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Updates:Gov. Kasich (RINO) on renewable energy and other bills

art credit: redstate

In an article “Kasich Veto Draws Cheers From Environmental Lobby,” Steve Byas at The New American reports:

Once again, Ohio Governor John Kasich  used his veto power to kill yet another bill favored by conservatives in his state. On Tuesday, he killed a bill that would have made renewable energy benchmarks voluntary, rather than mandatory, for the next two years.

Kasich defended his action, saying, “Ohio workers cannot afford to take a step backward from the economic gains that we have made in recent years, however, and arbitrarily limiting Ohio’s energy generation options amounts to self-inflicted damage to both our state’s near and long-term economic competitiveness.” Of course, how suspending mandatory benchmarks imposed on electric companies would limit the companies’ “energy generation options," as opposed to doing exactly the opposite, Kasich did not explain.

Not surprisingly, the Environmentalist Lobby cheered Kasich, who ran for president this year as a Republican. The Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation, National Audubon Society, and Ohio Consumers’ Counsel all praised the veto. The “benchmarks,” as they are called, were created by legislation in 2008, requiring electric companies to gradually obtain more energy from “renewable sources,” rather than being allowed simply to make a free market decision to buy the least expensive electricity.

Senator Bill Seitz (R-Cincinatti), however, was not pleased. “It is apparent that Gov. Kasich cares more about appeasing his coastal elite friends in the renewable energy business than he does about the millions of Ohioans who decisively rejected this ideology when they voted for President-elect Trump,” Seitz said in a press release. “We can only hope that President Trump and his amazing cabinet of free market capitalists will save us from this regulatory overreach of Al Gore-style policies that take unnecessary money out of ratepayers’ pockets.”

Seitz said he would move to totally repeal the mandates in the next legislative session.

Kasich made it clear by his veto that he does not trust the free market to sort out which type of energy source is best for Ohio consumers. This veto is a confirmation for many more conservative Republicans that Kasich is simply not a conservative.

Ohio legislators can return to Columbus to override this veto, if they wish. . .

During the Republican presidential contest, Kasich defended the implementation of controversial Common Core standards in his state, and attacked fellow Republican candidates who opposed them — fellow governors Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, as well as former Governor Mike Huckabee, and U.S. Senators Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio. At the time, Donald Trump was not mentioned, although Trump also opposed Common Core, seen by conservative opponents as an attempt to nationalize public education.

There have been numerous other deviations from conservative principles by Kasich, including his backing of the expansion of Medicaid in Ohio under ObamaCare. When Kasich was in Congress, he was one of only 42 Republicans who voted for President Bill Clinton’s ban on assault rifles. He also favors granting U.S. citizenship to illegal aliens.

Clearly, Republican primary voters made a good decision to reject John Kasich for the Republican nomination for president.

And another item on the 2017 New Year’s Wish List to Columbus lawmakers: Pass the Ohio Health Care Compact.

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States sue feds over bathroom policy

photo credit: elitereaders.com

11 states sue US government over transgenderbathroom policy

Why isn’t Ohio one of them?

One of the three core Tea Party values is “limited government.” Whatever one may think of the controversies over bathrooms and sexual identity, the feds are clearly overreaching. From the AOL report:

The state of Texas is the lead plaintiff and was joined by Alabama, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Utah and Georgia, plus the Arizona Department of Education and the governor of Maine.

School districts from Texas and Arizona also joined the suit, which names the U.S. government and a host of federal agencies and officials as defendants.

Alison Gill, the vice chair of the Trans United Fund, a political advocacy group, said the states' challenge did not reflect the position of most school boards and administrators, who have come out in favor of the administration's order.

"This action puts students at risk for the sake of politics," Gill said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said, "President Obama has no business setting locker room and restroom policies for our schools."

"School policies should be determined by individual states, educators and parents - not dictated by a presidential decree," added West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.

Read the rest here. Email Gov. John Kasich (the son of a mailman) here. 

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John Kasich's delegates

photo credit: minutemennews.com

What happens now to Kasich's delegates? 

Now that Gov. John Kasich has suspended his campaign for the GOP nomination, my question is: what happens to his delegates? Does it make a difference if he “suspends” his campaign or officially withdraws? Here’s something I found by Rober Eno at ConservativeReview (March 28):

Last week we debunked the myth that John Kasich’s Ohio delegates would be forced to vote for Trump if the Ohio governor withdrew from the nomination fight. To recap, they remain bound to Kasich for the first ballot and were hand selected by his campaign. Now that 66 of Kasich’s delegates are accounted for, what happens to the remaining 79 of his delegates were he to suspend?

Twenty-one additional delegates from Iowa, Virginia, Illinois, and North Carolina are bound to Kasich, even if he withdraws or suspends. That means a total of 87 delegates are bound by rule to vote for Kasich on the first ballot—that is, 60 percent of his delegates.

Thirty-two delegates would be unbound from Kasich on the first ballot were he to publicly suspend his campaign. The delegates are from New Hampshire, Maine, Michigan, and the District of Columbia. Of those, 13 of the actual delegates were selected by the Kasich campaign. The rest were selected by the state party or at a convention.

Twenty-five delegates would become unbound if Kasich specifically unbinds them in writing to a state party, mostly by informing the party that he has withdrawn. They include delegates from Massachusetts, Vermont, Kansas, and Kentucky. These delegates were not handpicked by the candidate.

The single delegate from Nevada can unbind him or herself upon withdrawal by Kasich if she or he so wishes.

If no candidate reaches 1,237 delegates prior to the convention, and John Kasich has dropped out prior to the convention, only 58 of his delegates would be free-agents on the first ballot in Cleveland.

The entire analysis is here.

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George Soros and surrogates contributed $700,000 to John Kasich’s campaign

cartoon credit: comicallyincorrect.com

Over the last several months, this blogsite posted articles and links to expose the source of campaign funds for the leading candidates. Those candidates were Jeb! Bush here, Ben Carson here, Chris Christie here, Ted Cruz here, Marco Rubio here, and Donald Trump here. I did not include Governor John Kasich, because at the time, his role in the campaign appeared to be limited to siphoning off votes from top contenders. He succeeded in winning Ohio, but he is still not a serious contender, because mathematically, there are not enough delegates left in future primaries to put him over the top. But Ohio voters might still be interested in Gov. Kasich’s campaign funding sources. From Life Site News two days ago:

It took the Ohio Governor 29 tries, but he finally won his first state in the GOP primaries.   In Tuesday’s GOP primaries, Ohio’s Governor John Kasich won his home state, and one of the most important states of the general election map. 

Although it is now a mathematical impossibility for Governor Kasich to reach the necessary 1,237 votes to win the GOP primary nomination outright, the Ohio Governor has vowed to stay in the race, betting on a brokered convention along with a suspension of the convention’s rules to clinch the nomination.

As a point of explanation, Governor Kasich is not only mathematically shut out of the nomination based on delegates, but also on the fact that a candidate must win at least 8 states before he can be considered for the convention’s ballots.  This appears highly unlikely given the Governor’s 1-28 record to date.

However, there may be a different reason for Governor Kasich to remain in the race, and that can be discovered by following the trail of his donors.

A simple search of Governor Kasich’s 2016 Presidential campaign donations lists the Soros Fund Management as the sixth highest individual donor with $202,700. The seventh largest donor is the Duquesne Family Office with $150,000.  On the Super PAC side, Kasich’s New Day for America received $150,000 from Stanley Drukenmiller (who operates the Duquesne Family Office) and $200,000 from Scott Beset, who is employed by the Soros Fund Management.

Scott Bessent served as George Soros’ chief investment manager until late 2015, while Stanley Druckenmiller currently manages $2 billion of Soros’ hedge funds. Clearly, these three names, George Soros, Scott Bessent, and Stanly Drukenmiller represent George Soros just as New Day for America and Kasich for America represent Governor John Kasich.

  

In total therefore, George Soros, personally and through surrogates, has donated over $700,000 to Governor John Kasich’s campaign.

The Open Secrets pages are here and here, listing contributors. Hopefully those in other states who have yet to vote in their primaries will learn about this.  

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Trump rallies in Ohio: just who are these protesters?

Branco cartoon credit: http://comicallyincorrect.com/

Gov. John Kasich criticized the Trump campaign for creating a “toxic” environment inthe GOP race for the presidential nomination, blaming the Trump campaign for the thug violence that resulted in a rally being postponed the other day in Chicago. But the thugs are the usual suspects:  MoveOn.org, Black Lives Matter, and Communists, among others (via Gateway Pundit).   

At the Cleveland rally at the IX Center, protesters lined the access road into the parking lot, but a few made it past security and tried to disrupt the rally. They were thrown out, and Trump supporters chanted “Trump. Trump, Trump” while the thugs were removed. No violence. 

As Trump said, it’s not Trump supporters who are disrupting rallies. It’s those who are supporting, in particular, Bernie Sanders. 

The Cleveland rally for Trump can be viewed here or here.

Cleveland and other Ohio Tea Partiers were there and reported firsthand. And take a look at Cleveland Tea Party’s very own Ralph King backstage (below) with Mr. Trump. 

More photos to come...

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Countdown to the Ohio GOP primary: Kasich and Trump

Photo credit: onpolitics.usatoday.com

It’s coming down to a contest between Governor John Kasich and Donald J. Trump.

From CNN Politics:

Internally, Kasich's team is encouraged by what they see happening on the ground. Save for a series of ad buys and a few appearances in the state, they've seen little else in the form of an organization from Trump in the state. Marco Rubio, focused solely on survival in Florida, and Ted Cruz, aren't planning any stops in the state.

The only remaining campaign stops in Ohio before next Tuesday's primary are tomorrow, Saturday, March 12, both rallies for Donald J. Trump:

In Dayton at 10a.m. 

In Cleveland at 2pm.

The latest polling at Real Clear Politics shows Kasich and Trump in a close race.

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Gov. John Kasich and Donald J. Trump campaign in Cleveland this week

Photo credit: onpolitics.usatoday

Gov. John Kasich and Donald J. Trump
campaign in Cleveland this week

The Ohio primary election is on Tuesday, March 15, a week from tomorrow. At least two of the four GOP candidates will hold rallies in the greater Cleveland area this week.

From Fox8 Cleveland:

Ohio Gov. John Kasich will be in Broadview Heights on Tuesday night for a rally.

He is already speaking at a rally on Sunday in Columbus with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Tuesday's event will be held at the Ohio CAT headquarters on Royalton Road in Broadview Heights. [Address: 3993 E Royalton Rd, Broadview Heights, OH 44147, map here] 

From blog.4president:

Donald J. Trump in Cleveland, Ohio on Saturday, March 12, 2016

When: Saturday, March 12, 2016 at 2:00 PM (EST)

Where: I-X Center Drive,  Cleveland, OH, map and directions here  

Hosted By: Donald J. Trump for President

Register for this event now at eventbrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/donald-j-trump-in-cleveland-oh-tickets-22635314836 

Doors open at 11:00 AM

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Kasich on Medicaid and Common Core

Art credit: theadventuresofcallum.blogspot.com

This letter, published yesterday in the Wheeling News-Register, is by our fellow patriot Bob Connors with the We the People Ohio Valley :

Kasich Mishandled Medicaid

December 16, 2014

The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register

Mike Myer's recent opinion "Political Litmus Tests Unwise" makes sense except where conscience and freedom meet. Should we not hold politicians accountable for issues like health care choice or kid's education?

Describing Gov. Kasich's unilateral implementation of Medicaid expansion as a single issue may be naive, Ohioans voted for, and overwhelmingly passed, a health care amendment to protect themselves from the unpopular Obamacare in its entirety and Kasich disrespected that vote. Kasich then defied Ohio state representatives who said "no" to Medicaid expansion as they cut it from the budget. Kasich also ignored the throng of phone calls and email begging him not to support Obamacare via Medicaid expansion.

Is it crazy to question Kasich's contempt for voters and his debt legacy which will saddle Ohioans with huge permanent budget busting surges in spending for decades? No. It is fiscally irresponsible to commit billions of future tax dollars to hospital and health insurance executives as with Medicaid expansion. Ditto for committing big stealthy spending growth for Common Core Standards, a national one size fits all education disaster.

Many people oppose putting more of Ohio's poor into this broken Medicaid program because several studies show Medicaid patients have worse health outcomes than people without insurance. Kasich could have reformed Medicaid when he was first elected, thereby providing people with better outcomes at less cost, but he did not. Kasich uses the Bible to justify his actions but the Bible speaks of people helping people, not about politicians getting into heaven by creating generational debt.

Bob Connors

Bridgeport

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