Everything

Rebuttal: Jesse Kelly is wrong, it’s not time for the US to divorce

Published

4 months ago

April 12, 2018

I find it a bit ironic that the Federalist is no longer Federalist, or at least Jesse Kelly is promoting the idea that federalism has no hope of a resurgence in his latest article with the Federalist, titled, “It’s time for the United States to divorce before things get dangerous.”

Jesse thinks its time to split the country into two pieces and have two separate nations. He even provided a map, which he calls, “a peaceful solution.”

The peaceful solution. pic.twitter.com/LVZwP7h70b

— Jesse Kelly® (@JesseKellyDC) April 7, 2018

I agree with Jesse we have a problem with this country but even this split won’t help. Do you think Idaho, Montana, or even the Dakotas would be happy to be governed by progressive?

Here is the real problem, it’s not only that we have forgotten what Federalism is, but more importantly, we have forgotten about local control.

I want you to think about something. Do you think the Federalist or Anti-Federalist would be happy with how the federal and state governments operate? These people that fought a bloody revolution would be appalled to see what has happened to our country. If they were alive today, I would be confident they would be asking us, why the heck haven’t we overthrown the entire government.

I agree something must be done but this idea will not work, and I’m fairly certain it will not have a peaceful solution.

I live in California and happen to be the Republican candidate for California State Controller. If you want to talk about anger, we have the CalExit movement to secede from the US and become our own country. We have New California that wants to split the state in two, another proposed ballot initiative to try and break the state into three new states. Californians from both sides of the political spectrum are frustrated, and the biggest problem is we think we can solve it by establishing new overbearing centralized governments.

This type of thinking is what got us into the mess we are in. We need something that gets us back to local control and limits centralized government that controls every aspect of our lives.

My Solution

People want local control, but they are not sure how we can move from the dysfunction and division we currently see ourselves in, to genuine freedom and local control.

People cannot do a nationwide ballot initiative to remove power from the federal government and amend the Constitution, but people can strip power from the state government. Remember people created the states and the states created the federal government, therefore you must follow the same path. You start with the people taking power from the state and then the state taking power from the federal government.

So where do you attack to remove power? You do that by going after the power of taxation. The federal government was in check when it couldn’t tax people directly (16th Amendment). It’s the golden rule, “he who has the gold makes the rules.” Once they controlled most of the money, we saw the exponential growth of centralized government and the state government gladly followed suit.

So under my tax plan called Trickle-up-Taxation, we bypass the state legislature and put a ballot initiative straight to the people to remove most taxing authority and regulatory authority for local matters to the counties and cities. The state will be limited to things that only the state can do, and your local municipalities will handle all other issues. The state will no longer tax you directly but indirectly but by taking a portion of all tax dollars generated on the local level.

Progressive will have more money and greater control in their areas to establish their progressive utopia and conservatives can have low taxes and be left alone. If the state government tries to take a more significant percentage of tax dollars generated locally, you will have conservatives and progressive pushing back on the state government for trying to take money out of their local community.

States will want to grow their power, but since the People have restrained them, they will look to the only place they can take power and money from, the federal government.

There will be an incentive now for states to come together in an Article V Convention of States. The federal government might not like it, but they have no choice in the matter. They are powerless to stop the states.

This is how you get back to the original intent of self-government, local control and representation, and freedom to decide what is best for you and your family and not have every issue decided by a government institution far removed from your community.

Jesse, it’s not time for a divorce. It’s time we rise up and take our country back and finally break the shackles of overbearing centralized government and go back to our roots of self-government and self-determination. I believe we can and we will do this and I believe Trickle-up-Taxation is the key to our success.

Konstantinos Roditis is a candidate for California State Controller. You can learn more about his campaign at cacontroller.com, and you can follow him on Twitter & Facebook.

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Konstantinos Roditis

Mr. Roditis a candidate for California State Controller. He is an entrepreneur and owns several companies. He graduated from UCSD with a B.A. in Political Science/International Relations. He's a former City Commissioner with the City of Anaheim, CA. He's a Conservative Constitutional Federalist. Follow him on Twitter @KonRoditis

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Guns and Crime

ICE gets media beating for taking illegal immigrant into custody over Mexican homicide warrant

Published

16 hours ago

August 18, 2018

Michio Hasai

ICE gets media beating for taking illegal immigrant into custody over Mexican homicide warrant

It’s the type of story the media craves. An illegal immigrant, Joel Arrona-Lara, who “hasn’t done anything wrong” was detained by ICE agents while transporting his pregnant wife to the hospital. She ended up having to drive herself the rest of the way before delivering their son.

The spin is predictable. They skim over the fact that he has an arrest warrant in Mexico for homicide while putting all the focus on his wife’s dilemma. They even attempt to cast doubt on the warrant because the lawyer for the family says he couldn’t find a record of the warrant. This last part is most peculiar because it would be simple for a major media outlet to confirm the existence of the warrant. They did, of course, but they won’t report that when they have a better quote from the lawyer denying its existence.

Eventually details will emerge about the warrant, but not until the media inflicts as much damage as possible on ICE and anyone in favor of legal immigration being the proper way to enter the country.

Here’s the story. If you click through, you’ll even get a link at the bottom to the family’s new GoFundMe page:

ICE Detains Man Driving Pregnant Wife To Deliver Baby, Says He Is Wanted For Homicide In Mexico

Her husband Joel Arrona-Lara was driving his wife to the hospital for a scheduled Cesarean section Wednesday afternoon when they had to stop to get gas. That’s when their car was approached by two SUVs. Maria said they were officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The mother of five was then asked to show her identification and complied. When the agents asked Arrona-Lara, the couple said he didn’t have the ID on him, but that they lived nearby and could go get it for them. The agents then asked Arrona-Lara to exit the vehicle, searched the car for weapons, and put Arrona into custody, leaving Maria alone at the gas station.

My take

There’s no doubt the circumstances surrounding all of this are unfortunate. Pregnant wives should not have to drive themselves to the hospital for a scheduled C-section. On the other hand, suspected murderers shouldn’t be entering the country in the first place. That point won’t be mentioned by mainstream media.

ICE has a responsibility to take people like Arrona-Lara into custody so it can be determined whether or not they should be deported. There may have even been a certain degree of leeway given had there been no records other than his status as an illegal immigrant, but being a suspected murderer with an arrest warrant took away any chance at leeway. The ICE agents did the right thing.

As a legal immigrant, I have no sympathy for those who cheat the system and break our laws. Blaming the ICE agents for doing their job correctly in order to keep us safe is the type of insanity mainstream media loves to sell us.

Democrats

The real reason Ocasio-Cortez is afraid of the press

Published

2 days ago

August 18, 2018

Scarlett Madison

The real reason Ocasio-Cortez is afraid of the press

For at least the second time, reporters were barred from covering an event featuring Socialist Democratic darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The campaign’s reason: we want attendees to feel comfortable since there’s so much national press covering her.

This is an absolutely ridiculous excuse, of course. Nobody goes to a campaign event without knowing the press will (should) be there. It doesn’t make them less comfortable and may actually give some a sense of security knowing the answers to their questions will be judged by more than the audience at hand. That’s one of the reasons for the press in the first place, to give information about an event to people who cannot attend.

Instead, the press is getting another roadblock:

Ocasio-Cortez bans press from covering campaign event

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic socialist star running for New York’s 14th congressional district, is facing criticism after her campaign banned journalists from covering a town hall meeting with voters this week.

The Queens Chronicle, a local news outlet, reported that the campaign for the 28-year-old progressive prevented reporters from attending a campaign event in Corona on Sunday, even though it was open to the rest of the public. The campaign reportedly barred reporters from a prior event as well.

It’s conspicuous that a local publication was barred because it runs contrary to the narrative the campaign is trying to sell. So why is she being hidden from reporters at these types of events?

My Take

It’s clear that her exposure is her best friend and worst enemy. Being talked about is a politician’s best friend on the campaign trail, but it also offers a risk of failure. This is most common in events like the town hall meetings she is holding because she’ll be forced to think on her feet.

What if she can’t think on her feet? What if her answers when placed in an unscripted situation the type of answers many would expect from an inexperienced socialist?

Until she’s ready to handle the pressure of having press cover these events, she won’t be ready to hold public office at this level. The House of Representatives isn’t for people who need to be protected from their own answers.

Culture and Religion

Ken Ham on how science confirms the Bible

Published

2 days ago

August 18, 2018

Carl Durrek

Ken Ham on how science confirms the Bible

One of my biggest pet peeves is the attempt by atheists to use “science” to disprove the Bible. It’s unfortunate on many levels, not the least of which being Pascal’s Wager, but the strangest part is how much of science must be ignored in order to make the claim a Biblical worldview runs counter to modern science.

Some may object to this topic being part of mostly political news site, but it’s been more widely covered in recent years by liberal sites attempting to paint the Biblical worldview in a negative light, so it’s good to give equal time to the counterarguments.

There are better videos than Ken Ham’s discussion on the topic, but few are more easily understood. It’s well worth the hour.