The Dust Settles

People I know who share with me a bond of mutual respect have been asking me why I would vote for Trump. (Well… Those who have the common sense and decency to debate like adults.) The reasons are long and complex; however, I attempt to give some idea of my thinking nontheless. The first thing one must understand is my life is long and storied although I may not be much advanced in age. All of these experiences have shaped me into what I am today, and I quite enjoy myself, so there is little chance for change. Without an understanding of what pathways have driven me to my current sociopolitical location, it will be impossible to understand my choices - vice versa would also apply.

In response to a friend, I wrote the following:

Trump is predictable. We already had 4 years of him and I was not killed, lynched, or battered. Trans people still roam about freely (one is a manager at a local store here, I live in a deep red city, county, state). Women still exist outside the kitchen. Poor people still have housing and food. The list goes on... I am not buying the media hype.

He passed dozens of laws that affected me positively. He gave sweeping healthcare reforms. He cut taxes for everyone (not just the rich). He bolstered care for recovering addicts. He gave HBCUs the largest endowment of all time AND made that endowment permanent (Obama's HBCU money had an expiry). Most importantly many of the people I trust trust him (Candace Owens, Maj Toure, Larry Elder, Brandon Tatum, RFKJr, Kari Lake, Lily Tang Williams, Scott Pressler, Hotep Jesus, Royce White, some family members, etc...). Of course it is not all good news: he did warp speed which I think was a total disaster. Also, some people I trust do not trust him (some family members). I grew up in NJ in the 90s: I do not trust him, but he did get my vote.

He is the Unity Candidate. RFKJr, Tulsi Gabbard, Vivek Ramaswamy, the Hoteps, etc... all support him.

Kamala was offensive. Megan Thee Stallion has a degree in Health Management, instead of calling on her to speak about the state of healthcare in this nation, Kamala called upon her to shake her ass and act like a whore on stage. Trump, the very same day, spoke with black executives in the same city to discuss black business leadership.

While Harris was talking about collard greens, Trump talked about taxes and regulation rollbacks. When Harris went on interviews she discussed her middle class upbringing and what her mother did, Trump talked about policy, what he had done, what he will do.

Harris is a prosecutor and DA. With my history under the system, you must know I could never back a prosecutor or DA.

Trump won his primary. Biden won Harris' primary. Harris was installed like an oligarch. Which is less Democratic?

So many more reasons. I might write a post on my site about it soon. No one is perfect, Trump included, myself included. Based on what I know, I believe Trump was the better pick this election.

To another I responded:

I am always up for conversation and will never vilify anyone. I genuinely believe in the Jeffersonian vision that was furthered by Douglass and still further by Malcolm X which currently takes us to my politics: Hotep. I was a never-Trumper then voted as a bloc with Hotep Nation.

We have huge problems with Trump (police, project warp speed, shitty on 2A, etc); however, we are diametrically opposed to the Democrat party. I was considering voting for RFKJr., then he dropped out and endorsed Trump too. Candace Owens, Vivek Ramaswamy, and a host of other characters I trust have all gotten behind one man.

I am also a paper Republican. The Republican party is dead. It has been replaced by a coalition of MAGA, MAHA, Libertarian, Hotep, and others. I do take pause with the morality but none of the candidates are moral characters. They cannot be moral characters. Only an amoral person would take a billion dollars and spend it on a campaign rather than feeding impoverished families. No one moral could become President. It is a position reserved for our most megalomaniacal.

Elections are hard choices. All of them. Bar none. I cannot agree 100% with anyone; I have also found that I cannot disagree 100% with anyone. So, I have to narrow the scope to the 3-5 issues I care the most about and choose thereby. Simple as that.

The thing that strikes me the most is that no one can refute the facts. Sure, they have their own facts regarding the Democrat Party, but they cannot refute the positive work done by Republicans. It is clear that everyone has their reasons for voting the way they vote. It is even more clear that, when we all act as adults would act, we can debate ideas and come to a mutual understanding. The goal is not to agree with one another, the goal is to understand one another. Screaming into one’s phone in selfie mode is not the way (this is the modern-day Narcissus story); the way is discussion, respect, learning, and dignity.

What strikes me the most is how easy it is to be civil with one another. All it takes is a willingness to listen and a willingness to speak. I do admit, that it is easier for people with a dark complexion to forge this path. Liberals at least allow us space to speak; they would never allow a white person to say some of the things I say. It is a step in the right direction. Another notable development is that 34% of voting Texas black males went Trump. Democrats have to take a long, hard look at why that might be; the facts are the facts, and they have to make sense of them - same as everyone else.

Things have been a lot less hectic regarding the election today than the 3 days just thereafter. This is a great sign for national unity. We don’t know what will shake out of this administration; let’s all give it a chance before condemning it wholesale.

Trump Won

With over 300 electoral votes, Trump has won the 2024 US Presidential Election. Further, Cruz has won the Senate race here in TX. On top of all this, there has been a red wave throughout the nation! This is fantastic news, and I am eager to see what our representatives do with the new found political atmosphere.

An interesting thing to note is the racism and sexism of leftists.

A black man who did not vote for Kamala Harris in November is sexist, but a black woman who did not support Cornell West in March is not?

A white man who did not vote for Kamala Harris is racist and sexist, but a black woman who did not vote for RFK Jr. is not?

An Indian woman who fixes collard greens in the tub is black, but a black man who uses a crock pot is not?

No one can make this make sense.

Further, their assumptions about me are staggering. I have had multiple leftists approach me and talk to me about their pain from this election and how I must share it. One even brought his son to me, and explained to his son that he should keep his voice down around most people, but I am cool so he can express his feelings freely with me. These people clearly know NOTHING about me; yet, they assume my political leaning none-the-less. White all of them; Liberal all of them; Leftist all of them. If this isn’t the very most basic form of racism - to literally assume my thoughts and feelings by the colour of my skin knowing nothing of me - I don’t know what is.

I am a GOP precinct secretary. I stomped pavement and knocked doors for Ted Cruz. I have written tons of pages describing exactly my thoughts and feelings. I am an open book. Are these people interested in me, the person? of course not. They have asked not a single question about me, my life, my children. Nothing. I have never seen this kind of wonton disregard of my personhood from anyone in the GOP. What an electorate the Democrats have. What an electorate indeed.

I did not scoff at these people; they are not worth the saliva. I simply listened to them tell me how people like me are the worst people ever and we are going to kill them and kill Democracy. They are still alive, and we still have elections… Go figure…

President Trump’s first term gave me the greatest gift any Government could give me: my health and sobriety. Signed into law was a sweeping reform of healthcare in the US. Some of the points were:

• Finalized a rule to allow the importation of prescription drugs from Canada

• Ended the gag clauses that prevented pharmacists from informing patients about the best prices for the medications they need

• Signed first-ever executive order to affirm that it is the official policy of the United States Government to protect patients with pre-existing conditions

• Improved access to tax-free health savings accounts for individuals with chronic conditions

• Finalized requirements for unprecedented price transparency from hospitals and insurance companies so patients know what the cost is before they receive care

• Finalized the Most Favored Nation Rule to ensure that pharmaceutical companies offer the same discounts to the United States as they do to other nations, resulting in an estimated $85 billion in savings over seven years—$30 billion in out-of-pocket costs alone

These along with other rules and laws protected me when I went to rehab. I was making much less money in the beginning of my sobriety and because of the new law, it only cost me a few hundred dollars over 4 years to pay for my outpatient treatments. This literally saved my life and saved my children from growing up without a father. For this single signature, I will be eternally grateful to Mr. Trump.

When people say that Trump will end this, or destroy that, or kill the other thing, they show their ignorance. We don’t vote for Trump for destruction and hate; we vote for Trump for life and liberty. Anyone who is unable to see that is too far gone to help and I wish them well. This is why I sit back and accept the vitriol of those who despise me and other Trump voters. They require forgiveness, for they know not what they do.

Joe Gotta Go

I met these folks. They were parked in front of a shopping center in Waxahachie. I was not paying any real attention driving down the road; my son, on the other hand, was more observant at the time. He yelled out that there was a “festival” and a lot of cool stuff. All three children wanted to attend; I obliged.

I spoke with their representative, Bruce C. Carter, and others involved. They let me know what they were about and what they did. Given the organization’s name, it is not difficult to imagine their purpose and mission. They hold beliefs that are similar to my own and I did throw my support behind them. I love that they lead with, “We Didn’t Vote For Him And We Are Still Black.”

I will be voting for Donald Trump in this coming election. It appears they will be as well. My kids liked the bus, lived the people, and liked the merchandise. Go team go! Trump 2024!!!

Trump Savagery

These Trump trials are falling left and right. Anyone who has been on the business end of a malicious prosecution could have predicted this. Court cases do not get resolved in a couple years’ time. It just does not happen very often outside of plea bargaining. If the Defendant is savvy, as with Trump, the trial could be pushed out for decades.

Trump’s legal team filed a litany of motions as is a Defendant’s right. The Honorable Judge Aileen Cannon must consider those motions and rule upon them individually. his is a Judge’s job. To “rubber stamp” a denial is a dereliction of duty and opens to “administrative remedies” not only the Judge, but the entire Jurisdiction over which the Judge presides. Of particular note is that the very same people who are complaining about the length of these pre-trial proceedings were silent when it took Hunter Biden 8 years to go to trial… Interesting… It is almost as if they don’t support the Equal Protection Clause.

I have been on the business end of a malicious prosecution. After 5 years, I won and received not even an apology in return. This is the system under which we live. This is why I am for limited Government and returning power to We, the People. Once a Government becomes of sufficient size, it uses that size to harm those it is oath-bound to protect: every single time.

The tailwinds behind Team Trump do not end with the Court. Everywhere we look, there is coverage of the Left’s civil war over Israel and Palestine. The Left is eating itself, and the media is soaking it up. At this time in 2020, the news was full of out-of-context sound bites uttered by President Trump. This time around it is full of in-context, anti-American, anti-Freedom sound bites from the Left. Ultra-Leftist Robert Kennedy, Jr. has declared war on Biden; Ultra-Leftist Cornell West has declared war on Biden; Ultra-Leftists throughout the nation have all voiced concerns about Biden’s leadership and capacity to move the Left ever further toward actual Socialism and Communism.

All the while, we conservatives remain in tact supporting Donald Trump. Haley’s supporters are all Democrats. Ramaswamy’s supporters (of which I am one) have gotten behind Trump after Ramaswamy’s endorsement therefor. DeSantis’ supporters are getting behind Trump. Donald Trump is the unifying principal behind the Conservative movement. No such unifying principal exists on the Left.

This is not to say the election is in the bag. We have a lot of work to do. We need to pass a nationwide voter ID bill. We need to pass a nationwide ban on tax-funded support for illegal immigrants. We need to free the J6ers as they are not being treated in the same way as the Hamas-radicalized thugs overrunning our college campuses. We need to hold closed primaries in Texas. We need to force the Feds to respect our 10th Amendment Sovereignty.

Things are looking good now. We need to hold the momentum and push forward to November and beyond.

A Party United

The Republican Party is a mess. Before I decided to pick a side - as it were - it appeared to be a mess from the perspective of an Independent looking in. However, now that I have come in to inspect the party for my own edification, I have come to find the situation is much worse than I had once believed it to be.

The fact that my representative, Brian Harrison, is compelled by spirit to travel throughout the great State of Texas questing against establishment-backed, uni-party-owned, vapid, placid, fake Republicans is astonishing. The grassroots have been checking boxes next to the same names for far too long, and we must do something about it.

This nation was founded on the belief that people governed themselves locally through their representatives. Our forerunners revolted over a 2% tax on a drink. On December 17, 1773, John Adams wrote in his diary,

Last Night 3 Cargoes of Bohea Tea were emptied into the Sea. This Morning a Man of War sails… The People should never rise, without doing something to be remembered—something notable And striking… Cushing gave us an Account of[] the Quantity of Tea the East India Company had on Hand[], that is Seven Years Consumption…

Leading up to that point was a 10-year-long struggle against Taxation by Parliamentary Authority - that is a tax upon the people by authoritarian decree rather than by the people’s consent. They destroyed 7-years’ worth of tea and subsequently fought a war over taxes. Now, we have taxes in the double digits, and Republicans, those of us who are supposed to uphold the ideals enshrined within the original text of the US Constitution, go right along with it. This is one of the chief fractures within the party.

Another fracture is Trump. Look. The party is going with Trump, so get on board! This never Trump nonsense is a real drag on our goals. Of course, healthy debate is important, but debate becomes unhealthy when the race is under way. We picked the guy, so everyone needs to stop talking about it and move on to POLICY discussions. I was a Ramaswamy supporter; I 100% planned to vote for Ramaswamy in the primary. Ramaswamy announced his withdrawal from the race and put his support behind Trump, I voted Trump in the primary. This is simple; it has an easy fix; let’s fix it.

One could go on about these issues, but that would be unhelpful. The point is we need to work together, vet candidates appropriately, offer good candidates to run against the poor performers, show up, get policy done, and all this together.

How do we move forward? We do what we are supposed to do and stick by the Constitution and its supporting texts. That’s how. We hit the streets, we go to the parks, we get on social media, we get on podcasts, we go anywhere and everywhere to send a clear message that we are for the Constitution, and we shall not bend knee to the uni-party, to the Feds, to big business. Our manual is the Constitution: Follow it.

Tax Hikes

Taxes are a large part of American life. For most households, the top two expenditures are housing (rent/mortgage) and taxes. There is no larger bill. Some of these taxes are straightforward, such as income tax; some are not, such as capital gains, property, estate, etcetera…

What is clear is that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (made effective by the Trump Administration on January 1, 2018) lowered the tax bill for all Americans, and Biden has stated he will not renew it. Biden has also promised that anyone making $400,000/yr or less would not pay a penny more in taxes. These two ideals are incompatible. One cannot dispose of a tax cut for people making $25,000/yr and not raise taxes on those individuals; this makes no sense.

Now, Biden is threatening to raise taxes for a large portion of Americans making under $400,000/yr again. Biden has proposed an increase to the capital gains tax. Luckily, only Congress has the power to tax, not the Executive branch, but with all the Biden rubber-stampers in Congress, this is not a cause to abandon.

When capital gains tax increases, the burden falls to the middle class, the elderly, and our children to pay for it. Capital gains tax is assessed in situations involving the sale or exchange of:

• A home

• stocks

• bonds

• ETFs

• crypto

• And many more

While a change in this rate impacts nearly all Americans, it dramatically affects one of our most vulnerable populations: the elderly. When working with a financial advisor, usually a plan is set forth with a mixture of cash, non-taxable assets, and capital assets subject to capital gains. Altogether, this is referred to colloquially as a “nest egg”.

If the tax burden of a withdrawal from your nest egg, the amount you need to accumulate therein increases as well. For example, say you planned to retire on $8,500 per month. Assuming a growth rate of 3% and a capital gains tax of 15% one would need $4M in their nest egg to hit this number (this is highly dependent upon how long they have been saving and what the asset mix is, for the sake of brevity, we will say the entire value at retirement is principal invested in the capital markets).

Now, under the same conditions, if the capital gains rate would be 20%, the number goes up to $4.25M. Again, at a capital gains rate of 30%, we would have $4.86M. The capital gains tax determines how easily an American can retire without becoming reliant upon the Government.

This is why it is crucial to fight against these tax hikes. A tax hike causes We, the People, to become more impoverished. A more impoverished people is more reliant upon its Government. A more reliant people is more subjugated. We do not bite the hand that feeds us, after all.