BIDEN'S LEGACY WILL BE ONE OF LYING, DECEIT, AND FABRICATION!

 Weekly Opinion Editorial

LYING LIAR WHO LIED!

by Steve Fair

 

     On Sunday, President Joe Biden issued an eleven-year blanket pardon of his son Hunter.  This came after he had repeatedly promised he wouldn’t pardon him.  Back in June, Hunter was convicted of three felony counts related to the purchase of a revolver and lying on the gun-purchase form.  At that time of his conviction, the White House issued a statement saying: President Joe Biden said he would accept the outcome and “continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal.” But Joe was apparently lying.  Three observations:

     First, Hunter’s pardon is historic.  The pardon covers an 11-year window that includes much of the time President Biden was Vice President.  During the investigation into Hunter’s infamous laptop, Joe Biden was implicated in many of the business dealings Hunter was engaged in with foreign governments.  Many believe President Biden is making sure the Trump justice department can’t go after the he or Hunter after Trump takes office.  Other presidents have pardoned family members, but this one is a clear abuse of power.   

     Second, Joe Biden has never been creditable.  Lying and cheating are a longtime pattern of behavior in Joe’s life.  As a student in law school, he lifted five pages from a law review journal and tried to pass them off as his own. In 1988, he was running for president, but was forced to drop out of the Democrat primary after it was disclosed, he had plagiarized a speech by a British politico.  During the 2020 campaign, statements and speeches were often word for word from policy papers written by others, with no attributing to the author.

    Imitation is often said to be the sincerest form of flattery, but what Biden does isn’t imitation.  He willfully steals the work of others and passes it off as his own. Taking credit for someone else’s intellectual work shows a lack of integrity and honesty. 

     Third, Biden lies with impunity. Biden hasn’t faced punishment or any negative consequences from the mainstream media for his double-dealing.  They are willing accomplices and collaborators in the effort to deceive America.  They aren’t alone.  Democrat Party leaders echo/recapitulate Biden’s lies.  When confronted with the truth, both groups flip the script, play victim and attempt to make the public question true reality.  Lies like the economy is flourishing and the border is secure didn’t fool the average citizen in November.  Democrats have a ‘creditability gap,’ (words and actions don’t align) with voters.  

     Democrats have been calling President Trump a liar since he appeared on the political scene.  According to the Washington Post, Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims during his first term- an average of 21 per day.  Some of what they called lies were mere mistakes in pronouncing words.  Ironically, the Post was not been as diligent in tracking President Biden’s falsehoods the past four years.       

     In 2003, former U.S. Senator Al Franken, (D-Minnesota), wrote a satirical book titled, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.  In the book, Franken attacked conservatives, implying Republicans spun reality and prevaricated the truth.  He attacked hyperbole, exaggeration, and sensationalism- characteristics that always accompanies politics. 

      Both Parties engage in exaggeration.  They often embellish the truth in an attempt to make something much bigger, better or worse than it actually is.  They caricature issues and consequences of actions.  But there is a fundamental difference between exaggeration and lying.  What President Biden did when he promised to not pardon Hunter wasn’t hyperbole, exaggeration or sensationalism.  It was a clear statement of anticipated action.  But it turns out, it was a lie- a deliberate fabricated statement intended to deceive the American public. Biden’s legacy is he is a lying liar who lied.

Legislators sometimes do the right thing after exhausting every other option!

 Weekly Opinion Editorial

KICKING & SCREAMING!

by Steve Fair

     In 2017, State Senator Anthony Sykes, (R-Moore) championed judicial reform in Oklahoma.  He authored four bills that sailed through the state senate, but never got a vote on the state house floor.  Senate Bill #708 (SB708) would have added the prerequisite a district judge have served as lead counsel in three jury trials before they ascended to the bench.  Sounds reasonable, but SB708 never got a vote in the house.  Senate Bill #779 (SB779), also authored by Sykes, would have changed the number of judges each judicial district could nominate.  Didn’t get a vote in the house. 

     Sykes’ Senate Joint Resolution #43 (SJR43) would have sent to a vote of the people a proposal to change Oklahoma’s system for filling appellate court justices/judges’ openings.  If approved, it would have removed the current Judicial Nominating Commission (JNC) from vetting candidates and submitting finalists to the governor. SJR43 was approved by the senate on a vote of 38-5, but never got a vote in the house.   

     The more things change, the more they remain the same.  In the 2024 legislative session, Senator Julie Daniels, (R-Bartlesville) authored Senate Joint Resolution #34 (SJR34).  It was virtually the same language that was in Sykes’ bill seven years before.  SJR34 passed the state senate 32-14.  It did get a vote in the state house, but failed 60-36, when 24 Republicans joined all Democrats to not let their constituents vote for judicial reform.  To see how your legislator voted on SJR34, go to: http://www.oklegislature.gov/BillInfo.aspx?Bill=sjr34&Session=2400.  Three observations:

     First, Oklahomans want judicial reform.  For the first time since Oklahoma went to a retention ballot, a justice/judge was removed.  Supreme Court Justice Yvonne Kruger, 87, who served for 37 years on the high court was not retained.  Two other justices were retained by razor thin margins.  For the first time ever, Oklahoma voters paid attention to a portion of the ballot they had been ignoring.  Kruger was the most liberal of the three and paid the price at the ballot box.  Lawmakers on the wrong side of judicial reform are destined to bear the brunt if they continue to disregard their constituents.

     Second, voters should make the decision on judicial reform.  When the JNC was created, it was in response to a bribery scandal at the Oklahoma Supreme Court.  Advocates for reform claim the JNC system puts too much power into too few hands and is easily manipulated.  

      Oklahomans deserve a more transparent process that gives the governor the power to nominate a judge and lawmakers (state senate) the sole authority to approve or reject it- a system that mirrors the federal system.  Critics of SJR34 argue the existing selection process works well.  They contend it relies on a mix of legal experts and lay people and removes partisan politics and undue outside influence.  The problem is current justices/judges have struck Not giving voters the opportunity to make the decision on such an important issue reveals haughtiness and a detachment from representing the people.

     Third, judicial reform will be addressed in the 2025 session.  The squeaky wheel always gets the grease.  Those who complain the most are the ones who get attention.  Oklahoma voters spoke loud at the ballot in November when they voted out Kauger.  The past reluctance of state house leadership to push for judicial reform will likely diminish with new leadership.  The old leadership balked and stymied judicial reform.  Expect to see opportunists and self-promoters to seize the judicial reform mantle and use it to further their political career.  Beware of the ‘johnny come latelys.’

     Real reform rarely happens in Oklahoma at the legislative level.  Lawmakers are often dragged kicking and screaming to do the right thing after they have exhausted every other option.  Oklahomans are demanding judicial reform.  Let the kicking, screaming and self-promoting begin.

 

Two percent of employed Americans work for the government!

 Weekly Opinion Editorial

VOLUNTARY TERMINATIONS!

by Steve Fair

         Republicans since the 1930s have championed the concept of ‘smaller government.’  That wasn’t always the case.  Lincoln and Republicans in the 1860s believed expansion of government’s footprint would save the nation.  Democrats, who controlled the southern states opposed growing government.

     Twentieth century Republicans and Democrats reversed their beliefs and under the leadership of President Franklin Roosevelt the Ds became advocates for more bureaucracy.  1930s Republicans opposed many of FDR’s New Deal policies and the script was flipped.  Three observations:

     First, policy positions are about votes.  In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, both Parties took positions they believed would influence western voters.  As America expanded west, appealing to those voters was critical to electoral success.  Tell ‘em what they want to hear was the order of the day.  Not much different than today.  In the early days of western expansion, businesses needed infrastructure, a stable currency and help with tariffs.  Both Parties willingly provided the help, but Republicans took the position of less government regulation. 

     Second, neither Party is for limited government.  Both want government regulation.  They just differ in how much they want.  Republican elected officials claim to want government downsized/rightsized/optimized during campaigning, but fail to deliver on reducing government’s footprint when elected.  Republicans and Democrats are always trying to pin the federal deficit on each other, but the truth is both Parties have embraced deficit spending to keep government growing.  Congress has control of the purse and bears the bulk of the responsibility. 

     Third, will the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) work?  President Trump has appointed billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head up the unofficial government agency.  In a Wall Street Journal op/ed last week, they wrote the aim to cut $500 billion of the next year’s federal budget.  That’s a start, but the U.S. government spent $1.7 trillion more in 2023 than they took in.  The total federal budget was $6.13 trillion in 2023.  Musk claims America is headed to bankruptcy if spending isn’t reigned in. There are nearly 3 million federal employees.  About 2% of employed Americans work for the government, a number that has remained stable for the past decade.  Government is the 15^th largest employer in America, larger than the agriculture and mining industries.   

        Musk and Ramaswamy say they will target spending that is unauthorized by Congress, as well as programs agencies implement that aren’t in line with legislator’s intentions.  They also want to cut the number of federal employees.  Since COVID, a large number of federal employees work from home.  Musk and Ramaswamy want to require them to be in the office five days a week.  They predict that policy change will result in ‘a wave of voluntary terminations.’ 

     Musk is not timid when it comes to making hard decisions.  When he bought Twitter (now X) in 2022, he slashed the workforce by 80%.  The company went from 8,000 employees to 1,500.  The diversity and inclusion departments, and the content moderation teams were the most impacted.  The layoffs shocked the social media industry and many believed it would tank the company.  Because Twitter was losing money, Musk said the cuts were necessary to make it viable.  The newly branded X is not yet profitable, it is moving closer. 

     The duo may actually begin the process of fulfilling a century old GOP promise to reduce the size of government, but don’t believe it until you see it. 

Trump’s legacy could be saving America from bankruptcy!

 Weekly Opinion Editorial

SAVE AMERICA FROM BANKRUPTCY!

by Steve Fair

     President elect Trump has moved quickly to build his second term cabinet.  He has filled more than half of his fifteen (15) cabinet level positions.  Florida Senator Marco Rubio for Secretary of State, Fox News host and military vet Pette Hegseth for Defense Secretary, and Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz for Attorney General are his picks for the major cabinet positions. 

     North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum is his choice to be Secretary of the Interior.  Robert F Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, is his pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services.  Former Georgia congressman Doug Collins has been chosen to lead the US Department of Veterans' Affairs.  South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has been nominated for Secretary of Homeland Security.  Former Democrat Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has been nominated to lead the CIA.  President-elect Donald Trump has selected former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to serve as his administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.  Liberty Energy CEO Christ Wright has been tapped to lead the Energy Department. 

     The only positions left unfilled are: Treasury, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, HHS, Transportation, and Education.  Three observations on Trump’s picks:

     First, Trump values loyalty.  All his cabinet level appointments are vocal supporters of Donald Trump.  Unlike in his first term, where he appointed experienced politicos, Trump seems to be choosing personal friends.  These picks would likely execute out his decisions without pushback.  President Trump has long said he made a mistake in his first term in choosing the wrong people to help him execute his plans.    

          Second, placing loyalty above competence is dangerous.  Several of Trump’s appointees don’t appear to be qualified.  For example, Lee Zeldin is nominated as the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but has little history with climate or regulatory issues. Pete Hegseth, a Fox News weekend co-host tapped to serve as secretary of defense, but has no Pentagon experience. Clearly both agencies need reform, but putting someone in charge who has little experience is risky.  Placing loyalty above competence could result in failing to accomplish what Trump ultimately wants to attain.  Hopefully, Trump will have these advisors on a short leash.

      Third, change is coming.  Based on Trump’s picks for the cabinet, it will not be business as usual in Washington.  Trump’s picks are unconventional and unorthodox.  They will ‘shake things up.’  Government is past due for reorganization, restructure, reform, and transformation.  Change happens in the private sector on a regular basis, but change in government is scarcer than hen’s teeth.  The problem with change without a clear purpose is it often leads to confusion, inefficiency and demoralization, making things worse, not better. 

    A potential game change is Trump’s appointment of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as heads of a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).  Their stated marching orders are to: (1) dismantle government bureaucracy, (2) slash excess regulations, (3) cut wasteful expenditures and (4) restructure federal agencies.  Just the stated goals of DOGE should strike fear in the hearts of government bureaucrats. 

     America’s major challenge is fiscal!  Government spends more than they take in and waste is rampant.  Both political Parties have shown no resolve to address out of control spending.  Trump promised he would balance the federal budget in his first term, but didn’t even come close.  If Musk and Ramaswamy are effective and reduce government’s footprint, Trump’s real legacy would be that he saved America from bankruptcy.

Democratic Party has become a home for radicals!

 Weekly Opinion Editorial

ELECTION POSTMORTEM!

by Steve Fair

         Last week, America elected Donald J. Trump to a second term.  Trump is only the second U.S. President to serve non-consecutive terms.  The first was President Stephen Grover Cleveland who served as the nation’s 22^nd and 24^th president.   Cleveland was the first Democrat elected president after the Civil War and served from 1885-1889 and from 1893-1897. 

     As expected, Republicans flipped the U.S. Senate (53-47) and will also retain the majority in the U.S. House.  Overall, it was a stellar day for the GOP. 

     Tuesday was the third consecutive presidential election where pollsters missed prognosticating actual results.  Across all the battleground states, pollsters contended VP Kamala Harris was leading.  They claimed Harris was going to put Iowa in play, that Georgia and North Carolina would vote blue, and Harris would win the popular vote.  None of that happened. 

     Polls are only as good as the collected data and Trump supporters clearly don’t participate in polls or don’t answer honestly, which shews outcomes.  Pollsters have become less accurate than meteorologists and main stream media anchors.   Three reasons Trump won a second term:

     First, Harris misread what was important to voters.  She thought her pro-abortion stance would motivate infrequent and first-time voters to flood the polls, but that didn’t happen.  She deemphasized border security and the economy.  Harris was not able to differentiate herself from President Biden.  Her statement she wouldn’t have done anything different than Biden came back to haunt her. 

     Second, Americans voted with their wallet.  Harris attempted to convince voters they were economically better off than they were four years ago.  But it wasn’t true.  Food and gasoline costs more.  Wages haven’t kept pace with inflation.  A Gallup poll found 52% of Americans thought they and their family are worse off today than they were four years ago.   

     Third, the Democratic Party has become a home for radicals.  For years, the Democrats positioned and marketed the Party as home for the working man/the average Joe.  But recently, ‘average Joes’ are being pushed out of the tent.  Pro-life, traditional marriage conservative Ds face hostility from those sporting ‘co-exist’ bumper stickers.  Those who preach tolerance don’t practice it. 

     Those ‘old school’ conservative Democrats in the Rust Belt states voted for Trump last week.  It remains to be seen if they will permanently leave the Party and join the GOP.   

     Democrats are pointing fingers of blame for the thrashing.  Many hold Joe Biden liable for not dropping out sooner.  Others claim the Ds have abandoned their ‘working man’ image and are out of touch with what the average American finds important.  Whatever the reason for the trouncing, in the near future, Democrats face a fight between radicals and centrists over control of the Party.  

     What will a second Trump term look like?  ‘America First’ in domestic and foreign policy, tightening of the southern border, loosing of government regulations, and judges who exercise judicial restraint.  What it will not be is the end of democracy.  Plato observed democracies inevitably fail because they always birth a tyrant.  Trump is a despot in liberal’s minds.  But Democrats misread voter’s concerns in the 2024 election, so their prophesy and analytical skills are dubious.

The ‘end justifies the means,’ mentality saturates politics in 2024!

 Weekly Opinion Editorial

CHANGING VALUES!

by Steve Fair

     The theory of consumption values (TCV) asserts individual’s buy stuff based on five values: functional, emotional, social, epistemic, and conditional.  Economists, sociologists, psychologists, marketers, and political scientists are continually studying what influences people’s decision-making processes and how they can capitalize on that knowledge. 

     Consumer behavior is always changing.  In the United States, for example, 75% of consumers tried a new way to shop after the COVID-19 pandemic. On-line shopping has exploded in growth.  Brand loyalty is at an all time low.  Vitamin consumption is at an all time high.   

     Personal values significantly influence consumer behavior, guiding individual preferences and decisions. These values, shaped by cultural, family, and personal experiences, dictate what products, services, or candidates people find essential or desirable.  How does consumer behavior reflect America’s values?

     First, America’s moral values have plummeted.  In a recent Gallup poll, 54% of U.S. adults rated the countries’ moral values as poor.  Another 33% rate them as only fair, 10% good and only 1% excellent.  Republicans are more negative about the values of the country than Democrats, but 83% of all Americans believe the values in the U.S. are on the slide.  Republicans (65%) attribute the decline to lack of religious training, Democrats (63%) believe it is a combination of issues in the home and the overall culture.    

      A University of Chicago study found Republicans and Democrats were not that different in their core values, but neither group want to hear that. Nine out of ten Ds and Rs surveyed agreed fairness, compassion and personal responsibility should be guiding values in life for an individual.  Yet only about a third of either group believed the opposing Party actually practices those values.  Skepticism, cynicism, and mistrust fuel a lack of civility. 

      Second, consumer behavior reflects America’s changing moral values.  In the first half of 2024, shoplifting in the U.S. was up 24% vs. 2023.  What was once considered dishonesty and thieve, shoplifting has now become mainstream.  A recent study found shoplifting is now more common among those with some college education and earning middle class income than the poor. 

     Some people steal because they believe large corporations are profiteering and they are righting a wrong.  They believe the company will absorb the loss, but retailers are not sponges.  They pass the cost of the pilfering by raising prices.  Everyone pays for light fingered Louies’ purloining in higher prices.

     The ‘end justifies the means,’ mentality saturates politics in 2024.  Unethical and immoral behavior is considered acceptable. Win at any cost is the order of the day and anyone who preaches restraint is branded a wimp and a weakling.   

     Third, America’s moral values are always reflected at the polls and at the grocery shelf.  When angry Americans hoard toilet paper, rip retail clerks, and have no tolerance for shortages, they get impatient, angry, entitled elected officials. .    

     In a self-governing system of government, citizens get the government they deserve- every time.  That is consistent with TCV: people buy products and vote for people who align with their personal values.  When filching merchandise from a retailer has become acceptable behavior, who is surprised by elected officials with similar values?

OKLAHOMA'S VOTER TURNOUT IS TERRIBLE!

 Weekly Opinion Editorial

MIGHTY MOUSE!

by Steve Fair

 

     This week early voting starts in the Sooner state.  Voters can vote on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 8am-6pm and Saturday 8am-3pm at their counties designated early voting site.  In most counties, that is the county courthouse or election board office.  Go the Oklahoma state election board website for the early voting location in your county.   In 2022, 122,000 Oklahoma voters cast their ballot in-person absentee, meaning they voted before the Tuesday election.   2024 is a presidential election year, so that number is expected to be double.

     Oklahoma has 2,301,188 registered voters in Oklahoma.  52% are registered Republicans, 28% Democrats, and 19% are Independents.  Turnout is expected to be lower than 2020.  There is only one statewide race on the ballot.

     Oklahoma’s voter turnout is terrible.  In 1996, 49% of Oklahoma’s registered voters turned out for the general election.  That ranked #26 among the states and slightly higher than the national turnout numbers (48.1%).  Fast forward to 2020 and 61.5% of America’s eligible voters showed up, but only 51.5% of Oklahoma’s voters.  Only Texas had poorer turnout, 51.3%.  With a high-profile U.S. Senate race in the Lone Star state this year, it’s a safe bet Oklahoma will be at or near the bottom in turnout in 2024.

     Why are Oklahomans not voting? Clearly, they are not prioritizing getting to the polls.  They wrongly believe their vote doesn’t matter.  Here are three possible reasons for Oklahoma’s voter apathy: (1) they have brought into the notion the system/machine/process is rigged and it doesn’t matter who they vote for, the ‘establishment’ is going to win and install their lackey.  There is certainly unrefutable evidence special interests and big donors control the process, but when average folks quit participating in the process, it makes it worse, not better, (2) they believe their vote is irrelevant or pertinent.  Because Oklahoma is not a ‘battleground’ state, why waste your time?  There is a lot more on the ballot than the presidential election and those state and local races impact a voter’s life more than the POTUS race, (3) they have poor examples in Oklahoma elected officials.  When lazy, slothful, apathetic non-voters roll out of bed one morning, wipe eye boogers from their eyeballs, file for office and win, it reveals that voting is not too important in the Sooner state.  Oklahoma voters didn’t punish such detritus in 2018.  That proves being a faithful voter is not high on many Oklahoma voter’s decision tree.

     Political Parties and campaigns spend a significant percentage of their monies on their Get Out to Vote efforts.  They know if they can reach their infrequent voters, get them up off the couch and to the polls they will win.  The problem is infrequent voters are very often ‘low information’ voters, paying attention to movements and personalities, but not issues and policy.  The infrequent voter is manipulated and exploited as a means to an end.  Once the election is over, they are ignored until they are needed in the next election.

     Oklahoma voters should repent of their unfaithful voter turnout.  One way to send the right message would be to add to the state constitution a requirement of candidacy to include a citizen/candidate to have voted in at least 75% the elections, they were eligible to vote in (every election) over the past 8 years. With early voting and absentee balloting available, there is no excuse for a citizen for not casting a vote.  

     Until Oklahomans stop voting for non-voter candidates singing “Here I Come to Save the Day,” they will keep getting Mighty Mouse elected officials and government.