Remember When

Remember when American political consumers had a sense of humor?

ARCHIE BUNKER FOR PRESIDENT

PAT PAULSON FOR PRESIDENT

Look it up.

More Than A Mistake

Addressing City Council recently the Mayor claimed that it was a mistake to violate Ohio law when leasing public property.

When dealing with with the citizens of Wilmington’s public property, the laws apply. The law does not allow a mayor or any other single individual to sell, buy or rent such property without the consent of those citizens through their elected representatives on city council.

In the case of the Runway Logistics/Sewell lease of a former Randal building on Nelson Avenue, the contracting was done behind the backs of council. The city’s law director was not given a signed copy to review. At least some some, if not all, council members had no idea that a deal had been made until they were made aware by a private citizen. We have learned from the Total Baking Solution (TBS) fiasco that not all rental agreements have merit.

Miscalculating the revenue from a lease would be a mistake; keeping the lease secret from council, the people and the press is a violation. The Ohio Revised Code (ORC) When dealing with with the citizens of Wilmington’s public property, the laws apply. The law does not allow a mayor or any other single individual to sell, buy or rent such property without the consent of those citizens through their elected representatives on city council.

In the case of the Runway Logistics/Sewell lease of a former Randal building on Nelson Avenue, the contracting was done behind the backs of council. The city’s law director was not given a signed copy to review. At least some some, if not all, council members had no idea that a deal had been made until they were made aware by a private citizen. We have learned from the Total Baking Solution (TBS) fiasco that not all rental agreements have merit.

Miscalculating the revenue from a lease would be a mistake; keeping the lease secret from council, the people and the press is a violation. The Ohio Revised Code (ORC) requires that the leasing of public property must be authorized by an ordinance approved by a two-thirds vote of city council.

At Thursday’s council meeting, Mr. Dixon, an employee of the county and a commercial property owner attempted, at the behest of the mayor, to defend the the illegal action. He compared the deal to a private transaction between himself and a lessee of his property that wanted the agreement to remain silent. There is no comparison, as anyone can see. One wonders if Dixon would approve of a third party renting one of his properties without his knowledge.

The value of the rental agreement is not at issue; the method of achieving the agreement is the issue — a serious issue.

Paul Hunter

Donald, Build Up This Wall

Rumor has it that produce farmers in California and southwestern states want Trump to build a wall along the border to prevent their low paid laborers from crossing the border into Mexico.

From the Wall St. Journal

Mexican Immigration to U.S. Reverses

More Mexicans are leaving the U.S. to return home than arriving, ending the largest wave of immigration in modern American history.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/mexican-immigration-to-u-s-reverses-1447954334

Paul Hunter

Leaders or Panderers?

A definition of moral leadership: Such individuals are always characterized by a deep sense of ethics, are driven by core ideals (such as justice) and are motivated by the pursuit of a higher purpose.

A definition of pandering: Is the act of expressing one's views in accordance with the likes of a group to which one is attempting to appeal for political purposes.

Apply the above definitions to the below politicians:

Gov. John Kasich doesn’t want Ohio or the United States to accept any more Syrian refugees.

The Ohio House, led by speaker Cliff Rosenberger, passed a resolution telling the president to stop letting displaced Syrians into the country.

Paul Hunter

Whose Boots Should Be On The Ground?

The hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees entering Europe have a vested interest in reestablishing peace and stability in their homeland.

For a few billion dollars the democratic nations in the west, those very nations that are being overrun by asylum seekers, could fund, arm and train a truly elite Syrian army of ten or twenty thousand young and willing people.

This corps would have the advantage of being vetted and trained outside the combat area and as an added incentive their families would be taken care of in host nations where they now reside.

Sometimes the solutions that are the hardest to find are the simplest and most practical.

Paul Hunter

City Property, Free Use Of

The troublesome contract that the Mayor, without council's authority, signed on 10/1/15 and backdated to 7/1/15 allows the renter to use of the property for three months without charge.
Based on the agreed rental charge the lessee saves $27,500. Such a deal.
Paul Hunter

Homicides in the U.S.

From a study by Richard Johnson, Ph.D.

Criminal Justice Program

University of Toledo

Of the 56,259 homicides from 2009-2012, 755 were the result of negligent accident homicides (i.e., child playing with a gun)

For me this is the most horrifying statistic.and an argument for criminal action against  gun makers and sellers that ignore modern technology that prevents such actions. Those gun owners themselves should be charged with manslaughter 1 at a minimum regardless of what the NRA's Wayne Laphew might argue.

Paul Hunter

Ohio Voters Prefer A Foreign Cartel Monopoly

From Reuters 

U.S. border officials seize record 15 tons of pot at California border

LOS ANGELES

U.S. customs officers at a California border crossing seized more than 15 tons of marijuana hidden inside a tractor-trailer shipment designated as a cargo of mattresses, the biggest narcotics bust ever at that port of entry, officials said on Friday.

Plastic-wrapped packages of marijuana, with a street value estimated at nearly $19 million, were found stacked floor to ceiling inside a trailer at the Otay Mesa cargo port in San Diego on Thursday, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency.

There's only one word for the number of pounds of marijuana There's only one word for the number of pounds of marijuana seized by the U.S. Border Patrol and at U.S. ports of entry: high.

It's no secret that pot is the most widely used illegal drug in the United States, with 48 percent of Americans in a recent Pew Research Center survey saying they've tried the drug. So it didn’t come as much of a surprise when The Center for Investigative Reporting found that cannabis was the most-seized drug along the U.S.-Mexico border – more than meth, heroin and cocainecombined.
The total collected from 2005 to 2011? More than 17 million pounds.
Poated by Paul Hunter

Wednesday Morning Sour Grapes?

To paraphrase ole Ross Perot, that giant sighing of relief you hear is coming from the murdering Mexican drug cartel bosses. They have several more years of almost unfettered markets for their weed sales in Ohio. Again their unintended enforcers will spend millions on helicopter and aircraft overflights seeking out a few hundred plants that overworked local law enforcement will have to confiscate and courts will have to adjudicate about.

In the meantime, as we normally law abiding citizens sip our martinis, we must wonder why the lesson of the failed prohibition has been forgotten. Even Eliot Ness must have realized that turning ordinary citizens into criminals was a failed policy.

If the state had ten supermarket chains would we call it a monopoly?

Headline: Ohio cities starved for cash to fix streets and bridges. Hmm.

Paul Hunter

Eat Your Words Trump

In a ceremony in English and Spanish, a new U.S. warship was christened Saturday in honor of a Marine from San Diego who was killed in Iraq.

The Navy guided-missile destroyer Rafael Peralta was christened at the General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine.

Peralta was killed Nov. 15, 2004, during the second battle of Fallouja and is credited with saving the lives of several Marines during house-to-house fighting. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross, although Marines insist he should have received the Medal of Honor.

Peralta, an immigrant from Mexico, enlisted in the Marine Corps on the day he received his green card. He was 25 when he was killed leading Marines into a house to clear out heavily armed and barricaded insurgents.

Sgt. Peralta was killed 11 years ago in Iraq when he threw himself onto a grenade to protect his fellow soldiers

http://www.npr.org/2015/10/31/453393934/a-naval-ship-christening-in-the-name-of-a-fallen-war-hero

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-destroyer-christened-20151031-story.html

Posted by Paul Hunter