Continuation of Clark County Politics

The purpose of this blog is for me to continue writing as if the CCP blog was still up and running.

Ultimately, I was forced to end the CCP blog because of indirect threats made to my clients.

The reality is that my former friends are proving to be much more of a threat than anyone on the left ever was. Sometimes, the people you’d take a bullet for turns out to be the ones behind the guns. As a result of outing Sen. Ann "Gas Tax" Rivers' PDC scam which consisted of overstating the amount in her account by $175,000 for over a year, my clients have found themselves under pressure by virtue of rivers attempting to peel the County out of a lawsuit against the they're working on.

I have become a political enemy of Sen. Rivers, ever since her betrayal of myself personally and this district in its entirety... stuffing the largest gas tax increase in the history of the state down our throats by virtue of having pledged to oppose both the gas tax and tab fee increase to get elected, only to forget all about that pledge when the time came to vote.

This image was taken from Rivers former campaign website prior to her removal of it; and astoundingly left up while she was in the middle of betraying us.

As set forth here, the explanations in the excuses provided by Rivers for her betrayal were both lies and exaggerations designed to provide her cover for her betrayal.

Because I exposed Sen. Rivers, threats have been made to indirectly or directly harm my clients, who have believed in me for the past decade plus..

The irony in all of this, is that with and Rivers' affair with former democrat Speaker of the House Joe King and the literally hundreds of hours I spent keeping Rivers and her husband married, having to deal with their various issues, having to keep both of them together when they were both falling apart, none of that meant anything to her.

My job, when I was working with Rivers, was to keep her grounded.. And the idea of keeping her grounded, was to keep her from becoming that which theoretically, she loathed: just your everyday, run-of-the-mill, lying politician.

Ultimately, like so many others, Rivers was completely co-opted. At this time, she may be in the process of being blackmailed, she may have been bought, she may have just bought into the idea that she's completely special, because she has the title "Sen."

One of the ironies of this situation, is that had she been ultimately successful with her attempts to get me fired, any restraint that I've been showing when it comes to the issue of informing the people of her betrayal not only of them personally but of her family with the former Democrat Speaker of the House would become completely unencumbered.

Perhaps, she believes, that my revealing that information is inevitable. And it may very well be. But ultimately, threatening my clients isn't going to stop that from happening if I make the determination that it must happen.

Now, I find myself in a posit5ion where if I continue to utilize my First Amendment rights, she will harm those most professionally important to me.

Talk about spite.

Meanwhile, I cannot even support a candidate or candidates.  That, too, may be grounds for Rivers' jihad against my clients to ramp up.  So, by attacking them, I have been silenced.

Ultimately,  my desire to write remains unabated. And while I have, temporarily, shelved the Clark County Politics blog, which is been in existence since 2005, I will continue to write here but for the foreseeable future I am the only one who is going to be able to read what this blog contains.

If at some point in the future, I am in a position to ultimately return to blogging at CCP, then what I write here will be transferred to that effort.

This way, I can get this stuff out of my system; put it aside, and move on… All without losing it.

And by losing it, what I'm referring to specifically, is losing the information in the analysis, not losing my mind.

Now most of this is being transcribed by Dragon Naturally Speaking. As a result, there are going to be typos... there's going to be duplicated and missing punctuation and issues of that sort.

But it's nothing that can't be repaired if need be when the time comes. In fact, I believe will be able to do a lot more writing faster this way than I would've been banging a keyboard with my pathetic two finger technique.

Keeping the Trump victories last night in perspective and the Establishment losing their minds.

I occasionally remind people that the Pavlovian political response to candidates here in Washington State, of supporting a candidate, only to see that guy (or woman) vaporize, and then moving on to the next candidate, only to see them enter the political Twilight Zone as well, only to move onto the next... and so forth... is a non-starter for me.

This cycle, I have refused to support any candidate.

Why?

Because here in the great state of Washington, we have no say.

Like many of the young and politically naive, my youngest (22) is enchanted by Bernie Sanders.

That's a purely emotional response for the most part: the reality is she no more knows his positions in depth, nor has she studied the consequences of his polices, any more than she can levitate.

Like many on the left, she forwarded another video attack against Trump last night, her sense of outrage having been properly pricked, apparently, by what was on the video, which I did not watch... because, well, it would make no difference.

And I told her as much:

    Kj Hinton You do understand we have zero say in any of this, right?

I was taken to task by another poster who, not understanding my perspective, wrote this:

Bryan Goldman Yeah, because years of keeping our head in the sand has the world moving swiftly in the right direction...?

Your pessimistic comment has some truth to it, but it's merely opinion based. Recent history in other countries begs to differ. Revolution can take many different shapes and sizes..Like · Reply · 17 hrs

To which I replied:

Kj Hinton It's not opinion and it's not conspiracy theory. It's the calendar.

We will not have a primary here in Washington State until next May.

May.

This will be long decided before May. Hillary will be the democrat nominee, since she's scammed all the super-delegates. Sanders will get crushed tonite for the most part like he did in South Carolina, more or less. I mean, who's got the huge lead both votes and in the delegate count... including super delegates?

Trump will likely be the GOP nominee if current trends continue.

Thus, our vote in the primary, where the nominees will have long since been decided...

DOES.

NOT.

MATTER. 

Like · Reply · 16 hrs · Edited

And that's the thing, you see.

I'm not going to exorcised over a candidate/nominee when I have no say over that candidate/nominee.

What's the point?  Why set myself up for emotional turmoil if my candidate loses... since my vote won't matter?

And now, what I see, are people... and the Establishment... losing their fricking minds over Trump.

I saw this once before in the run up to a presidential election in 1980: the guy's name was Reagan.

It's kinda like watching "The Revenant" after having seen "Man in the Wilderness," which was the basis for this version.

No, I'm not comparing the two men.  But I CAN compare the two campaigns against those men.

They bear more similarities than differences.

The Establishment wants their guy... a guy they can control.

I have zero faith in the Establishment, after all, look at what they've done since the people have given them control of Congress...

Nothing.

So, when you see stories about how the Establishment or their candidates are scheming to find ways to deny a candidate a nomination... be aware of their guiding principles: this isn't about whether the candidate would be worth a damn if he wins: this is about the perception that if the wrong guy wins, they won't be able to control him.

Now, the Establishment is lining up behind Rubio.  Yet, Rubio, even today, is running commercials where the claim is made that he, Rubio, "beat the Establishment."

Odd, that.

Cruz, on the other hand, seems to have a "dislike" factor going for him.  The Sessions endorsement of Trump hurt him... because it begs the question: if no other Senator will support Cruz...

Trump is a total lose cannon.  He promises the moon plus $2 to the base.  But can he deliver?

I would love to see the dead wood clogging the GOP flow get flushed away.  And frankly, I don't care how that happens.  And that dead wood finds themselves in a precarious position if Trump wins this... their best efforts notwithstanding.

So, they act.  Not out of any altruistic basis... not for the good of the country.  Oh, no.  Since when has that variety of politics existed?

No, they are acting on what's known as their own "enlightened self-interests."  Their actions are in no way driven by what's best for us: instead, they're driven by what's best for them.

And their clumsy, moronic PUBLIC efforts show that Reince Priebus, Republican National Committee Chair, shouldn't be allowed to run an elevator, let alone a national political party if THIS is the best he can do.

I saw early on what was likely to happen if the GOP didn't recognize the "danger" by an insurgent candidate with an insurgent campaign.  But they were so fat, dumb and stupid that they refused to believe it.

I wonder if they believe it now?

The national Establishment is something of a wide spectrum view of the insanity the local Establishment is engaging in around here as they go about attempting to regain control over the party apparatus. Challenging conservative incumbents, betraying constituents, ignoring their duty to their districts... fearful of being called a "pansy."

Oddly, the local party seems to be in that pre-sting paralysis stage of the tarantula wasp crawling around the spider's abdomen and the spider knows it and where they see danger, but are apparently content to allow it to run it's course... since they have failed to act against these same people doing their best to throw them out.

And when you're talking about a tarantula wasp. the outcome is rarely good for the tarantula.

I find the out-of-power Establishment's death throes, if that's what they are, to be rather entertaining myself.  Time, of course, will tell.

Giving some credit where due: the Columbian Rivers article has been edited.

Day before yesterday, the Columbian did a story that briefly discussed Sen. Ann “Gas Tax” Rivers' PDC fraud, wherein she deliberately over reported the amount of money deposited into her campaign account by approximately $175,000.

That's not how they presented it, of course, but that's how I see it.

The article is somewhat misleading in that initially it stated: “Big drop in amount of money listed prompts conservative blogger to raise questions,”  while also stating "Rivers filed a handful of amended reports last week that ratcheted back the campaign contribution amount after Kelly Hinton, the blogger, filed a complaint."

The first issue in the article was the order in which the number was reversed; that is, it was my complaint, that I generated, which resulted in $175,000 being removed from the accounting of Rivers campaign account.  My complaint against Rivers was in no way driven by the reduction of the number; it was in fact the reason the number was reduced… Since I filed the complaint in early October.

I emailed the reporter, Lauren Dake, explained the situation to her, and she had the sub-headline removed.

With somewhat more difficulty, I was able to show to her satisfaction… Along with further consultation with the PDC… That the reduction in the number from $255,000 to initially $80,000 and now currently just under $71,000 had nothing to do with any action on the part of Rivers, and nothing to do with the amended reports that were mentioned.

Ultimately, had the newspaper or Dake emailed me to ask me about the situation, I could’ve provided the background information that would have enabled them to avoid making these mistakes which serve to have an impact on the issue of fault and the issue of why Rivers allowed this mistake to fester in her campaign account for over a year.

Rest assured, that had the shoe been on the other foot; had the PDC been under-reporting the amount of money that Rivers actually had in her account, you can bet that it wouldn't have taken her a year to act to correct that shortfall.

Meanwhile, the story has been edited further; and while further explanation has not been provided as to what actually took place, at least the offending passages have been removed.

I appreciate the effort that Lauren Dake went through to ultimately make the article much more accurate.

That has been done with this article. While filling in the blanks by changing the article to reflect, more accurately, that the action on Rivers' part was deliberate, long-lasting, and done to achieve a desired aim would have been preferable; on the whole I am not unhappy with this outcome.

To a certain extent, both the PDC and the newspaper have been played by Sen. Rivers. Hopefully, in the future, they will take a much closer look at what she says and how she says it in response to their questions concerning her campaign conduct.

But I cannot blame them in particular, considering how astounding her political conduct since the beginning of last calendar year is actually been.

I never expected, and in fact would’ve bet my life, that nothing like this would’ve ever happened at the behest of Sen. Rivers.

Had she any integrity, she would resign effective immediately over this issue.

That she has failed to take any responsibility for the situation and failed to resign goes to the basic lack of character that must have resulted from something horrific that I can only begin to guess at.

I am quick to condemn the local newspaper for their inaccuracies, no matter the cause or the motive. Likewise I must give credit where due when an honest effort is made to correct the more glaring inaccuracies.

When asked, the newspaper actually did ultimately do what I requested they do to clarify the story and for that, as bizarre as it may sound, I actually think them.

Well, *I* didn't: "Media Blew It."

SUPER BRUISE DAY...
EXIT POLLS: 'ANGER'...
DEMS PREFER EXPERIENCE...
RESULTS: LIVE...
DELEGATE COUNT: LIVE...
7 PM ET: GA, VA, VT
8 PM ET: AL, AR, MA, OK, TN
9 PM ET: CO, MN, TX

MEDIA BLEW IT

Trump's inevitability.

(DISCLAIMER: I am not supporting anyone this cycle because, as a resident of this state, I will have no say in this outcome.  This observation is not to be construed as an endorsement.  It is an analysis, nothing more.)

For months, I've been warning, if "warning" is the right word, that the Establishment had only one way available to contain Trump and to neutralize him.

And that was to take his issues away from him and make them the issues of the GOP.

A long time ago (If the year 2000 was a long time ago) Tim Eyman came up with his first initiative, the $30 tab fee/vote on all tax and fee increases, aka I-695.

That is of note here, because naturally, the tax and spend left was dramatically opposed to that effort.

"The world will end as we know it if this passes."

Columbian editorial attacking the effort.

That, of course, is a rhetorical summary of their positions at the time... as that is a rhetorical summary of their positions on just about any tax or fee cutting measure either taken by the county; such as on Councilor David Madore's efforts to cut fees and property taxes here locally and, of course, at the state level where Eyman's latest initiative that would force the legislature to either run a referendum or suffer a 1% cut from the sales tax collected for the state.

The reason this is of note was even now, some 16 years later, I remember KVI host John Carlson's statement concerning the paralysis of the leftist response to this initiative's then record signature collection: the choices available to government were to "... land the plane with the wheels up... or fly it directly into the ground."

You see, state government COULD have offered an alternative to I-695 that may have accomplished the same thing, or close to it, and either implemented such an alternative over time, say a reduction over 5 years in the tab fees, or, they could allow what ultimately happened:  The implementation all at once, as the Legislature took that aspect of the initiative out of the "unconstitutional" can the state supreme court had slammed it into and put it into law as if the court had allowed it into being.

In short, they choose to fly the plane directly into the ground.

Well, the same thing applied... and applies... to Trump.

The GOP Establishment had the opportunity early on to take his positions away from him... by embracing them since now, clearly, those positions represent that of the base.

Instead, they run away from them in horror.  And now, the remaining major candidates, Rubio and Cruz, are, effectively, right where Trump wants them: forced into discussing well, the size of Trump's penis, as Rubio did yesterday.

Nationally, the latest poll has Trump at 49%, with Rubio at 16 and Cruz at 15.

The Establishment has failed to understand and failed to recognize what Trump represents to the base.  They appear mystified as to how anyone could be so stupid that they'd support a Trump.

So, they played the role of the ostrich and buried their collective head in the sand.

And this... is the result... of that.