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West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

Interview with John King-Independent Candidate for Sheriff-Jefferson County WV

Learn about John Kings experience, attitude toward public service and much more in this interview. Richard Urban Show episode #53.

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Excerpts from the John King Interview

John King:  Good Morning, Richard, thank you for having me on your show. I’m so happy to be here today with all of you. My name is John King. I’ve lived in Jefferson County quite a few years now. I retired from the federal government after 32 years with the US Capital Police, where I was a police officer, Special Agent, Supervisor, manager, Did a gamut of things. My last position was a Canine unit with 55 handlers; with a 14.3 million budget. I really want to give back to Jefferson County. The reason I got involved in running for office; when I retired two years ago, I had really intend to go back to work, and Mr. Jack Hewitt and a few people up in the community got together and convinced me to run for office, I told him I would do it, but the condition was I wasn’t going to take a salary from Jefferson County. Public Service to me is about public service, and I’d be honored to serve the people of Jefferson County to the fullest of my abilities.

Richard: From your viewpoint, what do you think are the three or three or so top priorities for the Sheriff here in Jefferson County?

John King: Well, that’s a little bit of a loaded question. I really need to get in there and do a needs assessment and look at the totality of the environment of the entire Sheriff’s Office because, we have the Tax Office, and we have the bailiffs, and we have, of course, the law enforcement, Sheriff’s department, and we have animal control. There are things that will cost money, and are there things that will not cost funding. We really need to go through and look at everything operationally, administratively, and then prioritize things in order to come up with a plan to meet our goals over the next, short-term goals, maybe six months to a year out and long-term, three to four years out. That’s kind of where we are. I really couldn’t give you… I have a couple of ideas of things I know that I think should be done right away, but I really need to get in there and really dig in to make sure I’m doing the right thing for the Sheriff’s office and for the people of Jefferson County.

Richard: A lot of the news is involving, of course, the whole COVID-19 and then the whole different mandates, like The Governor seems to like to make a lot of mandates, like mask mandates and business closures and these kind of things. So, my question as far as how that would pertain to the Sheriff; say there was some kind of orders from the Governor; would you enforce things that would cause business owners to be arrested for not following mandates. In fact, there was a case just brought, I know in Hurricane about some place that allowed their employees not to wear masks. And the Health Department said, No, no. And they were going to shut it down. Would you enforce such kind of regulations?

John King: Well, if you’re talking about the health department, that’s a completely different issue than the Sheriff’s office. The Health Department goes in, for example, if they’re expecting a restaurant or they’re doing their normal inspections, they find a violation, they usually notify, you have so many days to fix or we have to fix it immediately, and they close you down, the only thing the Sheriff’s office is designed to do is to go in and say, ‘No, the business has to be closed’. I know there’s been a lot of questions about the masks. Well, the masks, in a business situation, just like Walmart, any of the stores; the business owners, ‘no shirt, no shoes, no service’. The same thing applies to a mask. So if the requirement is you have to wear a mask in the store, and if they don’t wear the mask in the store; the owner asks you to leave; if you don’t leave, then they can call the Sheriff’s Office, they can charge you with trespassing. The Sheriff’s office cannot enforce laws that aren’t legislated and put onto the books and actually in the code.

Richard: What about this situation. In the Spring I noticed that Moulton Park was closed and there were signs up. They even removed the picnic tables; I guess people could have criminal activity by sitting at the picnic table. But anyway, point being, people were still congregating in the park and nobody was bothering them, but theoretically could the Sheriff say, ‘Hey, you know, you can’t congregate here’, or even theoretically arrest those people?

John King: No, you can’t go around and arrest people for things that aren’t on the laws and in the books. You can’t do it. You’ll get sued. I’ve been sued in my career. I was not even in the United States twice when I got sued. So, being a manager and being the Sheriff, you take on all that liability, but you can enforce codes; you can provide recommendations. Basically, people need to be respectful of others, and if people are not comfortable being around you without a mask, then you need to try and go along and be a good citizen with folks. I think the businesses are doing a great job here in Charles Town and Jefferson County, by having people wear masks in the business. I think it’s a good precaution, especially inside.

Richard: One issue that’s relevant here in Shannondale, we’re concerned about the fact that here in Shannondale and vicinity we have over 4000 plus people down Mission Road, and there’s only one northern exit. There’s no way to exit any other way, which causes a possible hazard if there’s an emergency. So, question is, would you support having a southern exit for Shannondale and vicinity to the south?

John King: I think it’s a great idea. I don’t think it’s really the Sheriff’s privy to decide the roads, but I would support anything that would open up the second entrance in there. I think it’s a good idea for the residents, also can provide more fire apparatus and support. One of the things I’d like to see happen up in Shannondale, I’d like to see that substation, that’s up on the mountain be occupied by two deputies Open that back up; put two deputies in there, let them live there for free, and make them the deputies of the mountain, to build a community relationship with the people in Shannondale. I would come up to the mountain at least once or twice a month in the evening, 6,70 o’clock after people get home from work and listen to their concerns…

Richard: What about the opioid and drug crisis in Jefferson County. Is there anything you can say about how you would you handle things, what could or should be done?

John King: Oh, certainly, the drug problem working in DC all the years, I saw the gamut of drug problems and illegal drugs. The end user, unfortunately, is the victim in the equation usually, and what we need to do is use some technology too to help us. In the city, we used a system with cameras and tag readers, so you stage those in critical places in the county, and I don’t want to go too far into the weeds with this, but you’re able to track people through a database back all the way to Baltimore and to other jurisdictions. You start combining technology and where these vehicles are going and who’s operating them. You start setting up association matrixes. That’s the enforcement side of it. The next phase is the treatment, you have things like the daily report and you have, for the Court, to try and get people back into, being their own standalone person in society and getting back, not on their feet, I guess, I’d probably say more independent. One thing most people don’t understand about drug addicts, especially with opioids and the fentanyl, when they get on to these drugs, people think you can weave them off and kind of like you’re doing with alcohol, but what you find is the people generally relapse after six months. Some people will just have to take these drugs the rest of their lives to be able to get back to function normally, not overdose. And not that they’re gonna keep taking that, there’s not really a lot of heroin here it’s mostly the fentanyl mixed with the opioids, but that’s a huge part, just to get those people treatment and get them, because people need that opportunity to come back. The third thing we have to do is to educate people. We’ve got to give them jobs and finding places and trades and things, so that they have a skill set to go out and work. A lot of the skills and people that we have to work, they’re just not there anymore, and we need some trades, need to get these people back and functioning and see progressive, that they’re doing well in society and that they’re self-sufficient.

Richard: I’ve been active in the non-profit sector in abstinence-centered HIV prevention, health education. And also part of our message is not to use drugs and alcohol. I guess there’s multiple aspects. The character aspect, I think, is a really big one. And another one, I guess, is that maybe the over-prescription of opioids.

John King: One of the big problems, too, is you’re seeing a lot more, since the pill factories have shut down in the state, you’re seeing a lot more of the methamphetamine, which is a real bad thing to get into the community. And there’s some technologies to use with drones and different things that can go in and you get the Feds to come in at no cost to the people of Jefferson County. And my thought would be to give them an office here in the city and let them go after some of these heavy duty drugs dealers, not to infringe on the citizens. We want to get them in there and do good enforcement that spreads across state lines to get these people back to the sources…..

Richard: How would you differentiate yourself from the other candidates? Why should the voters choose you instead of one of the other candidates, Republican, Democrat or Independent?

John King: My credentials stand on their own merits. I spent 32 years in the government. I’ve commanded over 100 people at a time. I understand budgeting, I understand the culture. I’ve all the experience in the world to run the Sheriff’s Office, I’m a level three incident commander for FEMA standards. The county needs someone who can make decisions, who has mad proven decisions for decades, and has the confidence of the rank and file not only from the sheriff’s office but from the tax office and the bailiffs, and from animal control. The sheriff’s office is 95% law enforcement, and I have the most experience and most skill sets and education in dealing with any aspect of law enforcement. I was a patrol officer. Like I said, a canine handler canine supervisor, bomb technician, special agent, investigator. I’ve done the gamut in law enforcement. My agency, I came from, had 1800 gun carriers, and we had a $430 million budget, like I said, which I control $14.3 million for canine. That was my last command.

Richard: How would you ensure deputies are properly trained in order to avoid some of the bad situations that get excessive news coverage?

John King: Training is training. Training is how to do a function. I want to educate people. So when I educate people, the purpose is to make them grow and learn about what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. I want to bring CIT training here, crisis intervention training. We did it in our agency. A lot of people need empathy out there in the public and putting the bracelets on when someone is the last alternative. You look at the use of force policies. We need to make sure we’re documenting things, that we’re doing all the steps and giving confidence in the public for us and for them. You need to build the bridges, not build walls, and that’s another whole part of community policing that I support. It needs to be out there. We need to be out there in the public. We need to build relationships. And the training, the mental health training is key to dealing with people, it really is. I’ve seen so many people that really were mental duress and they just needed that help. And you need to have the ability to know where to go and get that help. And the Sheriff’s officers is tasked with all the mental hygiene hearings here in the county too. So that’s another whole function of the Sheriff’s office most people aren’t aware of.

Richard: You mean, if someone will be reported by their family or some people for commitment to a mental institution? Is that what you’re talking about?

John King: Yes, if they believe they’re a danger to themselves or others, they’ll have a hearing with an appointed judge to come in and medical people are involved, and they decide whether or not they’re going to be sent somewhere for treatment, and then they put it out in state wide to find out where they’re going to send them for the treatment. Martinsburg, I think has 16 beds. A lot of times, unfortunately, their tasked with taking them down to Huntington, and that’s a long trip down there to get him there and back. And that’s another thing that falls in the sheriff’s office. Just like conservatorships for people, that falls in the sheriff’s office. There’s a whole lot of things more than just the law enforcement aspect.

Richard: Do you know what part of the Sheriff’s office the tax office budget-wise is?

John King: I think it’s about $11 million a year. It’s probably about 15% to 18%. I don’t have my hands on an itemized budget. I wanted to get one, but I couldn’t get Pete to give me one. He didn’t have it ready yet for this year, I guess.

Richard: Anything you’d like to say to the voters in conclusion?

John King: Well, I really just like to tell them that I really look forward to serving the residents of Jefferson County. I love this county, I love the people here. I want to be the community outreach, I want to be the sheriff who’s approachable, that you all can come to with any problems, I’m not in any party. I’m not a Republican, I’m not a Democrat. My loyalty is to the people of Jefferson County. And like I said, I retired two years ago, I’m the0 most current law enforcement person who’s running for office. Some have very little, some have quite a bit. But, when I decided to run for office, it was, like I said, it was Mr. Jack Hewitt, a few people got together, and they thought I was the right guy for the safety and security of the county and the treasury in the county. And when I decided to do this, I said, I will not take a salary, like I said, I’m going to do this for the people, and we’re going to be fair and we’re going to be equitable across the board to everyone, and everyone’s going to get treated with humanity.

Richard: Thank you for joining us today. Everybody get out and vote on November 3rd.

Categories
Sexual Abstinence

Video-Why Abstinence Matters – Interview with Kuku Miriam Afanga

#52 Join us as we interview Kuku Miriam Afanga of the Refocused-Loving God, Loving People Podcast about why sexual abstinence matters. Are we harming youth by promoting sexual activity instead of abstinence? Is it good to cohabit? And much more.

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Categories
West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

Interview with S. Marshall Wilson-Independent Candidate for Governor-West Virginia

Learn about S. Marshall Wilson’s stand for constitutional freedoms and other key points of his platform.
Note: S. Marshall Wilson is a write-in candidate.
Marshall Wilson’s website
Other candidates for Governor are:
Danny Lutz Jr-Mountain Party
Erika Kolenich-Libertarian
Ben Salango-Democrat
Jim Justice-Republican

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Article-S. Marshall Wilson Interview Excerpts

Hey, Richard, it’s a real honor to be here. Thanks for making time for me and thanks for putting up with me trying to get here and get ready and get linked up and everything, and of course, I’d like to introduce my son Joe, this is Josiah, and we are actually at the Capital right now, we have just taken part in the protest against the governor’s completely unethical mandates on public school sports, and of course, the real issue here is that they’re not evenly applied. They’re not fairly applied, and then of course, none of the restrictions that we’re placing on public school students apply to the Greenbrier for some reason, and no one can explain to me why that is.

So Joe and I came to the Capital, we drove five hours to get here this morning, so we could be here for this protest, and I managed to get away from that just in time to get in the car and call you.

Richard: Okay, great. Well, thanks for being on today. Yeah, well, you mentioned about the COVID 19, we’re certainly going to talk about that. In general. Could you share the three most important points of your platform for governor as to why you’re running for governor? Absolutely. Thank you, sir. Of course, you know, I’m a sitting delegate from South Berkley County, and I have stood up for the Constitution, not only of this state, but of the United States, for the past four years as a delegate and before that for 20 years as an infantry officer in the army I’ve upheld and defended the Constitution. And frankly, that is my platform, is the Constitution, as you and I both know, all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. So the first thing I want to do is restructure the executive branch of our state government to function according to the Constitution because as the chief of the executive branch, the governor. I have the authority to do that.

The next thing that I want to do is I want to establish, not just effective and focused government, focused on serving the people under the Constitution upholding their rights, but actually I want to teach the executive branch, customer service. I want to teach them that they’re here to serve you, and that it’s not enough to just tell you four times that you’ve done your paperwork wrong and then demand that you pay a fee to register all four times, but rather actually sit down with you and say, Well, Mr. Urban, we understand what you’re trying to accomplish here. We would like to help you with that. We’ll help you to succeed rather than just simply telling you, to teach it a little bit of customer service. And finally what I want to do is to teach this concept so firmly in the executive branch that no future governor or a candidate for governor for the next few generations will arrogate to himself the position of thinking that he’s in charge of the state. We don’t want any tyrannies here. We fought a war against the British over that, and I don’t see any reason we should establish a new tyranny here in West Virginia. And I want my kids to raise their kids in a free, just, prosperous and secure land, so I’m going to do everything that I can to establish that here, and then to establish it in such a way that the people of this state who are from whom the entire authority of the government is drawn, the people understand how critically important, it is to maintain that constitutional governance, and they will fight for it, they will elect people who will uphold it, and then they will hold those people accountable for generations to come.

That is my hope, that’s my intent. And given the opportunity, I think that I can actually accomplish those things.

Richard: Thank you for that.

So with the whole thing about the lock-downs and these different mandates, you just talked about the constitutional freedoms, how do you feel about that, will we need to restructure our laws to facilitate that, like I know Wisconsin, although now the governor made another decree over there, they expired the mandates after 60 days, do we need to look at our laws again?

S. Marshall Wilson: Absolutely, and I thank you for bringing that up. A couple of things here. First of all, the people need to need to enforce the mandate of following the Constitution on their government officials, on their elected employees. I’ve already mentioned that. That’s the most critical part, because the people actually have the power, the other thing is that the legislature as the direct representative of the people needs to do its job, and as you say, restructure things, rewrite legislation so that these things are straightened out. For instance, and I’m glad you brought this up, but for instance, one of the things is that the governor has been able to perform a certain way because he’s able to twist the verbiage in the emergency powers section of the state code. So that needs to be re-written so that it can never be misunderstood that same way again.

What I’m getting at is that basically the way that our code is written when it comes to emergency powers, once the governor declares an emergency, he’s effectively accountable to no one, unless the legislature calls themselves back into special session.

So my recommendation would be that there’d be a requirement in the law that within 30 days of the governor declaring an emergency, the legislature must come into special session. Something along those lines. And then also, there should be a definition, most laws, you have very specific definitions written at the beginning of the bill that defines all the terms in the bill. Nowhere in West Virginia code that I’ve found is the term emergency defined, however, in my work as an emergency planner for the National Guard for years, the definition that we used was imminent, critical… An emergency situation where you have an imminent… In other words, it’s coming. There’s no way, no two ways about an imminent destruction of key critical infrastructure, which is roads, bridges, buildings, things like that, or massive loss of human life, or massive destruction of private property such as people’s homes and things like that…..

Richard: Speaking of mandates, one thing I want to ask you about, what’s your take or opinion on the forced vaccination mandate for West Virginia, like No vaccination, No school? What would you do about that?

S. Marshall Wilson: The government has no business telling you what medicines to give your children. The government has no business interfering between you and your doctor. You and your doctor decide what’s best for you and what’s best for your kids, period.

Richard: So would you get rid of or suggest… I know the legislature would have to do that, removing all mandates?

S. Marshall Wilson: Thank you for brining that up. Thank you for recognizing that. Of course, the legislature has to involved, the governor doesn’t have the authority to make those changes, but as the Governor, I would absolutely support the removal of those mandates.

Richard: Okay, so you support the removal of the mandates. Would an interim step be having religious and conscientious exemptions or just remove the mandates altogether? Well, absolutely. Well, I would work removing the mandate altogether, but absolutely whatever steps we can make in that direction are an improvement, of course.

The government and has very limited powers, and has usurped a lot of authority that doesn’t belong to it, and as your governor, it will be a foundational principal, a guiding principle of everything that I do to devolve all of that authority back to where it belongs, namely to the people…..

Richard: How do you feel about school choice, choice in education?

S. Marshall Wilson: I mean, if you look at my record, I could say the same thing about health liberty, if you look at my record as a delegate, you’ll see that I absolutely supported it. When Senate Bill 451 was under consideration, I stood on the house floor for almost three hours and offered, I believe it was 15 or 16 different amendments, offering different levels and different types of school choice. So I went away from an unlimited number of charter schools, basically, anyone who wants to start one as long as they can meet the academic standards, they can have a charter school, all the way down to finally, Okay, we can only have five of them.

I also offered an amendment that would allow a home schooler to get a credit on taxes owed. So only if you actually owe taxes, but on taxes owed for approved expenditures for home schooling. So if you buy a curriculum and you use it for your kids in home schooling, you can be reimbursed for that through a tax credit on taxes owed. And the reason that’s acceptable to me is because the constitution of the state says the state must provide a free and efficient education for your kids. If you’re not using the state’s facilities and resources and you’re using your own, then fine, you get a tax rebate.

That was the only one that even came close to passing. And it was defeated 50 to 49.Because one delegate who would have voted for it wasn’t around, it would have been 50 to 50. It still would have been defeated. So I think I offered 15 different amendments over the course of three hours in support of school choice, or I like to call it an education liberty.

Richard: I think that’s important. A very important area. And speaking of education, so what’s your opinion about the Common Core standards? Could you talk about West Virginia, the standards we have or don’t have?

S. Marshall Wilson: I think the place that I would start with that is that we the people, the West Virginia get to decide what our standards are, and I think that we should decide those standards via people who are accountable to the people rather than the State Board of Education, which is apparently according to a court case that took place, a judge’s ruling a few years ago, the State Board of Education has been established as a fourth monolithic, unaccountable branch of government, which is completely unacceptable. It should be accountable to the people who pay the taxes that make it possible and whose children it serves. That would be the first thing. Secondly, I think that all education, the operation should be disseminated rather than centralized. I think that every school system should be accountable directly to the people in that county, and each school should be accountable to the people in that community, and that the curricula should be the decision of the local school system and the local schools, based on standards that are established by the state board of education with input from the legislature, with the people’s representatives, if that makes sense.

I’ve heard this state-wide, some parent will get mad and go see the administrator, and administrators will actually… And I’m just telling you what teachers have told me, will literally change students’ grades, or will order the teacher to change grades. That’s completely unacceptable. The student gets the grade they earned on. I’m going to tell you straight up, I earned some grades that I wish I hadn’t. But that taught me to do what I had to earn better grades. And that’s what needs to happen. The teachers need to run their classrooms. Now, I’m not saying that every teacher is a perfect angel or a wonderful person, some of them have issues, and those issues need to be dealt with. But that doesn’t mean that when we have students who have issues, that those issues don’t mean be dealt with.

I needed somebody to tell me, ‘Look, we’re here to learn. If you’re not here to learn, Go sit in the hallway’…..

Richard: What’s your opinion about so-called Red Flag laws and the Second Amendment rights?

I am a staunch supporter of Second Amendment rights, I have an A plus from the WVCDL. I am one of the primary reasons that the parking lot bill got passed through the House, the bill that says that if you go to work and you happen to have a gun in your car, as long as you leave the Gun, your car and you lock your car in the parking lot. There’s no issue.

I mean, that’s just common sense…..

So the progressives offer this idea of the government confiscating all property and then charging the people, the citizens, rent on their own property after they confiscated it.

Well, that idea didn’t fly, so what they did was they took another shot at it and instead called it property tax. You get to keep your property, you still have the title to, it unless you don’t pay the tax. Then we take your property away from you. So the property is confiscated if you don’t pay the tax. Well, sounds an awful lot to me like I’m actually renting my property from the government. In other words, they actually manage to confiscate our property by saying that they own it if we don’t pay rent, in other words, the property tax on it. So I believe that the property tax is one of the most unethical immoral things that’s ever been done to the people of the United States.

Alright, let’s talk about income tax.

First of all, income tax was not legal under the Constitution until the 16th Amendment allowed for the establishment of an income tax, and of course that was to pay for our wars overseas.

So the idea that you are going to charge someone in such a way as to punish them for producing more and earning more and creating more wealth is counter-productive in ways that it’s difficult to even explain. It’s a terrible idea. Frankly, in my estimation, if we were to do this thing right, there would be a flat consumption tax across the board. That’s it. Flat consumption tax.

Richard: You mean sales tax. Is that a consumption tax?

S. Marshall Wilson: Effectively, yes, a flat sales tax. The idea being that what you’re really paying for is the opportunity to engage in a free and secure market. So, the government, if it does its job, maintains the institutions that allow for a Free and Secure market and for the privilege of engaging you pay a few cents on the dollar in it. Other than that, I don’t believe there should be other taxes. There shouldn’t be property taxes, there shouldn’t be income tax. The other taxes as far as I’m concerned are completely unethical.

Richard: I notice most of the property tax, and then here in Jefferson County we have the so called excess levy, but most of it goes for the schools, so how would the schools be funded or wouldn’t they? Or a lot of it goes for schools.

S. Marshall Wilson: Now, if the people of a certain area determine that they want to tax themselves to maintain the schools, they have every right to do that. But really what it comes down to is this state government has a lot of money, the problem is it wants to spend the money on things that are none of its business. So if we can pare the government down and focus it on its constitutional duties, there will be plenty of money to maintain its constitutional duties.

Richard: So one thing I wanted to address, I know it comes up and I saw the video on your website; people might say, ‘Oh, well, you know Mr. Wilson’s running as independent. If I vote for him, that’s like voting for Ben Salango’. I don’t agree with that, but anyway. Say whatever you’d like about that.

S. Marshall Wilson: Absolutely, thank you. So, a couple of things here. First of all, the primary argument I hear is that I’m stealing votes from the Republicans.

Okay, well, a couple of things about that. First of all, it’s not just Republicans who are voting for me. I have the endorsement of the Constitution Party.

Alright, that’s one thing. A lot of libertarians have told me they’re voting for me, because they recognize that my constitutional stance is actually what allows the people to have their rights, allows the people to exercise their rights freely is a constitutional government.

And the Libertarians recognize that when I uphold and defend the Constitution that will allow them to live the way they want to live. A lot of patriotic Democrats in this state; where I grew up in South Louisiana, there were a lot of people who are Democrats, they were good people, they paid their taxes, they served in the military, they went to church, they took care of their kids, helped them with their school work, good people who were Patriots and are dumbfounded by what’s happening with their party today, especially on the national level.

A lot of those people are voting for me rather than the Democratic candidate, and a lot of people have contacted me across the state. And then a lot of Republicans who believe in the Constitution, who are dumbfounded that their party managed to choose Jim justice as the candidate, especially since his unconstitutional mandates, are voting for me, have stated their support.

So given all of that, I want to say that’s a false argument in the first place. It’s also false because the votes do not belong to the candidate, they don’t belong to the party, they belong to the individual voter.

If I earn a vote from a voter, I have not stolen it from anyone. That person has the right to vote for whoever they want. And finally, I’d like to say that if the Democrat does win, and Jim Justice does lose, who’s at fault here? Is it me for running, which is my right as a citizen, or is it the Republicans for putting forward such a terrible candidate? It’s obviously on them. It’s obviously on them. Had they put forward a better candidate I wouldn’t be here right now……

Richard: To conclude how you’re differentiating yourself from the other candidates and why should the voters of West Virginia vote for you?

S. Marshall Wilson: The primary thing is because I will uphold and defend the Constitution of West Virginia and of the United States no matter what it costs me. The reason is because I love my kids, I want them to live in a free, just, prosperous and secure land, and if I manage that, then you’ll reap the same benefits.

On top of that, I do not believe that the government owns you or has any authority over you, other than if you try to deprive someone else of their natural rights. That’s the only time the government should get involved. I will work hard to make our government effective, functional, efficient and humble. I want our government to be humble. I want the people who work in our government, in the departments of our government, to recognize that you the people are in charge. And that we’re here to serve you.

Richard: Do be advised, all the voters, that you can write in S. Marshall Wilson on the ballot. If you would, please put the S on there. S. Marshal Wilson.

Richard: Is that required or that won’t matter?

S. Marshall Wilson: According to the Secretary of State, they will look for anything that looks like my name and count that, but frankly, just to be sure, just to remove any doubt, let’s put in the S period, if you don’t mind. My website is www.marshallforwv.com.

Categories
West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

Interview with Danny Lutz Jr-Mountain Party Candidate for Governor-West Virginia

Learn about the platform and views of Danny Lutz Jr, the Mountain Party Candidate for Governor of West Virginia.
Danny Lutz Jr’s website
Other candidates for Governor are:
Marshall Wilson-Independent
Erika Kolenich-Libertarian
Ben Salango-Democrat
Jim Justice-Republican

Listen to the Podcast

Danny Lutz Article-Selected Excerpts from the Interview

Well, good morning, all. I’m Danny Lutz running for the governorship of West Virginia on the mountain party ticket. We’re an affiliate of the Green Party of the United States, and the question probably in most people’s minds, why run? Well, I’m going to steal a phrase from one of my dear friends who has since departed, his name is Carl Hess; he wrote this line for Barry Goldwater in 1964; “I want to offer a choice, not an echo.” I want to offer the people of West Virginia a plan that will enable them to enter the 21st century on a competitive basis. I’m not hearing that from any of the other candidates.

Richard: So what would you say are three of your main platform points that you would like to share?

Danny Lutz: My number one point is broadband. Until we have broadband accessible to everyone in West Virginia who wants it, we will not progress. I have been in touch with Intelsat and Space X, and they have assured me that six months from the date of an agreement, a contract, as they said, they could have a turnkey operation available to every West Virginian, every business, every church, every school, every organization that wants the broadband service, and I emphasize that adjective turnkey, they said it would be ready to operate within six months……

A second point, and it can be summed up in one word, water. Most people don’t think about it, but West Virginia is the birthplace of most of the rivers in the East, that is east of the Western Continental Divide.

We supply some of the water for ourselves, the District of Columbia and parts of 12 other states. That is a mandate to stewardship.

We have got to assure that the water that leaves West Virginia is as clean as when it came out of the earth, because water is life, and with that, I’ve also got a program that I would like to implement. It would be a pollution control credit system. Before anyone can discharge any contaminant into the air, the water or the soil, they have to get a credit for a certain amount of that. Now the state of West Virginia will create these credits under my program, and then they will be distributed to each household in West Virginia where there is a registered voter, and then it will be up to the entity desiring to discharge the pollution or contaminant to purchase these credits for the best deal they can make. The households could hold the credit, they could sell the credit. They could swap the credit for something that want. They could trade it. Whatever the best deal is they could make. My opinion is that each of these credits should be worth between $2500 and $4500 apiece. So if a household had only 10 credits. That could be as much as a $25,000 income boost. And seeing how 45% of the people of West Virginia, for whatever the reason, do not work, this would be an annual income supplement, not a guaranteed annual income, not a welfare program. This is pure capitalism. That is, the household have a good that the industrial users need and they make the best deal they can for it. You can’t get purer capitalism than that. And it will be something I think that the other states would implement. California is doing a modified version of this and Virginia is looking at a modified version, especially with regard to carbon dioxide.

In addition to firms like Rockwool, fracking companies would be required to purchase these credits before they could discharge or inject their waste water, sewage waste and other sources and contaminants……

Another point that I have that I want to develop involves the coal industry. West Virginia has coal, and we have it, not in the abundance that we used to have it, but we have, in addition to the coal, we have some of the largest recoverable deposits of rare earth elements in North America, and that’s the elements between Element number 57 and 71. And they are used in all kinds of high technological applications for, you name it. We can recover these, and some of them are worth as much as $70,000 a kilogram. They’re in the shales that are on top of the coal that’s being stripped off. They’re in the coal itself, and they’re in the shale deposits that are beneath the coal. And those tailings have been pushed into ravines, smoothed over and patched up. And called reclamation. The coal ash and the GOB piles, just are in waste piles. We have a fortune that we can recover……

Something else along this line, mechanization is coming in leaps and bounds, I was reading an article in yesterday’s, Washington Post, about, with the COVID 19 problem that a lot of firms are looking at robots to do the cleaning instead of people. They are saying some of the robot cleaners can do it a third as fast as a human person doing the cleaning. Well, if a company employs a machine to replace one or more people, why shouldn’t they contribute a portion of the savings that they’re going to realize to, A) Help to re-train these people to do something else, to assure that they can have medical and healthcare, B) To assure that they do not have to choose between whether to put food on the table for their families or to buy prescriptions to cure their ills. This is something that we’ve got to consider, because once again, going back to that figure… The last one I had, 45% of West Virginians do not work, whether it’s because they’re disabled, whether because they’re unemployed or because they’re on social security or retired, whatever…….

I would like to re-create an equivalent of what used to be the civil defense program, for West Virginia. Now, I don’t wanna go back to duck and cover drills and stuff like that, and having signs up on the highway is saying in the event of an enemy attack, this highway may be closed to all but military traffic, etcetera. I don’t wanna go back to that, but what I want to go to is to a civilian, a civil defense program that will inventory our resources so that we have stockpiles of food, stockpiles of potable water, and medical supplies for basic medical needs, and have them within 30 minutes of any West Virginian and have a program developed to deal as these pandemics arise, and I think there’s going to be more of them, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of COVID because it appears to have a fantastic replicating ability, and it could even mutate into something we haven’t anticipated yet, so I’d like to see that kind of a program developed whereby it wouldn’t be just say, stay your house and wear a mask. It would involve a health care program, that is a health services program that would enable people, to get the health service they need and to get the instructions for coping with such organisms as they need them and in a timely fashion. And a usable way…..

Richard: So on the point you mentioned about forcing people to do things… One issue I’m been working on is our forced vaccination system. As you know, West Virginia was one of only two states where they have the policy, no full vaccination, no school, no exceptions, except for extremely hard to get medical exemptions, which are only about 100 granted per year, if that. Point being, a few other states have now adopted that, as you know, like New York state and California, unfortunately, but is that a good policy? Shouldn’t people have freedom to choose before they’re forced to inject dangerous substances? What’s your take on that?

Danny Lutz: Well, I’m torn, I’d like to share with you an anecdote, if you will, from my own experience. In 1955, the Salk vaccine for polio came out. And two years later, in the Jefferson County school system, they had a program where they brought all the students into what was then the county building on the corner of Congress and George streets, and they got a polio vaccination, I think it was a three shot type. My mother had heard about what turned out to be a bad batch of the Salk vaccine, which had caused polio, so she wouldn’t let my sister and I take the Salk vaccine. I don’t know whether that saved me from getting polio or not. It probably wasn’t an issue because none of the students with whom I was in school, came down with polio. And then, seven years later, when the Sabin live vaccine came, they called it the serum on sugar, we did take that because that had been tested and was proven. Where, for instance, it’s a disease like small pox, has pretty well been eradicated from the Earth, because of vaccination.

Richard: Well, there’s some debate about that, meaning not that it doesn’t have any effect, but that most diseases, even small pox, some places use quarantine, like Leicester, if I pronounce it correctly, England, and they were successful using other methods, and that many diseases like diphtheria, the instance, and even measles the instances of disease had gone down more than 90% before the vaccine was introduced. So it’s not an A then B thing, it’s like because of improvements of sanitation, like no more horse manure in the streets and things like that, even before vaccines were introduced a lot of diseases had decreased.  So, to just say, oh, it’s because of the vaccine is overly simple…..

Richard: Well, would you, in a nutshell, allow people to have exemptions for religious or conscientious reasons.  That would be a simple thing.

Danny Lutz: I would allow the consideration of contentious religious objection to vaccines.  But once again, I would also like to keep track of the people who, and of course, the health department would have these records, keep track of the people who have made such and received such an exemption, so that if a disease should break out among these people or a community where these people reside, that we could get the handle on it……

Richard: As governor, would you promote having time limits on these kind of mandates, or you think that the way it is now is fine?

Danny Lutz: As governor, because as governor, I realize I know enough about this to get into trouble, I would be surrounding myself with the best expertise I could, and if they said it’s time to cut… To cut it out, then we would cut it out, if they say, Hey, you’re gonna have to continue this in another six months, then that’s what I would do, and it’s the same way with education, I know enough about education and education theory to get into trouble.  So I would be relying upon the people who have made a lifetime study of education, tell me what the best thing to do is.  There are certain things that I can do fairly well, but a lot of things I’ve got to rely upon good information and heaven help the person who gives me bad information…..

Richard: I noticed that the Mountain party, when you’re talking about the family, but like I noticed they’re saying they are for the LGBTQ equality and these kind of things. So are you okay with that?

Danny Lutz: You probably won’t be able to put this on the air this way, but the way most of us in a Mountain party feel what two consenting adults do inside their own four walls, between their eyebrows and their knee caps is strictly between them. Don’t take it outside and ram it down somebody else’s throat. And don’t inculcate it in the children unless it’s their lifestyle, they’re eligible, they’re old enough to understand and eligible and able to choose. It’s an individual liberty thing there, as far as we are concerned, between the eyebrows and the knee caps and inside four walls… We’re not going to dictate that.

Richard: In some sense I agree with that. Those kind of thing. But those things also affect society profoundly in the sense that as we know, there are states where the examples where people are fined because they have a problem with baking a cake or doing photography for a same sex wedding. So there are those areas where it gets out into society and then where the state can, and in some states does force people and say, “Oh no, no, you don’t like to serve that clientele. Sorry, you must” So you get into that area, you know what I mean?

Danny Lutz: I see where you’re coming from. And if I could play dictator, we might have fewer lawyers litigating such cases, because if I walk into, and I am heterosexual, I might add. But if I was homosexual and I walk in to a bakery and order a wedding cake and tell them that I want two male figures on top of it; let’s say I can’t do that. I’d just walk out the door. It’s not worth the fight. It’s not worth taking up public resources to litigate something like that. It is not worth the aggravation and the heartache that it’s going to cause a number of people in a particular incident. What’s wrong with simply walking away from what you don’t like unless it’s going to physically harm you? And I’m taking that position with a lot of things. That’s why I’m hard on pollution, but soft on individual liberties. Let people live their lives as they want to, but don’t put smoke down their throat.

Categories
Sexual Abstinence

Video-Why Abstinence Matters- Interview with Sharon Owusu-Banahene

Is sexual abstinence before marriage a realistic standard in today’s world? Should sexual abstinence be the standard for Christian courtship or dating? Explore these and related questions with Sharon, host of the Motivation Mondays with Sharon podcast. Urban Life Training abstinence-centered workshop: https://www.urbanlifetraining.org/ind… https://www.urbanlifetraining.org

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Civil Liberties Covid-19 Crisis Open the Country Now

Holding Our Children Hostage

Baylie Hoffman, a West Virginia high school senior writes:

The fact that I am starting my senior year of high school on a laptop is absolutely mind boggling. Let me explain a few reasons why. This just scratches the surface.

There are 75 active cases in my county of approximately 56,450 people. READ. THAT. AGAIN!!!! Okay, maybe that didn’t sink in. Let me put it into perspective.

75 is .13% of 56,450. So a TENTH of a percent of the population of my county, has Covid right now. Yet, the people in charge have decided that it’s unsafe to attend school, sporting events, and social activities? WHAT?!

I agree.  Why are we not letting all West Virginia students get back to school?

Viruses spread, run their course and then decline.  No evidence shows that any of the interventions that have taken place, such as lockdowns, social distancing, or face masks are effective at containing the spread of the virus.  The fatality rate for those under age 44 is 0.01%, the same as the fatality rate for automobile accidents.  Children are not known to be a significant transmitter of COVID-19. For ages 45 to 54 the fatality rate is 0.14%.  For those up to age 55 to 64, there is a higher fatality rate of 0.48%.

So why all the hysteria.  Virologists understand that viruses can and will spread, and that after a period of time, many will have been infected, and then herd immunity will take effect.  So it is not the number of cases that we should be concerned about, but rather excess mortality.  That number for the United States appears to be declining, and will become more clear in the coming weeks. 

So yes, open all of the schools.  If any staff member is immune compromised, then they should be excused from coming to the school.  Teachers and staff would do well to turn off the main stream media and base their decisions on the facts mentioned here.

Consider also that only 6% of all the fatalities reported as COVID-19 fatalities involved only COVID-19.  All the rest involved comorbidities.  Some may be closely related to COVID-19 infection, so the diagnoses may be reasonable.  But others are not so clear, such as heart attack, heart failure, kidney failure   and “other medical conditions”.  (See a description here).

Also, let’s consider the real damage to the social and psychological well-being of our children by forcing them to distance themselves from one another, wear masks, or, in Baylie’s case, stay at home altogether. 

The West Virginia legislature should convene immediately and put an end to Governor Justice’s unjustified mandates.  It should fall to each individual and family, in the case of minors, to decide what actions are appropriate.  If those who deem themselves at high risk wish to wear a face mask, fine.  But it is not the role of the government to mandate “protective measures” based on dubious assumptions of effectiveness.  The numbers bandied about since the beginning of this “pandemic” have been highly inflated, and continue to be inaccurate.

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Religious Freedom

Video-God In the Public Square-Interview with Philip Sharp

Pastor and podcaster Philip Sharp discusses the current conflicts occurring in our society and what the role of the church and God’s people is.

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