We Stand with the President !

The leaders of Republican Club of the Northern Palm Beaches, on behalf of our membership, stand with President Trump against the soft coup being attempted by Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff and any House member of either party who supports what is erroneously being called an “Impeachment Inquiry”.

This is just the latest attempt by the deep state, also known as “The Swamp”, to rise up against this man that has the courage to oppose the corruption that is rampant in Washington, DC.

They fought him during the election with fake news, fake polls, and an overwhelming media bias. They tried to overturn the election by questionable recounts in states where the outcome was close. They tried to subvert the electoral college, pressuring electors to vote against their state’s choices. They boycotted his inauguration, and mobilized thousands of protesters in “vagina hats” to “RESIST” the choice of the American people. They created a witch hunt tribunal led by Robert Mueller and “13 angry Democrats” that destroyed many lives, wasted millions of dollars and two years of precious time in a failed attempt to bring him down.

Now, with the stark realization that he will surely be re-elected by a landslide in 2020, the Congressional Democrats and their co-conspirators in the mainstream media have decided to go all-in for a last desperate attempt to remove him from office. With their secret witnesses, secret “star chamber” hearings, made-up evidence, and total exclusion of the Republican minority from participation in the farce, this is not an “Impeachment”. It is a bald-face uprising by a cabal of deep state conspirators to invalidate a national election that has been an existential threat to their power.

The battle lines have been drawn. Those who would subvert the constitution in an attempt to remove a sitting President under false pretenses must be defeated. They must also be held accountable for all they have done to the country in this dangerous threat to our Republic.

State Rep. Rick Roth Updates Us on the 2019 Session

Our May meeting featured HD85 Representative Rick Roth, who described some of the significant actions taken by the Florida Legislature in the just completed session.

For a description of the various bills that emerged, please see: 2019 Legislative Session Update.

March Brunch – “Los Tres Amigos” – 2019

In what has become an annual event, the March meeting of the RCNPB featured “Los Tres Amigos”. This year’s lineup consisted of Palm Beach Gardens Councilman Matthew Lane, CD21 likely candidate Christian Acosta, and the perennial favorite, former PBCGOP Chairman Sid Dinerstein. Florida Representative Rick Roth also made an appearance.

Matt Lane, who took this opportunity to announce his bid for re-election next March, described his view of the responsibilities of a city official. First up is public safety and security, and the Gardens is now providing city police resources to patrol the local schools. With increased demands following the Parkland shootings, the School system was grateful to accept the help and is paying the city for the effort. After the Pittsburg synagogue shootings, the city is also stepping up security activities surrounding the Jewish centers around Hood Road.

Other priorities include fiscal restraint with the public purse and transparency of government operations. As we have witnessed on multiple occasions, Matt will frequently pull large dollar items from the consent agenda for public discussion, particularly when it is not clear that an open bidding process was used. In Matt’s view, understanding the way contracts are adopted is the way to keep tabs on public spending.

Lastly he mentioned term limits, pointing our that he was the lone vote against placing the ballot questions in 2018 that sought to weaken the charter provisions that had only recently passed. Fortunately, the voters soundly rejected this attempt and the 2 terms of 3 years is still in effect.

The second amigo to speak was Christian Acosta who has announced his exploratory quest to unseat CD21 Congresswoman Lois Frankel in 2020. This D+17 seat was uncontested in 2018, allowing the incumbent to remain in office without campaigning for the privilege. Stretching along the coast from Singer Island through Delray Beach and encompassing most of the county south of Southern Boulevard, including Wellington, it deserves a Republican challenger.

Christian is a resident of Boynton Beach and teaches Electric Power Engineering at Palm Beach State. A nuclear engineer and Pittsburg transplant, Christian has been making the rounds of the Republican clubs and plans to introduce himself at the Trump-45 Club next month. He claims that he is no relation to that “other Acosta” who is known for his rude behavior in the White House press corps.

Although not billed as one of the “tres amigos”, FH85 Representative Rick Roth spoke briefly about some bills of interest that are moving through Tallahassee. The Republican controlled legislature did not always work smoothly with Rick Scott, but so far they are in a honeymoon period with Rick DeSantis. The allowance for smokable medical marijuana is moving through the process at the Governor’s request, and they appear willing to embrace his initiatives in education, the environment and water policy, and health care reform. The Legislature also may be able to place a ballot question next year that would end the constitutional revision commissions that work their mischief every 20 years. The onerous multiple-issue questions that last year’s commission placed on the ballot may have been enough to spur action.

Keynoting the meeting was Sid Dinerstein. With a couple of pages of handwritten notes, he took the audience on a tour of all the hopeful things that have happened since the last election, and why the loss of the House was a two edged sword.

Arguing that following the 2016 election (which was a peak year for the GOP), we are now in a sweet spot, Sid explained that yes, the Democrats run the House, but the GOP didn’t do much with their majority when they were in charge. This led to the shutdown which we lost, because to win you need to have the media on your side. Consider that a “bottom”.

The Democrats can always be counted on to overplay their hand. For example, by delaying the State of the Union for a week, Pelosi didn’t realize that she moved it just past the greatest jobs report ever, completely strengthening the President’s hand. Putting on a great show, which was a masterfully done tribute to America, Trump was able to “hold the cross up to the vampires” by declaring “America will never be a Socialist Nation!”. Thus begins the 2020 campaign.

One of the President’s most valuable skills is to get his enemies to actually tell the truth.

In the past few months we have seen them reveal what they really think:

– How great is Venuzuela
– How they will not rebuke their anti-semites – Farrakhan, Sharpton, Omar
– How abortion is not enough – we need nothing less than infanticide
– That their signature transportaion project – the California “train to nowhere” is a failure
– How they will not deal with their three “friends in Virginia”
– Jesse Smollett
– Green new deal (“kill all the cows”) – is outlawing volcanos next?
– We don’t want your stinking jobs (Amazon in NY)
– Dem PACs pulling out of Ohio
– Reuters sitting on the Beto hacking story

Making the case that Trump will likely win 44 states, Sid ended on a note of optimism. Hugging the flag at the beginning of the CPAC speech says it all – that is the entire campaign.

Saving Western Civilization from Itself

“Rational Centrists”, the term our speaker Ken Abramowitz uses for the third of western society that thinks like “us”, are surrounded by the dark forces of Big Government, Isolationists, Political Islam and the United Nations. Although still a minority, we have improved our market share since the time of Abraham when the ratio was more like 1%.

Describing the threats to Israel as a precursor of threats to the west, he sees many of the same forces at work. Iran (who would like to wipe out the US as well as Israel), the Muslim Brotherhood and other Radical Islamists (Hezbollah, Al Queda/Daesh, etc), Globalist world organizations who reject national sovereignty (UN, EU, NGOs, etc), all figure prominently.

In order to prevail and maintain our way of life, Ken sees three key solutions.

We must maximize economic growth (happiness), protect the people intellectually, culturally and legally (liberty), and protect the people physically (life). Although Ken’s handouts went into some depth in these solution areas, he did not dwell on specifics in his talk.

Asked to grade President Trump on the defense of the west, most in the room gave all “A”s. Ken leans more towards a “B” grade though, as he objects to some specifics of the Trump agenda. While no one would argue that the economy is not booming, he faults the President for not taking on entitlements. While generally supporting the culture, he could do more on resisting aspects of Sharia in the US. On protecting physically, while the border fight is good, Ken believes pulling troops out of Syria is a big mistake. President Trump is a major improvement over his predecessor though, as he gives Obama three “F” grades.

Ken is the Chairman of “Citizens for National Security.” CFNS is a group of academic, scientific, intelligence, counter terrorism and defense experts who were involved in their respective fields decades before the 9/11 attacks on America.

Present at the meeting were County Commissioner Hal Valeche and PBG Councilman Matt Lane.

RCNPB December Meeting

Tony Khawam at October 14th Meeting

The Ethical Lapses of Andrew Gillum

The following is excerpted from the Sunshine State News:

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Now that Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum is the Democratic Party nominee for governor, the press and voters need to take a much closer look into his service as our ceremonial mayor.

Gillum has been consistently involved in issues that the FBI is investigating as part of their work into corruption at City Hall and the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA).

While Gillum alleges he was told by the FBI that he’s not a subject of their investigation, no one has ever corroborated that statement.

First and foremost is the ethical concerns around the New York City trip that Gillum took for his former employer. We now know, after persistent questioning by the Tallahassee Democrat, that Gillum stayed on after that meeting, relocating to a plush NYC hotel, the Millennium Hilton, attending the “Hamilton” Broadway play where tickets cost hundreds of dollars, and even going on a boat ride around Manhattan and the Statute of Liberty with Adam Corey and Mike Miller, where pictures were taken.

Gillum has recently told The Washington Post that sometimes his brother Marcus Gillum pays some of his expenses, and he has said that his brother paid his expenses in NYC.

2018 Political Jamboree

Every two years, during the summer of an election year, the county GOP hosts a “Jamboree” – an old fashioned political picnic for candidates on the upcoming ballot to introduce themselves to the party activists. With a barbecue lunch under the pavilion roof, surrounded by covered booths hosted by candidates and political clubs, it is gathering place for the GOP faithful and those who seek to represent them at all levels of government.

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After remarks by county chairman (and RPOF vice-chair) Michael Barnett, and state committee reps Cindy Tindell and Joe Budd, master of Ceremonies Sid Dinerstein introduced the candidates.

The only state-wide candidates present were Attorney General candidate Ashley Moody who listed her impressive resume and endorsements which include current AG Pam Bondi, and John Mercadante – a long-shot candidate for Governor with lots of enthusiasm.

In CD18, incumbent Brian Mast has drawn a couple of primary challengers, mostly as a result of his controversial stance on gun control which is perceived as a vulnerability. Dave Cummings spoke and presented himself as a conservative in support of the Trump agenda. The winner of this primary will face one of two well-funded Democrats in a race that has drawn national interest.

CD22 was represented by candidate Javier Manjarres who is facing Nicholas Kimaz (who was at the event but left before speaking), and Eddison Walters. The winner will face entrenched Democrat Ted Deutch (who has a long shot primary challenger in Jeff Fandl) in this D+14 district.

For state legislative offices, Belinda Keiser spoke. She is competing with current House member Gayle Harrell for the Senate 25 seat vacated by Joe Negron. The winner will face Democrat Robert Levy in the fall.

For House district 89, vacated by term limited Bill Hager, competitors Matt Spritz and Joe Caruso spoke. The winner of that race will face one of two Democrats in November.

At the city level, we had Boca acting mayor Scott Singer and his opponent BocaWatch founder Al Zucaro. Municipal elections are usually in March, but the departure of indicted former Mayor Susan Haynie prompted a special election to be held coincident with the August primary.

This year, the number of candidates was fewer than past years (9 versus 19 in 2016 and 14 in 2014), partly due to a lack of challengers overall, and partly from the absence of Republican candidates that are running. CD18 incumbent Brian Mast and challenger Mark Freeman were absent, for example. This year there are NO Republicans running for open seats on the school board, Port Commission, or County Commission districts 2 or 6.

DeSantis Rocks Trump National

On Saturday, Republican candidate for Governor Ron DeSantis appeared at Trump National in Jupiter with “The Great One” Mark Levin, Fox pundit Dan Bongino, and CD1 Congressman Matt Gaetz. The large crowd was welcoming and enthusiastic, and possibly indicative of a surge in popularity for his candidacy. With some polls showing that the double digit lead held by Adam Putnam has waned, Ron appears to be making the most of his endorsement by President Trump, and has begun to define his value proposition as governor.

Ron has had support among the tea party grassroots since before his election to the sixth congressional district seat (Coastal from south Jacksonville to New Symrna Beach including Daytona Beach) in 2012. A tea party conservative, he is a key player in the House Freedom Caucus. I have long been a fan of his work in Congress, repealing Obamacare, opposing the Iran deal, and pushing for oversight of the corruption at the top levels of the Justice Department and FBI. His candidacy for Governor though, had seemed to be weak.

For the most part, Ron had seemed to be touting his Congressional bona-fides, and his campaign literature and fund raising appeals seemed more a call for Congressional re-election than a bid for the top executive job in the third largest state. A line of attack from the Putnam camp is that he is running his campaign on Fox News (Ron is a regular), has never held an executive job, and knows little about the Florida issues outside of Washington.

It was a different message we heard on Saturday. First, his surrogates described his work in DC as just as much “Florida Issues” as national ones. Health care, Immigration, tax cuts and de-regulation to boost the economy – these are all things that concern us within the state’s borders.

When Ron took the podium, he brought the focus back locally. Water issues and toxic algae, sanctuary cities and immigration, these are state issues, as is opposing common core and introducing civics back into the K-12 curriculum. He drew a sharp contrast to Adam Putnam on Sugar money (he doesn’t take it), ethanol mandates (Putnam opposed a measure to stop the measures that were harming the marine industry), and Congressional term limits (Putnam opposed).

Although his website is still short on specifics, he seems to be holding his own on the issues with Putnam and referred the audience to the Fox News debate between them last month, which he feels he won.

On the Democrat side, Jeff Greene seems to be developing a lead. With the money he plans to put in the race, a unified GOP will be needed to hold on to the Governor seat. DeSantis and Putnam are both credible candidates, but a tightening race may see the race turn negative. Let’s hope not.

At the end of the day, the Trump factor may make the difference. The President has endorsed DeSantis, and praised his work with the Freedom Caucus. There is evidence that Putnam has never really been a Trump fan. We will see how much weight that carries in Florida.

Bill Bone Saving Limbs Ride

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