Category Archives: J Robert Smith

Why I Returned to Twitter

By J Robert Smith

Dec. 14, 2022
3 min read

In January of 2021, when Twitter brass suspended Donald Trump’s very popular and powerful account, it was the last straw for me.

I’d been on Twitter since the autumn of 2013, as I recall. By July 2020, with a lot of sweat equity, I’d built my account to nearly 16,000 followers. I was adding an estimated 100-200 followers daily during that tumultuous summer. The riots and general lawlessness that Democrats were permitting in the cities they ran were fueling my following. Then there was the contentious presidential race. With frequent posts about the Trump-Biden dustup, my profile was rising and reach spreading. A conservative surging in popularity was always a red flag among Twitter’s woke monitors.

Then, suddenly, my new followers slowed to a trickle. Some days, nothing. Then over the course of the next few weeks, my existing following started to dwindle. I went to a Germany-based platform that determines if your Twitter account is being “shadow-banned,” among other surreptitious means of muzzling ~~members~~ conservatives. My account was being shadow-banned.

Went the reports, Twitter was allegedly purging “bots,” phony accounts. By November 2020, as I recollect, I’d lost about 4,000 followers. Sure, bots have been and are a problem at Twitter. They inflate Twitter’s aggregate count. Twitter’s member volume helps sell advertising and ups pricing.

But purging bots in the middle of a hotly contested election season? Elon Musk questioned Twitter’s price tag in negotiations because, he contended, the platform’s value was inflated by Twitter execs allowing bots to increase its value. Seems a little too coincidently, doesn’t it?

Continue reading →

Please share!

Georgia GOP Playing Wrong Game in Warnock-Walker Runoff

By J Robert Smith

Dec. 3, 2022
5-min read

If we could go “Back to the Future” in the 1990s, the likes of James Carville, George Stephanopoulos, and Paul Begala (Bill’s Clinton’s hired guns) would tell us that elections today are “About the ballots, stupid.” And, as much as conservative grassroots and Republicans detest hearing that, it’s true. Thanks to the infamous Covid lockdowns, changes made to election laws in the states, early voting and mail-in balloting have dramatically altered the elections landscape.

Democrats are gleefully stealing marches in mail-in voting, in particular. It’s a monumental tactical error for Republicans and Trump activists to urge voters to wait until Election Day to vote. Why? Because not all pro-Republican voters get out to vote, for various reasons. Democrats no longer try to persuade voters to vote. They’ve put in place systems to obtain their target voters’ ballots early.

Case in point, the Georgia U.S. Senate runoff between incumbent Ralph Warnock and Hershel Walker. The election finale is this Tuesday, December 6.

The betting is that Warnock has a slight edge because the instant Democrats were free to start extracting ballots from their voters, they did so. Not haphazardly, mind you, but systematically. It doesn’t appear that Georgia Republicans are doing anything comparable. That may prove fatal.

From ABC News, December 3:

Georgians swarmed to the polls on the last day of early voting before next week’s Senate runoff, setting a new record for single-day early in-person turnout.

At least 352,953 people voted in person on Friday, bringing the total number of votes, either in person or absentee, to over 1.8 million. That number represents 26.4% of active voters.

Of course, we can’t know for certain that more of those votes are Democrat or Republican ballots, but it appears the trend is repeating itself. Like the 2022 general elections in Georgia and elsewhere, Democrats are clocking the GOP in mail-in and early voting.

From CNN Politics, December 1:

So far in early voting, Black voters make up a little more than 33% of the electorate, while White voters account for 54%. At a roughly similar point in the general election based on the number of early votes cast, about 31% of voters were Black and about 57% were White.

This may seem like a small difference, but given the large partisan gap between Black and White voters, it suggests that those who have gone to the polls so far are more Democratic than at a similar point in the general election.

I should note that a number of Democratic counties opened up early in-person voting sooner than Republican-leaning counties. That said, voters in all Georgia counties have been able to cast a ballot for a number of days now, and the racial voting gap between the general election and runoff has not gone away.

Continue reading →

Please share!

Two Reasons Why the Red Wave Wasn’t… and What Republicans can do about It

By J Robert Smith

Nov. 24, 2022
3-min read

There’s more than a couple of reasons why the expected Red Wave didn’t happen. Here, we’re referring specifically to congressional elections. But there are two reasons that aren’t very sexy but most definitely blunted Republican gains. One is early voting and mail-in balloting.

The second, which pertains to U.S. House contests, is redistricting. Republicans actually won about 6 million more votes in House elections in 2022 than did Democrats. The trouble was that district lines were drawn in such ways that diluted GOP strengths.

Redistricting is mandated by the U.S. Constitution. It isn’t a sexy topic. In fact, it’s sort of wonky, but in redrawing U.S. House district lines in 2021, Republicans were either out maneuvered by Democrats or victims of “redistricting commissions.” That depends on how states decide the every ten years reapportionment of House seats. Democrats were definitely aggressive in New York and New Mexico, drawing lines that lopsidedly favored them. Surprisingly, the New York Supreme Court struck down the Democrats’ grossly gerrymandered map, replacing it with a map that actually allowed Republicans to gain seats. No such thing happened in New Mexico, where Democrats drew lines that cost the GOP the one seat it held.

We can add that the U.S. Census, which was conducted in 2020, undercounted population gains in some red states, while overcounting population in some blue states. That’s more than a little suspicious.

There’s no point into getting deep into the weeds about redistricting. The next round of redistricting happens in 2030, though the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a Civil Rights case about Alabama’s lines being racially discriminatory in early 2023. Nonetheless, the cake is baked.

Continue reading →

Please share!

The Pennsylvania House Impeaches Philly DA Larry Krasner

By J Robert Smith

Nov. 17, 2022
1-min read

Pennsylvania’s lame-duck House Republicans have impeached the awful, criminal-loving Philly DA Larry Krasner. Both his misfeasance and malfeasance as district attorney merit impeachment.

Per Fox 29, Philadelphia:

“Lawmakers voted 107-85 to impeach Krasner, setting the stage for what would be the first Pennsylvania Senate impeachment trial in nearly three decades. Republicans currently have a 29-21 majority in the state Senate, going to 28-22 early next year, and a two-thirds vote would be required to remove Krasner.”

Which means that because of Democrats, the Senate will never achieve a two-thirds vote to oust this shameless pro-criminal hack. Philly residents suffer from unsafe streets and crime victims continue to pile up because Krasner refuses to do his job and throw the book at hoods and thugs of all stripes. Who’s the bigger scumbag, a mugger or Krasner, who let’s bad guys walk?

Our sympathies always to crime victims, their families, and friends in Philly. Civilization in your city is breaking down because of a Democrat political elite that no longer has the character and moral rectitude to keep Philly streets safe. You deserve better, and all Philly citizens should demand better. Oh, vote out the debauched characters whose coddling of criminals or disregard for safety makes everyone in the “City of Brotherly Love” a potential crime victim. Start with that moronic windbag, Jim Kenney, your illustrious mayor.

Now, a mea culpa. In my last piece I wrote:

Blame atrocious, criminal-loving DAs like Philly’s Larry Krasner, who’s moral compass isn’t broken because he never had a compass to break. That creep should have been impeached by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. That won’t happened now. PA Republicans lost the House to Democrats for the first time in years. They lost because of the “No Questions” mail-in balloting that they helped enact. Thanks, Republicans, for helping keep Philly’s streets safe.

I got that wrong. Kudos to PA House Republicans for doing the right thing and issuing articles of impeachment before their 2022 session ends.

Please share!

In Philly, Crime Victims’ Families are Suing Gas Stations for Negligence

By J Robert Smith

Nov. 14, 2022
3-min read

Crime continues to explode in the “City of Brotherly Love.” You name it. Assaults, murders, robberies, carjackings, gang shootouts in Philly’s mean streets. Philly is now the Wild West.

There are plenty of innocent victims. Families are grieving for loved ones who were killed. Victims suffered dumb luck: they happened to be in the wrong places at the wrong times.

Looks like robberies, carjackings, and shootings are on the upswing at Philly gas stations. Families of victims have decided to blame gas station owners for negligence.

Crime is getting so bad that a big c-store chain in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, Wawa, is curtailing store hours and closing stores in Philly. Continue to allow criminals to own Philly’s streets and the place will become a virtual ghost town. Businesses will shut in droves.

Reports the Philadelphia Inquirer, November 14:

While gas station owners say the uptick is simply a manifestation of Philadelphia’s broader gun-violence problem, the trend has caused several people who have been injured or lost loved ones to file negligence lawsuits. They say gas stations should have done more to protect patrons.

Again from the Inquirer article:

“I don’t think the public is aware of this because they may think of shootings usually happening at bars or nightclubs, certainly not at gas stations,” said lawyer David P. Thiruselvam, who has filed nine lawsuits against gas stations. “But it’s becoming an epidemic, and the gas station industry is aware of it because it’s in the news all the time. But they are not doing anything about it.”

Gas station owners aren’t doing anything about crime, says the trial attorney hunting for a big payday?

Set aside that gas stations are being victimized by Philly hoods, too. Since when is it the obligation of businesses to protect their patrons from criminals? Isn’t that the role of government?

Is Philly plagued by crime because business owners aren’t manning their establishments with armed guards? And if they did, imagine the lawsuits when guards gunned down thugs. Imagine the criminal felony charges that woke DAs would spin to nail not just the guards but the business owners for daring to protect their patrons and their properties.

Why is crime out of control in Philly? That isn’t hard to figure out.

Blame Democrats. Blame the “progressive” mindset that dominates policies and governance in not just Philadelphia but big cities across the country. Blame the “criminals are the real victims” view and the view that law enforcement (beat cops right up the chain) are the bad guys. Blame atrocious, criminal-loving DAs like Philly’s Larry Krasner, who’s moral compass isn’t broken because he never had a compass to break. That creep should have been impeached by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. That won’t happened now. PA Republicans lost the House to Democrats for the first time in years. They lost because of the “No Questions” mail-in balloting that they helped enact. Thanks, Republicans, for helping keep Philly’s streets safe.

Here’s the ancient, basic reason why government exists. Etch it in stone: Government exists to protect it’s citizens from harm… from predation by criminals or attack by foreign enemies. F.U.N.D.A.M.E.N.T.A.L. Not your local c-store… not your grocery store… not your neighborhood fast food hangout – GOVERNMENT.

When any government fails in this most basic duty, the people have a right to question why that government exists at all. And, whatever Democrats believe, government doesn’t exist to line their pockets and the pockets of the moochers who vote for them.

So, here’s the million-dollar question for the beleaguered citizens of Philadelphia: If your government can’t or won’t protect you, isn’t it high time to change your government?

Think about it… but not for too long.

Please share!

2022 Midterms: No Stink on the Republican Establishment?

By J Robert Smith

Nov. 13, 2022
1-min read

Attacks on Donald Trump have begun in the aftermath of the midterm elections. We should have set our watches. Washington’s Republican establishment is pushing the line that the GOP’s underperformance in the midterms is “100%” Trump’s fault. Of course, there’s no stink on D.C. Republicans — not Kevin McCarthy, not Mitch McConnell, not Ronna McDaniel, not Tom Emmer (chairman, RNCC), not GOP consultants and pollsters… Not on any Republican who hangs out at the Capitol Hill Club.

Conservatives shouldn’t be goaded into a Trump versus DeSantis fight. Trump and DeSantis shouldn’t permit themselves to be baited, either. It’s so transparent, it’s laughable. That’s exactly what the establishment is trying. Washington Republicans don’t intend to just knock out Trump, but split conservatives. Is that rank odor wafting through the air from Karl Rove and Jeb! lurking behind the curtains?

Read the full article at American Thinker. Follow this link. Thanks.

Please share!

Oz Beats Fetterman?
Well, there’s a Catch

By J Robert Smith

Oct. 20, 2022
2-min read

Newsweek reports that Dr. Mehmet Oz is expected to slide past stroke victim and knee-jerk leftist John Fetterman for Pennsylvania’s open U.S. Senate seat.

From the Newsweek report, October 20:

An analysis by Real Clear Politics (RCP), based on opinion polling adjusted to take account of past inaccuracies, projects Oz will win Pennsylvania by 1.9 percent of the vote.

That’s welcome news, except there’s a variable that isn’t being considered: mail-in voting fraud. Pennsylvania is a “No Questions” mail-in balloting state. That means fraud isn’t only possible, but likely. What it’ll boil down to is the scope of the fraud. Will it be sufficient to tip election outcomes?

The Keystone State has made scant reforms to its election system since 2020. Republicans control the legislature and have advanced election reform measures, only to have them struck down by Tom Wolfe, PA’s lameduck Democrat governor.

There’s every reason to believe that a critical, high profile Senate election will be prone to ballot hijinks. Shifting control of the U.S. Senate away from Democrats (Vice President Kamala Harris holds the tie-breaking vote) means a switch of just one seat. So, the stakes are high. The PA contest may decide which party runs the Senate in 2023.

Unfortunately, there’s a back story. Pennsylvania legislative Republicans created this mess. In 2019, many months before the Covid pandemic began, Republicans cut a deal with Wolfe. In exchange for wide-open mail-in balloting and really early voting, straight-ticket voting would be struck from ballots.

Republicans actually thought that they’d benefit from ending straight-ticket voting, while, evidently, not considering what “No Questions” mail-in voting could lead to. It was an asinine deal then that proved disastrous in 2020. The presidential contest was fraught with “irregularities.” Since then, Republicans have tried to walk back this epic stupid deal. Needless to say, Democrats have no interest in reform.

Oz needs more than a 1.9% margin to beat Fetterman. Election fraud – ballot fraud, in particular – thrives on close elections. The greater the margin between a Republican who leads voting and a Democrat, the tougher it is for Democrats to produce enough fraudulent ballots.

Fetterman is physically and mentally incapable of meeting the daily demands of a U.S. Senator. But, then, Joe Biden was and is unable to meet the demands of the presidency. Yet, in key states – critically, Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania — Biden won… with a little help from Democrats and their allies who have no interest in fair elections when they cut against their candidates.

Please share!

The Herschel Walker Smear

By J Robert Smith

Oct. 10, 2022
4-min read

Democrats operate by a simple dictum: If one of their candidates may lose, smear the Republican opponent. And if that doesn’t cut it, cheat. Or do both, just to play it safe.

Herschel Walker is the recipient of a Democrat sneak attack. That’s because he’s running neck-and-neck with a tainted U.S. senator, the Rev. Ralph Warnock. The smears made against Walker are called “October Surprises.”

Sandbagging Walker isn’t much of surprise, actually. Walker is a football legend in Georgia. His college career with the Bulldogs made him so. He’s public about his embrace of Christianity and doesn’t hesitate to admit that he’s made his share of mistakes over the years and, yes, sinned. But as the Rev. Warnock should know, Christians make no bones about their sinfulness. Some of the greatest sinners became the greatest Christians. The Apostle Paul is the preeminent example of a bad man gone very good through his encounter with Jesus Christ and his repentance.

So, like the rest of us, Walker is a flawed man, but the smears leveled against him are lies. Walker flat-out denies that he impregnated a past girlfriend and paid for her abortion. The allegation stinks of an election-motivated gambit.

Said Florida senator Rick Scott (who should be the next GOP Senate leader, not sold-out Mitch McConnell) , Newsweek, October 4:

Senator Rick Scott, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, defended GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker amid his latest controversy and suggested that Walker was up against the same “smear machine” that targeted Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas.

Coincidence that on the eve of Kavanaugh’s and Thomas’ confirmation hearings that they were slammed with uncorroborated accusations of sexual misconduct? Now, just weeks before the November election, Walker is being slapped with a charge that he paid for an abortion?

Continue reading →

Please share!

In Pennsylvania, Fetterman is Beginning to Reel … and More

By J Robert Smith

Sept. 20, 2022
4-min read

Fox News reports that John Fetterman’s U.S. Senate campaign is backing off Fetterman’s call to release over a thousand convicted 2nd degree murders from Pennsylvania prisons.

From the September 20 Fox News report:

Fetterman, the Pennsylvania lieutenant governor who chairs the state’s Board of Pardons (BOP), commissioned two reports last year released by Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity (PLSE) that recommended the BOP consider merit-based clemency for currently incarcerated second-degree murderers, as well as for the state legislature to reform the law that mandates life sentences without parole for second-degree murder convictions.

And then this from the story:

During a PLSE press conference on March 1, 2021, Fetterman said the reports documented “the lives that are destroyed” and “the resources that are wasted” due to Pennsylvania’s statute, and that he hoped the reports’ findings would “lead to a conversation” that would free close to 1,200 people.

“People,” as in convicted murderers.

Any voter living near a major Democrat-run city knows well how crime – including violent crime – has exploded in those jurisdictions. Urban crime has begun creeping into suburban areas from cities. Philadelphia has seen crime rates explode. Fetterman being a friend of murderers, robbers, rapists, and two-bit thugs is hurting his campaign for Pennsylvania’s open U.S. Senate seat.

Continue reading →

Please share!

21 Years After 9/11 and We Still Can’t Say, “Islamic Terrorism”

By J Robert Smith

Sept. 11, 2022
3-min read

It’s Sunday, September 11, 2022 – that’s 21 years after the horrific events of September 11, 2001. Nearly a generation has passed.

I was watching Fox News coverage this morning of the 9/11 ceremonies at what once was the site of New York’s Twin Towers. That ceremony is always a sobering reminder that there are bad guys in the world who won’t hesitate to kill Americans on our on soil if given the chance. They’ll kill indiscriminately – the old, young, women, babies, handicapped – whomever.

In watching the coverage, I noticed that Fox hosts and commentators described the 9/11 attackers as simply “terrorists.” They expressed the concern that no other terrorists or “militants” (the other word employed) ever again rain destruction on the U.S. It was clear that the Fox crew wasn’t going discuss why the 9/11 attacks happened. They weren’t going to identify the attackers as Islamic or Muslim terrorists.

In fact, the terrorists who engineered and executed the attacks in NYC and DC – and who commandeered Flight 93 that heroic passengers brought down in a farm field near Shanksville, PA – most certainly had religious motivations (albeit fanatical) in doing so. 9/11 was, by these villains’ lights, jihad – an act of war premised and justified by Islam. Saying that, there’s no claim here that most Muslims are fanatically driven, though the 9/11 hijackers (commonly believed to be led by Muhammed Atta) were lauded by radical Muslims overseas).

Why the 9/11 attacks happened matter more than the when, what, and how. If we fail to acknowledge the motivations that Atta and his conspirators had, don’t we risk having other Islamic terrorists attempt the scale of attacks that occurred 21 years ago? That we haven’t experienced any other large-scale attacks is a credit to our vigilance. But, thanks to Joe Biden and the leftists who run his administration, our southern border is now wide-opened. It’s not just poor, migrant farm workers violating our laws entering the U.S. Among them are probably Islamic terrorists – and others willing to do harm to Americans. Being vigilant at airports isn’t enough.

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11 to this day, the notion has been pushed that screening measures at airports and other public transportation hubs had to be applied equally. “Profiling” was deemed discriminatory. So, 75-year-old, blue-eyed, rosy-cheeked grandmas are pulled out line and searched as if they’re likely to blow up a plane. It’s absurdity in the name of equality. Police, TSA, and other security pros know it’s absurd. They know that people matching certain profiles are where Islamic terrorists are to be found. The Israelis have used profiling effectively for decades.

Of course, as the future unfolds, it doesn’t mean that terrorist threats will originate exclusively among Muslim peoples. Terrorism is a means. Radical Muslims don’t own the franchise. Looking ahead, terrorism may come from Mexico, for example. Emboldened drug cartels there are really paramilitary outfits. If drug lords see terrorism as a tool to protect or advance their interests, they’d have no compunction using it.

What about among Russians, as another example? As divisions with the West harden and grow, might we not see “unconventional warfare” originating from Russia? If we do, the focus of our policing and security needs to align with that threat.

We can’t just stop “terrorism,” as if it’s a generic threat to Americans’ welfare and safety. We have to know who is perpetrating terrorist acts and why. Understanding and accepting the root causes of terrorism is critical to preventing it.

Please share!