Category: Statism

Oregon State Legislature sent this bulletin Wednesday, december 19, 2023 by devadmin

When a calf dies at birth, a rancher might decide to “graft” a substitute calf so that the mother cow can provide nurture to the substitute. The most reliable form of grafting happens when the hide of the dead calf is put onto the substitute calf. The cow knows the smell of her own calf (even if it was dead at birth) and this substitution can trick the cow into accepting the substitute as her own.

In the Oregon legislature, when a bill dies, something else can get grafted into its hide. Around the capital this is known as a “gut and stuff.” You might think of it like putting a wolf into the sheep’s clothing.

Last week an extremely disturbing water bill was dropped into a Senate Judiciary Committee placeholder bill with a “relating to courts” clause. This water bill fits neatly into this category because parties affected by a final order during a regulatory water action can appeal to the circuit court, or the Court of Appeals. The court has the authority to affirm, reverse, or modify the original order.

The Bill (977-1), would eliminate an irrigator’s ability to secure a “stay,” or pause, in the action ordered by the regulating agency as prescribed in ORS 536.075 (5). The opportunity for a “stay” provides water user protection and due process while being a safety valve against frivolous, invalid, futile, or erroneous final orders. The rules, in place since the mid-80’s, recognize that orders may have been secured with poorly-developed evidentiary findings, inconsistent applicability, or for nefarious purposes.

The sub-section that would be stripped from a right holder’s toolbox is:

ORS 536.075 (5) The filing of a petition in either the circuit court or the Court of Appeals shall stay enforcement of the order of the commission or the department unless the commission or the department determines that substantial public harm will result if the order is stayed. If the commission or the department denies the stay, the denial shall be in writing and shall specifically state the substantial public harm that will result from allowing the stay.

Destroying this part of procedural due process would be devastating to water right holders who are under a curtailment action during or mid-way through an irrigation season.

For background, Oregon water rights are regulated in accordance with the doctrine of prior appropriation. This means that in times of water shortages, senior water right holders are entitled to have their rights fully satisfied before junior users are entitled to their water rights. Please note, both senior and secondary water rights are vested property rights that cannot be altered without due process of law.

When a secondary user is curtailed, due process consists of, first, a written notice, and, second, a meaningful opportunity to be heard before a neutral body prior to being deprived of that vested property interest.

The existing statute ensures that in situations where there is significant uncertainty as to whether a junior user is being erroneously curtailed, Oregon Water Resource Department (OWRD) shut-off orders are stayed until such time as the junior user has the opportunity to be heard in court. The stay action is extremely important because it allows irrigators to continue their agricultural business operations while awaiting more thorough research.

Many times, curtailment orders across the state are inappropriately issued because of bad science, misinformation or stratagems approaching malfeasance. Last season, nearly 140 groundwater wells were curtailed due to OWRD’s faulty modeling and unjustified regulation. In turn, nearly a dozen of these agricultural operations filed appeals and were granted the stay. OWRD eventually agreed to settle and pay irrigators’ attorney fees and court costs and the irrigators were allowed to continue their operations.

In these due process cases, and many others, the automatic stay granted under ORS 536.075 (5) was justified because the agency took arbitrary positions that were contrary to either the facts, or the law, or both.

This happens again and again, all over the state.

The importance of the statute is that it ensures irrigators’ rights are preserved before their water use is needlessly curtailed and their property right unjustly taken.

Statewide, as in the examples cited, impertinent arguments could stop any agricultural enterprise dead in its tracks. This action would be economically devastating to the junior water right holder, harm private property rights, the local community and public good, while tipping the balance of unmitigated power. The needless removal of this statute would enhance the opportunity for future bureaucratic or process corruption while weakening the overall rule of law.

Our nation’s founders were familiar with the subject of corruption. They took for granted that the dominant motive of human behavior was self-interest, and that this drive found its “most extreme political expression in an insatiable lust for power.” In recognizing this they devised a system of checks, balances and procedural due processes that could successfully thwart “the predominant thirst of dominion which has invariably and uniformly prompted rulers to abuse their power.”

Please write to your legislators today! (Click here to submit testimony)

Oppose SB 977-1 because it would allow the default taking of a citizen’s property right while stripping away the property holder’s access to effectual redress by creating a lop-sided legal process.

The hearing is scheduled for Monday, April 8, 2019, at 8:00AM.

If you are in the Salem area or are nearby, please consider coming in to testify.

Remember, “If you are negligent or inattentive, the ambitious and despotic will entrap you in their toils, and bind you with the cord of power from which you, and your posterity, may never be freed.”   – Cato I, New York Journal, September 27, 1787

If we don’t stand for rural Oregon values and common sense – No one will!

Dennis Linthicum
Oregon State Senate 28

Oregon State Legislature sent this bulletin Wednesday, February 5, 2020 by devadmin

At the beginning of the new year, in 1776, Thomas Paine published a Pamphlet to support the Patriot cause,  Common Sense. He wrote with clear, concise and beautifully simple word pictures that successfully rallied American colonists against the over-reaching rule of the British crown.

First, Paine set the stage by noting that the public often mistakes society with government.  This happens in our era, too. We mistake laws flowing from our state’s bureaucratic agencies as cultural or societal necessities, but they are not. Paine paints a picture where people are allowed to freely engage and work together to accomplish private tasks that improve the community, without requiring central planning or authority. He notes society and government are different, and,

“… they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.”

I recommend reading Paine’s small booklet because you will see similarities between what Paine describes from 250 years ago and what we experience in Oregon today. Namely, Oregonians are continually pounded by an unrelenting tide of laws, rules and regulations that burden the average farmer, rancher, forester, timber hauler, accountant, retailer and entrepreneur beyond measure.

For example, during the Legislature’s 2019 session, there were 2,768 bills introduced, with about 700 laws signed by the Governor. The several hundred, or more, rules and regulations which have not yet been spawned will soon be flowing downstream from the agencies which are tasked with enforcement.

No doubt, our errors in self-governance partially stem from our own failings. I know this because I often get letters, emails and phone messages where people suggest their version of a great legislative idea. You already know the refrain, “There ought to be a Law…”

These ideas, might be wonderful, but there are always trade-offs and other issues to consider: what does it cost, who makes the rules, how many rules will get created, what sanctions will be imposed, who governs enforcement, how will discrepancies be judged, are the desired outcomes accomplished, what are the unintended consequences that will seep through the fabric of our communities?

To illustrate, my wife was recently at a large retail outlet standing in line with 6 individuals ahead of her and 5, or more, behind her. They were all waiting for service, with some exhibiting more patience than others. The two young men at the counter were doing a great job of helping each customer and did so with courtesy and efficiency. As one of the clerks finished his task, the next customer moved forward.

With clear frustration, the clerk said, “I’m sorry but I have to take my, ‘legally mandated’ break now.” While he was closing his station, he added sympathetically, “I know it’s busy, but I have no choice, I have to take this break.”

My wife said she thought this, “young man could have carried an elk carcass back to camp all by his lonesome.” So, although he could have continued to service the queue, he was required to follow the legislated mandate and leave his customers hanging.

Review, Oregon Revised Statute Chapter 653,  which deals the employment conditions my wife encountered. I would bet most of us will struggle to understand it and its implications. Today, Oregon has so many laws on the books, with countless defined terms, caveats, exemptions and carve-outs it is hard to know what is appropriate and what is outlandish.

To analyze this unnerving trend, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University created a tool known as State RegData – a platform for analyzing and quantifying state regulatory text by looking for words and phrases like “shall,” “must,” “may not,” “prohibited,” and “required.” These are the phrases typically used to signify legal constraints and obligations. The tool identified 167,401 restrictions in the 2017 Oregon Administrative Rules containing roughly 14.8 million words.

It would take an individual about 821 hours—or almost 21 weeks—to read the entire Oregon code. That’s assuming the reader spends 40 hours per week reading and reads at a rate of 300 words per minute. For comparison, in 2016 there were over 1.08 million additional restrictions in the federal code. Individuals and businesses in Oregon must navigate all of these restrictions to remain in compliance.

These rules represent a flanking maneuver against private, consensual, free-market capitalism. Capitalism is defined as private ownership and control over the means of production, where the surplus product becomes a source of income for its owners. By contrast, socialism is defined as social ownership of the means of production so that the surplus product accrues to chosen groups within the larger society.

If “ownership” means the right of an owner to organize and dictate the application of various resources – be it capital, equipment, or labor – then today, we have surrendered that decision-making authority to the state. The state now has the power to rule, organize, and manage (or own) nearly every business.

Agencies can subtly control the means of production through their regulatory requirements – employment, emissions, wages, schedules, margins. Government can over-see and run a business through rules and regulations without suffering from unsightly legal or economic issues that would typically surround a hostile takeover. In this way, bureaucrats and commissions can execute ghostly control over all aspects of any business via the machinery of the state.

As our last budget cycle proved, this has immediate benefits for the state enterprise. However, in the long-run, it is terrible for businesses, their customers, employees, futures, longevity and prosperity.

Daniel Webster, a statesman, lawyer, orator, and Secretary of State for three Presidential administrations recognized our problem and summarized our dilemma like this,

“Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.”

Well said!

If we don’t stand for rural-Oregon values and common sense…  Who will?

Dennis Linthicum
Oregon State Senate 28

Oregon State Legislature sent this bulletin friday, November 22, 2023, by devadmin

Ballot Measure 114 –  would enact a law outlining a procedure to apply for a permit-to-purchase for a firearm. Permits would be issued by the Department of State Police. Applicants would need to pay a fee, submit a photo ID, be fingerprinted, complete approved safety training, pass a criminal background check, and not be prohibited from possessing firearms. The Department of State Police would be able to deny a permit to an applicant believed to be a danger to oneself or others or if an applicant is prohibited from possessing a firearm. 

The initiative would also prohibit the manufacture, importation, possession, use, purchase, sale, or otherwise transferring of ammunition magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds. It would make violations a class A misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to 364 days in jail, a fine of up to $6,250, or both.

Measure 114 is disingenuous, deceptive, dangerous, and duplicitous, besides being unconstitutional.

It is disingenuous as can be seen by the propaganda coming from the proponents of this measure. They claim it will somehow magically increase gun safety and reduce violent crime. However, the current crime wave we see in most major metro areas, in Oregon and across the US, does not stem from honest, hardworking men and women trying to purchase firearms.

The law-breakers and fugitives who are breaking windows and stealing jewelry, robbing clothing stores on main street, and hijacking cars on the boulevard are not going to bother with a permission slip for their next ungodly act. Yet, the forthright men and women who might have the need to purchase a firearm will need to go through great lengths of absurd and picayunish minutiae to try to get a permission slip. Today people already have to undergo Oregon’s strict and stringent paperwork requirements and background check regulations for any firearm purchase, only they don’t first need a permission slip.

There are 250 to 280 million firearms in the US. with 42% of US homes owning a legal firearm. With approximately 120 to 150 million current and legal firearm owners in the US, we still have the lowest crime exposure per 100k population.

Sure, the Big-tech media moguls are more than happy to make money and earn clicks by pushing the details when a tragedy occurs, but that should not drive our policy decisions. The news industry survives based upon sales and revenue and often lives by the old adage, “if it bleeds, it leads!”
 
Measure 114 is deceptive because it creates legal obligations without expressly identifying how those requirements will be created, managed, funded and controlled. For example, it requires a “permit” to buy any firearm which then requires a class that may only be taught by police, community college, or private firearms instructor that does not even exist in most communities.
 
The tedious detail within the statutory requirements makes this measure particularly onerous. First, it is literally impossible for police and sheriffs’ offices to enforce and comply with all of the regulations. The Oregon State Sheriffs Association (OSSA) estimates that they will need nearly $40,000,000 dollars annually to staff and manage the measure in its current form. This measure will punch a $40,000,000 hole into existing law enforcement office budgets and is a underhanded method for defunding the police.
 
Additionally, this measure turns all current owners of any high-capacity magazine into criminals, if they cannot prove that their high-capacity magazine was owned before the effective date of this 2022 Act. Very few people still have receipts for $10 or $15 purchases from 5, 10 or 40 years ago, The legal jeopardy presented for having three or four multi-round magazines in one’s possession shows the level of animosity being projected against current law-abiding citizens.
 
The deceptive wording states, “this measure will enhance the safety of residents, particularly children, of this state by prohibiting the manufacture, sale, or transfer of large-capacity ammunition magazines and regulate the use of such magazines that are currently owned.” In other words, the goal of this section is to “enhance safety.”

To illuminate the ridiculousness of this proposition, let’s set up an illustration. Suppose a person owns a 10-round magazine, and has a receipt from 1985. Is this magazine safer than the newer magazine that a single mom might want to purchase after the effective date? The new statutory category, based upon ownership date alone, makes one item legal and another like item illegal. Yet, the ownership date has no impact on whether one item might be safer than the other. This is simply deception.
 
In Oregon, the story of the day will no longer be “Innocent, until proven guilty.”  The proponents want people to believe that all is well, but honest people will need to prove their innocence.
 
 Measure 114 is dangerous because it essentially denies citizens in Oregon the right of self-defense and the right to engage in commerce for the protection of themselves and their family members. This illiberal and narrow-minded measure would make it so difficult for the average citizen to own a firearm that it would be a de-facto ban on all gun sales.

Lastly, Measure 114 is duplicitous because it ignores the negative impacts that these needless regulations will have on minority communities. Before Measure 114 was approved for the ballot, it was an Initiative Petition, known as, IP 17. Democrat House Member Travis Nelson and I were concerned about disproportionate impacts of this measure on Oregon’s indigenous and minority populations.

Using Oregon law ORS 137.683 – 137.685 we requested a “Racial and Ethnic Impact Study” for this ballot measure. According to the statute:

The racial and ethnic impact statement must:

(A)   Describe the effects of the state measure on the racial and ethnic composition of the criminal offender population as defined in ORS 137.683;
(B)   Include the information described in ORS 137.683 (3); and
(C)   Be impartial, simple and understandable

The data suggests there is a real danger in this ballot measure for minorities yet, the duplicitous proponents appear not to be concerned. The data shows and is cited by the Criminal Justice Policy Program at Harvard Law School. In a report to the state’s Chief Justice, Racial Disparities in the Massachusetts Criminal System (2020) the report noted:

“Even after accounting for case severity and a host of other factors, Black and Latinx defendants charged with drug and weapons crimes are more likely to be convicted and sentenced to incarceration and they also receive substantially longer incarceration sentences than similarly situated White defendants.”

Now, assuming all things equal, why did the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission fail to provide any relevant feedback on the impacts of Ballot Measure 114? The Commission only reported, “The CJC lacks data…”, “The CJC is unable to provide predictions” and “ it is not possible for CJC to provide an estimated impact of this section.”

Again, nothing but disingenuous, deceptive, dangerous, and duplicitous nonsense streaming from those wanting to defund the police, while diminishing our personal and collective safety.

Regards,

Dennis Linthicum
Oregon State Senate – District 28

Oregon State Legislature sent this bulletin thurssday, november 22, 2023, by devadmin

Ten days ago, I partnered with all of Oregon’s Republican and Independent State Senators to stop a handful of shocking bills that would undoubtably inflict harm on children and their parents. Our efforts to bring transparency, openness, and bi-partisan leadership back into the Senate chamber have been met with deep division and partisan reluctance. 

Oregon’s Senate, like most governing bodies, requires a certain number of members in attendance before transacting business. This is known as a quorum rule. Oregon’s Republican Senators are currently denying quorum in order to slow the majority party’s run-away agenda. 

Stopping the legislative process, due to a lack of quorum, is not “unconstitutional.” It is a tool, used throughout history to prevent the tyranny of the majority and protect the rights of the minority. It ought to be obvious to everyone that without this tool minority voices would be silenced.

My own reasons for denying quorum are well-thought-out and fundamentally sound. I am not violating my “constitutional duties”, rather I am exercising my fiduciary responsibilities to the best of my ability. 

Contrary to the Senate President, Majority Leader and social media pundits – there is no constitutional requirement for anyone to provide a quorum. Oregon’s newly minted Constitutional amendment, which was sponsored by Oregon’s stalwart public employee unions, specifies an additional qualification for holding office in the next term. The amendment makes no demands on today’s office-holders. Legislators are not required to succumb to political rhetoric or bombast. 

I will not bow my knee to the unlawful demands of today’s Democrat majority.

Our current impasse is due solely to Senate President Wagner’s (D-Lake Oswego) continued rejection of all reconciliation efforts by members who are denying quorum. Our minority parties’ demands are easy enough, 1) adhere to Oregon’s constitution; 2) follow Oregon’s Revised Statutes and Senate rules; and 3) fulfill the “bipartisan/open door” pledge made to Oregonians. 

Otherwise, as the news cycle races along, even liberal news outlets and social media pundits are looking for any loose threads that weaken the fabric of the Democrat party’s suffocating hold in Oregon. Shemia Fagan’s forced resignation, brought similar and potentially more illicit money scandals to the surface. Each flaming accusation about corruption, tampering, and potential money-laundering creates a foothold for others to scale the walls of power. Yet, the Senate President is holding fast to his extreme position.

Are Republican and Independent Senators (aka, “the Courageous 13”) willing to sacrifice their eligibility for their next term in office? 

The answer is easy – Yes.

The bills in question are poorly written and they were only advanced because of an allegiance to radical concepts promoted by far-left activists who thrive on bumper sticker slogans, not facts. The bills we have identified egregiously promote a regulatory boundary around healthcare without helping the truly needy. Primarily, these bill will needlessly harm parents and families, in all areas of Oregon and across all fifty states.

Do you recall the incident when the FBI put the “domestic terrorist” label on everyday concerned parents who attended their local school board meetings? These Moms and Dads got snagged via a circular chain of false accusations which were leveled by a DOJ request. The falsity of Attorney General Merrick Garland reasoning is abhorrent. By any standard, this was an intrusive, unconstitutional effort by government actors. It was the heavy hand of government interfering in free-speech rights and denying the right of citizens to petition their government for a redress of grievances. 

Today, Oregon Democrats apparently applaud these unseemly attacks against parental involvement by desiring to enshrine them into law.

HB 2002, 2003, and 2005 perfectly illustrate this problem of government intrusion into the lives of everyday citizens and parents, in particular.

While newspaper headlines claim, “Republicans walk on Abortion and Gun Bills”, this is not true. As I pointed out last week, a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy is legal at every step along the journey, from conception all the way through the 3rd trimester and up to the last minute of the pre-birth moment.

The Dobb’s decision from the Supreme Court has no impact on Oregon State law. HB 2002, does not improve reproductive healthcare rights except to place an unscientific and purely political statement into Oregon Law.

HB 2002 is not primarily about reproductive health care or a woman’s right to choose.

Rather, it promotes the Biden administration’s blatant assertion that caring parents are “domestic terrorists.” HB 2002 strengthens this faulty worldview by painting parents as untrustworthy and all Dads as incestuous monsters. Within HB 2002 it becomes against the law to inform parents of any and all reproductive or gender altering care provided to their minor children. Why?

Why would the legislature deny a parent’s right to be fully informed about medical procedures that their child might be under-going? This is a bad idea and will endanger the health and safety of minor children while sowing discord between parents and their children.

Sen Golden (Ashland-D) claims, “youngsters will have serious qualified adult guidance through any of these procedures.” This begs the question, regardless of qualifications, how does some unrelated adult usurp a parent or legal guardian’s rightful place in the lineup for medical decision making? After all, these highly paid adults will simply go home while parents and their children will be forced to deal with the life-long consequences of this guidance.

Additionally, this new “law” would apply to every parent or guardian, in every circumstance, without any due process or judicial review. This amounts to a “color of law” declaration which grants the state a primordial custody interest in children and comprehensively denies that parents have any legitimate rights, obligations or concerns.

The language used in HB 2002 violates multiple facets of common-sense, legal precedent and tradition. It tramples the deeply-held religious and cultural freedoms that were enshrined at the foundation of our constitutionally federated republic.

Legal opinion also suggests that HB 2002 would result in the Legislature violating the property right of parents as expressed in ORS 109.030 (The rights and responsibilities of the parents …, are equal, and each parent is as fully entitled to the custody and control of the children …), not to mention creating conflicts with numerous other laws.

Is no one willing to question the motives for hiding medical information and facts from parents when a healthcare provider delivers gender-altering services or the termination of a pregnancy?

How did Mom and Dad become the new enemies of the state?

When the medical services are less risky, why are parents allowed any voice? Why do we require parental consent with regard to dental work, eye-glasses or the delivery of a Tylenol tablet.

What’s going on here?

This is a run-away healthcare agenda. It will raid the public treasury for decades upon decades to fund services and industry profits while needlessly damaging families and potentially providing secrecy to sex-traffickers and abusers.

This is child abuse top to bottom.

This is but one example of why I am willing to stand my ground. Oregon can do better and to that end I will continue to deny quorum.

In conclusion, tyranny is born through the abandonment of legal, traditional, and historic norms for life and livelihood.

The good news is, “Oregon’s Courageous 13” will not waver in our resolve!

We will not aid and abet the culture of corruption which has fully captured Salem. We will stand firm and let the truth ring loud and clear.

The family has historically been the primary and irreplaceable force for substantive human flourishing. HB 2002, is a flagrant, unwarranted and deliberate attack against children, their families and their parents’ Natural and Divine rights.

If we don’t stand for rural Oregon Values and common-sense… No one will!

Regards,

Dennis Linthicum
Oregon State Senate – District 28

Oregon State Legislature sent this bulletin sunday, november 22, 2023, by devadmin

The 82nd Oregon Legislative Assembly has reached the halfway mark. The same party is still in control and there are still many bad bills that could very well become law. Most of these bills seem to target traditional norms and family values. They want to employ government as a moral force in place of religion, free individual agency, and the free enterprise values that have helped Oregon prosper.

My goal is to keep the information cycle alive by focusing on the principles that are at stake. Often, newsletters get tangled up in Bad Bills and Good Bills. This helps generate a lot of attention and calls for action, yet underneath it all, the majority is bankrupting the public.

There were more than 4,500 bills submitted for this session. This is too many bills to process. Legislators cannot make truly prudent decisions regarding some of these enormous policy issues with any reasonable degree of propriety or understanding. My floor speech against SB 704, the bill that seeks to set up the universal health care measure that passed last election, is an example of this. Watch my floor speech here.

I believe SB 704 sets up dominoes for a tragic chain of events that will happen in Oregon’s future because it promotes medical science data miners, which may be legitimate, but by opening those avenues for data mining, it also allows others to navigate through those data systems and create fraudulent entries. I haven’t seen anything to indicate Oregon will take care of the private health care data in its charge.

Oregon does not have a stellar track record when it comes to protecting data. For example, the Oregon Employment Department was audited three separate times, each with the recommendation to update its out-of-touch computer systems, and despite being awarded millions of dollars from the federal government to do so, the OED did not take steps to protect Oregonians’ sensitive information, making it possible for thieves to steal countless unemployment checks from hard-working Oregonians in 2020-21.

As people who care about right/wrong, good/evil, and the deliberative political process that comes with our federally constituted republic, our society needs to swiftly develop a reliance on over-arching principles that can guide our decision making, rather than allowing government to do as it pleases. We cannot afford to get trapped by our own subjective preferences. We must be willing to stand on constitutional values and principles, such as limited government, free markets, and federalism.

For example, I gave a remonstrance on the Senate floor about the corruption and lack of transparency in Oregon’s education system. Watch here.

Oregon has plenty of room for improvement in all areas of transparency and accountability, especially in education. Kids in Oregon schools are not performing well. A recent article noted Oregon school achievement scores have been “dropping at every grade and subject tested — some as much as 10 percentage points.”

The report continues, “According to the latest data, which reflects the 2021-22 school year, fewer than 44% of Oregon students tested were proficient in English language arts. About 30% were considered proficient in math and 29.5% in science. By comparison, in 2019, about 53% of Oregon students tested proficient in English, 39% in math and 37% in science.”

It’s statistics like these that shed light on why school districts don’t want to share the hard data about how their schools are performing, and it isn’t because “domestic terrorists” (or parents who care about their children’s education) will flush them out. No, they would rather hide than share the truth.

Our schools have violated their sacred duty of shaping young minds by focusing on activism instead. The government has abandoned our children on the altar of mediocrity and bureaucratic ineptitude. Changing the current education paradigm must remain a top priority and your neighborhood school is a great place to start.

One item that would have provided education freedom to students and their families is my bill, SB 706. It would allow Oregon students to attend any school in the state, opening school choice opportunities across both rural and metro areas. The bill would improve academic prospects for schoolchildren and incentivize creative ideas for innovation in educational services.

Stay tuned, as we stay in the fight and stand strong for common sense solutions for Oregonians.

If we don’t stand for rural Oregon Values and common-sense… No one will!

Regards,

Dennis Linthicum
Oregon State Senate – District 28

Oregon State Legislature sent this bulletin thurs, november 21, 2023, by devadmin

As American citizens, we know that freedom and liberty are God-given, non-negotiable rights. We believe in the, uniquely American, ideal that all people are created equal. We believe free speech and the freedom to peaceably assemble must be protected. We believe that America is just, not unjust. Our economic system gives everyone the best chance for success and comes from our freedom to live within the risk and rewards of our independent lives and personal responsibility. America is, by far, the most tolerant and diverse society on the planet. This is true, regardless of nationality, race, creed, religion, sex, or socio-economic status. Our freedom and unity depends on our belief in these ideals, not from the state’s power to force us into living by the arbitrary dictates of the majority party.

The last four years have been extremely rancorous in Salem because of the collectivist elites who want to control and run your life. Does life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, belong only to our rulers or to people as individuals? Is the American Dream open to Oregonians? Are people free to initiate appropriate and just pursuits as individuals and families? Will the Democrat supermajority allow the citizens of Oregon to pursue human flourishing or will our individual endeavors require a license or permit with endless fees and paperwork that serve no purpose, but to generate revenue for the administrative state?

During the last two legislative sessions as the Minority Whip, I strongly encouraged the Senate Republican body to stand fast in their historic decision to drop all pretense with regard to having a bipartisan session.

It was obvious, the Democrat supermajority wanted only control – all-encompassing control. The supermajority refused discussions tailored for rural counties versus their utmost-priority– the Portland metro-area.

Republicans strove to protect the inalienable rights of our constituencies and stood together to specifically stop three destructive and unconstitutional bills. First, was a bill that would have denied the right to self-defense through unconstitutional gun regulations. Second, was a horrendous Cap & Trade greenhouse-gas taxation scheme, and last was a non-consensual mandatory vaccination and medical service regulation that would have denied schooling to any child with pre-existing medical conditions related to vaccine uptake.

We also worked to stop a fourth bill; a gross receipts sales tax disguised as an education bill that Oregonians had already defeated at the ballot box in 2016. But the Democrat supermajority ignored the voice of the people in favor of gouging taxpayers to fund their special interest friends.

You see, Democrats have enough votes to pass any legislation, without a single Republican vote; including new taxes, increases for existing taxes and fees. As the super-minority, Republicans had only one last protection against the biased and unrepresentative actions promoted by Oregon’s radical left. We denied quorum to the Senate Chamber and fled Salem on three occasions. We took this drastic measure to stop the tyranny of the majority and to protect the hard-working, law-abiding Oregonians who reside within our beautiful state and were denied their appropriate voice.

Following our actions, Governor Brown called upon Oregon State Police to give chase and issued orders to forcibly return Republican Senators to Salem so that the Democrats could pass their radical agenda. Thankfully, we were successful in our mission to represent hard-working Oregonians. These horrid infringements on our constitutionally protected liberties and inalienable rights were stopped.

Salem is out of balance and the marbled halls have been organized to preserve the powerful. Republican bills, amendments and ideas are readily dismissed, while public access and comment is limited or completely denied.

As we all know, 2020 has been a year unlike any other in Oregon’s history. The COVID-19 uncertainties, the lockdowns of schools and businesses and the subsequent permanent closings of so many small businesses within our communities. The dictatorial abolition of the right to assemble and religious freedom is un-American. It is heartbreaking to witness the struggles of everyday Oregonians desperately juggling home, work, and their children’s education. Although President Trump has provided financial support for small businesses and unemployment claims, people must be free to resume their normal lives. Already struggling businesses must have the freedom to serve their customers as they see fit and not face the fear of executive agency bureaucrats fining them into bankruptcy or forcing their closure.

Senate District 28 is clearly saying that they don’t want the riots, mayhem and violence that is erupting within the Democrat controlled metro-areas of our state. They want Senators who are willing to stand strong against the leftist indoctrination of our youth and the re-writing of our Constitution’s proud and historic legacy of – Freedom and Justice for All.

Although the imbalance in the legislature creates roadblocks, I was able to pass significant legislation which includes increasing the number of providers who would be eligible for Oregon’s Rural Medical Tax Credits; improving Oregon Tech’s standing as the west coast’s most modern technological institute; increased funding for community colleges while allowing 2-year colleges to offer baccalaureate degrees; changed arbitrary rules which would have denied access to school funding for small school districts and preserved due process for water-right holders.

My endorsement list includes:

• Oregon Right to Life PAC
• Oregon Firearms Federation Political Action Committee
• Oregon Farm Bureau Federation
• Timber Unity PAC
• Associated Oregon Loggers
• AG-PAC
• Oregon Dairy Farmers Association
• Oregonians for Food & Shelter
• Oregonians for Medical Freedom PAC
• Parents’ Rights in Education, PAC
• Coalition for Healthy Oregon
• Oregon Coalition of Police and Sheriffs
• Oregon Chiefs of Police Association
• Sheriffs of Oregon

As the current incumbent and office holder for Oregon’s Senate District 28, which includes all or part of five counties – Jackson, Klamath, Lake, Deschutes and Crook – I am running for my second four-year term in this November’s General Election.

Thank you for your vigilance in defending the American Dream against the anger, riots and destruction allowed, excused and nurtured by those who deny America’s greatness and seek to destroy the unity that blossoms within the American dream.

Join me and together we will continue to fight for our traditional American values – our freedom of speech, assembly and redress; our private property rights and water rights; the right of parents to choose appropriate educational opportunities for their children; our right to consensual medicine and healthcare; the freedom to worship when and where we please, and our right to keep and bear arms without infringement.

If we don’t stand for rural Oregon Values and common-sense… No one will!

Regards,

Dennis Linthicum
Oregon State Senate – District 28

Oregon State Legislature sent this bulletin saturday, NOVEMBER 21, 2023 by devadmin

The Governor’s emergency powers are wreaking havoc across our state. The COVID emergency is statistically over and has been over for months. The real Public Health danger in Oregon is not coming from SARS-CoV-2, it is coming from government’s overreach.

The headaches, nausea, and cold-sweats which the public is suffering from comes from fear. The Fear of Big Brother, or Karen’s, or neighborhood snitches or do-gooders who are trying to do right, but never-the-less create a very real and palpitating tension and uneasiness.

People find themselves constantly worried, not about infecting anyone, they know they do not suffer from COVID-19. They know they have immunity, natural or otherwise. Yet, they are always wondering who might demand what? Can I be normal in this store? Where’s my mask? Will I have to show my paperwork? Is a mask required for my grand-daughter? Does my teen need a vaccine card? Will I be banned from participation here, or there?These questions of self-assessment and personal review are untoward and degrading, and are frankly, unconstitutional.

Last week, on the Senate Floor, I made a motion to bring Senate Joint Resolution 23 to the floor for a vote. My motion was necessary because SJR 23 found itself aground on the sands of political despotism fortified by Oregon’s committee-centric majority party process. Yet, ensuring the protected constitutional rights and representation for the public is the legislature’s most basic responsibility. Governor Kate Brown, has engineered executive overreach and become a super-legislator who has chosen to neglect her responsibilities as outlined in the US and Oregon Constitutions.

Oregonians should have a say in how they are governed, period.

SJR 23 would have put the question to Oregon voters as to how they would like their elected representatives in the legislature to constrain or check the Governor’s power via unelected bureaucrats. SJR 23 went down to defeat with every Republican voting YES and every Democrat voting NO. Oregonians have been denied their rights to constitutional governance, once again, by the Democrat super-majority.

As background, Oregon has detailed legal procedures for addressing communicable diseases and for testing, treating, quarantining, or isolating individuals believed to pose a threat to public health.

Oregon’s existing statutes, akin to those upheld in the U.S. Supreme Court in Jacobsen v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905), express a fundamental legislative determination that the appropriate response to serious communicable diseases was to delegate to the State Public Health Director or others the power to petition a court for an order to isolate or quarantine a person or group of persons as necessary (ORS 433.123) or use emergency administrative orders as needed (ORS 433.121).

No absurd, inconsistent, or arbitrary rule-making was ever needed. No lockdowns were necessary. No mandates for healthy people would be required; these measures have never been tried in all of human history. Lastly, no violations of the separation of powers and other provisions of the Oregon Constitutional is required to implement such safety procedures to protect the public welfare in cases of epidemics. The public’s protections have been codified in our state’s own Constitution.

Specifically, Article IV, § 1 of the Oregon Constitution provides:

• “The legislative power of the state, except for the initiative and referendum powers reserved to the people, is vested in a Legislative Assembly, consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives.”  No legislative powers are vested in the Governor.

Article I, § 21 of the Oregon Constitution provides:

• “. . . nor shall any law be passed, the taking effect of which shall be made to depend upon any authority, except as provided in this Constitution”.

Article I, § 22 provides:

• “The operation of the laws shall never be suspended, except by the Authority of the Legislative Assembly.”

Article III, § 1 of the Oregon Constitution provides:

• “The powers of the Government shall be divided into three separate (sic) departments,  the Legislative, the Executive, including the administrative, and the Judicial; and no person charged with official duties under one of these departments, shall exercise any of the functions of another, except as in this Constitution expressly provided.”

Now is the time for the legislature, citizens in Oregon, and citizens across these fifty United States, to focus on educating ourselves and the next generation to understand and appreciate our founding documents. Our history, traditions and constitutional form of governance gives great weight and unprecedented value to the people in order to check the power of the powerful.

As Thomas Jefferson warned,

“Confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism. Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence. It is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power…

“In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”

– Thomas Jefferson, Draft Kentucky Resolutions [1798]

If we don’t stand for rural Oregon Values and common-sense… No one will!

Regards,

Dennis Linthicum
Oregon State Senate – District 28

Oregon State Legislature sent this bulletin Wednesday, NOVEMBER 21, 2023, by devadmin

In the movie, Collateral Damage, Arnold Schwarzenegger saves the day at the last minute. Aside from the bad guys, explosions, and the lustre of an action movie, there is another lesson – Don’t be fooled by kind words and false pretenses. In Oregon, businesses are being forced to submit to a miasma of safety measures for “their own good.” The result is untold collateral damage caused by grasping hands of overreach, manipulation and coercion.

The Governor’s office finds itself battering against a historical bulwark of common-sense, sound business policies, and prudent governance. Policy inconsistencies have spawned interventions which are becoming more nakedly absurd and less scientific as time progresses while reasonableness and balance have been cast-aside.

As noted in my Press Release [below], there is a perverse logic in the latest lockdown actions. For instance, last week restaurants could turn-on their state owned and licensed lottery machines, but they could not serve food.

What local Mom & Pop restaurant can afford to open their doors, keep the lights and heaters on to sell a handful of lottery tickets without welcoming diners who stop in for a meal? What statistical evidence do we have to warrant these new rules?

Ultimately, this is simply a slap in the face of the hard-working, independent entrepreneurs who have barely survived the past eleven-months’ worth of shutdowns. The New York Times has even reported hat Oregon has some of the most restrictive lockdown rules and is only one of the two states in the US where businesses are “Mostly Closed”.

Remember, Oregon has the 4^th lowest death count for states within the US. Oregon’s ratio for total death count (2,031) to active case count (147,932) is 0.0137. This ratio is not significantly different from seasonal flu statistics over the past decade. Certainly, elderly patients with co-morbidities require greater protection, but it seems Oregon is more intent on managing everyone’s life not just the various sub-populations which warrant greater attention.

Should customers of a local bar be forced out onto the street at 10:00pm because of COVID regulations? Is there any science that justifies this outlandish requirement? How can 12 customers be welcome, safe, warm, and merry inside at 9:59pm then be thrown out into the cold, dark night under a blanket-edict that mandates this will be safer for the community. How are the state’s actions justified by the data? Besides, do we have any evidence that SARS-CoV-2 knows how to tell time?

A study published last November, with nearly 10 million enrolled participants from Wuhan, substantiated that asymptomatic carriers are unable to produce replication-competent virus or infect susceptible hosts. Is this study unknown in Oregon?

The study, published in Nature, confirms that if asymptomatic carriers do exist, they make up an insignificant percentage of any population (0.00029%). Given these results, one should ask why are businesses across Oregon still facing draconian fines, threats, and shutdowns for trying to keep their businesses afloat?

From my perspective, these centrally planned policy mandates are being ramped up and are not diminishing, but they are not working either. We can see this by trying to assess and quantify collateral damage which is well-hidden beneath the rhetoric of “saving lives.”

If the Governor started a campaign to “End all Traffic Fatalities”, would there be brute force mandates, county risk assessments and new flashing highway lights? Would Amazon delivery trucks be essential but not food delivery or school buses? Would Multnomah County be stuck at a speed limit of 15MPH because there are more traffic accidents in that county than elsewhere, like Sherman County?

This leads me to my final questions regarding the cultural, societal, and economic destruction that is sweeping through our counties. First, how many businesses can actually survive and thrive in this turmoil? Second, how many people, families and individuals will continue to put up with the overt regimentation and intrusions into their private, constitutionally protected concerns?

Lastly, we are endlessly told that diversity is the answer. If we truly believe this, then it is surely time we let our diverse communities, churches, schools, families, individuals, and their private enterprises have the freedom to take the precautions they feel are most appropriate and necessary, given their situation and circumstances.

As author Jeffrey Tucker explains, we can do better:

“We do not need to destroy society, lock people in their homes, tear down businesses, close schools, traumatize kids, drive people to alcoholism and drug abuse, divide society between the clean ruling class and the dirty working class, ban travel, close churches, abolish choirs, close the arts, and whip up the population into a frenzied psychological meltdown in order to deal with a new strain of a respiratory virus.”

If we don’t stand for rural Oregon Values and common-sense… No one will!

Regards,

Dennis Linthicum
Oregon State Senate – District 28

Oregon State Legislature sent this bulletin friday, November 21, 2023, by devadmin

I will not be in attendance for today’s Senate Floor Session.

Why not?

Because the power-hungry Senate Democrats are planning another heist of our lawful right to self-protection. Therefore, I will not participate by lending to the chamber’s member count for attaining quorum. If eleven Senators would stay off the floor and deny quorum, then our Oregon constitution would forbid the majority party from continuing down their partisan warpath.

At issue is a gun-control, lockup, and persecute bill known as, SB 554-Engrossed B version.

With careful reading, SB 554 exposes the heart of the hard-Left. The bill starts with a series of “Whereas” clauses that imply, in the broadest terms available, that tragic criminal events and horrendous accidents are caused by the presence of guns not people. By sweeping several anecdotal accusations and real stories into broad generalizations, the language of the bill herds everyday citizens into circumstances that will make owning a firearm in Oregon very difficult and financially burdensome.

Only the naive will think this a good thing.

Statistics inform our intellectual and cognitive faculties that good people are saved by firearms daily. After all, those seeking to rob, rape or steal from unarmed victims will never leave their weapons behind.

Interestingly, the first “Whereas” clause, refers to a sad and serious shooting that occurred at the Clackamas Town Center, in 2012. That was a long time ago and the Democrat supermajority didn’t finally stumble upon the solution. No, rather they are giddy with power and will destroy as many of our long-held constitutionally protected traditions and values as possible.

There is nothing in this bill that will stop a criminal from executing malevolent desires, whether in 2012 or 2021. A person with criminal intent can never serve as a proxy for how any other person might behave. There is no causal, or meaningful correlation that can offer predictive insight into the probabilities for a single criminal event.

Criminal activity cannot be tied to the availability of common-place tools. Kitchen knives are available everywhere. They are rarely, if ever, locked up and they are the weapon of choice for assaulting far more people in the US, than handguns. The rioters, antifa looters and “mostly peaceful” arsonists prefer more common melee weapons, like baseball bats, iron pipes, umbrellas, frozen water bottles, hand-held lasers, hairspray and Zippo-lighters. But the professional Left find these weapons non-threatening.

The focus with SB 554, is not just about guns, it is also about people, law-abiding people, people who live in rural areas and use their weapons regularly. That guns are useful tools, when used safely, matters not.

Concealed Handgun Licensed (CHL) holders have under-gone training and testing; their personal information and background check results are on file; their fingerprint records are also at the County Sheriff’s office; and these are the people the Democrats see as threats to the community?

There is an obvious agenda. The Democrats are not interested in stopping the purposeful billion-dollar destruction in downtown Portland due to lawlessness, arson and violence. Neither are they concerned about the destructive Covid lockdowns and the hundreds of million-dollar losses in our local municipalities, counties, and communities. As SB 554 illustrates, they have different goals in mind.

What is the goal?

Statism is the modern Utopian agenda. Both parties can fall prey to this Utopian ideal, because it is attractive. It relies on experts, not peons, and concentrates control, authority, and power into the hands of the powerful. For the Democrat super-majority, the real goal is not gun-control but control, absolute control. SB 554 is just another step up the ladder.

Democrats in both chambers have been watching Gov. Brown with a keen eye to see how dictatorial power is effectively used. They’ve learned their lessons well.

The first step is to keep the citizens at bay; don’t let them participate; don’t let them speak, keep them locked down. Then, step up the rhetorical war and feed a distorted picture of what is right, good and true. After a time, reach for the top of the ladder; reach for total power and total domination. Like we see with Gov. Brown’s weekly COVID fearmongering, when backed by fallacious authority, such as, Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and Oregon OSHA, the domination strategy is total. Author Leonard Peikoff, refers to this as a movement toward the, “almost metaphysical.”

Peikoff was analyzing the application of unlimited unreason imposed on prisoners during World War II and he notes that while prison camps were expected to wreck prisoners, that wasn’t the goal. The goal was to make omnipotent rulers.

Peikoff outlines these details in his book Ominous Parallels. He notes, metaphysical power is the inner-soul of statism which requires a god-like allegiance. Absolute obedience is needed to satisfy the wider demands of statism. No entity, or law, or constitutional protection, or church, or business, or school of any kind can be allowed to stand in the way of any of the ruler’s whims. For the state, even the most contradictory, benign, or casual dictates must be followed to the letter.

This can be seen in Oregon’s COVID-19 protocol, a trademark example of modern tyranny.

It all started easy enough. Just a small demand for some fawning compliance with some ridiculous mandates, which happen to defy every conceivable fact of nature, virology and epidemiology. After all, never in history have healthy populations been quarantined. Even the phrase, “lockdown”, comes from the prison industrial complex where prisoners are “locked down” until prison population compliance is achieved. But remember, the goal is not the publicly proclaimed goal – health, it is the more insidious goal – metaphysical control.

The statist seeks to quell independence and foster dependence. This is accomplished through education, media campaigns, billboards, and news sources, while censoring any opposing voices. There is no reason to question the absurdities of changing rules like, No-Mask, Must-Mask, Double-Mask, and No-Mask if vaccinated. There is no consistency because confusion offers control to the powerful.

Peikoff explains, once the state can coerce submission to utter senselessness, they have defeated sense. When they can require obeisance to absurdity, they have successfully refuted logic. As they garner acceptance for their lies, they successfully overthrow truth. And finally, when the people surrender their values, the state gets to either smash all value or inculcate an entirely new set of values.

Now, if you happen to think that I have driven myself off a metaphysical cliff, let’s look back at a key sentence in SB 554. It asserts that a, “violation constitutes per se negligence, and the presumption of negligence may not be over-come by a showing that the owner or possessor acted reasonably.” This phraseology in not just an obscure reference but occurs in four separate sections of this bill. In other words, this bill, by law, would turn reasonableness into negligence and destroy reason.

In closing, we must continue to fight against the current gross and overbearing regulatory mandates flowing from the legislative body and the Governor’s office. We must stand against the absurdities that are demanded daily. We must stand for the self-evident truth that we witness, the common-sense we utilize, and our own just pursuits and economic enterprises regardless of the crushing weight of the statist bureaucrats. To pursue justice without regard for the individual is statism and statism requires, “a certain kind of universe: a universe of non-fact, non-thing, non-identity,” which is a self-annihilating lust for power known as, Utopianism.

Oregon State Legislature sent this bulletin Sunday, October 24, 2023, by devadmin

Last weekend I spoke in Ashland, Oregon at a wonderful event with several hundred Oregon Federation of Republican Women. During my presentation, one person asked a fantastic question, “Who are ‘they’?” To provide context, I was not addressing the confusion about modern pronoun usage.

I had said, “They are unhinged!” Now this territory is part of my accustomed soapbox. I routinely write about so-called conspiracy theories and I often bash “them thar bad guys” referring to them as, “they and them.” At the time, I didn’t have a succinct answer and thought I could do better.

Today, I will try to answer, “Who are ‘they’ and what is our disagreement?”

In general, “they” are those opposed to Liberty. They are deep-state malcontents amassing power by stripping authority and wealth from the citizenry. They are typically elites and the super wealthy using their enormous influence to steer public policy toward their own enrichment. They sway public leaders and legislators to do their bidding by using emotional stories.

As I mentioned in my last newsletter, false assumptions, incorrect or mis-understood data and faulty reasoning will lead people down the wrong track. Concentrations of power, in public or private hands, based on faulty views or corrupt ideas have led to vast expansions in state power. This usurpation of power eventually alienates segments of society and culture.

This is why the song, “Rich Men North of Richmond” was such a success. Oliver Anthony says what we know to be true. He identifies inflation, the lack of accountability, the imprudent uses of taxpayer dollars and needlessly high taxation. Things that the folks in DC (and Salem) can’t seem to understand.

Those desiring more state power and control, statists, do so because the state is the single entity authorized to use force and coercion to get what it wants. Our government ends up elevating those who have neither wisdom, character, nor the right to be our guardians. These bureaucrats become the watchers, directors, chairs, commanders, regulators, accusers, fact-checkers, estimators, evaluators, censors and preachers over everyone else.

This constant and unrelenting pressure from a nameless bureaucracy creates dissent, tension and distrust, leading to an unstable environment. Governments exert their power to foster grievances, whether real or imagined, further fraying the fabric of society.

This instability can fester in race relations, educational disparities or shortages, and is easily seen in the economy. In Oregon, we can see market damage happening daily. We see it in prices and availability for housing, food, fuel, police protection, healthcare, and education. Most families, citizens and even foreign-born aliens, view themselves as incapable of solving these problems because they have been usurped by the state and are, therefore, beyond the reach of local and community control.

The enormity of the global COVID-19 fraud is a prime example.

It started with fear-mongering based upon entirely unrealistic estimates of worldwide death. There was gross data manipulation and re-writing of the rules. The instructions for your County Coroner’s completion of Death Certificates were altered only for COVID-19; formerly acceptable medical protocols were denied; proven pandemic policies were jettisoned.

The massive Leftwing media machine raced to show inflated death statistics changing by the hour. The CDC, NIH, CIA, FBI, and DOJ issued directives to promote centralized, universal healthcare models regardless of health, age, susceptibility or co-morbidities.

Small businesses were needlessly closed while those with influence, the big-box stores and online giants, were happily picking up the customers and, thereby, sweeping small-main-street businesses off the map. This destruction was orchestrated by shamelessly corrupt individuals around the world using the “color of law” to declare war on the non-compliant while amassing absolute authority.

The free-market is loathed by statists from both major parties, Democrats and Republicans. The recent vote for Jim Jordan as Speaker was controversial because he represented a credible threat to the exponential growth of the bloated bureaucracy. The bureaucracy which desires to both set the standard and enforce the standard. This is precisely why we see more than 3000 new bills being introduced during every Legislative long-session in Oregon.

The never-ending batches of new laws shows us the fanatical desire to tax, spend and regulate every private business operation. The collectivists control minimum wages, fair wages across every business, and every new-found personal identity. These geniuses set working hours, break times, healthcare and family leave requirements.

These laws continually provide taxpayer monies to subsidize well-heeled influencers and push others out of the market. Last week, the food giant Tyson Foods announced their commitment to building a more sustainable insect protein food production system to save the planet.

Where did this new demand for crunchy crickets come from? Did your family picnic turn into a hunt for yummy mealworms after the fried chicken tub was emptied?

No! There is no demand-side to the equation for black soldier flies, grasshoppers, mealworms or crickets. The only demand comes from the regulators who pretend to care more than the rest of us.

Hence, IP-3, which criminalizes animal farming practices is headed to main street.

Without stopping IP-3 gigantic agri-businesses will grow while the small Mom-and-Pop farms and cattle producers will simply dry up. Look at the small towns across Oregon, larger fast-food franchises are opening while the small diners and lunch-counters which once cluttered downtowns are boarded up with “Closed” signs fraying in the wind.

The business giants float ideas that require every transaction be tracked, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, registered, and authorized. If Mom-and-Pop can’t implement the rules they will be forced to close-up shop. Or, they may get admonished, punished, or sent along to one of Hillary Clinton’s proposed re-indoctrination centers to get their worldview fixed.

What is happening? Why do we continue down this path?

We have to get back to basics, local economies, and meritorious interpersonal relationships.

Our Nation, has been led to greatness by the Hand of Liberty. It was created from all the glory that free-speech, individual heroism, and hardworking humanity could offer. We must fight against our own willingness to forge the chains of our destruction and demand fiscal responsibility from Congress, then from our own state houses.

Our sights must be aimed at supporting Life, Liberty and our own just pursuits, not just the largess that citizens can pocket from the public treasury.

Private enterprise is essential. Otherwise, the socialists and statists will use their executive agency power to relentlessly steer us towards total control and regulation which will lead to our destruction and misery.

Finally, who are “they”?

They can only be identified by their fruits, not by their intentions. They can be identified by their unending efforts to subvert our liberties and the ideals which are so beautifully stated in the unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America and our US Constitution.

Therefore, we must stand firm and devote our lives and prosperity to removing them from power at every level of government.

Best Regards,

Dennis Linthicum
Oregon State Senate – District 28