Since Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis officially jumped into the 2024 GOP presidential primary, the Republican Twittersphere has devolved into a giant cluster of insanity.

Take a trip to your favorite right-wing account, and you’re likely to find an untold number of tweets trashing either former President Donald Trump or DeSantis, accompanied by a lengthy explanation of why his or her preferred candidate will be the one to take down Joe Biden in the 2024 general election. The back-and-forth between Trump and DeSantis supporters — which continued into Memorial Day, a day when we’re supposed to honor those who have paid the ultimate price for our freedoms — has largely lacked any real substance. The insults thrown around have become so petty and personal, it feels like watching an episode of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.”

While it’s completely understandable to be on the lookout for a potential nominee given Biden’s disastrous presidency thus far, overzealously focusing on a primary we won’t be voting in until February, at the earliest, distracts from current issues and plays into Democrats’ hands. There will be plenty of time between now and then to decide who becomes the 2024 GOP presidential candidate. But that time is not right now.

At this given moment, we have highly-politicized U.S. intel agencies targeting conservatives and protecting Democrats, federal departments and left-wing nonprofits interfering in our elections, an establishment trying to drag us into World War III, major corporations glorifying gender dysphoria, so-called “red” states acting like blue states, leftists indoctrinating and “trans-ing” children, a Congress spending taxpayer money like drunken Marxists, a wide open southern border, Democrats attempting to destroy the Supreme Court, an inflated economy, and a dying military.

We are now enduring the usual competing ads from another primary election.  A trend has developed in Republican primaries that sees candidates call each other "RINOs" (Republicans in Name Only).  An incumbent GOP candidate insists that his challenger is a RINO.  The challenger says the same thing about the incumbent.  In Pennsylvania, these ads feature grainy photos of the opposing GOP candidates next to grainy photos of Joe Biden or Democrat governors Wolf and Shapiro.  Republicans argue over who are the "real" RINOs.  These accusations appear in local races as much as congressional and Senate contests.  Even the RINOs appear to oppose the RINOs.

Some commenters implore both sides to stop using this term because it is easy to make and impossible to prove.  But is it really impossible? 

Only some of the accusing candidates are lying.  RINOs do appear in many races and sometimes win.  They stop key legislation or join with Democrats to create oppressive new levels of government bureaucracy.  They repeat Democrat talking points. They denounce conservative elected officials while providing momentum for Democrat efforts to derail conservative initiatives.  It takes only two or three RINOs to derail a bill or nomination when a legislative body is held by a slim majority.  Their presence at all levels of government demoralizes the Republican base and depresses GOP voter turnout.  Many GOP voters have simply given up because GOP officials appear to carry out the same policies that the base has voted against.

But should we give up?  Not if we understand certain RINO characteristics that make it easier to identify them before we vote.  No one characteristic is always decisive by itself.

Nothing is judged more severely by our culture today than assertions of biblical male and female absolutes. It may be possible that we are in the final progression of God giving our culture up to first “sexual impurity” then “shameful lusts” and finally a “depraved mind”. And throughout all of this, true human sexuality has been the prime target. The enemy turns everything on its head, evil is good, good is evil, and truth is exchanged for a lie.

This exchange is found most deeply in the attack on human sexuality, for it strikes us at our core. God designed the human being as male and female, created for a relationship, and each with unique purposes. And yet, this forms the focus of our current controversies. Ponder how many of our burning issues are rooted in a contrary view of God’s design: pornography, abortion, adultery and unmarried sex, homosexuality, lesbianism, LGBTQIA+, transgenderism, pansexuality, personal pronouns, gender dysphoria and identity, etc. Additionally, we have human sexuality issues that are being used as political and social hammers such as male toxicity, #MeToo, ERA, pay equality, gender roles and quotas, glass ceilings, harassment and so on. Human sexuality is at the core of all of this, and nothing seems to provoke a more visceral hostility.

But we must stay true to the Word of God, or we are lost in a fickle sea of emotions and power struggles for control and significance.  Of the critical forces aligning themselves in our culture today, this may well be the most perilous of all, for when we mess with man’s fundamental design, everything becomes radically skewed.

Every one of the treasonous bastards you see in this photo (except Christopher Steele) took an oath of office as a United States federal employee. If you are unaware, here is the oath everyone of them knowingly signed and should be held accountable for violating.

The oath
“I, { name }, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

Who takes the oath?
This oath of office for federal employees applies to all people involved with the federal government except for the President (the office has its own oath). So, Supreme Court justices, members of the House of Representatives the Senate, and even the Vice President all take the same oath. Furthermore, all civilian employees and government officials take the same oath prescribed by the constitution as the military (differs only in that it includes allegiance to the chain of command). No more and no less.

Let’s break it down a little...

In the news recently was St. George Mayor Michele Randall’s new policy to stop allowing the public to present spoken comments at city council meetings. Balancing the public’s right to be heard with the government’s ability to do its job is a delicate task.

It begs the question, can Local government entities limit public comments at their public meetings? After reviewing Mayor Randall’s reasoning, I am not sure she will be successful with her edict. But different elected officials handle this situation differently.

A couple of years ago, the Weber County Commissioners answered that question with pizazz. According to them you see, it depends on the definition of the meeting room you are confronting the public in. This may sound silly but last year the Weber County Commission changed the definition of their meeting room in order to legally limit public comments they felt were keeping them from doing the people’s business. The change, which essentially limited public comment, was deemed constitutional and supported by our County Attorney.** How could this be possible?​

Imagine someone told you that in the run-up to a U.S. presidential election, the FBI tried to undermine a candidate at the behest of the opposing campaign by cooking up a false narrative of collusion with Moscow.

And let’s say this conspiracy implicated not just the FBI but also the White House, Justice Department, and CIA — and that nearly the entire corporate press went along with it, gleefully spreading the false narrative that this candidate was a Russian agent, running story after story of fabricated nonsense in a coordinated effort to ensure the opposing candidate won.

In normal times, you’d scoff at such an outlandish story, dismiss it as the plot of some half-baked Tom Clancy novel. That could never happen in America, you’d say, where we have free and fair elections, the rule of law, and so on. And anyway, the media would never allow it to happen. They’d be too invested in exposing the conspiracy and claiming, rightly, a Watergate-type story of their very own.

But you’d be wrong. All of that really happened in 2016, recounted in all its jaw-dropping detail in Special Counsel John Durham’s 306-page report, released Monday after nearly four years in the making. The big takeaway from the report is that the Obama-era FBI launched a full investigation of the Trump campaign, codenamed Crossfire Hurricane, in the summer of 2016 despite having zero evidence of any collusion between Trump and Russia.

Whether they know it or not, most local political parties have a great deal of power. Almost all of the people we vote for have been selected and, where allowed by law, endorsed by a local political party. Most of the people who are appointed to boards and commissions in your county have also been approved by local political parties. In most places, these local political parties determine who runs our communities. However, when local political parties do not exercise their real power, the void is filled by special interests. 

One of the principal roles a political party has, at least in theory, is assuring the public that its candidates have been screened in some valuable way. Anyone can put her name on a ballot, but what do we know about her? Can we know if she is competent, decent, sane? If she has been approved by a party, people have met her, worked with her, asked her questions. The question is, does a political party have a responsibility to choose candidates who are ethical? Or, to put it the other way, what is the responsibility of a political party when someone it chooses acts unethically, not in a minor way, but in a serious way?

Several years ago, a nearby state's Republican party chair chose not to run for re-election, and his stated reason for this decision was,  “I’m tired of those who are obsessed with seeing conspiracies around every corner and who have terribly misguided notions of what the role of the state party is." He also felt these "nuts," as he called them, had lost the party too many elections.

The chair's concern is not about ethics, of course, but about the competence and sanity of selected candidates. Although he seems more concerned about losing elections, he at least seems willing to resign rather than misuse his prestige to support candidates he feels are unfit for office.

​My old Grandpa said to me, “Son, there comes a time in every man’s life when he stops bustin’ knuckles and starts bustin’ caps and usually it’s when he becomes too old to take a whipping.

I don’t carry a gun to kill people; I carry a gun to keep from being killed.

I don’t carry a gun because I’m evil; I carry a gun because I have lived long enough to see the evil in the World.

I don’t carry a gun because I hate the government; I carry a gun because I understand the limitations of government.

I don’t carry a gun because I’m angry; I carry a gun so that I don’t have to spend the rest of my life hating myself for failing to be prepared.

I don’t carry a gun because I want to shoot someone; I carry a gun because I want to die at a ripe old age in my bed and not on a sidewalk somewhere tomorrow afternoon.

I don’t carry a gun to make me feel like a man; I carry a gun because men know how to take care of themselves and the ones they love.

I don’t carry a gun because I feel inadequate; I carry a gun because unarmed and facing three armed thugs, I am inadequate.

I don’t carry a gun because I love it; I carry a gun because I love life and the people who make it meaningful to me.

Being neither a religion nor an ideology, the body of opinion termed conservatism possesses no Holy Writ and no Das Kapital to provide dogmata. So far as it is possible to determine what conservatives believe, the first principles of the conservative persuasion are derived from what leading conservative writers and public men have professed during the past two centuries. After some introductory remarks on this general theme, I will proceed to list ten such conservative principles.

Perhaps it would be well, most of the time, to use this word “conservative” as an adjective chiefly. For there exists no Model Conservative, and conservatism is the negation of ideology: it is a state of mind, a type of character, a way of looking at the civil social order.

The attitude we call conservatism is sustained by a body of sentiments, rather than by a system of ideological dogmata. It is almost true that a conservative may be defined as a person who thinks himself such. The conservative movement or body of opinion can accommodate a considerable diversity of views on a good many subjects, there being no Test Act or Thirty-Nine Articles of the conservative creed.

In essence, the conservative person is simply one who finds the permanent things more pleasing than Chaos and Old Night. (Yet conservatives know, with Burke, that healthy “change is the means of our preservation.”) A people’s historic continuity of experience, says the conservative, offers a guide to policy far better than the abstract designs of coffee-house philosophers. But of course there is more to the conservative persuasion than this general attitude.

April 22, 2023 – Orem, Utah

I arrived at Convention 2 ½ hours early to get credentialed and help distribute flyers providing information and promoting certain desired outcomes to the arriving delegates. I was shocked when I was told, after allowing my drivers license to be scanned, I wasn’t in the database as a delegate, so I was sent to the HELP DESK. After rounding the corner, I stood in a line for 20 minutes before I made the desk. Once there, I waited for another 10 minutes and was told there was no one from my county to help me. Eventually I was led away from the HELP DESK to a dark corner where my county secretary was waiting to help. I was eventually found on the database (thank you Weber Party Secretary) and issued my credentials (unfortunately, because of the delay, I was unable to fulfill my earlier volunteer commitments). There are ~5,000 delegates in the whole state, a relatively small database to manage. When I made this observation, I was told by a nice woman, sorry, I am a volunteer. I understood her frustration and reminded her, as a delegate, I was a volunteer as well.

Once in the Convention Hall, I found a seat in my county’s designated section. I was not surprised to find my county’s section as far from the stage as possible (see photo at top). As long as I have been involved with the Party, my county’s designated section has always been as far from the stage (and microphones) as possible. I have reasons to believe why this is true but will save that discussion for another time.

Upon arriving, I immediately tried to locate the microphones. My repeated questions to the convention authorities, regarding where the delegates can speak, were received with blank stares. Eventually I was told there would be 4 microphones, two in the middle of the Convention Hall and two in the back (near our county section). I was ecstatic as I planned on getting to that microphone on a couple of occasions.

​UTGOP State Convention April 22, 2023

The TRUTH BEHIND the proposed amendment "Constitution Article XII, Sec. 1: Precinct State Delegate Allocation Methods."
 
A rather large county has challenges allocating delegates based on the current criteria in our state Constitution. That current criteria uses a definition of “Republican strength” based on the actual voting record for registered Republicans in past elections to determine apportionment. For this large county to address its allocation challenges, they desire to change the definition of “Republican strength” in our Party Constitution. This will have an adverse effect on our Party as a whole.
 
The challenge our Party has right now, and the reason why there is so much divisiveness, is our Republican Party lacks real strength! The kind of strength that comes from a cohesive embrace of our shared values and principles. Without a clearer understanding of what makes us Republicans, many joining our Party get the R behind their name but lack a credible understanding of our policies, principles, and platform. In this respect, we have lost our way.
 
Should this constitutional amendment pass, the allocation of delegates based on a watered-down definition of “Republican strength” will only make matters worse by requiring party registration as the only criteria, rather than a proven allegiance to our Party by embracing our platform and voting consistently for our candidates.
 
This means if the Democrats register Republican (as they often do) the allocation of delegates could be determined by Trans-Republicans rather than those committed to the Party and its platform.
 
This amendment cannot pass. The large county in question must find a solution within its jurisdiction and governing documents to address their issue.
 
Leave the rest of us out of it.

​Vote NO on this amendment at State Convention.

​“In most societies it is understood that members are required to be of honorable charter and reputation…an organization or assembly has the ultimate right to make and enforce its own rules, and to require that its members refrain from conduct injurious to the organization or its purposes.” (RRofO p. 643 line 6 – 10)
 
Any member found guilty of “tending to injure the good name of the organization, disturb its well-being, or hamper it in its work, is properly subject to disciplinary action, whether By-laws make mention of it or not.”
 
On a rare occasion you will run into a presiding officer who, for whatever reason, ignores a member making a motion or moving an Appeal. There are a couple of things that might be done in that situation, but the first one is to get the motion processed.

In this unprecedented period of continual falsehoods against America, the full armor is the defense of faithful everyday Americans who are besieged and attacked by this lunacy.  

2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

So, when Ron DeSantis, Florida’s conservative Republican governor and likely presidential candidate, said recently we need to put on the “full armor of God,” the media looked at him like he was crazy—or from another planet. But his supporters gave him a standing ovation. 
 
As secular liberals, most of the press have no familiarity with the phrase, its origins, theology, or importance. They are bigots against religion and unschooled in what used to be the norms of American life, churches, and culture. 

The press and nearly our entire elite ruling class, in academia, sports, politics, media, business, and culture are biblically illiterate and have no idea what the Jar of Nar (John 12:3) refers to; where the road to Emmaus (Luke 24: 13-35) led or who travelled on it; or even what happened in the garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26: 36-46).
 
Let me brief them on the context, content, and significance of the “full armor of God,” which are, of course, the words of St. Paul, found in Ephesians 6: 10-18. Yes, that is a book in the New Testament. 

Encore post from 10/5/2021
​
​ETHICS AND STANDARDS (Republican Party Platform) 
“We demand honesty, integrity, morality, and accountability of our public officials. We will work to expose and stop corruption.”

The UTGOP does not operate under a Code of Ethics or have an Ethics Committee. The following is a proposal I put together as an SCC sub-committee Chair to address this omission in our governing documents. It fell on deaf ears!

​The  purpose of an Ethics Committee is to enforce all the governing rules of the Party equally among its members.
  
It is fundamental to the success of our republican system of government that all candidates, elected officials, party members and party leaders at all levels of government be independent and impartial, place the public interest above any private interest, and not give any appearance of impropriety. To that end, it is the policy of the Utah Republican Party, and the Utah Republican State Central Committee, to take a leading role in promoting the highest standards of ethics, integrity, and transparency in government.

The hallmark of this Code of Ethics is the simple truth that the public interest is and must be supreme for those who hold positions of public trust...

There's more to the U.S. Constitution than the Bill of Rights—there's the original document plus a total of 27 additional amendments. Here are interesting facts and figures you may not know about this important document that is the cornerstone of the American government.

The Bill of Rights
In 1789, James Madison, the “Father of the Constitution,” who at the time was a U.S. Congressional Representative from Virginia and would go on to serve as the fourth President of the United States, proposed 19 amendments meant to answer the objections that had already been raised by the States regarding the Constitution, which had been ratified only two years earlier. The House of Representatives approved 17 of the amendments, of which the Senate approved 12. Those 12 amendments were then sent to the state legislatures for approval. Only ten amendments were ultimately approved by three-fourths of the state legislatures; Virginia was the tenth out of the existing 14 states to do so, giving them the final go-ahead on December 15, 1791. Those ten bills became known at The Bill of Rights. Of the two proposed amendments that didn’t get ratified in 1791, one finally did in 1992.

Popular vote vs. Electoral College
When the 39 men signed the Constitution, they signed into law one of the most contentious processes in the world: an election mechanism still being debated today. James Wilson, who represented Pennsylvania at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, originally proposed that the President be chosen by popular vote. But according to the National Archives and Records Administration, “the Founding Fathers established the Electoral College in the Constitution as a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens.” It’s been an often-debated idea ever since. Per ConstitutionFacts.com, there have been 500 proposed amendments to change the Electoral College process, but this “indirect” system of electing the president is, of course, still intact—as we all were reminded in November 2016 when the winner of the popular vote, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, lost the election. Understanding the Electoral College is one of the confusing questions many are too embarrassed to ask about the American government.

Whether you're presiding over a meeting of 2,500 members or a small board or committee meeting, your job is the same when it comes to the goal of successfully managing a meeting. And to ensure that you manage successfully, here are some tips to help you establish yourself as a knowledgeable, well-organized and helpful leader.

Tip 1: Know Your Rules
One of the best ways to establish your credibility as a leader is to know your rules. If you don't, your members will know it. No feeling is quite as bad as standing in front of a room full of people who know more about your job than you do. For what it's worth, General Robert was in that position once, too. After his experience, he wrote a book on the rules! To avoid being caught unprepared, make sure you're well read on your group's charter, bylaws, special rules of order, and parliamentary authority. No one other than a person who has held your office before you (and your parliamentarian) should know as much about these rules as you do.

Tip 2: Plan Your Meetings
Nothing benefits you and your group as much as being prepared for your meetings. Planning your meeting in as much detail as possible assures the best chance of completing the agenda within the time available (or at least knowing if you need to hold an adjourned meeting to finish your business). The process of planning your meeting so that you can cover everything you need to cover is much easier if you follow the outline below:

• Make it everybody's business to know the agenda. Use the minutes from the last meeting as your primary planning and management tool. Distribute the minutes and reports in advance of the meeting. The more everyone knows, the better you can budget your time.
• Call on your officers and committee chairmen to submit their reports early.
• Call on members to advise you of motions they intend to introduce, so you can put them on the agenda.
• Read the reports so that you know what motions the committees will make, or what motions will be necessary to adopt recommendations.

Dear Fellow Republicans and those wishing to join us.

For too many years our Republican Party has encouraged participation but has failed to adequately teach and educate those who attain elected positions of responsibility.

Weber County Conservatives, a small band of conservatives in the Republican Party have developed this opportunity for all of those interested in understanding how we can come together under our Party platform to be become more productive citizens of our County.

Below is our training schedule through our State Convention on April 22, 2023. So far, we have 4 topics (Platform Education, County Delegate Training, State Delegate Training, and Introduction to Parliamentary Procedure).

After the State Convention, we will add additional training for Precinct Chairs and Vice Chairs on running a successful Caucus as well as understanding their role as a member of the County Central Committee. We will also offer a class on SB54 and how and why it happened.

In order to give you a better chance of participating, we have scheduled training at 3 County Libraries, Ogden, Roy, and Huntsville. Classes will be repeated at each location. All rooms are reserved from 6:00pm – 9:00pm. Training will be from 6:30pm – 8:00pm with some time for questions and lingering. All rooms will comfortably hold 80 - 100 attendees. The Public is invited. Tell a friend.

Weber County Conservatives was established to promote, protect, and defend our Republican Conservative Values & Principles.

Join us.

According to the Weber County Republican Party Bylaws, “the power to conduct Party business” is “vested in the County Central Committee (CCC).” “The Executive Committee of the Party shall meet at least monthly, to conduct the business of the Party and shall be subject to direction from the CCC.” By vesting the CCC with the “policy making” duties, the Party intended for those closest to the grass roots of the Party to be the ones responsible for its policy.
 
Unfortunately, this bylaw has been overlooked by much of local Party leadership for years.

The CCC is made up of our County Precinct Chairs and Vice Chairs, all elected by their friends and neighbors at their respective caucuses. These elected positions are most closely related to the grass roots membership of our Party. We have an obligation to organize these volunteers and help them understand their roles and responsibilities while assisting them in their duties.

The Bylaw committee and the Executive committee, who meet often, fiddle with our governing documents based on unknown interests until a hastily called meeting of the CCC is scheduled. Then, without much warning or understanding, the committees spring their suggested changes on the CCC for an up and down vote of approval without debate.

According to our governing rules, “all business conducted by the CCC shall adhere to the rules of parliamentary procedure…” That’s because the CCC is a deliberative assembly and deliberative assemblies deliberate, meaning they exhaust all debate before a decision or vote is made. Absent a parliamentarian, there is no chance for committee members to effectively participate in debate. Without participation, interest lags resulting in frustration and then people scatter...some never coming back.

“If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.”

Today, most conservatives with integrity know the Republican Party is no longer a place to call home. The UTGOP’s foundation as described in its own governing documents do indeed address a cause that is right and moral, yet the party’s actions have become nothing more than a conspiracy to seize power. Power, apparently, to ignore its very own principles!

It is no small task, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. History teaches us it has never happened. So, it may be that our task as a party is impossible. Yet, if we do not try…we will never know it cannot be done? And, if we do not try…it most certainly will never be restored…our Founders’ Republic, will be lost forever.

The Weber County Republican Party sits idly by while another signature gathering candidate willing to take gobs of money from special interests govern our county.

Disclosure is critical to any political finance program and its enforcement system. With full and timely disclosure, the public can find out during the election cycle who contributes to a particular campaign and how the campaign spends its funds. Why is this important? Because money wins elections…and whoever provides that money has considerable expectations of the candidate who receives it.

According to its website, Weber County is dedicated to the principles of openness and transparency in government. If so, why doesn’t our County Clerk/Auditor hold Weber County candidates to the same requirements it holds for its political parties?

As members of the Utah Republican Party (UTGOP), “we are grateful to Almighty God for life and liberty, desiring to perpetuate principles of free government and the blessings of liberty to our posterity.” Our State Party Constitution, our County Party Bylaws, and Robert’s Rules of Order Current Edition are the exclusive governing rules of the WCGOP.
Our general purpose is to “nominate and support the election of Republican candidates in partisan races for public office, promote the principles set forth in the State Party Platform, and perform Party functions set forth in the election laws of the State of Utah and the Constitution and Bylaws” of the WCGOP.

Our Party has members, officers, delegates, and a County Central Committee (CCC). All have their responsibilities within the Party. The CCC is made up of all county Precinct Chairs and Vice Chairs with the closest proximity to party membership. As a deliberative assembly, the CCC’s general purpose is to effectively govern the county Party. The CCC meets to determine, in full and free discussion, courses of action to be taken by the Party. Our governing documents contain a complete set of rules for conducting the Party’s business and establishing the rights of its members. As members of the CCC, we are responsible for following these rules within our governing documents, and ignorance of the contents of our governing documents is not an excuse for not following them. We can and will be held accountable for their content no matter how familiar we are with them.

The US Constitution is the law of our land and guarantees each state a Republican form of government (Article IV, Section 4). A republican form of government is a type of government in which the citizens of a country have an active role in the affairs of the government.

With the establishment of our Constitution…we are a Constitutional Republic…a form of government in which a representative is elected by the people to govern over them, according to the rules established in the law of the land…our Constitution.

We understand in a Constitutional Republic, voters don't decide issues, voters decide who will decide issues. Therefore, we must elect representatives that best represent our values. So, we have joined a political organization or party that subscribes to our conservative ideology. We then collectively engage in our Party’s most central associational mission…the selection of a faithful nominee.

Hello delegates! I’m Bill Olson, candidate for Weber County Commissioner.

By now, most all of you have read my emails, talked with me personally or on the phone, watched my videos or visited my website so you know my position on the issues. I thank you for that.

Today, I would like to remind us all about who we are.

The Utah Republican Party Platform is a statement of our principles and values. What does that mean and why is it important?