Dec. 28, 2021 - Epoch Times
18:06
| 
| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| Good evening. | |
| Over in Maryland, three conservative counties that are in the western part of the state, they have gotten so tired of getting overlooked by the Democrats who control state politics that they have started the process of secession. | |
| These three counties, they sent this letter right here over to West Virginia in order to ask the politicians there whether they can join. | |
| And actually, this type of thing is not only happening in the state of Maryland. | |
| That's because several counties over in Oregon have similarly voted to secede and join the state of Idaho. | |
| They essentially don't like Portland politicians running the state so much that they are voting with their feet. | |
| And then lastly, six days ago, over in Illinois, the Supreme Court, the state Supreme Court there, unanimously ruled that a tax that a county was lobbying on both guns as well as ammo, well, it was unconstitutional. | |
| Let's go through it all together. | |
| This is your daily Facts Matter update, and I'm your host, Roman, from the Epoch Times. | |
| And now let's begin today's discussion over in Maryland, where something is happening that we frankly haven't seen since the time of the Civil War. | |
| And that is, three of Maryland's westernmost counties, they are looking to secede from Maryland and join West Virginia. | |
| Let me just repeat that. | |
| The lawmakers from three of Maryland's westernmost counties, they sent a letter to the West Virginia legislature asking them whether West Virginia would consider incorporating their jurisdictions, meaning essentially whether West Virginia would consider letting them join. | |
| This gives a new meaning to the term voting with your feet. | |
| Now, the three counties in question are Allegheny, Garrett, and Washington counties, all of which are currently within Maryland, but they all border the state of West Virginia. | |
| And according to the Republican lawmakers from these three counties, they say that the rural and conservative people who live there, they have for a very long time now been fed up with the overwhelmingly liberal Maryland counties. | |
| And in fact, when you look at the voting records, you will find that these counties are indeed much, much redder than the rest of the state. | |
| And so, for instance, in the last presidential election, while Maryland as a whole voted 65% for Joe Biden, these three counties, they voted 68%, 77%, and 60% respectively, all for President Trump. | |
| And then furthermore, 11 years ago, the Democrats in Maryland, they used a gerrymandering scheme to redistrict the state, and so these deep red counties, these counties which are overwhelmingly conservative, they are actually represented in Congress by a man named David Trone, who is a Democrat. | |
| And so, it appears that the people who are living in these counties, they not only feel ideologically opposed to the rest of Maryland, but also they likely feel that they are not being adequately represented. | |
| For instance, here is what the owner of a local barbershop over in Garrett County, which is one of these three counties, here's what he told the New York Times. | |
| We're kind of ignored up here, and that's why people are thinking West Virginia might be an option if they keep ignoring us. | |
| We see very little from the state of Maryland. | |
| We seem to be the last county to get anything to benefit us, money-wise or roads or anything to help us. | |
| And so in this letter that they wrote, the Republican lawmakers from these three counties, they said that their constituents have a lot more in common with the folks on the other side of the border over in West Virginia. | |
| Here's part of what this letter said. | |
| Quote... | |
| We, the undersigned state representatives for Garrett and Allegheny counties in the state of Maryland, request that you consider adding us as constituent counties to the state of West Virginia. | |
| We believe this arrangement may be mutually beneficial for both states and for our local constituencies. | |
| Please advise on next steps. | |
| Now you might be asking yourself, what would be some of the actual tangible changes in these people's lives if their counties were to change states? | |
| Well, besides the difference in representation, and I guess besides sending a clear message to the state of Maryland saying that they are not down with the program, secession would actually lead to a lot of tangible differences in these people's lives, such as what their tax dollars would be contributing to, | |
| how much taxes they would actually be paying, which school districts their how much taxes they would actually be paying, which school districts their kids would be sent to, what the local gun laws are, how and when the elections are run, what the hunting seasons are, what the business laws are, including a total change in the bureaucratic red tape for businesses, as well as about several dozen other changes to However, the big question is whether the prospect of secession is actually going to go anywhere, and so let's examine that question from multiple angles. | |
| And to start with, the lawmakers as well as the governor over in West Virginia, they are actually embracing this proposal. | |
| For instance, in a speech last Friday, Mr. | |
| James Justice, who is the governor of West Virginia, he's a Republican, he spoke favorably of this proposal and said that he would actually advance a resolution at the next special legislative session in order to support the secession plans of these three counties. | |
| Here's part of what he said. | |
| So for those folks in those counties, a total population of 251,617 people, you know, absolutely we would stand here with open arms and welcome each and every one of them and I'll promise you to God above. | |
| What you would realize happening right off the get-go is you would realize incredible job opportunity. | |
| You would see economies and taxes at their lowest and economies really moving in a positive way. | |
| You'd see roads getting built all over the place, and you'd see, you know, a rainy day fund in excess of a billion dollars in West Virginia. | |
| For Garrett County, got it on the money that time. | |
| For Allegheny County and for Washington County, we would welcome you in every way. | |
| Furthermore, the Speaker of the West Virginia Statehouse, Mr. | |
| Roger Henshaw, he's also a Republican, he likewise spoke positively of this proposal. | |
| Here's a statement from his office. | |
| The Speaker has said this is an introductory step in what would be a somewhat lengthy process. | |
| He also has said he would recognize any border counties that recognize West Virginia's role in the growing part of our nation's economy and that we have the greatest quality of life in the country. | |
| Likewise, the West Virginia Senate President, Mr. | |
| Craig Blair, who is also a Republican, he said that he would welcome these counties into West Virginia with open arms. | |
| Here's what he said in a statement. | |
| This request is recognition of the work we have done to transform the state, and I welcome my friends and neighbors across the border in Maryland to join us as we keep moving forward. | |
| With everything we offer, who wouldn't want to live here? | |
| However, the fact that all of the relevant leadership over in West Virginia likes this idea, well, that is only half of the equation. | |
| Because in order for this proposal to actually come to fruition, it has to get the approval of the Maryland legislature. | |
| That's because, according to Article 4, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, no new state can be formed within the jurisdiction of another state or by joining parts of already established states without, quote, the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress. | |
| And so, these three counties, they would need the consent of the West Virginia legislature, the Maryland legislature, as well as of the U.S. Congress. | |
| However, the mostly Democrat lawmakers over in the Maryland legislature, they have dismissed this idea, with some of them calling it just political theater. | |
| For instance, Mr. | |
| Eric Lutke, who is the majority leader of the Maryland House, he's a Democrat, he called the proposal an unnecessary divisive political stunt, and he added that this isn't a thing. | |
| There is no process for this, so the legislatures are just making this up. | |
| Although, to be frank, he is incorrect to say that, given the fact that the U.S. Constitution does provide a clear process for secession. | |
| Regardless, in terms of the next step, these three conservative counties will need to somehow sell the idea of secession to the Maryland General Assembly. | |
| And then, if the Assembly is somehow convinced, they'll adopt a referendum so the voters in these three counties can officially vote on whether they would like to leave Maryland and join West Virginia. | |
| And then, if that vote is successful, then the terms would need to be negotiated between these two states and then ultimately approved by the U.S. Congress. | |
| But again, all of this is dependent on whether the Maryland General Assembly, which is again overwhelmingly Democrat, agrees to it all. | |
| And so we'll just have to wait and see whether any of this actually comes to fruition. | |
| However, it is worth noting that these three counties over in Maryland, they are not alone in wishing to secede to another state that better represents them. | |
| In fact, there are seven counties over in the state of Oregon which have recently voted to leave their state, which is dominated by politicians over in Portland, and instead join Idaho. | |
| What happened there was... | |
| Oh, sorry. | |
| What's this? | |
| Well, that's a great question, Roman. | |
| And it is today's sponsor, which is an awesome messaging and email service provider called Secure. | |
| And it's awesome if you're the type of person that actually cares about their privacy. | |
| Because, I mean, it's no big secret that these big tech companies are mining and remining our data all the time. | |
| In fact, in the year 2020, it was found that over 155 million Americans, likely including you and me, have suffered some form of data breach. | |
| And by the way, that's only what's publicly known. | |
| However, what's happened in the past? | |
| Well, that can stay in the past because with Secure, Your data and your messages can remain private. | |
| And that's because Secure has all of their data centers located over in Switzerland rather than in the US or in China. | |
| And the reason that's so important is that Switzerland has some of the strictest data privacy laws in the entire world, and they are not subject to the intrusive Cloud Act. | |
| And if you want to know what the Cloud Act is, head on over to Secure.com and watch their video on the homepage or on the video tutorials page, which is under their support section. | |
| Now, the thing that I personally love the most about the Secure app Is the privacy aspect of it. | |
| They don't mine my data. | |
| They don't mine my phone number. | |
| They don't mine the phone numbers or data of my friends and family who I chat with. | |
| But best of all is that if your friends and family don't actually use the secure app themselves, it doesn't matter. | |
| Because the way that it works is that when you use their secure send email technology, all of your emails and your messages route to Switzerland, and then the recipient can reply using their secure reply technology. | |
| And so everything remains private no matter what. | |
| And the same actually goes for their messaging app as well. | |
| And they're always coming up with new features. | |
| In fact, the most recent one they told me about, they sent me an email here, was that they're coming up with a new feature called text to chat by invite. | |
| So they're an innovative company and they really do care about your privacy. | |
| And so what they're doing doesn't work with your existing big tech email account. | |
| So check them out. | |
| You can head on over to secure.com. | |
| I'll throw the link into the description box below. | |
| And when you use promo code Roman, you can get 25% off. | |
| And the rates are not even that expensive to start with, by the way. | |
| It's only $5 for the messenger and $10 for the email and messenger combo. | |
| And they even offer a seven-day free trial. | |
| So head on over to their website. | |
| Again, it'll be linked in the description box below. | |
| Use promo code Roman to save some money. | |
| And now Roman in the studio, back to you. | |
| And now let's move on over and talk about Oregon. | |
| Back in May of this year, five counties in Oregon voted to secede the state and join the state of Idaho. | |
| That's because the situation in Oregon is very similar to what you're seeing happening in Maryland, wherein the state is generally dominated by Democrats, but you have these rural counties that are very conservative, and they don't believe that their voices are being heard. | |
| And so, over in Oregon, they have a movement that's actually being led by a group called Move Oregon's Border for a Greater Idaho, and it aims at having the eastern counties of Oregon, which are mostly rural, join the state of Idaho, because they believe that they would be better off with Idaho's more conservative political leadership. | |
| The argument there is that the state politics in Oregon have long been dominated by politicians over in Portland, who are, as you can imagine, significantly more left-leaning than the rural counties. | |
| And so, the voters in Mulher, Sherman, Grant, Baker, and Lake counties, all of which are in the eastern part of Oregon, they voted and approved various measures which require their county officials to begin taking the steps to look into moving the Idaho border westward to incorporate these Oregon counties. | |
| Here's in fact how one of the lead petitioners explained it to media outlets. | |
| This election proves that rural Oregon wants out of Oregon. | |
| If Oregon really believes in liberal values such as self-determination, the legislature won't hold our counties captive against our will. | |
| If we're allowed to vote for which government officials we want, we should be allowed to vote for which government we want as well. | |
| And by the way, besides these five counties which voted in favor of this move, last year, in 2020, there were another two counties in Oregon, both Jefferson and Union counties, which also approved measures to begin the process of moving into Idaho. | |
| And so in total, there are currently right now seven Oregon counties trying to break away. | |
| And what's interesting is that, very similar to what's happening over in Maryland, as well as West Virginia, the politicians in the state of Idaho, they are viewing this secession positively. | |
| For instance, the governor of Idaho, Mr. | |
| Brad Little, he's a Republican, he said this during an interview with Fox News. | |
| They're looking at Idaho fondly because of our regulatory atmosphere, our values. | |
| That doesn't surprise me one bit. | |
| What they're interested in is they would like to have a little more autonomy, a little more control, a little more freedom, and I can understand that. | |
| However, just like we're seeing over in Maryland, this whole bid is a bit of a long shot because in order to go through, it will require a formal vote in the Oregon legislature, which, like I mentioned earlier, is controlled by Democrats. | |
| And then if that somehow goes through, then Oregon and Idaho would need to come up with a deal, which would have to be ratified by the U.S. Congress. | |
| And so we'll have to ultimately wait and see whether this will actually happen either in Maryland or in Oregon. | |
| Although, frankly, the very fact that these movements are picking up so much steam does speak to the fact that many Americans are getting frustrated with feeling like they are not being represented. | |
| And by the way, just as a short aside, in terms of how common this type of thing is throughout the history of the United States, well, changing state lines has actually been a fairly rare occurrence, and all of it took place before the 20th century. | |
| In fact, a few examples include how in 1792 the state of Kentucky was created from Virginia's territory, How in 1820, the state of Maine was created for Massachusetts And then, of course, in 1863, how the state of West Virginia was admitted into the Union after breaking away from Virginia proper during the Civil War. | |
| Regardless, we will just have to wait and see what the future of these states hold. | |
| If you'd like to read these stories for yourself, either about these three counties over in Maryland or about these seven counties over in Oregon, I'll throw the links to those stories into the description box below this video for you to check out. | |
| And all I ask in return is that you take a quick moment to smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm. | |
| And now let's move on over to Illinois. | |
| Now, you might have not known this unless you actually live there, but over the past several years, Cook County, which includes the city of Chicago, implemented two new taxes on both guns as well as ammunition. | |
| The first one, which went into effect all the way back in 2013, was a $25 tax on anyone who made a retail purchase of a firearm within the county. | |
| Then the second tax, which was enacted all the way back in 2015, this tax added a 5 cent surcharge to every cartridge of centerfire ammunition and a 1 cent per cartridge tax for rimfire ammunition. | |
| And so, the county was basically taxing you for not only purchasing a gun, but also for purchasing ammunition. | |
| And any American who failed to pay for either one of these two taxes was subject to a $1,000 fine for the first offense and then a $2,000 fine for any subsequent offense. | |
| Now, the county's excuse for these taxes was that the money was going to be somehow used to reduce gun violence, although they never specifically made clear how they were actually going to do that. | |
| And so, a gun rights organization called Guns Save Life, they challenged both of these taxes in a lawsuit that they brought up against the county, saying that they violated the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. | |
| And after a lot of legal back and forth, late last week, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in favor of this gun rights organization. | |
| Their ruling was unanimous, by the way. | |
| It was 6-0 in favor of the plaintiffs, and in their reasoning, the Supreme Court wrote that these two taxes on both the guns as well as the ammunition violated the state's constitution because they affected law-abiding citizens' Second Amendment right to acquire firearms for self-defense. | |
| Here's specifically what they wrote in their opinion. | |
| Quote, Furthermore, the Supreme Court also pointed to the fact that despite what the county said, the revenue from these taxes did not go towards any funds or any programs that reduced gun violence. | |
| Here's what they wrote on this front. | |
| Under the plain language of the ordinances, the revenue generated from the firearms tax is not directed to any fund or program specifically related to curbing the cost of gun violence. | |
| Additionally, nothing in the ordinance indicates that the proceeds generated from the ammunition tax must be specifically directed to initiatives aimed at reducing gun violence. | |
| And so essentially, it appears that the money was just going into the county's coffers and not being used specifically to curb gun violence-related issues, which, if you look at the homicide rates in Chicago, is frankly not that surprising. | |
| Now, one interesting thing to note here is something that's not actually mentioned in the Supreme Court opinion. | |
| It's whether the county will actually have to return all the money that they have collected over the past several years. | |
| And very likely, they won't have to, because frankly, it's likely going to be just unrealistic to return five cents to a guy who bought ammo back in 2015 and And another guy who bought a few cartridges in 2017. | |
| It would probably be a huge hassle to get your money back from the county. | |
| However, this in my opinion touches on a very important issue because what exactly stops a local government from doing something like this? | |
| I mean, think about it. | |
| Cook County implemented two laws that unfairly collected taxes from their citizens for eight full years. | |
| And even though these laws were found to be unconstitutional, it took a long time for the Supreme Court to stop them. | |
| And during that time, the county collected a lot of money from its people. | |
| A lot of money was collected, essentially illegally, and they are likely going to be able to keep it. | |
| Regardless, if you'd like to read more about this Illinois Supreme Court decision, I'll throw that into the description box below this video for you to check out. | |
| Now lastly, if you haven't already, smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm. | |
| Subscribe to this YouTube channel if you haven't already in order to get this type of honest news content delivered directly into your YouTube feed while YouTube still allows it. | |
| Also consider hitting that notification bell so you can actually be notified of any new videos as we release them. | |
| And lastly, if you have an Instagram account, consider following me at EpicTimesRoman. | |
| I publish behind-the-scenes research as well as spicy memes. | |
| And then, until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epoch Times. |
Export Selection