Politics

Why Did a Chinese Spy Balloon Pass Over Horry County?

There is a certain irony to the fact that a Chinese spy balloon was shot down off the coast of Horry County last week.
The spy balloon was shot down on February 4, 2023, just one day shy of the seventh anniversary of the return of former Horry County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus from a 16-day trip to the People’s Republic of China.
A few days after the return of Lazarus from the China trip, WPDE ran a story headlined “Chinese business leaders Investing more than $100 million in Horry County.” Lazarus told the tv station the venue would be west of the Intracoastal Waterway and would bring several hundred jobs to the area.
The WPDE story went on to say a 25-minute segment from three symposiums, which Lazarus conducted in China, was shown on CCTV (China Central Television). “The presence of Myrtle Beach and Horry County in China right now is huge. We went to a lot of places and that’s all they were talking about,” Lazarus was quoted as saying in the article.
In addition, Lazarus said a “nice article about Myrtle Beach and Horry County and tourism,” was printed in China Daily. Both CCTV and China Daily are propaganda outlets controlled by the Chinese Communist Party Central Propaganda Department.

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Myrtle Beach War Against Ocean Boulevard Businesses to be Heard in Supreme Court Thursday

The war being waged by the City of Myrtle Beach against certain long time businesses on Ocean Boulevard will be the subject of a hearing before the S. C. Supreme Court Thursday.
In an interesting twist, the hearing will take place in a special session of the court at Coastal Carolina University. The venue is not the important part of this matter. It is the issue of whether Myrtle Beach, or any local government, can arbitrarily treat certain businesses differently than it treats similar businesses elsewhere in its jurisdiction.
As a bit of background, this issue goes back four and one-half years to August 2018 when the city passed an ordinance which banned the sale of products such as hookah pipes, tobacco, CBD oil and what it calls sexually suggestive merchandise within an overlay district along Ocean Boulevard that the city designated a “Family Friendly” District.
The sale of these products, all of which are entirely legal products, was not banned citywide. They were banned only within the confines of the “Family Friendly” district arbitrarily designated by the ordinance.
The merchants affected by the ordinance filed suit against the city and it is this lawsuit that will be the subject of Thursday’s hearing.

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Russell Fry Has Some ‘Splainin to do”

Russell Fry has now been in Congress for a month representing (I use the term loosely) those of us in the 7th Congressional District.
The Chinese spy balloon, which was shot just off the Grand Strand coast Saturday, provided Fry to get out some of his best sound bites so far. Fry joined a chorus of Republicans criticizing the Biden administration for waiting so long to shoot down the balloon. Fry went so far as to say he didn’t understand why the balloon wasn’t shot down over Montana or Kansas “where there is a lot of open space.”
It is no secret I did not support Fry’s election to the Congressional seat and, as a very rookie Congressman, I suggest Fry would be better off letting the generals decide when and where to exercise such duties while he sticks to the process of getting his feet wet before he runs off at the mouth.
However, there is one area I would like Fry to address further – his appointment of Heather Ammons Crawford as District Director for his Congressional district.
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Carolina Forest Civic Association Hears Abput RIDE IV Program

The Carolina Forest Civic Association members heard about the RIDE IV road program from Wayne Gray, Chairman of the RIDE IV Advisory Committee, during the association’s regular meeting Wednesday evening.
After Gray presented an overview of the RIDE IV planning process, one of the association members asked a key question. “Why does county council continue to approve all these rezonings when the county is already so far behind on roads?” the questioner asked.
The question strikes at the heart of the matter facing Horry County, as well as the need for not only the RIDE IV program, but also future road construction in the county.
According to information provided by Gray, Horry County, at its current state of development, needs an estimated $4 billion of new road construction to service the needs of county residents and visitors to the Grand Strand.
The 18 member RIDE IV committee, 12 appointed by county council and six appointed by the League of Cities, submitted three road project recommendations each for consideration by the committee. With some projects being recommended by more than one member, a total of 35 new road projects are currently under consideration by the committee for inclusion in the RIDE IV plan.

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What is it with Presidents and Classified Documents?

According to a Monday story by CBS News, classified documents were found at an office used by President Biden, when he was out of office and a private citizen between 2017-2019, at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C.
The Washington Post reported that the White House Counsel’s Office notified the National Archives when the documents were discovered and the agency “quickly took control” of the documents.
Richard Sauber, special counsel to President Biden, was quoted as saying, “The documents were discovered when the president’s personal attorneys were packing files housed in a locked closet to prepare to vacate the office space…” Sauber also noted the documents “were not the subject of any previous request or inquiry by the Archives.” As if that makes it okay.
This latest revelation of classified documents found at a private location used by a former vice president of the United States, before he was elected president, comes after the discovery of classified documents stored at Mar a Lago and other storage locations by former President Donald Trump. In this instance, the documents found at Mar a Lago and other locations had already been demanded to be returned by the Archives. A special prosecutor is looking into possible obstruction or other criminal violations by Trump and/or his associates with respect to the classified documents.
An interesting spin is being put on the revelation about the Biden classified documents discovery in that it “looks like a routine matter with no allegation of criminal wrongdoing,” according to comments by national security lawyer Bradley Moss to the Insider. According to the story, Moss told the insider classified documents are routinely misplaced.

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Renegade Members Worked to Undermine HCGOP Leadership

Almost immediately after HCGOP reorganization was completed in 2021, a small group of HCGOP members, unhappy at the results of the election for party leaders, began planning how to undermine the elected leaders of the local party, according to a story initially broken by Chad Caton on his podcast “I’m Fired Up.”
According to text messages released by Shannon Grady, one of the group members, definite plans to circumvent the HCGOP and its leadership began shortly after reorganization was completed. Grady has since apologized for her involvement and called the actions of the group wrong.
The leadership of several county parties were taken over by what can be called non-establishment leaders in the 2021 reorganizations. This led SCGOP Chairman Drew McKissick to advocate for “auxiliary groups” in those counties with which the SCGOP would communicate.
How can you profess to want to participate in the party system in a democracy and refuse to accept the results of an election? Maybe that is not a valid question because it seems this attitude of ‘my way or no way’ is becoming the norm in elections.
The initial group of five members in a private chat called “GOP Pirates” was Reese Boyd, Jim Furry, Don Bowne, Gerri McDaniel and Grady, Chairwoman of the Horry County Republican Women’s Club. Boyd was unsuccessful in his bid to become HCGOP chairman and Furry was unsuccessful in his bid to become a state Executive Committee member in the HCGOP reorganization elections.

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Is Fry Already Turning His Back on the MAGA Voters Responsible for His Election?

A month ago, GSD published an article which said newly elected Congressman Russell Fry will have to make a sticky choice between being a Donald Trump MAGA Republican in Washington or joining the Swamp Republicans in Congress with their rising tide of dissatisfaction about Trump.
Fry only won the nomination for the seat after his SCGOP cohorts like Gov. Henry McMaster, SCGOP Chairman Drew McKissick and some Trump advisers convinced Trump to endorse Fry before ever actually meeting him. Fry defeated all comers, including incumbent Tom Rice, in the primary and went on to win the general election despite never really telling Seventh Congressional District voters how he would represent them.
Fry never voiced his thoughts on whether Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election and had the victory stolen from him. Fry only started to criticize incumbent Rep. Tom Rice, for voting to impeach Trump, after he decided to challenge Rice in the Congressional race. To this day, that one vote to impeach is the only thing that separates Fry and Rice. They are both members of ‘The Swamp’.

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American Conservative Voices Hears of Need for Judicial Reform

The American Conservative Voices group hosted 1st Judicial Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe, 16th Judicial Circuit Solicitor Kevin Brackett and York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson Tuesday night to hear recommendations on judicial reform in South Carolina.
South Carolina is one of only two states in the Union (Virginia being the other) where judicial appointments are controlled by the legislature. In the remaining 48 states, judges are popularly elected by the people.
Consequently, the judicial branch in South Carolina is in reality not a separate and equal branch of government, but one, at least indirectly, controlled by the General Assembly. Judges’ rulings can, and often are, second guessed by legislators, which can directly affect whether a judge will remain on the bench.
Pascoe gave examples of two different judges who were up for reappointment with no other candidates for their position, but, because each had made a ruling against a legislator-lawyer before them in a case, failed to get through the Judicial Merit Selection Commission (JMSC) part of the judicial appointment process. These were sitting judges, up for reappointment, who failed to be reappointed just because they had made a legislator-lawyer mad at them. That is not an independent judiciary.
The JMSC is composed of 10 members, three members of the House and three members of the Senate along with four non-legislators. The three House members and two of the non-legislators are appointed by the Speaker of the House and the three Senate members and two of the non-legislators are appointed by the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman. This makeup of the commission makes it easy to see how making just one House member or Senator mad at you can tank a candidate’s appointment or reappointment to the bench.

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American Conservative Voices Presents

Solicitors David Pascoe and Kevin Brackett and Sheriff Kevin Tolson to speak about the justice system in South Carolina including comments about the politics involved.
Pascoe was the lead solicitor in one of the most high profile political corruption cases in South Carolina.
Brackett and Tolson are currently involved in an investigation into how public funds were used with the failed attempt to bring the Carolina Panthers training facility to upstate South Carolina.
A free BBQ buffet will be open to all attendees. The only price of admission is a free, unwrapped toy present to be distributed to the children in foster care at Connie Maxwell Children’s Home.
The buffet and speeches will begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday December 6, 2022 at Simple Southern Smokehouse.

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County Council Vote Does Not Settle Issue of Development Height for Hwy 905 Sub-division

Horry County Council’s decision to not amend its supplemental flood zone regulations did not settle the issue that caused an amendment to be considered in the first place.
At the center of the issue is a plot of land sub-divided into 46 lots for development off of Hwy 905. The land was prepared for development in accordance with FEMA requirements.
Then, Horry County Council passed a new flood ordinance establishing flood zones supplemental to the FEMA maps and requiring homes in those areas to be built a further three feet above FEMA required levels.
Initially, the developers were assured by county staff members that the 46-lot project would be grandfathered to the requirements before the new flood ordinance was passed. Then, according to sources familiar with the issue, county staff reversed its position and said the new supplemental flood zone requirements would have to be met by this project.
Great Southern Homes, the developer of the land, immediately appealed the latest version from county staff to the Horry County Construction Board of Adjustment and Appeals. The county board found in favor of the developer, granting the appeal.

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