I know that the audio is hard to hear in some parts, but there are some massive takeaway's. BUT FIRST! I did some digging, and there are a few things you need to know about Mr. Shamis.
Jason abandoned his duty in the most severe possible way and in the most crucial hour during the time his first wife was pregnant with their second child.
Multiple sources have reported to me that Mr. Shamis has talked about his great love story with his second marriage, and claims that it was a "God-thing" he connected with her when he did. He has shared about how he met his second wife way back before his first wife. He shared this with me in the above audio (although difficult to hear). The timelines he shared do not seem to line up with the court docs. I did pull all of the court docs, but just posted the copies that pertain to this situation.
The court proceedings were paused in order that his first wife could give birth to their second child.
Contempt of Court docs were filed against Shamis.
Jason's first wife was a genius and hired a private investigator. (See below-report that was filed in the public record):
How can the citizens of SC House District 38 trust Mr. Shamis if he cannot even be truthful about his extracurricular activities? How do the citizens of SC House D-38 know that Mr. Shamis won't abandon them as well? Will he commit adultery on the Republican Party if doesn't even consider the South Carolina Freedom Caucus members Republicans? (As he reported to me in audio?) Is it not a dereliction of duty to abandon the homefront?
Maybe Mr. Shamis is the one calling the pot kettle black. Remember he is on record in the audio above dismissing the GOP/Republican forums. Remember he is on record for a "no record" of showing up to any public GOP candidate forums or debates.
Jason is however on record with SC House GOP Caucus. They were thrilled to support his run against his opponent who is a staunch Christian Constitutional Conservative.
He is also on record being supported by woke liberals who have donated to Hillary Clinton and other Democrats and who also support the woke alphabet soup agenda. Hmmm. Let's think about that for a minute. Yes, the wealth of the wicked can be transferred over to the righteous. BUT, we are evaluated by the fruit we bear, and we should evaluate the larger eagle eye view with Jason as well.
Click here to view the donor files.
Mr. Shamis is backed by OneSpartanburg, and by individuals associated with OneSpartanburg. What is their agenda? I am so glad you asked.
OneSpartanburg research takeaways
Vision plan:
- They brought in a woke big development company to develop their vision plan
- Broad Ripple Strategies - Their assessment services include a Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Assessment
- Private property rights:
- “Performance-based zoning” - zoning based not on land use (which allows private property owners to know exactly where the lines are), but based on how the development performs and its impact on surrounding areas. This opens the door wide open for DEI stuff, and even without it, it’s a very squishy approach that could have serious property rights implications. It’s also the key to all the walkable mixed-use coming-togetherness the left really wants to see in this modern urbanization vision. There are apparently no absolutes in performance-based zoning, which gives city planners a blank check and discretion on a case-by-case basis to tell you what you may or may not do with your own property. This is wokeness applied to city planning.
Traditional zoning is bad enough for property rights, but imagine a system where there are no hard-and-fast rules and you have no idea what’s allowed or not till your planning board considers your specific property. Imagine further that the planners want some woke urban vision and you just want to open a garage on your property. Nobody will be disturbed by a garage in that area of town, but it clashes with the vision of the planners, who want to have a pedestrian-friendly outdoor seating pavilion surrounded by tiny shops and open-air markets and string lights and flash mobs. There’s no ordinance saying you can’t open your garage, but because you have performance-based zoning, the planning board gets to tell you what to put there. - They want private property redeveloped: “The condition of private property can have a significant impact on the experiences of visitors and residents.” “Some stretches of major corridors are lined with vacant, underutilized, or outdated properties” and they want investment and redevelopment in these areas. Private property rights concern here.
- They want the government to emphasize code enforcement along major corridors throughout the community.
- They want a city ordinance REQUIRING downtown property owners to put art installations or other temporary uses into storefronts after a set amount of time (e.g., six months) without a lease - a major property rights violation.
- “Performance-based zoning” - zoning based not on land use (which allows private property owners to know exactly where the lines are), but based on how the development performs and its impact on surrounding areas. This opens the door wide open for DEI stuff, and even without it, it’s a very squishy approach that could have serious property rights implications. It’s also the key to all the walkable mixed-use coming-togetherness the left really wants to see in this modern urbanization vision. There are apparently no absolutes in performance-based zoning, which gives city planners a blank check and discretion on a case-by-case basis to tell you what you may or may not do with your own property. This is wokeness applied to city planning.
- Wokeness
- Higher ed outreach - “prioritize racial and geographic equity whenever possible”
- Small and minority-owned business initiative
- This is meant to be the balance to the big development initiative.
- Too few small businesses and self-employed individuals
- Conclusion: Yeah, we need to support small businesses, but “data suggest” we actually would better benefit Spartanburg to focus on helping “Black and minority residents start and grow businesses.” A couple of the already existing programs they talked about for this:
- City of Spartanburg’s Accelerator programs. Not clear what this is, but the website says “Our 2023 Amplify Business Accelerator program for African-Americans is coming back in September 2023! Check this page and our social media for upcoming details!”
- Spark Center SC - seems to have a big foreign angle to it.
- Feature of Spartanburg Community College.
- “Strategically located at the intersection of I-85 and I-26 in a foreign trade zone, the Spark Center offers 363,000 square feet of flexible industrial, warehouse and office soft landing space.”
- Entry point for new businesses relocating. This program gives you free office space and office services for up to a year
- Will put you in touch with cultural assistance, language translation services, entry assistance, immigration and visa assistance, government regulations, accounting, financial, legal, housing assistance, utilities and many others.
- Aim ecodevo efforts at minority businesses (capital, technical expertise, connections to local networks and customers, etc)
- Small business loan fund to provide small-scale loans to businesses and entrepreneurs with solid business plans but difficulty accessing traditional capital - i.e. can’t qualify for loans, poor credit scores, etc.
- Urban improvements “should be made with geographic and racial equity in mind, with an emphasis on driving improvements in areas that have suffered from disinvestment.”
- They want to “advance Spartanburg Comprehensive Plan draft recommendations for increasing inclusiveness and minority business activity in Downtown Spartanburg” and they want to promote small and minority business activity downtown w/ new retail development capable of accommodating “micro-retail”
- Disregard for self-determination in the residents
- They want every conceivable program to raise the education level. If you started a degree way back in the day, they want you to finish, etc. A lot of this is perfectly innocent, if you don’t have a problem with higher ed. BUT, the underlying motive is a big problem - absolute top-down design of these big-government communistic leftist city planners who want to majorly urbanize every inch of Spartanburg. For instance:
- Observing that when the economy is doing well, college enrollment is down: “This is nonetheless a concerning trend for a community seeking to raise levels of educational attainment.”
- When it comes to developing the “high-growth startups” that they want, they learned with the first plan that OneSpartanburg can’t do this planning thing with a top-down approach, so they’re gonna try another way to get what they want. So here’s the plan:
- Create a network (of course)
- “Seek diverse and inclusive representation among the group membership”
- Have the group do the planning. If it’s the businesses themselves, it’s not top-down!
- Then bring in the higher ed system to supply curriculum for the opportunities we want
- Then OneSpartanburg and “corporate partners” will bring in investors and such like to fund and oversee the startups we want
- Make SURE we’re highlighting advanced manufacturing and logistics for all this to grow from and around
- They want every conceivable program to raise the education level. If you started a degree way back in the day, they want you to finish, etc. A lot of this is perfectly innocent, if you don’t have a problem with higher ed. BUT, the underlying motive is a big problem - absolute top-down design of these big-government communistic leftist city planners who want to majorly urbanize every inch of Spartanburg. For instance:
- Overdevelopment:
- “Through OneSpartanburg, Inc., develop relationships with regional and national childcare providers and preschools to promote the Spartanburg County market.” Why? Because there’s not enough childcare in the area to get people to meet the planners’ employment goals. .
- They want to recruit skilled labor to relocate, but they particularly want the right kind of skilled labor. One suggestion is an incentive program to come and stay and work, with length of stay and desired community engagement spelled out. Like an ecodevo deal for a person instead of a business. One example they point to actually has the city giving a cash payout to the person for relocating.
- Manufacturing and logistics are the two industries growing the fastest, so that’s a big thrust of the plan. They want to capitalize on that to maintain and encourage that growth. Fastest ticket to urbanization.
- The other area of business they want is “corporate and knowledge-based jobs” - i.e. corporate headquarters, research and development facilities, professional services offices, business operations, etc. Super smart corporate types, and they spend a great deal of time talking about how to draw these to Spartanburg and make it intersect with the manufacturing/logistics industries. This is also why they can’t have the country bumpkins being the majority of Spartanburg, and they want to raise the overall education and ambition level.
- They want to grow high-growth firms from the ground up here. “But not all entrepreneurs and startups are alike. A select few have highly marketable ideas and/or significant capacity for innovation that can translate into high-growth businesses.” Picking winners and losers, central planning all over. Not organic, not market-driven. Big top-down approach on the economy.
- They want to get the big industrial businesses to move their headquarters to Spartanburg.
- They want to build a “critical mass” of office space in Downtown Spartanburg, incentivize as needed
- Countywide “placemaking” (that’s the buzzterm for woke urban development) and they want it in every square inch of Spartanburg. . (If we’re going to attract businesses and talent, it’s got to be a nice, pretty place with features.) Government improvements to streetscapes, parks, etc., private investment in amenities (restaurants, retail, other gathering places and entertainment options), and murals, public art, and other neighborhood group activities (ideally driven by a grant). “This approach envisions pursuing these improvements throughout the whole of Spartanburg County.”
- “Focus on smaller downtowns and commercial corridors, neighborhood centers, and other gathering places. Improvements should be made with geographic and racial equity in mind, with an emphasis on driving improvements in areas that have suffered from disinvestment.”
- To help, they want to bring in The Better Block or something like that. It’s a nonprofit that specializes in this woke urban design and the founder is described on the website as “a civic activist.”
- (The trouble about all of this is that no one hates a nice downtown plaza with restaurants and outdoor seating and string lights. And a lot of what The Better Block does isn’t actually a bad idea for a major metropolitan blighted city. But to completely rework our dear rural South Carolina into this urban vision is just a horrible idea, and the very idea of this urbanization oozes wokeness.)
- From their website:
- “We help communities achieve grassroots urban design. Public spaces by, and with, people. We Build Better Blocks.”
- “When we prioritize people over cars, and build social infrastructure, the science has shown…”
- “To accomplish and further these goals, we're tapping into larger national and international movements. Specifically, Environmental, Social, and Governance initiatives, and addressing the Social Determinants of Health.”
- Working to sell “rapid prototyping to enhance public life”
- “Ultimately, we’re making a street more green and sustainable.”
- Article: “Nightengale's foundation [The Better Block] worked with Project Safe Neighborhoods, a program that involves federal, state and local collaboration to solve pressing violent crime issues in neighborhoods.” Project Safe Neighborhoods is an anti-gun federal initiative encouraging neighbors to report on each other.
- “The competition aims to heal, unite, and inspire sustainability, inclusivity, and human and spiritual connection, and builds from the Jewish imperatives to improve our global community and honor the interconnectedness of all people and the planet.” (about the Better Block contest)
- Turn downtown Spartanburg into a “nationally renowned downtown district with walkable, accessible, and mixed-use built environment”
- Look at creating a 800 to 1,000-person meeting space and redevelop the Carolina Theater and Morgan Square
- We liked the “pandemic-era pedestrianization” and want that to continue into a “permanent, people-centered space”
- We wanted this in the first Vision plan, but nobody else did till the pandemic “forced adaptations that changed perceptions.” Basically it closed an area of downtown to traffic, so only pedestrians could go and there were outdoor dining spaces, etc. Some want that to be permanent. “This is not a unanimous viewpoint, and some business and property owners have voiced opposition to such a move.”
- BUT, in a survey (probably ours), 69% wanted it. OneSpartanburg’s data said restaurants did better after this over pre-pandemic numbers.
- We want a professional redesign of the area
- We want inclusive programs and events
- More pedestrian options, bike lanes, speed bumps, roundabouts, and other “traffic calming” measures
- Also want to develop the rural areas and link them with urban areas by building out this stupid urban trail system they’ve already started (which could total 50 miles of multi-use paths).
- Develop along the trails - trail-oriented mixed-use developments along the Union Street Corridor
- Develop in smaller communities based on this trail stuff
- More green spaces, but also look for ways to pair preservation of green spaces with the trail system development
- Get a private-sector river outfitter
- Points to an example where this sort of plan was built into a zoning ordinance
- Need more housing of all types
- Need “executive housing” to attract the bigger ppl we’re trying to draw in
- Need multifamily housing (downtown’s a particularly good spot) including market-rate and workforce
- Need housing options for the homeless
- More government spending:
- Alllll the incentives!!! Work with state/local government to target these particular businesses with incentives to come. Yay for corporate welfare.
- OneSpartanburg and the network will work with government to get more ecodevo incentives for “small businesses making larger potential capital investments” - this is in the small/minority business section
- Government improvements to streetscapes, parks, and other public goods for “placemaking” purposes
- Get governments’ roads/utility/parks investment plans to support “placemaking”
- Get the State Transportation Infrastructure Bank (a state agency that finances road construction via state debt on the taxpayers’ dime) to do more projects here, particularly conversion of Business 85 to a boulevard
Legislative agenda
https://www.onespartanburginc.com/clientuploads/PDFs/OneSptbg/2024_Legislative_Agenda.pdf
- More corporate welfare
- More tax funding for tourism
- Penalty enhancements for hate crimes
- More state funded/mandated childcare options
- Increase fees on electric vehicles
- Stop the General Assembly from passing laws that conflict w/ the feds “that force businesses to decide whether to follow state or federal law”
- Make DACA permanent (an administrative relief that protects eligible immigrants who came to the United States when they were children from deportation. DACA gives undocumented immigrants: 1) protection from deportation, and 2) a work permit.)
- Increase legal immigration so we have more workers
- Policies that lead to more international trade
- They support the awful energy bills that are a horrible mishmash of federal grant funding, ecodevo, and big utility favors. This is an analysis of one of those bills. (“Ensure the ongoing status of the SC NEXUS Tech Hub designation and secure phase two funding for ongoing energy resiliency efforts.”)
Highlight of a few of them...
- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of SC (Big pharma, boo)
- South Carolina Association For Justice PAC (against judicial reform)
- SC Realtors PAC (more overdevelopment, boo)
- South Carolina Health Care PAC (more big pharma boo)
- Conservation Voters of South Carolina PAC (lefty environmentalists, boo)
I don't know about you, but most of us in South Carolina are sick of the weak, liberal, feckless cowards that parade themselves around in Republican clothing all the while lining their spineless, pompous pockets with profit.
Let's do South Carolina a huge favor and make sure he does not succeed on June 11, 2024.
Remember actions speak louder than words.
