The Trumpening
Do you want Donald Trump? Because this is how you get Donald Trump.
People seem to be taking measured bites out of the shit sandwich instead of focusing on the fact that it’s a shit sandwich.
I kinda thought the reform in the GOP would come from libertarians or conservatives. Instead, they’ll just burn themselves down. This will be interesting to watch.
February 29th, 2016 at 9:15 pm
I don’t like trump, don’t trust him, and won’t vote for him under any circumstances.
But if the GOP pulls shenanigans, I’ll just say screw it and retire ti Costa Rica.
February 29th, 2016 at 9:35 pm
I have to say I’m really looking forward to being told how important it is to hold my nose and vote GOP by all the people who stayed home or voted Lib or Constitutionalist in the last two elections.
This will be amusing. Getting my ctrl-c/ctrl-v fingers warmed up.
February 29th, 2016 at 9:44 pm
Tam, you’re right and that applies to those who voted for Romney, McCain, Bush…and now tell us to vote Constitution Party or Libertarian now, unless they’ve changed their political views since then. I’ve had that “don’t waste your vote” or you gotta “vote the lesser of two evils” admonition in several elections… LOL
February 29th, 2016 at 9:47 pm
That (“measured bites”) is what a cult of personality is all about. Reflecting your desires onto a caricature, in order to see what you want to be true, as truth, instead of looking at facts and listening to complete paragraphs. I submit that this is why Trump does speak in complete thoughts. It’s on purpose. I can listen to him for 30 minuets and still not know one planned policy. Again, on purpose.
February 29th, 2016 at 10:11 pm
Duh! …should say Trump doesn’t speak
February 29th, 2016 at 11:17 pm
I think you either misunderstand or misrepresent what Bane is saying. Safe choices made for you by suits concerned only with perpetuating their position reward your party line with Obama v.1 and v.2. And when their safe choice which would reward you with v.3 with balls results in the harshest smackdown of the cycle (sorry Jeb, you weren’t a disaster as fla gov but you were way out of your zone here), they get bent and threaten to burn the house down if you don’t do as you’re told. To which I and obviously many others including by my reading Mr. Bane say, “here’s a match”.
Others who are miffed that their 3P preference squandered their chances and did not resonate, respond with snarky dismissal that is just an artful rendition of the views of others for whom they carry a torch.
No, Trump’s not a conservative. He has forged a defacto 3P unilaterally; call it the Prag party. Take a read of this, and while you’re there look around at the thoughts and face of the real black America as it could be if left to its own device.
http://mychal-massie.com/premium/trump-is-not-conservative-hes-a-pragmatist/
March 1st, 2016 at 1:51 am
I just don’t understand the position that the GOPe has somehow sold out us pro-2A folks. They’ve done pretty square by us the past 15 years.
I am very very very scared of what Trump will mean. He will almost certainly lose to Hillary, and if he doesn’t, he will whip to the left once in office, and make the entire GOP look like fools. The authorities tendencies, threats to use IRS and reform libel laws…
Hell, half of his current platform is already way left, he’s even pro-bailout! Trump IS the establishment. He’s been in bed with politicians for 30 years.
We’ve made great strides in the past 6 years putting in Tea Party candidates and building up true conservatives from the ground up, and he is the only mans in he race that isn’t one of them, and will torpedo all our progress since Obama’s election.
If he gets the nod, I’ll follow Tams advice for the first time in my life, and pull the lever for a Libertarian on the top ticket.
March 1st, 2016 at 4:02 am
I’ve never recommended self-immolation but also never stood in the way of its committed practitioners. This time, though, I’m a little concerned about the difficulty of staying far enough out of schrapnel range to avoid becoming an unwilling participant.
In any event, the coming interesting times will, indeed, be interesting, perhaps more so to some.
March 1st, 2016 at 8:33 am
Not voting for Trump against Hillary is a vote against the Second Amendment. We’ll know who to blame when it’s repealed 5-4 in a couple of years.
Gun owner suicide…seems strangely appropriate.
March 1st, 2016 at 8:37 am
Tam, yes, you will be to blame for not voting. Cutting off your nose to spite yourself. Ain’t it great.
Full on nihilsts who won’t vote.
Turn in your AR-15s. Turn in your 10+ round magazines. No more gun related blogs because who gives a fuck about reading about shooting a single shot rifle they’ll let people own after you sat at home and didn’t vote for the person who can appoint a correct Supreme Court justice.
Embrace the suck.
March 1st, 2016 at 10:16 am
Maxpwr,
If our rights are determined by a 5-4 vote of black-robed dictators, then we have no rights–only privileges bestowed by a few ruling elites.
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.”
–Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence
March 1st, 2016 at 10:25 am
Except that’s exactly how our rights are determined in the real world. What the Supreme Court says they are.
Stay home and watch Hillary’s Scalia replacement overturn the Second Amendment 5-4 and watch a few months later on the NBC Nightly News as Dick Heller goes down to the police station to stand in line and turn in his pistol after the D.C. City Council reinstates their gun ban.
Embrace the suck of not voting for a candidate who can stop this. Own it. Love it.
March 1st, 2016 at 10:49 am
Maxpwr: you presume that Trump would pick a better Justice than Hillary. You presume wrong. Trump is a big government, anti-gun, liberal.
You need to embrace the suck of voting for a candidate who cannot stop this. Own it. Love it.
March 1st, 2016 at 10:59 am
So this election isn’t going to be “A vote for anyone but Trump is a vote for Hillary?”
March 1st, 2016 at 11:03 am
@Patrick Henry,
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/02/19/3750758/what-if-donald-trump-wins-inside-his-plans-for-the-supreme-court/
@Maxpwr, rights must be asserted in the real world and by the way, if a 5-4 SCOTUS vote erroneously decreed that the RKBA of THE PEOPLE was within a government militia, then it would be a “free State” matter and the States can assert their power OVER the Feds according to the 9th and 10th Amendments. And according to the 10th, the Feds may do NOTHING, without delegated powers. And re: “the right of the people to keep and bear arms”, it has NONE!
March 1st, 2016 at 11:06 am
Trump said he’d appoint people like Diane Sykes to the Supreme Court. Diane Sykes voted to overturn gun regulations from the city of Chicago on Second Amendment grounds. She’d be a great replacement for Scalia.
I’ll vote for the person who says he’ll appoint Diane Sykes over someone who will appoint someone to overturn the Second Amendment.
March 1st, 2016 at 12:02 pm
Another thoughtful note from the smartest black dude in the land (since Sowell sold out to the GOPe).
http://mychal-massie.com/premium/my-suggestion-to-donald-trump/
March 1st, 2016 at 2:19 pm
How can government as an entertainment program be any worse than what we have now?
March 1st, 2016 at 2:37 pm
Michael said: “I just don’t understand the position that the GOPe has somehow sold out us pro-2A folks. They’ve done pretty square by us the past 15 years.”
1- Toomey-Manchin, which Boehner (and a bunch of other Congressional republicans) supported.
2- How are those Gunwalker hearings going? Any prosecutions yet, or just more Kabuki theater? Even seen any reduction to the ATF’s budgeting (power of the purse, and all that)?
3- How about naming the POSITIVE things done for gun owners by the current national GOP? Saying, “I kept the Democrats form passing this and that” isn’t the same as saying “I helped pass this thing into law that made a difference!” It’s a long while since the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms law…
And finally, the elephant in the room:
What would’ve become of your gun rights if the Gang of Eight bill ahd been signed into law and there were suddenly 10-20 million new Democrat voters?
March 1st, 2016 at 2:49 pm
@mikee, great question! We’re 19 Trillion + in debt and that’s the officially admitted figure, our nation has and is being allowed to be invaded by 12 Million+ and that’s the officially admitted figure. A bi partisan police-state apparatus has been set up by Bush-Obama and our military is abroad in unending wars against unnamed enemies fighting with “rules of engagement”. So oh yes, the professional political class is doing just great?
March 1st, 2016 at 2:56 pm
@DaveP, Great points! The Federal Govrrnment has NO delegated powers for any gun laws that apply to the People, but only for those IT EMPLOYS!! So Republicans along with their supposed Democrat opposition, have repeatedly repudiated and violated “the guarantee of a republican form of government” mandated upon them in Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution which means it may do NOTHING without delegated powers as reiterated in the 10th Amendment!!
March 1st, 2016 at 3:05 pm
CRUZ for President! He’s the only guy who went to DC and DID WHAT HE PROMISED. He fought amnesty, Obamacare, runaway budgets, and Obama’s un-Constitutional power grabs. He even stood up to the GOPe, what you all say you want. Are you afraid that he invokes God? Get over yourselves, EVERY non-Dem presidential candidate invokes God. Would you rather he say there is no god but government, or Allah, or man? A man who believes in God believes in final judgment, and will temper his actions accordingly. A man who believes in no god but himself? See Obama. See Trump. See Hillary.
VOTE CRUZ or accept the consequences.
March 1st, 2016 at 3:09 pm
I haven’t voted for very many office seekers, even locally, ever. Almost without exception, I’m voting against someone, so I’m used to that.
Trump brings some unknowns, sure, but I really don’t see guns being high on his list if anything he says is to be believed. This, of course is one of the unknowns.
Hitlery is actually campaigning on it, and seems to have shamed bernie into moving left on it as well. I’m also very confident in my expectations of both of them, and aside from 2A issues I know with certainty that nothing hitlery says is to be believed. Bernie is a doddering old pornographer, brain damaged enough to self identify as a socialist.
As such, I’ll take my chances with the Donald if the party doesn’t somehow finagle Cruz in, because I must expend whatever insignificant influence I can to prevent hitlery being president. Voting for a party 98% of the population has never heard of doesn’t do that.
March 1st, 2016 at 3:43 pm
@Mr Evilwrench, one of the first “position paper” that I heard from Trump was his pro 2nd Amendment stance. He has been one of the few to openly point out the insanity of gun free zones. The only other politician I heard mention that was Jim Webb, when he confronted Hillary Clinton in n early Democratic debate on her hypocrisy of always having armed protection but wanting to deny others their right to the same.
March 1st, 2016 at 3:59 pm
Michael said: “I just don’t understand the position that the GOPe has somehow sold out us pro-2A folks. They’ve done pretty square by us the past 15 years.”
The GOPe pushed TPP, H1B visa increases, solar tax credit extensions and the like in the Consolidated Budget Act (aka: Cromnibus). Fair enough if “we” got something in return. Problem is that everything I just listed is what the GOPe “got” – as in, it is what they wanted. As always, we were left out in the cold.
As for guns, the Consolidated Budget Act was signed by Obama within hours of it passing. It had tons of junk Obama didn’t like in it, because the GOPe was able to control the process and its passage. Guess what didn’t get amended in there (or any other “must-sign” bill since we gave the Senate to the GOPe)?
Anything to do with gun rights. No carry protections, no immunities…nothing.
You have to understand that “2A” is nothing more than a wedge issue for the GOPe. They do not want 2A to move forward, because then they figure we’ll stop voting for them. They use threats against 2A as a means to make us vote for them.
The NRA used to be part of the syndicate but has seen the light. It’s no longer about small skirmishes – even they know we could lose it all soon.
The GOPe is no friend to gun-rights. Not at all.
March 1st, 2016 at 4:03 pm
I wonder if Rubio will look back on his life and say to himself at some point, “But for my push on open borders and amnesty I would have been President.”
But the more I think about it, the more I think he’ll phrase it to himself, “But for those bitter, xenophobic middle-earth clingers, I could have had it all!”
And that’s why he/they lost. Whatever else they believe, Rubio and the GOPe took the wrong side of history. No People have ever willingly let in foreigners when the meals on their tables were getting thinner by the month.
March 1st, 2016 at 4:09 pm
I am happily voting Trump. My vote won’t matter anyway in Washington State, but it will be fun to vote Trump regardless. The GOP have been a bunch of sissies and back stabbers, and it’s time for a shake up. Bring it on I say.
And those of you who think Trump will lose to H, bwahahaha! I’ll take that bet on even money every day.
March 1st, 2016 at 4:21 pm
If you identify as a Republican and participate in the process to select the nominee, then there is a certain moral obligation to accept the outcome that that process produces. If you don’t you are a free agent. For myself, I wish that there would be a movement starting now to establish a Constitution Party as a mass party on the ballot everywhere for 2020. Too late for this year. And abolish open primaries. Not a big problem this year but it was in 2012.
March 1st, 2016 at 5:02 pm
ben – I’m here in WA with you, and my guess is that if Trump gets the GOP nomination, he’ll beat Felon or Old Man Shouting At Clouds.
And when that happens, it’s going to be Thunderdome rioting from Pioneer Square to the Space Needle. We’ll need to hold the bridges to keep it from spreading.
If anyone else gets the GOP nomination, and thus beats the Felon or Old Man Shouting At Clouds, there will still be rioting, but it won’t be leather-banana-hammock-and-collander rioting.
March 1st, 2016 at 5:35 pm
Tirno: If I Google “leather-banana-hammock-and-collander” what exactly might I find? Should I wait until I am at a customer site and use their work computers?
/ThreadJack
March 1st, 2016 at 6:17 pm
“If you identify as a Republican and participate in the process to select the nominee, then there is a certain moral obligation to accept the outcome that that process produces.”
Depends. GOPe made the D swear to it, but apparently they themselves are exempt, as they are actively working against him, and failing that they plan a smoke-filled room replacement approach.
March 1st, 2016 at 6:24 pm
Of course I guess you have to have morals to be obligated by them. Right now GOPe pacs are running attack ads in fla against their own leading candidate. Never saw that before…P’s of S are scared.
March 1st, 2016 at 7:55 pm
Gang,
Never trust a man with a spray on tan.
I voted today for Cruz. My wife voted for Rubio. But neither of us wanted the tan man.
March 1st, 2016 at 8:16 pm
WHY THE FUCK DO YOU BELIEVE ANYTHING COMING OUT OF THE MOUTH OF A POLITICIAN?????
Do you want to separate the wheat from the chaff? That’s it.
It’s 2016. How many times do you need to absolutely betrayed before you wake up?
Trump is a lying sack of crap.
Cruz is a lying sack of crap.
Can we PRETTY PLEASE stop arguing over flavors of dogshit.
March 1st, 2016 at 8:59 pm
Patrick – If you google that, you will eventually find Stringray from the Atomic Nerds, possibly mentioning how he will grant you free passage through the wasteland as long as you give up that sweet, sweet gas.
March 2nd, 2016 at 8:07 am
It really doesn’t matter in the end. It will be the choice between a shit sandwich and a shit caserole. But if i’ve got to pick between Trump and Hillary-well Monica Lewinsky’s ex boyfriends wife won’t get my vote.
damnit, just once I’d like to vote for someone, rather than against someone else.
March 2nd, 2016 at 9:52 am
“damnit, just once I’d like to vote for someone, rather than against someone else.”
I am old. I remember voting for Ronald Reagan, and being happy about it. But that was a long time ago.
March 2nd, 2016 at 11:34 am
“I am old. I remember voting for Ronald Reagan, and being happy about it.”
Me too. But only once. Because four years earlier I was happy about my vote too…when I voted for Jimmy Carter. Live and learn.
So I was truly a Reagan Republican. Now I’m an Independent, and Ronnie probably would be too. And I think he would be so ashamed of what has happened to his Grand Old Party. So am I. And I am sure we will not see his like again. I think it was Tam who I first read saying she would vote for his rotted corpse before anything on the stage now. That was in 2008 but is just as apt today. But, of the choices we do have, I do hope for the following scenario, which I think may be the only chance that my children can experience a true Republic. It ain’t Reagan, but then nothing and nobody is.
Trump/Cruz ’16
Cruz/? ’20 and ’24
March 2nd, 2016 at 2:21 pm
JTC, me too. But Reagan was despised by the establishment then too. If he was running now, he would be rejected as an isolationist since he acted to protect certain American industries and did not engage in the global interventionist wars waged by the globalist administrations which followed his.
March 3rd, 2016 at 10:01 am
“If you believe that 9 un-elected robe wearers can undo a universal God/Creator guaranteed right that was viewed as one of the most important in our founding document, then you’ve already lost.”
-Me
March 3rd, 2016 at 11:30 am
@Andrew, well-said! The people had all those rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights in 1776 and even in 1789 with the original Constitution without the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights was added in 1791 to add more legal protection against the government’s “abuses and usurpations”. As you said, our rights are pre-existing and God-given. Even if a SCOTUS declared the 2nd Amendment right to be conditioned on a government militia, that would be “a free State” matter. Otherwise, the Federal government has NO delegated power over an armed citizenry. And without delegated powers granted to it by the States, it may do NOTHING according to the clear, precise wording of the 10 th Amendment.