Wednesday, August 16, 2017

The rest of us...

THIS has to be the most calm, reasonable, evenhanded response to date on the weekend's insanity...something to consider, America.
CR: The United States is under siege by a disgusting and increasingly violent form of tribal politics. The worst of it was witnessed in Charlottesville over the weekend, when violent white supremacists met violent Antifa leftists, and a person was killed.

So where does that leave the rest of us? In a tweetstorm, NRA News Radio Host Cam Edwards tries to answer that question. This is really worth the read:
FYI, I've only omitted a few posts just to focus in on his broader message...
He ends his tweetstorm with a few more that sum up how his tribe doesn't pretend to have all the answers to all our problems, but it is a big tent stocked with plenty of freedoms, so everyone just needs to leave your BS outside. Amen, brother!

Simply brilliant. All I'd add is that 'my tribe' strives towards the greatest commandments: Love God and Love your Neighbor.  

Much LOVE for this fellow American and to all my fellow Americans!

A Prayer for Our Country
ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage; We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favour and glad to do thy will. Bless our land with honourable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogancy, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Related links: WTF MSM!? Nazis and Communists are both evil …
Don't remove Houston's Confederate statues. Put them in context.

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

200 days in...and we’re not really winning

Make of this what you will. I'm not posting this to argue or make jabs, nor do I suspect that was Erickson's intention (although, I'm sure it will raise the ire of some). I see this as more of an observation on the current state of our nation, our culture, the presidency, his administration and the failure of Republican polity in general...which is why I believe it's worth sharing, heeding and hopefully correcting...
I try to be as supportive as I can, when I can, of the President’s agenda, but I don’t really think he, we, or the nation are winning. “Beat the left” has become the mantra of much of the right, but right now it seems Trump supporters are not really beating, except off — if you’ll excuse the bluntness. The Trump Train has an orgasm every time the President tweets out an attack at someone and wastes vast amounts of emotional energy telling the President his poop does not stink. A vast amount of money is now being spent on cheaply produced television to tell the President’s supporters all is well and reassure the President he is awesome. But the Emperor’s clothes seem mighty see-through these days.

The man told us that only he could clean up Washington and instead it seems Washington is cleaning up on him. Scott Garrett is in line to be the head of the Ex-Im Bank and, if you have not noticed, the crony capitalists in Washington are about to scuttle his nomination because Garrett really would drain that swamp.

The Justice Department has not actually aggressively rolled back the social experimentation of the Obama Administration inside public schools. And as of this morning the Obamacare abortion mandates are still in place.

Meanwhile, the Russians are using American propagandists to try to ruin H.R. McMaster, and Trump supporters have decided McMaster is a bad guy, despite the President himself defending McMaster. It would seem many of the President’s supporters believe Putin more than Trump. In fact, only 30% of Americans say President Trump is someone they admire, and most Americans have concluded they believe nothing coming from the White House. But none of that is very troubling if the President’s base is holding on. Sadly, white voters without a college degree — a core component of the President’s coalition — show only a 39% strong approval rating for the President. He is still being defined as “better than Hillary” instead of as a good President in his own right.

The best Republicans can do is say “but judges,” which though a valid point becomes much less a valid point if the public rejects the President in four years. It seems more likely than not that Supreme Court Justices have decided to wait the man out. In 2021, we could see Ginsberg and Kennedy both bail if a Democrat gets elected, which is very possible given blue collar white voters now starting to distance themselves from the President.

And what of the President’s agenda? There is no Obamacare repeal. The Senate is now talking about a bailout. The President has not drained the swamp. Instead, the swamp is draining and distracting the President’s energies. The wall looks to be in jeopardy. Congress likewise appears on the cusp of rejecting any real meaningful tax reform.

In short, President Trump is playing at daily tactics while his opponents have comprehensive strategies to block him and wait him out. Making matters worse, there are few honest voices who can cut through the propaganda. The President and his supporters do not trust any voices in the media, and the only voices they want to listen to are sycophants who would tell the President the sky is green and grass is blue if they thought it would make him feel better.

President Trump and his team are not making the sort of progress the President promised. He has scored points with the low hanging fruit of regulatory rollbacks and judicial nominations, but then those were easy. The hard stuff and the deeply, long term meaningful stuff have yet to be accomplished.

We are 200 days into the Trump Administration, and his supporters have concluded that being an asshole on twitter is victory in and of itself. But Russia, China, North Korea, and the rest of our geopolitical adversaries see through the bluster and recognize confusion, chaos, and discord. They know we are ripe for the taking because all the President’s yes men have painted a Potemkin Village in the President’s mind and cannot see past the facade to the emptiness of his policies.

Right now, President Trump’s 2016 victory is starting to look more and more pyrrhic, and the real danger comes in 2019 if the GOP is lucky enough to hold on to Congress despite their staggering incompetence. Then the GOP will make the same fatal mistake the Democrats previously made. They’ll view the election as an endorsement of themselves instead of a rejection of the other, making their 2020 strategy completely different from what they will actually need for success.

Republicans have been so busy trying to beat the left, they have ceded the international field to Russia and China and have domestically run out of ideas and policy victories to justify their continued hold on power. But never fear. Today, President Trump will hear that nothing is wrong, all is well, and no one is yet tired of winning. His supporters are so invested in the lie, the truth will eventually be a painful discovery.
Related link: Levin: We'll Lose The Country If We Don't Have A Reawakening Of Americanism

Discussing McConnell’s ‘disastrous reign’

'Cause somebody's gotta! Truly, though, what were the members of the Senate Republican Conference thinking when placing this lackluster, unprincipled man in this top post? Better yet, as currently sits constitutionally, what in the world were Kentuckians' thinking by reelecting the man over a more principled conservative?? Whatever the case, by Monday evening, Levin voiced the righteous indignance that the rest of us have felt, not merely over the past several months, but for years...
TheResurgent: Mark Levin did not mince words when it came to Mitch McConnell’s time as the Republican leader in the U.S. Senate.

“We have moved so far backwards since Mitch McConnell has been the Republican leader in the Senate.” He continued, “The fact of the matter is, when history is written, his disastrous reign as the Republican leader — both in the minority and the majority in the United States Senate — will be noted.”

As Erick and others have pointed out before, conservatives must return to aggressive primary challenges against the GOP establishment.

CR: Kicking off the week on "The Mark Levin Show," the fired-up Levin shredded Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., illustrating just how far back the Republican Party has digressed in recent years. ...

McConnell’s failures as a leader can be measured by the success of the Democrats under President Obama — a success that continues to this day as Republicans continuously fail in advancing a conservative agenda.

Meanwhile, McConnell continues trashing conservatives.


Folks, we're not even a year into a Republican majority, but already, it's time to return to aggressive primary challenges against the GOP establishment!
TheResurgent: They have promised, for seven years, to repeal Obamacare. Each time they have instead moved the goal posts.

First, if we gave them the House they would do it. So we gave them the House.

Then they needed the Senate. So we gave them the Senate.

Then they needed the White House.

Now they have all three and the new goal post is they need sixty Senators.

But they cannot even get fifty-one Republicans to agree.

The GOP would not have to worry about Lisa Murkowski, except the NRSC and Mitch McConnell backed her independent bid over the Republican in Alaska. The NRSC has engaged in primaries against the very conservatives who would vote to repeal Obamacare.

Mitch McConnell has repeatedly bent over backwards to help moderate and liberal Republicans win re-election and has repeatedly thrown his conservative colleagues under the bus while using the NRSC to try to block the election of other conservatives.

Going as far back as his support for Charlie Crist against Marco Rubio, McConnell and, with him, the NRSC have done everything they could to ensure Obamacare does not actually get repealed.

On the House side as well, moderate Republicans want to play it so safe they’ve decided they will bring nothing up for a vote that might make it awkward for them. They fight against not only conservatives, but against their own Speaker, because they do not want to have to take a position on anything substantively.

We need to ditch Mitch and challenge the moderate Republicans and liars. These people have promised, for seven years, to repeal Obamacare and now they refuse. It is time to find good candidates to oppose them in primaries and now there is a President signaling his willingness to help challenge the establishment. There is no better time to stand up to the status quo.
Short of this is what I've been a proponent of before: a NEW Party, conservative, constitutional, principled. With either, there'll be pains, some more than others, which is why reformation of the existing party would be preferable. But to get there, the contaminants must be removed, the party must purify, because the tent is filthy and dysfunctional in its current disarray.

Related links: Mark Levin raises the fundamental questions of health care reform
Levin Disses Liars Who Voted Against Repeal

ADDENDUM: A MUST SEE follow-up via a free episode of LevinTV!
“Mitch McConnell, this is your life. And quite frankly, much of it is pathetic.”