Month: May 2016

There are hints that the Republican donor class is showing unusual good sense.  Trump doesn’t need money.  He says he’s worth $10 billion, let him spend some of it.  The money needs to go to keep the House and the Senate, and, if they’re really smart, the state legislatures.

I read a while back that either Soros-funded Democracy Alliance or one of its offshoots is going to spend a lot of money helping Democrats win state legislatures.  That effort needs to be countered, and will be.  There’s no reason on earth we couldn’t keep what we’ve got, and pick up Kentucky as well.

It feels as though the hundred year political tide we’ve been riding has been hit by a hurricane, or a seismic shift.  I don’t think anyone knows how this all turns out, but I believe when it blows over we’ll  be worse off than we were before.  My only concern is an anti-Trump landslide that costs us down ballot.  The closer the Republicans embrace Trump, the more they’ll be stuck to him if he goes down.  Risky business, with an unpredictable man.

We haven’t got much of the Constitution left and both Trump and Clinton would do further damage.  Article V is the only way out.

And 2020 can’t come soon enough.

We’re sending two combat battalions with a thousand men each to Poland.  They’re hostages, acting as a trip wire.  Any engagement they take part in will have the full backing of the United States military.  Why us, you ask?  Why are we defending Poland, and not the Germans and French?  Because we’re trapped in the 20th century, and the post World War II settlement, and the Cold War.  All relics that we worship for some reason.  But the American people will not send their sons and daughters to fight for Poland, and we don’t expect the Poles to come to our assistance if we’re attacked.  NATO has been dead a long time.  Trump just pointed out the obvious.

I’m from the Vietnam generation, but was 4-F with a pin in my ankle.  Before I broke it, I planned on joining the Marines and going to Officer’s School.  When I met my Uncle Fritz I asked him if hadn’t done my duty, and he said, “No, it was a bad war.”  There are no good wars.  And if nothing else comes out of 2016, if we can all recognize that NATO is kaput, we’ll have accomplished something.

I believe there is a strong, bipartisan, anti-war consensus in this country, and I’m glad of it.

Reagan Democrats are with Trump today, driven to this extremity by Bush Republicans.  These kinder and gentler, compassionate “conservatives” have not only refused to secure our border against millions of illegals, they conspired with Democrats to pass the so-called Civil Rights Act of 1991, which overturned a series of Supreme Court cases that had refused to recognize claims of racial discrimination based on nothing more than statistics.  In passing this bill, Congress created the pernicious doctrine of “disparate impact”, and for 25 years non-discriminatory employment practices have been under legal attack if they result in a work force too white.  A Republican President, named Bush, signed it into law.  This treachery has never been forgotten by working class whites.

For a time Bush 1 had stood firm, threatening a veto.  But in an incident only reported by National Review, Alaskan RINO Ted Stevens stormed into the White House, demanding the veto threat be lifted.  Bush caved, and the white working class was betrayed.  When Clinton had his “Sister Souljah” moment the next year, they saw in him someone who at least had a minimal amount of courage when confronted by black racism, and the Republicans lost the Presidency.

Stevens had failed in Alaska at enshrining racial discrimination in the Alaska Constitution in 1987, and Alaska has been a solid red state since.  But he succeeded at the national level, and the seed of the Trump vote was planted.  The rights of one group  — whites  — would have to be sacrificed to appeal to another group — blacks.  The repudiation of the Reagan legacy Party would continue with Bush 2, ruining the Republican brand by overseas adventurism, expansion of the welfare state, and a domestic spending binge.

Bush Republicans, along with Trump, are big government conservatives, meaning they’re not conservatives at all.  They’re the Fortune 500 Republicans, happy to use the powers of the federal Leviathan to feather their own nests.  At least 80% of Congressional Republicans are beholden to big business, and are unwilling to stand with the working men and women of this country.  They won’t fight for much, although their corporate masters do oppose higher taxes on themselves.  That’s about all they’re not willing to bend on.

The failure of the Cruz candidacy, and the continuation of Boehnerism ( a form of Bushism) in the person of Paul Ryan, means that the only politically practicable way of  getting the federal government under control is from the ground up.  Congress, regardless of which party is in the majority, is controlled by powerful special interests who profit from the system as it is.  The Supreme Court, in upholding Obamacare, has demonstrated that it will not stand in the way of the expansion of federal power.

So we’re down to Article V, our last resort, the emergency brake crafted by the Framers for precisely the situation we find ourselves in.  Republican State legislators are the last bastion of Reagan conservatives, and they are slowly beginning to understand the role the Framers gave them in our federalist system.  Texas Governor Greg Abbott is prepared to help provide the leadership of an Article V movement with his Texas Plan, nine proposed Constitutional Amendments which, together, would restore limited and constitutional government.  One of them, the Balanced Budget Amendment, has 28 of the required 34 State Resolutions, and if six more States are added, the first Amendment Convention in American history will convene to draft the language  of a BBA.

Seven states whose legislatures are under complete Republican control have not passed the Article V BBA Resolution — Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Arizona, Wisconsin, Virginia and South Carolina.  Unless 2016 is a Democratic landslide, all should remain Republican in 2017, with the possible addition of Kentucky.

Because no Amendment Convention has been held in our history, some state legislators hesitate to support Article V, fearful of a runaway convention.  The John Birch Society and, under Phyllis Schlafly, the Eagle Forum have led the resistance to Article V.  In order to allay these concerns, the Assembly of State Legislatures was formed, and will meet in Philadelphia on June 16th to adopt a set of proposed rules for the Convention to operate under.  Most important is the principle of one state, one vote, one Amendment.  Every state has an equal vote, and only the subject matter contained in the Call for the Convention can be considered.

Regardless of the outcome of the Presidential election, Congress, under either party, will not make the reforms we so urgently need.  They will only come from the states, and the people, using the Constitution’s last resort  — Article V.

(This was up at American Thinker today.)

Cartman must be Cartman.  And Trump must be Trump.  He is, by nature, a belligerent loudmouth, and he is true to his nature.  It got him to where he is today.

It doesn’t always work.  When he went into Wisconsin and trashed Scott Walker, I think he paid a price.  I have a hunch there are a lot of voters in New Mexico who really like Gov.  Susana Martinez.  I do.  At the 2012 Convention she told the story of working for her family’s small security firm as an undersized teenage girl, packing a Smith & Wesson .357.  Our kind of gal.  If you insult her to her own voters, in her own state, you should pay a price in November in New Mexico, a purple state.  But, says the Donald, I gotta be me.

Sometimes there may be a method to his madness.  The Hispanic federal judge presiding over the Trump University scam lawsuit didn’t like being insulted by Trump, and it may well hurt him in the court case.  Trump understands litigation, and knew he was hurting his case.  But he may figure he needs a scapegoat if he loses, and now he can blame his loss on a biased Hispanic judge.

But Trump continues to go with his gut, and his gut tells him to insult people.  His tribe likes it.  He’s a tough guy.

The Johnson-Weld ticket has appeal, but when Johnson mocks the idea of building a wall he loses me, and I imagine a lot of others.  That’s not how you peel votes from Trump.  Trump is basically with the people on the issues, including refugee immigration, the wall, and NATO.   The Libertarians need to appeal to tea party Constitutionalists.

A Constitutionalist is a person who believes in the strict construction of the Constitution, and is willing to base his vote on that principle.  Since neither Trump nor Clinton even understand what strict construction even is, a Constitutionalist can’t vote for either one of them.  I believe Gary Johnson is a Constitutionalist, and I want to vote for him on that basis alone.   But he’s got to understand that lax immigration policy is a killer, politically.

Reagan Project Co-founder Darren Pettyjohn will be married in September, and this weekend Babbie and I met the in-laws.  The fish are jumping, and the cotton is high.

 

 

 

Whatever will be, will be.  The future’s not ours to see.

Richard Fernandez at PJ Media counsels patience, and he makes sense.  Let’s sit back and see how this plays out.

It looks to be Clinton, Trump and a Libertarian, and it’s very difficult to see how it all ends well.  There’s no way to know, but what does seem clear is that while the status quo is being destroyed, no real solutions are being offered.  We’ve got very serious problems, and only an irrational optimist can say we’ve got a handle on a fix.  You get the feeling, and that’s all it is, that the Year of the Totally Pissed Off Voter has more surprises in store.

The unknown unknowns  — the things we don’t know that we don’t know  — are always out there.  These are also called black swans.  But it seems to me we have a hell of a lot of known unknowns right now.  And many of these known unknowns have the potential to blow things all to hell.

First, of course, are all the smoldering conflicts around the world that could blow up at any time.  This is over my head, but if I’m Vladimir Putin, or the Ayatollah, or ISIS, or the leaders of China, or Saudi Arabia or a lot of other people who have the capacity to make mischief, I may want to do it this summer or fall, with a weak and timid lame duck in the White House.

Then there’s another Ferguson and Baltimore to worry about.  The Ferguson effect is real, and black urban violence is on the rise.  Black Lives Matter, and other protest groups funded by George Soros, look to raise hell all summer, and major urban riots wouldn’t be a  big surprise.

And then there’s the big one  — anti-Trump violence, and his belligerent reaction to it.  That’s a time bomb.  A lot of the good old boys at his rallies don’t like being pushed around, and they’re going to push back.  He seems to encourage it.  When he had to cancel an event in Chicago, it helped him.  When violence erupted on his trip to California at the end of April it helped him win Indiana, surge to a huge lead in the California polls, and lock up the nomination.  So far, anti-Trump violence has helped him, but there’s no way to know what the future holds here.  It’s not under his control.

Why in the name of God does a man like George Soros fund all these anti-American groups?  There’s only one possible answer.  Deep in his guts, he hates the United States, and what it stands for, and who we are.  Where that hate comes from is beyond me.  He is one sick man.

Part of my plan to replace Ted Stevens in the U. S. Senate was to have him term limited out, so back in ’84 when I saw the Article V Resolution that Lew Uhler was circulating for a BBA, I knew what to do: adopt Congressional term limits using Article V.  I did all I could to promote the idea, but US Term Limits, the group with all the money and organization, wanted to go a different route.  They wanted each state to term limit its own delegation.  When enough states had adopted this approach, a Constitutional Amendment could be proposed to make it mandatory on every state.

There was risk in their plan, it might not pass constitutional muster.  But they threw the dice, put in an enormous amount of time and money, and after years and years of effort and some success, had the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 vote, throw the whole thing out.  It was all a waste, and the idea of term limits died with that decision.

Until now.   US Term Limits is back, except this time they want to use Article V, which is what I told them 30 years ago.  I wish people would listen.

The Reagan Project was started to promote Article V, and that’s my main goal.  What I want, more than anything, is for another state legislature or two to flip Republican.  It should definitely happen in Kentucky, and there are other possibilities as well.  My greatest concern is that turmoil at the top of the ticket not hurt our state legislative candidates.

But, like the man said  — patience.

As much as I despise Donald Trump, the man, I will acknowledge a bold stroke when I see it.  He’s going where no one without real chutzpah can go, and I’ve got to admire it, especially because the target of his attack is one of the few American politicians I loathe more than Trump, himself.

I despise them both for pretty much the same reason.  In the real world, where you don’t have a security detail or the Secret Service, you don’t get away with the things these guys do.  Babbie and I saw a terrible movie, “The Nice Guys”, last night, where Russell Crowe plays a street level enforcer.  The only part of the movie that I enjoyed was the opening scene, where Crowe breaks a sex pervert’s jaw with his brass knuckles.  That’s the kind of thing that would happen to a man like Clinton or Trump if they didn’t have security.  Trump acts like a tough guy, but it’s all show.  He’s a pussy, and so is Clinton.  There are guys that can handle themselves in a physical altercation, and there are guys that can’t.  These two get to play the Big Man role from behind a security line.  They’re punks, both of them.

But Trump, as far as I know, didn’t try to take advantage of women the way Clinton did.  If you’re not familiar with all the details of the Paula Jones story, you don’t realize what sort of sordid behavior Clinton routinely engaged in.   The articles that David Brock wrote for the American Spectator back in the 90’s were amazing.  He talked to the Arkansas State Troopers who were Clinton’s bodyguards.  It wasn’t just Paula Jones.  It was what he just did.  It was who he was.  He’s a sick son of a bitch, whose jaw I would have broken with pleasure if the opportunity arose.

So, hell yes talk about Bill Clinton’s sex scandals.  Bring the damn things up every day.  Politically, it’s genius.  And all it takes is guts, which Trump has.   Because when you really understand what Clinton was up to, you realize that Hillary is as bad as he is.  She knew what he was doing to these women.  She could care less.  They were trailer trash, to hell with them.  She hated Bill for it, but she covered for him anyway, because he was her ticket to power.  Disgusting.

And their response was telling.  If this is the best they can do, they are in serious trouble.  They talk about Trump profiting from a real estate bust?  That’s so weak it’s a tell.  They don’t know what to do.  It’s amazing.  This scandal has been around for 25 years, and they still don’t have an answer for it?  You’ve got to be kidding.  And all it took was Donald Trump tweeting and talking.  Fortune favors the brave, but this is ridiculous.

I think I’ve finally figured Trump out.  It took an appearance by Donnie Deutsch on WADR to make me see it.  Trump is Donnie Deutsch.  He’s a PR guy, a brand guy, a marketing guy.  He just markets himself.  And he’s very, very good at it.  No one has ever done what he’s done.  It’s absolutely brilliant.

Sen. Barrasso of Wyoming will chair Platform.  I now am quite confident we’ll get both Article V and the Transfer of Public Lands into the Platform.  Barrasso knows all about TPL, and we have Bill Cowsert of Georgia and others carrying the Article V torch.   This means I don’t need to do anything more promoting either one of them.

There were quite a few Italians in the early days of the Far West, and the fact that Wyoming has two Italian American Senators is a small coincidence.  The greatest historian of the Far West was Bernard Devoto, from Utah.  If you want to learn the history of the Far West, it’s all in his books.  My favorite was 1846: The Year of Decision.  Devoto was an absolutely wonderful writer, and I’ve read and reread everything he’s written.  A lot of people don’t realize it, but when you’re on Highway 80 in Nevada, you’re on the California Trail.  If you ever drive it, imagine walking across it, with worn out stock hauling a wagon.

They were our ancestors.