A brokered GOP Convention – a political party playing Russian Roulette with 5 cylinders loaded.

As the caucus process has went along, Donald Trump has taken more and more states. He seems poised to take the majority of delegates to become the GOP nominee about anytime. And so, recently, there has been increasing talk among the establishment Republicans about a brokered convention. Why? Because “they” don’t want Donald Trump to be the Party’s nominee.

Now, if it so happens that Donald Trump does get the majority of delegates out of the primary process, then – good or bad – isn’t that the will of the majority of Republican voters?

And if that is the case, I could think of no better way for the GOP to disenfranchise its voters than to nullify their votes with a brokered or a challenged convention and try to slip in some GOP establishment twerp like Romney as the “approved” candidate. To do so would send voters a message that their votes really don’t matter after all. Such an action would be saying, if you don’t choose someone we the party bosses agree with, well, we’ll just install someone whom we do.

First of all, to attempt such skullduggery, while perhaps ‘legal’ per election rules, would be as healthy for the GOP as it would for an individual to play Russian Roulette with a bullet in five of the six chambers of the revolver’s cylinder. Secondly, such an action would boldly demonstrate for all the world just how clueless the GOP establishment has become where it concerns its conservative base. Get a clue, GOP; it’s your ineffective leadership these past eight years (at least) that has created the Trump popularity.

It would seem to me that if the GOP desires to simply be a part of the past like their predecessors the Whigs, then a brokered or challenged convention would be the way to go. But, if instead, the GOP is serious about staying a relevant factor in American politics and truly making America great again, then it should give up the idea of fracturing the party even more than it already has been and give up the idea of a challenged or brokered convention.

Spare me the hysteria; I've heard this all before.

While on a recent business trip, a coworker and I caught a glimpse of the television news headlines as we passed through the hotel lobby.

From commentary he’s made in the past, I wonder if this person isn’t a Democrat but he’s never come out and admitted that. Sometimes, he almost denies it. But, again, from some of the comments he’s made….

Anyway, he just went on a rant about Donald Trump. “He’s an idiot.” “He’ll get in office and get us into a war.” And on and on. In previous conversations he’s even blurted out that “I’ll vote for Hilary before I’d vote for Trump” and “I’d rather have four more years of Obama than Donald Trump as president.” (Do you still wonder why I think he’s a closet Democrat?)

Now, I’m not necessarily a Trump supporter either myself. (Personally, I’d far rather have Ted Cruz as president.) But, given the choice between Trump and Hilary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, I’d support Trump in a New York second.

But, these reactions to Trump hearken me back to the 1979-80 timeframe. To put it bluntly, I’ve heard all this before just about a different GOP front runner.

By 1980, Democrat Jimmy Carter had wrought a disastrous four years on the country. We were in a hyperinflationary economy, large scale unemployment and double digit inflation threatened economic meltdown. Carter’s wimpy foreign policy had allowed not only Afghanistan to be invaded and occupied by the Soviets but also the diplomatic staff of the American embassy in Tehran, Iran to be taken hostage for a humiliating 444 days.

A 69-year old former Hollywood actor turned California governor named Ronald Reagan had entered the 1980 race for presidency against Carter. And by the first quarter of 1980 he looked very likely to win the GOP nomination.

And we heard all this same hysteria about Reagan. He had gained fame as a movie actor in the 1940s, so we heard how fake he was, how stupid he was (many made claims about the pet monkey in one of his films being smarter in real life than Reagan was). We heard a lot of talk that he’d immediately get us in a war with Iran to get our hostages back.* Or, if we didn’t go to war with Afghanistan, we’d surely have it out with the Soviets in a conflict that was would have the risk of “going nuclear.”

Not only that, many were convinced that because he was old and would be elected in the beginning year of a decade Reagan would die in office – like Wm Henry Harrison, James Garfield, Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy earlier in our history.

And yet Reagan was one of the greatest presidents in American history and certainly the best in the 20^th century.

•  The Iranian Muslims who captured the American Embassy so hated Carter and so feared Reagan that they held our released hostages in Iranian Airspace until Reagan had been sworn in on inauguration day and was headed to the White House. Once he was officially POTUS and in the Secret Service limo enroute to the White House, they cleared the aircraft carrying the hostages immediately out of Iranian airspace directly.
• Without nuclear conflict he defeated communism on every front bringing about the fall of the Soviet Union and causing democracy to become the rule of every nation formerly behind “the iron curtain.” And,
• He reversed the collapsing economy of the Carter years and restored economic growth and prosperity to the nation and the world so well that resentful liberals today love to attack the Reagan Era as “the decade of greed.”

So, no; I don’t put too much stock in the emotional opinions of amateurs, closet Democrats or our liberal propaganda ministry – excuse me; mainstream media that would just LOVE Democrat Hilary Clinton to win – about Donald Trump. I’ve heard all this hysteria before.

*It should be noted that Carter himself tried a surgical raid to rescue those same hostages. “Operation Eagle Claw” came to an early tragic end in the early morning hours of April 25, 1980 at the Desert One staging point prior to the attack force ever getting to Tehran.  Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw

**Harrison was elected 9^th POTUS in 1840 and died in office of pneumonia; Lincoln was elected in 1860 and was assassinated; Garfield was elected in 1880 and died from blood poisoning two months after having been shot by an assassin; McKinley was re-elected in 1900 and was assassinated; Franklin Roosevelt was re-elected to his third term in 1940 and died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1945; and John F. Kennedy was elected in 1960 and assassinated in 1963. Source: "How Many Presidents Have Died While in Office?" About.com Education. 16 Feb. 2016. Web. 24 Mar. 2016.

The impact of the next president on the SCOTUS. VERY SCARY.

Scary!       Something to be considered.  Here is a very important "WHAT IF".....

There is more here at stake in this next election than just choosing a President..  Read on

A lot of people have brought up the fact that they won't vote for Trump if he's the eventual nominee.

Just to put this in perspective.....

Justice Scalia's seat is vacant. Ginsberg is 82 years old, Kennedy is 79, Breyer is 77, and Thomas is 67. Nowadays, the data shows that the average age of a Supreme Court retirement or death occurs after 75.  These are 5 vacancies that will likely come up over the next 4-8 years.

The next President will have the power to potentially create a 7-2 Supreme Court skewed in their ideology.

Think about that... 7-2. If the next President appoints 5 young justices, it will guarantee control of the Supreme Court for an entire generation.  7-2 decisions will hold up much more over time than 5-4 decisions which are seemed to be lacking in mandate.  

Hillary has made it clear she will use the Supreme Court to go after the 2nd Amendment. She has literally said that the Supreme Court was wrong in its Heller decision stating that the Court should overturn and remove the individual right to keep and bear arms. Period.

Everyone saying that they won't vote for one candidate or the other if they are the GOP nominee, please realize this. If Hillary Clinton wins and gets to make these appointments, you likely will never see another Conservative victory at the Supreme Court level for the rest of your life.  Ever.  Now, that is scary!

A vote for anyone but the GOP nominee, whomever that will be, is a vote for Hillary Clinton and for a very liberal SCOTUS for the next generation +.

King Obama, hypocrite extraordinaire

In this week’s address to his subjects, King Obama put forth what just might be the biggest crock of hypocrisy he’s bloviated yet. In it, he’s railing at the Republicans for claiming they will not allow him to seat a replacement Supreme Court (SCOTUS) justice to replace deceased Justice Antonin Scalia.

In the first paragraph of his address, Obama lectures us that “[The Supreme Court] ensure that ours is a system of laws, not of men.”* Really, Mr. Obama? Are those the laws that you refuse to ensure you follow whenever you issue some Executive Order just to get your way – your way which you couldn’t get using that same system of laws you now claim to honor and obey?

“And [the SCOTUS is] given the essential task of applying the principles written into our founding documents,”* continued the biggest violator of and the one whose shown the most disrespect in American history for those very same “founding documents.”

Claiming to take his duty to nominate and seat a Supreme Court justice “seriously,” The Dictator said it “requires me to set aside short-term politics in order to maintain faith with our founders.”* Really? Seriously? Well again, I challenge you, sir; why is it that you’ve never let your duty to “maintain faith with our founders” stop you from ramming Obamacare, your Porkulus spending package and your umpteen Executive Orders down the throats of the American people who you knew didn’t want any of it? Remember, this is supposed to be a land of government “by the people” according to President Abraham Lincoln.

Praising Judge Garland, The Dictator went on to opine that Garland demonstrates “…even-handedness in his work.” I must ask you, Mr. Obama; would that be the kind of even-handedness you demonstrated with your comment in October, 2010 saying that you don’t mind if Republicans “joining us [in the car]. They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back?"**

Mr. Obama, would that be the kind of “even-handedness you demonstrated when in this last January’s State of the Union address you took great pride in boasting to everyone that you have “got a pen […and] can use that pen to sign executive orders…that [in your opinion] move the ball forward…”***

So, given such statements and actions as you’ve made these past almost eight years, it’s pretty obvious that – despite your sudden praise for our founding documents, the wise men who wrote them and the system of laws they have created, you really think of our system is one of men – you and your ways – not of laws or due process.

Yet, your hypocritical bloviating continued as you praised your recent SCOTUS nominee claiming Judge Garland to have “An understanding that justice isn’t simply abstract legal theory; it affects people’s daily lives.”* Maybe Judge Garland does, Mr. Obama, but you do not. You have made it quite clear these last several years that, to you, the whole concept of our founding documents, their precedent and most of all their limitations on government – PARTICULARLY the Executive Branch that you have occupied the past 7+ years – that, once again, “it’s all about you” and what you want and that you want it now. You have made that quite clear as you have repeatedly abused the holy living hell out of the LIMITED powers that those founders and the documents they wrote that you now claim to respect allowed your position to have.

*Office of the Press Secretary (19 March, 2016) The White House, Weekly Address: President Obama’s Supreme Court Nomination (Transcript). Retrieved 20 March, 2016 from https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/03/19/weekly-address-president-obamas-supreme-court-nomination

**Associated Press (25 October, 2010) Fox News Politics, Obama Tells Republicans to 'Sit in Back.' Retrieved 20 March, 2016. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/10/25/obama-tells-republicans-sit.html

***Kaplan, R. (14 January, 2014) CBS News (Website) Obama: I will use my pen and phone to take on Congress. Retrieved 20 March, 2016 from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/obama-i-will-use-my-pen-and-phone-to-take-on-congress/

Charlie Daniels tells it like it (tragically) is!

This is an outstanding piece. Well said, Charlie Daniels!

From http://www.charliedaniels.com/posts/03-07-16/true-colors  <

True Colors

Mar 7 | Posted by: Charlie | Tags: Donald Trump, Elections, Politics

First of all, let me preface this by saying that it is not an endorsement for any presidential candidate nor political party, but simply my observations of a political process that has the potential of tearing an old political machine to pieces and exposing the power players and deal makers for the greedy control hungry, self-serving characters they really are.

When Mitt Romney made his now famous "anybody but Trump" speech I saw a man, for who I had great respect, strip away the facade and join the ranks of those who consider themselves the arbiters of what the Republican party should be and that a candidate who could not be depended on to be under the thumb of the entrenched power brokers and politicians would be a danger to that image.

With all the charm of a petulant wet noodle, Romney informed us that Donald Trump would be a nightmare president, he would be bad for the country, translated into plain language, he would be bad for the elitist Republican Party, which has spent a fortune and expended much of their relevance trying to push an establishment candidate down the throats of a fed up America that isn't buying their promises anymore.

The Republicans are in a dilemma of their own making.

Barack Obama went into office controlling both houses of Congress and the Republicans promised us that if they could just gain control of the legislative branch they would come out swinging.

Well, that happened and nothing else did. It was business as usual for the Obama Administration, the Republicans went along with just about anything he wanted to do, confirming his far left judicial appointees, passing his back breaking budgets, twiddling their fingers while he all but decimated the military, knuckled under to his presidential fiat legislation, allowing the National Debt to double, same sex marriage, funded Planned Parenthood's macabre organ harvesting and wholesale abortion practices, and the list goes on and on.

And now, this same party expects Americans to sit back and let them buy another establishment candidate's way into running for president.

The very thought that a maverick candidate like Donald Trump, whose unconventional style of shoot ‘em down in the street and take no prisoners politics, who has funded his own campaign while they've spent untold millions trying to kill his candidacy absolutely terrifies the powers that be.

Because, whatever else he represents, he sure represents change, and not the campaign slogan, lip service kind, but real change and a machine-crushing blow to the balance of power.

The American electorate has forsaken all the establishment's fair-haired boys in favor of a self-financed billionaire and a Senator from Texas who had the audacity to go against the flow in Washington.

That’s something the old-line machine establishment is going to have to accept.

Times change, people change, electorates get fed up with watching the same old tired and jaded, ‘tow the party line” candidates dragged out every four years, makers of empty promises, talking out of both sides of their mouths; promising much, but delivering nothing.

Time to shake things up and no matter what Mitt Romney or any other establishment mouthpiece says, if Trump or Cruz make it to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, there will be a shakeup.

People across this country are mad, they want something different, something they understand and they are ready to fight the dark suits and gray heads who call the shots.

“Come Senators and Congressmen
Pay heed to the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he who gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside and it's raging
It will soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changing” - Bob Dylan

What do you think?

Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem.

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels

Read more of Charlie's soapboxes here: Soapbox Archives

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Safe at last (at least as it's currently being defined in Amerika)

Received this via email today. Authorship unknown. "We laugh because it's funny and we laugh because it's true." - Al Capone, The Untouchables:. Paramount Pictures, 1987. DVD.


From Northern Virginia:       

Today, I took down my Rebel flag (which you can't buy on ebay any more) and peeled the NRA sticker off the front door and the back glass of my pickup. I disconnected my home alarm system and quit the useless Neighborhood Watch. I bought two Pakistani flags and put one at each corner of the front yard.

Then I purchased the black flag of ISIS (which you CAN buy on ebay) and ran it up the flag pole.  Now, the local police, sheriff, FBI, CIA, NSA, Homeland Security, Secret Service and other agencies are all watching my house 24/7.

I've NEVER felt safer and I'm saving $49.95 a month that ADT used to charge me.  Plus, I bought burkas for my family for when we shop or travel.  Everyone moves out of the way and security can't pat us down.

         Safe at last! — Ain’t America great?