If there's one thing Paul Ryan has honed during his years in Washington,
it's Washington-speak. The Speaker's March 23 address, broadcast from the Ways and
Means Committee chamber – where he was surrounded only by press and House
interns – is an example of just how adept he's become at it. Whose Unity Are We Talking
About, Anyway? With soaring rhetoric, Ryan appealed for
unity – unity in Congress, unity among the public, unity as a nation. We
should test theories and ideas, he asserted, rather than impugning motives.
The cost of political division is high, he noted; it undermines
people's faith in their representatives, their faith in government. The
system works, he explained, only if we have mutual respect for one another.
The problem is that Washington's elite class, of which Paul Ryan has become a
top-ranking member, hasn't had any respect for the rest of us for a very
long time. Consequently, yes, we have lost faith in
our representatives and in our government. It's not just a bunch of us
out here, frustrated over nothing. Most of the reasons for our
dissatisfaction, disillusionment, and anger either reside in our
nation's capital or are the brain-children of those who do.
Quite frankly, the whole of Ryan's speech
comes down to this: a Washington blue-blood reminds us uncooperative
plebeians that we should smile and hold hands and trust our leaders so that
they can continue to inspire us with their spectacular and never-ending
betrayals – betrayals such as Paul Ryan's ongoing embrace of massive
spending, lopsided trade agreements, and troubling immigration policies.
In fact, in light of this week's fresh attacks by radical Islamists in
Brussels, Belgium, Ryan's already unpopular stance on immigration is
likely growing more so by the minute.
The federal government is taking steps to fine schools that do not
comply with Queen Michelle Obama’s school lunch rules. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and
Nutrition Service issued a proposed rule Monday to codify parts of the Healthy,
Hunger-Free Kids Act, which was championed by Mrs. Obama.
The regulation would punish schools and state
departments with fines for “egregious or persistent disregard” for the lunch
rules that imposed sodium and calorie limits and banned white grains.
A wealthy businessman with tea party ties confirmed Sunday that he
is mounting a primary challenge to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, saying that
after donating to the Wisconsin
Republican’s past campaigns he feels “betrayed” by the speaker on trade deals
and immigration.
The businessman, who is not yet revealing his
identity, promised that his run will “shake up the establishment in a profound
way,” according to a political consultant close to the prospective candidate.
The emergence of a viable Republican
challenger in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District is the culmination of a
month long recruitment effort by tea party activists who say they were
double-crossed by Mr. Ryan when he passed a $2 trillion spending package late
last year.
Ted Cruz Gains in Louisiana After Loss There to Donald Trump
Despite
coming up short in state’s Republican presidential primary, Texan controls key
convention roles
Donald Trump beat
Sen. Ted Cruz earlier this month in Louisiana’s Republican presidential primary by 3.6 percentage
points, but the Texan may wind up with as many as 10 more delegates from the
state than the businessman.
Mr. Cruz’s supporters also seized five of Louisiana’s six slots on the three powerful committees that
will write the rules and platform at the Republican National Convention and
mediate disputes over delegates’ eligibility this summer in Cleveland. The little-noticed inside maneuvering that
led to this outcome in Louisiana
is another dramatic illustration of the inside game that could have an outsize
influence on the bitter race for the GOP nomination. A similar process played
out three weeks ago in
Coweta County, Ga. READ MORE:http://www.wsj.com/articles/ted-cruz-gains-in-louisiana-after-loss-there-to-donald-trump-1458861959
UPDATE:
A former Pat Buchanan adviser has launched a petition that
threatens to launch a new political movement if the Republican Party fails to nominate
Donald Trump.
Following is a very interesting email going around
which has gone viral. It somehow has
been falsely attributed to Bill Bennett. The essay titled
“Interesting Take on Trump” was first posted in a
political forumhosted by the website OnePoliticalPlaza on November
14, 2015. The person who posted it said they’d received
it via email. From there, the
“Interesting Take on Trump” essay was posted on other
message boards and quickly went viral.
Regardless of who the
original author may have been, it is a very interesting read.
What I See Happening
In a Trump Presidency!!!!!
By author unknown
"They will kill him before they let him be president. It could be a
Republican or a Democrat that instigates the shutting up of Trump.
Don’t be surprised if Trump has an accident. Some people are getting very
nervous: Barack Obama, Valerie Jarrett, Eric Holder, Hillary Clinton and
Jon Corzine, to name just a few.
It's about the unholy dynamics between big government, big business, and big
media. They all benefit by the billions of dollars from this partnership,
and it's in all of their interests to protect one another. It's one for all and
all for one. It’s a heck of a filthy relationship that makes everyone
filthy rich, everyone except the American people. We get ripped
off. We’re the patsies. But for once, the powerful socialist cabal
and the corrupt crony capitalists are scared. The over-the-top reaction
to Trump by politicians of both parties, the media, and the biggest
corporations of America has been so swift and insanely angry that it suggests they are all
threatened and frightened.
Donald Trump can self-fund. No matter how much they say to the contrary,
the media, business, and political elite understand that Trump is no
joke. He could actually win and upset their nice cozy apple cart.
It's no coincidence that everyone has gotten together to destroy The
Donald. It's because most of the other politicians are part of the a good
old boys club. They talk big, but they won’t change a thing. They
are all beholden to big-money donors. They are all owned by lobbyists, unions,
lawyers, gigantic environmental organizations, and multinational corporations –
like Big Pharmacy or Big Oil. Or they are owned lock, stock, and barrel
by foreigners like George Soros owns Obama or foreign governments own Hillary
and their Clinton Foundation donations.
These run-of-the-mill establishment politicians are all puppets owned by big
money. But there's one man who isn't beholden to anyone. There's
one man who doesn't need foreigners, or foreign governments, or George Soros,
or the United Auto Workers, or the teacher's union, or the Service Employees
International Union, or the Bar Association to fund his campaign.
Billionaire tycoon and maverick Donald Trump doesn’t need anyone’s help.
That means he doesn’t care what the media says. He doesn’t care what the
corporate elites think. That makes him very dangerous to the entrenched
interests. That makes Trump a huge threat to those people. Trump
can ruin everything for the bribed politicians and their spoiled slave masters.
Don’t you ever wonder why the GOP has never tried to impeach Obama? Don’t you
wonder why John Boehner and Mitch McConnell talk a big game, but never actually
try to stop Obama? Don’t you wonder why Congress holds the purse strings, yet
has never tried to de-fund Obamacare or Obama’s clearly illegal executive
action on amnesty for illegal aliens? Bizarre, right? It defies
logic, right?
First, I'd guess many key Republicans are being bribed. Secondly, I
believe many key Republicans are being blackmailed. Whether they are
having affairs, or secretly gay, or stealing taxpayer money, the National
Security Agency knows everything.
Ask former House Speaker Dennis Hastert about that. The government even
knew he was withdrawing large sums of his own money from his own bank
account. The NSA, the SEC, the IRS, and all the other three-letter government agencies are watching every
Republican political leader. They surveil everything. Thirdly, many
Republicans are petrified of being called racists, so they are scared to ever
criticize Obama or call out his crimes, let alone demand his impeachment.
Fourth , why rock the boat? After defeat or retirement, if you’re a good
old boy, you’ve got a $5 million-per-year lobbying job waiting. The
big-money interests have the system gamed. Win or lose, they win.
But Trump doesn’t play by any of these rules. Trump breaks up this nice,
cozy relationship between big government, big media, and big business.
All the rules are out the window if Trump wins the Presidency. The other
politicians will protect Obama and his aides but not Trump.
Remember: Trump is the guy who publicly questioned Obama's birth
certificate. He questioned Obama's college records and how a mediocre
student got into an Ivy League university. Now, he's doing something no
Republican has the chutzpah to do. He's questioning our relationship with
Mexico; he's questioning why the border is wide open; he's questioning why no
wall has been built across the border; he's questioning if allowing millions of
illegal aliens into America is in our best interests; he's questioning why so
many illegal aliens commit violent crimes, yet are not deported; and he's
questioning why our trade deals with Mexico, Russia and China are so bad.
Trump has the audacity to ask out loud why American workers always get the
short end of the stick. Good question! I'm certain Trump will
question what happened to the almost billion dollars given in a rigged no-bid
contract to college friends of Michelle Obama at foreign companies to build the
defective Obamacare website. By the way, that tab is now up to $5
billion. Trump will ask if Obamacare's architects can be charged with
fraud for selling it by lying. Trump will investigate Obama's widespread IRS conspiracy, not to mention
Obama's college records. Trump will prosecute Clinton and Obama for fraud
committed to cover up Benghazi before the election. How about the fraud committed by employees of the
Labor Department when they made up dramatic job numbers in the last jobs report
before the 2012 election?
Obama, the multinational corporations and the media need to stop Trump.
They recognize this could get out of control. If left unchecked, telling
the raw truth and asking questions everyone else is afraid to ask, Trump could
wake a sleeping giant. Trump's election would be a nightmare. Obama
has committed many crimes. No one else but Trump would dare to
prosecute. He will not hesitate. Once Trump gets in and gets a look at
the cooked books and Obama's records, the game is over. The goose is
cooked. Holder could wind up in prison. Jarrett could wind up in
prison. Obama bundler Corzine could wind up in prison for losing $1.5
billion of customer money. Clinton could wind up in jail
for deleting 32,000 emails or for accepting bribes from foreign governments while
Secretary of State, or for misplacing $6 billion as the head of the State
Department, or for lying about Benghazi. The entire
upper level management of the IRS could wind up in prison.
Obamacare will be de-funded and dismantled. Obama himself could wind up
ruined, his legacy in tatters. Trump will investigate. Trump will
prosecute. Trump will go after everyone involved. That’s why the
dogs of hell have been unleashed on Donald Trump.
Yes, it's become open season on Donald Trump. The left and the right are
determined to attack his policies, harm his businesses, and, if possible, even
keep him out of the coming debates. But they can't silence him. And they
sure can't intimidate him. The more they try, the more the public will
realize that he's the one telling the truth".
A former Pat Buchanan adviser has launched a petition that
threatens to launch a new political movement if the Republican Party fails to nominate
Donald Trump.
“Things reveal
themselves passing away,” wrote W. B. Yeats.
Whatever one may think
of Donald Trump, his campaign has done us a service — exposing the underbelly
of a decaying establishment whose repudiation by America’s silent majority is
long overdue.
According to The New
York Times, super PACs of Trump’s GOP rivals, including PACs of candidates who
have dropped out, are raising and spending millions to destroy the probable
nominee.
Goals of the anti-Trump
conspirators: Manipulate the rules and steal the nomination at Cleveland. Failing that, pull out
all the stops and torpedo any Trump-led ticket in the fall. Then blame Trump
and his followers for the defeat, pick up the pieces, and posture as saviors of
the party they betrayed.
This is vindictiveness
of a high order.
It brings to mind the
fable of the “The Dog in the Manger,” the tale of the snarling cur that, out of
pure malice, kept the hungry oxen from the straw they needed to eat.
Last week came reports
on another closed conclave of the “Never Trump” cabal at the Army and Navy Club
in D.C. Apparently, William Kristol circulated a memo detailing how to rob
Trump of the nomination, even if he finishes first in states, votes and
delegates.
Should Trump win on the
first ballot, Kristol’s fallback position is to create a third party and
recruit a conservative to run as its nominee.
Purpose: Have this rump
party siphon off enough conservative votes to sink Trump and give the
presidency to Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose policies are more congenial to the
neocons and Kristol’s Weekly Standard.
Among the candidates
Kristol is reportedly proposing are ex-Governor Rick Perry of Texas and former Senator Tom
Coburn of Oklahoma, both respected conservatives.
Kristol contends a
third-party conservative candidate can win.
He can’t be serious. It
is absurd to think Gov. Perry, whose poll numbers were so low that he dropped
out of the race last September without winning a single primary, caucus, or
even a delegate, could capture the White House on a third-party ticket.
Perry would not even be
assured of winning his home state.
Trump and Perry would
split the conservative vote in the LoneStarState and deliver its 36
electoral votes to Clinton, thus assuring a second
Clinton presidency. Does Perry want that as his
legacy?
As for Coburn, he is not
nationally known. But his name on the ballot would take votes, one-for-one,
from the Republican nominee.
How would that advance
the causes for which Tom Coburn has devoted all of his public life?
Indeed, if the supreme
imperative for Kristol and the “Never Trump” conservatives is to defeat him,
they have become de facto allies of George Soros and MoveOn.org, Black Lives
Matter and Occupy Wall Street — and the party of Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer and
Hillary Clinton.
However, if the
oligarchs, neocons and Trump-loathers, having failed to stop him in Cleveland, collude to destroy the
GOP ticket in the fall, they have a chance of succeeding. And Clinton’s super PACs would
surely be delighted to contribute to that cause.
But, again, what will
they have accomplished?
Do they think that
Republicans who stay loyal to the ticket will not see them for the selfish,
rule-or-ruin, wrecking crew they have become? Do they think that if a Trump-led
ticket is defeated, they will be restored to the positions of power and
preeminence that a majority of their fellow Republicans have voted to strip
away from them?
The Beltway has to come
to terms with reality. It has not only lost the country; it has lost the party.
It is not only these elites themselves who have been repudiated; it is their
ideas and their agenda.
The American people want
their borders secured, the invasion stopped, the manufacturing plants brought
back and an end to the conscription of our best and bravest to fight wars
dreamed up in the tax-exempt think tanks of neoconservatives.
Trump is winning because
he speaks for the people. Look at those crowds.
Establishment pundits
are now wailing that they have gotten the message, that they understand that
they have not been listening.
But still, they refuse
to act on this recognition.
In June of 1978, Gov. Jerry
Brown of California, who had fought
tirelessly against Proposition 13, which would slash property taxes across California, did a U-turn when it
passed in a landslide. And Brown himself implemented the tax cuts he had
opposed.
He got the message and
acted on it.
One sees none of this
flexibility in the Beltway establishment, none of this acceptance of the new
realities, only obduracy.
Donald Trump is only the
messenger.
If these conservative
defectors from a ticket led by Trump collude with Democrats, by running a third
party candidate to siphon off Trump’s votes, they may succeed.
But they delude
themselves if they think they will have solved the problem of their own
irrelevance, or that they have a future.
Just for the record, I would like to add that while Senator Tom Coburn is Conservative on a lot of issues, he is opposed to 2nd amendment rights...
If Conservatives who want to keep their gun rights would bother to check Mr. Coburn's voting record, I don't think he would get much support.
UPDATE:
A former Pat Buchanan adviser has launched a petition that
threatens to launch a new political movement if the Republican Party fails to nominate
Donald Trump.
Here is a little history lesson for President Obama.
You should recall that a few weeks ago,
President Obama spoke of three former Presidents making prisoner swaps at the
end of wars that took place on their watch, "much like this swap" he
said convincingly.
CNN carried this quote, "This is what
happens at the end of wars." President Barack Obama boasted Tuesday
when he was asked about swapping American Army Sgt. Deserter for five vicious
Taliban terrorists. "That was true for George Washington, that was
true for Abraham Lincoln, and that was true for FDR. That's been true of
every combat situation, that at some point, you make sure that you try to get
your folks back...and that's the right thing to do."
Really?
That statement blatantly demonstrates that
the most powerful man in the World, and two term President of the United States, lacks even a grade school level of
knowledge of American History; specifically, history as it relates to three of
our most famous presidents. It demonstrates again that we have essentially
elected a foreigner who has no understanding of the very country that he reigns
supreme over. Then again, he was educated at an IVY League school so you can't
expect too much!!
What's wrong with his statements?
Let's keep it simple-- EVERYTHING is wrong! ?
1. George Washington did not become
president until six years after the Revolutionary War ended in 1783. By 1789
there were no longer any prisoners for him to exchange. ? ?
2. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated
in mid-April of 1865.The Civil War ended the following month. He was still dead
at that time. No deals were made to exchange prisoners after the war. All
prisoners were simply freed.
3. FDR died of a stroke before the
end of WWII. Like Lincoln, he stayed dead after the war so he couldn't do what this
jerk says he did. You'll recall that Harry S. Truman made the decision to drop
two nuclear bombs on Japan, ending World War II. He made no
deals for prisoners. We went in and released them when necessary.
4. None of the Presidents that Obama
noted were in office at the ends of those wars, making it impossible for them
to make any sort of prisoner swaps, let alone the 5 for 1, plus unspecified
cash, for a deserter and traitor by our "57 States" president.
5. It should be pointed out that
countless deserters and traitors were shot or hung during all three of the aforementioned
wars. What amazes one even more than the ignorance of the President is
that he has managed to surround himself with a staff that is just as clueless
or willing, as the media are, to cover for his dumb, lying rhetoric and
behavior!
P.S. Obama mentioned while being
interviewed on Super Bowl Sunday while in the White House kitchen, that George
Washington drank beer in the White House when he was president.
George Washington never lived in the White
House; it wasn't built yet.
The REAL Racism:
Nearly 14 Million Blacks Still Enslaved, But Not By Whites
I cannot understand why so many Black
Americans are becoming Muslims.One
would think that American Black people would be the most anti-Muslim people on
the planet.It was Muslims who were
responsible for the slavery of their ancestors.
Slavery
did not originate in the South, if fact, it did not originate anywhere in America.
Slavery
had been going on for thousands of years before it reached America.
If there
had been no slaves to buy, there would not have been any slaves in the South.
So why
not condemn the Islamic flag more so than the Confederate Flag since it is more
related to the source of supply of slaves.Where there is no supply there is NO demand.
While Muslim propagandists have exploited the
legacy of slavery in the United States to win black converts, slavery in the Muslim world
began long before the United States and ended a century later.
President Abraham Lincoln issued the
Emancipation Proclamation in 1862. By contrast, Saudi Arabia only abolished slavery in 1962. That same year Yemen abolished slavery and the United Arab Emirates abolished slavery a year later.
Saudi Arabia’s ruling family did not embark on this course out of
the goodness of their hearts, but under pressure from President Kennedy, at a
time when the House of Saud did not yet have the United States economy and its foreign policy in a headlock. The
abolition of slavery was a compromise. Kennedy had wanted representative
government and civil rights. He had to settle for a belated emancipation.
Slavery has been officially abolished;
unofficially it lingers on. There is still a silent unofficial slave trade that
is carried on and leading Saudi
clerics have insisted that slavery is a part of Islam. Saudis living abroad
are often discovered to have domestic workers who live like slaves leading to
criminal cases.
The situation is worst in North Africa where Arab colonization largely displaced and
suppressed the indigenous peoples, like the Nubians in Egypt. Ethnically cleansed to make way for the LakeNasser project, Egyptian Nubians have, like so many other
North African indigenous peoples, been reduced to a persecuted minority within
their own land.
Much attention and condemnation has been
directed towards the tragedy of the African slave trade, which took place
between the 16 th and the 19 th centuries. However,
another equally despicable trade in humans was taking place around the same
time in the Mediterranean. It is estimated that up to 1.25 million
Europeans were enslaved by the so-called Barbary corsairs, and their lives were just as pitiful as their African
counterparts. They have come to be known as the white slaves of Barbary.
Slavery is one of the oldest trades known to
man. We can first find records of the slave trade dating back to The Code of
Hammurabi in Babylon in the 18th century BCE. People from virtually every major culture, civilization, and
religious background have made slaves of their own and enslaved other peoples.
However, comparatively little attention has been given to the prolific slave
trade that was carried out by pirates, or corsairs, along the Barbary coast (as it was called by Europeans at the time), in what
is now Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, beginning around 1600 AD.
The elite of BOTH parties are doing
every thing in their power to prevent Trump from becoming President.The GOP elite would prefer either Hillary or
Sanders over Trump.The Democrat elite
would prefer pretty much ANY Republican over Trump.Why is that?
The reason has become quite obvious.Trump is the only one they will have no
control over.The only control there
will be over a President Trump would be the Constitution of the United States.If Trump is elected, he will threaten the cozy
relationships, high priced contracts and insider deals of the Beltway power
brokers.
He does not need their money and, if elected, will assume
the office of President owing no one. They won’t be able to sway him with bribes,
and for the first time in modern history, the President can truly act for the
American people instead of the special interests. I honestly don’t know when was the last time
the American people have had a truly independent President.
Among current Trump opponents, Ohio Governor John Kasich
is remaining in the race to position himself as the establishment alternative
if the convention is brokered. Republican
delegates are required to support their candidate on the first ballot, but may
switch support on a second ballot.It
is on the second ballot where the GOP puppet-masters plan to put the screws to “we
the people”.
In the end, the race will likely come down to only two
choices, Trump or Cruz.Even though the
GOP elites do not like Cruz, they are starting to see him as a better
alternative than a wild card like Donald Trump.Although Cruz may do well with party
leaders, he has not been able to match Trump’s success at the ballot box.
Trump is attracting many more voters in the GOP primaries
and caucuses than any other candidate. Florida
Governor Rick Scott recently said, “Donald Trump is the will of the people. We need to listen to the people, back his
candidacy and win in November."
The consultants, experts, analysts, party bosses and
purists have not gotten anything right in this year’s Republican Party
presidential race. These critics need to
wake up and realize that someone with such broad and loyal support deserves the
nomination and has a real chance to be elected President. Unfortunately, the sad, but disturbing, truth
is that many in the Republican Party leadership would much prefer a Democrat
they can bribe over a Republican they cannot.
Here's a little additional information.
A
contested convention happens automatically if nobody has the requisite number
of delegates – 1,237 – to be the nominee. If nobody gets a majority of the delegates
after the first ballot, many of the delegates who were previously bound to the
candidate their state voted for would then become free agents, able to support
whoever they choose. Different states
have different rules regarding when their delegates become unbound; for Florida and California, for instance, all
the delegates are required to vote for the candidate that won their state for 3
ballots.
If no presidential candidate wins a majority of delegates and
Republicans face a contested convention this summer, a small group of party
insiders will have huge sway over who wins — and how to resolve a rift that
could fracture the Republican Party. After all the campaigning, debates and
primaries, the GOP's presidential nomination could hinge on what these insiders
decide.
The RNC Rules Committee decides party
regulations and writes the first draft of convention rules, which are finalized
by a convention rules committee and submitted to a floor vote.
Those rules are crucial. They decide which
candidates are on the ballot: They could pass a rule allowing only Donald Trump
to run in Cleveland, or a rule enabling new candidates to challenge him.
They can decide how delegates vote — and when delegates can switch teams to
support rival candidates. These are the kind of restrictions that could make
the difference between a coronation or chaos in Cleveland.
There is more evidence coming out against Hillary Clinton and Barack
Obama by the day. Col. Andrew Woods has come forward with information that further
indicates that help was ready and actually in route to Benghazi, but was forced
to turn back because Barack Obama would not give the go-ahead order.
The evidence is overwhelming
that the United
States
had several rescue teams ready to go during the 2012 Benghazi attacks, but someone -- possibly the president
himself -- prevented them from acting. So said Emmy
Award-winning journalist Sharyl Attkisson to talk show host Steve
Malzberg in an interview on Wednesday.
Today’s Democratic Party
is NOT your Grandparents Democratic Party, it is light-years to the left of the
party of President John F. Kennedy, who went eyeball-to-eyeball with maniacal
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and brought the civilization-threatening Cuban
missile crisis to an end.
Kennedy, quite the opposite of Obama, pledged to give Americans
“an across-the-board reduction in personal and corporate income tax rates” to
“reduce the burden on private income and the deterrents to private initiative.”
After Kennedy was assassinated, the
massive tax cuts he promised were enacted, resulting in a boom in both the
private economy and federal tax revenues for the rest of the decade.
When Bernie Sanders was
asked if he was a socialist, he responded:“Yeah. I wouldn’t deny it. Not for
one second. I’m a democratic socialist.”(Hitler
was also a democratic socialist)
Yet when asked if he was
a Democrat, he said, “Of course I am a Democrat and running for the Democratic
nomination.”
Meanwhile, the Communist Party USA claims it champions “socialism”
(not communism). Emblazoned at the top
of its website is this bold creed: “A better and peaceful world is possible – a
world where people and nature come before profits. That’s socialism. That’s our vision. We are the Communist Party USA.”
So let’s sum this up:
Sanders, a self-described “democratic socialist,” claims he is indeed a
“socialist,” but also claims he’s a “Democrat.” The Communist Party USA
advocates “socialism,” saying “socialism [is] our vision,” and likewise boasts
of its “unparalleled history in the progressive movement of the United States.” Hillary Clinton,
heavily influenced by Chicago Marxist Saul Alinsky, proudly and repeatedly proclaims
she’s a “modern progressive.”
So, the bottom line is, “communist,” “socialist,” “Marxist,”
“progressive” and “Democrat” have now all come to mean roughly the same thing.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has
revealed that 124 illegal immigrant criminals released from jail by the Obama
administration since 2010 have been subsequently charged with murder.
The invective against Donald Trump has
recently reached new heights, as his detractors have dusted off the old
“Hitler” comparisons and brought them to the fore. Even Bill Maher
jokingly compared The Donald to Hitler in a segment
on his show. Needless to say, such misguided attempts at castigating
Trump sickeningly diminish the real atrocities committed by the real
Hitler. These people show how little they know, but in addition, last
night they showed their hypocrisy.
In advance of a Trump rally on the University
of Illinois-Chicago campus on Friday night, protesters flooded
the arena with the express goal of shutting down the event. Physical
altercations are reported to have taken place between the protesters and Trump
supporters. With the safety of his supporters in mind, Trump rightly canceled
the event. When this was announced, the protesters erupted in applause,
their mission accomplished – to stifle opposing points of view.
Many of the protesters were heard to have
chanted “Bernie! Bernie!” after the cancelation was announced. I
doubt that Bernie Sanders would openly condone what took place at the arena,
but he has condoned – even
praised– the totalitarian tactics of the Castro brothers.
Would he call on his supporters to refrain from such actions hostile to the
First Amendment? Scanning social media this evening, I’ve seen some
Bernie supporters laudably condemn what occurred, but I’ve seen just as many,
if not more, claiming these are Trump’s just deserts.
I have no doubt that the perpetrators of last
night’s lawlessness applaudingly condoned the likening of Donald Trump to Adolf
Hitler, all the while engaging in real actions straight out of the playbook of
the Sturmabteilung – the infamous “Brownshirts.” Mechanically
enforcing the will of the Nazi Party, the Brownshirts disrupted meetings of
opposing parties, employing force and violence to make their mark and
discourage dissent. This is precisely what these thugs did last night,
abandoning the law and civil discourse to perversely embrace the tactics of a
man and a party they witlessly accuse Trump and the Republican party of
embodying.
This, though, is a hallmark of statists –
they accuse their opponents of doing what they themselves do. They make
the comparison to Hitler without a sense of irony, carelessly analogizing
Trump’s proposal to temporary ban the entry of Muslims to the United States to Hitler’s Final Solution. They call Trump a fascist
and shamelessly employ fascist tactics against him and his supporters.
Regardless of what one thinks about Donald
Trump, he has a right to speak, and his supporters have a right to peaceably
assemble. Those rights are enshrined in the First Amendment to our
Constitution. Our nation cherishes that right and has historically
celebrated the ability of opponents on an issue to speak their minds and
debate. However, it’s a right statists on college campuses embrace when
it’s their message they want to shout from the rooftops but condemn when faced
with differing viewpoints. The selective application of freedom of speech
is no freedom at all.
The left paint themselves as eminently
tolerant of others, but that façade crumbles when put to the test. Just
look at the excoriation of Caitlyn Jenner by the left when the transgendered
reality star made supportive
statementsabout Ted Cruz. Last night was not at all
different. Trump comes to Chicago, where he has many supporters, but his leftist
detractors rule the day through intimidation, violence, and anarchy. The
mob ruled last night, giving the civil political process our nation has long
enjoyed a miss.
The Chicago Police did an admirable job of
keeping a bad situation from going worse, but I fear that this lot of students
cum Brownshirts will only embolden others. Given the circumstances, I
believe that Trump did the right thing to cancel the rally, but he has sent a
message: you can silence me by adopting such tactics. For statists, this
could serve as an open invitation to storm rallies across the country, inciting
violence and usurping the rule of law.
Just as Trump and his supporters have the
right to assemble and speak, his opponents likewise have the right to peaceably
protest. They do not have the right to overrun Trump’s
rallies, nor to silence opposition. This is an important point. The
rights we enjoy in this nation are not enjoyed the world over. We have
the opportunity to speak and debate and engage in the free flow of ideas.
This is the very foundation of the civil society. The first step toward
tyranny is to remove that ability.
This ideology says, “If I don’t like what you
have to say, it’s perfectly justifiable to shut you down.” Of what else
is such an ideology capable? History gives us the answer, and it’s deeply
troubling. To be sure, it’s a long road from point A to point Z, but for
those to whom the end justifies the means, it’s a smooth, straight road.
