Video: Senator Jeff Flake says he will not seek reelection in 2018

I kinda saw this coming and I totally understand where he is coming from.

Full Text of the floor speech via CNN:

Mr. President, I rise today to address a matter that has been much on my mind, at a moment when it seems that our democracy is more defined by our discord and our dysfunction than it is by our values and our principles. Let me begin by noting a somewhat obvious point that these offices that we hold are not ours to hold indefinitely. We are not here simply to mark time. Sustained incumbency is certainly not the point of seeking office. And there are times when we must risk our careers in favor of our principles.

Now is such a time.

It must also be said that I rise today with no small measure of regret. Regret, because of the state of our disunion, regret because of the disrepair and destructiveness of our politics, regret because of the indecency of our discourse, regret because of the coarseness of our leadership, regret for the compromise of our moral authority, and by our — all of our — complicity in this alarming and dangerous state of affairs. It is time for our complicity and our accommodation of the unacceptable to end.

In this century, a new phrase has entered the language to describe the accommodation of a new and undesirable order — that phrase being “the new normal.” But we must never adjust to the present coarseness of our national dialogue — with the tone set at the top.

We must never regard as “normal” the regular and casual undermining of our democratic norms and ideals. We must never meekly accept the daily sundering of our country – the personal attacks, the threats against principles, freedoms, and institutions, the flagrant disregard for truth or decency, the reckless provocations, most often for the pettiest and most personal reasons, reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with the fortunes of the people that we have all been elected to serve.

None of these appalling features of our current politics should ever be regarded as normal. We must never allow ourselves to lapse into thinking that this is just the way things are now. If we simply become inured to this condition, thinking that this is just politics as usual, then heaven help us. Without fear of the consequences, and without consideration of the rules of what is politically safe or palatable, we must stop pretending that the degradation of our politics and the conduct of some in our executive branch are normal. They are not normal.
Reckless, outrageous, and undignified behavior has become excused and countenanced as “telling it like it is,” when it is actually just reckless, outrageous, and undignified.

And when such behavior emanates from the top of our government, it is something else: It is dangerous to a democracy. Such behavior does not project strength — because our strength comes from our values. It instead projects a corruption of the spirit, and weakness.
It is often said that children are watching. Well, they are. And what are we going to do about that? When the next generation asks us, Why didn’t you do something? Why didn’t you speak up? — what are we going to say?

Mr. President, I rise today to say: Enough. We must dedicate ourselves to making sure that the anomalous never becomes normal. With respect and humility, I must say that we have fooled ourselves for long enough that a pivot to governing is right around the corner, a return to civility and stability right behind it. We know better than that. By now, we all know better than that.
Here, today, I stand to say that we would better serve the country and better fulfill our obligations under the constitution by adhering to our Article 1 “old normal” — Mr. Madison’s doctrine of the separation of powers. This genius innovation which affirms Madison’s status as a true visionary and for which Madison argued in Federalist 51 — held that the equal branches of our government would balance and counteract each other when necessary. “Ambition counteracts ambition,” he wrote.

But what happens if ambition fails to counteract ambition? What happens if stability fails to assert itself in the face of chaos and instability? If decency fails to call out indecency? Were the shoe on the other foot, would we Republicans meekly accept such behavior on display from dominant Democrats? Of course not, and we would be wrong if we did.

When we remain silent and fail to act when we know that that silence and inaction is the wrong thing to do — because of political considerations, because we might make enemies, because we might alienate the base, because we might provoke a primary challenge, because ad infinitum, ad nauseum — when we succumb to those considerations in spite of what should be greater considerations and imperatives in defense of the institutions of our liberty, then we dishonor our principles and forsake our obligations. Those things are far more important than politics.

Now, I am aware that more politically savvy people than I caution against such talk. I am aware that a segment of my party believes that anything short of complete and unquestioning loyalty to a president who belongs to my party is unacceptable and suspect.

If I have been critical, it not because I relish criticizing the behavior of the president of the United States. If I have been critical, it is because I believe that it is my obligation to do so, as a matter of duty and conscience. The notion that one should stay silent as the norms and values that keep America strong are undermined and as the alliances and agreements that ensure the stability of the entire world are routinely threatened by the level of thought that goes into 140 characters – the notion that one should say and do nothing in the face of such mercurial behavior is ahistoric and, I believe, profoundly misguided.

A Republican president named Roosevelt had this to say about the president and a citizen’s relationship to the office:

“The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the nation as a whole. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly as necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile.” President Roosevelt continued. “To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”

Acting on conscience and principle is the manner in which we express our moral selves, and as such, loyalty to conscience and principle should supersede loyalty to any man or party. We can all be forgiven for failing in that measure from time to time. I certainly put myself at the top of the list of those who fall short in that regard. I am holier-than-none. But too often, we rush not to salvage principle but to forgive and excuse our failures so that we might accommodate them and go right on failing—until the accommodation itself becomes our principle.

In that way and over time, we can justify almost any behavior and sacrifice almost any principle. I’m afraid that is where we now find ourselves.
When a leader correctly identifies real hurt and insecurity in our country and instead of addressing it goes looking for somebody to blame, there is perhaps nothing more devastating to a pluralistic society. Leadership knows that most often a good place to start in assigning blame is to first look somewhat closer to home. Leadership knows where the buck stops. Humility helps. Character counts. Leadership does not knowingly encourage or feed ugly and debased appetites in us.

Leadership lives by the American creed: E Pluribus Unum. From many, one. American leadership looks to the world, and just as Lincoln did, sees the family of man. Humanity is not a zero-sum game. When we have been at our most prosperous, we have also been at our most principled. And when we do well, the rest of the world also does well.

These articles of civic faith have been central to the American identity for as long as we have all been alive. They are our birthright and our obligation. We must guard them jealously, and pass them on for as long as the calendar has days. To betray them, or to be unserious in their defense is a betrayal of the fundamental obligations of American leadership. And to behave as if they don’t matter is simply not who we are.
Now, the efficacy of American leadership around the globe has come into question. When the United States emerged from World War II we contributed about half of the world’s economic activity. It would have been easy to secure our dominance, keeping the countries that had been defeated or greatly weakened during the war in their place. We didn’t do that. It would have been easy to focus inward. We resisted those impulses. Instead, we financed reconstruction of shattered countries and created international organizations and institutions that have helped provide security and foster prosperity around the world for more than 70 years.

Now, it seems that we, the architects of this visionary rules-based world order that has brought so much freedom and prosperity, are the ones most eager to abandon it.

The implications of this abandonment are profound. And the beneficiaries of this rather radical departure in the American approach to the world are the ideological enemies of our values. Despotism loves a vacuum. And our allies are now looking elsewhere for leadership. Why are they doing this? None of this is normal. And what do we as United States Senators have to say about it?

The principles that underlie our politics, the values of our founding, are too vital to our identity and to our survival to allow them to be compromised by the requirements of politics. Because politics can make us silent when we should speak, and silence can equal complicity.
I have children and grandchildren to answer to, and so, Mr. President, I will not be complicit.

I have decided that I will be better able to represent the people of Arizona and to better serve my country and my conscience by freeing myself from the political considerations that consume far too much bandwidth and would cause me to compromise far too many principles.

To that end, I am announcing today that my service in the Senate will conclude at the end of my term in early January 2019.

It is clear at this moment that a traditional conservative who believes in limited government and free markets, who is devoted to free trade, and who is pro-immigration, has a narrower and narrower path to nomination in the Republican party — the party that for so long has defined itself by belief in those things. It is also clear to me for the moment we have given in or given up on those core principles in favor of the more viscerally satisfying anger and resentment. To be clear, the anger and resentment that the people feel at the royal mess we have created are justified. But anger and resentment are not a governing philosophy.

There is an undeniable potency to a populist appeal — but mischaracterizing or misunderstanding our problems and giving in to the impulse to scapegoat and belittle threatens to turn us into a fearful, backward-looking people. In the case of the Republican party, those things also threaten to turn us into a fearful, backward-looking minority party.

We were not made great as a country by indulging or even exalting our worst impulses, turning against ourselves, glorying in the things which divide us, and calling fake things true and true things fake. And we did not become the beacon of freedom in the darkest corners of the world by flouting our institutions and failing to understand just how hard-won and vulnerable they are.

This spell will eventually break. That is my belief. We will return to ourselves once more, and I say the sooner the better. Because to have a heathy government we must have healthy and functioning parties. We must respect each other again in an atmosphere of shared facts and shared values, comity and good faith. We must argue our positions fervently, and never be afraid to compromise. We must assume the best of our fellow man, and always look for the good. Until that days comes, we must be unafraid to stand up and speak out as if our country depends on it. Because it does.
I plan to spend the remaining fourteen months of my senate term doing just that.

Mr. President, the graveyard is full of indispensable men and women — none of us here is indispensable. Nor were even the great figures from history who toiled at these very desks in this very chamber to shape this country that we have inherited. What is indispensable are the values that they consecrated in Philadelphia and in this place, values which have endured and will endure for so long as men and women wish to remain free. What is indispensable is what we do here in defense of those values. A political career doesn’t mean much if we are complicit in undermining those values.
I thank my colleagues for indulging me here today, and will close by borrowing the words of President Lincoln, who knew more about healing enmity and preserving our founding values than any other American who has ever lived. His words from his first inaugural were a prayer in his time, and are no less so in ours:

“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.

Related:

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Trump takes the bait of the race-baiting left

Donald Trump is about to learn the price of taking the bait of the race-baiters of the left.

So, what happened is that John Lewis, a partisan and professional race-baiter, said that he did not feel that Donald Trump’s winning the election of 2016 was in his words, “Legit”.

Well, Trump was having none of this:

Now, based upon the reaction of the leftist media, you would have thought that President-elect Trump donned a Klan uniform and burned a cross on the White House lawn. But, he didn’t. He basically told Lewis to clean up his own backyard, before criticizing him.

President-elect Donald Trump is about to learn a cold, hard lesson in Washington politics, when it comes to race. There are scared cows that you do not tip, and John Lewis is one of them. In fact, half of the Democratic in D.C. won’t be there for his swearing-in.

It is sad really, and it is an example of how bad politics in this century has become.

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EXCLUSIVE AT EYE ON THE REPUBLIC: Video: Prediction that Steve Bannon will be removed

I happen to notice these stories:

Here is my previous blog posting. 

and now, my commentary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSpkIESEzKA

 

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I’m starting to think that Amanda Carpenter needs to become a Democrat

Because I hate to say it; but, she sure is starting to sound like one. she’s allowed her hatred of trump to cloud her judgment.

Look, I don’t like what Trump has done no more than anyone else; especially the attacks on Amanda. But for her to put out an article like this, is starting to make her sound like a whiny feminist liberal.

I don’t believe that Amanda should have been treated like she was. However, politics is a rough sport, it’s a contact sport and sometimes people’s egos get bruised and things happen. She should have known this, when she got involved with political punditry and got involved with government. So,the way I see it: if she can’t handle the heat, she should maybe perhaps look into getting out of the kitchen.

If I wrote about all the times, that I was attacked, not only by the liberal Democrats; but by so-called conservatives, also known as neoconservatives; over some of the things that I’ve written on my blog and have been accused of being a racist, an anti-semite and an islamophobe and many other ridiculous accusations. I would be here writing all night. Did I angry and pooch my lips out and say, “they’re picking on me!”  No, I didn’t. I sucked it up and dealt with it.

Perhaps Amanda Carpenter should look into doing the same thing or get the hell out of political pundity for good. Nobody is entitled to anything; least of all some little harpy feminazi who thinks that she ought to be treated special, because she’s a woman.

This is not going to end well for the Republican Party

Good morning from Detroit.

I am awake very early this morning and I happen to be looking over the headlines here on Memeorandum.

I happen to be reading and looking at these headlines here and I cannot help but think that if, by chance that Donald Trump loses this election; that the Republican Party is going to be totally in a state of shambles for a very, very long time. I mean, even the Wealthy are now looking elsewhere and in a Republican election, that is bad…very bad. I mean, I hate to sound like a “Debbie Downer”, but this really does not look good for the Republicans at all. Because folks, let us just face the facts — There are more wealthy Republicans, than there are grassroots conservatives. The majority of the Conservative Christian Right, is presumably staying home, at least the ones I know.

The reason I say it is not looking good for the Republicans, is that they have totally invested themselves into basically a clown, a showman, an egotistical blowhard — who sues anyone that dare criticizes him. You cannot say, that the Republicans did not try, they did and it was a very valiant effort. But, you would think that they would have selected someone a bit more serious, than who they picked. Ted Cruz was dangerous. But, there were others, Rand Paul, Christie, a few others. Instead we go who we got and now we’re looking at 8 years of a criminal pantsuit.

 

What we’re in now, is nothing new

I know that title sounds a bit odd, but I wanted to share something with you all. The feeling around now, in the paleoconservative circles, is one of utter dread. However, this isn’t anything new. consider something that I read over at TomDispatch.com (H/T UNZ.COM):

The Rise of the Evangelical Right

It wasn’t particularly difficult to portray 1980 as a gloomy time for America. The spike in oil prices in 1979 had sent the U.S. economy into a tailspin and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was propelling the two superpowers into another cycle of Cold War tensions. Iranian radicals were holding 52 U.S. diplomats and citizens hostage in Tehran, which produced a daily (and, thanks to Ted Koppel’s Nightline reports, nightly) humiliation for President Jimmy Carter and his administration.

As the Republican Party’s presidential candidate, Ronald Reagan responded to these developments by continually playing up the image of an America in decline. His grim vision of that American future cemented his ties to an ascendant right wing within the evangelical community. As early as 1971, intellectual historian Paul Boyer pointed out, Reagan claimed that “the day of Armageddon isn’t far off.” He was referring then to turmoil in the Middle East and the pivotal role of Israel there. “Everything is falling into place,” he added. “It can’t be long now.”

Reagan was not exactly an easy sell to the Bible belt. Divorced and anything but a devoted churchgoer, he was closely associated in the public mind with that Sodom of the West Coast, Hollywood. In the 1980 election, he was also up against Jimmy Carter, a born-again Christian who openly discussed his faith.

Admittedly, Reagan benefited from the endorsement of the Moral Majority, founded by Reverend Jerry Falwell in 1979, and he began playing directly to the religious crowd by establishing a new tradition of inserting “God bless America” into his speeches. But it was those repeated references to Armageddon that cemented his relationship with the religious right. Apocalyptic thinking is central to the worldview of evangelicals. Indeed, it’s what principally distinguishes them from mainstream Christians. “The one thing that affects how they live their daily lives,” writes historian of religion Matthew Avery Sutton, “is that they believe we are moving towards the End Times, the rise of the Antichrist, towards a great tribulation and a horrific human holocaust.”

The mainstream media was shocked that Reagan then brought such doomsday rhetoric into the Oval Office. “It is hard to believe that the President actually allows Armageddon ideology to shape his policies toward the Soviet Union,” the New York Times editorialized just before the 1984 election. “Yet it was he who first portrayed the Russians as satanic and who keeps on talking about that final battle.” Reagan easily went on to win a second term. Later, George W. Bush would employ similar apocalyptic references to justify the invasion of Iraq and unqualified support for Israel, and it didn’t prevent him from winning a second term either.

This piece goes on to say how similar Trump is to what happened in the 1980’s with Reagan. So, basically, this is all too familiar. There is a difference however; Reagan was more of a statesman, noble type. Trump is all about his own image and sometimes, that image is terrifying.

I think another difference between Reagan and Trump is this: For one, in Reagan’s day there was no 24 hour news cycle, as there is today. CNN was just getting started and there was no FOX News or MSNBC. For two, things were different in Reagan’s era. He came from the 1940’s. In that era, couples, families; people in general — kept their private lives, just that — private. You never saw Jane Wyman getting on TV in the 1980’s and trashing Ronald Reagan, when he was running for President. Because in those days, people just did not do that. The press was different too, there was a certain moral code that they lived by.

Sadly, that has all changed today. It started around 1989; right around the time that Reagan was leaving office. The fairness doctrine was gone and slowly the media became more and more politicized. Nowadays, gossip and innuendo are more valued over hard factual news. Accusations are more treated as fact, than facts themselves. It is a total and utter bastardizing of the media.

It is very obvious to this writer, that Donald Trump has lost this battle with the media and should step aside and let Mike Pence carry the torch and hopefully, he can win. However, as the steel-eyed realist that I am; I am sorry to say, it does not look good for us, at all.

 

The utter hypocrisy of the “Christian Right”

I have to say, the so-called “Christian Right” has fallen away from what it once was in the 1980’s. As you know, and as I blogged about at about four this morning, Trump got caught on a hot mic saying some pretty nasty stuff about a woman.

This is what amazes me to no end. The so-called “Christian Right” has pretty shrugged the shoulders and said, “Oh Well…”.

Click here for the story via the Daily Beast. I shall quote some interesting parts:

The fact that Donald Trump said in 2005 that he could grab women “by the p*ssy” because he’s famous doesn’t seem to be changing how social conservative leaders feel about him.

Evangelicals who opposed him before still aren’t fans. And the ones in his camp aren’t phased by the recording. That’s because this isn’t about how much they like the brash billionaire; it’s about how unflinching they are in their opposition to Hillary Clinton.

“People of faith are voting on issues like who will protect unborn life, defund Planned Parenthood, defend religious liberty and oppose the Iran nuclear deal,” said Ralph Reed, who heads the Faith & Freedom Coalition.  “A ten-year-old tape of a private conversation with a talk show host ranks low on their hierarchy of concerns.”

This whole thing that I just quoted above, encapsulates the entire downfall and compromise of the Evangelical Christian right. Now, I happen to be 44 years old and I remember the Reagan era very well and I remember the militancy of the Christian Right. Could you imagine, if you are old enough to recall; what would have happened to Ronald Reagan, if something like that would have broken, during his bid for the Presidency? Ronald Reagan would have been shamed out of the Presidential race in an instant!

The reasoning for this reasoning of this, “eh, it happens” stance, is this:

Robert Jeffress, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas and a member of Trump’s Evangelical Executive Advisory Board, said the comments were “lewd, offensive, and indefensible.”

But, he added, he’s still voting Trump. He said he moderated a meeting between the candidate and Evangelical and Catholic leaders, and he was forthright about his hesitations about Trump’s moral

“I said at that time, with Trump sitting next to me, I would not necessarily choose this man to be my child’s Sunday School teacher,” Jeffress said. “But that’s not what this election is about.”

He added that he doesn’t think Hillary Clinton is morally superior to Trump.

“Here is a woman who lied to the families of the Benghazi victims, she destroyed 33,000 emails while under subpoena, and she’s attacked the women who attacked her husband,” he said. “The fact is we’re all sinners, we all need forgiveness, and God doesn’t grade people according to their level of sin.”

And David Bozell, a Roman Catholic who heads the conservative group ForAmerica and supports Trump, said the audio won’t change how conservative voters view the candidate.

“Bill Clinton’s history of being a sexual predator, including affairs with interns, dwarfs any locker room banter,” he said. “The clip is unfortunate, but then again, we’re not electing saints in November.”

Unbelievable. The reasoning is, “Donald Trump is pretty bad; But Hillary Clinton is worse.” This is a fatal flaw and bad reasoning. It also is a sure sign of the apostasy within the ranks of the Evangelical Church.

Now, do not misunderstand me here; I am voting for Trump and I will be holding my nose. However, as a Christian and an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist; I would expect those who claim to represent me and my beliefs to at least take more of a stand on an issue much as this one.

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I’m really worried about Trump’s chances

In case you all haven’t noticed, I really haven’t been writing about politics at all, here as of late.

Quite frankly, I am totally burned out on Politics as a whole. I guess the burnout started after 2012, when Mitt Romney lost and it’s not really gotten any better.

Quite honestly, I really don’t know if Donald Trump even has a chance at winning in 2016. What with hiring of the guy, who basically runs the conservative version of Pravada; also known as Breitbart. I just don’t see how people are going to take him seriously.

Then there’s his statement about the American intelligence system. Can you think of a more boneheaded statement to make if you’re running for president? “I want to be your president, but, I don’t trust the American intelligence system”;that has to be the most tone-deaf, ignorant, statement that anyone could make who was running for president.

Then, there’s that every Republican who has any sort of influence in the party, is basically blasting Trump and then endorsing Hillary Clinton. Sorry, but that’s a death sentence for a campaign, when your own people do not trust your ability to lead the country and endorsed someone, who is basically the sworn enemy of the Republican Party.

Then there’s the media, now we all know that the media; except maybe for Fox News channel, is biased against Donald Trump. That’s a given in politics, I totally understand that.

However, I happen to believe that the movements of the Trump campaign here in the last few months, combined with the Republican Party establishment’s literal turning on Donald Trump left and right….I just don’t think he has the ability to win the presidency and that my friends is a depressing thing and makes me not really want to blog at all.

As an independent Baptist and as a Christian and as someone who used to vote Democrat and finally threw up my hands in disgust and walked away and joined the ranks of Pat Buchanan, Chuck Baldwin and many of the other people who still believe in this country: I have to say there are dark days ahead. I just hope we can survive them. 😔😟

I hate to say it, But, John Kerry is right

As you all know, I have rescinded my support of Donald Trump. So, when I saw this article here; I had to agree with it.

Via Yahoo News:

Washington (AFP) – Secretary of State John Kerry warned that the Republican presidential campaign has descended into “an embarrassment” that raises awkward questions abroad about the reliability of the United States.

Kerry said that everywhere he goes, every leader he meets asks about what is happening in America.

“They cannot believe it. I think it is fair to say that they’re shocked. They don’t know where it’s taking the United States of America,” Kerry said in an interview on the Sunday CBS news show “Face The Nation.”

“It upsets people’s sense of equilibrium about our steadiness, about our reliability, and to some degree I must say to you, some of the questions, the way they’re posed to me, it’s clear to me that what’s happening is an embarrassment to our country.”

Kerry was asked out the impact abroad of the Republican campaign with its calls for bans on Muslim immigrants, surveillance of Muslim neighborhoods and the return of waterboarding, an interrogation practice regarded as torture.

Frontrunner Donald Trump and his chief rival Ted Cruz have stepped up the anti-Muslim rhetoric since the suicide bombings in Brussels Tuesday that left 28 dead.

I hate to be the one to say it; But, Jerry Kerry is right. The nasty rhetoric coming out of the Trump and Cruz campaigns is sickening. I would imagine that world leaders would be mildly concerned about it too. I wrote something on Facebook last night and I think it fits here:

One more thing before I go to bed.

I have written about this on my blog, but, I thought I would write about it here as well I have officially thrown in the towel with Donald Trump.

He’s got some great positions on free trade, foreign policy and immigration. But, there are other things that he has done, that I really don’t like at all.

Basically, what happened is there was a story that came out in the National Enquirer that basically accused Ted Cruz of having multiple affairs with multiple women

Well, a young lady who I have known via the Internet for a long time got implicated in that story in the National Enquirer. Her name is Amanda Carpenter and I have corresponded with her on the internet on multiple occasions and she’s also happily married with 2 kids

The fact that Donald Trump basically has not really said anything in her defense and the fact that basically the guy is a misogynist when it comes to women; his attacks on Megyn Kelly are a perfect example of that.

I looked the other way when he went after Megyn Kelly, I looked the other way when he said some rather nasty things about Rosie O’Donald and a few other women. I also looked the other way when some very hardcore racist people began supporting him and he basically would not forcefully distanced himself from those kind of people.

I kind of get wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and I also kind of tried to overlook it.

However, when someone who I happen to know is a sister in the Lord Jesus Christ that loves the Lord quite a bit and strives to serve him and make him the Cornerstone of her family; that being her husband and her two children; gets slimed like that and then Donald Trump turns around and says, “well, I didn’t have anything to do with it” and basically in insinuates that Ted Cruz and the rest of those women had it coming…

,
….I’m sorry, but that’s just too much. Not to mention that Donald Trump has cheapened the political discussion. he has appealed to a raw emotion which is populism and there’s nothing wrong with that; as long as it’s done in a positive way. Donald Trump has used it in a negative way and as a result some pretty nasty things have happened.

Having said that, I have rescinded my support of Donald Trump. I will not be voting for him in the general election. I will be voting third-party most likely to libertarian or Constitution party and if the GOP collapses upon itself in November, it will be nobody’s fault, but their own and I will be able to say that I had no hand in that implosion.

if by some chance Donald Trump does win the White House, personally, I think it’ll be a miracle. because if the GOP establishment doesn’t do him in, then he will do himself in with his nastiness and that’s just how I feel about it.

Ronald Reagan conveyed hope, optimism and faith. Donald Trump, the only thing I see that comes out of him his ego nastiness and vindictiveness; that’s not good qualities for a president.

I ask all of you who are Christians and do pray, that do follow me on Facebook, who are friends with me on Facebook; please hold up Amanda Carpenter, her husband Chris and her daughter and young son in your prayers. Because now, Satan is working overtime to try to destroy that marriage and it’s a sad thing, she’s a really nice woman.

This is why I stopped supporting Donald Trump; nothing more, nothing less. Quite bluntly, I have had enough of it. When the GOP finds someone, who is not a clown show, to run for President; I might vote for them. Until then, I will be voting third party. The silliness with Amanda Carpenter was it for me.

Others: Booman Tribune

Video: Sean Hannity Says, “If GOP Elites Steal Nomination from Trump or Cruz, “I’m Walking””

This is what I like about Sean Hannity; He is a Republican, to a point and this is an example of that.

The Video:

https://youtu.be/GRXc-F0sfYE

Are they going to cut their nose despite their face?… You know, if they are going to be that self destructive, and if they’re going to pout, and if they’re going to pick up their little toys, and they’re going to go home like a bunch of babies, they will destroy, there will be no Republican Party at the end of this. Because if they’re successful , Guess what? Cruz and Trump supporters are walking out. And, I’m walking out with them. – Via: Sean Hannity: If GOP Elites Steal Nomination from Trump or Cruz, “I’m Walking” (VIDEO) – The Gateway Pundit

Now there are some that would say that this is nothing more than political theater. However, I seriously doubt that. Because Hannity has been high critical of the Republican Party on his show in the past. So, if I were the Republican Party, I would really pay attention to what Hannity and Rush Limbaugh are saying, because those guys represent the grassroots conservative movement and a large part of the Republican Party —- and those people are angry, very angry, at a party that has continually sold them up the river. This is what created the Tea Party Movement and what gave Donald Trump his momentum.

Now Hannity also mentions Ted Cruz; now here is what Hannity is missing on that one. The Republican Establishment will not block Cruz, because his wife is on the council of foreign relations board and is, or was; depending on who you believe —-  a member of the board of Goldman Sachs. So, Ted Cruz is touchable and could very well be influenced by them. But, Donald Trump? No way. Trump has his own money and can afford to play by his own rules. This is why the Republican Establishment hates him and wants him out.

Now, I would like to think that the Republican Party or at least the Republican Nation Committee is going to let common sense rule the day and not try to interfere with the process of nomination. However, you have to realize that these people have a good deal of money at stake here and Trump is a threat to that; so, there is no telling what might happen at the convention in Cleveland.

I just hope and pray that common sense and a sense of reality prevail and they chose the person that the majority of conservative Americans want for their President and we move on to the general election. Because, folks; we need to go after and defeat these traitorous bastards that have put this Country in the place that it is in now; ALL OF THEM! I am talking about Establishment Republicans AND Democrats both. This is right folks, it is the Establishment Republicans and the Establishment Democrats who brought you the meltdown in 2008, due to the idiotic deregulation of the banks. They also brought you the crappy economy, due to the unfair trade deals as well.

This, above, is why I am voting Trump in November.