THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS DEAD TO ME. NOW WHAT?

I have decided NOT to vote for any Republican candiate running for national office - President or Congress. The activities of the Republicans over this impeachment and the last 4 years of the Trump administration was and is disgusting.

The Republican Party must purge the national RINOs and anti-Trump politicians from their Party or my vote in national elections will be Third Party. It's my protest vote - no - it's a small addition to making the GOP wither and die on the vine.

I do not expect my one vote to change the GOP's attitude but if enough Americans decide to cut them off from office, then perhaps, just perhaps, some needed changes on the national level for the GOP will happen. Though I doubt. The GOP has show they would rather stay in power and remain in the Uni-party than defend Traditional America.

Now, I do plan to vote for conservative Republicans in my State and local level and vote for those who take a stand against the Federal Government's ant-conservative policies and be a stalwart against the corrupt policies of the DC circus. Who refuse to concede to those corrupt policies will get my vote locally. 

If you are in a Blue State controlled by Democrats, I feel sorry for you. But those who are in the Red States of Free America, we can hold the local GOP responsible for defending the Bill of Rights and Constitution in our local communities. 

Maybe a movement will start and people see themselves in Free America in the Red States and show the disgusting swamp in DC that we will resist there policies and demands that violate the Constitution and Bill of Rights. We need such a local movement seriously.

GOP Post-Mueller-Investigation Video

Headlines, with rousing music ("Can Can"):

Ted Cruz: "No Party can stay in power by lying to the American people"

I'm not as optimistic as Senator Cruz that the constituents will persuade the betraying senators to get the show on the road.

From where I'm sitting, I'm hearing the peasants beyond the moat say that they are done with career politicians. And Senator Cruz's words in the video below — particularly the words unfortunately and in time — don't cut it.  He has only an intellectual understanding of the struggles of the peasants beyond the moat (aka The Deplorables).

The full interview with Senator Cruz after the failed July 28, 2017 vote on the "skinny repeal":


Senator Cruz also stated:

“I’ll tell you this, if you stand up and campaign and say we’re going to repeal ObamaCare and you vote for ObamaCare, those are not consistent,” he added. “And the American people are entirely justified in saying, ‘Any politician who told me that and voted the other didn’t tell me the truth; they lied to me.’ ”

[...]

“You can’t have your central promise for seven years be we’ll repeal ObamaCare, and then you show up and vote not even to take up the bill to consider repealing ObamaCare."

Do the three senators who voted no on the "skinny repeal" — Senators Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and John McCain (Ariz.) — realize what they have wrought? In their zeal to resist President Trump, they may well have dealt the death blow to the GOP.

Do they actually want to bring about single payer?

Related...Montage: MSNBC, CNN Celebrate McCain Sabotaging GOP ObamaCare Repeal: ‘John McCain, who was indeed a profile in courage tonight’.

A Referendum On Trump?

According to the Chicago Tribune and numerous other Democratic Party mouthpieces, the June 20, 2017 special election for the 6th District of the United States House of Representatives, was a referendum on Trump.

Well, Democratic Party candidate Jon Osoff lost to Republican Party candidate Karen Handel.

According to the New Yorker, this election result is a reality check for the Democrats.

BREAKING NOW: HOUSE MAJORITY WHIP STEVE SCALISE HAS BEEN SHOT AT AN EARLY MORNING GOP BASEBALL TEAM PRACTICE IN ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA!

The scene this morning (image credit)

Go to Google search for "steve scalise shot" (without the quotation marks).

I am updating as I can. ~ AOW

Congressman Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) was apparently shot in the hip and unable to walk.

CNN is saying the shooter was a middle-aged white man.

Two Capitol Police officers also shot. They were armed only with handguns, the shooter(s) with a rifle (or rifles). One of Congressman Scalise's aides was also shot.

Note: the only people on that baseball field were members of the GOP.

Members of the GOP Baseball Team was hiding in the dugout and screaming into their mobile phones, "We are under attack!"

At least five have been hit.

Report on Fox News: before the shooting started, a man in running shorts came up and asked if the baseball team was Democrats or Republicans.

UPDATE FROM PASTORIUS

I WILL BE AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER FOR AWHILE, BUT HERE'S SOME INFORMATION:

MEMBER OF CONGRESS SHOT
SCALISE IN STABLE CONDITION

Gunman opens fire at congressional baseball practice...
High-Powered Rifle; More than 50 shots fired...
'Are Those Republicans or Democrats Out There?'
Security tightened at White House... 

AOW here:

This shooting appears to be a deliberate, target attack on the GOP (CNN).

The weapon appears to have been an AR-15 (according to some gun-savvy witnesses, Fox News).

Fox News: the shooting went on for 10 minutes. The shooter reloaded at least once.

The Congressional Teams Baseball Game was supposed to take place tomorrow at Nationals Field and has been well-publicized (Fox News).

One the Capitol Police officers, although shot, was able to take down the shooter. The shooter is now en route to a hospital (Fox News).

Congressman Scalise was airlifted from the scene and is now in the hospital, probably INOVA Fairfax Hospital, which has a trauma center (Fox News).

"It was a shooting field" (Rand Paul, interviewed by phone on Fox News. Some 50 rounds were fired by the gunman.

According to Jeff Flake (R - Arizona), Steve Scalise was playing 2nd base. When he was shot, he dragged himself into the outfield so as to be further away from the shooter, who was behind the 3rd base dugout. Congressman Jeff Flake went to the outfield to put pressure on Scalise's hip wound. The Congressional Baseball Game has been a Washington tradition for over 16 years (Fox News).

UPDATE: Congressman Scalise may be at Georgetown University Medical Center. Police in assault rifles all over the ER entrance there.  The Today Show Twitter feed is showing that he may have a groin wound:

New video shows Congressman @SteveScalise after Alexandria shooting. https://t.co/afPAJ2WT6x

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) June 14, 2017

As Anonymous has pointed out here at IBA, in a comment:

If the shooter is tied to the right Trump will be blamed. If the shooter is tied to the left the gun will be blamed.

The blame game has started (with thanks to Anonymous):

Rolling Stone, Washington Post Freelancer Blames Scalise For Getting Himself Shot https://t.co/dWKFfShEej

— Thomas Paine (@Thomas1774Paine) June 14, 2017

UPDATE FROM PASTORIUS:

Liberal Hacks Attack GOP Rep. Scalise After Shooting: ‘Nothing But Whores and Puppets for NRA’

AOW here...Shooter identified by law enforcement officials as James T. Hodgkinson:

The shooter at the GOP congressional baseball practice this morning is James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, Ill., according to law enforcement officials. Hodgkinson, 66, owns a home inspection business. His home inspection license expired in November 2016 and was not renewed, state records show.

Hodgkinson was charged in April 2006 with battery and aiding damage to a motor vehicle, according to online records in St. Clair County, Illinois. The charges were dismissed, records show.

The Trump-Russia Connection. Um, not exactly.

With a hat tip to my friend Z:


Now, why aren't the members of the GOP driving home these points every time they step in front of the camera and every time they have a mic within reach?

Hey, Karl! Can you hear me now?

Last night, "pundit" Karl Rove opined that Donald Trump owes Paul Ryan a debt of gratitude. The other Fox people on the desk nearly broke out into a riot live, on the air. Too funny!

Today is a good day to review my post from May 2016:

Over and over, Karl Rove and his various mouthpieces have declared:

"Donald Trump will not be the nominee."

Back in October, I tried to tell one of the inner circle (an individual whom I will not, at this point, name):

"If you don't get out in front of this right now and put up a candidate who addresses the issues that the peasants beyond the moat care about, Donald Trump will take the party right out from under you."

I was told more than once in the hours long meeting:

"We must remain tethered to reality."

Here's your reality, Karl et al,...

Donald Trump is the 2016 GOP nominee.

And, today, Donald J. Trump is the President elect!

Hey, Karl, can you hear me now?

A Sign Of The Political Times

See Politico's: Huelskamp loses GOP primary.

Huelskamp is a Never Trumper.

Trump’s Dayenu

Dayenu (Hebrew:דַּיֵּנוּ) is a song that is part of the Jewish holiday of Passover. The word “Dayenu” means approximately “it would have been enough for us”, “it would have been sufficient”, or “it would have sufficed” (day in Hebrew is “enough”, and -enu the first person plural suffix, “to us”). This traditional up-beat Passover song is over one thousand years old.

If at any time since NINETEEN EIGHTY SIX the Republican party had taken any successful move to secure the border, it would have been enough for us.

If at any time since US Steel began to complain about overseas ‘dumping’ of steel into the US (the NINETEEN SEVENTIES) the Republican party had taken action to rectify the GOOD THEORY of Free Trade with the REALITY of it’s results, it would have been enough for us.

If the Republicans in Congress (and Senate, of course) had STUCK to lower budgets and smaller govt at ANY TIME in the last 8 years, it would have been enough for us.

If the Republicans in Congress had found Lois Lerner in contempt and exercised every resource available to them (even knowing the DOJ would never cooperate), in order to COMBAT REPRESSION AMERICAN STYLE, it would have been enough for us. . But instead their lack of resolve brought suspicions they wanted to keep the tool of IRS coercion and fear alive (for themselves, against a Tea Party they feared?)

If they Republicans in Congress had taken REAL ACTION against the Iran deal include budgetary punishment across the board, it would have been enough for us. EVEN IF IT FAILED.

If the Republicans in Congress did not act at all times as if their allegiance was to a corporate America which BENEFITS from cheap labor here (open border) and free trade (cheap labor THERE), it would have been enough for us.  AT ALL TIMES. Who voted which way on TPP?
But the Republicans in Congress and the Senate did NONE of these things.

They did not appear in Michigan to ask Ford what would it take to make it PAY for Ford to stay.
They did not convene the corporate benefactors to ask what conditions (not giveaways, as in Solyndra) would cause them to abandon manufacturing overseas

They did not hold hearings to ask if R&D and engineering would follow manufacturing to other nations (INIMICAL TO OUR WAY OF LIFE)

They did not BACK UP by legislation (EVEN IF IF WAS TO BE VETOED) the Americans living near the international border with Mexico.

Instead they allowed themselves to be the functional allies of larger authority in our day to day lives while speaking out of other sides of their mouths.

Instead their ‘intellectuals’ were so wedded to a set of ideals DAMAGING to the people of the nation suddenly they found themselves leading only each other and crying about conscience.

If they had only done JUST ONE of these things above, the Republican Party would have today a very different nominee, because we would have a very different POPULACE.

Instead…

Ain't It The Truth?

In response to Silverfiddle's comment at my blog yesterday:

We've got to give El Donaldo some credit. He's forcing the political whores to lay their cards on the table.

DC is spilling over with cheap pimps, and the dirty little secret being revealed is that they know no ideology...

Let us count the ways and hope that we don't exceed the allowable bandwidth.

(hat tip to Skip V. Patel's Twitter page)

Paradigm Shift?

The Cambridge Dictionary Online defines "paradigm shift" as the following:

a time when the usual and accepted way of doing or thinking about something changes completely.

Last week, I said at at Ed Bonderenka's blog Not of This World...

If what we are witnessing [in this election cycle] is a paradigm shift, we shouldn't be surprised that there is a great deal of animosity. And I've come to believe that we may well be in the early stages of a paradigm shift. I lived through the huge paradigm shift of the Sixties followed by a smaller paradigm shift (Reagan),and, of course, the more recent paradigm shift (2007-present).

When a pendulum swings in reaction to a very recent swing, the pendulum will swing hard. If time allows and the clock doesn't implode, the pendulum will come back to center.

From Trump: What American Conservatism Needs:

...“True” American “conservatism” cannot be saved by the executive branch or the Republican Party. It can only be preserved in the family, the home, the small town, and the political communities that make up America, what truly makes “America great.” When Americans subscribe to a national prescription as a remedy for all that ails us as a people, they unknowingly invite the type of executive abuse we have weathered for the past twenty-eight years.

If Americans wish to “conserve” anything, it should be hearth and home, freedom to have your local political community reflect your values, and the possibility of upward mobility unrestrained by unconstitutional federal regulations. It should be a revival of the rugged individualism that provided the blood and sweat of American greatness. More than anything, Trump has tapped into these values. The establishment can’t stand it.

Trump’s victory has made establishment “conservatives” angry. It may even signal the demise of the Republican Party (I doubt it). It may drive some people to support Clinton or a third-party alternative in the general election. But it won’t destroy American conservatism. Trump has, whether the establishment wants to recognize it or not, rekindled it....

Please read it all HERE. We have a lot to consider before we cast our ballots in the 2016 National Election six months from now.

Not Long Ago, Paul Ryan Didn't Have A Problem With Trump As The Nominee

POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE

Now that earth has moved with the dropping out of Cruz and Kasich, Ryan isn't comfortable.

From Politico, dated April 27, 2016 (hat tip to Joe Conservative):

Ryan: Trump 'comfortable' with my vision for GOP

House Speaker Paul Ryan downplayed any conflict between his detailed policy proposals and those pushed by Donald Trump on Wednesday, hours after the front-runner sewed up five more states and marched ever closer to locking up his party’s nomination....

[...]

House Speaker Paul Ryan downplayed any conflict between his detailed policy proposals and those pushed by Donald Trump on Wednesday, hours after the front-runner sewed up five more states and marched ever closer to locking up his party’s nomination....

Read the rest to see that Ryan expects any GOP nominee to come into line with the policies which Ryan — that is, the GOP establishment — supports.

Trump is scheduled to meet with Ryan next week. What is Ryan expecting to come out of that meeting?

Additional reading (from Political Tea Leaves): The Bush Globalist Neocons Plot Third Way.

Goodbye, John McCain?

He's been on Capitol Hill for five terms and is running for a sixth term.

Enough, already!

From McCain on tape: Trump damages my reelection hopes: 'If Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket,' the senator says in a recording obtained by POLITICO, 'this may be the race of my life.':

Publicly, John McCain insists Donald Trump will have a negligible effect on his campaign for reelection. But behind closed doors at a fundraiser in Arizona last month, the Republican senator and two-time presidential hopeful offered a far more dire assessment to his supporters....

Read the rest HERE.

Hey, Karl, Can You Hear Me Now?

Over and over, Karl Rove and his various mouthpieces have declared:

"Donald Trump will not be the nominee."

Back in October, I tried to tell one of the inner circle (an individual whom I will not, at this point, name):

"If you don't get out in front of this right now and put up a candidate who addresses the issues that the peasants beyond the moat care about, Donald Trump will take the party right out from under you."

I was told more than once in the hours long meeting:

"We must remain tethered to reality."

Here's your reality, Karl et al,...

Donald Trump is the 2016 GOP nominee.

Mark Levin Doesn't See Through Michelle Fields?

Really?

From this source:

I’ve backed Cruz, and I’m going to continue to back Cruz, but here’s what I’m going to do. As a result of what the Trump supporters have attempted here, particularly Roger Stone, I am not voting for Donald Trump. Period. … And if anybody has a problem with that, Donald Trump, you can talk to Roger Stone. These bully, dirty tricks, Nixonian tactics, they’re only going to backfire. They’re only going to backfire. So, count me as never Trump. There’s been too much of this folks, way too much of this. The crap in the National Enquirer against Ted Cruz, the attacks on Michelle Fields, I mean, I can go right through the list, too much, too much, too much. At some point, you’ve got to stand up to it.

And if they piss me off one more time, I’m going to urge millions and millions of you, should he get the nomination, not to vote for him either.

Audio HERE.

Also worth noting:

Mark Levin reverses course on the #NeverTrump faction of the Republican party days after he castigated the group as asinine frauds who are not real conservatives.

Ted Cruz's Flip Flops On Issues

According to Ann Coulter, and she has links:

...-- Quadrupling the number of foreign guest workers to help ranchers and farmers get cheap labor: Cruz was for it, and now is against it.

-- Legalizing illegal aliens: Cruz was for it, and now is against it.

-- The Trans-Pacific Partnership deal: Cruz was for it, and now is against it.

-- Building a wall: Cruz was against it, and now is for it.

These are all positions Cruz has changed since being a senator -- most of them he's flipped on only in the last year. I'm supposed to believe that U.S. senators can sincerely change their minds about policies it was their job to know about, but a New York developer can never change his mind about pop-offs he made more than a decade ago....

If You Read Nothing Else Today, Read THIS!

Excerpt from Donald Trump for President -- My Anti-Manifesto by Silverfiddle of Western Hero:

The GOP Stool has Collapsed

Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rice burned the neocon leg off the stool in a failed Shock and Awe chemistry set experiment (Don't try this at home, kids!)...

The Free Market leg shattered and was found to be a fake Chinese knock-off made out of hollow balsa wood reinforced only by toxic lead paint...

And the nation has overwhelmingly rejected mean-faced, un-Christ-like social conservatism preached to them by a pharisaical clutch of angry hypocrites.

So, that leaves the GOP sitting on their asses on a little round wooden circle on the floor, goggled-eyed and slack-jawed, wondering what the hell happened.

No stool, no ideas, no concept of how to sell ideas if they had any, no charisma, no charity in their hearts, no clue.

[...]

So, this is our opportunity to...

Eye-gouge the batwinged gargoyles; blast the flying monkeys out of the sky; kick the shit out of the DC Praetorian Guard; scald the red asses of the poop-throwing bolshevik baboons and their bullhorn brigades; throw a flaming pie in the faces of the progressive scolds; tar and feather the GOP Ayatollahs; show the one-worlders the door... and then slam their dicks in it. We can finally tell the foreign pisants and ankle-biters to get lost, go solve their own problems, and stop pestering such a grand and important nation as the United States of America.

Pull a lever and dance to the tortured screams of the Republicans, the Democrats, the DC Establishment, the Punditocracy, screaming loony leftards, conservative windbags, the Global Elites, and the craven foreign governments and their teeming, resentful masses who hate us but who all want to come here.

Donald Trump presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to nail them all in the nuts with one swift kick.

Read the entire essay HERE.

The Other Day a Group of Republican Operatives Met To Strategize on How To Stop Trump - Here's Their Solution

THEY WANT TO MURDER YOUR SOVERIGNTY

Republican Operatives meet to stop Trump.

The next day, here's the big idea being floated by Mitt Romney:

VOTE FOR CRUZ OR KASICH, WHATEVER IT TAKES TO DENY TRUMP A CLEAR PATH TO THE NOMINATION. 

This week, in the Utah nominating caucus, I will vote for Senator Ted Cruz. Today, there is a contest between Trumpism and Republicanism. 

Through the calculated statements of its leader, Trumpism has become associated with racism, misogyny, bigotry, xenophobia, vulgarity and, most recently, threats and violence. 

I am repulsed by each and every one of these. 

(Oh, bully for you, MIttens. How brave of you to come out against racism.)

The only path that remains to nominate a Republican rather than Mr. Trump is to have an open convention. 

At this stage, the only way we can reach an open convention is for Senator Cruz to be successful in as many of the remaining nominating elections as possible. 

I like Governor John Kasich. I have campaigned with him. He has a solid record as governor. I would have voted for him in Ohio. 

But a vote for Governor Kasich in future contests makes it extremely likely that Trumpism would prevail. 

I will vote for Senator Cruz and I encourage others to do so as well, so that we can have an open convention and nominate a Republican.

1) These scum want to thwart the will of their own Constituency - WE THE PEOPLE.

2) Mitt makes it clear here, THE REPUBLICANS DO NOT SUPPORT CRUZ, EXCEPT TO THUMP TRUMP. 

3) The main issue is America's control over its borders - who comes in and out of the country; that's why they call him a racist and xenophobe.

 GOD DAMN THESE FUCKS TO HELL!

Hijacking The GOP?

The Rove-ites keep saying that Donald Trump is hijacking the GOP. I'm sick to death of hearing that!

Furthermore, that position is not tethered to reality.

From Real Clear Politics:

A top Republican consultant whined last week, "Donald Trump is hijacking the Republican Party."

Really?

[...]

Trumpism isn't hard to explain. We've had eight years of a mostly failed Republican president followed by eight years of a completely failed Democrat. Over this whole period, the middle class hasn't seen a pay increase -- while GOP political consultants rake in millions as a reward for losing. The fact that four of the wealthiest counties in America are inside or near the Washington Beltway says everything to voters about who is benefiting from a $4 trillion government.

The Republicans have only themselves to blame for this working-class revolt. These are voters who are horrified by what Barack Obama has done to our country and, so, in the 2014 midterm elections, they naively put their faith in Republicans to at least try to fix thing.

[...]

Why wouldn't [Trump supporters] feel betrayed?...

Read the rest HERE.  And the author of this essay is not a Trump supporter.

Neocons are masquerading as Reaganites. Over and over again.  It's the propaganda war of this primary season.

Ted Cruz As The Establishment Candidate?

The neocons are now supporting Ted Cruz:

Ted Cruz on Tuesday [March 8] nabbed an unlikely endorsement: the backing of a Bush.

Neil Bush, a brother of George W. Bush and Jeb Bush, was listed (along with his wife) as one of 13 new additions to Cruz's national finance team. The campaign said the new additions are all former supporters of other candidates, including Bush, Rand Paul, Rick Perry and Marco Rubio.

This follows the release last week of a list of several other previous Jeb Bush backers now supporting Cruz, whose hardline conservative approach is generally at odds with the one Jeb Bush took.

Last summer, former President George W. Bush told supporters at a private fundraiser for his brother's campaign that Cruz was the GOP contender who most got under his skin. "I just don't like the guy," George W. Bush said at a Denver fundraiser....

The neocons have despised Cruz. But not now.