[TheRealThing]

Well the midterm elections of 2018 are for the most part, behind us. To keep things in check, Republicans managed to gain seats in the Senate and hold a solid majority there. Federal judgeships and any Supreme Court opening will therefore be filled by constitutionalist judges. All good. Especially given the fact that the Presidency is held by a man who truly 'gets it.'

But with not just one, but three caravans comprised of foreigners who think they have the right to access the riches of US taxpayer dollars, headed for our border. And despite the recent reports which have revealed that ALL of Kanvaugh's accusers, including their lawyers, lied. And with tax relief 2.0 hanging in the balance, which would have eased the individual tax rates and made them permanent; To vote for Dems would have meant a vote to pay more taxes. They did it anyway. And the House of Representatives incredibly, backslid into the same politically correct absurdities which served to stifle lucidity during the Obama administration. An outcome, for which the seeds were sewn when the House allowed RINO John Boehner to basically 'appoint' his own successor, in the person of Paul Ryan. Now in saying that, it's not like the House functions all that well at present anyway. So not a lot has changed.

Overall, I believe the national consciousness is more healthy as the elections at the statewide level yesterday, showed promise. In the local elections however, where heavily concentrated liberals prevailed, 26 House seats were picked up. That number bucked the trend set by Bill Clinton's administration (57 seats lost) by half. All in all, a much better outcome than a wave. More like an ooze. Still, Nancy and the chipmunks are giddy. And though conservatives are shaking their heads this morning, they realize libs have been with us since Woodrow Wilson and before. As long as Dems buy votes, districts loaded with libs will always go blue.

[Hoot Gibson]

The elections were a catastrophe for Republicans. There is no way to spin it any other way. The loss of the House majority means that Trump will fail to secure funding for a border wall in his first term. Republicans should send somebody to the bullpen to warm up because Trump is no longer a viable candidate for 2020.

Trump has not been able to work effectively with his own party. I hope that he finds it impossible to work with the socialists across the aisle. Now is no time to start compromising. Gridlock is the best that we can hope for for the next two years, along with another new Supreme Court member or two.

I believe that, given the great improvement in virtually every economic indicator since Obama left office, the losses last night were unprecedented. Trump was right - he drove the turnout yesterday, which was not a good thing it seems.

[jetpilot]

The elections were a catastrophe for Republicans. There is no way to spin it any other way. The loss of the House majority means that Trump will fail to secure funding for a border wall in his first term. Republicans should send somebody to the bullpen to warm up because Trump is no longer a viable candidate for 2020.

Trump has not been able to work effectively with his own party. I hope that he finds it impossible to work with the socialists across the aisle. Now is no time to start compromising. Gridlock is the best that we can hope for for the next two years, along with another new Supreme Court member or two.

I believe that, given the great improvement in virtually every economic indicator since Obama left office, the losses last night were unprecedented. Trump was right - he drove the turnout yesterday, which was not a good thing it seems.

Straight off the Kristol/Scarborough twitter feed. I won't go into how absurd your post is because I could go on all day and you, Kristol and Scarborough would let it go in one ear and out the other. So I will just sum it up with one sentence and you can save this post and take it to the bank:

Trump is a lock to win in 2020.

[TheRealThing]

^^ Trump has been a remarkably effective President, end of story. And he deserves none of the grief the establishment have brought his way. And as we have just seen in the case of Judge Kavanaugh, the hatred coming Trump's way from the left truly is based in factual racial bias, while their charges of racism on his part are ALL based on lies.

As I have said before, DJT is likely one of the most quoted, news making and written about men in our time. Everything he has ever said has been poured over by legions of rabid chipmunks in a desperate effort to find so much as one little hint of racial bias. That would be an incredible volume of video, as well as anything written by him or about him in magazines or news papers, or the thousands of interviews. Anything he has ever written, or spoken, or otherwise communicated by tweet, or cell phone, or otherwise. I would venture to say that the investigation into his personal life and business affairs has been far and away the most intensive effort ever taken by man, no matter the reason. But in this case we all know the reason. The intention is to mock, berate, belittle, impune, and humiliate him in such a way as to ultimately destroy his reputation.

As to the loss of the House, there are a number of reasons. Not the least of which are the propensity for Dem vote totals to exceed the number of registered voters for any one district. Ask Roy Moore.

Trump's margin of victory in 2020 will surpass 2016. And I agree Jet, if we can hold off Central America it's a lock.

[vector]

Trump's margin of victory in 2020 will surpass 2016. And I agree Jet, if we can hold off Central America it's a lock.

So you Think Donald will win the popular vote in 2020?

I am just THRILLED that Donald will have some oversight


[Image: http://www.bluegrassrivals.com/forum/pic...tureid=791]

[Hoot Gibson]

Straight off the Kristol/Scarborough twitter feed. I won't go into how absurd your post is because I could go on all day and you, Kristol and Scarborough would let it go in one ear and out the other. So I will just sum it up with one sentence and you can save this post and take it to the bank:

Trump is a lock to win in 2020.

You seem to be obsessed with the idea that I am channeling somebody else's thoughts. I don't like Trump. I don't need anybody else to tell me that I should dislike him.

That being said, I think that Trump's accomplishments so far in his first term were easily sufficient to have earned him another two years with a Republican Congress. Trump blew it, IMO. He should have spent less time making up nicknames for his adversaries, less time holding pep rallies in areas where he could draw large crowds, and more time touting the booming economy.

I see two ways that the next two years can go. Either Trump will cut deals with Pelosi and Democrats or we will have two years of gridlock. I am hoping for gridlock. If, and I think that is becoming a big IF, Trump is actually the Republican candidate in 2020, he can certainly blame not securing our borders in 2019 and 2020 on Democrats, but he will not be able to hide from his record of failing to secure the border in 2017 and 2018, while his party controlled both houses of Congress.

So, what will be the battle cry in 2020, "This time, we are going to build that wall if you elect me and return the House to the Republicans?"

I would say that Trump has almost no chance to be re-elected in 2020, but Democrats could easily overplay their hand and nominate an even worse candidate than Hillary Clinton. But to say that Trump is a lock two years in advance of the election, given that he will be fighting subpoenas throughout the next two years is crazy talk.

Absent another Democratic opponent as bad or worse than Hillary, I don't think Trump has a chance to win in 2020. If he is the Republican nominee, I will be voting for him again, but I hope that I won't have to cast that vote.

[Hoot Gibson]

^^ Trump has been a remarkably effective President, end of story. And he deserves none of the grief the establishment have brought his way. And as we have just seen in the case of Judge Kavanaugh, the hatred coming Trump's way from the left truly is based in factual racial bias, while their charges of racism on his part are ALL based on lies.

As I have said before, DJT is likely one of the most quoted, news making and written about men in our time. Everything he has ever said has been poured over by legions of rabid chipmunks in a desperate effort to find so much as one little hint of racial bias. That would be an incredible volume of video, as well as anything written by him or about him in magazines or news papers, or the thousands of interviews. Anything he has ever written, or spoken, or otherwise communicated by tweet, or cell phone, or otherwise. I would venture to say that the investigation into his personal life and business affairs has been far and away the most intensive effort ever taken by man, no matter the reason. But in this case we all know the reason. The intention is to mock, berate, belittle, impune, and humiliate him in such a way as to ultimately destroy his reputation.

As to the loss of the House, there are a number of reasons. Not the least of which are the propensity for Dem vote totals to exceed the number of registered voters for any one district. Ask Roy Moore.

Trump's margin of victory in 2020 will surpass 2016. And I agree Jet, if we can hold off Central America it's a lock.

I agree with the bolded. However, those same tactics against his Republican opponents helped Trump win the nomination. I don't recall Trump's supporters complaining about those tactics during the primaries. Nor did I hear them complain as he publicly berated fellow Republicans, including some of his own appointees, after he took office.

Jeff Session's endorsement gave Trump's campaign a huge boost when he became the first U.S. Senator to endorse Trump. Sessions deserved much, much better treatment than he received. If a mistake was made, it was Trump's decision to appoint a member of his own campaign to the position of Attorney General.

My personal dislike of President Trump won't stop me from continuing to support him when he makes decisions with which I agree and it won't stop me from defending him against the lunatics in the House who will pursue a personal vendetta against Trump, using millions of dollars of taxpayer funds.

Hopefully, gridlock will prevail for the next two years and Trump will remain the lesser of two evils by a wide margin.

[Hoot Gibson]

Trump's margin of victory in 2020 will surpass 2016. And I agree Jet, if we can hold off Central America it's a lock.

So you Think Donald will win the popular vote in 2020?

I am just THRILLED that Donald will have some oversight


[Image: http://www.bluegrassrivals.com/forum/pic...tureid=791]

Maybe President Trump will appoint an Attorney General who will provide some belated oversight to Hillary Clinton, Eric Holder, Susan Rice, Loretta Lynch, and the rest of the criminal element of the Obama administration that had free rein for 8 years.

[vector]

Maybe President Trump will appoint an Attorney General who will provide some belated oversight to Hillary Clinton, Eric Holder, Susan Rice, Loretta Lynch, and the rest of the criminal element of the Obama administration that had free rein for 8 years.

There has been nothing to stop him for the last 21 months unless there's nothing there have you every thought about that ?

I believed if there was something there his boy Jeff (not NO more) would have open up ANOTHER investigation


After 8 years of the GOP CONTROLLED HOUSE you can bet they will be a serious investigation

[Image: http://www.bluegrassrivals.com/forum/pic...tureid=792]

[jetpilot]

You seem to be obsessed with the idea that I am channeling somebody else's thoughts. I don't like Trump. I don't need anybody else to tell me that I should dislike him.

That being said, I think that Trump's accomplishments so far in his first term were easily sufficient to have earned him another two years with a Republican Congress. Trump blew it, IMO. He should have spent less time making up nicknames for his adversaries, less time holding pep rallies in areas where he could draw large crowds, and more time touting the booming economy.

I see two ways that the next two years can go. Either Trump will cut deals with Pelosi and Democrats or we will have two years of gridlock. I am hoping for gridlock. If, and I think that is becoming a big IF, Trump is actually the Republican candidate in 2020, he can certainly blame not securing our borders in 2019 and 2020 on Democrats, but he will not be able to hide from his record of failing to secure the border in 2017 and 2018, while his party controlled both houses of Congress.

So, what will be the battle cry in 2020, "This time, we are going to build that wall if you elect me and return the House to the Republicans?"

I would say that Trump has almost no chance to be re-elected in 2020, but Democrats could easily overplay their hand and nominate an even worse candidate than Hillary Clinton. But to say that Trump is a lock two years in advance of the election, given that he will be fighting subpoenas throughout the next two years is crazy talk.

Absent another Democratic opponent as bad or worse than Hillary, I don't think Trump has a chance to win in 2020. If he is the Republican nominee, I will be voting for him again, but I hope that I won't have to cast that vote.

1. I don't think you're channeling others' thoughts. It's much worse, you actually think like them.
2. Gridlock for sure and Democrats will get the blame. Meanwhile Trump makes their "investigations" look stupid, while he methodically continues to stack the courts with conservative constitutionalists. Might even get another Supreme Court justice confirmed.
3. Are you serious? Of course Democrats will run someone as bad or worse than Hillary. It's all they have. And certainly no Republican can touch Trump.

[jetpilot]

Trump's margin of victory in 2020 will surpass 2016. And I agree Jet, if we can hold off Central America it's a lock.

So you Think Donald will win the popular vote in 2020?

I am just THRILLED that Donald will have some oversight


[Image: http://www.bluegrassrivals.com/forum/pic...tureid=791]

We go by the Electoral College in this country.

[vector]

We go by the Electoral College in this country.

One thing for sure there's nothing get's by you

[Image: http://www.bluegrassrivals.com/forum/pic...tureid=794]

[Hoot Gibson]

1. I don't think you're channeling others' thoughts. It's much worse, you actually think like them.
2. Gridlock for sure and Democrats will get the blame. Meanwhile Trump makes their "investigations" look stupid, while he methodically continues to stack the courts with conservative constitutionalists. Might even get another Supreme Court justice confirmed.
3. Are you serious? Of course Democrats will run someone as bad or worse than Hillary. It's all they have. And certainly no Republican can touch Trump.

1. I am a traditional conservative and proud to be one. Most of the people who have shaped my political philosophy such as Milton Friedman, Ronald Reagan, and Thomas Jefferson, died long ago.

Trump is a populist who is constantly seeking the spotlight and doing and saying whatever will put him in front of a camera or microphone. Any conservative should find some of Trump's behavior objectionable. Anybody who doesn't is perhaps not quite as conservative as they claim to be.

2. Most Democrats and so-called independents are not too bright. That is why most of them became Democrats and independents. Of course any investigation spearheaded by dimwits like Maxine Waters, Elijah Cummings, and Adam Schiff is going to seem stupid to any moderately intelligent person who has cracked open an old American history book, but this is a party that manages to get people like Hank Johnson re-elected after he expressed genuine concern that Guam might tip over if we station additional troops on the island.

Regardless of whether the hearings seem stupid to us, if Trump is forced to comply with subpoenas for information that predates his presidency, the media will have a field day with the information. Endless hearings on Trump's sometimes questionable business dealings will not help Trump's image. IMO, the framers of the Constitution never intended for Congress to be able to scrutinize a president's entire life before his election, but there are plenty of liberal federal judges who will disagree.

3. Democrats never ran anyone worse than Hillary Clinton in the history of this country. Dukakis, McGovern, and Mondale were all bad candidates, but none of them were crooks under criminal investigation when they ran for the presidency. Certainly, Democrats are capable of fielding another criminal in 2020, but it is unlikely that they will do worse than Hillary.

As far as no Republican being able to touch Trump - two years is a long time. Trump's early declaration that he planned to run in 2020 will certainly make it difficult for a good candidate to enter the race, but it would not be unprecedented. My fear is that Trump will play Let's Make a Deal with Pelosi to avoid an unwarranted impeachment. That's exactly what Bill Clinton did to win re-election and avoid a Senate conviction following his impeachment, thanks to Dick Morris.

Also, in 2020, Trump will not be able to rely on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of free media coverage by Fox News. Rupert Murdock's children are much more liberal than the old man and the network is not likely to tolerate Trump supporters turning their shows into free campaign ads the way that Eric Boling, Sean Hannity, and Jeannine Pirro did in 2016.

[TheRealThing]

We go by the Electoral College in this country.

One thing for sure there's nothing get's by you

[Image: http://www.bluegrassrivals.com/forum/pic...tureid=794]

Nothing gets by Jetpilot but it seems a few things might have gotten by you. :biggrin:

Trump DID win the electoral vote in 2016. Now the illegal vote, not so much and I have posted the convincing evidence on here several times. But California, a state that no longer feels the need to hide or in any way deny their contempt for election law, allowed hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to vote November of 2016. And I would think yesterday was no exception.

[Hoot Gibson]

There has been nothing to stop him for the last 21 months unless there's nothing there have you every thought about that ?

I believed if there was something there his boy Jeff (not NO more) would have open up ANOTHER investigation


After 8 years of the GOP CONTROLLED HOUSE you can bet they will be a serious investigation

[Image: http://www.bluegrassrivals.com/forum/pic...tureid=792]

Why don't you drop the illiterate act and use reasonably correct grammar and punctuation? Most of us know that you are not as dumb as you act.

I personally never believed that Trump intended to pursue justice for Hillary, Obama, or their gangs. If Democrats are serious about impeaching Trump in the absence of any evidence of a "high crime or misdemeanor," then I will be surprised if Trump does not order an investigation into the criminal activity of the previous administration.

[TheRealThing]

1. I am a traditional conservative and proud to be one. Most of the people who have shaped my political philosophy such as Milton Friedman, Ronald Reagan, and Thomas Jefferson, died long ago.

Trump is a populist who is constantly seeking the spotlight and doing and saying whatever will put him in front of a camera or microphone. Any conservative should find some of Trump's behavior objectionable. Anybody who doesn't is perhaps not quite as conservative as they claim to be.

2. Most Democrats and so-called independents are not too bright. That is why most of them became Democrats and independents. Of course any investigation spearheaded by dimwits like Maxine Waters, Elijah Cummings, and Adam Schiff is going to seem stupid to any moderately intelligent person who has cracked open an old American history book, but this is a party that manages to get people like Hank Johnson re-elected after he expressed genuine concern that Guam might tip over if we station additional troops on the island.

Regardless of whether the hearings seem stupid to us, if Trump is forced to comply with subpoenas for information that predates his presidency, the media will have a field day with the information. Endless hearings on Trump's sometimes questionable business dealings will not help Trump's image. IMO, the framers of the Constitution never intended for Congress to be able to scrutinize a president's entire life before his election, but there are plenty of liberal federal judges who will disagree.

3. Democrats never ran anyone worse than Hillary Clinton in the history of this country. Dukakis, McGovern, and Mondale were all bad candidates, but none of them were crooks under criminal investigation when they ran for the presidency. Certainly, Democrats are capable of fielding another criminal in 2020, but it is unlikely that they will do worse than Hillary.

As far as no Republican being able to touch Trump - two years is a long time. Trump's early declaration that he planned to run in 2020 will certainly make it difficult for a good candidate to enter the race, but it would not be unprecedented. My fear is that Trump will play Let's Make a Deal with Pelosi to avoid an unwarranted impeachment. That's exactly what Bill Clinton did to win re-election and avoid a Senate conviction following his impeachment, thanks to Dick Morris.

Also, in 2020, Trump will not be able to rely on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of free media coverage by Fox News. Rupert Murdock's children are much more liberal than the old man and the network is not likely to tolerate Trump supporters turning their shows into free campaign ads the way that Eric Boling, Sean Hannity, and Jeannine Pirro did in 2016.

Maybe not, but they were certainly able to keep George W behind the 8 ball. And BTW and no offense intended, blaming Trump for the actions of swamp creatures the like of Paul Ryan, while ignoring the strangle hold Dems have on the free press, and considering the fact that RINO's want to go throw up every time a Dem even threatens them with the race card, is a bit convenient to make that argument. Don't you think?

FOX sold out to Disney, did they not? You are right to point that out because IMHO, watching any kind of news and expecting to get any appreciable portion of the truth from here on out will be extremely unlikely. Disney execs are very liberal, and they're not going to just sit around on their hands and let FOX anchors have their way with programming OR content. It's over.

But I'll tell you something, though meaningful free speech is about over, I still believe we conservatives should go down fighting. And whether you accept what I am about to say or not, won't change it's validity. President Trump has and is trying his best, to preserve the traditional conservative values of this land. And to my knowledge 'the fight' for same, as far as government is concerned, has dwindled down to being fought by him and a few gracious souls of the Freedom Caucus. But Trump's been met with fierce resistance. And because I love what this nation once was, I respect his efforts to that end as much or more than any President since Ronald Reagan. Trump is a hero in my book, as he has been willing to take on the insanity of political correctness, (secular humanism) and in it's place offer the legitimacy of days gone by and a return to honoring the God of this universe. That's no small thing in the face of nearly universal rejection of same by his peers in the federal government. To that end his has been one voice amid the thousands whom serve the people.

That said. MR Trump has his glaring failings as do every last one of us. So too did men like Roosevelt, Kennedy, Nixon, and Clinton. I do not believe for one second that MR Trump deserves any notable distinctions in the annals of Presidential misbehavior. Nor would or could the actions of this President change the minds or the hearts of legislators whom openly admit their willingness to die on the twin hills of abortion and gay rights. Turning our backs on Godly principles is the real problem, and as such is the shame and downfall of our republic. My fear, is that the fabric of America is irretrievably broken. My hope had been and is, that there was enough respect remaining for rightful morality left in the hearts of the people of this land, so as to allow us at least some further time in the calmer waters of the outer vortex. This isn't Trump's fault, and it's frankly got little to do with Republicans versus Democrats. It is the fault of the godless people of this society. Hence the reference to my down the drain analogy.

Freedom was born in the hearts of our founders and as is so clearly evidenced in their writings, they handed off control of this country for which they had sacrificed so much, with heavy hearts. Why? IMHO it was because they knew so well the sinful nature of all men. And they knew self governance apart from moral integrity and faith in God is impossible.

“America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville


Being good is the responsibility of those comprising a government of, by and for the people.

[Hoot Gibson]

TRT, I am not going to get into an extended debate about the "goodness" of Donald Trump. My opinion about the man is not going to change and your opinion and JP's opinion of him are not likely to change either. Trump is being treated unfairly by the media and Democrats, as any other Republican president would have been.

To the extent that he has been mistreated by fellow Republicans, I see much of that caused by Trump's own abrasive personality and habit of personally attacking potential allies in public. There is little evidence that the "swamp" is being drained here. Trump has done many good things since he took office, but nothing that I consider heroic. When one repeatedly lies about his political adversaries and engages in character assassination, as Trump has done, one must be prepared for some incoming fire. As Trump's popularity declines, as I expect that it will with the daily barrage of negative coverage accelerates with the loss of the House, I don't expect the Republicans whom he has publicly attacked to rally around him, nor should MR Trump expect any personal loyalty from them. Loyalty must be earned, and Trump's public treatment of Jeff Sessions, who was among his campaign's strongest and earliest supporters shows what loyalty to Donald Trump is worth.

Rupert Murdoch has sold several of his companies to Disney, but Fox News was not among them. Reportedly, Lachlan Murdoch has increasingly assumed more of the day to day management of Fox News and the other companies that Murdoch still owns.

I no longer subscribe to cable TV, so I rarely watch Fox News or any other cable news network. It is my understanding that Rupert Murdoich's family is much more liberal than he is, and Rupert has hosted at least one political fundraiser for Hillary Clinton in the past. Trump will need to spend far more of his own money or do a much better job of political fundraising for the 2020 campaign to be competitive, IMO, because he cannot expect the same kid glove treatment by Fox News that he received during the 2016 campaign. Roger Ailes is long gone and Trump will miss his him if he actually runs in 2020.

[TheRealThing]

^^ I'm glad to hear that FOX News is staying under the control of the Murdoch family. And thanks, but I've made mention of the virulent strain of liberalism which has infected most of the news shows often enough, I know where FOX is headed. But we stand apart on the nature of the problem America faces. If laws and procedure could have controlled the direction this country ultimately takes, we wouldn't be in the pickle we presently find ourselves. This isn't about history or tradition or the things that once made America great. Because frankly, the rich and revealing comparisons which have been made to contrast the political arena of today's America against her glory days have fallen on deaf ears.

We left our heritage and the concept of American exceptionalism behind for the madness of secular humanism. You keep trying, but my intention was never to single out Trump as any kind of victim. We as a nation are in a war to rediscover our soul. Thus my contention over time, has been to point out the fact that a notably sizable percentage of both the American public and those in government have in recent decades, floundered about in a state of abject apostasy. And as the direct result, we will not survive. However there are those few in government, including and especially MR Trump, whom have attempted to stand against the existential threats posed by our bent for the pursuit of globalism and secular humanism. However one may choose to refer to the problem, political correctness seems to be the go-to term du jour. And is a movement which BTW, presently operates covertly under the flag of Free Trade.

No matter how rich the history of this nation, we're being led by people who never had the vision or the reverential awe of a life lived in freedom. From Jorge Ramos to Barack Obama, we're being redefined. Conservatives know better, as does MR Trump. But getting those we send to the hill to enter the representational fight has been for the most part, ineffective. And we're in for a rocky two years because while publicly honoring the US Constitution, Pelosi is already using the document itself as a throw rug, as she makes her plans to run over all that it actually stands for.

The point is we are at this point, in uncharted waters. And I do not believe cross referencing parallels, or historical similarities, or Karl Rove's white boards, means one thing. Mark Levin has it just right, we're facing a lot worse an opponent than election wars. The American way of life is in peril.

[Hoot Gibson]

^^ I'm glad to hear that FOX News is staying under the control of the Murdoch family. And thanks, but I've made mention of the virulent strain of liberalism which has infected most of the news shows often enough, I know where FOX is headed. But we stand apart on the nature of the problem America faces. If laws and procedure could have controlled the direction this country ultimately takes, we wouldn't be in the pickle we presently find ourselves. This isn't about history or tradition or the things that once made America great. Because frankly, the rich and revealing comparisons which have been made to contrast the political arena of today's America against her glory days have fallen on deaf ears.

We left our heritage and the concept of American exceptionalism behind for the madness of secular humanism. You keep trying, but my intention was never to single out Trump as any kind of victim. We as a nation are in a war to rediscover our soul. Thus my contention over time, has been to point out the fact that a notably sizable percentage of both the American public and those in government have in recent decades, floundered about in a state of abject apostasy. And as the direct result, we will not survive. However there are those few in government, including and especially MR Trump, whom have attempted to stand against the existential threats posed by our bent for the pursuit of globalism and secular humanism. However one may choose to refer to the problem, political correctness seems to be the go-to term du jour. And is a movement which BTW, presently operates covertly under the flag of Free Trade.

No matter how rich the history of this nation, we're being led by people who never had the vision or the reverential awe of a life lived in freedom. From Jorge Ramos to Barack Obama, we're being redefined. Conservatives know better, as does MR Trump. But getting those we send to the hill to enter the representational fight has been for the most part, ineffective. And we're in for a rocky two years because while publicly honoring the US Constitution, Pelosi is already using the document itself as a throw rug, as she makes her plans to run over all that it actually stands for.

The point is we are at this point, in uncharted waters. And I do not believe cross referencing parallels, or historical similarities, or Karl Rove's white boards, means one thing. Mark Levin has it just right, we're facing a lot worse an opponent than election wars. The American way of life is in peril.

No matter what war a person is battling, common sense dictates that one does not metaphprically shoot their fellow Soldiers and that is what Trump has done on a regular basis. That is my number one issue with Trump. He is not a team player and I believe he is causing the pool of talent available to him to shrink as a result.

[TheRealThing]

^^ Point taken and you have a lot of company.

Trump tried to be inclusive in his initial staff and cabinet picks IMO. Right after the historic departure from statesmanship which was the Democrat boycott of his inauguration, Democrats set about denying confirmation to every one of his picks. But Trump went across the aisle and picked up Gary Cohn to serve as his chief economic advisor, and he followed MR Cohn's advice. Pressure from Cohn's cronies eventually caused him to resign his post. Trump tried to play it straight in allowing Jim Comey to continue on as Director of the FBI. Trump rewarded Jeff Sessions for his contributions to the campaign by making him the Attorney General. Then Sessions did his best impression of a matador in dispatching his duties as AG.

You know the back stories to all those cases, I don't believe their actions were tolerable. And I'll give you another one. I would have fired NSA Dan Coats for the comments he made following the Putin Summit in Helsinki. Where does anybody in the President's employ get off with criticizing his actions publicly? And did Trump's chief of staff refer to him as a blanking idiot as reported? Likewise for Jim Acosta, he should have been banned from the White House a year ago. Team player Paul Ryan's lack of support has been a disgrace, and Majority Leader McConnell isn't all that far behind.

Working with people is not the same thing as becoming their stooge. Christopher Wray and Rod Rosenstein have stonewalled Republican committees since the election of 2016. Judges who've known full well the US Constitution visits the President with the unrestricted power to control immigration, have nonetheless defied him and filed injunctions against his lawfully issued immigration orders. It took the SC to straighten all that out. The above are just a few examples of the hundreds that exist. I know for a fact that we've never seen anything like this before.

[jetpilot]

Nothing gets by Jetpilot but it seems a few things might have gotten by you. :biggrin:

Trump DID win the electoral vote in 2016. Now the illegal vote, not so much and I have posted the convincing evidence on here several times. But California, a state that no longer feels the need to hide or in any way deny their contempt for election law, allowed hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to vote November of 2016. And I would think yesterday was no exception.

Not only that but he didn't bother to campaign in CA where every kind of liberal nutbag (and their vote lol) on Earth lives...so he obviously didn't care about popular vote that means nothing and only the crying losers keep bringing up...:biggrin:

[TheRealThing]

Not only that but he didn't bother to campaign in CA where every kind of liberal nutbag (and their vote lol) on Earth lives...so he obviously didn't care about popular vote that means nothing and only the crying losers keep bringing up...:biggrin:

Hard to believe the lengths libs will go to dodge reality. Sore losers doesn’t begin to describe them.

[Hoot Gibson]

^^ Point taken and you have a lot of company.

Trump tried to be inclusive in his initial staff and cabinet picks IMO. Right after the historic departure from statesmanship which was the Democrat boycott of his inauguration, Democrats set about denying confirmation to every one of his picks. But Trump went across the aisle and picked up Gary Cohn to serve as his chief economic advisor, and he followed MR Cohn's advice. Pressure from Cohn's cronies eventually caused him to resign his post. Trump tried to play it straight in allowing Jim Comey to continue on as Director of the FBI. Trump rewarded Jeff Sessions for his contributions to the campaign by making him the Attorney General. Then Sessions did his best impression of a matador in dispatching his duties as AG.

You know the back stories to all those cases, I don't believe their actions were tolerable. And I'll give you another one. I would have fired NSA Dan Coats for the comments he made following the Putin Summit in Helsinki. Where does anybody in the President's employ get off with criticizing his actions publicly? And did Trump's chief of staff refer to him as a blanking idiot as reported? Likewise for Jim Acosta, he should have been banned from the White House a year ago. Team player Paul Ryan's lack of support has been a disgrace, and Majority Leader McConnell isn't all that far behind.

Working with people is not the same thing as becoming their stooge. Christopher Wray and Rod Rosenstein have stonewalled Republican committees since the election of 2016. Judges who've known full well the US Constitution visits the President with the unrestricted power to control immigration, have nonetheless defied him and filed injunctions against his lawfully issued immigration orders. It took the SC to straighten all that out. The above are just a few examples of the hundreds that exist. I know for a fact that we've never seen anything like this before.

You are missing my point, although I agree with most of your points. I don't want Trump working with people just to "get things done." I want him to stop public berating people who would likely support him and help him get the right things done, even if they disagree with him on other parts of his agenda. When you publicly and personally attack potential allies over single issues, then you will alienate a large percentage of those individuals to the point where they will not actively support any part of your agenda because they hold a personal grudge.

I am also not criticizing Trump for ridding his administration of people who are not getting the job done. What I am criticizing him for is for the way that he fires many of those people. This is not a reality show and most people will feel some sympathy for people who are fired in a very public way who have done nothing morally or ethically wrong. Those individuals, including Jeff Sessions, should be allowed to quietly resign, or, whenever possible offered another position within the administration where they have a better chance of succeeding.

I always thought Sessions was a bad choice for Attorney General, but nobody was a more loyal Trump supporter than he has been. I agreed with his decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation because he was part of Trump's campaign and an Attorney General cannot ethically investigate himself - but Trump never should have appointed an AG who could not credibly claim some independence from the campaign.

As for leakers and members of the administration who publicly attack Trump and deliberately undermined his agenda, I have no problem with him firing them in a very public way because it serves as a deterrent to other leakers and it encourages people who have no people skills or common sense to leave on their own before they are tossed out.

Reagan's administration was full of people who thought his strategy to win the Cold War with the Soviets was nuts, and they respectfully shared that opinion with him - but they supported most of his agenda and they remained personally loyal to him throughout his terms as president. A president's staff needs to feel free to provide honest opinions to their boss without those opinions becoming public and without being publicly humiliated for expressing them.

That seems to be a key difference between the Reagan administration and the Trump administration. To paraphrase GWB, Reagan was the "decider," but he surrounded himself with loyal supporters who were not afraid to give him advice that he might reject. Trump's style does not inspire the same kind of loyalty and confidence from his own staff and appointees.

[TheRealThing]

You are missing my point, although I agree with most of your points. I don't want Trump working with people just to "get things done." I want him to stop public berating people who would likely support him and help him get the right things done, even if they disagree with him on other parts of his agenda. When you publicly and personally attack potential allies over single issues, then you will alienate a large percentage of those individuals to the point where they will not actively support any part of your agenda because they hold a personal grudge.

I am also not criticizing Trump for ridding his administration of people who are not getting the job done. What I am criticizing him for is for the way that he fires many of those people. This is not a reality show and most people will feel some sympathy for people who are fired in a very public way who have done nothing morally or ethically wrong. Those individuals, including Jeff Sessions, should be allowed to quietly resign, or, whenever possible offered another position within the administration where they have a better chance of succeeding.

I always thought Sessions was a bad choice for Attorney General, but nobody was a more loyal Trump supporter than he has been. I agreed with his decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation because he was part of Trump's campaign and an Attorney General cannot ethically investigate himself - but Trump never should have appointed an AG who could not credibly claim some independence from the campaign.

As for leakers and members of the administration who publicly attack Trump and deliberately undermined his agenda, I have no problem with him firing them in a very public way because it serves as a deterrent to other leakers and it encourages people who have no people skills or common sense to leave on their own before they are tossed out.

Reagan's administration was full of people who thought his strategy to win the Cold War with the Soviets was nuts, and they respectfully shared that opinion with him - but they supported most of his agenda and they remained personally loyal to him throughout his terms as president. A president's staff needs to feel free to provide honest opinions to their boss without those opinions becoming public and without being publicly humiliated for expressing them.

That seems to be a key difference between the Reagan administration and the Trump administration. To paraphrase GWB, Reagan was the "decider," but he surrounded himself with loyal supporters who were not afraid to give him advice that he might reject. Trump's style does not inspire the same kind of loyalty and confidence from his own staff and appointees.

No I got the point and I don't want that either. With the impeachment of Clinton, the Dem's effectively bastardized the office of President in the first place. And with the people's choice in the person of MR Trump, came the flood of wrongful slander on the parts of Democrats which held that Trump's presidency is illegitimate. Hello, is anybody awake out there? Republicans should have knocked all that traitorous rhetoric down from the get-go, but they didn't want to soil themselves... I guess. If Republicans had taken a honorable stand and spoken up, it wouldn't have to be only one man all the time, the president, having to make the responses. In any event, in said Republican reluctance to stand up for the Republic, history will show that they were as guilty in the perpetuation of the fall of this land as the Democrats. And afterward, I guarantee the very guy that will express the most shock and self-righteous indignation will be none other than the impossibly naïve Paul Ryan.

Respectfully, the problems you speak of are all the result of the establishment's rejection of his election to office. That going wisdom, as absurd as it is, fuels all of the attacks coming his way. From those who openly say they dislike him, to the deepstate comprised of agency heads and staff, to the media, to the afore mentioned political establishment, to those who like him but fear the resultant repercussions from their peers, everybody's hands are dirty here. That's my humble opinion. Nobody seems to be respecting the office and frankly, the rumors you and I hear in which the accounts of any particular spat are brought forth, are not likely to be all that straightforward because of the bent to frame the President as negatively as possible. The people chose MR Trump. Anything short of respect across the board from the Washington establishment to that end is subversive to good this country. And at the minimum a departure from a government of and by the people. America will rue the day, and these I believe are just the beginnings of what is to come.

By the time people who have no claim to the riches of this land are done with their pillaging and usurpings of the law, and the reality of what such actions will ultimately mean to this land is realized, it will already be far too late to respond. To wit, I hear that hundreds of Democrat lawyers have descended on Florida to steal the Senate seat Rick Scott has just won, and the Governor's House that Ron DeSantis won. I don't know about you but at this point I don't have an overabundance of surety that our system of elections is very foolproof. Supposedly, thousands of paper ballots are flying into the board of elections authority in Florida from parts rather unknown and long after the deadline for accepting those ballots has passed. Let's just keep voting until we get the result we want, whadda ya say? And where have Republicans been on the issue of voter fraud? Scared to death in a corner.

I understand MR Trump's consternation, and if he understands the true nature of the opposition he faces and I think he does, that is part of what keeps him from succumbing to all the contempt coming his way. In that light, though the immediate state of affairs around here is cloudy, I pray that he will persevere in his efforts to serve this land.

[TheRealThing]

^^ ABTW with respect to the Kavanaugh confirmation, after the spectacle of dishonesty put on by Dems on the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary in that travesty, I don't know how anybody could doubt that Dems are capable of doing exactly the thing of which Senator Rubio has just accused them. Stealing the Florida elections.

[Hoot Gibson]

No I got the point and I don't want that either. With the impeachment of Clinton, the Dem's effectively bastardized the office of President in the first place. And with the people's choice in the person of MR Trump, came the flood of wrongful slander on the parts of Democrats which held that Trump's presidency is illegitimate. Hello, is anybody awake out there? Republicans should have knocked all that traitorous rhetoric down from the get-go, but they didn't want to soil themselves... I guess. If Republicans had taken a honorable stand and spoken up, it wouldn't have to be only one man all the time, the president, having to make the responses. In any event, in said Republican reluctance to stand up for the Republic, history will show that they were as guilty in the perpetuation of the fall of this land as the Democrats. And afterward, I guarantee the very guy that will express the most shock and self-righteous indignation will be none other than the impossibly naïve Paul Ryan.

Respectfully, the problems you speak of are all the result of the establishment's rejection of his election to office. That going wisdom, as absurd as it is, fuels all of the attacks coming his way. From those who openly say they dislike him, to the deepstate comprised of agency heads and staff, to the media, to the afore mentioned political establishment, to those who like him but fear the resultant repercussions from their peers, everybody's hands are dirty here. That's my humble opinion. Nobody seems to be respecting the office and frankly, the rumors you and I hear in which the accounts of any particular spat are brought forth, are not likely to be all that straightforward because of the bent to frame the President as negatively as possible. The people chose MR Trump. Anything short of respect across the board from the Washington establishment to that end is subversive to good this country. And at the minimum a departure from a government of and by the people. America will rue the day, and these I believe are just the beginnings of what is to come.

By the time people who have no claim to the riches of this land are done with their pillaging and usurpings of the law, and the reality of what such actions will ultimately mean to this land is realized, it will already be far too late to respond. To wit, I hear that hundreds of Democrat lawyers have descended on Florida to steal the Senate seat Rick Scott has just won, and the Governor's House that Ron DeSantis won. I don't know about you but at this point I don't have an overabundance of surety that our system of elections is very foolproof. Supposedly, thousands of paper ballots are flying into the board of elections authority in Florida from parts rather unknown and long after the deadline for accepting those ballots has passed. Let's just keep voting until we get the result we want, whadda ya say? And where have Republicans been on the issue of voter fraud? Scared to death in a corner.

I understand MR Trump's consternation, and if he understands the true nature of the opposition he faces and I think he does, that is part of what keeps him from succumbing to all the contempt coming his way. In that light, though the immediate state of affairs around here is cloudy, I pray that he will persevere in his efforts to serve this land.

We agree that Democrats and RINOs are existential threats to this country, but Democrats and the GOP establishment have nothing to do with nasty campaign that Trump ran against his conservative Republican rivals, nor do they have anything to do with how he has publicly attacked loyal Trump supporters like Jeff Sessions after he took office.

As I said, I think Sessions was a poor pick for Attorney General but he made a huge sacrifice when he gave up his safe Senate seat to serve as Trump's Attorney General. Sessions is an honorable man and an experienced lawyer. He made what he thought was his only ethical choice when he recused himself from the Russian investigation. Trump treated Session's decision like a personal betrayal, which was not remotely true - and Sessions is not the only Trump loyalist who has been treated shabbily by President Trump.

Trump needs to appoint a qualified, conservative constitutional lawyer to head the Justice Department, and then let him or her do his or her job. I know that there is nothing to the allegation that Trump's campaign colluded with the Russians to rig the election, but he needs to appoint somebody who is not seen as a political ally. In other words, he need to appoint somebody who can effectively communicate and educate the public about the political hatchet job that Democrats have perpetrated against Trump but not somebody who has been overtly political in the past.

The worse thing that Trump could possibly do would be to nominate a person as the next AG who is or appears to be a political hack. He needs a nominee who will refuse to take a position on the Mueller investigation, either in public, or during Senate confirmation hearings, just as a good Supreme Court nominee would do.

The AG nominee should pledge to study the facts after he or she assumes the job and make decisions at that time - and that should be all that Trump asks him or her to do prior to the confirmation hearings. Whoever is nominated will be asked repeatedly during the hearings whether Trump asked them to fire Mueller and/or Rosenstein and whether they had already agreed to do so if confirmed.

IMO, Democrats politicized the Justice Department and the Department of State under Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to an extent never before seen in U.S. history. In the next two years, Trump needs to make the Justice Department and the State Department two focal points of a genuine effort to drain the swamp. Whatever it takes to rid those two extremely important cornerstones of democracy of radical left wing Obamunists needs to be done in a methodical, professional way.

[TheRealThing]

We agree that Democrats and RINOs are existential threats to this country, but Democrats and the GOP establishment have nothing to do with nasty campaign that Trump ran against his conservative Republican rivals, nor do they have anything to do with how he has publicly attacked loyal Trump supporters like Jeff Sessions after he took office.

As I said, I think Sessions was a poor pick for Attorney General but he made a huge sacrifice when he gave up his safe Senate seat to serve as Trump's Attorney General. Sessions is an honorable man and an experienced lawyer. He made what he thought was his only ethical choice when he recused himself from the Russian investigation. Trump treated Session's decision like a personal betrayal, which was not remotely true - and Sessions is not the only Trump loyalist who has been treated shabbily by President Trump.

Trump needs to appoint a qualified, conservative constitutional lawyer to head the Justice Department, and then let him or her do his or her job. I know that there is nothing to the allegation that Trump's campaign colluded with the Russians to rig the election, but he needs to appoint somebody who is not seen as a political ally. In other words, he need to appoint somebody who can effectively communicate and educate the public about the political hatchet job that Democrats have perpetrated against Trump but not somebody who has been overtly political in the past.

The worse thing that Trump could possibly do would be to nominate a person as the next AG who is or appears to be a political hack. He needs a nominee who will refuse to take a position on the Mueller investigation, either in public, or during Senate confirmation hearings, just as a good Supreme Court nominee would do.

The AG nominee should pledge to study the facts after he or she assumes the job and make decisions at that time - and that should be all that Trump asks him or her to do prior to the confirmation hearings. Whoever is nominated will be asked repeatedly during the hearings whether Trump asked them to fire Mueller and/or Rosenstein and whether they had already agreed to do so if confirmed.

IMO, Democrats politicized the Justice Department and the Department of State under Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to an extent never before seen in U.S. history. In the next two years, Trump needs to make the Justice Department and the State Department two focal points of a genuine effort to drain the swamp. Whatever it takes to rid those two extremely important cornerstones of democracy of radical left wing Obamunists needs to be done in a methodical, professional way.

Well, I agree with you strongly about the DOJ. Somebody has to take the law seriously in this country. If I was in Trump's shoes I'd split them between Florida and Arizona and send every last one of them down there armed the power of the Federal Government. And putting the appropriate judges on notice, I would tell them to be ready to act with swift dispatch on any matter deemed necessary.

But in your saying the above, I believe you have landed on the two weaknesses I have observed in the President. First, he tends not to appoint the right people for the post. I have not agreed with a number of his appointments and nominees. For example, it was a big mistake to not get Rudy Giuliani in there somewhere from the get-go. I had predicted that Trump would be an effective delegator, that is I thought he would sagely select the best folks to work for him. But generally in his personnel picks, MR Trump has fallen short of the wisdom Ronald Reagan showed when he made his cabinet picks. Past that he cannot expect to co-op his political opponents into the fold by offering them positions.

Secondly, though the President has shown he has the courage to go against the politically correct Dems on a broad range of issues, he has also caved in on a few things. For example, not going through with the declassification of the FISA documents which led to an awful lot of grief for himself and the Republican Party, may have led to more than a few of those lost seats in the Congress. There has been precious little by way of accountability so far. And as the election results (of sorts) revealed, whatever capitulations that were made thus far, they did absolutely nothing to slow down or humor the Dems. The before and after contrast I would make would be the Kavanaugh confirmation and the Florida shenanigans presently afoot. These guys are playing for keeps and conservatives will never be able to make peace with them. They have given new meaning to the term 'opposition party.'

[jetpilot]

We agree that Democrats and RINOs are existential threats to this country, but Democrats and the GOP establishment have nothing to do with nasty campaign that Trump ran against his conservative Republican rivals, nor do they have anything to do with how he has publicly attacked loyal Trump supporters like Jeff Sessions after he took office.

As I said, I think Sessions was a poor pick for Attorney General but he made a huge sacrifice when he gave up his safe Senate seat to serve as Trump's Attorney General. Sessions is an honorable man and an experienced lawyer. He made what he thought was his only ethical choice when he recused himself from the Russian investigation. Trump treated Session's decision like a personal betrayal, which was not remotely true - and Sessions is not the only Trump loyalist who has been treated shabbily by President Trump.

Trump needs to appoint a qualified, conservative constitutional lawyer to head the Justice Department, and then let him or her do his or her job. I know that there is nothing to the allegation that Trump's campaign colluded with the Russians to rig the election, but he needs to appoint somebody who is not seen as a political ally. In other words, he need to appoint somebody who can effectively communicate and educate the public about the political hatchet job that Democrats have perpetrated against Trump but not somebody who has been overtly political in the past.

The worse thing that Trump could possibly do would be to nominate a person as the next AG who is or appears to be a political hack. He needs a nominee who will refuse to take a position on the Mueller investigation, either in public, or during Senate confirmation hearings, just as a good Supreme Court nominee would do.

The AG nominee should pledge to study the facts after he or she assumes the job and make decisions at that time - and that should be all that Trump asks him or her to do prior to the confirmation hearings. Whoever is nominated will be asked repeatedly during the hearings whether Trump asked them to fire Mueller and/or Rosenstein and whether they had already agreed to do so if confirmed.

IMO, Democrats politicized the Justice Department and the Department of State under Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to an extent never before seen in U.S. history. In the next two years, Trump needs to make the Justice Department and the State Department two focal points of a genuine effort to drain the swamp. Whatever it takes to rid those two extremely important cornerstones of democracy of radical left wing Obamunists needs to be done in a methodical, professional way.

That's all well and good but a lot of wishful thinking. Even if you play it by the book Dems are going to be crying foul if they don't get the result they want...and be calling names, protesting, shouting down conservatives and harrassing them in restaurants etc...so by all means put someone in there who will be your "wingman" like Eric Holder proudly proclaimed...and let the Dems eat it.

[jetpilot]

"Elections have consequences"

[TheRealThing]

That's all well and good but a lot of wishful thinking. Even if you play it by the book Dems are going to be crying foul if they don't get the result they want...and be calling names, protesting, shouting down conservatives and harrassing them in restaurants etc...so by all means put someone in there who will be your "wingman" like Eric Holder proudly proclaimed...and let the Dems eat it.

I thought Trump should have appointed Giuliani or Chris Christie to AG. And I thought it was absurd that he waited so long to give John Bolton a job in the Defense Dept. And heavens knows, there has just got to be a job someplace for Mike Huckabee.