Bannon, Koch Brothers, and How Conservatives Disappoint “Thought Leaders”

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Donald J. Trump, GOP, Koch Brothers, MAGA, Stephen Bannon, Tea Party

Unified Patriots by JadedByPolitics

Stephen Bannon now says that being anti-establishment is not going to work. Well, when you’ve had potential millions swept out from under your feet because you overstepped your perceived authority, those marbles in your head tend to clang. Mr. Bannon fell into the junior varsity trap of celebrity and power, that is to say, he believed he had more of each than was actually in his purview. Bannon on His ‘Revolution’: Never Mind

“People are starting to realize that the anti-establishment thing is kind of a luxury we can’t afford right now,” said Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s former chief strategist who six months ago said it was his objective to see Mr. McConnell removed as the Senate Republican leader.

That effort has been put on hold. And Mr. Bannon’s rebellion has considerably smaller ambitions than it did six months ago, when he was trying to recruit challengers to every Republican incumbent senator up for re-election this year, with the exception of Ted Cruz of Texas.

Of those Mr. Bannon worked most closely with, just two are still running: Mr. McDaniel and Kelli Ward in Arizona, who is competing in a three-way primary for the seat that opened up after Senator Jeff Flake announced his retirement”.

“It’s a fascinating and somewhat problematic shift of message and brand for the man who defined the “drain the swamp” persona of the Trump campaign. After vowing to unseat Mitch McConnell as Senate Majority Leader, Bannon now agrees that maybe the GOP establishment is just fine if it means keeping a majority.

The “mastermind” behind Trump’s victory (if you believe Bannon’s own self-serving press leaks) has had a change of heart, that’s for sure.

Establishment publications are already claiming victory for Bannon’s flip-flop and they deserve a little glee in witnessing their bete noire’s cummuppance. But the real danger for Bannon is not the victory he seems to have handed his opponents, it’s the question of his own political relevance.

If Steve Bannon doesn’t stand for “Burn the GOP establishment to the ground” anymore, then what does he stand for?

If he’s not essential in reshaping and purging the Republican Party on behalf of Donald Trump and Trumpism, then what is he useful for?

At this point, why does anyone need Steve Bannon?”

At this point, why does anyone need Bannon? These so-called “thought leaders” of the Right believe conservatives are malleable. Malleable? No, they’re intelligent, hard-working people who are quite independent in their thinking[…]

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A Note on the Trump Cult of Personality and the Omnibus Bill

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Congress, GOP, Omnibus spending bill, President Donald J. Trump

Unified Patriots by Vassar Bushmills

I’ve always known there were a few cultists out there.

Actually, I’m a cultist too, only not about Donald Trump. Talk about the Constitution, and the purposes of the Founders? Then I’m a cultist, which is why I have cut my Conservatism Fan Club list in half.

A couple of days ago Donald Trump signed a horrible omnibus spending bill which, on its face, purported to give the Democrats everything they’ve been holding out for while denying the American voters almost everything they’ve been asking and expecting from candidate Trump, save a giant increase in military spending for much needed big-ticket items such as aircraft and weaponry.

And adding to the sobriety of the occasion, Trump was hardly happy-go-lucky in explaining this decision. I recall a Baptist preacher called in to speak over a man who never darkened the doorway of a church, going around to family members and friends trying to find something nice to say about the fellow. Trump was almost funeary in the way he also tried to paint a hopeful picture on this bill. Something that “had to be done” he explained.

I think everyone was shocked Trump went ahead and signed such a bad bill, but trying to understand his true meaning, and explaining it to his jilted Cult Clatch is not the same.

Twitter was filled with cries of “Quisling sell-out”, “double crosser”, “I’m outta here”, “No hope, no how”, making Ann Coulter seem like an optimist by comparison. We’ve all seen this kind of star-worship on Twitter, as if Donald Trump were their own personal saint. I can’t know their age, or sex (if they have an androgynous handle), but on Twitter a majority seem young, where star-gazing isn’t all that far fetched. But on Limbaugh some people called in who clearly were over 50, at least. And they sounded even more fatalistic, without the pain of Cupid’s arrow being jerked out of their hearts.

Sober, clear headed resignation.

A few observations.

Donald Trump was never Frankie Avalon, Elvis, or the Beatles, who only sang songs so we would buy them. With Donald Trump, the reverse is true. The American people wrote the music, actually the entire score, of Make America Great Again. We defined him. He did not mold, shape or define us. It has always been the other way around.  And our war began almost a decade ago, for some, over a generation[…]

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The Jefferson-Hamilton Handshake, Can the GOP be Saved

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Alexander Hamilton, Conservatism, Constitution, Democratic Party, Elitism and Class, founding-fathers, GOP, GOP establishment, Jefferson-Hamiliton handshake, Republican Party, Republican Party establishment, Thomas Jefferson

Unified Patriots by Vassar Bushmills

(Updated from 2010, when Obama-the-idea was still new.)

The Hook

The GOP establishment has always kept one foot in the water bucket during a thunderstorm; never fixing that hole in the roof, because, when it’s raining, it too wet to go outside, and when it’s sunny, hell, there ain’t no leak. For a century this view of politics has held sway in state capitals and in Washington alike, but today, it doesn’t take into account that Democrats still have every state into little more than administrative accounting unit, or that the only real defense against this takeover will be a bridging of that divide between the Red and Blue GOP.

Only instead of a united front, we are throwing a three-tiered front; Blue Establishment Republicans, Red Conservatives, and in the last year, (but brewing for a decade or more) an amalgam of American detritus, often referred to by me as the Common Man and Woman, offering a return to an older definition, or hue, of Red.

We know infinitely more about each today than we did in 2009. And it all seems to reside in the absence of a single handshake.

The Class Struggle, the Usual Suspect

Long before I ever got into my book debate with Moses Sands (1998) about the Constitution and common man, he and I spoke many times about the role of class in American society and politics. We agreed it was worse then (1990s- Clinton era) than it had been in the 1890s, at the time of the robber barons, or the 1950s with the rise of the new capitalists after the Depression and WWII. The difference was a simple matter of demographics, a Blue diaspora, and hard math, with far more Americans becoming better educated in a higher percentage of shirt and tie professions…and many, many more in government-related work, where it’s simply harder to be continue to be a conservative and draw a state paycheck. Or. even a Republican, as election results prove in both Virginia and Maryland, when federal employment has turned both states blue. (Certain laws apply here about loyalty to the hand that feeds you which are immutable, and go back to the time of the pharaohs[…]

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The Political Parties Are An Illusion Designed To “Relegate The Governed To A Position Barely Above That Of Cattle”

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GOP, Politics, Progressives, uniparty

SHTFplan.com by Jeremiah Johnson

As I wrote in several previous articles:

1. The President cannot be completely assessed for effectiveness until the first 6 months have passed in this term,

2. He needs to attain success within the first year (and optimally within the first six months) as the midterm election campaigning will begin for both houses of Congress in November. The President needs solid victories and a concrete direction for the administration to ensure no flip-flops and a loss of control of the Congress, and

3. He must overcome the true masters of this country, as both political parties are an illusion with the paradigm shift well under way to loss of Constitutional freedoms and the “crafting” of transition to global governance with abrogation of national sovereignty and identity for Americans.

Over the course of the past week and the attempt to rid the United States of the abomination of Obamacare, the true nature of the state of things…the stance of our government…has revealed itself. Here is how they have done it:

When Obama was in power, the Congress stamped their feet and yelled with “faux” frustration: powerless to reverse Obamacare. Now Obama is gone and President Trump is in, and it is Congress…the Republican-controlled Congress, mind you…that will not get rid of Obamacare.

Citizens, let the investigations begin! How many of these globalist lackeys, these pseudo-Republicans in Congress are on the payroll to vote to keep Obamacare against the will of their constituents? Just in the manner of John Roberts of the Supreme Court: either paid or threatened to cast his vote. Scan the accounts, check the deposits, and follow the money. Always follow the money! Who has been paid? They can be found and the money can be traced to the paymaster(s), to the globalist oligarchs and/or their institution/LLC/NPO/NGO, etc. I call all of it “Seesaw Tyranny,” the method they are using to push the paradigm shift[…]

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Permission to republish in full or in part granted by www.SHTFplan.com and author.

Carly Fiorina, Chris Christie Suspends Presidential Campaigns

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Carly Fiorina, Chris Christie, GOP, Republican Party

 

Republican Party, presidential primary candidate, Carly Fiorina, who came in seventh place with 4.% of votes in the New Hamsphire caucuses suspended her 2016 presidential bid this afternoon, in a statement

New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie is also expected to end his campaign before day’s end.

Below is an excerpt from statement posted on her Facebook page about an hour ago:

…While I suspend my candidacy today, I will continue to travel this country and fight for those Americans who refuse to settle for the way things are and a status quo that no longer works for them.

Our Republican Party must fight alongside these Americans as well. We must end crony capitalism by fighting the policies that allow it to flourish. We must fix our festering problems by holding our bloated, inept government bureaucracy accountable….

Fiorina’s statement can be read in its entirety here.  Below is the now former candidate’s speech in New Hampshire last night after the elections results came in.

 

Not faring much better in the caucuses last night in New Hamsphire, Christie came in sixth place with 7.4% of votes, zero delegates after which the governor informed supporters that he was heading home to New Jersey to re-assess his presidential bid.

 

CNN

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has suspended his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination after a disappointing finish in New Hampshire, a source close to the campaign said Wednesday.

Christie made the announcement on a call with his campaign. He staked his hopes on New Hampshire, but finished sixth on Tuesday night with just 7% of the vote.

The decision marks a sudden end for someone once seen as a potential front-runner. In the wake of the 2012 election, Christie appeared poised for a strong bid for the Republican nomination — he won a second term as the Republican governor of a blue state and led the…

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Ben Carson to Reduce Staff and Salaries

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2016 Republican presidential primary, Benjamin Carson, dirty establishment politics, GOP, Marco Rubio, Republican Party, staff reduction

Photo courtesy of IPRImages, Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)

It appears that there might be some truth to the rumor** spread Monday night during the Iowa Caucuses that Ben Carson was suspending his campaign.

According to this morning’s article in the Washington Post, Carson whose funds are drying up will do a major overhaul of his campaign by cutting salaries and laying off approximately 50 staffers today.

…Carson’s traveling entourage will shrink to only a handful of advisers. And instead of flying on private jets, Carson may soon return.

The employees being released — about half of Carson’s campaign — mostly work in field operations and at his headquarters in Northern Virginia….

Senior staff and key aides to the Carson campaign will remain in place as Carson hopes to sustain his campaign until the RNC Convention this July in Cleveland, Ohio.

…Longtime Carson confidant Armstrong Williams said the drastic shake-up has been under consideration for weeks but was postponed until after Monday’s Iowa caucuses, where Carson finished in fourth place with 9.3 percent of the vote.

“Dr. Carson is going to get his campaign lean — really lean,” Williams said in an interview. “One issue for a while has been too much infrastructure and he has decided to fully address it so that he can sustain his campaign until the convention”[…]

Continue Reading — Ben Carson slashes staff as funds dry up

Let’s keep it real here. Regardless of where one stands with Dr. Benjamin Carson in the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries, Carson hasn’t been doing well in the polls, etc. has appeared war weary for a long while now as if he is just biding his time.

**Pursuant to an article by Renee Nal at Trevor Loudon: UPDATES: CNN, NOT Cruz staff, responsible for Ben Carson campaign suspension ‘rumor’, Marco Rubio’s campaign was not only aware of the rumor but “pushing the narrative hard.” Nal is updating the article as information comes in.

Dirty establishment politics and collusion by the mainstream media and GOP pundits at work here? Killing three birds with one stone, i.e., Benjamin Carson, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump (who will not shut up long enough to get the facts) while positioning the establishment’s boy, Marco Rubio into play? After all, it is the elimination season and according to the establishment, Rubio won the 2016 Iowa Caucus.