Those darned rules

Bud Norman is a great writer from Kansas with whom I have a love-hate relationship because he's right about so many things and wrong about others.

He recently wrote an essay about The Donald "pouting" about the rules that gave all of Colorado's delegates to Ted Cruz.  To read the while thing go here.

But there is another side  to this story that gives some weigh to Trump's pout,which I represented here:

Bud reminds us all that people who work for newspapers as “reporters” and “editors” don’t know Jack about the stuff they write about. Didn’t you, dear reader, go into this nominating process believing that caucuses and primaries in which you, dear readers, would decide who the party’s candidate would be would decide the candidate? Well, like Donald Trump, you were fooled by these incredibly smart members of the press who tell you what’s important, what to think and how to think about it because they don’t know Jack.

But you’ll forget about the fact that the People-of-the-Press don’t know Jack about pretty much anything until they start writing about something that you do know Jack about. At which point you’ll realize you’re dealing with particularly stupid dummies; but you’ll forget about it when you switch to the next fable on the page when those who don’t know Jack spout off about stuff they don’t know Jack about.

Which leads me to the issue of “pouting;” a word which seems to come in for its share of use because it’s the schoolyard taunt of people who are winning because the game is rigged and when the losers complain they are taunted for complaining. The schoolyard taunt works everywhere it seems except the schoolyard where pouting gets the principal and the teachers to give you everything you want. Like in the case of Emory, University of Missouri, Yale, Harvard, University of Tennessee, University of California, … oh hell the list is too long … let’s just make it “Academia.” There people pout about imaginary slights, grievances, cultural appropriation, Halloween costumes, chalk on the sidewalk, a priest identified as a KKK member, imaginary gang rapes and – by golly – they get what they want and the staff and faculty cheer them on.

So, you see, pouting works because people who believe that the game’s been rigged because they believe what the press – that doesn’t know Jack – has lied to them about the rules of the game are going to be upset that the lies that the press that doesn’t know Jack has told them. Because there is one thing that the Country Class on all sides of the political divide believe in: fairness. And when they see that the rules promulgated by the Ruling Class to keep them in power rig the game so that the peaceful voice the people have via elections is replaced by rules designed to shut them up, they are apt to realize that the peaceful way of getting rid of the current Ruling Class may have to be changed. That’s the point where the Ruling Class had better hope that the people with guns and badges are on their side or they may find that lampposts have other uses.

Super Tuesday Results

CLINTON: AL, AR, GA, MA, TN, TX, VA
SANDERS: CO, MN, OK, VT
TRUMP: AL, AR, GA, MA, TN, VA, VT
CRUZ: AK, OK, TX
RUBIO: MN

Republican Presidential Poll

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Possible Republican presidential candidates in 2016

Ace of Spades is wrong

It hurts me to say this because I like Ace.  But he's attacked Trump in an illogical way.  He says that Trump's no Reagan, and that's true; there will never be another Reagan. But that's OK. America has, so far risen to the occasion when it's in trouble and leaders have sprung up. Here's where Ace gets a little ugly:

My problem with Trump is that he is a dealmaker trying to make a sale. Right now he's trying to make a deal with conservatives -- so this is the very most conservative we'll ever see him.

If he gets the nomination, he now starts working on making the second part of the deal with the other party in the negotiations, the general public.

So this is the most conservative we'll ever see Trump -- this is the absolute most conservative he'll ever be -- and he's not conservative at all, except, possibly, on immigration. He combines liberal policy impulses with frankly authoritarian or even fascist ones, which he thinks are "what conservatives want," because, frankly, he conceives of us as ugly-minded, stupid dummies who get off on this shit.

That's why he didn't put the "Ban Muslims" line in a more palatable, persuasive form, like "Reduce immigration from Muslim-majority countries or countries with a terrorism problem to a level where we can vet each individual applicant."

No, he put it in the most bigoted, ugly way he could think of, because that's about his level, and because, also, that's what he thinks "conservatives" are.

I was unable to post my response in his comments (server error) so I'll post it here.

Ace, I love you (in a good, manly way of course) but you’re wrong. It’s not because I know how great a President Trump will be, but because the issues you cited are just wrong. Read the O’Reilly transcript and then tell me that Trump was in favor of importing hundreds of thousands of Syrians. “They're living in hell, and something has to be done.” is not “let’s bring them all to the US.” I realize I’m parsing words here, but you don’t go on O’Reilly’s show for an intelligent debate about foreign policy. You go for face time with the public, and then you leave. The same reason you go to any late night comic’s show. It’s not to disagree with the host; it’s to make a good impression and leave.

You then join (in Peggy Noonan’s words) the protected class by dumping on the unprotected class. When you say that “ … he put it in the most bigoted, ugly way he could think of, because that's about his level, and because, also, that's what he thinks "conservatives" are” you’re also impugning (according to the polls) roughly 44% of Republicans who, according to Reuters, support Trump. So yeah, at this point about 44 out of every 100 Republicans like what Trump’s saying and respond positively to how he’s saying it. So you’re saying what every Liberal asshole with a keyboard and a byline has been saying ever since they lost the Solid South: Republicans are ugly bigots.

Now, I don’t want to pick a fight with a guy with whom I often agree so let me give you an alternative theory. Trump understands the majority of the American people have come to the realization that they are about to lose the country they love to people who don’t love it. They understand that they are being tossed by the wayside by both Democrats and Republicans. Their kids are being indoctrinated to hate America. They are being replaced by cheap foreign labor by the managerial class running America’s industries, and their most deeply held beliefs are despised by the Ruling Class who is determined to make them “bake a cake” – a metaphor for forcing them to do things to which they are morally opposed.

Trump, being a smart man, has seized the opportunity to do a hostile take-over of a brand that has been run into the ground by inept management: the Republican Party. But here’s where you and I differ: it would be beyond stupid for Trump to run as the champion of the people who support him, and then give them the cold shoulder once he claims the prize. Trump may not have been the student of political theory that Reagan was, but he’s not stupid and he’s not going to make the mistake that the Republicans have made once they got to Washington. He’s running as a nationalist and if he wins he will govern as one. He will govern as a champion of the little guy, not just pay them lip service at election time. To do otherwise would turn literally everyone against him. That would not build his brand, and one thing Trump knows how to do is build his brand.

Bernie Sanders Wooing the Black Vote

Imagine that you are an elderly white man, hair whiter than Wonder bread; a man who took his brand new wife to honeymoon in the USSR because he thinks that Stalin had the right ideas.

A man who wants to run as President carrying the banner of the party that fought to preserve slavery in the Civil War.

A man whose chosen party is the party of the Ku Klux Klan.

A man whose chosen party’s revered elder statesman is a perjurer and a rapist.

A man whose rival for that party’s nomination is an elderly white woman who made it possible for America’s enemies to steal her most highly classified secrets.

Suppose you are this elderly white man and want to get the votes of the most solid block of voters for the Democrat party; the Black vote.

What do you do in 2016?

You sit down with the man who made Tawanda Brawley famous – Al Sharpton.

You fly to be with the man who instigated the murderous Crown Heights riots – Al Sharpton.

You have breakfast with the man who incited a black mob to burn down a store Jewish-owned store in Harlem that killed seven people – Al Sharpton.

You sit down with the man whose fame and fortune was made as a race hustler – Al Sharpton.

Nearly eight years after America elected – and re-elected - a black President you, Mr. White Bread Socialist know how to get the Black vote; you have coffee with Al Sharpton.

To quote Jon Gabriel on Twitter: “My favorite part about the Obama era is all the racial healing.”

New Hampshire Primary

As the Primaries Turn

Bud Norman:

If the presidential race turns out to be a match between a convicted felon and a constitutionally-ineligible foreigner, we’ll be rooting for the constitutionally-ineligible foreigner.