As of tonight, we might know whether Donald Trump will be the Republican presidential candidate. And barring unforeseeable events, it is certain that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee. Those are two reasons (of many, unfortunately) why — other than the first years of the Civil War, when the survival of the United States as one country was in jeopardy — there was never a darker time in American history.
The various major wars — the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean and Vietnam Wars — were worse in terms of American lives lost.
The Great Depression was worse in economic terms.
There were more riots during the Vietnam War era.
But at no other time was there as much pessimism — valid pessimism, moreover — about America’s future as there is today.
Among the reasons are: Every distinctive value on which America was founded is in jeopardy. …
…. The size of the federal government and its far-reaching meddling in and control over Americans’ lives are the very thing America was founded to avoid.
And now there’s Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Nothing more clearly exemplifies the dark time in which we are living than this political version of a tragic Sophie’s choice.
I will not end on a happy note, because there isn’t one.
But neither do I despair. One doesn’t fight only when one is optimistic. One fights because it is the right thing to do and because America remains, as Lincoln said, “the last best hope of earth.”
_________________________________
So, do we believe God is in control or not? What will happen if the Democratic candidate is indicted and under prosecution in the middle of a campaign?
I’m flabbergasted by it all–but then I was surprised when McCain won the nomination.
Back to 1920 England, which was also a mess but at least it had a king!
Yes, God is in control! Sodom and Gomorrah were punished with fire and brimstone. We are punished with Trump and Hillary.
I do disagree with Prager about 1861 and 1862 being dark years.
May, 1862 through July 1, 1863 was the miraculous year in which Lee, Jackson and the men of the Army of Northern Virginia almost won our independence. Had that happened we would be no more concerned with Trump or Hillary than we would if Mexico or Haiti elected a corrupt politician or an insane buffoon.
This story (on “what Cruz got wrong in Indiana”) also speaks, I think, to what will be the larger challenge as the conservative/GOP movement tries to re-group when this election is finally put to bed.
The political *landscape* — for now — appears to be shifting. Social conservatives may have to realize we’re now a minority voice within what is a larger ‘conservative’/shifting liberatrian coalition.
… Outside the diner, in a gaggle with reporters, Cruz unloaded on North Carolina’s transgender bathroom law. “There is no greater evil than predators, and if the law says that any man, if he chooses can enter a women’s restroom, a little girl’s restroom and stay there and he cannot be removed because he simply says at that moment he feels like a woman, you’re opening the door for predators,” Cruz told reporters.
The comments went over well with the Cruz crowd, but moderate Republicans watching Cruz’s comments on the local news later that night might as well have heard a record scratch—the amens replaced by sighs. “I don’t like any campaign that puts one class of humans against another,” a central Indiana Republican delegate to Cleveland who was turned off by Cruz’s comments, told me.
It was not supposed to go this way for Cruz. Indiana seems to be, at least from 30,000 feet, a barn-red bastion of Bible-believing IndyCar social conservatives—a place where a Washington Wiseman like Senator Richard Lugar can lose a primary to a bomb-throwing conservative like Richard Mourdock 60 to 40 percent.
But over the past year, the state’s Republican landscape has shifted. Last March, when conservative Gov. Mike Pence signed the controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) into law, the once-lockstep Republican coalition here fractured, putting daylight between the state’s social conservatives, who backed Pence, from the fiscal conservatives, who have become squeamish over divisive social issues—and who long for the days when the state was ruled by pragmatic, coalition-building Republican Mitch Daniels.
Today, vast swaths of the state’s Republican electorate, from Indianapolis to West Lafayette, have retreated from the culture wars. And like the 50s-era diner itself, Cruz’s dogged socially conservative message seems anachronistic—and perhaps a little tin-eared—to these fiscally conservative, socially liberal Republicans, the kind Cruz has to win over in the state’s crucial, populous and well-heeled “doughnut” counties surrounding Indianapolis (if you remove Marion County, the remaining surrounding counties form a doughnut-shaped ring) in order to have a shot at beating Donald Trump in the primary on Tuesday. …
… Trump’s powerful new coalition means that, despite how socially conservative some regions of the state remain—Northeastern Indiana, for example—doing well in those regions on Tuesday just isn’t enough for Cruz. …
“The Hillary Clinton campaign made multiple payments to a company that specializes in hard drive and document destruction, campaign finance records show.
The payments, which were recorded in February and March of 2016, went to the Nevada-based American Document Destruction, Inc., which claims expertise in destroying hard drives or “anything else that a hard drive can come from.”
“Our hard drive destruction procedures take place either at your site or at our secure facility in Sparks, NV,” the company’s website states. “This decision is yours to decide based on cost and convenience to you. In either situation, the hard drive will be destroyed by a shredding.”
“We have a dedicated machine for hard drive destruction,” the website continues. “We will also record the serial numbers of all drives to be destroyed to be kept in our records. A copy of this log can be provided to you as well.””
“The Clinton campaign did not return a request for comment about what documents it paid to have destroyed.”
—————————
“The attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands is targeting dozens of conservative and libertarian organizations in a racketeering lawsuit against climate change skeptics that has been widely described as an effort to silence political opponents.
In a subpoena issued in March, the office of USVI attorney general Claude Walker demanded from Exxon Mobil copies of communications between the oil company and 90 different political and policy organizations “and any other organizations engaged in research or advocacy concerning Climate Change or policies.”
The subpoena was part of a national, coordinated legal campaign by state attorneys general and left-wing advocacy groups to use the legal system against companies and organizations that disagree with and advocate against Democratic policies to address global climate change.
The existence of the subpoena was first reported by the Wall Street Journal in April. A newly released copy obtained by the Washington Free Beacon reveals the names of the organizations targeted in the effort, which had previously been redacted.
Those organizations include some of the nation’s preeminent conservative and libertarian nonprofit groups. The AG is requesting Exxon Mobil communications with the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Federalist Society, the Hoover Institution, the Reason Foundation, and the Mercatus Institute, among other groups.
One target of the subpoena, the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute, has already publicly responded to Walker. Its attorney called the attorney general’s subpoena “a blatant attempt to intimidate and harass an organization for advancing views that you oppose.”
“Your demand on CEI is offensive, it is un-American, it is unlawful, and it will not stand,” wrote Andrew M. Grossman, an attorney with the Washington firm BakerHostetler. “You can either withdraw it or expect to fight.””
“President Obama is poised to declare the first-ever national monument recognizing the struggle for gay rights, singling out a sliver of green space and part of the surrounding Greenwich Village neighborhood as the birthplace of America’s modern gay liberation movement.
While most national monuments have highlighted iconic wild landscapes or historic sites from centuries ago, this reflects the country’s diversity of terrain and peoples in a different vein: It would be the first national monument anchored by a dive bar, surrounded by a warren of narrow streets that long has been regarded the historic center of gay cultural life in New York.
Federal officials, including Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, National Park Service director Jonathan B. Jarvis and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), will hold a listening session on May 9 to solicit feedback on the proposal. Barring a last-minute complication–city officials are still investigating the history of the land title–Obama is prepared to designate the area part of the National Park Service as soon as next month, which commemorates gay pride.”
I never did understand why a conservative Texan like Cruz would want to be the President of Socialist Sodom. However, he emerged as the final and best challenger to the liberal lunatic. Texas is proud of his efforts. I doubt if an intelligent conservative who actually believes in the Constitution will run again.
You know, liberals/progressives/Democrats have been saying that Republicans are ignorant & bigoted & whatnot, & Trump’s ascendancy seems to prove them right.
I emphasize “seems” because I know that many of his supporters are neither racist nor ignorant. But I have no idea what they can be thinking to support that man.
This election is now downright scary! (As if it weren’t before.)
Trump has a lot of work to do if he wants to re-built his bridges with conservatives.
The thought that still makes my blood run cold is that Clinton would be nominating anywhere from 2-4 Supreme Court justices, likely just in the first 4 years. Shudder. That would entrench liberalism for more than a generation to come.
I may abstain from voting and just “hope” Clinton loses. Let the rest of it fall where it may.
… The race is over. Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee.
And let’s be fair. He has won going away. As the campaign went on and voters learned more about Trump’s presumed flaws–not being a conservative was at the top of my list–he grew stronger, not weaker.
Some #NeverTrumps are talking about dredging up a respectable candidate for an independent race, but I think that would be a terrible mistake. Trump has won the Republican nomination fair and square. If there are Republicans who would rather vote for Hillary, they should go ahead and do so. But they are a small minority, and for them to put up a third candidate who couldn’t possibly win, but might be the one deus ex machina that could land Hillary in the White House, would be worse than pointless. It would be a betrayal of their fellow Republicans and, I think, a disaster for the country.
For my part, I think Trump can beat Clinton. I will be surprised if he doesn’t.
… In any event, the die is cast. The 2016 presidential election will be between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Trump will win, in all likelihood, I believe. It is too bad that there won’t be a conservative in the race, but we can still have fun covering it!
_____________________
I can still see some extremely unlikely scenarios whereby the GOP convention in Cleveland nominates someone else. But it would take some kind of fatal stumble from Trump, and let’s face it, if nothing he’s said or done so far has slowed him much, what could he do now that would cause delegates to want to dump him? …
But since it has been such a strange year, who knows. Fact: America has never elected president someone without high political experience (I count being the commander of the allied armies in Europe in World War II to be “high political experience”). …
Meanwhile—what’s this? Hillary losing to Bernie again? She has the nomination locked up on paper, but now with the GOP race decided (and who thought the GOP race would be decided before the Democrats?), the sole focus will be on Sanders-Clinton, and Sanders should do very well out in the western primaries. So Hillary will limp into the summer an exceedingly weak candidate. …
The Libertarian Party nomination is suddenly worth having this year. Gary Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico, is the likely nominee, and while he was a decent governor of New Mexico (or so I hear), have you seen him on the stump? He’s dreadful. If he seriously wants to make a race of it, he’d have to step up his political game by an order of magnitude, and I doubt he has it in him. But let’s see: if he can poll 10 percent or so, he might be included in the fall presidential debates. Then things will really get weird.
__________________________________
Wandering Views 
Wow. Why medical care is now so expensive?
LikeLiked by 2 people
From Dennis Prager today:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/434850/dark-time-america
________________________________
As of tonight, we might know whether Donald Trump will be the Republican presidential candidate. And barring unforeseeable events, it is certain that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee. Those are two reasons (of many, unfortunately) why — other than the first years of the Civil War, when the survival of the United States as one country was in jeopardy — there was never a darker time in American history.
The various major wars — the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean and Vietnam Wars — were worse in terms of American lives lost.
The Great Depression was worse in economic terms.
There were more riots during the Vietnam War era.
But at no other time was there as much pessimism — valid pessimism, moreover — about America’s future as there is today.
Among the reasons are: Every distinctive value on which America was founded is in jeopardy. …
…. The size of the federal government and its far-reaching meddling in and control over Americans’ lives are the very thing America was founded to avoid.
And now there’s Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Nothing more clearly exemplifies the dark time in which we are living than this political version of a tragic Sophie’s choice.
I will not end on a happy note, because there isn’t one.
But neither do I despair. One doesn’t fight only when one is optimistic. One fights because it is the right thing to do and because America remains, as Lincoln said, “the last best hope of earth.”
_________________________________
LikeLike
So, do we believe God is in control or not? What will happen if the Democratic candidate is indicted and under prosecution in the middle of a campaign?
I’m flabbergasted by it all–but then I was surprised when McCain won the nomination.
Back to 1920 England, which was also a mess but at least it had a king!
LikeLiked by 1 person
We do, michelle, we do. Otherwise, who could bear any of it?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, God is in control! Sodom and Gomorrah were punished with fire and brimstone. We are punished with Trump and Hillary.
I do disagree with Prager about 1861 and 1862 being dark years.
May, 1862 through July 1, 1863 was the miraculous year in which Lee, Jackson and the men of the Army of Northern Virginia almost won our independence. Had that happened we would be no more concerned with Trump or Hillary than we would if Mexico or Haiti elected a corrupt politician or an insane buffoon.
LikeLike
Psalm 37 is my big reminder these days. Nevertheless, it is difficult to watch the mess. One can only work in one’s sphere; keeping on, keeping on.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This story (on “what Cruz got wrong in Indiana”) also speaks, I think, to what will be the larger challenge as the conservative/GOP movement tries to re-group when this election is finally put to bed.
The political *landscape* — for now — appears to be shifting. Social conservatives may have to realize we’re now a minority voice within what is a larger ‘conservative’/shifting liberatrian coalition.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/how-ted-cruz-got-indiana-wrong-213866
_________________________________________
… Outside the diner, in a gaggle with reporters, Cruz unloaded on North Carolina’s transgender bathroom law. “There is no greater evil than predators, and if the law says that any man, if he chooses can enter a women’s restroom, a little girl’s restroom and stay there and he cannot be removed because he simply says at that moment he feels like a woman, you’re opening the door for predators,” Cruz told reporters.
The comments went over well with the Cruz crowd, but moderate Republicans watching Cruz’s comments on the local news later that night might as well have heard a record scratch—the amens replaced by sighs. “I don’t like any campaign that puts one class of humans against another,” a central Indiana Republican delegate to Cleveland who was turned off by Cruz’s comments, told me.
It was not supposed to go this way for Cruz. Indiana seems to be, at least from 30,000 feet, a barn-red bastion of Bible-believing IndyCar social conservatives—a place where a Washington Wiseman like Senator Richard Lugar can lose a primary to a bomb-throwing conservative like Richard Mourdock 60 to 40 percent.
But over the past year, the state’s Republican landscape has shifted. Last March, when conservative Gov. Mike Pence signed the controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) into law, the once-lockstep Republican coalition here fractured, putting daylight between the state’s social conservatives, who backed Pence, from the fiscal conservatives, who have become squeamish over divisive social issues—and who long for the days when the state was ruled by pragmatic, coalition-building Republican Mitch Daniels.
Today, vast swaths of the state’s Republican electorate, from Indianapolis to West Lafayette, have retreated from the culture wars. And like the 50s-era diner itself, Cruz’s dogged socially conservative message seems anachronistic—and perhaps a little tin-eared—to these fiscally conservative, socially liberal Republicans, the kind Cruz has to win over in the state’s crucial, populous and well-heeled “doughnut” counties surrounding Indianapolis (if you remove Marion County, the remaining surrounding counties form a doughnut-shaped ring) in order to have a shot at beating Donald Trump in the primary on Tuesday. …
… Trump’s powerful new coalition means that, despite how socially conservative some regions of the state remain—Northeastern Indiana, for example—doing well in those regions on Tuesday just isn’t enough for Cruz. …
___________________________________________
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Nothin’ to see here I’m sure….
🙄
http://freebeacon.com/politics/clinton-campaign-made-payments-hard-drive-document-destruction-company/
“The Hillary Clinton campaign made multiple payments to a company that specializes in hard drive and document destruction, campaign finance records show.
The payments, which were recorded in February and March of 2016, went to the Nevada-based American Document Destruction, Inc., which claims expertise in destroying hard drives or “anything else that a hard drive can come from.”
“Our hard drive destruction procedures take place either at your site or at our secure facility in Sparks, NV,” the company’s website states. “This decision is yours to decide based on cost and convenience to you. In either situation, the hard drive will be destroyed by a shredding.”
“We have a dedicated machine for hard drive destruction,” the website continues. “We will also record the serial numbers of all drives to be destroyed to be kept in our records. A copy of this log can be provided to you as well.””
“The Clinton campaign did not return a request for comment about what documents it paid to have destroyed.”
—————————
Now move along…..
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Looks like Dems are planning their next IRS style targeting racket. Once again, conservatives are the target. The opposition must be silenced.
http://freebeacon.com/issues/dem-ag-targets-90-conservative-groups-climate-change-racketeering-suit/
“The attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands is targeting dozens of conservative and libertarian organizations in a racketeering lawsuit against climate change skeptics that has been widely described as an effort to silence political opponents.
In a subpoena issued in March, the office of USVI attorney general Claude Walker demanded from Exxon Mobil copies of communications between the oil company and 90 different political and policy organizations “and any other organizations engaged in research or advocacy concerning Climate Change or policies.”
The subpoena was part of a national, coordinated legal campaign by state attorneys general and left-wing advocacy groups to use the legal system against companies and organizations that disagree with and advocate against Democratic policies to address global climate change.
The existence of the subpoena was first reported by the Wall Street Journal in April. A newly released copy obtained by the Washington Free Beacon reveals the names of the organizations targeted in the effort, which had previously been redacted.
Those organizations include some of the nation’s preeminent conservative and libertarian nonprofit groups. The AG is requesting Exxon Mobil communications with the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Federalist Society, the Hoover Institution, the Reason Foundation, and the Mercatus Institute, among other groups.
One target of the subpoena, the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute, has already publicly responded to Walker. Its attorney called the attorney general’s subpoena “a blatant attempt to intimidate and harass an organization for advancing views that you oppose.”
“Your demand on CEI is offensive, it is un-American, it is unlawful, and it will not stand,” wrote Andrew M. Grossman, an attorney with the Washington firm BakerHostetler. “You can either withdraw it or expect to fight.””
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The fact that it’s anchored by a dive bar seems fitting……
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-poised-to-create-first-monument-to-gay-rights/2016/05/03/0811810e-1154-11e6-93ae-50921721165d_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_no-name%3Apage%2Fbreaking-news-bar
“President Obama is poised to declare the first-ever national monument recognizing the struggle for gay rights, singling out a sliver of green space and part of the surrounding Greenwich Village neighborhood as the birthplace of America’s modern gay liberation movement.
While most national monuments have highlighted iconic wild landscapes or historic sites from centuries ago, this reflects the country’s diversity of terrain and peoples in a different vein: It would be the first national monument anchored by a dive bar, surrounded by a warren of narrow streets that long has been regarded the historic center of gay cultural life in New York.
Federal officials, including Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, National Park Service director Jonathan B. Jarvis and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), will hold a listening session on May 9 to solicit feedback on the proposal. Barring a last-minute complication–city officials are still investigating the history of the land title–Obama is prepared to designate the area part of the National Park Service as soon as next month, which commemorates gay pride.”
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The weird year continues in Indiana.
Trump wins (big).
Cruz drops out
Bernie’s outpacing Hillary in what could wind up as an upset
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Wow. 😦
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;-9
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I never did understand why a conservative Texan like Cruz would want to be the President of Socialist Sodom. However, he emerged as the final and best challenger to the liberal lunatic. Texas is proud of his efforts. I doubt if an intelligent conservative who actually believes in the Constitution will run again.
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Meanwhile, California has it’s only chance — in decades — to make a real difference in the primary cycle snatched away. Sigh.
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You know, liberals/progressives/Democrats have been saying that Republicans are ignorant & bigoted & whatnot, & Trump’s ascendancy seems to prove them right.
I emphasize “seems” because I know that many of his supporters are neither racist nor ignorant. But I have no idea what they can be thinking to support that man.
This election is now downright scary! (As if it weren’t before.)
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But I also agree with those who have reminded us that God is still in control.
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Trump has a lot of work to do if he wants to re-built his bridges with conservatives.
The thought that still makes my blood run cold is that Clinton would be nominating anywhere from 2-4 Supreme Court justices, likely just in the first 4 years. Shudder. That would entrench liberalism for more than a generation to come.
I may abstain from voting and just “hope” Clinton loses. Let the rest of it fall where it may.
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The boys over at National Review must be just about ready to commit harikari tonight.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I just want to cry
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Can Trump be domesticated? We’ll see.
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From power line:
It won’t be boring, anyway
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2016/05/trump-wins-indiana-cruz-quits-race-its-over.php
____________________
… The race is over. Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee.
And let’s be fair. He has won going away. As the campaign went on and voters learned more about Trump’s presumed flaws–not being a conservative was at the top of my list–he grew stronger, not weaker.
Some #NeverTrumps are talking about dredging up a respectable candidate for an independent race, but I think that would be a terrible mistake. Trump has won the Republican nomination fair and square. If there are Republicans who would rather vote for Hillary, they should go ahead and do so. But they are a small minority, and for them to put up a third candidate who couldn’t possibly win, but might be the one deus ex machina that could land Hillary in the White House, would be worse than pointless. It would be a betrayal of their fellow Republicans and, I think, a disaster for the country.
For my part, I think Trump can beat Clinton. I will be surprised if he doesn’t.
… In any event, the die is cast. The 2016 presidential election will be between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Trump will win, in all likelihood, I believe. It is too bad that there won’t be a conservative in the race, but we can still have fun covering it!
_____________________
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And this by one of their other commentators:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2016/05/it-aint-over-till-oh-wait-theres-the-fat-lady.php
_______________________________
I can still see some extremely unlikely scenarios whereby the GOP convention in Cleveland nominates someone else. But it would take some kind of fatal stumble from Trump, and let’s face it, if nothing he’s said or done so far has slowed him much, what could he do now that would cause delegates to want to dump him? …
But since it has been such a strange year, who knows. Fact: America has never elected president someone without high political experience (I count being the commander of the allied armies in Europe in World War II to be “high political experience”). …
Meanwhile—what’s this? Hillary losing to Bernie again? She has the nomination locked up on paper, but now with the GOP race decided (and who thought the GOP race would be decided before the Democrats?), the sole focus will be on Sanders-Clinton, and Sanders should do very well out in the western primaries. So Hillary will limp into the summer an exceedingly weak candidate. …
The Libertarian Party nomination is suddenly worth having this year. Gary Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico, is the likely nominee, and while he was a decent governor of New Mexico (or so I hear), have you seen him on the stump? He’s dreadful. If he seriously wants to make a race of it, he’d have to step up his political game by an order of magnitude, and I doubt he has it in him. But let’s see: if he can poll 10 percent or so, he might be included in the fall presidential debates. Then things will really get weird.
__________________________________
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