Eyes wide shut: Trump, panic attacks, and Carolina-style Alinsky tactics
Blinkin’ Chris has *really* got it all figured out (It’s no wonder Mr. Goodmon pays him the big bucks):
Listen to many of the conservative pundits around the country and in North Carolina these days and you’d think Donald Trump appeared out of nowhere to storm to the front of the Republican presidential primary field with his rhetoric about immigrants and Muslims and women that traditional Republican leaders say they find offensive.
Trump has called for a ban on Muslims travelling to the United States, a suggestion that North Carolina Senator Richard Burr called a bad mistake that would be harmful for national security. […]
Heads up, Burr re-election campaign. You NOW have Blinking’ Chris citing your guy to prop up his weak arguments. *It’s quite a feather in your conservative cap to have Chris Fitzsimon’s blessing.* MORE: 
[…] When Trump announced his bid for president last summer he railed against immigrants from Mexico that he said included murderers and rapists.
Those comments ignited a firestorm of protest that led to television networks announcing they would no longer air beauty contests that Trump presents, ESPN shifting a golf tournament away from a Trump golf course and NASCAR moving its banquet away from a Trump-owned property.
Trump not only hasn’t apologized for the comments, he’s continued to make them and found new ways to offend people, including ridiculing a reporter with a disability.[…]
There Chris goes utilizing those WRAL standards for reportin’. The “immigrants” Trump “railed” against were the folks who sneak across the border trying to evade the US Border Patrol. NOT the folks who follow the law and play by the rules. (Like going through Customs, for instance.) Talk to ANY law enforcement official in this country and they will tell you how they are spending an inordinate amount of time dealing with criminal activity by people who also happen to be illegal aliens.
As far as those business moves go, you’re dealing more with wussy PR departments reacting to hysteria whipped up by drive-bys transmitting convenient pieces of the truth. MORE:
[…] Despite it all, he is now the frontrunner in the Republican primary and he is leading in the polls in North Carolina.
And it’s driving the mainstream Republicans and their prominent supporters crazy. One prominent conservative think-tanker in Raleigh recently described Trump as “a charlatan, a pathetic, disgusting human being,” and said he could all but destroy the Republican Party. […]
NOW he’s citing John Hood !!!! (Hood and Burr. Talk about two useful idiots …) MORE:
[…] But Trump didn’t come out of nowhere of course and he didn’t just start making offensive statements. A few weeks before Trump said immigrants from Mexico were rapists in his announcement speech, he said virtually the same thing as a keynote speaker at the 2015 state convention of the North Carolina Republican
Party.
And it wasn’t the first time Trump was invited by Republican leaders to come to North Carolina. He was a keynote speaker at the 2012 convention too. No allegedly mainstream Republican protested his invitation either time and prominent state Republicans all sat quietly in a ballroom and listened to Trump make his offensive remarks about immigrants last summer.
Now however they are offended by what he is saying.
Trump himself isn’t the real problem. He’s a candidate but he’s also a symptom of how far outside the mainstream the Republican Party has moved in North Carolina and how unwilling party leaders are to stand up to extremists. […]
Chris is so off-course here he may disappear into the Bermuda Triangle never to be seen again. (Um, yay?)
I think I’d be more concerned if MY presidential candidate was off having breakfast with AL SHARPTON.
Actually, respected conservative academic Charles Murray hits the nail on the head about the Trump phenomenon pretty doggone well. It’s bigger than Trump, he argues. It’s about a growing frustra
tion within the middle class about an elitist ruling class clique in this country that spans both parties and doesn’t mind using the power of the state to reward themselves and their friends, as well as keep the rest of us down and dependent on THEM.
Here’s Conrad Black, writing in the New York Sun, further buttressing Mr. Murray’s point.
One of the biggest reasons Donald Trump is here and doing so well is that D.C. (you might also throw Raleigh in here, too) did not listen to what the voters said at the polls in 1994, 2010, and 2014. The politicians played the rubes back home — telling them what they wanted to hear — and then cast them aside.
Now the rubes back home have their torches and pitchforks and, apparently, their presidential candidate.
I’m just afraid of what the rubes (and the rest of us) will do when Trump suddenly stops talking hooray-for-our-side when he’s nominated. Going with Cruz, people gotta remember other important stuff like the next three Supreme Court picks.
The great thing about Cruz is he has never given any money to help get Hillary elected to the Senate and Cruz has not donated money to the Clinton foundation and Republicans should never vote for someone who did these two things
Me too. Cruz is the only guy running I’m able to vote for.
Where they “do” overlap, (like the immigration and refugees examples) Cruz “also” always has the more well-thought out and reasoned position and better argument… He knows “why” he holds the positions he does, and how they relate to his basic principles, which I for the most part share (especially on the role and scope of government).
I’m “angry” with the GOP establishment too… but just because Trump is loud and they dont like him either, doesnt mean he’s also a “good” thing.
Blinkin’ Chris is displaying his ignorance. The border jumpers that Trump is talking about do not meet the definition of ”immigrant” in US law. Our immigration law defines them quite clearly as ”illegal aliens”.
As to the Muslim migrants / ”refugees” Trump is actually quite mild compared to some European leaders. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, for example compared them to the barbarians who overran and destroyed the Roman Empire and warned that Europe faced the same fate unless they stopped the flow of them. The president of the Czech Republic called it an organized invasion by the Muslim migrants / ”refugees” and urged Europe to respond to it as an invasion.
Australia is one western country which has halted a Third World invasion of its borders. It is intercepting and turning around the migrant boats so they cannot land. Some European countries like Hungary, Bulgaria, and now Macedonia have built or are building walls on their borders to effectively keep the migrants out. The Austrian chancellor, a Social Democrat, has just called for all of the Muslim migrants in Austria to be returned to Turkey.
Trump is saying the right things on the illegal aliens, but given his past contrary positions of not so long ago, it is Ted Cruz that I trust on this issue much more than Trump. The ones that would absolutely sell us out to Mexico are Bush, Rubio, and Kasich. They are worse than Democrats. I would take my chances with Trump before going along with any of that trio.
Forget all this crap. Justice Scalia has passed away. Control of the Supreme Court is now in the balance. Our 1st Amendment, 2nd Amendment, etc. rights are in the balance. Which presidential candidate will appoint someone like Scalia or Thomas? Will Sen. Burr vote to confirm any nominee between now and 01/20/17? The next Supreme Court Justice is now THE #1 issue for conservative voters.
Agreed.
The real key is holding the line at the Judiciary Committee level against any Obama nominee. The weak links there are Orrin Hatch (who should have been dumped by his conservative challenger in the last primary), Jeff Flake, Lindsay Graham, and possibly Thom Tillis.
As to appointments, I would not trust Bush, Rubio, or Kasich to make a decent appointment. Trump and Carson are crap shoots. The only one I would totally trust is Ted Cruz.
Ted Cruz is the only one to trust when it comes to supreme court nominees cause he has argued in front of the supreme court and won and knows the importance and last effects of liberals on the court
Meanwhile, North Carolina Republicans need to read Tillis and Burr the riot act over judicial appointments. Seriously, I can’t understand the depths of ignorance among rank-and-file Republicans who believe Burr to be conservative, as many times as he’s stabbed his own Party in the back.
I don’t trust Tundra Ted any further than Two Corinthians can spit.
so who on that debate stage last night do you trust more ?
Shouldn’t we be concerned over a presidential hopeful making SCOTUS appointments when they have recently said this about Justice Scalia’s opinion on ”affirmative action”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91zG-fZZaW4
Can’t we do a lot better than that.
Come on Brant, you’re too smart to fall for the “The establishment hates Trump” BS.
>As a dedicated conservative, successful businessman, and inspiration to many, Donald Trump will provide our convention with a unique energy and excitement.
… said Robin Hayes about Trump being the keynote speaker at the NCGOP convention.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/04/trump-to-keynote-nc-gop-dinner-120048
And Cruz? He’s been surrounded by Goldman Sachs, Council on Foreign Relations, and Bush era neocons for decades. No. Don’t fall for that con.
Trump is not a loose cannon. He is a strategist. He is echoing exactly what the dwindling Middle Class in this country is saying and feeling. He is not a conservative per the neo-con definition because he doesn’t fit the bill of being a war monger. He can’t be bought. All the other candidates are controlled by large corporations and the banks. Special interests and lobbyists have destroyed our constitution. We the People are not being represented. I’ll put my life and faith in Trump over a wannabe President. This whole republican primary is a farce as this is about a brokered convention to put loser Bush in the WH. Wake up. They never expected to see Trump get this far. It has upset their apple cart. Even Raleigh changed the rules of the game to protect the establishment candidate. Trump 2016
As I recall, it was Scott Walker’s campaign that asked a powerful state senator to change the proportional allocation of delegates that NC has had until now to a winner take all system, and he did so in the legislation. It was conservatives on the State Executive Committee who reversed that and changed it back to what we have had in the past. So we now have the system that we have traditionally had in NC back.
Frankly, I do not know what Trump is politically. I wish I did. If I look at what he is saying now, much of it sounds great, but then I look at positions he took not so long ago, and they do not match up. I wish I could trust what he says now, but I just do not, at least not completely. Still, that is better than the known record and positions of Bush or Rubio or Kasich, who are big government liberals.
Trump’s pandering to the ethanol special interest in Iowa, which did not work, was an eye opener. It shows he will make really sleazy deals to try to buy votes. His support of eminent domain is another black mark, and he continues to do that.
Trump pandered to the ethanol crowd in Iowa because our government did not give the farmers a choice. It was sink or swim. Concerning the imminent domain issue, Trump offered the woman 3 times what she ended up receiving and he never built on her property. He doesn’t believe private individuals or corporations should be granted imminent domain and was against the property issue in Connecticut. Imminent Domain has occurred all over NC to build roads,bridges, schools and hospitals. I have never heard anyone ever say they got a raw deal in the mix. I knew people in the past that became very wealthy when the state took their farm to build I40 in Forsyth County. My Ex was raised in the same church in Queens,NY and says he is the real deal.
You do not seem to know much about ethanol, which is a boondoggle cooked up by the crony capitalists and environmental extremists that screws consumers and taxpayers to the wall. It raises gas and food prices, decreases gas milage, and damages engines.
Ted Cruz called for phasing out the ethanol mandate. Donald Trump called for increasing the mandate. The other candidates stood on the status quo.
It turned out that only the big corporate farms and similar special interests cared. They funded lots of ads against Ted Cruz, but polls showed that the issue only mattered to three percent of Iowa voters. Ted Cruz won all the major corn producing counties in the caucuses.
With the monumental loss of Justice Antonin Scalia the future is coming together.
The ticket:
President – Donald Trump
Vice President – Sarah Palin
Supreme Court Justice – Ted Cruz
NC US Senator – Greg Brannon
2nd Cong. District – Jim Duncan
Donald Trump financed the Democrats against conservatives in the 2010 election cycle, then financed the GOP establishment against the conservatives in the 2014 election cycle. Are we blindly trusting enough to take him at his word that he is on our side this time?
Sarah Palin started to lose her shine when she endorsed John McCain against a conservative challenger for US Senate, and then lost it completely two years ago when she endorse establishment challenger Taylor Griffin against our own conservative congressman Walter Jones.
Ted Cruz will do a lot more good in the first slot than the third one.
I wholeheartedly agree on your final two, and would add:
3rd CD – Walter Jones
5th CD – Patti Currin
7th CD – Mark Otto
Don’t forget Chris Hardin in the 6th CD. His opponent has proven to be a squish.
Sad part is we have many that ran as conservatives/Tea Party but were trully liberal. A.K.A. Burr.
Will someone please tell me how we/our country has benefited by holding our noses to vote for an “approved” candidate or by sitting out an election because a particular candidate is not “pure” enough? In the first instance, we have been played and lied to by the establishment which is why Burr, Ellmers, Foxx, etc MUST go. In the second scenario, assuming Trump or Cruz is the nominee, we must put down our ideological axes, rally behind one of these two and make sure criminal Hillary or socialist Bernie are NOT elected. The future of this country is at stake.
(BTW…For all you Trump naysayers — his wealth is in USA real estate. If the U.S. goes down, he goes down with it. Talk about incentive to “make America great again.”)
Yeah, that golf course in Scotland did not work out for him, did it? Unfortunately, there is some embarassing film that US media bought from British media on that subject and is sitting on, just waiting for Trump to get the nomination, as Glen Beck has been pointing out.
But some of his investments in the Arab world seem to have worked so far.
Great reply. I am in total agreement. The electorate may not know this but Hillary received all the super delegates in NH even though Bernie won the primary.
Ted Cruz must clarify his position on immigration. His wavering leaves many people wondering where he stands. Or sways.
You are perpetually confused about everything, Junior. This one is nothing new. It does not seem to take much to confuse you, like Rubio and Trump distorting Ted Cruz’ attempt to kill Rubio’s Gang of 8 bill with a poison pill amendment.
Check out the campaign contributions list and tell me Cruz is not a rent boy for Wall Street and other special interests. Be sure and look at the list.
I’m not too sure about this North American Alliance either.
Agreed
Ted Cruz has, far and away, raised the most contributions from small and medium contributors. That is middle America. He stands up against the special interests on principle, as he did on ethanol, regardless of the political hazards. That is what we need in the White House.
He’s backed by Big Oil. Duh!
Ethanol subsidies and mandates are corrupt crony capitalist boondoggles that raise gas prices, raise food prices, reduce gas milage, and damages engines. Ethanol would fall on its face in the free market without government intervention. It is a lot like the solar and wind renewable energy boondoggle that also cost taxpayers and ratepayers out the wahzoo. The marriage of environmental extremism, crony capitalism, and government screws the average citizen.
Hhttp://theconservativetreehouse.com/2016/02/14/post-debate-thoughts-rnc-head-reince-priebus-becomes-trumps-greatest-ally/ Here is a great follow-up on last nights debate.
Listen to Trump in his own words, if you think he would be such a good president:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcUCLwWCihE
But then again, Jimmy Carter’s reasons for preferring Trump over Cruz are my very reasons for preferring Ted Cruz:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1tIH5XhXa0
Donald Trump reminds me too much of Richard Nixon, who also turned out to be a phony. Congressman John Ashbrook of Ohio probably put it best when he said that Nixon ran on George Wallace’s platform, but carried out Hubert Humphrey’s. We should remember that one of the other GOP presidential candidates in 1968 was Ronald Reagan. Our country would have been so much better off if Reagan had entered the White House in 1969 instead of waiting until 1981. Ted Cruz is the Reagan of this primary and Donald Trump is the Nixon.
Once again we will have to leave it in the capable hands of the voters. Surely the voters will make the right choice.
Haven’t been here for a while and I’m absolutely shocked that “clued in” posters could possibly support Ted Cruz. Before one can even discuss all of his lies and misrepresentations, he is not Constitutionally Eligible. If he has nothing to hide, he would have immediately released his entire birth and naturalization process records when it came up more than a month ago. He may not even be a legal naturalized citizen. He’s definitely not a Natural Born Citizen. There’s no way he meets the guidelines having been born on foreign soil Period. America cannot go down this path again – it’s insane.
No honorable person could possibly condone him stealing Iowa with what he did to Ben Carson. No honorable person could possibly condone his lies and failure to report his Goldman Sachs and Citi Bank loans. He lied about what happened with the failed immigration bill in 2014. He didn’t stop anything. It passed the Senate. He lied about the TPP as a co-sponsor of legislation that allowed it to happen. He lies about his own record in the Senate and plays the game many Senators play, just like Burr. They vote for “cloture” to “advance the debate” and then vote “against” after they know the legislation will pass. He’s as much a part of the Status Quo as anyone else who’s been there for decades. Cruz like most of them play the head-fake games, but people have figured them out. He has mounting legal problemss for what he has done. He and his wife are part of the North American Union plans that destroys U.S. sovereignty. Cruz is the ultimate insider who has positioned himself as an outsider. Under Bush he pushed the “faith based initiatives” the very tools now being used to import illegals and radical Islamists. He’s the one who pushed John Roberts, who also betrayed the Constitutuion. He will never get the nomination because the GOP plan to take him down in order for his delegates to go to Bush.
What troubles me the most is his holier than thou attitude holding the Bible in one hand and lying at the same time. How many religious people have fallen from grace when it was proven they used religion to lie, deceive and steal from innocent people. People who are attracted to him because they believe his is Christian are excusing behavior they would never excuse for anyone else. We’ve seen lots of sleazy people like Cruz before in both politics and religion and it’s disgusting. I’m just plain stunned that anyone clued into politics could possibly follow such a phony, sleazy guy.
Oh, a birther!
Birthers tried to challenge Ted Cruz’ eligibility to the election authorities in Illinois and got shot down as they should have been. Birtherism should be classed as a mental illness.
That an American born abroad to one or more US citizen parents has been recognized in statute as a ”natural born citizen” in US law since 1790 when our country’s very first Congress passed our citizenship laws. John McCain was not born within the United States either, but he did not have nutjob birthers hounded him back in those days. Because Ted Cruz is recognized under longstanding US law as a natural born citizen, he never had to, nor did, go through any naturalization procedures.
Then there is the Carson nothingburger. Go listen to the CNN broadcast on Carson’s campaign statement, that Cruz’ campaign circulated. CNN may have spun the Carson statement to some degree, but most of the fault is the stupidity of Carson’s own campaign staff. That Cruz campaign (as did Rubio’s) passed on that report is NOT any ”dirty tricks”. I have listened to a clip of that CNN broadcast about Carson’s plans after Iowa that Rush Limbaugh replayed on air. Anyone who hears that knows there is nothing to blame Cruz for, but only to blame Trump and Carson for their distortions on the subject, and also probably some blame to CNN for its spin on what Carson’s campaign told them.
You are also highly ignorant of Ted Cruz’ voting record. Cruz has always had a 100% conservative rating with Heritage Action, the most respected congressional rating.
Ted Cruz is 100% phony ineligible candidate who is worse than any scamming televangelist I’ve ever seen. It makes me absolutely nauseous to watch his deceit and how easily people fall for his phony Christian pose. Goodness, the man doesn’t even Tithe. I’m quite familiar with his voting record, particularly all the maneuvers that were designed to fool people like you apparently. He’s not the only Senator who does it. Cruz is a tool of the Elite. Oh, the games the GOP plays.
Somehow, I suspect that most folks will trust the highly respected conservative organization Heritage Action, which is part of the Heritage Foundation, on what conservative votes are more than they would some anonymous internet poster named Kate. If not, then Conservative Review is another good source.
Both Heritage and Conservative Review are Neocon. They don’t know the real meaning of Conservative anymore.
You are as uninformed about these organizations as you are about Ted Cruz. You must think Ronald Reagan was a neocon, too.
One of the biggest issues that seperates the conservatives from the neocons is the legislation on spying on the American people. The neocons supported that spying. Marco Rubio has consistently supported spying on the American people by both his votes and his debate stance. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz voted against it and spoke against it in the debates. Donald Trump is a question mark on that issue.
Your screed has a lot in common with the distortions from establishment golden boy Marco Rubio, and this article addresses and answers Rubio’s campaign distortions with the Planned Parenthood funding as an example:
http://www.redstate.com/diary/omgriley/2016/02/15/marco-rubio-fight-defund-planned-parenthood/
In the SC debate, it is also interesting that Ted Cruz smoked out Donald Trump’s continuing support for government funding for Planned Parenthood.
Ted Cruz did initially go along with the TPP, aka ObamaTrade, in the early stages, but after discovering more of what was going on, turned against it and voted against it. In some cases free trade can be a good thing, but the devil is in the details, and in this case the details were not good, and more bad keeps coming out on it.
Those campaign loans WERE duly reported on one set of reports but did not make it on a second set. I do not now remember which was which. One was filed with the FEC and the other with the Clerk of the Senate. Someone trying to hide something would not place them on ANY reports, but Cruz did properly report those campaign loans, secured by his own personally owned property, on at least one set of public reports. In any major statewide campaign, other accountants are preparing those reports, but the candidate still should have caught and corrected the mistake. This is a technicality, which is why it went nowhere as an issue.
When he crashes and burns, maybe you’ll figure it out then. He’ll be lucky if he doesn’t lose his Senate seat.
Who is your candidate, one of the establishment trio – Bush, Rubio, Kasich, or the rapidly fading nice guy who doesn’t always get it, Carson, or the guy who has been all over the political spectrum and you have to hope that what he is campaigning on now is what he would do if he got in office, Trump?
Your pathological hatred of Cruz would tend to indicate either a Rubio or Trump supporter.
I liked Trump’s early statements, and he was near the top of my list, but then I started finding out too many inconsistencies in his political background, like the fact that he funded the Democrats in 2010 and the GOP establishment in 2014. Sorry, but with that background, should we take a chance that he is really on our side this time?
Hate is a pretty strong word. He’s not worth that type of emotion.
No, I just don’t like phony liars and cheats. We’ve already got a pathological liar in the WH.
I see that you want to dodge the question of who you are for. Heck, it might even be Sanders or Clinton! I just assumed you were a Republican, but there are liberal Democrats who occaisionally post here, too.
Registered Republican – for now. Plan to change to Unaffiliated. 90% of Congress needs to be thrown out. Most of them are traitors to our country. Look at what all of them have done to us.
Kate, steed isn’t worth your time as he still believes that The Heritage Foundation is a true conservative group. Go figure.
Trump is now doubling down on Ted Cruz because Cruz is starting to catch up to him in the polls.
Now Trump is threatening to bring a lawsuit that Cruz is not a US Citizen (when it was long ago established that he IS). That seems a bit childish on Trump’s part.
Ted Cruz is the only senator to criticize that spineless Mitch McConnell in the Senate.
Trust me: The Establishment is more scared of Ted Cruz than anybody else.
Cruz Delegate quits in disgust at the continued lies of Ted Cruz. A lot of Cruz supporters are realizing they have been duped by a Con Man. This guy is a pathological liar folks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMvuuywiQcw