Sunday, March 20th open thread: ‘Riot’
Here is the open thread for Sunday, March 20th. Happy Birthday my love! Also congratulations to Megan and Dan!
Please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues arise during the course of the day. Nothing is off-topic here.
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I had a song all picked out that I was going to use for this week’s open thread but due to the events of the last week I have decided to change it. It is pretty clear to me that the Democrats are trying to incite violence during this election season while trying to pin the blame on Donald Trump.
First they come out and start talking about how Donald Trump’s rhetoric is inciting violence through his campaign rhetoric even though this has not been the case and this has caused people to take to the streets in protest. Then people like George Soros get behind the protests by funding them. This culminated yesterday when protesters blocked the streets to a Trump rally denying people from attending the rally. The end game here is to cause a reaction by Trump supporters, and in their minds they hope it will be a violent reaction so their self-fulfilling prophesy will come true and they can point to Donald Trump as the cause.
Here is Three Days Grace performing “Riot” and I dedicate it to those on the left who are hoping to use violence for political advantage. Hopefully Trump supporters will see that this is the Hegelian Dialectic in motion and will restrain themselves as these protests get more and more heated as the election draws nigh.
There are a couple of F-Bombs in this video but of course you cannot have a riot without F-Bombs, can you?
If you feel so empty
So used up, so let down
If you feel so angry
So ripped off so stepped on
You’re not the only one
Refusing to back down
You’re not the only one
So get up
Let’s start a riot, a riot
Let’s start a riot
Let’s start a riot, a riot
Let’s start a riot
If you feel so filthy
So dirty so fucked up
If you feel so walked on
So painful so pissed off
You’re not the only one
Refusing to go down
You’re not the only one
So get up
Let’s start a riot, a riot
Let’s start a riot
Let’s start a riot, a riot
Let’s start a riot
If you feel so empty
So used up, so let down
If you feel so angry
Just get up
Let’s start a riot, a riot
frui diem
Did Donald Trump and John Kasich agree to a secret deal?
John Kasich is apparently going to stay in the Presidential race for the long haul despite the fact that he cannot win enough delegates to secure the nomination before the convention. So the question is why? One theory which has been put forth is that as the only purely establishment candidate left in the race he is working with the Republican establishment to help ensure there is a brokered convention so that Donald Trump can be denied the nomination.
I tend to agree with that theory however Dick Morris has another interesting theory and this latest national poll might lend some credence to it. Here is more on that poll:
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Republican Primary Voters finds Trump with 43% support to Senator Ted Cruz’s 28% and Ohio Governor John Kasich’s 21%. Just five percent (5%) of GOP voters like some other candidate, and three percent (3%) remain undecided.
Yesterday America’s Watchtower covered the story about how Hillary Clinton was told by the NSA that she could not use her Blackberry to conduct State Department business due to security concerns but she used it anyway, hiding this unauthorized use behind her personal email server.
Today a video has surfaced where Hillary Clinton admits that when she traveled to Russia or China she had to leave her Blackberry on the plane because it could be hacked “in a nanosecond.” I suppose she was trying to show us how responsible she was being by turning her Blackberry off and leaving it on the plane but in my opinion all she did was show us how irresponsible she was being the rest of the time.
Did she really believe her Blackberry could only be hacked when she was in a foreign nation? If that is true somebody needs to explain to me why the NSA said she could not use her Blackberry to conduct State Department business at all.
Here is the video:
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Hillary Clinton knew her Blackberry was not secure but used it to conduct State Department business anyway
According to this story when Hillary Clinton was sworn in as Secretary of State she requested a secure Blackberry which she could conduct State Department business on but her request was denied. Here is more:
Newly released emails reveal Hillary Clinton was made aware of security concerns over her Blackberry when she became secretary of state.
She requested a secure Blackberry from the National Security Agency in 2009, but the NSA denied her request.
Officials argued there were security vulnerabilities with using Blackberry devices for secure communications or in secure areas.
However Hillary Clinton still decided to use her Blackberry to send and receive emails through her personal email server:
New Trump ad shows Hillary Clinton barking like a dog
During a campaign speech a few weeks ago Hillary Clinton tried to be funny when she said something to the effect of how the Democrats needed a trained dog to bark every time the Republican said something that was untrue. Apparently this was in reference to a campaign ad that ran when her husband was running for office some years ago but she proceeded to bark like a dog.
For the life of me I cannot figure out what Hillary Clinton was thinking because it was only a matter of time before this appeared in a campaign ad and here it is:
I am not a Donald Trump supporter but I have to admit this is pretty funny. The least she could have done was imitate maybe a German Shepherd, Pitbull, or Rottweiler, but she chose something more in line with a Labradoodle or a Poodle instead…
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
The AP has done the math and is reporting that Ted Cruz cannot win enough delegates before the convention to win the Republican nomination and is also reporting that Donald Trump can win enough delegates but it will be tough and he cannot do it at his current pace.
Here is more:
Donald Trump is the only candidate with a path to clinching the Republican nomination for president before the party’s national convention in July, according to an analysis of the delegate math.
But despite four more wins on Tuesday, the billionaire businessman still must do better.
Trump has won 47 percent of the delegates awarded so far, according to the Associated Press delegate count. That’s not good enough — it takes a majority of delegates to win the nomination, according to party rules.
Trump needs to win 54 percent of the remaining delegates to clinch the nomination by the time the primary season ends on June 7.
He could reach the goal by winning most of the remaining states that award all of their delegates to the winner — and doing well in the other states. The next winner-take-all state is Arizona on Tuesday, with 58 delegates at stake.
Marco Rubio drops out of the Presidential race
Following his thoroughly embarrassing landslide defeat in his home state of Florida Marco Rubio has finally decided to drop out of the Presidential race. Here is part of what he had to say:
And so, while it is not God’s plan that I be president in 2016, or maybe ever, and while today the campaign is suspended, the fact that I’ve even come this far is evidence of how great America is.
In his concession speech tonight, Marco Rubio said his campaign is suspended.
“I endeavored over the last 11 months to bridge this divide in our party,” Rubio said. “While we are on the right side this year, we will not be on the winning side.”
He quoted scripture and said being president was not in God’s plan for him.
In a speech largely paralleling his stump speech, he spoke at length about his immigrant family.
“While this may not have been the year for a hopeful and optimistic message about our future, I still remain hopeful and optimistic for the future of America,” he said, flanked by his family.
Marco Rubio never had a chance in his home state, he knew it and he should have dropped out of the race before the Florida primary in order to give the anti-Trump voters a chance to coalesce around a single candidate but his pride would not allow him to do so.
Now that it is probably too late to stop Donald Trump from winning the nomination he has bowed out of the race and I have to wonder if he only stayed in the race this long in order to make sure there was no chance Ted Cruz could pull off the upset and gain momentum in his quest for the nomination. I believe Marco Rubio holds some personal animosity towards Ted Cruz and that played a role in his decision to stay in the race until Florida had voted.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump win the Florida primaries
It is looking as if this could turn into a big night for Hillary Clinton. She has won the Florida primary in a landslide and as I write this she has a big lead over Bernie Sanders in Ohio and North Carolina. I don’t know if these leads will hold up but she appears to be on the way to victory in those two states. There are no results from Missouri or Illinois as of yet but it would now appear as if these are must win states for the socialist Senator from Vermont if he wants to have any chance at knocking off the former Secretary of State.
Likewise it could be a big night for Donald Trump: he has already won Florida, soundly defeating Marco Rubio in his home state and he has a pretty good lead over Ted Cruz in North Carolina however it is closing up as I write this.
This is an embarrassing loss for Marco Rubio and he is currently in fourth place in North Carolina. John Kasich is as of now looking pretty solid in his home state of Ohio. We are still awaiting the results of Missouri and Illinois in these races as well.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Top conservative leaders to hold a meeting to plot a third-party run to stop Donald Trump
Shortly before Christmas I wrote a post about a report that claimed that while the Republicans wanted Donald Trump to take a pledge not to run a third-party candidacy if he did not win the nomination that establishment Republicans were the ones who were plotting a third-party run if he did win the nomination. You can read that post here.
The rumors have not gone away and in fact it is now being reported in this story that some conservative leaders are meeting in a couple of days to discuss running a true conservative candidate in a third-party bid if Donald Trump wins the nomination.
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