Radio screamer Mark Levin’s approach at selling his nonsense can be captured within the following quote:

If you make people think they’re thinking, they’ll love you. If you really make them think, they’ll hate you. ~ Don Marquis

Levin’s approach relies on gaslighting an audience into “thinking they’re thinking“.  This was never more clear than today when Mark Levin pens an article calling candidate Donald Trump “A Globalist“, and then assembles a word salad of counter-intuitive arguments to prove a ridiculously false assertion.

However, there is a profound benefit to seeing Mr. Levin completely remove the mask of his crony-constitutional ruse, join arms with Tom Donohue and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and simultaneously present himself naked to an audience breaking free of battered conservative syndrome.
The basic arguments made by Levin are so ridiculous, they fall directly into the same category as New York Times economist/propaganda-specialist, Paul Krugman.
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Just want to point out something simple, yet seemingly getting lost in the chatter.
It is not the “conservative base”, the grassroots or the average Joe or Jane from Main Street USA who are currently digging in their opposition to Donald Trump.  The base, the middle class, is entirely behind Trump.

The oppositional forces are the entrenched political class, the establishment, the elites and those who financially benefit from the DC status quo.  This group includes the professional punditry and chattering class who associate with the DC confabs.
Voices who assign divergent attributes are entirely gaslighting their audience.  Believe your own eyes and break the cycle of Battered Conservative Syndrome.
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Yesterday House Speaker Paul Ryan threw elbows toward the successful insurgent candidacy of Donald Trump by openly stating his refusal to support the presumptive nominee.
From a review of Mr. Trump’s statements in the aftermath of the Ryan commentary it appears no-one, including those closest to Paul Ryan, were anticipating the remarks.  Ryan was essentially stating an opinion that Donald Trump needed to change his positions and come to heel around the perspectives, opinions and policies of Ryan himself.

Obviously the position of Ryan, vis-à-vis demanding Trump acquiesce and rebuke his own platform, is a ridiculous assertion.  However, given the legislative priorities expressed by Speaker Ryan, fundamentally Ryan didn’t have much choice.  Yet the position of Mr. Trump is the stronger hand.  Indeed Donald Trump has campaigned against the entire construct of Ryan’s agenda – and he won.
From the most accurate interpretation of the events that followed Ryan’s remarks, Mr. Trump reached out to RNC Chairman Reince Preibus to state his strong disappointment at being blindsided by Ryan’s statement.   Preibus and Ryan are life-long friends since childhood in Wisconsin.
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Candidate Ted Cruz and candidate John Kasich have officially “suspended” their campaign efforts to win the republican nomination.  However, the campaign effort to deliver a resounding win for Donald Trump continues.
Yes, a major hurdle has been crossed – Donald Trump is now the last remaining candidate running for the nomination; but that doesn’t mean the push through the last remaining states should be any less important.  Every vote counts.  Every delegate matters.
Anyone who is inclined toward complacency needs only to look at the reaction yesterday by House Speaker Paul ‘Omnibus‘ Ryan and note why it is vital for the electorate to remain as committed as ever to isolate all vestiges of the UniParty:

The financial interests of the UniParty (within the professional political class) are never going to improve with a Donald Trump candidacy.  Trump represents an existential threat to every aspect of scheme and graft that infects the DC apparatus.   For them there is no upside in any of this; hence they will remain steadfast in their opposition.
The ‘principles‘ Speaker Ryan mentions are more accurately defined as indulgences.  Those indulgences are not policy matters, they are issues of livelihood and income.
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Unfortunately this was predictable in the extreme.  Today Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, stated unequivocally he is refusing to support the republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

During an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Speaker Ryan went on to say Donald Trump needs to come to him and seek his approval/permission for his nomination.  Yes, in a varied bunch of political parseltongue words, this is exactly what Paul Ryan said.
The arrogance is gobsmacking.  Watch the interview:

Ryan’s arrogant attitude might seem remarkable given the landslide electoral victories, delivered by the voters, to support Donald Trump – who, it should be noted, is on pace to win the republican nomination with a larger vote total than any candidate in republican history.
Adding to the pontificating arrogance factor is the reality that candidate Trump actually won the hometown vote of Speaker Ryan’s own constituency in Janesville Wisconsin. However, when you consider that Wall Street is funding the legislative priorities carried out by Speaker Ryan and his anti-American trade agenda things begin to make more sense. (more…)

The Bush clan previously announced they will not engage in the 2016 presidential race, and the Romney clan have now joined them.

Via ABC – The Republican National Convention in July is going to be missing some of the party’s most recognizable faces. All of the living former Republican nominees for president said they are skipping the Cleveland convention with the exception of Bob Dole, the 1996 GOP nominee.
An aide to Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP nominee, confirmed to ABC News that he “has no plans to attend the convention.” (more…)

The #NeverTrump team, specifically the punditry within it, are doing what the professionally republican clans do every time they lose.  They pout, gnash their teeth, stomp their feet and eventually carry off their football.
They are annoying insignificant gnats full of self-importance that can be cast into a pit of irrelevance.  These are the same voices who rejoiced when the were granted audience with President-elect Obama in 2008.
These are also the same insufferable small-minded dolts who stand up at CPAC and applaud House Speaker Omnibus Paul Ryan, while never even thinking about -let alone reconciling- the reality of the last federal budget being passed in 2007.

When was the last time this group assembled their efforts to protest congress spending the 2009 Stimulus year-after-year-after-year.   Have you ever even heard them mention it?  Did you know our treasury re-spends the trillion dollar ARRA stimulus every year?
Conservatives? Yeah, enough said.
Yes, this group it also includes the intellectually dishonest radio screamer and crony-constitutionalist professional book seller Mark Levin; along with the cheeto-faced religious sycophant and professionally hypocritical Glenn Beck; and we can’t leave out the infamous master of professionally obtuse gaslighting, Rush Limbaugh.
Thanks to Donald Trump, each of these voices are now left flailing wildly in a vain effort to retain their relevance while selling Super Beets.
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FYI – Senator Ted Cruz and Governor John Kasich held a secret strategy meeting last Saturday in California (requested by Team Cruz) during the weekend California GOP convention meeting. In addition to a closed door Cruz and Kasich discussion, the meeting was attended by a full national contingent of the professional GOPe.

(CNN) John Kasich is dropping out of the Republican presidential race, two sources familiar with the plan confirmed to CNN.
Kasich’s decision came after he improbably became the last challenger to Donald Trump, who emerged as the presumptive GOP nominee Tuesday night when Ted Cruz dropped out.  (read more at CNN)

The U.K Independent is reporting that a massive 800 page leak (sourced to Greenpeace activists) of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) may doom the ongoing negotiations.

Interestingly, the aspect that seems most troubling to Europe has nothing to do with actual economic trade, but rather insufficient climate change rules/regulations.

[…]  They indicate that the US is looking strongly to change regulation in Europe to lessen the protections on the environment, consumer rights and other positions that the EU affords to its citizens. Representatives for each side appear to have found that they have run into “irreconcilable” differences that could undermine the signing of the landmark and highly controversial trade deal, campaigners say.

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This is a modified and updated repost from an early January ’16 outline which collected data from all of the various Donald Trump interviews, position papers, and historical outlines. Candidate Trump has been speaking about broad U.S. economic issues for decades. Trump approaches the challenges by focusing on “Main Street”, not Wall Street.
For the sake of brevity, I’m going to accept that most readers here are familiar with who is funding and directing Jeb Bush, and in larger, more consequential measures, the DC apparatchik in charge of U.S. Policy, ie. Wall street.
During the January 2016 South Carolina debate, and in response to Trump pointing out a necessary shift in trade position (a shift to put American interests first – a shift to stop the dependency on cheap import goods – a shift to use China’s dependency on access to our market to OUR advantage), Jeb Bush came back with an example of Boeing manufacturing.
Donald Trump, responding to Jeb’s Boeing example, and pointed out China is forcing Boeing to open a manufacturing plant in China.  As would be typical from a candidate who is unfamiliar and unbriefed on the issue, Jeb looked back incredulously and said:

“C’mon man”…

There you have it. (more…)