On this evening before “Super Tuesday” in the nomination process for the GOP’s presidential standard bearer, Donald Trump is poised to do very well in his noisy campaign to win the nomination. This despite his single-handed disruption and degradation of virtually all of the GOP candidates’ debates and their aftermath by an adroit use of vitriolic, banal, juvenile invective; flamboyant claims; provocative, invidious innuendos; and relentless personal pique. Trump presents as a 6-foot 2-inch Little Lord Fauntleroy in a natty business suit with expensively coiffed hair and an amazingly elastic face. Continue reading →

Last night’s debate among the remaining six rivals for the Republican nomination for President in Greenville, South Carolina ahead of the Palmetto State’s primary next week was a true stunner. Billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump managed to singlehandedly create a loud, vitriolic circus of charge, countercharge, ad hominem attacks, and raucous, impulsive shouting over other candidates. Such a level of verbal thuggery on a presidential debate stage is unprecedented, exceeding even Bernie Sanders’s and Hillary Clinton’s slugfest earlier in the week. It portends a very rough time ahead this year in the presidential sweepstakes. Continue reading →

In the first week of January of this new year, our King/President has conspired with U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to issue and have implemented some new gun-control provisions via executive order. To wit, first, mandating the reporting to the BATFE of any gun that is stolen from the possession of its lawful owner, and, second, expanding the scope of gun enthusiasts who are required to acquire a Federal Firearms License (FFL) to sell guns. Currently, only those who are “engaged in the business” of selling firearms with the “principal objective of livelihood and profit” must first pay a fee, complete a rigorous and invasive application process that includes a photograph and fingerprints, and undergo background checks. Under Obama’s expansive new directive, those mandates would extend to anyone selling more than 25 guns a year, selling any gun in its original packaging, hoarding more than a certain number of firearms, or selling a gun within 30 days of the original purchase. The number of FFL holders would skyrocket as a result. And, after the BATFE had granted its approvals, each new licensee would then be required to perform a background check on every person to whom s/he sells a gun. Further, s/he would be subject to audits of his or her paperwork by BATFE agents dropping in for a visit without any prior announcement. Continue reading →

Here we are, less than two weeks away from a new year and the rumblings of great tumbles, and even temblors, to come are already evident to this observer. Both domestically and overseas, the many polarizations of our age are now being thrown into bold relief across the landscape of the planet’s surface. In Syria, Iraq, the Egyptian Sinai, the streets of Paris and San Bernardino, the harsh swords of Sunni Islamist terror madness have been busily hacking off all civilized norms of human behavior and threatening the peaceable enjoyment of life for increasing multitudes of people.

In that wanton mass murder has taken place so very brazenly in France and America by young radicalized fanatics, the stage has now been set for a multinational conflagration of “gi-normous” proportions. IS/Daesh, boldly on the recruitment march, has no doubt been invigorated by the West’s effete reluctance to trench on the supposed civil rights of privacy, worship, and equality of anyone professing “the Muslim faith.” And, Islamist Iran scored a major advance in July on its path to regional hegemony–and global menace–by suckering America and its major West European allies into enlivening its drive to develop a nuclear military force to eventually launch total war against its perceived enemies. All of Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan are, in various measures, quaking at the possibilities. Eventually, America and most of Europe will be in the crosshairs as well.
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As of today’s date, ahead of the second televised debate among contenders for the Republican nomination for President of the United States, opulent New York real estate mogul Donald Trump stands head and shoulders above his closest rival, Dr. Ben Carson, according to most national polls that have most recently been taken. And, all the remaining 14 candidates are seriously behind the good doctor in their polling percentages. Allowing for how early all of this flip prancing is taking place (which is to say, it could change dramatically on short notice), it is prudent to consider what Trump’s candidacy portends for the presidential campaign in chief that will begin in earnest in early 2016 with the state primaries.

Trump is certainly not a new face on the national stage, having set hard-to-exceed pole marks for flamboyance, brashness, profligacy, and marital drama for a great many years. A textbook case of advanced narcissism (especially the element of grandiosity), he has once again exhibited his great gifts of showmanship and a sure talent for Svengali-like enticement. In just a few short months, he has adroitly and deftly tapped into the deep, chronic anger and frustration of the grassroots/Liberty Movement/Tea Party wing of the Republican Party, throwing them huge helpings of red meat on the hot button issues of illegal immigration, the Iran nuclear deal, and Obamacare. At the same time, he has created a quiet consternation in the establishment wing of the GOP, due in equal parts to his uncontrolled outré rhetoric, populist positions, and virtual insularity from the crucial need on the part of all other candidates to raise big campaign funding from lots of other people.
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This past week, two homegrown would-be jihadis tried to crash a Mohammed-cartoon contest sponsored by Pamela Geller’s American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) in Garland, Texas, as a rally in defense of Free Speech, to slaughter all those in attendance. By the greatest of good fortune, these mad miscreants succeeded only in lightly wounding an unarmed security guard outside the contest venue before being felled by a local traffic cop who demonstrated acute professional proficiency with his Glock .45 ACP service pistol. “One man, one riot”, as the motto of the Texas Rangers would have it, and all in the face of “rioters” reputedly armed with AK-47s and wearing protective body armor. Continue reading →

The last two weeks have provided some object lessons in rallying rationality in defense of the realm of Western civilization, happy examples of both creative resistance to and triumph over the sanctimonious cant and devious practices of leftist elitism. First, fully 47 U.S. senators, all Republicans, had the character and resolve to sign onto an “open letter” to the ayatollahs of the Islamic Republic of Iran apprising the mad hatters that no bad deal agreed to between them and Obama&Co. would, by that fact alone, have lasting force and effect without the U.S. Senate’s proper consent, under America’s constitutional system. Reading between the lines: If Obama’s negotiating team, wittingly or unwittingly, agrees to a deal that would enable Tehran to develop a militarized nuclear capability, the U.S. Senate can and will withhold its consent to such a deal, effectively making it fully revocable once Obama leaves office. Continue reading →