Saturday, January 16, 2016

Live Update: Tea Party Convention

4:00.  Spokesman on crony capitalism.    He is telling a story about Bill Clinton soliciting help for the  Clinton Foundation.

3:40.  Spokesman of Open the Books", a website on government spending reports.   Make spending transparent.  Government is a transfer system from taxpayers to special interests.

3:15.  Well I got a slightly better selfie with Ted Cruz and he shook my hand as he made his way through the crowds.   The buzz By the audience aroun me was that Cruz is very sincere, very black and white, and this was a problem.  The people in this audience were pressed but Cruz with an absolute choice: a time for choosing.  The preacher laid it out--heaven or hell.  Choose a committed conservative or choose another disaster.   That is too much for the people who came here supporting other people.   Still, the audience cheered loudly for the angriest things he said.

2:30.  Ted Cruz.  The 4 hostages are coming home from Iran.   Thanks be to God.  The deal that allowed them to come home is a propaganda piece for Iran and Obama.   The deal was a bad one.

Committed Conservative:   Anti Obamacare, anti amnesty, anti gun control.    Big applause for criticizing the Gang of 8 and amnesty.   Anti cronyism. (No bailout for any bank, period.  You cannot support TARP and be Ztea Party.    Oppose ethanol subsidies and sugar subsidies.)  Anti gay marriage.  Does not agree that the Supreme Court decision is the settled law of the land.  I have not surrendered the fight for traditional marriage.  Anti Planned Parenthood.). I reached out to 100,000 pastors.).  "Are you fed up with liberals being appointed to the Supreme Court."    Anti Iran deal and any negotiation with Iran.  "If I am elected president our sailors will never be on their knees".  Prolonged standing ovation.    "Any Iranian tyrant who attempts to capture an American serviceman will face the full fury of the United States of America."

"The stakes have never been higher.  Our country is hanging in the balance."    Don't be fooled by a politician.  Don't listen to words, look to actions.

5 things on the first day:
   Rescind all executive orders by Obama
   Investigate Planned Parenthood
   IRS stop investigating conservative organizations
   End Obamacare
   Move US embassy to Jerusulem

Avoid another John Boehner in the White House.

2:00. Col. Cowen, a Fox military consultant.   We are undergoing constant cyber attack from the Chinese.  We have an existential threat.   Putin is building up his military, including tanks and nuclear submarines.

China is inserting sleeper cells everywhere.  "Every Chinese restaurant in America is a sleeper cell.  If there is a crisis they won't be supporting America, the Chinese in that restaurant will be supporting China."

1:30.  Retired General Harrell --  I am a redneck, he said.  Grew up on a small farm in Tennessee.   Went to ROTC.  Retired as a two star General.   Iraq had serin gas, which is a weapon of mass destruction.    If Bush had NOT gone to war he should be tried for treason.   We were facing a major threat in Iraq.   Paraphrase George Orwell: We sleep snugly in our beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf.

We are a rudderless ship in this country.   We are in trouble.   Leading from behind is following.   We are failing at identifying the enemy.  "If a man with a beard is running at you with a 4 foot knife yelling 'Allah Akbar' you kill him."

You cannot do it all with drones.   You need soldiers on the ground.  I don't think we have a strategy in the Middle East.

"Put a stake in the heart of political correctness."   (Big applause.)



1:10. Senator David Perdue, R Georgia.   Grew up on a farm, "the American story", ended up running Reebok and Dollar Stores.     Washington is broken.  Senators are there too long.  The New Deal, the Great Society, and Dodd Frank and Obamacare are the tragic consequences of big Democratic majorities.   "This president has trampled on our constitution".   This president prematurely brought troops out of Iraq.  We don't have a foreign policy strategy.  "This president has singlehandedly made our military weak".

Social Security and Medicare are in crisis running out of money.  But without cutting current benefits on existing retirees.  We need term limits!  (Big applause).

We are in crisis.   We need prayer, right now.  We need a Republican!    Hillary Rodham Clinton will double down on every progressive policy and we have got to stop her."


12:50.  In the lunch recess I met with two women of about my age, women wearing Cruz bright red tee shirts.   They are here from North Carolina to staff the Cruz booth.   Jean has a retirement job in real estate.   I asked her if she was thrilled at the way real estate values had rebounded under Obama. She admitted they had gone up but took no pleasure in it nor did she credit Obama.  It was Freddy and Fanny "run amok" that caused the crisis she said, neither Bush that caused it nor Obama that solved it.  Like every older person I have encountered in South Carolina Jean and her friend Missy were polite and charming.  And in this case very, very well informed about issues, Jean ticking off ten reasons she liked Cruz, rapidly and extemporaneously.

I asked if it turned out that Trump won the nomination whether she would support him.   Long hesitation.   I consider this important--a warning for Trump.  "Trump is too impulsive and incautious," Jean said.  She expressed concern about Trump as Commander in Chief."  Cruz was the person she thought best for that crucial job.  Jean expressed concern over the general direction of the country and says she thinks things maw we'll be getting worse for America's kids.

12:16:   Nice visit with a reporter from Buzzfeed, a woman in her 30s who is covering the event in the corralled off area in the back reserved for the media.   I count 12 TV cameras.   The Buzzfeed woman didn't want me to know her name or use her photo.   OK with me.   But if she is paying attention to the content of the tone of this event, freedom of speech and the press is a right, up there almost as important as freedom to bear arms.   I can publish what I want, by right, so there!   But why be a jerk?  Hey, if she wants to be invisible, OK.

Noon--  break for lunch.   The crowd of 400-500 is 100% white by my estimation.   White, old, overweight, like me.

11:10.  Mike Huckabee.   I took on the Clinton political machine.   I fought it and beat it.   (Big applause).   Fought the corruption in Arkansas.  People in Washington have forgotten that their job is to serve.   ""I have never been a resident in Washington."   We need dramatic change in the budget.  We need to "completely destroy the tax code.   We need the 'fair tax'"

It is none of the government's business how much money you make.   (Big applause.).  The IRS is a criminal enterprise.

Discussed the spankings he got as a kid.  His father worked two jobs.  He lived in a rental house.   The only soap in their house was "lava".  He said that a man who worked two jobs and earned extra income got taxed at a higher marginal rate than a man who only worked one shift.   Totally unfair to the guy who works hard.   (Big applause)

Opposes TPP.  I don't care about the workers in Indonesia and Vietnam.    I care about the American worker!  (Big applause).  We need the Fair Tax.   It would transform the American economy.   Politicians make big money off of illegal immigration.   They are cheaper because they can be cheated and keep his mouth shut.  Paying people under the table saves money, and Republican politicians are guilty, too.   They get campaign contributions from those people.

No Syrian refugees!  We cannot vet them at all. (Big applause).  If we have to help them make a place for them in Syria, where they want to be.

He said he a concealed carry permittee and would happily defend himself if someone breaks into his house at 2:00 a.m.  

Today we let the prisoners at Gitmo know the direction to Mecca.  Meanwhile we jailed a county clerk who obeyed her conscience.

10:55.  AWR Hawkins, a Britebart contributor and military historian and 2nd amendment advocate.   Men aren't equal.   They are created equal.  Background checks on guns do not work, period.

I asked Huckabee if there should be any limits on the size of the arms a citizen can have.   He said no, no limits, that a person should be able to have the same level of firepower as the people coming to take those weapons.


10:30. Jenny Beth Martin, founder of Tea Party Patriots.   All 4 leading Presidential candidates are running on Tea Party issues, she said.   "Good morning, fellow disrupters!"    Our Constitution allows us to change our government and we can do this right here right now.    President Obama is milking every bit of power right up to the end.  Lament that even when we have big Republican majorities the pressure of Washington leads them astray.

Crony capitalists at the Chamber of Commerce want immigration so it can force more low wage competition on Americans.

End Common Core.  (Big applause)

10:00.  Mark Meadows.   North Carolina Congressman.   Introduced as having been the man who got rid of Boehner being gone.   (Big applause).   He is the man who entered the order to Vacate the Speakership.   Displayed a toy that has a recording with 20 different ways to say one word:  "No."   (Big applause).   There are duds on both sides of the aisle.   And we need a change in leadership in the Senate just like we did in the House.

10:00. KrisAnn Hall.  Constitutional spokesman.  Nothing in the Constitution allows refugees to come to America.  (Big applause.).  Both parties are guilty.   Even the supposedly conservative House has allowed the degradation of the Constitution.   Every Congressman who supports appropriation bills that allow government agencies are acting immorally.

9:25. David Azerrad Heritage Foundation.    Cited Obama, "you cling to your guns and religion" and I say "hell yes".    The Occupy Wall Street movement faded out while Tea Party movement is thriving.  We have had a century of progressive government.  This government has gradually totally changed the Constitution.   The Constitution makes clear that only the Congress has legislative power, but the power has been given totally to the regulators.   States are supposed to be independent, not administrative units of the federal government.     We want limited Constitutional government in America.

Nothing in the Constitution prevents the Congress and president from defying the Supreme Court.   Judicial supremacy is NOT in the Constitution.

Conservatives need to recognize that many people actually like federal spending, including Social Security and Medicare.   The states and corporations actually like big government.  "The rot is not just in Washington.   The problem is bigger because it includes the whole country that enjoys their little benefits.

9:10.  Angry black activist, unhappy with black on black crime.  I know the poverty in the black community.  We are the "get up and go" blacks, tired of the progressive movement.   "We are tired of not being able to practice our religion in public without shame!"   (Big applause).    I like Clarence Thomas, she said.    The biggest poverty is in black majority cities led by Democrats.  "The black community has been screwed by Democrats!"    Planned Parenthood killed 40 million black children!   (Big applause)

The new black attitude.   We left Hillary in 2008 so fast!   Democrats are pushing a socially acceptable Marxism.   We blacks know how how to build.  Yes America has racism but we built America anyway.  I love black America, but Democrats want blacks to be poor.   If blacks want welfare and food stamps, vote Democrats.   If you want to go from welfare to prison, vote Democratic.


8:56.  Head of Breitbart News:   Steve Bannon.   Opposes the Davos crowd that supported Eric Canter.   The organized working people of America threw him out.   "The complete evisceration of the Democratic Party."   "YOU represent the American people.  Yet, you are mocked by 'your betters'."

8:45.  Introduction---   This is a time of great moral decay.  "There is so much deceit in Washington DC.   There is so much deceit in the Establishment in Washington.     All the promises have been broken by our Republican representatives in Washington."


One problem with hating government is that you don't want to organize things that need organization.   The meeting is abuzz with people complaining about how poorly the convention is organized.  No agenda (you have to get it from the NBC affiliate website), no signs to registration meaning everyone goes through security twice, one when you follow the signs to get in and then a secon time when you learn that you need to go to a second place first.

One goes through security.   No concealed weapons allowed.   It is a gun free zone.  

This is South Carolina.  The hospitality food service workers are black.  Every one.   Every cashier at Walmart where I bought apples, nine out of nine cashiers.  Every hotel desk person, five out of five.   The attendees are old, white and stout, a description that includes me, alas.

1 comment:

Dave said...

I think tea party people are those who have been successfully propagandized through emotion and group think ideas. They are told what to think and then do so with great conviction.