Skip to content

RINO

Special Bulletin. The 4th of July (and Goodbye for a Brief Departure)

PIC blue star borderWe are about to leave on a trip overseas and, with holiday and travel preparations, there has been no time to write anything adequate to the 4th of July in 2016. Rather than letting the day pass without comment, however, we looked for some relevant observations by wiser and more eloquent figures. Some of our favorites appear below: many were written in times that were also challenging, but they all express sentiments that we share.

We will, perhaps mercifully, be away during the Republican Convention but we are confident that the Republic will survive that event. If the election in November is another matter, we will turn to that when we return, and we expect that RINOcracy.com will reappear in late July or early August.

Best wishes to all for a joyous 4th and as relaxing a summer as possible.PIC - stripe and star borderRead More »Special Bulletin. The 4th of July (and Goodbye for a Brief Departure)

Blog No. 102: Brexit: Arguments, Consequences and the Trump Factor

Even readers who have been preoccupied with the agonies of the Republican and Democratic primary campaigns are probably aware of the political battle being waged across the Atlantic over Brexit. That term, of course, refers to the proposal that Britain (with Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom) exit from the European Union. In more shorthand, the opposing sides are tersely referred to simply as Leave and Remain. The Brexit proposal will be put to the voters in a referendum on June 23, and to the questions “What will happen?” and “What will it mean?” there is clearly only one answer: no one really knows. Without attempting predictions, our view is that if the vote is to leave the EU, the risks to Britain, the EU, and ultimately the United States, could be significant.Read More »Blog No. 102: Brexit: Arguments, Consequences and the Trump Factor

Blog No. 101. Trump: The Endorser, The Pretenders and The Opponent.

The Endorser.

Last week, Paul Ryan dropped the other shoe by issuing his expected endorsement of Donald Trump. It had been clear since Ryan and Trump met on Capitol Hill last month that an endorsement of some sort would be forthcoming, and the only real questions were how long it would take and how tepid it would be. As it turned out, the endorsement arrived in the form of a tweet and an Op-ed column in Ryan’s hometown newspaper. Short of writing the endorsement on the back of an envelope, stuffing it in a bottle, and casting the bottle into the Potomac, it could hardly have been more low key.

PIC Message in a bottle to the sea.

Read More »Blog No. 101. Trump: The Endorser, The Pretenders and The Opponent.

Special Bulletin. After the Fat Lady Sang: What Now For Responsible Republicans?

With apologies for invoking that rather shopworn cliche, the fat lady sang this week and the curtain came down on the tragi-comic opera of the Republican presidential primaries. The fat lady’s aria was a sad one indeed. To Donald Trump it doubtless sounded triumphal, but to many of us it conveyed the mournful tones of a funeral dirge. The dirge reflected not merely the prospect of a Republican defeat in November, but the painful fact that such a loss, distasteful as it might be, would be preferable to a victory for Trump.  If Trump suffers the devastating defeat in November that he deserves, the vital task of cleaning up and rebuilding the Republican Party can begin immediately. If he should somehow win, however, that task will be deferred indefinitely, perhaps forever.Pic Donald Trump as Fat Lady PICRead More »Special Bulletin. After the Fat Lady Sang: What Now For Responsible Republicans?

Special Bulletin. Is It Over?

Is the contest for the Republican nomination over? Well, not quite, but it’s on a very thin edge. If the results of the New York primary were depressing, the results of this week’s primaries were devastating. Trump won every one of five states amassing a vote of more than fifty per cent in each. Senator Cruz was shut out, winning no delegates and finishing behind Governor Kasich in all but one. For his part, Kasich won a handful of delegates and had the distinction of finishing second in four states. Unfortunately, however, finishing second at this point is something like being given the Miss Congeniality title in a beauty pageant—it may provide a passing boost of morale but it gets you no closer to a tiara. The margin of Trump’s victories showed that, for reasons we still find baffling, his support within the Republican Party seems to be broader than many of us had assumed and hoped.Read More »Special Bulletin. Is It Over?

Special Bulletin: Donald Trump: Helpful Reminders from The Washington Post

We suspect that there are not a great many supporters of Donald Trump among readers of RINOcracy.com, but we all have friends, neighbors or relatives who may be. If you should engage them in the kind of quiet and civil conversation that RINOs favor, we thought it might be handy to have in your pocket a brief catalog of Trumpian statements that have convinced us that Donald is unfit for the presidency. As it happens, The Washington Post provided just such a catalog, and we reproduce it here in its entirety.Read More »Special Bulletin: Donald Trump: Helpful Reminders from The Washington Post

Special Bulletin. After New York: What To Do About the Weevils?

Although the result of Republican primary in New York was unsurprising, that made it no less unpalatable. Donald Trump was widely predicted to do well and he did indeed. At last count he had captured at least  89 of New York’s 95 delegates. That does not guarantee that he will command a majority of delegates before the convention but that goal is certainly in sight. The Trump ego was sufficiently assuaged that in his Tuesday evening remarks he seemed determined to focus on attempting to “sound Presidential” and hence he passed up the ritual insulting of rivals that has been his regular practice. For our part, we were quite unmoved by the newly applied patina of civility.Read More »Special Bulletin. After New York: What To Do About the Weevils?

Special Bulletin. Slouching Toward Cleveland

                                    Turning and turning in the widening gyre                                     The falcon cannot hear the falconer;                                     Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;                                     Mere… Read More »Special Bulletin. Slouching Toward Cleveland

Blog No. 96. Brussels and Raqqa: A Tale of Two Cities

The terrorist attack in Brussels exposed the inadequacy of the Belgian security forces, the need for much better sharing of intelligence among European countries, and the unique challenges that confront cities with neighborhoods of densely concentrated Muslim populations. Sponsorship of yet another attack by ISIS also underscored the fact that its threat extends far outside the Middle East.Read More »Blog No. 96. Brussels and Raqqa: A Tale of Two Cities