Skip to content

RINOcracy

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

Blog No. 95. Donald and his Enablers in the Media.

The terrorist attack in Brussels commands the attention of us all, and we will comment on its significance in the next few days. In the meantime, the presidential race in the United States moves relentlessly on with no timeout for crisis or tragedy. We have already written more about Donald Trump than we ever expected or wanted to. Yet there is no other issue that is more important to the country than the destructive path down which the Pied Piper of Demagoguery seeks to lead us. And only now is the mainstream media beginning to awaken to the fact that it has played an important role in his ascent. It is too late for them to take back the billions of dollars of print and air time given Trump, but perhaps it is not too late for journalists to begin acting like journalists.Read More »Blog No. 95. Donald and his Enablers in the Media.

Blog No 94. Kasich: Horatius at the Bridge?

John Kasich’s defeat of Donald Trump in the Ohio primary was a necessary—but very far from sufficient — condition for his winning the Republican nomination. Even with the addition of Ohio’s 66 delegates, and the exit of Marco Rubio, Kasich remains a rather distant last in what is now a three-man race. He has no chance of winning a majority of delegates before the convention in July, and his hopes rest on a contested, or “brokered” (though there are no real brokers) convention.  An optimistic view was expressed in a Kasich campaign memo Tuesday night: “With the electoral map shifting significantly in our favor, Governor Kasich is positioned to accumulate a large share of the almost 1,000 remaining delegates and enter Cleveland in strong position to become the nominee.”Read More »Blog No 94. Kasich: Horatius at the Bridge?

Special Bulletin. A Respite From the GOP’s Continuing Trainwreck?

The Thursday night Republican debate came as a distinct relief. In terms of substance, there were claims and assertions with which one could agree or disagree, but we will reserve comment on those for a later blog. At least, however, the debate presented four serious adults avoiding personal insults and discussing serious issues. One can only wish that the earlier debates had been conducted similarly.Read More »Special Bulletin. A Respite From the GOP’s Continuing Trainwreck?