Found interesting article on the background of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Ret., from Heavy.com:

"Michael T. Flynn, the retired Army General who could be Donald Trump’s vice presidential choice, is an outspoken critic of the Obama administration and “radical Islam,” and is also a father, grandfather, author, and surfing enthusiast.

The Washington Post, and many other national media outlets, said that Trump is vetting Flynn, a registered Democrat (according to Stars and Stripes) who has harshly criticized Hillary Clinton, including for her emails. Trump has said he wants to announce his VP choice before the Republican National Convention starts on July 18.


The Hill reports that Trump himself is driving the idea of choosing Flynn, 57, because he believes global unrest demands a “tough and steady” figure. Trump told Fox News earlier in the week that he had a shortlist of 10 people, though, including two generals he wouldn’t name, The Hill said; over the July 4th weekend he met with two of those candidates Iowa Sen. Jodi Ernst and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence – at his New Jersey golf club.

As for Flynn, The New York Post calls him “outspoken and brash.” The Daily Beast reports he’s considered a “wild card.” So, who is Flynn?

Flynn Wrote a Book on Defeating ‘Radical Islam’ & Once Said He Was ‘At War With Islam’

In February, Flynn created controversy when he Tweeted “Fear of Muslims is RATIONAL”; The Huffington Post said he linked “to a video with the same name that lists dozens of terror attacks committed by Muslims in the past decades.” The Daily Beast called Flynn “a brash, candid provocateur who seems more interested in upending whole systems than in fine-tuning them.” The Daily Beast said Flynn is “most famous” for predicting the Islamic State’s rise as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Flynn published a book on July 12 called “The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies.”

The book’s synopsis on Amazon, says, in part, “A war is being waged against us by radical Islamists, and, as current events demonstrate, they are only getting stronger. This book aims to inform the American people of the grave danger we face in the war on terror―and will continue to face―until our government takes decisive action against the terrorists that want nothing more than to destroy us and our way of life.”

“I’ve been at war with Islam, or a, or a component of Islam, for the last decade,” Flynn once said, according to Al-Jazeera. He’s also trashed Iran, saying, “I could go on and on all day about Iran and their behaviour, you know, and their lies, flat out lies, and then their spewing of constant hatred, no matter whenever they talk,” Al-Jazeera said.

He also told Al-Jazeera: “We are at war with a radical component of Islam and the way I believe it is that Islam is a, is a political ideology based on a religion.”

Flynn Was Born in Rhode Island into a Family of Nine & Was an Athlete & Lifeguard

Flynn’s parents, Helen and Charles Flynn, had nine children; one of his brothers, Charlie Flynn, became a colonel who commanded the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division in Iraq during the surge, The University of Rhode Island said in a 2009 article. By 2011, Charles Flynn was a brigadier general, and his brother, Michael, pinned the star to his uniform, said NewportRI.com.

The brothers’ home town, Middleton, Rhode Island, named that Sept. 6 “Generals Flynn Day.” The Flynns are the “first Rhode Islanders to serve as generals at the same time,” said NewportRI.com.

Flynn recalled sharing bunk beds as a child with Charlie. Their father was also a soldier; he was a veteran of World War II and Korea and a retired Army sergeant first class, according to the Defense Intelligence Agency. In civilian life, Flynn’s father was a “small-town banker.”

“Mike and Charlie were great friends and good athletes,” Helen told the university. She said they both excelled at sports. “Football, basketball, baseball, you name it. They both loved the water. They were lifeguards during the summers at Second Beach and later played water polo at URI. Being from such a large family, I think all the children learned to compete at an early age and gained the self-confidence needed to accomplish what they set out to do.”

Charlie Flynn and his wife. (Facebook/Charlie Flynn
Michael Flynn is still athletic; he frequently posts on his Twitter page about surfing. In high school, he was a Lou Reed fan who surfed and skateboarded, according to NewportRI.com.

Helen Flynn’s obituary in Patch says she traveled the world with her husband “and raised their ever-growing military family pitching her ‘tent’ wherever that may have been for 20 years before returning to their hometown in 1963.” She was also from a military family. The obituary called Flynn’s mother “a woman of honor and faith in God, intellectual curiosity and a voracious reader and writer; a true patriot, a formidable leader and a beloved Mother, who stood tall for what she believed in against the odds and celebrated the achievements of her brood. Her faith was her guide.” She once ran for State Representative in Middletown, Rhode Island and for the U.S. Senate and was a Democrat, said the obit.

At the University of Rhode Island, Flynn studied management science and joined ROTC. He was commissioned as an Army second lieutenant when he graduated from college in 1981, the university says. He also has an MBA and graduated from the U.S. Naval War College, CNN said.

Flynn Married His High School Sweetheart & Likes Cheap CFlynn “married his high school sweetheart, Lori Andrade,” said the University of Rhode Island. The Flynns have been married for more than 30 years, and Lori’s Facebook page is filled with pictures of her husband and grandchildren.

The university quoted Flynn as saying: “Lori has been a steady presence in the lives of thousands of soldiers and their families during my numerous deployments and has played the role of not only mom, but dad, coach, teacher, and at times, taxi driver for our two sons, Michael and Matt, as well as for hundreds of other children. She’s always willing to volunteer her time for others.”

Their son, Michael, is now the chief of staff at Flynn Intel Group, according to his Facebook page; his father is CEO of the organization, which says it “provides elite intelligence services and solutions to industry and government worldwide.” Mostly, Michael, the son, posts statuses about his father’s media appearances, although he sometimes makes political commentary, writing: “Rule of Law officially deteriorating in this country after ‪#‎ClintonEmails‬ announcement.

Michael Flynn and his son, also named Michael. (The Flynns’ other son mostly posts pictures on Facebook of music concerts and his family; retired General Flynn is a grandfather and often shares photos with his grandchildren.

The university feature story noted that Flynn “prefers cheap cars and pizza.” He also likes football, especially the New England Patriots.

Flynn Was Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency & Says He is Pro Choice

Flynn deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from spring 2012 to fall 2014, The Military Times said. “He has worked as an adviser on Trump’s primary campaign in recent months,” said The Military Times, adding that the retired general has “33 years of intelligence experience.”

The University of Rhode Island says “Mike became an intelligence officer, platoon leader, and then instructor in his early days. Promotions quickly followed.” The Defense Intelligence Agency says its role is to “provide military intelligence to warfighters, defense policymakers and force planners.” It’s been called “The Pentagon’s top spy agency.”

Flynn’s leadership was controversial. He was closely aligned with Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who was removed by President Obama as leader of military operations in Afghanistan after comments he made to Rolling Stone. Among other things, McChrystal called members of the White House “clowns,” said he was “pretty disappointed” when he met Obama and used crude jokes to refer to Vice President Joe Biden.

On social issues, Flynn told ABC News that he supports a woman’s right to choose, saying: “I think women have to be able to choose…sort of, the right of choice,” said Flynn, adding, “They are the ones that have to make the decision because they’re the ones that are going to decide to bring up that child or not.”

ABC said that he also “veered from the GOP platform” on gay marriage, by commenting: “What people do in their private lives, these are not big issues that our country’s dealing with,” although ABC said he did not comment “directly on marriage.”

Flynn Was ‘Sacked’ By Obama & Has Claimed the Government Concealed the True Nature of the Terrorist Threat from the American People

The word sacked is used in Flynn’s own book introduction. It says: “Flynn has been a firsthand witness to government screw-ups, smokescreens, and censored information that our leaders don’t want us to know. A year before he was scheduled to retire, Flynn was sacked as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency for, among other things, telling a Congressional Committee that the American people are in more danger than we were just a few years ago.”

Stars and Stripes said Flynn “did not leave the Obama administration on warm terms,” adding that, “in 2014, he was effectively forced out of the Defense Intelligence Agency as part of a leadership shake-up after clashing with officials over his management style and vision for the agency.”

The book intro argues that the government “has concealed the actions of terrorists like bin Laden and groups like ISIS, and the role of Iran in the rise of radical Islam.”

Flynn has been a harsh critic of President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the Iraq War. Like Trump, he’s very outspoken on Twitter. He’s already serving as an adviser to Trump, and retweets him on Twitter, CNN said.

He has criticized the decision to invade Iraq, saying that “strategic errors” were made, according to Al-Jazeera. He said the U.S. “totally blew it” by allowing ISIS to take root in Syria and Iraq.

Of the Iraq War, he said: “I think history will not be kind. It was a strategic mistake,” Al-Jazeera said. Flynn created more controversy when he was photographed sitting next to Vladimir Putin in a trip to Russia last December, The Daily Beast said."

I know very little about Gen. Flynn, that was the reasoning of learning some background information. Yes, he's a Democrat, or at least has been. Yes, he's pro-choice. Yes, he's not taken a position against gay marriage.

I would say a couple of things. If he is the VP pick by Trump, he certainly deserves to be understood before being dismissed. There clearly more to this man than saying 3 strikes & he's out. People can & do change. Reagan of course wasn't always a Republican & pro-life. Let's give some pause & take a closer look before making a judgment. His life's accomplishment appear to be near exemplary (perhaps stellar, in fact). Perfect, of course not. We need a fighter in office. Sermon over.


.

quote:

Originally posted by dgwiggans:
I know very little about Gen. Flynn, that was the reasoning of learning some background information. Yes, he's a Democrat, or at least has been. Yes, he's pro-choice. Yes, he's not taken a position against gay marriage.

I would say a couple of things. If he is the VP pick by Trump, he certainly deserves to be understood before being dismissed. There clearly more to this man than saying 3 strikes & he's out. People can & do change. Reagan of course wasn't always a Republican & pro-life. Let's give some pause & take a closer look before making a judgment. His life's accomplishment appear to be near exemplary (perhaps stellar, in fact). Perfect, of course not. We need a fighter in office. Sermon over.


.

All I need to know about him right now (because everything I just learned seems to be acceptable) is what is his detailed feeling about the Second Amendment. Just tell me that, and I'll be able to say right here and now yay or nay.

Introduction of Field of Fight by Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn

Reprinted by permission of St. Martin's Press.

Introduction

"In late 2005, U.S. Special Forces fighters attacked an al Qaeda safe house in central Iraq, in an operation called Objective Riverside. We believed an important leadership meeting was taking place. It was a fierce battle, but we killed and captured most of the terrorists, and took over the house. This was the beginning of wisdom for us. The treasure trove of documents and media discovered inside a garbage bag and smelly garbage cans gave us that wisdom.

Inside the garbage containers we found extensive documentation of our enemies' knowledge and thinking. To our surprise and horror, we saw they knew a great deal about us, including the names of many local informants. They also had done a lot of planning, laying out specific objectives, the risks associated with attacking them, and the measures they should take to thwart our countermeasures.

Until Objective Rivergate, we had no idea that al Qaeda in Iraq had anything approaching that degree of sophistication. We were compelled to reevaluate our picture of the war. This was an enemy we had to take far more seriously.

Six months later we attacked another safe house, which we called Objective Larchwood. We arrived shortly after a very important meeting that had included the chief of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi We captured a laptop computer with a video on it, showing Zarqawi himself making a Power-Point presentation to his commanders, discussing the course of the war, analyzing at Qaeda's successes and failures, ordering changes in tactics, and then leading his men in song and prayer. Zarqawi and the video were every bit as professional as anything our analysts and strategists had imagined him to be or could create.

That was ten years ago. Today radical Islamists are fighting us on a much bigger battlefield, including our homeland (the director of the FBI has testified that he is running investigations of ISIS—the Islamic State, the successor to al Qaeda in Iraq—in every one of our fifty states). By now, we have seen numerous arrests, various attacks in our cities and against our law enforcement professionals, and young men and women being brainwashed by Radical Islamists. It is time we get serious against this vicious, barbaric enemy.

We're in a world war, but very few Americans recognize it, and fewer still have any idea how to win it.

I've been fighting for more than thirty-three years, much of the time at the top levels of U.S. military intelligence. I have some strong feelings about this war, about our "field of fight." The title comes from the ancient Greek epic poet Homer, writing in the Iliad about a battle involving both men and gods. Our most fanatical contemporary enemies think they are in a similar battle with us. Most of them believe their cause is blessed and supported by the Almighty. We must prove them wrong.

I wrote this book for two reasons:

1. To show you the war being waged against us. This administration has forbidden us to describe our enemies properly and clearly: they are Radical Islamists. They are not alone, and are allied with countries and groups who, though not religious fanatics, share their hatred of the West, particularly the United States and Israel. Those allies include North Korea, Russia, China, Cuba, and Venezuela.

2. To lay out a winning strategy.

Any reader needs to judge the reliability of the book's author, and I’ll tell you about myself so you can make an informed decision. I don't fit the stereotype most people have of a military officer, never mind a career intelligence officer. I had a successful career in the United States Army, but I'm a maverick, an atypical square peg in a round hole, as both my friends and critics will attest. My maverick direction started when I was a lot younger than I am today.

I've fought in this war on physical and bureaucratic battlefields, from Afghanistan, Iraq, and African jungles, to the highest level of the United States' intelligence and military establishments. I know our enemies better than most "experts," and I'm plenty scared.

We could lose. In fact, right now we're losing. To make matters worse, our political leaders insist that the war is going very well, and the scores of professional analysts who know better are being censored when they report the truth to their superiors. I know this story firsthand. In 2015, I was fired as the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency after telling a congressional committee that we were not as safe as we had been a few years back.

Others who want to tell the truth about the war are fighting back against their censors. In the late summer of 2015, dozens of military analysts protested that their superiors at CENTCOM—the Central Command for the war the Middle East—were blocking or altering their reports on the true course of events. That allegation was then investigated by the Pentagon's inspector general. The story was leaked, and Congressional hearings were held. This book shows that the censorship isn't new; it has been going on for years, and threatens our ability to win.

I also have a lot to say about Iran, which is responsible for killing hundreds of Americans in Lebanon, East Africa, Iraq, and Afghanistan. We've known about Iran's murderous activities for many years, and you'll learn how we knew it and how the information was long suppressed by two consecutive administrations.

There's a lot of information on Iran in the files and computer discs captured at the Pakistan hideout of Osama bin Laden. Here, too, the censors have been busy. Some of it—a tiny fraction—has been declassified and released, but the bulk of it is still under official seal. Those of us who have read bin Laden's material know how important it is, and I'll tell you as much as I'm allowed.

Other information about Iran comes from the battlefield, where the Iranians have killed and maimed our troops, and continue to do so. I'll tell you how we uncovered the Iranian network in Iraq, largely by the use of spies who went back and forth between the two countries together the truth for us.

Then there are the terror groups, principally ISIS and al Qaeda. By now, we have seen so many horrific acts—from beheadings to crucifixions and burning captives alive—that many attentive people imagine them to be savages, barbarians. They are certainly barbaric, but they are driven by a systematic vision of how to conquer the world and impose their religious ideology on all of us. Did you know that ISIS has long worked from a detailed written timetable for global victory? It's a Radical Islamic Mein Kampf, and was discovered by a courageous young female American journalist in Pakistan in 2015. You'll get all the details.

We face a formidable group of terrorists and hostile countries, and we've got to be better prepared to compete or we will need to be ready to destroy them. That requires better strategy, as well as better intelligence, to which I devoted all my brainpower and passion for a long time. I learned how to get accurate information, which goes hand in hand with the winning strategy, because both the information and the strategy come from the people—the citizens of these countries—caught up in the war itself. We must work closely with those people. They have the crucial information, and they will determine who wins. I changed our methods in Iraq in 2004 and in Afghanistan starting in 2010, and they worked.

I hope to convince you that we face a potentially fatal challenge, which we must and can overcome.

As you read these pages, remember that you don't have to be a military officer to see the global war. A man of peace, Pope Francis, has warned us of the gravity of our situation: "Even today, after the second failure of another world war, perhaps one can speak of a third war, one fought piecemeal, with crimes, massacres, destruction," Francis said at a mass at the Italian Military Memorial of Redipuglia. "War is madness."

And he knows the consequences: "War ruins everything, even the bonds between brothers. War is irrational; its only plan is to bring destruction: It seeks to grow by destroying."

Very few Americans—indeed very few Western leaders who, from time to time, use the word "war" and promise to "win" it—seem to recognize that a global war is being waged against us. Even the few who follow the actual combat tend to see the events separately: there's fighting in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and the Sinai, terrorists are at work all over the place, and we try to figure out what to do in each case.

It isn't likely to work out well. Fighting well requires that you know your enemy, as the Chinese strategist Sun Tzu said. Our leaders don't want to identify our enemies. That puts us on the path to defeat.

Most Americans mistakenly believe that peace is the normal condition of mankind, while war is some weird aberration. Actually, it's the other way around. Most of human history has to do with war, and preparations for the next one. But we Americans do not prepare for the next war, are invariably surprised when it erupts, and, since we did not take prudent steps when it would have been relatively simple to prevail, usually end up fighting on our enemies' more difficult and costly terms.

So we don't know our enemy and are not prepared to fight effectively.

Fewer still have any idea how to win. I'm in a better position than most on this score. I've seen, shot, captured, interrogated, and studied our enemies.

I know them, and they scare me, a guy who doesn't scare often or easily. They scare me even though we have defeated them every time we fought seriously. We defeated al Qaeda and the Iranians in Iraq, and the Taliban and their allies in Afghanistan. Nonetheless, they kept fighting and we went away.

Let's face it: right now we're losing, and I'm talking about a very big war, not just Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

We're in a world war against a messianic mass movement of evil people, most of them inspired by a totalitarian ideology: Radical Islam. But we are not permitted to speak or write those two words, which is potentially fatal to our culture. We can't beat them if we don't understand them and are afraid to define them, but our political leaders haven't permitted that. We're not allowed to use the phrase "Radical Islam" or "Islamists." That's got to change.

Once we've understood them, we've got to destroy them.

Here's how:

• We have to organize all our national power, from military and economic to intelligence and tough-minded diplomacy. It's not cheap, and it's probably going to last through several generations.

• They must be denied safe havens, and countries that shelter the have to be issued a brutal choice: either eliminate the Radical Islamists or you risk direct attack yourselves. Yes, there will be some foreign countries that can't defeat their indigenous Islamists, even though they want to, and they'll need help. They shouldn't be punished twice—first by the Islamists, then by us and our allies—and we should welcome them to our ranks.

On the other band, some of these countries are considered "partners' of ours, but they aren't. We can't afford to be gulled by foreign countries that publicly declare their friendship, but then work in cahoots with our enemies.

• We've got to attack the Islamists everywhere and in every way. That most certainly includes attacking their evil doctrines and detailing their many failures. Are we not fully entitled to tell the truth about them? In the Cold War, we repeatedly exposed the failures of Communism. Why shouldn't we do the same with al Qaeda and ISIS?

As you see, I'm not a devotee of so-called political correctness. I don't believe all cultures are morally equivalent, and I think the West, and especially America, is far more civilized, far more ethical and moral, than the system our main enemies want to impose on us.

This kind of war is not at all new. It created our world. I dare say that most Americans don't realize that the religious and political transformation of Europe that we call the Reformation entailed hundreds of years of very bloody fighting. The religious people who settled America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were fleeing that terrible bloodshed. The world badly needs an Islamic Reformation, and we should not be surprised if violence is involved. It's normal. The important thing is to defeat the Islamists, and we must make it clear why they have declared and waged war against us, and why we reject their doctrines.

We've got to stop kidding ourselves about the intentions of the state and nonstate supporters and enablers of violent Islamism, whether on the ground, in the mosques, or online. We speak for freedom, they denounce it and crush it. That means we are the bull's-eye at the center of their gunsights. And we've got to stop feeling the slightest bit guilty about calling them by name and identifying them as fanatical killers acting on behalf of a failed civilization.

We also have to stop kidding ourselves about our enemies' intellectual capabilities. They may be crazy, but they're not stupid. The bin Laden documents, and the ISIS timetable for victory, show they study us very carefully, and they excel at identifying our weaknesses. Once they learn how to exploit our weak points, they keep doing it. They keep staging multiple attacks against population centers, from New York City to Paris, from Mumbai to Beirut to Brussels, because it keeps working.

Finally, they are willing—sometimes eager—to die for their global mission.

So how do we prevail?

If you want to be a successful intelligence professional you have to learn how to get inside other people's minds. Mostly you're getting inside your enemies' minds, and you have to feel the same passions, beliefs, and fears that drive them. The same requirements apply to leading and following your own people, by the way. You've got to get inside the minds of both the men you lead and the ones you have to obey, whether they're military or civilians.

You've got to be able to anticipate your own men's mistakes, predict your enemies' actions, and understand what your superiors want from you. I did pretty well at the first tasks, as you can see from the results on the battlefield, and from my appointment as the highest-ranking military intelligence officer in the U.S. government. You'll have to judge for yourself how well I did in my dealings with my bosses, especially at the end of my career, when I was told my service had come to an end a year ahead of schedule.

I spent many years and a lot of effort to get inside the heads of our enemies, many of whom we killed or captured, but many of whom remain at large, hell-bent on destroying us. That's why those passions, beliefs, and feats that! found in their heads remain important today. If you understand them it's a lot easier to defeat them, which is the central mission of this generation.

We're going to have to learn to think like the evil men—women don't really count in their ranks, aside from being used to breed new killers and occasionally blowing themselves up—who have sworn homage to al Qaeda, the Islamic State, various other jihadi groups, and to the leaders of radical regimes like the one in Iran. They will continue to do terrible things, and escalate their war against us, against Muslims who reject their doctrines, against Christian "infidels," against Jews, against women, indeed against the entire Western enterprise. We have to destroy them before they fulfill their mission.

Don't think for a minute that they're not good at what they do. They have a serious ideology—replete with intense passions, beliefs, and fears—and they mean to dominate the world. They have built a fearsome movement, based on deep religious conviction. They think they're winning, and so do I.

They're good fighters. They have proven their courage and shown great skill. They learn fast, they quickly give up failing tactics, and they're skilled at the techniques of Internet operations, from hacking to propaganda. They're tough enemies, as I learned fighting them on multiple battlefields. We need to be a lot better. Today we're not nearly good enough. A big reason for that is that we don't get inside their heads. Alas, our schools, media, and social networks are doing a poor job of helping Americans understand our enemies in order to defeat them.

So is our government."

.[/QUOTE]

All I need to know about him right now (because everything I just learned seems to be acceptable) is what is his detailed feeling about the Second Amendment. Just tell me that, and I'll be able to say right here and now yay or nay.[/QUOTE]

This!

Selecting a retired military officer for VP is extremely stupid. The VP should be a person who brings balance to the ticket. That person should be able to bring in votes from places where Trump is weak and act as the conduit to the house and senate. If Trump really want to shake things up he could have Flynn replace the guy who fired him. Trump's most important positions right now are VP and chief of staff. He can't fuck this up.

quote:

Originally posted by divil:
.

All I need to know about him right now (because everything I just learned seems to be acceptable) is what is his detailed feeling about the Second Amendment. Just tell me that, and I'll be able to say right here and now yay or nay.[/QUOTE]

This![/QUOTE]
Yes!

Pence has ‘95 percent’ chance of being Trump’s VP pick

CLEVELAND — Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, little known nationally but highly admired in conservative circles, has a “95 percent probability” of being Donald Trump’s choice for vice president, The Washington Times has learned.

The sources for that assessment are Republicans close to the campaign and to the governor.
A tipoff came a few days ago when Indiana House Speaker Brian C. Bosma, 58, a conservative Republican, sought advice on running for governor from constitutional lawyer James Bopp, an Indiana delegate to the Republican National Convention and a member of the convention rule committee.

“He wanted my counsel on what he needed to do to set himself up to run for governor, because he expects Pence to step down as governor in order to be Trump’s running mate,” Mr. Bopp said in an interview.

Mr. Pence also made a telling private call to Indiana Republican Party Chairman Jeff Cardwell, a Republican close to both men said.

In the call, the governor told Mr. Cardwell to delay his planned Tuesday departure to Cleveland for a Republican National Committee meeting, saying Mr. Cardwell needed to be sure to attend an Indianapolis fundraiser featuring Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence.

The Trump election team on Sunday announced a campaign rally in Indianapolis following the Trump-Pence fundraiser, giving further weight to the expectation that the presumptive nominee will announce Mr. Pence as his running mate — most probably at the rally.

The Trump-Pence fundraiser already was a big deal, with tickets going from $2,700 to $250,000. But its being scheduled so close to the July 18-21 Republican National Convention here got interpreted by some political observers as ideal for a possible VP announcement by the party’s presumptive presidential nominee.

Until now, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was the most probable vice presidential pick in most press accounts and in the minds of many GOP activists. But Republicans close to the action began to have doubts when Mr. Trump, at a rally with Mr. Gingrich last week, assured the crowd that the Georgian would definitely serve in some capacity in a Trump administration.

Those assurances seemed designed to gently let down loyalists Mr. Gingrich, 73, has accumulated over his 36 years in politics and public life, during which he is credited with planning the GOP’s stunning 1994 takeover of the U.S. House after 40 years in the minority.

Mr. Gingrich has traveled with Mr. Trump on campaign stops and has won kudos from even Trump skeptics for explaining the hows and whys of the Trump phenomenon at this point in American political history better than anyone else, including Mr. Trump himself.

Mr. Gingrich has been a national figure in politics virtually from the day he first won election to the U.S. House in 1977, and has made political enemies for his brashness and unorthodox ideas.

According to campaign insiders, Mr. Trump genuinely likes Mr. Gingrich, but some in the Trump family, especially his adult children, aren’t great Gingrich fans.

Republican Platform Committee meets Mon/Tue

The Platform Committee will revisit the core tenets of the Republican Party’s policy vision

The Rules Committee will meet Wed/Thu

The Rules Committee will determine the procedures that govern the convention a week later — but also establish the 2020 primary rules.

In the Rules committee, anti-Trump delegates led by Colorado’s Kendal Unruh are scraping together support for a plan that would guarantee delegates the option to vote their conscience when picking the party’s presidential nominee — rather than adhere to the results of primaries and caucuses.

But Trump supporters won’t be sitting still. The mogul’s allies will be carrying their own pro-Trump proposals aimed at staving off the rebellion. In addition, the panel will be the forum for restructuring the party after its deeply divisive and bitter primary.

http://www.politico.com/story/...ention-fights-225327

Somebody summed it up nicely in a version most voters should be able to read (understanding might be a bridge too far...)

imo he needs to pick a household name to attract voters, not someone most folks have never heard of.

quote:

http://redstatewatcher.com/article.asp?id=27736
BREAKING! Judge reaches verdict in Anti-Trump delegate case, BAD NEWS for Trump!

In the Virginia lawsuit filed by anti-Trump delegate Beau Correll, the judge ruled in favor of Correll, stating that he could not be legally bound to vote for Trump at the convention, and that it is a matter of the party. This is bad news for Trump. While the delegates are still supposed to follow the party's rules, they are not legally bound to vote for the candidate that won their individual primaries.

PDF of the Judge's opinion at the link.

These delegates would do well to remember that they have to return home once the convention is over.

It sure seems as though the Never Trumpers are OK with a Hillary victory this year. They figure that whatever damage Hillary can do in 4 years is worth it as long as they get another shot in 2020.

Well, I got news for them. If they blow up the election this year, I don't give a damn who they run in 2020. I - and I imagine millions more people - will never vote for them - ever - no matter who they run. The GOP will be over.

When it all comes crashing down, we can start over from the ashes and see if we can eventually rebuild this country.

ChicagoSigMan--

You hit the nail on the head. But the level of disaster we are looking at may not be fixable.
It will be hypnotic watching the country circle the drain.

quote:

Originally posted by dkjbama:

quote:

http://redstatewatcher.com/article.asp?id=27736
BREAKING! Judge reaches verdict in Anti-Trump delegate case, BAD NEWS for Trump!

In the Virginia lawsuit filed by anti-Trump delegate Beau Correll, the judge ruled in favor of Correll, stating that he could not be legally bound to vote for Trump at the convention, and that it is a matter of the party. This is bad news for Trump. While the delegates are still supposed to follow the party's rules, they are not legally bound to vote for the candidate that won their individual primaries.

PDF of the Judge's opinion at the link.

These delegates would do well to remember that they have to return home once the convention is over.

Better read the opinion.

All it appears on first reading to do is enforce proportional voting rather than winner take all, pursuant to party rules.

quote:

Originally posted by ChicagoSigMan:
It sure seems as though the Never Trumpers are OK with a Hillary victory this year. They figure that whatever damage Hillary can do in 4 years is worth it as long as they get another shot in 2020.

Well, I got news for them. If they blow up the election this year, I don't give a damn who they run in 2020. I - and I imagine millions more people - will never vote for them - ever - no matter who they run. The GOP will be over.

When it all comes crashing down, we can start over from the ashes and see if we can eventually rebuild this country.

Very true. And if Hilary gets in, it will be for eight years-not four. Plus the Supreme Court nominee is HUGE. The GOP knows this, but some act like they don't really care. They got their $$$. Then we have to wonder what Congress will look like in the next four years too. Scary.

quote:

Originally posted by nojoy:

quote:

Originally posted by ChicagoSigMan:
It sure seems as though the Never Trumpers are OK with a Hillary victory this year. They figure that whatever damage Hillary can do in 4 years is worth it as long as they get another shot in 2020.

Well, I got news for them. If they blow up the election this year, I don't give a damn who they run in 2020. I - and I imagine millions more people - will never vote for them - ever - no matter who they run. The GOP will be over.

When it all comes crashing down, we can start over from the ashes and see if we can eventually rebuild this country.

Very true. And if Hilary gets in, it will be for eight years-not four. Plus the Supreme Court nominee is HUGE. The GOP knows this, but some act like they don't really care. They got their $$$. Then we have to wonder what Congress will look like in the next four years too. Scary.

No, if the Beast gets in, it will be over, for good, not just eight years.

When Hilary gets in, Black Lives Matter will be dancing in the streets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...U&list=RD5wBTdfAkqGU

Do I need to lock this thread for a while?

Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary When Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Gets in

Come on

Trump's Twitter has been on fire lately. He's on a roll.