Candidate Donald Trump has published the following Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal.  The accompanying images are mine… /SD

How has the ‘system’ been working out for you and your family? No wonder voters demand change.

Via Donald J Trump –  On Saturday, April 9, Colorado had an “election” without voters. Delegates were chosen on behalf of a presidential nominee, yet the people of Colorado were not able to cast their ballots to say which nominee they preferred.
A planned vote had been canceled. And one million Republicans in Colorado were sidelined.

In recent days, something all too predictable has happened: Politicians furiously defended the system. “These are the rules,” we were told over and over again. If the “rules” can be used to block Coloradans from voting on whether they want better trade deals, or stronger borders, or an end to special-interest vote-buying in Congress—well, that’s just the system and we should embrace it.
Let me ask America a question: How has the “system” been working out for you and your family? (more…)

The latest Maryland Poll (full pdf below) shows candidate Donald Trump leading in all congressional districts and well positioned for a clean sweep of the state’s 38 republican delegates.  Maryland Primary April 26th.
Donald Trump with 47% support, Governor John Kasich 27%, and the polarizing Senator Ted Cruz rejected by 81% of Maryland voters holding a mere 19% support.

(Via Politico) […]  Trump leads in all congressional districts, though by larger margins in the two eastern districts bordering the Chesapeake Bay, where he leads Kasich 54 percent to 24 percent and just 11 percent for Cruz, and in two western districts, where he holds a 44 percent to 25 percent advantage over the Ohio governor and 23 percent for Cruz. In the remaining districts along the Baltimore-Washington corridor, Trump’s lead is smaller, with 43 percent to Kasich’s 31 percent and Cruz’s 20 percent. (more…)

Somewhat quietly, though not without some water-cooler discussion, the Republican Party Leadership is warning membership to stay away from the upcoming Cleveland Ohio convention.
The media is describing the issue as centering around those elected politicians who may want to avoid the potential for divisive controversy.  However, if you look at the actual landscape, and then look at the political ideology of those who are openly saying they are staying away, what you’ll notice is the RINO caucus, the ‘Decepticons’, are the most cautious.

If you spend some time digging through the professional GOPe messaging, what you’ll note is the party leadership seems fully aware something very dangerous might just come to fruition.  Not dangerous in a violent way per se’, but rather dangerous in a very political and contentious way; there’s very good reason for this. (more…)

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is heading up a National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) fundraiser in New York on April 25th.   However, the venue of the fundraiser is raising some eyebrows:

For those who might not know, the “Ricketts Family” are the primary donors to a Super-PAC specifically created to block Donald Trump from winning the GOP nomination.
Billionaire family Joe and Marlene Ricketts, owners of the Chicago Cubs, have recently given $5,000,000.oo to Katie Packer who heads “Our Principles PAC“, an organization created exclusively to defeat Donald Trump.
(more…)

Michigander Charlie LeDuff has produced an amazingly good boots-on-the-ground video which shows how insufferably connected the chattering class of Vichy Republicans have become.
LeDuff showcases the disconnect by highlighting a series of articles in National Review, and then actually going to the locales belittled by the NRO staff and talking to the ordinary, hard-working middle class people who live within them.
Driving to New York – LeDuff actually interviews the people that NRO is figuratively writing about, the resulting contrast speaks volumes:
“Shocked by their support of Donald Trump, some elitist conservative thinkers are calling places like Garbutt, NY pockets of misery, welfare fraud and dope addiction. They say let these towns die. Turns out Garbutt is not like that at all”.
LeDuff masterfully tells a real life short story and simultaneously contrasts the pontificating arrogance of the Charles Cooke, Kevin Williamson, Rich Lowry and Johan Goldberg types at National Review.  The resulting work is brilliant:

First, let’s be brutally honest –  This latest manipulation by Ryan is nothing but pure Machiavellian political maneuvering by the professional republican party in an effort to keep the unwashed masses from recognizing intentional usurpation.
This is professional political ‘gaslighting‘ folks, and it is beyond infuriating:

Filthy, lying CRAPWEASEL…
Remember: (more…)

Sometimes when you find yourself in a disconcerting and unfamiliar place, it can be beneficial to stop, look back and understand just how we ended up in this terrain.  The professional DC consultant class are benefiting from the current climate of chaos, and they certainly don’t want anyone to review the consequential and intentional steps it took to get here.
When the Tea Party rose up in opposition to President Obama’s indulgent spending programs in 2009 many were under the mistaken assumption the opposing party, the republicans, were against the progressive agenda based on principle.

However, there were a few voices on our side saying be wary of the UniParty nature of DC, the republican party is not our friend.  Money always fuels their motives; so long as there are millions available to the ‘loyal opposition’, the republican political intentions should not be regarded as altruistic.
At the time those concerns were dispatched by a louder voices demanding strategic unity and instructions to work within the DC-based GOPe system.  However, ultimately what benefit lies within unity if the end result is just a destructive?   The awakened electorate was just as much a risk to the republican side of the UniParty as it was the Democrat side.
It was from this basic framework of acceptance the Conservative Tree House was born. A “last refuge” where common sense approaches still mattered.
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A few days ago someone posted a link to an official campaign event being held by Senator Ted Cruz.  The link was in relationship to the Super-PAC “Keep the Promise” setting up the entire event, promoting the event, paying for the event, and coordinating the campaign activity culminating in Ted Cruz giving a speech at the event.
Unfortunately, given the thousands of comments daily we can’t find the link.

Despite rather outdated FEC rules -which are supposed to block such coordination- Carly Fiorina ran her entire campaign almost exclusively through Super-PAC financing.   We noted a few weeks ago that Senator Ted Cruz had shifted to a similar financial model as Fiorina.
Essentially both Fiorina, now Cruz, are pushing the boundaries on what is allowable in a post Citizens United campaign operation.   While it is against federal campaign laws for Super-PACS to fund or coordinate with candidates’ campaigns, the rules are very ambiguous as to what constitutes “coordination“.  (more…)

Benghazi Brief Followers:  Something is going on.  Something odd, something structurally not accidental….  My spidey hunch is the Trey Gowdy Benghazi Committee is in the making a final report phase.
Why?  Because there’s a rather weird story from NBC which just hit the media bloodstream about a former CIA operative who wrote a book and includes details of  a plan to overthrow Syria’s Assad (in 2012 according to the NBC report therein), that President Obama failed to act upon.

99% of the media consuming pubic will view this NBC story a particular way because it is being pushed a particular way.  That is to say this framework presents POTUS as not authorizing the CIA to initiate the plan as it is described.  – SEE HERE –
However, WE KNOW, from our own exhaustive research into this timeline (literally day-by-day x 40 people tracked) that President Obama DID AUTHORIZE, via a Presidential Finding Memo, a joint covert operation with the State Dept. and CIA in Syria, in 2012.
Unfortunately, unlike the 2011 finding memo in Libya, we do not know the operational name of this 2012 Syrian endeavor.  A rather overlooked MSM article (admitting the finding memo authorization) around the timeframe is HERE.
So why push a narrative now about POTUS refusing to authorize a finding memo for CIA in Syria when we know he factually DID sign a finding memo for CIA operations in Syria ?
Here’s todays story: (more…)

Speaking on behalf of Donald Trump, Sarah Palin gave a speech last night to a Wisconsin Republican audience.   Standing firmly on a platform of truth, Palin warned the mostly party (establishment) audience their decision to stand with deception in order to win an election also means placing themselves in a very precarious position.
The response from the audience to Sarah’s brutal honesty was what’s customarily known as “the collective nervousness of deceivers“.

Whenever anyone dares to tell the collective: ‘the emperor stands naked’; there’s a particular kind of autonomic group nervousness immediately evident.  A group discomfort.
Such was the discomfort when Sarah Palin mentioned Senator Ted Cruz’s weak and opportunistic immigration position, and then contrast a real-life example of Cruz going to McAllen Texas (Saturday, July 19th 2014) to hand out “gift baskets” and welcome illegal alien families.
You could hear a pin-drop as an entire audience sat jaw-agape in disbelief.
When a fearless truth-teller stares down a room – the collective immediately need each other to retain their guise.  Here’s an example of their initial response: (more…)