The media is abuzz about candidate Ted Cruz walking across the street today to confront a group of “pro-Trump protestors” outside one of his events.

Perhaps it’s the cynic in us; perhaps it’s because we’ve followed politics closely for decades; perhaps it’s because we’ve been warning how desperate the GOPe are; perhaps it’s the unusual font on the signs; or perhaps it’s because we’ve spent time studying the maneuvers of the master contrarian designer, Lee Atwater,… but something doesn’t pass the proverbial sniff test.
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This is a modified and updated repost from an early January ’16 outline which collected data from all of the various Donald Trump interviews, position papers, and historical outlines. Candidate Trump has been speaking about broad U.S. economic issues for decades. Trump approaches the challenges by focusing on “Main Street”, not Wall Street.
For the sake of brevity, I’m going to accept that most readers here are familiar with who is funding and directing Jeb Bush, and in larger, more consequential measures, the DC apparatchik in charge of U.S. Policy, ie. Wall street.
During the January 2016 South Carolina debate, and in response to Trump pointing out a necessary shift in trade position (a shift to put American interests first – a shift to stop the dependency on cheap import goods – a shift to use China’s dependency on access to our market to OUR advantage), Jeb Bush came back with an example of Boeing manufacturing.
Donald Trump, responding to Jeb’s Boeing example, and pointed out China is forcing Boeing to open a manufacturing plant in China.  As would be typical from a candidate who is unfamiliar and unbriefed on the issue, Jeb looked back incredulously and said:

“C’mon man”…

There you have it. (more…)

NBC/WSJ has released a new poll (full pdf below) of Indiana republicans.  Donald Trump holds a significant 15 point lead over Senator Ted Cruz, and a 36 point lead over Ohio Governor John Kasich.
When Kasich is removed from the polled equation, to allow for a head-to-head comparison, Donald Trump beats Ted Cruz 53 / 42.

[…] “In Indiana, Trump is positioned to corral all the [state’s 57] delegates, which will be a big prize toward winning the nomination outright,” says Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. “Clinton and Sanders are more likely to divide the delegate pool, which will do little to change the narrative on the Democratic side.” (link)

Via NBC – […] The NBC/WSJ/Marist poll was conducted April 26-28 — so mostly after Trump’s six-consecutive primary victories in Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, as well as after Cruz and Kasich announced an alliance/truce, whereby Kasich wouldn’t campaign in Indiana to help Cruz (in exchange for Cruz not campaigning in Oregon and New Mexico).
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CNN has the strongest surge in ratings in the past 14 years and now beats Fox News in the all important category of 25-54 year old viewership.  That age category drives the ad revenue determinations for the industry.
Fox News can’t say they were not warned this would be an outcome of their insufferable decision to continue promoting a media narrative in opposition to Donald Trump. The same thing happened to Macys Department Store after they dropped Trump.

(Via CNN) CNN ranked #1 in cable news in prime time in April. CNN beat Fox News for the fifth time in the last eight months in M-Su prime time (four of the past eight in M-F prime) among adults 25-54.  The last time CNN had this many prime time wins in an eight-month period versus Fox News was over 14 years ago (Nov. 2001). (more…)

…and it appears they have good reason to be concerned.  Reminder of the election results. Arizona Primary Election:

• Donald Trump 286,743 votes

• Ted Cruz 172,294 votes

Arizona – Upset that Donald Trump received just a handful of statewide delegates during an electronic vote, his Arizona campaign manager is threatening to sue the Arizona Republican Party.

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In 2009 the popular conservative opinion was to declare the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision a win for “our side”.   Of course, the decision ultimately opened the floodgates for unlimited corporate spending in elections via the new Super-PAC approach.
In 2016 90% of all American’s polled believe there is too much special interest money in politics, and both political parties no longer need the financial support of the electorate.  Corporate lobbyists were always problematic, but now in a post CU world they control almost every aspect of electoral politics – including who wins elections.  Citizens United wasn’t a win, its consequence was a major fail.

Within that reality you find one of the synergies between candidate Donald Trump and candidate Bernie Sanders.  The popular insurgencies supporting each candidate rail against the corrupting corporate financial influence. Party leadership? Meh, not-so-much.
Of course it would only take RNC and DNC rules changes, ie. self-regulation, to stop the problem of unlimited corporate funding; but when the political party leadership has that much access to money, well, they have no interest in regulating it away.  Ergo, legislation becomes the only option and the legislators would be writing law against their own financial interests…. Yeah, FUBAR.
To wit, one of the shifts amid the “common sense” electorate is the general perception that Citizens United is no longer viewed as a win.  However, with all the discussions on bad Trade Deals there’s also another shift coming into focus, the Import/Export bank.
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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, and so long as there are millions available to the ‘loyal opposition’, the republican political intentions should not be regarded as altruistic and they damned well have never been ‘conservative’.
At the time our concerns were dispatched by a louder voices demanding strategic unity and instructions for the Tea Party alliances to work within the DC-based GOPe system.
However, those of us who broke free from the cycle of battered conservative syndrome immediately knew the warning signs.  What benefit is within unity if the end result is just as destructive as the problem?  An awakened electorate was just as dangerous to the republican side of the UniParty as it was the Democrat side.
It was from this basic framework The Conservative Tree House was born. A “last refuge” where common sense approaches still mattered.
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As a general principle no conversations have involved more varied opinions than discussions about the supposed “conservative” media and their seeming cognitive dissonance when it comes to issues surrounding Senator Ted Cruz.
Some people think these voices were just hoodwinked by Cruz and now their ego won’t permit them to admit the falsehood.  Others think the pundits are too close to the candidate to see the inherent issues and contradictions; some propose their punditry is connected to financial motives.  Perhaps it’s a combination therein, but many people just can’t figure it out.

Whatever the reason, and personally I don’t care one way or the other, one of the realities is their collective influence is marginalized – common sense people, former viewers and listeners, just laugh at them now.
However, historically pundits don’t care so much about influence as they do about affluence.  When the money lessens or dries up, that’s when the opinion shifts…. just watch – it’s a guaranteed truism. (more…)

Andrea Shea King responds to ~THIS VIDEO~ posted by Glenn Beck about the downward spiral of his media enterprise.

==> READ Andrea’s Outline HERE   <==

*Note* Keep The Promise, the Super-PAC conglomerate helping to prop up the failing campaign of Senator Cruz, will be financing Cruz’s ongoing activities in Indiana.  Part of that last ditch effort will be for Glenn Beck to campaign with Ted Cruz on Monday (link).

From October 2013 forward we have discussed the presidential election of 2016 and foretold/warned what was to come.   There are trillions of dollars at stake.
The culmination of four years strategic planning (2011 – 2015) from Wall Street -via legislative priorities- are enmeshed within the outcome.  The financiers have spent hundreds of millions on the construction.

Anyone with even moderate research skills could assemble the same data if they had: a.) time, and b.) inclination.    Sometimes, like the “splitter strategy“, conspiracies are not theory.  The behavior inherent within the visible activity is simply just an outcome of a mutually beneficial plan.
There are trillions of dollars at stake.  The financial (Wall Street) bets on the international global trade and finance sectors are in the tens of trillions.  More modestly, the downstream beneficiaries within the campaign consulting industry itself are worth more than several billion per election cycle.  (more…)