GOP Armageddon.
Armageddon came to the GOP in Virginia last night. Republicans got straight crushed as Ralph Northam defeated Ed Gillespie for Governor, and - probably more significantly - Democrats picked up TEN seats in the state legislature.
If you’ve been watching this on the news the past few weeks, you’d think that whichever party performed better in this election was going to win every election until the end of time. Democrats have lost every special election up until this point. They’ve done that despite pouring in record amounts of cash. Why was there so much hype on THIS election?
Gillespie lost, but that was just about as predictable as making the bold claim that the sun will probably rise in the East the morning after. With the exception of 2013, the sitting president’s party has lost EVERY Virginia gubernatorial election since Jimmy Carter! On top of that, Trump lost Virginia to Hillary and the state went to Obama twice. The narrative this morning is that this was the beginning of the end times for the GOP, but this would have been a MUCH bigger deal had the Democrats performed poorly. Republicans were SUPPOSED to do badly here.
There’s a much bigger story here. Virginia is a prime example of the increasing shift of people and states moving to the far fringes of the left and right. Red states are getting redder, and blue states are getting bluer. The moderates and middle ground are slowly disappearing. Virginia has been turning blue for a while, but the most eye-popping thing you see on the map is that urban areas have turned so blue and rural areas have turned so red, it almost drains the red and blue cones from your eyes. Where did the moderates go? This is a trend that will continue to pick up steam as people continue to shift further to the left and right. Consider Virginia, a state that just elected a governor endorsed by Planned Parenthood, elected their first openly transgender to the legislature and elected a self-proclaimed socialist.
The midterms are still a year away, and anything is possible. The GOP needs to either up their game or somehow try and get Hillary on every single ballot next year. Either way, whether you live in Blue country or Red country, get ready to move further in that direction.
Texas Shooter Update.
How is it possible to pass five background checks, even after you’ve been in prison for assault?
Disturbing details continue to emerge about the man who murdered 26 people at Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church last Sunday.
The latest is that while he was in the Air Force in 2012, he made death threats against his superior officers and tried to sneak guns onto Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. He was sent to a mental health facility, but he later escaped. Police caught him at a bus terminal in El Paso. Police said at the time that he “suffered from mental disorders” and “was a danger to himself and others.”
This apparently happened at the same time he was facing charges for kicking, choking, and hitting his wife, pulling her hair, and pointing loaded guns at her in 2011 and 2012. He also hit his infant stepson on the head, fracturing the child’s skull.
I don’t think I understand military justice – he was only sentenced to one year in a military prison for punching a baby? According to his court-martial documents, the assault was “with a force likely to produce death or grievous bodily harm.” Isn’t that attempted murder?
The Air Force admitted on Monday that his conviction was not entered into the National Criminal Information Center database. Someone was not doing their job.
In the two years following his military prison term, he was also investigated twice for sexual assault and rape, though no charges were filed.
Despite all of that, he still passed at least five background checks after his assault conviction: one to work at a grocery store, then two more in 2016 and 2017 to purchase guns at Academy Sports, and two more within the last four months to get security guard jobs at a water park and an RV resort.
Who is doing these useless background checks? This isn’t like applying for a library card. He was getting full-time jobs and buying firearms. What is going on?
When we have background check laws in place that completely fail, it only emboldens the left to pass more laws.
America better get its act together with the laws we already have or we’re going to lose even more of our freedoms.
One Year of Trump.
Happy one year anniversary.
Today, President Trump is celebrating 365 days in office.
Has it been the “incredibly tremendous year” he promised?
Probably not, but there is no denying that some really good things have happened over the past year.
Trump made great appointments, like Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, Education secretary Betsy DeVos, and EPA administrator Scott Pruitt.
But the most impressive accomplishment of the last year is the complete transformation of the economic landscape.
Under Trump, we have seen a healthy and robust economy come flourishing back from the grave.
All three quarters of Trump in office have resulted in 3 percent of more of GDP growth--an unmatched achievement by any other president in our history.
Those numbers are fantastic compared to eight years of Obama’s miserable 1.6 percent average.
Unemployment under Trump plummeted to 4.1 percent as of October’s jobs report, released on Friday. That is a 16-year low.
Consumer confidence is skyrocketing, hitting 125.9 in October — the highest level since December 2000.
And finally the Dow Jones is up 29 percent since Trump was elected.
Whether you like Trump or not, you have to agree that these are great accomplishments for our economy.
We still have a long, long, way to go, but some really good things happened for America this year.
I highly doubt our economy would have turned around with Hillary Clinton at the helm. That reminds me…on this one year anniversary of Trump taking office, I’d like to recognize another milestone: It’s been one year since Hillary lost for the last time.
