Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Some Thoughts on the Republican Convention


From the article by Austin Bay
"But GetRealLand’s a bitch of a place, where you wake up and the accelerating whine you hear isn’t dream noise but an incoming 82 millimeter mortar round."
One more point…to the Republicans who have snubbed the Convention…while you're traveling around wherever it is you're traveling with your collective thumbs up your collective butts, I'd like to reintroduce myself.

I'm the guy who came to Washington numerous times. I met you in your offices or at Congressional Sportsmen events. Several of you I shot alongside in shotgun events. Hey, you might even remember I spoke at several of those more formal events! Do any of you remember what I said?

Let me give you a little bit of a reminder. I'm the guy who said I was there for "guns." You know…"firearms"…not the "growth of wetlands"…not "America's hunting heritage" although I am an avid big game hunter…not the Second Amendment in the abstract, but as an armed civilian who carries a gun — a loaded gun…I remember that caused some of you a bit of heartburn — every single day, every time I walk out of the house, in fact.

And if you recall, I pushed every one of you on that point. Thinking back, you might remember the guy who refused to let you get a pass because you said you owned a gun, a $25,000 Beretta shotgun, to be specific. I'm the guy who said, after speech after speech of how much money you had funneled into "wetland reclamation," that I didn't give a damn whether every duck in America, including Daffy and Howard the Duck, spontaniously combusted (is that why you never asked me back?). I said then, and I say now, that I was and am here for the guns.

I stand for the Second Amendment — unequivocally, unashamedly, unapologetically, unconditionally. I told you then and I tell you now that I live the Second Amendment, that my friends, my viewers, my listeners, my readers LIVE the Second Amendment…it is an integral part of our life every single day. I told you that we carry guns not because we are afraid, but because we are responsible, that we take our role as citizens as seriously as our Founders hoped we would.

I told you that we train and we train hard; that the gun on our hip represents the line that cannot and will not be crossed; that we pray on the day when everything slides in all drections, one of us is there rather than an unarmed mom and her children. You smiled, and you listened politely, and I'm sure you thought I was full of shit.

Well, probably…but the majority of you who are NOT at the Convention, who are making cutsie-pie remarks more suited to, say, a 14-year-old girl than someone who was actually elected to represent people, all assured me that you stood with the Second Amendment…even though you don't own guns…and don't have carry permits…and don't hunt, unless it's with your $25,000 shotgun and its paid for by a lobbyist. In fact, one of you said to me that, "You stood with the Second, until the very end."

Well, here we are, at the very end. The Second, not to mention the First, the Fourth and the Fifth (and probably all the rest) is imperiled. We face a candidate who wants door-to-door confiscation of our guns, the end of concealed carry, the destruction of Heller and McDonald, who basically wants the complete destruction of the gun culture — our, or at least my — culture and our butts in boxcars headed East.

Where are you?

You said you would stand with me and the Second until the end. I say again, where are you? Checking dumpster fires? Scamming a few more free trips with some lobbyist and hot members of the opposite sex?

Where are you?

I recall song lyrics from the 1960s, the last time America was pushed to the very brink, the last time we looked into the abyss and decided to step back. From Steppenwolf, the song "Monster;"

"America, where are you now
Don't you care about your sons and daughters
Don't you know we need you now
We can't fight alone against the monster"


How are those dumpster fires going for you?

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you are on our side! Thanks for all you do.

Robert

Unknown said...

Michael: a brilliant piece. Glad to call you my friend

NJ Larry said...

Bravo !

This election is of Biblical proportions. It is good vs evil. It is one where the demonic is afoot. Our nation and this world hangs in the balance. And there are those whiny little girls standing on the sidelines over hurt feelings. Damn them to hell.

DamDoc said...

as you said, not baskin robbins any more.. no more 28 flavors... only vanilla or chocolate.. time to make a choice there, jethro...

Anonymous said...

No DamDoc,

It's vanilla / our rights, or a "shit-filled Twinkie"!

Life Member

KevinC said...

I had to be dragged, kicking, screaming and clawing at the carpet, into the Trump camp, but now that I'm here, I'm here.

The absolute PEEVISHNESS of the Republican party when it comes to Trump is disgusting. He won. He threw a few elbows in winning, but that is good practice for going up against a woman who considers the law an impediment, not something to uphold.

I didn't want Trump, but now that he's here, I want him infinitely more than Hillary.

Anonymous said...

Michael, please name names.

DMD said...

Sitting this one out is not the answer. We must vote Trump for our guns--or prepare to lose them all forever!!!! DMD

gunman42782 said...

My 2 cents. I don't like Trump. But, I despise Hillary. I am not so much voting for Trump, as I am voting against Hillary. I think it is a disgrace that either one of them is even running. But, even though Trump is somewhat of a loose canon, I know where Hillary stands, and what she will do if elected. That's enough for me to vote Trump.

Anonymous said...

https://theintercept.com/2016/01/27/donald-trump-in-2000-i-support-the-ban-on-assault-weapons/

http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2016/apr/12/donald-trump/donald-trump-fully-flip-flops-lately-opposes-ban-a/

Yeah, ok. Trump will sell you down the river faster than Hillary can take the 5th. We're screwed either way. Better the devil you know in the White House and a Republican House and Senate. Nominating Trump will now cost us both the executive branch and legislative branch. Judicial to follow shortly thereafter.

Anonymous said...


I suspect that there is a seminar blogger among us, responding to a "crawling-bot" algorithm that was keyed by our mention of Trump. Their only mission here is make sure we think that "we're screwed" and not vote so that their candidate will win.

"Politifact" is an arm of the Democrat party that puts out political talking points as if they're facts. Many are not.

Go join "The Grasshopper" and his free stuff that Bernie is going to get him. We'll stick with electing Trump.

Have a swell day.

1akmaninfl said...

Anonymous said.... ""Politifact" is an arm of the Democrat party that puts out political talking points as if they're facts. Many are not"

Right on. It was spawned by the Tampa Bay Times, then the St. Petersburg Times, and there is no more Democratic biased print media than the TBT. The editors, columnist, and writers are ALL anti-Second and anti-guns. I've wasted numerous hours responding to their campaign against FL, and all, gun owners. Naturally, to no avail. I believe it was Michael, or one of his posters, who once said "it is little use to argue with someone who buys newsprint by the ton and ink by the barrel". Sadly true in my case.

Mortichai said...

Why would you expect them to run to defend your lifestyle after you insulted theirs twice? I'd be amazed if they even bothered to look up from their latest issue of Gardens and Guns magazine to notice your shout at them.

David H. said...

Hillary is obviously not the answer, but, I'm sorry that you have fallen into the trap of thinking the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Trump has much more in common with Bill Clinton than with Chris Cox.

We've already lost and the general election hasn't begun.

To those who insisted on putting an unelectable man as the GOP nominee just to flip off the incompetent party leaders, the result is on your heads, not mine.

I live and breath guns, but we have no pro-gun candidate. To think so is self-delusion on a massive scale. To say I am part of the problem when the Everyman threw this election down the toilet before it even began is a lie.

Vote for who you like, but we are screwed no matter who gets in the White House and our efforts would be better spent on shoring up our defensive position in preparation for 4 years of assault by either nominee than in alienating and sniping at those who have stood in the trenches alongside you just because they aren't drinking the Kool-Aid.

Anonymous said...

2:12 Anonymous here again - no seminar blogger, just a gun owner (and NRA Life Member). David H has it right - we're f*cked whichever way this goes. And closing your eyes, sticking your fingers in your ears so far they meet and pretending that all the crap Trump has said in the past is the "lib-rul media" just prevents you from seeing reality.

Now excuse me, I have to go back to paging through the July "Guns and Gardens". :-)

Michael Bane said...

So David H, the fact that I know Trump's sons, that I have talked to them at length about their father's positions on the Second Amendmend well before the election; the fact that some of my close friends are close to the Trumps and tell me the same thing; the fact that not only does the NRA endorse Trump, but I've been at NRA HQ, and they're extremely happy and excited to be working for him; the fact that Trump's position paper on guns is the position paper we've DREAMED of having in a Presidential election; the fact that Trump has come to us repeatedly to express his support for the Second; the fact that every major 2A activist -- people in the trenches, not the Internet Commando Squad -- unconditionally support Trump...none of those thing matter...

The fact that Hillary has said she will spend every day in office thinking of ways to kill the gun culture, that she has called for overturning Heller and McDonald and, with an immediate Scotus Appoint she will have the majority to do so (and Bloomberg is already shopping cases to push to the high court). that she will also overturn the protection of lawful commerce act, the only thing thspat kept the gun industry from being bankrupted by kawsuits -- do you have any FREAKIN' idea how close we came to losing that? I do...I was there. She wants to ban assault weapons...go read the MA Attorney General' ruling today to see how that will work. She wants a federal law ending concealed and open carry of firearms. She has called for the implementation if the Bloomberg model "universal backgroud check law," which 2A attorney Andrew Branca has call a disaster with the power to destroy the gun culture...Branca has listed numerous thing Hillary can do on her own, without Congressional approval. And she will act.

And you're having trouble seeing a difference?

mb

Anonymous said...

Anon @ 2:12,

Just as when defeatists handed over the election to the "other Clinton" back in the 90's, so too will the election be handed over to Hillary, if we don't vote for Trump. The differences between Clinton and Trump are actually staggering and the fate that we will all face is equally staggering, if she wins. Even though I will be there to say "I told you so", just as I did back then, we can't afford to even let the election turn out that way just so I can say it.

If Trump has flip-flopped, I only see that as "epiphany-realized". Clinton has not flip-flopped on anything that WE HERE are concerned with. She will take it all and beyond.

Life Member

kmitch200 said...

@2:12 Anonymous,
Romney was FAR from the perfect candidate in '12. Hell, he was the former governor of Massachusetts! So a bunch of normal, conservative folks said screw it, and didn't vote. They stayed home in protest even though Bwhore's economy was mired in quicksand, foreign policy was in the toilet and he and Hills were in charge of everything but responsible for nothing.
Because their conscience guided them to not vote, we are stuck with Kagen and Sotomayor FOR LIFE.

The intercpt.com link you provided is from 2000. 16 years ago.
Clintoon said she wanted to basically ban gun rights, what...16 seconds ago?
You don't see a bit of difference there? They are the same? Wow.

2Savage said...

MB, what you said. No huuuge fan of Trump, but his obvious megalomania pales in comparison to that of Cruz, Kasich and the Bushies. Theirs has just been more obscured until now. My 3 year old grandson has more maturity than that bunch, and I'd be disappointed in him if he didn't. While there are no "i's" in team, there obviously are in politics.

NJ Larry said...

Hey while Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Hildabeast are clucking their tongues at the brutal homophobic xenophobic and anti-milennial RNC and Donald Trump, I am watching ANOTHER battle in WWIII. In what will be called the shopping mall war or the slaughter of the Eloi.

In Munich Germany instead of a laugh filled summer evening in a beer garden, GSG-9 and city cops running towards a shopping mall with buzz guns. Multiple shooters. Multiple locations in Munich. For starters half dozen dead. More surely to come.

There needs to be a radical change in the semantics about our current condition. This is NOT an event, incident or disturbance. It is a war we are in. These are engagements, firefights, and battles with our sworn enemy. They are not disturbed young men, or extremists even. They are combatants. They are soldiers in an enemy military.

I dont have the quote at hand but Col Jeff Cooper wrote a long time ago of the difference between police actions and war. We need to do a mental correction on what all this is about. It is ruining my weekends.

Anonymous said...

nj,

I'll add: This is not a tragedy either, as the media often minimizes each occurrence to be. They do this as if they're able to deny that it even happened at all. It is an ambush of innocent non-combatants.

As Michael Bane and other experts admonish when the shit hits the fan,
"You're on your own".

Life Member

Anonymous said...

Sir: I had that song drumming in the ol' cabeza a couple times in the last month... Now you've got it kickstarted again. Swell. No place to hide from that song.....
Soapweed

Anonymous said...

Well said Brother.

Anonymous said...

Donnie only cares about guns because it is a talking point. He could have changed NY states gun laws with one lawyer and a sack of cash. If he is so pro gun why hasn't he done it in 4o years? He is a democrat in wolfs clothing. Our choices are a democrat and a democrat. As far as I am concerned he is just in this election to throw it to his good friends the klintons.

Rastus said...

Enemy soldiers are given quarter.

Traitors are hung.

The RINO's were hung this election.

Good riddance I say. Cruz, who I supported, flushed himself out too.

Can people change. Yes...look at Ronald Reagan.

If a person possesses 1/2 a brain how can disrespect be directed towards Trump at this time and place in US history? The time for this discourse is over....sore loser arguments are aiding the other side.

To speak against Trump at this juncture indicates that anonymous authors are a plant from the other side...or that they possess less that 1/2 a brain. Or, perhaps, the anonymous posters have sycophantic tendencies linked to RINO's that they need professional help with.

It's over. Trump is the choice.

Michael has, and I do believe him 100%, an inside to Trump through his contacts and relations with Trump's family and friends. I stand with Michael, I stand with America and I stand with the 2nd Amendment.

I am the NRA

Anonymous said...

Like libertarians, the Greeks were frequently at war with each other. Yet when the Persian invaders advanced on them they readily united to defeat the threat. I plead with every gun-owning freeman--that he may lay aside his misgivings about the Republican candidate and close ranks to defend our mutual liberty. If the Democrat wins this election, our next line of defense may require bloody sacrifice.

I respect Michael's political acumen and echo his endorsement of Donald Trump.

I have been a Libertarian since 1988 and for these many years have steadily nurtured a reputation for placing principle over party. And this year, I vote Republican.

MALTHUS

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