politics and politicians
See other politics and politicians Articles
Title: Secret Identity of ‘Guns at RNC’ Petitioner Revealed
Source:
Observer News and Politics
URL Source: http://observer.com/2016/03/secret- ... ns-at-rnc-petitioner-revealed/
Published: Mar 30, 2016
Author: Ken Kurson
Post Date: 2016-03-30 12:28:11 by cranky
Keywords: None
Views: 1793
Comments: 26
Hillary backing gun control supporter is the brains behind 'satire' movement that's garnered 50,000 signatures Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and his wife Kelley Ashby pose for a photograph outside The Quicken Loans Arena August 6, 2015 in Cleveland. Home to the NBA’s Cavaliers, the arena hosted the first debate of the 2016 Republican presidential campaign and will be home to the RNC convention in July. A petition that’s been circulating for a week on Change.org is asking the Quicken Loans Arena to “Allow Open Carry of Firearms at the Quicken Loans Arena during the RNC Convention in July.” Posted by an anonymous petitioner who calls himself The Hyperationalist, the petition caught fire when it became a darling of talk radio and right wing blogging. The petition, which calls the arena’s ban on weapons “a direct affront to the second amendment” that “puts all attendees at risk” has surpassed 51,000 signatures and is racing toward its goal of 75,000. But the identity of its anonymous progenitor has not been fully cracked. Until now. The petition is the brainchild of a Democratic activist and blogger named James P. Ryan, who claims to be satirizing rather than supporting the idea that Republicans should bring weapons into their nominating convention. Guessing his identity has become a bit of a parlor game among right-wing chatters and the success of the petition has stimulated Mr. Ryan, who is guarded about his identity, to call several New York City PR firms to inquire about representing him. In an interview with Newsweek, in which he went only by “Jim” and declined to reveal his full identity, Mr. Ryan claimed to be a Democrat who is not a gun owner and is “absolutely” in favor of gun control. He claims to be “overwhelmed” by the attention the petition has received. He told the magazine that he started the petition as “satire.” The magazine reported that he is “based on the West Coast,” but the Observer reached him on a Philadelphia cel number. “I am passionate about gun control and discouraging gun violence,” Mr. Ryan told the Observer. “When talk of a contested convention started brewing, I started thinking. On March 3rd, I threw a joke up on Facebook and Twitter and said, ‘hey guys, you really want guns at your contested convention?'” The petition itself is well-written and researched if predictably strident, and cites many arguments that will be familiar to those who are familiar with the point of view of those in the gun rights movement. For example, the petition takes aim at the idea that “gun free zones” increase safety, saying “The NRA, our leading defender of gun rights, has also correctly pointed out that “gun free zones… tell every insane killer in America… (the) safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk.” It even raises the prospect of an “ISIS terrorist attack on the arena during the convention: in which those in the arena “will be sitting ducks, utterly helpless against evil-doers.” All three remaining Republican presidential candidates are quoted opposing gun-free zones and signatories are urged to “take a stand” in refusing ” to be hijacked by weakness and political correctness.” Part of the petition’s success lies in how authentic the language is—it doesn’t read like a left-wing satire of “right-wing gun nuts.” Asked how he got the language so right, Mr. Ryan said, “It was an attempt to be aware of the language, taking the gun rights people at their word and not caricature them. We talk past each other in American politics. I’m seeing a lot of ‘oh, it’s a Hillary troll who started this thing.’ Who cares who started it? Take a look at the words and see if you support it or not.” Mr. Ryan is, in fact, a Hillary supporter. He told the Observer, “I’m a liberal Democrat. I like Bernie a lot. I’ve donated to Bernie, I’ve donated to Hillary. I’m supporting Hillary, but I’m not a Hillary supporter in the sense that I’m carrying petitions.” 
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 26.
#3. To: cranky (#0)
(Edited)
We won't need to worry about this sort of thing anymore after next year, because it looks as though the Republicans are pulling out all of the stops to defeat Trump, which means they will nominate some nebbish who will be destroyed by Clinton (or Sanders, if Clinton is indicted and drops out). And that means that next year there will be five liberal Democrats on the Supreme Court. And that means that there will be gun registration, a ban on semi-automatic weapons, upholding city bans on guns, etc. The defeat of Trump and election of a Democrat is the sunset of the Second Amendment, for it means that the for the first time since 1969 the Democrats will control the Supreme Court. So, we won't need to worry about these gun debates much longer. If the Republicans succeed in stopping Trump, they will have sacrificed the Second Amendment to do it.
There's nothing to be done about it. It's their game and their rules. Hildebeest won't even need a pardon to run, either.
Yes there is. Republicans need to pull their heads out of their asses and stop fighting Trump. He's a whole lot better than Hillary. With Hillary, in particular, in the White House and in full command of the Federal judiciary (something that Democrats have not had since LBJ) the entire Democrat agenda can be enacted and enforced by Executive Order. Congress cannot stop that. They haven't been able to stop Obama, and right now they have thrown cases into the courts claiming overreach. With a firmly Democratic Supreme Court, we can expect the Federal judiciary to side with the Administration 100% of the time, and to very, very rapidly impose the whole Democrat agenda. Trump will appoint a Republican judge, and maintain Republican control. TWO Democrat Supreme Court justices are over 80 and will probably be replaced by the next President. One Republican, Kennedy, is over 80. That means that the next President will probably appoint FOUR young people of his or her party to the Supreme Court. In the Republican case, it would swing the court to a 7-2 Republican court. In the Democrat case, it would make the court 6-3. A Republican court can be expected to do as the court has done since Nixon, gradually yield on social issues over time. But with the Democrats in time, you can expect a swift judicial revolution. Heller will be gone. Unions will compel everybody in the industry to pay dues, which will go to political contributions, but businesses will be banned from making political contributions. Executive amnesty will expedite the turnover of population. Voter ID laws will be found unconstitutional. Semi-automatic weapons, private sales of guns, and urban gun ownership will be banned, while guns will be fully registered, and people will have to have a license to have them. There will be no religious exceptions to anything. Churches will lose their tax-exempt status and be prosecuted for civil rights violations if they refuse to marry gays. Look at the totality of European and Canadian social law, and look to see that very, very rapidly become the law of the United States. We stand at the fork in the road. Republicans are so stupid. They are going to sacrifice everything they stand for to defeat Trump, who stands for most of what they stand for. I hear the argument from Vichy Republicans that Hillary will be better for them. Wanna bet?
So is Cruz, by a lot. And even {gulp} Kasich would be better than Hillary. FYI of the three only Trump loses to both Hillary and Sanders in the polls - it's not even close. When are you going to wake up?
When are you? Cruz is never going to be the nominee, and if he were, he would be crushed by Hillary. Given Trump's lead, the only way to get anybody but Trump is to rob Trump, and if that happens, the Trump supporters will never, ever turn out for whoever the Republican candidate is, many will vote Democrat in revenge, and you're going to lose Congress as well as the Presidency. Screw Trump, and you will create a massive Democrat supermajority. The people who just beat the crap out of Walker and Jeb, Rubio and Paul, will slaughter the Republicans if they cheat Trump. It's Trump, or it's Democrat rule for the rest of your life, with very rapid changes. The only question, really, is whether you Republicans determined to get your way regarding Trump are going to figure out that Trump is the only way to save yourselves, or whether you will continue to be the morons that you people characteristically are. Me? I'm betting on "moron" (because that's your track record), Hillary, and one-party Democrat rule for the rest of your lives, another 100 years or so. I'm betting on a very rapid reorientation of America onto a European socialist model within the next four years. And I'm betting on the destruction of Republican fortunes through a targeted effort by Democrats, holding all the marbles, to search out and destroy all of the strongholds of Republican resistance. I look at that as the solace I'll have, seeing it happen, for watching you Republicans steal the nomination from Trump. You've taken lots of chances before, but the jig is up. You will either submit to Trump, or you will submit to the Democrats. You'd be a lot better off under Trump, but you people are too stupid to see how weak you really are. You're like the South at Fort Sumter, about to plunge yourselves into a Civil War you cannot win. You won't see it, so you're going to have to be shot to pieces. Your kids will see it, and most of them will be Democrats and shake their heads at your foolishness.
He's doing a good job of doing that to himself. Look at the "non- establishment" macho man retreat on his statement of legal consequences for women if they had an illegal abortion. He turned and ran faster in the opposite direction than just about anyone in history. So much for the conviction of his so-called principals. Dollar Donald will say just about anything to get elected and have no qualms of reversing himself in a nanosecond when he gets called on it. Some hero you have there. If he hadn't already done so he just gave Hillary the election. Trump never had a chance winning the general election he will lose the women vote by well over 10 points. All he has done is make sure that no REP will get the WH in 2016 and perhaps lost the Senate to the DRats as well. Even Sanders is kicking Trump's ass in the national polls. "be a lot better off under Trump, but you people are too stupid to see how weak you really are." You are now being just a total moron. I will never vote for Hillary. And I didn't stay home in 2008 or 2012 like many of the now Trump supporters did. I probably won't in 2016 either. If it came to a choice between the Douche (Trump) or the Turd Sandwich (Hillary) I'll have no choice but to do like you and every moron that has supported Trump in giving the WH and perhaps all three branches of the Federal government to the DRats some they can complete the demise of the Great Experiment. Get used to taking up the ass because that's what Trump has given you. And he will laugh all the way to the bank as he continues to reap the rewards of his crony capitalist club membership. There is no hope for a Trump dupe.
I'll do just fine under Democrat rule. The only Republican rule I'll accept is that of Trump. So I'm not wringing my hands over Trump. I want him to win, and he will if the Republicans don't steal the nomination from him. They look like they're setting up to do just that. If they do, then I will very much prefer to see Hillary win, sweep Congress and pack the Supreme Court, then erect the full on Democrat policy, rather than continue to see the Republicans continue their bitter-ender fight into nothing. With Trump, there is a chance of victory and change - I'm voting for that. If the Republicans screw me and the country out of the chance to have that victory and change, then in my experience Democrats are much better at governance than Republicans are - better at warfighting and foreign policy too. I'm not going to sign up with the Democrats, but I will prefer to see them win. If I can't have what I want, then I'd prefer to see COMPETENCE. Obama has been a competent President. I've heard the Republicans screaming their stupid horse-shit for 7 years now, and I don't see it. I see an economic and military situation that is far better than the shambles the Republicans left. I've seen two iterations of that now: HW Bush left the economy a wreck and the US entangled in Somalia. Clinton left us with the first surplus in a century and the country at peace. Then along came W, blew the surplus by repeating the same foolishness that Reagan did, and then, when handed his opportunity to be great, chose incompetence. Obama stabilized the economy and the military situation. So, once again, I see Republicans leave a mess and Democrats clean it up. Same thing happened in the Great Depression. Coolidge and Hoover left a wreck. FDR and Truman fixed it, then won the war and contained the USSR. Ike, wisely, abandoned Republican opposition to the New Deal and went with it. He was the last great Republican President.
Of course you believe so, you are a DRat.
This is why you Republicans are losers. I am not a Democrat. I WAS a Republican, but now I am an Independent. And the reason for that is because you Republicans lose and fail so consistently. And you never learn anything. Going back to the supposedly "great" Ronald Reagan, I REMEMBER the fiscal hole he left, and in particular I remember the great stock market crash and gyrations that occurred at the end of his watch BECAUSE OF his stupid deregulation and taxation policies. W Bush did THE SAME THING all over again, and left another disaster. With Reagan, at least, the fall of the USSR came out of his foreign policy. With W Bush, there wasn't even victory on the foreign front. Trump actually addresses the issues: the collapse of the American industrial base, uncontrolled immigration, a Cold War mentality going on a quarter century after its sell-by date. He recognizes that if you're not going to have a massive social welfare state, you have to firm up trade laws and shut that border. Democrats don't get either of those things, SO they support the social welfare state, at least. Republicans don't even get that. With them, it's just disaster at home, disaster abroad, and fuck everybody who suffers - the very rich are getting richer, and that's who funds them. I want what Trump offers, not what the Democrats offer. Democrats are pro abortion. Trump's not. Democrats want open borders and free trade - and a massive social welfare state to tend to the wounded. Trump wants Americans to have jobs again. I SUPPORT Trump's positions, not the Democrats. But if the Republican shitstains are going to kill common sense, then AT LEAST the Democrats understand that we have to have a social safety net. Republicans understand nothing. That doesn't make me a Democrat. It makes me a realist.
No, you are a moron. There is no hope for a Trump dupe.
Translation: I don't like you, so you're stupid. You're a petulant child in an old man's body.
Translation: I don't like you, so you're stupid. No, it just means that you are a moron. More likely than not a banana is just a banana.
There are no replies to Comment # 26. End Trace Mode for Comment # 26.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#4. To: Vicomte13 (#3)
(Edited)
If the Republicans succeed in stopping Trump, they will have sacrificed the Second Amendment to do it.
#6. To: cranky (#4)
There's nothing to be done about it. It's their game and their rules.
#17. To: Vicomte13 (#6)
Yes there is. Republicans need to pull their heads out of their asses and stop fighting Trump. He's a whole lot better than Hillary.
#19. To: SOSO (#17)
When are you going to wake up?
#20. To: Vicomte13 (#19)
Screw Trump,
#21. To: SOSO (#20)
#22. To: Vicomte13 (#21)
I'll do just fine under Democrat rule.
#23. To: SOSO (#22)
Of course you believe so, you are a DRat.
#24. To: Vicomte13 (#23)
I am not a Democrat. I WAS a Republican, but now I am an Independent.
#25. To: SOSO (#24)
No, you are a moron.
#26. To: Vicomte13 (#25)
No, you are a moron.
Replies to Comment # 26.
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]