Andrei — Three new names on Trump’s potential VPs list

According to CNN Politics, Joni Ernst appeared on the VP shortlist this weekend, alongside Indiana Governor Mike Pence and Arkansas Senator Tom Cottom, both of them praised by the Republican nominee.

Voter alert: Tom Cotton, Joni Ernst and Mick Pence are war hawks.

Tom Cotton Becomes Right’s Leading Hawk. This is the guy who told Iran that the nuclear agreement would be repealed as soon as possible after the 2016 election when the GOP takes over.  He also wants to increase domestic surveillance.

Pence is a sidekick of John McCain and accompanied McCain to Iraq. He opposed US withdrawal from Iraq. Pence also co-sponsored a spending limit bill for Congress.

Joni Ernst has been compared to Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman. She was so much of a wild card that her handlers would not let her meet with the press during her Senate campaign and she just read prepared statements without taking questions.

As a female Republican candidate with extreme, far right-wing views and a love for guns, Iowa’s U.S. Senate hopeful Joni Ernst is a lot like Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann. In fact, Ernst’s top campaign strategist, David Polyansky, was Bachmann’s deputy campaign manager during her 2012 presidential campaign.

Joni Ernst is different because she’s more dangerous. Unlike those other two faded Tea Party stars, Ernst comes across as slightly less unhinged, and thus more electable. And she has worked tirelessly since her June primary victory to distance herself from the hard right positions she had previously taken on most issues.

But although she’s done a good job of hiding them, Ernst’s ideas are as far outside the mainstream as any of the nonsense that spews from Palin or Bachmann’s Twitter accounts. An ad released over the summer by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee featured Ernst calling Palin the “type of people that we need in our federal government,” and that she was “just absolutely ecstatic to have her endorsement” after Palin backed her in the Republican primary. — 12 Reasons Why Joni Ernst Is 2014’s Most Extreme GOP Senate Candidate. [Read the reasons. This lady is really unhinged.]

Combined with Trump's SCOTUS shortlist and his selection of political advisors, Trump's revealed preferences so far show him to on extreme right wing of the GOP in spite of the hype that this time it's different. The peace candidate? Really?

Who runs Gov
Three new names on Trump’s potential VPs list
Andrei

See also

[CNN's political analyst Errol] Lewis continued, "I think everybody, everybody who's not a complete partisan understands exactly what his campaign is doing. They understand that it is deliberate. They understand that they're playing footsie with some very dangerous radical, disgusting elements of this country and that they hope to ride in the White House based on that support, and it's disgraceful."
Crooks & Liars
CNN Commentator Errol Lewis Destroys Trump For 'Playing Footsie' With Extremists
John Amato

Playing with matches in the hayloft.

Simon Maloy — Ted Cruz’s frightening gun fanaticism: When a presidential contender encourages armed insurrection

As incredible as it sounds, there’s an argument going on right now between two Republican senators (and, potentially, two Republican candidates for the presidency) over whether the American citizenry should be ready to fight a war against the federal government. The two senators in question are Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, and they can’t seem to agree whether the Second Amendment serves as bulwark against government “tyranny.”

It all started with a fundraising email Cruz sent making the case that “The 2nd Amendment to the Constitution isn’t for just protecting hunting rights, and it’s not only to safeguard your right to target practice. It is a Constitutional right to protect your children, your family, your home, our lives, and to serve as the ultimate check against governmental tyranny — for the protection of liberty.” TPM’s Sahil Kapur asked Graham what he thought of his Texan colleague’s view of the Second Amendment, and the South Carolina senator was not impressed. He even invoked the Civil War, which should make Cruz’s people plenty upset. “Well, we tried that once in South Carolina,” Graham said. “I wouldn’t go down that road again.”

This view of gun rights that casts personal firearm ownership as a check on the abuses of government doesn’t make a great deal of practical sense, and it betrays a lack of faith in our democratic institutions. But it’s become increasingly popular among high-level Republican officials who quite literally scare up votes by telling voters they’re right to keep their Glocks cocked just in case the feds come for them. Iowa’s new Republican senator Joni Ernst famously remarked that she supports the right to carry firearms to defend against “the government, should they decide that my rights are no longer important.”

The obvious question raised by statements like those from Cruz and Ernst is: when does the shooting start? What is the minimum threshold for government “tyranny” that justifies an armed response from the citizenry? In 2014, Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy was ready to start a shooting war with the feds to defend his illegal grazing practices, and he garnered the support of top-level Republican officials (they only abandoned him after he started wondering aloud whether black people would be better off as slaves).

It’s an important question because Republicans and conservatives – Ted Cruz included – tend to throw around terms like “tyranny” sort of haphazardly when criticizing policies and politicians they disagree with.…

Off the deep end. Feel like your living in a world gone mad?

Salon
Ted Cruz’s frightening gun fanaticism: When a presidential contender encourages armed insurrection
Simon Maloy

Crooks and Liars — Meet The Newly-Empowered Right-Wing Radicals

Louie Gohmert and Steve King get company. Should make for some good laughs.

Crooks and Liars
Meet The Newly-Empowered Right-Wing Radicals
Anonymous

Jay Riestenberg — Seven Disturbing Quotes From the Koch Summit Speeches

Today, The Nation and The Huffington Post published speeches from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and three other GOP Senate candidates, Rep. Tom Cotton (AR), state Sen. Joni Ernst (IA), and Rep. Cory Gardner (CO), at a secretive donor summit hosted in June by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch.

The candidates make the case for overturning Citizens United and getting big money out of politics better than we ever could.

Truthout | Op-Ed

Seven Disturbing Quotes From the Koch Summit Speeches

Jay Riestenberg, Common Cause