A Geek With Guns

Today is the first day of the Minnesota Republican Convention. As you read this delegates are currently in St. Cloud fighting over political matters. I didn’t go. After my experience at my local basic political operating unit (BPOU) convention I decided to swear off continued participation in this race. Part of it was just the monstrous nature of the big-wig Republican attendees, their desire for power at the cost of others was disgusting. Another part of it had to do with the Ron Paul campaign itself. There’s been something going on with the Paul campaign that didn’t sit right with me but I’ve been unable to put my finger on it. With the recent announcements and other news I’ve been slowly scrapping together the pieces of the puzzle are starting to come together. I posted about the recent announcements made by the Paul campaign.

It seemed entirely odd to me that the campaign would be sending out announcements that could easily be construed as the campaign being suspended and telling supporters that any hope of winning the presidential nomination is basically gone. What campaign in its right mind would tell supporters that the chances of success were basically none? Then I came across the following article and things started to make more sense:

Reince Priebus (the RNC chairman from Kenosha, Wisconsin), and the Republican National Committee (RNC) threw their support behind Mitt Romney after Newt Gingrich announced he would be suspending his campaign. Through the RNC chair, Reince Priebus, the RNC will help register voters and encourage outreach for Mitt Romney.

I’ve had no doubt that the Republican nomination process is fixed and that Romney is the anointed one for this year’s nomination. Between threatening states that sent “too many” Ron Paul supporters and several prominent officials of the Republican National Committee (RNC) openly stating support for Romney it has been obvious that the RNC will go to any length to ensure Romney gets the nomination. The statement released by Jesse Benton, the chairman for the Ron Paul campaign, shed even more light on the actions of the Paul campaign:

“In April, the RNC asked our campaign for our blessing to begin assembling the Victory organization Republicans will require to guarantee a win in the fall. Building such an operation is no small undertaking, and our Party needed to build in a few months what the incumbent president has been building for four years.

“The RNC offered to set up a joint fundraising committee with the Paul campaign and were very clear that if Dr. Paul became the nominee, the Victory Operation would be behind him 100 percent. They also were clear that they would hold off if our campaign objected. I gave my full consent for the RNC to move forward.

“Chairman Priebus has always treated Dr. Paul and our team with respect, and we appreciate his leadership. He has been an outstanding chairman and has our full confidence.”

It is unclear to me is Benton is entirely ignorant or corrupt. The agreement mentioned in Benton’s statement is obviously a sucker’s deal. While the RNC promises to completely back Paul if he gets the nomination they have no intention of allowing Paul to get the nomination. They’re making a bet because they already know the outcome. Did Benton agree to this deal because he believed the RNC was actually planning on playing fair or because they offered him something to advance his political career? The only evidence I have to the latter is circumstantial, Benton was the one who released the recent announcements that appeared to be hand crafted to destroy the morale of Ron Paul’s supporters. Since the only evidence I hold is circumstantial I’m going to assume the former, that Benton and other higher ups in the Paul campaign are naive and believe the RNC is willing to play fair.

Having leaders of the RNC backing Romney is pretty obviously a violation of the RNC’s own rules:

“Rule No. 11 Candidate Support
(a) The Republican National Committee shall not, without the prior written and filed approval of all members of the Republican National Committee from the state involved, contribute money or in-kind aid to any candidate for any public or party office except the nominee of the Republican Party or a candidate who is unopposed in the Republican primary after the filing deadline for that office. In those states where state law establishes a nonpartisan primary in which Republican candidates could participate, but in which the general election may not include a Republican candidate, the candidate endorsed by a convention held under the authority of the state Republican Party shall be recognized by the Republican National Committee as the Republican nominee.

(b) No state Republican Party rule or state law shall be observed that allows persons who have participated or are participating in the selection of any nominee of a party other than the Republican Party, including, but not limited to, through the use of a multiparty primary or similar type ballot, to participate in the selection of a nominee of the Republican Party for that general election. No person nominated in violation of this rule shall be recognized by the Republican National Committee as the nominee of the Republican Party from that state.”

Apparently they have been able to get away with it by offering the sucker’s deal to the Paul campaign. The RNC must have said, “Listen, if you guys don’t pursue this whole rule violation ordeal we’ll promise to back Paul if he gets the nomination.” Like suckers the Paul campaign apparently fell for it.

My uneasiness regard the Ron Paul campaign is finally starting to make sense. I’m not the only one disenfranchised with the campaign at this point, many of my fellow Paul supporters have expressed similar views. Yet many of Paul’s supporters have been creating justifications for the recent actions of his campaign, something I was worried would happen due to the amount of emotional investment many people have in his winning. The most common theory put forth by those who still support the campaign is that the recent actions are part of a master plan to lower the establishment’s guard so we can swoop in unopposed and claim victory. This theory doesn’t make any sense to me because the recent actions by the campaign have caused massive devastation to the morale of Paul’s supporters. Several delegates have even expressed refusal to continue attending conventions, actions that directly oppose the Paul campaign’s supposed goal of motivating as many delegates as possible to attend the RNC and take the Republican Party. If that is the strategy then telling delegates that the campaign is basically over isn’t going to advance the cause.

Another common theory being put forth by those desperately trying to continue believing in the campaign is that the way is merely being paved for Rand Paul’s run next election cycle. To that I say woopty fucking doo. I’m not a big fan of Rand. Many neocons will claim they like Rand better than his father because Rand makes sense. For the same reasons neocons like Rand I don’t. If the master plan has been to pave the way for Rand then I’m sorry I had any involvement in this campaign.

Others are claiming the goal of the Paul campaign has always been to reclaim the Republican Party and return it to its roots. Unfortunately there is no reclaiming the Republican Party, it’s a dying party and a poison brand. The big wigs in the party are bloody thirsty evangelicals who want nothing more than to bring a new crusade to the world. A majority of Republican Party members are mindless automatons who obey the commands of the higher ups and those commands have been to resist control from the Ron Paul supporters. Even if we do reclaim the party we’re left with the party. We will hold control over an empty shell. All of the crusaders will flee and likely establish their own party while we’ll be standing around holding a brand that is known for its opposition to civil rights, advocacy of war, and general authoritarian nature. Attempting to change this image will fail, poisoned brands generally can’t be salvaged. Nobody looks at the actions of a political party, they just agree with whatever propaganda they’re told to.

Either way it’s pretty obvious to me that many Paul supporters are actively disillusioning themselves with the campaign. They want to believe the campaign is attempting to do good so they come up with theories about the recent actions that support their desire. The majority who have been involved in the campaign seem to be willing to question the recent actions, even asking “What if…?” is met with resistance. Those of us standing in the corner asking, “What the fuck guys?” are being accused of devastating morale and attempting to undermine the campaign. Perhaps the latter accusation is true. I have no idea what the Paul campaign is doing at the moment nor can I see their goals. When I don’t know what somebody is doing I get edgy, when evidence indicates what they’re doing isn’t good are move to undermine the plan. The campaign hasn’t offered any valid justification for their recent actions so I have reason to believe they’re up to no good.

Perhaps I’m in a fairly unique position, I never really believed Ron Paul could get the nomination and thus watching this campaign crumble (at least appear to crumble) has had little effect. Part of me did hold up some hope that the good guys could win this time around but it was nothing more than a glimmer, and that glimmer still exists although it’s getting harder and harder to see. If my concerns are true, if there is chicanery going on in the Paul campaign, it will just prove my point that you can’t play the political game without getting fucked at some point.

As of this writing there is a money bomb going on at the Ron Paul campaign website. Usually these rake in a couple of million dollars, this one hasn’t even broke $300,000 yet (if it does break that please realize I wrote this article during the money bomb and likely didn’t have the opportunity to edit this portion before it posted). Obviously the recent actions of the campaign have had a vastly negative effect, the supporters are unhappy and less willing to send money or otherwise support campaign efforts. From where I stand it appears the Ron Paul campaign is the worst enemy of Ron Paul getting elected. They had a plan, claimed to be in the game until the end, and dropped the ball at the eleventh hour. Many supporters of the campaign have resorted to viciously attacking those who question the recent actions because facing the possibility of failure is too much for them to handle. When you’re no longer willing to question your cause, when you turn a blind eye to what’s going on around you, that is the moment you’ve lost and you know it. You don’t want to admit you’ve lost but you know you have.

A common criticism I hear regarding libertarianism and Ron Paul specifically is that they both fill a niche by a vast majority of people don’t agree with them. I find this criticism dubious at best. How can I say that? Isn’t the fact there hasn’t been a libertarian president proof that the claim is true? No.

Simply put, most people don’t have beliefs regarding political issues. They believe what the most influential people in their lives tell them to believe. They don’t put time into thinking about their beliefs, they just know that one side is right and the other side is wrong. It’s how the game is played. You cheer for the team that’s geographically closer to where you live and shout against every other team because, “They’re not from around here.” Evangelicals will generally oppose legalizing abortion because their ministers have told them it’s against the will of God while progressives will generally support legalizing abortion because the hot feminist they’re trying to shack up with tells them a woman has a right to choose. Neither party every stops to actually consider what they believe.

Foreign policy is another great issue to demonstrate this fact. Many people believe Paul’s foreign policy is “kooky” or “unworkable” and cite talking points to backup their claim. Likewise supporters of Paul’s foreign policy merely believe themselves to be anti-war and therefore must agree. Neither group stops to consider the reason they believe what they believe.

This is why I say criticizing libertarianism based on the apparent lack of popular support is pointless. The majority of people oppose libertarian ideas because the talking head on the teevee tells them to. Most of these people don’t even know about libertarian philosophy. They know the talking head on teevee told them that the libertarians want to eliminate Medicare and that will cause their grandparents to die a slow and horrible death. What those talking heads never mention is that libertarian philosophy is based upon the non-aggression principle and taxation, a form of theft, is incompatible with the non-aggression principle. Because Medicare is funded by initiated force libertarians oppose it but support alternatives such as mutual aid.

You simply can’t claim a majority of people don’t support beliefs when a majority of people don’t have beliefs.

At the beginning of this week the Ron Paul campaign announced a strategy change that was misconstrued as a campaign suspension. I couldn’t figure out why the campaign made such an announcement since it was pretty obvious how the media would take such news but I think somebody in the Paul campaign has decided the best way to move forward is to decimate the morale of Paul’s supporters. I present to you an e-mail I received from the Paul campaign yesterday:

Every day, I see firsthand how humbled and encouraged Dr. Paul is to have the enthusiastic support of so many who are committed to revitalizing our country.

Let me be very clear. Dr. Paul is NOT dropping out or suspending his campaign.

As Dr. Paul has previously stated, he is in this race all the way to the Republican National Convention in Tampa this August.

And he is deeply grateful for every resource he has been entrusted with to run an historic campaign that continues to defy all expectations.

Looking ahead, our campaign must honor that trust by maximizing our resources to ensure the greatest possible impact at the National Convention.

So while our campaign is no longer investing in the remaining primary states, we will continue to run strong programs at District and State Conventions to win more delegates and alternate delegates to the National Convention.

To this end, our campaign has several positive and realistic goals:

1) Having recently WON Maine, we believe we can win several more states.
2) We will win party leadership positions at both the state and national levels.
3) We will continue to grow our already substantial total of delegates.

We will head to Tampa with a solid group of delegates. Several hundred will be bound to Dr. Paul, and several hundred more, although bound to Governor Romney or other candidates, will be Ron Paul supporters.

Unfortunately, barring something very unforeseen, our delegate total will not be strong enough to win the nomination. Governor Romney is now within 200 delegates of securing the party’s nod. However, our delegates can still make a major impact at the National Convention and beyond.

All delegates will be able to vote on party rules and allow us to shape the process for future liberty candidates.

We are in an excellent position to make sure the Republican Party adds solid liberty issues to the GOP Platform, which our delegates will be directly positioned to approve. Our campaign is presently working to get several items up for consideration, including monetary policy reform, prohibitions on indefinite detention, and Internet freedom.

Finally, by sending a large, respectful, and professional delegation to Tampa, we will show the party and the country that not only is our movement growing and here to stay, but that the future belongs to us.

Dr. Paul will begin this new phase of the campaign this Friday by speaking and holding several events at the Minnesota State Convention. He has also recently accepted an invitation to speak at the Texas Convention, and we are busy scheduling appearances around other State Conventions later this month and into June.

As Dr. Paul stated in his message yesterday, this fight is NOT over. We will continue fighting and expanding, and “we will not stop until we have restored what once made America the greatest country in human history.”

But for Dr. Paul’s efforts in the remaining State Conventions to be successful, and to ensure we get as many Ron Paul delegates to Tampa as we can, he needs you to continue standing with him.

Along those lines, as you probably already know, the grassroots are holding a Money Bomb on Thursday, May 17. Any money raised from that Money Bomb will go toward winning delegates and finalizing our plans for Tampa.

As those plans for the National Convention come together, we will make sure all of our delegates, whether bound or unbound, get the information and aid they need.

Your support on May 17 will also help us reach more Americans with the solutions we know can restore our nation. Each person we add to our cause strengthens our movement for the critical work that awaits us beyond Tampa.

Dr. Paul, John Tate, myself, and the entire campaign staff know what incredible sacrifices have been made by each of our supporters.

Thank you for all of your hard work and your dedication to liberty. Together, we will champion Ron Paul and his message in Tampa, and we will lay the groundwork for future victories.

Emphasis mine. That’s a very long e-mail to simply say, “Hey guys, we don’t have enough delegates to stop Romney but we can still influence the Republican Party platform!” In other words the Paul campaign has basically said it’s giving up trying for a first place victory and, instead, hoping for the bronze medal.

The part I emphasized, the consolation prize if you will, is absolutely lackluster. We can influence the Republican Party platform? The same platform that already has many liberty issues listed by goes entirely ignored by Republican politicians? Sign me right the fuck up for that! What a treat, we can influence something that gets completely ignored! If I to waste my time on pointless activities I could just stay at home and masturbate. Actually the latter is a better deal because it doesn’t involve sitting in a room full of screaming blood-thirsty neocons trying to get the state to enforce their ideas of morality.

I’ll be totally honest, this news really doesn’t bother me all that much. I was never that vested in Paul winning because, as I’ve noted on this blog numerous times, I know the entire nomination process is rigged and people like you and me have no say in who the Republican nominee is. With that said the real value of the Ron Paul campaign as been the people and the liberty movement that has sprung from those people. The campaign is doing a disservice to those people by killing morale.

Why did the campaign choose to say this? Why didn’t they talk about the actual meaningful actions that the liberty movement could take? While I don’t believe this country can ever have a viable third-party working towards that goal is certainly more worthwhile than trying to change the Republican Party platform. Paul gave up running for Congress so there is no reason he needs to continue placating the Republican Party, they’ve already demonstrated their hatred for him so he should return the favor. How about putting major resources into bring the Federal Reserve front and center? Saying, “End the Fed!” is a great slogan but it doesn’t address the actual issue. Look at all the organizations that spend time trying to advocate for and against gay marriage. Those organizations put together flyers and hold rallies in the hopes of getting their message out. The Paul campaign certainly has the people and resources to do something similar regarding the Federal Reserve. What about jury nullification? A powerful advocacy group made up of liberty minded folks could do wonders for raising awareness of the power jury members hold.

My point is alternatives exist and the Paul campaign could do a great deal of working in drumming up advocates for these alternatives. Instead they’re sending out e-mails that appear to be crafted in such a way as to deflate the liberty movement and discourage individuals from continuing the good fight. Ron Paul has been a rally point for the liberty movement in my opinion. I never expected him to get to the White House, his value has been in bringing advocates of liberty together. Such power can still be wielded for good but offering a worthless consolation prize isn’t the way to do it.

Many people, especially gun rights advocates, are starting to parrot the familiar phrase that this election is the most important election of our lifetime. I think this blog nailed it:

Take a breath. This is not the most important election of your lifetime. Every election is the same, and it is an airtight bet that each new president is going to be worse than his precedessor. Bamboozled voters sprint to the polls every four years, and appropriately utter the same line beggars use: “Gimme some change, gimme some change!” And like those unfortunate beggars (who also don’t see their fortunes change), each time they are left holding an empty cup.

I’m 29 and this will be the third election cycle I’ve had to experience. All three elections have been labeled as the most important election of my lifetime and nothing has changed after any of them. Although I missed being of voting age by one year when Bush was running against Gore I remember all the talk about how that election was the most important election gun owners had ever experienced. Then when Bush was running against Kerry it was the most important election of my lifetime because Kerry would take my guns. When it was McCain against Obama is was yet again the most important election of my lifetime because Obama was a gun grabbing socialist. Now I’m being told that this is the most important election of my lifetime because Obama will be free of having to worry about reelection and be in a position to potentially nominate two Supreme Court justices.

If every election I’ve experienced has been the most important one of my lifetime then unimportant elections must be extremely nonevents. Let’s face facts, nothing has changed in the last three elections (or any elections before that, but I wasn’t paying any attention to the political arena at those times so I’ll refrain from further comment). Bush didn’t change anything for the two terms he was in office and Obama hasn’t changed anything for the one term he’s been in office. Neither Obama or Romney is likely to change anything either. The bottom line is the state’s violence continues to be wielded against the people of the world. While the police state expands here at home foreign countries are being invaded and occupied.

This isn’t the most important election of your lifetime, no election has every actually been important. Honestly, I would say this is the least important election of your lifetime because with each election the state’s power grows and as it grows elections become even more meaningless (if that’s even possible).

Yesterday the Ron Paul campaign sent out the following e-mail:

Dear Christopher,

As I reflect on our 2012 Presidential campaign, I am humbled by the supporters who have worked so hard and sacrificed so much. And I am so proud of what we have accomplished. We will not stop until we have restored what once made America the greatest country in human history.

This campaign fought hard and won electoral success that the talking heads and pundits never thought possible. But, this campaign is also about more than just the 2012 election. It has been part of a quest I began 40 years ago and that so many have joined. It is about the campaign for Liberty, which has taken a tremendous leap forward in this election and will continue to grow stronger in the future until we finally win.

Our campaign will continue to work in the state convention process. We will continue to take leadership positions, win delegates, and carry a strong message to the Republican National Convention that Liberty is the way of the future.

Moving forward, however, we will no longer spend resources campaigning in primaries in states that have not yet voted. Doing so with any hope of success would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have. I encourage all supporters of Liberty to make sure you get to the polls and make your voices heard, particularly in the local, state, and Congressional elections, where so many defenders of Freedom are fighting and need your support.

I hope all supporters of Liberty will remain deeply involved – become delegates, win office, and take leadership positions. I will be right there with you. In the coming days, my campaign leadership will lay out to you our delegate strategy and what you can do to help, so please stay tuned.

For Liberty,

Ron Paul

This has lead media sources, like the LA Times, and other individuals to state that Ron Paul has all but suspended his campaign. Fortunately that’s not what’s happening:

Battling on would require millions of dollars that the Ron Paul operation does not have, his campaign said.

But the Texas congressman will continue to try to win delegates awarded at forthcoming state conventions.

Mr Paul has 104 delegates, behind Mitt Romney’s 966, with 1,144 delegates needed to secure the nomination.

Unfortunately what’s really happening and what people think is happening are entirely different. Because of the campaign announcement people now believe the Ron Paul campaign is done and that he’s out of the race. This was one of the dumbest moves the campaign could have made. I do understand that campaigning in Texas and California isn’t likely to gain much advantage it would prevent media outlets and other individuals from saying the campaign is throwing in the towel. In this case it would have been smarter to run a couple of advertisements for the sake of appearance and left it at that.

Politics is all about appearances. If you falter in any way your competition will swoop in like vultures to pick your corpse clean. The campaign announcement basically opened the door for Ron Paul’s opponents to say the Paul campaign is broke and done. While the e-mail said, “Moving forward, however, we will no longer spend resources campaigning in primaries in states that have not yet voted. Doing so with any hope of success would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have.” but most people are only going to focus on the second line and interpret it as saying the Ron Paul campaign doesn’t have enough money to continue on.

This was a boneheaded move if there ever was one. Ron Paul isn’t “effectively ending” his campaign but focusing resources where they will be better utilized. Any intelligent person would understand that but politics isn’t about the intelligent person, it’s about soundbites, and the Paul campaign just handed out a soundbite that is allowing the media to announce Romney is now running unopposed.

Not wanting to be outdone, our neighbors to the north are looking to bring more tyranny upon its people:

A proposed private members’ bill would make it a crime for protesters to wear a mask or disguise while participating in a riot or unlawful assembly, and this week the Harper government put its weight behind the legislation.

The Conservative majority on a House of Commons committee that’s examining the bill took matters a step further Thursday by doubling the proposed maximum prison term to 10 years from five.

Government MPs passed the amendment over the objections of the NDP opposition, who argue the bill is a sham because wearing a mask to commit a crime is already an offence under the Criminal Code.

So it’s going to be illegal to wear a mask while participating in a riot or “unlawful assembly?” Isn’t participating in a riot already illegal? What the hell is an “unlawful assembly?”

What is the point of laws like this other than to expand the police state? I can think of none as these laws simple make acts that are already illegal more, uhh, illegaler I guess. Whether somebody is wearing a mask while participating in a riot should be irrelevant, the only things that are relevant are whether or not they hurt anybody or damaged property. Masks aren’t enchanted items that give +2 to melee or +2 to smashing shit and thus are not relevant regarding any crimes.

Oh well, this does demonstrate that the police state is expanding everywhere, not just in the United States of America.

The Vikings subsidy is on its way to governor Dayton’s office:

After a grinding week of late nights and marathon floor sessions, the state Senate granted final approval to a new Minnesota Vikings stadium on the final day of the legislative session.

“We delivered,” said Republcican Sen. Julie Rosen, R-Farmington, who sponsored the stadium bill. “We are going to have first-class stadium we can all be very, very proud of.”

The Senate approved the $975 million project on a vote of 36-30 amid cheers from Vikings fans in the gallery. The House gave final approval to the bill at 3:30 a.m., after the team agreed to kick in an extra $50 million.

Once signed the kabuki will be concluded and I must say it was fairly well done. As is the tradition of kabuki the stadium deal followed the five acts formula:

Nearly every full-length play occupies five acts. The first corresponds to jo, an auspicious and slow opening which introduces the audience to the characters and the plot. The next three acts correspond to ha, speeding events up, culminating almost always in a great moment of drama or tragedy in the third act and possibly a battle in the second and/or fourth acts. The final act, corresponding to kyu, is almost always short, providing a quick and satisfying conclusion.

The planning phase, where Zygi started making his intentions of building a new stadium public would have been the first act. It really set the stage, let the audience become familiar with the characters, and slowly got the ball rolling. The second act started with Zygi started petitioning for public funding in Minneapolis. From there acts three and four revolves around Minneapolis pretending they were at odds with the deal and moved it up to the state level where the debates started and the possibility of failure was fabricated. The last several days were act five, a fast passed series of late night debates that cumulated into a conclusion that many felt satisfied with.

Overall I believe it was a well done play although it could have been better. If I had written the script I would have had a tragic death inserted somewhere in act three or four then in act five I would have had one of the characters introduce a plea to name the new stadium after the fallen individuals. It would have been a far more emotionally appealing ending and much more drama could have been inserted. Even without the tragedy and drama of death the play was pretty decent and had many people on the edges of their seat. A good playwright knows how to engage his or her audience and you can’t say the audience wasn’t engaged with this play. We had audience members at the capitol dressed up in costume cheering on the characters while other audience members stood by with signs decrying the stadium supporters. Both parties felt as though they had a say in the ongoings of the play just as many people believe hoping a character in a movie won’t die has some kind of outcome on the movie’s ending.

My compliments to the writers. While I find the play less than satisfying because I was easily able to predict the ending I respect how well it was executed.

The gay community is standing up and cheering now that Obama has come out in support of gay marriage. Unfortunately Obama is suckering these poor people as his phrasing was very carefully chosen:

The president stressed that this is a personal position, and that he still supports the concept of states deciding the issue on their own.

Isn’t it funny how Obama entirely oppose the concept of state rights until it’s convenient for him? Obama’s statement could be better phrased as, “Hey guys I want to say I support gay marriage to get the gay vote but I don’t want to alienate the conservative christians so I’m still going to leave myself a backdoor.” He didn’t actually commit to anything, he just said something he knew people want to hear and let them fill in the blank themselves.

What people seem to miss is that the debate over legalizing gay marriage entirely misses the point. The debate shouldn’t be whether or not to legalize gay marriage is should be whether or not the state has any right to enter the marriage businesses (by the way the answer is no). Voluntary association only involves the people associating so nobody else should have any say in the matter. If you want to marry another person of the same sex, multiple people, a battle rifle, etc. it should be entirely up to you. Just remember that as an ordained minister and soon to be license to perform marriages in the state of Minnesota I will happily marry you to whomever or whatever you want.

If you’re in Minnesota you likely know about the “vote” being taken by our “representatives” at the Capitol regarding the Vikings Stadium. I use the word vote in quotation marks because this isn’t a vote, it’s a formality. The bottom line is this stadium was ensured to be built the second Zygi Wilf, the owner of the Vikings, said he wanted the state to fork over a large part of the stadium’s cost. Zygi is a politically well-connected billionaire meaning anything Zygi wants Zygi will get, he merely needs to make the right deal. Apparently he made the right deal since the Minnesota House voted in favor of the stadium:

The Minnesota Vikings won a decisive and long-awaited political victory late Monday when the House passed a public subsidy package for a new stadium, sending the project marching toward final passage at the State Capitol.

When the final vote was announced, two dozen Vikings fans — most clad in team jerseys — cheered loudly outside the House chamber and sang the team’s fight song. Afterward, amid chants of “Build A Stadium, Save Our Team!” Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak made his way through the crowd and was congratulated by smiling fans.

The final vote came after a day of high drama and a weekend of intense lobbying by Gov. Mark Dayton and the team, and produced a relatively easy 73-to-58 approval in the House. Though Republicans hold a majority in the House, DFLers did the heavy political lifting on the final vote, producing 40 of the 73 votes. The victory was also noteworthy because House Speaker Kurt Zellers — the leading Republican in the House — voted against the project.

There is much to be said about this entire fiasco. First let me address the rampant hypocrisy involved in this decision. Many people who are demanding the state pay a chunk of the stadium are also demanding the state tax the wealthy more. In fact the Democratic Farmer Labor Party (DFL) is usually the party working to increase taxes on the wealthy yet were the ones to vote most favorably towards a publicly funded stadium. The hypocrisy is almost palpable, they just voted to give a bunch of money to a billionaire. Perhaps they believe the state should tax the wealthy more but subsidize the super wealthy?

Outside of the hypocrisy a question must be asked: what do the Vikings have to offer the politicians? Deals like these must be mutually beneficially and therefore Zygi must offer something of value to get his subsidy. Unfortunately these deals are always performed behind closed doors and thus we never learn about them until after the fact. Beyond campaign contributions I believe another thing of value was likely offered, jobs. When things were looking bleak for the Vikings stadium deal the National Football League (NFL) entered the game. What does the NFL consistently try to do? Get public funding for stadiums. What do you need to get consistent public funding? Lobbyists. As a general rule politicians are often offered plush lobbying positions by large corporations for favorable legislation so I wouldn’t be surprised to see several prominent Minnesota “representatives” receive jobs with the NFL after they exit politics.

What’s done is done. I am merely a commentator and thus have no power to influence the game, but I do have the ability to make some predictions. It’s no secret that the economy is getting worse, which would make an intelligent person ask why the Vikings want to build a new stadium now. With a crumbling economy won’t people become less willing to buy tickets to see a game? Of course. Does it matter to the Vikings? Absolutely not. Why? Because the same arguments they use to get public funding for a new stadium can be used to get ticket prices subsidized.

Zygi Wilf isn’t an idiot and thus has likely already come up with the same idea I’m about to present. Throughout this entire stadium fiasco the primary argument used by proponents of public funding for the stadium have been based on supposed economic benefits brought by the Vikings. The beauty of such arguments is they can be used to justify almost any subsidy. Let’s step ahead several years where further economic failures have caused ticket sales at Vikings games to falter. Zygi, seeing his profits plument, has decided he needs another subsidy. How can he sell it? Easy. All it has to do is tell the politicians that he will sell off the Vikings if they fail to be profitable. Such a sale would cause them to move elsewhere and thus deprive Minnesota of the economic benefit the team supposedly brings. Since the Minnesota economy is already at a very vulnerable point the loss of the Vikings will cause complete collapse and therefore the economy of Minnesota depends on subsidized ticket prices from the state. Using this argument the politicians will vote to subsidize some arbitrarily chosen percentage of ticket prices so more fans can enjoy the games and the Vikings can remain profitable. It’s all for the greater good after all.

Many people reading that likely scoffed and rolled their eyes but I believe my prediction is pretty sound. We must only wait and see (and if it does happen I’m going to be doing the biggest “I told you so” dance anybody has ever seen).

Coming as no surprise to anybody who actually pays attention to politics Rick Santorum has officially endorse Mitt Romney:

In a late-night email, he urged his supporters to back the presumptive nominee in order to deny President Barack Obama a second term.

Mr Santorum said he was impressed by Mr Romney’s “deep understanding” of economic and family issues, following a meeting with him last week.

I’m told that during his address Santorum said he was unable to endorse Ron Paul in good conscious because of Paul’s stark opposition of war and his lack of hatred for “brown people” and “the gays.”

The only reason Santorum’s endorsement means anything to me is because he holds bounded delegates. Bounded delegates are those who are stuck voting for a candidate at the Republican National Convention (RNC). The question of what will happen to Santorum’s bounded delegates when he suspended his campaign last month has been the subject of debate. With his officially endorsement of Romney the question raised (at least in my opinion) is whether or not Santorum’s bounded delegates will now be bounded to Romney.

I’m sure somebody can point to an official RNC rule regarding this but I have no delusions of the RNC actually following any set of rules. They’ve already threatened to not seat any delegates from Nevada if the state sends too many Ron Paul supporters. It would be trivial for the RNC to announce that any delegate bounded to Santorum must not vote for Romney. Of course doing that would put their justification for threatening Nevada into question. The RNC claimed its threat against Nevada was done because they didn’t believe the Paul supporters would obey the RNC rules and endorse the candidate they were bounded to. Many of Santorum’s supporters were vehemently opposed to Romney for various reasons and outright refused to give the former Massachusetts governor any support. These people may not play by the RNC rules either so it would only make sense if the RNC refused to seat any delegates from states that hold bounded Santorum delegates.

Once again I’m really hoping the RNC pulls something incredibly shady with this situation. The faster people wake up and realize the Republican Party isn’t for the people or by the people the quicker they can reduce the party to ash and hopefully start one or more new viable parties.