{"id":59828,"date":"2016-08-05T11:30:51","date_gmt":"2016-08-05T16:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=59828"},"modified":"2016-08-05T10:19:12","modified_gmt":"2016-08-05T15:19:12","slug":"counterpunch-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=59828","title":{"rendered":"Counterpunch This"},"content":{"rendered":"

To: \u00a0Donald Trump
\nFrom: \u00a0Mitch Berg, Ornery Peasant
\nRe: \u00a0 Doyyy<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump,<\/p>\n

I started disliking your public persona thirty years ago. \u00a0 While I’m told you are a perfectly fine human being in person, your public persona – the garish extravagant gaudiness, the constant noise – was always off-putting. Still is.<\/p>\n

Now, this time a year ago I was a Scott Walker supporter. \u00a0And I still am. \u00a0If there were a way to get him into the race (and lamentably, there is not), Shrillary would get pounded like a piece of cheap steak.<\/p>\n

But that’s neither here nor there. \u00a0Because here we are.<\/p>\n

Anyway – I’m not one of the #NeverTrump crowd, if only because crowds annoy me. \u00a0The idea of Hillary Clinton nominating SCOTUS justices should terrify everyone who cares about the Bill of Rights. \u00a0 And the Libertarian ticket isn’t an option (forget about the Greens).<\/p>\n

So I don’t like your persona – but I don’t vote for personas. \u00a0I don’t like what your campaign has done to the GOP, but then the GOP has been frustrating lately, too. \u00a0And I don’t like the way you’re running this campaign, but then it’s your campaign, not mine.<\/p>\n

But this? \u00a0This is just plain stupid<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You’ll help NATO countries if they’ve “paid their way?”<\/p>\n

What’s this tell you?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The NATO members in the most immediate danger from Russia – the Poles and Estonians – are taking their defense pretty seriously. \u00a0Latvia and Lithuania are coming around (both have increased their spending in 2016 – Latvia’s spending is actually up 50% in the past two years).<\/p>\n

And can you think of four nations that have “spent” more freedom in the past 30 years that those four? \u00a0Not just in terms of budget, but in terms of actually\u00a0resisting tyranny<\/em>?<\/p>\n

No, I don’t imagine you can.<\/p>\n

Think about it, Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n

That is all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To: \u00a0Donald Trump From: \u00a0Mitch Berg, Ornery Peasant Re: \u00a0 Doyyy Mr. Trump, I started disliking your public persona thirty years ago. \u00a0 While I’m told you are a perfectly fine human being in person, your public persona – the garish extravagant gaudiness, the constant noise – was always off-putting. Still is. Now, this time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187,13],"tags":[249],"class_list":["post-59828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campaign-16","category-republicans","tag-open-letters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59828"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59829,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59828\/revisions\/59829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}