Sure, but the actions of fellow private citizens (protestors) allegedly causing Trump to decide to cancel a planned speaking engagement does not involve state action. The First Amendment states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." It effectively forbids government from preventing people from speaking, but it does not affirmatively guarantee every person the right to have their speech heard whenever and wherever they choose.

The only feeble argument I can think of which would involve state action here is to argue that the police or federal agents or someone in government had an obligation to deal with the interfering protestors more quickly and/or effectively than they did, and that their failure to do so amounted to a deprivation of Trump's free speech rights. This seems like a big stretch to me, and contrary to the nature of the First Amendment.

Of course, if we're going to be defenders of the Constitution - let's not apply it sparingly or when it suits our fancy.

Thank you for pointing this out! I've been thinking it the whole time I was reading comments.

So I take it you have no specific information that backs up your comment?

I dont loathe Obama actually. I dont think about him much at all. He is a puppet driven by his contributors/supporters to do their bidding, and told by his handlers what to tell the people to get them to give in and let him do what the contributors want. Hillary is more of the same.

What people hate about trump is that is isnt beholden to contributors, and they dont tell him what to do. Therefore, he is out of their control. Maybe for a change, he will do what the people who support him actually want, and thats a distinct change.

Very well done. Thank you.

I’ve come to realize that the Obama Cult and the Trump Cult are two sides of the same personality-cult coin. The cognitive dissonance between what the Trump faction hated about Obama and what they love about Donald is so far beyond ironic it would take a team of trained linguists and semioticians decades to decode.

But I’ll try.

You hated Barack Obama’s cult-like followers, with their mindless stares of adoration, their impervious barrier between emotion and reason, and their instant fury when confronted with the facts about his record, his history, or his philosophy.

But you love it from Trump.

You hated Obama’s shallow, facile rhetoric, with its hollow promises and loose, lowest-common-denominator word-vomit disconnected from any real policy.

But you love it from Trump.

You hated how Obama was gleefully lying to credulous low information voters, filling them with empty promises of economic prosperity that would never come, based on plans that could never be achieved.

But you love it from Trump.

You hated how Obama lied about his positions on single-payer healthcare, gay marriage, gun control, and abortion to get elected, knowing that if he ever revealed the truth about what he believed that he’d be unelectable.

But you love it from Trump.

You hated how Obama rode the wave of constant attention from the mainstream media into office, and how they played along with his game, draining the life out of every other candidate by describing him as an inevitable juggernaut, an unstoppable political force, and a game-changer who was tapping into something deep and powerful in American political life.

But you love it from Trump.

You hated how Obama’s naive ignorance of the real and brutal world of international affairs was papered over by his hollow promises to make the world respect the United States again.

But you love it from Trump.

You hated Obama’s casual disdain for people who weren’t from a major city where, you know, all the rich, smart, educated, liberal people like him live.

But you love it from Trump.

You hated Obama’s elite credentialism, and how he yielded his Harvard and Columbia degrees to browbeat his aspiring-class opponents from outside the meritocracy, and how he used them to cow an already docile press.

But you love it from Trump.

You hated that smug, arrogant, sneering affect that took hold the moment he thought the cameras weren’t looking.

But you love it from Trump.

You hated Obama’s cadre of sleazy, weird, creepy advisers, with their combination of over-the-edge ideological fervor and their stench of petty corruption.

But you love it from Trump.

You hated Obama’s support for bail-outs, too-big-to-fail, and big, taxpayer-funded government intervention in dying industries.

But you love it from Trump.

You hated his comfy alliance with Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and the odious Clinton crime family.

But you love it from Trump.

You hated his cavalier disdain for private property rights.

But you love it from Trump.

Everything that set your teeth on edge, and raised your hackles and made you loathe Barack Obama is there in Donald Trump. Every aspect of the con game Obama played on America in 2008 – the obsessive focus on one base issue (for Obama the war in Iraq, for Trump, Mexicans), the cult-like obsession, the instant attacks on apostates, the willful ignorance of his history and his beliefs – is present in Trump.

Everything you despised in Obama is there.

But you love it from Trump. Credit: Rick Wilson

Saw it on you tube. Knock yourself out. Also saw some vids on you tube of Cruz handling hecklers [like Code Pink] by calming the crowd, asking them to send a spokesperson up to the mike and having a civilized mini-debate with the spokesperson. Goes a along way toward defusing a tense situation. Sometimes one even gets a convert or two. Sure beats the hell out of screaming, "Back in the old days people like that would be taken out on a stretcher."

The standard response when someone voices opposition to your favorite candidate. I suppose if I don't like it, you'll help me pack my bags?

I'm not leaving the country. I'm not voting for Hillary, either. I'm voting for Trump or Cruz, though I be Pro-Cruz. I'm just stating that Trump is a complete Wild Card. And, for that, I'm castrated, cast-aside, and asunder by the Pro-Trump crowd.

I'm hoping beyond hope that Trump does what he claims, without destroying us or our liberties in the process. I really, really do.

In my opinion, however, Trump's not what you are making him out to be. Scojohnson likes to point out Ted's connections to Goldman Sachs .. which is a farce, perpetrated by the Trump campaign against Ted. Ditto for the Ben Carson ordeal. Trump's campaign is just as dirty as any other typical campaign in throwing dirt around. But if Trump's your guy, well, you're that much less likely to see it as such.

I'm not going to bother to belabor this much further. In your hearts, you're wedded to your candidate at this point---I got that. I, too, am hoping for the best, but expecting less.

The standard response when someone voices opposition to your favorite candidate. I suppose if I don't like it, you'll help me pack my bags?

I'm not leaving the country. I'm not voting for Hillary, either. I'm voting for Trump or Cruz, though I be Pro-Cruz. I'm just stating that Trump is a complete Wild Card. And, for that, I'm castrated, cast-aside, and asunder by the Pro-Trump crowd.

I'm hoping beyond hope that Trump does what he claims, without destroying us or our liberties in the process. I really, really do.

In my opinion, however, Trump's not what you are making him out to be. Scojohnson likes to point out Ted's connections to Goldman Sachs .. which is a farce, perpetrated by the Trump campaign against Ted. Ditto for the Ben Carson ordeal. Trump's campaign is just as dirty as any other typical campaign in throwing dirt around. But if Trump's your guy, well, you're that much less likely to see it as such.

I'm not going to bother to belabor this much further. In your hearts, you're wedded to your candidate at this point---I got that. I, too, am hoping for the best, but expecting less.

Unfortunately, I'm stating an observation of reality as it is, if you want to keep 'wishing it so', feel free to do so.

For all the similar type of non-documented arguments, about so & so is not conservative enough, be it Jeb, Carson, Rubio, or Trump, not once have I seen anything that has shown were Cruz has led a charge to reduce taxes. Not once have I seen him create a job. Not once have I seen him live in the regulatory environment as a business owner for 10 minutes. It's one thing to call pot-shots from the cheap seats, and promise to 'fight ObamaCare' when you are running for office as an unknown for a senate seat during a fiercely anti-ObamaCare environment. Question, is that pandering to a group of angry voters, or is it really what he believes. We'll never know. If you ask him how much ObamaCare cost him personally, the answer is zero. Ask Trump how much ObamaCare has cost him... at 20% year over year premium increases to employers and thousands of employees, I'm going to guess a lot.

Sorry I misunderstood. Agree with your analysis.

I was just pointing to Cruz's other stupid criticism, temporarily blocking people from the areas of Muslim Extremist/Terrorism until we figure out how to vet the people didn't really sound unreasonable to me - considering we missed the San Bernardino chick when she had ISIS propaganda all over her Facebook page. But somehow carpet-bombing a minor regional (and internal) religious conflict in front of our regional allies and wiping out a lot of captive civilians seemed somehow reasonable.

I was using sarcasm.
Continuing to vote for candidates manipulated by the party to increase government power at the expense of liberty and free markets is not the answer even if the other major party wants to do the same thing in an arguably more offensive way. Doing this after 30 years of evidence that it doesn't work (and being betrayed repeatedly) is insane. It is definitely not objectivist in any rational way.

I guess I'm still confused at the thought that Trump's only accomplishment was the show. He was picked for the show because of his accomplishments and broad name recognition, that wasn't a result of the show. He was a staple on morning shows & Sunday talking heads programs since the 80s & 90s and pretty much on the front page of some New York City publication probably once a week at least.

If our justice system fails to take the proper actions with Hillary, then who is elected won't matter. Law will depend on the local syndicate.

Preventing her from being elected is no excuse to elect a 'reality show' crony with a political/media network and aspirations of "The Borg".

Sadly, it is. The devil you know would be horrible with a 100% chance of it, versus the one that might be a 30% chance of being horrible but may also just be status quo, rather than making it worse.

Remember Cruz's "Carpet Bomb ISIS until the sand glows"?

I hate giving Obama kudos, but he probably chose correctly to keep us out of another massive invasion of the Middle East. It seems like they may be imploding on their own. Keeping their cash as "cash" literally in buildings wasn't smart, ask anyone that put cash in a coffee can and buried it - then it rains and oops.. no more money. Looks like we've been raining bombs on the storage buildings and they are running into some money troubles..

You're right, the GOP sucks. So vote in fear for the GOP because everybody knows Hillary would be worse.
That's the best objectivism can offer.

A fractured GOP would mean Hillary for President. If the GOP tries to deny Trump if he's like 50 from the magic number, but 600 ahead of Cruz for example, I really don't see the party surviving that. The leadership seems to be so thick in the head, they don't recognize that they are the ones that are the problem, the voters are rebelling against their do-nothing get-along/go-along antics, expansion of government, and mysteriousness of the Romney nomination that just kind of 'happened'. Their 'guy' was Jeb, and the voters rejected him soundly. Then it was Rubio, and he acted like a 12 year old and was even more strongly rejected. Cruz is just not appealing to the masses of voters sufficiently to win. On paper, he looks good, but in delivery and on camera he just looks & sounds untrustworthy. I know that offends people, but it tends to be the case when undecideds or independents watch him. If that was not the case, he would be getting the independent vote. He's not, he's getting shellacked by Trump. This isn't a beauty contest on who is the perfect conservative on a litmus test that is really only a True/False questionnaire - and guess what, politicians do tend to lie. This is about winning the most important election in decades.

As I say, keep in mind, the primary process is the most radical 20% on each side of the aisle. Only about 1/5 turns out in primaries as the general, so to win, you really need to appeal to a broader market. The other 4/5 are more moderate than that 20%, Cruz is sucking wind outside of the far right whenever there is another option. All that would need to happen is Hillary gets rid of the Bernie tail and tacks back to the center, people remember the great economy her husband enjoyed, and Cruz is done. They will look at experience, and Cruz has about 20 minutes of it and what is there is shutting down the government with nothing to show for it. To be honest, I can see most of the Republican senators just abandoning him knowing that Hillary would be more pliable than he would.

Yes Cruz polls "ok", but not consistently, for every one that shows him beating Hillary, there are several that don't. Either way, with the civil war on-going, no one is going to poll very well against a Dem candidate whose primary debates have looked like kitten wrestling.

This is for sure about Trump vs. Cruz. I don't see Cruz taking Hillary to task, he will take the high televangelist preacher approach as he generally does in the debates. He had a few good performances and just as many terrible. Trump will shove her face first into the mud, chain her to the back of his pickup truck and hit the gas in front of the total American electorate. It will be bloody, it will be damaging, and unlike Hillary - he doesn't rely on the same shared corporate 'sponsors' and doesn't give a shit if he offends anyone (obviously). The GOP won't take a Clinton to task, and they haven't to date, because a lot of those corporate interests - like Goldman Sachs, Texas gas & oil (Cruz's buddies) and many others donate heavily to everyone to buy their favor. They don't want to piss off the Clintons and the democratic party, so they will muzzle whichever candidate.

Someone needs to take down the Clintons once & for all, expose their 'Global Initiative' for what it is, paid favors for foreign governments and mobsters, and slam their ass in the clink where it belongs or we'll have another 30 years of this crap when they get Chelsea going. She's already running the 'global initiative' and gets paid $600,000 as a 'special correspondent' for her stupid little 3 minute segments twice a year on NBC News... if you think that isn't going to be shoved down our throats next, you are foolish.. Only if Hillary ends in humiliation does this end. I don't see Cruz having the stomach or the balls for it, frankly. He's spent all of about 10 months of his life outside of the government tit suckling, and he's too worried about his next election.

I hope you are right. I have not seen anything that shows he defended his right to free speech. Do you have a link to video showing that?

BINGO