Tag: South Carolina

The Fort Moultrie Flag: Southern Liberty During the American Revolution

Ammo.com
Ammo.com Coolidge
63
 

The Moultrie Flag, also known as the Liberty Flag, is a strong symbol of the Southern role in the American Revolution. It’s also a handsome flag with a simple design on a beautiful blue color. The flag was developed specifically for the Battle of Sullivan’s Island, a short but important engagement in the Southern theater of battle during the American Revolutionary War.

In 1775, in the lead-up to the American Revolution, Colonel William Moultrie wanted a flag that represented the new American nation. Moultrie was the commander of the 2nd South Carolina Regiment. He commissioned a design based on the uniform of his soldiers. This was the distinctive deep blue you see on the flag today. The crescent moon might come from the caps of the soldiers, which initially bore the legend “Liberty or Death.” Some historians believe that it’s instead a form of neck armor. Whatever the symbol’s original, its message was eventually simplified to “liberty,” which is either written within the crescent or in the center at the bottom of the flag.

Read More Open

Old Guys Rule on a Late May Day

Clifford A. Brown
Clifford A. Brown Inactive
178
 

crossed golf clubsPhil Mickelson, at the age of 50, beat a crowd of younger players on a ocean-side wind-swept PGA Championship course this Sunday. Mickelson’s last major championship was the 2013 British Open. That was his fifth major championship. Now, Phil Mickelson has joined the elite 13 golfers with six major championships in the entire history of the PGA. And. Phil Mickelson has won one for the old guys, blowing away the next oldest winner by two years. The three oldest major PGA championship winners were:

Julius Boros 1968 PGA Championship 48 years, 4 months, 18 days
Tom Morris Sr. 1867 The Open Championship 46 years, 3 months, 10 days
Jack Nicklaus 1986 Masters Tournament 46 years, 2 months, 23 days

Mickelson has consistently played professional tour-level golf for the past quarter-century. Yet, his time as a champion seemed long past. Now, Phil has done what a 53-year-old Greg Norman, leading the 2008 British Open field on Sunday morning, could not do. Phil Mickelson won with the roar of the crowd in his ears, protected by tournament staff from being mobbed by golf fans on the last two holes. No, the crowd in South Carolina was not muzzled with face diapers, and this group of Americans was not showing any sign of signifying obedience to the evil Dr. Fraudci.

At age 50, Phil Mickelson became the oldest player to win a major, holding on for a two-shot victory in the PGA Championship at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island on Sunday.

Read More Open
Three Martini Lunch

Pete & Steyer Bow Out, All-In For Biden, Few Answers in Afghanistan

32
Hosted by Greg Corombos & Jim Geraghty

It’s a day of fast-moving headlines!  Amy Klobuchar dropped out after we recorded but it’s just the latest move to rally the non-Bernie Dems around Joe Biden.  And we talk about that a lot! Join Jim and Greg as they chronicle the curiously hasty exit of Pete Buttigieg from the Democratic race and they also have some choice thoughts as Tom Steyer hits the bricks too. Then, they marvel at how the Democratic establishment, the media (but we repeat ourselves), and Never Trumpers sound the clarion call to support Joe Biden because he won one state.  And they step away from politics to discuss the resumption of violence in Afghanistan just days after the U.S. signed a deal with the Taliban, reminding us that region may never be stable. But will it pose another major national security threat to the U.S. sometime soon?

Open
Three Martini Lunch

Common Sense in Seattle, GOP Primary Voters Choke, Trump Says No More NK Threat

21
Hosted by Greg Corombos & Jim Geraghty

Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America congratulate the Seattle City Council for letting common sense prevail when they repealed a controversial employee tax. They recoil as GOP primary voters in Virginia nominate Corey Stewart for U.S. Senate and wonder what the real reason is for Mark Sanford’s defeat in South Carolina. They also worry that President Donald Trump may have declared the North Korea nuclear threat over too soon.

Open

Immigrants from New Jersey: Welcome!

Stad
Stad Coolidge
9132
 

It looks like us “halfback” states might be seeing immigrants from New Jersey soon. If you folks from New Jersey come to South Carolina, we kindly ask you to observe some rules of civilized behavior:

  1. Don’t bring your New Jersey politics with you. Many of you flee the places where your policies are enacted, yet you try to reinstate those policies here. Just say no.
  2. Respect Southern heritage. In spite of all the statue removals and battle flag removals you read about, Southern pride still reigns supreme down heyah. Don’t bad-mouth the South, and learn to love pulled pork and fried chicken. While you’re at it, buy a pickup truck. They’re pretty handy for hauling stuff.
  3. Don’t complain about the heat and humidity, and we won’t complain about what little snow and ice we get.
  4. Although there are many colleges here, everyone has to choose between Clemson or South Carolina. Pick one, and at least pretend to be a fan.
  5. Don’t panic if you see someone with a gun. Most folks down here have one or more, even liberals.
  6. And finally, don’t tell us how much you liked your old state. If you miss it so much, move back!

Observe these things, and we’ll get along just fine. There are many other rules, but they will be in the Welcome to South Carolina packet issued to you after you arrive. If the @bethanymandel family moves here, my wife and I will provide personalized instruction (including Southern voice lessons) to ease the transition…

Open

Where We Are After South Carolina

Austin Murrey
Austin Murrey Inactive
267
 

After taking a weekend to collect my thoughts and give myself a pat on the back about the effects of Nikki Haley’s endorsement of Rubio getting him second place in South Carolina let’s get down to brass tacks: What does it all mean?

Obviously it means a reprieve for Rubio, who successfully battled back from 5th place in New Hampshire, and another win for Donald and a big one; in a split field, he’s got the nomination on lock. Was it a terrible body blow for Cruz to come in third (politics goes by Toretto’s law, so don’t talk to me about ties)? Let’s go candidate-by-candidate again to take a look at how this can play out in the coming weeks before Nevada.

Read More Open

Republican Self-Sabotage

Mona Charen
Mona Charen Inactive
22647
 

shutterstock_193802486The latest CBS poll suggests that the Trump juggernaut continues to roll, with 35 percent of Republicans supporting him. Ted Cruz, his nearest rival, garners 18 percent. Jeb Bush, the candidate who should have been the obvious choice if conventional wisdom about money and politics were even remotely true, is dead last with 4 percent. In vain does Ted Cruz protest that Donald Trump is not a conservative. Among those who describe themselves as “very conservative,” 35 percent favor Trump versus 30 percent for Cruz, and 12 percent for Rubio.

In South Carolina, Trump is ahead among the evangelical voters Ted Cruz targeted as his savior army that would rise up to carry a true conservative to victory. According to a Fox News poll (2/18), Trump leads Cruz 31 percent to 23 percent among evangelical Christians. And while Cruz leads among those who identify as “very conservative” it’s a razor-thin edge (well within the margin of error).

As in New Hampshire, Trump leads nationally among a broad swath of voters. Not only those with just a high school diploma (47 percent), but also those with some college (33 percent), and college graduates (25 percent). He is the preference of men and women, and among all income groups including those earning more than $100,000.

Read More Open

Gov. Haley to Endorse Rubio

Jon Gabriel, Ed.
Jon Gabriel, Ed. Alumni
9535
 

Rubio-HaleyBig news out of South Carolina. Popular Gov. Nikki Haley will endorse Sen. Marco Rubio in the GOP presidential race:

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio will win South Carolina’s most Republican coveted endorsement of the 2016 presidential race when Gov. Nikki Haley announces her support at a Chapin rally on Wednesday evening, a source with knowledge of the governor’s decision told The State.

Haley, the state’s most popular GOP politician in polls, has decided to back the establishment candidate considered to be in best position to challenge Republican front-runners Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

Read More Open

The South Carolina Primary: What to Watch For

Austin Murrey
Austin Murrey Inactive
5912
 

shutterstock_371093699The New Hampshire primary had me eating crow with Kasich’s second place win: I bought the conventional wisdom from the polls that Rubio was going to come in second on his way to working the 3-2-1 strategy that his campaign was pursuing to the nomination.

But the post-New Hampshire spin has largely ignored Katich’s Kasich’s second place victory, since everyone was concentrated on the smashing Trump win and Rubio’s slide. As I expected Rubio’s, rebounded in the polling from his New Hampshire loss and seems to be in a strong third and possible second place in South Carolina.

I’ll bullet my three scenarios and then lay out probable spin based on placement for each candidate. I’ll be considering all February polls per RealClearPolitics. Sadly, we do not have an Emerson poll ready for South Carolina since they nailed Iowa and New Hampshire (relatively speaking).

Read More Open

Scalia’s Passing Will Hurt Trump

Larry Koler
Larry Koler Inactive
2817
 

This has to be the case. People to the right of center have had a shock today and the dalliance with Trump will slow down now, I think. This great man’s passing will cause discussions among friends and family that will make the Trump supporters to be more realistic about actual rather than possible events. These discussions would not take place if Scalia was still hale and hearty.

Let’s see how things proceed. I can’t think of how this can benefit Trump. Can you?

Read More Open

We’re Next

Stad
Stad Coolidge
1410
 

Yep, we’re next. By “we”, I mean me, my wife, and the rest of us South Carolinians. We’ve been bombarded by campaign mailings, but those are easy to deal with (trash). However there are the phone calls. It was bad before, but the next ten days will be ring-a-ling Hell . . .

Robocall after robocall after robocall. We screen all of our calls with caller ID, and we let voicemail pick up for those more persistent robots (or real humans).

Read More Open

Time to Thin the GOP Herd

Jon Gabriel, Ed.
Jon Gabriel, Ed. Alumni
7630
 

shutterstock_119196472At last, Lindsey Graham did the right thing. After months of increasingly irrelevant undercard debates and poll numbers in the naughts, South Carolina’s littlest senator suspended his campaign. He joins far more promising ex-candidates Rick Perry, Scott Walker, and Bobby Jindal who were unable to capitalize on today’s frustrated electorate.

Reviewing the polling this weekend, it’s past time for several others to follow their lead. Trump is still leading most surveys, Cruz has surged into prominence, and then there’s the amorphous lump of everybody else. Said amorphous lump represents a powerful constituency, as it holds a third of GOP primary voters. But divided among several candidates, these voters will lose out unless several of their current choices step aside.

Let’s face facts, George Pataki: You are not going to be the GOP candidate. The same goes for Rand Paul, John Kasich, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, and Rick Santorum. You cast your lines, but the fish ain’t biting. It’s time for you to “spend more time with your family,” just in time for Christmas.

Read More Open

The Crowd to See Dr. Ben Carson

AUMom
AUMom Coolidge
87
 

Over two hundred people stood in the rain to welcome Ben Carson to Greenville, SC, today. I am terrible at estimating crowds so I asked the store staff. I know 200 cards were issued to  people who bought books. There were a good crowd of family members that came with the book buyers. Since I was in Group 7, I saw most of those waiting in line.

What surprised me was the makeup of the waiting folks. They were families with small children and couples over 75 who had folks take their pictures while trying to make sure their umbrellas did not block the pictures on the bus. There were earnest middle-aged guys and women like me, texting adult children to pass the time. 99% were white. Who was not there? Take a guess. I saw one black woman standing in line. Another came out of the bookstore with her signed treasures. A young server came out of the restaurant next door to say had he known he would have taken off the day to be in line.

Read More Open

The September 30th Deadline

Mr. Dart
Mr. Dart Inactive
23
 

Any Republican candidate wishing to be on next February’s South Carolina Presidential Preference Primary ballot has to sign up and pay the fee by Wednesday September 30, 2015.

The fee is $40,000.  Half of that goes to the state election commission and half to the South Carolina Republican party.  The Democrats will hold their primary a week after the Republican one, by the way.

Read More Open