Hollywood actor Matt Damon used a press conference in Australia over the Fourth of July weekend to discuss his desire for a massive confiscation of U.S. guns.

“You guys did it here in one fell swoop [in 1996] and I wish that could happen in my country, but it’s such a personal issue for people that we cannot talk about it sensibly,” Mr. Damon said during a promotional engagement in Sydney for the movie “Jason Bourne.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jul/5/matt-damon-jason-bourne-star-calls-for-us-to-ban-g/

I find that ironic, at best. If Hillary wins, she will likely make a push for this. She's already said she's in favor of it.

Trump has begun vetting running mates, with Newt Gingrich and Chris Christie being the top two thus far:

Donald Trump’s campaign has begun formally vetting possible running mates, with former House speaker Newt Gingrich emerging as the leading candidate, followed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. But there are more than a half dozen others being discussed as possibilities, according to several people with knowledge of the process.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gingrich-christie-are-the-leading-candidates-to-be-trumps-running-mate/2016/06/30/98fa3ecc-3eef-11e6-84e8-1580c7db5275_story.html

Lots of names are mentioned in the article. If he had to choose one from the article, I'd go for Newt Gingrich. I'm aware of the issues with Gingrich, including his ex-wives and the jokes that go along with Trump and Gingrich on that issue. He has name recognition and he knows how to get legislation through Congress.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court deadlocked Thursday on President Barack Obama's immigration plan that sought to shield millions living in the U.S. illegally from deportation, effectively killing the plan for the rest of his presidency.

The outcome underscores that the direction of U.S. immigration policy will be determined in large part by this fall's presidential election, a campaign in which immigration already has played an outsized role.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SUPREME_COURT_IMMIGRATION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

A 4-4 vote will uphold the lower court's rulings, making what the President doing unconstitutional. Of course the President said he won't deport the illegals anyway in clear contradiction to how the SCOTUS ruled.

This is a big victory for the Constitution, though it's likely not the last time this will be ruled on by the SCOTUS. I suspect that it'll get re-heard once there is a 9th Supreme Court Justice.

This is precisely what I feared when I opposed Trump in the first place: that conservatives would allow Trump to become the standard-bearer for conservatism itself, not just the Republican nominee. That heretofore conservatives would sacrifice their principles for victory, and in the process, destroy the possibility of principled victory in the future. That conservatives would pervert themselves, justifying the unjustifiable, to defend a bad man. That conservatism would become Trumpism, and that conservatives would be forced to answer for decades to come just why they wished away degrading statements about women, POWs, American soldiers, the disabled, and Mexicans, why they ignored catering to foreign dictators and domestic white supremacist alt-righters, and why they embraced ad hoc policymaking and tyrannical disdain for Constitutional boundaries. It’s why I made a distinction between those supporting Trump to beat Hillary but still noting Trump’s flaws, and people enthusiastically backing Trump all the way to the finish line.

http://www.dailywire.com/news/6690/yes-trump-damages-conservatism-hes-doing-it-right-ben-shapiro?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_content=news&utm_campaign=twitterbenshapiro

I think this article does a good job summing up how many conservatives feel. There's a difference, as Shapiro notes, between supporting Trump to stop Hillary and damaging conservatism. If it looks like he's going to lose, hopefully he won't take both houses with him.

George W. Bush had 12 million votes in 2000.  The Republican Party also set a party record this year in pre-convention state election turnout with over 28 million votes to date which is 139% of the record high voter turnout in 2008.  This increase in votes can be attributed to Donald Trump.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/06/trump-trumps-wins-historic-race-record-fashion/

Between this and the Democratic turn out numbers being very low, I wonder what affect this will have on the general election?

The State Department watchdog, in an extensive and detailed report, accused Hillary Clinton of flouting federal records rules and cybersecurity guidelines with her exclusive use of personal email for government business while secretary of state.

The forthcoming inspector general audit, a copy of which was obtained by FoxNews.com, faults Clinton and her predecessors for poorly managing email and other computer information.

...

"Although Clinton has long claimed her practices were like those of other Secretaries of State and allowed, the report states she was in clear violation of the Federal Records Act,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/05/25/state-department-audit-faults-clinton-on-email-use.html

I wonder if this will have any effect on the campaign or if the FBI will take this into consideration in their investigation, if they haven't already?

Doubling down on his feud with the Democratic Party leadership, Senator Bernie Sanders said that if elected president, he will not reappoint Democratic National Committee chairwoman, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida.

He made the comments during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper that is set to air on Sunday. Mr. Sanders also said he was supporting Tim Canova, a law professor who has begun an insurgent campaign against Ms. Wasserman Schultz for her South Florida congressional seat. They will face off in a primary this summer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/22/us/politics/sanderss-feud-with-the-democratic-leadership-heats-up.html?_r=0

The DNC obviously doesn't care about the schism they're creating, at least not currently. Wasserman-Schultz has been in the tank for Hillary from the beginning and has gone out of her way to ensure that Sanders doesn't get the nomination. I wonder how far Sanders will take this when he doesn't get the nomination? Third party run?

Interesting article in the New York Times about Texas.

The prize was special, though. It was not a rare antique. It was, the email noted three times, a Texas-made shotgun.

...

You don’t just move to Texas. It moves into you.

...

Texas has long had an anti-Washington streak, but, lest anyone doubt it, the state has sued the federal government more than 40 times in the past 13 years. In December, an executive committee of the Republican Party of Texas approved a resolution supporting secession and calling for the issue to be put to voters statewide. (Party leaders struck down the resolution after a heated debate.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/us/what-makes-texas-texas.html?_r=0

The author clearly recognizes the importance of Texas and what being a Texan means to Texans. If Texas were a country, it'd be the 12th largest economy in the world. That's quite a statistic. The author clearly is struggling to accept that, or rather actively trying to fight against it, or so it seems.

Texas represents the independence that many states have lost or willingly given up. Texas is fighting against it. The author seems to suggest that Texas is slowly growing more liberal, and while that may be true in some areas, I think it's false in general. It seems that the author doesn't like that Texas is remaining a "hold out" to the government overreach seen in so many other states. Texas has figured out how to be prosperous, thrive and expand. They have a welcoming atmosphere, business friendly and mostly gun friendly (Arizona has better gun laws).

Good for Texas.