Ladies and gentlemen, when Donald Trump announced his run for President, I too, began to laugh. I’m talking about rib tickling, side splitting, thigh slapping, head flinging, stomach holding, rolling on the ground laughter. I guffawed like you could not imagine.

Then I observed the way the establishment responded to him. Sure he was outlandish. He was crude at times. He was rude at other times, and he certainly did not possess the aura of what we call Presidential.

It was obvious the guy is a joke, but come on, the process will weed out the pretenders like him, and the best man will be left standing tall.

In the early days when leftists tried to disrupt his campaign at rallies, it was hard to believe when Trump told his supporters at one time that he would pay their legal defense bills, when some of his supporters physically went after a few of the unhinged lefties at the rallies.

Was this guy really encouraging violence?

That is crazy!

The media rightly took him to task for that, then he corrected it before it really got out of hand.

Here’s the irony though, after that, the people at Trump rallies often became the targets of violent leftist attacks, and the same media that was so rightly outraged at the couple incidents of mild by comparison attacks on leftist agitators, refused to cover leftist violence against Trump supporters with the same vigor.

Trump was the only candidate physically attacked on stage, and his supporters suffered some really brutal attacks throughout the campaign. The San Jose rally comes to mind.

What was the reason for the one sided approach by the media?

Then there was the “Russia if you are listening” comment by Trump.

One could only think, this guy is out of control!

Trump was obviously making the point that Hillary’s private e-mail was exposed to foreign surveillance, and was a national security risk because she did not have any of the network protections/security that is usually in place for such high level Government employee communications, but seriously, that comment by Trump was way out there.

There was no way he could win right?

Then after starting to pay attention, and listening to what he was actually saying, minus the side show stuff, the guy made the most sense of all the candidates.

These were just a few of the things Trump spoke on:

NATO countries not meeting their financial obligations while America fits most of the bill.

The rise of ISIS and the policies that were hindering the Military defeating this threat.

China’s unfair trade practices and their constant theft of American intellectual property.

American’s endless wars.

The climate nonsense stifling the economy and preventing America from gaining energy independence.

The porous border and a failing immigration system.

The substandard circumstances, and living conditions of too many black people.

When it came to policy, Trump was on target.

His comments about illegal immigrants coming from Mexico were not particularly offensive.

They sounded more like hard truths the politically correct did not want said than bigotry to me. Certainly not what the open borders advocates would say, but definitely not an opinion so over the top to evoke the kind of response by the media, and others in the ruling class.

Trump still seemed like a side show though, but the venemous hostility toward him certainly was grabbing my attention more and more.

That raw, naked, nasty relentless aggression to take Trump out, and all the dirty tricks against him made me stop and take notice.

Then Trump started to become more appealing.

Some questions needed answers. How is it possible that almost all of the reporting on one politician would be so one sided, no matter what the issue was.

No matter what the guy did or said, the reporting was overwhelmingly negative.

How is it that in all the media coverage of this man, he’s never given the benefit of the doubt on any single issue?

Not once have we ever seen the media carefully scrutinize the other side of any negative story on Trump, and treated it with any curiosity. His surrogates never got to come on any program and lay out their case in anything but a hostile environment.

All these years later, and the same unwavering pursuit to take out this one man has convinced me that there is more to this.

All of the norms, and the protocols that the media and others have been so willing to abandon in order to stop this dude is not normal.

With all the knives, darts, bullets and missiles that have been pulled out and targeted against Trump in the last few years, thinking people are supposed to look at all of it and just go “meh, nothing unusual happening here. This is just routine stuff.”

Nah bruh!

The establishment has spoken. The message is loud and could not be clearer. Heed their warning! If you want to be involved in American politics, all are welcome, but you will play the game by their rules.

You’d better get rid of any ideas you may have about challenging their influence, their methods of doing business, their goals, or the mechanisms they employ to achieve their goals.

You will play by their rules or they will destroy you.

Play ball or else.