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Democrats Invite Foreign Leader To Meddle In U.S. Elections
SCRANTON, PA — Democrats celebrated as foreign leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited an ammunition factory in the hotly contested swing state of Pennsylvania to meddle in U.S. elections.
The Ukrainian President was quick to publicly throw his support behind Kamala Harris while placing his signature on artillery rounds.
"If Donald Trump wins in November, he will end the war, and also my generous allowance of billions from the United States," said Zelenskyy. "Ukraine represents democracy and stuff. And Russia stands for not democracy or whatever. So a vote for Trump means you hate democracy. I am proud to endorse Kamala Harris, and I will prove my support by laundering millions of dollars I received from the U.S. government through various third parties until they end up in Democrat super PACs. It's the least I can do for democracy."
Democrats were enthusiastic about the endorsement. "We're very glad this foreign leader has chosen to meddle in our democracy," said Governor Josh Shapiro while placing his signature on various deadly weapons. "We invite other countries to meddle with our democracy on behalf of Democrats in order to save democracy."
At publishing time, Zelenskyy had been spotted in Philadelphia filling out mail-in ballots.
https://babylonbee.com/news/democrats-invite-foreign-leader-to-swing-state-to-meddle-in-election
New Poll Shows Kamala With Huge Lead Among Deranged Assassin Demographic
U.S. — As survey organizations continued to release conflicting information about the closeness of the presidential race, a new poll released today showed Kamala Harris with a huge lead among the deranged assassin demographic.
The results of the poll, conducted by a private analytics firm, indicated a distinct shift of psychotic would-be murderers toward the Harris-Walz campaign in recent weeks, with an overwhelming majority of crazy assassins having a favorable view of the Vice President.
"She's the choice of disturbed, psycho killers everywhere," said Blake Rumsey, professor and lead researcher at the Foundation for Discerning Data, which conducted the poll. "It's almost as if deranged assassins all share the same political and social ideologies. The group of insane, murderous, miscreants we surveyed said they really identify with Vice President Harris and believe she best represents everything they stand for. They also stand with Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, and other Democrats in their wish for Donald Trump to be removed from the equation… permanently, by all indications."
One mentally damaged potential assassin reached for comment confirmed the poll's results. "Oh, yeah, I'm a big Kamala fan," said the man who refused to give his name but admitted he was taking a road trip to visit Mar-a-Lago. "She's what I want in a president. Horrible policies, a bleak, totalitarian worldview, and a desire to see our enemies buried in the ground. I'm a deranged assassin, and I'm voting for Kamala!"
At publishing time, a subsequent poll also confirmed that Kamala Harris holds a commanding lead among Hollywood pedophiles.
https://babylonbee.com/news/new-poll-shows-kamala-with-huge-lead-among-deranged-assassin-demographic
Chicago public school teachers directed to pass illegal alien children, even when they fail
By Jack Hellner
Chicago’s mayor has ended the ShotSpotter system that helped direct cops to gunfire
By Andrea Widburg
Is Kamala Harris writing off North Carolina and Georgia?
By Monica Showalter
Kamala Harris is out campaigning at long last, but her schedule this week doesn't seem to include the swing states of the South.
Instead of campaigning in North Carolina (16 electoral college votes) and Georgia (16 votes), she's focused on Arizona (11 votes), Nevada (6 votes) and Pennsylvania (19 votes) this week.
Pennsylvania, I can understand. It's hotly contested. But her lunge for the Western states over the Southern states suggests maybe her chances aren't quite as good as she'd like. Or perhaps just as likely, she's alarmed at the inroads made by the Trump side of the contest in those Western redoubts, particularly Arizona, where Trump reportedly leads, polls show.
According to the New York Times:
Voters across the Sun Belt say that Donald J. Trump improved their lives when he was president — and worry that a Kamala Harris White House would not — setting the stage for an extraordinarily competitive contest in three key states, according to the latest polls from The New York Times and Siena College.
The polls found that Mr. Trump has gained a lead in Arizona and remains ahead in Georgia, two states that he lost to President Biden in 2020. But in North Carolina, which has not voted for a Democrat since 2008, Ms. Harris trails Mr. Trump by just a narrow margin.
The polls of these three states, taken from Sept. 17 to 21, presented further evidence that in a sharply divided nation, the presidential contest is shaping up to be one of the tightest in history.
So she's thrashing for a lead in these three swing states and she needs at least some of them to gain the 270 electoral college votes it takes to win, and she goes to the state with the lowest number of electoral college votes? The one where, according to CNN, Republican voter registrations over Democrat voter registrations have doubled to a six-point lead over the last election? The one where ads are being run by Catholic organizations, advising their large blocs of voters in the state of Harris's nasty record of singling Catholics out for persecutory legislation and lawfare?
It almost looks like the race is actually lost to her in Arizona, where as the Times notes, Trump is ahead, yet she's fighting to win Arizona instead of one of the other swing states with bigger electoral college numbers and easier odds?
Oh, you could note that she's also trying for Nevada since it's in the neighborhood apparently -- campaigning and winning in those two states together would get her 17 electoral votes, which is one vote more than either North Carolina or Georgia all by themselves could provide.
But like Arizona, Nevada seems like it might be a tough nut for Kamala to crack. More so than other states, including swing states, the state of the economy is a very big deal in Nevada.
According to NPR:
Schoenmann said the economy is top of mind. Most here have experienced cost of living increases since the pandemic.
Nevada also has the highest unemployment out of any state in the country at 5.4% with 6.7% in the Las Vegas area, compared to the national average of 4.2%.
With much of Southern Nevada — which includes Las Vegas — living on tips, higher prices “can really hit home,” Schoenmann said.
In addition, Nevada is growing fast — with an estimated 30% of new residents moving from California.
“They’re selling their homes in California for large sums of money. So they come here, they are buying homes over the asking price. And they’re driving up housing costs,” Schoenmann reported.
Nevada is the Trump economy advantage cubed, something she can never explain nor giggle her way out of to voters with this foremost on their minds.
So what we are seeing is that she could spend the same amount of time in Georgia and North Carolina to try to win, and if she does win, she takes home 32 electoral votes for her time spent.
But she's going for Arizona and Nevada with half as many votes instead.
It seems kind of weak to have to try to win two states instead of just one which could be done by winning either Georgia or North Carolina for the same amount of work.
That's kind of interesting. It makes me wonder if she has written those places off.
Or is she so confident she has them in the bag she can now focus on the Western swing states? I find that latter scenario harder to believe than the former one.
Oh, sure, she has hubby-poo Doug Emhoff out campaigning in North Carolina, but it's hard to see how a Hollywood entertainment lawyer who knocked up the nanny in his last marriage is going to make much of a difference over what she could do there herself.
More ominous still (for her), she's got him campaigning in Virginia for her, which up until now, hadn't been a state in play at all. That sounds like a rear-guard action.
So it's off to Arizona and Nevada for Kamala Harris, attempting to tell the Nevada voters the economy's great, or if it's not great, Trump did it, while in Arizona, she gets to tell everyone why she's not such a big Catholic-hater after all.
It makes no sense unless one can surmise that Democrats are probably panicking, fearful, as this Hill story indicates, that pollsters are undercounting her support as they did for the Democrat candidate in 2016, and repeating the same mistake now.
If that's the case, then Trump has smooth sailing ahead for him. Maybe he will have a good horse laugh as he takes the Southern states handily and watches Kamala fall flat on her face out west. Sure, it may be wishful thinking. But how else do we explain her apparent writing off of the vote-rich South?
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/09/is_kamala_harris_writing_off_north_carolina_and_georgia.html
Gunman offers $150,000 'bounty' for killing Trump in letter, DoJ releases it to the public
By Monica Showalter
Behavioral psychologists can tell you that mass shooters, terrorists, and undoubtedly assassins, love publicity for their evil acts. They like their names repeated over and over in the news. They like copycats stepping up to recreate their acts. And they no doubt love it when their offers to the public for more is spread far and wide, even in court cases against them
Which brings us to the odd case of the Trump golf course assassin-wannabe, Ryan Wesley Routh, who had been charged as a felon in possession of a firearm when he was apprehended last week attempting to escape after the Secret Service discovered him as he aimed his weapon through a fence in anticipation of the arrival of President Trump.
According to the Palm Beach Post:
WEST PALM BEACH — Federal prosecutors are poised to bring more criminal charges against Ryan Routh, the man accused of stalking former President Donald Trump and plotting to assassinate him while he golfed.
As it stands, the 58-year-old Routh faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for two federal firearms offenses. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Dispoto said Monday that additional evidence collected in the wake of Routh's arrest, including a handwritten letter detailing an attempt to kill Trump, supports a far more serious charge.
Dispoto said the government will convene a grand jury in hopes of indicting Routh on one count of attempting to kill a major political candidate, punishable by life in prison. The federal prosecutor gave U.S. District Judge Ryon McCabe an overview of new evidence against Routh during a pre-trial detention hearing Monday.
His presentation included anecdotes from an e-book Routh wrote in February 2023, a year and a half before investigators say he aimed a semiautomatic rifle across Trump International Golf Club near West Palm Beach.
The handwritten letter, which had been given to an undisclosed source in North Carolina months earlier, encased in a box full of junk, ammo, phones and other letters that hadn't been opened until Routh was captured and in the news, was addressed "Dear World." It said:
“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job.”
Now, it may have been that the prosecutors wanted to add the attempted assassination charges onto this dirtbag and this was the best proof of his intentions out there. They also found that he had an escape plan to Mexico, and multiple phones and pairs of gloves on him as if he had planned everything in advance.
Why he wrote the letter is strange, it's possible there were other letters in that box addressing "the world" which were to be read in case the attempt succeeded.
But the federal prosecutors released this one, which rather accurately seems to indicate that he meant to kill Trump. He also got it out there that he failed and he wanted others to try as a result.
Just the release of his call to action to the public is what has raised eyebrows among many. Whether he has that cash he promises, and where he got it from is another issue. But right now, it amounts to an encouragement for more assassination attempts, just as he wants, which seems rather contrary to the law enforcement goal of shutting him down for good.
Even former Attorney General Bill Barr, who is no friend of Trump's, told Fox News he found it pretty abnormal, given the legal options they had.
"I was dumbfounded that the DOJ made public this morning the contents of the letter that, Ryan Routh, left with an acquaintance prior to the attempted assassination of former President Trump," Barr said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
"The letter calls on people to ‘finish the job’ of killing President Trump, attempts to rouse people in incendiary terms to do so, and offers $150,000 to anyone who succeeds. There was no apparent justification for releasing this information at this stage," he continued.
Barr, who served during both the Trump and George H. W. Bush administrations, says that "DOJ had more than enough evidence to have Routh detained pending trial, without publicizing these details."
"Even if DOJ thought it important to provide the letter to the court, it could have redacted inflammatory material or arranged to have the letter submitted under seal. It was rash to put out this letter in the midst of an election during which two attempts on the life of President Trump had been made," Barr said.
It's nerve-wracking, really, because freaks like Routh love nothing better than publicity for their acts, and rousing the other loonies out there is exactly what he wants done. It's almost as if the prosecution wants the evil act to be done even as they work to put Routh away, given the way they are going about this.
The leading FBI agent on the case is a notorious Trump-hater and had to be told to scrub his social media posts before he could get promoted to the top post in the Miami field office. Does this letter release inspire confidence in his judgment if he was involved in this?
It should also be noted that the previous assassination attempt investigation has been horribly botched with destroyed evidence, bad security, and inexcusable communication failures, meaning, it's rather par for the course that these investigators don't seem terribly interested in getting to the bottom of what is happening.
President Trump has shifted course, too, in the wake of this flawed judgment in releasing the letter. He had been effusive about how good law enforcement had been in catching the would-be killer and acting professionally in keeping him safe, and nothing he has said since would contradict that.
But he has released a statement saying he wanted the state of Florida to continue this investigation and prosecution now, having lost confidence in the feds.
#BREAKING: Former President Trump demands "LET FLORIDA HANDLE THE CASE" of the 2nd assassination attempt, says state charges would be "much more serious" than the federal charges
— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) September 23, 2024
Gov. Ron DeSantis recently said the federal government is not cooperating with Florida's attempts to… pic.twitter.com/j83hbg5bTD
All in the name of beating Trump
By Silvio Canto, Jr.
Tradition, progress, and political polarization
By Tim Jones
It’s So Hard for the Ruling Class These Days
By Christopher Chantrill
The Grim Specter Haunting America
By Sally Zelikovsky
A specter is haunting America. A collective melancholy that all is not okay at home.
The solutions Trump offers for our national malaise are only a short-term fix. The problems (e.g., economy, immigration, national security) can all be addressed and, to a certain extent, fixed by a one-term president. However, what’s ailing our country requires delving into the pith of America. Our infirmities require long-term solutions. They cannot be remedied overnight by any single individual or administration—even one controlling the House and Senate.
Many of us have experienced our malaise firsthand. If we haven’t, friends and family have. If they’ve been spared, it’s in every news report: rampant suicides, addictions, homelessness, unpunished violent crime, a border clobbered by hordes of criminals and terrorists, towns inundated with illegal immigrants dropped at their doorsteps and draining their public services, intra-familial murder with parents killing children and children killing parents, the elderly beaten by hoodlums, children changing their gender, drag queens enticing our kids.
Our streets aren’t safe, our schools aren’t safe, our malls aren’t safe, and our presidential candidates aren’t safe.
We send our loving, mentally intact children off to college only for them to return politically and culturally radicalized, addicted to drugs, and treated with medications for a long list of entirely new mental conditions. Parents are legally obligated to foot the bills but are foreclosed from participating in their care. Their consent is required for deprogramming, but the professional deprogrammers have mostly bought into the narrative.
This affects us all because our children’s health and security define America’s future. It matters when teachers and administrators who seek to “queer the schools” manipulate young people’s mental well-being and sense of self. The “educators” want to obliterate the family and remake bewildered children in their image. Repeatedly telling a child his/her gender is malleable and that exploring it will cure any feelings of being different, lonely, or unpopular (things we’ve all felt) only serves to muddy the waters.
Confused and anxious about their gender, children are increasingly more suggestible; put them on medication or radical doses of hormones, and they are even more so. It can even lead Audrey Hale to shoot up a school or Mia Bailey to murder “her” parents.
Increasingly, more young adults are mentally and emotionally unfit to rear children, assuming they even want families. After all, children are routinely told humanity is a threat to the Earth, making traditional coupling, wedlock, and families anathema.
These disaffected youngsters don’t care about their parents and grandparents. Who will take care of them in their dotage? AI and robots? Given the exponential advancement of robust AI and robotics in the last ten years, this is not that far-fetched. Japan’s already trying it, although some lonely old people opt for the humanity of jail.
The traditional 40-hour work week is under threat. Young people also don’t want to work with their hands.
Sperm counts are down. Men have been feminized, and women masculinized. Young men don’t know how to act—they’re either too toxic or too pajama-boyish to attract the gals. Women are too aggressive and mean to attract guys. Being gay is no longer just for gays but has become a default landing pad for men and women who cannot find or tolerate one another.
We no longer trust the very people we were raised to trust: our teachers, the police, clergymen, coaches, our neighbors, our families, and now our government.
For those of us old enough to remember, everything that was no longer is:
G-d is for idiots and religion for the uneducated masses. Criminals are never at fault. “All cops are bastards.” All whites are supremacists. All men are toxic. Kids can be furries. Men can menstruate. “Transwomen are women.” Killing is bad but abortion is good. Democrats abhor violence, but Trump must be stopped by any means necessary. January 6th was an insurrection, but deadly BLM riots were protected speech. Israel has a right to defend itself but must not be allowed to defend itself. Iran can be trusted to use our tax dollars for good. The economy is strong while companies go bankrupt and jobs are eliminated. What inflation? The border is secure. What illegal aliens? America is racist. Equity, not equality. Only Black Lives Matter. Whites created the law, math, the arts, religion, and science, so they must be discarded. 2+2=5? 2+2=whatever you want it to be. Covid vaccines, masks, and staying home will save us from the very disease that Fauci funded and that killed millions. What really happened in Wuhan? What really happened in Butler? Palm Beach? Who leaked the SCOTUS decision? Racism is okay if it's against whites and white-adjacent groups. Virginia may be for lovers, but Palestine is for Queers.
This anti-American incoherence attacks an America that no longer exists, a formerly insular nation run mostly by wealthy WASPs who routinely discriminated against all other religions and races. Although always a melting pot, America had what wokies called “othering.” But, because of the system our Founders put in place, we changed, becoming a nation accepting of others, where anyone could rise to power and fame or even occupy the White House.
For all of America’s sometimes shameful faults over the centuries, no other nation has come so close to forming a more perfect union, making one out of the many. And no other nation attracts people from all walks of life to her borders.
We are connected by our Americanism, the values attached to that Americanism, our language, and our borders. Unlike other nations, we lack shared DNA and an ancient common heritage. We are a melting pot that took some time to cure but has come to accept the various ingredients that go into it.
However, as America became more accepting of its diverse parts, leftists ensured that it unraveled, a sixty-year effort that degraded the American psyche and eroded the American soul. Eliminating odious racism has morphed into reverse or revenge racism against whites and white-adjacent groups.
We give food, shelter, medical care, and jobs and provide travel to illegal aliens using funds that should aid legal residents and citizens.
Working in concert, the Democrat-media complex, the LGBTQ+ cartel, academics, and teachers’ unions have turned gender on its head to confuse several generations of children who must navigate the already-confusing times of childhood and adolescence, grappling with what 98% of humankind once took for granted: that we were either a boy or a girl.
By redefining “marriage,” we opened Pandora’s Box to the pronoun wars, the transgender agenda, and a hodgepodge of gender identifications. Once you futz with the meaning of words, there is no end to the societal chaos. We cannot even define what a woman is.
Nothing is as it is supposed to be, and no amount of euphoria for our candidate or disgust with the Democrat-media complex and our current administration can dispel the despondence we feel watching our beloved America swirl down the pipes.
Like many of you, I have moments of deep despair and question how the final third of my life will shake out, what my children’s futures will bring, and how my grandchildren might fare.
But we must have faith. The pendulum always swings back, although before it settles into a nice rhythm, anything can happen.
We are in that “anything can happen” moment. We know, deep down, that Trump’s election, even with the House and Senate, is not a cure-all for America’s ills. We know, deep down, that the fight for America will continue way past a Trump presidency. We know, deep down, Trump 47 will not end what ails us, but will be the beginning of a very exhausting, existential fight for an America lost.
We have no choice: we must be ever vigilant and relentless in pursuing an America regained. We have no choice but to Fight! Fight! Fight!
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/09/the_grim_specter_haunting_america.html
Uncovering the Coverage
By Kevin Brady
‘Hamas Harris’ Pressures Israel to Negotiate with Terrorists
By Civis Americanus
Trump, Tariffs, and the Pennsylvania Pitch
Stark warnings and promises of production.
by Kelli Ballard | Sep 24, 2024
Former President Donald Trump hit the campaign trail in Pennsylvania yesterday (Sept. 23), speaking to a forum of farmers in the all-important swing state. With John Deere tractors framing the background, he made it very clear that he doesn’t support companies moving any part of their business out of the country, and if they do, he’ll impose a hefty tariff should he regain the Oval Office.
Trump Promises 200% Tariffs
John Deere recently announced plans to move some production of its tractors, such as cab assembly, to Mexico, which resulted in layoffs at Iowa facilities. “I’m just notifying John Deere right now,” Trump said. “If you do that, we’re putting a 200% tariff on everything that you want to sell into the United States.” He added, “It’s hurting our farmers It’s hurting our manufacturing.” The presidential candidate’s announcement had an immediate impact on the stock market as shares of Deere dropped 1.7% in after-hours trading.
The tractor company wasn’t the only one put on notice. Trump also sent a message to automakers with factories in Mexico. “We’re going to put big tariffs on those cars that are coming in here at 100% to 200%, and they’re no longer going to be competitive, so you better stay in Michigan.”
Responding to a statement by one farmer regarding Chinese subsidies, Trump said, “That’s why we need tariffs.” China held nearly 250,000 acres of US land at the end of 2022, according to the US Department of Agriculture. After a Chinese billionaire was able to buy more than 130,000 acres near an Air Force base in Texas, and another company tried to build a corn plant near an Air Force base in North Dakota, 24 states either banned or limited foreigners from owning certain types of private land.
A Steel Town Pitch
Staying with the topic of keeping manufacturing at home, Trump spoke on the proposed acquisition of US Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel. “We are also going to keep US steel right here in the United States,” he vowed. “We have to be strong and powerful together. We must put tariffs on foreign predators – they are predators – so that they don’t destroy our steel industry.” His message got a little more personal, saying:
“We must keep our steel companies. And we must keep making steel. If we have a war, are we going to go, ‘Gee, China, can you send us some steel, please?’ Oh, forget about that. If we have a war, think of it: if we need it for our military, how do we build our tanks? How do we build our ships? We wouldn’t have any steel. We have to make US Steel great again.”
Voter Outreach
The former president wasn’t all tariff talk, though. He also called out to Christians and gun owners, saying they needed to vote. “They go to church. They love church and that’s great. Christians, Evangelicals, we have to get them out to vote. We have to get gun owners… If
Mr. Trump claimed if he had been elected in 2020, the Russia-Ukraine war wouldn’t have happened, and if he’s elected this year, he’s going to put an end to it. “As president-elect, if I win this election, the first thing I’m going to do is call up [Ukraine President Volodymyr] Zelensky and call up [Russian] President Putin and I’m going to say, ‘You gotta make a deal.’”
Trump hit on several other hot-button issues such as immigration and the economy. He also had a message about his adversary, Kamala Harris. “She’s a one-woman economic wrecking ball and if she gets four more years, her radical agenda will smash the economy into rubble and grind your financial situation right into the dust,” he said. “She wants to take your guns away. She’s coming for your money. She’s coming for your pensions, and she’s coming for your savings.”
From iconic companies to the backbone of American industry, the former president made the case for his re-election to possibly the most significant state in the union (in Electoral College terms). It was a targeted sales pitch that almost certainly hit home with an audience that has long been under pressure. As both major party candidates spend an outsized portion of their time and treasure on Pennsylvania, it will likely be the messaging that makes the ultimate difference.
https://www.libertynation.com/trump-tariffs-and-the-pennsylvania-pitch/
But but but Gmenfan. Those are all liberals and democrats.
...............al
Hey Gmenfan-
There HAS to be some financial incentive for them to lie like that. Shades of 2020 and the liars about the laptop. You have to have only half a brain to believe them anymore.
......................al
The UN General Assembly votes that the Jews must leave historical Jerusalem
By Andrea Widburg
BREAKING 🚨
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) September 18, 2024
The UN General Assembly voted in favor of a resolution requiring Israel to withdraw from Judea and Samaria territories and impose sanctions on Israeli officials, along with a weapons embargo.
In favor: 124
Against: 14
Abstention: 43 pic.twitter.com/ecCta0m0ag
Trump: "My promise to Jewish Americans is this: With your vote, I will be your defender, your protector, and I will be the best friend Jewish Americans have ever had in the White House."pic.twitter.com/LribF5cyo4
— Awesome Jew (@JewsAreTheGOAT) September 20, 2024
Kamala Harris comes courting the Mormons for votes -- and runs into Utah's Sen. Mike Lee
By Monica Showalter
Kamala Harris should probably stay away from religion, from her own perspective at least, given her legislative and prosecutorial acts persecuting peoples of faith.
But here she is, out courting the Mormons for votes in Arizona, a state with a huge Mormon, or Church of the Latter Day Saints (LDS) presence.
According to the Associated Press:
PHOENIX (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is stepping up her efforts to win over voters who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, enlisting prominent members of the faith to make the case in pivotal Arizona that Donald Trump does not align with the church’s values.
Her state campaign announced on Thursday an advisory committee to formalize the outreach to current and former members of the church, widely known as the Mormon church.
With nearly 450,000 church members in Arizona, about 6% of the state’s population, Latter-day Saints and former church members could prove critical in what will likely be an extremely close race.
She probably didn't count on running into Sen. Mike Lee, a conservative Republican, and LDS member from nearby Utah, who exposed her religious record on 'X.'
🧵 1. A vote for Kamala Harris is a vote against any religious institution, including schools, universities, hospitals, and charities. The media doesn’t want you to know about the Do No Harm Act. They won’t ask her about it because they know the answer. https://t.co/6fQ0LtItRq
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) September 22, 2024
Ben Rhodes and 740 of his closest friends praise Kamala Harris as 'an effective leader able to advance America's security interests'
By Monica Showalter
The problem in Springfield is a lack of common sense
By Silvio Canto, Jr.
When anger should trump ‘joy’
By Eric Utter
“Why does Trump often seem angry?”
A question I have had posed to myself—or heard mention of on mainstream media ad nauseam. Take the last “debate” for instance. Conventional wisdom stated that Trump was angry and Kamala was full of “joy.” A bad “look” for the former president, a good look for Kamala, it was said.
Yes, why in the world does Trump sometimes seem perturbed, a bit miffed, or even irate? That is a puzzler, I guess, except for the fact that he has been ridiculed, lied about, libeled, and slandered by virtually every mainstream media outlet for years. And has had the same done to his family. Has been smeared with the vilest language and called “Hitler” too many times to count by the very same people who denounce him for being “mean-spirited” and who claim that his rhetoric incites violence. Then there is the fact that the Biden administration, Democrats, their media remoras—and assorted other asshats and evildoers—have tried to imprison him and get him taken off states’ ballots. And they raided his home and rifled through his wife’s lingerie.
Oh, and they’ve tried to kill him. Twice. Or at least aided and abetted the effort to do so. And covered up the evidence.
Moreover, they have weaponized virtually the entire U.S. government against him—and his supporters. In the interest of democracy! In fact, they have (tolerantly and inclusively!) called his supporters “deplorables,” “domestic terrorists,” “fascists,” and worse. And (tolerantly and inclusively!) locked many of them up, some in solitary confinement, some without charge.
Oh, and they are well on their way to destroying the nation he loves, ruining its economy, flooding it with illegal aliens, and besmirching its history—and its founding principles. All while insisting he is the threat to democracy.
No decent and sane person should trust anyone who isn’t more than a little pissed off by all of this, especially those who claim to be full of “joy.”
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/09/when_anger_should_trump_joy.html
Catty Democrats
By Noel S. Williams
Lots of ‘Coincidences’ in Trump Assassination Attempts
By Grant Baker
The U.S. Secret Service (USSS), established as a personal bodyguard for U.S. presidents, is playing an increasingly dangerous role in U.S. politics. Assassination attempts on the life of former president Donald Trump, by Ryan Routh on September 18 and Thomas Crooks at Butler, Pennsylvania, raise the disturbing possibility of designed convergences of security lapses that give assassins the opportunity to kill.
Trump’s protective detail was purposefully stretched thin
Details are still missing regarding Routh’s attempt, but he apparently camped out for approximately 12 hours waiting for Trump to appear at hole 6 of the Trump International Golf Club. Trump was headed that way, teeing off at hole 5 when a Secret Service agent saw a rifle sticking through some shrubbery and flushed Routh out with a few shots. There was no prior sweep done of the golf course.
Newly consolidated details on Trump’s Butler rally reveal a more sophisticated plot. Jill Biden spontaneously decided to speak in Pittsburgh on July 13 at a small event, announced only a week prior. Kamala Harris similarly joined a small event in Philadelphia the same day, confirmed as a speaker on July 10. These last-minute additions to “The Schedule” diverted most of Trump’s regular protective detail and breached longstanding White House and USSS security protocols.
Trump’s tall, male USSS regulars were replaced by substantially shorter agents, many of whom were women, borrowed from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and whose training consisted of only a two-hour webinar. One of these women cowered behind Trump as he was shot at by Crooks, positioned merely 130 yards away on the roof of building 6 (AGR 6) of the nearby AGR multi-building complex.
Butler security was a wreck. The usual canine teams were missing, improper people were accessing backstage areas, and DHS officials failed to properly patrol the podium area or the “secure perimeter” near the AGR complex, a mistake repeated at Trump’s golf course. Trump had been routinely denied security resources such as sniper teams and additional agents for the previous two years personally by USSS deputy director Ronald Rowe. Rowe became USSS acting director after Kimberly Cheatle’s resignation, becoming responsible for investigating the failed USSS security plan and response to the assassination attempt.
Rowe had personally made cuts to the Counter Surveillance Division (CSD), responsible for venue threat assessment. The CSD had not conducted an evaluation for the Butler rally or even been present the day of. Rowe personally retaliated against agents voicing security concerns leading up to Butler. One whistleblower stated: “If personnel from CSD had been present at the rally, the gunman would have been handcuffed in the parking lot after being spotted with a rangefinder.”
Local resources were similarly stretched. Police were consumed with traffic duty and told USSS they were unable even to station a patrol car in front of the AGR complex. Only three local snipers from the Butler and Beaver County Emergency Services Units (ESU) were assigned to the entire AGR complex, guarding from the second-story window in AGR 7, and one had to leave before the rally.
USSS was offered surveillance drones by the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) but turned the offer down.
Prior to the Butler rally, USSS leadership made preparations to defensively brace for Butler rally criticism
Whistleblowers told Congress that USSS leadership informally told agents not to request extra security specifically for the Butler rally. This allowed USSS deputy director Rowe to testify to Congress that all security requests for Butler were approved, a dishonest statement that required preparations prior to the rally.
After years of denying USSS snipers to Trump, USSS decided to send two teams to cover barn rooftops behind Trump, assigning them at the last minute and giving them almost no preparation time. Missing was the customary third team, which would have prevented a fan of exposure. Additional problems with their deployment suggest they were security props, approved to ward off suspicion post-assassination.
USSS assets were deployed such that they could not stop shooters
Foiling the September 15 assassination attempt was Ryan Routh’s mistake of poking his rifle barrel out onto the fairway. USSS agents were deployed on the putting green instead of covering all points, allowing the plethora of trees and bushes to be used as cover. Had Routh waited patiently to fire behind cover, agents would have been unable to pinpoint his location, leaving Trump caught in a hail of bullets.
At Butler, the two USSS sniper teams, Hercules 1 and 2, were similarly deployed not to respond to Crooks. USSS posted them behind the protectee instead of overwatching concealed positions such as AGR. Positioned on barns directly behind Trump, the northern team (Hercules 2) was not able to see a specific section of AGR 6 obscured by a tree, where Crooks assembled his weapon and shot Trump.
Hercules 1 was farther away and, though not blocked by a tree, had limited vision of Crooks due to the gentle slope of the AGR 6 rooftop and six-inch ridge cap. Without radio communication, Hercules could not assess in a timely way the real-time location of Crooks despite the latter being flagged, photographed, identified, trailed, chased, and flushed out of cover by local officials.
In fact, real-time communications between local officials and USSS were designed to be impossible from the start. USSS snipers relied on cell phone texts for threat updates, despite experiencing poor cellular reception earlier.
These communications were passed through a pipeline with many single points of failure. Communication from local officers to USSS required a radio transmission to a trailer, a phone call from the trailer to local near USSS command, the local relaying verbally to USSS, which would text Hercules. It is unclear if the local representative was even in the USSS command post shortly before the shooting. PSP commissioner Paris testified that Butler was the first time he had seen such a pipeline.
Were USSS snipers told not to fire at Crooks prior to the shooting? Rowe testified that Hercules killed Crooks as soon as they first saw him, but his testimony was undercut by video released the next day showing Crooks standing upright and running west to east on AGR 7 and transferring to AGR 6 in full view of the crowd, Trump, and USSS snipers.
The most damning decision of all was USSS’s chosen “secure perimeter,” a chain link fence roughly 100 yards north of Trump, stopping just short of the AGR complex. Even nearby rally attendees remarked before the shooting how insecure the site was, yet this choice of perimeter, apparently made by committee, sailed through the multiple stages of checks and reviews by the DHS and USSS. This choice of perimeter allowed USSS to pass responsibility of securing the AGR complex to local Pennsylvania law enforcement. USSS had assigned local SWAT to redundant positions in barns behind Trump, leaving only two local units available to cover the entire AGR complex. These local snipers were not given real-time means to contact USSS, which had refused radios from locals enabling real-time communications.
Contrary to Rowe’s testimony, USSS never told local officials to guard the AGR rooftop.
Mistakes regarding perimeter security, overwatch, aerial surveillance, sweeps, and threat assessment were repeated at Trump’s golf course.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/09/lots_of_coincidences_in_trump_assassination_attempts.html
Dick Cheney Loves KamaLOL!!!
By J.B. Shurk
Harris and Biden Putting Illegal Aliens First and Americans Last
By Brian C. Joondeph
How Pure Democracy Fails
By Paul C. Binotto
Fiddling with the Constitution to limit existing state rights in favor of pure majority rule should be rejected.
Yet, there’s a movement afoot to do just that. It really isn’t all that new. An earlier example of this movement culminated in 1913 with the ratification of the 17th Amendment. The primary changes the 17th Amendment made to the Constitution was to provide for the direct popular election of U.S. senators, a function originally reserved only for the state’s legislatures. As a result, the ability of less-populated states to exercise their co-equal rights was eroded.
Presently, a push is gaining momentum to circumvent the Electoral College, in favor of a national popular vote. Changing how Senate seats are assigned to states is also being advocated. A “census-based” system like the one used for determining the number of seats in the House of Representatives, thereby, giving more populated states more seats and votes in the Senate.
Whatever form and approach, the common goal is to replace the democratic republic form of federal government with pure democracy.
The Supreme Court’s recent reversal of Roe has increased calls for eliminating the Senate filibuster. It’s true the filibuster is only a Senate rule, not law, so its elimination wouldn’t directly challenge, or violate the Constitution. However, it does indirectly affect the co-equality of states guaranteed by the Constitution.
Bruce Ledewitz, a law professor at the Catholic-affiliated Duquesne University, gives what he considers four good reasons in his recent opinion piece in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
According to Ledewitz, supporters of ending the Senate filibuster believe that the potential benefits from the filibuster’s demise, both for the Senate and for American democracy, outweigh any potential negative consequences.
Proponents view one probable consequence of ending the filibuster to also be a welcomed benefit. Ledewitz enthusiastically anticipates and endorses that it will permit voters to “[give] control of the government to one party, that party could enact anything that the Constitution permits.”
He glibly dismisses this outcome as, “So what? We have a name for that situation. It’s called democracy… Sounds like a good system. We should try it.” Presumably because voters can always vote out the one party out. This naively ignores the reality of how difficult it is to remove one-party rule once in power.
Most Americans would agree that one-party rule does not “sound(s) like” Democracy. Because it is, in fact, tyranny, only going by the name of democracy. And it’s not at all what the Constitution’s framers envisioned for a democratic republic form of government.
A good argument can be made that one reason for the filibuster rule in the Senate is to give a tool to senators in the minority for asserting or forcing senators in the majority to recognize their state’s co-equal rights. The left-leaning non-profit Brennan Center for Justice acknowledges, “that a group of senators representing a small minority of the country can use the filibuster to prevent the passage of bills with broad public support.” Predictably, they view this practice unfavorably. But, in fact, the practice is vital for ensuring equal footing among all states in the union on the Senate floor.
Without the filibuster, states whose senators are not in the majority risk losing their co-equal footing with the states in the majority. They will become more prone to having their Senate voices and rights diminished, ignored, or abused.
Supporters of pure democracy would do well to first reflect on the Framer’s own reasoning for rejecting it. The Framers chose their words carefully and precisely. They did so because they knew well that their words would one day be used against them, or rather, more detrimentally, against the Constitution which they were setting down as the new law of the land.
It's important to note that the Framers deliberately chose to open the Constitution with “We the People.” This introduction was not phrased this way only to show whose authority and behalf they were given the power to represent and speak. But also, whose rights and interests they were beholden to defend.
If they intended only to speak for the majority of people, as in a pure democracy, they would have rightly and precisely written, “We the Majority of the People...” They did not, because they intended to represent equally all the people, the people both of the majority, and of the minority. They intended to create what Abraham Lincoln would later immortalize at Gettysburg, a national “government of the people, by the people, for the people” -- all the people.
The Framers didn’t reject pure democracy because they instead preferred minority rule, but because they had a keen understanding and distrust of human nature. More so, of the tyrannical tendencies of human nature concentrated anonymously as “The Majority.” One party ruling over a minority is the same as an absolute monarch, as King George. They absolutely did not want or intend this.
That same precision was used in the careful choice the words when naming the new country. The name was to describe its true character, The United States of America. “States,” by design, hold a prominent and central position in the name.
Subsequent nations would choose names familiar to all as much for what they are, as for what they are not, such as, the People's Republic of China (PRC), and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), aka North Korea. These nations, of course, are neither (purely or remotely) democratic nor protective of individual rights. The American democratic republic, the United States of America (USA), is both!
Had the Framers intended a pure democracy, pure majority rule, they would have enshrined it in the nation’s name. They would have named it some variation to those chosen by China and North Korea. And if they had, time would have proved pure democracy to be no less tyrannical in practice than the actual systems of these two other countries with free-sounding names.
“States” hold a prominent and central position in the naming of the United States of America by design because the Framers wanted to clearly communicate that the new nation was to be a union of individual states, peopled by individuals with common but also distinct interests.
By experience, from when the states were joined together only by a loose confederacy, they knew a republican form of government was preferable to a confederacy. They could also perceive how one day, what’s good for a “California” and a “New York” may not be good for a “Montana” and an “Ohio.” Thus, they also knew that a democratic republic form of government was preferable to either a pure republic or a pure democracy.
pure democracy may sound good on paper and may seem a no-brainer to modern American mind. But for good reason, it does not appear anywhere on the paper of the U.S. Constitution. The Framers understood well that pure democracy would ultimately only lead to poor democracy. Pure democracy is poor democracy because it does not adequately protect the rights and unique interests of all the people from the dangers of a tyrannical majority. If pure democracy did not sound good to the Framers, most assuredly, “one party rule” did not sound to them anything at all like democracy. We definitely should not try it.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/09/how_pure_democracy_fails.html
Vermont Town Requires Building Permit for Yard Signs
Clever dairy farmers figure out how to fight city hall.
by John Klar | Sep 23, 2024
A Vermont dairy family has been issued a notice by their town demanding that they obtain a building permit because they have more than two political yard signs (that support GOP candidates) displayed on their property. Rather than pay the $25 fee (plus 3% for credit cards) to comply, young newlyweds Sara and Ryan Bullis pulled the small signs from the ground and attached them to the side of a truck trailer stacked with hay bales.
Yard Signs of the Times
The Bullis family has milked cows in scenic Grand Isle, VT, for four generations. Their business name captures the idyllic beauty of their home: Savage View Farm. A complaint posted on an online community bulletin board (allegedly by a seasonal summer resident) about yard signs appears to have sparked the administrative response from the town of North Hero. The neighbors of Bullis farm display numerous Democratic candidate signs: It is unclear whether they obtained the requisite “building permit” to stick the small political campaign signs in the ground.
Vermont famously banned billboards in 1968. State law restricts political campaign signs like those on the Bullis farm and their neighbours’ from being too close to the road (to ensure safety and view) and restricts them to election season. Vermont’s state laws are narrowly tailored and do not extend into what Vermonters can display on their barns, their living room walls, or land not within the regulated setback. North Hero’s building permit requirement stretches a more intrusive hand than the state, and farmers like the Bullis family will not be bullied.
The community post condemning yard signs also mirrored what appears to be widespread societal ignorance of fundamental free speech guarantees. The post targeted yard signs for a list of grievances: They are ineffective, environmentally harmful, could incur legal fines (at least in North Hero), create “visual clutter,” and – woe to Vermont voters – pose a “potential for divisiveness”:
“Displaying political yard signs can sometimes lead to tension or conflict between neighbors with differing political views. This can contribute to a polarizing atmosphere within communities.”
Free Speech Prevails
Such sentiments display a desire – or an actual call – for government (in this case, a small town whose zoning administrator was hired in April) to stifle citizens’ most basic liberty so that they won’t be exposed to differences of political preference during an election year when the opinions of candidates and voters are supposed to be paramount. Perhaps when citizens broach their political concerns to legislators (such as about a property tax increase of 25% or more in many Vermont towns in 2024), it creates a “polarizing atmosphere.”
There is even greater irony in the idea of using aesthetics to negate free speech: to exploit Green Mountain scenic views as justification for silencing locals’ political views. How dare these “deplorable” farmers botch the tourist view for which their skyrocketing taxes have paid? Vermont’s 1968 billboard legislation exempts signs smaller than 150 square feet, and state officials take no position on its potential application to mobile signage such as those employed by Savage View Farm to continue expressing the family’s political views directly to their neighbors.
Vermont’s aesthetic ironies don’t stop here, though. The state is all in for solar panel arrays, which have poisoned the view and usurped much fertile farmland without any political messaging other than the visible hypocrisy. Solar panels pollute horribly, not just as eyesores but in their manufacturing and disposal – an exponentially greater threat than yard signs in coal and energy consumption and ecotoxin generation. Those chemical pollutants may be invisible to tourists driving EVs (which generate 30-50% more toxic rubber dust than gas-powered cars, accounting for 78% of ocean microplastic pollution), but the solar panels are plain to see.
Foreign corporations collect state and federal subsidies to plant ugly rows of toxic solar panels in the Green Mountains, while summer residents use local ordinances to silence the political views of those who might object. The US Constitution was created to prevent exactly this type of bullying, and it will remain a bulwark against delusional ideologues who object to constructive criticism, scientific facts, or their neighbors’ audacity to publicly express their opinions.
An Unheroic Vermont Town
The town of North Hero will perhaps have a difficult legal row to hoe if it proceeds against rebellious newlywed farmers Sara and Ryan Bullis. Constitutionally, it is hard to see how any town can justify push-in yard sign regulation under a building code – what’s next, the dogcatcher rounding up horses and cows for flatulence? Property assessors inspecting basements for verboten political signage? Road crews scraping political stickers off car bumpers? This ordinance is obvious government overreach, running afoul of established constitutional law.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas summed up the legal view of the importance of political speech practiced by these dairy farmers in Reed v Town of Gilbert, Arizona:
“Innocent motives do not eliminate the danger of censorship presented by a facially content-based statute, as future government officials may one day wield such statutes to suppress disfavored speech. That is why the First Amendment expressly targets the operation of the laws — i.e., the “abridg[ement] of speech”—rather than merely the motives of those who enacted them.”
Some residents are not convinced this Vermont town’s motives were innocent. The town clerk’s husband is running for State Senate as a Democrat against some of the Republicans whose signs graced the Bullis farm. North Hero’s zoning administrator has stated that only one “friendly letter” has been issued, and that the town clerk was not involved in the decision, which was “not an official notice of violation,” merely a request “to come into compliance with the town’s regulations by obtaining a permit.”
As the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled, it is not the burden of citizens to prove bad intent: The dangers of censorship must be prevented for those who one day might. Vermonters must be allowed to communicate freely with their community.
https://www.libertynation.com/vermont-town-requires-building-permit-for-yard-signs/
It’s Time for the Annual Continuing Resolution Congressional Theater
The funding drama comes each year – often more than once!
by Dave Patterson | Sep 23, 2024
It’s that time again – when all the US legislators get together and fail to do their jobs. The fiscal year will close on September 30, and Congress still hasn’t passed a government funding bill. But that’s nothing new; this complete failure to legislate is an annual occurrence. In its job description, funding the government is perhaps the most important recurring constitutional responsibility Congress has. Instead, we routinely meet the end of the fiscal year with a continuing resolution, which keeps the government up and running – sort of – until either full-year funding bills are passed or another continuing resolution resets the timer yet again.
Passing appropriations bills that authorize federal agencies to draw money from the US Treasury to pay bills before the end of the fiscal year is crucial to the smooth running of the federal government. However, that has happened only four times in the last 48 years.
Of Course There Will Be a Continuing Resolution
If there is one failure of Congress that is the most harmful to national security, it is the failure to pass a defense budget on time. Legislators pat themselves on the back despite not doing the job they are elected to do. When they can’t make the required date ending the fiscal year to pass appropriations bills, they pass a continuing resolution (CR) or “stop-gap” spending measure. That’s the spending legislation that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) couldn’t get passed in the House on Sept. 18.
“On Wednesday, the House failed to pass the continuing resolution spending bill, with the SAVE [Safeguard American Voter Eligibility] Act attached, that would have funded the federal government beyond the end of the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 and through March,” The Daily Signal reported. This language ensures that only citizens vote in federal elections. It seems like a law everyone could get behind. Not so, since overwhelmingly Democrats are against it. Every year some speed bump is raised in the road toward funding the government. What is unusual this year is that most Republicans wanted the SAVE Act included, but a handful – 14 to be exact – voted either against it or “present.”
However, as the time grows short to the end of the fiscal year and the shutting down of at least part of the government, the frenzy to get a CR passed increases in magnitude. No one on Capitol Hill wants to be blamed for shutting down the government, furloughing the hordes of government employees, and jeopardizing the ability of those working in critical national security positions to protect American citizens. Consequently, a continuing resolution will be passed; it won’t have the SAVE Act attached, however. It will not be what everyone wants, but it will prevent a government shutdown. Closing down the federal government has been rare, happening only five times since 1995.
A shutdown isn’t the only consequence of Congress failing to do its job. The CRs carry extremely restrictive conditions for federal agencies. When the government is operating under a CR, there can be no new program starts. This hurts the Department of Defense since structured and disciplined programs require predictable funding. CRs insert uncertainty that drives up costs and decimates schedules.
Additionally, operating under a continuing resolution, a federal agency cannot spend more in the new fiscal year than it did in the previous one. Any new budget initiatives dependent on funding increases must be put on hold until an annual appropriations bill is passed. A full-year CR means no new programs and stagnant spending at last year’s funding topline.
Believe it or not, there was a time when funding bills passed without much fanfare. Congress passed the first spending bill, the Appropriations Act (HR-21), on September 29, 1789. Note the date. The nascent legislative body passed a spending bill on time before they knew what “on time” meant or even realized there was a fiscal year, but it believed that passing funding legislation in a timely fashion was a good thing. Unfortunately, such adherence to sound financial stewardship has been in short supply since then and is absent most of the time.
Keeping with the low public profile of the congressional budget process historically, “Continuing resolutions – when first passed in 1876 and up to 1981 – were noncontroversial interim spending measures designed to keep the government afloat until the enactment of the regular appropriations,” according to a William and Mary Law School Scholarship Repository Faculty Publication. After 1981 CRs have often become political cudgels to drive spending or other legislation that would otherwise have met resistance. CRs provide the vehicle for attaching substantive legislation since the stop-gap spending measures are not subject to House rules, which do not allow attachments of significant legislation to appropriations bills.
Knowing the House rules, a cynic might get the idea that our congressional leaders are incentivized not to do their jobs on time so as to have the chance to throw all manner of non-appropriations bills into a CR or billions of non-essential spending into the follow-on omnibus spending bills – the latter being the more popular. It is more difficult to get legislators’ pet constituency projects into individual authorization and appropriations bills during the regular budget process before the fiscal year’s end. An omnibus appropriations bill is generally the legislation ending a CR, which gathers together all the agency appropriations bills into one.
Omnibus Spending Bill Allows for Lots of Pork
Sticking in all manner of legislation that did not make it into the base legislation is more appealing. “The omnibus spending bill is loaded with thousands of earmarks, which are line-item funding for specific pet projects directed by members of Congress. Many of these earmarks would advance the Left’s extreme agenda and fund its institutions using the taxpayer’s money,” The Heritage Foundation explained in a commentary titled, “12 Woke Earmarks in Omnibus Spending Bill.”
Though there is much hoopla about the importance of fiscal responsibility and getting the government funded, it really boils down to theater. Congressional representatives don’t simply fail to do their jobs; many don’t want to do the jobs for which the taxpayer sent them to Washington, DC. The CR is the cover so that representative can return to their constituencies and crow about how they passed a continuing resolution saving the government from shutting down. Had they done what they were paid to do on time, members of Congress could go back home to their states and districts and brag about how they did their jobs – enabling the government to carry on efficiently. Wouldn’t that be better?
https://www.libertynation.com/its-time-for-the-annual-continuing-resolution-congressional-theater/
As Voter Fears Rise, Trump Landslide Predictions Start to Emerge
The parallels to a memorable election decades ago are unmistakable.
by Tim Donner | Sep 23, 2024 |
The defining narrative of the 2024 presidential election right now is that the race is a toss-up, and that Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have an almost equal chance of winning. It’s not just the polls that make Harris appear to be on solid footing. Perhaps in response to the voluminous number of surveys showing a neck-and-neck race, and believing Trump is too volatile to be elected again, the betting markets – the best single indicator of who people believe will win – now favor Harris by seven points. So Kamala is in a strong position to become the 47th president, right?
Not so fast. Over the last few days, at least three respected political analysts have gone out on a limb by hinting at or outright predicting not just a win for Trump, but a landslide. Are they delusional – and, if not, what exactly leads them to this startling conclusion? Liberty Nation News was bold enough to consider such an outcome many months ago, albeit in a matchup between Trump and Biden, not Harris, but even though the VP appears to be more popular with voters than Biden, the fundamentals of the race have not changed as much as many think.
In his piece for The Hill, entitled: “The ‘scared majority’ could deliver a landslide victory for Trump,” Douglas Mackinnon, a Reagan/Bush-era political consultant and no fan of Trump, cites the mounting fears of voters about what they have experienced since 2020. Alluding to the downward spiral of life in America, he observes that the alarming number of Americans living from paycheck to paycheck are increasingly driven by abject fear. Animated by Harris’s celebrity-drenched appearance with Oprah Winfrey, in which she returned to her pre-debate, cringeworthy words salads, Mackinnon pulls no punches:
“While the entrenched elites from politics, academia … Hollywood and the media who live in bubbles of luxury and protection won’t notice, those Americans have never been more scared in their lives. Not only about their future, but about their present … Those I speak with on a regular basis tell me they have never been so frightened about circumstances out of their control … I predict that there is a reckoning coming in November from those tens of millions of scared voters. And I suspect that reckoning is going to produce a landslide victory for Trump.”
Joining the Trump Landslide Bandwagon
Trump skeptic Douglas Mackinnon is not the only commentator daring enough to predict a Trump landslide. Longtime conservative columnist Roger Kimball, in a piece for Trump-friendly American Greatness entitled “Levitation 101,” cuts to the chase: “Victory for the Democrats will depend on the perpetuation of the illusion that Kamala Harris is in any way a plausible candidate for the presidency of the United States.”
Citing Harris’ “seeping, leaking emission of empty saccharine vocables,” he goes on to argue that “[t]he more she vocalizes (I almost said ‘talks’), the more damage she does to her candidacy. Her embarrassing performance on a ninety-minute livestream exchange with Oprah Winfrey in Detroit a few days ago underscored the problem … Even Winfrey, a prominent anti-Trump Harris supporter, seemed taken aback by her guest’s incoherent flights of flaccid, cringe-making glossolalia.”
Then comes Kimball’s conclusion: “Harris’s campaign will fall to earth before November 5 and – though this is not what the polls currently tell us – Trump will win in something approaching a landslide.”
Fulfilling the ol’ rule of three, there is also a piece just released by popular Substack author Sasha Stone, entitled: “Kamala Harris’ Pitch to Undecided Voters: ‘Just Be,’” and subtitled: “The Queen of Gobbledegook just dropped a doozy.” Stone brings dark humor and sarcasm to the ridiculous Kamala-Oprah event and its utter tone-deafness: “I’m sure an event with Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts was a great way to win over undecided Voters. They’re probably out there thinking, I can’t put food on the table, and I can’t send my kid to school without worrying about them coming home and asking for puberty blockers, and what is going on in Springfield? Are we on the brink of World War III? Ah, but the celebrities will help. They will guide me! Yes! I’ll vote for Harris!”
While hinting at, though not directly predicting, a big Trump victory, Stone adds: “Harris sounded like that person who drank too much wine or maybe smoked a joint and is spouting a platitude.” She is not alone in that observation.
An Historical Connection?
Americans over the age of 50 will remember the 1980 election. A president widely viewed as a failure, Jimmy Carter, was running neck-and-neck with challenger Ronald Reagan as October turned to November. And, of course, this was well before the days of conservative talk radio, Fox News, the internet, and social media. The platforms that favored Reagan were few and far between, while big media, far more dominant then than now, were all behind Carter, while depicting Reagan as a dangerous warmonger and right-wing reactionary. It seemed that, despite his many shortcomings – economic stagnation, inflation, astronomical interest rates, consistent foreign policy failures – Carter might well hold on and win a second term.
But something dramatic happened in the last week of the campaign, driven by that famous question posed by Reagan in his single debate with Carter: Are you better off than you were four years ago? It seemed to be a question voters would ask themselves anyway, but it served to frame the election in the simplest terms for voters of all stripes. Of course, by that time, Ronald Reagan had long since introduced himself to the nation, serving two successful terms as governor of California, and nearly unseating President Gerald Ford in a tightly contested GOP primary race four years earlier.
What does the 1980 election have to do with 2024, you might rightly ask? Well, in that final week of the campaign, voters evidently asked themselves the mirror-image of Reagan’s famous question: Do we really want four more years of this? The answer was a resounding no. The dam burst on Carter in the final days of the race, and Reagan accomplished the unthinkable, a landslide of epic proportions, the worst defeat for an incumbent since the Great Depression. Reagan won 44 states, Jimmy Carter a mere six. Voters were not sure what they might get with Reagan, but they sure knew they didn’t want another four years of the misery they experienced under Carter.
So, when push comes to shove, when people enter the privacy of the voting booth or complete their mail-in ballots, alone with their conscience and contemplating the fear-inducing reality of their lives today, will a majority actually pull the lever for Harris? If so, she will defy the full sweep of American political history.
https://www.libertynation.com/as-voter-fears-rise-trump-landslide-predictions-start-to-emerge/
Wheezing Past the Graveyard
"The Democrats are self-immolating on the altar of their own tenuous relationship with common decency." — Tom Luongo
James Howard Kunstler
Sep 23, 2024
Today’s blog, Monday Sept 23
What could go wrong? Probably more than you might imagine. We have just turned the corner into autumn. Now, things get serious, even gravely dark. America has never been so into dancing skeletons and morbidity. The small-town yards are filling up with inflatable signifiers of hell and death. Don’t you wonder what all this signifies besides good old family fun? The zeitgeist maybe having a little sport with us, you think?
We are chiefly preoccupied with our badly dysfunctional self-governance, of course, and the method for periodically revising it, which we call an election. Nobody has confidence in the process, which has acquired so many layers of absurd, needless complexity for the sole purpose of perverting the outcome that every lawyer in the land will have a hefty guaranteed annual income in the probably futile effort to sort it out come November 6. There is your hell-scape, with overtones of death on a pale horse. . . and all. Chaos. . . riots. . . anarchy. . . civil war.
The threat of World War Three may have abated for the moment, but in a peculiar and disconcerting way, viz. a coup in the executive branch. The gadfly Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, long ago chief-of-staff to Sec’y of State Colin Powell, reports that the Pentagon has cancelled “Joe Biden,” that is, taken him out of the decision-loop for anything. Well, you ask yourself, how is it possible he had even remained remotely close to any decision-loop this long, in any case, given the problem of his obviously broken brain? But now, it is unofficially official: just eat your mint-chocolate ice-cream and shut up, and let Dr. Jill run those “cabinet meeting” photo ops.
According to Col. Wilkerson, Sec’y of Defense Lloyd Austin told the “president” to his face that there will be no flinging of US-supplied long-range missiles from Ukraine “deep into Russia,” as the neocon-infested White House been chattering about endlessly. Wiser heads deep in the DOD HQ have decided the matter. Lump it, if you must, Tony Blinken and Jake Sullivan. The Russians’ “red-line” on such a caper is so wide you can see it from the International Space Station — that is, if you’re an astronaut marooned up there due to combined NASA/Boeing incompetence. . . but that’s another story.
Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer was all revved up for the missile operation and flew to Washington for a one-to-one meet-up with “JB” to get the go-ahead. The Brits are avid for another World War. The last two went so well for them that they kissed their vast empire goodbye. Now they want to kiss goodbye their sceptered isle itself, which has almost no economy left and is overrun by cultural hostiles who are not into Shakespeare. The Brits’ floundering government is a posse of monomaniacs fixated on defeating Russia which, at this point in history, is like a dormouse (Glis glis) facing down a brown bear (Ursus arctos).
“Joe Biden,” reportedly “furious” at losing his executive power, was constrained to tell Mr. Starmer that the missile strike op was off, which left the UK PM miffed that he had crossed the ocean for no reason. Who knows, the Brits are so nuts these days that perhaps they’ll try to pull it off on their own. Mr. Zelensky, the no-longer-elected leader of Ukraine was begging them to try it because Ukraine has nothing left. NATO as a whole really has nothing left, either. Not much of a combined military, scant munitions left in the cupboard, and no will to wage war among the depressed citizens of its member nations.
There is nothing left except to come to terms on a settlement that will leave Ukraine not a member of NATO. The entire affair has been a humiliation for NATO and America, especially for the “Joe Biden” management team (whatever it actually consists of these days). The longer they refuse to engage in talks, the less of Ukraine will be left as a sovereign entity — having proven to the world that its sovereignty rests solely on its capacity to be used as a catspaw by the American neocon / intel blob. You’re reminded that for seventy years prior to 2014, Ukraine was not a problem for anyone until we made it a problem on-purpose — our purpose being idiotic and malicious — and Ukraine could, in theory, revert to not being a problem for anyone again. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
The neocon / intel blob’s other catspaw (domestic version), candidate Kamala Harris, is promising all kinds of good things “when [she] is in-office.” For some reason, nobody on The New York Times’s enormous staff of Ivy League germinated journalist-geniuses has informed Ms. Harris that she is actually in-office now, and has been since 1/20/2021. Why no good things for us plebes all these many months? No rainbows, unicorns, tax cuts, or ten-pound blocks of government cheese? Nothing but a disintegrating dollar, floods of savage mutts crossing the border and landing everywhere from Springfield, Ohio, to Nantucket, and endless raging bullshit about fighting “misinformation” — i.e., any idea that contradicts the Democratic Party’s agenda for assisted national suicide.
Ms. Harris’s gaslight-powered campaign has lost its loft in recent days, its most newsworthy event being last week’s cuddle hour with America’s official Care-Bear, Oprah. . . because, you see, there is nothing left except to pander to the emotional void induced by Woke-ism in the desperately needy minds of X-million voters of the birthing-person persuasion — especially among those unhappy souls who never got around to the birthing. Ms. Harris’s loathsome accessory, Tim Walz, has performed so discordantly that the campaign had to hang him in a closet somewhere, along with all his assorted skeletons, and lock the door. As ever, October surprises await: monsters, demons, ghouls, shrieking ghosts, the walking dead, and all the paid-up minions of the teachers’ union.
https://jameshowardkunstler.substack.com/p/wheezing-past-the-graveyard?publication_id=2076970&post_id=149292395&isFreemail=true&r=rd9j8&triedRedirect=true
GM DD-
Welcome back.
Some Republicans have figured it out and bailed
As have numerous former democrats that don't want communists to take over the country.
...................al
Hey Ayock-
I'm glad you keep reading what I post. Maybe someday it will get through to you. Liberalism is a disease and I am trying to help you with a cure. Best wishes
....................al