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Replacement theory? Joe Biden calls illegals 'Hispanic voters'
By Monica Showalter
Joe Biden uses arms as a bargaining chip to force Israel to go soft on Hamas
By Jack Hellner
Trump explains the secret behind his astonishing emotional resilience
By Andrea Widburg
If you’re an American of a certain age, you remember a commercial for a toy called “Weebles.” Weebles were little, egg-shaped figures, and the slogan was “Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down.” I often think of that slogan when I look at Donald Trump’s remarkable emotional resilience in the face of the slings and arrows the Democrats have relentlessly hurled at him since he rode down that golden escalator. No matter how they push him around, he bounces back...and he explained the other day why that is.
In the Art of the Deal, Trump had revealed that his response to attacks, always, is to fight back. This is a man who never backs down, no matter what, despite knowing that there are risks to this tactic:
When people treat me badly or unfairly or try to take advantage of me, my general attitude, all my life, has been to fight back very hard. The risk is you’ll make a bad situation worse, and I certainly don’t recommend this approach to everyone. But my experience is that if you’re fighting for something you believe in — even if it means alienating some people along the way — things usually work out for the best in the end.
Being a fighter is powerful, but it doesn’t mean that constantly fighting won’t make a person angry and embittered instead of ebullient and optimistic. Trump, however, while attacking his opponents in the Biden administration and the media, has remained a remarkably cheerful, happy person.
This is extraordinary given the war the progressive Democrat establishment (with significant help from RINOs and other Uniparty types) has waged against him. Trump has the honor of being the only president who has been impeached twice, who has been the subject of two sex trials, and who is the ongoing object of attempts to imprison him for non-crimes. And yet, like the Weeble, Trump will not fall down. (Or, to use another commercial analogy, he is that Energizer Bunny who keeps “going and going and going.”)
So, what’s Trump’s secret? It turns out that he’s a deeply philosophical man, although he presents that philosophy in basic terms. No academic jargon or psychobabble for Trump. He simply accepts the world as it comes:
The former president added that he doesn’t let his legal troubles bother him too much.
“If you care too much, you tend to choke. And in a way, I don’t care. It’s just you know, life is life,” he said.
There it is. If Trump were given to quoting the Bible, he might have said, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” (Matthew 6:34.) At a visceral level, Trump understands that you take each day as it comes, dealing with that day’s needs and not worrying too much about the next day.
Again, this is astonishing. Every nation should be led by a man who loves it as passionately as Trump loves America and who has the emotional resources to stand up to the forces arrayed against him without becoming downhearted, bitter, or defeatist.
In his own way, Trump truly is a great man.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/trump_explains_the_secret_behind_his_astonishing_emotional_resilience.html
New Rasmussen Reports: Voters place more ‘trust’ in ‘Republicans’ to handle crime, a stat that continues to amplify over time
By Olivia Murray
Solar panel manufacturers in the West close without government intervention—they just can’t compete with China’s slave labor and coal-fired energy
By Olivia Murray
If only the absolute necessity of slave labor and “dirty” energy to compete in the solar panel marketplace were enough to convince the progressive Democrats that this isn’t a viable or ethical industry! Wishful thinking, I know.
If you’ve noticed, there are a few topics I tend to gravitate toward, one of which is the “clean” and “renewable” energy scam, for several reasons: one, because of the nauseating waste of real dollars we either earn, or pay for through devaluation; two, because it’s a conspicuous bait-and-switch for global communism, which I utterly loathe; three, because of the severity of the environmental destruction these schemes cause; and four, because the uneducated and ignorant arguments from the advocates of such initiatives is such an insult to anyone with a brain, I just can’t stand to bite my tongue—you don’t get to be that stupid and feel that superior without someone reminding you every so often of your place at the bottom of the intellectual totem pole.
So here am I again, with a hat tip to my friend John for sending me this story via the Jo Nova blog: German solar panel manufacturers are dropping like flies because without government intervention (taxpayer dollars), they can’t compete against China:
About 90% of solar panels installed in Germany come from China, and earlier this year one of the last solar panel manufacturers closed in Germany. Last week, what was left of the industry begged for mercy (and subsidies) which they didn’t get. Now another German solar panel manufacturer has closed down.
So why can’t Germany compete against China? Well, it’s a communist regime unbound by asinine agreements to cripple their own economy—China saturated the solar panel supply because it uses slave labor and “dirty” energy to get its product to the market in the most cost-effective way possible, human casualties be darned:
For some cruel reason German factories which are close to their customers, can’t compete with distant foreign factories which have access to slave labor, fossil fueled shipping and cheap coal fired electricity?
…
China generates 60% of its electricity with coal, while Germany uses 32% coal, and 30% solar-and-wind power. What should Germany do, bring back coal, or get some slaves?
…
Solar panels are now in the ‘top five’ worst slave industries in the world, yet still barely any of the morality-police care. They’re apparently too busy atoning for slavery they didn’t cause that doesn’t exist anymore to worry about slaves that are alive today.
Well, outside of bringing back coal or rounding up some slaves, there is a third option….
Now, while the mockery has been fun (it always is), the joke’s really on we the people (basically always true too) because these German solar panel companies, with failed products and business models, aren’t actually closing for good—they’re just packing up and heading for warmer water, aka a more favorable political climate. Care to wager a guess where that might be?
Well where else but the good ol’ U. S. of A, where corporate welfare handouts enrich even the most worthless “business” schemes of which you’ve ever heard; from Reuters last month:
Losing hope of rescue, some European solar firms head to US
European governments due to move to support their solar power manufacturers this week will be too late to stop solar panel maker Meyer Burger packing up a German factory to send production to the United States.
The plant in Freiberg in eastern Germany closed in mid-March with the loss of 500 jobs, as the Swiss-listed firm joined a growing list of European renewable energy manufacturing factories shutting down or moving. In the past year, at least 10 have said they are in financial difficulties.
Thought that economic refugeeism only referred to people? Well brace yourself, because here comes the stampede of failing corporations too.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/solar_panel_manufacturers_in_the_west_close_without_government_intervention_they_just_can_t_compete_with_china_s_slave_labor_and_coal_fired_energy.html
Now even leftists think putting Stormy Daniels on the stand trashed Alvin Bragg's case against Trump
By Monica Showalter
Stormy Daniels, gushing about sex and turds, was one heck of a mistake to put on the witness stand in the New York hush-money case brought by District Attorney Alvin Bragg against President Trump.
Asked if she knew what the case was about, and well, she didn't.
According to Victoria Taft, writing at PJMedia:
The Washington Post captured most of the dialogue between Necheles and Daniels.
Necheles asked Daniels if she had knowledge of Trump’s involvement in the payment made to her in 2016 to ensure she would not go public about their alleged sexual encounter.
“Not directly,” Daniels replied. “No.”
Necheles followed up, “You know nothing about what he does or does not know about the business records?”
“I know nothing about his business records,” Daniels said. “No, why would I?”
Daniels drew some laughter when Necheles asked if she knew about what the criminal indictment against Trump entailed.
“There’s a lot of indictments,” Daniels responded.
Why would she know if Trump knew about the payments, indeed? She admitted she hadn't spoken with him since 2007.
Taft then noted that the other thing that came out at trial was that she tried to extort him for cash, while the getting was good.
A recorded phone exchange revealed this:
Wow this transcript proves that Stormy and co were trying to EXTORT @realDonaldTrump.
TRUMP DID NOTHING WRONG — HE IS THE VICTIM! https://t.co/wyGXOE9hmr
— Alex Bruesewitz 🇺🇸 (@alexbruesewitz) May 9, 2024
"You better settle this God damn story. Because if he loses this election, and he is going to lose, if he loses this election we lose all fucking leverage this case is worth zero. And if that happens, I'm going to sue you because you lost this opportunity," said Stormy's lawyer Keith Davidson to Trump's then-fixer Michael Cohen, who then badly advised Trump to pay the extortion money.
Sound like extortion? It does to anyone normal.
And that contradicted her claim on the stand that she wasn't interested in money, only in telling her story.
Lying comes easy to her, because it's what she does for a living. Her schtick, after all, is talking and acting dirty for cash.
That's not just the view of us normal people watching the case far from New York City.
Even leftists at the scene are saying she shouldn't have been allowed anywhere near the witness stand.
Fox News quoted a CNN legal analyst saying Daniels was a disaster for the prosecution:
CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said that the cross-examination of adult film actress and Trump trial witness Stormy Daniels after her testimony against former President Trump was a disaster.
While Honig said that Daniels' testimony about a sexual encounter with Trump in a hotel room in 2006 was "plausible," her responses under cross-examination by Trump's team called her credibility into question.
"Her responses were disastrous," Honig said, referring to the moment when Daniels admitted that she hates Trump.
"That’s a big deal," Honig said.
...
"When the witness hates the person whose liberty is at stake, that’s a big d--- deal!" Honig said. "And she’s putting out tweets, fantasizing about him being in jail. That really undermines the credibility."
Well, yeah. Whether it persuades the all-Democrat Trump-hating jury is another matter but for sure it will be out there for the rest of us.
Another leftist who seemed to think Daniels was a disaster was the justice himself, Juan Merchan, who otherwise keeps threatening to throw Trump in jail any time he tries to defend himself.
According to CNN, he chided Trump's lawyers for not objecting to Stormy Daniels's disgusting graphic testimony, which had nothing to do with the bookkeeping case.
Judge Juan Merchan called out former President Donald Trump’s defense team during their motion for a mistrial Thursday afternoon, telling them there were many times they could have objected to Stormy Daniels’ testimony, but did not.
For the second time this week, Merchan expressed surprise that Trump’s lawyers had not objected more when Daniels was on the stand. And for the second time this week, Merchan rejected their motion for a mistrial.
Well, whose courtroom was it, Justice Merchan? The guy did object to some of the toilet talk himself in one instance but way too much got out, it was like Fani Willis babbling from the stand all over again.
The prosecution put Stormy on the stand to embarrass Trump and damage his presidential run, of course, but didn't seem to understand that the audience in the courtroom and well beyond might just be onto him and his sleazy political game, which could render the legal case against him nil.
We all know what party the justice donates to, whose side he's on, and what he would like to do to Trump.
So the fact that Merchan complained about the Trump side not objecting enough, for example, on the matter of whether Trump used a condom, a sacred point to the left and a matter of no interest to most others, pretty well tells us that he could see that Daniels's recollections of porkings past was damaging to the prosecution, particularly as her contradictions and lies were exposed, one by one.
That's at least two on the left who see the case starting to go down in flames, and there have been others. Many others.
One hopes they are right, but there's no guessing what a Trump-hating jury might do. We all know what the O.J. jury did.
The bottom line here is that Bragg is bringing out lascivious testimony from known liars not to pursue his court case but to harm Trump's campaign because he doesn't have much of a case in the first place. He made the decision to put the very unprepared Daniels on the stand, and now that she's spewed her spew, the case is in tatters. But no matter, because Stormy looks like Plan B. Bragg would like to harm Trump on the public relations front with the public through sex talk if he can't win his claimed case on the bookkeeping grounds, which isn't what prosecutions are for.
Bragg campaigned on Getting Trump, and since he can't get him on authentic crimes, he's trying for the grossout factor from various prevaricators. Not even the left is fooled by this, and their consternation is now showing.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/now_even_leftists_think_putting_stormy_daniels_on_the_stand_trashed_alvin_bragg_s_case_against_trump.html
How to lose billions on EVs
By Mike McDaniel
Senator Sam Ervin said: “A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you’re talking real money.” Our federal government has been talking trillions for some time now, but the Mummified Meat Puppet Administration’s (MMPA) push for electric vehicles has EV manufacturers talking, and losing, billions.
MMPA mouthpieces like Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm assure us EVs are the future and they’re pushing unconstitutional, unrealizable regulations to force that future down our throats. Unfortunately for them, economic reality is intruding, and Ford provides a disturbing example:
The recent figures are part of a trend of loss for Ford, with their Model e reporting a full-year EBIT loss of $4.7 billion on the sale of 116,000 units. This is an average loss of $40,525 per vehicle — and even that is just a third of the per-vehicle loss seen in the first three months of 2024.
Ford announced months ago it was cutting EV production in half. It took them well over a year, and a $4.7 billion dollar loss—I suspect it’s more—to finally, barely, acknowledge their fiscal responsibilities to their shareholders. What company can afford to sustain those kinds of losses, regardless of their fealty to the MMPA and it’s socialist/communist policies? It would now seem likely Ford is going to have to do more than halve their EV production:
Ford announced earlier this month [April] that the company will delay producing two new electric models, opting for hybrid vehicles instead.
The old aphorism “what can’t go on won’t go on” applies. Ford has possibly, belatedly, realized EVs aren’t going to be the future. As the average EV costs more than $60,000, they’re too expensive for most Americans. The wealthy who buy EVs as greenie street cred have already bought all they want, depleting the market, and the EV charging doom loop is eternal. Without a massive charging network across the country, widespread EV ownership is impossible. But without widespread EV ownership there’s no reason, financial or practical, to build chargers. Neither EVs nor chargers are profitable without huge government subsidies, in effect, forcing people who don’t want and can’t afford EVs to subsidize them for the virtue-signaling wealthy.
Driving the doom loop are wind and solar mandates, which include forcing the closure of reliable coal and natural gas electric generation plants, with no plans to replace them with anything reliable. We don’t have enough generation capacity now, and should the public be forced into EVs, that problem will dramatically, immediately worsen, forcing rolling blackouts across America.
Even better, there aren’t enough rare earths and other necessary materials anywhere on the planet, and most of those that do exist are controlled by China, or China dominates processing. And of course, the MMPA won’t let Americans mine or process those materials in America. They’re also preparing to allow China to flood the American market with cheap, Chinese government-subsidized EVs, the better to force Americans to buy them, and the better to eliminate the American automobile industry, which is finally recognizing economic reality and fiduciary responsibility.
The MMPA allocated billions for building EV chargers, but in a stunning display of federal government know how and efficiency, have, in a few years, built only a handful, and only on the East coast.
But let’s return to Ford and see how 2024 is shaping up:
Ford Motor Company reported a whopping $132,000 loss on each electric vehicle (EV) sold during the first three months of 2024, amassing a $1.3 billion loss.
That’s far more than the MSRP for those vehicles, and much, much more than Ford’s production costs.
The revenue for Ford’s EV car, the Model e, plunged by 84 percent to about $100 million, which the company blamed on EV price cuts across the auto industry.
“That resulted in the $1.3 billion loss before interest and taxes (EBIT), and the massive per-vehicle loss in the Model e unit,” the publication noted.?
Adding to the doom loop is customer’s realization that when Ford no longer produces any EV models, such as the electric Mustang or the electric F-150, parts supplies are going to dry up, and resale value will quickly drop into negative numbers. There will be no used EV market. Unfortunate EV owners will have to pay people to take their worthless EVs off their hands.
But other than all that, sure. EVs are the future—in some other, self-imagined elite constructed, reality.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/how_to_lose_billions_on_tvs.html
The emperor has no clothes -- and the public doesn't like what it sees
By Marc E. Zimmerman
A recent interview of a Biden Administration official illustrates how deep a policy hole this Administration has dug for us in a critical area. A newly recorded dialogue on the U.S. monetary system focused on the nature of money, borrowing, and debt. What was not revealed during this discussion was an acknowledgement that Biden’s economic programs have resulted in a massive inflationary spike during his tenure, with a serious erosion of U.S dollar purchasing power which impacts everyone, every day, when folks shop for food or fill their gas tanks.
The brief narrative presented by Biden’s Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors Jared Bernstein became completely disjointed when he attempted to explain how the Administration, by borrowing, contends with the shortages in tax revenues amounting to trillions of dollars every year to cover federal spending costs.
However, while listening to Bernstein’s dumpster fire of incoherence, a moment of clarity emerged in the midst of his curious interpretations: the presidential appointee had no clue what he was talking about. To wit:
The US government can’t go bankrupt because we can print our own money… well, um… the… uh… so the… I mean… again, some of this stuff gets… some of the language that the MM… some of the language and concepts are just confusing. I mean, the government definitely prints money and it definitely lends that money. Which is why, uh… uh… the government definitely prints money and it lends that money by uh… by selling bonds
Is that what they do? They… they… um… they… yeah… they… they… um… they sell bonds. Yeah. They sell bonds, right? Since they sell bonds and people buy the bonds and lend them the money. Yeah. So, a lot of times, a lot of times, at least to my ear with MMT, the language and the concepts can be kind of unnecessarily confusing, but there is no question that the government prints money and then it uses that money to um… uh… eh… uh… so… um… yeah… I… I… I guess I'm just… I don't… I can't really ta- I don't… I don't get it.
I don't know what they're talking about, like… cause… it's like, the government clearly prints money. It does it all the time, and it clearly borrows. Otherwise, we wouldn't be having this… this conversation. I don't think there's anything confusing there, Bernstein concluded.
From an objective perspective, based on Bernstein’s inscrutable attempt at clarifying a major fiscal tactic employed by the U.S. Treasury, the critical underpinnings of financing the U.S. budget and their effects on the domestic economy appears to be a complete mystery to him. Thus, his position serving as a skilled policy professional is miscast.
Although his educational background consists of a B.A. in music as well as a Master of Social Work degree from Columbia University, it seems it is time for a metaphysical shepherd’s crook to usher him off the economics stage. This type of preparation does not make him qualified to advise the president or anyone, for that matter, on the fields of economics and national budgets. As evidenced by the miserable conditions after three years at the helm, he should no longer have any voice in this arena, as his comprehension of sound methods and outcomes of U.S. economic policies have run afoul of the lofty goals of promoting stable prices, maximum employment of the domestic workforce, and the dependability of the U.S. dollar.
Upon reflection, he might be better suited for a temporary slot at the U.S. Department of Transportation. There he could railroad his disjointed musings over underlings who would likely be unable to track his thoughts but would certainly be kept diverted until being bounced out of office after the upcoming election.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/the_emperor_has_no_clothes_and_the_public_doesn_t_like_what_it_sees.html
Smells Like ‘68: Foreboding Parallels for Democrats in 2024
By William Sullivan
Voting Shenanigans in Michigan
By Eric Dawe
In the 2022 mid-term elections in Michigan, voters handed control of the Michigan Legislature to the Democrats, giving them a majority in both the Michigan House of Representatives and the Michigan Senate -- something that hasn’t happened for forty years. Since then, they’ve been working hand in glove with our notorious Democrat governor, Gretchen Whitmer, including passing a slew of bills that significantly transform election procedures in the State of Michigan and make it easier to commit election fraud, while at the same time making it harder to uncover it.
A little background on Governor Whitmer for the uninitiated is in order. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Whitmer transferred Covid-stricken seniors to nursing homes and long-term care facilities and prevented the removal of Covid-infected patients from these facilities, thus exposing the most vulnerable segment of the population -- those over age 60 and with pre-existing medical conditions -- to the dangers of this disease.
Thousands of seniors in these long-term housing and care facilities died, but clever manipulation of the statistics hid the magnitude of the deaths in these facilities -- until the Auditor General’s Report released in January of 2022. It documented that Whitmer’s administration underreported nursing home covid deaths by a whopping 42%.
Whitmer imposed Covid-19 restrictions on the state’s population that she regularly disregarded. During the Covid lockdown, Whitmer took a $40,000 flight on a private jet to Florida. She told the media it was to visit her ‘sick father,’ but there were no medical records to verify this. The duration of her trip was first reported as two days. Whitmer later admitted that her staff lied to the press; she was gone for four days. No one knows to this day who paid for the $40K flight or what she was doing in the Sunshine State.
Back to the story at hand. In November of 2022, Michigan voters also passed Proposal 2, a proposal to amend the voting procedures previously authorized in the State of Michigan’s Constitution. While the proposal passed with (ostensibly) 60% of the vote, the recent batch of bills purportedly written to implement the changes of Proposal 2 goes significantly beyond what was authorized by the voters.
The new legislation hands over verification of absentee ballots from an elected bipartisan board of inspectors to city or township clerks. They also significantly expand the powers of election clerks and the Secretary of State. For example, the Secretary of State can now dictate election procedures without going through the formal rule-making process. This greatly increases the potential for fraud and significantly reduces the safeguards against it.
Senate Bill 367 allows clerks in municipalities with at least 5,000 people to process and count absentee ballots eight days before Election Day. The eight-day, pre-election day window will make it very difficult for poll watchers to observe the handling and counting of mail-in votes. (What could possibly go wrong there?) Municipalities will work closely with the SoS, to whom the bill assigns the task of unilaterally “supervising the implementation and conduct of early voting for state and federal elections.” (God forbid that the SoS has entrenched political biases.)
According to Representative Ruth Johnson (R) Holly, MI, these bills remove every instance of the word ‘fraud’ in the previous law and replace them with the word, ‘error.’ Criminality of intent is thus effectively insulated from prosecution and the ability to address election fraud is stripped away. In fact, under Senate Bills 603 and 604, alleged fraud can no longer be used to request a recount.
Perhaps that’s the reason why Michigan Republican legislators were uniformly opposed to these bills. With a Democrat governor, attorney general, and secretary of state, might it not be wise to ask who stands to benefit from these bills that subtly, but significantly, change the state’s previous law and render voting fraud virtually immune from prosecution?
Michigan is a critical swing state in the upcoming presidential election, along with Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin, Nevada, and North Carolina. After watching the shenanigans that occurred in the 2020 elections in many of these states -- voting stopped for several hours; mathematically impossible vote swings that surfaced out of nowhere when vote counting resumed; windows covered up so observers couldn’t watch ballot counters; boxes stuffed with ballots suddenly appearing from under tables and unloaded from the backs of vans; and much more -- it’s not unreasonable to expect that, with the outcome of the 2024 presidential election being even more critically important to the Obama-Biden-Radical Left machine, Democrats would be even more motivated to control the voting outcome than they were in 2020.
I don’t know what’s going on currently in swing states other than Michigan. I do know that in 2020, Democrats in Arizona and Wisconsin attempted to change voting regulations in the final days before the election. In Maricopa County, the largest Democrat County in Arizona, Recorder Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, announced that he was mailing early ballots to every Democrat voter who had not cast a ballot, whether the voter had requested one or not.
Kory Langhofer, a Phoenix-based lawyer with expertise in political and constitutional law, wrote:
“When courts or elections officials change voting procedures on the eve of an election, particularly in a manner that has disparate partisan impact, it has significant consequences. It creates widespread voter confusion -- most importantly among elderly voters, a vulnerable demographic that historically trends conservative -- and opportunities for fraud and voter disenfranchisement.”
According to the Washington Examiner, in 2020, 28 states changed their voting rules to boost mail-in ballots. In fact, for the first time in history, more people voted early by mail or in person than filled out a ballot at the polls on election day.
If the Democrat Machine is determined enough to whip up specious and convoluted lawfare suits against President Trump to keep him from office again, don’t think for a moment that they’re going to keep their hands off the voting process. Keep a sharp eye. Democrat voting shenanigans have already begun again in Michigan.
"Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything.” (Attributed to Joseph Stalin.)
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/05/voting_shenanigins_in_michigan.html
Democrat Voter Triage
By A. Welderson
Independent Voters and the 2024 Election
For a growing number of Americans, the two-party system is losing its luster.
by Kelli Ballard | May 11, 2024
More people appear to be getting sick of the two-party system that seems to force them to pick one of just two options, regardless of how they actually feel about the official party nominees. Despite not having a candidate for president in this year’s election – or, for that matter, the fact that it isn’t quite a political party, strictly speaking, as a 501(c)(4) “social welfare organization” – the No Labels movement gained traction as voters felt frustrated and disillusioned by the standard choice between Republicans and Democrats. While independent voters are nothing new, the way they may be able to sway the 2024 presidential election just might be.
The Power of the Independent
Independent voters first outnumbered supporters of both political parties in 1991 and have, for the most part, continued to do so. “Over time, the increase in the percentage of independents has come more at the expense of Democrats than Republicans, which might be expected since Democrats were previously the largest political group,” Gallup reported in January. Furthermore, in 2023, independents comprised the largest political bloc, making up about 43% of the voting population. This group has remained at 40% or higher since 2011, except for in 2016 and 2020.
In Arizona and Nevada, the independent voter was the largest bloc of registered voters through most of this year. A Florida International University poll found that 13% of Hispanic voters didn’t think either of the two big parties represented their values, and one-in-five respondents considered switching their party last year: either from Democrat to Republican (38%) or to independent (23%). In New Hampshire, there isn’t an option specifically for independents, but there is an “unaffiliated” choice, which around 40% of the state’s voters chose. In the primary these voters cast 70% of their votes for Nikki Haley.
According to a Tampa Bay Times report, 42% of newly registered Hispanic voters in the past four years registered as no-party. “There’s a lack of confidence in political institutions generally,” Eduardo Gamarra, the co-director of Florida International University’s Latino Public Opinion Forum, told the outlet. “And they don’t see Democrats or Republicans as really providing them with an option.”
Registered independent voters still tend to lean either Republican or Democrat, and it has been pretty much consistently split between the two; independents polled by Gallup leaned Democrat by 45% and Republican by 44%. When Gallup asked respondents if they considered themselves Republican, Democrat, or independent, 41% said independent, 30% Republican, and 28% Democrat.
Will independents have an outsized effect on the 2024 presidential election? Fernand Amandi, a Democratic pollster and lecturer at the University of Florida, seems to think so. He told Tampa Bay Times: “They are the fastest growing segment of the electorate in Florida and they can prove decisive in a lot of races, particularly in those races that are going to be decided by less than 10 percentage points.”
A recent Harvard-Harris poll indicated that nearly 80% of independent voters want more choices than just Joe Biden or Donald Trump.
As we near Election Day, the parties are closely matched based on identification and leanings. “However, Democrats are clearly in a weaker position than they have been in any recent election year,” Gallup explained. Part of the reason is a new low percentage of adults identifying as Democrats and the advantage Republicans have been gaining. “In the past four presidential election years, Democrats had at least a five-point advantage in leaned party identification,” Gallup added. “independents will remain the largest, and arguably most persuadable, group of voters. In what is expected to be a close election contest, it is critical for each party, but especially Democrats, to nominate a candidate who can appeal to independent voters.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently won a spot on the ballot in California. He also secured access in Michigan and Utah and is expected to do so in another seven states. As an independent, he is gaining traction. For voters who want nothing to do with either Biden or Trump, Kennedy certainly has an appeal. Even if many do not opt for a third option, however, independent voters may well be the deciding factor come election day.
https://www.libertynation.com/independent-voters-and-the-2024-election/
Biden Admin’s New Asylum Rule Is Yet Another Presidential Pivot
Constant course changes raise a concerning question: Who’s behind the wheel?
by James Fite | May 11, 2024
The Biden administration announced a new rule Thursday, May 9, to reject more migrants earlier in the asylum process. Identifying which people are ineligible to enter the US in the initial “credible fear” interview will, according to the Department of Homeland Security, empower asylum officials to more rapidly deport those who aren’t going to be approved. And while it is an about-face on the issue of illegal immigration, it’s far from the first.
The president has reversed course on his public comments and the official policy of the United States on the southern border, Israel’s war on Hamas, and much more, seemingly driven by little more than knee-jerk reactions to public opinion. At this point, the near-constant switching of position has become the rule rather than an exception.
Time to Tighten Up – For Now
“The proposed rule we have published today is yet another step in our ongoing efforts to ensure the safety of the American public by more quickly identifying and removing those individuals who present a security risk and have no legal basis to remain here,” Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said. As explained in the DHS press release, federal law already prohibits people who pose a national security or public safety risk from asylum. However, that determination is typically made much later in the asylum process, well after the person in question has been in-country.
The new rule change moves up that determination to what’s called the “credible fear screening,” which is when – normally just days after an individual is first encountered – officials determine whether the applicant has a valid reason to seek asylum. DHS also passed the blame for and downplayed the severity of the influx of illegals, of course – so perhaps one can argue this pivot isn’t a total 180. “We will continue to take action, but fundamentally it is only Congress that can fix what everyone agrees is a broken immigration system,” Mayorkas said in the announcement. Already seeking to minimize negative publicity, the opening paragraph states that the rule will enable DHS to more quickly remove people “even though the number of migrants who are subject to these bars is small.”
“The Biden-Harris Administration has already taken numerous actions to address migration challenges in the region and at our border, while overseeing a historic expansion of lawful pathways,” the press release continues. That’s a far cry from how the administration handled the border crisis in the first few years of Joe Biden’s presidency: pretending it didn’t exist.
A Bad Look for Biden?
But even after the White House was forced to admit to a problem down south, the response was far from consistent. One may recall that, just days before DHS announced the new asylum rule, it was revealed that the Biden administration has been flying migrants up from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela in a mass parole program launched in early 2023. As Liberty Nation reported, more than 400,000 otherwise inadmissible aliens were flown into the country at more than 50 airports across numerous states and the District of Columbia. It was also recently revealed that, despite American citizens being required to show photo ID to get through TSA checkpoints for travel, illegals have been allowed to use actual arrest warrants to verify their identities. Let that sink in a moment: Illegals who are fugitives from the law have been allowed to travel across America using their warrants as IDs without being arrested! And while Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is hoping to pass a law to prohibit this, it has been going on since 2022.
So why the change? Could it be that secretly flying in migrants at night and using arrest warrants to verify identity for travel rather than incarceration makes Biden look bad in an election year? According to an April 2024 Gallup poll – released before these two issues dominated the headlines last week – respondents chose immigration as the most important problem facing the US, with the government in general coming in second nine percentage points down. This makes the third month in a row, which is the longest stretch for this particular issue in the past 24 years. Can the president’s latest pivot, this new DHS rule, massage public opinion enough by the time Gallup publishes May’s results to break the trend?
Directionless Diplomacy
Immigration may be the big news of the day, but it’s far from the only issue the president has allowed to be driven by public reactions. The administration seemed unified, initially, in “ironclad” support of Israel after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. In fact, administration officials still use that term – ironclad – explicitly to refer to America’s support of Israel even when announcing a “pause” in weapon shipments.
The president’s “ironclad” support lasted about as long as it took for pro-Palestinian progressives both in and out of Congress and both on and off college campuses around the nation to turn on him. And what was his reactionary response? Call for a cease-fire, accuse Israel of not caring about civilian casualties, and halt the shipment of weapons and ammunition to an American ally embroiled in a war against an enemy that wants to eradicate them entirely.
The constant course corrections in this administration are enough to make one wonder who’s behind the wheel. The answer, it seems, is whoever happens to scream the loudest at President Joe Biden.
https://www.libertynation.com/biden-admins-new-asylum-rule-is-yet-another-presidential-pivot/
GM bbotcs-
Anyone committing a crime like that should be put down, trannie or not. Texas still has the death penalty. I hope they use it in this case.
..........................al
Jack Smith has admitted to violating the same law used against J6 defendants
By Andrea Widburg
Special Prosecutor Jack Smith has just admitted that he and other DOJ and FBI minions manipulated documentary evidence underlying the Mar-a-Lago case against Donald Trump. Everybody from Judge Aileen Cannon on down realizes this is bad. Still, I wonder how many people have noticed that Smith has admitted to doing what the J6 defendants are accused and have been convicted of doing: Violating 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2). The statutory charges against the J6 defendants are a specious abuse of the law but they perfectly fit Smith’s admitted conduct.
One of the main tools in the DOJ arsenal against anyone near the Capitol on January 6, 2021, is § 1512(c)(2), which the DOJ claims means imprisonment for a person who “corruptly...obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding...” That is what the DOJ claims happened when ordinary Americans (a) exercised their rights of free speech and (b) usually inadvertently, entered onto Capitol land after masked agitators had removed “no trespassing” signage and fencing and after the Capitol police had opened the building’s doors. The penalty is fines and/or imprisonment, with the latter potentially as long as 20 years.
The Supreme Court, though, is hearing Fischer v. United States, which sees one of the DOJ’s victims contesting the DOJ’s assertion about § 1512(c)(2)’s applicability to the J6. The argument is that § 1512(c)(2) manifestly applies to a very narrow fact set; namely, corruptly interfering with evidence in an official investigation. Heck, it’s in the statute’s title: “Tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant.” Every section of the statute manifestly deals solely with efforts to destroy or otherwise manipulate evidence in a matter intended to lead to a criminal indictment.
Nevertheless, to imprison ordinary Americans, the DOJ came down hard on subsection (c)(2) of the statute because it contains the phrase “official proceeding.”
(c) Whoever corruptly—
[snip]
(2) otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so,
shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.
But while the DOJ is focusing everyone’s attention on subsection (2), they’re ignoring subsection (1):
(c) Whoever corruptly—
(1) alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding...
Does that remind you of anything? It certainly does me.
It reminds me of Smith’s admission to Judge Aileen Cannon about his and his minions’ handling of the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago, documents that then served as the basis for his decision to indict Donald Trump. (Ignore, for now, the fact that Trump, as president of the United States, had plenary power to do as he would with national security information, unhindered either by prior Executive Orders, administrative regulations, or legislation. But back to Smith’s admission:
Prosecutors admitted in a court filing on Friday that “there are some boxes where the order of items within that box is not the same as in the associated scans.” The prosecutors had previously told the court that the documents were “in their original, intact form as seized.”
As any litigator knows, maintaining documents in the order in which they’re seized or produced is enormously important. That’s because order itself provides important information about the chronology of events or a person’s intent or innocence. It’s also of particular concern in this case because these documents were apparently packed by the General Services Administration, which then told Trump to pick them up.
In addition, it’s now beyond question that the DOJ doctored the crime scene photos it publicized to the world to “prove” that Donald Trump had allegedly violated national security laws. (See my disclaimer above about Trump’s immunity from such a claim.)
Thus, we have two known instances in which the DOJ altered records, documents, and objects. Moreover, the staged Mar-a-Lago photo indicates that this was done to harm President Trump. That strongly implies both corruption and intention, two elements of a criminal cause of action.
When/if Trump returns to the White House, he needs to have his DOJ investigate the lead-up to how Smith and his minions altered and manipulated those documents. And if there’s reasonable evidence that they did so corruptly and intentionally, they must be prosecuted to the full extent of the actual laws, as written (as opposed to the Democrats’ “make it up as we go along” version of “law”). Our nation cannot survive with a partisan DOJ that is willing to violate the nation’s laws to destroy its perceived political opponents.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/jack_smith_has_admitted_to_violating_the_same_law_used_against_j6_defendants.html
Exaggeration and other loud leftist techniques
By M.B. Mathews
After going out protesting, Columbia's law students demand a free pass on their finals
By Monica Showalter
New report finds that mass migration did not actually stimulate the economy as the left claimed it would do
By Olivia Murray
As a Breitbart New item described it, there’s been a “narrative collapse” on the left, because the open borders mass migration scheme embraced by the globalist politicians in the West “has not actually stimulated the economy” as they promised, and has also been found to be “a major drag on public services and the housing sector.”
No kidding?
Here are the details, from journalist Kurt Zindulka:
While globalist advocates of mass migration argue that it increases tax revenues and lifts overall GDP, thereby giving governments talking points, on an individual basis there is a different story.
According to data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), while the United Kingdom’s GDP grew by 0.1 per cent last year — amid record levels of immigration — GDP per person fell by 0.8 per cent, drastically behind the G7 average of 1.2 per cent, despite the UK seeing the second-highest level of population growth, which has largely been driven by mass migration, The Telegraph reports.
The CPS report remarked: ‘If large-scale migration of the sort we’ve seen is really so great for the economy, we have to ask ourselves why we are not seeing this in the GDP per capita data’.
So, you mean to tell me that importing millions of people from failed cultures with no real job skills and no desire or compulsion to function in a modern Western world, doesn’t really bring a whole lot of economic benefit to the people of the host nation? And when these migrants land in the West, they turn out to be a massive drain on taxpayer-funded services, and stress out the housing sector? Weird, because that’s exactly what we conservatives have been saying this whole time.
Here’s this, from just the other day:
President Joe Biden’s migration crisis raises the mortgage rates that burden young couples and families, according to the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
‘While the long-run effect of increased immigration on inflation is unclear, immigrants nonetheless need a place to live, and their arrival in the U.S. has likely also increased demand for housing,’ said Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said on May 7.
The home nations of these migrants aren’t, as President Trump once crudely (but aptly!) put it, “s–thole countries” because they’re just unlucky plots of land, they’re “s–thole countries” because of the culture and values (or lack of) of the people who inhabit them. Like I noted last week, there is no “magic soil” because nations are simply a “reflection” of those who live there.
And, modern “money theory” is all such a joke, because you never needed an economics degree or some advanced education to exercise a command of the obvious.
For a migrant to be an economic net positive in his host nation, that means he would be paying more into the system than he is taking out—yet, how many of the tens of millions of new migrants to the West are in this camp? Do they maintain honest private sector employment, or work under the table? Or, not work at all? Do they buy their own groceries, or are they on food stamps? Do they pay their own rents/mortgage, or do they receive housing vouchers, live “free” in hotel rooms, and get priority for rent-controlled spaces? Do they pay their own healthcare and education costs or enroll in Medicaid and throw their kids in public school? Do they pay taxes for the roads on which they drive and the emergency services they disproportionately use, or keep the cash they earn?
The impact of non-contributing people on a developed nation was always a no-brainer.
(It’s like when Javier Milei won the Argentianian presidency, and the naysayers scoffed at whether his economic policies would yield bankruptcy or prosperity—again, this was a given, because if you cut waste and eliminate welfare handouts, there’s going to be a lot more money rolling around.)
The “forgive-me-I’m-just-a-stupid-politician” excuse just doesn’t hold water anymore—this is an orchestrated invasion to intentionally topple the West—and it’s time we collapse the narrative that our electeds are just well-meaning idiots, too.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/new_report_finds_that_mass_migration_did_not_actually_stimulate_the_economy_as_the_left_claimed_it_would_do.html
Joe Biden says economy's great because Americans 'have the money to spend' on inflated prices of goods
By Monica Showalter
Joe Biden is finally out campaigning, and despite reports that he's dropped the term 'Bidenomics,' as a selling point with voters, still says the economy is doing great because Americans 'have the money to spend.'
Naturally, he gave an interview with CNN:
YOUR REACTION: CNN to Biden, "Grocery prices are up 30%+ ... that's a real day-to-day pain that people feel." Biden responds, "They have the money to spend." WATCH pic.twitter.com/h51mRuPzIA
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) May 9, 2024
According to the Daily Mail:
President Joe Biden stubbornly refused to admit Americans' struggles with inflation might cost him the election in a rare interview Wednesday.
...
Biden, who was in Wisconsin to tout his record on the economy and to announce an investment by Microsoft to build a factory, defended his handling of inflation.
Polls show voters are nervous and critical of Biden's handling of the economy and anchor Erin Burnett reminded him that grocery prices are up 30 percent.
But Biden, in his interview with CNN, claimed the polls are wrong and Americans struggling with inflation have more cash in their pockets, saying: 'They have the money to spend.'
Was he mixing up the voters with himself? We all know he has more money to spend, just ask Burisma or the Chicoms who hand it to his family business.
Or was he just gaslighting the public into another solar system?
The idea that Americans have money to spend is nonsense all by itself, given the rise in grocery, gasoline, housing, consumer, medical, education and other goods they have no choice but to buy.
But even if they did have all that extra money to spend that he claims, does he really think that American like spending their extra cash on inflated prices of goods and services? Might they like to spend it on something else?
Here are the hard statistics:
Wages are down nearly 3% since he took office, while prices of groceries alone have gone up 30%.
According to Fox Business in an April 9 report:
The country's inflation-adjusted, or "real" average hourly wage, as of February 2024 is $11.11 per hour, a decrease of 29 cents from $11.40 in Jan. 2021, or minus 2.54%.
The first three months of Biden's term saw wages grow faster than inflation. But beginning in April 2021, American workers experienced 25 consecutive months of negative real wage growth, averaging -2.0%.
As for credit cards, well, one third of Americans are maxxing those out bigtime.
According to a report in Forbes, dated April 18, also citing Fox Business:
The increase in credit card debt signals that many Americans are struggling to pay for basic needs. Roughly 45% of Americans said that inflation and rising prices are why they've relied so heavily on credit cards, the Debt.com survey said. Nearly 9% of all respondents said they got a credit card to pay for a financial emergency. Moreover, 35% of Americans said they have maxed out their credit cards in recent years. Of those who had maxed out their credit cards, 85% said they were pushed to use their cards to the limit because of price increases from inflation. Approximately 22% of Americans said they now owe between $10,000 to $20,000 in credit card debt, and 5% have more than $30,000. [Fox Business]
How about those who've already maxxed their cards out, what do they do? Next stop, raids on 401(k)s for retirement. What do they look like under Bidenomics?
According to Investopedia, citing one major 401(k) provider:
As inflation and high interest rates pressure household budgets, more people are using their retirement plans as a kind of self-funded safety net, according to a new report.
Out of people with 401ks through Vanguard, 3.6% took “hardship withdrawals” in 2023, up from 2.8% in 2022, the financial company said in a report Monday. That was the highest level in at least the 19 years Vanguard has been keeping track.1
Does that sound like people who 'have the money to spend' as Joe Biden claims, proud of his 'accomplishments' on the economy?
Not to any American who has to live in his crappy economy. The man is profoundly out of touch with voters.
Here's the second half of his out-of-touch baloney, from the Daily Mail:
He blamed 'greedy corporations' for consumers' lack of confidence.
Would those be the same greedy corporations that donate to Democrats? Most corporate donations go that way. Maybe his Democrats can give back all those corporate donations so that corporations can restore prices to what they were?
Something tells me that's not something Joe's gonna propose.
But more to the point, the fundamental problem creating inflation is that Biden has expanded the size and scope of government to unsustainable levels. Inflation, as economist Milton Friedman has said, is "always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon." It doesn't come from oil. It doesn't come from egg farms. It doesn't come from corporate "greed" when companies are forced to raise their prices. It comes from Biden's compulsive spending. The national debt is growing by $1 trillion every three months, and interest payments from all that borrowing and money printing it takes to borrow now exceed defense expenditures.
That's money for nothing, money to service the debt, money that could go to something productive but not with the Biden ball-and-chain of unchecked spending and gaslighting going on in the economy. That's where inflation comes from, not from candy-bar sizes, but from monster money-printing going in an economy that doesn't produce enough growth to cover it.
He's shut the economy down, but kept the money printing, and taken America down the road to Argentina. Yet still he blames gas station owners and "greedy" corporations instead of himself for his own spendathons that fuel the inflation Americans must pay for. Then he says Americans have more money to spend. Note also that wealth is created by savings, not spending, something Biden, based on what he taught Hunter, wouldn't have the first clue about.
If this isn't economic idiocy of the most embarrassing sort, coming from the so-called leader of the free world, what is? One can only hope that Republicans are watching and can use this out-of-touch-old fool's campaign statements to the public in their own campaign ads instead.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/joe_biden_says_economy_s_great_because_americans_have_the_money_to_spend_on_inflated_prices_of_goods.html
Biden sides with terrorists over a U.S. ally *UPDATE*
By Andrea Widburg
What’s Katherine hiding from?
By Silvio Canto, Jr.
The N in NPR stands for National. I guess that Katherine Maher, CEO, does not know that because the leftist lady boss is avoiding a date with the “National” Congress. It would be like a corporate CEO avoiding a meeting with the shareholders who own a portion of the company. In the case of NPR, it’s the Congress that votes for the funding that keeps the network going. They have a duty to ask questions and Miss Maher has a responsibility to answer them. I think that they call it oversight.
This is the story:
Where the heck is Katherine Maher?
The NPR CEO has not made a single public appearance since April 9, when The Free Press published a bombshell exposé by Uri Berliner, a 25-year veteran at the network, alleging ideological bias at the institution.
Even today, when Maher was summoned by Congress to give testimony about whether NPR’s news reporting was ‘fair and objective,’ she was a no-show.
Her excuse? The night before the hearing, she announced she could not attend because of. . . a previously scheduled board meeting.
Instead, Maher submitted written testimony drafted in the prose style of brand management consultants. According to Maher, NPR is ‘bringing trusted, reliable, independent news and information of the highest editorial standards’ to tens of millions of listeners.
Dear Katherine: Some of us don’t think that you are bringing trusted and reliable news. It’s hard to do by just listening to your radio network obsessed with race, gender, and woke ideology. Many of us did not need that memo from Uri Berliner to reach the conclusion that NPR had gone off the rails a while back.
So get your act together and walk to Congress for a little chat with the people who will vote to fund your network. Don’t be surprised if many of them vote to defund you and compete in the real world with other stations.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/what_s_katherine_hiding_from.html