My Gazette: Media Collapase and Corruption Part IV

By Rich Kozlovich, See Part I, Part II, and Part III

 

The claim some time has been the Main Stream Media, or as I call it the Pravda media, has lost all credibility.  The debates sealed that claim.  What was the media's biggest beef with J.D. Vance?  The man had the audacity to confidently smile.  Imagine that.  Did he shout, scowl, wave his arms in outrage, bang his fits on the podium?  No, he did much worse, and it was far more "chilling".  He outrageously " put on a mask of likability and empathy.”    That was unforgivable male toxicity.  After a face crime such as that, how does he even dare "breathe  in the air we breathe on this planet! ”  But that was from Maureen Dowd, as far left loon a as there is. 

In Discover the Networks, Dowd is described as a "narcissistic writer tending to reduce “all political phenomena .... to caricatures of the personalities", who finds it “easier to whine than to take a stand or offer solutions".  Her "favorite rhetorical device is parallelism", which is like a the logical fallacy of inappropriate comparisons.  Claims anyone who opposed abortion suffers from "mental impairment", and is an unending race baiter, and I think the real reason she dislikes Vance so much is she identifies as one J.D. Vance's childless cat ladies, just like Kamala Harris, "who hadn’t procreated.... were “miserable” and had no “direct stake” in the country", whether she owns a cat or not. 

The arrogance of the "stars" of the Pravda Media is beyond the pale, Stephanopoulos says "he will not continue with any interview with a Republican if they won't concede Joe Biden won in 2020.  He won't allow any discussion of voter fraud, or watered down ballot rules.  Nitwits like him "think it's journalistic malpractice to do a live interview with President Trump on television."  Why? Because if it's live they can't contort what was said as they've done over and over again with taped interviews.    

Then we have Morning Joe Scarborough, who has been described as America's Baghdad Bob.  You remember Baghdad Bob don't you?  He was "Saddam Hussein’s Information Minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf", who '"ludicrously claimed “The infidels are committing suicide by the hundreds on the gates of Baghdad.”  "Americans “are going to surrender or be burned in their tanks. They will surrender, it is they who will surrender."  The next day Baghdad fell.

Joe Scarborough? At one point, he was considered a conservative Republican congressman from Florida. Today, he is a disgraceful fool spouting a never-ending array of talking points for President Joe Biden on cable news. His credibility as a journalist, although never very impressive, has completely evaporated.  His performances on MSNBC have become so laughable that the comparisons to “Baghdad Bob” are impossible to ignore.

 Scarborough claims former President Donald Trump was “preparing for civil war.”  What triggered that statement?  Well, he quotes Trump saying:

 “Those who want to stop us from achieving this future have slandered me, impeached me, indicted me, tried to throw me off the ballot. And who knows? Maybe even tried to kill me.”.....“You know, I always say there is an enemy from within, and there is an outside enemy. If you are smart, the outside enemy is not going to be a problem. Russia, China, North Korea, we are not going to have a problem if you have a smart president. If you have not such a smart president then it’s a problem. We have an enemy from within, which I think is much more dangerous than the outside enemy.”

How does Scarborough define all those true statements?  He calls that a stunning level of un-American activity. 

“The level of un-American activity that you just saw is stunning. That is un-American. They know they’re lying. Donald Trump knows that’s a lie. He will tell you that the Secret Service, he thought, did the best job they could do. The fact that JD Vance and Trump’s family would out and out say what they said takes the threat of violence takes the threat beyond where it was even leading up to January 6. This is an increasingly desperate person, an increasingly desperate family, who is preparing for civil war. They just are.”

And the list of outrageous statements by Scarborough and his team are listed in the linked artilce, go there and see clearly they're all about "punishing Trump, coddling Biden".  And "this is what our media elite considers a well-functioning democracy and apolitical justice", and the reason I call them the Pravda media.

There's no debate or interview that won't be a designed trap to make conservatives look bad, and a lot of that is backfiring as conservatives have given up any idea the media will play fair.  They won't, and now people like J.D. Vance are prepared to deal with them, and even challenge them.   

Katarina Bradford on October 16, 2024 posted this article, 4 Times the Left-wing Media has  C0mpletely Destroyed its Credibility, saying:

The mainstream media no longer pursues truth. It is a puppet of the political establishment and will demonize anyone who dares question their establishment-approved narratives. Labeling everyday Americans as “conspiracy theorists” and purveyors of “disinformation,” the media has weaponized its platforms to shield political elites rather than holding them accountable. From silencing critical stories like Hunter Biden’s laptop to ridiculing valid concerns about COVID vaccines, the mainstream media has consistently acted as the enforcer of the political machine, not a champion of truth.

As the facts came to light, many of the stories they dismissed and suppressed have been vindicated—exposing not only the media’s bias but also the lengths they’ll go to discredit those who challenge their carefully constructed narratives. Here are four of the most shocking lies the mainstream media purported to protect their leftist political elites that absolutely destroy their credibility: 

Lie #1: The Hunter Biden laptop theory is Russian disinformation.....
Lie #2: The COVID lab-leak theory is a conspiracy theory.....
Lie #3: COVID vaccines are safe and effective.....
Lie #4: Joe Biden's mental state is "not" declining.....

Actually, while those are four excellent examples, the amount of vile and corrupt lies of commission, lies of omission, logical fallacies, and projection, spewed out by these corrupt misfits is much larger than just these four examples, actually going back a hundred years, and probably just as long as news organizations have existed. 

Kalama's Joy Campaign Strategy? I Think We Can Say We're "Over" Joyed Now!

By Robin Itzler 

Editor's Note:  This is one of the commentaries selected from Robin's weekly newsletter Patriot Neighbors. Any cartoons appearing will have been added by me.  If you wish to get the full edition, E-mail her at PatriotNeighbors@yahoo.com to get on her list, it's free. RK

Car manufacturer Toyota is the latest company to announce that it will no longer sponsor pride events such as festivals and parades. Exceptions are only if the event is directly connected to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education and workforce readiness. Like so many other companies. Toyota will also stop participating in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index.

In its memo to 50,000 US employees and 1,500+ dealerships, Toyota said it is going to focus more on its core business. (Duh!) Employee resources will instead be focused on professional development, networking, and mentoring. (Duh!)

Reportedly from the memo: “We will work to ensure that the activities and events are focused on professional development, networking, mentoring and volunteering — team member engagement that drives our business. Furthermore, we will work to ensure all company activities are aligned with our values and create an inclusive environment for our team members.” 

To share your thoughts with Toyota USA CEO Tetsuo Ogawa: Click here to contact Toyota USA , Phone: 469 -292-4000 Write: 6565 Headquarters Dr, Plano, TX 75024 

Layoffs Continue

In September, companies announced 72,821 layoffs. Here’s a sampling of the JOYFUL situation that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz would like to continue:

• Amazon (technology/eCommerce) – According to a Morgan Stanley report (reported in Bloomberg), Amazon is looking to reduce its managerial positions by 14,000 early next year. The company would save around $3 billion annually.
• Asurion (warranty and repair services insurance) – Will layoff 3 percent of its employees. The company has 19,500 employees worldwide. This is Nashville’s largest private employer.
• Boeing (aerospace) – Will cut 10 percent of its workforce (about 17,000 employees) over the next few months. This includes executives, managers and employees.
• Charles River Laboratories (healthcare) – Announced it is reducing its workforce by 3 percent (approximately 650 people).
• CVS Health (healthcare) – The company reported that 416 employees from Aetna will be laid off between December 8 – 21. (How fast can you not say, “Merry Christmas?!”)
• Disney (entertainment) – Said goodbye to about 300 employees across multiple corporate departments. On another note, on October 9 most Disneyland and Disney California Adventure ticket prices increased an average of 6 percent.
• Johnson & Johnson (healthcare) – Will let 231 employees go by December 27. (More “Merry Christmas!”)
• Paramount Global (entertainment) – The next phase of its plan to lay off 15 percent of its U.S. workforce continues. Its streaming service was most affected by the current round of terminations.
• Verizon (technology) – Announced it would be laying off nearly 5,000 employees by March 2025. 

Please Read,  If You Told Me That "Inflation" is the Rising Prices of Goods and Services, You'd be Wrong by W. H. Lamb.

America’s Best and Worst Governors

October 16, 2024 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty

In 2022, Chris Edwards released his Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors and calculated that Kim Reynolds of Iowa was the best in the nation.

That was an improvement over her 2nd-place finish in 2020.

How did she do this year (the Report Card is issued every two years)?

She held on to first place in the 2024 Report Card, thanks to policies that are making Iowa the “Florida of the North.” Here are the best and worst governors in the nation, with Reynolds on top by a comfortable margin.

Notice, however, who is in last place.

Tim Walz of Minnesota has been very unfriendly to taxpayers, earning an F thanks to a dismally low score of 19.

In his Report Card, Chris provides details on why Reynolds came in first place and Walz came in last place.

We’ll start with Table A.1, which shows that Reynolds presided over spending restraint. Walz, by contrast, increased his state’s spending burden more than seven times faster.

Next we have Table A.2. Once again, wee see a big gap between the two governors. Reynolds has dramatically reduced both personal and corporate income tax rates. Walz, however, increased Minnesota’s already-high top tax rate on households.

John Hendrickson of Iowans for Tax Reform must have suspected Reynolds would be first and Walz would be last. He compared the two governors last month in a column for Townhall. Here is some of his analysis.'

A Tale of Two States:
Conservative Gov. Reynolds vs. Socialism of Gov. Walz 

Under the leadership of Gov. Walz and a Democrat-Farmer-Labor (DFL) legislature, Minnesota is being transformed into a California-style socialist state. This is the opposite of what is occurring in Iowa under the leadership of Gov. Kim Reynolds and its Republican-led legislature. …

Minnesota has some of the highest tax rates in the Midwest and, just as with other high-tax states, a mass exodus is taking place as families and businesses pack their bags for states friendlier to the pocketbook. …Overall, Gov. Walz and the DFL legislature increased taxes by $10 billion…

Gov. Walz and the DFL legislature are also increasing the size and scope of government by increasing spending. The governor and DFL legislature exhausted an $18 billion budget surplus. A $1.5 billion deficit is looming as a result of unsustainable spending. …Iowa seems like another world by comparison. Since 2018, Gov. Reynolds has made tax reform a priority. Iowa once had some of the highest income taxes in the nation. The income-tax rate in Iowa was close to 9 percent and the corporate tax rate was 12 percent, the highest in the nation.

Starting in 2025, however, Iowa will have a 3.8 percent flat tax and a corporate tax rate of 7.1 percent, which is scheduled to fall until it reaches a flat 5.5 percent. Gov. Reynolds also places a priority on conservative budgeting. The budget has been in surplus the past several years.

The surplus for Fiscal Year 2024 is projected to be $1.9 billion and the surplus for Fiscal Year 2025 is projected to be $2.4 billion. …In Iowa, Gov. Reynolds and the legislature removed barriers to education by establishing a strong school-choice program based on Education Savings Accounts.

Some very damning analysis, at least for those who like Walz.

I have a series of columns comparing Florida and New York and another set of columns comparing Texas and California. Maybe I’ll need to do something similar for Iowa and Minnesota.

P.S. I wrote in August about the failure of Minnesota’s class-warfare tax policy.

P.P.S. If you want to see how every state ranks for overall economic policy, I recommend Economic Freedom of North America and Freedom in the 50 States.

Critically Thinking about Experience

Should you automatically vote for the candidate with the most experience?

 

John Droz jr. Oct 17, 2024 @ Critically Thinking About Select Societal Issues

Although the Presidential election race has rightly taken front stage, there are several down-ballot races that are EXTREMELY significant. As a good example of these, I’m going to discuss a North Carolina contest. Don’t be fooled into thinking that this is just a NC matter!

There is almost universal agreement that the US K-12 education system is seriously distressed — so fixing it is a bipartisan issue. The problem is that almost no one is doing anything meaningful to address this extraordinarily important problem — until now. (BTW, School Choice is a great thing, but it will not fix this situation.)

Arguably one of the top twenty most important elections in the US is the contest for the NC Superintendent of the Department of Public Instruction (DPI: K-12 schools). The outcome there could have profoundly beneficial national — and even international — repercussions.

The GOP candidate, Michele Morrow, is a political novice (note that I did not say education novice). She is a mom with five children (and most of them were home-schooled), a long-time nurse, and a staunch Conservative Christian.

As an aside, here is a short video of Michele speaking at her local school board a few years ago — long before she decided to run for DPI Superintendent. 

Editor's Note:  I can't reproduce that video here, so in order to view it please go to the original article. RK

Since this is an unscripted talk, it is a good representation of who she reallyThe Democrat candidate for NC DPI Superintendent is Maurice (Mo) Green, who is politically experienced. He is a lawyer, former superintendent of a large NC school district, and CEO of a Left-leaning organization.

There have now been a few debates between these candidates, and the mantra from Mr. Green is that he should be elected because he is the “experienced” option. (Watch a representative debate [below], and hear that for yourself. Also note who seems more competent.)

Editor's Note:  I can't reproduce that video here, so in order to view it please go to the original article. RK

The question here is: should “experience” be the primary reason that a citizen votes for a candidate?

Let’s critically think about what “experience” is. Basically, it means that a person has done something before.

Let’s say you’ve never played golf, and you decide that (for health, social, etc. reasons) you’d like to become a competent golfer. You share this new aspiration with a neighbor, who has played golf 50± times. Since he clearly has much more experience than you do, should you accept his offer to give you lessons?

Hopefully, this analogy should make clear: experience — by itself — is NOT any assurance of competence. Your neighbor may never have broken 100, so is that the person you want giving you instructions about golf habits you should adopt?

Back to the NC Contest -

Interestingly, this NC contest reveals the types of concerns that any Critically Thinking voter should have about their own state’s education department…

Since Mr. Green is trumpeting his experience and leadership in NC K-12 education, the question to Critically Thinking voters is: is that a positive factor?

Let’s look closer at NC DPI, which is a system that has been run for years by credentialed experts with extensive experience, including Mo Green. What the question for NC voters is: are you happy with the results? This means considering that:

1 - NC DPI is having great trouble in not only recruiting but retaining teachers. (NC’s most recent annual attrition rate was over 10,000, the highest on record!)

2 - There were some 11,000 reports of violence last year in NC K-12 schools, again the highest on record. (Note: there were likely many more not reported.)

3 - Academic test results have been inferior. (Things are so bad that DPI is portraying results that show that less than sixty percent of NC students just have the minimum proficiency in their grades, as a positive thing! Look at the official DPI trends over the last twenty years to see the bigger, disturbing picture.)

4 - A record number of parents are removing their children from NC public schools, and are now home-schooling them. (Some 100,000 children have now been taken out of the NC public school system and home-schooled.)

5 - DPI has allowed Progressive ideology like DEI, CRT, SEL, etc. to become thoroughly indoctrinated into NC children (e.g., here).

6 - There is no part of the DPI’s curricula that specifically teaches NC children how to be Critical Thinkers. Compare that to the fact that regarding SEL, DPI has webpages, has hired people to promote SEL, has professional training for teachers on SEL, etc. There is nothing remotely comparable to that for Critical Thinking!

These extremely troubling results are what has happened when we have put the education of our children in the hands of so-called experts with experience, like Mr. Green. Again: experience is only a positive thing when results are a success. That’s obviously not the case in NC, so we need to look for outside-the-box solutions.

This is exactly why Michele is running for NC Superintendent of DPI. Voting for her means business as usual at DPI is no longer acceptable.

a) She believes that DPI should have more emphasis on academics and be paying much closer attention to what is in the curricula. In doing so, DPI needs to scrub DEI, CRT, etc. from the curricula, as it is counterproductive and disruptive. These types of progressive messages increase violence and undermine teacher retention.

b) She believes that DPI should primarily be teaching our children HOW to think, not WHAT to think — as is happening now.

c) She believes that after emphasizing student academics and critical thinking, DPI will be much more successful at recruiting and retaining good teachers.

d) She believes that if DPI actually taught students what is promised in the Portrait of a Graduate (how to critically think, communicate, have empathy, etc.) DPI will not only reduce safety issues but will also increase teacher retention.

e) She believes that getting more money from the NC State Legislators would be a complete waste if it is just dumped into the current system. When Legislators see Michele’s DPI changes, it is highly likely that they will loosen the purse strings.

In short, Michele believes that DPI can provide a superior education product, competitive with the best private schools, and better than the home-school option.

So the choice to NC voters is very simple and extraordinarily important.

Attorney Green is a proud and unrepentant part of the NC education establishment. Voting for him means that citizens are happy with how things are going at DPI, and that they want Mo of the same.

Voting for Michele means that citizens believe that NC K-12 public schools can provide an excellent education — but need an outside infusion of creativity to return NC schools to their past levels of performance. 

The Bottom Line - 

No matter where you live, please support this courageous, competent, conservative woman!

PS: Just so you don’t think this is all in my head, here is a fine piece about Michele, from a credible NC source, with no connection to me.

---

Here are other materials by this scientist that you might find interesting:

I now am offering incentives for you to sign up new subscribers!

Check out the Archives of this Critical Thinking substack.

WiseEnergy.org: discusses the Science (or lack thereof) behind our energy options.

C19Science.info: covers the lack of genuine Science behind our COVID-19 policies.

Election-Integrity.info: multiple major reports on the election integrity issue.

Media Balance Newsletter: a free, twice-a-month newsletter that covers what the mainstream media does not do, on issues from COVID to climate, elections to education, renewables to religion, etc. Here are the Newsletter’s 2024 Archives. Please send me an email to get your free copy. When emailing me, please make sure to include your full name and the state where you live. (Of course, you can cancel the Media Balance Newsletter at any time - but why would you?

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Election 2024: Kamala to Jews: “Over Your dead bodies!” Deep state to Trump & maga: “Yours too!”

By Thomas Budds

Editor's  Note:  This is one of the commentaries selected from Robin's weekly newsletter Patriot Neighbors.  If you wish to get the full edition, E-mail her at PatriotNeighbors@yahoo.com to get on her list, it's free. RK

 Kamala and the deep state’s dire transformation of an idiom is moving at warp speed.

The idiom, “over my dead body”, is meant to be an exaggerated way of saying, you’ll have to kill me before I let you do that! The hyperbole isn’t to be taken literally, but recent actions by Kamala, Democrats, and the deep state seem to have “turned” the phrase on its head, sans hyperbole.

The list of negative actions and inactions against Jews by Kamala, Democrats, and the deep state is too long to itemize. Their lust to retain power has gone beyond dirty politics having become proactively kinetic, seemingly saying to us all, we’ll win “Over YOUR dead bodies; Jews!”, and “Over YOUR dead bodies; Trump & MAGA, not ours!

I assessed an increasing probability that an “event” would happen in one or more swing states. That the FBI’s Chris Wray would investigate, concluding Kamala won all those electoral votes and the presidency. Today, my assessment probabilities have been eclipsed with physical violence to Mr. Trump overtaking my suggested “event” scenario.

Concomitant scenarios are unfolding. The administration has all but abandoned the Jews trading their lives for votes, an easy task to carry out being ingrained antisemites. Concurrently, lawfare is vigorously pursued against any perceived political enemy. They seem to have stepped up their game this year preparing the nation for Mr. Trump’s demise.

Armaments are being slow-walked to Israel for their war, while they go unprotected in the USA. “Lawfare” is unleashed against MAGA and Christians, while protection levels are debated after two assassination attempts and one plot to kill Donald Trump have taken place; his poor safety levels appear intentional.

The daily leaks are increasing in frequency and “warning” levels are spiking. Seems the nation is purposefully being desensitized to remove a shocked reaction following a successful attack, but never fear because, in the aftermath, FBI’s Chris Wray will get to the bottom of it…expect a quick arrest, fake news, and self-aggrandizing testimony to quickly put the “tragedy” behind us.

This is my final assessment of the state of the 2024 election. I have formed the opinion that the nation and world stability will be sacrificed by the left for completion of Barack Hussein Obama’s mission statement to fundamentally transform America to a post constitutional government.  They will never allow Trump to sit in the Oval Office, it’s to their peril!   

• Professor David Halahmy explains Why We Use the Electoral College System.

 

Are We Now A Radical Socialist Nation? - or - Is the Tide Turning to Freedom?

By Robin Itzler

Editor's Note:  This is one of the commentaries selected from Robin's weekly newsletter Patriot Neighbors. Any cartoons appearing will have been added by me.  If you wish to get the full edition, E-mail her at PatriotNeighbors@yahoo.com to get on her list, it's free. RK

Consider what is happening today under a Democrat administration that we would never, never,  have allowed to happen even five years ago!   United states—While Hurricane Helene victims were slowly digging out of the rubble, former Obama strategist David Axelrod gleefully noted that most victims are Trump supporters. Also consider:

• The Harris-Biden administration announced they are sending $230+ MILLION to Ukraine to help Ukrainians prepare for their cold winter. (That’s the same amount the Harris-Biden administration spent on the Gaza Pier that fell apart after a couple of weeks.)
• FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund monthly report shows that $4 BILLION was spent on “COVID-19 aid” in September 2024. Doesn’t FEMA know that COVID-19 is over? Why wasn’t that money readied for hurricane relief?

Let’s give the kids a sex change operation—A report from the medical watchdog group Do No Harm shows that hospitals in the U.S. earned nearly $120 million in four years performing gender transition treatments on nearly 14,000 children under the age of 18. 

The following twelve hospitals in the United States performed the highest numbers of sex-change treatments on minors:

· The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
· Connecticut Children’s Medical Center
· Children’s Minnesota
· Seattle Children’s
· Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles
· Boston Children’s Hospital
· Rady Children’s Hospital
· Children’s National Medical Center
· UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland
· Children’s Hospital Colorado
· UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh
· Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

With our prayers and involvement, we must have hope of saving our republic. Let’s look at some recent wins that show the tide might be turning in the direction of Conservative Judeo-Christian values. However, we need Republican leadership, which seems to be in short supply.  

Virginia: The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) won a $575,000 judgment (damages and attorney’s fees) for former French teacher Peter Vlaming. The long-time French teacher refused to use the requested pronouns for a mentally ill student (aka trans). What if the student said he was a dog, would Vlaming have been expected to rub the child’s belly and offer milkbones? A devout Christian, Vlaming told the school board he couldn’t use pronouns that were not the student’s obvious birth gender. The teacher stayed away from situations that required pronouns and used the student’s new preferred name, but the board still voted 5-0 to oust Vlaming. This judgment should be a wake-up call to other woke school boards. 

New Hampshire: In September, Governor Chris Sununu signed House Bill 1569, which requires proof of citizenship when registering to vote and a photo ID when casting a ballot. The bill eliminates voter ID exceptions and increases requirements for documents such as passports and birth certificates to prove U.S. citizenship.  

Oklahoma: Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters wants Bibles in every classroom. (Note: students will not be forced to read them.) The Department of Education opened bidding for the purchase of 55,000 bibles.

Where's the Outrage?

There are many January 6 prisoners still languishing behind prison bars. Some haven’t even been charged! Most have had their financial and emotional lives completely destroyed defending themselves in courtrooms in front of biased judges and juries. You can help by becoming a monthly commissary sponsor. SponsorJ6.com continues to help nearly 200 January 6 prisoners. 

From a recent SponsorJ6 email:

Its the families at home that are struggling to pay for prison phone calls & emailing credita just to stay in contact with their loved ones! On top of that, they have to pay thousands of dollars a year to buy commissary food, clothing & hygiene products just so their patriot doesn't starve on the menial nutrition & sustenance they are provided!

Its become a overwhelming burden for some families, who have been bankrupted entirely from the extortion racket these prisons have become. Young families are being evicted from homes & forced to move into apartments & sleep in cars. This is exactly what the deep state & FBI wanted when they decided to target these people for a Constitutionally protected protest.   

Click here to donate and/or become a sponsor to help January 6 prisoners. 

Read “How the Mighty Obama Has Fallen” by Susan Daniels

Bill Maher Thinks Abortion is a Good Thing Because Kids Are Expensive

By Rich Kozlovich

Every once in a while Maher actually gets something right and the conservative media can't wait to tout it. In my view getting something right once in a while doesn't give someone a pass on the rest of life, as a result I'm loathe to link or quote anything he does get right.  I think he's just as evil as the rest of the left.   Recently Bill Maher came out saying those struggling with inflation should be the biggest proponents of abortion because kids are expensive.

In April I posted this piece, Defining Leftist Moral Boundaries. That's Easy, They Don't Exist!, noting he views abortion as a good thing because there's just too many people on the planet. So why not get rid of old people, retarded people, crippled people, and how about those who really irritate us?  Just like the Chinese who murder opponents and harvest their organs for transplantation.  After all, there just way too many people on the planet, so what's the big deal?   Right?

The fact is abortion has become the central focus on the left's campaign against conservatives. Here in Ohio that's an unending drum beat by Sherrod Brown. It's my view Abortion Is The Murder of The Innocent Unborn.

We're genetically coded to protect children, even with our own lives, and I think that applies to the unborn, and I also think most people believe that, at least on an emotional level, but find it intellectually difficult to overcome the drumbeat from the left and Pravda media, that murdering the unborn is healthcare, and is a special right exclusive only to women without any interference from society.   And we thought the pagans who threw their children into burning pits to appease Baal were sick and vile. 

If you can get women to believe murdering their unborn children is acceptable because it's a right, and it's "health care", there's no limit to vile things they will accept.

Here's the link to my abortion commentaries. As an FYI, P&D is a totally not for profit passion for me. I share what I believe.

Trump Says ‘Enemy From Within’ Threatens National Security

It may be more lethal than the enemy from without. 

 

By Dave Patterson Oct 15, 2024 @ Liberty Nation News, Tags: Articles, Military Affairs, Opinion

Former President Donald Trump is on the hot seat with the establishment media — again. It seems he has focused in on the national security threat of an “enemy from within” the US borders, suggesting that some people in positions of authority in government, universities, and other institutions whose worldview is inimical to what Americans have fought and died to preserve are working against the best interests of the United States.

Trump Criticized for Views on Using the Military

Enemies from within is not a new concept. Americans were treated to scenes of pro-Hamas and anti-Jewish violent mobs last spring that continue today. These riots were spawned in Eastern universities and rapidly spread to the nation’s capital. Though the freedom to speak one’s mind is a sacred right, defacing and destroying public property is not. However, these acts against America’s institutions, though egregious and perpetrated by enemies of civil order, are not what Trump was pilloried for identifying.

No, the 45th president was criticized for suggesting the US National Guard and active-duty military should be used to stop the flow of illegal aliens streaming across the US southern border as a result of Biden-Harris administration policy. “He has pledged to recall thousands of American troops from overseas and station them at the US border with Mexico. He has explored using troops for domestic policy priorities such as deportations and confronting civil unrest,” the Associated Press reported. But is it testing “the limits on using the military at home,” as the AP put it?

The military has been used six times when the security of American citizens was threatened. Employing federal troops during civil unrest and domestic violence is part of the fabric of the US legal legacy nearly as old as the country itself, dating back to the Insurrection Act of 1807 and the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. These laws establish how and where military forces can be used within the homeland. “When it comes to curbing civil unrest, the military has been called out on multiple occasions — and it wasn’t just the National Guard, either,” Military.com said. For Trump to suggest using the military in defense of US sovereign borders and against violence in the streets is not unprecedented.

However, the genesis of the latest uproar was a question put to Trump by Maria Bartiromo during an interview on Fox News. “How are you going to guard against the bureaucrats undermining you?” Bartiromo asked Trump. The former president answered that there are two types of enemies: Those outside, like Russia and China, and then there are the inside enemies. Trump said that external foes are easier to deal with – and that inside enemies are more dangerous than China or Russia. “The thing that’s tougher to handle are these lunatics we have inside like Adam Schiff, ‘shifty’ Schiff … I call him the enemy from within. When you look at the danger he put the country in potentially with Russia, with a phony made-up deal,” Trump said. However, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) has more to account for on the debt side of the integrity ledger.

Remember, Schiff vigorously criticized then-President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence for having been briefed on an American intelligence report that Russians had offered a bounty to the Taliban for killing US and coalition forces in Afghanistan. Schiff decried the president and vice president for not informing anyone of this threat. “The only problem is that the White House press secretary responded that both President Trump and VP Pence deny having ever been briefed. Furthermore, those from the intelligence community who would have done the briefing said they did not brief either of them,” Liberty Nation News reported. After days of slinging invective at the Trump administration, it was confirmed that Trump and Pence had not been briefed. “But guess who was briefed, told no one, and did nothing? And the answer is, drum roll, please … Representative Adam Schiff,” LNN revealed.

Greatest Scandal in Broadcast History

Trump explained to Bartiromo that the “single greatest scandal, in my opinion, in broadcast history” occurred recently. The former president described the CBS 60 Minutes interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. In a deceptively edited version of the sit-down, the network took out the VP’s incomprehensible response to one question and substituted another answer to an unrelated question that sounded more cogent.

Give Cable TV the Boot – Check This Out!

Trump is making a critical point. Whether you like CBS or not, it is a network news source upon which many depend for their information. CBS represents the press, an institution the Constitution protects explicitly. One of the first attacks an effective enemy can make is to destroy the people’s confidence in their news sources. It is more than just propping up a lackluster presidential candidate. Liberty Nation News explained, “Unfortunately, little coming from inside the beltway would reveal the problems, gaffes, and missteps since the left-leaning fourth estate has become the vocal fifth-column apologists for the White House foreign policy and national security team’s failings.”

When it comes to Trump’s inclination to utilize the military domestically, The Wall Street Journal zeroed in on an answer given in the Bartiromo interview when the former US chief executive was asked if he expects chaos and violence on Nov. 5. Trump replied, “Not from the side that votes for Trump … It should be very easily handled, if necessary, by the National Guard, or, if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.” Note the caveat “if necessary.”

Whether from Antifa, Hamas supporters, or anti-American violence of any stripe, using the military to bring order is not, as AP suggested, testing limits. Nor is it an unprecedented idea.

The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliate.

~

Liberty Nation does not endorse candidates, campaigns, or legislation, and this presentation is no endorsement.

Read More From Dave Patterson

The Issue is the Revolution

By Daniel Greenfield @ Sultan Knish Blog 

“There is only one solution, intifada revolution,” mobs of college students chant at terror rallies.

What is there to ‘revolt’ against in New York City, Los Angeles or Chicago? The Hamas rallies like the BLM, environmentalist and other radical rallies take place in cities run by mayors and city councils who support their efforts and sometimes even show up to their events.

Even before New York City and other municipalities paid out millions in voluntary settlements to the BLM rioters who had assaulted police officers, the dirty secret of the radical mobs was that the authorities were on their side. And will continue to be on their side no matter what they do.

The revolution is also the thing that it’s revolting against.

Democrats secured control of the country’s major cities only to be faced with the timeless leftist challenge of making the intensification of their rule look like revolution rather than totalitarianism. The USSR and Cuba directed the ‘revolution’ outward by invading, conquering and intervening in other countries. Democrat cities nationalized their politics, building entire campaigns around Trump, abortion and (to their eventual regret) declaring themselves to be sanctuary cities.

As long as Republicans existed anywhere, urban Democrats could not sleep soundly at night.

Democrat control of cities and states didn’t end bipartisan politics, just turned it into a somewhat real and somewhat fake grudge match between the party’s really crazy and less crazy wings. Craziness was a variable like ‘X’ that was defined not by the common sense brakes of intellectual diversity, but by how far the really crazy wing could push the less crazy wing.

In 2010, open borders, freeing all the criminals, men pretending to be women and support for Hamas were fringe positions of the really crazy wing. By 2024, they’re Democrat positions.

The difference between the really crazy wing and the merely crazy wing is not that they have fundamentally different beliefs, but different tactics and comfort zones. It didn’t take long for the next generation to come home for winter breaks and win over the Democrat moms and dads to police defunding, drag queen story hour and the mass murder of Jews. But first the cultural establishment had to make these horrifying things seem respectable and normal.

Had to fit banning cars and Hamas on a lawn sign right under “in this house, love is love”.

What will the really crazy wing of the party normalize next? Check the academic calendar for the next year, social media for the year after and then the protest calendar for the next five years.

The ‘revolution’ is just about the radicals running the streets getting the feckless ex-liberals running the actual show to adopt some horrendous policy derived from the ravings of a 19th century philosopher and then given a glow up by activist academics and public intellectuals.

Classic town hall politics, limited constitutional government, and checks and balances in a bipartisan system would have prevented American cities from turning into the Paris Commune, but urban politics had made a rapid transition from Tammany Hall political machines to corporate consultants to Marxist struggle sessions with little democracy to be found in any of it.

Cities aren’t run by voters but by ‘stakeholders’. Lifelong community activists and their community groups, municipal unions and their members, and a few political clubs harvest ballots, turn out votes and then end up running cities. That 1% actually runs our lives.

A new generation of young radical activists with dot com money backing and social media savvy like AOC found it easy enough to harness the power of hipster grad students living in $3K a month walkups to disrupt the system and carve out their own extremist slice of the pie.

The new red guard, like the old, however had to find something to do besides stealing money.

The lofty promises of universal health care require more money than is available even if the wings of the old crazy party and the new really crazy party stopped stealing all the money. Defunding the police by moving money from law enforcement to their leftist activist social allies is easier. And a good pogrom against Jewish stores and synagogues is a great distraction.

The revolution isn’t about killing Jews (or not just about killing Jews) but wiping out entire classes of people, reactionaries, shopkeepers and whoever else ended up in the killing fields of Siberia, Guangxi and Choeung Ek for the power and profit of a rising new political elite.

The less crazy party thinks it will never have to come to that, but as with its views on men showering with girls or exposing schoolchildren to violent pornography, this is subject to change.

Life as an urban/suburban bourgeoise with regular stops at Starbucks, Crate and Barrel, and Whole Foods before charging the Tesla in the driveway is pretty comfortable, but being a pol commissar with a dacha in the Outer Banks and the power to gulag your enemies might just be better. All of that will require not just one revolution but a cycle of intermittent revolutions.

The causes matter less than the trajectory. One day it’s the police, the next day it’s car owners and then it’s the Jews. (Say what you will, but the Jews are always a popular one.) The issue, as a certain Marxist once said, is never the issue, the issue is always the revolution.

Causes provide narratives. Berkeley professors and Wall Street personal assistants who have no idea where the river or the sea may be are chanting for the destruction of Israel because it’s a nice change of pace. Like all of us, leftists like to feel that they’re growing as people by embracing new murderous causes. Freeing all the criminals didn’t work so well, but freeing all the terrorists to kill Jewish people thousands of miles away feels both heroic and safe.

But the exoticism of chanting for an “intifada” boils down to a call for revolution here and now.

Students for Justice in Palestine tweeted that the ultimate purpose of the anti-Israel BDS movement is “eradicate America as we know it.” Eradicating America as we know it might seem a bit off-putting to the suburban soy dads and wine moms who make up the middle class base of the party, but they’ll come around just like they did on turning Tim into Tammy and Tammy into Tim. What else are they going to do anyway: become Republicans and have people sneer at them in Whole Foods and risk their kids refusing to come home for the holidays?

The revolution is about eradicating America as we know it. A lot of it’s gone already, but there’s still plenty of work of destruction to be done until we’re all on the right side of history. Or dead.

Revolution is all about being on the right side of history. And the revolution consists of old liberals who are terrified of being on the wrong side of it, stammering their way through pronouns and handling popular critical race theory texts like they were the sacred scriptures of a religion they don’t believe in, and young radicals certain that they are on the right side of it.

But ‘revolution’ is also just dictatorship misspelled. As George Orwell wrote in 1984, “One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.” The dictatorship in urban and sub Democrat areas is already here.

The stream of monthly revolutions make the deepening totalitarianism, the higher confiscatory taxes, the daily government scrutiny of everything from trash content to social media posts (in cities where violent muggings earn thugs no more than a free therapy session) and the ideology tests for employment, seem like liberation. But that’s what the Russians called it too.

Each revolution makes us more enslaved and less free. We are not free to walk the streets, not free to think for ourselves and not free to even work for a living. We are however free to protest.

But only as long as it’s for the revolution of the political machine taking away all our freedoms.

The issue isn’t drug dealers shot while assaulting police officers. It’s not Israel. It’s not oil or illegals. Those are just the levers which make the dictatorships running our lives more extreme. They are also how those dictatorships pretend that there’s a vibrant system of political dissent.

The issue is not the issue. The issue is that the fake revolutions are a tyranny. The issue is that we have become the slaves of a system that keeps promising to liberate us from our freedoms.

The issue is that we cannot go on living this way.

Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article previously appeared at the Center's Front Page Magazine.  Click here to subscribe to my articles. And click here to support my work with a donation. Thank you for reading.

 

Family Feud: Media Zeroes In on White House Warfare

It’s getting mighty chilly in the Swamp. 

By Leesa K. Donner | Oct 15, 2024 @ Liberty Nation News, Tags: Articles, Opinion, Politics

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris (Photo by Tom Brenner/Getty Images)

Washington insiders say there’s an uncomfortable chill in the air, and they aren’t talking about the cooler temperatures of the autumn equinox. Members of the Fourth Estate are exercised about the relationship between the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris camps, and it’s beginning to look a lot like a WWE match between the White House and the Harris campaign. If you believe what you read, there is a disconnect — some even go as far as to call it sabotage – going on at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. In small and large ways, the media wonders whether the Biden camp would be ever so more joyful should Harris lose to former President Donald Trump.

If true, this wouldn’t be the first time a president has hindered the election efforts of his vice president. Perhaps the most egregious occurrence of stabbing one’s second in command comes from President Dwight Eisenhower, regarding his loyal number two, Richard Nixon. Here’s the quote from The Nixon Foundation in which Time magazine reporter Charles Mohr queried Eisenhower:

“Q. Mr. Mohr: We understand that the power of decision is entirely yours, Mr. President. I just wondered if you could give us an example of a major idea of his that you had adopted in that role, as the decider and final –

“THE PRESIDENT: If you give me a week, I might think of one. I don’t remember.”

Ouch! In his memoirs, Nixon asserted (probably rightly) that the quote was taken out of context, but the damage had been done. John F. Kennedy’s campaign astutely used Eisenhower’s remarks in every way possible to damage Nixon politically. You know the rest of the story.

Considering Harris’ candidacy was only recently arranged, it makes sense that there would be bad blood between Biden loyalists, who believe their man was unnecessarily kicked to the curb, and the vice president’s campaign team. This past Sunday (Oct. 13), an Axios article hit the fan and enumerated the many and varied slights of the Harris campaign by Biden’s White House staff; it was a scandal that the political class could sink its teeth into. These include poor communication skills and not bothering to see what the other half is doing. Here are a few examples from Axios:

• Biden gave an impromptu press conference in the White House briefing room just as Harris was about to do an event in Michigan, ensuring that her event would get less TV coverage than it otherwise would have.
• Earlier in the week, Harris criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) for not taking her call about the recent hurricanes, only for Biden to praise DeSantis soon after for being “gracious” and “cooperative.” (A person familiar with the situation told Axios that Biden hadn’t been briefed on Harris’ comments.)
• Biden has been eager to boast about a robust jobs report, helping to end the strike by the longshoremen’s union and other perceived victories recently. Harris has been trying to focus on voters’ pocketbook concerns, including inflation.

Wounded Warrior in the White House

One can say many things about Biden, but it cannot be said that he was not a loyal foot soldier for the Democrats. Prominent members of the Democratic Party waged a not-too-subtle campaign to get him off the ticket. However, the question that must be asked is whether this political tragedy will make him bitter or sweet. If recent actions are telltale, the former appears to have gripped the emotions of Biden & Co., so their moves and motivations are naturally suspect. Let’s just call it a lack of trust.

Bored? Check This Out!

America has watched the man from Scranton, PA, turn into what many regard as an angry, passive-aggressive elderly gentleman. His actions, say media leftists, reveal his resentment at being practically kicked out of the Oval Office despite his insistence to the American people that he was up to the job. After his untimely exit from the campaign, President Biden was largely left alone, as if he were the odd man who wouldn’t leave the party when everyone else had gone.

However, what has been seen at the occasional event where he and Harris both appear is made to look like the two are extremely fond of one another. There are hugs, European-style smooches, and plenty of handholding raised above their heads in the victory pose. The leftist media can’t stop pointing out that in such a divisive – some might posit toxic — atmosphere, all you have is a deep, unsettling fog, the kind New Englanders call “a real pea souper.” It will be fascinating to see what happens to the Democratic candidate for president if the sitting president sticks it to his rival or goes quietly into that good night.

~

Liberty Nation does not endorse candidates, campaigns, or legislation, and this presentation is no endorsement.

Read More From Leesa K. Donner

Defending (One Version of) Class Warfare

October 15, 2024 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty

I normally despise people who promote class warfare.

Assuming someone has earned money honestly (and not via cronyism, bailouts, subsidies, protectionism, or industrial policy), I don’t care if that person earns millions of dollars or billions of dollars.

Indeed, I applaud their success since the rest of us actually capture most of the value created by successful entrepreneurs.

This explains why I have so much disdain when politicians like Biden and Harris promote hate-and-envy tax policy. And why I am equally critical of the class-warfare agenda of left-wing bureaucracies such as the OECD and IMF.

I oppose class warfare because it is very bad for prosperity. And it is disgustingly immoral.

But I have one exception. Though it deals with punishment rather than taxation.

Here are some excerpts from a column in the Washington Post. Authored by Lee Hockstader, it defends the way some European nations hit rich people with very high penalties (called “day fines”) when they speed.

…income-based penalties for speeding and other relatively minor criminal infractions seem a straightforward progressive idea, in line with other redistributive policies that prevail across much of Europe. What began as an egalitarian-inspired policy in Scandinavia now applies in more than half the European Union’s 27 member countries, plus Norway and some others outside the E.U. …Last year, a rich businessman in Finland who exceeded the approximately 30 mph speed limit by 20 mph was assessed a fine of about $130,000. …

Finland’s income-based system, Europe’s first, was enacted in 1921. Over the years, violators who made headlines there by being hit with punitive fines — which also apply to shoplifting and securities-exchange infractions, among others — include a National Hockey League player and a Nokia executive. …The European countries that have adopted day fines apply them to a variety of violations — theft, fraud, drug crimes, even minor sex offenses. In the case of traffic enforcement, they often kick in for major speeding violations.

Hockstader prefers the European approach over the American approach.

…day fines have one big advantage over the one-size-fits-all variety, which is widely enshrined in the United States. Fixed fines are regressive, disproportionately hurting the poor. That argument should register in the United States, where legal sanctions are often assessed without regard to social justice — or where they exact a disproportionately heavy toll on the poor and minorities, as a 2015 Justice Department report on Ferguson, Mo., showed.

This will sound strange since I frequently argue that we should not copy Europe (including a column just two days ago), but I’m sympathetic to Hockstader’s argument.

But that’s because I understand that both taxes and fines are a deterrent. That being said, I don’t want to deter good things (earning money), but I do want to deter bad things (committing crimes).

And a $100 fine may have a big deterrent effect on a poor person but it will be utterly irrelevant to a rich person.

Before anyone accuses me of being a leftist, allow me to stress that my main motive is protecting low-income people, not hurting rich people. I find it reprehensible that many state and local governments aggressively figure out ways to take money from the less fortunate.

I’ll close with a very important caveat. I don’t want to treat rich people as badly as poor people. I want everyone treated equally and humanely.

Here are the three principles that I outlined in 2020 when addressing the same issue.

• Have fewer nuisance laws that lead to fines, fees, and charges.

  

• Have income-based fines for things we want to deter, but at a modest level for rich and poor alike.
• Perhaps most important, control government spending so politicians have less incentive to grab more money from people.

The bottom line is that I don’t want government to screw over poor people, just as I don’t want government to screw over middle-class people or rich people. Or to screw over me.

P.S. I also addressed this issue in 2010 and 2015.

An Updated Analysis of the 2024 Senate Race

By Rich Kozlovich

On February 14, 2024 I posted this An Analysis: Senate Race 2024 and More.  I've updated that piece regularly leaving all the speculations and potentials in place to show the events and the time line even though some of it's meaningless now.   It appears to me, as of right now anyway, the most of Republican seats will remain Republican, but not all, even if there are different faces.  

As I pointed out there are 33 United States Senate seats up for election in 2024. There are 3 Independent seats (who always caucus with the Democrats, which is why the Democrats have a majority in the Senate) 20 open Democrats, and 10 Republicans.  That seemingly gives the Republicans an edge, 23 Democrat/Independents, versus 10 Republican seats up for grab.  

I believe there will be 5 Democrat seats that will go Republican one Republican seat that will go Independent, and three that's 50/50, and two of those are Republican seats.  Right now there are 48 Democrats, 3 Independents, and 49 Republicans in the Senate, giving the Democrats a one seat majority.  

If the Republicans take the five I'm calling for them, and the three that are tossups go to the Democrats, along with the Independent taking a Republican seat, that will make the Senate a 50/50 tie, meaning the Vice President would be the tie breaking vote in the Senate, and I've come to the conclusion some of these seats will have to be taken on Trump's coattails.   

But since the Democrat/Independent contingent will vote in lock step, and there are so many RINO's who will typically vote with the Democrats, the Democrats will still control the Senate.  The realistic numbers?  50 Democrat/Independents, anywhere from 6 to 10 RINO's at any give time,  leaving 40 to 44 Republicans.  That gives the Senate a potential 60/40 edge over the Republicans, even if the Senate leader is a Republican, and it won't be Mitch McConnell. 

As for the House, my view remains the same.   The Republican House is filled with brainless, gutless, and feckless nitwits.  Not as bad as Liz Chaney, but I think there are a lot of borderline Liz Chaney's in the House.   Demonstrating that was the fact it took two attempts to impeach Mayorkas, who was clearly guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors.  As a result, they could lose the House.    

I initially thought the Democrats would believe they were going to lose the White House, so all their chicanery and massive voter fraud schemes in this election that would focus on the down card.  That doesn't appear to be the case, as they're all in for Kamala, who they all thought was an nitwit before Biden in effect made her the candidate when he withdrew.  An action interpreted by many, and rightly so in my opinion, to punish the Democrat machine for pushing him out, and he keeps doubling down on that with his "support".  

The really big take away is the Democrats are a disaster, and are clearly working to destroy America, and it's institutions, and more are coming to that conclusion. The question is: Can Democrats muster enough fraudulent votes to overcome a massive voter rebellion against their party, and will there be a massive voter revolt against Democrats?

What about October Surprises?  Well, it will be interesting to watch in the next few days what happens over these two October Surprises.  Usually they've been against Republicans, but yesterday Kamala has been exposed as a plagiarist,  a seriously bad plagiarist, and the day before Walz was accused of being a homosexual pedophile. 

But, hey, everyone has flaws, and besides, they're Democrats, so what's the big deal?   Right?  As Whoopie said about Roman Polanski having sex with a 13 year old girl, it's not like its rape-rape.   What a strange moral universe they live in, how will that play out, and will all that effect the down card?

As the journalist in Charlies Wilson's War said: We'll See!

Kamala’s Existential Crisis: Minority Voters Edging Toward Trump

Identity politics was always risky. Now it threatens to come apart at the seams.  

By Tim Donner | Oct 14, 2024 @ Liberty Nation News, Tags,  Articles, Opinion

Eight years ago, it was all but unthinkable that Donald Trump could count on any significant support from two constituencies traditionally hostile to Republicans and crucial to Democrats. After his trip down that golden escalator, he delivered remarks about illegal immigrants that were widely viewed as insulting. They would be replayed over and over, destined to live in infamy. Most observers believed that he had permanently repelled minority voters and that the minimal support Republican presidential candidates had received over the years from Latino and black voters would shrink even further to almost undetectable levels.

In his victorious first run for the White House in 2016, Trump’s minority support was indeed shallow with only 6% of blacks and 28% of Latinos pulling the lever for the bombastic billionaire, according to the reputable Pew Research Center. In 2020, despite falling short in his bid for re-election, Trump improved his standing on the margins by about one-third, attracting 8% support from blacks and 36% from Latinos. But in 2024, multiple surveys are suggesting levels of minority support for the 45th president that have not only risen substantially, but threaten to actually realign the electorate.

While conservatives engaging in wishful thinking had speculated over the years that Trump could make serious inroads with minority voters, their wishes now seem to be coming true. Even writers at Washington’s most famous liberal newspaper have been forced to report that something substantial or even game-changing could well be in the works. In their story with the teaser “Trump polls better than ever with Black, Hispanic voters” they admit that “[b]oth numbers — and especially that for Black voters — could set modern-day records for a Republican in a presidential election.”

The numbers they reference are perhaps surprising with regard to Spanish-speaking voters, but downright shocking when it comes to African Americans: 42% of Latinos and 20% of blacks plan to vote for the 45th president. Rewinding to the day in 2015 when he first entered the political stage, who would have imagined this? How is this even possible? Is it only because of their rank disappointment over the failures of a president, Joe Biden, who for most of his career enjoyed high levels of popularity among black voters?

Any way you cut it, this is a hair-on-fire crisis for Kamala Harris and Democrats across the land, with that same DC newspaper admitting the possibility – or even likelihood – that “we are headed for a sizable realignment in how non-White voters cast their ballots.”

Minority Voters: Want vs Need

Trump does not need to attract a majority of black and Hispanic voters, so he can pick his spots in micro-targeting certain issues and areas that appear promising. He would be overjoyed to attract the growing slice of minority votes most polls are finding these days, as it would almost certainly grant him the title of 47th president.

 

But Harris must secure the traditionally overwhelming support Democrats have always been able to count on from minorities, or it’s all over for her. Consider that in 2016, Hillary Clinton lost to Trump despite massive minority support. In 2020, Biden’s numbers were down a bit but still more than acceptable among blacks and Hispanics, and he eked out a victory that would have gone to Trump with the reversal of fewer than 50,000 votes in three swing states. With such support plummeting first for Biden and now for Harris, unless the many polls on this subject are wrong or these voters return to the fold at the last minute, the vice president has an existential crisis on her hands. She has brought in the heaviest of hitters to try and repair this fissure, but he may have only made matters worse.

A famous TV ad from the 1980’s for an anti-perspirant advised: “Never let them see you sweat.” And yet, the Harris campaign is openly and profusely sweating about these two crucial constituencies – particularly black men – that most people assumed she would have all wrapped up by now. It seemed that Joe Biden’s problems attracting a sufficient percentage of black men should have disappeared when a woman of color was selected to take over the top spot.  Apparently not. After a massive ad campaign targeting black men failed to move the needle, the campaign brought in former president Barack Obama to make a case that the vice president has been unwilling or unable to make for herself.

Obama’s speech in Pittsburgh last week was some piece of work. He lectured, prodded, and shamed black men for not automatically coming to the aid of their fellow person of color, and accused them of sexism:

“The women in our lives have been getting our backs this entire time … When we get in trouble, and the system isn’t working for us, they’re the ones out there marching and protesting. And now, you’re thinking about sitting out or supporting somebody who has a history of denigrating you because you think that’s a sign of strength because that’s what being a man is? Putting women down? That’s not acceptable.”

Even reliable liberals seemed appalled at Obama shaming his fellow black men. Nia-Malika Henderson, columnist for Bloomberg and one-time senior political reporter for CNN, was blunt:

“Don’t be sexist. Vote for Kamala Harris. That’s one heck of a bumper sticker message … Obama has frequently singled out Black people for reprimanding … Harris supporters were out post-speech doing damage control … … Jesse Jackson, who, more than anyone, paved the way for the Obama presidency, famously said that Obama talked down to black people … Black men don’t need to be torn down. They don’t need to be condescended to. They don’t need to be scolded. What they need is a president who sees them, hears them and makes their lives better — just like every other American.”

The Collapse of Identity Politics

This ongoing crisis is a textbook example of the problem with left-wing identity politics. After a while, voters become fully aware that they are being prodded to vote for a candidate because of the color of her skin rather than the content of her character. Demanding loyalty to their race is downright insulting. Joe Biden got away with such patronizing when he said in 2020, “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.” Trump, on the other hand, made a simple appeal to downtrodden black voters wary of more broken promises from drive-by Democrats: “What the hell have you got to lose?” Perhaps these voters are now starting to buy that argument.

Ditch the Diatribe – Try This!

Would Donald Trump demand that all white voters support him because they are also Caucasian? Imagine the reaction if he said that. For all the explosively controversial remarks he has survived since entering the political realm, he would almost certainly lose the election with such a statement. And yet, Obama has done exactly that. Essentially, he is lashing out at voters who, like everyone else, can hardly afford groceries, gas, or home heating as they fall further into debt since Joe Biden became president, while the neediest among them are being shoved aside for the sake of millions of illegal immigrants who stormed the country once Biden opened the border.

There is scant evidence that this type of tactic is effective. Obama and Trump are alike in one respect. They are both larger-than-life figures whose appeal does not translate to substandard candidates they endorse. While Obama was instantly electric in his appeal to both black and white voters and scored two decisive victories, Harris dropped out of her 2020 campaign before the first vote was even cast. This brings to mind the massive rally in Philadelphia with Obama and seemingly every important Democrat and left-leaning celebrity on the night before the 2016 election. It didn’t work, in large part because the candidate could not close the deal by herself. The contrast between Obama and Clinton just reminded people of how weak a candidate Clinton was. Voters, especially those who are undecided, prefer a candidate who asks for their vote herself. If she doesn’t, it signals a lack of capacity to persuade, a crucial skill for any prospective president.

If this election does turn out the way Republicans hope, one can imagine a casual conversation sometime in the future about minority voters, and someone mentioning the second term of Donald Trump. And one could envision a response along the lines of, “Oh yeah, 2024 – wasn’t that the year when black and Latino voters finally refused to continue their blind loyalty to the Democratic Party?”

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Liberty Nation does not endorse candidates, campaigns, or legislation, and this presentation is no endorsement.

 

Read More From Tim Donner