Heartwarming: Amy Coney Barrett Just Adopted A Local Troubled Youngster Named Hunter
October 19th, 2020
SOUTH BEND, IN—According to sources, Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett has adopted her 8th child, a troubled local youngster named Hunter. In a touching story of love triumphing over all odds, the Barrett family fought for custody of Hunter and welcomed him into their family for the first time this week.
"This family has love to spare," said Judge Barrett. "We just knew we had another child out there somewhere. We were told by the agency that young Hunter had his fair share of issues, but we knew we would be up to the challenge."
According to friends of the family, Hunter is slowly adjusting to his new home and family. He has kicked an old drug habit and is now attending church with the rest of the family. He has also renounced his old ways and paid back a Ukrainian gas company fourfold.
"We love having Hunter with us!" said the leader of the small church group Hunter attends every week. "Whenever we share testimonies, he puts our testimonies to shame with stories of drugs, corruption, and horrific scandal, unlike anything we've heard. Awesome!"
Judge Barrett is still struggling to teach Hunter the value of hard work. He is being paid a few dollars to do chores around the house when he's used to being paid $50,000 per month for nothing.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Tuesday the dissolution of
a pro-Hamas group active in France, accused of being “directly
implicated” in the murder of history and geography teacher Samuel Paty.
Speaking several days after the shocking incident, the French leader
said that “actions will be stepped up” against Islamist extremism.
The decision to shut down the "Cheikh Yassine Collective", which
supports the Palestinian cause and is named after the Hamas founder,
will be taken at a Wednesday's cabinet meeting, Macron told an audience during a speech after a meeting with a unit for the fight against Islamism, in the north-eastern Paris suburb of Bobigny.
The French
group was created by Abdelhakim Sefrioui, a radical Islamist activist
who is now in police custody as part of the investigation into the
attack. Sefrioui is the author of one of the videos in which the father
of a girl in the school accused Paty of having insulted Islam and called
him a “thug”.
Samuel Paty had shown his pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a civics class on freedom of expression earlier this month.
Speaking four days after Paty’s beheading,
which sparked police raids on people and institutions with alleged
links to Islamist militants, Macron said that "actions will be stepped
up" against Islamist extremism.
"This
is not about making more statements," Macron said during a visit to a
Paris suburb. "Our fellow citizens expect actions. These actions will be
stepped up."
"We know what needs to be done," the French leader told reporters.
OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 10:19 AM PT – Tuesday, October 20, 2020
The Trump
campaign is pulling out all the stops on the 2020 campaign trial with
Vice President Mike Pence reaching out to supporters in Maine and
Pennsylvania on Monday.
Pence first made his remarks in Hermon,
Maine where he urged voters to go against Democrat presidential nominee
Joe Biden in the upcoming election. He slammed Biden for failing to hold
China accountable while encouraging the communist country to increase
its global influence.
‘For decades, Joe Biden has been a
cheerleader for Communist China,” stated the vice president. “He
actually said that the rise of China was a positive development for
America and he scoffed at the notion that China was even a competitor of
our country.
Pence went onto highlight President Trump’s work to
rebuild the economy while being able to withstand threats from China. He
called the President a “proven job creator.”
“And when Communist
China put a 30 percent tariff on Maine lobsters, this President took
action,” Pence noted. “We gave Maine’s lobstermen $26 million in aid and
we stood up to China to buy more lobsters from Maine and more
agricultural good from America.’
The Vice President then traveled to New Cumberland, Pennsylvania to meet
with his supporters. He slammed Big Tech companies for their political
censorship while vowing to stop them from blocking online content from
the public.
“At a time when Big Tech is actually trying to censor what Americans
read or see or say, President Trump and I will always fight for the
American people’s right to know we’re not going to let Big Tech block
the truth,” stated Pence.
He said the Trump administration will
stand against this type of political censorship. He then citied how
Facebook and Twitter have tried keeping articles about Hunter Biden’s
alleged overseas corruption from circulating on their platforms.
With
just two weeks until the presidential election, the Trump campaign has
continued to reach out to voters across multiple swing states in an
effort to show how the President is “making America great again.”
Chuck Norris: My first fight vs. America's last fight (in 1781)
Oct. 19 is a pretty special day for America. It marks the day of the
last major battle of the Revolutionary War in the original 13 colonies,
when British Gen. Lord Charles Cornwallis and his army surrendered to
Gen. George Washington's forces and its French allies at Yorktown,
Virginia, in 1781.
No doubt, Cornwallis was a formidable opponent. He was Washington's
and America's central bully, if you will, throughout the Revolutionary
War. And prior to Yorktown, he largely appeared to have an upper hand.
In 1776, when our founders signed the Declaration of Independence,
Cornwallis forced Washington's forces out of New Jersey. In 1780, he won
an epic battle over Gen. Horatio Gates' army in South Carolina. And in
1781, he was laying waste to many towns and plantations in Virginia,
when the Redcoats reached Yorktown on the coast in the fall.
The truth is, Washington's Continental Army was badly hurting and
weakened from Cornwallis' recent wins. Still, with no pay, crippling
health and morale in the dumps, Americans did what they've always done:
they tapped their reserves, pulled up what bootstraps they had and
fought their way out of the trenches to victory.
During the first two weeks of October, the 14,000 Franco-American
troops gradually overcame the fortified British positions with the aid
of de Grasse's warships. A large British fleet carrying 7,000 men set
out to rescue Cornwallis, but it was too late.
On October 19, General Cornwallis surrendered 7,087
officers and men, 900 seamen, 144 cannons, 15 galleys, a frigate, and 30
transport ships. Pleading illness, he did not attend the surrender
ceremony, but his second-in-command, General Charles O'Hara, carried
Cornwallis' sword to the American and French commanders. As the British
and Hessian troops marched out to surrender, the British bands played
the song "The World Turned Upside Down."
History.com
was also absolutely right when it concluded: "It was more than just a
military win. The outcome in Yorktown, Virginia, marked the conclusion
of the last major battle of the American Revolution and the start of a
new nation's independence. It also cemented Washington's reputation as a
great leader and eventual election as first president of the United
States."
As a result, according to Mount Vernon's Washington Library, "Washington's fame grew to international proportions having wrested such an improbable victory, interrupting his much desired Mount Vernon retirement with greater calls to public service."
We all face these epic battles and pivotal points in our lives and
history, don't we? America is in one right now, and so are millions of
Americans. How we fight and endure will literally plot our future for
decades to come. Maybe you are facing a personal battle right now that
is calling up every reserve you have. Hang on and keep fighting! Your
Yorktown victory is coming!
As a six-time professional world karate champion,
I can think of many pivotal victories. But the truth is, I didn't see
that success before losing many battles first, just like Washington.
Interestingly, one of the most pivotal battles and victories for me
in life came not in my professional career but my childhood. It showed
me early on that bullies of all types can be beat, and often by smaller
moves than we and they expect.
When I was about 7 years old, my family moved to Miami, Arizona, a still-small classic Western copper boom-town (population today roughly 1,800) near the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation about 80 miles east of Phoenix in the middle of the desert.
We moved there to a drier climate from Napa, California, because my
younger brother, Wieland, who would later give his life in Vietnam, had
bad asthma. It was there my parents enrolled me in the second grade.
We were poor so moved into a small cottage next to a gas station.
Next door to us lived a boy my same age but a lot larger and a real
bully. His name was Bobby. For some reason, he had it in for me and
chased me home from school every day.
One day he broke a desk during recess, and the teacher accused me of
being the culprit. In those days, teachers spanked students. She
announced that she was going to swat me. I knew that Bobby had done it,
but I wasn't about to tell because of the wrath I might experience from
him.
So, I stood up and followed the teacher into the hallway to get my
swats, as we called them back then. When one of the other students spoke
up and said that I hadn't done it, I was off the hook. But Bobby still
chased me home.
Jack, the nice man who owned the gas station and the cottage we
rented, couldn't stand to see me bullied. My dad was unfortunately often
gone (drinking), so Jack told my mom he was going to make me fight
Bobby. He insisted that she stay in the apartment and not interfere.
That day I almost got swatted for the broken desk, I was running home.
Jack saw and stopped me, and he made me wait for Bobby. "You're going
to stand up for yourself and fight this kid right now," Jack said. I
replied, "He's too big." But Jack made me stand my ground. He knew this
could be a pivotal moment in my life, and he was right. He knew if I
didn't stand up for myself, I could face many other "Bobbys" in my life.
The fight was on as soon as Bobby arrived. I wrestled him to the
ground, but truth be told I was getting the worst of it, until I grabbed
him by the finger and bent it back. Bobby began to cry. "Give up?" I
asked him. "I give," he replied. But when I let go of his finger, he
immediately jumped me again. So, I grabbed his finger again and began
bending it back. Once more, he started to cry. This time he really gave
up, and never bothered me again. Believe it or not, we even became
friends.
We always instruct our martial arts students in our KickStartKids program
across Texas, where we teach character through karate, fighting is a
last resort. However, if you have to defend yourself or someone else,
now you know how and have the tools to do it.
Regarding the children, adult or even country "Bobbys" in this life
and world, I am brought back to two wise quotes from Abraham Lincoln: "I
would rather be a little nobody, then to be a evil somebody." And "I
destroy my enemies when I make them my friends."
N.Y. Post answers critics of 'unverified' Hunter Biden story with facts
Media 'want to sink the story with innuendo rather than actually report on it'
Pushing back on the establishment media's dismissal of the New York
Post's reporting on Hunter Biden's emails as "unverified," the paper's
editors laid out the facts in an editorial.
The board said
Sunday night it's "particularly rich that The New York Times has
fixated on the 'unverified' excuse, since it's spent much of the Trump
era offering supposed dirt from anonymous sources — which, by
definition, makes the info unverifiable."
The editorial began with three points in defense of the Post's
reporting, which has been dismissed by many Democratic leaders and media
pundits as a Russian disinformation campaign.
Other media outlets, the editors note, have interviewed the owner of the
Delaware computer repair shop who claims Hunter Biden abandoned a
laptop with emails detailing his lucrative business deals in China,
Ukraine and other nations while his father was vice president. The
owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, has "said exactly what we’ve reported from
the start about how the laptop came into his possession."
Further, the editors pointed out that neither Hunter Biden nor Joe
Biden has questioned the claim that the emails are genuine. Instead, Joe
Biden chastised a CBS News reporter for bringing up the issue, calling
it a "smear campaign."
The editorial also argued the paper has published emails and
photographs, "most of which have nothing to do with Ukraine or China —
that contain an extraordinary level of detail."
all fabricated?" the editors ask.
They note the Biden campaign's response to a purported email from a
Burisma official thanking Hunter for an introduction to his father.
The campaign initially argued the meeting doesn't show up on Biden's
official schedule. But when pressed by Politico, the campaign
acknowledged it couldn’t say for certain that Biden didn't have a
"cursory" meeting with the Burisma official.
The editorial pointed out the reporting by the Times and others of
anonymously sourced claims of Trump-Russia collusion that turned out to
be false.
"Now, suddenly, with a trove of information — which, again, the
Bidens aren't even claiming is false — these same outlets want to ask
endless questions about the chain of evidence. A chain of evidence that
The Post has been up-front and open about," the editor's wrote.
"Desperate for Biden to win, they want to sink the story with
innuendo rather than actually report on it. Don’t ask too many
questions, and you can dismiss it all as "unverified.'"
Liberal journalist Glenn Greenwald, a co-founder of The Intercept,
tweeted he can't "quite recall a media propaganda campaign this blatant
and shameful as journalists unifying to call a story 'Russian
disinformation' even though 1) there's no evidence Russia was involved
and, more importantly, 2) nobody - nobody - denies the published emails
are authentic."
Can't quite recall a media propaganda campaign this blatant and shameful as journalists unifying to call a story "Russian disinformation" even though 1) there's no evidence Russia was involved and, more importantly, 2) nobody - nobody - denies the published emails are authentic. https://t.co/dT3EdwPvjf
Fox News reported
one of the people copied in a May 13, 2017, email that includes a
discussion of "remuneration packages" for six people in a business deal
with a Chinese energy firm confirmed its authentiticy.
It identifies Hunter Biden as "Chair/ Vice Chair depending on an agreement with CEFC," the now-bankrupt CEFC China Energy Co.
The email includes a note that "Hunter has some office expectations
he will elaborate. A proposed equity split references "20" for "H" and
"10 held by H for the big guy?" with no further details.
Fox News sources who said "the big guy" was a reference to the former vice president.
Investigative reporter Adam Housely posted on Twitter an image he
described as an email from Hunter Biden's lawyer to the repair shop
owner asking that the laptop be returned.
Here ya go....this is the email sent to John Paul by Hunter Biden's lawyer. It is in reference to returning the laptops. Also...the attorney said Hunter dropped em off in 2017. Nope..try April 2019. He didn't even know when he left em there. Redactions on this document are mine https://t.co/QszglOJV1dpic.twitter.com/VvEguJ0Cec
After Twitter and Facebook censored the Post's intial story on
Wednesday, Biden was confront with it for the first time Friday at the
Detroit airport.
On the tarmac, CBS reporter Bo Erickson asked the former vice president his response.
"I have no response," Biden said. "Another smear campaign. Right up your alley."
However, in a Fox News interview Sunday, Biden campaign surrogate
Jenna Arnold admitted that no one from the campaign has addressed the
authenticity of the emails.
Anchor Leland Vittert said, "What is interesting is, I feel like you
still have not answered the fundamental question, which is can anyone
say that these emails are inauthentic and so far, I’ve not heard anybody
say that.”
Arnold replied, “Yeah, I think that is fair. I don't think anybody is saying they are inauthentic or not.”
Among the critics dismissing it as Russian propaganda is former Obama
CIA Director James Clapper, who told CNN it was "textbook Soviet
Russian tradecraft."
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told CNN
over the weekend the story is part of a smear coming "from the
Kremlin."
"And we have shared no intelligence with Adam Schiff, or any member of Congress," he said.
Former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum, who contributes to The
Atlantic and other publications, said anyone who promotes the Hunter
Biden story is an "accomplice" to an "obviously fake" story.
"The people on far right and far left who publicized the obviously
bogus @nypost story were not dupes. They were accomplices. The story
could not have been more obviously fake if it had been wearing
dollar-store spectacles and attached plastic mustache."
The people on far right and far left who publicized the obviously bogus @nypost story were not dupes. They were accomplices. The story could not have been more obviously fake if it had been wearing dollar-store spectacles and attached plastic mustache.
New York Post op-ed editor Sohrab Ahmari responded to Frum.
"Yeah, it's so fake the subjects of the story — Joe and Hunter —
won't come out and deny the authenticity of the e-mails, despite the
gravity of the charges."
JERUSALEM
(Reuters) – A group of United Arab Emirates officials became the first
Gulf Arab delegation ever to visit in Israel on Tuesday, cementing a
normalisation deal in an occasion that Israel and U.S. officials
described as historic but the Palestinians called “shameful”.
The UAE and Gulf neighbour Bahrain became the first Arab states in a
quarter of a century to establish formal ties with Israel despite
ongoing differences over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The
deals, forged largely over shared fears of Iran, were brokered by U.S.
President Donald Trump ahead of next month’s U.S. presidential election.
“We
are making history in a way that will stand for generations,” Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in welcoming Emirati Economy
Minister Abdullah bin Touq al-Mari and Minister of State for Financial
Affairs Obaid Humaid al-Tayer.
They were accompanied by U.S.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and other American officials on the
flight from Abu Dhabi to Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv. The visiting
party was restricted to the airport because of concerns over COVID-19.
“I
think that the visit of such a high level delegation from the UAE… will
show our peoples, the region and the entire world the benefit of having
friendly, peaceful and normal exchanges,” Netanyahu said.
Four
agreements were signed – on the promotion and protection of investments,
cooperation in science and innovation, civil aviation and visa
exemptions.
Tayer said the deals offered “great opportunities” to “achieve prosperity for both our economies, and our people”.
Citing
discussions on taxation and financial relations, he said there had
already been significant progress and added: “We look forward to
welcoming you to the UAE in the near future.”
PALESTINIAN ANGER
Washington and its allies have said the deals
would foster regional peace and stability. But they have prompted anger
from the Palestinians.
Wasel Abu Youssef, a member of the
Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization said
Tuesday’s UAE visit came amid Israeli settlement expansion and was
“shameful”.
“The bilateral agreements that were announced today
and the delegations that come and go, all of that offers the occupation
strength to escalate its aggression and its crimes against the
Palestinian people and increases its intransigence and arrogance,” he
said in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
In Gaza,
Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for the Islamist group Hamas, said: “Such a
visit will only encourage the occupation to pursue the gradual
annexation of West Bank lands.”
Mnuchin, the most senior U.S.
official to attend, called it an “historic occasion,” adding: “With
greater economic prosperity comes stronger security.”
Reflecting a
realignment of regional powers concerned about Iran, he added that
Israel, the UAE and USA “share a similar outlook regarding threats and
opportunities in the region.”
Another U.S. official in attendance,
International Development Finance Corporation head Adam Boehler, said
the three countries would set up a fund, initially projected to raise $3
billion, to encourage private-sector investment and regional
cooperation.
He said he envisaged funding to enable the modernisation of
Israeli-operated checkpoints for Palestinians. Israel says the
checkpoints are vital for its security, while Palestinians complain that
they hamper their ability to live and work.
The U.S. officials had on Sunday joined an Israeli delegation to Bahrain for a signing ceremony to formalise ties.
The agreements signed on Tuesday followed several commercial deals signed by Israel and the UAE since mid-August.
“These
agreements are of strategic and regional importance, will increase
investment, trade and strengthen economic ties between the countries,”
said Israeli Finance Minister Israel Katz.
Israel’s Foreign
Ministry said the Emirati delegation had submitted a request to open an
embassy in Tel Aviv and said it expected Israel to open an embassy in
Abu Dhabi soon.
That’s not to say news outlets haven’t been writing about the Post’s
reporting. They’ve simply decided to cover the meta-narrative—the story
about the story—while studiously ignoring what Hunter Biden’s emails
reveal about his family’s overseas business dealings and
influence-peddling.
Here’s
how it works. Instead of aggressive follow-up reporting on the content
of Hunter Biden’s emails, which is what you’d expect from news
organizations, we’ve gotten a wave of process stories
about the “anatomy” of Post’s “dubious” reporting, censorship stories
about Twitter and Facebook, and wild conspiracy theory stories about a
rumored Russian disinformation plot.
Last week when all this broke, the focus quickly shifted from Hunter
Biden’s emails to a decision by Facebook and Twitter to censor the
Post’s reporting, and, in Twitter’s case, lock the Post’s official
account for posting “hacked” materials (there’s no evidence the emails
were hacked). When Twitter tried to walk back but also justify its
draconian policies, the media reported on that, and when a handful of
Republican senators announced they’d be subpoenaing Twitter CEO Jack
Dorsey over the imbroglio, the media reported on that, too.
What they didn’t report on is the obvious thing the emails reveal:
Hunter Biden was trading on his family name overseas, and Joe Biden,
despite his many denials, seems to have been aware of this and might
have even been a part of it.
Understand what’s going on here: The media will report on almost any
aspect of this story, no matter how tangential or relatively
insignificant, rather than grapple with the story itself.
Almost
nothing is too trivial on this front. Over the weekend, we got stories
in The New York Times and New York Magazine about behind-the-scenes
dissent from a handful of anonymous Post employees who thought the Biden
story shouldn’t have run. The Times article
goes into great detail about whose bylines were attached to the Post’s
reporting, how long each reporter had been at the paper, where he or she
had worked previously, and the process top Post editors went through
before publication.
Same for the New York Magazine article,
which also tacitly dismissed the substance of the Post’s
reporting—“supposed” scoop, “purported” emails—while quoting anonymous
Post reporters grousing about how they’ve been “bracing” for the Post to
“go pro-Trump before the election.”
What meager follow-up reporting on the substance of the emails has
almost all been for the purpose of undermining the Post. The Washington
Post, for one, was quick to “fact-check” the Post by casting vague aspersions on its reporting
while failing to offer any new information or insights into the trove
of emails detailing Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals.
Even more embarrassing have been outlets like CNN and USA Today, which, citing unnamed sources, breathlessly speculated
that the FBI was investigating whether the emails were a possible
“disinformation campaign” originating from—where else?—Moscow. (Director
of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe on Monday laid these feverish rumors to rest, saying the recovered laptop and emails are “not part of some Russian disinformation campaign.”)
The Media Can’t Handle The Truth
The
media’s preoccupation with the provenance of the laptop and the
emails—are they “hacked materials” or are they part of a shadowy plot
hatched by the Kremlin?—is meant to distract the broader public about
what the laptop and emails actually contain.
After all, the last thing a media establishment in thrall to the
Democratic Party wants to do is ask substantive questions about any of
this. Why did a Ukrainian oligarch thank Hunter Biden for an introduction to his father in 2015 when the elder Biden was the Obama administration’s point-man on Ukraine? What did Hunter Biden mean when he told a Chinese energy firm that a lucrative deal would be “interesting for me and my family”?
The press isn’t interested, just like they weren’t interested in a recent U.S. Senate committee report
on the Bidens’ complex financial transactions in Ukraine and elsewhere.
I mean, if you’re not curious why the wife of the former mayor of
Moscow would pay Hunter Biden $3.5 million, then you’re not going to be
curious about any of this other stuff.
To be clear, it doesn’t matter what the Post or any other news outlet
actually reports, or how airtight their reporting is. It doesn’t matter
that no one, not even the Biden campaign, has denied the authenticity
of the emails in question. It doesn’t matter that Fox News has independently corroborated
one of the emails that indirectly references Joe Biden as one of six
recipients of “renumeration packages” from the aforementioned Chinese
energy firm. It doesn’t matter that the laptop came from a Delaware
computer store and not, you know, Russia.
The
mainstream media will not, under any circumstances, treat this as a
serious story. The same media establishment that was willing to
perpetuate a years-long Russia collusion hoax, for which it relied on an
outlandish dossier paid for by Hillary Clinton’s campaign, will not
countenance the Hunter Biden laptop story—no matter what.
They won’t do it for the simple reason that it will almost certainly hurt Biden’s White House bid, and they can’t have that.
For anyone with any perspective on American elections, it is clear that the polls do not entitle us to predict with any confidence the outcome of the current campaign. Many of the polls included in the average of polls on aggregator sites are really just the products of Democratic Party front organizations, such as Vox, Politico, Quinnipiac, Monmouth, and others whose chief function is to facilitate the Democratic media locker room cry that they’ve already won and the counting of the votes is practically superfluous. Open the beer kegs! The Trump tyranny is already over.
Trafalgar, the only poll that showed Trump winning four years ago, shows him winning again this year. And the next most accurate of polls that covered the 2016 campaign and are doing so again is Rasmussen, which has fluctuated and briefly joined the ranks of the Biden victory celebration squad two weeks ago but now has Trump’s approval rating back at 48 percent.
All polls that put the question receive the answer that people think the majority of their neighbors will vote for Trump, and all polls of Trump voters indicate that they decline to discuss politics candidly with strangers.
There are constant arcane debates between pollsters about the accuracy of the echelon of people whom they poll. Most polls are of “registered voters” and this cohort, generally, is unlikely to bear much resemblance to the functioning electorate. And many polls consist of multiple questions posed on the telephone at inconvenient hours and are responded to only by underactive or unusually politically zealous people.
There is ample evidence that Donald Trump, in both his elections, has brought out large numbers of people who have not been in the habit of voting since Reagan, and that he is pulling large numbers of working-class Democrats into his camp.
Of course, there are apparent slippages in all directions in traditional voting blocs. Suburban women who were comfortable with GOP Democratic look-alikes such as the Bushes, John McCain, and Mitt Romney have been tempted by recent Democrats. A good many wealthy voters—not just the Hollywood and Silicon Valley communities who fancy themselves the cutting edge of American thought and civilization—are reliable and often financially generous Democrats. Their money undoubtedly helps their party. The implicit suggestion that because they are competent actors or computer geeks, they are necessarily astute political scientists, is demonstrable nonsense and such pretensions are nauseating to large numbers of voters.
A greater source of funds for the Democrats is a large delegation of Wall Street denizens whose antipathy to Trump is somewhat counterintuitive. Some are offended by his garish behavior; some are critics going back to the days of Trump’s involvement in the junk-bond-financed casino business; some resent his frequent almost Sanders-like references to the tax breaks the Wall Street high flyers enjoy (which Trump did not attempt to repeal in his tax reform of 2018); some are heavily invested in China and are concerned about his policy toward that country. And some, in the highest traditions of the avarice of the ultra-wealthy, are simply envious of Trump’s money, his lifestyle of almost oriental opulence (replete with a plethora of startlingly attractive women), and above all of his astonishing achievement in translating wide but often negative celebrity into his election as the 43rd direct successor of General George Washington at the headship of the United States of America.
The whereabouts of the American voter just two weeks from the election is made more of a mystery by the overwhelming and unprecedented partisanship of the national political media. All independent surveys and the experience of every media reader, viewer, and listener confirms that over 90 percent of the national political media are not only opposed to Trump but go to the dangerously unprofessional lengths of suppressing negative information about his opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden.
Moreover, they deliberately propagate false or insignificant allegations about the president that can have no other object but to weaken him in the eyes of the voters at the approach of election day. Almost the entire media joined the great majority of the political establishment—Trump-hating Democrats and NeverTrump Republicans together—in saturating the news and attempting to brainwash the country into believing that Trump had colluded criminally and perhaps treasonably with the Russian government in producing the astounding results of the 2016 election.
Almost the same cast of influencers relentlessly attached unjustified credence to the spurious impeachment of the president over an unexceptionable telephone call that he made to the president of Ukraine. It will not be the least irony of the Trump era that if the facts can ever be unearthed, i.e. if special counsel John Durham can use his broad subpoena and investigative powers to produce enough facts to clarify what happened in the murky but almost certainly illegal confection of the Trump-Russia investigation before he is shot down by a succeeding administration, it will be clear that it was Trump’s opponents who were in league with disreputable Russian elements, and it is also now fairly clear that if anyone had criminal or impeachable relations with Ukraine it was the Biden family and not Trump.
If Trump were not mortally threatening almost the entire bipartisan post-Reagan political establishment—not only with the loss of position but in many cases with legitimate criminal prosecution—he would be facing a much less solid wall of determination to drive him from office. If he were not so gratuitously obnoxious at times, many more people would rally to the natural desire to support the country’s leader.
The undoubted disaster of his belligerent interruptions of Biden in their debate, when the moderator, Chris Wallace, though clearly no chum of the president, was in the act of forcing answers from Biden that he would have had a great difficulty giving, drove many to to decide to vote for the alternative no matter how implausible he is. Trump then reinforced that feeling in them by saying that he was debating both Biden and Wallace and that he was absolutely right to interrupt the interchanges between the other two. It is this compulsive bellicosity with more than a hint of self-adulation, as well as the psychotic fear he has generated in the bipartisan political class, that threatens the president’s reelection.
In the economy, immigration, the environment, nuclear nonproliferation, taxes, deregulation, recognition of the Chinese challenge, progress in the Middle East, shaping up the Western alliance, strengthening the judiciary and the national defense, and managing the COVID crisis, this president has had one of the most outstanding first presidential terms in the country’s history. It is his populist assault on the ruling class in Washington and the vagaries of his personality that will deny him the victory on the scale of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Richard M. Nixon seeking their second terms. Both men won 60 percent of the vote, and 46 of 48 states in 1936 and 49 of 50 in 1972, and except for the factors named Trump would do the same.
He will not, and much will ride on the last debate on Thursday and on public response to the media’s efforts to suppress the revelations of the Bidens’ skulduggery with Ukraine, Russia, and China. But it is objectively unlikely that so accomplished a president and so incomparably more forceful and capable a candidate will be turned out of office. The whole world has not followed an American election with such ardor since FDR ran for a third term in 1940 promising “All aid short of war” for the democracies against Hitler and Mussolini. At the least, Donald Trump, impresario and showman par excellence, is conducting the greatest spectacle in American history.
Article by Alan Tonelson in The American Conservative
Donald Trump Is No ‘Phony’ Populist
The president is often denounced as a fake ally of the working class, but important data suggest that he's done right by them.
As made clear by Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s claim
that “The President can only see the world from Park Avenue,” the
portrayal of Donald Trump as a phony populist is as popular among his
opponents nowadays as during the 2016 presidential election. Back then, no less a critic than former President Obama charged
that candidate Trump was selling “ordinary people” a bill of goods that
belied his record of “never” showing “any regard for workers.”
Sincerity
is always tough to measure. But with Mr. Trump having nearly completed
his first term in office, does any evidence show that the everyday
Americans who comprise so much of his base should be feeling buyer’s
remorse? Has their lot worsened under a flim-flam man whose real
priority is his fellow One-Percenters?
Not according to one set of official
figures that’s especially good at gauging the fortunes of Mr. Trump’s
core supporters over time: the Labor Department’s quarterly County Employment and Wages series.
The final 2019 figures are out, and reveal a striking pattern when
matched with the list of counties that voted for Mr. Obama in both 2008
and 2012 and then flipped for Mr. Trump: Average annual private-sector
pay in most of these flip counties rose faster during the first three
years of the Trump administration than during the last three years of
the Mr. Obama’s presidency.
Moreover,
this improvement didn’t simply stem from a single good year dragging up
harder times. For the Trump-era edge was even greater as of the end of
2018, as reported in this TAC piece.
The
flip counties are good proxies for Trump’s working- and middle-class
supporters because their salary levels generally trail the national
average ($59,202) considerably. And due to their consistent support for
Mr. Obama, their voters overall couldn’t have been attracted by whatever
racist or xenophobic dogwhistles the President is often accused of
issuing. Surely, most saw Mr. Trump’s populist economic message as the
biggest draw.
Meanwhile,
although the annual county salary data stop with 2019, and therefore say
nothing about their voters’ pandemic-era circumstances, these latest
available figures speak volumes about their populations’ well-being
during the most recent period of national pre-virus normality. Also
important—the two time periods involved were right next to each other
during the same (expansionary) economic cycle phase. So the numbers are
as apples-to-apples as possible.
According to the updated 2018 data,
of the 194 flip counties for which statistics are available, 131 (67.53
percent) saw average annual pay in the private sector rise faster during
the first two years of the Trump administration than during the last
two years of the Obama administration. (Figures including public-sector
pay are kept by the Labor Department, but this compensation says
relatively little about a region’s economic fundamentals because the
levels are set by politicians’ decisions, not market forces.)
In
2019, the Trump administration’s margin diminished—undoubtedly due in
part to slower national economic growth. Even so, 59.79 percent of the
flip counties (116 of 194) experienced stronger private sector pay
growth during the first three Trump years than during the last three
Obama years. A closer examination reveals that a net of 22 of these
counties moved from the Advantage Trump to the Advantage Obama column,
while seven went in the opposite direction.
The
bottom line politically of these developments is less clear for the
President, even if he can still persuade most flip county voters
nationally that he can restore pre-China virus prosperity. For no fewer
than 108 of these counties are located in nine states identified as 2020
battlegrounds: Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North
Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. And the split between those
that prospered more during the first three Trump years than during the
final three Obama years is just that: 50-50 (54 counties in each
category) rather than the nearly 60-40 Trump margin nation-wide.
More
fortunately for the president, the number of battleground-state
counties that switched paycheck-wise from Advantage Trump to Advantage
Obama in 2019 is small (15). And except for Minnesota—which contains
seven—they could be too thinly spread to tip any of these states into
the Biden column all by themselves, even in a nail-biter election.
Election
2020 politics aside, though, according to the crucial measure of
income, these years worth of county data clash loudly with the
Trump-as-phony-populist charge, and the common companion depiction of
the last Democratic administration as a working- and middle-class
champion. And they indicate that if Republicans want to keep these
voters in their camp going forward, continuing a Trump-like approach to
the economy will be imperative.
( Alan Tonelson is the founder of RealityChek, a public policy blog focusing on economics and national security)
I tend to find myself in agreement with the Tom Fitton parts of this interview.
Lou Dobbs, Sidney Powell, Tom Fitton and John Solomon appear together to discuss the latest developments in the Hunter/Joe Biden pay-to-play scandals.
Considering everything that is known by intelligence people how did Joe Biden pass his recent classified intelligence background check? Oh wait, yes, the FBI is in charge of those screenings. That would be the same FBI that has been in possession of the Hunter Biden laptop since December 2019. Please ignore these pesky little details…
Article by Michael Reagan with Michael R. Shannon in NewsMax
Debates Commission Should Change Name to Reflect Left Bias
The "Commissars" on Presidential Debates was created in 1987 and
sponsored by both the Republican and Democratic parties. The idea was
that since the Commissars had the backing of both parties, candidates
would be treated fairly and the respective parties would make sure there
was no imbalance in selecting moderators or enforcing the rules.
And just as the sun rises in the east, the non-profit, non-partisan
group has been seized by Leftists and now does their bidding.
This happened because the Democrats appointed to the group are
interested in using for their own ends, while the cocktail conservatives
appointed by the Republicans use the position as a resume builder and a
chance to fly to meetings on someone else’s dime.
This year any pretense of only selecting unbiased and impartial
moderators has been tossed to the wind. The Commissars are selecting
leftist operatives and Trump haters and daring the president to do
something about it.
The Trump antagonist selected for the final debate is NBC White House
correspondent Kirsten Welker. The New York Post summed the selection up
this way, "Kristen Welker, upcoming presidential debate moderator, has
deep Democrat ties."
That’s putting it mildly.
The Post found, "Welker comes from an established Democratic family —
who have poured cash into party coffers, and to Trump opponents, for
years.
"Her mother, Julie Welker, a prominent real estate broker in
Philadelphia, and father, Harvey Welker, a consulting engineer, have
donated tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates and close
to $20,000 to Barack Obama alone.
"There was also $3,300 for Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign and $2,100 for
Hillary Clinton’s doomed 2016 presidential effort against Trump. Another
$7,300 was contributed to the Democratic National Committee between
2004 and 2020."
To top it all off, “In 2012, Welker and her family celebrated Christmas at the White House with the Obamas.”
The president is no fool. He observed Welker is "extraordinarily unfair."
"She’s always been terrible & unfair, just like most of the Fake News reporters, but I’ll still play the game."
He will play the game because the president has no choice and the Commissars know he is over a barrel.
Trump must attend this debate because it represents his final
opportunity to make his case to the few remaining undecided and swing
voters. He’s forced to make his case in a televised toxic stew of bias
and partisanship because instead of protecting his interests, the
Never–Trumpers appointed to the organizing body have sold him out.
Another routine betrayal of the 63 million people who voted Trump in 2016.
We are not optimistic regarding the result.
We only hope the president will devote more time to preparation and
nullifying the baleful impact of the leftist selected as moderator.
1) The Senate investigation of Hunter Biden was about how foreign corruption influenced American national security. @JoeBiden surrogates are spinning it as an unfair attack on a relative.
2) Timeline after the mass protests in Ukraine that ousted pro-Russian President Viktor Yanokovych on February 21, 2014:
"Less than two months later, over the span of only 28 days, significant events involving the Bidens unfolded..."
3 "On April 26 2014, Vice President Biden met with his son's business partner, Devon Archer, at the White House. Five days later, Vice President Biden visited Ukraine, & he soon afterward was described in the press as the 'public face of the administration's handling of Ukraine."
4) "The day after his visit, on April 22, Archer joined the board of Burisma.
"Six days later, on April 28, British officials seized $23 million from the London bank accounts of Burisma's owner...
"Fourteen days later, on May 12, Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma..."
5) "... and over the course of the next several years, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer were paid millions of dollars from a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch for their participation on the board."
Meanwhile, the Obama admin gave China "control" via Biden-Archer of a US defense company.
6) Biden backers branded the probe as "Russian disinformation":
"This is a good-government oversight investigation that relies on documents and testimony from US agencies and officials, not a Russian disinformation campaign, as our Democratic colleagues have falsely stated."
7) Obama and Biden knew.
"What the Chairmen discovered during the course of this investigation is that the Obama administration knew that Hunter Biden’s position on Burisma’s board was problematic and did interfere in the efficient execution of policy with respect to Ukraine."
8) "Moreover, this investigation has illustrated the extent to which officials within the Obama administration ignored the glaring warning signs when the vice president’s son joined the board of a company owned by a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch...."
9) "And, as will be discussed in later sections, Hunter Biden was not the only Biden who cashed in on Joe Biden’s vice presidency."
10) The Senate Investigation's "key findings" about the influence op aimed at @JoeBiden:
Early 2015: A career foreign service officer, George Kent [a Never Trumper], "raised concerns to officials in Vice President Joe Biden’s office. . . ."
11) "...about the perception of a conflict of interest with respect to Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board. Kent’s concerns went unaddressed ...."
12) "... and in September 2016, he emphasized in an email to his colleagues, 'Furthermore, the presence of Hunter Biden on the Burisma board was very awkward for all US officials pushing an anticorruption agenda in Ukraine.'"
Oct 2015: State Dept official Amos Hochstein "raised concerns with Vice President Biden, as well as with Hunter Biden, that Hunter Biden's position on Burisma's board enabled Russian disinformation & risked undermining US policy in Ukraine."
14) Senate investigators found that former secretary of state John Kerry knew about his stepson's involvement with Hunter Biden and Burisma, but lied about it.
15) Top State Department expert on Ukraine called Burisma owner an "odious oligarch," and in December 2015, @JoeBiden's staff told him to quit talking about him.
16) Hunter Biden served on Burisma board, "supposedly consulting on corporate governance and transparency," when Burisma allegedly paid millions in bribes to shut down a case against the company's owner. State Department official reported case to FBI.
17) Hunter Biden ended his five-year, worldwide Secret Service protective security detail the day after Time published an article about him being on Burisma's board while Burisma was running influence operations.
18) The Obama-@JoeBiden team was fine with Andrii Telizhenko, a former Ukrainian diplomat, meeting with him often until he spilled the beans about Burisma corruption.
They then vilified him as a Russian agent and spreader of Kremlin disinformation. @AndriyUkraineTe
19) Hunter Biden took cash from many foreign nationals of questionably-gained wealth to gain influence with @JoeBiden. One was the wife of the former mayor of Moscow. (USA Today's @dstanglin and others leapt on this to discredit it as "unproven," but we'll see soon.)
20) HUMAN TRAFFICKING: Before the @nypost ran its story, Senate investigators found questionable and criminal networks connections from Eastern Europe and Communist China to influence US foreign policy via the Bidens.
Twitter is now branding these two posts on this thread as "offensive content."
These two replies to this thread are also "offensive content," according to the Twitterniks.
