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August 2020

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Trump accepted his nomination with a rousing speech By Andrea Widburg

By on August 25th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/08/trump_accepted_his_nomination_with_a_rousing_speech.html

At the end of their grim convention, the Democrats formally nominated Biden. A fragile-looking Biden gave a short, anodyne stump speech that garnered enthusiastic praise from Democrats grateful that he didn’t get confused or say, “you know, the thing.”

Republicans did things differently. They nominated Trump on the first day. Trump then appeared in North Carolina before a small, live audience and, showing his usual boundless energy, Borscht Belt comic timing, and mastery of the material, gave a 52-minute stemwinder. Trump could not have presented a starker contrast to Biden’s geriatric minimalism.

From the start, Trump was on fire. He opened by dropping a hint that, in the Russia Hoax investigation, we should expect more revelations and possibly more indictments.

Pivoting to campaign mode, Trump told the audience that a successful country is a unified country. He was enthusiastic about an economic resurgence, and warned his audience that “Biden said the other day that he’d shut it down.” He also reminded them that Obama said it couldn’t be done without a magic wand. “I guess we had the magic wand,” he added.

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We Have All The Evidence We Need That Universal Mail-In Voting Would Be a Disaster By Matt Margolis

By on August 25th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/election/matt-margolis/2020/08/24/we-have-all-the-evidence-we-need-that-universal-mail-in-voting-would-be-a-disaster-n832502

Last week, House Democrats passed a $25 billion bailout of the U.S. Postal Service that they say is necessary to help get them ready for the massive influx of mail-in ballots expected in the November election. They also aim to block various efforts they believe are being done to undermine the postal service, but are actually longstanding cost-saving measures to make the postal service more efficient.

President Trump and Republicans have repeatedly warned that universal mail-in voting would be a disaster. This year, we’ve seen several elections done via mail that resulted in significant problems either due to voter error, counting issues, missing ballots, or outright fraud.

Universal mail-in voting proponents on the left point to states that have been doing vote-by-mail for years as proof it can be done nationwide, but this simply isn’t the case.

“New proponents of mail balloting don’t often understand how it actually works,” says Public Interest Legal Foundation President and PJ Media contributor J. Christian Adams. “States like Oregon and Washington spent many years building their mail voting systems and are notably aggressive with voter list maintenance efforts. Pride in their own systems does not somehow transfer across state lines. Nevada, New York, and others are not and will not be ready for November.”

With just over two months before the presidential election, no amount of money could get the USPS ready for a universal mail-in election.

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5 Things to Know About Night 1 of the Republican National Convention By Tyler O’Neil

By on August 25th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/election/tyler-o-neil/2020/08/25/5-things-to-know-about-night-1-of-the-republican-national-convention-n835688

The Republican National Convention (RNC) kicked off on Monday night, with powerful speeches—and some that proved a bit too powerful. The Democrats put America to sleep with their Gaslighting America Telethon. The Republicans are waking America up, with perhaps a little bit too much coffee.

1. Tim Scott exposed Biden’s weakness with the black community

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) gave the keynote speech of the evening, and it proved fantastic. He explained that his grandfather was forced out of school to pick cotton and never learned to read and write, but he saw his grandson “become the first African American to be elected to both the United States House and Senate.”

“Our family went from cotton to Congress in one lifetime,” Scott said, delivering one of the most memorable lines of the evening.

He contrasted this opportunity with the Left’s increasingly negative view of America, and he highlighted Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s tremendous weaknesses with the black community.

“Joe Biden said if a black man didn’t vote for him, he wasn’t truly black,” Scott noted. “Joe Biden said black people are a monolithic community. It was Joe Biden who said, ‘Poor kids can be just as smart as white kids.’”

Yet Scott didn’t just slam Biden’s words. He also noted the former vice president’s actions.

“In 1994, Biden led the charge on a crime bill that put millions of black Americans behind bars,” he explained. “President Trump’s criminal-justice reform law fixed many of the disparities Biden created and made our system more fair and just for all Americans.”

While Biden criticized Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), “Trump signed into law historically high funding for HBCUs.”

“Make no mistake: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris want a cultural revolution. A fundamentally different America. If we let them, they will turn our country into a socialist utopia, and history has taught us that path only leads to pain and misery, especially for hard-working people hoping to rise,” the senator declared.

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Against All Odds, the First Night of the Republican National Convention Is… Good? By Jim Geraghty

By on August 25th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/republican-convention-strong-opening-night/

The first night of the Republican convention was . . . go figure, pretty good!

Who would have been surprised if this whole thing had turned into a mess? The Republicans had already changed venues twice, the limitations of holding a big event during a contagious pandemic are considerable, the GOP can’t count on many Hollywood celebrities or musical numbers, the polling looks grim, and last week’s Democratic convention had generally gotten good reviews.

Trump’s circle chat with the released hostages was . . . human and empathetic, by his standards. I could have done without the president telling American pastor Andrew Brunson, “to me, [Turkish president] President Edrogan was very good.” Our old friend Christian Schneider observed, “the worst spokesman for Donald Trump is Donald Trump.”

 

The night had some off-key notes. Someone should have told Kimberly Guilfoyle that she had a microphone, and that she didn’t need to shout her entire speech so that the viewers at home could hear it. I’m not sure Mark and Patricia McCloskey added anything that any one of thousands of armed citizens who exercised their right to self-defense couldn’t have added better and less controversially.

Overall, a surprisingly strong start — and now Republicans eagerly await the ratings. If people at home were watching . . . maybe Trump will get a nice polling bump out of this week and the dynamic of this race will change. Or, maybe Americans are tired of politics and don’t want to watch any more on a late summer night.

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Trump Loses Another Round to Manhattan DA By Andrew C. McCarthy

By on August 24th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/trump-loses-another-round-to-manhattan-da/

A quick update on developments in Manhattan District attorney Cyrus Vance’s investigation, in which the DA has subpoenaed years of President Trump’s financial records (including tax information) from his accountant, Mazars.

The DA’s office has just agreed to forbear from any effort to enforce the subpoena until after the Second Circuit federal appeals court has a chance to review the president’s motion to stay the latest ruling he just lost. At the end of last week, Judge Victor Marrero of the Southern District of New York (SDNY) issued a lengthy opinion denying Trump’s motion to quash the subpoena.

Before I go on with that, let’s back up to how we got here, because I believe the DA’s grand jury investigation has been widely misinterpreted.

The common assumption has been that Vance is focused on the hush money payments to the two women who claim to have had trysts with Donald Trump about a decade before he ran for office. Of these, the Stephanie Clifford (a.k.a Stormy Daniels) transaction would presumably be of more interest to the DA because it more directly involves the Trump Organization. On that deal, Michael Cohen (the now-convicted former lawyer and self-described “fixer” for Trump) laid out the payment and was reimbursed by the Trump Organization, and there are questions about whether the business properly accounted for the payments under New York law.

To be clear, I am not saying a crime was committed — I have no idea. I am just saying the DA’s interest in and jurisdiction over that transaction is easy to grasp. By contrast, the Karen McDougal transaction involved the purchase of her story by American Media Inc. (owner of National Enquirer), with no reimbursement by the president or his business conglomerate.

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When Will Democrats Reckon with Their Own Crackpots and Conspiracy Theorists? By David Harsanyi

By on August 24th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/08/when-will-democrats-reckon-with-their-own-crackpots-and-conspiracy-theorists/

Crackpot theories are as old as the Republic, but there are a few new reasons they may be more prevalent today.

 I n December of 2003, liberal NPR host Diane Rehm asked then-front-running Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean what he thought about President George W. Bush’s “suppressing” the 9/11 independent investigation.

Dean answered that he didn’t know for sure, but there were “many theories about it,” and the most interesting one he’d heard was that the president “was warned ahead of time by the Saudis.” Much like Donald Trump inquiring into Barack Obama’s real birthplace, Dean was just asking questions.

As the columnist Robert Novak explained at the time, the comments garnered scant media attention and no denunciations from Democratic Party leaders. Dean “neither apologized nor repudiated himself for passing along this urban legend” when he appeared on “Fox News Sunday” later that week, Novak noted.

Dean likely knew he was speaking to a sizable constituency. When an Ohio University poll for Scripps Howard asked Democrats three years later, “How likely is it that people in the federal government either assisted in the 9/11 attacks or took no action to stop the attacks because they wanted the United States to go to war in the Middle East?,” 22.6 percent said it was “very likely” and another 28.2 percent said it was “somewhat likely.” Or in other words, more than half of Democrats in 2006 believed that the president probably had foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks.

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‘Like a Scene Out of Hell’: Armed BLM Rioters Loot, Pillage, and Burn Kenosha Following Police Shooting By Tyler O’Neil

By on August 24th, 2020

loot-pillage-and-burn-kenosha-following-police-shooting-n831506

In the name of Black Lives Matter, rioters shut down the streets in Kenosha, Wisc., setting trucks on fire, patrolling the streets with semi-automatic rifles, and ransacking nearby businesses. The riot followed the release of a viral video showing Kenosha police repeatedly shooting a black man who resisted arrest and reached into his truck. The man, identified as 29-year-old Jacob Blake, appears to have a violent history. Blake is in critical condition at a nearby hospital, according to police.

Rioters mobbed the police station and reportedly lobbed an incendiary device at the cops before police scattered them. Then the rioters took to the streets.

The shooting of Jacob Blake

According to the Kenosha Police Department, officers responded to a domestic incident at about 5 p.m., and the incident resulted in a shooting. “Officers provided immediate aid to the person. The person was transported via Flight for Life to Froedtert Hospital, Milwaukee. The person is in serious condition.”

Kenosha Police called upon the Kenosha Sherriff’s Department and Wisconsin State Patrol to investigate the matter, so as to avoid impropriety. The Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ), Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) will investigate the shooting.

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Progressive Racism In Practice: The Case Of School Discipline Francis Menton

By on August 24th, 2020

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2020-8-23-progressive-racism-in-practice

What is “racism,” and what is “anti-racism”? This is one of those subjects on which I just see the world completely the opposite from the vision of the current crop of woke progressives. The woke progressive program calls for things like diminished law enforcement, increased state handouts and social service programs, and even “reparations,” as the “anti-racist” remedies for racism. By contrast, in a post in April 2019, I wrote that these same sorts of things only provide evidence of:

the utter contempt in which the self-anointed elites of our country hold members of minority groups, most particularly African Americans. Somehow, these elites — or at least some very substantial number of them — have decided that African Americans are not capable of accepting personal responsibility in life or of being treated like adults.

For today, let’s consider how this issue plays out in the context of student discipline in public K-12 schools. The students in question are not adults yet, but they shortly will be. The question is whether there is an expectation that minority students are capable of becoming responsible adults, and whether their education reflects such an expectation, versus an expectation that they are on track become sub-adults in a lifetime of permanent dependency. For the research here, I’ll be relying mostly on information compiled by Thomas Sowell in his excellent new book Charter Schools And Their Enemies.

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The Mind-Bendingly Insane, Completely Craven, Utterly Unconscionable Redemption of Al Sharpton You’re not confused. The ADL Is Becoming as Bad as You Think. BY Liel Leibovitz ******

By on August 24th, 2020

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/al-sharpton-jonathan-greenblatt-ad

This past weekend, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, an umbrella group uniting 125 local Jewish communities and 17 national Jewish organizations, sent an email to its followers proudly announcing that it has signed on as a partner in the Virtual March on Washington this week, an event organized by Al Sharpton.

Because last week also marked the 29th anniversary of the Crown Heights riots, it’s worth it to stop and recall that among his many distinctions—MSNBC pundit, and an adviser who reportedly regularly speaks to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, collector of innumerable sateen suits—Al Sharpton is also currently America’s only living pogrom leader.

After a car driven by a Hasidic Jew accidentally swerved and struck a young African American boy, killing him, hundreds of the neighborhood’s Black residents rioted in the streets, chanting “death to the Jews!” as well as looting stores, attacking anyone who was visibly Jewish, and ripping mezuzot off of door posts. Sharpton was quick to arrive on the scene, leading a march in which participants burned an Israeli flag and called to kill all Jews. At the young boy’s funeral a few days later, Sharpton delivered a eulogy that borrowed heavily from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, saying that the Jewish residents of the neighborhood practiced “apartheid” and were there only to further the Jewish global grip on money and power. He ended by ominously shouting: “pay for your deeds.”

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After Trump, a Different GOP Win or lose, the party won’t return to the old orthodoxy. Populist ideas have put down deep roots.

By on August 24th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/after-trump-a-different-gop-11598197856

Mr. Jindal was governor of Louisiana, 2008-16, and a candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

Many Beltway Republicans, not to mention Democrats, are eager to move past the Trump era and return to “regular order.” Democrats are measuring the drapes in the Oval Office, with a confident air reminiscent of Hillary Clinton four years ago. Yet it would be foolish to count President Trump out—or assume that if he loses, he won’t leave a mark on his party. Whether Mr. Trump leaves office next year or in 2025, Republican voters will likely continue their push for populist policies rather than revert to traditional conservative orthodoxy on issues like trade, immigration and foreign policy.

Political figures shouldn’t try to imitate Mr. Trump’s style. He is one of a kind, and his approach is authentic and effective for him. Tweeting like Mr. Trump won’t come off the same way from another politician. Moreover, voters tend to favor candidates whose strengths compensate for the weaknesses of their predecessors. After eight years of the slick Bill Clinton, voters elected the blunt George W. Bush. He in turn gave way to the professorial Barack Obama. Though candidates won’t succeed in trying to be like Mr. Trump, it’s probable many will try and fail. 

The president’s core appeal is another matter. The image of an outsider sent to “drain the swamp” will continue to resonate with voters fed up with a permanent ruling political class focused on promoting its own interests. While everyday Republicans are not looking for a mini-Trump, they will back candidates that pledge to continue his fight on behalf of working Americans against elites in both parties. They see a direct correlation between his trade, immigration and corporate policies and their own economic welfare.

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