RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/08/10/trump_won_last_week_143919.html

Even in a volatile political year with endless crosscurrents, once voters actually start casting their ballots it seems reasonable to assume that one traditional factor will still motivate most voters: Which candidate can create more prosperity? On this score, President Trump had an impressive weekend, and his achievements shine in contrast to Joe Biden’s week of embarrassing stumbles.

On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the July jobs report, revealing that America added 1.8 million new hires and lowered the national unemployment rate to 10.2%. This report registers as the third-highest month ever, and the combined three-month total of new jobs created stands at 9.3 million. To be sure, much work remains to return our country to the thriving job market we enjoyed in early 2020 before our world was rocked by a new virus raging around the world, which threatened to crash the global economy. The damage remains real and widespread, but recent macro data also point to recovery, as green shoots abound. For example, last week’s ISM Manufacturing Index rose to the highest level in 1.5 years, as factories powered back up. On the consumer side, the most recent existing homes sales achieved the largest monthly increase ever, as historic low mortgage rates encouraged buyer confidence.

Predictably, much of the news media sought to downplay this encouraging trend of economic renewal. “July Jobs Report Could Show Losses as Coronavirus Spreads,” CNBC had warned its audience a week before. Instead of a correction, the network doubled down. On Friday, one CNBC anchor teed up market analyst Jim Cramer this way: “It’s less about what the numbers say today and more about how you extrapolate what you think they’re gonna mean next month and the month after and the month after. How do you see it?”

https://amgreatness.com/2020/08/09/who-or-what-exactly-is-running-against-trump/

The inner-Biden at 77 is turning out to be an unabashed bigot in the age of “cancel culture” and thought crimes that has apparently declared him immune from the opprobrium reserved for any such speech.

As we enter the final 90 days of the November presidential campaign, a few truths are crystalizing about the “Biden problem,” or the inability of a 77-year-old Joe Biden to conduct a “normal” campaign.

Biden’s cognitive challenges are increasing geometrically, whether as a result of months of relative inactivity and lack of stimulation or just consistent with the medical trajectory of his affliction. His lot is increasingly similar to historical figures such as 67-year-old President William Henry Harrison, William Gladstone’s last tenure as prime minister, Chancellor Hindenburg, or Franklin Roosevelt in late 1944—age and physical infirmities signaling to the concerned that a subordinate might assume power sooner than later.

In the past, it was to Biden’s advantage to postpone his selection of his female-mandated vice presidential running mate, given the lose-lose choice of either picking a woke young African American female who may polarize swing voters while spending the next three months being vetted in the fashion of California Representative Karen Bass’s Scientology and Fidel Castro issues, or selecting a vetted, but off-putting former National Security Advisor Susan Rice or Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who does not especially like Biden and would be seen as hovering and rummaging about as an impatient president-in-waiting.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/an-autopsy-of-new-yorks-mail-vote-mess-11596841128?mod=opinion_lead_pos4

Six weeks after New York’s primary elections on June 23, the final vote tally in the 12th Congressional District remains a mystery. On Monday a federal judge ordered the counting of certain mail ballots that arrived after Election Day but without a postmark to prove when they were sent. Imagine this kind of mess 45 days following Nov. 3.

After primary day, an initial count of 40,000 ballots had Rep. Carolyn Maloney beating progressive challenger Suraj Patel by 648 votes. The canvassing of some 65,000 absentee ballots didn’t start until July 8, but unofficial data last month showed a preliminary rejection rate of 28% in Brooklyn. Mr. Patel joined a federal lawsuit, and Judge Analisa Torres held two days of hearings last week. The court transcript is a bracing read.