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Ruth King

Poll: Donald Trump leads Joe Biden by 7 points among Iowa voters Brianne Pfannenstiel,

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/poll-donald-trump-leads-joe-biden-by-7-points-among-iowa-voters/ar-BB1azNvo

Republican President Donald Trump has taken over the lead in Iowa as Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden has faded, a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows just days before Election Day.

The president now leads by 7 percentage points over Biden, 48% to 41%. Three percent say they will vote for someone else, 2% aren’t sure and 5% don’t want to say for whom they will vote.

In September’s Iowa Poll, the candidates were tied at 47% to 47%.

The poll of 814 likely Iowa voters was conducted by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines from Oct. 26-29. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

J. Ann Selzer, president of Selzer & Co., said while men are more likely to support Trump and women to support Biden, the gender gap has narrowed, and independents have returned to supporting the president, a group he won in 2016.

“The president is holding demographic groups that he won in Iowa four years ago, and that would give someone a certain level of comfort with their standing,” she said. “There’s a consistent story in 2020 to what happened in 2016.”

But, she said, “Neither candidate hits 50%, so there’s still some play here.”

Trump carried Iowa by 9.4 percentage points in 2016, but his chances at a repeat 2020 win here appeared to be in doubt in recent polling. The June Iowa Poll showed Trump leading by just 1 percentage point before Biden climbed into the September tie.

Trump has the momentum in the final week Every event that has occurred since the last debate has cut for Trump and against Biden Matt Mayer

https://spectator.us/donald-trump-momentum-final-week/

I don’t believe in astrology, but, if I did, I’d have to say the stars are aligning for Donald Trump in the last 10 days of this tumultuous election. Beginning with the second presidential debate where Trump finally displayed presidential behavior and Joe Biden expressly proclaimed his goal to transition away from oil (i.e., kill it), virtually every unfolding event has aided Trump’s cause for reelection. Though he still might not win, the momentum is clearly behind Trump as Election Day nears.

First, Biden’s comment on energy at the last debate certainly hurt him with energy industry workers and their families in western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. Because virtually all of the sand used in fracking comes from Wisconsin, Biden’s gaffe also will hurt him in that key state too. The Trump campaign immediately went on offense in those states forcing Biden to play defense.

Next, the Tony Bobulinski claims about the Biden family, especially his very detailed and credible allegations about meeting twice with Joe Biden about a deal with a Chinese company tied to the communist government, undermine one of the core tenets of the Biden candidacy; namely, he is not corrupt and compromised like Trump. As more Americans learn about these allegations, Biden’s credibility is crumbling. It doesn’t help that his campaign refuses to deny Bobulinski’s story and that Jim Biden says ‘no comment’ to the press who dare to ask. Most people believe the natural response to being accused of something you didn’t do is to explicitly deny it. That isn’t happening with Bobulinski’s accusations.

A Sensible and Compassionate Anti-COVID Strategy by Jay Bhattacharya M.D., PhD.

https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/sensible-compassionate-anti-covid-strategy/?utm_term=

The following is adapted from a panel presentation on October 9, 2020, in Omaha, Nebraska, at a Hillsdale College Free Market Forum.

My goal today is, first, to present the facts about how deadly COVID-19 actually is; second, to present the facts about who is at risk from COVID; third, to present some facts about how deadly the widespread lockdowns have been; and fourth, to recommend a shift in public policy.

1. The COVID-19 Fatality Rate

In discussing the deadliness of COVID, we need to distinguish COVID cases from COVID infections. A lot of fear and confusion has resulted from failing to understand the difference.

We have heard much this year about the “case fatality rate” of COVID. In early March, the case fatality rate in the U.S. was roughly three percent—nearly three out of every hundred people who were identified as “cases” of COVID in early March died from it. Compare that to today, when the fatality rate of COVID is known to be less than one half of one percent.

In other words, when the World Health Organization said back in early March that three percent of people who get COVID die from it, they were wrong by at least one order of magnitude. The COVID fatality rate is much closer to 0.2 or 0.3 percent. The reason for the highly inaccurate early estimates is simple: in early March, we were not identifying most of the people who had been infected by COVID.

“Case fatality rate” is computed by dividing the number of deaths by the total number of confirmed cases. But to obtain an accurate COVID fatality rate, the number in the denominator should be the number of people who have been infected—the number of people who have actually had the disease—rather than the number of confirmed cases.

In March, only the small fraction of infected people who got sick and went to the hospital were identified as cases. But the majority of people who are infected by COVID have very mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. These people weren’t identified in the early days, which resulted in a highly misleading fatality rate. And that is what drove public policy. Even worse, it continues to sow fear and panic, because the perception of too many people about COVID is frozen in the misleading data from March.

So how do we get an accurate fatality rate? To use a technical term, we test for seroprevalence—in other words, we test to find out how many people have evidence in their bloodstream of having had COVID.

This is easy with some viruses. Anyone who has had chickenpox, for instance, still has that virus living in them—it stays in the body forever. COVID, on the other hand, like other coronaviruses, doesn’t stay in the body. Someone who is infected with COVID and then clears it will be immune from it, but it won’t still be living in them.

What we need to test for, then, are antibodies or other evidence that someone has had COVID. And even antibodies fade over time, so testing for them still results in an underestimate of total infections.

Seroprevalence is what I worked on in the early days of the epidemic. In April, I ran a series of studies, using antibody tests, to see how many people in California’s Santa Clara County, where I live, had been infected. At the time, there were about 1,000 COVID cases that had been identified in the county, but our antibody tests found that 50,000 people had been infected—i.e., there were 50 times more infections than identified cases. This was enormously important, because it meant that the fatality rate was not three percent, but closer to 0.2 percent; not three in 100, but two in 1,000.

When it came out, this Santa Clara study was controversial. But science is like that, and the way science tests controversial studies is to see if they can be replicated. And indeed, there are now 82 similar seroprevalence studies from around the world, and the median result of these 82 studies is a fatality rate of about 0.2 percent—exactly what we found in Santa Clara County.

Biden Corruption: An In-Depth Investigation Of The Ukraine Allegations  Francis Menton

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2020-10-30-biden-corruption-a-deep-dive-into-the-ukraine-allegations

Of all the revelations about Biden family members cashing in on Joe Biden’s influence — revelations arising from Ukraine, China, Iraq, Romania, Kazakhstan, and other places — those relating to Ukraine are likely the most damning. Certainly, the revelations relating to Ukraine are the ones that most definitively involve criminal conduct. After all, Ukraine is the country where Joe admitted (actually, bragged) on tape about threatening to withhold a billion dollars of U.S. aid unless a prosecutor got fired — a prosecutor who happened to be investigating the company where Joe’s son Hunter was getting $1 million per year to sit on the board. “And son of a bitch, he got fired.” That clear admission alone would prove the hardest part of what you would need to convict under 18 USC Section 201.

By contrast, the recent revelations from Hunter’s laptop and from Biden business partner Tony Bobulinski, while important, don’t necessarily show an independent crime by themselves. What they do show is clear contradiction of Joe’s prior statements about lack of knowledge or involvement in Hunter’s overseas business affairs; and they also show the Biden family, and Joe personally, beholden to the CCP. But these “laptop revelations” mostly relate to discussions of a prospective transaction in 2017, when Joe was out of office; and much of the transaction under discussion seems to have collapsed before consummation.

Andrew McCarthy- A Collusion Tale- The Bidens and China

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/10/a-collusion-tale-the-bidens-and-china/

Not only were the Bidens’ Chinese business contacts known to have ties to the regime; they also may have been clandestine agents.

Understand what’s going on here: The media-Democrat complex is warning you, on the basis of no evidence, that if you don’t close your eyes to the explosive revelations from Hunter Biden’s computers, you will be abetting a Russian intelligence operation; yet it has become increasingly obvious that this is because, if you open your eyes, you may find out that the Bidens were selling themselves to an actual Chinese intelligence operation.

Among the more amazing revelations in the Biden corruption scandal that the media-Democrat complex is blocking voters from seeing is this: The corrupt Chinese businessmen with whom the Bidens were colluding not only had a record of buying political influence, not only were known to have high-level ties to the Chinese Communist Party and the regime, but also were clandestine agents of China — at least, that’s what the FBI and Justice Department seem to have told the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

The Bidens were seeking a $40 million liquefied natural gas (LNG) deal with CEFC, a Shanghai-based energy conglomerate that was flying high until early 2018. By then, however, it had become crystal clear to Xi Jinping’s government that the company’s machinations on behalf of the regime had been penetrated by U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement. CEFC formally went bankrupt earlier this year, but that was two years after the regime pulled the plug on its operations – which appear to have been a cover for Chinese intelligence operations.

The Bidens, with former vice president Joe Biden’s son Hunter as the point-man, dealt with CEFC in 2017. They were the beneficiaries of its corrupt practices and were smack in the middle of things when CEFC began to unravel due to American investigations — investigations that Hunter Biden agreed to look into on behalf of his CEFC partners.

CEFC Was China CEFC posed as a private company. Make no mistake, though, CEFC was China. Its meteoric rise would not have been possible otherwise, and its rapid collapse happened because its usefulness as an instrument of the Communist regime’s influence was undermined by American surveillance operations.

Vote Trump; Save America By David Limbaugh

https://pjmedia.com/columns/david-limbaugh/2020/10/30/vote-trump-save-america-n1107029

We are just days from the most important election in modern times, and sanctimonious scolds are still telling conservatives they’re immoral for supporting the main person fighting to prevent this nation’s destruction.

Seriously? Your shaming isn’t working. We don’t believe we are betraying our values for standing with the person who is pursuing policies that will sustain America’s liberty tradition and opposing those that will enslave and impoverish us.

You can force-feed us op-ed after op-ed from well-respected Christian theologians urging us to vote against President Trump because you apparently believe he’s Satan’s spawn. But your pleas will fall flat because, unlike you, we see clearly the threats we face to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and, yes, even Christian values.

Ask yourself this: If, when crafting our Constitution, the framers anticipated that a man like Donald Trump might eventually become president — a man whose quirks bother some people to distraction and irrationality — would they have scrapped the whole system and opted for political tyranny and economic socialism?

Heavens, no, but that’s essentially what you’re asking us to do. No, thank you. We are not about to abandon the ideas we believe in because some of you have made a virtue out of hating and vilifying this president and demonizing the rest of us who disagree with you.

We are not about to surrender to a leftist agenda of abortion on demand; lawlessness in our streets; bankrupting and unworkable environmental radicalism; the end of the oil industry; socialism; gender anarchy; the obliteration of our freedoms of speech and religion; and a weak United States because you have become unwitting allies of sinister forces determined to realize these infernal goals.

Trump Vs. Biden Poll: Joe Biden’s Lead Grows, But Here’s The Surprise In IBD/TIPP Presidential Poll

https://www.investors.com/news/trump-vs-biden-poll-joe-biden-lead-grows-swing-states-tight-ibd-tipp-presidential-poll/

The latest Trump vs. Biden poll shows former Vice President Joe Biden with a wider lead over President Donald Trump in the race’s final days. However, the race appears close enough in swing states that even a national popular vote lead of today’s scope may not assure a Biden win in the Electoral College, the IBD/TIPP presidential poll update hints.

Today’s Trump vs. Biden poll update finds the Democratic challenger leading the Republican incumbent by 5.6 points, 50.5%-44.9%, in a four-way presidential poll of likely voters. Biden’s lead was 4.7 points on Wednesday.

Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgensen has the support of 1.4%, and Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins 0.4% in the latest Biden vs. Trump poll.

Presidential Poll In Red, Blue, Swing States

“Most of Biden’s advantage comes from the blue states, and it is clouding the hard battle the candidates are fighting in the battleground states,” TIPP President Raghavan Mayur said.

The IBD/TIPP presidential poll suggests that Biden is outperforming Clinton’s 2016 results in both red and blue states. However, swing states, those six states decided by less than 2 points in 2016, look highly competitive.

Andrew Cuomo Twists The Facts To Excuse His Deadly COVID Nursing Home Policy Anna Lynn and James Agresti

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/10/31/the-truth-about-andrew-cuomos-deadly-covid-nursing-home-policy/

Wednesday morning on ABC’s “The View,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo gave a factually misleading explanation for the thousands of people who died with COVID-19 in N.Y. nursing homes.

After co-host Sunny Hostin praised Cuomo’s book “Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic” as “absolutely fantastic,” she said to the governor:

There has been a lot of confusion about an alleged March 25th order that directed nursing homes to accept in New York, infected COVID patients, possibly leading to the death of more than 6,000 seniors. Now you say in your book that that was a lie—that New York state never demanded or directed that any nursing home accept a COVID-positive patient. The Department of Justice however is now supposedly looking into this issue. Can you explain what really happened?

Cuomo replied:

Yea, what a shock that the Department of Injustice sends a letter a few days before an election trying to advance a political theory. I was shocked and amazed that the Trump administration was capable of such a thing. Sunny, they have played politics on this from day one, right? They have done a terrible job on COVID from day one, and they want a counter-defense, and what they were saying was, “Well, a lot of people died in nursing homes in Democratic states. It’s not just New York, it’s all the Democratic states.”

The truth is a lot of people did die in nursing homes in Democratic states. The truth is people are dying today in nursing homes in Republican states. It’s just that Democratic states had the disease worse and earlier, and older people are more vulnerable to COVID, right? We were introduced to COVID in the state of Washington in a nursing home.

Porking the Supreme Court by Linda Goudsmit

http://goudsmit.pundicity.com/24697/porking-the-supreme-court

   http://goudsmit.pundicity.com http://lindagoudsmit.com

“The 2020 American presidential election is the tipping point in America. Will Americans support America-first President Donald J. Trump and recommit themselves to blind justice and the nonpartisan rule of law as Amy Coney Barrett did?? Or will Americans choose to descend further into the financially corrupt world of globalism’s Joe Biden, and the lawlessness of radical leftist Democrat Kamala Harris?”

According to Wikipedia, the familiar term pork‐barrel politics “refers to instances in which ruling parties channel public money to particular constituencies based on political considerations, at the expense of broader public interests. . . .Typically, ‘pork’ involves funding for government programs whose economic or service benefits are concentrated in a particular area but whose costs are spread among all taxpayers.”

The less familiar term “porking” is defined as “government funds, appointments, or benefits dispensed or legislated by politicians to gain favor with their constituents.” So, porking the court would mean nominating justices who would rule in favor of a particular constituency rather than dispensing the blind justice that judges are constitutionally and honor-bound to adhere to.

Anyone who has served on a jury knows that jurors are required to put their personal beliefs and preferences aside. Jury duty is an essential part of the American judicial system that entrusts citizens with the responsibility of impartiality. Blind justice requires impartial judges and impartial juries to provide equal justice under the law.

Part of Barack Obama’s plan to fundamentally transform America involved politicizing the courts. Community organizing was Obama’s specialty, his instruction manual written by socialist mentor, Saul Alinsky, is Rules for Radicals. Alinsky’s manifesto is based on incremental change because community organizing is a long-term tactical political strategy. Alinsky advised, “True revolutionaries do not flaunt their radicalism. They cut their hair, put on suits and infiltrate the system from within.” That is precisely what Barack Obama did.

Black Appraisals of Black Lives Matter – Part IV by Soeren Kern

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16706/black-lives-matter-appraisals-4

“Self-destructive behavior that has become acceptable, particularly that in predominantly Black schools, is nothing less than a gross betrayal of a struggle, paid with blood, sweat and tears by previous generations, to make possible today’s educational opportunities that are being routinely squandered.” — Walter E. Williams, Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University.

“The unthinkable — such as defunding major police departments — has become accepted as ‘reform.’ Judging people based on their skin color has once again become accepted in the highest echelons of American society.” — Ward Connerly, political activist, businessman, and former University of California Regent.

“Critical Race Theory holds that anytime there is disparity between blacks and whites, then it has to be systemic. Therefore, the response has to be to change and alter the standards, because to say to black Americans, or anyone they consider marginalized, that they must alter their behavior to meet the standards is racist. This is just a logical extension of that.” — Robert L. Woodson, founder and president of the Woodson Center, community development leader, author.

“Nothing is more injurious to a people than to convey the notion that they are exempt from personal responsibility.” — Robert L. Woodson, founder and president of the Woodson Center, community development leader, author.

“Do you care about black lives? The people that run Baltimore don’t. I can prove it. Walk with me. They don’t want you to see this. This is Baltimore. The real Baltimore. This is the reality for black people every day: crumbling infrastructure, abandoned homes, poverty and crime.” — Kim Klacik, businesswoman and congressional candidate for Maryland.

“If America is merely apartheid-era South Africa with four time zones, why did President Donald J. Trump bother to establish 8,760 Opportunity Zones to revitalize economically distressed communities, many of them black? How did America’s institutionalized racism let Trump provide school-choice options for black kids in K-12 schools, and long-term federal funding and other benefits for Historically Black Colleges and Universities?” — Deroy Murdock, political commentator, author.

“The worst thing that can happen to this country to give Black Lives Matter legitimacy. It’s just communism being presented in blackface.” — Nick Fad, investigative journalist.

“Black Lives Matters supporters taking to the streets, screaming in the faces of white diners attempting to enjoy a meal outside, breaking into stores, looting, setting fires and engaging in other acts of physical violence aren’t movement members. They’re criminals. BLM is their cult. It is their religion. It is what gives them purpose.” — Rob Smith, U.S. Army veteran.

“I personally don’t dare speak out against the BLM narrative, and with this barrage of alleged unity being mass-produced by the administration, tenured professoriate…. I am certain that if my name were attached to this email, I would lose my job and all future jobs, even though I believe in and can justify every word I type.” — Anonymous, black professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley, in an open letter to colleagues.

“Donating to BLM today is to indirectly donate to Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign. This is grotesque given the fact that the American cities with the worst rates of black-on-black violence and police-on-black violence are overwhelmingly Democrat-run. Minneapolis itself has been entirely in the hands of Democrats for over five decades; the ‘systemic racism’ there was built by successive Democrat administrations.” — Anonymous, black professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley, in an open letter to colleagues.

“The ever-present soft bigotry of low expectations and the permanent claim that the solutions to the plight of my people rest exclusively on the goodwill of whites rather than on our own hard work is psychologically devastating. No other group in America is systematically demoralized in this way by its alleged allies.” — Anonymous, black professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley, in an open letter to colleagues.

This multi-part series (Part I here, Part II here, Part III here) focuses on the perspectives of blacks — conservative, liberal or libertarian — who appraise BLM and its agenda. The following selection of commentary by blacks from all walks of life — actors, athletes, businesspeople, civil rights activists, clergy, commentators, physicians and politicians — demonstrates that black public opinion is not monolithic, and that BLM does not speak for all African Americans.