RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2020-10-1-the-debate-strengthens-the-case-for-a-libertarian-to-vote-for-trump

Back on July 22, I participated in a debate hosted by the Soho Forum on the question of which presidential candidate a libertarian should support — Biden, Trump, or Jo Jorgensen (the candidate of the Libertarian Party). I argued the case for Trump. You can watch the July 22 debate, including my presentation, by going to the Soho Forum website.

Later today, at the request of the Soho Forum, I will be recording an update to my July 22 presentation. Not much has happened to move the needle since July 22, particularly given the dearth of public appearances by both Biden and Harris, and the flat refusal of those two to respond to any remotely unfriendly or probing questions from reporters. That leaves mostly just the debate of September 29 in the category of new information. Trying to do my job conscientiously, I watched the whole thing. If you did the same, I pity you, and I also strongly suspect that you found the experience unpleasant, as I did.

As a general matter, I found Trump’s aggressive approach off-putting and unhelpful. On the other hand, Biden’s approach was to make wild and unsupported statements and promises, often inconsistent either with his website or other statements he made in the debate itself, with seeming complete confidence that the moderator would give him a total pass. And on that he was right — time after time, moderator Chris Wallace gave him a total pass. The underlying concept was that in a Biden presidency, the government would provide perfect solutions to all human problems and bring justice and fairness to all through the magic of government spending and programs. Does anybody really buy this? Unfortunately, I think a lot of people do buy it.

I’ll focus on just a few issues that arose in the debate. I have used a version of the transcript found here to try to get as close as I can to the exact words used.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/after-fleeing-from-socialism-some-immigrants-fear-for-americas-future_3520553.html

MIAMI—A diverse group of supporters gathered outside President Donald Trump’s hotel in Doral, Florida, hoping to catch a glimpse of him during a recent Latinos roundtable event. Many were exiles from socialist or communist regimes such as Cuba and Venezuela.

This personal backdrop—many having fled to America—and the notion that the Democratic Party has been shifting further left, are key factors behind their support. The administration’s repeated sanctions against the regimes of Venezuela and Cuba helped solidify their decisions.

Jorde Lewis, a Venezuelan American, said he couldn’t comprehend why anyone from his home country would vote for the Democratic Party, since he believes they are “offering socialism.” A majority of Venezuelans live in poverty and millions have fled the regime.

“We left socialism to come to a capitalist state,” Lewis told The Epoch Times on Sept. 25. “I know exactly what it’s like to live under socialism, not to have food, not to have electricity.”

https://amgreatness.com/2020/10/01/big-techs-backing-of-the-transition-integrity-project-lacks-integrity/

During Tuesday night’s debate, while fielding yet another softball from moderator Chris Wallace, Joe Biden promised to accept the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. “I will accept it, and he will too,” Biden replied. “You know why? Once the winner is declared after all the votes are counted, that will be the end of it.”

But Biden, as usual, wasn’t telling the whole truth. The former vice president can publicly assure Americans he will abide by the voters’ decision this year because he knows his campaign team is part of a massive operation—cosigned by the most powerful media, business, and political interests in the country—performing Biden’s dirty work behind-the-scenes to make sure that he, not Donald Trump, takes the oath of office on January 20, 2021.

As I’ve reported for American Greatness, Democrats and NeverTrump Republicans earlier this year formed a group called the Transition Integrity Project, an outlandish misnomer, which has been “war gaming” a number of likely post-election scenarios. The same sore losers who, to this day, cannot accept the 2016 results fully intend to get their way this time around, the U.S. Constitution and boundaries of decency be damned.

According to its detailed battle plan, the Transition Integrity Project could extend Election Day all the way to Inauguration Day as it sows chaos across the country until Biden is installed in the White House, even if Trump is legitimately reelected. 

“The purpose of this report is not to frighten, but to spur all stakeholders to action,” TIP warned. “It is 2 [sic] incumbent upon elected officials, civil society leaders, and the press to challenge authoritarian actions in the courts, in the media, and in the streets through peaceful protest.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/trump-s-winning-voter-registration-battle-against-biden-key-states-n1241674

In the last few weeks, Joe Biden has led President Donald Trump by a fairly consistent 8-point average in national polls and has maintained leads in more than enough battleground states to win the Electoral College, including Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — all states Trump won in 2016.

But there are signs Trump’s ground operation is paying off when it comes to registering new voters in key states, an advantage that could become important if the race tightens before Nov. 3.

The Trump campaign has boasted that it knocks on more than a million doors a week, a claim that’s impossible to independently verify. In sharp contrast, the Biden campaign had ditched a ground game for virtual outreach, citing Covid-19 concerns — even though academic research has routinely concluded door-to-door canvassing is the “most consistently effective and efficient method of voter mobilization.” Only just now has the Biden campaign decided to restart its in-person voter contacts in some battleground states.

As deadlines approach, new data from the past few months shows Republicans have swamped Democrats in adding new voters to the rolls, a dramatic GOP improvement over 2016, even if new registrations have lagged 2016 rates across the board. It’s a sign that in a pandemic, Democrats are struggling to seize traditional opportunities to pad their margins, such as the return of students to college campuses.

Of the six states Trump won by less than 5 points in 2016, four — Arizona, Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania — permit voters to register by party. In all four states, voter registration trends are more robust for the GOP than four years ago.

http://www.swtotd.blogspot.com

Issues remain: COVID-19, the economy; riots in blue-run cities versus law and order, the Supreme Court, climate and the Green New Deal, illegal immigration, China, Russia and the Middle East. While voters know where Mr. Trump stands on these issues and what he has done, they received little insight as to what Mr. Biden would do. Mr. Trump was accused for not condemning far-right, white supremacists. That is not precisely true if one reads the transcript. Interestingly, Chris Wallace did not ask Mr. Biden to condemn left-wing extremists like Antifa, which is an “idea, not an organization,” according to Mr. Biden.

When I awoke on Wednesday morning, I received the following from a friend, a former British jurist now retired and living in Switzerland: “There can be no greater symbol of American decline than the sight of those two elderly gentlemen slugging it out without dignity or sell-restraint.”

It is hard to disagree with my friend’s assessment, and it is remarkable how far removed from Margaret Thatcher we have come. While it is likely that Mr. Trump did not pick up undecided voters, I suspect more damage was done to Mr. Biden. Mr. Trump played the role he has played for the past four and a half years – a crude, unabashed disruptor of political norms. On the other hand, Joe Biden, who has been largely invisible for the last few months, confirmed concerns of those who worry about his mental acuity. While most of his comments and answers were lucid, he stumbled over words and phrases, and his eyes, especially as time went on, took on a glazed, empty look. Mr. Trump is rude, while Mr. Biden is not well. The first we have known for years; the second we are just realizing.

https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2020/10/01/crazy-moderator-of-second-presidential-debate-served-as-an-intern-for-joe-biden-n992980

C-SPAN’s Steve Scully, who will moderate the second presidential debate, got his start as a staff assistant in Sen. Ted Kennedy’s communication office, and prior to that worked as in intern in the office of then-senator Joe Biden.

The second presidential debate is scheduled for October 15, just two weeks from now.

Scully’s complete work and education records — both impressive — can be found here on his page at George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs.

You might know Scully as the guy who handles C-SPAN’s open phone lines, a job he handles affably and with grace.

Scully is generally well-regarded in Washington and in the media, but out here where I am in flyover country, he may at least be seen as too chummy with Democrats to serve as an honest broker for the second presidential debate.

Tweets like this one from 2016, and currently making the retweet rounds, don’t help.

“Love,” really?

Whatever else you might say — and I nearly bit right through my tongue — that is not a good look for the supposedly non-partisan moderator of a presidential debate.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/10/on-court-packing-biden-is-afraid-of-losing-the-radical-left/

He knows Democrats are unlikely to have the votes to abolish the Senate filibuster and pack the Court. He’s playing coy on the issue to preserve his base.

 I t is always better to be ahead than behind, so former vice president Joe Biden is no doubt relishing the solid lead he maintains in national polls. But we don’t have a national election; we have 50 state elections, and the race is still tight in the battleground states, where every vote continues to count.

Consequently, Biden cannot afford to ignore the radical Left, which doesn’t have much enthusiasm for him, but is enthusiastic about defeating President Trump.

That is the main reason why Biden is dodging questions about whether he favors court-packing, which would require eradicating the Senate filibuster, which, in turn, would open the floodgates for the enactment of other radical elements of the Left’s agenda: government-monopolized health care, statehood for Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, the Green New Deal, Senator Elizabeth Warren’s Accountable Capitalism Act, etc.

When a politician is dodging a question, he is trying to fool somebody. On court-packing, it comes down to whether Biden is trying to string along his core left-wing supporters or dupe moderate voters (in particular, independents, centrist Democrats, and Republicans who have grown weary of the, shall we say, challenging Trump persona).