Displaying posts categorized under

POLITICS

1 in 5 Ballots Rejected as Fraud Is Charged in N.J. Mail-In Election . By Mark Hemingway

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/06/26/1_in_5_ballots_rejected_as_fraud_is_charged_in_nj_mail-in_election_143551.html

Following accusations of widespread fraud, voter intimidation, and ballot theft in the May 12 municipal elections in Paterson, N.J., state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal (pictured) announced Thursday he is charging four men with voter fraud – including the vice president of the City Council and a candidate for that body.

With races still undecided, control of the council hangs in the balance. Paterson is New Jersey’s third largest city and the election will decide the fate of a municipal budget in excess of $300 million, in addition to hundreds of millions more in education spending and state aid.

In the City Council election, 16,747 vote-by-mail ballots were received, but only 13,557 votes were counted. More than 3,190 votes, 19% of the total ballots cast, were disqualified by the board of elections. Due to the pandemic, Paterson’s election was done through vote-by-mail. Community organizations, such as the city’s NAACP chapter, are calling for the entire election to be invalidated.

Mail-in ballots have long been acknowledged by voting experts to be more susceptible to fraud and irregularities than in-person voting. This has raised concerns from President Trump and other Republicans about the integrity of national elections in November, which are expected to include a dramatic increase in mail-in ballots. If Paterson is any guide, it ought to concern Democrats as well.

2020 Election Will Be a Contest of the Angry By Victor Davis Hanson

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/06/2020-election-contest-of-the-angry/

It is no longer really about Biden and Trump.

The old 2020 election was supposed to be about many familiar issues. It is not anymore.

Up until now, the candidates themselves would supposedly be the story in November. The Left had cited Trump’s tweets and erratic firings as windows into his dark soul.

The Right had replied that an addled and befuddled Joe Biden was not really a candidate at all.

Instead, he was a mere facsimile who would have to be carried to the Election Day on the shoulders of the Democratic Party, only shortly to fade away. Then a radical vice president soon could implement a hard-left agenda by succession what she could not through election.

Issues themselves are no longer likely to decide the election either. Not long ago progressives argued that the miracle Trump economy was in shambles, done in by plague, quarantine, and riot.

They thundered that it was what you would expect from Trump’s innate chaos — a mess that would have to be invented if it had not existed.

The Right had countered that deregulation, energy development, tax reform, and reindustrialization that made America Great would make American Great Again.

For all of 2019 and 2020, Democrats had claimed that a calm abroad would return with a Biden win. They talked of reestablishing the influence of post-war American-led diplomacy, soft power, traditional alliances, transnational organizations, and the United Nations.

The No Debate Democrats Forty-five Senators block a police reform from hitting the floor.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-no-debate-democrats-11593041122?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

A minority of the Senate, 45 Democrats to be exact, voted Wednesday to close off any debate on a police reform bill. Not against the bill, mind you. Against even allowing the Senate to debate or offer amendments to Republican Tim Scott’s proposal.

The calculation is pure election-year cynicism: Block the Senate from passing a bill that Republicans could campaign on, then denounce Republicans for refusing to pass the bill that House Democrats will pass this week that would micromanage local police departments. Blame Republicans for opposing reform when Senate Democrats were the real opponents.

Much of the press corps will play along by reporting on the House vote but treating the Senate vote as a GOP failure. The election-year calculation will go largely unmentioned as Democrats maneuver to return the Senate to Democratic Party control in 2021. It’s no accident that California Senator Kamala Harris led the filibuster as she campaigns to be Joe Biden’s running mate.

The loser here is the chance for bipartisan agreement on police reform, which shows that Democrats don’t really care about the substance of chokeholds and the rest. Their priority is using George Floyd’s unjust killing as a campaign issue to regain power.

Voter-shaming by the left hits a new low Ruthie Blum

https://www.jns.org/opinion/voter-shaming-by-the-left-hits-a-new-low/

There is a huge difference between rejecting a politician and debasing his supporters.

(June 23, 2020 / JNS) During a lecture at the New York-based Modern Language Association in the immediate aftermath of U.S. President Richard Nixon’s landslide re-election in November 1972, the late American film critic, Pauline Kael, made a memorable statement.

“I live in a rather special world,” the outspoken movie reviewer acknowledged. “I only know one person who voted for Nixon. Where [the rest of them] are I don’t know. They’re outside my ken. But sometimes, when I’m in a theater, I can feel them.”

Though the quote has been bastardized a bit over the years, its gist remains intact—and not only in the United States. What it illustrated nearly five decades ago still holds in Western societies: That no matter how widespread a stance, if it is antithetical to the sentiment and sensibilities of the so-called “intelligentsia” (and of those aspiring to the title), it is rendered invisible.

It is also seen, or at least portrayed, as frightening in some way. Kael admitted to knowing only a single Nixon voter, but said that she could sense others lurking, almost threateningly, in the rows of seats around her in darkened cinemas.

Imagine her amazement, then, when the faceless figures “outside [her] ken” turned out to be a majority of the electorate. After all, no such people ever had graced her table—unless, perhaps, they were serving the meal or cleaning up after it.

A Presidential Campaign Simile: Storm-Tossed Galleon By Victor Davis Hanson

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/a-presidential-campaign-simile-storm-tossed-galleon/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=featured-content-trending&utm_term=first

Right now, Trump’s ship has been hit in succession by sudden headwinds and violent storms of impeachment, the contagion, the lockdown, the tragic killing of George Floyd, and both the ensuring peaceful protests and violent looting, rioting, and arson. The result is that his voyage to port has nearly stopped. Even warped polls suggest that in the past few days he has caught little wind in his sails, while Joe Biden, asleep at the wheel, lets his crew ever so slowly capture a tiny breeze or two and drift ahead.

But to Trump’s rear, the powerful tailwinds of summer and autumn are rising. And they are considerable: the enfeebled candidacy of a cognitively impaired Joe Biden who at some point must emerge from his basement and remind the world he is inert; the contention over Joe Biden’s hard left-wing diversity VP selection that is de facto the Democratic presidential candidate; the looming indictments of John Durham; the steady recovery of the economy; the likely eventual waning of the virus; the loosening of the lockdowns, especially given the asymmetrical blue-state exemptions given to millions of protestors and rioters who never practiced social distancing as they looted stores, entered restaurants to harass customers, and crowded together to shout and spray; and, most important, the growing public pushback against the looting, burning, shooting, and rioting. All that is a powerful collection of favorable windy currents.

If Trump lets these fresh winds at his back catch his full sails and ride the waves, then he will coast to port and victory

Trump’s Base Remains Solid As Political Tide Turns by J.T. Young

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/06/22/trumps-base-remains-solid-as-political-tide-turns/

Despite 2020’s tough start, Trump’s base remains solid, which bodes well for his November.  National polls have recently shown a widening Biden lead; considering the current political environment, this is not surprising.  What is surprising is how well Trump has held up, and how well it positions him as political tides turn.  

The current Real Clear Politics average of national presidential polling gives Biden a 50.1% to 41.3% lead less than five months from November’s election.  This fits conventional expectations that 2020’s rough first half is damaging the president’s re-election chances.  However, looking inside these national polls reveals a crucial shortcoming: They are not polling those most likely to vote.

Of the eleven national polls making up RCP’s average, ten sampled “registered” voters, not “likely” voters.  Registered voter polls are historically less accurate and over-represent Democrats in their results. 

One likely voter poll not included in RCP’s average is Zogby’s recent one (conducted 6/1-6/2 of 1,007 likely voters) which has Trump and Biden deadlocked at 46% apiece.  Everything in Zogby’s was not perfect for the president; his approval/disapproval rating was negative — 48% approve/51% disapprove.  However, as Zogby noted: “During this almost exact moment at the end of Barack Obama’s first term, his job approval numbers were very similar…48% approve/50% disapprove.”

One poll is not an election.  However, “registered” are not “likely” voters either, and the only ones who count will be November voters.  Zogby’s poll does indicate that Trump’s base will figure prominently among them.  The surest sign they will is that they are sticking with him during the most difficult moment of his presidency.

‘Dirty Tricks’ Sabotage Trump Tulsa Rally By Rick Moran

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2020/06/21/democratic-dirty-tricks-sabotage-trump-tulsa-rally-n557476

Tik-Tok and K-Pop users are claiming they reserved hundreds of tickets for Donald Trump’s Tulsa rally, never having any intention of showing up. The result was a half-empty arena in Tulsa for the president’s post-coronavirus restart of his campaign.

In fact, Twitter is alight this morning with reports that dozens of teens reserved thousands of rally tickets to sabotage the optics of Trump’s speech.

Trending on Twitter this morning is #EveryoneLaughingAtYouDonald and #TrumpRallyFail.

Steve Schmidt

✔ @SteveSchmidtSES
My 16 year old daughter and her friends in Park City Utah have hundreds of tickets. You have been rolled by America’s teens. @realDonaldTrump you have been failed by your team. You have been deserted by your faithful. No one likes to root for the losing team. @ProjectLincoln https://twitter.com/parscale/status/1272191356845391875 …

Brad Parscale

✔ @parscale

Just passed 800,000 tickets. Biggest data haul and rally signup of all time by 10x.
Saturday is going to be amazing! https://twitter.com/parscale/status/1271581845910704128 …

Steve Schmidt was John McCain’s campaign manager and a driving force behind the anti-Trump Lincoln Project.

Daily Mail:

He then added: ‘This is what happened tonight. I’m dead serious when I say this. The teens of America have struck a savage blow against @realDonaldTrump. All across America teens ordered tickets to this event. The fools on the campaign bragged about a million tickets. lol.’

The gloating is absolutely nauseating. The Trump rally was sabotaged by political “dirty trick” worthy of the Nixon campaign and Democrats are celebrating?

President Trump’s Huge Tulsa Rally By Bryan Preston

https://pjmedia.com/election/bryan-preston/2020/06/20/live-feed-watch-president-trumps-huge-tulsa-rally-n557379

President Donald Trump holds his first rally since the COVID-19 pandemic struck, forcing major sports, music and all other public events to shut down along with most of the economy.

The same media and health care “experts” who lauded the mass protests of the past few weeks, many of which turned or are still turning violent, have been out in force making Trump’s rally sound like it’s the most dangerous thing for public health since the medieval plague.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has handled these media barrages with style and aplomb.

Trump’s rally also comes in the context of Democrat-run cities allowing protesters to topple statues of figures from American history, and defunding police in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Chauvin has been fired and charged with murder.

Violent crime rates had been declining nationwide since 1994, but are now on the rise again as Democrat-run cities abdicate their responsibilities, even to the point of ceding territory to antifa in the heart of Seattle, Washington.

President Trump has declared himself both the “law and order” president and implemented an executive order toward police reform. He has also led a sentencing reform effort, the First Step Act, with the support of Kim Kardashian and her husband, Kanye West.

China is on the Ballot in 2020 Ben Weingarten

https://americanmind.org/post/china-is-on-the-ballot-in-2020/

American voters will decide if the PRC wins.

In early May, President Donald Trump ordered a federal retirement fund to scrap its plans to shift several billion dollars’ worth of U.S. government employee savings into Chinese stocks. The administration is now planning a broader review of China’s unfair and potentially dangerous usage of American capital markets. This is about far more than mundane matters of bureaucracy and asset allocation. It epitomizes the existential battle facing America.

The Status Quo

Our public servants will now no longer be underwriting military contractors that support the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) People’s Liberation Army—an army that has threatened U.S. servicemen and engaged in espionage against U.S. civilians. Nor will we be funding “enterprises” indicted for violating U.S. sanctions in conducting business with enemies like CPC customer Iran and satrap North Korea; or technology companies that produce the surveillance equipment used to run the CPC’s modern-day gulags and supply other police states. These are all welcome developments.

 

But the fact that these travesties would have transpired had the Trump administration not intervened is a sobering truth with implications that transcend capital markets. It touches on the long-term competition into which America has finally entered with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Near-term, the 2020 election is critical to sustaining this competition.

 

Following the Cold War, the stated rationale for U.S.-PRC relations was one of economic self-interest and idealism: Economic liberalization would lead to political and cultural liberalization. Relatedly, the story went, an integrated and prosperous China would be a peaceful and stable one.

 

For decades, Joe Biden has been one of the most senior proponents of this view. During the height of the 2000 debate that resulted in the granting of permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to China, putting it on a glidepath to World Trade Organization accession that would accelerate its drive toward superpower status, Biden asserted that PRC “prosperity…has put China on a path toward ever-greater political and economic freedom.”

 

The Party of Science (When They Feel Like It) By David Harsanyi

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/06/the-party-of-science-when-they-feel-like-it/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=featured-content-trending&utm_term=first

Lockdowns are subjectively enforced by Democratic politicians whose devotion to science is predicated on circumstance.

Apparently if you protest for a just cause, your body becomes impervious to the respiratory droplets that spread viral diseases. Or so many liberals seem to argue.

Indeed, no event during the coronavirus crisis has put more Americans in closer proximity to each other than the Black Lives Matter protests. During the first three months of the COVID-19 outbreak, every expert told us that mass gatherings were tantamount to murdering Grandma Dolores. Not long ago, opening a small hair-cuttery was “human sacrifice.” Not long ago, race-baiting leftists argued that Republicans had stopped treating coronavirus as a national emergency once they learned black Americans were dying.

Then came the marches. Science-based absolutism was quickly shelved. Today, liberals are mobilizing to preemptively dismiss the notion that Black Lives Matters protests could possibly trigger a spike in cases. New York mayor Bill De Blasio, who’s ineptly presided over the epicenter of the disease, is instructing city contact tracers not to ask infected New Yorkers if they attended marches or rallies.

How long have we been assured that testing and contact tracing were the keys to controlling the spread of the virus? New York City tracers will reportedly ask citizens about “close contacts” — which is defined as standing within six feet of another person for at least ten minutes — but not if a person attended a Black Lives Matters protest where, need it be said, tens of thousands of our most vulnerable citizens were marching shoulder to shoulder, chanting for more than ten minutes — and often without any mask.