ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Steven Hayward : Dems Hitting the Panic Button

Posted By on October 19th, 2022

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/10/dems-hitting-the-panic-button.php

Democrats are filling up their diapers over yesterday’s New York Times/Siena poll that offers a picture of all the macro-indicators lining up for a Republican tidal wave in next month’s election.

There is one curious aspect of the demographic breakdown that is prompting a question: why does the GOP seem to be doing best among “Gen-X” voters age 45-64, as seen in this chart:

I can actually think of one very simple reason this age group leans more Republican:

But let’s keep going with the NY Times/Siena poll, because the racial breakdown is really cause for Democratic panic and nightmares:

The surging Republican share of the hispanic vote has been noted for months now, but if Republicans approach 20 percent of the black vote, it’s lights out for Democrats.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Here Come The Tantrums

Posted By on October 19th, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/10/19/here-come-the-tantrums/

Donald Trump’s win over Hillary Clinton in 2016 led to an election denial that still runs hot today in Democrat circles. But the left also threw anti-Trump tantrums across the country, many of them long before anyone had voted. Should Republicans unseat the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate in the coming midterms, as is expected, we will again see the childishness and narcissism that drives the Democratic Party.

Who can forget the videos of celebrities as well as the unknowns wailing and shrieking and coming apart at the thought of Trump in the White House? In several instances, the demonstrations against the president-elect on the evening of the 2016 election and after turned violent. These political hissy fits have been a combination of performative art and a childish expression of emotion. Despite the differences, the aim is the same: Extortion.

When a toddler has a conniption, flails about and pounds the floor, he is saying: “Give me what I want or I will make your life miserable.” In the case of frothy political meltdowns, the adult children are saying that if they don’t get their way in elections, they will continue to cry, screech, and hold their breath. And of course the high temperatures are stoked by the Democratic Party-media industrial complex, which has become somewhat indistinguishable from a playroom swarming with spoiled tots.

Even after Trump left office, the deranged venting of spleens remained a staple of the left. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Democrats again looked liked overgrown preschoolers. At the time we pointed out, in an editorial headlined The American Mushroom Cloud, that Democratic Sen. Elizabeth “Warren’s fevered tirade clearly shows we have reached the point that the left has decided that policy will not be made like sausage but through tantrum, intimidation, and riot.”

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Biden’s Iranian Nuclear Obsession by Con Coughlin

Posted By on October 19th, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19007/biden-iran-nuclear-obsession

If US President Joe Biden really is “gravely concerned” about the plight of Iranian schoolgirls being attacked and killed by Iran’s authoritarian regime, then the best way to help them would be to abandon his ill-considered attempt to broker a new nuclear deal with Tehran.
The death toll is now said to have passed the 200 mark, with many of the fatalities reported to be children as young as 11 years old.
Consequently, Mr Biden’s response is being seen as little more than a token gesture….
Rather than holding the Iranian regime to account for its atrocious conduct, Mr Biden’s priority remains to secure another flawed nuclear deal with Tehran, one that would result in enabling Iran to have nuclear weapons with no prohibition on the missiles to deliver them, as well as the lifting of punitive economic sanctions and up to a trillion dollars in additional revenues to “export the revolution.”
If, as now seems increasingly likely, the White House commits to a new nuclear deal once next month’s midterm elections are out of the way, the US Congress will be in Christmas recess and therefore unable to block it.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), designated by the US as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, together with all the other instruments of state-sponsored oppression in Iran, would receive extra funding dollars once the sanctions are lifted that will enable them to further develop their hostile activities.
Iran has already destroyed four Arab countries in addition to its own: Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq.
The Biden administration’s intransigence on the Iran issue also helps to explain the recent decision by Saudi Arabia to reach an agreement to reduce oil production….
The Saudis remain frustrated by Mr Biden’s obsession with trying to revive the Iran nuclear deal, which to the kingdom is a mortal threat…. How could Biden have expected them to help him?
Biden seems to be threatening “consequences” for the Saudis because they are trying try to prevent Iran from annihilating them?
Iran is also now supplying Russia with hundreds of “kamikaze” drones and lethal missiles which Russia is using to target civilians and destroy Ukraine — all while Biden has been relying on Russia to negotiate the Iran nuclear deal on America’s behalf: US negotiators are even not allowed in the room.
Consequently, rather than making the world a safer place, Mr Biden’s pro-Iran stance is merely fanning the flames of even greater global instability.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The FBI’s Million-Dollar Men Three high-profile trials are shining much-needed light on how the bureau uses highly paid informants as political hit men. By Julie Kelly

Posted By on October 18th, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/10/17/the-fbis-million-dollar-men/

Proceedings underway in three U.S. courtrooms are providing a coordinated view into the abuse of the FBI’s confidential human source (CHS) program, a cash-flush operation now primarily used to bolster Democratic Party narratives instead of detecting and preventing crime.

As I’ve reported, the FBI spends an average of $42 million per year to pay informants and does so with absolutely no financial or legal accountability. Confidential human sources are paid in cash; they can offer their services for a variety of reasons including financial need or to obtain a change in immigration status. FBI agents are required to keep at least one informant on the books, an FBI whistleblower told me; successfully using a CHS to bust up a crime is one way to get promoted.

But ongoing trials related to the Trump-Russia collusion hoax, January 6, and the Whitmer fednapping case are once again shining a light on the way the bureau hires snitches to advance political goals.

After numerous investigations over the course of more than six years—not to mention an obsessive fixation by the national media—the scandal known as Russiagate produced another bombshell revelation during the perjury trial of Igor Danchenko, the key source for the Steele dossier. The FBI offered to pay Christopher Steele, its author, up to $1 million in cash if he could verify the dossier’s declarations about Donald Trump’s alleged ties to Russia. He could not.

Described for years as a “former British intelligence officer,” Steele, in fact, was a private consultant with several paymasters in 2016. Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee retained Steele to write his dossier that alleged shadowy connections between the Kremlin and Trump associates. At the same time, Steele was lobbying the U.S. government on behalf of Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who ran afoul of the Obama Administration.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Protests in Iran: The Silence of the ‘Feminists’ and ‘Progressives’ Talk about “men telling women what to do with their bodies”! by Larry Elder

Posted By on October 18th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/protests-in-iran-the-silence-of-the-feminists-and-progressives/

Where are the American feminists and “progressives” when we need them? You know, the men-versus-women, pro-abortion types who say things like the reversal of Roe v. Wade represents “men wanting to tell women what to do with their bodies”?

Last month, on Sept. 16, Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman living in Iran, died in a hospital three days after being arrested in Tehran by the state’s morality police known as “Guidance Patrols.” Her “crime”? She showed too much hair underneath her hijab, or headscarf.

The New York Times reported: “The police did not offer an explanation for why Ms. Amini was detained, other than that it involved the hijab rule. Her mother said in an interview with Iranian news media that her daughter was observing the rules and wearing a long, loose robe. She said Ms. Amini was arrested as she exited the subway with her brother, and that his pleas that they were visitors to the city were ignored.”

According to the BBC: “Eyewitnesses said Mahsa Amini was beaten while inside a police van when she was picked up in Tehran on Tuesday. Police have denied the allegations, saying Ms Amini had ‘suddenly suffered a heart problem.’” However, at least one Iranian judicial official, according to state media, said the woman suffered “multiple fractures … in the pelvis, head, upper and lower limbs, arms and legs, which indicate that the person was thrown from a height.”

In protest, women in Iran are cutting their hair, with some taking to social media and burning their hijabs. Two weeks ago, CNN reported: “Protests have swept through more than 40 Iranian cities, including the capital Tehran. Iranian security forces have been cracking down on protesters, with hundreds arrested and at least 41 killed, according to state media. Some human rights organizations say the death toll is as high as 76.” As for Iran, Human Right Watch states: “Since March 21, 2022, at the beginning of Iranian New Year, Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) has documented 306 executions, 130 of them for drug-related charges and 151 of them based on the Islamic principle of qisas, or ‘retribution in kind’ punishments. Between May 21 and June 21 alone, the group documented 99 executions.”

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Busted: China’s Attempt to Warp the 2022 Midterm Election Welcome to the new dysfunctional norm in America. by Scott S. Powell

Posted By on October 18th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/busted-chinas-attempt-to-warp-the-2022-midterm-election/

The recent arrest of Eugene Yu, the founder and CEO of election software company, Konnech, Inc. for betraying Los Angeles, the largest metropolitan area in America, charged with transferring election poll worker information to China is just the tip of the iceberg of CCP subversion efforts to destroy the United States.  This arrest of Yu on the grounds of a security breach with China and on charges of embezzling funds—is a wakeup call for all polling place administrators in the U.S. regarding the upcoming mid-term elections. They need to unplug and shutdown Konnech, Dominion, ES&S and other electronic voting systems. All have been plagued with erratic vote count problems and are vulnerable to being hacked and manipulated.

Konnech’s “Poll Chief” software, designed to manage election-worker payroll, assignments, communications, and “innovative ways to support their voters” has been used in Wayne County, Michigan, DeKalb County, Ga., and Fairfax County, Va.—all large voting districts that have had significant voting irregularities. On November 3, 2020, Trump was leading in Virginia, until late-night ballot drops in Fairfax County delivered a whopping 73% of Biden votes—an unprecedented voting pattern.

The Konnech scandal has been initially suppressed by an assumption that it was a limited breach of personal data of election workers in one location in the U.S. But in Australia and Canada, where Konnech operates through subsidiaries, the company has been involved in electoral roll data, voter I.D. confirmation, the scrutiny of provisional and postal votes and access to defined elector records. This appears related to why both of those countries experienced election irregularities and veered to the left politically. Governing authorities that gained power in Australia and Canada during the period that Konnech was involved in managing elections ended up embracing communist-type policies, such as forcing citizens into quarantine camps and cutting off people’s access to their bank accounts.

We are reminded of the adage of the communist tyrant Stalin who said, “It doesn’t matter how many people vote, only who counts the vote.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Joe Biden’s Senior Moment of the Week Vol. 15

Posted By on October 18th, 2022

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/watch-joe-bidens-senior-moment-of-the-week-vol-15/

President Joe Biden suffered through another challenging week of interviews and public appearances. He dropped his cheat sheet during a discussion with CNN’s Jake Tapper and invented a new number: “a billion, a trillion, 700 million dollar, billion dollars.” He also touted his party’s passage of the “Inflation Act,” which is actually a more accurate way to describe the Inflation Reduction Act, which has not reduced inflation.

The commander in chief went to Colorado and marveled at the “mountains stretching 14 feet high,” concocting unusual words such as “certally” and phrases such as “has I not gotten to seen these.” Meanwhile, there is “trepidation” in the White House among Biden aides who would like to “downplay” the president’s fast-approaching 80th birthday on November 20.

If it were up to us, his handlers would be in prison, sharing a cell with Hillary Clinton, for abetting elder abuse. But it’s not up to us, so the best we can do is speak truth to power by chronicling these moments every week and letting you, the American voter, express your feelings at the ballot box.

MEDIA Comments turned off

Media Go To Increasingly Absurd Lengths To Protect Biden

Posted By on October 18th, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/10/18/media-go-to-increasingly-absurd-lengths-to-protect-biden/

Just how far will the leftist media go to protect President Joe Biden? If the past couple of weeks are any indication, there is no limit.

Take the incident in late September where Biden repeatedly called out for a dead congresswoman to come forward. It happened when he was speaking at a White House conference on nutrition and health and started thanking lawmakers who’d worked on the issue.

“Representative Jackie — are you here? Where’s Jackie? — I think she was going to be here,” Biden said.

Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., had died in a car wreck in August. Biden even issued a statement at the time, saying “Jill and I are shocked and saddened by the death of Congresswoman Jackie Walorski of Indiana along with two members of her staff in a car accident today in Indiana.” Yet there he was, searching her out in the audience.

Most cognizant Americans saw this for what it was: Another worrisome sign that Biden’s mental acuity is rapidly declining. For the press, however, it was an opportunity to praise the 79-year-old.

Jill Lawrence, a former commentary editor at USA Today, wrote that “there’s another way to look at this.” Namely, she said, it shows “how generous and professional Biden is.”

He was just trying to be nice to a lawmaker, and a Republican one to boot, she wrote. What a guy! And how refreshingly different from that evil Trump! “Some things,” she concludes, “are more important than age and a perfect memory.”

How touching.

Then, within a matter of days, both the New York Times and the Washington Post each published stories defending Biden against his habit of, well, lying about just about everything, especially about himself.

The Times headlined its article: “Biden, Storyteller in Chief, Spins Yarns That Often Unravel.”

HOMELAND SECURITY, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The U.S. Military’s Growing Weakness A new Heritage Foundation report warns about declining U.S. naval and air power.

Posted By on October 18th, 2022

https://www.wsj.com/articles/americas-growing-military-weakness-heritage-foundation-index-of-u-s-military-strength-navy-air-force-army-11666029967?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

Americans like to think their military is unbeatable if politicians wouldn’t get in the way. The truth is that U.S. hard power isn’t what it used to be. That’s the message of the Heritage Foundation’s 2023 Index of U.S. Military Strength, which is reported here for the first time and describes a worrisome trend.

Heritage rates the U.S. military as “weak” and “at growing risk of not being able to meet the demands of defending America’s vital national interests.” The weak rating, down from “marginal” a year earlier, is the first in the index’s nine-year history.

***

The index measures the military’s ability to prevail in two major regional conflicts at once—say, a conflict in the Middle East and a fight on the Korean peninsula. Americans might wish “that the world be a simpler, less threatening place,” as the report notes. But these commitments are part of U.S. national-security strategy.

Heritage says the U.S. military risks being unable to handle even “a single major regional conflict” as it also tries to deter rogues elsewhere. The Trump Administration’s one-time cash infusion has dried up. Pentagon budgets aren’t keeping up with inflation, and the branches are having to make trade-offs about whether to be modern, large, or ready to fight tonight. The decline is especially acute in the Navy and Air Force.

The Navy has been saying for years it needs to grow to at least 350 ships, plus more unmanned platforms. Yet the Navy has shown a “persistent inability to arrest and reverse the continued diminution of its fleet,” the report says. By one analysis it has under-delivered on shipbuilding plans by 10 ships a year on average over the past five years.

From 2005 to 2020, the U.S. fleet grew to 296 warships from 291, while China’s navy grew to 360 from 216. War isn’t won on numbers alone, but China is also narrowing the U.S. technological advantage in every area from aircraft carrier catapults to long-range missiles.

MOVIES AND TELEVISION Comments turned off

‘Saturday Night Live’ Skewers January 6 Hearings and Congress

Posted By on October 18th, 2022

A video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is played during a hearing by the House Select Committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

The Jan. 6 hearings have been prime political fodder for months, and they continue to get the late-night comedy treatment, this week serving as the cold open for “Saturday Night Live.”

Kenan Thompson opened the show presiding as Jan. 6 committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson during the closing statements of the hearings, calling the attack at the U.S. Capitol one of the most “dramatic and consequential moments in our nation’s history.”

“So to fight back, we assembled a team of monotone nerds to do a PowerPoint,” Thompson says.

Heidi Gardner as Rep. Liz Cheney jokes across the aisle: “Whether you’re a Republican who’s not watching or a Democrat who’s nodding so hard your head is falling off, one person is responsible for this insurrection: Donald Trump. And one person will suffer the consequences: me.”

Cheney (Gardner), daughter of the former vice president in the George W. Bush administration, brings up her political power-player father. “You might be wondering what makes me so tough. And I ask you, who was your dad? Is it Dick Cheney?”

She adds: “I guess you could say I have big Dick Cheney energy.”

Earlier this week during the real hearing, the committee showed footage of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence conferring on the state of the Capitol. Saturday’s episode of the sketch comedy series showed its own clips from the video, with Chloe Fineman’s Pelosi on the phone with Pence.