RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/kamala-harriss-first-policy-proposal-is-economically-illiterate/

On policy, Kamala Harris is starting to put some meat on her campaign’s otherwise bare bones. Her earliest attempt at setting policy involved brazenly appropriating Donald Trump’s plan to eliminate taxes on income derived from tips, which enthused neither progressives nor anyone else who understands how broad-based income tax relief actually works. But the vice president’s first real effort to expound on her own economic thinking is no less vacuous. Ahead of what her campaign is promoting as an economic policy speech on Friday, Harris previewed her plan to reduce consumer prices. So far, it seems her plan consists of simply ordering prices to be lower.

“Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday will call on Congress to pass a federal ban on price gouging as part of her economic platform to lower grocery prices and everyday costs,” Politico reported on Wednesday night. This float is light on details, but the dispatch indicated that Harris would enforce her plan to impose price stability on the market by decree via the Federal Trade Commission, which would be empowered along with state attorneys general “to investigate and levy penalties on food companies that violate the federal ban.”

That sounds a lot like a series of proposals Joe Biden outlined in his February State of the Union address, during and after which the president attacked companies that raise prices in response to macroeconomic conditions or attempt to meet demand by reducing the amount of product available for the same price — what Biden deemed “shrinkflation.” You remember that, right? Of course, you don’t! Because nothing at all came of it. It was a rank pander to the economically illiterate. And despite the presence of many who fit that description in the federal legislature, there are enough members of Congress who understand that allowing the executive branch to functionally set prices is a braindead idea that would only hurt consumers in the long run.

https://amgreatness.com/2024/08/16/republicans-must-make-a-laser-focused-issues-based-case-to-the-people/

One of my favorite bits of ancient wisdom, which I have quoted many times over the years, is the Chinese military theorist Sun Tzu’s adage that a battle is won before it is fought because it is won by choosing the terrain on which it is fought. Accordingly, as I noted in a column a few months ago: “If former President Donald Trump and other Republicans on the ballot this fall want to win, they must choose the proper terrain.”

He who controls the narrative and framing necessarily controls the result. Every good trial lawyer knows this. And so should every good politician.

Although recent days have been more focused and suggest a possible turning of the tide, the electoral terrain for Republicans has generally been rather shaky ever since the bloodless Kamala Harris coup of Joe Biden a few weeks ago. Asking whether Harris—the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants—actually counts as “Black” for U.S. demographic purposes is fair substantive game, but it is certainly not fertile swing voter terrain. Even less compelling, and certainly less propitious, is incontinent friendly fire directed at the popular governor of a crucial swing state, Georgia.

Early voting begins in Pennsylvania, arguably this election’s single most decisive battleground state, on Sept. 16. That is just around the corner. Can Republicans pull it together in time and successfully define the electoral terrain?

Republicans are not entirely themselves to blame for the current state of the race, which has seen the GOP squander much of its momentum from the former president’s heroic survival of an assassination attempt and the party’s successful nominating convention. The corporate media has aided Democrats every step of the way. After pretending to be real journalists for a few weeks and holding Biden accountable for his palpable senility, the Washington press corps immediately returned to regime-apologist form after party elites succeeded in their coup. Thus, the present spectacle of Harris not answering a single real question from the press for nearly four weeks. Funny how quickly the media went from probing to outright laconic.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-lies-of-tim-walz/

The flap over military service involving Republican J.D. Vance and Democrat Tim Walz marks the biggest controversy of its kind in 20 years. Two decades ago, there was intense scrutiny of John Kerry’s service in the Navy’s swift boat fleet during the Vietnam War, an issue that arose in his 2004 presidential bid. I remember it well after working on President George W. Bush’s reelection campaign that year.

Questions and accusations swirled around Kerry’s Purple Hearts and his Bronze and Silver Star medals. Much of the attention focused on whether Kerry actually deserved his decorations. The circumstances involving Kerry’s three Purple Hearts, awarded to those wounded in action against the enemy, did not result in him ever being taken off duty for medical treatment. His wounds were minor and superficial, but they were wounds nonetheless.

Bronze Stars were commonly awarded to officers in Vietnam; a highly decorated Army colonel once told me that any officer who came home alive got one. As for Kerry’s Silver Star, the third highest military award, some argued his actions did not meet the standard of gallantry required for receiving that medal.

The Swift Boat controversy of 20 years ago hurt Kerry politically, but there’s a big difference between his situation and that of Tim Walz. John Kerry received those medals, and the citations for them are of record; he did not lie to voters. Walz did.

Walz previously claimed to have retired from the Army National Guard as a command sergeant major, designated by the rank of E-9, which is false. He never completed the rigorous requirements to deserve that rank and retired as a master sergeant, an E-8. He simply lied about his rank many times and over many years.