RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/ron-desantis-shows-in-florida-how-to-play-politics-as-a-team-sport/

As I have noted on a couple of recent occasions, what Republicans lack right now is a party leader who prioritizes the best interests of the party and its voters. This affects the party’s ability to recruit the best candidates, get them nominated, and get them elected. One of the essential conservative critiques of Donald Trump as a party leader has always been that everything was about Trump: He has often preferred that the party lose rather than win without him. This impulse could be tempered so long as he was in office; as president, Trump was often willing to keep his endorsements on much the same page with the candidates Mitch McConnell supported — even when McConnell’s judgments were wrong — and to back in the general people he opposed in the primary. But the fundamental problem of Trump’s character and motivations reasserted itself, first in the 2021 Georgia runoffs and again in 2022.

For a contrast, look at what Ron DeSantis is now doing. On a national level, DeSantis conspicuously stayed out of Republican primaries, but he is lending a hand where it is most wanted and needed — even at the cost of putting him onstage with extremely sketchy Republican statewide nominees such as Doug Mastriano and Kari Lake, or backing candidates such as Lee Zeldin who have a serious uphill battle. But within Florida, DeSantis was much more engaged in the primaries; now that they’re over, as Gary Fineout of Politico reported this morning, DeSantis is putting $2.5 million of his colossal $122.5 million campaign war chest into expanding the Republican majority in the Florida Senate:

DeSantis has already had a hand in helping mold the state Senate to his liking, endorsing several Republicans even though Senate GOP leaders had initially planned to support other candidates. The apparent thinking behind DeSantis’ help is that he wants to assist Senate Republicans across the board and not any one candidate. But it’s also yet another reason that DeSantis will likely expect support for his legislative agenda if — as expected — he wins another term.

This is the way.

https://www.aol.com/computer-experts-urge-georgia-replace-113517195-154148485.html

A group of computer and election security experts is urging Georgia election officials to replace the state’s touchscreen voting machines with hand-marked paper ballots [which were foolproof and what CA had] ahead of the November midterm elections, citing what they say are “serious threats” posed by an apparent breach of voting equipment in one county.

The 13 experts on Thursday sent a letter to the members of the State Election Board and to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who’s a non-voting member of the board. It urges them to immediately stop using the state’s [notorious, programmable] Dominion Voting Systems touchscreen voting machines. It also suggests they mandate a particular type of post-election audit on the outcome of all races on the ballot.

The experts who sent the letter include academics and former state election officials and are not associated with efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The midterm elections are just two months away. A switch to hand-marked paper ballots could easily be made by then [but will not] because state law already provides for them to be used as an emergency backup, the letter says.

State Election Board Chair William Duffey responded in an email to The Associated Press that the “security of our election equipment is of paramount interest to the State Election Board as is the integrity of the election process in Georgia.” He noted that the alleged breach in Coffee County is being investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and secretary of state’s office investigators and said the FBI [Hah!] has been asked to assist.

“The investigation is active and ongoing,” Duffey wrote. “Information developed will be considered to evaluate the impact of the Coffee County conduct.”

Raffensperger’s office has repeatedly said that Georgia’s elections remain secure because of varied security mechanisms in place. Spokesperson Mike Hassinger said in an email that the office will respond “in due time with due care” and that the response will be “addressed directly to the authors, rather than leaked to the media to obtain some sort of rhetorical advantage.”

In presidential election years and midterm years, I have regularly made predictions on the winners, and intend to do the same in the coming months. I think the current cycle is very unsettled. I was skeptical of forecasts for a red wave and giant gains for the GOP, especially in the House, early in the year, and I also don’t think some of the supposedly settled senate races favoring Democrats have really been settled. After reviewing the records of polling firms for many years, it is also apparent that some firms are wrong in one direction routinely and are unreliable. . The Washington Post/ ABC poll had Biden ahead by 17 points in Wisconsin, a week before election day in 2020, in a state he won by 0.7%. Wisconsin, with a few exceptions (when Obama was on the ballot), has always had close statewide contests. I won’t give much weight to the ABC/Post poll on this year ‘s Wisconsin’s senate and governor’s race. If you want the polar opposite-a reliable poll, consider the Des Moines Register surveys, which have tracked results in that state with remarkable accuracy.

I think the GOP has an advantage on issues of concern to most voters-starting with the open border, with illegals numbering close to 4 million crossing in 19 months since Biden decided the best policy was whatever Trump did not do. The migrant surge is from many places, not primarily from Central America or Mexico, and enormous quantities of deadly fentanyl is coming with them. Over 100,000 Americans died of opioid overdoses in a year, which in addition to covid deaths accounts for a loss of 3 years in life expectancy since 2019. Surging crime, especially violent crime and increases in suicide deaths have also contributed. to the life expectancy decline. Nationally, murders are up near 50% in 3 years, as the war on cops initiated by the left and advocacy groups like BLM after George Floyd’s death, led to large jumps in police retirements , the election of district attorneys more sympathetic to criminals than victims, and more aggressive behavior by thugs who think they will likely pay no price for crime.. Today there is much more crime, and many fewer police. It should not be surprising that many people of all races are leaving Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles.

Teachers unions pressed for distance “learning” and it looks like not that much learning took place, with major drops in test scores for public school students, especially those in areas where schools were closed, and particularly among black and Hispanic students. Keeping schools open and teaching basic subjects would do much more for minority kids than DEI initiatives.
Parents who had a chance to see what their kids were learning online, were also shocked to discover how woke politics had moved down the education tree from colleges to high schools, and primary schools. Joe Biden won Virginia by 10%, but Glenn Youngkin defeated a popular former governor by 2% a year later, largely based on a campaign focused on issues, especially education. Americans by enormous margins, believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. This usually is not a good sign for the party in power, and incumbents generally.

Then throw in the highest inflation rate in 40 years, a looming or existing recession, rising interest rates, sinking stock prices, and economic fears are growing. All of this favors Republicans.

On the other hand, Democrats will have a huge campaign financing advantage. It is the Republican party which now relies more on small gifts, and Democrats, who are funded by the plutocrats, especially in the tech industry, and the old standbys- Hollywood, trial lawyers, academia, public employee unions. Democrats have had more money to spend, and still have more money on hand to spend in every competitive senate race.

And then there is free media- which also is far more provided to the left than the right. Donald Trump received a lot of free media due to the unusual nature of his candidacy both times he ran. That has changed . Now we have nationally televised prime time coverage of the January 6 commission, with all members of the committee appointed by the Speaker, and all members in the bag with their conclusions before the first day of testimony . Then throw in Hollywood allies of the Democrats stage managing the hearings. Of course, maybe you disagree and think Jamie Raskin was openminded on the subject at the start.

The Democrats have also gotten an enthusiasm boost from the Dobbs decision on abortion rights. This will likely result in a wide gender gap this year, and increased turnout by Democrats, who lagged in this department earlier in the year.

The Democrats are also winning the distraction battle- focusing on January 6, Donald Trump, the GOP’s supposed “semi fascist ultra maga” supporters , the invented “assault on democracy”, the Mar A lago raid, and did I mention Donald Trump? If Trump remains the big news story through November, it will be a good year for Democrats.

It is somewhat amazing that a campaign speech by the president who ran on unifying the country, will be delivered and broadcast in prime time, and enable him to slander half the voting population. Then again, anyone who has seen Biden deliver “remarks” of late, has seen an angry dim-witted man, and maybe this is unappealing to voters who are not locked in their partisan corners. The dim-witted part , of course, has been evident for most of Biden’s career. It is remarkable to consider the cynicism which produced his candidacy (with most of his opponents ordered to drop out after South Carolina) so that the real powers that be could manipulate and hide Biden and avoid a Sanders nomination, which might have sunk the Democrats in 2020.

This is not a pleasant stew to consider digesting, Things are moving in different directions politically. I think it is possible that Republicans win control of both the Senate and House, or that Democrats retain control of both. It is also possible, and maybe a bit more likely, that each party win one of the houses of congress, with Dems ahead in the Senate contest, Republicans in the House. But the races are close, just as the current split between the parties in congress is near equal. And even though, Biden and the Democrats won in 2020 by 7 million votes out of 158 million cast, a shift of 25,000 votes in Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin , (less than 0.3% of the votes in those states), would have enabled Trump to win a second term. If Democrats do not understand why Republicans care so much about the Hunter Biden laptop story and social media cancellation of it, this is because they believe, and it is almost certainly true, that had this story not been suppressed, the evidence of Joe Biden’s corruption might have shifted the few votes needed by Trump to win in 2020 (Biden won all of the states decided by 2% or less). . And it is of course also true that Trump likely would have lost in 2016, had Jim Comey not reopened the Hillary Clinton investigation 11 days before the election, due to the contents on Anthony Weiner’s computer which were words, and not photographs. Trump won Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, all by less than 1% in 2016.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/08/twitter-commits-blatant-election-interference-takes-gop-candidate-dr-drew-montez-clarks-account-one-day-election/?

Dr. Drew Montez Clark is running for Congress in Florida’s 20th District. He is running unopposed.  His next election in November 20.

Dr. Drew Montez Clark is an impressive, conservative, Constitution first candidate.

Dr. Drew is the total package!

So it makes sense then that Twitter would remove his account one day before the Florida primary election.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18827/get-trump-constitution

Many of my friends on the left fear [Trumpism] as much as many on the right feared communism in the 1950s. And they may have a point. But not enough of a point to destroy a century of progress in civil liberties, free speech, due process, and the rule of law.

Articles are now frequently appearing in the mainstream media demanding compromises with important rights in the name of “Getting Trump.”

My former colleague Laurence Tribe, who taught constitutional law for half a century, now seems willing to weaponize the Constitution to serve his partisan end of “Getting Trump.” Incredibly, he has advocated prosecuting Trump for the “attempted murder” of then Vice President Mike Pence. To do so would require retroactively and unconstitutionally expanding the law of attempts to fit Trump’s ill-advised actions and inactions with regard to Pence. But apparently that doesn’t matter to Tribe and his followers, who care more about achieving their “noble” ends than they do about the ignoble means they are willing to employ.

The ACLU, which has long objected to the overuse of search warrants instead of subpoenas, is silent about the search of Mar-a-Lago. As long as the goal is to get Trump, anything goes including hypocrisy, inconstancy and unconstitutionality.

I would give everyone “the benefit of law,” but not only “for my own safety’s sake,” but for the sake of future generations. Once the Constitution and civil liberties are “cut down,” it is difficult to regrow them and the “winds that would blow them” might prevent us from “standing upright” against new tyrannies from the extreme left and right.

This important right [to vote ] should not be taken away by unconstitutional means, even if the result were to be the unlikely re-election of Trump. That is the price of democracy.

There is a movement afoot to “Get Trump,” at any cost. The goal is to prevent him from running in 2024. Many in this movement are willing to use any means to attain what they believe to be a necessary and admirable goal. “Democracy is at stake,” they claim. They are prepared to sacrifice constitutional rights, civil liberties, principles and the rule of law to stop former President Donald Trump.

https://amgreatness.com/2022/08/24/will-the-republicans-really-win-back-the-congress/

The late spring scenario of a massive GOP win—in historic proportions analogous to 1938, 1994, or 2010—is said now to be “iffy.”

The Left boasts that it now has a chance at keeping the House, with even better odds for maintaining control over the Senate. 

Polls are all over the place. Now they show generic Republican leads, now Democratic. 

The general experience in polling is that they are more often conducted by left-leaning institutions and massaged to show Democratic “momentum.” 

Since the polling meltdown of 2016—when most polls showed a Hillary Clinton Electoral College landslide—they have regained little credibility. 

Current progressive heartthrob and spoiler Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) was polled at only 20 percent behind in her recent primary—only to be crushed in the end, losing by over 37 percent.

The corporate leftist media does its part by glorifying a now dynamic “Aviator Joe.” 

Biden in cool sunglasses is now constructed into a swaggering “Top Gun” Tom Cruise-like figure, rather than a cognitively challenged 79-year-old. 

Biden’s just passed reconciliation “Inflation Reduction Act,” according to most experts, will raise taxes even on the middle class and spur inflation. So, the media euphemistically renames it a “climate change bill.” 

With a stroke of his pen before the midterms, Biden forgives $300 billion in student debt—without a care for the dutiful who paid their loans off or those who did not go to college but will now pay for those that did.

If inflation is running at 8.5 percent over last July’s prices, the White House giddily announces inflation is “zero” because it did not climb at 9.1 percent over 2021 prices—as it did in June. 

That’s like saying someone entombed in a sinkhole 10 feet below ground is no longer trapped at all since he floated up one foot since falling.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-school-board-revolt-in-florida-ron-desantis-parents-districts-teachers-union-11661377688?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

Tuesday’s elections highlighted Republican midterm weaknesses (see nearby), but one exception was school board races in Florida. Conservatives flipped control of at least two big districts that had put unions ahead of children.

Twenty-five of the 30 school board members endorsed by Gov. Ron DeSantis won or advanced in their races, campaigning on parental rights, transparency, school choice and safety. GOP-backed candidates won three elections in Sarasota County, creating a new 4-1 majority. They also scored two big wins in Miami-Dade, which now becomes the largest U.S. school district with a conservative majority. Both school boards last year voted to mandate that students keep wearing masks, defying parents and Florida law.

The wins are a coup for Mr. DeSantis, who is turning parental control and educational choice into a GOP advantage. The elections are political vindication for his parental bill of rights bill that became law this spring that was widely criticized in the national press.

The Governor last year expanded the state’s voucher program to add tens of thousands of additional low-income students. Mr. DeSantis put these ideas to the voter test on Tuesday, working with Republicans and the 1776 Project PAC to raise money for reform candidates, and turning the school elections into the most competitive in memory.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/athena-thorne/2022/08/24/voters-moving-to-the-right-across-almost-every-demographic-says-massive-survey-n1623811

Morning Consult has reported five years’ worth of data from over 8.6 million participants that shows a trend of America’s registered voters moving steadily to the ideological right.

“The left is losing the battle for the minds of the American electorate, Morning Consult research shows, with voters decreasingly identifying as liberal in recent years,” writes Morning Consult political reporter Eli Yokley. “But that doesn’t mean the country is lurching to the right.”

Yokley then makes an effort to pretend the trend isn’t what it looks like: “Instead, an increase in the share of Americans who identify as moderate, or who are uncertain about where exactly they stand on the ideological spectrum, reveals a growing and electorally decisive center that is discontented with either side’s extremes.”

Except that the percentage of voters who identify as conservative actually increased slightly, while only those who call themselves liberal decreased. Call me crazy but that just sounds like Democrats are turning away from far-left ideology to become more moderate:

The share of the electorate who identifies as “very liberal,” “liberal” or “somewhat liberal” on a seven-point scale has dropped over the past five years, from 34% to 27%, according to extensive annual Morning Consult survey research conducted among more than 8.6 million U.S. voters since 2017.

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/08/24/election-year-censorship/

Social media companies were part of what Time magazine called “​​an extraordinary shadow effort” whose objective was to prevent Donald Trump from being reelected in 2020. Two years later, and surely emboldened by their success, they are back, their sights set on throwing the midterm elections to the Democrats.

There can be no doubt that social media is aligned with the left in a political cleansing of Republican candidates and voters. According to the Time article, The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election, “a well-funded cabal of powerful people” “successfully pressured social media companies to take a harder line against disinformation and used data-driven strategies to fight viral smears.”

Of course “disinformation” and “viral smears” were anything that hurt Democrats and helped Republicans. Truth was never a consideration.

And neither is it today.

“Two of the leading platforms responsible for censoring the bombshell New York Post Hunter Biden scandal stories before the 2020 presidential election are gearing up to censor free speech to combat so-called ‘misinformation’ ahead of the 2022 midterm elections,” the Media Research Center reported last week.

According to the MRC account, Facebook’s parent company Meta, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Twitter have “pledged to target ‘misleading narratives’ by suppressing election content they deem to be false, misleading, or dangerous.” 

Meta has publicly acknowledged that it’s fielding a “dedicated team focused on the 2022 midterms to help combat election and voter interference,” and even indicated, says the MRC, “that government may even collude with the platform in censoring content.”