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How Trump Should Approach the Final Debate By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on October 21st, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/how-trump-should-approach-the-final-debate/

The so-called mainstream polls of the swing states show the race narrowing. If the trend continues at the current rate, President Trump could poll even in two weeks—in addition to the “other” polls that show him near there already.

So Trump’s mission at the final debate on Thursday is to continue to accelerate his momentum, not to take risks to melt down Joe Biden with verbal fireworks.

Every 10 days, the campaign starts anew. Trump’s rallies are back. He miraculously beat COVID-19 in near record time. Judge Amy Coney Barret proved stellar. If most voters poll they are better off than four years ago, and they think Trump will win, it’s increasingly difficult to believe the disconnect that they are intent on voting against someone who will win and would likely continue to make things better for them.

No one has quite figured out how to calibrate the data on early voting, the Republican surge in swing state registrations, and the effect of the nation’s biggest campuses, mostly in the swing states, being either closed down or at least not fully open on Election Day.

Biden is inert. He’s running a virtual campaign in fear of the virus, of questions about Hunter Biden, and of his suspected intention to pack the court or stop fracking—of most anything.

Trump took risks along with 100 million Americans who feed, fuel and make things for Americans: you can no more run a campaign from the basement than you could a presidency—or country.

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“Great Society,” by Amity Schlaes Reviewed by Sydney Williams

Posted By on October 21st, 2020

https://swtotd.blogspot.com/

The book reviewed, Great Society by Amity Schlaes, is a timely history of what happens when hopes and expectations exceed capabilities. It is especially timely now when Socialism and the “Green New Deal” are being pushed on the American people by a progressive left that has become distanced from the average American.

By the time John Kennedy became President, The Depression was a distant memory and World War II had been over for over fifteen years. Americans were prospering. Theys felt good about themselves. They were admired by friends and feared by enemies. But, as happens once prosperity becomes common, people don’t seem to care or understand the role capitalism plays in eliminating poverty and making lives comfortable and happy. They don’t understand that nothing moves in straight lines – GDP growth, stock market performance, human emotions, or views of liberty. In the 1960s, the compounded rate for the Dow Jones Industrial Averages (DJIA) was 4.9% – all in the first half of the decade – and in the ensuing decade, the DJIA lost eight percent. What happened in the ‘60s, and its effect on subsequent decades, is the subject of this well-researched history of the period from the summer of 1960 to the summer of 1972. 

On January 20, 1961, a 43-year-old John F. Kennedy became the youngest U.S. President since Theodore Roosevelt. In his inaugural he focused on the Country’s strength and the meaning of freedom: “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty.” Americans were confident. In May of that same year, Kennedy announced a goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Yet the Cold War persisted, poverty had not been vanquished and civil rights were not equally shared. Convinced of a need to stop the spread of Communism got us entangled in Vietnam. Concern for those living in penury led to the War on Poverty. Disquiet about equality and fairness were behind the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. A decade that began on a high note, exemplified in Kennedy’s inaugural, ended with Nixon taking the nation off the gold standard on August 15, 1971. The years between witnessed a growth in national debt, a declining Dollar, student riots, and the assassination of a President, a civil rights leader and a U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate.

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Hunter Biden Was Trying to Tell Us Something Roger L. Simon

Posted By on October 21st, 2020

http://TheEpochTimes.com

Whether he did it accidentally, on purpose, or (most likely) something in between, when Hunter Biden left a laptop loaded with incriminating evidence about himself and his family, at a computer repair shop in Delaware, he was trying to tell us something.

That something was that his father, aka the “big guy,” who had only days before announced he was running for president, was big trouble.

You don’t have to be Sigmund Freud to figure that out. Nor is it hard to figure out why Hunter might have become an addict and engaged in other self-destructive acts not suitable for a family website but apparently immortalized on the hard drive.

The Joe Biden that is being sold to us ad infinitum as Mr. Just-Plain-Folks-American was not the man his son saw. (This is not to absolve Hunter of responsibility for his actions, but to put them in perspective.)

Note that one of the first of the emails published, and therefore (purposefully?) easy to find, from Hunter to his daughter Naomi, reads:

“But I don’t receive any respect and that’s fine I guess. Works for you, apparently. I hope you all can do what I did and pay for everything for this entire family for 30 years. It’s really hard, but don’t worry, unlike Pop I won’t make you give me half your salary.”

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

New Twist in the Hunter Biden Saga: A White House Meeting for Elite Chinese Group The younger Biden’s associates reportedly arranged a 2011 meeting with then-VP Joe Biden, and got the entourage ‘all taken care of in DC.’ By Andrew C. McCarthy

Posted By on October 21st, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/10/new-twist-in-the-hunter-biden-saga-a-white-house-meeting-for-elite-chinese-group/

J ust imagine if something like this happened during the Trump administration, and ask yourself what the media-Democrat complex would be saying.

In November 2011, an elite group of Chinese Communist Party members and billionaire cronies of the repressive regime in Beijing secured a meeting in the White House, said to be with Vice President Biden and other Obama administration officials, through Hunter Biden’s associates.

News of the meeting has been broken by Peter Schweizer and Seamus Bruner. Schweizer, who has spent years tracking Washington’s web of money, influence and access, is the author most recently of Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends, which focuses on the Biden family — among other intriguing money trails on both sides of the political aisle.

Schweizer and Bruner have obtained the cooperation of Hunter Biden’s former business partner, Bevan Cooney, who is serving a federal prison sentence for a fraud scheme. Another Hunter Biden business partner, Devon Archer, was also convicted (and has had his conviction reinstated by the Second Circuit federal appeals court after a trial judge in the Southern District of New York set it aside). Hunter Biden was featured in the evidence but not charged.

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This Is How the Left’s Power Structure Collapses David Prentice

Posted By on October 21st, 2020

www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/10/this_is_how_the_lefts_power_structure_collapses.html

Weeks ago, Rush Limbaugh mentioned that the issues defining the election had not come forward yet.  He was correct.  Not entirely, because all the issues coming out right now have existed.  In plain sight.

They just weren’t distilled yet.

It’s now here, served up on a silver platter.  No, not Hunter Biden.  This Hunter Biden laptop story simply leads us to the issue.  The word.  One word that rules them all, and in the darkness binds them.

Corruption.

There it is.  That’s the issue.  To begin, you have the corrupt family Biden.  They’ve been scamming us and our system well for almost fifty years.  The man is supposedly worth over 250 million dollars.  How is this possible on his salary?  It’s not.  So where did his wealth come from?  Not from being a brilliant businessman:

Enter Hunter’s laptop.  We now know that this is a family steeped in crime and corruption.  Ole Corn Pop appears to be awash in money kicked back to him by his family members who have grifted off his reputation for years.  Hunter’s laptop has betrayed all this and more.  Much like Al Capone’s bookkeeper.  Who would have thought Capone would have been destroyed so completely by a set of crooked books?  Such delicious irony.  And who would have known that this would become the October surprise of all October surprises?

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Biden Plus Harris Equals California Everywhere, a Nightmare We Must Reject by Julie Strauss Levin

Posted By on October 21st, 2020

https://tennesseestar.com/2020/10/21/commentary-biden-plus-harris-equals-california-everywhere-a-nightmare-we-must-reject/

Imagine a country where rolling blackouts are a common occurrence, where gasoline-powered cars are outlawed, and all new car sales must be electric by a date certain.  Imagine a country where borders are open, sanctuary cities and towns are everywhere, where people here illegally are celebrated with lots of free things like healthcare and housing, and wage-earners pay for it all.  Imagine a country where the radical Green New Deal is thrust upon us (out goes natural gas, oil and coal; in comes renewables; goodbye to your warm/cool home) and a nationwide absence of forestry management causes out-of-control fires that threaten homes and air quality.  

Imagine a country that dictates cultural norms, imposes a radical sexual education curriculum starting in kindergarten, where abstinence-only and religious doctrine education are prohibited, and parents may opt out on a limited basis only.  

Imagine a country where police officers are ostracized and defunding police departments is the norm, where there’s chaos on the streets, and the mob is celebrated.  Imagine a country where a family’s home is no longer considered its castle.  Imagine a country where the Second Amendment is in the crosshairs and decimating it is the result.  

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7 Reasons Why Liberals Are Incapable of Understanding The World John Hawkins

Posted By on October 21st, 2020

https://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2011/08/23/7-reasons-why-liberals-are-incapable-of-understanding-the-world-n1082284

Even liberals who’ve accomplished a lot in their lives and have high IQs often say things on a regular basis that are stunningly, profoundly stupid and at odds with the way the world works. Modern liberalism has become so bereft of common sense and instinctively suicidal that America can only survive over the long haul by thwarting the liberal agenda. In fact, liberalism has become such a toxic and poisonous philosophy that most liberals wouldn’t behave differently if their goal were to deliberately destroy the country. So, how does liberalism cause well-meaning, intelligent liberals to get this way? Well, it starts with…

1) Liberalism creates a feedback loop. It is usually impossible for a non-liberal to change a liberal’s mind about political issues because liberalism works like so: only liberals are credible sources of information. How do you know someone’s liberal? He espouses liberal doctrine. So, no matter how plausible what you say may be, it will be ignored if you’re not a liberal and if you are a liberal, of course, you probably agree with liberal views. This sort of close-mindedness makes liberals nearly impervious to any information that might undermine their beliefs.

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The Toobin Zoom Call Is Even Worse Than We Thought. Here’s What They Were Talking About By Megan Fox

Posted By on October 21st, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/megan-fox/2020/10/20/the-toobin-zoom-is-even-worse-than-we-thought-heres-what-they-were-talking-about-n1071724

Jeffry Toobin, a CNN contributor and writer at The New Yorker, got caught tickling his pickle on a work Zoom call. This wasn’t a situation where he thought he had hung up but hadn’t. Oh no. Toobin was purposefully masturbating during a work call.

He claims he thought he had “muted the video” but left it on “accidentally.” But that’s not believable, because when turning the camera off on Zoom, there is an avatar where the video used to be. How does he expect us to believe he did not check this before deciding to whip out wee Willie? And worse, why is that a good excuse for flogging the dolphin during a work call? Do we need congressional intervention to tell us that being an Army of One on a Zoom call is the wrong thing to do? Do we need a new criminal code for 2020 specifying that hoisting your own petard while attending a conference call is offensive to others? It’s sad that humans can’t just self-police.

Toobin is rabidly anti-Trump as any famous journalist must be. He’s also already well-known for running afoul of the #MeToo crowd when Patty Hearst blasted him for sensationalizing her rape in his book American Heiress in 2018. Fox canceled plans for a movie based on the book after Hearst got through with Toobin.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Vatican Fails to Condemn China’s Religious Persecution by Lawrence A. Franklin

Posted By on October 21st, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16663/vatican-china-religious-persecution

Perhaps the most stinging criticism in Pompeo’s article was his having pointed out the marked contrast in the Vatican’s current position on Communist China with the Holy See’s moral witness which helped liberate Central and Eastern Europe from communism in the late 20th century.

The pope, according to Cardinal Zen, is being manipulated by his advisors. Cardinal Charles Maung Bo… is another outspoken opponent of the Vatican’s “opening” to China. Cardinal Bo, who has vilified the Communist Party of China for its “moral culpability for the COVID Virus pandemic,” also has declared that “the CCP is a threat to the whole world”…. U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke… no doubt added to the Holy See’s indigestion.

Possibly the most abrasively received comment came at the close of Pompeo’s article in First Things where he reminded the Vatican of the Apostle John’s counsel that “the truth will set you free.”

In the 1980s, the uncompromising condemnation by the sainted Pope John Paul II and President Reagan of the USSR’s “Evil Empire” helped tear down Moscow’s “Iron Curtain.” Maybe the victory of the Americans in the Cold War is not to the liking of Pope Francis. Is it really his intention to “undo all of the good work that the great John Paul II did in pursuit of human freedom and dignity?”

US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo’s September 30 – October 1 visit to the Vatican was a diplomatic profile in courage. Despite the Pope’s refusal to meet the U.S. Secretary of State, Pompeo repeated his warning to the Holy See that if it goes ahead with plans to renew the 2018 Sino-Vatican Agreement, it will compromise the Catholic Church’s moral authority. Pompeo also urged the Vatican to live up to its mission of defending human rights in China, where Catholics churches and shrines are being destroyed and priests imprisoned, and also urged the Pope to reconsider renewing the secret agreement with Beijing, which permits the Communist Party of China (CCP) to have a key role in appointing Catholic Bishops in China.

The Vatican has refrained from any condemnatory comment on the CCP’s persecution, incarceration, torture and forced labor of millions of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang Province, and has remained silent about Beijing’s contravening its pact with Hong Kong to honor “one country, two systems” until 2047. China has violated the civil rights of Hong Kong’s citizens.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

China Is Killing Americans with Fentanyl – Deliberately by Gordon G. Chang

Posted By on October 21st, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16662/china-fentanyl-source

For one thing, the Communist Party, through its cells, controls every business of any consequence…. Beijing tightly controls the banking system and knows of money transfers instantaneously…. Furthermore, fentanyl cannot leave the country undetected, as virtually all shipped items are examined before departing Chinese soil.

Chinese gangs are large and far-flung. In China’s near-totalitarian state, it is not possible for them to operate without the Communist Party’s knowledge. And if the Party somehow does not know of a particular gang, it is because it has decided not to.

China’s postal service has to know that it has become, among other things, the world’s busiest drug mule.

The regime has adopted the doctrine of “Unrestricted Warfare,” explained in a 1999 book of the same name by Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui. The thesis of the authors, both Chinese Air Force colonels, is that China should not be bound by any rules or agreements in its attempt to take down the United States…. The regime, consequently, is using criminality as an instrument of state policy…. China’s officials will stop at nothing to increase the power of their regime.

“I’m not alleging any kind of conspiracy, I suppose, but just the plain facts of it: fentanyl and Covid both came from China, China’s our main rival, they’re benefitting from the deaths of many thousands of Americans,” Tucker Carlson noted on his October 16 show.

China’s regime has been pushing fentanyl into the United States for years.

Fatal drug overdoses in the U.S. last year hit a record 70,980, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those deaths, 36,500, were from synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. Cocaine and methamphetamine fatalities were also up, largely because these substances were mixed with fentanyl.

It is, as Vanda Felbab-Brown of the Brookings Institution states in a July paper, “the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history.”

There is no doubt where this drug comes from. “Since 2013, China has been the principal source of the fentanyl flooding the U.S. illicit drug market—or of the precursor agents from which fentanyl is produced, often in Mexico,” reports Felbab-Brown.

A Drug Enforcement Administration Intelligence Report issued in January comes to the same conclusion as to the source of deadly fentanyl.