"I’ll say it again, folks. The polling is screwed. It’s skewed. It’s a mess. Either we’re right to be highly skeptical and Trump wins an Electoral College landslide, or the pollsters are right and we’re heading for Armageddon come Election Day. Still, the oversampling of Democrats, college-educated voters, and suburban Republicans hostile to Trump should bring a ton of scrutiny. The reluctance from some of these clown firms to switch to likely voter samples is also suspect. We’re not going to have a 2008 or 2012 electorate. For starters, a new Hill-Harris poll noted that young Americans are not excited about this election at all. They’re not planning on voting. Gallup is reporting the youth interest in voting this cycle has hit its lowest levels since 2000. That’s in keeping with the results from Democracy Institute’s Patrick Basham, whose polling data, which has been mentioned in The Washington Times and Forbes, suggests there will be one million fewer young people voting this cycle." . . .
Sunday, October 11, 2020
Frank Luntz: Undecideds in VP Debate Focus Group Found Kamala Harris ‘Abrasive and Condescending’
"If you watched the vice presidential debate this week, you may have noticed that Kamala Harris often seemed agitated and nervous. This presented itself physically in her facial expressions, nervous laughter, and attitude.
"According to pollster and analyst Frank Luntz, this did not go over well with the undecided voters in his focus group.
"To be fair, they weren’t exactly thrilled about Vice President Pence, but they saw him as more presidential, and Luntz has concluded that Pence won the night.
"Yael Halon reports at FOX News:
Undecided voters found Harris ‘abrasive, condescending’ in vice presidential debate: Frank Luntz
Voters found Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris to be “abrasive and condescending” at various points throughout Wednesday’s debate with Vice President Mike Pence, pollster Frank Luntz told the Fox News reaction panel.
“The complaint about Kamala Harris was that she was abrasive and condescending,” said Luntz, who monitored the reactions of 15 undecided voters from eight battleground states throughout the evening.
“The complaint about Mike Pence was that he was too tired, but [he was] vice presidential, or presidential,” added Luntz, who went on to say that “if this is a battle over style and substance — which is often the case with undecided voters because they simply do not choose on policy, they also choose on persona — this was Mike Pence’s night.”
Luntz clarified that “it’s not that Pence did so well, it’s that they [voters] felt both candidates were not answering the questions as well as they would have liked.”
Fox News has a Chris Wallace problem
Tony Branco |
Some debate. Chris Wallace acting as moderator, but serving as Biden’s nurse and defensive shield while arguing with Trump. Op-ed.
"This is quite a pathetic fix we’re in when Fox News is all we’ve got so far as anything resembling “fair and balanced” news and commentary.
"As for the rest of Big Media, President Trump knows it, correctly, as Fake News. Nobody said it better except maybe Newton Minow, FCC chairman under JFK, who characterized it…notably television… “a vast wasteland” That was back in the early 1960s, and rather than getting better, it got worse.
"Then along came Fox News to save us from CNN and the rest of them that serve up daily portions of radical leftist pabulums.
"It was…and is…the only network to cover Israel without Hanan Ashrawi. So Israel gets half a chance, and so does Trump.
"In this book we wondered, and predicted, what would happen once Murdoch’s sons grew up and took over, and now we know.
"Now we know Juan Williams (he’s everywhere) and Marie Harf and even Donna Brazile who was too far left even for CNN.
Too hot to handle for them, but a perfect fit for Fox News, once Roger Ailes left the building.
It’s as if to tell us…Listen, if you love Trump Bashing, you don’t have to go to NBC, ABC, CBS or PBS…we can give it to you, too.
"Tune in, America, and let Jessica Tarlov ruin your day.
"Which brings us to Tuesday, and the debate that was supposed to be between Trump and Biden. But then Mike Wallace showed up." . . .
Chris Wallace Turns the Lack of Self-Awareness Up to Eleven in New Ridiculous Comments . . . "As I pointed out at the time, one of the most egregious maneuvers by Wallace was not pressing Biden to answer whether he would support packing the Supreme Court, an idea that his party has embraced wholeheartedly at the highest levels. When Trump tried to push Biden for an answer, Wallace decided to jump in and forcefully go to the next question. He did that despite the fact that there was no hotter question to be answered that night.
. . . That Biden refuses to answer such a simple question provides all the context we need to ascertain what he really thinks.
"Wallace knows that and had a chance to make sure the voters got all the facts. Instead, he chastised Trump and moved on as if Biden were directing him. That’s why he’s a bad journalist. It’s also why his ratings are down some 30% over the last several months while other Fox News shows have continued to grow. People are sick and tired of rank, left-wing bias. Letting Biden off the hook was a huge show of bias on Wallace’s part. He has no leg to stand on complaining about it now."
Democrats now worship flies
How fortunate for Harris that the fly was the same color as her hair, disappearing from view there.
Bookworm "While most people want to disassociate themselves from flies, Democrats are behaving as if flies are their heroic avatars.""Because humans are what they are, the fact that a fly briefly alighted on Mike Pence’s head during the vice presidential debate, the story was considered newsworthy. After all, flies are associated with dirt, death, and disease. That’s why Beelzebub, who’s sometimes seen as Satan and sometimes as a Philistine god associated with Baal worship (and human sacrifice), is called “Lord of the Flies.” Flies are bad.
"Of course, flies are also ubiquitous. Obama had a couple of run-ins with flies: . . .
Saturday, October 10, 2020
Why we must fear Democrats' desire to rule over our nation
Delaware Pizza Shop Cancels Event for Republican Senate Candidate After Pressure From BLM . . . After [America First senate candidate] Lauren Witzke following a pressure campaign from the left.
"Witzke announced her meet and greet at the venue, the left set up petitions and began a harassment campaign to get the owner to cancel the event. Their mob tactics worked, and less than 24 hours before the event, the shop posted on Facebook that it had been cancelled." . . .
Keith Olbermann: Trump Supporters Are ‘Maggots,’ Must Be ‘Prosecuted’ . . . “Remember it, even though to remember it means remembering that the fight does not end on November 3rd but in many ways will only begin that day,” he said. On October 7, Olbermann announced he was leaving ESPN to devote himself fulltime to political commentaries." . . . Keith Olbermann lets out his inner Maoist in a YouTube rant . . . "Instead, Olbermann wants to eliminate people who have political views with which he disagrees. The tip-off is that he included Amy Coney Barrett on his list. She is a woman who has lived an exemplary life. However, she believes that the Constitution is America's central document and that a judge must measure the government's laws and actions against the Constitution. She also believes that abortion is morally wrong. For that, says Olbermann, she must be "removed from our society.' " . . .Lancaster mayor wanted police chief out because of wife's pro-Trump Facebook post: FOP
"Lancaster’s police chief was forced to retire because his wife posted positive comments about President Trump on Facebook, according to the past president of the local Fraternal Order of Police.
"Mayor Danene Sorace announced Jarrad Berkihiser’s retirement on Friday, Oct. 2, during a three-and-a-half-minute news conference at which she did not answer questions and which Berkihiser did not attend.
"It was retire or be fired, John Fiorill, the FOP’s immediate past president said Friday.
"Fiorill said his account of Berkihiser’s retirement is based on a call Berkihiser made to the FOP lodge seeking labor advice after Sorace demanded his resignation. Since Berkihiser had not reached an agreement with the city at the time of that call, Fiorill said he believes he can share the information with the media.
“The irony of this whole thing is, he didn’t make that statement,” Fiorill said. “He knows better than to get involved in politics. It was his wife. Where does the mayor have the audacity to request his resignation based on what his wife said? He had nothing to do with it.”
"In the since-deleted Sept. 27 Facebook posts, Kristy Berkhiser responded to comments made by a friend who had volunteered at the Trump campaign rally at Harrisburg International Airport the day before.
"The friend said Trump “spoke so much of law enforcement officers and his respect and thankfulness for them! ' ”
This is the Mayor's explanation: A message from Mayor Sorace about Police Chief Jarrad Berkihiser’s Retirement "I want to thank Chief Berkihiser for his more than two decades of service to our city. He joined the Lancaster City Bureau of Police in May of 1994 as a patrolman and has worked through the ranks of sergeant, lieutenant, patrol captain, and chief. He has served not only our city but our country." . . .
Liberal Reporter Brutally Gashes Kamala Harris' Disastrous Debate Performance
The same way The Atlantic story about Trump denigrating our war dead is fake news. No one went on the record. No one. And that story died as well.
Townhall "Well, he’ll probably piss off the Left again, but that’s what he's done so well over the past three or so years. Liberal reporter Michael Tracey absolutely ripped into Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and her debate performance Wednesday night. Tracey is no fan of Harris and said that she was an “awful” VP pick from the get-go. So are we shocked her debate performance was equally disastrous? It was a train wreck.
"Harris came off unprepared on a host of issues, avoided the court-packing question, and seemed incapable of delivering a solid blow against Vice President Mike Pence, who was prepared and lethal. Vice President Pence did well mounting a defense of the Trump-Pence record, whereas Harris couldn’t land any of the zingers Pence quietly doled out like an assassin. COVID was the highwater mark for Harris. She came off strong, but even that was torched when she peddled an anti-vaccine line regarding the coronavirus. These debates are about who we can trust should any situation arise when the president cannot perform their duties. Pence passed that test. Harris, not so much; you have to be more than just a machine that peddles talking points from MSNBC. That bubble landed her in trouble as there were a couple of points where she literally had nothing to say." . . .
Undecided Voters Viewed Kamala Harris as ‘Abrasive’ and ‘Condescending’ During Vice Presidential Debate“Voters do not like it when candidates run long, and when they run long every time, they think that’s an example of being undisciplined and unfocused,” he acknowledged. “However, they were more agitated with Kamala’s presentation than they were with Mike Pence.”Luntz concluded that “Mike Pence was the winner of tonight’s confrontation.”
What Our Children Learn In School
Power Line Blog "Our public schools are run, for the most part, by liberal administrators, and teachers are drawn, usually, from the lowest quadrant of academic ability among college graduates. There are exceptions, of course, but the overall level of instruction in the public schools is abysmal. And that isn’t the worst of it: teachers who are marginally able, at best, to teach the subjects for which they are nominally responsible often devote themselves to political indoctrination instead.
"Most such forays into left-wing mythology go unreported, but occasionally an enterprising kid turns on his phone and records a teacher’s rant. That happened a few weeks ago in a 9th grade Geography class in a suburban Twin Cities high school:Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume.
"The teacher’s ignorance is cosmic: 1) There is no “Speaker of the Senate.” 2) McConnell didn’t say there wasn’t enough time to confirm Merrick Garland. 3) The idea that “life in America is gonna change radically” if there is a conservative majority on the Supreme Court is a fantasy. 4) “This is an opinion of the court”? Sheer incoherence. 5) “Conservatives believe that corporations should be considered humans and should have rights.” Stupid beyond belief. No one has ever said that a corporation is a human, nor has anyone ever denied that corporations have rights. This is why, for example, President Trump can’t shut down CNN and the New York Times. Tempting though it may be.
"In this particular case, the kid’s parents are fighting back and taking the teacher’s incompetent and inappropriate conduct to the local school board. But this kind of thing goes on every day, in thousands of classrooms across the country. Almost never are there consequences.
"A colleague of mine had an idea that I think has merit. She thinks that if parents knew this kind of political indoctrination is going on, teachers would stop, or at least scale back. Thus, every classroom should be streamed online, and parents of kids in every class should be given access to the stream. At any moment, a parent could check in and see exactly what is going on in his son’s or daughter’s classroom. This is much like the manner in which parents use cameras in their homes to keep tabs on what babysitters are up to. Given the quality of instruction in our public schools, the analogy is almost perfect."
Pro-Trump pundit goes off on Fox News for perceived shift: ‘I think they are enablers of the left
“It’s becoming increasingly clear to people, every single day, that it has just gone so far away from its purpose,” Kassam concluded, adding that Fox News executives have allegedly donated millions to the Joe Biden presidential campaign.
BPR Pro-Trump pundit Raheem Kassam blasted Fox News for, in his opinion, distinctly moving left in its programming during an interview with Trump campaign adviser and former Bernie Sanders backer Harlan Hill on The National Pulse TV show.
"Fox News had just essentially banned Hill from the network for tweeting about Kamala Harris’ VP debate performance, stating that she “comes off as such an insufferable lying b***h.”
"While Hill was conciliatory about Fox News because “at the end of the day, they are the biggest bulwark against the leftist media that we have,” Kassam strongly rejected the premise based on the way the channel is trending. “I don’t think Fox News is a bulwark against the left at all, I think they are enablers of the left,” he declared.
"Trump supporter Kassam then gave a litany of folks he claims are no longer welcome on Fox News such as Ann Coulter, Trish Regan, and others. In an apparent reference toTucker Carlson Tonight, The National Pulse website editor in chief observed that “we get an hour of conservative programming, maybe two, if you include Laura [Ingraham]. I’m not interested in what Sean Hannity has to say anymore, because Sean Hannity says the same thing every day.” . . .
"He pointed out that Fox runs paid ads for the Never Trump Lincoln Project and constantly gives a megaphone to Never Trumpers. He also alluded to liberal contributors like Donna Brazile, who reportedly gave Hillary Clinton debate questions in advance in the 2016 election cycle. Kassam also recalled how Fox News’ Outnumbered cut off Newt Gingrich for trying to call attention to how left-wing billionaire George Soros is interfering with American politics. “What is this bulwark against the left? It’s gone. Let it go.”
"Apparently referring to conservative audiences, Kassam added that “Drudge doesn’t like you anymore, and Fox doesn’t like you anymore. Embrace the suck.' ” . . .
Separately, Fox News viewers have probably noticed the relatively new strident, anti-Trump tone of America’s Newsroom anchor Sandra Smith, as one example of how the network seems to be “evolving.”
Delaware suspect in Whitmer plot was pardoned last year
"Carney’s pardon came after a December 2018 Board of Pardons hearing at which the attorney general’s office did not object to Croft’s request for a pardon. The board’s recommendation for a pardon was based on the lack of opposition from the state “and the need for a pardon for employment purposes.' ”
RANDALL CHASE ,Associated Press "DOVER, Del. (AP) — The Delaware man charged in federal court with conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has a long criminal history and was pardoned just last year by Delaware’s governor for crimes dating to 1994, according to state records.
"Barry G. Croft Jr., 44, was taken into custody this week after being arrested by the FBI in Swedesboro, New Jersey. Croft made an initial appearance before a federal magistrate in Wilmington on Thursday.
"Croft was being held Friday at a state prison in Wilmington. A hearing on his continued detention and removal to Michigan is scheduled for Tuesday.
"Five other men, all from Michigan, were charged in the alleged scheme that involved months of planning and even rehearsals to snatch Whitmer from her vacation home.
"Croft spent nearly three years in prison after being convicted on Dec. 1, 1997, of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. That sentence followed a one-year stint that ended in March 1996.
"In April 2019, one week after Delaware revenue officials filed a state tax lien against Croft for more than $36,700, Democratic Gov. John Carney granted him a pardon for the 1997 gun charge and several other convictions from 1994 to 1996. The crimes involved included assault, burglary, theft and receiving stolen property." . .
Narrative Fail: Turns Out the Folks Behind the Whitmer Plot Aren’t Who Dems and Media Are Painting Them As . . . "The FBI did a good job taking down the group and it sounded like a serious danger to Whitmer if they did what they are alleged to have done, so it’s good they got them.
"But when Whitmer sounded off about the plot, she immediately tried to falsely link the president and the Proud Boys to the event, neither of which had anything to do with it. According to Whitmer, Trump had sent a “rallying cry” to “action.”
"Of course there were several problems with her assertions. The Proud Boys are a different group, Trump has nothing to do with them and they aren’t “white supremacists.”
"Further, turns out in checking out the folks behind the alleged plot, one of the alleged members, Brandon Caserta, would appear to be an anarchist. Not only that, he’s anti-Trump. Check the flag in the background." . . .
This is a video of Brandon Caserta, one of the ringleaders of the group of men arrested for a plot where the group planned to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Caserta has an anarchist flag behind him and in YouTube videos trashes police. He’s not a Republican, he’s an anarchist. pic.twitter.com/J1vE2qGYL7
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) October 8, 2020
They were charged as members of domestic terror group "Wolverine Watchmen," Nessel said.
. . . "The FBI quoted one of the accused as saying Whitmer "has no checks and balances at all. She has uncontrolled power right now. All good things must come to an end."
"The government used informants and undercover agents to thwart the alleged plot. Federal search warrants were put out in about a dozen cities across Michigan in the process. All suspects were arrested Wednesday night without incident and each faces up to life in prison.
"U.S. attorney Andrew Birge called them "violent extremists.' " . . .
A must-watch Tucker Carlson segment tackles court-packing
Over the years, conservatives have gained seats on the Court playing by the rules. Leftists will take over the Court by cheating. That's how it goes. For Trump-supporters, this is one more reason to vote for him. However, we still have work ahead of us, for we must help the undecideds understand that a vote for Biden and Harris is a vote to undo the Constitution and recreate Venezuela on the Potomac.
Andrea Widburg "It's likely that many people, when they hear the phrase "packing the Supreme Court," mentally check out because they think it refers to some arcane procedural issue that really doesn't matter. The truth is that the Democrats' ill concealed plan to pack the Supreme Court is the most critical issue of this election. If the Democrats succeed with adding new justices to the Supreme Court, they will also have succeeded in doing away with our carefully balanced constitutional government. Instead, radical leftists will govern American unopposed.
"On Friday, Tucker Carlson opened his show with a segment about the peculiar fact that Joe Biden, a liar's liar, is not even bothering to lie about packing the Supreme Court. His bizarre non-answers essentially say the topic is way too important for people to know about before they vote. Committed leftists understand these words to be a blaring siren forecasting court-packing if Democrats gain control of the White House and Congress.
"Carlson clarifies that a Supreme Court that is made big enough to have an overwhelming and permanent activist majority is simply another legislature. The only difference is that this is a legislature that the people haven't elected and that has members who serve for life.
"The Founders created a carefully balanced three-part government — an executive, a legislature, and a judiciary — with each branch of the government jealously guarding its powers and acting as a brake on another branch's potential power-grab. With court-packing, that's out the window. A Democrat legislature and a politically packed court will be a tag team, with the former passing whatever legislation it wants and the Supreme Court approving it. The executive will be reduced to a rubber stamp on the legislation.
"And what will this new, all-Democrat, all-the-time government do? It will... "
Reuters/Ipsos Poll: Older Voters Turning Away From Trump
How can they not, with the likes of CNN, MSNBC, and TV talk shows tearing him down 24/7? Why on earth would reasonable people choose Biden and Harris over this most effective President? TD
Newsmax "Many older Americans have turned away from President Donald Trump this year as the coronavirus ravages the country, eroding an important Republican support base that helped propel him into the White House in 2016, Reuters/Ipsos polling data shows.
"Trump and his Democrat opponent Joe Biden now split American voters aged 55 years and older almost evenly: 47% say they are voting for Biden on Nov. 3, while 46% back Trump, according to Reuters/Ipsos national surveys in September and October.
"That could be an alarming sign for the president, who trails Biden with 25 days to go before the election.
"Republicans have relied on the support of older Americans in national elections for years, routinely benefiting from a demographic that consistently shows up in force on Election Day.
"Trump won the 55-plus age group by 13 percentage points in 2016, according to exit polls. Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee in 2012, achieved the same margin.
"Reuters/Ipsos state polls also show Biden outperforming Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democrat presidential nominee, among older voters in a handful of battleground states, where seniors make up an outsized proportion of the electorate." . . .