Why is that? “Because we are losing morality and courage in covering and holding politicians accountable.”
She is the former political director at CNN [!], on Q&A yesterday. She describes a corrupt political system drenched in money. To which she adds: “The problem is this. Over the course of the last eight years, that we have government officials threatening journalists, that we have journalists not doing their jobs in terms of coverage”. What happened eight years ago that changed all that, do you think? Listen to it all.
To be a conservative or a Republican and to sit it out, or to criticize Trump, is in this circumstance to favor Hillary. That’s just a fact. Trump is the underdog and needs all the help he can get. Every defection or abandonment hurts him and makes it more likely that she will win. If she wins, she will be a disaster for the right and for the country—on precisely the terms that many others have always said she would. I therefore find it mind boggling that they could do anything, however slight, that might help her win.
These people are idiots, disgusting low-life political morons. It really is impossible to describe the imbecilic pomposity of anyone who takes an even-handed weighing up of both sides in the election this year, never mind those sunshine conservatives who are all-in for Hillary. Are they really that stupid, that out of it? If Hillary wins, there is no coming back.
Now, for all of you out there who still aren’t convinced that the polls are “adjusted”, we present to you the following Podesta email, leaked earlier today, that conveniently spells out, in detail, exactly how to “manufacture” the desired data. The email starts out with a request for recommendations on “oversamples for polling” in order to “maximize what we get out of our media polling.”
I also want to get your Atlas folks to recommend oversamples for our polling before we start in February. By market, regions, etc. I want to get this all compiled into one set of recommendations so we can maximize what we get out of our media polling.
The email even includes a handy, 37-page guide with the following poll-rigging recommendations. In Arizona, over sampling of Hispanics and Native Americans is highly recommended:
Research, microtargeting & polling projects
– Over-sample Hispanics
– Use Spanish language interviewing. (Monolingual Spanish-speaking voters are among the lowest turnout Democratic targets)
– Over-sample the Native American population
For Florida, the report recommends “consistently monitoring” samples to makes sure they’re “not too old” and “has enough African American and Hispanic voters.” Meanwhile, “independent” voters in Tampa and Orlando are apparently more dem friendly so the report suggests filling up independent quotas in those cities first.
– Consistently monitor the sample to ensure it is not too old, and that it has enough African American and Hispanic voters to reflect the state.
– On Independents: Tampa and Orlando are better persuasion targets than north or south Florida (check your polls before concluding this). If there are budget questions or oversamples, make sure that Tampa and Orlando are included first.
Meanwhile, it’s suggested that national polls over sample “key districts / regions” and “ethnic” groups “as needed.”
– General election benchmark, 800 sample, with potential over samples in key districts/regions
– Benchmark polling in targeted races, with ethnic over samples as needed
– Targeting tracking polls in key races, with ethnic over samples as needed
The aim is to have the poll record as closely as possible the outcome they are intending to rig on the day. And what may be the most astonishing part is that were it not for the leaked emails, no one would have heard a thing about any of this even though hundreds of people must be in on the scam.
I stopped reading Jonah Goldberg’s pseudo-conservative nonsense ages ago – it’s been literally a decade – and have thought of him as irrelevant to anything that matters for a long long time. He has nothing to teach me about anything I think of as important. But here is something that begins with an attack on JG, but which has a much more important message. It’s titled, Seven Degrees of Jonah Goldberg, but is dealing with an entire disease, not the particular carrier who’s named in the article title. It is by the highly insightful Publius Decius Mus who has been cited here twice before. You can find his other articles referenced at the link. Here is the problem that the official conservative battalions have failed to achieve.
We failed to preserve a true understanding the principles of the Declaration of Independence. We failed to preserve the proper working order of the Constitution. We failed to protect and nurture that virtue in the people necessary to sustain the Constitution. We failed to defend the family from relentless assault. We failed to maintain any semblance of a shared public morality. We allowed—through a combination of active cheering and ineffective opposition—demographic and cultural replacement. We lent a great deal of our talent to serve rapacious interests in the name of “economic freedom.” All the things we were supposed to conserve—the nation, its people, its way of life, its governing structure—we have not conserved.
This all seems irrefutably clear to me [and me]. Yet official conservatism says I am insane for saying so. So I ask: what do we have in common anymore?
PDM then repeats the exact words he previously wrote, which is again a complete mirror of what I think myself:
If Hillary wins, there will still be a country, in the sense of a geographic territory with a people, a government, and various institutions. Things will mostly look the same, just as—outwardly—Rome changed little on the ascension of Augustus. It will not be tyranny or Caesarism—not yet. But it will represent, in my view, an irreversible triumph for the administrative state. Consider that no president has been denied reelection since 1992. If we can’t beat the Democrats now, what makes anyone think we could in 2020, when they will have all the advantages of incumbency plus four more years of demographic change in their favor? And if we can’t win in 2016 or 2020, what reason is there to hope for 2024? Will the electorate be more Republican? More conservative? Will constitutional norms be stronger?
And to the #NeverTrumpers, he says this, which I agree with more than with all the rest:
To be a conservative or a Republican and to sit it out, or to criticize Trump, is in this circumstance to favor Hillary. That’s just a fact. Trump is the underdog and needs all the help he can get. Every defection or abandonment hurts him and makes it more likely that she will win. If she wins, she will be a disaster for the right and for the country—on precisely the terms that Goldberg and so many others have always said she would. I therefore find it mind boggling that they could do anything, however slight, that might help her win.
It is self-defeating to stress the negatives that Trump brings with him, whatever they may be. So far, there is nothing that has come to my notice for which Hillary is actually superior, not a thing. If your aim is not to see Hillary lose, even if that means that Trump wins, then you are just as much the enemy as Obama himself.
Will this be the largest missed opportunity in American history: Trump’s Contract with the American Voter. Anyone who supports Clinton will be forever stained with the stupidity of supporting the imposition of a slave state in place of freedom.
DONALD J. TRUMP CONTRACT WITH THE AMERICAN VOTER
What follows is my 100-day action plan to Make America Great Again. It is a contract between myself and the American voter – and begins with restoring honesty, accountability and change to Washington
Therefore, on the first day of my term of office, my administration will immediately pursue the following six measures to clean up the corruption and special interest collusion in Washington, DC:
● FIRST, propose a Constitutional Amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress;
● SECOND, a hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce federal workforce through attrition (exempting military, public safety, and public health);
● THIRD, a requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated;
● FOURTH, a 5 year-ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service;
● FIFTH, a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government;
● SIXTH, a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections.
On the same day, I will begin taking the following 7 actions to protect American workers:
FIRST, I will announce my intention to renegotiate NAFTA or withdraw from the deal under Article 2205
SECOND, I will announce our withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership
THIRD, I will direct my Secretary of the Treasury to label China a currency manipulator
FOURTH, I will direct the Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative to identify all foreign trading abuses that unfairly impact American workers and direct them to use every tool under American and international law to end those abuses immediately
FIFTH, I will lift the restrictions on the production of $50 trillion dollars’ worth of job-producing American energy reserves, including shale, oil, natural gas and clean coal.
SIXTH, lift the Obama-Clinton roadblocks and allow vital energy infrastructure projects, like the Keystone Pipeline, to move forward
SEVENTH, cancel billions in payments to U.N. climate change programs and use the money to fix America’s water and environmental infrastructure
Additionally, on the first day, I will take the following five actions to restore security and the constitutional rule of law:
FIRST, cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama
SECOND, begin the process of selecting a replacement for Justice Scalia from one of the 20 judges on my list, who will uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States
THIRD, cancel all federal funding to Sanctuary Cities
FOURTH, begin removing the more than 2 million criminal illegal immigrants from the country and cancel visas to foreign countries that won’t take them back
FIFTH, suspend immigration from terror-prone regions where vetting cannot safely occur. All vetting of people coming into our country will be considered extreme vetting.
Next, I will work with Congress to introduce the following broader legislative measures and fight for their passage within the first 100 days of my Administration:
1. Middle Class Tax Relief And Simplification Act. An economic plan designed to grow the economy 4% per year and create at least 25 million new jobs through massive tax reduction and simplification, in combination with trade reform, regulatory relief, and lifting the restrictions on American energy. The largest tax reductions are for the middle class. A middle-class family with 2 children will get a 35% tax cut. The current number of brackets will be reduced from 7 to 3, and tax forms will likewise be greatly simplified.
The business rate will be lowered from 35 to 15 percent, and the trillions of dollars of American corporate money overseas can now be brought back at a 10 percent rate.
2. End The Offshoring Act Establishes tariffs to discourage companies from laying off their workers in order to relocate in other countries and ship their products back to the U.S. tax-free.
3. American Energy & Infrastructure Act. Leverages public-private partnerships, and private investments through tax incentives, to spur $1 trillion in infrastructure investment over 10 years. It is revenue neutral.
4. School Choice And Education Opportunity Act. Redirects education dollars to gives parents the right to send their kid to the public, private, charter, magnet, religious or home school of their choice. Ends common core, brings education supervision to local communities. It expands vocational and technical education, and make 2 and 4-year college more affordable.
5. Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act. Fully repeals Obamacare and replaces it with Health Savings Accounts, the ability to purchase health insurance across state lines, and lets states manage Medicaid funds. Reforms will also include cutting the red tape at the FDA: there are over 4,000 drugs awaiting approval, and we especially want to speed the approval of life-saving medications.
6. Affordable Childcare and Eldercare Act. Allows Americans to deduct childcare and elder care from their taxes, incentivizes employers to provide on-side childcare services, and creates tax-free Dependent Care Savings Accounts for both young and elderly dependents, with matching contributions for low-income families.
7. End Illegal Immigration Act Fully-funds the construction of a wall on our southern border with the full understanding that the country Mexico will be reimbursing the United States for the full cost of such wall; establishes a 2-year mandatory minimum federal prison sentence for illegally re-entering the U.S. after a previous deportation, and a 5-year mandatory minimum for illegally re-entering for those with felony convictions, multiple misdemeanor convictions or two or more prior deportations; also reforms visa rules to enhance penalties for overstaying and to ensure open jobs are offered to American workers first.
8. Restoring Community Safety Act. Reduces surging crime, drugs and violence by creating a Task Force On Violent Crime and increasing funding for programs that train and assist local police; increases resources for federal law enforcement agencies and federal prosecutors to dismantle criminal gangs and put violent offenders behind bars.
9. Restoring National Security Act. Rebuilds our military by eliminating the defense sequester and expanding military investment; provides Veterans with the ability to receive public VA treatment or attend the private doctor of their choice; protects our vital infrastructure from cyber-attack; establishes new screening procedures for immigration to ensure those who are admitted to our country support our people and our values
10. Clean up Corruption in Washington Act. Enacts new ethics reforms to Drain the Swamp and reduce the corrupting influence of special interests on our politics.
On November 8th, Americans will be voting for this 100-day plan to restore prosperity to our economy, security to our communities, and honesty to our government.
This is my pledge to you.
And if we follow these steps, we will once more have a government of, by and for the people.
You can find it all outlined here in detail, but naturally not in an American press but in The Daily Mail: Trump’s ‘Gettysburg address’ where the heading continues, “makes closing argument for choosing him and unveils first-100-days agenda as he promises ‘the kind of change that only arrives once in a lifetime’.”
With Trump leading in four of the most recent seven polls, and Clinton in only one (two being tied), how here’s my take on his policy summaries
ANTI-CORRUPTION TO-DO LIST
Constitutional Amendment to impose term limits on members of Congress.♥
Hiring freeze on federal employees to reduce the workforce through attrition ♥
Requirement to eliminate two federal regulations for every new one ♥
Five-year-ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists ♥
Lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying for foreign governments ♥
Complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections ♥
IMMIGRATION AND ‘RULE OF LAW’
Cancel Obama’s ‘unconstitutional’ executive actions, memoranda and orders ♥
Pick a conservative replacement for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia ♥
Cancel all federal funding to ‘sanctuary cities’ that harbor illegal immigrants ♥
Begin removing the 2 million criminal illegal immigrants from the U.S., and cancel visas to countries that won’t repatriate them ♥
Suspend immigration from terror-prone regions where incoming people can’t be properly vetted. ♥
PLAN FOR JOBS AND TRADE
Renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement or withdraw from it. XX
Withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. XX
Order the secretary of the treasury to label China a ‘currency manipulator. XX
Use U.S. and international laws to end foreign trading abuses that unfairly impact American workers XX
Lift restrictions on the production of $50 trillion dollars’ worth of U.S. energy reserves including shale, oil, natural gas and coal. ♥♥
Approve the Keystone XL pipeline project and other ‘vital energy infrastructure projects’ ♥♥
Cancel billions in payments to U.N. climate change programs and use the money to improve U.S. water and environmental infrastructure ♥♥
BILLS HE WOULD PUSH IN HIS FIRST 100 DAYS
‘Middle Class Tax Relief And Simplification Act’: Economic plan designed to grow the economy 4 per cent per year and create 25 million new jobs. Involves tax cuts, trade reform, regulatory relief, lifting restrictions on energy production, and encouraging companies with offshore funds to bring them back to America.♥
‘End The Offshoring Act’: New tariffs on goods brought into the U.S. by American companies that relocate jobs outside the U.S. XX
‘American Energy & Infrastructure Act’: Uses public-private partnerships and tax incentives to generate $1 trillion in infrastructure investment over 10 years ♥
‘School Choice And Education Opportunity Act’: Redirects education dollars to allow parents to choose any public, private, charter, magnet, religious or home school; ends the ‘Common Core’ federal standards; and expands vocational and technical education ♥
‘Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act’: Replaces the Affordable Care Act with health savings accounts, removes barriers to purchasing health insurance across state lines, allows states to manage Medicaid funds and speeds up drug approval inside the Food and Drug Administration ♥
‘Affordable Childcare and Eldercare Act’: Provides tax deductions for childcare and elder care and incentivizes employers to provide on-site childcare services ♥
‘End Illegal Immigration Act’: Funds a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, ‘with the full understanding that the country of Mexico will be reimbursing the United States’; establishes 2-year mandatory minimum federal prison sentence for illegally re-entering the U.S. after deportation, 5-year mandatory minimum for felons who illegally re-enter, and 5 years for coming back after multiple deportations; increases penalties for overstaying visas ♥
‘Restoring Community Safety Act’:Creates a Task Force On Violent Crime, increases federal funding of police forces and boosts federal support for anti-gang prosecutions ♥
‘Restoring National Security Act’:Eliminates the federal defense ‘sequester’ to restore military funding, guarantees veterans the option of private health care if VA facility wait times are long, institutes new defenses against cyber-attacks, and establishes new immigration screening based on ‘values’ ♥
‘Clean up Corruption in Washington Act’: Enacts new ethics reforms affecting politicians and their staffers ♥
A score of 23 out of 28 is not bad and hopefully his proposed trade protectionist policies will flounder. Especially good for Australia is the way forward Trump would show in energy policy, especially getting out of the Paris CLIMATE CHANGE agreement, and arresting the stacking of a Supreme Court which has been steadily undermining property rights.
American withdrawal from the climate treaty will unravel the whole of this fraud, leaving only a crisis ridden EU (and Canada) on the train. In doing so, this will provide licence for the Australian government to wind back the planned 23.5 per cent share for renewable energy with its threefold cost premium and inherent unreliability imposing debilitating effects on the primary and mining industries that are central to our comparative advantage.
Like everything else the Clintons touch, Comey’s FBI is hopelessly corrupted – and certainly more corrupt than J Edgar Hoover’s FBI, at least in the sense that Hoover was independent enough not to get rolled. The revelations of what happened reveal Comey to be a hack and a squish: he offered immunity to Hillary’s aides not to facilitate his investigation but to obstruct any further investigation; he allowed witnesses to Hillary’s crimes to serve as her “lawyers”; and he physically destroyed the evidence – that is, the laptops. A 6′ 8″ gummi worm would be more of a straight arrow.
Now come the latest revelations. Powerline’s John Hinderaker writes:
In the first page, an unidentified FBI employee says he was “pressured” to change the classification of an email to render it unclassified. This pressure came from someone within the FBI, who said he had been contacted by Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy, who “had asked his assistance in altering the email’s classification in exchange for a ‘quid pro quo.'” The quid pro quo was that, if the FBI would say the email was unclassified, the State Department would allow the FBI to “place more Agents in countries where they are presently forbidden.”
So, to add to the corrupt revenue agency and the corrupt justice department, we now have a corrupt national law enforcement agency and a corrupt foreign ministry – willing, indeed, to subordinate national security and its own diplomatic policy to the personal needs of Hillary Clinton. Needless to say, if you get your news from ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times, etc, etc, you will be entirely unaware of all this. Which is the way they plan on operating for the next eight years.
A small but telling point: Wikileaks’ Julian Assange has lived in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for over four years. But not until he leaked against Hillary was his Internet cut off. Hillary, out of office, has a swifter and more ruthless global reach than Hillary in office on the night of Benghazi. And, should she win, her view of her subjects is that we should have the same information access as Ecuadorian Embassy refugees.
And, should she win, I will delete all of my previous posts and become a registered Democrat. It would be futile to do anything else.
When at the end of the debate the question came up about whether the candidates would accept the election result, I said to myself that well, here is an exercise in the obvious. Of course you say that you will accept the result. And then Donald didn’t. And therefore we have either seen one of the largest political mistakes in history, or an act of such genius that it raises Trump to among the greatest candidates ever to run for president. And on thinking it over, I am now almost convinced that the question may even have been suggested to the moderator by Trump himself, precisely so that he could give the answer he gave. All this is by way of an introduction to my take on the third debate which you can find at Quadrant Online under the heading, “Lies and Loathing 3.0”. From which:
This is an issue of immense importance in a democracy. Legitimacy is bestowed only if the system is fair and perceived to be fair. Trump is in the middle of a battle he thinks, and I think, is for the future of America and the West. What he said is that he is not going to give the outcome his prior approval before he has actually seen what has happened on the day.
And I do have to say that I was surprised that he didn’t bring up Al Gore and the disputed election in 2012. It would no doubt have crossed his mind, so you have to think Trump had sifted this on the spot and didn’t wish to change the focus to sixteen years ago. He wants this election, this year, run clean. And since this is his greatest vulnerability – an election stolen by those with a proven track record of electoral theft – he wants to keep the pressure on as best he can.
Politics is ultimately what works. Does it cost him votes to focus on voter fraud in this way? No doubt. But will it also gain him votes if he can contain the fraud? Yes again. The question really comes down to how it will play out.
Trump has put voter fraud on the map, which is discussed further at the link, and is now, in fact, being discussed across America. That has got to work for the Republicans.
Also discussed at QoL is the way in which Trump massively defeated Clinton on the issues, showing far greater depth and understanding on every topic raised. And I will finish with another quote from the article which is what I think all of this really comes down to.
Nothing stands still, but the changes that her presidency would bring will have the equivalent effect on just about everything that Obamacare has had on the health system. With Hillary it is all downhill from here. At least with Trump there remains hope. Not necessarily a lot, but at least some.
The issue of issues in the third debate is Trump’s refusal to pre-commit himself to accepting the results of the election as tallied on the day. He has, in effect, stated that an election result would not be acceptable if there is serious evidence of voter and electoral fraud. I wish he hadn’t said it since it will diminish his outstanding performance on the rest. But what do I know about politics at that level, since what it will do is put the spotlight on the way in which the deceased vote early and often, how voting machines are hacked and the multiple voting that is rife across the American system. And for all my misgivings, he is the one that has taken the Trump train to the edge of the White House, so we shall see what happens now.
I have often thought about this issue, in particular in relation to the 2012 election: In 59 Philadelphia voting divisions, Mitt Romney got zero votes. Not one person voted for Romney, not even by accident, not even by pulling the wrong lever, not even my mis-reading the ballot paper! Not one? To quote:
The unanimous support for Obama in these Philadelphia neighborhoods – clustered in almost exclusively black sections of West and North Philadelphia – fertilizes fears of fraud, despite little hard evidence.
Upon hearing the numbers, Steve Miskin, a spokesman for Republicans in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, brought up his party’s voter-identification initiative – which was held off for this election – and said, “We believe we need to continue ensuring the integrity of the ballot.”
The absence of a voter-ID law, however, would not stop anyone from voting for a Republican candidate.
Which is exactly the point. The polls showed a super-majority voting for Obama, but the polls also showed the score at 94-6. Six percent is not zero percent. And then there’s this:
The video was put up just the other day, on October 18, and comes with this caption:
In the second video of James O’Keefe’s new explosive series on the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign, Democratic party operatives tell us how to successfully commit voter fraud on a massive scale. Scott Foval, who has since been fired, admits that the Democrats have been rigging elections for fifty years.
This is an issue of immense importance in a democracy. Legitimacy is bestowed only if the system is fair and perceived to be fair. Trump is in the middle of a battle he thinks, and I think, is for the future of America and the West. What he said is that he is not going to give the outcome his prior approval before he has actually seen what has happened on the day.
And I do have to say that I was surprised that he didn’t bring up Al Gore and the disputed election in 2012. It would no doubt have crossed his mind, so you have to think Trump had sifted this through on the spot and didn’t wish to change the focus to sixteen years ago. He wants this election, this year, run clean. And since this is his greatest vulnerability – an election stolen by those with a proven track record of electoral theft – he wants to keep the pressure on as best he can.
Politics is ultimately what works. Does it cost him votes to focus on voter fraud in this way? No doubt. But will it also gain him votes if he can contain the fraud? Yes again. The question really comes down to how it will play out.
Given the rest of the debate was overwhelmingly in his favour, a clear winner on each of the issues for someone like me who is seeking a stronger US both internationally and at home, he is the only candidate worth considering. Hillary, if elected, will trash America, leaving the 2020 election of no genuine interest since, by then, the US will be even farther on its way towards becoming a third world economy. Hillary’s idiotic, but thoroughly focus-tested statement, that “we are going to go where the money is”, that is, she is going to raid corporations and the wealthy for as much as she can shake them down for, is to guarantee a continuation of, if not an actual deterioration from the descending living standards that are now entrenched and becoming worse. The wealthier will get wealthier and the bottom 60-70% will find things getting worse by the year.
As for foreign policy, the election as president of the architect of what we see in Libya, Syria, Iran and Iraq ought to terrify anyone who thinks about the future. She has never shown good judgement, so why should she start now. Trump described American policy as “stupid”. It must have resonated with many across his constituency when he said it during the second debate. And stupid is really only the mildest term he might have chosen.
Not to mention open borders. Hillary’s patent lie that when she was talking about open borders in her secret speech in Brazil she meant electricity is also such irritating stupidity that it is a wonder anyone can even pretend to believe a word. But what is more of a wonder is that those who support her are not personally terrified about open borders and what it will do to their country and their own individual way of life. Nothing stands still, but the changes that her presidency would bring will have the equivalent effect on just about everything that Obamacare has had on the health system. With Hillary it is all down hill from here. At least with Trump there remains hope. Not necessarily a lot, but at least some.
“Both Candidates are equally terrible!” bleats the anguished cry.
Oh yeah?
Really?
Let’s just examine that carefully for a moment, shall we? Hrmm.
You are encouraged to read this one right through, and if you go to the link you will read it through. But let me first provide a sample of what you will find.
One Candidate is an unindicted career political criminal with a verifiable record of political and personal corruption and illicit activity stretching back more than a decade before her ascendance to her first major political position by virtue of marriage of convenience to an even more charismatic and electable political criminal.
The other Candidate is a multi-decades long figure who’s been in the world wide media and public scrutiny for longer than some hostile media figures have been out of diapers about whom the worst that has been dug up and exposed is that he’s filed for bankruptcy a couple of times and that he once said “pussy” in a taped conversation. Oh, and he has tiny, vulgar hands, too. So there.
Law of Markets 