October Surprise: U.S. Economy Booms in Third Quarter With 33.1% GDP Growth

 BY MATT MARGOLIS 

AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

According to a new report from the U.S. Department of Commerce Thursday morning, the GDP grew at an annualized rate of 33.1% in the third quarter, beating estimates.

The GDP has now recovered two-thirds of what was initially lost in the recession caused by the Chinese coronavirus, which resulted in a 31.4 percent decline in GDP in the second quarter.

Q3 growth came amid a resurgence in consumer activity, which comprises 70% of GDP. Though most of the country remained in a cautious reopening, shoppers began returning to stores and the bar and restaurant industry entered the first tepid phase of resuming business despite restrictions on capacity.

Personal consumption increased 40.7%, while gross private domestic investment surged 83% amid a 59.3% increase on the residential side.

Economic activity was strong in the real estate sector, and consumer and business executive surveys showed that confidence has remained high about the future despite the virus-related setbacks.

The report comes in the final days of the presidential campaign, and Trump will no doubt reference it as he makes his final pitch for reelection.

“This record economic growth is absolute validation of President Trump’s policies which create jobs and opportunities for Americans in every corner of the country,” said Trump 2020 communications director Tim Murtaugh in a statement. “The President built the world’s best economy once and he’s rapidly doing it again, proving that cutting taxes and reducing regulations and red tape clear the way for American ingenuity and our entrepreneurial spirit to thrive. We have regained more than half of the jobs lost to the global pandemic in less than six months, while it took more than two years to regain half of job losses from a recession while Joe Biden was in charge.”

“President Trump will continue to safely reopen the country, while Biden is the candidate of lockdowns, inviting another economic shutdown which would devastate working people and cause even more health problems above and beyond what the coronavirus has caused,” Murtaugh continued. “Biden has been an economic disaster for nearly five decades in Washington, backing disastrous trade deals and putting China’s interests ahead of American workers. Biden’s plans for a $4 trillion tax increase and Green New Deal regulations on every person, business, building, and farm in the nation would kill this recovery while it’s already in full swing. For voters, the choice is simple: It’s a Trump boom versus a Biden depression.”

Matt Margolis is the author of the new book Airborne: How The Liberal Media Weaponized The Coronavirus Against Donald Trump, and the bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattMargolis

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2020/10/29/october-surprise-u-s-economy-booms-in-third-quarter-with-33-1-gdp-growth-n1105408

Op-Ed: JOE BIDEN AND THE DEMOCRATS BIG LIE FOR BLACK AMERICA

 By William Haupt III and Frances Presley Rice

 

Getty Images

“Those who must lie to make themselves look good do so because they fear the truth.” (Sophocles)

During presidential elections, the vote of Black Americans who comprise 12.6 percent of the U.S. population as of 2010 becomes a major focus, with an emphasis on the Black-majority inner-city districts since election results are reported by districts.

Statistics provided by Elizabeth Kneebone, a Metropolitan Policy Program fellow, show that only 36 percent of Black Americans live in those Back-majority inner-city districts, while 39 percent live in the suburbs and just 15 percent live in small metropolitan areas.

All the voters who live in those suburbs and small metropolitan voting districts, including the 54 percent of Backs who are prospering, are unavoidably counted as white. This happens because voting is done in secret and voters do not register by race -- except in a few Southern states, such as Florida, as mandated by the 1965 Voting Rights Act. 

There is no effective way to identify the Black voters who live in the suburbs and small metropolitan districts, so politicians routinely target the Black-majority inner-city districts. They seek the votes of those Black voters with a promise to fix the problems created by the failed socialist policies of the Democrats who run those impoverished districts. To avoid accountability, Democrats use emotional appeals and blame the problems they’ve created on a phantom -- “systemic racism.” Democrats then throw fuel on the emotional fire by claiming that conservative Republicans are responsible for the “systemic racism.” Leftists control every major institution in America: mainstream media, academia, administrative government, Hollywood, and big tech. So, if “systemic racism” really exists, whose fault is it? Blacks who vote for socialist Democrats when they have impoverished Back-majority inner-city districts are voting against their own best interest. 

If Black Americans vote with their heads instead of their emotions, they will be winners along with the rest of America. 

If they give in to the leftist identity agitprop that has spieled out of press rooms and from the socialist Democrats for decades, it will do more harm to Black America than the thrashing the allies gave to the axis at Normandy on “D Day” in 1944. 

The 2020 presidential election is our “D Day”. Do we want socialism or capitalism?  

Census data for 2019 revealed Black American employment was the highest in U.S. history under President Donald J. Trump. America had the longest period of economic growth since WWII. Yet, when the pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that was first identified in Wuhan, Hubei, China in December 2019 hit America, the Democrats used it to destroy the economy, the Republican Party and President Trump. To insure a 2020 victory, they used Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests and Antifa riots that resulted in a billion dollars in property damage and lost lives to make the 2020 presidential election a referendum on American racism. 

All Democrat operatives needed was someone to exploit for their mission. Fearing socialist Bernie Sanders would be a tough sell, they snatched former Vice President Joe Biden out of liberal limbo. They knew Biden told fables but he was just a fill-in candidate. They rounded up a platoon of leftist actors, street thug activists, media liberals, and rich global warmer scare mongers. Their plan all along was to run a woman of color with Biden and replace him with her after Election Day. 

"You've got to know who your adversaries are.” (Kamala Harris) 

A philosopher once said: “If we don’t know our history we can’t profit from our past mistakes.” Since the left made this campaign about race, and have lied about their civil rights history for decades, Biden was the perfect candidate to continue perpetrating their erroneous claims. And while Biden makes Pinocchio look like “Honest Abe” every day he speaks, the media has refused to challenge him. 

The Detroit Free Press reported: “Biden’s problem is that he has presented inconsistent images of himself at different times and places." While campaigning in Alabama in 1973, Biden bragged of an award he had received from segregationist Democrat Governor George Wallace: "We (Delawareans) were on the South’s side in the Civil War." Does he sound like a guy who claims he was a hero for civil rights?  

When Joe Biden first ran for the oval office in 1987, he made multiple claims about marching in the Civil Rights Movement and risking his life to end segregation in Delaware and the South. He said: “When I marched in the Civil Rights Movement, I marched with tens of thousands of others in Selma and Birmingham.” 

“By God, I’ve been there. I know from experience! And that’s the truth!” (Joe Biden) 

Two prominent civil rights historians said Biden never marched in the Civil Rights Movement. 

Joe Biden worried in 1977 that certain de-segregation policies would cause his children to grow up “in a racial jungle.” 

"Unless we do something about this, my children are going to grow up in a jungle, the jungle being a racial jungle with tensions having built so high that it is going to explode at some point." (Joe Biden) 

Biden knew he could not win on his Senate record so he used the works of others to improve his image with voters. Biden not only fabricated a highly fraudulent civil rights portfolio, he plagiarized speeches from Britain’s Neil Kinnock, Hubert Humphrey, Robert Kennedy, and John F. Kennedy. He lied about receiving scholarships, and said he graduated in the top ten of his class in law school. Yet, he was in the bottom ten and was almost expelled for plagiarizing. He begged to be forgiven for cheating. 

Six months into his campaign, Biden admitted he had “lied” and his campaign imploded. His staff had warned him to stop telling lies since it would be his Waterloo. They knew he never worked in the Civil Rights Movement; he was plagiarizing speeches and was lying about his education. But he had lied so much so often that he believed his lies himself and kept it up until he got caught. 

When Biden accepted the nomination as vice president for then presidential candidate Barack Obama, you’d think this would be a watershed moment to expound on his fabled civil rights career. Wrong! He ran away from his phony civil rights resume during President Obama’s entire reign. The Democratic Party National Committee (DNC) did a biographical piece on Biden at the 2012 convention, but there was not a word about any civil rights work. When Obama gave Biden the Medal of Freedom, Obama made no reference to Biden’s phony civil rights resume. 

While at a 2014 King Day event, Biden embellished his civil rights fables adding he was trained as a civil rights worker in 1960 on Sundays in the Black churches of the late Reverend Herrin and the late Pastor Maurice Moyer. But according to Delaware newspaper records, he met these revered civil rights workers years after the Civil Rights Movement. Biden continues to repeat this falsehood today. 

The best source to separate Biden-fact from Biden-fiction is his autobiography, since publishers fact-check every word. Biden wrote that he was concerned about the Civil Rights Movement, but not an activist. He wrote also that he worked at a Black swimming pool in Wilmington, Delaware and felt involved in what they were feeling, but never went to a march. He conceded that he never went to Selma, or anywhere else to participate in civil rights activities. 

”If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.” (Joe Biden) 

Preparing for his run for the presidency in 2020, Biden picked up where he left off in 1987. Since the Democratic Party has made this entire campaign about “race,” Biden again revved up his fable machine. Unlike 1987 when he was caught in multiple lies, he was confident he could say anything he wished and the media and the Democratic Party leadership would support him and never question a single lie. 

Former Vice President Al Gore Jr said: “With the internet there is no excuse for ignorance.”  There are numerous videos from Biden’s first campaign through 2020 that show he fabricated his entire civil rights resume. Yet, since 1987 when he was caught lying about his academics and plagiarizing, he has been given a free pass by the liberal media. Biden lies freely every day, while Donald Trump is boiled in oil for every word he says. 

“I made history. I was the only president impeached before I took office. (Donald Trump) 

When Biden accepted his party’s nomination, he said: “This election is about character.” If this is true, why is Biden the nominee? Democrats have proven once again they don’t give a damn about “character”-- only winning. They need Biden to embed their lies into the heads of Black America that the Democrats will continue to save Black America from the fabled “white supremacist” Republican Party.

Democrats need to play the race card to win. They’ll continue to rewrite history, so Black Americans never know the facts. Blacks will remain unaware that Republicans fought to end slavery while Democrats fought to expand it. Blacks won’t know either that, after the Civil War, Republicans amended the Constitution to grant Blacks freedom (13th Amendment), citizenship (14th Amendment) and the right to vote (15th Amendment). They won’t know that Democrats enacted the discriminatory “Jim Crow” laws. 

Blacks will not know that Republicans passed civil rights laws in the 1860s, including the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Reconstruction Act of 1867, designed to establish a new government system in the Democrat-controlled South, one that was fair to blacks. Nor will they know that after Democrats took control of Congress in 1892, they passed the Repeal Act of 1894 that overturned civil rights legislation, including the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875. 

It will remain unknown to Black Americans that it took Republicans nearly six decades to finally achieve passage of civil rights legislation in the 1950s and 1960s. Lost in history will be the fact that Republican President Dwight Eisenhower pushed to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and sent troops to Democrat-controlled Arkansas to desegregate schools. 

Hidden from Blacks will be the facts that Democrat President John F. Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil Rights Act while he was a senator, as did Democrat Senator Al Gore Sr. After he became president, Kennedy opposed to the 1963 March on Washington by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that was organized by A. Phillip Randolph, a Black Republican. President Kennedy, through his brother Attorney General Robert Kennedy, had Dr. King wiretapped and investigated by the FBI on suspicion of being a communist in order to undermine Dr. King. 

Blacks will never know that it was Republican Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois, not Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson, who pushed through the 1964 Civil Rights Act.  Dirksen was instrumental to the passage of civil rights legislation in 1957, 1960, 1964, 1965 and 1968. Dirksen wrote the language for the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Dirksen also crafted the language for the Civil Rights Act of 1968 which prohibited discrimination in housing. The chief opponents of the 1964 Civil Rights Act were Democrat Senators Sam Ervin, Albert Gore Sr. and Robert Byrd, who was an official recruiter in the Ku Klux Klan who Biden praised at his funeral. 

Behind closed doors, President Johnson said: 

"These Negroes, they're getting pretty uppity these days and that's a problem for us since they've got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness.  Now, we've got to do something about this; we've got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference." (President Lyndon B. Johnson) 

As author Michael Scheuer wrote, the Democratic Party is the party of the four S’s: slavery, secession, segregation and now socialism. 

Biden and the Democrats are wrong for Black America. Census Bureau statistics show that the Black poverty rate in 2010 was 24.1 percent under Obama and Biden. Under Trump, the Black poverty rate fell to 16.1 percent in 2019 and the jobless rate fell to 5.9 percent, the lowest on record. 

When Black Americans replace capitalism with socialism, they will be moved to the back of the economic bus forever.  Will we Americans -- black and white -- vote for Donald Trump and capitalism, or Joe Biden and socialism? A wrong decision will undo Black progress made under Trump and entrench Blacks further on the Democratic Party’s failed socialist economic plantation. 

Election Day 2020 is, indeed, “D Day” for Black America. Is Joe Biden right for Black America? 

On October 12, 1975, referring to the racist Alabama Democrat Governor George Wallace, Biden told the Philadelphia Enquirer: 

"I think the Democratic Party could stand a liberal George Wallace; someone who's not afraid to stand up and offend people; someone who wouldn't pander but will say what the American people know in their gut is right.” (Joe Biden)

_________________ 

William Haupt III

Contributing Columnist

William Haupt III is a retired professional journalist, author, and citizen legislator in California for over 40 years. He got his start working to approve California Proposition 13.

Frances Presley Rice

Contributing Columnist

Frances Presley Rice is a retired lawyer and US Army lieutenant colonel, author and civil rights activist for over 50 years. .She is dedicated to the restoration and preservation of the events which shaped the lives of Black Americans.

The Odd Couple: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

By Linda Goudsmit

We all know couples whose attraction to each other is confounding. We wonder, what do they see in each other? How do they find each other attractive? Often, marriage is a business arrangement. So it is in politics.

Presidents and vice-presidents are often selected by the constituency they bring to their party's ticket. The 2020 election is no exception. The Biden/Harris ticket is an odd coupling. Biden is a corrupt, career politician, and dedicated globalist. His family financial dealings in Russia, Ukraine, and particularly communist China, make Joe Biden a national security risk and a threat to American interests worldwide.

Joe Biden is a 47-year swamp dweller whose diminished capacity is undeniable. Kamala Harris is a radical leftist Democrat who makes Bernie Sanders look like a conservative. So, what gives? Why did Biden choose Harris as a running mate?

The Biden/Harris ticket is a marriage of convenience—a political business arrangement.

The senior, corrupt, career Democrats in the party are being challenged by a radical leftist cohort of young American Marxists determined to destroy America from within, and replace our constitutional republic with socialism. WHAT?? Oh yes. The 2020 presidential election does not represent traditional Democrat/Republican differences of opinion between American patriots, whose vision for what is best for America is in conflict.

The 2020 election is a revolution without bullets! It is the consummation of the war on America, and the final battle between globalism and Americanism. Let me explain.

Senator Kamala Harris is the most extreme, radical leftist democrat in the U.S. Senate. Throughout her political career Harris has demonstrated her contempt for America and Americans. She is anti-America first, anti-constitutional governance, and a heartbeat away from the presidency. Consider what will happen if the Democrats manage to steal this election for Joe Biden—their corrupt, mentally deficient, globalist candidate. VP Kamala Harris will immediately replace Biden and become president.

Nancy Pelosi has already introduced a bill to implement the 25th Amendment that expedites the process. A President Harris will be empowered to keep Obama's promise to fundamentally transform America. Harris will dismantle our glorious 245-year constitutional republic, and restructure America into socialism.

In my 2020 release, The Book of Humanitarian Hoaxes: Killing America with 'Kindness', I examine the sinister leftist, Islamist, globalist attacks on America. Chapter/Hoax 13: The Humanitarian Hoax of Socialism, describes how the enemies of America are attempting to "fundamentally transform America."

Leftist radical socialist Barack Obama, the quintessential humanitarian huckster, politicized every American government institution during his two lawless terms. Activist judges, activist lawyers, activist politicians, activist teachers, activist curriculum developers, activist administrators, activist IRS, CIA, FBI, CDC. Activists are not just a bunch of out-of-control college students; they are also men and women in positions of power intent on destroying American democracy and replacing it with socialism.

Activists are a broad, seemingly disparate genus joined by their activist ideology. The reason they are so dangerous is that they embrace a lawless, ends-justify-the-means mentality. So, now the country is confronted with whole institutions that lawlessly pursue a political agenda antithetical to American democracy. The censorship and disabling of accounts on social media are particularly disturbing examples.

In his famous 1961 farewell address President Eisenhower warned America against the "unwarranted influence" of the military-industrial complex. He advised the public to "guard against the grave danger that public policy itself could become the captive of a scientific-technological elite."

Eisenhower understood how the increasing power of the military-industrial complex could threaten the decentralized power-sharing arrangement of the U.S. government. His words echoed the words of English aristocrat Lord Bertrand Russell in his 1952 book, The Impact of Science on Society. Eisenhower's words were a warning; Russell's words were a promise of the New World Order and a one-world government.

Both men anticipated the power of the scientific-technological elite. Both could imagine industry (means of production) being consolidated into the hands of fewer multinational conglomerates. But neither could have imagined the application of science and technology in a digital age of information wars, where manipulating and censoring information could direct public opinion worldwide and destabilize governments, including our own, via the Internet and the World Wide Web.

Neither man could have imagined the globalist elite being in control of both the means of production AND a weaponized, politicized worldwide information industry. Globalism is a clear and present danger to the United States of America today. It is the existential threat of the expanded military-industrial complex capable of creating a worldwide echo chamber that controls public opinion completely.

Leftist radical socialist Barack Obama opened the door to the globalist elite by soft-selling socialism to America. Globalism requires socialist nations that manage the means of production in order to internationalize them into their New World Order of a one-world government.

Here is the secret of the secret, and the root of the root of Obama's promise to fundamentally transform America. Obama and his radical leftists, including Kamala Harris and those she represents, are the useful idiots of the globalist elite. The hallmark of useful idiots is that they are too arrogant, and too narcissistic to realize that they are participating in their own destruction.

Radical leftists, including Marxist organizations Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Antifa, are entirely dispensable as soon as they deliver America to the globalist financiers of the Biden/Harris 2020 ticket. Radical leftists will be eliminated in the globalist New World Order. There is no place for agitators in the binary feudal structure of rulers and ruled.

Oligarchy is the opposite of representative government. Oligarchy is government by the few, a form of government in which all power is vested in a few persons or a dominant class. In 2020, the globalist elite and the Google, Amazon, Twitter, and Facebook technocrats who partner with them, are attempting to become the dominant class through the election process using the odd couple Biden/Harris ticket to represent them.

Americans must reject the odd couple and their destructive marriage of convenience. Tell corrupt, career politician Joe Biden and his radical leftist partner, Kamala Harris, that America refuses their anti-American hope for change. Donald J. Trump will never accept socialism, globalism, communism, or any other tyrannical oligarchical system of rulers and ruled. Your vote is your voice!

http://goudsmit.pundicity.com/24688/the-odd-couple-joe-biden-and-kamala-harris

BREAKING: Senate confirms Amy Coney Barrett to Supreme Court, cements 6-3 conservative majority

 By Tyler Olson | Fox News

Barrett will be Trump's third justice appointed to the Supreme Court, the most for any president since Ronald Reagan

The Senate voted 52-48 on Monday night to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court in a move that makes the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals judge and Notre Dame law professor the third appointment to the high court by President Trump, solidifying his administration's legacy even further just a week before Election Day as he seeks a second term. 

The last president to nominate three new justices to the Supreme Court was Ronald Reagan. 

Monday's vote marked the end of a confirmation process that lasted less than 40 days from when late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died to when her successor, Barrett, was confirmed. During that time Democrats objected loudly to the speed and timing of the confirmation just before an election. Meanwhile, Republicans have touted Barrett's record as an academic and a judge as impeccable -- and her "Well Qualified" rating from the American Bar Association (ABA) whose representatives relayed descriptions of her as "brilliant" and an "intellectual giant."

Barrett is expected to be sworn in by Justice Clarence Thomas at the White House on Monday night. 

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, was the only Republican to vote against Barrett after expressing objections to moving a Supreme Court nomination before an election after Republicans blocked Obama nominee Merrick Garland ahead of the 2016 election. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has also expressed the same concerns as Collins and voted against a procedural motion to advance Barrett's nomination on Sunday, but she voted for the nominee Monday after saying she would not hold her process objections against Barrett. 

All 45 Democrats and two independents who caucus with the Democrats voted against Barrett's confirmation.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on Sunday, as the Senate advanced a procedural motion that set up the Monday vote, that his party should "feel good about"  their involvement in moving Barrett's confirmation forward.

"This is something to really be proud of and feel good about. We made an important contribution to the future of this country,"  McConnell said as the Senate advanced Barrett for confirmation for a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court. "A lot of what we've done over the last four years will be undone sooner or later by the next election ... They won't be able to do much about this for a long time to come."

McConnell has made a point to prioritize judicial nominations during the nearly four years Trump has been the president. Barrett will be the 220th federal judge appointed by Trump to this point in his first term, trailing only Jimmy Carter all-time.

McConnell's dogged focus on judicial appointments led to there being zero remaining vacancies on federal courts of appeals -- although Barrett's confirmation Monday creates another for him to fill. 

Monday's vote followed 30 consecutive hours of floor debate -- running overnight Sunday into Monday -- after Republicans invoked cloture on the Barrett nomination in a rare Sunday session. 

The Barrett confirmation fight was not nearly as chaotic as the previous fight over Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation, which involved lurid accusations of sexual assault against the nominee and multiple rounds of hearings. In fact, Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., called the Barrett hearings "one of the best Senate hearings that I've participated in."

She added to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.: "I want to thank you for your fairness and the opportunity of going back and forth."

Graham responded: "I know we have very different views about the judge and whether we should be doing this or not. But having said all that, to my Democratic colleagues, you have challenged the judge, you have challenged us, and I accept those challenges as being sincere and not personal."

The collegiality between the longtime senators does not mean the nomination wasn't hard-fought, however. Interest groups on both sides poured tens of millions of dollars into advertising and Senate Democrats pulled out every conceivable procedural stop to pressure Republicans. 

That included Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., forcing several procedural votes on topics from health care to coronavirus relief to shutting down the Senate. In one stunt that was particularly effective at squeezing the GOP, Schumer forced a vote on a measure that would ban the Justice Department from arguing against the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as it currently plans to when a case against it comes before the Supreme Court on Nov. 10. 

The "cloture" motion on that failed 51-43 -- it needed 60 votes to pass -- but succeeded in getting six moderate or electorally vulnerable Republican senators to back it. 

Beyond that, Senate Democrats even boycotted the beginning of the first markup on Barrett's nomination on Oct. 15 and the entirety of the second on Oct. 21, forcing the GOP to forge ahead by waiving committee rules that require at least two members of the minority party to be present for the committee to do business. 

But despite the pressure tactics from Democrats, Republicans stuck together and seem to have votes to confirm Barrett. For many of the GOP senators, Barrett's qualifications were inescapable and were the most important factors in their votes. 

"I consider Judge Amy Coney Barrett to be the most qualified Supreme Court nominee that I've encountered in my 34 years in the United States Senate," Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said Monday. 

"I regret that we could not do it the normal way. But what I don't regret is reporting her out of committee," Graham said after the Judiciary Committee gave a 12-0 favorable recommendation of Barrett, with all the committee's Democrats boycotting. "I could not have lived with myself if I denied her her day."

...

Fox News' John Roberts contributed to this report. 

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-amy-coney-barrett-vote

Voting for the wrong reasons is worse than not voting at all

By William Haupt III | The Center Square

A poll worker at the Su Nueva Lavanderia polling place uses rubber gloves to prepare a ballot for a voter in Chicago.  AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast

“A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.”

– Theodore Roosevelt

The late president of Notre Dame and chair of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, Father Theodore Martin Hesburgh said: “Voting is a civic sacrament.” He was speaking at a civil rights rally with Dr. Martin Luther King. He emphasized it was important to vote, but even more important that it is done wisely. He said it’s a greater sin to disrespect this civic duty if it is not done in good faith. It's better not to vote if it’s done to do what is popular for the wrong reason rather than done for what is best for the right reason. “You will forever regret it, if you vote with your heart instead of your head.”

There are a myriad of theories why people don’t vote. We’ve heard them too many times to count. But the reasons why and how people vote are getting easier to predict with parties targeting blocks of identity groups. To many it is a ritual. To others it is a duty. To some, it is strictly party politics. To the informed it is exercising a belief in a regime and its policies. But those who come out of hiding to vote for identity candidates since they are one of their own are the most dangerous of all. They don’t care about policy and put the country in the hands of radicals who are unqualified to govern.

We continually hear about elections that are decided by a small percentage of voters who turn out; and the consequences. But we seldom hear about the residual effects of elections that are decided by “occasional voters” who crawl out of the woodwork to vote for someone who promises to save them from themselves. These rarely make headlines; yet they are always the most ruinous of all.

“I will evaluate every institution in America and remake it to work for everyone.”

– Barack Obama

The most dangerous act of defiance against our republic is identity politics. Progressives segment the electorate by singling out groups of allied dissidents to vote against traditional institutions. They dismiss moral protocol and civility for civil disobedience. This forms a cultish following of transient voters in their camp to vote against republican ideology and support radical anti-American policies.

During the Great Depression in 1932, when Franklin Roosevelt took office, unemployment was 16%. By 1939, after voters put him back in office twice, unemployment had risen to 17.2%. In 1939, his treasurer, Henry Morgenthau, said, “The New Deal was a total failure. We expanded government and spent more than ever before and we are in worse shape, which proves the New Deal failed.”

FDR was first elected when people were gullible and desperate. He convinced voters it would take radical government intrusion to end it. Voters can be forgiven for electing him once, or twice, but after eights years with a negative recovery they elected him again? Republican candidates were no match for FDR’s political machine. As a result FDR dismantled America one institution at a time.

Richard Nixon’s successful presidency and his administration were indelibly marred by Watergate. Although Gerald Ford, President Richard Nixon’s vice president, and successor did an admiral job rebuilding national confidence in the presidential office and the GOP, Democrats mounted a vicious, decrying attack against the GOP the next election and dispirited voters revolted and chose Walter Mitty clone Jimmy Carter instead.

“We must adjust our principles to survive in these changing times.”

– Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter set the stage for the leftist Democratic Party of Barack Obama and the socialist left. His laundry list of failures is deeply rooted in his warped pious religious arrogance that fostered unmitigated distrust for America at home and around the globe. Jimmy Carter has been given a free pass from liberal media and historians, who excuse his political disasters, elucidating he was a “good man,” instead of a dangerous incompetent. Voters should have voted for Ford or not at all.

After the historic presidency of Ronald Reagan, who ended Communism in the Eastern Bloc, it was hard for George W. Bush to do a repeat performance. As the first real peace time president since the end of World War II, he had an 89% approval rating when he won the Gulf War in 1990. Adjusting to a post war economy we entered a mild recession just before the 1992 election and that was his Waterloo.

The 1992 presidential election was an accident waiting to happen when Independent Ross Perot allowed Bill Clinton to steal the show. Bush's strong foreign policy was masked by a recession and war debt. Perot was not a serious candidate but Democrats saw him as a spoiler and a chance for a Clinton victory.

"A lot of presidential memoirs are dull. I surly know mine aren’t.”

– Bill Clinton

Bush was popular, but he had raised taxes during a recession and Clinton used this to discredit him the entire campaign. He knew this would help Perot and he’d win by default. Clinton won with only 43% of the vote. Bush got 37% and Perot got 19%. Pollsters agree almost all of Perot’s votes came from GOP voters and cost Bush a victory. Clinton won with the third lowest percentage in history.

Democrats never forgot the 2000 fiasco in Florida when George Bush eked out a win over Al Gore. Bush spent the next eight years being Mr. nice guy while Democrats were obstructionists moving further left. A bitter John Kerry, who had lost to Bush in 2004, put together a plan to win the brass ring in 2008. And America took the bait – hook, line and sinker – and will never be the same again.

Democrats knew if they moved further left they’d steal the show if they found the right candidate to capture the identity vote. Kerry picked Illinois U.S. Sen. Barack Obama to deliver the keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, which introduced America to the new socialist left.

According to data from the Pew Research Center, the nation’s two biggest minority groups, blacks and Hispanics ,accounted for an unprecedented share of the Democratic presidential vote in 2008. They made up over 21% of the electorate. The turnout rate among first-time young and old black and Hispanic voters was also the highest in U.S. history, while the white vote was the lowest ever recorded. An astonishing 54% of the first-time voters said they only voted because Barack Obama was running.

“Voters overwhelmingly elected me twice. And that speaks for itself.”

– Barack Obama

W. C. Fields said, “If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with BS.” The socialist left’s formula for winning is to not have a tangible agenda. They’ve learned it’s easier to win by creating chaos, civil unrest and dividing races to unite their base. They count on their party hacks to do the rest; even if they aren’t part of the far left. Then the left media will lock-step them to the finish line.

Party politics ran our nation for decades, until Donald Trump became the first president elected by the people since George Washington. When identity and party voters vote for the wrong reasons, all of America lives with their mistakes. And these voters don’t realize they must live with them too. The right to vote is also the right not to vote. It’s better not voting than voting for the wrong reason.

We’d all profit from that.

“Every vote should carry a serial number, so that responsibility for harmful or careless use of the vote can be traced. Concealed voting should be outlawed.”

– P. J. O'Rourke

 Contributing Columnist William Haupt III is a retired professional journalist, author, and citizen legislator in California for over 40 years. He got his start working to approve California Proposition 13.

https://www.thecentersquare.com/opinion/op-ed-voting-for-the-wrong-reasons-is-worse-than-not-voting-at-all/article_b58cc6e0-120d-11eb-827b-473172a9f9c2.html

Trump announces peace deal between Sudan and Israel, says more nations will normalize relations

 By Morgan Phillips | Fox News 

President Trump hangs ends the call with the leaders of Sudan and Israel, as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, left, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien, and others applaud in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, Oct. 23, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Trump on Friday announced a peace deal that would normalize ties with between Israel and Sudan, claiming there "would be many more peace deals to come in the Middle East."

Sudan is the third Arab state to do so as part of U.S.-brokered deals in the run-up to Election Day.

Trump invited reporters into the Oval Office while he was on the phone with the leaders of Israel and Sudan to discuss the latest U.S.-brokered deal in the run-up to Election Day. 

"Three months ago, no one thought this was possible. Even Bibi didn't know if this was possible, right Bibi?" Trump asked his ally, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Trump said Sudan had demonstrated a commitment to battling terrorism. "This is one of the great days in the history of Sudan," Trump said, adding that Israel and Sudan have been in a state of war for decades. 

"It is a new world," Netanyahu said over the phone. "We are cooperating with everyone. Building a better future for all of us."

The president said that at least five other countries wanted peace with Israel. "We have many lined up. They want to come in, get the deal done."

Senior adviser to the president Jared Kushner, who has been involved in brokering the deals, agreed that other countries in the Middle East would soon follow suit. 

Trump said that even Iran would "someday" normalize relations with Israel.

"Iran ultimately will become a member of this whole thing. Look, someday I'd love to help Iran get back on track. They've gone from a rich country to a poor country in three years," he said. 

"But they can't have nuclear weapons," he continued. "It's always death to Israel, that's all they shout. So they can't have nuclear weapons."

The president also said that a deal between Israel and the Palestinian region may be on the horizon. "Palestinians, they're wanting to do something. "I'm sure that will get done, too." 

Before the 2020 peace deals, Middle Eastern nation had not recognized Israel since Jordan in the 1990s. 

Trump said he expects Saudi Arabia to come to the table for a deal soon. 

"There's going to be a big reunion, where everybody is here, everybody's going to be signed. We expect Saudi Arabia's going to be one of those countries. Highly respected. The King and the Crown Prince. They're all just highly respected in the Middle East."

Friday's deal, which would deepen Sudan's engagement with the West, follows Trump's conditional agreement this week to remove the North African nation from the list of state sponsors of terrorism if it pays compensation to American victims of terror attacks. 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a ceremony announcing the deal that victims of terror would receive $335 million in compensation from Sudan. 

The money is meant for victims of the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania by the al-Qaida network while its leader, Osama bin Laden, was living in Sudan. Trump said on Tuesday that once the funds were transferred, he would remove Sudan from the list.

A senior U.S. official said Sudan had borrowed the money needed to pay that amount.

But these recent recognitions of Israel have undermined the traditional Arab consensus that there can be no normalization with Israel before the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. The Palestinians say the recognitions amount to betrayal, while Israel says the Palestinians have lost what they have seen as their "veto" over regional peace efforts.

Netanyahu has made it a priority to forge ties with formerly hostile countries in Africa and the Arab world in the absence of any progress with the Palestinians during his more than a decade in office. 

The deal with Sudan will include aid and investment from Israel, particularly in technology and agriculture, along with further debt relief. It comes as Sudan and its transitional government teeter on the edge. Thousands have protested in the country's capital Khartoum and other regions in recent days over dire economic conditions. 

Trump said the deal "will enhance Israel's security and end Sudan's isolation from the world." 

The removal of the terror designation opens the door for Sudan to get international loans and aid needed to revive its battered economy and rescue the country's transition to democracy.

Sudan is on a fragile path to democracy after a popular uprising last year led the military to overthrow the longtime autocrat, Omar al-Bashir. A military-civilian government rules the country, with elections possible in late 2022.

Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok thanked Trump for signing the executive order to remove Sudan from the terrorism list and said in a statement that he hoped to complete the process in a "timely manner." 

The normalization agreement had been in the works for some time but was finalized when Trump's Mideast peace team, led by Jared Kushner and Avi Berkowitz, visited the region earlier this week to mark the first commercial flight between Israel and Bahrain and then went on to the United Arab Emirates, according to U.S. officials.

Unlike with Bahrain and the UAE, there has been a state of hostilities between Sudan and Israel, even if they had not been in direct conflict.

Unmentioned in the joint statement was that Sudan has agreed, according to the senior U.S. official, to designate Lebanon's Hezbollah movement as a terrorist organization, something that Israel has long sought from its neighbors and others in the international community.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-sudan-to-join-uae-bahrain-in-recognizing-israel

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TRUMP DECLARES 'DAWN OF A NEW MIDDLE EAST' AS HE PRESIDES OVER SIGNING OF HISTORIC DEALS

Here's Why Trump's Final Debate Was a Game-Changer

 By Larry O'Connor |FOX News

Photo Source: AP Photo/Julio Cortez

Anyone who has read this byline over the years knows that I'm not in the prediction business. I rarely take the precious space this fine website grants me to tell you what I think or believe may happen in the future, especially when it comes to how Americans will vote.

Anyone who tries to predict how the American electorate will respond to the candidacy of Donald Trump is lying to you and themselves and engaged in a fool's errand. This is a political figure who has defied every ounce of conventional wisdom in the five short years he has been engaged in electoral politics, and if the 2020 election is any indication thus far, that phenomenon continues.

Remarkably, the majority of my very well-paid colleagues who dabble in the dark art of political commentary and analysis on television didn't learn this simple lesson after the 2016 presidential election. But, there they are again, telling their viewers that the election is "Biden's to lose" and "Trump is way behind" and (my personal favorite) "Biden is favored to win in 87 out of 100 scenarios!"

However, taking into account the well-executed disclaimer above, I'd like to take a few moments to explain why I think President Trump's debate performance Thursday night could very well be the game-changing event he needed to head straight to re-election eleven days from now.

1. The Tone

I'm not one of those voters who really gives a flip about whether a politician "sounds presidential" or not. Most of the men who have held the office of president of the United States have had huge egos. It's sort of a pre-requisite to put yourself out there as a potential "leader of the free world," isn't it? I expect that most of the presidents and presidential candidates in my lifetime have been insufferable jerks behind the scenes and they put on their phony "presidential" face to con the voters.

That said, we must recognize that many voters do crave a straight-forward, serious tone in their president, and their opinions on this matter should not be dismissed. After all, they vote too.

The latest RCP average of polls shows Biden leading 51% to 42%. (I know, the national polls are irrelevant because of the electoral college, but for the point I am about to make, the national polls actually serve a purpose.)

To me, the remarkable aspect of this poll is not that Biden is leading. It's that it shows 7% of the electorate is undecided. Really? Undecided? This late in the game? And with these two politicians? One who has been fed into our consciousness in every aspect of our lives over the past five years and is currently the president and the other who was vice president and has been in the public sphere for nearly five decades? Who in the hell are this 7% who can't make up their minds?

And then it hit me: They aren't undecided, they lean Trump, but they are waiting to make that final commitment. Something is stopping them. Something relatively intangible. It's the "tone" thing. They are down with his policies and achievements, but they just don't like the guy's attitude. They prefer the "presidential" thing.

Last night, Trump gave them just enough of that tone to help them make that commitment in the final days of the campaign.

Again, I don't give a flip about the tone thing; I evaluate results. Would I like my president to be the second coming of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln? Sure. Is that guy even running for office in this era? Hell no... I mean, the mobs are tearing down statues of the real Washington and Lincoln, so why would our era's version step up?

2. The Oil

It can't be overstated: Trump getting Biden to admit that he will end the oil industry was a seminal moment. It was the perfect confirmation of just how radical, out-of-touch and destructive Joe Biden and the Democratic Party have become.

The proof is in the Biden campaign's embarrassing attempt to gaslight the world and tell us all that what we heard Biden say is not at all what we heard Biden say.

Yeah right. He was just talking about subsidies.

Biden has been telling the country that he is not beholden to the radicals in his party pushing the Green New Deal. Of course, we don't really believe him, but many voters are more than prepared to allow themselves to be fooled by such gaslighting. But this is indisputable. It comes from his own mouth and semi-coherent words.

It's less about oil, although, in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and really anywhere else people like cars (I hear cars are big in Michigan), than it is about Biden voluntarily confirming that he is aligned with the radical Left to upend our nation's economy and way of life.

There's one other thing about this moment that helps Trump. He created this moment. He had to take charge of the stage, raise his hand to stop the moderator from moving along, and challenge Biden directly with the question that should have been asked and forced the agenda. This is an Alpha-leadership move and it is the kind of thing that people genuinely want in a leader, regardless of politics.

3. The Outsider

Donald Trump has been president for four years. He is the leader of the free world and has been at the center of every American political issue for over five years. And yet, somehow, he is still running as an outsider.

It's an amazing thing.

He got an assist from the Democrats since they nominated the longest-serving politician in America who has been the ultimate insider and personification of stagnant, do-nothing DC politics for that entire time. Trump skillfully took that gift and hammered home the most important message of his candidacy last night.

A sample: 

"That’s a typical political statement. Let’s get off this China thing, and then he looks: 'The family around the table,' everything. Just a typical politician when I see that. I'm not a typical politician. That’s why I got elected."

"See, it's all talk, no action with these politicians. Why didn't he get it done? [You say], 'That's what I'm going to do when I become president' – you were vice president along with Obama as your president, your leader for eight years. Why didn't you get it done? You had eight years to get it done."

"Joe, I ran because of you. I ran because of Barack Obama. Because you did a poor job. If I thought you did a good job, I would have never run."

In the final third of the debate, Trump was able to settle into this theme very comfortably. It's no wonder it's what vaulted him into the lead in the 2016 Republican primary and on to victory that November. Anyone who is still undecided is probably a voter who does not traditionally align themselves on a regular basis with one party or the other. They are independent. These voters like outsiders.

They liked Ross Perot. They like Barack Obama. They like Donald Trump.

He was able to remind them that even though he's the president, he's still the consummate outsider compared to the likes of Joe Biden.

Again, I don't pretend to tell you how voters will line up in eleven days, and I won't insult your intelligence by assuring you that this thing is settled for either of these candidates. If I had that kind of undeserved arrogance and hubris, I'd be a television analyst.

I only say this; President Trump had a couple of important goals to achieve in this last debate to give Trump-shy or Trump-hesitant voters enough reason to commit to him. In my opinion, for what it's worth, he achieved those important goals. And then some.

https://townhall.com/columnists/larryoconnor/2020/10/23/heres-why-trumps-final-debate-was-a-gamechanger-n2578661?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=10/23/2020&bcid=1b87ed489cb499e9d52de389e64c7f01&recip=19399969

BREAKING: President Trump plans to bring Hunter Biden associate Tony Bobulinski as guest to debate

 By John Roberts, Brooke Singman | Fox News 

Photo Courtesy Tony Bobulinski

Tony Bobulinski tells Fox News the Biden family 'aggressively leveraged' its name in foreign business dealings; Mike Emanuel reports from Washington.

President Trump is expected to bring former Hunter Biden associate Tony Bobulinski as his guest to the final presidential debate Thursday night, Fox News has learned. 

Bobulinski is a retired lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and the CEO of Sinohawk Holdings, which he explained "was a partnership between the Chinese operating through CEFC/Chairman Ye and the Biden family." He said he was brought on as CEO by Hunter Biden and James Gilliar. 

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE VIDEO: Hunter Biden's former business partner releases emails about 2017 Chinese energy company deal

Bobulinski, in a statement to Fox News, said he does not believe Joe Biden's past claim that he did not discuss his son Hunter's business affairs with him, claiming that Hunter "frequently referenced asking him for his sign-off or advice on various potential deals."

"I’ve seen Vice President Biden saying he never talked to Hunter about his business. I’ve seen firsthand that that’s not true, because it wasn’t just Hunter’s business, they said they were putting the Biden family name and its legacy on the line," Bobulinski said.

"The Biden family aggressively leveraged the Biden family name to make millions of dollars from foreign entities even though some were from communist-controlled China," he added.

Bobulinksi also said that he believes that the Chinese involvement in the deal was "political or influence investment" on their part, and that "Hunter wanted to use the company as his personal piggy bank by just taking money out of it as soon as it came from the Chinese."

The Biden campaign declined to comment. 

Bobulinski also said that the information he relayed is not part of any disinformation campaign.

"Any suggestion to the contrary is false and offensive," he said.

“Once I realized that Hunter wanted to use the company as his personal piggy bank by just taking money out of it as soon as it came from the Chinese, I took steps to prevent that from happening,” Bobulinski said, adding that he asks “the Biden family to address the American people and outline the facts so I can go back to being irrelevant — and so I am not put in a position to have to answer those questions for them.”

Bobulinski said he doesn’t “have a political ax to grind.”

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Senate Finance Committee requested documents related to Bobulinski’s business affairs with the Biden family. He has provided the committees with the documents. Fox News has also, separately, obtained those documents.

Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, are also planning to interview Bobulinksi on Friday.

“As part of the committees’ efforts to validate the authenticity of recently publicly released emails involving the Biden family’s international financial entanglements, we sent letters to five individuals identified in the emails.  Those letters were sent yesterday, and the deadline is October 23, 2020," Johnson and Grassley said in a statement.  "So far, the committees have received a response only from Mr. Tony Bobulinski, who appears to be willing to fully cooperate with our investigation."

They added: "In fact, Mr. Bobulinski has already agreed to appear for an informal interview by the committees tomorrow, Friday, October 23, 2020.”   

Several documents, obtained by Fox News, show Bobulinksi discussing a meeting with Joe Biden in May 2017, despite past claims from the former vice president that he did not talk about his son's business dealings.

The messages seem to indicate that a meeting took place, though it's unclear what the substance of the meeting may have been. They are unrelated to the laptop or hard drive purportedly belonging to Hunter Biden, the former vice president's son.

“Mrng plse let me knw if we will do early dinner w your Uncle & dad and where, also for document translation do you want it simple Chinese or traditional?” Bobulinski texted Hunter Biden on May 2, 2017.

“Not sure on dinner yet and whatever is the most common for a Chinese legal DOC,” Hunter Biden replied.

“Chinese legal docs can be both, i’ll make it traditional,” Bobulinski said.

Hunter replied: “Dad not in now until 11- let’s me I and Jim meet at 10 at Beverly Hilton where he’s staying.”

Later, Bobulinski sent a text to Jim Biden, Joe Biden's brother, on the same day, May 2, 2017, saying: “Great to meet u and spend some time together, please thank Joe for his time, was great to talk thx Tony b.”

John Roberts currently serves as the chief White House correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC). He joined the network as a senior national correspondent in January 2011, based in the Atlanta bureau.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/president-trump-plans-to-bring-hunter-biden-associate-tony-bobulinski-as-guest-to-debate

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