Vance says Trump’s plan to end the war would likely force Ukraine to give up land, NATO aspirations– www.washingtonexaminer.com Source Link Excerpt:
VANCE’S VISION OF UKRAINE PEACE: Former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), has laid out a vision of how he expects Trump’s plan to bring the war in Ukraine to a quick end will play out, and it’s pretty much everything Russian President Vladimir Putin could have hoped for.
Trump has repeatedly refused to say he wants Ukraine to win but has promised to end the war as soon as he wins the November election — before he actually takes office. “I will get that settled and fast, and I’ll get the war with Ukraine and Russia ended,” Trump said at this week’s debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. “If I’m president-elect, I’ll get it done before even becoming president.”
“I think what this looks like is, Trump sits down, he says to the Russians, the Ukrainians, the Europeans, you guys need to figure out, ‘what does a peaceful settlement look like?’” Vance said in a podcast interview Thursday with former Navy SEAL Shawn Ryan.
“And what it probably looks like is something like the current line of demarcation between Russia and Ukraine — that becomes like a demilitarized zone, it’s heavily fortified so the Russians don’t invade again,” Vance said. “Ukraine retains its independent sovereignty. Russia gets the guarantee of neutrality from Ukraine, it doesn’t join NATO, it doesn’t join you know some of these sort of allied institutions. And I think that’s ultimately what this looks like.”
US inflation rate slows as Federal Reserve prepares to lower interest rates – MSN Source Link Excerpt:
The consumer price index, the top measure for inflation in the U.S., slowed in August to 2.5% in the 12-month period ending in August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics who released the updated consumer price index on Wednesday.
The new data shows that inflation is now below recent norms. In the last decade, prices generally increase at a rate of 3.2% per year. In the last 20 years, consumer inflation has generally increased 3% annually.
The consumer price index weighs the costs of goods based on their importance. Items like food, shelter and energy tend to be weighted more heavily.
After annual inflation reached 9% in the middle of 2022, the Federal Reserve implemented a series of interest rate hikes in 2022 and 2023 to combat high inflation. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has stated the Federal Reserve’s goal is to reduce inflation to an annualized rate of 2%.
CEO of World’s Largest Bank Hints at Historic Crash– www.breitbart.com Source Link Excerpt:
The world’s most powerful CEO just issued a grave warning to Americans: “This may be the most dangerous time the world has seen in decades.”
His comment is especially disturbing because as the CEO of JPMorgan, the world’s largest bank, Jamie Dimon has access to more financial information than anyone. And he didn’t rise to power as a hot-head or doom-and-gloomer. He is calm, calculating, and knows the gravity of his words.
So, if he believes political instability is reaching a boiling point, one that could even hurt the world’s largest bank, smart investors know to take evasive action.
Dimon later got more specific when he said, “The danger is government debt and inflation.”
Boeing Workers Vote to Strike After Rejecting Pay Deal – Republic World Source Link Excerpt:
Boeing workers have voted to go on strike after the members of the aircraft maker’s largest union overwhelmingly rejected a contract offer on Thursday. The vote by machinists, who construct Boeing’s 737, 777, and 767 jets, comes as their current contract is set to expire at midnight Friday local time.
The strike vote is significant because it affects a substantial portion of Boeing’s workforce in the Seattle area, totaling 33,000 machinists. This action could impact the company’s efforts to ramp up production and improve its reputation, which has suffered recently due to quality and safety issues.
Klaus Schwab says world is on ‘the cusp of a profound systemic transformation’– www.lifesitenews.com Source Link Excerpt:
(The Sociable) — World Economic Forum (WEF) founder Klaus Schwab says that the world is undergoing a profound systemic transformation driven by five interconnected shifts.
In the introduction to the WEF Annual Report 2023-2024, the WEF founder said that we were living in transformative times and that there were a handful of factors driving this systemic transformation:
We are on the cusp of a profound systemic transformation driven by interconnected shifts in a rapidly changing world
The five “interconnected shifts” include:
Transition from the industrial to the intelligent age,
Conflictual transition from a unipolar to a multipolar world,
Need to transition to a green economy,
Demographic shifts from a young to an ageing world,
Societal polarization and rise of misinformation.
Biden-Harris Admin Slated To Launch New Tax On American Businesses– americanactionnews.com Source Link Excerpt:
The Biden-Harris administration released new draft rules Thursday that could hike taxes on roughly 100 companies in the White House’s latest push to increase government tax revenues, according to the Washington Post.
The new guideline would establish a 15% minimum tax on profitable companies with more than $1 billion in income in an effort to thwart corporations’ attempts to use accounting techniques to reduce their tax bills, the outlet reported. The policy, referred to as the corporate alternative minimum tax (CAMT), ties taxation to “book income” — the income companies report to their investors on financial statements — rather than taxable income, and is expected to increase taxes by $20 billion in 2025.
Is Labour teetering on the edge of a rental market collapse? – Property Reporter Source Link Excerpt:
“It seems that our new Labour government is picking up where its predecessors left off within the rental market landscape, driving legislative changes designed to deter landlords from the sector” – Jonathan Samuels – Octane Capital
With Labour planning a capital gains tax attack on landlords in the Autumn Statement, Octane Capital commissioned a survey of UK landlords to gauge current sentiment within the sector.
The survey found that no less than 66% said they had already reduced the size of their investment portfolio in the last year, with reduced profitability due to previous legislative changes cited as the primary reason for these reductions.
The proposed rental market reform which includes the ban on Section 21 Notices also placed highly along with the inevitable increase in age, as many approach retirement.
52% of those surveyed also stated that when it came to their investment into the rental market, they feel less confident under the new Labour government and as many as 75% said that they are concerned that the current government may equalise capital gains tax in line with current income tax thresholds in the upcoming Autumn Statement.
US appeals court voids $564 million verdict against Bank of Montreal in Ponzi case – MSN Source Link Excerpt:
Bank of Montreal persuaded a U.S. appeals court on Thursday to throw out a $564 million jury verdict against a subsidiary over its role in an approximately $3.65 billion Ponzi scheme run by convicted Minnesota businessman Tom Petters.
Citing a similar case involving Bernard Madoff, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a court-appointed trustee for the now-bankrupt Petters Co could not recover on behalf of its creditors because that firm had helped orchestrate the fraud.
The 3-0 decision by the St. Paul, Minnesota-based court overturned a November 2022 jury verdict, and directed that trustee Douglas Kelley’s case against BMO be dismissed.
Details of new US bank capital rules still uncertain with election looming – Reuters Source Link Excerpt:
WASHINGTON, Sept 11 (Reuters) – U.S. bank investors, analysts and executives were trying to figure out on Wednesday how lenders would fare under revised hikes in capital requirements, with considerable uncertainty over what specifics will emerge from the Federal Reserve and other regulators, and the presidential election a looming wild card.
The Fed’s regulatory chief Michael Barr on Tuesday outlined a plan to raise big bank capital by 9%, easing an earlier proposal to hike capital 19%. It was a major concession to Wall Street banks that had lobbied to water down the “Basel” draft.
U.S. moves USS Theodore Roosevelt from Middle East, leaving USS Abraham Lincoln as sole carrier in vicinity – 13 News Now Source Link Excerpt:
WASHINGTON — The United States has reduced the number of aircraft carriers it has stationed in the Middle East,
The Pentagon announced Thursday that it has moved USS Theodore Roosevelt from the region. That decision leaves the U.S. with just one carrier in the vicinity: USS Abraham Lincoln.
Both carriers have been in place since August 23 to provide presence, as Israel continues its war with Hamas.
“Following a period of dual carrier coverage by the Theodore Roosevelt CSG and the Abraham Lincoln CSG in the CENTCOM region, the Theodore Rosevelt has departed and begun its transit into the Indo-Pacific area of operations,” said Major General Pat Ryder, Department of Defense Press Secretary.
China raising its retirement age may be unpopular but it’s much needed, analysts say– www.cnbc.com Source Link Excerpt:
China’s top legislative body passed an official plan Friday to begin incrementally raising the nation’s statutory retirement age from Jan. 1 of next year and concluding in 2040, according to Chinese state media.
The final goal of the roughly 15-year plan is to raise the retirement age by three years for men to 63 years old, five years for women that work in factories from 50 to 55 and three years for women that work in white-collar jobs from 55 to 58.
The reforms are “overdue and very much welcome,” Erica Tay, director of macro research at Maybank Investment Banking Group, told CNBC.
China has been grappling with a shrinking workforce and looming pension budget shortfalls that could significantly damage the economy.
Viktor Orban praises Germany for leading the EU in major migrant crackdown | World | News– www.express.co.uk Source Link Excerpt:
Hungary’s Viktor Orban praised his liberal German counterpart Olaf Scholz for cracking down on migrants. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stunned his pro-EU allies after unveiling strict border rules which will allow for a “massive step-up in rejections” of asylum seekers.
Mr Orban whose anti-immigrant rhetoric and actions has sparked huge rows with Brussels, sent a message of support to Mr Scholz: “Germany has decided to impose strict border controls to stop illegal migration. Scholz, welcome to the club! #StopMigration.”
EU officials have warned that Mr Scholz’s new policy threatens to unravel the entire European bloc, as one leading German politician remarked: “Border controls would be the beginning of the end for the EU.”
Unveiling the plan on Monday, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) said: “Until we achieve stronger border protection with the joint European asylum system, we must further protect our national borders.”
Florida Democrats say state is in play but aren’t putting money where their mouth is – washingtonexaminer.com Source Link Excerpt:
Florida Democrats have been saying the Sunshine State, which has increasingly shifted toward Republicans in recent years, is in play in November, but the spending in the race has not backed up their claims.
Former President Donald Trump and Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) are expected to win the presidential and Senate races in Florida in November, but recent polls have shown a closer-than-expected race in both contests. Democrats in the state have maintained they can flip the Senate seat, but a report from the Associated Press shows they have not invested in the campaign as bullishly.
Using data from AdImpact, the report shows Republicans and aligned groups have spent $12.7 million on advertisement reservations through Election Day, while Democrats and aligned groups have only spent $3.2 million on ad reservations for the Senate race as of Wednesday. While spending on advertisements could increase, the significant GOP advantage in spending is unlike most Senate races considered battlegrounds.
China to train thousands of overseas law enforcement officers to create ‘more fair’ world order – The Guardian Source Link Excerpt:
China will train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers so as to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction”, its minister for public security has said.
“We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” minister Wang Xiaohong told an annual global security forum.
Wang Xiaohong made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organisations such as Interpol.
The forum is part of ongoing efforts by China’s ruling Communist party to position itself as a global security leader. In 2022 China’s leader, Xi Jinping, launched the Global Security Initiative (GSI), which centres China as a facilitator to “improve global security governance … and promote durable peace”.
Mali’s Colonel Assimi Goïta reflects on visit to China – APAnews Source Link Excerpt:
In an interview with Malian television, he described the visit as a decisive advancement in Mali-China relations.
Colonel Goïta noted, “Currently, China and Mali enjoy fraternal ties that have lasted for over 60 years,” emphasizing that these relations span several sectors, including defense and security, education, agriculture, and energy.
A significant outcome of the visit was the announcement that Mali and China would elevate their relationship to a strategic partnership. “At the request of President Xi Jinping, we have decided to enhance our partnership to a strategic level,” the head of Mali’s transition stated. This development underscores the importance of Sino-Malian cooperation and will be formalized during an upcoming state visit.
China targets SpaceX’s reusable rocket lead, seeks to replace Jeff Bezos as Elon Musk’s top space rival – Mint Source Link Excerpt:
China is aiming to loosen Elon Musk’s lock on reusable launch vehicles — and close a yawning technology gap with the US.
Beijing is turning to aerospace startups and state-owned enterprises alike to develop an edge in rockets that can be used dozens of times to lift satellites into low-Earth orbit.
One company trying to meet that challenge isLandSpace Technology Corp.,whoseZhuque-3 reusablerocket successfully completed a 10 kilometer (6.2 mile)vertical takeoff and landing returntest flightat the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centeron Wednesday.According to Chinese state media, it markeda “significant breakthrough in China’s commercial space industry” and was a “crucial step toward achieving high capacity, low cost, high frequencyand reusability in future space launches.”
Disney Consumer Products helps Chinese partners to ‘go global’ – China.org Source Link Excerpt:
A Disney executive shared with China.org.cn that his cross-border strategy, introduced last year, has prompted many of Disney’s Chinese partner brands to successfully sell their products in overseas markets. In addition to aiding Chinese partners abroad, the global media and entertainment conglomerate is also optimistic about future growth with its own business in consumer products.
Kermid Rahman, senior vice president and general manager for Disney Consumer Products in Asia Pacific, stated that since he initiated the cross-border strategy last year nearly 70 licensees in the region have collaborated with Disney to start cross-border business.
“Many Chinese brands have successfully entered the Japanese, South Korean and Southeast Asian markets, and have already achieved brilliant performance,” he said at The Walt Disney Company’s Greater China Consumer Products Showcase 2025 held in Shanghai on Sept. 10. The temporary exhibition and showcase conference saw more than 3,700 representatives from various partner brands in attendance.
Aspects of China’s global economic coercion strategy – Mizzima News Source Link Excerpt:
The US has adopted a two-pronged strategy towards China. One, is pursuing the path of dialogue, the other is confrontation. Both go hand in hand as can be seen by recent developments. While Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State travelled to Beijing for talks, back home administration officials criticised China for its coercive behaviour worldwide.
The nature of Chinese coercion is evident on all fronts and its ramifications across several fronts including economic, defence and other areas, is also a focus area for the Biden administration. Such actions are normally visible as Beijing uses tools like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Global Security Initiative to penetrate and pressurize nations. Just one recent example of the heft China carries can be cited, this time in a cultural context. In Paris at a cultural event on China, the French Museum which hosted the event was ‘forced’ to title Tibet as ‘Xizang’, the latest effort by China to show that Tibet has always been a part of China. Thus, the world should be aware of various aspects of China’s coercive tactics.
China’s military coercion has been very visible in the South China Sea and its current actions clearly threaten the security of the Philippines. Nicholas Burns, the US Ambassador to China, recently pointed that the “very ill-advised efforts by the government of China to intimidate the Philippines at Second Thomas Shoal, at Sabina Shoal, in an incident at Scarborough Shoal, just to name three incidents over the last month or so”. Diplomatic messaging is certainly one way to signal intent and the US has been consistently doing it. Apart from the Ambassador in Beijing, Secretary Antony Blinken has conveyed US concerns to China as did US NSA Jake Sullivan, who told the Chinese leadership “very directly” that Washington had an ironclad commitment to defend the Philippines.
Russia and China Conduct Largest Military Drills since Cold War › American Greatness– amgreatness.com Source Link Excerpt:
In the last week, the military forces of China and Russia conducted some of the largest drills in the last 30 years, marking an alarming increase in the two nations’ displays of military strength.
According to Fox News, the week-long drills will include 90,000 troops, 400 naval vessels, and 120 aircraft, and will take place in the Pacific and Arctic Oceans, as well as the Baltic, Caspian, and Mediterranean Seas. The drill has been named “Ocean 24.”
The display of power takes place as representatives from the United States meet with leaders of the European Union in Brussels, specifically focusing on rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific Region. China and Russia have slowly been growing closer together in recent years, with the former supporting the latter’s invasion of Ukraine.
The United States has been critical of China for providing “very substantial” support to Russia’s ongoing war effort.
“These are not dual-use capabilities,” said U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell after the latest reports of China providing military supplies to Russia. “These are basically being applied directly to the Russian war machine.”
‘Tier One’ US Special Forces Unit Preparing for Chinese Invasion of Taiwan: Report– www.westernjournal.com Source Link Excerpt:
A “Tier One” force is reportedly preparing to assist the island nation of Taiwan against a mainland superpower’s overwhelming and relentless force.
The United States Navy’s SEAL Team 6 is currently training for the types of missions that may occur if the People’s Republic of China opens hostilities against its island neighbor, the Financial Times reported.
According to the report, SEAL Team 6 has been training for the simmering conflict for over a year at the elite force’s Dam Neck, Virginia, headquarters.
Blinken and Lammy arrive in Kyiv as Ukraine pushes for long-range strikes on Russia– abcnews.go.com Source Link Excerpt:
KYIV, Ukraine — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy arrived in Kyiv on a joint visit Wednesday, as Ukraine presses the West to allow it to use long-range missiles against Russia.
The top diplomats reached the Ukrainian capital by train hours after the U.S. presidential debate during which Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump sparred over the 2 1/2-year war in Ukraine.
For months, Ukraine has been requesting approval to use long-range weapons from the United States and Western allies to strike targets in Russia, and is expected to press harder given Russia’s latest reported weapons acquisition.
Biden and Starmer to meet as decision nears on plan to allow Ukraine to use Western weapons for deeper strikes into Russia.– www.washingtonexaminer.com Source Link Excerpt:
BLINKEN: ‘WE WANT UKRAINE TO WIN’: The U.S. and the U.K. appear close to approving a plan that would loosen the restrictions placed on the use of Western long-range weapons by Ukraine to counter Russia’s relentless attacks on civilian targets and vital energy infrastructure.
President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will confer tomorrow in Washington after being briefed by their emissaries, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who met with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine yesterday.
“And among other things, we discussed long-range fires, but a number of other things as well,” Blinken said at a news conference in Kyiv. “We’re going to take what we learned back to President Biden in my case, and the prime minister in David’s case. The two of them will meet in just a few days’ time in Washington to discuss how our countries will continue to support Ukraine.”
Putin vows WW3 if Ukraine allowed to use British missiles to fire into Russia – but PM insists tyrant ‘started it’– www.thesun.co.uk Source Link Excerpt:
MAD Vlad Putin vowed World War Three if the West allows British missiles to be fired on Russia by Ukraine.
But last night Sir Keir Starmer told The Sun the Kremlin tyrant “started it.”
The PM was on his way to Washington DC for crunch talks with US President Joe Biden over whether to allow the dramatic escalation in support for war torn Ukraine.
Putin yesterday warned granting permission for the Ukranians to use British and French kit to pound targets deep within Russian territory would mean war.
He said: “This would in a significant way change the very nature of the conflict… It would mean that Nato countries are at war with Russia.”
This treaty aims to balance the risks of AI with the promotion of responsible innovation and the protection of human rights.
The AI Convention differs from the EU’s AI Act in that it applies to a broader group of countries and emphasizes human rights.
United States, Britain, and European Union member states will sign the world’s first legally binding international treaty on artificial intelligence, Reuters reported. The treaty, developed over years of negotiations, aims to address the risks posed by AI while promoting responsible innovation.
The AI Convention, adopted in May, is the result of discussions among 57 nations spearheaded by the Council of Europe, a human rights organization. This agreement is focused on protecting the human rights of those affected by AI systems and ensuring that technological progress does not come at the expense of fundamental values like human rights and the rule of law.
While the treaty may share similar goals with the European Union’s recently enacted AI Act, it is distinct in scope and application. The EU’s AI Act, which came into force last month, focuses on regulating AI systems within the EU’s internal market.
The DNC-controlled Health and Human Services (HHS) Department has released a newsletter on suicide prevention targeting “LGBTQIA2S+ Youth” that claims “Lack of access to gender affirming care may have negative effects on LGBTQIA2S+ youth, including exacerbating gender dysphoria, creating feelings of social isolation and depression, and contributing to suicidal thoughts and behaviors.”
In rooted, plain terms, our government is pushing for the sterilization, mutilation, and chemical poisoning of our children as a “cure” to suicide. The “cure” for a child to avoid killing themselves is to hack their private parts to smithereens, with girls getting their breasts cut off as well, then become dependent on high doses of dangerous hormone drugs that cost thousands of dollars a month.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is using “Suicide Prevention Awareness Month” this September to push the lie that transgender medical interventions stop children from committing suicide.
The Daily Signal obtained a newsletter the HHS sent on Friday sharing resources on suicide prevention for “LGBTQIA2S+ Youth.” The resources promote the idea that LGBTQ+ children are likely to commit suicide if they don’t receive irreversible gender transition procedures, like surgeries and hormone replacement regimens.
“Lack of access to gender affirming care may have negative effects on LGBTQIA2S+ youth, including exacerbating gender dysphoria, creating feelings of social isolation and depression, and contributing to suicidal thoughts and behaviors,” one of the linked resources reads. “Access to culturally responsive, sensitive, and affirming services for LGBTQIA2S+ youth, particularly healthcare services, has the power to improve health outcomes for this population.”
But an April study revealed that transgender surgeries actually increase the risk of suicide. The study concluded: “Individuals who underwent gender-affirming surgery had a 12.12-fold higher suicide attempt risk than those who did not.”
The significant majority of children with gender dysphoria children grow out of it by the time they reach adulthood, a 15-year study from the Netherlands of 2,700 children reveals.
“Despite growing evidence that so-called gender-affirming care is harmful, HHS continues to spread the dangerous lie that children will kill themselves if their self-proclaimed identity is not ‘affirmed,’” Rachel Morrison, who directs the Ethics and Public Policy Center’s HHS Accountability Project, told The Daily Signal.
It looks the Democrats of California are ready to set aside their promised reparations for black Americans, reinstalling the ancient tradition of generational sin. They’re going to put a pause to patronizing their black fetishes and instead choose to fetishize their new favorite victim, the illegal immigrant.
If the California Democrats have their way, an illegal alien can expect to receive up to $150,000 from the American taxpayer for a down payment on a new home. This move is SURE not to drive housing costs up more in a market, California, that isn’t already burdened with high housing costs.
California Trashes Reparations Bills After Legislature Plans To Give Illegals $150,000 To Buy Homes – louderwithcrowder.com
… Ancestral crimes are not a thing and no one should get “free” money but if anyone is going to get anything it should at least be American citizens. However, California Dems seem to disagree and will give illegal aliens up to $150,000 for a downpayment on a new home. In contrast, Black Americans are given the finger as the state legislator once pretended to care.
While California lawmakers have passed legislation to grant illegal immigrants up to $150,000 toward home down payments in the state, a pair of bills aimed at providing reparations to black residents has stalled.
The pair of bills, authored by Democrat state Senator Steven Bradford, are Senate Bill 1331, which would have created a new state fund for reparations, and Senate Bill 1403, which would have created a new state agency to oversee these efforts and determine eligibility, according to Fox News.
A bill granting first-time homebuyers assistance with down payments from a taxpayer-funded home loan program passed the state Legislature on Wednesday, and the state Senate on Tuesday. California Governor Gavin Newsom has until the end of September to sign or veto the bill, according to the New York Post.
For a first-time home buyer, wouldn’t $100,000 be a downpayment on a million-dollar home?
Assembly Bill 1840 would expand the “California Dream for All” program and rename it the Home Purchase Assistance Program. It would allow for illegal immigrants to receive 20 percent of a home downpayment, up to $150,000.
The LGBTQ community is ready to boycott companies that drop DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) standards according to a report from Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a militant extortionist organization that threatens companies with corporate-supported social ostracism if it doesn’t change its culture to be “gay affirming.”
HRC claims 80 percent of members of the rainbow community, or the LGBTQ community, would boycott any company that chose to stop using the anti-American, bigoted, racist standard of DEI. The support from the rainbow community at such a high level puts them at odds with the American republic itself.
… But new data from HRC signals that this surge in anti-DEI activity at corporations is already impacting how queer workers perceive brands and employers. In a survey of almost 2,500 respondents—all of whom identified as LGBTQ+—about 80% said they would boycott a company that had rolled back its DEI policies.
Nearly 20% of respondents said that if they worked at a company that made such a decision, they would quit or look for a new job, while a third of those surveyed said their productivity would take a hit. Many others—more than 72% of respondents—said it would impact their experience at work and make them feel less accepted.
STUDY POINTS TO WUHAN MARKET AS SOURCE FOR COVID-19 – A group of international researchers conducted a study on the origins of the COVID-19 virus. They published their findings in Cell, a scientific journal. The group concluded the virus came from animals infected by the COVID-19 virus who were they sold in a wildlife trade market called the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market.
They summarized, “Zoonotic spillovers of viruses have occurred through the animal trade worldwide. The start of the COVID-19 pandemic was traced epidemiologically to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market… This analysis provides the genetic basis for a shortlist of potential intermediate hosts of SARS-CoV-2 to prioritize for serological and viral sampling.”
Wuhan market increasingly likely origin point for COVID-19– cosmosmagazine.com Source Link Excerpt:
An international team of researchers has found more evidence that COVID-19 came from animals in a Wuhan food market.
The researchers have identified wildlife present at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in early 2020 via traces of their DNA, and say it’s likely that some of these animals were infected with COVID-19.
“Extensive epidemiological evidence supports wildlife trade at the Huanan market as the most likely conduit for the COVID-19 pandemic’s origin,” write the researchers in their paper.
“This paper adds another layer to the accumulating evidence that all points to the same scenario: that infected animals were introduced into the market in mid- to late November 2019, which sparked the pandemic,” says co-corresponding author Professor Kristian Andersen, a researcher at Scripps Research, USA.
Zuckerberg censorship revelation tip of “widespread and chilling silencing” of Covid science – Collateral Global
Prof Heneghan, Director of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine, was one of many scientists who experienced censorship first hand during the pandemic. In November 2020, Facebook slapped a ‘false information’ warning on link to an article he had written on facemasks with colleague Dr Tom Jefferson. And X – formerly twitter – subsequently suspended his account after putting a ‘fake news’ warning on an article he wrote suggesting Britain’s coronavirus death toll may be lower than thought.
Prof Heneghan, said:
“Censorship becomes an issue when there are particular stresses… covid created a stress that was a bit like a war phenomenon in the social media in the sense that it decided it had to manage the facts and had to support the government. Why? It did this without asking questions and without asking, “every government around the world seems to be responding to Covid differently. Which one’s correct? Which one should we follow or not follow?”
Prof Heneghan said social media should be overseen by an independent organisation similar to the Independent Press Standards Organisation which regulates press complaints:
“I’m not worried about myself, I’m worried about the basic principle that you can manipulate facts and information to suit a particular ideology, particular morals or particular issue that you think are the correct. That is a huge problem.”
Attempts were also made to suppress the views of Collateral Global’s Jay Bhattacharya, a lockdown sceptic and professor of Medicine at Stanford University. In March 2023 twitter released a set of internal emails which revealed Prof Bhattacharya had been censored or ‘shadow banned,’ which meant the tweets were partially hidden and would not make it to the algorithmic trending topics.
Study Links Covid mRNA Shots to Blood Cancer Surge– slaynews.com Source Link Excerpt:
A group of leading medical researchers has uncovered evidence linking Covid mRNA shots to a recent surge in cases of lymphoma.
Lymphoma is a type of blood cancer that affects the immune system.
It specifically impacts white blood cells called lymphocytes, which are an important part of the body’s immune system.
Lymphoma affects the immune system by causing lymphocytes to develop abnormally and multiply out of control.
It is also called a cancer of the lymphatic system, or lymphatic cancer.
The team of researchers led by Zhentao Cui and Juan Cheng, both with Lanzhou University First Hospital in China’s Gansu province, conducted a study to identify the source of the recent surge in the once-rare blood cancer.
CDC Pushes for Babies to Get 3 Unlicensed Covid mRNA Shots by 9 Months– slaynews.com Source Link Excerpt:
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued new guidance pushing for babies to receive three unlicensed Covid mRNA shots before they are nine months old.
However, COVID-19 poses virtually no risk to children and infants, vaccinated or otherwise.
In addition, there are no licensed Covid vaccines for children aged 12 and under.
Yet, according to the CDC, nine-month-old babies can only be considered “up to date” if they receive multiple doses of the mRNA injections.
Issued August 30, the CDC’s updated guidance states that children as young as 6 months old must get either two doses of the 2024-2025 Moderna vaccine or three doses of the 2024-2025 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
FDA Authorizes Another Covid Shot without Any Clinical Data– slaynews.com
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized yet another COVID-19 “vaccine” for public use.
The FDA approved a new Covid injection from Maryland-based pharmaceutical giant Novavax.
However, the Novavax injection was authorized for public use without any clinical trial data being provided.
Instead, FDA officials insist that animal testing data was enough to support the decision.
Despite COVID-19 not being a threat to public health, the FDA argues that Novavax’s protein-based vaccine must be pushed out quickly to provide the public with an alternative to the nRNA injections from Moderna and Pfizer.
In a statement, Dr. Peter Marks, who directs the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said:
“Today’s authorization provides an additional COVID-19 vaccine option that meets the FDA’s standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality needed to support emergency use authorization.”
19-Year-Old Rising Soccer Star Dies Suddenly in Her Sleep – slaynews.com
Kamala Harris’ Claim That Late-Term Abortions Don’t Happen is Totally Refuted– www.lifenews.com Source Link Excerpt:
Yet Vice President Kamala Harris said during the presidential debate that women aren’t getting late-term abortions.
“Nowhere in America is a woman carrying a pregnancy to term and asking for an abortion—that is not happening,” Harris said in her debate last Tuesday with former President Donald Trump hosted by ABC News.
Nine states and Washington, D.C. have no time limit on abortion. Five premature babies, likely the victims of partial-birth abortions, were recovered from a D.C. abortion center in 2022.
Former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said the fate of babies who survive failed abortions should be between the doctor and the mother, Advancing American Freedom pointed out in the memo.
“If a mother is in labor…the infant would be delivered,” Northam explained in a 2019 radio interview. “The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated, if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and mother.”
Democrat Chair Admits She Supports Abortions Up to Birth: “All the Way to the End”– www.lifenews.com Source Link Excerpt:
The former chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party was caught on camera advocating that abortion take place “all the way to the end” of pregnancy in an undercover recording made at last month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
The video was provided to The Daily Signal last week after Vice President Kamala Harris said during the presidential debate that women aren’t getting late-term abortions.
Late-term abortions refer to abortions in the third trimester of pregnancy, when the baby can survive outside the womb and feel pain.
“Nowhere in America is a woman carrying a pregnancy to term and asking for an abortion—that is not happening,” Harris said in her debate last Tuesday with former President Donald Trump hosted by ABC News.
Pro-Abortion Extremists Love Kamala Harris, Here’s Why– www.lifenews.com Source Link Excerpt:
… So why did USA Today columnist USA Sara Pequeño write that “In the June presidential debate, President Joe Biden’s answer on the abortion issue made me feel hopeless”? Because his answer “failed to capture the gravity of the situation.”
Luckily for Pequeño, the Democratic power brokers forced Biden out, making it possible for Vice President Kamala Harris to be the party’s presidential nominee. That, in turn, made it possible for her answer in the September debate to “make up for” Biden’s “incoherent’ response.
For Pequeño, Harris’s “answer is exactly what I was hoping to hear from the Democratic presidential nominee.”
“I pledge to you when Congress passes a bill to put back in place the protections of Roe v. Wade as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law“
Kamala Harris Lies About Woman Who Died From Abortion Pill, Falsely Claims Pro-Life Law Killed Her– www.lifenews.com Source Link Excerpt:
It didn’t take long for Kamala Harris to exploit the death of a woman from the abortion pill for political gain.
As LifeNews reported today, Georgia resident Amber Nicole Thurman died after she took the abortion pill – that caused complications when it left parts of her twin unborn babies inside her…
Although Thurman died from complications of the abortion pill, Harris blamed Georgia pro-life law and falsely claimed it prevented doctors from caring for her.
“This young mother should be alive, raising her son, and pursuing her dream of attending nursing school,” Vice President Harris’ statement said. “This is exactly what we feared when Roe was struck down.”
State abortion bans, Harris said Tuesday, “are preventing doctors from providing basic medical care.”
“Women are bleeding out in parking lots, turned away from emergency rooms, losing their ability to ever have children again… and now women are dying,” Harris said.
“These are the consequences of Donald Trump’s actions,” Harris said. “There is so much at stake in this election, including restoring the freedoms that have been taken away from us.”
Abortion Pill Kills Woman, Left Remains of Her Unborn Babies Inside Her– www.lifenews.com Source Link Excerpt:
Our prediction has come to pass. Yesterday, ProPublicapublished an article attributing the death of Amber Nicole Thurman to Georgia’s pro-life laws.
Thurman legally obtained abortion pills in North Carolina to end the lives of her unborn twins. Five days later, after returning to her native Georgia, she experienced a serious complication: some of her babies’ remains were still in the uterus, and she was developing an infection.
… when Thurman went to the emergency room on the night of August 18, 2022, “doctors started Thurman on antibiotics and an IV drip” and “[t]he OB-GYN noted the possibility of doing a D&C the next day.” D&C stands for dilation and curettage, the surgical procedure that would have removed the twins’ remains from the uterus.
But the next morning came and went with no surgery. Doctors gave more IV fluid, escalated antibiotics, administered a blood pressure medication, tested her for pneumonia and STDs, and kept talking about – but not actually performing – the D&C.
By the time she finally went into the operating room, doctors determined she needed a hysterectomy. They also noticed serious blood flow problems to the bowel, which may have been a side effect of the blood pressure medication.
Thurman died on the table.
ProPublica allows that “[i]t is not clear from the records available why doctors waited to provide a D&C,” but quickly jumps to the implication that Georgia’s heartbeat law was to blame. The article focuses on alleged ambiguities in the medical emergency exception. But without any detectable fetal heartbeats, that exception didn’t even need to come into play.
Nebraska Supreme Court lets ‘intentionally deceptive’ pro-abortion measure stay on ballot – liveaction.org Source Link Excerpt:
The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled Friday that a pro-abortion ballot measure that would enshrine the “right” to abortion in the state’s constitution can go before voters this November.
At issue was the “Protect Our Rights” amendment, which stipulates that “all persons shall have a fundamental right to abortion until fetal viability, or when needed to protect the life or health of the pregnant patient.” The Thomas More Society had filed a lawsuit against this ballot initiative, arguing that it used “remarkably misleading terms” and was “unconstitutionally riddled with separate subjects.”
In its ruling, the court determined that the amendment initiative “has a singleness of subject” and therefore does not violate the separate subjects rule.
“The fact that the drafters of the initiative have made certain choices regarding the specific limits, parameters, and definitions does not mean that each such provision is a separate subject,” Justice Lindsey Miller-Lerman wrote for the court in its unanimous decision.
Tim Walz’s Position On IVF Shows How Extreme He Is– thefederalist.com Source Link Excerpt:
Walz further stated that “the bar is pretty damn low … to treat people like human beings.” But considering that Walz is continually advocating for fertility treatments such as in-vitro fertilization (IVF), we have to ask: Where’s the equal justice for those whose lives are diminished to experimental subjects or are simply disposed of through the IVF process? Isn’t the treatment of “extra” human embryonic lives as expendable an affront to the human rights Walz claims to champion?
For his part, former President Donald Trump has recently stated that his administration is “pro-family” and wants more babies to be born; therefore, he wants IVF provided for “free” to infertile couples, either through government subsidization or by mandating that insurance companies pay for it. He appears to remain unconcerned, or at best unaware, that IVF takes more life than it creates.
In either case, perhaps Walz and Trump are simply unaware that in a typical IVF cycle hopeful couples end up with 13 or more lab-created embryos to consider, both practically and morally. Often couples decide what to do with their excess children after they feel their families are “complete.” The sad reality of IVF, though, is that their families are never fully complete while they have frozen children out there waiting to be rescued by their parents. A man and woman with 13 embryos that considers their family “complete” after implanting one more child still have 12 other children who remain, as yet, only partially realized, on ice.
Pro-life campaign ads show aborted children to steer support away from Kamala Harris– www.lifesitenews.com Source Link Excerpt:
(LifeSiteNews) — In a series of riveting TV ads, Presidential candidate Randall Terry is taking aim at Democrats and the Catholics, Evangelicals, and Blacks who vote for them. He and his fellow spokespersons mince no words.
Terry’s campaign has developed about two dozen TV ads custom-tailored to each state where Democrats are seeking to enshrine abortion as a legal right through November ballot initiatives.
Having judged past pro-life efforts since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade to be “anemic,” allowing catastrophic pro-life losses in Ohio, Michigan, Kansas, and Kentucky, the Terry campaign has incorporated images of aborted babies into its messaging in order to help religious voters understand that abortion is exactly what JPII called it: “Murder.”
“You cannot end a holocaust of this magnitude without showing the victims and calling it ‘Murder,’” Terry told LifeSiteNews.
“There are rules and tools in social warfare, and if those five rules and tools are not used, you lose: incendiary images, radical rhetoric, aggressive action, serious sacrifice, and verifiable victory,” Terry said as he explained the need to change the tactics employed in defeating inhuman Democrat policies and politicians.
Pro-Life Advocate Sues San Diego Over “Bubble Zone” Law That Bans Pro-Life Free Speech– www.lifenews.com Source Link Excerpt:
A California man who has engaged in pro-life advocacy outside of abortion facilities for the past 15 years is suing San Diego for its newly-enacted “bubble zone” ordinance. Under the city law, speech is restricted within 100 feet of the entrance to an abortion facility, and even further restricted within an 8-foot bubble around persons within that zone. On behalf of pro-life advocate Roger Lopez, Thomas More Society attorneys filed a federal lawsuit against the city on September 5, 2024. The lawsuit argues that the speech-restricting ordinance violates the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of pro-life individuals to offer information on life-affirming alternatives, as well as the rights of the women entering an abortion facility to hear it.
The lawsuit alleges that San Diego amplifies favored pro-abortion speech and silences disfavored pro-life speech, despite the San Diego City Council’s past declaration that “it is vital to our democracy to allow free speech for all, even those with whom we vehemently agree.” The ordinance imposes a noise limitation within the 100-foot buffer that is softer than normal conversation and prohibits any act deemed to “harass or intimidate” in a vaguely defined manner. It also imposes a requirement to obtain express authorization before entering a passerby’s 8-foot bubble.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is Fighting Fraud Behind Pro-Abortion Amendment 4– www.lifenews.com Source Link Excerpt:
Deputy Secretary of State for Legal Affairs and Election Integrity Brad McVay has asked law enforcement to investigate claims of “illegal petition forms” and “voter fraud” related to the pro-abortion amendment 4.
Pro-life voters in Palm Beach County claim their signatures were forged on the original petition for Amendment 4 to be placed on the November ballot. The amendment was proposed by the pro-abortion group Floridians Protecting Freedom.
For the then-proposed amendment to get on the November 5 ballot, Floridians Protecting Freedom needed over 891,523 signatures on the initial petition.
Amendment 4 would create provisions in Florida’s state constitution so that:
No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider. This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.
A few years ago, it would have been unthinkable to make abortion—the death of unborn children—the centerpiece of a presidential campaign.
But that’s exactly what the Harris-Walz campaign is doing.
It’s not just that they have abandoned former President Bill Clinton’s “safe, legal, and rare” formulation and embraced the “right” to kill an unborn baby for any reason, at any time, up to and including the moment of birth—and even after birth, should the baby survive the abortion.
That, sadly, is now the position taken by all leading Democrats.
But Harris-Walz have gone ever further. They have elevated this “right” above all others, including those listed in the Bill of Rights.
Abortion is, according to Vice President Kamala Harris, “a woman’s most fundamental right,” meaning that in her view it trumps freedom of speech, freedom of religion, or even freedom of conscience.
Do Dems Believe Men Get A Choice Whether Their Children Live?– thefederalist.com Source Link Excerpt:
Kamala Harris touted herself as a champion for abortion in Tuesday’s debate, framing this life-and-death issue as a basic freedom. She told viewers she would “be a president that will protect our fundamental rights and freedoms, including the right of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do.”
This theme of abortion as “freedom” has run throughout her campaign, placing so-called abortion rights above the right to life and moving far beyond the former Democrat position of abortion being “safe, legal, and rare.” Tim Walz stands firmly with Harris, famously declaring: “We respect our neighbors and the personal choices they make, even if we wouldn’t make the same choices for ourselves, because we know there’s a golden rule, mind your own damn business.”
But Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg raised an interesting question: What does “reproductive freedom” mean for men? Speaking at a “White Dudes for Harris” event, Buttigieg encouraged men to support Harris because he said abortion benefits them. He argued that “men are also more free in a country where we have a president who stands up for things like access to abortion care.”
Abortion rights questions are on ballots in 9 states. Will they tilt elections? – ABC News
Ballot measures on abortion access could attract voters to polls in November who otherwise might sit out the election — and even a small number of additional voters could make a difference in close races for offices from the state legislature to president.
Scholars and ballot measure experts are divided on the impact ballot measures have previously had on candidate elections. But in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, which ended the nationwide right to abortion, these measures are seen as ones that could sway results if any can.
“2024 is a test in this post-Dobbs world of how this issue being on the ballot will impact candidates,” said Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, executive director of The Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, which helps progressive groups with the details of pursuing and campaigning for ballot measures. “It is really dependent on whether candidates are willing to run on those issues.”
Voters in nine states are considering measures to add the right to abortion to their state constitutions in the highest profile of many ballot measures.
Voters in swing states want federal abortion law: Poll – Washington Examiner
Voters in swing states for the 2024 election do not want to leave abortion policy up to the states, according to a new poll from the University of Maryland, as abortion is set to be a pivotal consideration in the first presidential race since the Supreme Court overturnedRoe v. Wade in 2022.
Significant majorities, regardless of party identification, in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin said they preferred some sort of federal law codifying abortion rights, an issue that has sharply divided Republicans and Democrats in the lead-up to November.
Former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), have made states’ rights on the issue of abortion the new standard of the Republican Party, following the move to delete long-standing anti-abortion language from the GOP platform this summer.
Abortion Could Be Banned Nationwide If Trump Resurrects This Zombie Law– www.scientificamerican.com Source Link Excerpt:
When the Comstock Act was written, germ theory was still contested science, blood types and vitamins were medical mysteries, and the most common cause of death in the U.S. was tuberculosis, then known as consumption. And yet a movement has been gaining steam to use the 1873 law to ban a vital type of medical care nationwide: abortion. Experts say this strategy may well succeed if former president Donald Trump is elected to a second term in November.
Abortions are extremely safe—far safer than pregnancy, studies show. “Abortion is a very safe procedure,” says Glenmarie Matthews, a gynecologist at RWJBarnabas Health in New Jersey. It is also vital medical care for much of the population. “We are trying to isolate abortion care from women’s health care, but it’s all intertwined into one thing,” she says. It’s also politically popular—the clear majority of Americans believe abortion should be legal under most circumstances.
Trump wouldn’t say whether he’d veto a national ban even as abortion remains a top election issue – Las Vegas Sun Source Link Excerpt:
Former President Donald Trump repeatedly declined to say during this week’s debate if he would veto a national abortion ban if he were elected again — a question that has lingered as the Republican nominee has shifted his stances on the crucial election issue.
In Tuesday’s debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump said he would not sign a federal abortion ban, insisting that a ban would not pass Congress anyway. But he refused twice to say if he would veto such legislation if it landed on his desk. Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, a Republican from Ohio, said in an interview with NBC News last month that the former president would veto a ban.
In response to moderators prompting him about Vance’s statement, Trump said: “I didn’t discuss it with JD, in all fairness. And I don’t mind if he has a certain view, but I don’t think he was speaking for me.”
Trump creates rift in anti-abortion movement (Video) – Social News XYZ
Former President Donald Trump has created a rift in the anti-abortion movement, with some seeing him as a champion and others perceiving him as a traitor to the cause. NOTUS reporter Oriana Gonzlez joins to discuss.
Do Dems Believe Men Get A Choice Whether Their Children Live?– thefederalist.com Source Link Excerpt:
Kamala Harris touted herself as a champion for abortion in Tuesday’s debate, framing this life-and-death issue as a basic freedom. She told viewers she would “be a president that will protect our fundamental rights and freedoms, including the right of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do.”
This theme of abortion as “freedom” has run throughout her campaign, placing so-called abortion rights above the right to life and moving far beyond the former Democrat position of abortion being “safe, legal, and rare.” Tim Walz stands firmly with Harris, famously declaring: “We respect our neighbors and the personal choices they make, even if we wouldn’t make the same choices for ourselves, because we know there’s a golden rule, mind your own damn business.”
But Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg raised an interesting question: What does “reproductive freedom” mean for men? Speaking at a “White Dudes for Harris” event, Buttigieg encouraged men to support Harris because he said abortion benefits them. He argued that “men are also more free in a country where we have a president who stands up for things like access to abortion care.”
The Bizarre Alliance Between the Trans Agenda and Abortion– www.lifenews.com Source Link Excerpt:
When discussing the transgender craze and abortion, less is often more. But the alliance between the trans movement and the pro-abortion movement has become so aggressive that we can’t avoid talking about it (as much as we might like to).
At first glance, the issues of abortion and LGBTQ appear unrelated. Same-sex relationships are sterile and can’t result in pregnancy. But the homosexual movement has actively inserted itself into the abortion debate because both the trans and pro-abortion movements are built on a shared philosophy: sexual license that accepts no sexual limitations from church, state, or culture.
Abortion advocates and LGBTQ advocates alike generally believe that sex should be free for any reason, with anyone, and with zero consequences. And they demand that this philosophy be accepted by everyone.
The two movements are locked arm-in-arm, not only in principle but financially. This is why you see so many “Pride” flags at pro-abortion events and abortion rights signs at “Pride” parades.
Voters in Florida will decide on Nov. 5 whether to scrap hard-won legal protections for the unborn and effectively legalize late-term abortion through a constitutional amendment to the Sunshine State’s Declaration of Rights.
Pro-life advocates have shared critical insights with Blaze News regarding the political significance of Florida’s Amendment 4; its implications for the unborn and their advocates both in Florida and out of state; and what it reveals about the pro-abortion movement’s strategy going forward.
New York Democrats panic abortion amendment isn’t silver bullet they were counting on – washingtonexaminer.com
New York Democrats counting on an abortion ballot measure boosting turnout for their party have been increasingly worried it has become a problem for swing-seat candidates.
Conservatives have effectively blasted the amendment for including provisions on “gender identity” and “gender expression” that connect with a nationwide attack on Democrats involving nonbiological females playing in women’s sports.
While abortion and broad LGBT rights have outright support in the state, provisions about “gender identity,” “pregnancy outcomes,” and the rights relating to age are turning off some supporters. Internal polling shows that messaging about mixed-gender sports, in particular, has moved voters in battleground House districts, according toPolitico.
SCOTUS Rules Biden-Harris Admin Can Block Funds to Oklahoma for Refusing to Refer Women for Abortions – townhall.com
The United States Supreme Court blocked the reinstatement of millions of dollars in federal funding for family planning services in Oklahoma because the state refuses to refer pregnant women to get abortions.
The Biden-Harris Administration stripped funding from the pro-life state after family planning services refused to provide a hotline number for patients to call and receive information on abortion.
Earlier this year, the Department of Health and Human Services and its secretary, Xavier Becerra, were sued by the state, which was seeking a reinstatement of over $4.5 million in family-planning grants. However, on Tuesday, the SCOTUS ruled in favor of the Biden-Harris Administration.
Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch indicated they would have granted the state’s request.
The federal grant program was established in 1970 under Title X of the Public Health Service Act. However, in 2021, the Biden-Harris Administration revised the act, stating that family planning services must provide information to pregnant women about their options to receive “neutral, factual information and non-directive counseling,” including abortion.
Teamsters Release Presidential Endorsement Polling Data – teamsters.org Source Link Excerpt:
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters today publicly released six months of membership polling data on the union’s possible endorsement for the next U.S. President, revealing former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden each edged Vice President Kamala Harris among Teamsters voters in major polls commissioned by the union….
From April 9-July 3, nearly 300 Teamsters local unions nationwide conducted first-of-their-kind Presidential town halls, soliciting endorsement preferences from members via straw polls. The in-person voting was held prior to Biden’s withdrawal from the race. The Teamsters’ polling data shows members backed Biden 44.3 percent to Trump’s 36.3 percent.
Following the Republican National Convention and Biden’s campaign exit, the Teamsters commissioned a national electronic poll of its 1.3 million members, overseen by an independent third party. During a voting window from July 24-Sept. 15, rank-and-file Teamsters voted 59.6 percent for the union to endorse Trump, compared to 34 percent for Harris.
Trump 3-for-3 in North Carolina’s post-debate polls – thecentersqare.com Source Link Excerpt:
(The Center Square) – Three samplings in battleground North Carolina have been initiated since last week’s presidential debate, and Republican former President Donald Trump has led Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in each.
All, however, remain within the margin of error. And a close finish through 49 more days to Nov. 5 is anticipated by nationwide analysts watching the state.
On the heels of his 1.7% lead from the Quantus Polls and News analysis released Friday, Trump over the weekend picked up a 48.9%-45.9% edge from AmericanGreatness/TIPP Insights and 48.4%-46% from The Trafalgar Group. Sponsors, respectively, were Trending Politics, American Greatness and Trafalgar Group.
RealClear Polling, without the Quantus sampling, has the state remaining statistically even at Trump plus 0.4%. There is no margin of error factored in, though most polls range from nearly 3% to at or just under 4%. This means both candidates are about 3% away from saying he or she leads the state.
Project 538 also computes Trump ahead by 0.4% at 47.5%-47.1%.
Ratings changes show path to GOP control of Senate, House – rollcall.com Source Link Excerpt:
ANALYSIS — In the shadow of the presidential race sit two competitive fights for the Senate and the House, and the latest race rating changes give Republicans a more straightforward path to sweeping control of both chambers…
Inside Elections continues to project that Republicans will gain one to three Senate seats. In order for Democrats to maintain control without ousting any Republican senators whose races have much safer ratings, they need Tester to either make up a few points or baffle the pollsters like GOP Sen. Susan Collins did in Maine in 2020. They would also need Harris to win the White House so a Vice President Tim Walz could break tie votes. But the Tester victory will be a challenge.
In the House, nine rating changes don’t change the overall dynamic in the fight for the majority. Democrats need a net gain of four seats, but Republicans continue to have a narrow advantage to keep control.
The GOP needs to win just two of the 13 Toss-up races, while Democrats need to win 12 of 13, if the other races end as expected. The current Inside Elections projection continues to range from Democrats picking up five seats to Republicans picking up five. Overall, there are 70 House races rated as competitive by Inside Elections.
Hillary Clinton Demands that Americans be “Criminally Charged” for Free Speech › American Greatness– amgreatness.com Source Link Excerpt:
In a bizarre interview on Monday, former Secretary of State and failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said that Americans who engage in speech that she doesn’t like should be “criminally charged.”
As reported by Breitbart, Clinton made the remarks during an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, in response to a question regarding the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to silence alleged Russian propaganda ahead of the 2024 election.
“I also think there are Americans who are engaged in this kind of propaganda, and whether they should be civilly or even in some cases, criminally charged, is something that would be a better deterrence,” said Clinton. She also claimed, without evidence, that Republican members of Congress are parroting “Russian talking points” on “the floor of Congress.”
“I think we need to uncover all of the connections and make it very clear that you could vote however you want,” she continued. “But we are not going to let adversaries, whether it is Russia, China, Iran, or anybody else, basically try to influence Americans as to how we should vote in picking our leaders.”
Kari Lake has Donald Trump’s stamp of approval but Arizona polls show her lagging, with implications for U.S. Senate race – myheraldreview.com Source Link Excerpt:
Kari Lake has consistently underperformed Donald Trump in Arizona, an anemic showing that spells trouble for Republicans hoping to nab the state’s open U.S. Senate seat.
A Fox News poll of Arizona voters on Aug. 28 showed Lake lagging Democratic U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego by 15 percentage points, even as the former president remained virtually tied with Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race.
Harris Repeats Lie That Admin Inherited ‘Worst Unemployment Since Great Depression’– legalinsurrection.com Source Link Excerpt:
HARRIS: “Four years ago when we came in, we came in during the worst unemployment since the Great Depression. We came in during the worst public health epidemic in centuries. We came in after the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War. And a lot of it due in large part to the mismanagement by the former president, as it relates to Covid and obviously January 6th. And we had then a lot of work to do to clean up a mess. As of today, we have created over 16 million new jobs, over 800,000 new manufacturing jobs. We have the lowest black unemployment rate in generations.”
Harris repeats this incorrect stat in her interview today with @NABJ
“Four years ago, when we came in, we came in during the worst unemployment since the Great Depression.”
Tim Walz Thinks Your Kids Belong To The Public School System– thefederalist.com Source Link Excerpt:
Democrats are leaning hard into the “schoolteacher” and “coach” personas for Tim Walz to paint their vice presidential candidate and the Minnesota governor as more relatable and less radical than he really is.
“I was a schoolteacher for a lot of years,” said the folksy Tim Walz in a speech last week at a Human Rights Campaign dinner, touting his time as a “social studies teacher and high school football coach.” Yet in the next breath, he praised LGBT “allyship” and declared, “We must be the country that leads on “gay and transgender rights.”
They used the same strategy during Walz’s speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last month. Former students showed up to watch, teachers union officials played up that part of his resume on the convention floor, and Walz himself spoke about it in his speech to a crowd holding signs that said, “Coach Walz.”
Tim Walz is wrong. Project 2025 doesn’t call for pregnant women to register with a federal agency– www.politifact.com Source Link Excerpt:
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, said Sept. 14 the project would require women to register with the federal government when they become pregnant.
“By the way, Project 2025. Some of you want to know, in there, they’ve got a national pregnancy coordinator that tracks all pregnancies,” Walz told the crowd in Superior, Wisconsin.
“Think about what they’re saying in Project 2025, you’re going to have to register with a new federal agency when you get pregnant,” he added.
Walz’s claim is a new version of something Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, have been saying forweeks: that the 900-page presidential transition document calls for monitoring each woman’s pregnancy.
It doesn’t. Walz is describing a policy that doesn’t exist.
GOP Billionaire Says He Will Pull Funds from Stock Market if Harris Wins– www.breitbart.com Source Link Excerpt:
Republican megadonor and hedge fund billionaire John Paulson revealed that he would pull his money out of the stock market if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the upcoming presidential election, pointing to “uncertainty” around her economic policies.
In an interview with Fox Business host Liz Claman, Paulson who founded Paulson & Co., spoke about how the Biden-Harris administration wants to raise the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent and wants to raise the capital gains rate from 20 percent to 28 percent. Trump has previously considered having Paulson serve as his Secretary of the Treasury if elected president.
“The difference between the Trump administration and Harris is very, very different,” Paulson explained. “Trump is — wants to extend the current, very successful tax policy, which was implemented in 2017. The Biden-Harris group, on the other hand, wants to change that. They want to change the corporate tax rate from 21 to 28 percent, they want to raise the capital gains rate from 20 percent initially to 39 percent now, they flip-flopped back to 28 percent.”
Recount further complicates race after 2 U.S. House candidates tied – latimes.com Source Link Excerpt:
The astonishing saga of a tied Silicon Valley congressional race took another zag this week, with a recount now underway in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.
Two candidates tied for second place in the primary to replace retiring Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Menlo Park), meaning both of them, plus the first-place finisher, will face off in the November general election, per the California elections code. The slated three-way race is an extraordinary outcome, even in the wild world of California politics.
It is the first time this has happened in a congressional race since the state shifted to its nonpartisan primary system in 2012, which dictates that the top two finishers advance to the November ballot regardless of party affiliation.
A recount could theoretically put a kibosh on a November three-way race, if the vote totals change. The calls for recounts have also raised questions about who is truly behind the effort and generated a fresh round of campaign mudslinging.
Trump says he won’t debate Harris again – CBS News Source Link Excerpt:
Washington — Former President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he won’t debate Vice President Kamala Harris again, following Tuesday night’s matchup between the two in Philadelphia.
“THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!” Trump said at the end of a long post on his Truth Social account. The first presidential debate was in June between Trump and President Biden.
“When a prizefighter loses a fight, the first words out of his mouth are, ‘I WANT A REMATCH,'” Trump wrote in his post, explaining his decision and insisting unnamed polls showed he won.
Kamala Harris Sees No Gain in Polls After Debate › American Greatness– amgreatness.com Source Link Excerpt:
New polling confirms that Vice President Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) did not see any major boost as a result of her first debate with former President Donald Trump, despite claims from the mainstream media that she was the winner of the debate.
As the Daily Caller reports, the latest poll from ABC News and Ipsos saw that Harris only gained one percentage point in a general election matchup against President Trump, now at 51% to Trump’s 47%. This was despite 58% of respondents in the same poll saying that they believed Harris won the debate.
The poll was conducted online between September 11th and September 13th, with a sample size of 3,276 registered voters and a margin of error of 2%. In the same poll, Harris leads Trump among all adults with 51% to 46%, with her lead increasingly slightly among likely voters, with 52% to Trump’s 46%.
ABC News Won’t Say If Debate Was In-Kind Contribution To Harris– thefederalist.com Source Link Excerpt:
Who won the ABC debate-ambush between former President Donald Trump, and the trio of Vice President Kamala Harris, David Muir, and Linsey Davis?
There were two clear winners: the Harris campaign, which was enriched with a massive in-kind donation from ABC in the form of a favorable political infomercial, and the ABC publicity department, which is now boasting about the network’s record viewership.
“With 19 million total viewers on ABC, ABC News’ presidential debate is the most-watched debate on any Network in 16 years,” a company statement said. “ABC News Live on streaming and digital platforms, including Hulu, Disney+ and ABC owned television stations, currently stands at 7.4 million viewers in early reporting, bringing ABC News audience to more than 26 million viewers. The debate is the most-viewed live event by hours streamed on Disney+ in the U.S. to date.”
*IF* This Is True, ABC News Is About to Become Engulfed in a Major Scandal– townhall.com Source Link Excerpt:
I asked yesterday morning whether Kamala Harris’ camp got the ABC News debate questions in advance. The vice president was visibly nervous for the first portion of the debate but got into a groove, especially when she figured out that Donald Trump would take the bait she was chumming. When Trump took it hook, line, and sinker on the rally size dig, you knew he was going to be kicked off message when he had a wide berth to rip into Harris on inflation, immigration, and overall making us poorer than we were four years ago.
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) September 13, 2024
Harris seemed ready for the questions, which explained her word salad responses, but she never answered any of the questions from moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis. They did fact-check Trump live, though these interruptions were peppered with fake news—no shock there. Harris was never pressed for her mountain of lies, and we know why: an ABC whistleblower is alleging that not only did the Harris camp get questions in advance, but that she was given assurances that she wouldn’t be fact-checked by the moderators either. I’m not saying this is fact, but if this is true, it’s a major scandal:
BREAKING: ABC whistleblower allegedly will release an affidavit claiming the Harris campaign was given sample questions that were “essentially the same questions that were given during the debate,” as well as assurances that Trump would be “fact-checked” and she would not.
AS IT RIGGED? Former CLINTON ADVISER Calls for Investigation into ABC News!– wltreport.com Source Link Excerpt:
You never know these days where the voice of common sense might come from. Today, it seems to be coming from Mark Penn — former adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton!
WONDERS NEVER CEASE!
🚨 Mark Penn, former top adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton, calls for immediate internal investigation by ABC into ABC News’ Presidential debate for potentially “rigging the outcome of this debate.”
Quite frankly, Mark Penn makes the best case I’ve heard so far for something to be done about the blatant heavy-handed tactics of the ABC News moderators. First, here’s a clip of Mark on with Fox News talking about it today:
‘Finger On The Scale’: Former Clinton Pollster Says ABC Hosts Put Future Debates ‘In Jeopardy’ pic.twitter.com/B6Yd76433s
‘Disgraceful’: ABC News Roasted For Repeatedly Fact-Checking Trump While Letting Kamala Slide– dailycaller.com Source Link Excerpt:
Viewers took to X on Tuesday to criticize ABC News debate moderators Linsey Davis and David Muir for alleged bias against former President Donald Trump during the debate against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris and Trump squared off in their first and so-far only scheduled debate as the race between them remains tight. Viewers on X accused the moderators of fact-checking and interrupting Trump significantly more than Harris during the debate.
Kamala’s Condescending and Mocking Debate Faces May Be What Voters Remember– legalinsurrection.com Source Link Excerpt:
… there’s something else I took away from this—and it’s showing on the screen just to the side of me here. One thing I really noticed throughout was the faces that Harris was making—very condescending, very mocking, very childish, actually. I think that’s the one thing I remember more than anything about the debate.
Now, I think Trump did a very good job, even though he didn’t make the points I thought he could have, like showing how she flip-flopped. He hit hard on the border and the economy, and I think that may have a lasting impact.
What’s showing up in the focus groups—ones I’ve seen not by right-wing groups, but CNN, Reuters, NBC—there seems to be a disconnect between who they think won the debate and how they’re reacting substantively.
Post-Debate Poll Explains Harris’ Big Problem, Why Trump Is Now Leading in Michigan – RedState– redstate.com Source Link Excerpt:
I wrote earlier about the new Insider Advantage post-debate poll on Michigan that now shows former President Donald Trump up by one, 49 to 48 percent, with 800 likely voters over Sept 11-12.
Shocker: 60% of voters moved to Trump after Kamala Harris’s failure to answer one important question– www.louderwithcrowder.com Source Link Excerpt:
The debate is over. Trump lost the debate. It’s ok to admit that. It doesn’t make you an anti-Trump op sent by the deep state to say so. It’s time to move on to what’s next. The good thing is that while she may have won on style points, Kamala Harris didn’t blow anyone away outside of journalisming employees. And while the moderators asked about topics that don’t matter to Normie-America, normies are STILL concerned about the economy.
Kamala didn’t address the economy. During Reuters focus groups of undecided voters, SIXTY PERCENT moved to Trump as a result.
Out of their focus group of ten people, six saw nothing from Kamala to assure them that the next four years would be any different from the last four. It echoed what we heard from a CNN group:
My life was better when Trump was in office. The economy was better. Inflation was lower. Things were better overall. And now, with Kamala’s administration, things haven’t been so fantastic. She’s saying she can fix the problems that her administration has caused, but I don’t know if I can afford to take that risk.
Five said they found Harris vague on how she would improve the U.S. economy and deal with the high cost of living. It remains THE top concern for voters.
Four of those six said she didn’t convince them she would be any different than Joe Biden.
Harris Campaign Eyes Shakeup As Post-Debate Panic Sets In– trendingpoliticsnews.com Source Link Excerpt:
Vice President Kamala Harris — who has sat for just one pre-taped, 18-minute interview since becoming the de-facto Democratic presidential nominee in July — intends on doing a number of local and National interviews in the coming weeks, according to a campaign memo reported on by the New York Times.
While Harris has avoided both sit-down interviews and press conferences over the last 50 days, the campaign appears to be switching up its strategy after Tuesday night’s presidential debate. While a number of outlets have declared Harris the winner through polls and focus groups, a number of outlets found pro-Trump results as well, including Reuters and the New York Times.
A majority of polls and focus groups of undecided voters and independents have also produced positive results for the former president, as both key demographics preferred Trump’s answers on key issues like the economy and illegal immigration.
Taunting Trump might not have been what undecided voters wanted to see from Harris– www.washingtonexaminer.com Source Link Excerpt:
The question now becomes whether Harris’s well-executed plan of irritating Trump and joining with the moderators and Trump himself to draw attention to his negatives was what the voters she most needs really wanted.
Trump pollsters Tony Fabrizio and Travis Tunis say that, according to their data from the top seven battleground states, the answer is no. “We found that despite the best efforts of Kamala Harris and [the] media to portray the debate as some kind of overwhelming win for her, voters did not see it this way as support for her remained flat,” they wrote in a memo released on Thursday. “The only change we saw was a 2-point bump for President Trump in both ballot configurations.”
“In our post-debate data, President Trump leads Vice President Harris by 2-points, 48% – 46%, and in the head-to-head ballot, he is up 3-points, 50% – 47%,” Fabrizio and Tunis continued. “Clearly, target state voters were not impressed by Kamala Harris’ empty platitudes and while the media would have people believe she is cruising to victory, this couldn’t be farther from the truth.” Their predebate numbers, they said, showed the two candidates tied.
Poll Finds Taylor Swift’s Endorsement of Kamala Harris Turns Off More People than it Attracts– lidblog.com Source Link Excerpt:
A poll conducted after pop superstar Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris seems to show that Swift has lost some of her ability to persuade because the poll shows that her endorsement is turning off more people that she has convinced to join the Harris bandwagon.
The post debate poll comes from YouGov, which are left-leaning pollsters, and the firm found that only a tiny eight percent said that Swif’s endorsement is “somewhat” or “much more likely” to make them want to vote for Harris.
On the other hand, according to the New York Post, the other end of the scale did not make Swift look very good…
But a whopping 20% said they are “somewhat” or “much less likely” to vote for former President Donald Trump’s opponent now that Swift has spoken.
Most of the respondents, 66%, said Swift’s endorsement made no difference on how they will vote in November.
….
The majority — 32% of the online poll’s respondents — think the move will have a positive effect on Harris’ campaign, while 27% said they don’t think it’ll have an effect either way.
POLL: Donald Trump Leads Kamala Harris in Key State of North Carolina | The Gateway Pundit– www.thegatewaypundit.com Source Link Excerpt:
Democrats have been making a sincere effort to flip North Carolina from red to blue but it looks like it’s not paying off as they had hoped.
Donald Trump is leading Kamala Harris in the state, according to new polling.
Not only that, Trump is ahead with key voting blocs.
TIPP Poll: Trump Leads Harris by 3 Points In North Carolina
Former President Donald Trump holds a three point lead over Vice President Kamala Harris in North Carolina, a larger margin than he won the state by in 2020, an American Greatness/TIPP survey found Friday.
The poll sampled 1,037 registered voters from September 9-11 with a 3.2 percentage point margin of error. The polling overlapped the presidential debate on September 10.
Trump held a three-point lead, the poll found:
Trump: 48.9%
Harris: 45.9%
Republicans are gaining ground in Pennsylvania. See where voter registration is shifting – Centre Daily Times Source Link Excerpt:
As of Sept. 9, roughly 8.88 million Pennsylvanians are registered to vote. However, that figure is down from the 9.09 million residents who were eligible to vote during the 2020 election that saw Joe Biden carry Pennsylvania en route to the White House. Perhaps more notably, Republicans now hold voter registration advantages in four counties — Beaver, Berks, Bucks and Fayette — that previously leaned in favor of Democrats, according to 2020 end-of-year registration data published in 2021.
Majority of GOP Senate candidates lag behind Trump in polling ahead of Election Day– www.washingtonexaminer.com Source Link Excerpt:
Nearly two dozen Democratic seats are up for reelection in 2024, with five incumbents seen as vulnerable, while only 10 Republicans face reelection. However, Republicans in six critical races are trailing Trump and their Democratic opponents.
The only Senate GOP candidate who is consistently leading is Montana Republican Tim Sheehy. In an average of polling, Sheehy is ahead of incumbent Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) by 5.2 percentage points. However, Sheehy’s lead is not as strong as Trump’s in Big Sky Country, in which he leads by an average of 17.6 percentage points.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has a 51-seat advantage and the ability to tap Vice President Kamala Harris for any tiebreaking votes. He is already expected to lose one seat in West Virginia with the retirement of Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV). If Republicans win in Montana, they’ll be able to capture the majority, but the race for control of the upper chamber is still up in the air in a cycle that favors Republicans.
Kamala Harris Is Facing Severe Deficits Among Core Democratic Voter Groups– townhall.com Source Link Excerpt:
Kamala Harris wants another debate, whereas Trump said, ‘No mas.’ Some commented on how this was a tactical blunder for Trump—he should have demanded a debate on Fox News and waited for Harris to reject it. Whatever the case, Harris and her allies in the media are likely to waste a lot of time calling Trump a coward. Let them. Ms. Harris has severe deficits among crucial Democratic Party voter groups that spell disaster with less than 60 days from Election Day.
Harris is running behind Joe Biden’s numbers regarding black and Jewish voters. Right now, Trump is projected to win 18 percent of the black vote, the largest share for a Republican since Richard Nixon in 1972. As for Jewish voters, she’s gearing to earn the lowest share for any Democrat since Michael Dukakis.
RealClear Quick Take – Episode 12
Black Americans comprise roughly 13% of the electorate, and their support has been crucial to the Democratic Party for decades. Recent polls suggest they may not be as excited for Kamala Harris.
Jewish Americans have long represented a faithful Democratic voting bloc, and the progressive wing’s unabashed antagonism toward Israel hasn’t changed that.
A Pew Research poll on the preferences of U.S. religious voters released this week found that 65% of Jewish respondents plan to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, while 34% back former President Donald Trump in the Nov. 5 presidential election.
The survey of 9,720 U.S. registered voters released this week found the candidates tied overall at 49% each…
2 Pollsters Who Got it Right in 2016 and 2020 Say Kamala Harris is Failing – lidblog.com
Two polling groups where were in the top tier of getting poll predictions right in 2016 and 2020 say that Kamala Harris has already peaked and that Donald Trump is the favorite to win the 2024 presidential election.
The New York Post is reporting that InsiderAdvantage and Trafalgar polling have surveyed seven battleground states and predicted the Trump would end up with 296 electoral votes as things stand now. Only 270 electoral votes are needed to win the White House.
“Matt Towery of Georgia-based InsiderAdvantage found Trump ahead in Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina (and down by 0.4% only in Georgia),” the Post reported.
“He noted that both he and Robert Calahy of Trafalgar (which handled Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan) were both in the top 3 of pollsters in the ‘16 and ‘20 cycles because their methodology allows them to “pick up some Trump vote that some of the other pollsters might not be able to get,” the paper continued.
Trump, Harris Neck and Neck in Key Swing States as Campaigns Ramp Up: Poll – freebeacon.com
Former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are locked in a razor-thin race for the White House in six key battleground states, according to a CNN poll released Wednesday.
In Georgia and Nevada, 48 percent of likely voters support Harris while 47 percent back Trump, and in must-win Pennsylvania, the candidates are tied at 47 percent, according to the poll conducted from Aug. 23 to Aug. 29. Harris leads Trump by 6 points in Wisconsin and by 5 points in Michigan while Trump is ahead in Arizona, 49 percent to Harris’s 44 percent, all barely outside the survey’s 4.9 percent margin of error.
The new polling comes as the candidates gear up for the final sprint to Nov. 5. With nine weeks until Election Day, both campaigns are focusing their efforts on these key swing states.
Over the holiday weekend, Harris campaigned in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, also known as the three “blue wall” states, and is set to deliver an economy-focused campaign speech in New Hampshire on Wednesday afternoon. Her GOP counterpart is also campaigning in the toss-up battleground states, joining in a Fox News town hall event in Pennsylvania Wednesday evening and hosting events in Wisconsin and Arizona later this week.
Nate Silver and Others Present Damning Evidence That Kamala Harris’ Candidacy Has Stalled – townhall.com
… With the Democratic convention out of the way, Harris saw no bump. The race is razor-thin, drastically different from when Biden started running away from Donald Trump. In the states that matter, it’s not looking too hot, so the former president notched a few more points ahead of Harris in Nate Silver’s Electoral College probability model. Trump has a 58 percent chance of clinching 270 votes—it was 56 percent earlier this week—and winning the election, with an 80 percent probability of winning a state carried by Biden in 2020.
If it’s Pennsylvania, it’s the ballgame. Silver noted that Harris hasn’t had a lot of good polling. He’d also be more bullish on her candidacy if she didn’t rehire all of Biden’s operatives. Last, Pennsylvania and now Michigan “has become something of an issue for Harris.”
I think I’d buy the bull case for Harris a bit more if she hadn’t rehired so many of the Biden people.
President Donald Trump has overtaken Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris in Michigan, a recent poll shows.
Although the lead is small, it represents a crack in the so-called “blue wall” that is vital for Harris to win, Breitbart reported.
The WDIV/Detroit News poll revealed that 43.5% of likely voters supported Harris over 44.7% of likely voters who said they’d vote for Trump.
The survey was taken between August 26 and 29, just days after the Democratic National Convention.
Moreover, 4.7% of voters said they supported Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who the Associated Press noted dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump on August 23, just days before the survey began.
Another 4.8% were undecided, while 2.3% supported an unnamed third-party candidate.
📊 MICHIGAN poll by Glengariff Group for WDIV/Detroit News
New polls show a tight race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump just months from Nov. 5. Neither candidate is on the trail today.
Trump holds 5-point lead over Kamala among men: ABC/Ipsos poll | The Post Millennial – thepostmillennial.com
Pre-Democratic National Convention, Harris held a six-point lead over Trump among women (51-45 percent) and a three-point lead among men over Trump (49-46 percent).
A new poll has found that a majority of men support Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 election, while a majority of women support Kamala Harris. This is a shift from polling done before the Democratic National Convention, where Harris held a slight lead among both demographics.
The ABC News/Ipsos poll, released on Sunday, found that 51 percent of American men support, while 46 percent of men said they would vote for Harris. Among women, 54 percent said they support Harris, while 41 percent said they would vote for Trump.
Pre-Democratic National Convention, Harris held a six-point lead over Trump among women (51-45 percent) and a three-point lead among men over Trump (49-46 percent).
Among the demographics leading this change are white men and women. Among white women, Trump saw a 13-point lead over Harris pre-convention. Post-DNC, however, Trump is now holding a 2-point lead over Harris. And among white men, Trump went from holding a 13-point lead over Harris to a 21-point lead post-DNC.
A top Trump volunteer in Massachusetts is out after sending an email on Sunday evening warning “the campaign has determined that New Hampshire is no longer a battleground state” and urging supporters to put their efforts into Pennsylvania instead.
Tom Mountain, who had served as one of several vice chairs for the Trump in Massachusetts, wrote “the campaign has determined that New Hampshire is no longer a battleground state,” and advised supporters to instead direct their attention to Pennsylvania, the Boston Globe reported in an exclusive.
“(T)he Dems’ campaign shakeup from Biden to Harris led our campaign to shift strategy to other winnable battleground states,” Mountain wrote in an email to Trump volunteers in the state. “So for those who were active in the NH ground campaign in 2016 and 2020, and expected to do the same after Labor Day, the simple question is… what are we to do?” Mountain wrote. “GO TO PENNSYLVANIA. The nearest battleground state. This is a must-win state. If we lose Pennsylvania we lose the election.”
Poll Finds Donald Trump Leading Kamala Harris Among Veterans by Double Digits Despite Smears From Democrats – The Gateway Pundit
Poll: Donald Trump Leads Kamala Harris Among Veterans by Double Digits, Despite Dem Smears
A 2024 presidential election poll released Thursday shows former President Donald Trump leading Vice President Kamala Harris among veterans by 10 percentage points — 51 percent to 41 percent.
The poll published by Semafor, showed that Democrat efforts to smear the former president’s support for veterans is not working.
Democrats recently accused Trump of using Arlington Cemetery as a campaign ad backdrop after Gold Star families invited him to participate in a solemn Labor Day ceremony honoring their loved ones who died in the Biden-Harris administration’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal.
Florida Democrats say state is in play but aren’t putting money where their mouth is – washingtonexaminer.com Source Link Excerpt:
Florida Democrats have been saying the Sunshine State, which has increasingly shifted toward Republicans in recent years, is in play in November, but the spending in the race has not backed up their claims.
Former President Donald Trump and Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) are expected to win the presidential and Senate races in Florida in November, but recent polls have shown a closer-than-expected race in both contests. Democrats in the state have maintained they can flip the Senate seat, but a report from the Associated Press shows they have not invested in the campaign as bullishly.
Using data from AdImpact, the report shows Republicans and aligned groups have spent $12.7 million on advertisement reservations through Election Day, while Democrats and aligned groups have only spent $3.2 million on ad reservations for the Senate race as of Wednesday. While spending on advertisements could increase, the significant GOP advantage in spending is unlike most Senate races considered battlegrounds.
Fundraising
Kamala Harris Raised More Than Twice As Much Money As Trump In August – politicususa.com
Donald Trump is being buried under a blue wave of donor money as VP Kamala Harris more than doubled Trump’s fundraising total in August.
NBC News reported:
Vice President Kamala Harris’ political operation raised more than $300 million in the month of August â more than twice as much as former President Donald Trump’s operation gathered in the same period â two sources familiar with the Harris fundraising numbers told NBC News.
…
The whopping fundraising numbers for Harris come just after the Trump campaign reported it and related entities raised $130 million in the month of August, with nearly $300 million cash on hand. Trump’s campaign reported that 98% of the month’s donations came in at less than $200.
Kamala Harris raised as much money in August as Donald Trump has cash on hand for his entire campaign. Trump’s fundraising slowed from July to August, while Harris maintained the same pace or growth.
Trump’s new allies: Tech billionaires are jumping on the MAGA train – theblaze.com
Silicon Valley has traditionally been a reliable gold mine for the Democratic Party and progressive causes. But a rightward shift is occurring. The first fault lines popped up years ago with Elon Musk, but the shift has been accelerating in recent months, with several movers and shakers throwing their weight and wealth behind Donald Trump. Silicon Valley just isn’t as comfortable being a Democratic lapdog as it once was.
Wealthy venture capitalists from hedge fund manager Bill Ackman to Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, the Winklevoss twins, David Sacks, Joe Lonsdale, Doug Leone, and many more are now off the reservation and openly stating support for Trump and opposition to Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party’s agenda for America.
Silicon Valley titans want deregulation and a place for AI and exploratory technologies to thrive. Whether that’s an entirely positive or negative direction for the right to head in the future remains an open debate, but the point is that the tech shift to Trump isn’t just about emotions; it’s about business.
Trump campaign unveils outreach strategy targeting swing-state voters who don’t regularly vote: Report– www.washingtonexaminer.com Source Link Excerpt:
The Trump campaign is deploying a new strategy to reach out to “hard-to-reach, low-propensity voters” who have indicated they could be interested in supporting the Republican nominee in the general election.
According to campaign training materials obtained by Axios, Trump’s staff are working to court voters who have shown interest in their candidate by attending a rally but haven’t been reliable in showing up at the polls in the past.
According to the documents, the campaign’s volunteers are incentivized to reach out to specific lists of voters. They are given an initial list of 25 voters, with a goal of visiting at least 10 in person. The volunteers are then rewarded for engagement with Trump merchandise and “expedited” entry into Trump rallies. As the volunteers contact and engage more voters, they are eligible for larger rewards. The most active volunteers could be rewarded with an exclusive “thank you party.”
Taylor Swift endorses ‘warrior’ Kamala Harris for US president in post signed ‘childless cat lady’– www.euronews.com Source Link Excerpt:
The singer has 283 million followers on Instagram and her post received over two million likes in just half an hour.
Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris for US president shortly after Tuesday night’s presidential debate against Donald Trump ended.
“I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos,” Swift wrote in an Instagram post, which included a link to a voter registration website.
“I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” she added.
Trump calls for no tax on overtime at campaign rally in Tucson– www.latimes.com Source Link Excerpt:
In his latest economic pitch to voters, former President Trump on Thursday called for no taxes on overtime pay while speaking to supporters at a campaign stop in Tucson.
The Republican nominee has already called for an end to taxes on tips and on Social Security benefits, though he has not addressed how the federal government would address the resulting deficit. Still, the announcement about overtime pay drew cheers from the Arizona crowd Thursday afternoon.
“That gives people more incentive to work,” Trump said about his new proposal. “The people who work overtime are among the hardest-working citizens of our country, and for too long, no one in Washington has been looking out for them.”
NY Times Admits That Iran Would Prefer That Trump Not Be POTUS Again – PJ Media – pjmedia.com
The New York Times spearheaded the “Russia collusion” false narrative from its inception, which is why it is surprising to see it flirting with the truth when it comes to Iran’s attempts to sway American voters.
Iran has long carried out clandestine information operations against its adversaries, especially Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United States, but until now most of its activities were conducted under the shadow of similar campaigns by Russia and China. Its latest propaganda and disinformation efforts have grown more brazen, more varied and more ambitious, according to the U.S. government, company officials and Iran experts.
Iran’s efforts appear intended to undermine former President Donald J. Trump’s campaign to return to the White House, according to the officials and companies, but they have also targeted President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, suggesting a wider goal of sowing internal discord and discrediting the democratic system in the United States more broadly in the eyes of the world.
The World’s Bad Actors Do Not Want Trump to Win in November – PJ Media
The world leaders who most want to knock the United States of America off of its superpower perch don’t want any part of a second Donald Trump term in the White House. They’ve all been living large on the weakness of the Biden administration. There were probably buckets of tears shed for days in Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran when Biden was tweeted out of the presidential race.
After the major players in China, Russia, and Iran realized that the Democrats were serious about this Kamala Harris thing, they no doubt turned their frowns upside-down.
Back to Russia: the Dems know that Putin would prefer Trump not return to power, despite any public proclamations to the contrary. Should Kamala end up winning the presidency, we won’t hear so much as a peep from them about the Russians for a while. The Republicans and Democrats can get back to debating whether there is a bear in the woods.
Trump Vows to Establish Government Efficiency Commission Led by Elon Musk, Cut Business Tax Rate to 15% – slaynews.com
President Donald Trump delivered a major economic address in New York City on Thursday.
During the speech, Trump announced his plan to create a “Government Efficiency Commission” led by Elon Musk.
Musk is renowned for utilizing small, hyper-efficient teams of workers at his companies.
He famously slashed the workforce by thousands when taking over Twitter, which he rebranded as X.
The move would align with Trump’s other promises to cut federal bureaucracy.
Trump also pledged to cut the corporate tax rate to 15% while vowing to “make America richer and stronger” if he wins re-election in November.
Trump made the announcement during a speech to The Economic Club of New York.
Kamala Harris
CNN Caught Doing Journalism, Calls Out Harris Campaign As ‘repeatedly deceptive’– legalinsurrection.com Source Link Excerpt:
CNN’s Daniel Dale has done the unthinkable. He took aim at @KamalaHQ, the official rapid response page on X for Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. With over 1.3 million followers, the account has a wide reach, and according to Dale, “has made a habit of misleadingly clipping and inaccurately captioning video clips to attack former President Donald Trump.”
The account has been “repeatedly deceptive” and has made “inaccurate comments on multiple occasions,” Dale wrote. And he goes on to detail eight of the account’s most disingenuous posts from the last month.
He points out that all of these posts have been called out in real time by “an anonymous rebuttal account called @KamalaHQLies, which itself has more than 268,000 followers.”
Taylor Swift endorses ‘warrior’ Kamala Harris for US president in post signed ‘childless cat lady’– www.euronews.com Source Link Excerpt:
The singer has 283 million followers on Instagram and her post received over two million likes in just half an hour.
Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris for US president shortly after Tuesday night’s presidential debate against Donald Trump ended.
“I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos,” Swift wrote in an Instagram post, which included a link to a voter registration website.
“I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” she added.
Democrats hope Swift voter registration plea can turbocharge party’s efforts after Biden drag– www.washingtonexaminer.com Source Link Excerpt:
Democrats are hoping Taylor Swift encouraging people to register to vote will give Vice President Kamala Harris an edge in critical battleground states.
Swift’s encouragement, in a social media post and during her appearance at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards, is opportune for Harris after Democrats experienced a “big deficit” in voter registration under President Joe Biden, according to election experts.
Kamala Harris Refuses to Reveal Her ‘Current Position’ on Reparations – slaynews.com
The campaign for Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris is refusing to reveal the vice president’s “current position” regarding slavery reparations.
The statement from the Harris campaign has provoked mockery on social media over the Democrat candidate’s flip-flopping and lack of transparency.
Harris’s “position,” or lack thereof, was highlighted Wednesday by National Republican Senatorial Committee official Philip Letsou.
In a post on X, Letsou shared a screenshot from Politico’s “Playbook” newsletter.
The radical left is pressuring its ally, Vice President Kamala Harris, to continue to support the controversial idea of reparations for black Americans.
Harris remained silent on Monday about whether or not she supports a newly proposed package of reparations bills in California. The Harris campaign ignored Breitbart News’s request for comment and the Washington Post’s multiple requests for comment on her current position on reparations.
Though 68 percent of Americans oppose reparations according to a Pew Research poll in 2022, Harris pledged several times to force taxpayers to pay reparations for descendants of Africans enslaved.
“I think there needs to be some form of reparations and we can discuss what that is,” Harris told The Root in 2019 when asked if “black people should get reparations.”
While running for president in 2020, Harris told Reverend Al Sharpton, an MNSBC host and activist, that she would sign a reparations bill if she became president.
Kamala Harris Hires Top Socialist Strategist to Advise Campaign – slaynews.com
Let’s take it slow here. It’s an allegation that caught the eye of RealClearPolitics’ Tom Bevan, who rightly said that if this is true, CNN has a significant scandal on its hands. It wouldn’t be the first time a network has done this—this type of stuff goes back to when NBC was busted for chopping up the 911 call from George Zimmerman to smear him as a racist. Yet, Zimmerman wasn’t a presidential candidate. If true, the anti-Trump network took extreme measures to ensure Ms. Harris’ unelectable policy positions were snuffed out of their sit-down with her.
It was only 18 minutes, but it was a trainwreck. It was word salad, drowned in a dressing of unrepentance. Ms. Harris knew something was wrong with Mr. Biden. With the president no longer running for reelection, reports and stories from various American and European officials came out of the woodwork regarding how everyone saw how frail and weak Biden was becoming, likening it to how some members were treating their elderly parents. Harris showed zero regrets for being involved in the White House cover-up that shielded some from the president’s declining health. I say some because half the country already knew this guy was cooked.
Here’s the problem: it’s based on one tweet from someone who claims to know CNN’s managing editor. The post alleges that the interview was 41 minutes long and included topics like fracking and the Green New Deal. The Harris camp allegedly objected to half of the interview, which was pre-taped.
On the anniversary of the attack that left 13 U.S. service members dead during Joe Biden’s botched military withdrawal from Afghanistan, Donald Trump paid a respectful visit to Arlington National Cemetery to mark the somber occasion.
Neither Joe Biden nor Kamala Harris bothered to make an appearance, but that did not stop the latter from attacking Trump on social media for allegedly using the event for political gain.
As Vice President, I have had the privilege of visiting Arlington National Cemetery several times. It is a solemn place; a place where we come together to honor American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service of this nation.
Almost immediately, individuals who lost loved ones in service to this country began speaking out against Harris’ comment and in support of Trump, as the Daily Caller reported:
Gold Star families spoke out against Vice President Kamala Harris after she weighed in on the controversy surrounding former President Donald Trump’s visit to Arlington Cemetery to honor the 13 soldiers killed in the Biden administration’s Afghanistan withdrawal.
Harris posted a tweet Saturday slamming Trump for filming videos while honoring the fallen soldiers, adding that she, unlike the former president, “will always honor the service and sacrifice of all of America’s fallen heroes.” Eight Gold Star families took to Twitter to rebuke Harris’s comments, explaining that they invited Trump to the cemetery for the ceremony and have never heard from the vice president in the three years since they lost their children in the August 2021 terrorist attack in Kabul.
Kamala Harris CAUGHT Bussing In Thousands Of People To Her Events! – wltreport.com
Kamala Harris has spoken out about Wednesday morning’s shooting at a Georgia high school, which left four students dead and several injured.
The Democratic presidential nominee took the stage during a scheduled rally in North Hampton, New Hampshire, and began her remarks by expressing her condolences to those impacted by the tragedy, and emphasizing the need for gun violence reform in the country.
Though neither the suspect nor the four victims’ names have been shared, it has been reported by several outlets that the shooter is a 14-year-old male, however it has not yet been disclosed whether he is a student of the school, Apalachee High School, in Winder.
While the focus of Harris’ rally in New Hampshire was the economy, she began her speech by addressing the “tragic shooting,” acknowledging that authorities were still in the process of gathering information.
“Our hearts are with all the students and the teachers and their families of course, and we are grateful to the first responders and law enforcement that were on the scene,” she said, before declaring: “This is just a senseless tragedy, on top of so many senseless tragedies, and it is outrageous that everyday in our country in the United States of America, that parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive.”
Tim Walz
Tim Walz Brags About Passing Laws That Restrict Speech– thefederalist.com Source Link Excerpt:
According to a recent Wall Street Journal editorial, Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., bragged about the impact of the new law, saying that employers will either have to toe the line or be sent to jail.
Making matters worse, Walz also personally appointed all the members of Minnesota’s teacher licensing board, which recently instituted new rules restricting and coercing teachers’ speech. These new regulations “require educators to ‘affirm’ their students’ gender identities, have ‘racial consciousness,’ and learn to ‘disrupt oppressive systems,’” according to Fox News. Count me in as one of those who are shocked yet perhaps not terribly surprised that Walz believes that there should be no guarantees to free speech in America.
Couple Walz’s attacks on free speech with attempts from the political left (and Walz’s attorney general in particular) to put public pressure on social media platforms, such as Elon Musk’s X, and the message is clear. Our First Amendment is under attack.
Walz Made MN A ‘Sanctuary’ For Baby Killers And Child Mutilators– thefederalist.com Source Link Excerpt:
Kamala Harris chose a running mate who is as extreme on children’s health care as she is.
Democrat vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz describes his state of Minnesota as a sanctuary. But a sanctuary for whom, exactly? Not for the children deceived into permanently mutilating their bodies. Not for the parents stripped of custody of their children. And not for the babies born alive after abortion.
Minnesota is not a sanctuary — it’s a health risk to children and a graveyard for parental rights.
Governor Tim Walz was one of 14 governors who signed legislation to make their states “sanctuary states” for children who believe they are transgender. Walz joined states like California, Washington, and New York, drafting an executive order and signing a successive state law encouraging these children to travel to his state for experimental treatments or surgeries.
Tim Walz Spent Billions To ‘Improve Child Literacy.’ Reading Levels Remain Low, New Test Scores Show.– freebeacon.com Source Link Excerpt:
Minnesota governor Tim Walz, now the Democratic vice presidential candidate, last year signed a flagship education bill that boosted K-12 education spending by more than $2 billion, a “signature accomplishment” that he said would “improve child literacy.” New test scores reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show that hasn’t happened.
Just 46 percent of Minnesota’s third-graders, for example, are considered proficient in reading, marking a slight dip from 2023, according to data recently released by the Minnesota Department of Education. Across all grade levels, roughly half of Minnesota students are proficient in reading, and just 45 percent are proficient in math. Those figures are nearly identical to those from 2023.
The new numbers suggest Walz’s $2 billion education spending blitz did not impact Minnesota’s students the way he said it would, undercutting a central part of his pitch to voters as he runs for vice president. As Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’s running mate, Walz has leaned on his educational background, touting his record as a former teacher. The National Education Association last month lauded him as the “Education Governor.”
Walz subpoenaed by House GOP over handling of COVID fraud scheme – washingtonexaminer.com
The subpoena argues that information provided by the Minnesota Department of Education regarding its oversight of the federal child nutrition programs was “insufficient” in addressing the committee’s concerns over how people from the nonprofit Feeding Our Future were able to defraud the U.S. Department of Agriculture and misuse more than $250 million in funds.
“As the chief executive and the highest ranking official in the state of Minnesota, you are
responsible for the MDE and its administration of” the federal child nutrition program, Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) wrote in a letter to Walz. “Statements in the press by you and your representatives indicate that you and other executive officers were involved, or had knowledge of, MDE’s administration of the FCNP and responsibilities and actions regarding the massive fraud.”
“The Committee must now compel the production of responsive documents that will show the extent of the actions taken by you and your administration relating to MDE’s administration of the FCNP and the extent of your responsibilities and actions addressing the massive fraud that resulted in the abuse of taxpayer dollars intended for hungry children,” Foxx continued.
Tim Walz used cash reward to encourage Minnesota parents to give Covid vax to children as young as 5 – thepostmillennial.com
“That’s cash in your pocket for starting the year off right by protecting your child from COVID.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz offered parents a cash reward to encourage their children to get vaccinated against COVID-19, which was available to children as young as five at the time. The vaccine incentive titled “Kids Deserve a Shot” was announced by Walz in Jan. 2022 offered $200 to families who got their children between the ages of 5 and 11 “fully vaccinated.”
Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, wrote on X at the time: “Big news: Starting this month, families who get their 5- to 11-year-olds vaccinated can get $200! That’s cash in your pocket for starting the year off right by protecting your child from COVID.”
Eligibility was contingent upon parents or guardians providing documentation that their children received both shots of the vaccination between Jan. 1 and Feb. 28, 2022. Walz made the pitch by citing a surge in the “Omicron” variant at the time.
“As Omicron surges across our nation, we’re continuing to use every resource we have to keep our families safe and healthy,” he wrote in a statement. “There’s a lot of highly transmissible virus circulating in our communities, but getting our children 5-11 years old vaccinated gives them critical protection against severe illness and hospitalization from COVID-19 and helps keep them in school.”
Here’s What Tim Walz Did When Asked About the Six Hostages Found Dead in Gaza – townhall.com
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is slurping up milkshakes and eating pork chops on a stick at the state fair this weekend. Not many outlets will cover this heinous exchange with the press at the event, where Walz refused to answer a question about how he felt about the six hostages whose bodies were found by Israeli forces in Gaza over the weekend. Walz listened to the question and then walked away.
REPORTER: “What’s your reaction to the 6 hostages being found dead in Gaza?”
For Democrats who pined for Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, this is a moment for you, though I don’t think Donald Trump takes this state despite coming within a hair of it in 2016. New surveys show the Harris-Walz ticket didn’t get a bump from their convention. Mr. Walz could be hurting Ms. Harris in his home state, where the vice president had a healthy 10-point lead over Mr. Trump. It’s now 48-43 (via NY Post):
Kamala Harris’ bet on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has actually lost her ground in his home state.
That’s the takeaway from new polling of 635 Likely Voters from Minnesota’s KSTP, which found that the Democratic presidential nominee’s advantage over Donald Trump has been cut in half since she picked Walz as her running mate last month and showcased the ticket at the Democratic National Convention.
Harris now leads Trump 48% to 43%, a significant decline for her from the previous survey that showed her up 50% to 40%.
[…]
This is particularly remarkable given that this was a poll that included more Democrats than Republican respondents — with Dems making up 40% of the sample, Republicans 35%, and independents the remainder.
Republicans favored to regain Senate as key race shifts in GOP’s favor – nypost Source Link Excerpt:
Republicans are in pole position to take back the Senate majority for the first time in four years after a widely respected analysis shifted a key race toward the GOP candidate Thursday.
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report assessed the Montana contest between incumbent Democrat Jon Tester and challenger Tim Sheehy as “lean Republican.”
If all three races break the Republicans’ way, the GOP would begin the 119th Congress with 53 members of the upper chamber, providing a key check on Democrats should Kamala Harris win the White House and her party regain the House.
Montana Democrat Jon Tester (above) is facing challenger Tim Sheehy as “lean Republican,” according to an assessment from Cook Political Report. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Montana Senate race shifts toward GOP, Cook Political Report says – Axios Source Link Excerpt:
Republican Tim Sheehy is now favored to win Montana’s Senate race, according to a Thursday analysis from Cook Political Report.
Why it matters: The GOP will likely gain control of the Senate if incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester loses the seat.
Cook Political Report changed its race rating from “toss-up” to “leans Republican.”
The Senate is currently made up of 48 Democrats, 49 Republicans and 3 independents. However, the independent Senators caucus with Democrats to give them a 51-49 majority.
State of play: Protecting Tester’s seat is a top goal for Democrats, but Sheehy’s polling has been strong.
“Republicans are now an even heavier favorite to win back control of the Senate, regardless of the result at the top of the ticket,” Cook Political Report’s Jessica Taylor said in an analysis on Thursday.
Vice President Kamala Harris’s sudden entry into the presidential election has upended the electoral math to reach the White House, growing her levels of support above those of President Joe Biden in some polls while dampening it in others. All signs point to Pennsylvania being the pivotal battleground that may determine the election, and a new poll in the state’s U.S. Senate race indicates that Republicans are gaining traction.
Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), who is seeking his fourth six-year term, faces a pugnacious challenger in Dave McCormick, a businessman and former U.S. Treasury undersecretary for international affairs. In a notable break from previous polls, McCormick, 59, is now tied with the 64-year-old incumbent, according to a survey from CNN and SSRS. Nearly 800 likely voters were asked to choose between the who men, each of whom drew 46%. Another poll by Wick, also conducted during the final week of August, gave Sen. Casey a 2% lead, the smallest on record for the past several months, according to FiveThirtyEight.
Democrat Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) does not believe there is an underlying issue in the country of illegal immigrants voting, making the remark when asked about the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would provide safeguards to ensure non-citizens are not voting in federal elections.
The SAVE Act is back on the scene following chatter of attaching it to a continuing resolution. While it is already illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections, conservatives say the bill is necessary as there are no concrete safeguards to check it.
The House in the Balance? Alaska’s At-Large Race Is Now Neck-and-Neck – RedState– redstate.com Source Link Excerpt:
While Alaska’s issues are frequently of concern primarily to Alaskans, in 2024, our at-large House of Representatives election is drawing some significant national attention. Why is this? Partly because the balance of the House of Representatives is at stake and that might come down to a few seats. It’s also partly due to the complications ranked-choice voting (RCV) has introduced – and how both parties here in the Great Land are dealing with it.
Cook Political Report, which analyzes races across the country, has shifted the Alaska U.S. House race from the “Lean Democrat” category to “Toss Up,” in the latest ranking.
The change explains why Democrats, who have their own polling, are now suing the state Division of Elections to save the Rep. Mary Peltola, who is facing Republican Nick Begich in the general election, in her reelection bid.
Dem Senate Candidate Finally Speaks Out Against China-Linked Battery Maker After Months Of Attacks From GOP– americanactionnews.com Source Link
Excerpt:
Democratic Michigan Rep. Elissa Slotkin came out against a Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-linked company during a campaign rally this week, after enduring months of criticism from Republicans over the matter.
Slotkin, currently running for Senate in the state, had previously not publicly opposed a plan by Gotion High-Tech — a subsidiary of the Chinese-owned firm Gotion Inc. — to build a massive battery plant in Michigan, according to Politico Pro. Slotkin had fallen under criticism from Republican lawmakers and organizations who claimed she had signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) on discussing Gotion’s projects.
“To me, until there’s a national security vetting, I don’t love the idea of moving forward on any project or any sale of farmland [to a Chinese-based entity],” Slotkin told reporters following a campaign event in southern Michigan this week, according to Politico Pro. “I believe that we need to not just think about economic [implications], but also about the national security implications of Chinese-affiliated companies.”
WI Attorney General’s Fraudulent ‘Fake Electors’ Case Exposed– thefederalist.com Source Link Excerpt:
When Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul held a state capitol-steps press conference in early June to announce “forgery” charges against two former attorneys and an aide to former President Donald Trump for an alleged crime that took place nearly four years ago, it felt like the fix was in.
New unsealed documents in Dane County Circuit Court suggest the real forgery is Kaul’s politically weaponized investigation into Trump allies involved in the 2020 alternative electors contingency plan — what Kaul and corporate media have falsely billed as a “fake electors scheme.”
The filing, first reported on Thursday by Wisconsin conservative talk show host Vicki McKenna and conservative activist Eric O’Keefe, sheds light on another dark prosecution that looks a lot like Wisconsin’s infamous John Doe investigation. That leftist prosecutor-led star chamber of more than a decade ago was declared a “perfect storm of wrongs” by the state’s supreme court and used as a national blueprint for the left’s penchant for weaponized justice.
While Kaul’s early June press conference — covered by news outlets across the country — was orchestrated for maximum exposure, his move to seal the subpoenas and silence the defendants was designed to keep the full story in the dark. More than three months after the attorney general’s office sought and received the secret subpoenas, the key documents have finally been unsealed. The raised curtain exposes a prosecutor going against his own justice department to pursue a political prosecution.
IRS Whistleblowers File Defamation Lawsuit Against Hunter Biden’s Lawyer › American Greatness– amgreatness.com Source Link Excerpt:
On Friday, two whistleblowers from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) filed a lawsuit against Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, for defamation.
As reported by the Daily Caller, the lawsuit was fired by whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, who first came forward with claims that the Biden-Harris Administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) was giving preferential treatment to the president’s son during the investigation into his tax crimes.
In the new lawsuit, the whistleblowers allege that Lowell caused “incredible and malicious harm” by making numerous defamatory statements. The plaintiffs are seeking a total of $20 million in damages, with $10 million for each of them.
“It is particularly ironic and damaging that a well-known attorney like Lowell — in his words, ‘one of the country’s foremost white collar defense and trial lawyers’ that is ‘widely viewed as counsel of choice for individuals facing government investigations and potential indictments’— has chosen to falsely accuse these special agents of criminal behavior,” the lawsuit states.
“Lowell’s stature and credibility in the legal community have amplified the harm caused by his defamatory statements,” the complaint continues. “Lowell’s malicious and false allegations, including accusations that Shapley and Ziegler ‘committed felonies’ and ‘violated the law,’ were published to third parties, including the media, and have severely harmed their professional and personal reputations.”
Garland speech on DOJ impartiality met with skepticism – washingtonexaminer.com Source Link Excerpt:
Attorney General Merrick Garland praised his employees on Thursday for their impartiality in the wake of his JusticeDepartment pursuing some of the most politically fraught prosecutions in history.
Garland spoke about DOJ “norms” more than a dozen times during his remarks, which he delivered to the department’s workforce during an annual conference of U.S. attorneys in Washington, D.C.
“Our norms are a promise that we will not allow this department to be used as a political weapon, and our norms are a promise that we will not allow this nation to become a country where law enforcement is treated as an apparatus of politics,” Garland said.
That comment, in particular, was met with resounding applause in the room. But elsewhere, critics took issue with Garland’s emphasis on impartiality and his rejection of politically motivated prosecutions.
FBI And CISA Addresses Claims Of Hacked Voter Information – The Cyber Express Source Link Excerpt:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have highlighted a growing concern about the spread of false claims related to voting. The announcement, titled “Just So You Know: False Claims of Hacked Voter Information Likely Intended to Sow Distrust of U.S. Elections,” aims to educate the public on how disinformation tactics are being used to manipulate perceptions and undermine trust in the U.S. electoral process.
The announcement comes amid increasing concerns over cybersecurity and the integrity of elections, particularly with the 2024 election cycle approaching. Both the FBI and CISA have observed a troubling trend where foreign actors and cybercriminals propagate misleading information about alleged breaches in U.S. voter registration databases. These claims often exaggerate or fabricate details about voter information hacking to discredit the electoral system and erode public trust.
Johnson pulls stopgap spending bill – Axios Source Link Excerpt:
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) ditched a planned vote Wednesday on his six-month stopgap funding bill that included a crackdown on non-citizen voting.
Why it matters: It’s the latest setback for Johnson, who was facing opposition from fellow Republicans as well nearly all Democrats and raises pressure on GOP leaders to find an alternative path for avoiding a shutdown in less than three weeks.
“No vote today because we’re in the consensus-building business,” Johnson told reporters Wednesday.
That likely puts off a House vote on a stopgap bill until next week at the earliest.
At least eight GOP lawmakers publicly came out against the bill, despite pressure from former President Trump to back it, leaving Johnson short of the votes he would need to pass it out of the chamber.
Republicans push for clean stopgap as leaders regroup on shutdown plan – The Hill Source Link Excerpt:
A growing number of House Republicans say they know how the current government funding drama ends: with a clean continuing resolution (CR) that kicks the shutdown deadline to after Election Day.
The question is how Congress arrives at that conclusion.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) scrapped plans for the House to vote on his conservative funding bill Wednesday when it became clear it didn’t have the GOP votes to pass, catapulting the conference back to square one with less than a month until the shutdown deadline.
Some Republicans are pushing Johnson to make another attempt at clearing a conservative funding bill, arguing that a successful effort could help strengthen the party’s hand in forthcoming bipartisan negotiations.
Muddying the waters, former President Trump is urging Republicans to vote against any short-term funding bill that does not secure “absolute assurances on Election Security.”
U.S. House speaker withdraws spending bill that would require ID to register to vote • Virginia Mercury Source Link Excerpt:
WASHINGTON — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson pulled a six-month stopgap spending bill from heading to the floor for a vote Wednesday, scuttling efforts by the GOP to show solidarity behind their plan, which included a provision requiring ID to register to vote in federal elections.
The spending bill, released by House Republicans last week in the heat of a presidential campaign in which immigration is a central focus, had no chance of becoming law amid opposition from Democrats, a cool response from many GOP senators and a veto threat from the Biden administration.
A number of House GOP lawmakers had also come out against the legislation.
Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, told reporters that lawmakers plan to work through the weekend to find a path forward on the stopgap spending bill and language that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote.
DeKalb GOP sues Georgia Secretary of State, claiming poor election security – Atlantic City Circle Source Link Excerpt:
The DeKalb County Republican Party has filed a lawsuit against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger alleging that the encryption keys for the software used in the state’s Dominion Voting System are not stored securely.
The DeKalb GOP wants the Secretary of State’s Office to properly store the encryption keys and “immediately bring the Dominion systems used in Georgia elections into compliance with Georgia law.” The lawsuit alleges that the state’s Dominion system software has been in an “illegal and insecure state since at least 2020,” and that the Secretary of State’s Office has known this since March, 2024.
The DeKalb GOP also wants the Secretary of State’s office to make the Dominion system logs, cast-vote records and ballot images available to itself and the public for inspection within 24 hours of polls closing on Nov. 5.
The lawsuit, filed Aug. 30 in Fulton County Superior Court, was announced by the DeKalb Republican Party on X on Monday. A hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 30.
Trump’s D.C. trial may not begin until 2026 or later, legal experts say – The Washington Post Source Link Excerpt:
Donald Trump’s trial in Washington on charges of federal election obstruction may not begin until 2026 or later because of complex legal and factual issues that may ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court, according to legal experts.
Even that schedule is largely dependent on a particular outcome in the presidential election two months from now; if Vice President Kamala Harris defeats Trump, the cases against him are likely to proceed. But if Trump wins the election, he is expected to push his Justice Department to dismiss or at least shelve the charges against him.
At a hearing last week, the trial judge in the D.C. case signaled she planned to try to resolve key and complicated questions about presidential immunity in a matter of months. At the same time, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya S. Chutkan cautioned it would be “an exercise in futility” to set a new trial date, given the likely appeals.
2 of 10 criminal charges dropped against former President Trump in Georgia election case – khou.com Source Link Excerpt:
The judge said this is because the charges fell under federal jurisdiction, not Georgia state law.
Trump’s Gag Order Appeal Thrown Out by NY Court of Appeals – PJ Media– pjmedia.com Source Link Excerpt:
New York’s highest court rejected former President Trump’s appeal to remove the gag order by the Democrat judge overseeing his so-called hush money case.
On Sept. 12, the New York Court of Appeals, upheld the decision by a lower court to keep his gag order in place last month, after he was was convicted by a Manhattan jury.
The court dismissed Trump’s appeal on the grounds “that no substantial constitutional question is directly involved,” which continues to bar him from talking about prosecutors, court staff, and others involved in the case until after his sentencing.
2nd Circuit rejects Donald Trump’s request to halt postconviction proceedings in hush money case – ABC News Source Link Excerpt:
A federal appeals court has rejected Donald Trump’s request to halt postconviction proceedings in his hush money criminal case, leaving a key ruling and the former president’s sentencing on track for after the November election
NEW YORK — A federal appeals court has rejected Donald Trump’s request to halt postconviction proceedings in his hush money criminal case, leaving a key ruling and the former president’s sentencing on track for after the November election.
A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan cited the postponement last week of Trump’s sentencing from Sept. 18 to Nov. 26 in denying his motion for an emergency stay.
The sentencing delay, which Trump had sought, removed the urgency required for the appeals court to consider pausing proceedings.
Fani Willis Will Defy Subpoena to Testify before Georgia State Senate Hearing, Committee Chair Warns– slaynews.com Source Link Excerpt:
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is expected to defy a subpoena from the Georgia State Senate for her testimony during a Friday hearing.
The Senate Special Committee on Investigations subpoenaed Willis to compel her testimony related to the committee’s investigation into allegations she misused taxpayer funds.
The committee’s chairman, Republican state Sen. Bill Cowsert, is warning that Willis will not show up to the hearing.
Cowsert said after Willis refused to testify voluntarily, the committee issued a subpoena.
Judge in Trump Non-Disclosure and Records Case Sued for Hiding His Disclosures and Records – PJ Media– pjmedia.com Source Link Excerpt:
…Let us consider Judge Merchan’s patterns.
He’s a Democrat
He gave money to the Democrats’ “Stop Donald Trump and his Right Wing Legacy” fund
His grown daughter is the president of a Democrat political operation that helps Trump’s legislative enemies such as impeacher and Russian Collusion hoaxer, Adam Schiff
His daughter’s political operation used Daddy’s Trump trial to fundraise for her political customers
Kamala Harris hired daddy’s daughter’s political shop to help with her presidential campaign
He was selected by insiders at the DA’s office, not a random selection, to preside over the trial because he’d overseen, others say mishandled, Trump cases before
“He actually should be the last person selected, given the potential conflict,” said Christopher Brennan, a former Manhattan assistant district attorney about Merchan’s selection
He ignored how the DA stacked charges against Trump, an ethics breach
He ignored how the alleged illegal misdemeanor acts were dead issues because the statute of limitations had run
He waved away concerns that the alleged ersatz felony charge bootstrapped to these misdemeanors and reanimated them into a live issue was neither spelled out to the jury nor the defendant, in violation of his rights
He gagged the defendant in a complete reversal of courtroom protocol. Gag orders are to protect defendants not hurt them
On undercover video, DOJ’s SDNY spokesman called this Trump case, “a perversion of justice,” “a travesty of justice,” “a mockery of justice,” and “nonsense.” He can’t be the only one who thinks this.
Jack Smith’s Anti-Trump Jan 6 Trial Postponed Beyond Election Day– slaynews.com Source Link Excerpt:
Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 lawfare trial against President Donald Trump, originally scheduled before the 2024 presidential election, has officially been postponed.
The trial has been delayed by Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan, a Barack Obama appointee.
Facing charges stemming from Smith’s “investigation” into the events surrounding the protests at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, Trump will not be tried until after the election.
During a Thursday morning status hearing at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Judge Chutkan reached a decision impacting the timing of Trump’s trial.
Judge rules voting machine company’s defamation suit against Newsmax can go to trial– thehill.com Source Link Excerpt:
A voting machine company’s defamation lawsuit against Newsmax appears to be headed toward trial following a judge in Delaware’s ruling on Thursday.
The Florida-based company, Smartmatic, accused Newsmax and other conservative media outlets of airing defamatory statements that implied the company rigged the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Newsmax argued it was reporting on newsworthy allegations made by former President Trump and his allies, though the company previously issued a clarification saying, “it has not reported true certain claims made about these companies.”
Both Newsmax and Smartmatic asked Superior Court Judge Eric Davis to rule in their favor without the case going to trial. Davis granted partial summary judgment but said a jury will decide key issues. The trial is scheduled to start Sept. 30, The Associated Press reported.
Spokesman For Manhattan US Attorney’s Office Caught on Tape Ripping DA Bragg Over Trump Prosecution; Calls Case ‘Nonsense’– amgreatness.com Source Link Excerpt:
The top Department of Justice spokesman for the Southern District of New York was caught on a hidden camera lambasting Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of former President Donald Trump, calling the case “nonsense” and accusing Democrats of being “out to get” the Republican presidential nominee.
Nicholas Biase, chief spokesman for the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office, was secretly recorded in July and August dishing about Bragg and his “hush-money” case against Trump by an undercover journalist for conservative commentator Steven Crowder’s “Mug Club.”
Crowder released the shocking footage on Thursday, saying at the onset that Biase was “not the bad guy here,” but an “unwitting whistleblower.”
“Honestly, I think the case is nonsense,” Biase said on July 31 to the unidentified female journalist during what appeared to be a date at a crowded bar.
NY Judge Delays Trump Sentencing Until After The Election– thefederalist.com Source Link Excerpt:
The Biden donor judge overseeing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s criminal prosecution and a New York jury’s coached conviction of former President Donald Trump this week delayed Trump’s sentencing hearing until after the 2024 election.
Judge Juan Merchan, the acting justice of the New York State Supreme Court, announced Friday that he will postpone his decision on how long Trump should be jailed until November 26, exactly three weeks after Election Day 2024. Trump faces up to 136 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of 34 counts of bookkeeping fraud.
Bragg initially indicted Trump on claims that he violated the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) when his former attorney Michael Cohen paid pornographic actress Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged affair.
Nondisclosure deals like Trump’s are perfectly legal and don’t meet the threshold for criminal charges beyond a misdemeanor. Bragg, who campaigned on vengeance against the Republican, however, ignored the FEC and Department of Justice’s decision not to charge Trump over the payment and pursued a felony prosecution.
Cornel West disqualified from Georgia’s ballot, judge rules – 11 Alive Source Link Excerpt:
The decision means votes for West won’t be counted in Georgia, although his name will remain on ballots because the judge said it’s too late to remove it.
ATLANTA — A Georgia state court judge on Wednesday disqualified independent presidential candidate Cornel West from running for president in the state, ruling that West’s electors didn’t file the proper paperwork.
For now at least, the decision means votes for West won’t be counted in Georgia, although his name will remain on ballots because the judge said it’s too late to remove it.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas A. Cox ruled it was too late to order new ballots printed, with military and overseas ballots scheduled to be mailed starting Tuesday. Instead, Cox ordered the state to post notices in polling places warning West had been disqualified and votes for him would be void, a common remedy in Georgia for late election changes.
It’s OK To ‘Help’ Mentally Incapacitated Relatives With Ballots– thefederalist.com Source Link Excerpt:
The New York Times encouraged a reader last week to “help” a 97-year-old woman with advanced memory loss — who is “becoming nearly impossible to communicate with” — to complete her ballot.
“When the situation is hazy, my inclination would be to err on the side of helping someone to vote, because voting is such a central form of civic participation,” wrote the Times’ “Ethicist” Columnist Kwame Anthony Appiah.
A reader wrote the Times, saying the grandmother has “advanced” Alzheimer’s and hearing loss. The reader wanted to know if it would be “unethical” to help the elderly woman vote in November, likely having the grandma do “the mechanics of voting” while family members “advise her.”
The reader claimed to have helped the grandmother fill out her absentee ballot in 2020.
Former Top FBI Official Spills the Beans on Biden-Harris DOJ, Says Mar-a-Lago Raid ‘Just Didn’t Smell Right’ – westernjournal.com
A former top FBI official has revealed that he worried the FBI’s 2022 raid on Mar-a-Lago would backfire.
In August 2022, the FBI swooped in on the residence of former President Donald Trump as part of its investigation into whether Trump improperly;y kept classified documents in his possession after leaving the White House.
“I was worried about it increasing distrust in us,” Steve D’Antuono, the head of the Washington Field Office of the FBI at the time, said, according to NBC.
“We all thought this posed a risk to us both professionally and personally. I can’t impress upon you the pressure,” the retired FBI official said.
D’Antuono said expressing his reservations during a high-stakes meeting on the raid led to him being scolded.
Chutkan Laughs Off Supreme Court Immunity Ruling In D.C. Trump Trial – The Federalist
The federal judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Washington, D.C., scoffed at the Supreme Court’s decision this summer that recognized presidential immunity for official acts in office.
On Thursday, attorneys representing the ex-president objected to continued proceedings they argued run afoul of the high court’s ruling in July. In that decision a concurring opinion from Justice Clarence Thomas questioned the legitimacy of Jack Smith’s appointment as special counsel.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed Trump’s classified documents case brought by Smith in Florida after the former president’s attorneys called the special counsel’s appointment illegal. D.C. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, however, said in Thursday’s hearing that Cannon’s argument for dismissal was not “particularly persuasive,” according to Politico reporter Kyle Cheney.
The New York Times reported that Chutkan “chuckle[d]” and slightly rolled her eyes in the courtroom Thursday when Trump’s attorneys argued the Supreme Court was “crystal clear” in rulings on immunity. Trump’s legal team had previouslypetitioned to remove the Obama-appointed judge from the case over her prejudicial statements against the former president and his supporters, particularly in rulings related to the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Chutkan, however, denied requests to recuse herself from the case and allow the prosecution to proceed outside of the nation’s capital.
Trump Pleads Not Guilty In Revised Election Fraud Case – BERNAMA
Former US president Donald Trump is continuing to plead not guilty following the publication of a revised indictment in the election fraud case against him, according to a court document filed by his lawyers on Tuesday, the German news agency (dpa) reported.
The document states that Trump waived his right to be present in court at the next hearing related to the case. He has authorised his lawyers to plead not guilty on his behalf.
The Republican and several others are accused of trying to reverse the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
Trump’s Legal Team Requests Dismissal of Jack Smith’s Jan 6 Case – slaynews.com
President Donald Trump’s attorney and Special Counsel Jack Smith have jointly filed for a status update in light of presidential immunity in the Jan. 6 case.
Smith filed a superseding indictment last week that narrowed and adjusted charges to avoid the new ruling’s pitfalls, ABC News reported.
In an attempt to salvage his case against Trump, Smith made necessary changes to his indictment that would circumvent presidential immunity.
Meanwhile, Trump’s legal team has humiliated Smith by asking that the charges be dismissed entirely.
The conflict arose following a Supreme Court decision that granted presidential immunity to much of Trump’s conduct during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
How the court will proceed is still unknown, but Trump and Smith filed Friday to clarify that.
Trump’s attorneys have requested that any further legal proceedings happen after the November election.
Judge rejects Trump bid to make NY case federal – The Week
.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein rejected Donald Trump’s long-shot motion to move his New York criminal case to federal court. Trump was convicted on 34 fraud counts in May for paying hush money to a porn actress.
Hours after Trump’s lawyers submitted their petition, Hellerstein said they hadn’t met the legal bar to take the case out of state court. Nothing in the Supreme Court’s July ruling that Trump has broad immunity for official acts as president “affects my previous conclusion that the hush money payments were private, unofficial acts, outside the bounds of executive authority,” Hellerstein wrote. He also said Trump’s allegations of “bias, conflicts of interest and appearances of impropriety” in the state trial must be adjudicated in state court.
Hellerstein’s decision is a blow to Trump’s “persistent efforts to escape the consequences” of the Manhattan jury’s verdict, The New York Times said. The New York prosecution is the only one of four felony cases Trump has not successfully delayed or halted.
Trump’s lawyers spar with judge in Washington election interference case – aljazeera.com
A tense hearing has unfolded in one of former United States President Donald Trump’s four criminal cases, as his defence team questioned the legitimacy of the proceedings.
Trump himself was not present at the proceedings. But from the outset, defence lawyer John Lauro cast doubt on the validity of the charges and the timing of the case.
“We may be dealing with an illegitimate indictment from the get-go,” Lauro told the court.
A federal judge called Thursday for prosecutors and defense attorneys to file significant legal briefs in Donald Trump’s 2020 election subversion case before voters head to the ballot box in November, rejecting the former president’s request to move at a slower pace.
After a testy one-hour hearing in federal court in D.C., U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan granted a proposal by special counsel Jack Smith’s office to make its case about the limits of Trump’s immunity by Sept. 26, with other filings due in the weeks that follow.
Her scheduling order offers the first glimpse into how the case will proceed after the Supreme Court ruled that presidents cannot be prosecuted for their official conduct, upending the Trump prosecution and forcing the special counsel to seek a superseding indictment.
Trump asks federal appeals court for stay in hush money case sentencing – WHIO
A day after former President Donald Trump asked a federal appeals court for a stay that would delay the sentencing in his New York hush money case, the Manhattan district attorney’s office on Thursday asked the court to reject Trump’s request.
Trump’s longshot attempt to delay his Sept. 18 sentencing came a day after District Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied Trump’s bid to move his criminal case to federal court.
In a 28-page filing late Wednesday, Trump’s attorneys asked the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to stay Judge Hellerstein’s order — a move that would delay Trump’s criminal case, including his sentencing, from moving forward.
“Absent the requested stay, President Trump and the American people will suffer irreparable harm,” defense attorneys Emil Bove and Todd Blanche wrote.
The FBI on Wednesday raised the homes of at least two senior aides to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, according to a report from Politico.
FBI agents conducted searches of the homes of First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks III early Wednesday morning. Investigators also seized electronic devices belong to each official.
Agents also searched the home of Timothy Pearson, a former high-ranking official in the New York Police Department who now advises Mayor Adams on public safety.
FBI Raids Homes Of Two Top Aides To NYC Mayor Eric Adams – trendingpoliticsnews.com
The FBI on Wednesday raised the homes of at least two senior aides to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, according to a report from Politico.
FBI agents conducted searches of the homes of First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks III early Wednesday morning. Investigators also seized electronic devices belong to each official.
Agents also searched the home of Timothy Pearson, a former high-ranking official in the New York Police Department who now advises Mayor Adams on public safety.
DA Fani Willis Brought ‘Ex-Lover’ Nathan Wade to Scene of Daughter’s Arrest – legalinsurrection.com
Willis came under fire for her relationship with then-special prosecutor Wade. They claimed the fling didn’t start until after she appointed him to the position and it ended.
The judge said Willis or Wade had to leave the case. Wade chose to step down.
Nonviolent ‘J6 Granny’ Slapped With Bitter Sentence – PJ Media– pjmedia.com Source Link Excerpt:
On January 6th, 2021, personal friend, grandmother and engaged civil servant in her hometown of Santa Ynez, California Karen Jones was essentially, if you’ll excuse what has become a cliché, a tourist — a nonviolent, by the admission of the court, American visiting the Capitol she helps pay for via taxes.
New rules for ballot drop boxes in Ohio puts restrictions on who can use them – BG Independent News Source Link Excerpt:
The latest attempt to prevent voter fraud in Ohio will make it more difficult for voters to use ballot drop boxes and make more work for election workers across the state.
On Wednesday morning, the Wood County Board of Elections discussed the impact of Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s recent directive that only those people dropping off their own ballots may use the drop box.
That means people dropping off ballots for family members must come into the board of elections during business hours and fill out paperwork attesting to their relationship to the voter. They cannot use the drop off box.
Nearly four million Ohioans voted last November, with approximately 25% voting absentee, according to state data.
So the state directive could mean a lot more work for election workers across the state.
14 pro-Trump electors linked to efforts to reverse his 2020 loss are back for 2024 -wyso.org Source Link Excerpt:
Fourteen presidential electors linked to efforts to reverse former President Donald Trump’s 2020 defeat are currently back on their states’ Republican slates of representatives to the Electoral College for the 2024 election.
Four years ago, what have been known as “fake electors” gathered in seven mainly swing states where Trump lost the popular vote to sign certificates that became part of a scheme by the former president and his allies to try to overturn the election results.
This year’s return of some of these Republicans as potential electors — confirmed in recent weeks through party filings to state election officials — raises questions about what they will do if Trump loses in their states again. The GOP nominee, who is facing four felony counts related to leading conspiracies to reverse the 2020 results and disenfranchise millions of voters, has refused to commit to unconditionally accepting the results of the upcoming 2024 election while continuing to repeat the lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him.
The returning Republican electors are:
Michigan: Amy Facchinello, Hank Choate, John Haggard, Marian Sheridan, Meshawn Maddock, Timothy King
Nevada: Jesse Law, Michael McDonald
New Mexico: Deborah Maestas
Pennsylvania: Andy Reilly, Ash Khare, Bernadette Comfort, Bill Bachenberg, Patricia Poprick
‘Woke’ DA sued by his own office for allegedly protecting ethics chief charged with felonies– www.foxnews.com Source Link Excerpt:
The union representing hundreds of Los Angeles prosecutors is once again suing their boss, District Attorney George Gascon, this time for withholding information on a close ally in alleged violation of the California Public Records Act (CPRA).
The Association of Deputy District Attorneys (ADDA) sought information about Diana Teran, a top Gascon aide who is facing felony charges, in May and received an incomplete response, according to a 200-page court filing unveiled Thursday. Prosecutors sought her emails and information about whether she remained on the county payroll after her indictment. They also wanted to know if county taxpayers were on the hook for her criminal defense.
The lawsuit seeks to force Gascon’s office to disclose the requested records, to declare the DA in violation of the CPRA and to pay the ADDA’s attorney fees for the lawsuit and the denied requests.
Republicans challenge North Carolina decision that lets students show university’s mobile ID – ABC News Source Link Excerpt:
RALEIGH, N.C. — The Republican Party sued North Carolina’s elections board on Thursday to block students and employees at the state’s flagship public university from offering a digital identification as a way to comply with a relatively new photo voter ID law.
The Republican National Committee and North Carolina filed the lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court three weeks after the Democratic majority on the State Board of Elections approved the “Mobile UNC One Card” generated by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a qualifying ID.
The law says qualifying IDs must meet several photo and security requirements to be approved by the board. The UNC-Chapel Hill digital ID, which is voluntary for students and staff and available on Apple phones, marks the qualification of the first such ID posted from someone’s smartphone.
The Departments of Justice, State and Treasury announced Wednesday a joint effort to target with sanctions and criminal charges what the Biden administration says are Russian government-sponsored attempts to manipulate U.S. public opinion ahead of the November election.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced charges against two employees of the Russian-backed media network RT accused of conspiring to commit money laundering and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act in an indictment unsealed Wednesday in the Southern District of New York.
“The American people are entitled to know when a foreign power is attempting to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to send around its own propaganda,” Garland said.
Russia’s election influence efforts show sophistication, officials say – The Washington Post
The Russian government’s covert efforts to sway the 2024 presidential election are more advanced than in recent years, and the most active foreign threat this political season, U.S. intelligence officials said Friday.
Russia’s activities “are more sophisticated than in prior election cycles,” said a senior official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) in a briefing with reporters, noting the use of “authentic U.S. voices” to “launder” Russian government propaganda and spread socially divisive narratives through major social media, as well as on sham websites that pose as legitimate American media organizations.
Moscow is targeting U.S. swing states in particular, the official said, and using artificial intelligence to more quickly and convincingly create fake content to shape the outcome in favor of former president Donald Trump.
YouTube Axes Tenet Media’s Channel Without Due Process– thefederalist.com
The widely used video platform YouTube removed Tenet Media and related channels from its services on Thursday after the Justice Department accused the company of partaking in a secret Russian influence operation.
The revelation comes days after the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the seizure of nearly three dozen internet domains it alleged were used in “Russian government-directed foreign malign influence campaigns colloquially referred to as ‘Doppelganger,’ in violation of U.S. money laundering and criminal trademark laws.” According to Fox News, the unsealed indictment alleged a pair of Russian state media staffers had been covertly funding a Tennessee-based, American content creation company identified in reports as Tenet Media” and other shell companies with the goal of spreading what the DOJ classified as “Russian government propaganda.”
The indictment contended that Tenet Media “published nearly 2,000 videos to social media platforms such as X and YouTube, and failed to inform viewers it was financed by the Kremlin,” the report reads.
Right-wing influencers such as Dave Rubin, Tim Pool, and Benny Johnson are among those affiliated with the company. Many of these figures have since denied knowledge of the company’s alleged ties to Russia and proclaimed to be “victims” of Moscow’s purported influence operation.
DOJ alleges Russia funded US media company linked to right-wing social media stars
The unnamed Tennessee-based company that the Justice Department alleges was being funded by Russian operatives working as part of a Kremlin-orchestrated influence operation targeting the 2024 US election is Tenet Media, which is linked to right-wing commentators with millions of subscribers on YouTube and other social media platforms, according to a US official briefed on the matter.
The indictment unsealed in New York’s Southern District accused two employees of RT, the Kremlin’s media arm, of funneling nearly $10 million to an unidentified company, described only as “Company 1” in court documents.
CNN has independently confirmed that “Company 1” is Tenet Media, which is a platform for independent content creators. It is self-described as a “network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues,” according to its website, which matches language contained in the newly unsealed indictment.
Feds say Russia laundered $10M through unwitting social media influencers, including a WV man
…On Wednesday, the United States Department of Justice issued a federal indictment which charges Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva with a scheme. The indictment says they created, in the words of their own editor, “an ‘entire empire of covert projects’ designed to shape public opinion in ‘Western audiences.’”
Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva work for RT, the indictment says. “RT, formerly known as ‘Russia Today,’ is a state-controlled media outlet funded and directed by the Government of Russia.” …
Who were the influencers? Tenet Media began in late 2023 with influencers Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, David Rubin, and Lauren Southern. The indictment indicates at least one of them was being paid $400,000 per month plus a $100,000 signing bonus by Tenet Media (via funding from RT). Federal officials do not believe the right-wing American social media influencers knew they were being paid through a front company by Russian agents.
“The company never disclosed to the influencers or to their millions of followers its ties to RT and the Russian government,” says Attorney General Merrick Garland.
YouTube takes down right-wing channels linked to DOJ Russia indictments
YouTube took down several right-wing politics channels that had been linked with allegations from the Justice Department that Russian government employees were paying right-wing influencers in the United States to produce content.
The Google-owned video site “terminated” Tenet Media and four other channels run by right-wing media entrepreneur Lauren Chen as part of the company’s “ongoing efforts to combat coordinated influence operations,” a YouTube spokesperson said in an emailed statement Thursday.
US targeting ‘legitimate journalism’ with RT sanctions – Scott Ritter
Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter has announced that the latest US sanctions imposed on RT mean he will be forced to end his work as a contributor to the Russian media outlet. Ritter insisted that his cooperation with RT has been nothing but “legitimate journalism.”
A former US Marine Corps major who also served as a UN weapons inspector in Iraq during the 1990s, Ritter came into the spotlight in 2003 when he opposed the US military operation against the Middle Eastern country. He argued that Saddam Hussein’s government did not possess weapons of mass destruction, despite Washington’s claims.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday, Ritter stressed that the content of his contributions for RT and several other sanctioned media outlets “has been factually correct and analytically sound, and always of my own creation.”
While condemning Washington’s decision as running counter to “constitutional norms and values,” Ritter noted that he is “fully committed to obeying US law, and as such will be terminating all contractual relationships with both RT and Sputnik effective immediately.”
Right-wing US influencers say they were victims of alleged Russian plot
Conservative US influencers say if the allegations are proven, they were deceived by Russian media executives following the release of an indictment charging Moscow with interfering in the 2024 US election.
The indictment accuses state broadcaster RT, formerly Russia Today, of paying a Tennessee firm $10m (£7.6m) to “create and distribute content to US audiences with hidden Russian government messaging”.
US media outlets identified the firm as Tenet Media, which describes itself as “network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues”.
Tenet Media, which was not directly named in the indictment, was founded in 2022 by conservative Canadian YouTuber Lauren Chen and her husband Liam Donovan. Tenet has not commented publicly on the allegations and did not respond to a request for comment.
The network employs several well-known right-wing US influencers – such as Tim Pool, David Rubin and Benny Johnson – who say they are “victims” of the alleged plot if it is proven.
Feds in Philly disrupt Russian-backed propaganda effort aimed at influencing U.S. presidential vote
Federal authorities in Philadelphia announced on Wednesday the dismantling of a wide-ranging, Russian-backed misinformation network targeting voters in Pennsylvania and five other swing states ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
The network — known colloquially as “Doppelganger” and which prosecutors said was run by a top aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin — sought to dupe Americans in key demographics into believing Kremlin-produced propaganda it spread online had been produced by legitimate American news outlets.
The campaign also sought to enlist the aid of unwitting influencers in America and other countries to spread disinformation, sow social media discord, and advance the campaign of former President Donald Trump, whom the program’s backers viewed as more supportive of Russian interests.
Johnson Drops SAVE as He Prepares to Fund Biden Government
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-AR) has announced plans to put forward a CR, a continuing resolution to fund the federal government at current levels, without the Trump-supported amendment called the SAVE Act. The amendment would have assured no state or local government could allow non-citizens to vote no matter what reason they might give.
Trump and other conservatives have urged the Speaker to shut to government down if the SAVE Act isn’t included. The Speaker defended his decision, writing “While this is not the solution any of us prefer, it is the most prudent path forward under the present circumstances. As history has taught and current polling affirms, shutting the government down less than 40 days from a fateful election would be an act of political malpractice.”
House Speaker Johnson axes Trump voting restrictions in new government funding bill – CNBC Source Link Excerpt:
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday announced a new temporary government funding proposal with key amendments from the original bill he put forward earlier this month, going against former President Donald Trump’s wishes and making some concessions to Democrats.
The new bill would fund the government through Dec. 20 and does not include any part of the SAVE Act, the Trump-backed election security proposal that would require people to show proof of citizenship to register as a voter.
In a letter to colleagues on Sunday, Johnson said, the “very narrow, bare-bones” proposal would include “only the extensions that are absolutely necessary” to avoid a government shutdown.
Congressional Republicans and Democrats have eight days to strike a deal on government funding. If no resolution is reached, the government will go into partial shutdown on Oct. 1 at 12:01 a.m. ET, just over a month away from the November election when party control will be up for grabs in both the White House and Congress.
Thousands of Arizona Voters in Limbo After State Citizenship Info Error – newsweek Source Link Excerpt:
Nearly 100,000 people in Arizona have been left uncertain about the future of their right to vote after a clerical error was made in the tracking of citizenship data.
Democratic Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes announced on Tuesday that 97,000 people would be affected by the error, which occurred due to a clash between proof of citizenship laws and driver’s license information.
The error will not restrict voters from voting the 2024 presidential election, or for federal elections to Congress. It applies solely to state-level elections, such as state senator races or state referendums.
Arizona requires voters to provide proof of U.S. citizenship to vote in state and local elections since 2005, meaning voters that have not provided the proof are registered as “federal only” voters and are only allowed to vote for president and Congress.
Pennsylvania County Ditches Drop Boxes, Cites Security Concerns– thefederalist.com Source Link Excerpt:
Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, will reportedly not use drop boxes this election cycle citing concerns of “illegal activities.”
Luzerne County Manager Romilda Crocamo sent a notice to county election officials on Wednesday saying the county lacked the “capability” to ensure the drop boxes were safe locations for voters to leave their ballots, according to WNEP.
“While I recognize that drop boxes can provide alternative means for voters to cast their ballots, I must prioritize the safety and security of our community in the current political climate,” Crocamo said. “We don’t have the capability, we don’t have the number of staff members to actually stand by the drop boxes to keep them safe, so I decided I’m not going to deploy them.”
Judge rules it’s too late to challenge Arizona open primary proposition– www.washingtonexaminer.com Source Link Excerpt:
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Frank Moskowitz ruled today that a proposition that would establish open primaries in Arizona will have the opportunity to be voted into law by Arizonans, even though almost 40,000 voter signatures have been invalidated.
Even though ballots have already been printed with the proposition on it, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the superior court look at the evidence of duplicated signatures provided by the Arizona Free Enterprise Club. Special Master Christopher Skelly submitted his report yesterday, showing that 35,478 of the submitted signatures were indeed duplicates.
“In a major development with the signature challenge over Proposition 140, the special master reviewing the duplicate signatures determined that 99% of the 38,000 signatures reviewed were, in fact, duplicates,” reads a statement from the Arizona Free Enterprise Club. “Of the nearly 40,000 duplicates that were included when the Prop 140 Committee submitted their signatures to the Secretary of State, around 250 people had signed five or more times. One individual had signed 15 times. All those signatures were included in the final tabulation by the Arizona Secretary of State and challenged in state courts.”
Voting chaos as state is forced to shut down electronic polling system after major candidate was left off – Daily Mail UK Source Link Excerpt:
The state of Montana took its electronic absentee voting system offline shortly after it went live when prospective voters discovered Kamala Harris wasn’t on the ballot.
While Harris is considered a severe underdog in Montana, Democrats are still hoping they can voters to turn out to save incumbent Senator Jon Tester against Donald Trump-endorsed Tim Sheehy.
Max Himsl, a voter living in the United Kingdom, wanted to make his choice once the ballots were online on Friday at 8am.
The ballot listed both Trump and the now out of the race independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. but not the vice president.
Himsl said: ‘I’m upset my democratic process was interrupted’.
Federal judge rejects RFK Jr. motion to remove name from Michigan ballot – Michigan Advance Source Link Excerpt:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has again been rejected in his effort to have his name removed from Michigan’s ballot this November.
The latest setback came Wednesday when U.S. District Court Judge Denise Page Hood declined to grant Kennedy’s request for a preliminary injunction to halt the printing of ballots with his name listed as the presidential nominee of the Natural Law Party.
“Defendant argues that the integrity of the electoral process is at stake,” she wrote in her 18-page order. “Reprinting ballots at this late hour would undoubtedly halt the voting process in Michigan and cause a burden to election officials.”
The final deadline to get ballots printed and sent to military and overseas voters must be at least 45 days before the election, which would be Saturday.
Supreme Court rejects Green Party bid to appear on Nevada presidential ballot – NBC News Source Link Excerpt:
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday rejected Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein’s last-ditch request to be included on the ballot in Nevada, a key swing state.
The court in a brief unsigned order left in place a decision by the Nevada Supreme Court that blocked Stein from appearing on the ballot over a dispute concerning whether the Green Party had submitted the correct paperwork.
State officials had told the court that ballots that do not feature Stein and her running mate, Butch Ware, are already being printed ahead of the Nov. 5 election. Ballots must be sent to overseas military voters by Saturday, with at least one county having already done so.
Forcing a late change to the ballot language “would undermine the integrity of Nevada’s election,” Attorney General Aaron Ford wrote in court papers.
Jay Sekulow, an ally of former President Donald Trump, represented the Green Party. In swing states in particular, third-party candidates can be crucial to the outcome, with the Green Party potentially winning some votes that would otherwise go to the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.
How Minnesota Allows Noncitizens to Vote Automatic Voter Registration at DMV | The Gateway Pundit– www.thegatewaypundit.com Source Link Excerpt:
When Governor Tim Walz signed the Minnesota automatic voter registration bill into law in May 2023, most people assumed it would only allow eligible U.S. citizens to be automatically registered to vote. They were wrong.
U.S. citizenship is an eligibility requirement to vote in Minnesota, according to Article VII Section 1 of the State Constitution.
But now, with the new Minnesota drivers license application form, there are no questions, check boxes, or signed oaths regarding citizenship whatsoever, anywhere; only a paragraph, in the tiniest of print, at the very bottom of the form saying:
“If you provide documentation showing you are not a U.S. citizen at the time of application, no data will be sent to the Office of the Secretary of State.”
This craftily constructed sentence defines the ONLY criteria under which a new applicant’s data must not be sent to the Secretary of State and registered to vote.
There are no requirements on the form to show citizenship or even attest to it. That means if an illegal immigrant, with an easily obtainable SS#, chooses not to provide documentation showing they are not a U.S. citizen at the time of application, they will be automatically registered to vote.
RNC Challenge to Mississippi’s Mail-In Ballot Deadline to Be Heard by 5th Circuit – democracydocket.com Source Link Excerpt:
Mississippi currently permits mail-in ballots to be counted up to five business days after an election, provided they are postmarked on or before Election Day. The Republican National Committee (RNC) is challenging this law, and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral argument on the matter Tuesday.
The RNC, along with the Mississippi GOP and two Republican voters, filed this lawsuit back in January, against Secretary of State Michael Watson (R) and county election officials.
The GOP plaintiffs argued that the state election law about the mail-in ballot receipt deadline “effectively extends Mississippi’s federal election past the Election Day established by Congress” and results in “valid ballots” being “diluted by untimely, invalid ballots.”
The Republicans specifically argued this law harms their party because, during the 2022 election, significantly more Democrats voted by mail than their GOP counterparts.
“That means the late-arriving mail-in ballots that are counted for five additional days disproportionately break for Democrats,” the plaintiffs argued in their lawsuit.
Johnson pulls stopgap spending bill – Axios Source Link Excerpt:
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) ditched a planned vote Wednesday on his six-month stopgap funding bill that included a crackdown on non-citizen voting.
Why it matters: It’s the latest setback for Johnson, who was facing opposition from fellow Republicans as well nearly all Democrats and raises pressure on GOP leaders to find an alternative path for avoiding a shutdown in less than three weeks.
“No vote today because we’re in the consensus-building business,” Johnson told reporters Wednesday.
That likely puts off a House vote on a stopgap bill until next week at the earliest.
At least eight GOP lawmakers publicly came out against the bill, despite pressure from former President Trump to back it, leaving Johnson short of the votes he would need to pass it out of the chamber.
Republicans push for clean stopgap as leaders regroup on shutdown plan – The Hill Source Link Excerpt:
A growing number of House Republicans say they know how the current government funding drama ends: with a clean continuing resolution (CR) that kicks the shutdown deadline to after Election Day.
The question is how Congress arrives at that conclusion.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) scrapped plans for the House to vote on his conservative funding bill Wednesday when it became clear it didn’t have the GOP votes to pass, catapulting the conference back to square one with less than a month until the shutdown deadline.
Some Republicans are pushing Johnson to make another attempt at clearing a conservative funding bill, arguing that a successful effort could help strengthen the party’s hand in forthcoming bipartisan negotiations.
Muddying the waters, former President Trump is urging Republicans to vote against any short-term funding bill that does not secure “absolute assurances on Election Security.”
U.S. House speaker withdraws spending bill that would require ID to register to vote • Virginia Mercury Source Link Excerpt:
WASHINGTON — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson pulled a six-month stopgap spending bill from heading to the floor for a vote Wednesday, scuttling efforts by the GOP to show solidarity behind their plan, which included a provision requiring ID to register to vote in federal elections.
The spending bill, released by House Republicans last week in the heat of a presidential campaign in which immigration is a central focus, had no chance of becoming law amid opposition from Democrats, a cool response from many GOP senators and a veto threat from the Biden administration.
A number of House GOP lawmakers had also come out against the legislation.
Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, told reporters that lawmakers plan to work through the weekend to find a path forward on the stopgap spending bill and language that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote.
September 18, 2024
Cornel West disqualified from Georgia’s ballot, judge rules – 11 Alive Source Link Excerpt:
The decision means votes for West won’t be counted in Georgia, although his name will remain on ballots because the judge said it’s too late to remove it.
ATLANTA — A Georgia state court judge on Wednesday disqualified independent presidential candidate Cornel West from running for president in the state, ruling that West’s electors didn’t file the proper paperwork.
For now at least, the decision means votes for West won’t be counted in Georgia, although his name will remain on ballots because the judge said it’s too late to remove it.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas A. Cox ruled it was too late to order new ballots printed, with military and overseas ballots scheduled to be mailed starting Tuesday. Instead, Cox ordered the state to post notices in polling places warning West had been disqualified and votes for him would be void, a common remedy in Georgia for late election changes.
It’s OK To ‘Help’ Mentally Incapacitated Relatives With Ballots– thefederalist.com Source Link Excerpt:
The New York Times encouraged a reader last week to “help” a 97-year-old woman with advanced memory loss — who is “becoming nearly impossible to communicate with” — to complete her ballot.
“When the situation is hazy, my inclination would be to err on the side of helping someone to vote, because voting is such a central form of civic participation,” wrote the Times’ “Ethicist” Columnist Kwame Anthony Appiah.
A reader wrote the Times, saying the grandmother has “advanced” Alzheimer’s and hearing loss. The reader wanted to know if it would be “unethical” to help the elderly woman vote in November, likely having the grandma do “the mechanics of voting” while family members “advise her.”
The reader claimed to have helped the grandmother fill out her absentee ballot in 2020.
DeKalb GOP sues Georgia Secretary of State, claiming poor election security – Atlantic City Circle Source Link Excerpt:
The DeKalb County Republican Party has filed a lawsuit against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger alleging that the encryption keys for the software used in the state’s Dominion Voting System are not stored securely.
The DeKalb GOP wants the Secretary of State’s Office to properly store the encryption keys and “immediately bring the Dominion systems used in Georgia elections into compliance with Georgia law.” The lawsuit alleges that the state’s Dominion system software has been in an “illegal and insecure state since at least 2020,” and that the Secretary of State’s Office has known this since March, 2024.
The DeKalb GOP also wants the Secretary of State’s office to make the Dominion system logs, cast-vote records and ballot images available to itself and the public for inspection within 24 hours of polls closing on Nov. 5.
The lawsuit, filed Aug. 30 in Fulton County Superior Court, was announced by the DeKalb Republican Party on X on Monday. A hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 30.
New rules for ballot drop boxes in Ohio puts restrictions on who can use them – BG Independent News Source Link Excerpt:
The latest attempt to prevent voter fraud in Ohio will make it more difficult for voters to use ballot drop boxes and make more work for election workers across the state.
On Wednesday morning, the Wood County Board of Elections discussed the impact of Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s recent directive that only those people dropping off their own ballots may use the drop box.
That means people dropping off ballots for family members must come into the board of elections during business hours and fill out paperwork attesting to their relationship to the voter. They cannot use the drop off box.
Nearly four million Ohioans voted last November, with approximately 25% voting absentee, according to state data.
So the state directive could mean a lot more work for election workers across the state.
Republicans challenge North Carolina decision that lets students show university’s mobile ID – ABC News Source Link Excerpt:
RALEIGH, N.C. — The Republican Party sued North Carolina’s elections board on Thursday to block students and employees at the state’s flagship public university from offering a digital identification as a way to comply with a relatively new photo voter ID law.
The Republican National Committee and North Carolina filed the lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court three weeks after the Democratic majority on the State Board of Elections approved the “Mobile UNC One Card” generated by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a qualifying ID.
The law says qualifying IDs must meet several photo and security requirements to be approved by the board. The UNC-Chapel Hill digital ID, which is voluntary for students and staff and available on Apple phones, marks the qualification of the first such ID posted from someone’s smartphone.
DOJ NON-CITIZEN VOTER SHIELD ACTIVATES AS GOP HOUSE POISES TO FAIL SAVE ACT – The DOJ has shot a warning across the bow of states planning to cull their roles of dead and illegal voters, sending out a “guidance” designed to address “limits on when and how jurisdictions may remove voters from their voter lists.” Trump may have indirectly challenged such actions in his recent warning to election cheaters that when he wins he will prosecute them.
A small revolt within the GOP will lead to the failure of House Speaker Johnson to pass a CR with the SAVE Act (an act that makes it clear to the states they cannot allow non-citizens to vote) even as we learn of 100,000 non-citizens showing up on Arizona voter rolls as being registered to vote. This follows news of Non-Citizens being wrongly registered to vote by Oregon’s DMV.
A beacon of light shone in New Hampshire where Governor Chris Sununu (R) signed a law explicitly requiring Voter ID in order for Americans to vote. PA may get some relief in culling non-citizens from their voter rolls if they showed up there through their DMV, but the audit ordered by PA’s current Auditor General, Timothy DeFoor (R), won’t bring relief in time for the election. PA’s highest court also removed Cornell West from the ballot in a move that is sure to help the DNC-CCP.
Biden’s DOJ Threatens Election Offices Over Cleaning Voter Rolls– thefederalist.com Source Link Excerpt:
The Justice Department’s (DOJ) recent guidance, trumpeted by the administration’s progressive allies, addresses “limits on when and how jurisdictions may remove voters from their voter lists.” Three aspects of the guidance are problematic…
The implication is that the nation’s chief law enforcement agency is more concerned with policing the efforts of government officials to clean the voter rolls than that the voter rolls may be dirty — this despite states having found ample evidence of impropriety…
The DOJ’s decision to issue such guidance also suggests it believes states are being too vigorous in their voter roll maintenance efforts, and that the department is scrutinizing those efforts.
Trump Vows to Prosecute Election Cheaters– www.dailysignal.com Source Link Excerpt:
As early voting begins this week in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, former President Donald Trump posted another warning to cheaters on Truth Social.
“CEASE & DESIST,” the 45th president posted Tuesday. “I, together with many Attorneys and Legal Scholars, am watching the Sanctity of the 2024 Presidential Election very closely because I know, better than most, the rampant Cheating and Skullduggery that has taken place by the Democrats in the 2020 Presidential Election. It was a Disgrace to our Nation!”
House Republicans poised to reject funding bill with shutdown just around the corner – NBC News Source Link Excerpt:
House Republicans on Wednesday are expected to derail their own plan to avert a government shutdown at the end of the month, with the party divided over the length of a short-term funding bill and what, if anything, should be attached to it.
Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan calls for extending funding at current spending levels for six months, through March 2025, and linking it with the SAVE Act, Donald Trump-backed legislation requiring that people show proof of citizenship to register to vote…
The funding package is on track to fail given Republicans’ razor-thin 220-211 majority and the fact that a number of GOP lawmakers — a mix of fiscal conservatives and defense hawks — have vowed to tank it….
House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said after Wednesday’s meeting that he had complete faith in Johnson figuring out how to avert a shutdown, noting the speaker reached a funding deal earlier this year with Schumer for the current fiscal year.
“At the end of the day, if he ever wanted to shut down the government, he had a lot of opportunities to do that,” Cole said. “Since he’s been speaker, he’s never let it happen. I don’t think he ever will.”
Google Blocks AI on Second Trump Assassination Attempt, Favors Leftist Media– www.newsbusters.org Source Link Excerpt:
Gemini’s Censorship: MRC researchers prompted Gemini to answer whether there had been a “second assassination attempt on Donald Trump.” Gemini—one of the most popular and Google’s “most capable” AI chatbots—inexplicably refused to answer the simple question even though it admitted to having real-time information.
“I can’t help with that right now. I’m trained to be as accurate as possible but I can make mistakes sometimes,” the chatbot claimed, before directing MRC to Google Search…
Google Search and the Google News tab Were Not to be Outdone: … Google Search results yielded not a single right-leaning outlet among the five search results displayed, while simultaneously featuring CNN and NBC News twice when queried with “second trump assassination attempt.” Meanwhile, the Google News tab only displayed Fox News once out of nine results for the same query.
In total, Google displayed leftist and center outlets at a staggering 13:1 ratio, according to MRC’s analysis using the AllSides Media Bias Chart…
Gavin Newsom chuckles as he signs bills restricting AI use in election ads — but social media users may have last laugh– www.theblaze.com Source Link Excerpt:
AB 2655, also known as the Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act of 2024, requires online platforms “to block the posting of materially deceptive content related to elections in California” and “to label certain additional content inauthentic, fake, or false” during designated periods before and after an election.
AB 2355 expands upon existing law and requires a committee that creates, publishes, and/or distributes some political advertising to add a “disclosure” noting when an ad has been “generated or substantially altered” using AI. The bill addresses “any image, audio, or video that is generated or substantially altered using artificial intelligence” that would give a reasonable person “a fundamentally different understanding of the altered media when comparing it to an unaltered version.”
AB 2839 also builds upon existing law that already prohibits people from knowingly distributing, with malice, election material containing “certain materially deceptive content.” Previous law required this statute to be enforced 60 days before an election. It will now be enforced 120 days before an election and, in certain cases, up to 60 days afterward.
In a statement, Newsom insisted these speech restrictions were necessary for the sake of democracy.
“Safeguarding the integrity of elections is essential to democracy, and it’s critical that we ensure AI is not deployed to undermine the public’s trust through disinformation – especially in today’s fraught political climate,” Newsom said. “These measures will help to combat the harmful use of deepfakes in political ads and other content, one of several areas in which the state is being proactive to foster transparent and trustworthy AI.”
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Kicks Cornel West Off 2024 Ballot– thefederalist.com Source Link Excerpt:
Pennsylvania’s Democrat-controlled supreme court shot down left-wing presidential candidate Cornel West’s bid to appear on the state’s 2024 ballot.
In a reportedly unsigned order, the Keystone State’s highest court affirmed a lower court ruling denying West’s bid for ballot access. In that ruling, Commonwealth Court Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer sided with the office of Secretary of State Al Schmidt “in rejecting West’s candidacy paperwork,” according to the Washington Examiner.
Schmidt’s office had argued that “the paperwork lacked the affidavits for 14 of the 19 presidential electors required by the Aug. 1 filing deadline,” according to the outlet.
Schmidt indicated prior to Monday’s decision that a final ruling on West’s case by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court would allow counties to begin printing ballots for the November contest. Schmidt is a self-professed “Republican” and was appointed by Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro.
“As soon as the court rules on that, we’ll certify the official list and then counties can complete their preparations to mail out ballots and to have voters, if they choose, go to a county election office to apply in person,” he reportedly said.
Nearly 100,000 Voters Registered Without Proof of Citizenship as ‘Flaw’ Could Impact Upcoming Elections– www.westernjournal.com Source Link Excerpt:
Almost 100,000 Arizona voters are in election limbo because of a flaw that has state officials at odds over the proper remedy.
Arizona passed a law in 2004 that requires documented proof of citizenship to register as “full-ballot voters.” Driver’s licenses are considered valid proof of citizenship. But there’s a problem, because prior to 1996, motor vehicle records did not have proof of citizenship on file.
About 97,000 people are impacted, as officials offer competing solutions.
In one corner, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said he thinks these are legal voters who should go ahead and vote as they always have, according to KPHO-TV.
But Stepehn Richer, the Maricopa County Recorder, disagrees, according to KSAZ-TV.
(Oregon) State Admits That It Has Wrongly Registered Hundreds of Non-Citizens to Vote– www.westernjournal.com Source Link Excerpt:
In the latest object lesson in why we need voter ID laws and why motor-voter initiatives are a terrible idea, the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles quietly announced late last week that over 300 non-citizens had been accidentally registered to vote.
Furthermore, The Oregonian’s report on the matter seemed to indicate a number of these 306 people illegally registered to vote were also here illegally, as well.
“The mistake occurred in part because Oregon has allowed undocumented residents to obtain driver’s licenses since 2019 and the DMV automatically registers most individuals to vote when they obtain a license or ID, according to Kevin Glenn, spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Transportation, which oversees the DMV,” the report said.
“Glenn said an initial analysis by the state transportation agency revealed 306 non-citizens were allowed to become registered voters. Of those, only two have cast a vote in any election since 2021, Glenn said.
NH Governor Signs No-Excuse Voter ID And Citizenship Law– thefederalist.com Source Link Excerpt:
Gov. Chris Sununu, R-N.H., signed a no-excuse voter identification and proof-of-citizenship bill into law last week, but it will not go into effect until six days after this year’s election.
The law, which passed the state’s Republican-majority House and Senate earlier this year, will require New Hampshire voters to provide proof of citizenship to apply for registration, as well as a photo ID when casting a ballot. In the event a person can’t show a valid ID, the supervisor may “review the voter’s qualifications and determine if the voter’s identity can be verified.”
“If the supervisor of the checklist determines that the voter’s qualifications and identity have not been established, the voter shall not be allowed to vote,” the law clarifies.
PA Motor Voter System Will Be Audited For Noncitizen Voters – thefederalist.com
Pennsylvania Auditor General Timothy DeFoor, a Republican, sent a letter Monday to PennDOT Secretary Michael Carroll and Neil Weaver, secretary of the Governor’s Office of Administration, informing them that the auditor’s office will be conducting a performance audit of the motor voter registration process.
The audit will look at the automatic voter registration system covering the period between Jan. 1 and June 30.
Specifically, it will look at the implementation of the program, its compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, and how it relates to the state election code. The audit will also “determine whether PennDOT’s Motor Voter interface files sent to the Pennsylvania Department of State properly excluded non-citizens.”
It is unlikely the audit’s results will influence the 2024 election. DeFoor set a deadline of Oct. 4 for a meeting to be held between PennDOT and the auditor. Draft notes and audit information are not made public. PennDOT will have 120 business days to submit a response to the audit. The election is less than 50 days away.
The Michigan Supreme Court has upheld Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s new restrictions on poll watchers.
In a divided ruling, the top court’s Democrat majority sided with Benson.
The court argues that Benson is acting within her authority as the chief election officer of the state to require poll watchers to communicate only with a designated “challenger liaison,” among other changes.
“Under the Michigan Election Law, the secretary of state is the chief election officer of Michigan,” Justice Kyra Harris Bolden wrote.
“The secretary has supervisory control over local election officials in the performance of their duties.”
The court also upheld rules requiring poll watchers to use a credential form provided by Benson.
Six RINOs Just Pledged to Certify 2024 Election Results, No Matter the Outcome — Here’s the List– wltreport.com Source Link Excerpt:
The swamp is already preparing for Election Day (or month, if we have a repeat of last election…)
A group of over 30 House representatives — including 6 Republicans — just signed a bipartisan pledge promising to certify the results of the 2024 Election, no questions asked.
They’re calling it the “Unity Commitment,” and they’re framing it as a way to “safeguard” Democracy.
Democrat Rep. Josh Gottheimer from New Jersey and Republican Rep. Don Bacon wrote up this pledge and rallied other Congress members to sign it. Along with Bacon, here are the other 5 Republicans who signed the pledge:
Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA)
Mike Lawler (R-NY)
Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR)
Nick LaLota (R-NY)
Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY)
Pennsylvania court reverses ruling allowing misdated mail-in ballots – NewsNation Now Source Link Excerpt:
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on Friday that mail-in ballots with incorrect dates will not be counted in November, reversing a previous ruling from a lower court in the battleground state.
The decision from last month named only Philadelphia and Allegheny Counties, which the state’s Supreme Court argued the lower ruling lacked jurisdiction.
“HUGE election integrity win in Pennsylvania,” GOP Chairman Michael Whatley said in a post on X.
Federal judge restores Arkansas voter registration ‘Wet Signature’ requirement – KLRT – FOX16.com Source Link Excerpt:
The U.S. Eighth District Court of Appeals on Friday released a decision that handwritten signatures are required on voter registration applications in Arkansas.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks previously placed an injunction against the State Board of Commissioners’ “wet signature” rule in late August, saying voters could submit signatures electronically.
The decision from the U.S. Eighth Circuit reverses that, again requiring pen-to-paper signatures for voter registration applications.
DeSantis: ‘Democrats Oppose Voter ID Because They Want There To Be Illegal Votes’ – The Daily Wire Source Link Excerpt:
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis discussed his efforts over the weekend to make sure that his state has the most secure elections in the country this fall.
DeSantis told “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo on Fox News that the state has banned ballot harvesting and imposed serious penalties for offenders.
“We require photo ID in order to vote,” he said. “We’ve banned the use of Zuckerbucks, and we’ve been aggressive at policing the voter rolls so that we have accurate voter rolls, and when people have run afoul of our election laws, this election crimes unit we’ve created has been able to investigate, refer these people to prosecution, and you’ve had over 50 people just in the last couple years that have been convicted of various types of voter fraud.”
“In the state of Florida, we require voter ID,” he continued. “We also prohibit issuing any type of photo ID to illegal aliens, no driver’s license, no local government IDs, no private organizations are allowed to issue illegals photo ID, and we don’t recognize out of state licenses or any type of ID for illegals. What that means is it’s almost impossible for an illegal to register to vote. In some of these states where they do issue those ID cards, they can go in, and there’s really no check of the citizenship that has been done. So we’ve been very aggressive in ensuring that only US citizens are on the voter rolls. When we’ve identified people that have voted illegally who are not US citizens, we have brought prosecutions against them.”’
Mass Mail-In Voting Is Democrats’ New ‘Blue Wall’– thefederalist.com Source Link Excerpt:
The most striking feature of the contentious 2020 election was the sudden explosion of mass mail-in voting in states that had little experience with it, and the unprecedented levels of election interference that occurred as left-leaning nonprofit organizations such as The Center for Tech and Civic Life (which was behind “Zuckbucks”) and Democrat “lawfare” experts tried to make the best of this chaotic, mail-in ballot free-for-all.
The mail-in ballot election of 2020 created the template for the Democrats’ new “Blue Wall” election strategy, as a deluge of mail-in ballots propelled Joe Biden to victory, especially in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The rate of mail-in voting rose to above 50 percent in Michigan and Wisconsin, and almost 40 percent in Pennsylvania.
The old “Blue Wall” was an impregnable fortress of safely Democrat states because of large blocs of blue-collar voters — mainly in the Rust Belt of the upper Midwest — that could be relied upon to get Democrats an electoral college victory in a close election. The old “Blue Wall,” however, dramatically failed to protect Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, as an unexpectedly large number of formerly Democrat, working-class voters in Rust Belt states became Donald Trump voters.
—
Fears mount that election deniers could disrupt vote count in US swing states – The Guardian Source Link Excerpt:
Fears are rising that the vote count in November’s presidential election could be disrupted as a result of the proliferation of Donald Trump’s lies about stolen elections and rampant voter fraud in the key swing states where the race for the White House will be decided.
A new survey of eight vital swing states reveals that at least 239 election deniers who have signed up to Trump’s “election integrity” conspiracy theories – including the false claim that the 2020 election was rigged against him – are actively engaged in electoral battles this year. The deniers are standing for congressional or state seats, holding Republican leadership positions, and overseeing elections on state and county election boards.
The report by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), a watchdog group focusing on special interests distorting US democracy, reveals the extent of denial in the eight critical states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It shows that corrosive efforts to damage public confidence in elections have proliferated there despite the drubbing the election denial movement received in the 2022 midterms….
“What was striking to us about our research is how much election denialism and the voter fraud lie have infiltrated and taken over the Republican apparatus in each of these critical states,” said CMD’s executive director Arn Pearson.
Election Deniers Want AI Cameras to Stream Footage of Ballot Dropboxes – wired.com Source Link Excerpt:
Engelbrecht has also said the group is looking to roll out dropbox monitoring in multiple states, and mentioned Michigan as a possible location, though most of her focus appears to be on Wisconsin.
In her interview with Wallnau, Engelbrecht added that she was working with “three influential sheriffs” in Wisconsin, though didn’t name them.
WIRED contacted two dozen sheriffs from Wisconsin’s largest counties, but did not find a single one who was going to be part of the monitoring effort. Engelbrecht and Truth the Vote did not respond to multiple requests for comment from WIRED to name the sheriffs who have agreed to be part of the program.
“True the Vote has reached out to the Sheriff’s Office regarding ideas as they relate to election integrity and possible law violations,” Deputy Inspector Patrick R. Esser, from the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department, tells WIRED. “True the Vote proposed the idea of donating cameras to the sheriff’s office to monitor election sites, however, the obstacles associated with that idea made it impractical.”
While most sheriff offices WIRED contacted did not respond to requests for comment, a number, including offices in Buffalo County and Polk County, said they had not even heard about the dropbox initiative. “I was unaware of the plan and will not be participating,” Sheriff Mike Osmond from Buffalo County tells WIRED. “I am not sure if they are legal or not but do not have interest in implementing such a program.”
Conservatives expect Johnson will embrace proof-of-citizenship voting in anti-shutdown measure – The Hill
Hard-line conservatives expect Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will embrace their favored tactic by bringing a stopgap bill to the House floor next week that includes a proof-of-citizenship voting bill and would extend government funding into 2025.
Such a move would not only grant a win to the House GOP’s conservative wing, but would tee up a showdown with the Democratic-controlled Senate and White House, which both object to the voting bill. Congress faces a Sept. 30 deadline to prevent a shutdown.
Johnson’s office has not confirmed the funding plan, but Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) — a key member of the House Freedom Caucus who has been in discussions with leadership as he advocates for the strategy — is publicly expressing confidence about the next step.
It’s Schumer’s Fault If Government Shuts Down over Noncitizens Voting – breitbart.com
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) told reporters at the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) annual leadership meeting that if Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) refuses to allow a vote on a bill to require proof of citizenship to vote in U.S. elections, and the government shuts down as a result, that will be his own fault.
Scott was referring to the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, also known as the SAVE Act, which “requires individuals to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship in order to register to vote in federal elections.”
As Breitbart News has reported, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) is considering attaching the SAVE Act to a stopgap spending measure that would have to be signed by September 30 to keep the federal government open.
Scott told Breitbart News that Johnson was moving ahead with the idea in the House: “I think he has the votes.”
Asked whether there was some risk to Republicans of a government shutdown ahead of the presidential election, Scott suggested that if Schumer allowed a shutdown over non-citizens voting, Democrats would suffer instead.
Dems Will Reject Chance To Keep Noncitizens Out Of Elections – thefederalist.com
All but five Democrats voted in July against the Republican-led Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote. But Speaker Mike Johnson is reportedly giving Democrats another opportunity to safeguard our elections by tying the bill to a continuing resolution (CR) that would keep the government funded through March.
After Democrats let millions of illegal immigrants into the country, Republicans introduced the SAVE Act. Currently, voters must simply check a box affirming they are a citizen when registering to vote — nothing more than the honor system.
Johnson, according to Punchbowl News, is planning on tying the CR to the SAVE Act. Utah Sen. Mike Lee previously expressed support for tying the two together, telling Fox News in August that attaching the legislation to the spending bill is “the best way to move that through, to make sure that the 10 million plus illegal immigrants who have come in in the last 3 and a half years, and the estimated roughly 30 million noncitizens total in the United States aren’t voting in this November’s election.”
President Joe Biden has vowed to veto the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, which simply requires proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. His promise was made in reaction to congressional Republicans who want to include it with any continuing resolution required to fund the next fiscal year, which begins on Oct. 1. The president’s adamant opposition to what most Americans support demonstrates just how much Democrats are dedicated to making it easier to cheat in elections.
On Dec. 16, 2020, as chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, I held a hearing titled, “Examining the Irregularities in the 2020 election.” In spite of the wailing and gnashing of teeth from the election irregularity deniers, there were many indisputable irregularities.
In Wisconsin, 170,000 faulty absentee ballots in Milwaukee and Dane County were improperly counted by election clerks. Representatives of the far-left “Zuckerbucks” program — which is designed to pour left-wing dollars into local election offices, benefiting their Democrat candidates — imposed such heavy-handed direction in Green Bay that the local election clerk resigned from the stress and allowed Zuckerberg’s minions to run the election. “Democracy in the Park” was allowed in Madison, where activists unlawfully collected 17,300 ballots. Seniors in nursing homes voted without the required voting deputies present, bordering on elder abuse for political gain. As was the case in other states, election observers were not allowed to effectively observe the election process.
Biden Admin Dismisses Noncitizen Voting As ‘Already Illegal’ – thefederalist.com
White House Press Sec. Karine Jean-Pierre reassured reporters Tuesday that “it is already illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections.” Cue the nationwide sigh of relief: At last, we can sleep easy knowing noncitizens won’t vote, because — surprise! — it’s against the law.
But do you know what else is also “already illegal?”
Drunk driving. Yet roughly one million people are arrested each year in the United States for drunk driving, according to Better Life Recovery & Wellness, and “results from surveys show that this number represents only a small portion of the actual number of alcohol-impaired drivers behind the wheel each year.”
It’s also “already illegal” for someone under the age of 21 to buy or drink alcohol, yet 12.6 million people between the ages of 12 and 20 have reported having at least one alcoholic drink in their life, according to the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
RNC Appeals PA Court Decision That Scrapped Ballot Dating Rule – thefederalist.com
After a court in Pennsylvania scrapped enforcement of a law requiring that mail-in ballots be properly dated in order to be counted, the Republican National Committee is asking the state supreme court to weigh in.
The RNC, joined by the Republican Party of Pennsylvania, intervened in the case brought by multiple left-wing groups (represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania), while the counsel of Secretary of State Al Schmidt (a Republican official named as defendant in the suit) filed a brief in support of the petitioners.
“We have reached a point of true absurdity in election law litigation. A court that does not even have jurisdiction over this matter somehow concluded that asking people to write down a date on the envelope in which they transmit their mail-in ballots imposes a ‘severe burden’ on their ability to vote,” Derek Lyons, president and CEO of Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections and former counselor to President Donald Trump, told The Federalist.
“Let’s be clear: Even second-graders know how to write the date on their schoolwork, so every adult voter can do likewise on their ballot envelope with no trouble whatsoever. Next, we will find out that asking people to mark their own ballots is also a constitutional violation. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court must act quickly to reverse this decision and end this madness.”
Pennsylvania fails to resolve key election disputes ahead of 2024 voting– Washington Examiner
Early voting is poised to get underway in several states this month. The Washington Examiner will take a closer look at the swing states, including voting rules you need to know and key differences from prior elections. Part three of Battleground Ballots will focus on what has changed in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state that is likely to determine which candidate wins the presidency.
Pennsylvania is poised to face many of the same challenges in 2024 that it experienced in the 2020 election which led to the state not being called for President Joe Biden until days after Election Day.
The dayslong delay in determining the winner sparked widespread accusations of voter fraud in Pennsylvania, leading to the Keystone State being among the battleground states that faced lawsuits from former President Donald Trump’s campaign in 2020. Four years later, state legislators have failed to resolve the key disputes over ballot tabulation and certification that prompted the backlog.
Pennsylvania has established itself as the cornerstone of the 2024 election, with its 19 electoral votes and battleground status making it among the biggest prizes on election night and crucial to winning the presidency. The state was paramount to Trump’s victory in 2016 as well as Biden’s in 2020, prompting both parties to pour millions of dollars into the state to secure a pathway to the White House.
Some changes have been made in the state since 2020, such as a lower court ruling last week that would require counties to notify voters if their ballots are at risk of being rejected. Another ruling passed down last week would overturn a state requirement to throw out ballots if they are not correctly dated.
Fake ‘Non-Partisan’ Voter Registration Group Rigging Outreach to Exclude Republicans – lidblog.com
The Voter Participation Center claims to be a non-partisan voter registration outfit. But they are liars because an expose of their outreach shows they only work to register new Democrat voters.
According to the expose published by the Washington Free Beacon, this group is spending millions of Facebook ads to get new voters to use their voter registration system. But they are rigging their ads to exclude Facebook users whose Facebook data shows are right leaning people.
It appears that the group is making sure people whose Facebook data shows like things including Jeeps, NASCAR, and golf are excluded from their ad outreach.
Per The Beacon:
The Voter Participation Center is a self-described “non-partisan” charity that claims to have helped more than six million people register to vote since its inception in 2003. The group’s claim to be “non-partisan” is important because the IRS is clear that charities, beneficiaries of generous tax exemptions, can only engage in voter registration drives in a “neutral, non-partisan manner.” The IRS prohibits charities from engaging in voter registration activities in a manner that favors a candidate or political party.
On the surface, the Voter Participation Center’s Facebook ads appear to meet that non-partisan standard. “It’s quick and easy to register online to vote in Georgia. Check it off your to-do list in just a few minutes here,” reads one of the organization’s ads that has received over one million impressions in the swing state.
But behind the scenes, Facebook ad library data indicate the Voter Participation Center’s ad campaign is deployed with partisan intent. The group has instructed Facebook to exclude from the reach of its ads anyone with expressed interests in 26 categories typically associated with Republican men, including the “PGA Tour,” “Indianapolis 500,” “Daytona 500,” “Tom Clancy,” “Modified Jeeps,” “Duck Dynasty,” and others.
RNC Urges Election Officials To Scrutinize Dem-Aligned Group Registering Patients To Vote in Hospitals – freebeacon.com
The Republican National Committee on Tuesday sent letters to election officials in six swing states urging them to monitor Vot-ER, the nonprofit that helps doctors register their patients to vote, for possible violations of election law, according to copies of the letters obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
Addressed to secretaries of state in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Arizona, and Nevada, the letters argue that Vot-ER is “weaponizing the healthcare system” for partisan ends and “threatening … election integrity” with its materials, which have been used to register patients in emergency rooms, substance abuse clinics, and even psychiatric hospitals.
“It is not difficult to imagine how a patient could feel pressured to register to vote or support a certain candidate to receive medical care,” the letters say. “The RNC is and always has been a staunch supporter of voter registration and participation, but this perversion of the doctor-patient relationship raises serious legal concerns given the laws and regulations governing that relationship and voter registration.”
Michigan Court of Appeals Rules to Remove RFK Jr. from Presidential Ballot Amid Tight Race – Hoodline Excerpt: Source Link
In a recent turn of events, Michigan’s Court of Appeals has decided that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name should be stricken from the state’s upcoming November presidential ballot. This ruling, delivered on Friday, countervails a prior determination from the Michigan Court of Claims which had posited that Kennedy, despite his desired withdrawal from the race, must be included on the ballot—itself a reflection of the Michigan Secretary of State’s stance.
Battleground ballots: 2024 election to test Michigan’s new voting laws – washingtonexaminer.com
Early voting is poised to get underway in several states this month. The Washington Examiner will take a closer look at the swing states, including voting rules you need to know and key differences from prior elections. Part four of Battleground Ballots will focus on what has changed in Michigan, a key battleground state that has been key to winning the blue wall in recent cycles.
The legal framework governing how Michigan residents vote has been drastically overhauled since 2020, with November’s election representing a pressure test for the new system.
Since 2020, Michigan has introduced a raft of new voting laws after the state passed a ballot proposal in 2022 amending its constitution, according to Erica Peresman, a senior adviser to Promote the Vote, a coalition of Michigan organizations focused on voting.
Chief among the changes is that every municipality in Michigan is now required to offer early voting for at least nine consecutive days starting on the second Saturday before Election Day and ending on the Sunday before Nov. 5 for at least eight hours each day. That is in addition to no-reason absentee voting, which Michigan has had statewide since 2019.
Judge Rules Election Officials CAN’T Reject Online Voter Registrations with Electronic Signatures in Arkansas – conservativeroof.com
Obama-appointed Judge Timothy L. Brooks has potentially paved the way for voter fraud in Arkansas.
On Thursday, Judge Brooks decided that Arkansas election officials must accept online voter registration applications signed with digital or electronic signatures for the upcoming election. This ruling overturns a previous requirement that called for handwritten signatures to verify voter authenticity…
Judge Brooks, aligning with far-left advocacy groups such as Get Loud Arkansas (GLA) and Vote.org, chose to block the rule. In his decision, Brooks argued that the “wet signature” requirement could potentially violate the Materiality Provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“The Court then ORDERED from the Bench that Defendants, (and their respective agents, officers, employees, and successors, and all persons acting in concert with each or any of them) were PRELIMINARILY ENJOINED from enforcing the wet signature rule AND from rejecting or refusing to accept any voter registration application on the ground that it was signed with a digital or electronic signature,” Brooks said in its ruling.
PA Dems Recruited Out-Of-State Poll Watchers, Defying Law – thefederalist.com
It was kind of weird when the Pennsylvania Department of State started a website in February specifically aimed at “combatting damaging misinformation and disinformation” about election integrity.
Weird, because, as a check and balance, the media is supposed to watchdog the government (although too often they don’t) and yet this is a government-run website telling the public that the government is doing things right. It’s akin to state-run media openly favored by socialist regimes.
Now the Republican National Committee (RNC) sent an Aug. 29 letter to the Pennsylvania Department of State asking it to add misinformation it discovered to the state website. It was an opportunity for the Department of State to let its election misinformation website shine.
The RNC noticed the Pennsylvania Democrats’ website had a recruitment ad seeking volunteers to join its “Voter Protection Team” to watch the vote. A screenshot saved by the RNC shows the website said, “Election Day poll observers must be physically present in Pennsylvania for their shift but do not necessarily have to be Pennsylvania voters.”
AZ Counties Are Failing To Take Nonctizens Off Voter Rolls – thefederalist.com
Arizona’s 15 counties are refusing to undertake required procedures to ensure foreign nationals are removed from the voter rolls, an “amended” lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges.
Brought on behalf of the Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona and resident Yvonne Cahill, the legal challenge argues that the Grand Canyon State’s 15 election recorders “have failed to take the actions required by law to ensure that foreign citizens are removed from their voter rolls.” Plaintiffs are represented by America First Legal (AFL) and a law firm headed by former Arizona Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Wright.
“This lawsuit seeks to restore public trust in our State’s electoral system by holding the Defendants accountable for their failures and to ensure that the list maintenance required by the law—and common sense—is performed,” the filing reads.
Tuesday’s challenge is an “amended” version of a complaint filed against Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer early last month, according to a press release from AFL regarding the lawsuit.
Plaintiffs similarly alleged that Richer “ignored” his legally mandated obligation to “ensure” the removal of noncitizens from the locality’s voter rolls. A representative from Richer’s office previously told The Federalist that, while Richer had yet to be served the suit at that point, the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office “prioritizes and prides itself on maintaining accurate, up-to-date voter rolls,” and “will continue to follow the letter of the law.”
The Left Is Attempting To Take Over Local Election Offices – thefederalist.com
Democrats have been on a swing-state crusade to rid election boards of anyone who is more concerned with the fairness and accuracy of our elections than with making sure the Democrat comes out on top. The left’s strategy is predictable yet effective. Utilizing a sophisticated information campaign that includes law articles, op-eds, boots-on-the-ground activism, and large amounts of funding from a handful of elite megadonors, the crusade targets GOP candidates at the local level, as Politico recently reported.
The assault seeks to guarantee a Democrat victory regardless of the outcome. Activist groups armed with millions in dark money promote down-ballot candidates and pop-up, astroturfed organizations, all run and funded by the same entities, with the goal of unseating Republican candidates who champion election integrity. These same groups work to make election boards a toothless rubber stamp on election results, regardless of glaring irregularities or inconsistencies in the process.
Their efforts follow a well-established pattern. For years, the left covertly poured millions into district attorney races, engaging in what Politico called a “quiet overhaul of the U.S. Justice System.” The strategy was clear: Pick the prosecutor. Pick what’s prosecuted.
Guidance on mail-in ballot envelopes issued by North Carolina’s Democrat-controlled election board violates state law, a legal challenge filed Tuesday alleges.
Brought by the Republican National Committee, North Carolina GOP, and a state resident, the lawsuit alleges that the rules put forward by the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) governing absentee ballot security envelopes contradict statutory requirements approved by the state general assembly. Individual members of the NCSBE are named as defendants in the suit.
At issue is a 2021 memo issued by the board to local election officials that plaintiffs argue “undermines the protections afforded by the General Assembly’s carefully drafted absentee-voting statutes.”
President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation needs to desist from forcing the weak hand of Armenia concerning the Zangezur corridor. Iran notified the Russian Federation that geopolitical changes in the Caucasus are not desired. Therefore, other nations – including America, France, and Greece – must step up in their support of this ancient Christian land against the threat of Pan-Turkism (Azerbaijan and Turkey) and the intrigues of the Russian Federation.
Iran is displeased that the Russian Federation and Turkey (NATO power) are supporting Azerbaijan in its demand to control the Zangezur transport corridor. This stretch of Armenian land splits the Nakhchivan Azerbaijan enclave (once Armenian Christian land until cleansed) from the rest of Azerbaijan.
If Azerbaijan, the Russian Federation, and Turkey usurped the Zangezur transport corridor from the control of Armenia, this would entail that Iran is conclusively cut off from its natural border with Armenia.
Iran warns Russia against Caucasus geopolitical changes amid corridor dispute – Al-Monitor
By showing Musk’s X the red card, has Brazil scored a goal for all democracies? – The Guardian Source Link Excerpt:
… Cue shock, horror, incredulity, outrage and all the reactions in between. Musk – who has been sparring with Moraes for quite a while – tweeted: “Free speech is the bedrock of democracy and an unelected pseudo-judge in Brazil is destroying it for political purposes.” The animosity between the two goes back to 8 January 2023, after the defeat of Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 Brazilian presidential election, when a mob of his supporters attacked federal government buildings in the capital, Brasília. The mob invaded and caused deliberate damage to the supreme federal court, the national congress and the Planalto presidential palace in an abortive attempt to overthrow the democratically elected president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Justice Moraes is in the firing line because before the 2022 presidential election the country’s supreme court had given him expansive powers to crack down on online threats to democracy and he has been an enthusiastic deployer of that capability ever since. A New York Times report, for example, said that he “jailed five people without a trial for posts on social media that he said attacked Brazil’s institutions. He has also ordered social networks to remove thousands of posts and videos with little room for appeal.” And it is this last practice that brought him into collision with Musk, whose platform was one of the channels used by the 8 January insurgents.
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Explained: Why did Brazil ban Elon Musk’s X? – The Times of India
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has supported Justice de Moraes’ decision, asserting that wealthy individuals like Musk are not above the law. Meanwhile, Musk has criticized President Lula, referring to him as de Moraes’ “lapdog.” The decision to suspend X was upheld by one of Brazil’s Supreme Court panels, though some legal experts argue that a broader consensus among justices should have been sought for such a critical action.
The Musk vs. de Moraes case exemplifies the complexities tech companies face when navigating different legal frameworks globally, highlighting growing tensions between multinational digital platforms and sovereign laws. With no immediate resolution in sight, the conflict continues to draw international attention, underscoring the intricate relationship between technology, law, and politics in today’s digital landscape.
Brazil Supreme Court panel unanimously upholds judge’s decision to block X nationwide – The Associated Press
The broader support among justices undermines the effort by Musk and his supporters to cast Justice Alexandre de Moraes as an authoritarian renegade who is intent on censoring political speech in Brazil.
The panel that voted in a virtual session was comprised of five of the full bench’s 11 justices, including de Moraes, who last Friday ordered the platform blocked for refusing to name a local legal representative, as required by law. It will stay suspended until it complies with his orders and pays outstanding fines that as of last week exceeded $3 million, according to his decision.
MSNBC calls for boycott of social media platform X, contributor calls for Elon Musk’s prosecution | The Post Millennial– thepostmillennial.com Source Link Excerpt:
“If every moderate-to-liberal human and organization stopped using the site, that might pressure Musk or his board of directors to stop weaponizing it.”
MSNBC has called for a boycott against the social media platform X, claiming that its owner, Elon Musk, has pushed misinformation relating to the upcoming election.
An opinion piece published by MSNBC calling for the boycott cited a recent report by the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate which claimed to have identified 50 instances where Musk posted false claims about the election. The MSNBC piece also accused Musk of amplifying conspiracy theories and anti-Semitism.
“If every moderate-to-liberal human and organization stopped using the site, that might pressure Musk or his board of directors to stop weaponizing it,” the opinion, written by journalist Jay Michaelson, argued.
“It isn’t even a boycott. Leaving X isn’t like boycotting Coors because it’s too right-wing or Bud Light because it’s too left-wing. Those boycotts are fine — that’s part of capitalism too — but X is different in kind. Because unlike beer, the X product itself is the problem,” Michaelson added.
X’s Global Affairs Chief Nick Pickles Resigns After Brazil Ban – observer.com
Longtime X employee Nick Pickles is leaving the social media platform during a tumultuous time. Win McNamee/Getty Images
Elon Musk’s social media platform X is losing one of its longest-running employees. Nick Pickles, the current vice president of global affairs at the company, announced his resignation yesterday (Sept. 5) in a post on the platform. “After more than ten years, tomorrow will be my last day at X,” said Pickles, who did not provide a reason for his departure. X did not respond to requests for comment from Observer.
Pickles was one of the few employees of X, previously known as Twitter, to have survived Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover of the company in 2022 and was a trusted member of X CEO Linda Yaccarino’s inner circle. The British executive said he was grateful for Yaccarino’s support and partnership, noting that he made the decision to leave X several months ago and is “looking forward to taking some time off before a new challenge.”
Pickles became a prominent figure throughout X’s numerous clashes with international governments. Censorship battles between X and countries like Brazil, India and Australia have proliferated since Musk’s acquisition and a loosening of content restrictions on the platform. “It’s vital that democratic governments don’t unwittingly endorse or adopt the policies of governments who do not want to protect the open, global internet,” said Pickles of government attempts to remove content from the site in a May interview with the Financial Times. “We risk a race to the bottom, with ever more aggressive sanctions being used to try and control the global internet without respect for global norms and free expression,” he added.
It’s not just Brazil v. Elon Musk’s X: Governments are seeking harsh remedies to social media abuses – Fortune
There have always been consequences in media for getting things wrong, from lawsuits and reputational damage to jail time and fines that can gut a business. You can be right and still get targeted. Just ask the Committee to Protect Journalists. Now, social media platforms are dealing with those issues. What’s different and disturbing is how many governments are aiming to essentially shut them down.
Federal Loopholes Allow China To Buy Land Near Sensitive Ports, Labs, and Coast Guard Facilities, Prompting Congressional Concern– freebeacon.com Source Link Excerpt:
… The Treasury Department’s Committee of Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the central body responsible for approving land sales to foreign entities, moved to “significantly expand” its jurisdiction in July, allowing it to review real estate transactions near 50 military and other sensitive sites. That expanded list, however, does not include locations such as “national laboratories, maritime ports, and critical telecommunications and energy infrastructure,” all of which remain vulnerable to foreign spy operations, according to Reps. Greg Murphy (R., N.C.) and John Moolenaar (R., Mich.).
The oversight, the lawmakers say, reflects “significant gaps in our national security screening regime for land purchases near national security sites.” Their concern comes as China works to ramp up its influence operations and “wreak havoc” on American infrastructure, efforts that have made combating Chinese land purchases a major political issue in states across the country.
“Coast Guard facilities, Department of Energy National Labs, among other locations, remain off CFIUS’s list of sensitive sites and are thereby vulnerable to foreign adversary exploitation,” Murphy and Moolenaar, who chairs the House Select Committee on China, wrote in a Monday letter to the Treasury Department.
“These loopholes must be closed, and closed quickly. Allowing our adversaries to have potential access to these sites poses risks to both our economic and national security, especially as we see companies with ties to hostile nations continue to increase their investments in the U.S.”
Chinese Communist Party-tied companies own at least 384,000 acres of American agricultural land, a 30 percent increase since 2019, though poor federal oversight means the number could be higher. This accounts for nearly $2 billion in holdings, planting Beijing and its interests across the American heartland.
China Has 100,000 Mines Ready to Sink the U.S. Navy – nationalinterest.org Source Link Excerpt:
Beyond having a larger fleet, China is developing innovative attack methods, including the mass production of cheap yet highly lethal naval mines.
-These mines are difficult to detect and capable of targeting U.S. warships, including aircraft carriers, especially in constrained waters near China like the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait.
-While U.S. carriers have layered defenses against mines in open waters, conflicts in these compact regions pose a greater risk due to China’s ability to seed the areas with mines.
China has already proven it has superior manufacturing capacity than the United States, at least at the mass-production level. And contrary to popular opinion in the West, Chinese technology is reaching parity with the Americans. This all translates to significant strategic advantages for the Chinese military if Beijing and Washington ever go to war.
US strategy for anti-ship weapons to counter China: plentiful, mobile, deadly – Reuters.com Source Link Excerpt:
The United States is amassing an arsenal of abundant and easily made anti-ship weapons as part of American efforts to deter China in the Indo-Pacific region and gear up U.S. forces there.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has pushed U.S. thinking toward a new philosophy – “affordable mass,” as one missile industry CEO put it, speaking on condition of anonymity, referring to having plenty of relatively cheap weapons at the ready.
“It’s a natural counter to what China has been doing,” said Euan Graham, a senior analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think tank, referring to the Chinese arsenal of ships and conventional ballistic missiles including those designed to attack vessels.
The Pentagon and China’s Ministry of Defence did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The United States has ramped up testing of its QUICKSINK weapon, an inexpensive and potentially plentiful bomb equipped with a low-cost GPS guidance kit and a seeker that can track moving objects. The U.S. Air Force used a B-2 stealth bomber during a test last month in the Gulf of Mexico to strike a target ship with QUICKSINK.
China will still have a large advantage in sheer numbers of anti-ship missiles, according to experts, and can base them on its home territory. But increasing U.S. production of QUICKSINK would narrow that gap by putting China’s 370 or so warships at more risk during any future conflict than they have faced since before Beijing leaned into modernizing its military in the 1990s.
China: Supplying Components for Russian Drones in the War Against Ukraine – lansinginstitute.org Source Link Excerpt:
Chinese companies are supplying components for Russian military drones, which may shed light on Beijing’s interests in prolonging the war in Ukraine and avoiding pressure on the Kremlin to end the conflict. These supply chains allow Russia to maintain its UAV production and military operations, raising questions about China’s true geopolitical motivations.
By supporting Russia’s drone capabilities, China indirectly contributes to Moscow’s military aggression, despite its public stance of neutrality and calls for peace. Beijing’s reluctance to exert pressure on Russia could indicate a strategic interest in keeping the West distracted and divided, as well as ensuring access to Russian resources and maintaining a partnership against Western influence.
This dynamic suggests that China might see the continuation of the conflict as beneficial for its long-term objectives, avoiding direct involvement while gaining from the geopolitical instability. By balancing diplomatic rhetoric with actions that support Russia, China maintains its influence without openly aligning with Moscow’s military agenda.
Chinese Electric Vehicles Could Be ‘Weaponised’ by Beijing, Report Warns– www.breitbart.com Source Link Excerpt:
The British government’s open-doors approach to electric vehicles from Communist China threatens to undercut domestic manufacturing and expose the country to national security risks, with a think tank warning that EVs could be “weaponised” by Beijing.
A report from the China Strategic Risks Institute (CSRI) warned that the growing market share of and dependency on Chinese-made electric vehicles in Britain presents both “economic and security risks” to the United Kingdom.
The report noted that the UK’s domestic car industry is responsible for 198,000 manufacturing jobs, representing 2.5 per cent of the country’s entire GDP.
… A 60 Minutes crew got a close look at the tense situation when traveling on a Philippine Coast Guard ship that was rammed by the Chinese Coast Guard.
China has repeatedly rammed Philippine ships and blasted them with water cannons over the last two years. There are ongoing conversations between Washington and Manila about which scenarios would trigger U.S. involvement, Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro said in an interview.
“I really don’t know the end state,” Teodoro said. “All I know is that we cannot let them get away with what they’re doing.”
China states it has indisputable sovereignty over reef after Philippine ship leaves – LBC Group Source Link Excerpt:
China said Sunday it had “indisputable sovereignty” over a contested reef after a Philippine ship anchored there for months left the area.
Beijing “has indisputable sovereignty over… Xianbin Jiao and its adjacent waters,” Chinese coast guard spokesperson Liu Dejun said, using the Chinese name for Sabina Shoal.
Analysis: As China-Vatican deal nears renewal, warming ties could shake Holy See’s decades-old alliance with Taiwan – Channel News Asia Source Link Excerpt:
Dr Reyes noted that the developments reflect the “significant progression” between both parties, even as both do not share formal relations.
Beijing severed diplomatic ties with the Holy See in 1951, after China’s Communist Party (CCP) took power and expelled foreign priests. The Vatican instead maintains official links with Taiwan – one of only a dozen states to do so.
Mr Yeo highlighted that Cardinal Chow, during his visit to the Vatican in May, extended an invitation to Pope Francis to visit Hong Kong. He views the gesture as significant, aimed at reinforcing the city’s role as a bridge between China and the global Catholic community.
Pope Paul VI is the only pontiff to have visited Hong Kong – he made a three-hour stopover in 1970 when it was a British colony, holding mass at Happy Valley racecourse.
“It was an informal invitation, but many eyebrows were raised because the Hong Kong cardinal would not have issued this invitation on his own, without clearance to China,” said Mr Yeo in an interview with CNA late last month.
China frees David Lin, American pastor who U.S. government says was wrongfully detained for 18 years– www.cbsnews.com Source Link Excerpt:
China’s Mid-Autumn Festival holiday typically sees families reunite and give thanks, much like Thanksgiving in America. This year, Chinese-American pastor David Lin will have much to be thankful for when the holiday is marked on Tuesday. In a surprise move, Beijing freed the 68-year-old Sunday after he spent nearly 20 years in prison in a case the U.S. government and his family have always dismissed as baseless.
Lin entered China in 2006 and attempted to establish a Christian training center in Beijing. China‘s Communist Party disapproves of such activities and routinely roots out underground Christian churches, seeing them as a threat to its power. Only officially-sanctioned, closely monitored churches are permitted under the Communist Party’s rule.
Lin was detained the same year he arrived, then in 2009 he was handed a life sentence after being convicted of fraud. The charge is often applied to home church leaders who try to raise money for expansion, according to the Dui Hua Foundation human rights group.
The U.S. State Department, which always maintained that Lin was wrongfully detained by China, confirmed his release on Sunday. The Chinese government did not make any public comment on Lin’s release during the long holiday weekend.
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Russia and China Conduct Largest Military Drills since Cold War › American Greatness– amgreatness.com Source Link Excerpt:
In the last week, the military forces of China and Russia conducted some of the largest drills in the last 30 years, marking an alarming increase in the two nations’ displays of military strength.
According to Fox News, the week-long drills will include 90,000 troops, 400 naval vessels, and 120 aircraft, and will take place in the Pacific and Arctic Oceans, as well as the Baltic, Caspian, and Mediterranean Seas. The drill has been named “Ocean 24.”
The display of power takes place as representatives from the United States meet with leaders of the European Union in Brussels, specifically focusing on rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific Region. China and Russia have slowly been growing closer together in recent years, with the former supporting the latter’s invasion of Ukraine.
The United States has been critical of China for providing “very substantial” support to Russia’s ongoing war effort.
“These are not dual-use capabilities,” said U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell after the latest reports of China providing military supplies to Russia. “These are basically being applied directly to the Russian war machine.”
China to train thousands of overseas law enforcement officers to create ‘more fair’ world order – The Guardian Source Link Excerpt:
China will train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers so as to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction”, its minister for public security has said.
“We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” minister Wang Xiaohong told an annual global security forum.
Wang Xiaohong made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organisations such as Interpol.
The forum is part of ongoing efforts by China’s ruling Communist party to position itself as a global security leader. In 2022 China’s leader, Xi Jinping, launched the Global Security Initiative (GSI), which centres China as a facilitator to “improve global security governance … and promote durable peace”.
China’s New Aircraft Carriers Have a ‘Sizeable Edge’ over U.S. Navy for 1 Reason – The National Interest Online
Unlike the U.S., whose aircraft carriers are central to its naval power, China’s carriers are meant to operate under the protective “bubble” created by its A2/AD defenses, particularly within the First Island Chain.
What You Need to Know on China’s Aircraft Carriers and the 1 Edge They Have Against the U.S. Navy: China is rapidly expanding its aircraft carrier fleet, with plans for five or six by the 2030s, despite the challenges posed by anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) systems. Unlike the U.S., whose carriers are central to its naval power, China’s carriers are meant to operate under the protective “bubble” created by its A2/AD defenses, particularly within the First Island Chain.
US roll outs new export controls aimed at restricting China’s chip industry – Al Jazeera English
The United States has rolled out fresh export controls on quantum computers and semiconductor-manufacturing equipment amid concerns about the use of advanced technologies by rivals such as China.
The US Department of Commerce said on Thursday that the export restrictions followed consultation with international partners and would strengthen relations with “like-minded countries”.
“Today’s action ensures our national export controls keep step with rapidly evolving technologies and are more effective when we work in concert with international partners,” Under Secretary for the Bureau of Industry and Security Alan Estevez said in a statement.
“Aligning our controls on quantum and other advanced technologies makes it significantly more difficult for our adversaries to develop and deploy these technologies in ways that threaten our collective security.”
Xi offers African leaders more aid as China challenges US-led global order – Imperial Valley Press
BEIJING (AP) — Dozens of African leaders gathered Thursday in Beijing for a summit that signals China’s influence in a continent that it hopes will be a key ally in pushing back against a U.S.-led global order.
Chinese President Xi Jinping promised the leaders billions of dollars in loans and private investment over the next three years, and proposed that relations with all African countries that have diplomatic ties with China be elevated to the “strategic” level.
China rolls out red carpet for African leaders as it strategizes against the West – washingtonexaminer.com
China is rolling out the red carpet for 53 African leaders as it seeks to strengthen ties and cement its influence in the mineral-rich and strategically centered continent.
The three-day summit in Beijing began on Wednesday and comes as China tries to counter U.S. and European influence in the region to gain global dominance.
Dancers perform as Morocco Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch arrives at the Beijing Capital International Airport ahead of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit in Beijing on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. (Adek Berry/Pool Photo via AP)
Under President Xi Jinping, China is trying to raise its political credibility to the point that it becomes a rulemaker versus a rulebreaker in the international playing field. To do that, it needs other countries, in this case, in Africa, to become its allies in international institutions such as the United Nations. However, to do that, it must first build and nurture the relationships.
Even though the United States, Japan, India, and Russia also hold summits to push their interests in Africa, China is unmatched when it comes to the continent’s economic partner, investing billions of dollars in infrastructure and green projects.
‘Tier One’ US Special Forces Unit Preparing for Chinese Invasion of Taiwan: Report– www.westernjournal.com Source Link Excerpt:
A “Tier One” force is reportedly preparing to assist the island nation of Taiwan against a mainland superpower’s overwhelming and relentless force.
The United States Navy’s SEAL Team 6 is currently training for the types of missions that may occur if the People’s Republic of China opens hostilities against its island neighbor, the Financial Times reported.
According to the report, SEAL Team 6 has been training for the simmering conflict for over a year at the elite force’s Dam Neck, Virginia, headquarters.
German warships to cross Taiwan Strait for first time in 22 years, defying Beijing’s warnings – Firstpost Source Link Excerpt:
Two German warships are set to pass through the sensitive Taiwan Strait in the middle of this month, becoming the first German naval vessels to do so in 22 years, Spiegel magazine reported on Saturday.
Reuters reported last month that the warships were awaiting orders from Berlin to sail the Strait, prompting a rebuke to Germany from Beijing.
Spiegel cited unspecified sources as saying Beijing would not be formally notified of the German ships’ passage to emphasise that Berlin views the trip as normal.
Germany’s defence ministry declined to comment.
China targets SpaceX’s reusable rocket lead, seeks to replace Jeff Bezos as Elon Musk’s top space rival – Mint Source Link Excerpt:
China is aiming to loosen Elon Musk’s lock on reusable launch vehicles — and close a yawning technology gap with the US.
Beijing is turning to aerospace startups and state-owned enterprises alike to develop an edge in rockets that can be used dozens of times to lift satellites into low-Earth orbit.
One company trying to meet that challenge isLandSpace Technology Corp.,whoseZhuque-3 reusablerocket successfully completed a 10 kilometer (6.2 mile)vertical takeoff and landing returntest flightat the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centeron Wednesday.According to Chinese state media, it markeda “significant breakthrough in China’s commercial space industry” and was a “crucial step toward achieving high capacity, low cost, high frequencyand reusability in future space launches.”
China raising its retirement age may be unpopular but it’s much needed, analysts say– www.cnbc.com Source Link Excerpt:
China’s top legislative body passed an official plan Friday to begin incrementally raising the nation’s statutory retirement age from Jan. 1 of next year and concluding in 2040, according to Chinese state media.
The final goal of the roughly 15-year plan is to raise the retirement age by three years for men to 63 years old, five years for women that work in factories from 50 to 55 and three years for women that work in white-collar jobs from 55 to 58.
The reforms are “overdue and very much welcome,” Erica Tay, director of macro research at Maybank Investment Banking Group, told CNBC.
China has been grappling with a shrinking workforce and looming pension budget shortfalls that could significantly damage the economy.
Mali seals arms deal with Chinese manufacturer – APANEWS
Mali has sealed a military cooperation deal with Chinese arms manufacturer Norinco on the eve of the opening of the 9th Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) taking place in Beijing from 4 to 6 September.
The head of the Malian transition, Colonel Assimi Goïta, visited the headquarters of Norinco, a world leader in the manufacture of armaments for the signing of a contract for the purchase of new military equipment for his country.
In Beijing, Colonel Goïta was received at Norinco’s headquarters, accompanied by the Minister of Defence and Veterans, Colonel Sadio Camara, and several members of his government.
The visit gave the Malian officials the opportunity to learn about the latest innovations in the field of armaments, particularly in the areas of light weapons, combat drones and advanced artillery systems.
Mali’s Colonel Assimi Goïta reflects on visit to China – APAnews Source Link Excerpt:
In an interview with Malian television, he described the visit as a decisive advancement in Mali-China relations.
Colonel Goïta noted, “Currently, China and Mali enjoy fraternal ties that have lasted for over 60 years,” emphasizing that these relations span several sectors, including defense and security, education, agriculture, and energy.
A significant outcome of the visit was the announcement that Mali and China would elevate their relationship to a strategic partnership. “At the request of President Xi Jinping, we have decided to enhance our partnership to a strategic level,” the head of Mali’s transition stated. This development underscores the importance of Sino-Malian cooperation and will be formalized during an upcoming state visit.
China Hands 9-Year Prison Sentence to Taiwan Activist for ’Separatism’ – time.com
China handed a nine-year prison term to a Taiwanese political activist convicted of “separatism,” a rare sentence that prompted Taiwan to warn its people about the dangers of traveling across the strait.
Yang Chih-yuan received the term in a court in the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said in a briefing on Thursday, according to the semi-official Central News Agency.
China’s ruling Communist Party intended for the “case to intimidate the people of Taiwan,” said council Deputy Minister Liang Wen-chieh, adding that travelers from the democracy of 23 million should be prudent when considering going across the strait.
This was the first time China jailed a Taiwanese person on a charge of trying to break up its territory, according to the council, a government department in Taipei that handles cross-strait relations. In recent years, Chinese prosecutors have leveled the charge against Uyghurs, a minority group in the restive far western region of Xinjiang.
As Xi Clamps Down, Chinese Civil Society Flourishes Overseas– www.dailysignal.com Source Link Excerpt:
Mournful residents of Shanghai, China, watched Jifeng Bookstore close its doors for the last time on Jan. 31, 2018. The establishment was best known for carrying books and hosting forums that pushed the boundaries on issues deemed sensitive by the Chinese Communist Party.
The forced closure of the bookstore was part of a broader crackdown on free speech and civic discourse by Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s government.
Nearly seven years later, Jifeng reopened Sept. 1 in a new location—Washington, D.C.—under the name JF Books. The bookstore’s grand opening attracted a diverse assortment of local scholars, journalists, activists, and members of diaspora communities from mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
The excitement was palpable as visitors perused books, took in memorabilia from the shuttered Shanghai store, and registered for upcoming lectures, which are starting back up this month after a hiatus of nearly seven years.
China’s Presence in Timor-Leste Is Unseen, but Unmissable – TIME
“It was not really an assassination attempt,” says José Ramos-Horta. Timor-Leste’s President is sitting on the breezy veranda of Galeria Memoria Viva, the seafront bungalow in capital city Dili that now serves as his personal museum. The walls are festooned with memorabilia spanning half-a-century of activism and politics: a watercolor by an incarcerated former comrade; a plaque commemorating his 1996 Nobel Peace Prize; photos of an Australian journalist slain during his nation’s tumultuous birth pangs.
But when asked about that fateful morning of Feb. 11, 2008, Ramos-Horta tears up the history book. It was during his previous stint as president that rebel leader Alfredo Reinado entered his home at 6 a.m. with a dozen heavily armed men. Ramos-Horta was out jogging on the beach and returned to a firefight between the intruders and his security staff, during which he was shot at least twice (the rebels used banned “dum-dum” bullets that fracture on impact, so the exact number remains a mystery.)
Ramos-Horta was airlifted to the Australian city of Darwin for medical treatment and nearly lost his life; one shrapnel fragment was lodged just 2 mm from his spine. When he eventually recovered, Ramos-Horta from his hospital thanked “all who prayed for me, who looked after me, who cared for me following the assassination attempt on me by Mr. Alfredo Reinado.
As Global Underpopulation Crisis Continues, China’s One-Child Policy Has Destroyed Its Population – lifenews.com
Steven Mosher, President of the Population Research Institute, has issued a stark warning in the New York Post. In his article “Baby Doom,” Mosher highlights the alarming global decline in birth rates.
“The big story comes from China, home to one-sixth of the world’s population,” Mosher writes, “the decades-long devastation wrought by the one-child policy has sent that country, for centuries the pacesetter in population, into absolute decline.” He notes that the official population figure of 1.44 billion is likely exaggerated by as much as 130 million.
This birth rate issue is widespread, as Mosher explains “for the first time in the 60,000 or so years that human beings first arrived on the planet, we are not having enough babies to replace ourselves.” In addition, he argues that the 2.1 figure, often reported as the necessary replacement rate, is too low because “in many countries sex-selection abortion skews the sex ratio strongly in favor of boys.”
Aspects of China’s global economic coercion strategy – Mizzima News Source Link Excerpt:
The US has adopted a two-pronged strategy towards China. One, is pursuing the path of dialogue, the other is confrontation. Both go hand in hand as can be seen by recent developments. While Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State travelled to Beijing for talks, back home administration officials criticised China for its coercive behaviour worldwide.
The nature of Chinese coercion is evident on all fronts and its ramifications across several fronts including economic, defence and other areas, is also a focus area for the Biden administration. Such actions are normally visible as Beijing uses tools like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Global Security Initiative to penetrate and pressurize nations. Just one recent example of the heft China carries can be cited, this time in a cultural context. In Paris at a cultural event on China, the French Museum which hosted the event was ‘forced’ to title Tibet as ‘Xizang’, the latest effort by China to show that Tibet has always been a part of China. Thus, the world should be aware of various aspects of China’s coercive tactics.
China’s military coercion has been very visible in the South China Sea and its current actions clearly threaten the security of the Philippines. Nicholas Burns, the US Ambassador to China, recently pointed that the “very ill-advised efforts by the government of China to intimidate the Philippines at Second Thomas Shoal, at Sabina Shoal, in an incident at Scarborough Shoal, just to name three incidents over the last month or so”. Diplomatic messaging is certainly one way to signal intent and the US has been consistently doing it. Apart from the Ambassador in Beijing, Secretary Antony Blinken has conveyed US concerns to China as did US NSA Jake Sullivan, who told the Chinese leadership “very directly” that Washington had an ironclad commitment to defend the Philippines.
Disney Consumer Products helps Chinese partners to ‘go global’ – China.org Source Link Excerpt:
A Disney executive shared with China.org.cn that his cross-border strategy, introduced last year, has prompted many of Disney’s Chinese partner brands to successfully sell their products in overseas markets. In addition to aiding Chinese partners abroad, the global media and entertainment conglomerate is also optimistic about future growth with its own business in consumer products.
Kermid Rahman, senior vice president and general manager for Disney Consumer Products in Asia Pacific, stated that since he initiated the cross-border strategy last year nearly 70 licensees in the region have collaborated with Disney to start cross-border business.
“Many Chinese brands have successfully entered the Japanese, South Korean and Southeast Asian markets, and have already achieved brilliant performance,” he said at The Walt Disney Company’s Greater China Consumer Products Showcase 2025 held in Shanghai on Sept. 10. The temporary exhibition and showcase conference saw more than 3,700 representatives from various partner brands in attendance.
(LifeSiteNews) — In a further sign of the United Kingdom’s increasingly aggressive policing of speech, two British journalists documenting genocide have been arrested under section 12 of the Terrorism Act in the past month.
Richard Medhurst documents Israel’s genocide. He was arrested on disembarking at Heathrow Airport on Thursday, August 15, under the Terrorism Act.
Sarah Wilkinson was arrested in her home days ago by ten non-uniformed police officers under the Terrorism Act – for documenting Israel’s genocide. A shocking account of her ordeal can be read here.
Canada’s left-wing New Democratic Party (NDP) has pulled the plug on a two-and-a-half-year-old agreement with Justin Trudeau’s Liberals that had helped keep his minority government in power.
In a video posted to social media on Wednesday, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said he had informed the prime minister of his decision, saying the Liberals were “too weak, too selfish” to fight for Canadians.
The deal – called a “supply and confidence” agreement – had the NDP supporting the Liberals in confidence votes.
The announcement does not automatically mean a federal election is imminent but that Canadians may go to the polls before the election scheduled for October 2025.
BREAKING: Pierre Poilievre responds to NDP breaking confidence agreement with Trudeau Liberals, calls for ‘Carbon Tax Election’ now – thepostmillennial.com
“In today’s media stunt, Sellout Singh refuses to state whether the NDP will vote with non-confidence to cause a carbon tax election at the first chance,” Poilievre wrote. Photo: Beth Baisch
Official Opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre responded Wednesday to the news that NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has ended his party’s loose coalition agreement with the Trudeau government, calling for an immediate “Carbon Tax Election.”
Poilievre posted on X: “Two years ago, Sellout Singh sold out workers and signed on to a costly coalition with Justin Trudeau that hiked taxes, ballooned food costs, doubled housing costs and unleashed crime and chaos in our once safe streets.”
“In today’s media stunt, Sellout Singh refuses to state whether the NDP will vote with non-confidence to cause a carbon tax election at the first chance,” Poilievere continued. “Sellout Singh has voted to quadruple the carbon tax to $0.61/L, a plan that will drive Canadians to food banks and grind our economy to a halt— killing hundreds of thousands of jobs. Sellout Singh did all of this after promising he would be an opposition voice.”
Canadians rank Trudeau as worst prime minister since the 1960s by wide margin in new poll– www.lifesitenews.com Source Link Excerpt:
(LifeSiteNews) – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was ranked Canada’s worst leader since the 1960s in a new study.
An investigation conducted by Research Co. and released September 4 shows that 38 percent of Canadians overall said they disliked Trudeau the most compared with a list of other prime ministers.
A distant second as the most disliked was Stephen Harper, who was the former head of the Conservative Party, at 14 percent. Trudeau’s dad, Pierre, came in third at 7 percent.
Trudeau has been prime minister since 2015.
In western Canada, dislike for Trudeau was the strongest, with 55 percent of Albertans and 52 percent each in Saskatchewan and Manitoba saying they are not fond of him.
Research Co. has been tracking the popularity of current and former prime ministers for the past five years. Trudeau’s unpopularity has risen dramatically since 2022, nearly doubling since that year.
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