Veteran’s Day 2020

By Michael P. Ramirez at Townhall:

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All you need to do is vote.

Is it going to be Biden landslide?  A Trump landslide?  Who believes any of the polls?  Kurt Schlichter has encouraging words in the final days before Election Day. His article at TownHall about the propaganda psy-ops begins:

The next few days will be a Cat 5 hurricane of mainstream media spin and Democrat bullSchiff designed to make you think that you’ve already lost this election. They want your morale shattered, your spirit broken, and you to put a lid on your participation in saving your country from leftist tyranny.

It’s all a lie.

It’s a psychological operation designed to keep you on the sidelines.

We got this.

All you need to do is vote.

And his full article is here. 

For what it is worth, we cased out the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections today, and the line to vote in person stretched most of the way down East 30 St.  Probably a two-hour wait.  And that was on Thursday afternoon.  There were campaign signs everywhere, extra police and sheriff presences, and I expect it will be much the same on Election Day.

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A Voter-Fraud Nightmare in November

 

Justin Haskins is, I think, rightfully concerned about the November elections – at all levels.  His column at Townhall ("America Is Headed For A Voter-Fraud Nightmare in November") concludes:

Never before has America’s political class so willingly and eagerly marched the country toward predictable and preventable chaos. Mail-in balloting is, in fact, not a truly secure way of holding an election. Even if large-scale fraud does not occur, the perception will be that it did, and that should have been enough for politicians concerned about voters’ faith in the election process to enact policies that would have encouraged in-person balloting, a much safer route.

Unfortunately, that did not occur, so unless it’s a total blowout on Election Day, it seems inevitable the country is on the road to disaster. When we get there, Americans should know who to blame.

That would be the political class – D’s for aggressively pushing mail-in voting (and attempting to extend the deadline for counting ballots well past Election Day) and R’s for not aggressively pushing back.  Our household will be voting in person on Election Day.  Mr. Haskins's column is here.

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Gary Varvel cartoon on the lockdown

 A great cartoon by Gary Varvel at Townhall:

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Pat Cross cartoon says it all

Pat Cross cartoon at Townhall:

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Schlichter: Stop Making Sense

It does seem almost impossible to make sense out of the chaos we are seeing everywhere.  Kurt Schlichter is always funny, and he always makes sense.  Here’s are some snippets from “Stop Making Sense” at Townhall:

You cannot reason with these people. Forget trying to convince them. You are not going to talk them out of their quest for power over you by deploying bourgeois conceits like "facts" and "evidence." Yet so many of us see what's happening and still take to Twitter or (increasingly) Parler to point out the sheer ridiculousness of the enemy's latest antics. But these actions are not ridiculous. They are tactically genius. Instead of confronting an impenetrable defense, they just scuttle around it and attack into our rear.

. . .

It's time for us to riot, not in the streets, because we have jobs and we're not going to destroy our own stuff, but at the ballot box. That's where we lay waste to their Venezuelan dreams. In the primaries, vote for woke conservatives, not establishment saps. And then in November, vote straight Republican down the ballot.

. . .

Finally, step four: Stop making sense. Unless it's directed at the unwoke, making sense is a waste of your time. This is about power. Time to use yours.

Mr. Schlichter’s article is here.  And it’s a bit of a wild ride.

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Panic Porn and the COVID Experts’ Credibility

Matt Vespa at Townhall is right.  The health experts were wrong, and we should all be preparing for our post-lockdown Fourth of July picnics and celebrations.  From his article “And That's Why the COVID Experts’ Credibility Is in Smoldering Ruins”:

People were shamed for going outside. They were selfish, right? People wanting to re-open their businesses were going to get people killed. The overreaction was already apparent by mid-May. And now, with how the medical community has responded to the Floyd demonstrations, it’s now quite clear we’ve been had. Is it still contagious? Yes, but why the blasé attitude towards the Floyd rioters? Where was their public shaming which was shared ad nauseum on social media? The medical experts have been exposed as being no better than CNN, MSNBC, or the entire Democratic operative class. For the millions who lost their jobs to see a narrative reverse overnight because “orange man…bad,” I would be furious. To those who lost their businesses, couldn’t attend graduations, or even funerals—I would be livid as well. In general, we all know that racism isn’t as deadly as a virus. You don’t need to be a doctor to know that, but these clowns think so. We had medical workers clapping and kneeling with protesters. That’s the kill shot to this entire lockdown narrative. We were told to stay home and help not overwhelm the hospitals—and this is the end result. 

The liberal media, Democrats, and the medical expert community, who are now no better than DNC operatives, are trying to weaponize the virus to trash the markets in order to hurt Trump again. They want us back inside. Don’t go back inside, folks. Go outside, go shopping, go to the lakes, go to the beach, and do whatever. The experts have no authority, no high ground—nothing. You cannot sit there and make the argument that protesting in the streets in support of liberal causes is fine, but any other activity is going to spread the virus. You look like a total clown if you do. The experts are finished. So, they can peddle the panic porn all they want. People should do whatever they want because they have zero credibility. 

Panic Porn.  Good phrase.  Read the rest of Mr. Vespa’s article here.

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The Power of “No”

art credit: callcenterhelper.com

Kurt Schlicter over at Townhall makes good points:

For way too long, too many conservatives and other normal people have failed to deploy our most potent weapon in the defense of free thought and expression – the utter refusal to go along with the demands of the carnivorous left. As has been said before by me and others, we need to introduce these spoiled brats to the concept of “no.”

. . .

But a larger, more comprehensive information operation is still ongoing, one in which a bunch of pampered SJW stormtroopers, aided and abetted by the weak and frightened elder caste of liberals occupying the heights of the establishment, are attempting to define the tolerable range of ideas and expression within our culture. In a shocking turn that would surprise only stupid people, the tolerable range of ideas and expression they wish to establish corresponds exactly to the ideas and expressions they agree with. The Venn diagram of what they think and what they allow to be thought is a single circle.

The rest of us are expected to shut up, and thereby concede and recognize their mastery over us.

We could do that, sure. 

Or we could tell them “no.”

The first four of his bullet points for effectively saying "no" are:

• ·         Never apologize.
• ·         Reject their demands. 
• ·         Speak truths they want suppressed. 
• ·         Laugh at them.

Read the rest here.

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Aftermath of the “peaceful” riots

Michael P. Ramirez cartoon via Townhall

Many media reporters and anchors turned into Baghdad Bobs, as they reported that the “protests” were/are mostly peaceful -- while buildings burned to the ground behind them.  And yet we all know liberals who buy into this phony narrative that the riots were indeed mostly peaceful and the "protesters" were spontaneous participants, expressing anger over George Floyd’s death. 

The riot in Cleveland was pre-organized.  Rocks were pre-set in various locations.  In other cities, pallets of bricks were pre-staged.  But it’s the rioters’ playbook that gives them away.  Let the local protesters who are there out of genuine outrage and anger start things off with signs and chants. Then the rent-a-mob rioters start doing what rioters do:  they throw objects to injure, deface, or damage; vandalize; loot; set buildings and cars on fire; and so on.  Peaceful? 

Here is a link to Instapundit with a compilation of videos of destruction in Minneapolis, Atlanta, Santa Monica, DC, etc.  Click here.  

And here’s what downtown Cleveland looks like today in the aftermath.  Every door or window that is now boarded-up was deliberately smashed, and in the case of several stores (Geiger’s and Heinen’s among others) looted and trashed.  Clevelanders will recognize downtown restaurants, businesses, theaters, and landmarks.  Click here.

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Vote-by-mail: the threat

Bob Gorrell cartoon via Townhall

  

Probably the single biggest threat to the future of the United States as we know it is election fraud.  Recently on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekends,” Government Accountability Institute research director Eric Eggers explained if vote-by-mail was done on a mass scale that would bring “voter role irregularities into play.”  Via Pam Key at Breitbart:

According to Eggers, “a lawsuit found 30,000 more registered voters than citizens of legal age. They also found 2500 dead people that were registered to vote in the city of Detroit. This is actually a problem nationwide. The U.S. Supreme Court in a decision last decade cited statistics that said one in eight voter registrations in this country -- that’s 24 million -- have significant problems or [are] completely inaccurate.

So it’s not just limited to Detroit. But I think we’re wise to be – to use the term from the congressman in the previous segment . . . concerned because you have to remember in 2016, Donald Trump won the state of Michigan by fewer than 11,000 votes. So if you start talking about more than 30,000 registered voters and citizens of legal voting age in the city of Detroit alone, I think that’s pretty concerning.”

. . . there is a difference between people voluntarily choosing to cast a mail-in ballot as by the way 1 million people in the state of Michigan choose to do regularly and mailing everyone a ballot as they are doing in California or as they are about to do in the state of Michigan, mail everyone an absentee ballot request form. What it does brings all these voter role irregularities into play. Now you’ve got the guaranteed likelihood of people who shouldn’t be receiving a ballot, people that aren’t real voters because they have either moved or dead or, you know, they are on the roll erroneously those people will now have the opportunity or request forms will go to addresses for those people. And we know that there are forces out there attempting to sway elections. Look at what happened in Philadelphia recently. An elections judge was just charged with literally stuffing the ballot box. So, it’s not as if, you know, the idea that people are trying to sway elections illegally haven’t been proven. We saw one literally just this week in a major American city.”

BizPacReview reported on another voter fraud settlement:

Allegheny County, Pennsylvania — home to the city of Pittsburgh and its surrounding suburbs — has settled a lawsuit directing officials to clean up voter registration rolls.

County officials settled the suit on Monday with the Public Interest Legal Foundation, which focuses on election integrity, after the Allegheny election manager and three board of elections members were sued over registration rolls containing duplicate entries and the names of persons who had died, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Representatives of the elections watchdog said researchers discovered almost 1,600 dead registrants, nearly 7,500 with erroneous data, and more than 1,500 who were older than 100 years — including 49 who were born in the 1800s.

. . .

Last year Judicial Watch won a lawsuit against the state of California which required it to purge 1.5 million inactive voters from its registration rolls, as required by federal voter registration law.

“Los Angeles County has a registration rate of 112 percent of its adult citizen population,” the watchdog group noted in a statement in January 2019. “The entire State of California has a registration rate of about 101 percent of its age-eligible citizenry.”

There have been many instances of voter registration ‘errors’ discovered since Trump’s 2016 win, including in Ohio, where, again, scores of people listed as being well over 100 years old were discovered on registration rolls.

So safeguarding future elections is no longer mostly about poll-watching.  The guidelines prepared by Judicial Watch had several sections on what citizens could do as poll-watchers, but with mail-in voting already a precedent in Ohio, Cleveland Tea Party members may ask what else can be done?

My next blog will share Judicial Watch’s section on cleaning up voter rolls by researching voter registration.  

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The Unnecessary Lockdown

art credit: clipart

"Salons And Barbershops Across America Are About To Show How Unnecessary This Lockdown Was" --  Scott Morefield at Townhall :

In the eyes of many, Dallas salon owner Shelley Luther has become the latest face of justified resistance against governmental tyranny for her steadfast refusal to back down on keeping her business open despite the prospect of going to jail.

Luther’s Salon a la Mode opened for business last Friday, then promptly got slapped with a court order to close because of coronavirus restrictions. Instead of meekly complying, as most others doubtless would have, Luther stood outside her salon and literally ripped the thing to shreds. Indeed, it was a moment that would have made Patrick Henry proud. (I’m also pretty sure it would have made another person with the surname “Luther” proud too.) The salon owner told media she has “had enough” of stupid, nonsensical restrictions on her livelihood and that of her employees, and is more than willing to go to jail to make her point.

“Essential, non-essential,” Luther said. “That’s ridiculous what has been deemed essential and non-essential because right now the pet groomer next door has been essential this whole time. So pets can get their hair done but someone can’t walk in my salon and get their hair cut? So why is a pet getting essentials?”

Good on her. The continued enforced closure of hairdressers, barbershops, salons, and the like are one of the most ridiculous in a sea of ridiculous aspects of the current coronavirus lockdown insanity. Turns out, while the generally solid GOP Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has finally signed off on allowing some types of businesses to open, salons and barbershops inexplicably aren’t yet among them. They are “nonessential,” don’t you know, and the people who work in them apparently don’t deserve the same chance to feed their families that others do.

Insisting that salons are still not “safe,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins ripped Luther and other like-minded business owners as supposedly “putting their own need to make money ahead of public health.”

But Luther disagrees: “It’s pretty ridiculous to think that our place would be unsafe. The second part of that is we’re all grown adults. We decide where we want to go and if someone does not want to come in the salon, I respect that decision.”

Truly, is there any logical reason to think salons and barbershops are any less safe than most any other public place, particularly if owners and employees utilize masks, gloves, and regularly sanitize between customers? 

. . .

The full article is here.  It’s frightening to think that going to work or getting your hair cut is now civil disobedience.

RELATED:  Tyler O'Neil at PJ Media:

Early estimates of the COVID-19 death rate, cited to justify the lockdowns, have proven far too pessimistic. In March, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated a 3.4 percent fatality rate and Dr. Anthony Fauci estimated that the fatality rate of the coronavirus was about 2 percent. As PJ Media’s Matt Margolis reported, at least five studies have placed the death rate below 1 percent, confirming President Donald Trump’s hunch.

Recent studies have found that far more people than expected have COVID-19 antibodies — meaning the virus has spread faster than previously thought, but also proving that it is far less deadly than previously thought.

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Power grab

Cartoon by Pat Cross at Townhall:

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Democrat debate vs Trump rally

Steve Breen cartoon via Townhall

19 February 2020.  Tonight is the next debate between candidates for the Democrat party nomination for President.  It is hosted by NBC News and MSNBC in partnership with The Nevada Independent, and it’s the first one for which Michael Bloomberg has qualified.  NBC broadcast runs 9pm-11pm.  

Stephen Green a/k/a Vodkapundit will be live-drunk-blogging the debate so you don’t have to watch.  Click here.

Please note: Vodakapundit’s drunkblog automatically refreshes, so stay at the top of the blog. You can check in from time to time, or scan through it in one hit after the debate is over.  Even if you keep putting it off until tomorrow.

Let Vodkpundit watch the Dem debate so you can tune in to President Trump's rally in Phoenix, Arizona tonight, with coverage starting at 9pm. Conservative Treehouse always posts the links to livestreams from Right Side Broadcasting and others. Click here.  

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Democrat Debate tonight drunkblog link

NOTE: This blog post was delayed until Mr. VodkaPundit got up and running at 8:01.  Not to worry -  his drunk-blog will be up all night.  

Reagan McCarthy at TownHall reports:

Seven of the Democratic candidates for president will take the stage Friday in New Hampshire, ahead of the state’s primary on Tuesday, in a debate hosted by ABC News [at 8pm]. Former Vice President Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Andrew Yang, Tom Steyer and Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) reached the established donor and polling thresholds and will compete in this debate.

Notably absent from the debate stage is former Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg. Despite the exorbitant amount of money Mayor Bloomberg has spent on advertisements and campaign staff, he did not qualify for this debate. The DNC did alter the debate qualifications for the next debate on February 19th by eliminating the individual donor requirement, which will allow Mayor Bloomberg to be present on the debate stage in Las Vegas. This alteration unleashed backlash from progressives, who claim Bloomberg is buying the election.

Friday evening’s debate comes on the heels of the complete disaster in Iowa, following the state’s caucuses. Pete Buttigieg was declared the winner of the Iowa caucuses by a slim margin over Sen. Bernie Sanders, but the chaos and errors in the release of the caucus have stirred controversy in the Democratic Party. 

Stephen “VodkaPundit” Green is drunk-blogging live HERE– so you don’t have to watch. Just check in for updates at his blog whenever you feel like it (it’ll still be up there tomorrow – no need to check in in real time).

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If you like René Magritte

If you like René Magritte, then you’ll love this by Tom Stiglich at Townhall:

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Tom Stiglich's "Pencil Neck" cartoon

Tom Stiglich’s cartoon on Townhall

Click to embiggen or click on the link above. Extra funny bit with a No. 2 pencil . . .

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Agriculture amnesty bill

Bronson Stocking at Townhall reports on yet another push for amnesty in the House:

Lawmakers have forgotten the lessons of the previous amnesties, or they are hoping the American people have. Yesterday [Weds.], a bipartisan group of House members introduced the Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2019. Like the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, the new bill claims it will only apply to a limited number of illegal-alien agricultural workers, and it promises tougher employment verifications in the future. These are the same broken promises politicians made when they passed amnesty back in 1986. 

Via Neil Munro at Breitbart:

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is opposing the bill. “The name of this mass amnesty bill name should be changed to the Mandatory Farm Labor Act of 2019,” FAIR said.

NumbersUSA just sent out an update on the bill:

Agriculture amnesty bill to include weak E-Verify provision

A bipartisan group of House Members has introduced a new agricultural amnesty bill that includes a new twist from past ag amnesties -- a provision that requires farmers but nobody else to use E-Verify. The E-Verify provision isn't enough, however, to hide the fact that this will be an amnesty for millions of illegal ag workers and encourage more illegal immigration.

The Farm Workforce Modernization Act, H.R. 4916, was introduced on Wednesday. The official text has yet to be released, so we don't know all the details. But here's what lead sponsor Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) says the bill would do:

Establish a program for agricultural workers in the United States to earn legal status through continued agricultural employment and contribution to the U.S. agricultural economy.

Reform the H-2A program to provide more flexibility for employers, while ensuring critical protections for workers. The bill focuses on modifications to make the program more responsive and user-friendly for employers and provides access to the program for industries with year-round labor needs.

Establish mandatory, nationwide E-Verify system for all agricultural employment with a structured phase-in and guaranteed due process for authorized workers who are incorrectly rejected by the system.

NumbersUSA's Director of Government Relations, Rosemary Jenks, issued the following statement:

Congress tried amnesty as a solution to large numbers of illegal agricultural workers in 1986 with the Immigration Reform and Control Act. As predicted, it failed because the workers left agriculture for easier, better-paying jobs as soon as they got their amnesty, and illegal immigration actually increased thanks to the promise of future amnesties. The Farm Workforce Modernization Act will have the same result: amnestied aliens competing with Americans for non-farm jobs; and more illegal immigration incentivized by amnesty. Moreover, by mandating E-Verify only for agricultural employers, it will actually encourage more illegal aliens to compete with American workers and legal immigrants for non-farm jobs, where E-Verify is not required.

Last year, House lawmakers considered advancing legislation that would require all employers in the U.S. to use E-Verify in exchange for reforming the H-2A agricultural guest worker program. The legislation did allow current illegal ag workers to apply for the new guest worker program, but did not provide an opportunity for permanent amnesty like the Farm Workforce Modernization Act promises to do.

The most concerning aspect of H.R. 4916 is that 44 U.S. Representatives from both sides of the aisle have signed on as original cosponsors.

[NumbersUSA will] continue to monitor the legislation and will post actions after Congress returns from its current recess and we have been able to read and analyze all the details.

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Ultimate dumpster fire

Tom Stiglich cartoon at Townhall

7 hours wasted

Did anyone watch the 7-hour Townhall on CNN with Democrat candidates campaigning on the subject of climate change? I didn't think so. Here is what you missed:

Ramirez cartoon via Townhall

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Good news. Michelle Malkin sanctuary city tour

Image credit: Regnery Publishing

Timothy Meads at Townhall reports:

Conservative author and powerhouse of a woman, Michelle Malkin, has announced a national U.S. Border & Sanctuary City Tour this fall. Malkin, author of the upcoming book Open Borders Inc.: Who’s Funding America’s Destruction, is "marching right into the belly of the beast to blow the whistle on the dark money groups and individuals funding America’s illegal immigration crisis."  

Malkin will travel to 18 cities that defy federal immigration policy, exposing businesses as well as Republican and Democratic officials who endanger American lives with reckless sanctuary city policies and illegal immigration employment. Certain local ordinances enacted by elected "leaders" forbid police and other public servants from cooperating with federal agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement.For example, many of these jurisdictions refuse to honor ICE detainer requests, and willingly release violators of American immigration law despite requests that local police hold these individuals until they can be taken into custody by federal authorities.

Full report is here.

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