Round 2 of Unwatchable Debates

Stone-cold sober Stephen Green, a/k/a Mr. Vodkapundit, will be live drunkblogging both the Tuesday (tonight) and Wednesday Democrat debates this week. He watches so that you don’t have to. Here’s the link to his website; look for drunkblog link on the sidebar. Debate starts at 8pm. Runs for 3 hours!

Please note: Vodkapundit'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.

UPDATE 5pm: Here's the page link, and here are opening thoughts from Mr. Vodkapundit himself:

I mean, have you seen these people, the folks who run for office? If you can't have fun at their expense, then you're taking them entirely too seriously. That probably goes double for a race where Slow Joe Biden is the frontrunner in a crowded field of more than 20 candidates. Speaking of doubles, we have another double Democratic debate this week, and I'll be here -- carbo-loaded, glasses-wearing, beverage cart next to my desk -- to have far too much fun with all the action. Click in right here at around 7:45 Eastern on Tuesday and Wednesday nights for all the action.

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Preparing for the Democrat debates this week

It'll take less than 5 seconds:

Cartoon by Steve Breen via Townhall

[Note; check back here after 6pm for Liveblog link]

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Cleveland makes the list

image credit: imgbin.com

Issues and Insights is the editorial blog for Investor’s Business Daily. Here’s part of John Merline’s column (h/t Instapundit):

On Friday, Trump attacked Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings, who had been complaining about conditions at the border, by saying “his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous.” Trump called it “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”

He’s right about the rats. Last year, the pest-control service Orkin rated Baltimore as one of the “rattiest cities,“ behind Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Cleveland.

. . .

Indeed, if you want to see what liberal Democratic policies tend to produce, go to any one of those cities, or other Democratic strongholds. Democrats promise to help the poor and downtrodden, grow the middle class, make life more fair. But their policies consistently produce the opposite.

. . .

Washington, San Francisco, New York, Detroit, and Cleveland are also among the 10 worst-run cities, according to WalletHub. Three other Democratic strongholds — Oakland, Flint, Hartford — make WalletHub’s worst-run list. 

Yet, whenever the desperate conditions of these cities get discussed, they’re treated either as if these problems simply fell out of the sky, that somehow Republicans are to blame, or that more taxpayer money will solve everything. The connection to liberal policies never gets made.

. . .

Read the rest here.

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Dr. Robert Epstein’s testimony re Google

Earlier this month this blog reported on Dr. Robert Epstein's testimony concerning Google's invisible influence on election results.  Ned Ryun at American Greatness has an update:

Google’s Algorithms Threaten Free and Fair Elections

. . . the power of the Search Engine Manipulation Effect (SEME) generated by Google’s search algorithm likely impacted undecided voters in a way that gave at least 2.6 million votes to Hillary Clinton in 2016. Epstein explained:

SEME is one of the most powerful forms of influence ever discovered in the behavioral sciences, and it is especially dangerous because it is invisible to people—“subliminal,” in effect. It leaves people thinking they have made up their own minds, which is very much an illusion. It also leaves no paper trail for authorities to trace. 

. . .

Epstein discussed the potential impact that Google, combined with Facebook and Twitter, could have on the election outcomes in 2020. “Big Tech in 2020, because if these companies all support the same candidate—and that’s likely, needless to say—they will be able to shift upwards of 15 million votes to that candidate with no one knowing and without leaving a paper trail,” Epstein said.

After six years of studying Google, Epstein’s solution for breaking up Google’s SEME is to make its index public, to make it into a sort of public commons to engender greater competition. I have argued that these tech companies must have their Section 230 exemptions removed and be redefined as publishers and telecommunications companies. And we have antitrust laws for a reason. The federal government has a role in breaking up what are, in fact, monopolies.

Whatever the solution may be—and I suspect it is a combination of all of the above—it’s time to get aggressive. . . .

Read the rest of Mr. Ryun’s report here.

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Today’s fun photo

Runner participating in the Burning River 100 Mile Endurance Run 

in northeast Ohio today (via pat dooley photography)

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More censorship: this time it’s Amazon

Image credit: americanfreepress.net

Matt Margolis wrote a book about the Obama presidency. He now reports at PJ Media:

Reports of Amazon purging reviews from conservatives books on their site have been made for some time now. PJ Media’s Megan Fox reported in March 2018 that many conservative authors noticed a mass deletion of reviews. Well, another purge has taken place. This one targeted my book, The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. This book was approaching 1,000 reviews until Amazon decided to clean house. On Tuesday, the book had 945 reviews. On Wednesday, the book had only 693 reviews. A whopping 252 reviews (approximately 27 percent) simply vanished. Worse yet, most of the purged reviews appear to have been positive ones, as the average rating went down from roughly 4.5+ to 4.2 stars.

I can prove this because I have screenshots . . .

The rest is here. Another example of how we are losing our right to free speech.

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D-Day in Conneaut: Aug. 15 - 17

Photo credit: Pittsburgh Gazette

Bob Batz at the Pittsburgh Gazette has the announcement:

The Allies once again will storm the beaches at Normandy,
but on Lake Erie, at D-Day Conneaut

This year is not only the 75th anniversary of D-Day but also the 20th anniversary of its biggest re-enactment, happening just over the Ohio border. A lot of Pittsburghers and Western Pennsylvanians will be part of it. 

In 1999, a small group of history buffs re-created a bit of the epic World War II battle at Conneaut Township Park in this community — on Lake Erie between Cleveland and Erie, Pa. — because the bluffs-backed beach was reminiscent of Omaha Beach at Normandy, France, that the Allies assaulted in 1944. 

The first re-enactment wasn’t meant for the public, but some park visitors witnessed it and were enthralled. So the re-enactors kept at it each summer and wound up incorporating in 2007, and proceeded to make nonprofit D-Day Conneaut not only public but also the country’s largest and most historically accurate WWII living history event.

It drew 45,000 spectators over two days last year, and this year’s  — Aug. 15 to 17 — looks to be only bigger, in that they’re starting on Thursday and growing the re-enactors to about 1,700 for this double anniversary.

Details and map are here.

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