Monday, November 4, 2024

Whoever wins the US election, here’s what Israel can expect - Israel Kasnett

 

by Israel Kasnett

Israel needs a strong America, but experts are divided over whether a Democrat or a Republican in the Oval Office will make that difference.

 

Campaign signs for Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris are seen on Route 33 on Nov. 2, 2024 in Bartonsville, Pennsylvania. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images.
Campaign signs for Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris are seen on Route 33 on Nov. 2, 2024 in Bartonsville, Pennsylvania. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images.

Tuesday’s presidential election in the United States comes as Israel is engaged in a war against Iran and its proxies in Gaza and Lebanon. While the Biden administration has been admirably supportive of Israel in certain ways, it has failed in others.

Israel needs a strong America, but experts are divided over whether a Democrat or a Republican in the Oval Office will make that difference.

With regard to the current administration, antisemitism is raging across the U.S. and the leadership has failed to vigorously enforce policies to stem the hatred.

Moreover, instead of full-throated support for Israel’s war against radical Islamic terrorism, the administration has doubled down on threatening to withhold military aid from Israel and sanction more right-wing activists and organizations.

According to Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris “has obviously normalized the idea of withholding military assistance to Israel for political leverage, so we should expect to see periodic suspensions of aid during a Harris administration.”

This outcome is “highly unlikely” under a Trump administration, he told JNS.

Harris, he said, “will likely build on Biden’s executive order imposing sanctions on Jews and Jewish groups in Judea and Samaria, constructing a U.S. government BDS architecture that eventually threatens companies and banks doing business in those areas.”

In contrast, Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump “will likely repeal that executive order on day one, restore funding Biden-Harris ended for Jewish institutions in Judea and Samaria and undo the Biden-Harris policy of calling settlements inherently illegal,” he said.

Turning to Iran, Goldberg said a Trump administration “is likely to return to a maximum-pressure-like strategy toward Iran, squeezing Tehran of the resources it needs to fund terrorism and other malign activities.”

A Harris administration “likely continues the policy of seeking to negotiate a new and potentially worse version” of the 2015 Iran deal known as the JCPOA, said Goldberg, an extension of what he calls “the Biden maximum deference policy.” 

Goldberg pointed to several other important differences between Harris and Trump.

“Trump obviously defunded UNRWA, while Harris appears eager to restart funding for UNRWA,” he said.

With regard to Jerusalem, he said Trump “famously moved the U.S. embassy there and downgraded the Palestinian consulate, while Biden and Harris have continued to find a way to upgrade Palestinian status in Jerusalem—something I expect she will continue trying if she wins.”

On the international level, Goldberg said Harris, like Biden, “would likely continue support for the anti-Israel Human Rights Council [HRC] at the United Nations, and block sanctions against the International Criminal Court, while Trump obviously pulled America out of the HRC once before and had sanctions in place on ICC officials when he left office.”

On the domestic front, Trump “has promised to deport foreign student visa holders behind antisemitic protests on campus and is likely to ramp up enforcement of his own antisemitism executive order, which could lead to a federal aid suspension for universities not taking action against Jew-hatred on their campuses,” said Goldberg.

“You might also see an expansion of sanctions and indictments of Hamas-connected networks inside the United States,” he added.

Harris, by contrast, “is unlikely to do any of that, having publicly expressed that she understands where the protesters are coming from,” he said.

On the Israeli-Palestinian front, Goldberg said Harris “will press for a two-state solution in the same way presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden did.”

Trump, by contrast, “has a vision that’s public and already outlined in the Middle East peace plan,” he said.

However, according to professor Eytan Gilboa, an expert on U.S.-Israeli relations at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan and a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, neither candidate will be good for Israel, albeit for different reasons.

While during his first term Trump recognized the Golan Heights as part of Israel, moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and reversed the Hansell Memorandum, declaring instead that Israeli settlements do not violate international law, Israelis should not expect such magnanimity in a second Trump term, Gilboa warned.

Gilboa told JNS Trump would likely “act differently in a second term than he did in his first.”

Trump may want to expand the Abraham Accords, which will require that Israel makes concessions, Gilboa said.

Notably, the Saudis have said a normalization agreement with Israel cannot occur without movement toward Palestinian statehood.

Harris “is a different story,” said Gilboa. “We don’t know much about her foreign policy orientation,” he noted. “She hasn’t spoken about it.”

She “has no experience in foreign policy or military affairs” and as commander-in-chief “will need to depend on her secretary of defense,” he said.

The leading candidate for the position is Michèle Flournoy, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from Feb. 2009 to Feb. 2012, who Gilboa believes will be a good choice for Israel.

Less ideal would be if Harris appoints her current adviser Philip Gordon as National Security Advisor.

“His understanding and vision for the Middle East is very different from what should be done,” said Gilboa.

For instance, Gilboa said he believes Harris would rely on Gordon’s advice and “would not use American force against Iran” even if Iran goes nuclear.

Similarly, Gilboa said that since the United States has depleted its weapons stockpile by supplying Ukraine and Israel and must rebuild, the U.S. defense budget needs to be substantially increased.

“I don’t think she will do it,” he said.

“She would be more vulnerable to the progressive parts of the Democratic Party” if she did, he added. 

Harris is also “closer to the Progressives” and will probably need to appoint one of them to a senior position such as U.N. ambassador, Gilboa told JNS.

If she does, he added, “we’re in trouble.”

Both candidates are problematic for Israel, according to Gilboa, since they both “would be looking at some kind of isolation,” which he said is “dangerous because we expect the United States to be the leader of the western world.”

However, Gilboa said that if the Republicans control the House in Congress, that “will be good for Israel since Republicans are more favorable toward Israel” and could limit what Harris is able to do.

In terms of foreign military aid, “military cooperation will be good no matter what, but foreign aid needs to be approved by Congress and a Republican Congress will be better for Israel,” he said.

Congress approved a $14.1 billion aid package for Israel earlier this year.

In September, Israel said it had secured an $8.7 billion aid package from the United States to support its ongoing military efforts and to maintain a qualitative military edge in the region.

The package includes $3.5 billion for essential wartime procurement, which has already been received and earmarked for critical military purchases, and $5.2 billion designated for air defense systems including the Iron Dome and David’s Sling anti-missile systems, as well as an advanced laser system.

Washington provides Israel with $3.8 billion in annual military aid under the terms of a 10-year memorandum of understanding that the two countries signed in 2016. In April, U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law a supplemental aid package that included $14.3 billion in direct military aid to Israel on top of the annual aid.

“Harris could withhold aid,” Gilboa said.


Israel Kasnett

Source: https://www.jns.org/whoever-wins-the-us-election-heres-what-israel-can-expect/

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Biden-Harris Administration Surreptitiously Signs Up for UN World Governance, Internet Censorship - Robert Williams

 

by Robert Williams

These agreements usher in a dystopian future, where the UN -- an active supporter of terrorism and arguably the world's most corrupt international entity... in partnership with the unelected and unaccountable World Economic Forum, led by Klaus Schwab... is given unprecedented power over the peoples of sovereign countries, who have had no say whatsoever on the contents of this pact, because it has been kept hidden from them.

 

  • On September 22, unnoticed by most Americans, the Biden-Harris administration adopted the United Nations Pact for the Future to transform global governance, which introduces the foundations of a world government. There was no debate, no media coverage, no press releases, and no interviews about the Biden-Harris administration's surrender of United States sovereignty to the UN.

  • Americans were apparently not supposed to find out.

  • These agreements usher in a dystopian future, where the UN -- an active supporter of terrorism and arguably the world's most corrupt international entity... in partnership with the unelected and unaccountable World Economic Forum, led by Klaus Schwab... is given unprecedented power over the peoples of sovereign countries, who have had no say whatsoever on the contents of this pact, because it has been kept hidden from them.

  • Buried near the end of the Digital Global Compact, in paragraph 30, is the only thing you need to know about it: "We must urgently counter and address... all forms of hate speech and discrimination, misinformation and disinformation...."

  • The UN, its member states and the Biden-Harris administration evidently want to establish world-wide censorship that will make any future criticism of their power grab impossible.

  • In 2021-22, the UN entered into a partnership with Google to ensure that the search engine only display information reflecting UN perspectives. Dissenting views would have to be erased. The UN did not even hide their totalitarian move, and issued a press release about it.

  • Google is clearly doing the UN's bidding. If you try to google the words "climate change" today, every single dissenting view has been suppressed by the search engine. In the first twenty-plus pages of results that come up on Google, not a single of them deviates from the UN/WEF narrative, with most results only containing links to UN bodies or other institutions that partner with the UN, such as the EU, the World Bank, government websites and a few climate-alarmist articles from the Guardian, the New York Times, AP and Reuters.

  • This is what UN censorship looks like now. Can you imagine what it will be in a few years, if countries do not immediately move to stop it?

In September, unnoticed by most Americans, the Biden-Harris administration adopted the United Nations Pact for the Future to transform global governance, which introduces the foundations of a world government. These agreements usher in a dystopian future, where the UN -- in partnership with the unelected and unaccountable World Economic Forum (WEF), led by Klaus Schwab -- is given unprecedented power over the peoples of sovereign countries. Pictured: Then Vice President Joe Biden at the WEF in Davos, Switzerland on January 18, 2017. (Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)

On September 22, unnoticed by most Americans, the Biden-Harris administration adopted the United Nations Pact for the Future to transform global governance, which introduces the foundations of a world government. There was no debate, no media coverage, no press releases, and no interviews about the Biden-Harris administration's surrender of United States sovereignty to the UN.

Americans were apparently not supposed to find out.

The UN bragged that the pact is the "most comprehensive agreement in many years" describing it as "covering entirely new areas and addressing issues where no consensus has been reached for decades." This is concerning.

At the Summit of the Future in September 2024, world leaders passed the UN's Pact for the Future to transform global governance, the Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations. These agreements usher in a dystopian future, where the UN -- an active supporter of terrorism and arguably the world's most corrupt international entity, led by socialists, communists and dictatorships -- in partnership with the unelected and unaccountable World Economic Forum, led by Klaus Schwab and his covey of billionaire business leaders, is given unprecedented power over the peoples of sovereign countries, who have had no say whatsoever on the contents of this pact, because it has been kept hidden from them.

The Pact for the Future seeks to strengthen, empower and "transform" UN global governance -- a fancy way of saying world government -- to seize more power for the UN and its partner globalist elites in the WEF.

"We will transform global governance and strengthen the multilateral system to help us to achieve a world that is safe, peaceful, just, equal, inclusive, sustainable and prosperous," the Pact for the Future proclaims in section V, named "Transforming global governance."

The Pact is full of the familiar and meaningless UN fluff about "eradicating poverty" and "strengthening human rights" that the UN has falsely been promising and peddling for decades, goals that nobody believes the UN even wants to achieve. All the UN seems to be doing is demonizing the Middle East's only democracy, Israel, to the exclusion of all other conflicts on the planet, and sanctifying "climate change," seemingly code for a prospective "transfer of wealth."

A large part of the Pact is dedicated to "turbocharging" the UN's Agenda 2030. Much of this consists of fighting the fake crisis of "climate change" by achieving "net-zero" carbon dioxide emissions. Hidden at the very bottom of the 56-page document -- action point 54 -- is actually one of the most important items: the power-grab of the UN's secretary-general: strengthening "the international response to complex global shocks":

"We will uphold the Secretary-General's role to, inter alia, convene Member States, promote the coordination of the whole multilateral system and engage with relevant stakeholders in response to crises. We request the Secretary-General to: (a) Consider approaches to strengthen the United Nations system response to complex global shocks, within existing authorities and in consultation with Member States...We recognize the need for a more coherent, cooperative, coordinated and multidimensional international response to complex global shocks and the central role of the United Nations in this regard."

The UN secretary-general, in other words, is to control responses to "global shocks", which the UN describes as:

"Complex global shocks are events that have severely disruptive and adverse consequences for a significant proportion of countries and the global population, and that lead to impacts across multiple sectors, requiring a multidimensional and whole-of-government, whole-of-society response."

These could presumably be regional conflicts; a pandemic -- or whatever the UN deems a pandemic; a real or invented "climate crisis;" wars, or whatever other pretext the UN secretary-general comes up with to take control and impose measures on the world that the UN sees fit. The corrupt, unelected and unaccountable UN would now like to be the world's policeman -- presumably leaving defendants with no recourse.

The UN proclaimed in a press release last year:

"Our global interconnectedness means that shocks that occur in one country or sector can quickly have cascading consequences elsewhere, often in unforeseen ways. Those shocks are coming at us with greater strength and frequency, with serious implications for peace and security, economic stability, and environmental sustainability. And they can have a disproportionate impact in some areas. Both the COVID-19 pandemic and the global cost-of-living crisis hit the poorest and most vulnerable hardest, throwing SDG progress and Agenda 2030 further off-track. The global response to such shocks is often ad hoc, fragmented, and improvised. We need a mechanism to tackle multidimensional threats with a multidimensional response. This policy brief calls for a more formal, predictable, and structured approach. An emergency platform would leverage the UN's convening power and capacities in a timely and predictable way... Crucially, it would promote a global response based on solidarity and equity and the key principle of leaving no one behind. All people and countries hit by a shock must have access to the support they need," [bold added]"

This would not be optional. The UN makes clear that the new system "is leaving no one behind."

To ensure that all present and future UN and WEF agendas can pass without bothering with pesky dissenting opinions, the UN member states also passed the Digital Global Compact as an annex to the Pact. The Compact is a new totalitarian tool of censorship meant to silence anyone who disagrees with the globalist agenda. Buried near the end of the Digital Global Compact, in paragraph 30, is the only thing you need to know about it:

"We must urgently counter and address... all forms of hate speech and discrimination, misinformation and disinformation... We will establish and maintain robust risk mitigation and redress measures... We commit by, 2030 to: (a) Create a safe and secure online space for all users that ensures their mental health and well-being by defining and adopting common standards, guidelines and industry actions that are in compliance with international law, promote safe civic spaces and address content on digital platforms that causes harm to individuals, taking into account work under way by United Nations entities, regional organizations and multi-stakeholder initiatives... Establish regular collaboration between national online safety institutions to exchange best practices and develop shared understandings of actions... Develop, in consultation with all relevant stakeholders, effective methodologies to measure, monitor and counter all forms of violence and abuse in the digital space... call on social media platforms to establish safe, secure and accessible reporting mechanisms for users and their advocates to report potential policy violations."

The UN, its member states and the Biden-Harris administration evidently want to establish world-wide censorship that will make any future criticism of their power grab impossible.

The foundations of the censorship are already in place and activated to a worrying degree: In 2021-22, the UN entered into a partnership with Google to ensure that the search engine only display information reflecting UN perspectives. Dissenting views would have to be erased. The UN did not even hide their totalitarian move, and issued a press release about it.

Melissa Fleming, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, said:

"We are happy to team with Google to ensure that factual, trustworthy content about climate is available to as wide a global audience as possible, Misinformation is so widespread these days that it threatens progress and understanding on many critical issues, including climate. The need for accurate, science-based information on a subject like climate change has therefore never been greater."

At the 2022 World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Fleming innocently revealed the UN agenda behind censoring the internet, making it clear that censoring the internet is for the good of the great unwashed masses, whom the UN deems too dangerous to make up their own minds:

"As long as the social media platforms had become so dominant, there was already a proliferation of mis- and disinformation that was making achieving what we were trying to achieve, a better world and a more inclusive, a more peaceful and harmonious world -- it was making it more difficult. But with Covid-19 we realized very quickly we were in a communication crisis... WHO called it an infodemic... which meant if you were a [internet] user... you were just confused because there was so much information... some of it good... some of it really, really, bad...

"You know, we partnered with Google, for example, if you Google climate change, you will, at the top of your search, get all kinds of UN resources. We started this partnership when we were shocked to see that when we Googled climate change, we were getting incredibly distorted information right at the top. So we're becoming much more proactive, you know we own the science and we think that the world should know it and the [social media] platforms also do. It's a huge challenge that all sectors of society need to be very active in."

The partnership has paid off tremendously for the UN and the globalists: Google is clearly doing the UN's bidding. If you try to google the words "climate change" today, every single dissenting view has been suppressed by the search engine. In the first twenty-plus pages of results that come up on Google, not a single of them deviates from the UN/WEF narrative, with most results only containing links to UN bodies or other institutions that partner with the UN, such as the EU, the World Bank, government websites and a few climate-alarmist articles from the Guardian, the New York Times, AP and Reuters.

This is what UN censorship looks like now. Can you imagine what it will be in a few years, if countries do not immediately move to stop it?


Robert Williams is based in the United States.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21086/un-world-governance-internet-censorship

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From ‘Clingers’ to ‘Garbage’—Why the 16 years of Vilification? - Victor Davis Hanson

 

by Victor Davis Hanson

Derogatory labels highlight the cultural and socioeconomic divide between elite politicians and many Americans, particularly Trump supporters, who feel disrespected by these terms and policies.

 

 

Who actually are the “garbage” people?

Are they one and the same with Joe Biden’s “semi-fascists,” “chumps,” and “dregs of society?”

Or Barack Obama’s “clingers?”

Do they include Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables” and “irredeemables?”

Are they FBI grandee Peter Strzok’s Walmart shoppers who “smell?”

Over the last decade-and-a-half, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Harris-Walz, and a host of other self-described elites have variously invented a wide range of smears and slurs—but about whom exactly?

Who are these people that leftwing politicians have so vehemently derided—and why?

They include Trump supporters, of course, or what Biden also dubbed “ultra-MAGAs” and Tim Walz called “fascists,” now without the prior qualifying prefix “semi.”

In general, these adjectives of disdain denote about half the country according to the results of what will soon be the last three presidential elections.

This half is more rural than urban, characterized by larger than smaller families, more high-schooled diplomaed than college degreed, and more conventional and traditional than vanguard and trend-setting.

Statisticians tell us that the new non-clinging Democratic Party finds its greatest support from those who earn less than $50,000 and those who make considerably more than $100,000. These are the rich/poor bookends that surround the reformed Republican party in between.

So, in terms of generalized income and earnings, the left is now the party of the well-to-do professional and credential class and the rich, along with the subsidized poor. The Republicans, by contrast, are increasingly represented by the middle classes.

The Democratic top dogs are most likely to embrace agendas that never garner 51 percent of public support—vast reductions in gas and oil to lessen “climate change,” open borders to welcome in the world’s needy, the government promotion of a third, transgendered sex, abortion on demand without restrictions, the reifications of various critical (race/legal/penal/modern monetary) “theories,” and radical changes in the current system (ending the Senate filibuster, the Electoral College, the nine-justice Supreme Court, the 50-state union, etc.).

Two truisms stand out about the elite boutique agenda: one, when these theories are implemented—often by the courts, and the permanent and unelected administrative and bureaucratic state—the architects of such experimentation do not really feel the inevitable deleterious consequences.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the Silicon Valley masters of the universe, the professors of law, the corporate CEOs, and the Bill Gates of the world really don’t care much whether gas is at $3 a gallon or $6, or Romex wire is $39 a spool or $150.

Illegal aliens do not go to their children’s schools or crowd the offices of their concierge cardiologists and oncologists, much less dump trash on their streets and curbs.

They are strong supporters of teachers’ unions, despising the very idea of charter schools and homeschooling. And yet they send their children more often to private schools where students are not the lab rats of the public school system.

Their ideology is the fruit of their privilege and so is often more utopian and abstract. Given that if it results in economic, social, and cultural damage to millions, they will certainly avoid the ensuing flotsam and jetsam.

The fallout from defunding the police falls upon the inner city, not the privately patrolled Presidio Heights or the secluded sorts in Martha’s Vineyard.

Given their income and status, the new Democratic credentialed and moneyed classes do not care about the struggle of others to live one more day, clinging to the middle-class vestiges of their parents’ era. Instead, for the anointed who have transcended the fear of not filling up their tank or coming up short on monthly rent and power bills, it is not hard to mandate job-killing EVs or to chuckle over biological boys in girls’ locker rooms and pride flags flying from the abandoned American embassy in Kabul.

By the same token, the poor count on the left’s largesse to cushion themselves from the damage of their own party’s dreams turned into nightmares. Various food, housing, medical, legal, and educational subsidies to the poor are testaments that the left’s own agendas stagnant upward mobility and confine the poor to permanent poverty.

In a cynical sense, left-wing elites square the circle of the guilt over their privilege through government subsidies for those whom they’d rather not necessarily live next to or have their children attend school with. In other words, they find them useful rather than empathetic. They welcome in millions of illegal aliens—as long as they don’t camp out at Yale, the Hamptons, or Malibu Beach.

Not so the struggling middle classes. Modern theories can result in hyperinflation that can ruin them or easily send them into the ranks of the government-subsidized poor. They are conservative in wanting a secure border, legal-only immigration, affordable food and energy, safe streets, and equality of opportunity rather than of result, because they have no margin of error, lacking the wherewithal of secure home zip codes, or the perks of gargantuan grocery bills at Whole Foods, or a new foreign car every two years.

Such conservatism is reflected in the worldview of the clingers and irredeemables. They accept not cosmopolitism but 2,500 years of nationhood that remind them there can be no nation without borders.

There can be no modern comforts and security without access to affordable food and energy. There can be no public society without safe streets—and indeed, not even public places without sanitation and common decency.

So, the great middle class is wary about falling at the hands of others into government dependency and even more fearful of destroying what has worked over the ages. They resist experimenting with the unknown, especially when thought up and designed by those who will easily ride out the ensuing disasters when such harebrained schemes inevitably fail.

These chumps, fascists, and garbage people know that their advantages in numbers are outweighed by the Eloi’s absorption of institutional and government power. So, in depression, they often shrug and drop out. They assume wisely that the network news, the New York Times and Washington Post, Hollywood, and the corporate boardroom are mere extensions of the utopian and cultural left, who despise them for ignoring their supposed betters.

They pass on watching the Emmys, Oscars, Tonys, and Grammys. They are deaf to the top-down sermons from an Al Gore, John Kerry, the Clintons, the Obamas, or Joe Biden, which assume the grubby majority is either too ignorant or amoral or both to know what is good for them and so must be shamed, smeared, and slurred rather than won over by argumentations and persuasion. Is not the 2024 election about just that—the haughty who sermonize and those weary of being lectured?

The dregs could care less who is president of Harvard or how many letters and titles follow a professional’s name—except to confirm to themselves when watching or hearing such people that our elites increasingly have neither common sense nor integrity. A high school history teacher could have answered congressional questioning on race, anti-Semitism, and bias far more effectively and adroitly than a deer-in-the-headlights, clueless Harvard president Claudine Gay.

Yes, the semi-fascists are lectured that they are racist, sexist, and xenophobic. They are damned by the credentialed as “white privileged” who “rage,” as they dutifully go off to Iraq and Afghanistan to die in combat at double their numbers in our demographics.

They are advised of their toxic illiberality and bigotry, even as their children lack the race, gender, and ethnicity advantage accorded to the so-called Other and the inside edge that money, influence, and status provide for the elite.

What has recently brought this great divide to a head and exposed the fury of the elite is resurgent anger at the newfound impudence of the deplorable class, or the notion that they would dare call the dishonest media the “fake news” or suggest that “fit-as-fiddle,” “smart-as-a-tack,” cognitively challenged Joe Biden is the proverbial emperor with no clothes.

Who are these arrogant who pack the 20,000 seats of Madison Square Garden even after the good people have warned that they were mindlessly reenacting Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will?

The left believes that either racial victimization or money should guarantee privilege and so despises those qualifying for neither. In the elite’s view, the working class so often lacks the romance of the poor and non-white, but worse still, the culture and pretensions of the progressive Ãœbermenschen.

Finally, the unspoken irony of this divide is that the self-professed elite know that they are not the elite by any definable standard or meritocracy. Yale gives a higher percentage of A’s on spec to its students than do trade schools and junior colleges.

Today’s supposedly brilliant Columbia student would likely struggle to earn an objectively graded C on a state college’s standardized, multi-choice history exam.

Those who run the Washington Post or NPR are less competent, worldly, and knowledgeable than the chumpy and dregsy sexagenarian who publishes a small town’s weekly newspaper.

The average salesman and electrician can far better spot fraud and deceit than an Anthony Fauci or Peter Daszak. And the tractor driver is more likely not to lie under oath than a John Brennan, James Clapper, or Andrew McCabe. The lineman working with high voltage is far more likely to err on the side of safety with the lives of others than the executives of Pfizer or Moderna.

In a wider sense, the deplorable class believes it can still build reliable pipelines, frack, truck our nation’s goods, and clean up after a hurricane. But it has utterly lost confidence that the best and the brightest at the Pentagon can win a war, at Boeing can craft a safe jet, or at NASA can send astronauts safely into space and back in the fashion of their grandfathers more than half a century ago.

This election is about many things—left/right issues, of course, and the peculiar personalities of Trump and Harris perhaps.

But it will likely be defined by those who are not just tired of being smeared as the underbelly of America but, far more unforgivably, are beginning to enjoy and mock the disparagement from those who have never earned the right to smear anyone but themselves.


Victor Davis Hanson

Source: https://amgreatness.com/2024/11/04/from-clingers-to-garbage-why-the-16-years-of-vilification/

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Biden spent billions to delay Medicare premiums spike, protect Harris campaign before election - Steven Richards

 

by Steven Richards

Seniors groups warn that Biden budget gimmickry means "taxpayers are footing the bill today, seniors will pay the price tomorrow."

 

Democrats were confronted earlier this year with a terrifying reality: a cap on out-of-pocket costs for patients to limit Medicare drug spending passed as part of Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act was set to spike premiums for millions of senior citizens just weeks before the 2024 presidential election. 

To avoid the political catastrophe of presiding over major premium increases in the middle of a closely contested election, the Biden-Harris administration used its authority to reroute appropriated funding to subsidize the premiums for seniors until after the election. 

The administration’s $5 billion budget gimmick kicked the proverbial can down the road, but only adds to the estimated possible $20 billion in additional spending over three years to cover up the unintended consequences of one of the Biden-Harris administration's signature laws. 

While they free Democratic nominee Kamala Harris to tout the caps in her key economic plan for the middle class, the subsidies will cost taxpayers and seniors in the long run. 

“They created a new program that's going to send billions to health insurance companies… to temporarily offset the premium increases,” Rebecca Weber, the CEO of the Association for Mature American Citizens (AMAC) told the John Solomon Reports podcast. 

“One could really say that they're buying, you know, off big insurance companies right before an election. And taxpayers, this is important, that people understanding it, taxpayers are footing the bill today, seniors will pay the price tomorrow,” she added. 

Medicare Part D premiums were slated to increase in October at the beginning of open enrollment following pressure on insurance companies generated by the Inflation Reduction Act’s caps on drug prices—one of the Biden-Harris Administration’s signature legislative initiatives. 

This could have spelled political disaster for Democrats and their nominee, who bragged that she cast the tie-breaking vote on the legislation. 

But the administration swooped in to prevent the catastrophe. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced in July a new program to stabilize the premiums, called a demonstration. This program would shell out a total of approximately $5 billion in subsidies for insurance companies to cover the costs of capping prices and other effects of the Inflation Reduction Act.  

Before the subsidies, the price cap plan was already set to balloon federal spending after the Congressional Budget Office found the Inflation Reduction Act’s financial impacts were underestimated. 

The analysis, requested by Republican critics of the administration’s plans, said the changes made to Medicare by the act would likely cause the new average plan bid for standard Part D coverage to increase by a whopping 179% for 2025 without intervention.

“CBO expects that the additional plan costs reflected in those bids will result in an increase in federal spending of $10 billion to $20 billion in calendar year 2025, compared with our earlier projections,” the CBO said. 

The CBO Report:

But, the new subsidy would work to counteract premium increases at the expense of further raising the costs of the Inflation Reduction Act changes. 

The motives of the Biden-Harris administration seemed clear when their plan was announced this summer. 

“Biden admin to spend billions to blunt spike in Medicare drug premiums,” one Politico headline read. “The move to protect some older Americans from higher costs would come just ahead of the election.”

The move sparked criticism from Republicans. “One of @POTUS’ signature domestic achievements is set to cause a significant spike in Medicare premiums for millions of Americans just ahead of the Nov. election,” GOP Senator Bill Cassidy, R-La., posted to X. “Now, his admin is preparing to dole out billions of dollars to private insurance companies…”

But the Harris has faced little scrutiny for the move and continues to campaign delivering the tie-breaking vote that passed the Inflation Reduction Act and the price caps it contained. With the premium crisis averted, the subsidy plan freed Kamala Harris’ campaign to tout her administration’s efforts to lower prescription drug costs and preserve Medicare. 

“Vice President Harris, along with President Biden, took on Big Pharma and won,” the Harris campaign’s “A New Way Forward for the Middle Class” reads. "They lowered out-of-pocket drug costs for millions of seniors by passing the Inflation Reduction Act, which allowed Medicare to negotiate drug prices with big pharmaceutical companies for the first time ever and placed a $2,000 cap on all out-of-pocket drug expenses.” 

Harris’ plan conveniently ignores the ballooning deficits associated with the Inflation Reduction Act’s changes to Medicare—a cost that will be borne by future taxpayers—and papers over the administration’s subsidy gimmick to stave off price increases in the short term. 

All the while, Harris has promised to “protect Social Security and Medicare against relentless attacks from Donald Trump and his extreme allies” and “will strengthen these programs for the long haul.”

But, experts say seniors have been the real losers of the Biden-Harris administration’s tampering with Medicare and unchecked federal spending. 

“Seniors have been the biggest losers of all from Biden's inflationary policies, because they've lost money,” economist and former Trump advisor Stephen Moore told the John Solomon Reports podcast. 

“Who is the biggest victim of inflation? Well, it's always people living on a fixed income with lifetime savings, and all of a sudden, those lifetime savings are worth 20% less than they were, you know, when Biden came into office, their 401 K plans have been hit, and bonds have not done very well either.” Moore said. 

“And then you add to that…they’ve been robbing money from Medicare, which is only going to accelerate the date when at which you know that Medicare runs out of money,” he added.


Steven Richards

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/biden-harris-administration-spent-big-tamp-down-medicare-prices-right

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Reflections on an American Saga - Eric Lendrum

 

by Eric Lendrum

When was the last time that a single name invoked such a wide array of emotions as the name Trump?

 

 

Regardless of whatever happens on Tuesday, the end of the 2024 election will have a bittersweet feel to it, for it will be the final chapter of Donald J. Trump’s story. Whether it is the end of the final chapter or just the beginning is up to us to decide.

But perhaps Trump can already claim victory, no matter who is ultimately declared the winner at the end of it all. And his would be a far greater victory than any one election result.

All Good Things

The future of the nation depends on the decision that will be made shortly. But, win or lose, it will not be the end of the United States of America. Not by a long shot. America is resilient, and no one personifies that titanic endurance like Donald Trump.

They hit him with a fake “Russian collusion” investigation, two impeachments, a Chinese virus, race riots, a stolen election, an FBI raid, dozens of bogus charges, a mugshot, a conviction in a kangaroo court, and multiple assassination attempts. But through it all, when there was doubt, he always ate it up and spit it back out. With nerves of steel and a heart of gold, he walked right through the fire every single time, refusing to quit until the race was finally over.

That is exactly why here, in the end, it is rather difficult to come to terms with the idea that President Trump’s political journey is entering its conclusion. He himself has said as much, admitting that he will not run for a fourth time in 2028 if this election is also stolen from him.

And, despite the left’s endless screeching about him being a “dictator in waiting” who may extend his time in office, it is clear to those with an IQ higher than room temperature that he will leave office in 2029, as he should, if he wins this election. In the end, the one and only thing that can bring Trump’s political journey to an end is the one thing he has always loved and respected the most: the will of the American people.

And so, win or lose, this will be the final election with Donald Trump’s name on the ballot.

This fact was not lost on me as I filled out my absentee ballot for the general election in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It was the sixth time overall that I had filled in the bubble next to his name, the culmination of his historic three consecutive successful runs for the Republican nomination. I found myself hesitating to fill out the ballot, only because I wanted to savor the act one final time.

Even more impactful is the fact that my appreciation for Donald Trump did not start when he came down the escalator. I grew up watching “The Apprentice” with my parents when I was young, the first reality TV series I ever watched. So he could also reasonably be called a childhood icon of mine. Every now and then, I still can’t help but mentally pinch myself as a reminder that the guy from “The Apprentice”—and also the guy who shaved Vince McMahon bald at Wrestlemania 23—went on to become President of the United States; such a reminder fills me with great joy, both at its occasionally surreal nature but also at what his astonishing rise to political success means for our nation, our culture, and our civilization.

Fundamentally Transforming America

Even if his campaign falls victim to mass voter fraud once again, Donald Trump will still be able to claim victory on many other crucial fronts, for not all victories are electoral ones.

There are few monologues that better summarize the reason for Trump’s political rise than this one delivered by Tucker Carlson. Most simply, Trump entered the political arena because he had no choice but to do so, for our political elite had spent decades systematically draining the soul of our nation. They spat on the working class, defiled the institutions they inherited, and celebrated the destruction of the monuments to their own ancestors.

For too many decades, our nation was ruled by a bipartisan elite that was only in it for its own enrichment, not because it cared about America and her people. Donald Trump was once a member of that elite. But he chose to come down off of the mountain and instead use all of the tactics and secrets he learned on the inside against the very elite that he left behind. That, above all else, is why they hate him so much.

Trump is not just a populist outsider who represents the people over the entrenched powers that be. To them, he is a traitor to their exclusive club of power. That he has managed to survive every last one of their attacks has only driven them even more insane, to the point that their obsession with him rivaled that of Captain Ahab’s legendary hunt for the white whale. They have spent almost a full decade trying—and, most importantly, failing—to tear down one man who dared to speak truth to power.

Trump simply pulled back the curtain and exposed the bipartisan power cabal for what it was: both parties declaring multiple endless wars, wasting American lives and treasure just for the enrichment of foreign interests, oil companies, and the military-industrial complex; both parties signing off on mass immigration in order to please corporate donors with low-wage workers and to demographically destroy this great nation; both parties approving disastrous trade deals that gutted the heart of America just to add a fraction of a decimal point to the GDP.

And through it all, President Trump never failed to express his love for the American people, no matter their race, age, party, or religion. He was the only political candidate in modern history who showed loyalty to his people rather than demanding loyalty from them. He showed what a true leader can and should be. As Carlson points out, that is why tens of millions of Americans can only describe their feelings for Trump with the word “love,” something that all other politicians could only dream of earning from the masses.

A Name for the Ages

There’s one very simple reason why, in the grand scheme of things, Donald Trump has already won and probably won a long time ago. To put it into words that even Kamala Harris would understand: The significance of the passage of time. Or, more specifically, that which survives the passage of time.

When was the last time that a single name invoked such a wide array of emotions as the name Trump? His detractors may call him the devil incarnate, but his fans, rightfully so, see him as a savior. His is a name that has since been emulated by many other populist figures across the country and around the world. Many people want to be just like Trump, even though none will succeed. Not since the great military leaders of antiquity has one name had such an impact on mankind.

His is a name that will be remembered for all time. Decades, centuries, and perhaps even millennia from now, the history books will have a greater focus on Donald Trump than on any other figure alive today. His name alone will become synonymous with a great many things, much in the same way that Caesar became more than just a name. A man who is truly larger than life, in every sense of the phrase, and in whose time period we were all blessed to live.

Those who love him and support him will remember him forever and will pass the stories of his political voyage onto future generations. And, as much as they may hate to admit it, his enemies will remember him just as often. As Steve Bannon once said, his enemies today will still be having nightmares about Donald Trump long after he is gone.

Buildings may decay. Cities may fall. Civilizations may collapse. But a name can outlast any single life. An idea can endure when most of man’s creations crumble. A legacy can last much longer than most countries. Man will never be immortal, but some men are capable of coming close. Donald J. Trump is one such man, and they’ll never take that away from him.


Eric Lendrum

Source: https://amgreatness.com/2024/11/04/reflections-on-an-american-saga/

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Israel's arrest of senior Hezbollah operative could change the game, expert predicts - Shaked Sadeh

 

by Shaked Sadeh

Hezbollah "must decide whether to alter their operational plans and relocate bases or gamble that the detainee won't divulge critical information," Baram said.


Hezbollah operatives. (photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
Hezbollah operatives.
(photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

 

After Israeli commandos apprehended a senior Hezbollah operative who specialized in maritime activities in the town of Batrun in northern Lebanon, Prof. Amatzia Baram, an expert in Middle Eastern studies, explained the Shayetet 13’s special operation had a significant impact on the terror organization and may even force it to move its bases and adjust its plans.

Baram's comments came in a recent interview with Maariv.

Transferred to Israel and questioned by Unit 504, the detained Hezbollah operative holds the potential to reveal valuable intelligence about Hezbollah's naval capabilities. 

Baram emphasized the sophistication of Hezbollah's naval unit, saying, "They are trained and equipped by the Iranian Navy, known for its high professional standards. The small, fast vessels are designed for rapid raids along Israel's coastline, particularly targeting areas from Nahariya and Acre to even Haifa. Though such attacks have not yet materialized, the threat remains."

He added that the arrest increases pressure on Hezbollah, which now faces embarrassment and a strategic dilemma. 

 HEZBOLLAH MEMBERS hold flags during a rally marking the annual Hezbollah Martyrs’ Day, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, last month (credit: AZIZ TAHER/REUTERS)
HEZBOLLAH MEMBERS hold flags during a rally marking the annual Hezbollah Martyrs’ Day, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, last month (credit: AZIZ TAHER/REUTERS)

Will Hezbollah alter its plans?

"They must decide whether to alter their operational plans and relocate bases or gamble that the detainee won't divulge critical information," Baram noted.

The operation raises many questions about Hezbollah's naval strength, which has been somewhat of an enigma until now. 

"We know they've received training from Iran, whose navy excels in small-scale assaults and fast boats," Baram stated. "The question remains where Hezbollah stores its equipment and what its future plans entail."

Baram argued that capturing the senior officer was a blow to both Hezbollah and Iran, amplifying the mounting pressure. 

"This arrest challenges Hezbollah's leadership, prompting a potential reassessment of their strategy. They may opt to shift base locations and develop contingency plans," he suggests.

According to Baram, military actions should be coupled with efforts to influence public opinion in Lebanon. 

"To secure a ceasefire on favorable terms, Israel must ensure the Lebanese Shi'ite population pressures their leaders to end hostilities," he observed. "A psychological approach is necessary—deploying suitable messages to make civilians recognize that continuing the conflict is intolerable. Convincing this public that life under Hezbollah's rule is untenable could spark internal pressure."

Baram highlighted psychological measures as a critical strategic component. 

"Conveying messages that underline the gravity of the situation, such as evacuation instructions for high-risk areas, can erode the population's sense of security and increase pressure on Hezbollah's leadership."

Baram concluded by asserting that Israel should leverage its operational successes to gain an advantage before entering any diplomatic resolution. 

"The challenge lies in influencing not just the battlefield but also public opinion and leadership in Lebanon. Weakening public support for Hezbollah and diminishing their ability to sway civilians could lead to a ceasefire on terms favorable to Israel."


Shaked Sadeh

Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-827480

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WSJ: High-powered warheads: Iran planning more aggressive attack on Israel, officials say - Jerusalem Post Staff

 

by Jerusalem Post Staff

The report noted that the Iranian army would also be involved in this potential round of attack.

 

The Qader cruise missile is seen during the annual military parade in Tehran, Iran, September 21, 2024. (photo credit: MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY) VIA REUTERS)
The Qader cruise missile is seen during the annual military parade in Tehran, Iran, September 21, 2024.
(photo credit: MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY) VIA REUTERS)

 

Iran is planning a complex attack on Israel, which may include missiles with high-powered warheads, according to a Monday Wall Street Journal report, citing Arab and Iranian officials. 

The report noted that the Iranian army would also be involved in this potential round of attack. 

"Our military lost people, so they need to respond," an Iranian official claimed. 

He reportedly added that the attack, likely focusing on Israeli military targets, would be more aggressive. 

The Iranian official further added that the Islamic Republic's response would come after the US elections but prior to the January inauguration of a new president.

  Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves before voting in the country's presidential election, in Tehran, Iran July 5, 2024. (credit: VIA REUTERS)
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves before voting in the country's presidential election, in Tehran, Iran July 5, 2024. (credit: VIA REUTERS)

On Sunday, Al Arabiya reported, citing sources familiar with the subject, that Iranian forces are positioned to strike Israel in response to its retaliatory strike last month. 

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has threatened Israel, promising a “crushing response” to its October retaliation. 

Israel's retaliatory strike 

In late October, Israel launched Operation Days of Repentance, during which Israeli Air Force jets carried out three waves of strikes, targeting some 20 military sites in Iran.  

The purpose of the attacks was to damage Iran's air defenses and its ability to produce ballistic missiles in the long term. 

Israel had vowed to respond to Iran's October 1 attack, which saw the Islamic Republic fire some 180 ballistic missiles at Israel in what the IRGC said was a response to the killing of Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah. 

Prior to October 1, Iran last attacked Israel on April 14, launching some 300 aerial threats at the Jewish State. 

Yonah Jeremy Bob, Yuval Barnea, and Corinne Baum contributed to this report.


Jerusalem Post Staff

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-827441

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Unprepared and defenseless: Reservists warn of threats on Jordanian border - Amir Bohbot

 

by Amir Bohbot

Large sections of the border are surrounded by an old barrier that can be easily crossed.

 

An Israeli soldier walks next to the border fence between Israel and Jordan, in southern Israel near Eilat February 9, 2016. (photo credit: REUTERS/MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
An Israeli soldier walks next to the border fence between Israel and Jordan, in southern Israel near Eilat February 9, 2016.
(photo credit: REUTERS/MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)

 

The Israel-Jordan border is exposed to weapons and drug smuggling, as well as terrorist infiltrations, Southern Command military officials warned.

“Despite exceptional cooperation with the Jordanian military, it is getting closer,” stated a source in the Southern Command, referencing the attack at the Jordanian border during which two armed terrorists infiltrated.

Despite the increase in weapons smuggling and concerns that a terrorist cell might emerge from the Jordanian area, citizens and reservists serving in the Jordanian border region claim that the IDF is not effectively bolstering its defenses along the border.

According to them, there are large sections surrounded by an old barrier that can be easily crossed. 

In the event that terrorists decide to carry out a surprise attack on the Israeli communities along the border, the emergency standby squads and civilians would be left on their own until significant military forces arrive. 

Defense Ministry releases first images of new Jordan border security fence (credit: DEFENSE MINISTRY)Enlrage image
Defense Ministry releases first images of new Jordan border security fence (credit: DEFENSE MINISTRY)

This is partly due to the large extent of the area and the low ratio of combat forces along the border.

The reservists also referred to the work of the lookouts in the area, which is of high quality but also very burdensome due to the extensive terrain they are responsible for.

“The ability to get from point to point takes a long time. The situation is unreasonable,” they said. 

“It is our duty to warn, to say that the area presents a significant potential for terrorism, that the response is not optimal, and that if we are called to several points simultaneously, it could end in catastrophe. 

"The fundamental difference between the Egyptian border and the Jordanian border is the fence. There simply isn’t a serious barrier,” they noted. 

Officials in the Southern Command added that the Eilat Counter-Terrorism Unit (LOTAR Eilat) is highly flexible and professional, but it is small, relatively close to the border areas, and is intended to provide only a targeted response.

This comes despite the fact that during the years of Brigadier-General Itzik Cohen's command of the Edom Division, its level of preparedness for extreme scenarios was raised.

The officials also added that what was needed was a General Staff-level readiness of aerial units and special forces.

Over the past year, the General Staff’s Operations Directorate even raised ideas to increase the manpower of the Eilat Counter-Terrorism Unit (LOTAR Eilat) with additional reservists, but the issue has not advanced.

Reservists also reported that the use of drones and other technological means for coordination is increasing on both sides of the border—at this stage, primarily for drug and weapons smuggling. 

According to them, the IDF has conducted technological experiments with civilian companies specializing in drone detection and interception to improve security along the Israeli border, but none of this has materialized into changes on the ground.

They also sharply criticized the lack of adequate funding for a strong, new fence around the communities—which would at least serve to delay terrorists who might make their way to the communities—and added that aside from rumors about planning the route for the fence, there has been no change on the ground.

“In our opinion, an October 7 scenario is only a matter of time.”

IDF responds 

The IDF spokesperson stated in response, "The IDF works to protect the Jordan border area and adjusts the defense plan according to changing threats. Along the border, there are observation and collection means that monitor and alert to any suspicious movement in the area.

"In recent months, reinforcement of collection and observation components has been carried out in parts of the sector according to changing threats. Additionally, there is the use of means for monitoring drones at low altitudes close to the ground, as well as collection tools for both short and long ranges," the military added. 

"The standby squads have been expanded, and numerous training sessions are being conducted by the divisional and brigade rear commands. 

"Last month, a training exercise was held for the defense units in the communities by the Yoav Brigade, and some communities were equipped with machine guns in addition to personal weapons. The size of the personnel in the border area is adjusted according to the operational situation assessment and in light of the resources and current order of battle in the IDF.

An official military source stated: "In May, a divisional exercise was held with the defense establishment simulating a surprise raid to strengthen the defense plan and counter-terrorism in the Dead Sea area. The last divisional exercise took place in July and was successfully completed."


Amir Bohbot

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-827490

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Pennsylvania becomes 'ground zero' for presidential election winner amid election integrity chaos - Natalia Mittelstadt

 

by Natalia Mittelstadt

"In Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court just looks like an extension of the Democrat party, and that's how you get where we are today," Trey Gowdy said.

 

Pennsylvania has become "ground zero" for whoever will become the presidential election winner and election integrity chaos, as both nominees hyperfocus on the commonwealth. Unsurprisingly, lawsuits abound.

As former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris zoom in on Pennsylvania with Election Day just a day away, both political parties are also entrenched in lawfare regarding election procedures regarding mail-in ballots.

Pennsylvania is a critical competitive swing state, according to the polls, which explains the number of visits the Keystone State has had from the presidential nominees.

The RealClearPolitics polling average shows Trump up nationwide by half a point over Harris. In Pennsylvania, Trump is ahead of Harris by seven-tenths of a point, according to RealClearPolitics polling average.

Trump, Harris, and their allies have poured more than $538 million in advertising dollars into Pennsylvania, the most of any swing state.

"Pennsylvania is a train wreck"

Both Trump and Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, have collectively visited Pennsylvania 36 times, while Harris and Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., have visited 40 times. The Trump campaign announced on Thursday 11 campaign stops that it will make in Pennsylvania starting Friday and going through Monday. Trump himself has three Pennsylvania rallies scheduled from Sunday to Monday.

Pennsylvania has 19 electoral votes in the electoral college, which is one less vote than it had in the last presidential election. The commonwealth went for Biden in 2020 by just 1.2 points, after going for Trump in 2016 by seven-tenths of a point.

Lawsuits and courts have become a focal point in Pennsylvania during this election, which former Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., told “Fox & Friends on Wednesday.

“Elections have become like an economic stimulus plan for lawyers,” Gowdy said. “Pennsylvania is a train wreck … you’ve got overseas ballot issues, you've got what they call naked ballot issues,” he added. “I mean there’s a reason that people were focused on Pennsylvania – the race and the Senate may come down to that state.

“I just wish courts would stop allowing themselves to be politicized and being perceived as political. But in Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court just looks like an extension of the Democrat party, and that's how you get where we are today.”

Lawfare

There have been numerous lawsuits in the state over election procedures and administration. Former President Donald Trump's campaign and the Republican National Committee won a lawsuit against Bucks County, Pa., on Wednesday to extend early voting by three days. Trump's campaign filed a lawsuit alleging voter suppression on Tuesday.

The deadline to vote early in Pennsylvania was Oct. 29. There were long lines in Bucks County, according to local reports. 

While the Pennsylvania Department of State stated that everyone who was in line before 5 p.m. could submit an application for a mail-in ballot, there were allegations that voters were turned away before that time.

"PENNSYLVANIA LAWSUIT VICTORY: We just won the Trump Campaign/RNC lawsuit against Bucks County, PA. We will now have extended early in-person mail-voting through November 1st — three extra days. We will keep fighting. Go vote! Stay in line!" RNC Chairman Michael Whatley posted on X on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, a federal judge ruled against GOP congressmen from Pennsylvania who filed a lawsuit against the secretary of the commonwealth over allegedly lax requirements for military and overseas voters.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Conner dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that the congressmen "delayed too long to file their action, they lack standing, they have failed to join indispensable parties, and they have failed to articulate a viable cause of action."

In another case, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party on Wednesday sued a competitive swing county in the state's northwestern corner over its alleged handling of mail ballots, after reports indicate that some voters are still waiting to receive their ballots.

The lawsuit was filed in state court and reports that only 52% of ballots in Erie County had been returned as of Monday, which is significantly lower than the national average, and is one of the lowest in the state, according to Politico.

The case alleged that county election officials sent the wrong ballots to hundreds of voters, and that thousands have not received their ballots yet. It also noted that the United States Postal Service claimed it is trying to locate 1,800 mail ballots from the county's vendor, which the service said it had never received. 

Regarding another lawsuit, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday unanimously agreed to allow a Pennsylvania ruling to remain that lets voters whose mail-in ballots are rejected for technical reasons have their votes still count if they vote again by provisional ballot.

The appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was led by the RNC, which claimed the Pennsylvania Supreme Court "misread" the Pennsylvania Election Code. The state statute says a “provisional ballot shall not be counted” if the mail ballot was still received by county election officials in a timely manner.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled the prior week that voters can still cast provisional ballots in person this November if mail ballots are rejected for failing to follow procedural directions, such as not including the mandatory secrecy envelopes, which voters are required to sign and date.

It is unclear how many voters will be impacted as a result of the Supreme Court's order, because some counties do not notify voters of an error on their ballots. These errors include failing to include secrecy envelopes and failing to sign or date the outer envelope, according to CBS News.

Irregularities continue

As lawsuits are ongoing in the commonwealth ahead of Election Day, counties are finding election irregularities. Five Pennsylvania counties are investigating possible fraudulent voter applications and mail-in ballot applications in the days and weeks leading up to Election Day.

On Tuesday, Monroe County District Attorney Mike Mancuso announced that about 30 irregular voter applications and mail-in ballot request forms are being investigated by his office, with several of them "found to be fraudulent." One applicant was deceased and several forms were from one person.

"A company calling itself 'Field and Media Corps' a subsidiary of Fieldcorps, an Arizona based for-profit LLC, working out of Lancaster County, in turn was responsible for submitting the forms in question to county officials," Mancuso said.

York County is also investigating a large delivery it received of voter registration forms and mail-in ballot applications.

York County Chief Clerk Greg Monskie told Votebeat on Wednesday that Field+Media Corps submitted the forms that are under investigation. Monskie explained that Field+Media Corps received the forms from the national voter registration nonprofit Everybody Votes campaign.

Everybody Votes told Votebeat that it had not been contacted by the counties of Lancaster, Monroe, or York regarding ongoing investigations, but that it would help resolve any issues with forms if contacted. ”Our partners work diligently to ensure all forms collected comply with all rules and regulations,” Everybody Votes said in a statement.

York County said that of the 3,087 voter registration applications it is reviewing, about 47% of them were verified and approved; about 29% had incomplete information, which requires additional information from applicants before approval; and about 24% were declined and are receiving further review, 85% of which were duplicate requests.

Meanwhile, in Lancaster County, prosecutors said last month they had uncovered a large-scale scheme to submit fraudulent voter applications that were collected at shopping malls and other locations. Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams told a news conference that detectives have found about 60% of some 2,500 voter registrations submitted in recent days to the county's election office were fraudulent.

Adams added that she was aware of at least two other counties that may have similar concerns about recent voter registration applications dropped off in large batches.

Cambria County, Pa., also rejected 21 voter registration applications earlier this month after the district attorney’s office investigated and found them to be fraudulent. The applications were submitted by a group after a voter registration event, but the name of the group was undisclosed.

 
Natalia Mittelstadt

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/pennsylvania-become-ground-zero-presidential-election-winner-and-election

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