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OCTOBER 7-8,  2022

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE:

IS IT POSSIBLE?  WILL NEW YORK HAVE A REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR?  From the New York Post:  Democrats in tough races across the state are steering clear of Gov. Hochul.
At least five Dems running for Congress who have been endorsed by party colleague Hochul have not only declined to effusively return the favor but even left the governor’s stamp of approval off their own campaign website’s list of endorsements.  “A lot of people have been endorsing me,” said Matt Castelli, a Democrat running in a sprawling district upstate, when asked if he supported Hochul’s endorsement. “I’m excited to have a lot of endorsements from Democrats, Republicans and independents.”  While Hochul has lauded Castelli’s “strong commitment to delivering results,” Castelli, who is fighting an uphill battle to oust GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik, makes no mention of Hochul’s endorsement on his campaign website.  Castelli’s situation is far from unique. In tough races across Long Island and upstate New York, candidates are keeping their distance from Hochul — who is locked in a race with Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin that some polls now say is neck and neck.  New York severely needs a change in the governor's mansion.  Hochul became governor only because she was lieutenant governor to Andy Cuomo, who resigned in embarrassment.  Hochul automatically became governor.  She is known for...well, I'll think of something. 

October 7-8, 2022       Permalink

REPORT FROM IRAN:  Incredible, isn't it, how little attention is being paid to the anti-government disturbances in Iran?  The riots began over the death, in custody, of an Iranian woman arrested by the "modesty police."  And yet, there is not a word of support from "women's groups" in the United States.  Maybe these groups are showing us what we already knew – that many "women's" organizations have little to do with women, and much more to do with Marxist politics.  From AFP, the French news agency:

PARIS — Schoolgirls chanted slogans, workers went on strike and street clashes erupted across Iran on Saturday, as protests over the death of Mahsa Amini entered a fourth week in defiance of a bloody crackdown.

Anger flared after the 22-year-old Iranian Kurd’s death on September 16, three days after she was arrested in Tehran by the notorious morality police for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women.

Iran said Friday an investigation found Amini had died of a longstanding illness rather than “blows” to the head, despite her family reportedly saying she had previously been healthy.

But the protests continued Saturday even as ultra-conservative Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi posed for a group photograph with female students at Tehran’s Al-Zahra University to mark the start of the academic year.

He called for unity and vowed that the efforts of “ill-wishers” would be thwarted.

Videos and pictures published on social media apparently showed students outside the university taking off and waving their hijabs, and denouncing Raisi and the regime.

In Amini’s hometown Saqez, in the western province of Kurdistan, schoolgirls were heard chanting “Woman, life, freedom” and seen marching down a street swinging headscarves over their heads, in videos the Hengaw rights group said were recorded on Saturday.

In another video it shared, a group of girls could be heard chanting the same phrase — the catchcry of the protests — as they entered a school in Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan province.

Despite internet restrictions designed to impede gatherings and prevent images of the crackdown getting out, protesters have adopted new tactics to get their message across.

“We are not afraid anymore. We will fight,” said a large banner placed on an overpass of the Modares highway that cuts through central Tehran, according to online images verified by AFP.

COMMENTS:  And still the silence in the West.  I don't know how many of our leading "journalists" can look themselves in the mirror while this is going on.  Maybe some of them believe that the only legitimate women's issue is abortion, which is certainly not true. 

The hypocrisy in journalism, and in many "human rights" organizations, is sickening.

October 7-8, 2022       Permalink

POLITICAL SIGNS.  As readers know, we read all polls and follow some.  The one we follow most is Rasmussen, because that organization polls more than any other.  It gives us a daily look at presidential approval, and a weekly picture on where we stand with the generic congressional ballot.

Something interesting happened with Rasmussen's polling this week.  The generic, answering the approximate question, "Would you rather vote for a Republican or a Democrat for Congress?" showed a three-point increase for the Republican side over the previous week's report.  Rasmussen now has the generic at 44 percent for Republicans, 41 percent for the Democrats.  

A three-point jump is substantial, especially in a disciplined poll where numbers normally don't jump back and forth.  The jump tends to confirm the general polling consensus that Republicans are gaining back the edge they held earlier this year.  It's also being widely reported that morale in the Democratic Party is slipping.

Caution:  As we always say, polls are snapshots in time.  The election is four and a half weeks away.  Things can change, even several times.  And the polls can be inaccurate.  We've never had polling following a major pandemic before.  We don't know the psychological effect of the last two years.  And an October surprise, say, a new charge against Donald Trump, or an American military action in Ukraine, can muddle the landscape.  So what we say now can turn out to be nonsense.

Another point:  We shouldn't accept the temptation to depend only on the cable news networks.  It's an easy thing to do.  They're on 24 hours a day, and you can click to them any time.  But most Americans don't realize how shockingly small their viewership is.  Even Fox News has an average audience of 2.1 million people, in a nation of 332 million.  Don't assume the whole country is seeing what you're seeing.  They are not.

As we get into the final campaign weeks, we'll have many more numbers to crunch, and many more trends to watch.  We may occasionally be right.

October 7-8, 2022       Permalink 

GEORGE ORWELL WOULD UNDERSTAND:  The Democrats, once a great political party, have descended to this.  From Daily Mail: 

A liberal political media operation being run out of Washington, D.C., and Florida is pushing left-wing stories in 51 different fake news outlets in order to influence the outcome of the November midterm elections, it is claimed. 

The allegations came in a shocking new investigation from Axios that was published on Thursday. 

The report alleges that in the past 12 months, multiple new 'news' website have appeared across the country, all run by a company named Local Report Inc. 

They do report a wide variety of stories - but sprinkled throughout are news items pushing Democrat lawmakers and policies.  

Online records show that the Local Report was founded in Tallahassee, Fla. 

Content is provided for the sites from writers who are employed by another left-wing group, the American Independent. The Independent was founded by David Brock, known for other liberal endeavors such as Fox News watchdog, Media Matters for America. 

Other employees at the American Independent include Matt Fuehrmeyer, who previously worked for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and for disgraced Sen. Al Franken, according to his LinkedIn page.

Franken's son is also employed by the organization, as is former Sen. Harry Reid's son, the Daily Caller reported.

Prior to working as the executive editor of the American Independent, Jessica McCreight was part of President Barack Obama's communications team, according to her LinkedIn page. 

When asked about the connection between the American Independent and the Local Report, McCreight told Axios that the pair had a 'co-publishing agreement,' adding that their content is 'open source' and they were a 'partner' of Local Report's.

She also said: 'It’s been widely reported that where local news outlets shut down, dis- and misinformation grows.

'To combat this challenge, the American Independent has expanded to bring readers local, fact-based news and information on topics and issues that impact their communities,' McCreight continued.

The Axios report says that the outlets are all based in states that are generally considered swing states in the November elections including Wisconsin, Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Nevada, New Hampshire, Michigan, Georgia, Colorado and Arizona. 

Among the titles that are packed with content from American Independent staff are the Milwaukee Metro Times, the Tri-City Record, the Bucks County Standard, the Mecklenburg Herald and the Northern Clark County Herald.

The investigation said the websites come equipped with a certain amount of aggregated local news and sports reporting, accompanied by political commentary and biased news. 

COMMENT:  There was a time when a newspaper was a newspaper.  It may have had a point of view, but you could tell it was a newspaper and you knew who owned it.

Sad to see what's happened to "journalism," and sadder to contemplate its impact on this country.

October 7-8, 2022       Permalink

OCTOBER 6, 2022

THE GREATNESS OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES.  Why, I'm overwhelmed at how superior they are, and here's the proof.  Can you not see our future?  Can you not?   From Fox: 

A top Florida state official warned Thursday that firefighters have battled a number of fires caused by electric vehicle (EV) batteries waterlogged from Hurricane Ian.

EV batteries that have been waterlogged in the wake of the hurricane are at risk of corrosion, which could lead to unexpected fires, according to Jimmy Patronis, the state's top financial officer and fire marshal.

"There’s a ton of EVs disabled from Ian. As those batteries corrode, fires start," Patronis tweeted Thursday. "That’s a new challenge that our firefighters haven’t faced before. At least on this kind of scale."

"It takes special training and understanding of EVs to ensure these fires are put out quickly and safely," he continued in a follow-up tweet. "Thanks to [North Collier Fire Rescue] for their hard work."

Patronis published a video of firefighters in Naples, Florida, battling a fire started from a Tesla EV's battery. A bystander is overheard in the video saying that the crew had used hundreds of gallons of water attempting to put the fire out.

Last week, Hurricane Ian pummeled cities along Florida's west coast including Naples and Fort Myers, making landfall as a Category 4 storm. The hurricane caused more than 100 deaths and over a million residents to lose power.

It is unclear how many EVs were impacted or destroyed by the storm.

Meanwhile, consumers are increasingly turning to EVs as the Biden administration continues to push a green transition involving zero-emission cars. Between April and June, EVs accounted for 5.6% of new car purchases in the U.S., up slightly from the first three months of 2022, according to Kelley Blue Book.

Shortly after taking office, President Biden announced a goal of ensuring that 50% of new car sales would be EVs by 2030.

COMMENT:  Can''t wait to get my EV.  So it'll catch fire in a major storm.  So what?  You can't have everything.

Oh, I wonder if the storm knocked out the electric charging stations.  Just askin'.

October 6, 2022       Permalink

THE KEY NATIONAL ISSUE.  FROM FOX: 

The FBI released its annual report on national crime in 2021, showing murders slightly increasing above 2020's historic numbers. The data comes just a month ahead of midterms and as voters say crime is one of their top concerns as they head to the polls.

"No question that the GOP has an advantage on crime, as [Democrats] are still saddled with the ‘defund’ movement from two years ago. Both crime and immigration could play important secondary roles in the campaign, especially if the inflation issue begins to fade. Further, crime is a top concern among suburban women — a key constituency this fall," Neil Newhouse, pollster and co-founder of Public Opinion Strategies, told Fox News Digital earlier this month. 

Murders spiked by nearly 30% in 2020 as the pandemic upended society in unprecedented ways, and as protests and riots demanding that police be defunded erupted during the summer that year. The data marked the largest single-year increase in killings since the agency began tracking the crimes

The murder trend continued in 2021, with FBI data showing murders increased from 22,000 in 2020 to an estimated 22,900 in 2021, marking a 4.3% increase.

For voters, crime looms large ahead of Election Day on Nov. 8.

Polls have shown that the vast majority of Americans see violent crime as a major problem ahead of Election Day, including in a Politico-Morning Consult poll published this week and similar findings from Gallup last month. Crime is often joined by the economy and inflation as top concerns for voters.

The managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a campaign and elections newsletter from the University of Virginia (UVA) Center for Politics, told Fox News Digital that it’s unclear whether the FBI report specifically will make any difference to the campaigns but noted that Republicans have leaned into hammering crime on the campaign trail.

COMMENT:   Crime is a major issue wherever it affects residents or their families.  It's also a big issue for parents who send their children to out-of-town school. 

And yet, I fully expect that millions of voters in Democratic big cities will continue to vote Democratic despite their party's catastrophic record on crime.  These are ideological voters who often see criminals as victims of society.  Or, they're people who believe it will never happen to them.  But many voters are sobering up on crime.  There's nothing to concentrate the mind faster than being mugged, or watching in a store as looters strike, laughing all the way.  Crime is an issue you feel,  it's not theoretical.  That's what Republicans must bring home to voters, even as the left-wing press asks, "Crime?  What crime?"

October 6, 2022     Permalink