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What National Voter Report?

Do you ever scratch your heads wondering if your brain is suddenly addled and all of a sudden you are confused or just plain slow? That is happening to me. At the farm in Georgia, there are ads aired continuously on the presidential race. They are mostly Harris ads. One says that Trump will cut Social Security assumed that the voter is uninformed and doesn’t know that Trump has always vowed not to touch Social Security. One is that Trump will raise taxes to the average household by $4,000 despite Trump’s pledge to cut taxes. However, the one that is perplexing has a seal that looks like it was drawn by my 10 year old great grandson that says “National Voter Report”. Try to Google it and you won’t find the ad. Rather you get sites mainly for National Voter Registration Day. Go to YouTube and you won’t find it either.

But the ad does exists. The Washington Free Beacon runs an article on it at https://freebeacon.com/elections/dem-super-pac-runs-intimidating-ads-in-cities-with-high-black-populations-your-friends-and-family-will-be-able-to-see-how-often-you-vote/

What is strange is that when I saw it in Georgia, I thought it was an effort by the democrats intimidating some people not to vote rather than intimidating black people to vote. Given that 800,000 registered republicans did not vote in the 2020 election and Biden won the state by 11,000 votes, it seemed reasonable to assume that there would an effort to suppress the republican vote given the mistrust of the government harbored by many on the right.

Here is what the ad says:

“Who you vote for is private, but IF you vote is public information. After this election, your voter record will be updated, and your friends and family will be able to see how often you vote.” 

“Remember, who you vote for is secret, but whether you vote is public information. … After the election, your voting record will be updated based on your participation on Nov. 5, so vote.” 

Doesn’t this sound like voter suppression to you? Well you can imagine my surprise to find out that the ad is paid for by Future Forward, a leftwing super PAC funded by billionaires for Kamala such as Bill Gates and Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn). The ad is being played in major markets with large black populations like the Atlanta MSA. So would someone please tell me how an intimidating ad that says that if you vote everyone will know it, is going to get blacks to go vote for Harris? I would think just the opposite. This is a Big Brother ad that would discourage voting or am I missing something.

By the way, I tried to capture the ad to post here but my screen kept freezing which was really weird. I ask why isn’t it on Google? Why isn’t it on YouTube? Why can’t I capture the image? Am I being paranoic? 

Donald J. Trump, a grudging admiration and other thoughts

There are 325,000 missing illegal immigrant children. Where is the outrage? Remember all the noise about “children in cages” when Trump was in office? The missing children are another reason Mayorkas should be impeached and convicted. That the media is ignoring this is scandalous.

There was a leak of the Israeli plans to strike Iran. Big surprise given all the pro Hamas sympathizers in the Biden Administration. I would not be shocked if the Israelis had not planted fake plans because surely they know that they can’t trust this bunch in the White House.

Isn’t it amusing seeing all the phony outreach of the Harris campaign to men? There are the “White dudes for Kamala”. How many of these are manly men? Not Walz who was demonstrating his ineptitude with a shotgun. All this after the left has demonized males (remember toxic masculinity) since Rush Limbaugh talked about the feminization of American men. And of course, Harris is trying to appeal to black men by offering to legalize marijuana. Give me a break. I thought those on the far left were misandrists.

Fernando Valenzuela just died too young at 63. Although he was not the first Mexican in American baseball, he was the most impactful. One of the few to win rookie of the year and the Cy Young in the same year, he energized the Dodgers and the rest of baseball. Even though he does not have Hall of Fame statistics, he should be in the Hall nonetheless. What was impressive about him was that even though at first he spoke no English, he mastered the language, something that other Latin stars failed to do. I get irritated when players have to speak through an interpreter.

One of my leftist socialist progressive friends fears what will happen if Trump loses. She thinks that his ardent supporters will start shooting people like her. She says that January 6 will be child’s play compared to what will come next. She is actually scared. On the other hand, there are those who say that George Floyd type of demonstrations with burning and looting will take place if Trump wins. Let’s hope that both are wrong. But Harris is stoking the fires lately with calling Trump a fascist, a dictator, a threat to democracy and all the rest. Apparently she is trying to scare the hell out of the voting public with her smear campaign. Trump had better watch his back. 

Did you know that polls show that the majority of Harris voters are blissfully unaware of her far left positions. Talk about the uninformed voter.

Now as to Donald Trump who may be the most remarkable politician in American history. He is detested by the political establishment – both democrats and republicans – precisely because he is not part of the establishment. I cannot recall another successful presidential candidate completely devoid of political experience, save Dwight Eisenhower. Even Reagan was governor of California. Trump is not beholding to the establishment. He is his own man. He was smart enough to declare himself a republican because he knew the futile attempt at running as an independent – just ask Ross Perot. He knew that a significant amount of the electorate was sick and tired of career politicians. They were tired of being ignored. They were tired of seeing their values trashed, their religion ridiculed, government spending out of control, EV mandates and regulations that crippled initiative, boys in girls’ locker rooms and on girls’ teams, open borders, inflation, LBGTQ flags flying over the White House and government buildings and all the rest. 

So when Trump announced that he was running to make America great again, millions applauded and much to the dismay of the republicans, he started winning primaries. Trump does not owe anyone anything. He can set his own agenda. Career politicians both domestic and abroad hate him. Trump doesn’t want to rock the boat. He wants to sink it. Trump says that America is treated like a sucker abroad and he will change it. He will change unfavorable trade agreements. He will force NATO countries to pay their fair share. No wonder the Europeans don’t want to see him again. He will confront China. There are questions about what he will do with Israel and the Ukraine. One thing is for certain: he will do something. He will drive energy prices and inflation back down by drilling, fracking, junking the Green New Deal and liberating natural gas.

So a billionaire can relate to every day folk better than their haughty elected officials. Despite the fact that he is crude, profane and possibly xenophobic and racist none of that really matters to those masses that have been trod upon by their politicians. People know that during his time in office, those faults were immaterial to the final result that they were better off than under Obama and Biden. Trump is not playing their game. Lobbyists hate him because they have little influence over his actions. Trump is the most successful grassroots politician in American history.

Trump has withstood all the persecution, indictments and lawfare from the Department of “Justice” and assorted democrat AGs. The “Justice” Department has tried to intimidate his close associates. Biden wants to lock him up and has done that to some of Trump supporters. Goodness knows that Jack Smith, Alvin Bragg, Letitia James, and Fani Willis have tried. It doesn’t even matter that 90% of media reporting is negative. Trump once said that if the republican party could purge itself of RINOS it would totally dominate politics. No wonder Mitch McConnell doesn’t like him. Still McConnell kept Merrick Garland off the Supreme Court so I will cut him a break. 

Trump’s brilliance is showing the public that anti-establishment does not mean anti-rich. Even though Harris is playing the politics of envy card, the voters are not buying it. Trump’s negatives have actually decreased as the attacks have intensified. His negatives are less now than in 2016 and 2020. Maybe that should send the democrats a signal that all this vitriol is not working.

Finally, I don’t like Donald Trump but I admire his becoming the republican nominee without kowtowing to the establishment. I admire his tenacity, courage and fortitude in withstanding all the abuse heaped upon him and continuing to flip his finger at the establishment both left and right, home and abroad.

Et tu, Liz?

Kamala Harris says that prices of groceries are too high and she will bring them down. I wonder if she realizes that the policies of her administration caused them to be high in the first place? One reason she is afraid to have a press conference is that she will be asked that question.

Ms. Harris: How do you define price gouging?

Ms. Harris: What empirical evidence do you have of price gouging?

Ms. Harris: Have you studied the relationship between wholesale prices on food and retail prices and concluded that they have diverged abnormally during your administration?

Huh?

Did you see her facial expression when she was asked on the View if she would have changed anything over the past four years? It was a “deer in the headlights” and spoke volumes. After a significant pause she said that she could not think of anything. That spoke volumes as well.

Her CNN Town Hall with Anderson Cooper was widely panned, even by democrats. It seems that she did not answer any of the questions – I’m beginning to think that she just for some reason has not thought through what should be obvious questions. She was noted as giving nothing but her famous word salads. If you read the reports on CNN they contrast sharply with the reports on other sites. CNN actually makes Harris sound thoughtful and intelligent. But even CNN admits that she really didn’t answer any of the questions. 

Harris mentioned her teaming up with Liz Cheney. Well here are some of Cheney’s earlier quotes about Harris.

This is taken mainly from https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/all-the-times-ex-gop-rep-liz-cheney-ripped-radical-kamala-harris-before-endorsement/ar-AA1rESX0

These are quotes from Liz Cheney

Kamala Harris is a radical liberal who would raise taxes, take away guns & health insurance, and explode the size and power of the federal gov’t. She wants to recreate America in the image of what’s happening on the streets of Portland & Seattle. We won’t give her the chance.

A radical liberal who sounds just like Karl Marx, Cheney said regarding Harris saying that Americans should forego pursuing equal opportunity for equity of outcomes in all aspects of society.

Harris once said that convicted felons should have the right to vote. Cheney mocked her saying, “Coming soon Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders will launch their “Absentee ballots for al Queda Program.”

Cheney also said that the pick “tells us something about Joe Biden. It tells us that he is not really leading his party. He’s not really in charge.”

“Joe Biden has been trying to portray himself as the moderate in this race, as somebody who centrist, and in one fell swoop here he has put somebody on the ticket whose voting record in the Senate is to the left of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.” 

“Every single day the Democrats tell us what they would do as Kamala Harris put it yesterday. A Harris Administration would defund our police, dismantle our freedom, destroy our history and abandon our founding values.” 

“The president has said that Vice President Harris is in charge of the border. Vice president s not in charge of the border. Nobody seems in charge. She hasn’t been there. And we have a humanitarian and risis and health crisis unfolding there.” 

I wonder why the “Town Hall” moderators didn’t ask Harris about this.

A Few More Observations

I wonder how many people in Harris’ ads are actors. In some commercials there is a line that says “actor portrayal”. Maybe they should do the same in political ads. In one Harris ad is a woman who said she voted for Trump but will now vote for Harris. Is she a real person and if so why did she flip? Was it because of the wonderful economic environment during Biden-Harris compared to what existed under Trump?

Speaking of Trump, the democrats blame Trump for everything, including their bad economy. Yet despite all the negative press on the side effects of the COVID mRNA vaccines, there is total silence. The democrats continue to push the vaccines and the boosters. They mandated them for the military and tried to mandate them to the general public. Yet there is solid evidence of an increase in myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle. There is also statistical evidence of increased transverse myelitis and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis. I have two close friends who almost died after taking the second shot. I wonder why the dems just don’t say they were duped and all these side effects are Trump’s fault?

Are you going to get any of the boosters?

Liz Cheney was in a “Town Hall” with Harris. I put Town Hall in quotes because it was not an open forum. One member of the audience wanted to know if they could ask questions and was told by the “moderator” Maria Shriver “You are not, unfortunately, we have some predetermined questions.” What! This is more damning evidence that Harris cannot think on her feet and has to be given questions beforehand so she can memorize the answers. By the way, she botched one of the answers. Again, it is no wonder that she continues to refuse to hold a press conference.

Harris, being magnanimous, said that she would appoint a republican to her cabinet. Hum. I wonder who that might be?

As to Liz Cheney, most republicans despise her so she won’t sway many republicans to drop all their principles and vote for Harris. Most will hold their nose and vote for Trump. Cheney is also intensely disliked by the Muslim community for her support of her father who was Bush’s vice president during the use of waterboarding of Muslim terrorists. A coalition of Muslim groups issued the following statement “Vice President Harris should have never hosted a campaign event alongside Liz Cheney, an anti-Muslim bigot and far-right war hawk who continues to openly endorse the crime of torture, including waterboarding.”  “The Harris campaign’s decision to platform Cheney is an insult to every American who worked to oppose the Bush-Cheney administration’s criminal policies and to everyone around the world who died due to those policies.” Oops.

Liz Cheney said at the Town Hall “If you wouldn’t hire Trump to babysit your kids, don’t make him president.” Isn’t that a weird comment made before Harris whose husband impregnated his first wife’s nanny? 

Obama continues to insult black men lecturing them as to why they should support Harris. Does anyone pay any attention to Obama anymore? His Ivy League education and million dollar villas are far removed from the life of the average black man. Anyway, 77% of black men are voting for Harris. In any other world, 77% is a landslide.

Twenty-eight percent of Americans say that the country is on the right track. Who are these people? Likely members of the Biden administration and those getting the Green New Deal handouts.

Is Harris capable of giving a speech on the greatness of America? 

It is estimated that 41 million Evangelist Christians will not vote in this election. 41 million! Is it they won’t vote democrat because that party ridicules them and because of their stance on abortion? Is it they won’t vote for a Trump because of his profane nature and past history with women? Forty-one million sitting this one out is amazing.

Trump surrogates are saying that he is using the threat of tariffs to secure better trade deals. Recall that he wrote “The Art of the Deal.” In his Chicago interview Trump used the example of when France was going to impose additional taxes on American firms, Trump threatened to impose a 100% tariff on French champagne and wine. France immediately dropped the tax.  The question that came to my mind is why didn’t he keep the 100% tariff on to protect the American champagne and wine industry and protect American jobs? Isn’t that essence of his argument for tariffs?

Harris’ parents were legal immigrants. Her mother from India and her father from Jamaica. Both were PhDs. Her mother was a breast cancer researcher at Berkeley with a doctorate in endocrinology. Her father was an economics professor at Stanford. Yet unlike her younger sister, Harris did not attend these schools. Rather she went to Howard University and then to Hastings Law School. Unlike the “elite” law schools, Hastings accepts about 50 percent of all applicants. With an acceptance rate that high one wonders why Harris was admitted under a DEI program intended for students for disadvantaged economic and educational backgrounds. She was neither. This somewhat reminds me of a white student in one of my classes who was South African. He told me that when it suited him he put “African-American” down on applications.

In April Maine passed the National Popular Vote Compact. In case you had this one slip by you, the NPV is an agreement that a state will award all its electoral votes to the candidate for president who wins the popular vote regardless of who won the state. This would effectively put an end to the Electoral College. In the Electoral College the winner needs 270 votes. To date, the NPV has garnered 209 votes and won’t go into effect until enough states join that total 270 votes. Maryland was the first state to pass the NPV and not surprisingly only those states with the democrat majorities in their legislatures and the governorship have passed the NPV.

It is not clear whether the NPV is constitutional. Certainly, there will be lawsuits and residents in a state carried by the losing candidate but whose electoral votes are awarded to the one with the most votes would have standing. Currently there are 27 republican governors and it is highly likely that all would veto any NPV bill that reached their desk – unless it is someone like Larry Hogan who did nothing about the NPV while he was Maryland governor. As to the government trifecta where one party has both the governorship and both legislatures, 23 are republican and 15 are democrat with 12 states with divided government.

Look at the map. The green states have enacted the NPV. It is pending in the yellow states and not being considered in the gray states. It is surprising that the NPV has not been passed in Michigan where the democrats control both legislatures and the governor’s office. North Carolina has a republican legislature and a democrat governor (which is unlikely to change). Virginia has a republican governor and a democrat legislature. Nevada has a republican governor and a democrat legislature. Michigan’s 15 electoral votes would bring the NPV total to 224. Although there is a mathematical chance that the NPV might reach 270, the odds are slim.

It is clear that the left hates the Electoral College. Not surprisingly Hillary Clinton has called for the elimination of the Electoral College. But although she got more votes than Trump, she only won 48% of the popular vote. To date I have heard no one on the left saying that to be elected president a candidate must have 50 plus 1 percent of the popular vote.

An MSNBC commentator said that it is “Just a wildly dangerous institution that undermines democracy but also creates all manner of rube-goldberg machinery to be attacked by bad actors.” Jaime Raskin, democrat from Maryland who was on the Jan 6 inquisition said that the Electoral College was an “obsolete system from the 18^th century that is deadly for Americans”. He said that the Electoral College “can get you killed.” I presume he was referring to the death of Ashli Babbitt, shot by a Capitol policeman on January 6, 2021.

During my lifetime, five republicans (Eisenhower, both Bushes, Reagan and Nixon) have won the popular vote. Note that George W. Bush lost the popular vote to Al Gore but won it when he ran for re-election against John Kerry. Can you imagine Al Gore as president? Or Hillary Clinton for that matter. That alone makes some of us thankful for the existence of the Electoral College

Some more random thoughts

My University of Georgia Bulldogs welcomed the University of Texas into the Southeastern Conference going into Austin as an underdog against the number one team in the country and winning 30-15 despite the best efforts of the referees. In addition to the outrageous overturning of a pass interference penalty I counted at least three holding calls and one hands to the face call that were missed. There were also two video reviews that went against the Dawgs despite evidence to the contrary. The pass interference call was overturned after the Texas fans showered the field with bottles and assorted litter leaving the impression as Kirby Smart noted that the referees “tried to rob us.” He also said “But I will say now we have a precedent that if you throw a bunch of stuff on the field and endanger athletes, that you’ve got a chance to get your call reversed.” Sic’ em.

I am sure that he will be fined. The SEC fined Texas $250,000 for its fans’ demonstration. $250,000? You have got to be kidding. That’s probably what they pay their back up punter. If the SEC had any guts it would have fined them $1 million plus docked them 3 scholarships. Don’t mess with Texas?

The University of Tennessee beat Alabama. The Vols’ fans ran onto the field demonstrating that they must have thought it was a fluke. I wonder if Alabama fans ever storm the field? 

Did you see Trump’s interview at the Economics Club of Chicago? That interview should be enough to convince people to vote for him. That Harris declined their interview is no surprise. If she had agreed, her performance would have been worse than Biden’s at the debate and she would lose the election in a landslide. Trump was asked tough questions about the economy, about tariffs, foreign affairs and domestic social issues. He answered them all without equivocating or being evasive. He may be a bully, a cad and amoral but in this election, he is better for the country than Harris. If Harris were subjected to exactly the same set of questions, her responses – or lack thereof – would frighten even her supporters into considering to vote for Trump.

I didn’t think Bret Baier was rude to Kamala Harris just because he kept trying to get her to answer his questions. I actually thought he kept throwing her soft balls.

Isn’t it amazing that she has still not held a press conference and the media is letter her get away with it?

Only the blind could ignore that Trump and Vance will agree to be interviewed by anyone with a microphone while Harris only talks to Oprah and the View.

The democrats are campaigning only on abortion and Jan 6 saying that Trump wants to be a dictator. They are also running ads in Georgia saying that Trump wants to cut social security which is a lie. Trump has repeatedly said that he will not cut social security.

As to being a dictator, isn’t that what Joe Biden has been, ruling the country by executive order and having his administration enact an agenda opposed by the majority of Americans?

Democrats actually love dictatorships if they are the dictators. All their efforts to establish one party rule shows that for a fact. They want to abolish the Electoral College, they want to pack the Supreme Court, they want statehood for Puerto Rico and DC. All would entrench the democrats as the majority party and let them impose their dictates on the rest of us. Isn’t that a dictatorship?

Harris did not go to the Al Smith dinner. Along with her stance on abortions, one wonders why Catholics would vote for her.

What happened to all those stories about Harris being difficult to work for and having high turnover in her staff? Did all of a sudden, she became a wonderful sympathetic boss?

Harris is trumpeting that economists say that Trump’s economic agenda will be more costly than hers and have a higher rate of inflation. Trump was asked about that in the Chicago interview. He rightly stated that those economists did not take into account that his program would create more economic growth and was not a simple add on to the existing economy. I wonder how Harris would have handled such a question. Another word salad?

Trump going to McDonald’s and working in the drive though was brilliant and funny. One wonders why the Harris camp didn’t do it first since she claims that she once worked at McDonald’s during college?

Apple News loves Costco. Every day there are several stories on Costco and occasionally one on Trader Joe’s. I have yet to see one on Sam’s Club (which I prefer to Costco). I guess Sam’s does not have the hip left coast cache of Costco and Trader Joe’s. Strange. So they are being ignored despite the Walton heirs all being guilt ridden democrats. 

If I were dictator for a year (I need more than a day)

Make the federal government including the military more cost efficient

End wokeness and equity throughout the federal government including the military

End Title IX gender inclusion

Take DEI out of the military academies

Institute cross the board reduction in federal budgets by 5% per year

End all duplicate federal functions

Eliminate federal minimum wage

Raise the full “retirement” age on Social Security to 70.

End all automatic escalators in entitlement programs

Phase out mandatory social security private accounts and replace with IRAs.

Restrict the growth in the federal budget to the rate of growth in the previous year’s GDP

Institute a flat tax with no exemptions and no deductions regardless of income 

Scuttle the Green New Deal

Make America energy independent

Adopt an all-in energy policy with solar, nuclear and fossil fuels.

End windmill energy

Repeal all green energy subsidies

End the new industrial policy of picking winners and losers in “green” energy

End all tariffs and quotas when reciprocated

Require all federal agencies to review on a periodic basis all regulations and conduct a cost/benefit analysis of each

Build a “porcupine” defense around Taiwan

Aid Viet Nam and the Philippines in their confronting Chinese aggression in the South China Sea

Reopen all energy pipelines

Reopen energy sources off shore and in Alaska

Fully support Israel and Ukraine (provided they get their act together)

Isolate Iran and support Israel’s war on Iran’s proxies

Withdraw from the United Nations and expel them from New York

Make active duty military pay fully tax free

Fully restore natural gas exports

End all foreign aid to governments that do not fully support us

End support of foreign wokeness

Fly only the US flag at government buildings and installations worldwide

Get government out of the climate change business (leave it only to private enterprise)

Get the Department of “Justice” out of the lawfare business

Free the political prisoners of Jan 6.

Ensure that voting in federal elections is free from fraud

Ensure that only citizens vote in federal elections

Fully support school choice

Provide incentives to eliminate differences in reading and math proficiencies. 

Fully support small business

Reduce regulatory burdens on all businesses but especially small business

Limit the number of new pages in the Federal Register

Remove constraints such as the Davis-Bacon Act which regulates federal wage contracts and the Jones Act which hinders maritime trade

Eliminate the corporate income tax

Abolish the capital gains tax

Eliminate all disincentives from Federal programs

Establish third party boards to negotiate labor contracts with the federal government

Move most of the federal agencies out of Washington

Have federal salaries not to exceed those in the private sector

End all federal welfare and transfer payments and replace them with block grants to the states

Abolish discretionary federal reserve monetary policy which leads to irresponsible tinkering by the Fed. Impose Friedman’s monetary rule of allowing the money supply to grow at the long run GDP growth each year – removing uncertainty

Abolish public sector defined benefit plans and replace them with defined contribution plans.

Repeal health care “reform”. There are market solutions that will work including those designed for pre-existing conditions.

Abolish the departments of education, energy, and agriculture (for starts) and allocate their funding (where appropriate) to the states via block grants.

Abolish all agricultural subsidies. 

Encourage and reward risk taking. Ensure that all programs provide positive incentives to be productive rather than negative ones that discourage work.

Close the border to all illegal migrants and expel all those who enter illegally after closing the border

For those already in the country, require all to have work permits and deport able bodied illegals who do not have work permits

Do not deport illegal criminals. Rather give them mandatory minimum prison sentences

Tie school grants to the teaching of economics, civics, American history and the elimination of woke curricula such as woke mathematics and queer history

Require all teachers to be proficient in the subjects that they teach. Too many would fail exams in their subject matter

Subject the anti-Semitic pro Hamas protestors to hate crimes prosecution

Eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and send its functions back to the regulatory agencies

Have a third party evaluate the FBI and eliminate it if it no longer serves its purpose

Make the Federal government reimburse those that it sues if it loses in court. Currently many companies settle because of the cost of litigation

Make all changes in regulations and the tax code require a 60 percent approval in both houses of congress

Make chocolate chocolate chip the national ice cream

Note: What did I leave out?

Dictator for a year and other thoughts

Liz Chaney, who openly and vehemently hates Trump, is now campaigning with Kamala Harris. I don’t know what this accomplishes. Cheney, who is thoroughly disliked by republicans, is not going to convince other republicans to vote for Harris because a vote for Harris is a vote for four more years of Biden’s disastrous policies. Of course, most democrats think that those policies were wonderful and not a disaster. So what if we had record inflation, high energy bills, foreign failures, record low enlistments in the military. That’s a small price to pay for increased gender awareness, equity and the Green New Deal.

I encourage all the so-called republicans who will vote for Harris to leave the party and become democrats. 

I am not a Trump republican. Trump’s economics run counter to my beliefs and empirical findings. Yet as much as I dislike Trump, I dislike the leftist democrats even more. While it is true that If Trump were elected and his policies implemented, that the economy would likely go downward, a Harris election would mean that and more. The democrats would move to eliminate the electoral college, to pack the Supreme Court, to take control of elections from the states and to threaten the foundations of the country.

Again I think that the democrats should split into two parties: the leftists versus the moderates. Sometimes I wonder if there are any moderate democrats left. But then I have several close friends who are old time democrats like JFK, Bill Proxmire and Scoop Jackson. I also think that the republicans should split as well. Trump by picking JD Vance has cemented in that wing of the republican party – call it the isolationist wing. There are others, like me, who are free trade (no subsidies or tariffs), laissez faire, government with a small g. I’ll never be a Trump republican and will only vote for that ilk if and only if the democrats keep nominating socialists.

In a conversation I had with a prominent economist who has had nice things to say about both Trump and Harris, he contended that Trump was using the threat of tariffs as a bargaining tool. Personally, I don’t believe that but this economist actually talks to Trump. He pointed out that at a conference of G-7 countries, Trump offered to remove all tariffs if the others did the same. He had no takers.

China is a mess. Its real estate market has collapsed. There are 90 million unoccupied apartment units in the country. 90 million! Its economy is slowing. Their response is to add more stimulus to the economy even though government spending is what has caused the mess in the first place. Xi’s policies are making things worse. He is a died in the wool Marxist (or is it Maoist?) and hates capitalism. He is committed to his mercantilist ways in subsidizing exports and discouraging imports while limiting capitalistic ventures. With its population collapsing and the economy slowing, China is in serious trouble. Don’t forget that it is still a third world country with a GDP per capital less than Mexico’s.

That FEMA doesn’t have enough funds for hurricane season while paying millions to care for illegals is scandalous. Not only should Mayokas be impeached (again) the Senate should convict him. If something similar would have happened under Trump, he would be fired. Has Biden fired anyone?

Speaking of the Senate, all those democrats who want to get rid of the Electoral College should also want to reconstruct the House of Representatives and get rid of the Senate. Recall that the Electoral College’s membership is determined by adding a state’s representatives with its senators. Therefore, if the Electoral College is a threat to democracy then so are the House and the Senate.

One of my progressive socialist friends who hates Trump to the point of irrationality and wishing him dead insists that despite his denials Trump is in favor of everything in Project 2025. She says that Trump is lying and wants to abolish NOAA. She says that he actually would stop forecasting hurricanes and their tracking of storms. If she read that section of Project 2025 she would see that the writer does not want to abolish the hurricane center but does favor getting rid of those parts of NOAA that are shills for climate change. I asked her if Harris was lying when she claims her positions have changed on the Wall and fracking. Then is Harris contradicting herself when she says that she can’t think of a thing that she would do differently than what Biden has done? She said that it doesn’t matter so long as she gets elected.

I asked three of my progressive friends that if they could, how would they change the country. I told them I would not critique their answers. One had responded that she would impose a single payer health system and put the pharmaceuticals under government control but she still favored private ownership of private property. One said she had to give it some thought. The other has not responded. But I am genuinely curious. I know that if I were dictator for a year what I would do. What would you do?

The undecided, the uninformed American voter

Last week I was in Georgia at the farm bow hunting. As usual because it was deer season I was overrun with wild turkeys. I wish Georgia would have a fall season because in the spring when it is legal to hunt turkeys I am always overrun with deer.

You can tell that Georgia is a crucial state in this election by all the ads. Not so much in Tennessee. One of the Harris ads that plays every ten minutes or so is that Harris “will make billionaires pay their fair share” and that Trump will give his fellow billionaires a tax cut. One ad features a man who endorses Harris while putting gas in his car. Strange, because the price he is paying at the pump is much higher under Harris than it was under Trump. Also (I haven’t verified this) at a lecture a few weeks ago one of the leading tax economists stated that historically when the tax on billionaires is increased, the well being of the lower 5 percent falls and vice versa. If true, then Harris should be campaigning for a decrease in the taxes on the wealthy in order to help the poor.

Did you know that Harris wants to cut taxes to the middle income households while Trump has proposed a national sales tax that will costs those households $4,000 per year? Well that is what another Harris ad says.  It is from her acceptance speech at the Democrat National Convention. The so-called “national sales tax” is what Harris’ ad is labelling Trump’s pledge to impose across the board tariffs on imports.

Another Harris ad says that Trump will impose a nationwide ban on IVF treatments. Of course Trump has said that he wants IVF treatments to be paid for by the government (another of his pandering). To date I have seen no Trump ads refuting either claim of a national sales tax or on IVF. The one Trump ad that is constantly played is of Harris advocating transgender surgeries to inmates. Personally I think an ad on Title IX would be more effective especially one in which biological males are allowed in girls dressing rooms and displacing girls on athletic teams.

Barack Obama is chastising black men for their lack of enthusiasm for Harris. In the real world if 72% supported a candidate, it would be called a landslide. But not in Obama’s world. Speaking of Obama, is he ill? He looks awful.

There have been some of the usual accusations that Harris is not appealing to some voters because she is a woman of color, implying that if she were a white male, the same group would vote for her. Really? That would imply that the same group supports Bernie Sanders but not Harris. Only a fool would think that because the Bernie bros are all in for Harris.

I wonder if the lack of interviews and total absence of press conferences is actually hurting Harris. This would assume that the electorate is actually paying attention. I strongly suspect that the number of people who are undecided is so small in number that they will not make a difference. There are two challenges for Trump. The first is to get people who normally do not vote (see evangelistic Christians) to vote. Note: that evangelistic Christians do not embrace Trump should be no surprise. It would be akin to black voters in Alabama voting for George Wallace – oh wait, didn’t Wallace get 90% of the black vote when he ran for governor in 1982? The second is to motivate the uninformed voter to go to the polls. In the 2020 elections, voter participation was 66% meaning that 81 million eligible voters did not vote. To me that is astounding. Trump’s strategy is to get these slackers to the polls by scaring the hell out of them. To wit: illegal gangs are taking over apartment buildings; illegals are raping your women; illegals are eating your pets; illegals are murderers with bad genes; “If we lose this election, the country is finished”; Trump’s opponents are no longer incompetent, they are mentally impaired; Harris is now called “stupid”; Walz is now a “total moron”; We now need “one rough day” against criminals. The democrats have long argued that Trump is a threat to democracy. Trump has countered by saying that if Harris is elected then Israel will cease to exist.

Whether Trump will be successful in scaring the uninformed and the indifferent eligible voter to go vote is an empirical question. Post election see if the percent of eligible voters who vote is increased.

Kamala Harris and the politics of envy

Kamala Harris is running as the “candidate of change” promising a “new way forward.” Has she forgotten that she was Joe Biden’s vice president? Since the majority of voters says the country is heading in the wrong direction, she thinks the electorate must have amnesia. The polls indicate that she might be right. Again, any candidate but Trump would be 20 points ahead and have a landslide victory rivaling that of Nixon’s over McGovern who managed to eke out 17 electoral votes.

Kamala Harris, who as you know, grew up a poor girl forced to ride school buses and flip burgers at McDonald’s and could not afford to go to her parent’s schools (Berkeley and Stanford) like her younger sister, is your typical working class person of color.

Harris is running ads saying that she will make billionaires “pay their fair share” whatever that is. What is fair? The US tax code is one of the most progressive in the world. In 2020, the top 1% of taxpayers paid $42% of all federal income taxes despite earning only 22% of taxable income. The bottom 90% paid only 26% despite earning 50% of income. Is this fair? By the way, 34% of all tax filers paid no income taxes at all. Is this fair? I think not. I think that all earners should pay a minimum tax regardless of income as part of the price of residency.

Let us suppose that their fair share is the max tax bracket of 37%. Of course, one problem is that some billionaires may have very little income. Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffet have a salary of about $100,000 a year which puts them in the 22% tax bracket. This is where Biden’s proposed tax on unrealized capital gains comes in. Of course, most billionaires including the democrat ones oppose such a tax. Even Mark Cuban who has been acting as a Harris surrogate telling us what she really means, is against the tax. Another problem is how to treat unrealized capital losses. For example, last year Elon Musk “lost” $24 billion when Tesla stock fell 9%. Does this mean that Musk who as a result was worth only $232 billion would be due a tax refund?

What about Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax? She wants a 2% tax on every dollar of net worth over $50 million and an additional 1% on every dollar of net worth over $1 billion. Instead of impacting just the 500 or so billionaires in the country, it would affect over 75,000 households. Some European countries have instituted such a tax and it has been a flop. In France, before Macron killed it, 42,000 millionaires left the country. As a result, wealth taxes raise less revenue than anticipated. Warren’s proposal would tax people regardless of where they lived. If they were to change citizenship it would levy an exit tax of 40 percent of wealth over $50 million. However, one problem is for the government to estimate yearly the market value of all of person’s assets. The high administrative costs of such a task caused Austria to end their tax. Again, let the billionaires who back Warren lead by example. Let them donate 2% of every dollar of net worth over $50 million and 1% of every dollar of net worth over $1 billion. It would be only fair!

What is fair? The US tax code is one of the most progressive in the world. In 2020, the top 1% of taxpayers paid $42% of all federal income taxes despite earning only 22% of taxable income. The bottom 90% paid only 26% despite earning 50% of income. Is this fair? By the way, 34% of all tax filers paid no income taxes at all. Is this fair? I think not. I think that all earners should pay a minimum tax regardless of income as part of the price of residency.

Here is a better idea, let the billionaire democrats voluntarily donate a certain percent of their wealth each year to the federal coffers. So Cuban, Bloomberg, Soros, Steyer, Jobs, Pritzker, Schultz (Starbucks), Gray (Blackstone) and the rest should, in addition to buying influence, could then have Harris change her campaign spiel from making billionaires pay their fair share to “make republican billionaires pay their fair share too”.