You don’t like Melania Trump? Okay. But humiliating her with this kind of betrayal makes the world a more vicious, and dare I say totalitarian, place. I spent a year talking with people in the Soviet bloc, reporting Live Not By Lies, about what their lives were like. Imagine a world in which you could not trust anybody. In which even your best friend might betray you to the secret police out of fear, or for the purpose of personal gain. This happened all the time. After communism fell in East Germany, and people’s Stasi files were made public, many former East Germans were staggered by the discovery that people they trusted the most — even their spouses — informed on them.

There is a reason why, in his Divine Comedy, Dante put traitors in the deepest pit of hell: because the radical loss of trust made society impossible. In late medieval Tuscany, with cities at war with each other, everyone inside a city’s walls had to hope that they could trust the guardians of the city’s gates. If they couldn’t, then a traitor might open the gates to the enemy at night, and that would be the end. As Dante saw it, the worst sins were those that made human community impossible by severing social bonds.

It was a horrible way to live, to have to be anxious all the time that those around you might betray you. Last year in Budapest, a Hungarian told me that the nation’s biggest problem is a holdover from the communist era: the lack of civic trust. The communists created a society in which nobody could afford to trust anybody, because to trust was to make yourself vulnerable to losing your freedom, even your life. Once that trust goes, it is extremely hard to replace. This, said the Hungarian, is one reason why the country is still struggling with communism’s legacy.

Read more:

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/stephanie-winston-wolkoff-monster-melania-trump/

Are you serious? Who are traitors again? Those people who hide the truth or those exposing the truth? Rod Dreher skates on a thin layer of rubbish, above a lake of coal fire. Using the example of communism in Hungary as a baseline is nastily pissy. The USA have been at the core of deception and treason on the planet since its inception as much as communist Hungary — often for money rather than ideology (is money ideology or glue? good question). Yes, no-one can trust anyone in the USA, similarly to other places. For example we would not know that Nixon had done some shenanigans had he not been exposed, nor would we know about Clinton getting his dick serviced in the oval office, if someone did not break confidences. We would not know of the dreadful behaviour of the USA had Assange not exposed their bad deeds. Same with Snowden exposing the duplicity of the USA spying on its citizens... 

Oh, and what about the "Putin and Trump" Hillary Clinton's conspiracy being slowly exposed by various means (see: alleged corruption of Obama’s FBI and intelligence community... in gone fishin'...)...

Born in "communist Slovenia" (Yugoslavia) Melania is a powerful woman who should know not to trust anyone in her position and not say things that could hurt people even to "confidantes".

Rod polishes the splintered bench:

What Melania Trump said about Christmas decorating was rude and shallow — and boy, I’m really shocked that a former supermodel is rude and shallow — and what she said about the migrants was not really about the migrant kids at all, but about media hypocrisy in covering the story. But sure, if you want to spite Melania Trump for that, go ahead.

Melania should know that her friends will never be true friends... She would have seen a lot of crap for being with Donald. This has been the lot of kings' courts and sycophants fluttering around power. And of course, there are two ways of dealing with possible treachery, like Bolton spilling the beans on Donald. First you compromise your "friend(s)" (why do you think people like Epstein can make big bucks) and second you make them disappear before they can do damage (why do you think Epstein "killed himself"?)... Or you bombast, like Trump does "this is fake news"... and you make sure there are no evidence of your indiscretions.

And Dante was a full-blown satirist...who betrayed god because he could... And Charlie Hebdo is amongst the most torrid of satirists...

50 years of Charlie:

By PETER VAN BUREN

Here’s why the Democrats can’t have nice things. Like the White House.

Though by now the media has awarded Biden all 270 electoral votes and taped a transcript of his debate performance on the national refrigerator door, it is unclear Joe really wants to be president. He barely campaigns and usually ends his working day at noon. Since mid-August Biden logged 22 days where he didn’t make a public campaign appearance (during the same period Trump visited 19 states.) Biden has slept at home every night. He has no signature policy initiative. He simply presents his waxy self as the embodiment of the depressing strategy of Sorry, I’m the Lesser of Two Evils.

The Democratic party itself seems to feel much the same way. After four years of complaining Trump is an old, white, draft-dodging man linked to corruption, the best the Dem process could cough up was an even older, white, draft-dodging man linked to corruption. On a rare Biden visit outside his own yard to Charlotte, North Carolina, local organizers only turned out 16 people to meet the candidate. The chairwoman of the African American caucus only learned of the event from TV.

The party insists on its own demographic illusion. Latinos, key in crucial states like Arizona and Florida, have shown less support for Biden than for past Democratic nominees, resistant to a campaign defining them as “people of color.” Some 98 percent of Latinos don’t want to be called “Latinx” even as the Democrats continue to do so, pandering to the two percent. Ideology over reality, though it may not matter: a Telemundo poll shows 68.7 percent believe Trump won the first presidential debate, while 38 percent of Hispanic voters Democrats imagine they control in battleground states are ambivalent about voting at all.

In Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin net Democratic registrations are down by 38 percent from 2016. More to the point, registration among whites without college degrees is up 46 percent while registration by people of color is up only four percent. Turnout looks to be in trouble as well; in Wisconsin while 79 percent of black voters participated in the 2012 general election, in 2016 it was down to 47 percent. The risk of low turnout is even greater when one factors in age. About 78 percent of blacks age 60+ are likely to vote, compared to only 29 percent for blacks age 18-29.

Meanwhile, in this final stretch when they should be clawing for every vote, Dems are sending out scattered messages on in-person voting (“You might die of COVID but it’s so important you guys!!! LOL”) and planning on relying on a 19th-century mail-in system run by local yokels that works poorly under the best of circumstances. Plan B is to claim the system they told everyone to use didn’t work so it’s all unfair.

If Democrats really wanted to win some swing states they should have found a way to fix the water in Flint. They might have persuaded Mike Bloomberg to spend his money creating new jobs in Ohio instead of buying felons’ votes in Florida. Dems never talked to the voters they need the most. In fact, quite the opposite. They stomped their feet in a four-year tantrum and called them racists when Midwesterners never got appropriately offended by Trump. These people worked hard for what they have only to hear that dismissed as privilege. The NYTcallsthem “the worst of us.” Call them the missing whites on election day.

Democrats also believe their own self-illusion. Instead of understanding social media as a winnowed, mob-enforced minority, Dem strategists believe it makes a difference. They think listening to podcasts, wearing cute #Resistance gear, retweeting and liking, holding Pink Hat marches and flash mobs, making donations to GoFundMe, signing online petitions before going on Etsy to buy Lincoln Project merch, all while talking about NPR in line at Trader Joe’s, matters. All the devices don’t add up to a single vote. It isn’t a barometer, it’s a mirror.

Voting Dem may just be too much of an ask for thinking people. Review the near-endless emotional hemophilia, hypocrisy, cognitive dissonance, and fake-news kudzu a Democratic voter is asked to ignore.

For example, a Trump rally, or a wedding, is a deadly super-spreader event but a BLM rally is not. Schools and businesses are open or closed at the discretion of governors and mayors but Trump is to blame. Demonstrations which devolve into riots are acceptable but a couple of rednecks open carrying at a statehouse is a precursor to civil war. BLM when the killer is a cop, a lot less so when the killer is a black gang member. The new Supreme Court will limit our rights, except if they extend our 2A rights and then more rights are bad. Kids in cages means Nazism but Biden bringing back the Obama national security advisers who created millions of refugees flowing out of Syria and Libya is no matter. Choosing a Supreme Court justice “too close” to an election is the end of democracy but Dems promising revenge by adding states, deep-sixing the Electoral College, and packing the court to jam through their own one-party eternal majority is not. A Muslim woman in Congress is revered for her adherence to sexist Islamic doctrine but a Catholic woman who honors her spouse is Handmaid’s Tale in Biblical proportions. #BelieveWomen applies to accusers of Republicans but not of Democrats. We must reawaken our democracy but if you vote for a third party you are working for Putin.

More?

When the stock market was soaring it didn’t matter because most people did not own stock yet when it fell during COVID it was the end of the economy but when it recovered it no longer mattered again. None of the desperate warnings of war—Iran, China, North Korea, Venezuela, civil war in America—came to be. No one did anything bad after the embassy moved to Jerusalem or the Iranian agreement ended. All the things which were to disappear—the ACA, Roe, LGBT rights, same sex marriage—did not. Martial law was not declared, though the MSM signaled numerous times they would be OK with a military coup to depose Trump. Puerto Rico did not collapse. Trump did not launch nukes in a fit of psychosis. The Democrats over and over made insta-heroes of miserable people who then had to be disowned like Michaels Avenatti and Cohen, Robert Mueller, James Comey, and every former general who was going to flip and tell all but didn’t. I honestly have no idea anymore if Dr. Fauci is seen as a good guy or a bad guy by Dems. The Democratic party claimed that insubordination by government officials is to be honored if it is called #Resistance. Update: the Reichstag is still standing.

How can a thinking person look at all that and conclude “these are the people I want running the country.”

Too many readers will see this article as pro-Trump even though it does not praise Trump. And that’s the last point. Democrats and the MSM (let’s call it MSDNC) believe any criticism of the party means you love Trump, are a hater, racist, misogynist, or Russian bot. You must accept the Dossier, Russiagate, Ukraine, whatever crazy story is “reported by sources,” and vote Biden or else. It’s almost a threat.

Maybe if a little introspection had been allowed amid demands for conformity of thought, the Democratic party would not be imploring voters to believe the end justifies the means. Maybe they would not have cried wolf until only the true crazies are still listening. Maybe they would have foregone the public humiliation of the Mueller report and the failed impeachment. Maybe they’d be running a candidate that represented, well, something to vote for. Maybe they would not be so worried their voters won’t vote.

If Trump wins again, it will be safe to say Dems lost this election in 2016 when they failed to see the change the nation wanted and pushed Bernie aside. That gave Trump his first term. But rather than learn anything in the cold morning and seek redemption, the Dems basically did the same thing in 2020, albeit with the more likable Joe Biden. But Biden carries most of the same old-school baggage, inherits the still open wounds from the Obama years, and has that stanky taint of corruption after 47 years in government.

Yes, Joe’ll win the popular vote, the Electoral College are racist cheaters, Mrs. Jones’ ballot was lost in Raleigh, PutinFacebookPutinTwitterPutin, all a rich gumbo but whenever the end of the day comes, Trump will likely have his second term. More because the Democrats lost than because he won.

WASHINGTON — President Trump released a four-minute video message on Wednesday afternoon updating the nation on his battle with the coronavirus and calling his infection with COVID-19 “a blessing from God.”

“Hi, perhaps you recognize me. It’s your favorite president,” Trump, clad in his trademark navy suit and red tie, said outside the Oval Office where he returned to work earlier in the day following two days in the residence.

The president praised a cocktail of experimental therapeutics with his rapid recovery after a four-day stay in the hospital and vowed to make these drugs available and free for every American struggling with the deadly respiratory drug.

“I went in, I wasn’t feeling so hot, and within a very short period of time they gave me Regeneron,” he said. “It was unbelievable. I felt good immediately. I felt as good three days ago as I do now,” he went on.

Read more:

https://nypost.com/2020/10/07/trump-calls-covid-19-diagnosis-a-blessing-from-god-in-new-video/

Joe Biden’s presidential campaign is getting ready to restart negative ads against President Trump now that the commander in chief is out of the hospital and recovering from his bout with the coronavirus, a report said Wednesday.

The Biden camp on Friday asked TV stations to pull negative ads out of respect for the president, who announced earlier that day that he had tested positive for COVID-19.

Now that Trump is back at the White House following a three-night stay at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bloomberg reports that the Democrat’s team is readying to relaunch the anti-Trump TV and digital spots.

“Our campaign has always been about making the positive case for Joe Biden, but there’s a stark contrast between Vice President Biden and Donald Trump and their visions for our country,” said Mike Gwin, a spokesman for the Biden campaign.

Since his release from the hospital, Trump has piled on Democrats on Twitter, accusing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of “not negotiating in good faith” on the coronavirus stimulus bill and, on Wednesday, calling Biden “a wacko for years.”

Read more:

https://nypost.com/2020/10/07/biden-camp-restarting-negative-ads-as-trump-recovers-from-covid-19/

Read from top

Former Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden again refused to answer whether he would pack the Supreme Court if elected in November, even when directly asked by a local reporter on the campaign trail. 

It was the second time on camera Biden has angrily said he wouldn’t answer the question. This time, however, he said voters don’t deserve to know his answer. Packing the SCOTUS, is a term used to describe Democrats desire to add more justices to the Supreme Court. It’s become a topic of discussion since President Donald Trump announced he was nominating Judge Amy Coney Barrett after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Read more:

https://saraacarter.com/stunning-biden-says-voters-dont-deserve-to-know-if-hell-pack-the-scotus/

Read from top.

See also: eskimo sisters??? in the delayed memory syndrome of presidents...

Jade Simmons is a multi-hyphenated woman. A former beauty queen, professional concert pianist, motivational speaker, rapper, mother, and ordained pastor. 

As she puts it, she is an unconventional candidate, "but these are unconventional times".

"This seemed to me to be a time when we couldn't afford to do business as usual," she says. "I'm the daughter of a civil rights activist, and the way my father raised me was that if you see voids, if you see injustices, you need to ask yourself if that might be you that needs to be leaning in."

She says her goal is to create equal access to opportunity, through economic, educational and criminal justice reform. And in that spirit, she's aiming to run "the least expensive campaign in the history of our nation".

"We think it's abominable that it costs now almost a billion dollars to run for president when the qualifications are that you are 35 years old, a US-born resident, and have lived here 14 years," says Ms Simmons. "We'd rather spend that money on helping people."

Read more:

https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-54334173