Thursday, October 17, 2024

October 17, 2024

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Welcome to the news for independent thinkers

Leading the News . . .

Momentum shifts against Harris in presidential race . . . The tides of the election are turning against Vice President Harris. During the late summer and heading into fall, Harris appeared to be the candidate with the momentum, with Democrats comparing her candidacy to former President Obama's in 2008. After President Biden dropped out of the race, Democrats had made gains in the polls, making up lost ground where Biden had stumbled. But recent polls suggest that energy has leveled off. While Harris still has a narrow edge over President Trump nationally and in several battleground states, she has been losing ground. The Hill

Latest poll has Trump ahead by two points nationally

Politics

Harris dodges questions in Fox News sit-down, sticks to anti-Trump script . . . Vice President Kamala Harris, in a rare Fox News interview on Wednesday, dodged a bevy of questions about the Biden-Harris immigration policies, the president's cognitive decline and her support for taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries for prisoners. The interview is part of Ms. Harris' pursuit of support from Republican votes who have become disillusioned with former President Donald Trump. She repeatedly sidestepped questions, often pivoting to sharp attacks on Mr. Trump and boasts of Republican politicos and former Trump administration officials who are backing her. Washington Times

Same script, different theater. Here's a link to the highly contentious interview if you missed it.

Fox News' Bret Baier claims Harris campaign tried to steal time . . . Fox News "Special Report" host Bret Baier claimed Wednesday that Kamala Harris' campaign team pared the allotted time he had with her just before a highly anticipated interview — and then had the vice president show up late. "So, we were supposed to start at 5 p.m. — this was the time they gave us, originally. We're going to do 25 or 30 minutes," the host explained. "They came in and said, 'Well, maybe 20 [minutes].' So, it was already getting whittled down," Baier added. "And then the vice president showed up at about 5:15 [p.m.]." New York Post

Vance says Trump didn't lose the 2020 election

'Now I like him': Some Black voters in Georgia see Trump as a real option . . . Inside Mount Zion Baptist Church, Joseph Parker said . . . this year, he said he's voting for former President Donald Trump, the first time the 72-year-old has cast a ballot for a Republican presidential candidate. "Trump's a man of his word. What he says he's gonna do, he does," Parker said, after initial reluctance to reveal his preference. "And everything is so high now — groceries high, clothes, everything, gas. And four years ago, it wasn't that high." Politico

'Pennsylvania is such a mess': Inside Team Harris' unusual levels of finger-pointing . . . Top Democrats in Pennsylvania are worried Vice President Kamala Harris' operation is being poorly run in the nation's biggest battleground state. They say some Harris aides lack relationships with key party figures, particularly in Philadelphia and its suburbs. They complain they have been left out of events and surrogates haven't been deployed effectively. And they've urged Harris staff in private meetings to do more to turn out voters of color. Politico

Campaign insiders say the mess extends far beyond Pennsylvania.

Biden throws more free stuff at students . . . The Biden administration is plugging its student loan plans one more time ahead of Election Day, announcing another $4.7 billion of loans that will not have to be repaid by roughly 60,000 people. "For too long, the government failed to live up to its commitments, and only 7,000 people had ever received forgiveness under Public Service Loan Forgiveness before Vice President Kamala Harris and I took office," President Joe Biden said in a prepared statement. "Now over 1 million public service workers have gotten the relief they are entitled to under the law." Washington Examiner

The courts will rule against it, but the votes will have been collected by then.

McConnell called Trump 'stupid" and 'despicable' in private after the 2020 election . . . Mitch McConnell said after the 2020 election that then-President Donald Trump was "stupid as well as being ill-tempered," a "despicable human being" and a "narcissist," according to excerpts from a new biography of the Senate Republican leader that will be released this month. McConnell made the remarks in private as part of a series of personal oral histories that he made available to Michael Tackett, deputy Washington bureau chief of The Associated Press. Tackett's book is "The Price of Power." Associated Press

Striking Boeing workers boo after Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell criticizes Trump

Trump says that state abortion limits will be 'redone' . . . Mr. Trump said he is happy that the states, not the federal government, are hammering out the issue. He noted that some states are adopting more liberal abortion laws and "some of them are not." "But it is going to be redone. It's going to be redone," Mr. Trump said regarding stricter limits. "You end up with a vote of the people, and some of them, I agree, they're too tough, too tough, and those are going to be redone because there already is a movement in those states … to redo it." Washington Times

He described himself as the "father of IVF."

Cruz expands his small lead over Allred in Texas Senate race . . . Sen. Ted Cruz (R) has expanded his lead over Rep. Colin Allred (D) in the Texas Senate race as he attempts to lock down a third term in office, according to a new poll. A University of Houston survey released Wednesday showed that Cruz holds a 4-point advantage over Allred, a three-term House member, putting his lead outside of the 2.7 point margin of error. This is up from a 2 percentage point lead he held in mid-August in the same poll. The Hill

Culture

Trump would ban trans athlete from competing in women's sports . . . When it comes to transgender athletes competing in women's sports Donald Trump plans to 'just ban it.' The ex-president got a question from the crowd on the topic of transgender individuals in sports during a Fox New town hall on 'The Faulkner Focus' Wednesday afternoon. Trump smiled and shot back, 'It's such an easy question.' Daily Mail

National Security

Scale of Chinese spying overwhelms the West . . . Beijing is conducting espionage activities on what Western governments say is an unprecedented scale, mobilizing security agencies, private companies and Chinese civilians in its quest to undermine rival states and bolster the country's economy. Last month alone, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said a Chinese state-linked firm hacked 260,000 internet-connected devices, including cameras and routers, in the U.S., Britain, France, Romania and elsewhere. A Congressional probe said Chinese cargo cranes used at U.S. seaports had embedded technology that could allow Beijing to secretly control them. Wall Street Journal

Why do we have Chinese cargo cranes at US seaports? Did we not learn from letting the Russians build the US embassy in Moscow, which was found to be riddled with spy gear?

US bombers target underground Houthi weapon sites in Yemen . . . The US says it has carried out "precision strikes" against five weapons storage locations in areas of Yemen controlled by the Houthi movement. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said B-2 Spirit stealth bombers were part of the operation that targeted hardened underground facilities housing missiles and other munitions that the Iran-backed group had used to attack civilian and military ships. The strikes demonstrated the ability of the US to hit facilities that adversaries sought "to keep out of reach", he added. BBC

Who is Tren de Aragua? Vicious Venezuelan gang 'following in the path of MS-13' in America . . . In New York City, children as young as 11 are accused of robbing residents at knife and gunpoint in gang-related initiation rites. Surveillance video from Aurora, Colorado purportedly shows an employee of a management company brutally beaten by a group of men for refusing to accept a bribe. And in the border state of Texas, two foreign nationals were arrested last month for their alleged role in a conspiracy to illegally transport firearms. The suspects in these recent criminal acts are connected to a street gang from Venezuela, known as Tren de Aragua. Fox News

International

Zelenskyy's long-promised blueprint to end Russia war draws mixed reviews . . . The plan calls for NATO to immediately extend a formal "unconditional invitation" to Kyiv, provide additional arms and satellite data, and help Ukraine "deploy a comprehensive non-nuclear strategic deterrence package" that would force Russia into "an honest diplomatic process" to end the fighting or face the destruction of its army. Most of the key points mirror wish list items that Mr. Zelenskyy has publicly outlined several other times. Washington and other major alliance powers have long resisted some headline-worthy points, such as the call for Ukraine to immediately be invited into NATO. Washington Times

Biden announces new $425 million aid to Ukraine

You should also know

FBI quietly revises crime statistics and reveals rise in violent crime . . . The FBI quietly revised the U.S. crime statistics to show an increase in violent crime. An investigation by RealClearInvestigations found that the FBI updated its 2022 crime statistics in September, showing that rather than a 2.1% drop in violent crime as originally reported, the United States actually experienced a 4.5% rise in violent crime. The new dataset showed thousands more murders, rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults. The more than 6 percentage point change is unprecedented in recent FBI statistic reporting, William & Mary professor Carl Moody told the outlet. Washington Examiner

CNN insiders fear anchor 'bloodbath' as bosses crack down on stars' megabucks pay . . . With CNN's ratings lagging far behind rivals Fox and MSNBC, several network stars are being offered no pay raises or salary cuts with the message of 'take it or leave it.' For starters, star anchors Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer - making $7 million and $3 million, respectively - signed new deals at the same price, with an agent joking that 'flat is the new up.' Fox News exile Chris Wallace - signed for the network's flop streaming service and now shunted to his own weekend show - has been offered a new deal at a 'significant' pay cut from the $8.5 million a year he was making. Daily Mail

$8.5 million for Chris Wallace? Was he investing their stock portfolio? Playing quarterback for the Rams?

Guilty Pleasures

Trump to sling fries at Pennsylvania McDonald's in slight against Harris . . . The brief foray into restaurant work is intended to be a jab at Vice President Kamala Harris, who claimed she had worked at McDonald's at one point in her life. "She lied about working at McDonald's; how simple is that?" Trump said at a rally last week. "No, she said, 'I worked hard at McDonald's for a long time, I work over the french fry…' and you know what I'm doing next week? I'm going to a McDonald's to work, because if I work there for 10 minutes, I will have worked there longer than her." Washington Examiner

Trump will be heading behind the counter at an undisclosed restaurant in Pennsylvania.

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