Sunday, August 30, 2020
Jerry Falwell Jr.'s fatal miscalculation
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/30/us/jerry-falwell-jr-downfall/index.html
Fallwell Jr., whose tenure as president and chancellor of Liberty University crashed to an inglorious end this week, always seemed closer in spirit to his defiant, bootlegging grandfather than his Bible-thumping namesake.
Each time, Falwell would insist he is not a moral leader. His job was to grow Liberty's endowment, campus and student body.
"I have never been a minister," he told one critic on Twitter, pointing to his background as a lawyer and real estate developer.
Trump continues to break the polling
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/30/politics/trump-polling-analysis/index.html
The result of the 2016 outcome for this cycle is that the general public doesn't buy the polling showing Biden clearly ahead. They think Trump is going to win.
How Trump could pull off another upset
https://www.axios.com/trump-upset-biden-2020-election-da37cdd6-1b96-4377-9584-9df9f2554055.html
It feels like August of 2016 all over again. Polls show Donald Trump losing big. Pundits proclaim he can't win. Reporters sneer at Trump voters on Twitter and cable.
Why it matters: There are several signs that should give the Trump-is-toast self-assured pause.
- He’s doing better in some swing-state polls than he was at this point in 2016. And his floor of support holds strong, regardless of what he says or does.
- Not only is the stock market on fire, but a lot of blue-collar workers in building, plumbing and other manual crafts are doing quite well, too.
Trump’s big bet is that there are a lot of working class voters, especially in rural areas, who did not vote in 2016 but will this time.
His other bet is that months of dumping on Joe Biden, often with
lies or wild hyperbole, will do what he did to Hillary Clinton: Make
the Democratic nominee seem slightly more unpalatable than himself.
Sheldon Silver at upstate prison some inmates call coronavirus death camp
https://nypost.com/2020/08/29/sheldon-silver-is-at-upstate-prison-with-covid-19-worries/
“These are people who are elderly with serious underlying conditions and it’s just mind-boggling that the prison is not adhering to the US attorney general’s directives,” said Neal Sher, a Manhattan lawyer who has been lobbying for the “compassionate release” of three elderly inmates. “The real threat is that this is a death sentence.”
One prisoner who Sher wants released is Mendel Epstein, a 75-year-old New Jersey Orthodox rabbi who is obese and has high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and impaired kidney function.
“His heart health remains in precarious condition, necessitating
multiple medications daily and rendering him incredibly susceptible to
illness,” wrote Sher in a May letter to the Bureau of Prisons seen by
The Post.
In 2015, Epstein was convicted along with two other Orthodox rabbis of the kidnapping and torture of Jewish men to force them to grant religious divorces or “gets.” His release date is in 2024, according to public records.
Meacham On The DNC And The RNC: Patriotism Vs. Propaganda | The 11th Hour | MSNBC
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Judith Miller: Democrats and Republicans spread fear, warn of disaster if opposing party wins White House
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/republican-democratic-conventions-judith-miller
Whether the ploy works depends on what many Americans fear most — disorder or the coronavirus pandemic
“Be afraid, be very afraid.” As a political independent who closely followed both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, I felt that fear was the underlying theme of both. While there were moments of eloquence and inspirational joy at each gathering, the number of upbeat messages paled in comparison to the harsh attacks and negative warnings issued by both sides.
Trump touts online viewership for GOP convention after trailing in TV ratings
President Trump on Saturday touted online viewership for the Republican National Convention after his speech drew a smaller TV audience than Joe Biden's address, with the GOP saying total viewership across TV and online for its event surpassed that of the Democratic convention.
Republicans said Friday that 147.9 million people watched the four-day GOP convention, which culminated Thursday night with the president's speech on the South Lawn of the White House. By comparison, Biden's campaign said last week that the Democratic convention drew around 122 million total viewers.