After months of insisting he would not pardon his son Hunter, President Joe Biden did just that – as almost anyone other than left-wing cable news legal analysts and Trump-hating late-night comics expected. In doing so, Biden effectively confirmed the Trump “conspiracy theory” of a two-tiered justice system.

Not only does the pardon cover Hunter Biden’s convictions on tax and gun charges, it also covers any crimes that he may have been committed since 2014, the year Hunter joined the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

Biden’s pardon statement said: “No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong. There has been an effort to break Hunter – who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution.”

Biden added: “Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form. Those who were late paying taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.”

Left-wing pundits, with some exceptions, offered various excuses to defend the pardon Biden vowed not to grant: Well, hey, this was his son; Hunter was unfairly targeted; President-elect Donald Trump vowed to go after political enemies; and Trump was a greater abuser of the pardon power.

MSNBC’s legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said: “Prosecuting someone for unpaid taxes that are then repaid with interest and penalties is something that is typically resolved civilly instead of through criminal charges. So, I do believe that Hunter Biden was treated differently than any other person would have been treated, even if it did not arise to the level of legal selective or legal vindictive prosecution.”

In a court filing after the pardon, special prosecutor David Weiss said, “There was none and never has been any evidence of vindictive or selective prosecution in this case.”

Fox News legal analyst and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andy McCarthy said, “So if I rob a bank, but I bring the money back, that’s OK? It’s idiotic. As far as the gun case is concerned, that was not what they call a lie-and-try case where you fill out the form, but you don’t get the gun because they find out there’s a problem. [Hunter] actually got the gun. Those cases get brought all the time. And as for a tax violation, it’s just like the bank robbery. … Paying back the money that you owe doesn’t mean that you didn’t commit the crime. It’s not a defense … those are just silly arguments and in point of fact, he got cut break after break because he was Hunter Biden, because he was the president’s son … they actually tried to make the case against him go away, which is a break that no American would get.”

As to breaks “no American would get,” IRS whistleblowers said the IRS and the DOJ stymied their investigation by dragging it out so the statute of limitations allowed Hunter to skate on the nonpayment of taxes in his highest-earning years. The whistleblowers say they were prevented from interviewing other Biden family members.

About the pardon, House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said, “The charges Hunter faced were just the tip of the iceberg in the blatant corruption that President Biden and the Biden Crime Family have lied about to the American people.”

Last June, Comer’s committee, as well as the House Judiciary and Ways and Means committees, said, “… the Committees are investigating the President’s role in and knowledge of his family’s international influence peddling schemes that have generated over $18 million for Biden family members and their related companies, and over $27 million when including the payments to their business associates, who often were used to transfer funds to Biden family members.”

This raises a question. When will Biden pardon the rest of his family members and himself? Stay tuned.

President-elect Donald Trump recently joked with House Republicans and said: “I suspect I won’t be running again, unless you do something. Unless you say, ‘He’s so good, we have to just figure it out.'”

Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., who served as lead counsel for one of Trump’s impeachments, fretted: “It’s the same thing now (about a third term). This is how Donald Trump operates. He floats it, he normalizes it, and then it just becomes part of the common parlance.”

Memo to Goldman: Even if Trump were serious, there is a bit of a speed bump. It’s called the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution. It says, “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.” So, if you’re keeping score, Trump has maxed out. And given that Trump insists he actually won in 2020, he’s really maxed out.

Of course, the Constitution can be amended, something that occurs on average every 10 years. Congress could start the process. But an amendment requires a two-thirds vote in the House, where Republicans have a majority by just a few seats, and in the Senate, where Republicans hold a 53-47 lead. Then three-fourths of the states would have to approve. The second way to amend the Constitution requires two-thirds of state legislatures to call for a convention to propose amendments. This has never happened. But, hey, fascists find a way.

To completely, totally and forever shut down a Trump third term, Goldman proposed a resolution stipulating the 22nd Amendment “applies to two terms in the aggregate as President of the United States” and it “applies to President-elect Trump.” It’s hard to get clearer than the clear language of the 22nd Amendment. But fascists find a way.

Trump’s joke scared the pants off Vanity Fair. In a piece headlined “There’s Nothing Funny About Trump’s Third-Term ‘Joke,'” it wrote, “So when he muses about staying in office beyond the second term he won last week, there is no reason to take it as anything but an admission of his actual aspirations.”

As for “actual aspirations,” in December 2000, The Guardian wrote a piece called “(Bill) Clinton Wants Third Term in Office: Constitution ban is outdated, president says in nostalgic interview.” It wrote, “The U.S. Constitution should be changed to allow a president to serve more than two terms, Bill Clinton has told Rolling Stone magazine.”

In November 2020, former President Barack Obama told late-night comic Stephen Colbert: “People would ask me, ‘Knowing what you know now, do you wish you had a third term?’ And I used to say, ‘You know what? If I could make an arrangement where I had a stand-in, a front man or front woman … I’d be fine with that.'”

Former President Richard Nixon, after his 1972 landslide reelection and before the Watergate scandal, talked about repealing the 22nd Amendment. The New York Times, in a Nov. 29, 1987, article headlined “Reagan Wants End of Two-Term Limit,” wrote: “President Reagan says that after leaving office he ‘would like to start a movement’ to repeal the constitutional amendment that limits Presidents to two terms.”

Two-term presidents tend to fantasize about a third term. Ex-presidents are living longer and longer. Former President Jimmy Carter is 100. He left office in 1981, like Trump in 2021, as a one-termer. Carter, like Trump, could have tried again and, if he won, he could’ve squeezed in a few more terms given his longevity. No wonder Trump’s riff about a third term sent Democrats hiding under the bed.

But Democrats should not be so shortsighted. If Trump pulls this off, then Obama, who is 15 years younger than Trump, could run again. Bill Clinton, two months younger than Trump, could, too. Clinton’s probably itching to get the band back together and hit the campaign trail one more time. Besides, what’s the Democratic alternative? Kamala Harris?

Goldman, on the other hand, certainly raises a legitimate fear. Given Trump’s stamina, drive and energy, he could keep getting elected and stack up enough terms to run with Barron, becoming the first father-son ticket.

You know, like LeBron and Bronny.

Of the television commentators who routinely disparaged, attacked, demeaned and mocked former President Donald Trump and his supporters, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, co-hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” belong to the “A” team.

Yet, after Trump’s extraordinary victory two weeks ago, including a sweep of all seven swing states and becoming the first Republican presidential candidate to win the popular vote in 20 years, Scarborough and Brzezinski visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago after the election, spending a reported 90 minutes with the president-elect.

As for why they made the trek, Brzezinski said: “For those asking why we would go speak to the president-elect during such fraught times, especially between us, I guess I would ask back, ‘Why wouldn’t we?’ Joe and I realized it’s time to do something different, and that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump but also talking with him.”

Neither Brzezinski nor Scarborough mentioned the most likely reason: ratings. Since Trump’s victory that several MSNBC hosts predicted would not happen, the channel’s prime-time viewership is down a whopping 53%. By contrast, Fox’s ratings are up 38%.

The MSNBC pundits for the most part not only failed to prepare their viewers for Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeat but host Rachel Maddow, for example, all but predicted a humiliating loss for Trump. Two days before the election, Maddow devoted several minutes to the “gold standard” of polls, an Iowa poll showing Trump down 3 points in the Hawkeye State, where no Democratic presidential candidate has won since 2012. Gosh, Trump is down even in Iowa!

Maddow gushed: “The prototypical example of a gold standard poll is the Iowa poll done by J. Ann Selzer in Iowa. … (H)er poll has accurately predicted the winner of the Senate and presidential races in Iowa within one or two points every time. … (Y)ou have seen Ann Selzer basically as a living bull”s-eye.” Trump won Iowa 56% to Harris’ 42.7%.

MSNBC News wrote about historian and election predictor Allen Lichtman, who supposedly has correctly predicted eight out of the last nine presidential contests. He uses “13 keys” to determine the result, eight of which he said pointed to Harris.

But back to the “Morning Joe” hosts. Roll tape:

– May 2017

Scarborough: “And I’m not being hyperbolic when I say that if there are articles of impeachment ever drawn up, the first article of impeachment drawn up against Donald Trump will be the first article of impeachment drawn up against Richard Nixon and that is obstruction of justice, because I could find you 1,000 Republican criminal defense lawyers across America who could say what Donald Trump has admitted already on national television could rise to the level of obstruction of justice.”

– May 2017

Scarborough described to me Trump’s visit to Europe with leaders as a “disaster” and said Trump looked like a “thug, goon and an idiot.”

– June 2018

Scarborough: “… (W)ho in the world would be so cruel, so hateful, who would be so despicable, who would be so utterly lacking in character, to suggest, to – to make something up about someone having a facelift for the sole purposes of trying to damage or humiliate them. … You would have to be utterly despicable, a classless man, to say that about a woman.”

– May 2020

Scarborough: “But there are these bizarre disconnects, and they’re showing up in campaign ads. There are these weird things he’s saying off the cuff. Again, it’s so – it is so ironic that Trump’s campaign team actually go after Joe Biden for non sequiturs, for stumbling, for getting lost halfway through his sentence when –”

Brzezinski: “Or a decline.”

Scarborough: “– that’s what Donald Trump has been doing now, in a very public way, for three and a half years.”

– April 2024

Scarborough: “They voted for Trump in ’20, they knew exactly what they were doing. If they vote for Donald Trump in 2024 … they’re knowingly voting for a fascist, they’re voting for a racist. …”

Question: What’s it like spending 90 minutes with a “fascist,” a “thug” and a man who is “utterly despicable”? Did they bring along a food taster? But most important for these Trump-hating hosts turned Mar-a-Lago guests, will their ratings improve?

When it comes to declining ratings, Joe and Mika know how to turn on a dime – to make a dime.

Last week, America took an IQ test – and passed.

“President Biden, when he came into office, said that he would be the most progressive president since FDR, and I think on domestic issues … he has kept his word.”

– Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Nov. 10, 2024

Indeed, Sen. Sanders, that is why Vice President Kamala Harris, who said she would have done “nothing” differently, lost the election.

Pollster Frank Luntz explained: “… (I)n the end, (Harris) decided not to differentiate herself. And you can be supportive of someone and still say, ‘I am something different. I don’t look like him, I don’t sound like him. We have complementary points of view, but they are not identical.’ And then she could’ve gone off and differentiated herself. Once again, it was her choice to align with Biden that tightly. Was she loyal? Absolutely. Did it hurt her in the campaign? Absolutely.”

Harris got millions of fewer votes than did Joe Biden, leading some to claim there are millions of “missing votes.” But there is an easy explanation. First, not all the votes have been counted, including those from California, so the number of “missing votes” will ultimately be smaller. Second, because of COVID, more Democrats in 2020 relied on the ease of voting by mail, many of whom would otherwise not have voted at all. The percentage of eligible voters who voted in 2020 was higher than in 2024. Donald Trump in 2024 got about the same number of votes as in 2020. But a lot of Democrats decided not to vote this time because they considered themselves worse off than four years and blamed Biden-Harris but felt “fascist” former President Trump would be even “worse.” So, they sat this one out.

Nancy Pelosi told The New York Times fewer illegal aliens “came in under Biden than under Donald Trump.” Really?!? Under Biden, an estimated 10 million illegal aliens entered the country versus an estimated 2.5 million under Trump. This lie goes along with others pushed by Democratic politicians including, but not limited to, Trump said “there were good white supremacists and neo-Nazis on both sides”; Trump said “he’d be a dictator”; Trump said “there would be a bloodbath if he lost”; and Trump, to combat COVID, said to “drink bleach.”

For their support, the Harris campaign allegedly paid Oprah Winfrey $1 million, Meghan thee Stallion $5 million, Lizzo $3 million and Beyonce $10 million. Who knew “joy” could be so lucrative? It looks like poor Dick and Liz Cheney endorsed Harris for free. Will they whip out the race card?

Why doesn’t Trump “Border Czar Tom Homan” keep the illegals – and deport the celebrities?

Why did Harris take so long to concede? Maybe they couldn’t find a teleprompter and had to wait for a speechwriter to sober up.

Harris, who advocated a mandatory gun buy-back, called Trump “a fascist.” Why did she advocate restrictions on the Second Amendment, the very purpose of which is to prevent tyranny? If she believed her own rhetoric about “fascist” Trump, she should be passing out guns like Halloween candy.

President-elect Trump, to hit the ground running, has asked architects to submit designs for concentration camps.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom vows to stop the Trump administration from deporting illegal aliens from California – but will continue chasing away businesses, aspiring homeowners, law-abiding citizens and the middle class.

If Trump does go after “comedians,” Jimmy Kimmel can relax.

Democrats were so demoralized by the Trump landslide they couldn’t even muster the energy to riot, loot or burn down American cities.

Depressed vice presidential candidate Tim Walz was temporarily put on suicide watch – until officials remembered he doesn’t know how to load a firearm.

Harris, suffering buyer’s remorse about Walz, has asked Taylor Swift to write a song about picking the wrong running mate.

Sources say MSNBC, to boost its post-election declining ratings, has offered the Trump would-be assassins positions as political commentators on the “Morning Joe” show.

Walz has updated his biography. It now says he ran for vice president after having served in combat while packing an “assault weapon.” But enough about Chicago.

How will the media and Democratic pundits explain Vice President Kamala Harris’ stunning defeat? How will the media and Democratic pundits explain former President Donald Trump’s incredible recapture of the White House, the most improbable comeback since heavyweight champion George Foreman regained the title at age 45 having lost it 20 years earlier?

How many times did the “experts” count Trump out? When he won the presidency in 2016, so many described Trump as mentally unstable that he took a cognitive test and allowed the White House doctor to hold a press conference to convince the country that Trump was not “crazy.” Critics, who considered Trump delusional, hoped out loud his cabinet would invoke the 25th Amendment over Trump’s supposed “incapacity.” The House impeached him twice. He was routinely called a “fascist.” He survived two assassination attempts.

Trump endured a barrage of personal, legal, financial and physical attacks that would have bludgeoned a normal human being into submission. This includes, but is not limited to, a nearly four-year investigation of his alleged “collusion” with Russia to win the election. The New York attorney general and the Manhattan district attorney ran for office promising to “get Trump” – a violation of the ethics of a prosecutor whose job is to do justice, not to promise indictments or legal action against a particular individual, particularly before gathering any evidence. Fifty-one “senior intelligence officials” wrote a letter during the 2020 campaign that described the bombshell Hunter Biden laptop as Russian disinformation. The media suppressed the story. A Media Research Center study found that 9% of Joe Biden voters in seven swing states would not have voted for Biden had they known about the story. Mark Zuckerberg spent over $400 million of his own money in 2020 to drive up Democratic turnout to help defeat Trump.

Oct. 23, 2024, CNN’s Anderson Cooper to Harris: “For weeks, you have been calling Donald Trump unstable, unhinged. You have called him dangerous. You have quoted General Milley recently, who called him a fascist. Today, you quoted General Kelly, who said that Trump repeatedly praised Hitler.”

Harris: “Yes.”

Cooper: “… You’ve quoted General Milley calling Donald Trump a fascist. You yourself have not used that word to describe him. Let me ask you tonight, do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?”

Harris: “Yes, I do. Yes, I do. And I also believe that the people who know him best on this subject should be trusted.”

By regaining the presidency the night of Nov. 5, Trump became history’s first and only “fascist” leader who:

– Allowed citizens to keep and bear guns – unlike Adolf Hitler, who restricted Jews from access to and ownership of guns.

– Allowed freedom of religion – unlike Mao Zedong, under whose “Cultural Revolution” religious activity was banned.

– Did not create a state-controlled media. According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia: “The Nazis wanted Germans to … believe in Nazi ideas. To accomplish this goal, they tried to control forms of communication through censorship and propaganda. This included control of newspapers, magazines, books, art, theater, music, movies, and radio. … Even telling a joke about Hitler was considered treachery.”

– Did not have one journalist arrested, kidnapped, tortured or killed.

– Did not have one political opponent arrested, kidnapped, tortured or killed.

– Did not establish a secret police – no Brownshirts, no stormtroopers, no Red Guards.

– Did not coerce neighbors, friends and relatives into spying on one another or reward them for doing so.

– Did not impose a command-and-control economy.

– Did not force citizens to attend political rallies.

– Started no new wars.

– Negotiated peace deals in the Middle East that provided the Jewish state of Israel with greater security.

– Used the democratic primary process to win nomination, left office after one term and sought reelection through the democratic primary voting process against an opponent chosen by her party’s leaders.

A Marquette University poll found that 79% of likely voters consider the country on the wrong track. Most Americans say they are worse off than they were four years ago. Food has gone up 20% and gas prices up 50%. The Biden-Harris administration permitted millions of unvetted illegal aliens to enter the country. Asked by a friendly interviewer whether she would have done anything differently from President Biden, Harris said, “Not a thing that comes to mind.” This is why she lost.

Call this the revenge of the “fascist.”

After speaking in a pro-Trump town hall in Phoenix, I got up early the next morning to make a flight back to Los Angeles. I went down to the front of my hotel to get into a private car I ordered from a company that came highly recommended.

The shiny black SUV was waiting. The driver, a neatly dressed woman, bounded out to help me with my bag and to open the door. She had an eastern European accent. Her name was Dede. She asked why I was in town. I’m always leery to discuss politics, particularly in this era of Trump. But I know that many legal immigrants, particularly those from communist countries, are political conservatives.

“I’m with a conservative, Christian radio and television communications company, and spoke yesterday at a pro-Trump event for the listeners of our Phoenix radio station,” I said.

“Oh, I know who you are,” she said. “I’ve listened to you, and I’ve seen you many times on TV. That’s why I wanted to pick you up.”

For the next half hour, she told me about her life. She was born in Bulgaria, 58 years old, an only child, in her second marriage and “regrettably” has no children. Her parents’ family was well off, but lost it all “when the communists took over and took everything.” Her father died from a heart attack when she was 10. Her mother ran a government-controlled fruit stand.

Dede always wanted to come to America. She waited 15 years before getting a visa and then a green card. She was 36 when she came to America. She came to Phoenix because her uncle lives there and took her in until she got her own apartment.

“When I got here, I cleaned airplanes, went to my second job washing dishes and babysat for two to three hours,” she said. “Then I got up early the next morning and did it all over again. I couldn’t speak English, and now people say I speak too much, especially about politics. But I don’t care. This is America, and we have the First Amendment.”

She kept up that schedule for three years.

“Then I started my own company and bought my first car.”

“This is your car company?” I asked.

“Yes, I have 15 other SUVs and several drivers. And my husband and I have other investments.”

“Other investments?”

“Real estate,” she said. “We own 27 houses. My uncle said, ‘Work hard. Show up on time. Pay your taxes and don’t use credit cards.’ So, that’s what I did.

“And I’m a Republican. Already voted for Trump. I’m from a communist country. I see where this country is heading if people don’t wake up. It really isn’t about Republicans versus Democrats. The problem is people who want something for nothing and expect government to take care of them – and then complain if it doesn’t. And way too many people work for government. Just like communism.” She railed against the millions of illegal aliens “allowed to come in.”

I told her about my father who never knew his biological father.

“Unlike you,” I said, “he had a mother who, when he was 13, kicked him out of the room they rented. A black boy in the Jim Crow South at the beginning of the Great Depression with literally nothing in his pockets. He was an only child. He became a staff sergeant in the Marines and served in World War II. When I was growing up, my dad worked two full-time jobs cleaning toilets, and he cooked for a family on the weekends to make additional money because he wanted my mother to be a stay-at-home mom. He then went to night school to get a GED. He saved his nickels and dimes and at 47 started a cafe, which he ran until he was in his 80s. When he retired, he owned the cafe property and property next door, as well as the home I was raised in, which is still in our family.”

By now, we reached the airport. When Dede got out of the car, she was crying. “Your story is my story,” she said. We hugged.

“God bless you,” I said.

“And God bless America,” she said. We hugged again.

Late-night comedian Stephen Colbert to Vice President Kamala Harris: “Polling shows a lot of people, especially independent voters, really want this to be a change election. And that they tend to break for you in terms of thinking about change. You are a member of the present administration. Under a Harris administration, what would the major changes be? And what would stay the same?”

Harris: “Sure. Well, I mean, I’m obviously not Joe Biden.”

Colbert: “I noticed.”

Harris: “And so that would be one change. Also, I think it’s important to say, with 28 days to go, I’m not Donald Trump. And so, when we think about the significance of what this next generation of leadership looks like were I to be elected president, it is about – frankly, I love the American people and I believe in our country. I love that it is our character and nature to be an ambitious people. You know, we have aspirations, we have dreams, we are – we have incredible work ethic.”

Not exactly music to the ears of the 79% of likely voters who according to a recent Marquette University poll think the country is on the “wrong track.”

When it comes to trust, voters give the edge to Harris over former President Donald Trump. This is why Harris’ alleged summer job at McDonald’s becomes relevant. Will she not only renounce previous positions on things like fracking, Medicare for all, promising to sign a reparations bill, and mandating the ending of the sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2035, but to make herself more relatable, will she fabricate a job at a burger joint?

Harris said nothing about working at McDonald’s when she ran for district attorney, attorney general of California, the U.S Senate or when she ran for president. She wrote nothing about this experience in her books (more about this later). But suddenly, she remembers she once tossed fries at McDonald’s.

But, with apologies to Wendy’s, where’s the beef? Trump, “without evidence,” wrote the New York Times, accuses Harris of lying. Trump, who staged a clever photo-op by cooking fries and working the drive-through window at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s, said: “It was a big part of her resume that she worked at McDonald’s – how tough a job it was. She … made the French fries, and she talked about the heat: ‘It was so tough.’ She’s never worked at McDonald’s.”

If Trump said he fed pigeons in Central Park, the New York Times would demand proof and assign a battery of reporters to debunk his story. But when it comes to Harris’ McDonald’s tale, the burden of proof switches to Trump. Where’s her evidence? She offers none, other than her suddenly and conveniently rediscovered fond memories. McDonald’s offered no corroboration: “… (W)e and our franchisees don’t have records for all positions dating back to the early ’80s. …”

What next? Will Democrats demand Trump be indicted for working at McDonald’s without a hairnet and pressure President Joe Biden into appointing a special prosecutor?

Harris describes her upbringing as “middle-class.” But according to The Daily Signal, this daughter of a tenured Stanford economics professor father and biochemist mother got admitted to law school under a program for students with “educational disadvantage, economic hardship, or disability.” What? And she wants student loan forgiveness on top of reparations?

As to Harris’ book and accusations of plagiarism, The Telegraph writes: “Kamala Harris has become embroiled in a second plagiarism row after she was accused of copying a Republican’s congressional testimony. The vice president was last week accused of taking more than a dozen sections of her book ‘Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor’s Plan to Make Us Safer’ from other sources, including a story once told by Martin Luther King Jr.

“Now, fresh allegations have emerged that the former prosecutor lifted more than 1,000 words from the testimony of a Republican state attorney when called as a witness before Congress.”

Not good days before the election.

This brings us to Harris’ home state newspaper, the Los Angeles Times. After endorsing every Democratic presidential candidate since 2008, the paper has declined to endorse her. It made no endorsement.

But at least the Times did not call her “the black face of white supremacy.”

So, former President Barack Obama tells “the brothers” to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris because she’s a black woman – and women have “been getting our backs this entire time.”

Obama said: “My understanding, based on reports I’m getting from campaigns and communities, is that we have not yet seen the same kinds of energy and turnout in all quarters of our neighborhoods and communities as we saw when I was running. (This lack of enthusiasm) seems to be more pronounced with the brothers.” He also said, “(black) women in our lives have been getting our backs this entire time.” Presumably, this does not apply to his devoted.

Is this how Obama talks to “the brothers” down at the barbershop in Martha’s Vineyard? Of course, he wouldn’t implore “the brothers” to vote for, say, Republican Condoleezza Rice were she the GOP presidential nominee. If people voted based on their race, Obama could never have been elected state senator, U.S. senator or president.

Obama also told “the brothers” to vote for Harris because “you have somebody who grew up like you.”

This is quite a statement from someone who grew up unlike anyone most voters know.

Obama was born in Hawaii. His mom obtained a Ph.D. in anthropology and his father an economics degree from Harvard. Obama’s mom remarried an oil company executive, and Barack lived in Indonesia for a few years, where he attended a private school set up by his stepfather’s oil company for the children of its executives. Obama’s mom sent him back to Hawaii because she wanted her son to get an even better education. There he lived with his white maternal grandparents. His grandmother became a bank executive, and his grandfather was a successful salesman.

In Hawaii, Obama attended the prestigious Punahou prep school where the tuition for the 2023-24 school year is $30,480, not including student activity fees. He did his first two years of college at an elite school in Los Angeles before getting his undergraduate degree from Columbia and his law degree from Harvard.

If, according to Obama, people should vote for those who “grew up like you,” why should “the brothers” – and for that matter most anyone else – have voted for Obama given how he “grew up”? So much for content of character and not color of skin. Obama wants Jim Crow 2.0.

Beyond this, consider how blacks fared under Preacher Obama. As I wrote in 2015:

“In 2009, when Obama took office, the black poverty rate was 25.8 percent. As of 2014, according to Pew Research Center, the black poverty rate was 27.2 percent.

“CNNMoney says, ‘Minority households’ median income fell 9 percent between 2010 and 2013, compared to a drop of only 1 percent for whites.’ The Financial Times (in October 2014) wrote: ‘Since 2009, median non-white household income has dropped by almost a 10th to $33,000 a year, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s survey of consumer finances.’

“What about net worth and the black-white ‘wealth gap’? The Financial Times said: ‘The median non-white family today has a net worth of just $18,100 – almost a fifth lower than it was when Mr. Obama took office. White median wealth, on the other hand, has inched up by 1 percent to $142,000. … Both in relative and absolute terms, blacks are doing worse under Mr. Obama.’

“From 2010 to 2013, according to the Federal Reserve, white household median wealth increased a modest 2.4 percent, while Hispanic families’ wealth declined 14 percent, to $13,700. But blacks’ net worth fell from $16,600 to $11,000. This is an astonishing three-year drop of 34 percent. … The black/white ‘wealth-gap’ has reached a 25-year high.”

What about unemployment? By 2014, the black labor force participation rate – the percentage of blacks working or seeking work – stood at the lowest since these numbers have been recorded.

As to home ownership? The Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies wrote, “Homeownership rates have fallen 6 percentage points among black households – double that among white households.”

Given Obama’s dismal economic record, why should “the brothers” listen to a race card hustler who tells them to vote on race and gender?

“No one can deny the impact of climate crisis anymore. At least I hope they don’t. They must be brain dead if they do. Scientists report that with warming oceans powering more intense rains, storms like Helene are getting stronger and stronger. They’re not going to get less; they’re going to get stronger.” – President Joe Biden, Oct. 2, 2024

Three years ago, Science News published an article with the following headline: “Hurricanes may not be becoming more frequent, but they’re still more dangerous – There aren’t more of the storms now than there were roughly 150 years ago, a study suggests.” As to the increasing number of lives threatened and greater property damage, more people now live and build things in hurricane-affected areas.

If this sounds confusing and contradictory, let’s again revisit the track record of the “experts.”

“‘The trouble with almost all environmental problems,’ says Paul R. Ehrlich, the population biologist, ‘is that by the time we have enough evidence to convince people, you’re dead. … We must realize that unless we are extremely lucky, everybody will disappear in a cloud of blue steam in 20 years.'” – The New York Times, 1969

“No real action has been taken to save the environment, (Ehrlich) maintains. And it does need saving. Ehrlich predicts that the oceans will be as dead as Lake Erie in less than a decade.” – Redlands Daily Facts, 1970

“Scientist Predicts a New Ice Age by 21st Century: Air pollution may obliterate the sun and cause a new ice age in the first third of the next century … (I)f the current rate of increase in electric power generation continues, the demands for cooling water will boil dry the entire flow of the rivers and streams of continental United States. … (B)y the next century ‘the consumption of oxygen in combustion processes, worldwide, will surpass all of the processes which return oxygen to the atmosphere.'” – The Boston Globe, 1970

“The world could be as little as 50 or 60 years away from a disastrous new ice age, a leading atmospheric scientist predicts. … ‘In the next 50 years,’ the fine dust man constantly puts into the atmosphere by fossil fuel-burning could screen out so much sunlight that the average temperature could drop by six degrees. If sustained ‘over several years’ – ‘five to 10,’ he estimated – ‘such a temperature decrease could be sufficient to trigger an ice age!’ – Washington Post, 1971

“A senior U.N. environmental official says entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000.” – Associated Press, 1989

“Dear Mr. President: … We feel obliged to inform you on the results of the scientific conference held here recently. … The main conclusion of the meeting was that a global deterioration of climate, by order of magnitude larger than any hitherto experienced by civilized mankind, is a very real possibility and indeed may be due very soon. The cooling has natural cause and falls within the rank of processes which produced the last ice age. … The present rate of the cooling seems fast enough to bring glacial temperatures in about a century.” – Brown University, Department of Geological Sciences, 1972

“However widely the weather varies from place to place and time to time, when meteorologists take an average of temperatures around the globe they find that the atmosphere has been growing gradually cooler for the past three decades. The trend shows no indication of reversing.

“Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age. Telltale signs are everywhere – from the unexpected persistence and thickness of pack ice in the waters around Iceland to the southward migration of a warmth-loving creature like the armadillo from the Midwest.” – Time Magazine, 1974

“Unless drastic measures to reduce greenhouse gases are taken within the next 10 years, the world will reach a point of no return.” – Former Vice President Al Gore, 2006

“The world is going to end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change.” – Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 2019

“We’re all gonna die!” – Homer Simpson

Coming into the debate against Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz held a rotten set of cards. Unlike former President Donald Trump, Vance skillfully, calmly, commandingly and with humor and compassion played his hand. He dominated the debate on the issues voters care most about – the economy, cost of living, gas prices and illegal immigration.

Walz struggled to explain how Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden are not responsible for: hitting a 40-year high in inflation; how Americans now pay 50% more for gas; why a typical family of four now spends $1,200 per month more on goods and services compared to four years ago; how and why Biden-Harris permitted an estimated 12 million illegal aliens, unvetted, to enter the country; and how the world has grown more dangerous under the leadership of Biden-Harris.

About these issues, Harris, Walz, most of the Trump-hating media, much of academia, Hollywood players and Big Tech social media platforms – apart from the Elon Musk-owned X – tell Americans, “Do not believe your lying eyes.” And if you do believe them, ignore them because “democracy is on the ballot,” “reproductive rights (code for abortion) are on the ballot,” and Trump is an existential threat to every living creature.

Forget about former Democratic presidential candidate and Secretary of State John Kerry complaining that the First Amendment stands as a “major block” on raising awareness about climate change and stopping “disinformation.” Ignore California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who just signed a bill to criminalize political “deepfake” ads, apparently including parody ads, made with artificial intelligence.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wants to make it a crime to disseminate Russian talking points.

“But I also think there are Americans who are engaged in this kind of propaganda, and (we should consider) whether they should be civilly, or even in some cases, criminally charged …” she said in a recent interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.

But Trump is a threat to our republic?!

Speaking of Clinton, Vance brought her up during the vice presidential debate on Tuesday when asked, “Trump is still saying he didn’t lose the election. Did he lose the 2020 election?”

“Obviously, Donald Trump and I think that there were problems in 2020,” Vance said. In what anti-Trumpers hailed as his debate night high-water mark, Walz called this a “damning non-answer.” But Vance noted that Clinton still describes her 2016 election defeat as “stolen.”

On this issue of denying elections, Vance possessed a lot of unspent ammo. He might have added that Clinton constantly referred to President Trump as “illegitimate.” Former President Jimmy Carter in June 2019 publicly attributed Trump’s victory to Russian interference. But in an article about its study of the effect of Russian interference in the 2016 election, a study by the New York University Center for Social Media and Politics found that “… despite Russia’s influence operations on the platform, there were no measurable changes in attitudes, polarization, or voting behavior among those exposed to this foreign influence campaign.” No measurable change in attitude? Yet a 2018 Gallup poll found that 78% of Democrats believe the Russian interference “changed the outcome of the election.”

Former President Barack Obama’s former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the Russians, despite their efforts, failed in 2016 to change a single vote tally. Not one. But a 2018 YouGov poll found 66% of Democrats believe “Russia tampered with vote tallies in order to get Donald Trump elected.” The same crowd condemning Vance’s “damning non-answer” sat silently when Democrats Al Gore, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, among others, questioned the legitimacy of their election defeat.

Biden offered up his own damning non-answer when asked if he would accept the outcome of the midterm elections of 2022. At the time, most pundits expected – and Democrats feared – a Republican “red wave.” Biden gave a Trumpian response: “It easily could be illegitimate. I’m not going to say it’s going to be legit. … The increase of the prospect of it being illegitimate is in direct proportion to us not being able to get these (voting) reforms passed.”

Vance effectively argued Trump’s case on the economy, cost of living, the borders, foreign policy, the pro-abortion extremism of the Democrats and election-denying.

Who won the debate? President Trump.

Price controls remain bad policy whether proposed by people we like or do not like, whether by Democrats or Republicans or whether by Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump.

Harris blames the inflation triggered by the irresponsible Biden-Harris government spending on “corporate greed.” Without evidence, she accuses grocery stores of ripping off helpless consumers by jacking up prices. Biden accuses the makers of the Snickers candy bar of committing “shrinkflation” by charging the same price for a package but downsizing its contents.

Biden said: “The snack companies think you won’t notice if they change the size of the bag and put a hell of a lot fewer – same size bag – put fewer chips in it. You get charged the same amount and you got about 10% fewer Snickers in it.”

In response, Snickers parent company Mars said, “We have not reduced the size of Snickers singles or share size in the U.S.”

Even the Biden-friendly NPR said: “Overall, shrinkflation affects a small portion of products, government experts found, and manufacturers are downsizing less frequently than they did a decade ago, although the changes can be dramatic. To explain themselves, companies tend to cite higher costs of making stuff.”

Harris’ “solution”? Attack the corporate greed by imposing the first federal ban on “price gouging” in the food and grocery industries. She said: “We all know that prices went up during the pandemic when the supply chains shut down and failed. But our supply chains have now improved, and prices are still too high.”

Several states already outlaw price gouging, and colluding to raise prices is already illegal. The profit margin for grocery stores is between 1% and 3%, much smaller than the margins for other industries. Economist Larry Summers, the former Bill Clinton Treasury secretary who famously warned that the excessive Biden-Harris spending would ignite inflation, called blaming businesses for high prices “bad economics.”

Speaking of bad economics, Trump recently called for a cap on credit card interest rates. He said: “While working Americans catch up, we’re going to put a (10%) temporary cap on credit card interest rates. We can’t let them make 25 and 30%.” Such a cap, notes the Wall Street Journal, is lower than the cap proposed by self-described Democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. The WSJ wrote: “A 10% cap would effectively cut off people with less-than-pristine credit scores.”

Then there’s the Harris threat to impose national rent control. At her first rally since becoming her party’s presumptive presidential nominee, she vowed to “take on corporate landlords and cap unfair rent increases.” CATO, the libertarian think tank, writes: “A vast academic literature shows that when rent stabilization laws bite, tenants stay in rent-controlled properties for too long relative to their needs, landlords convert properties to non-controlled forms of tenure or let them fall into disrepair, and you get less investment in new rentable accommodation. …”

Minimum-wage laws set the price of labor by government fiat rather than by supply and demand. California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a $20-an-hour fast-food minimum-wage bill that went into effect on April 1. The law also established a council given authority to raise the wage annually. The Hoover Institute estimates that the bill caused a loss of 10,000 jobs. This disproportionately hurts the young workers who are more likely to work in the fast-food industry, and the resulting food price increases disproportionately hurt those on fixed incomes.

Biden and Harris want to expand the number of those eligible to receive insulin at $35, a policy first implemented by Trump. But the answer to lower drug prices is more competition, not price caps. The American Enterprise Institute said: “The insulin market has long been in the crosshairs because of the frustratingly high prices faced by many consumers. Unfortunately, the latest congressional proposal to tackle this issue is likely to do more harm than good … this bill would likely undermine competition and raise costs more broadly.”

Bottom line: Government grows bigger and bigger. The so-called entitlements remain on automatic pilot, with no reform in sight. And both presidential candidates fight to give people stuff and offer anti-capitalist plans that make Bernie Sanders look centrist.

President Joe Biden, to fill a Supreme Court vacancy, said he had but one fixed criterion. The nominee must be a black female.

On the first day of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearing, Sunny Hostin, co-host of ABC’s “The View,” tweeted: “Been crying with pride all day watching Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson breaking this ceiling. Never thought I would feel so very emotional. But I’m all in my feelings.”

California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown did not set out to become the first black female nominated to the United States Supreme Court. But had it not been for then-Sen. Joe Biden standing in her way 20 years ago, Brown might well have been on the road to “breaking this ceiling.”

Brown, the daughter and granddaughter of sharecroppers, was born in Alabama during Jim Crow. As a single mom, she worked her way through college and law school, graduating from UCLA law school in 1977. Over the next 20 years, she worked in the criminal and civil divisions as California deputy attorney general; became the general counsel for the California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency; served as a law professor; and practiced law in private practice.

In 1994, California Republican Gov. Pete Wilson appointed her to the California Court of Appeals and two years later to the California Supreme Court. In California, appointees to its Supreme Court must run for reelection. Despite being appointed by a Republican and her reputation as a conservative jurist, she retained her position with 76% of the vote, a higher percentage than any of the other appointees who ran that year. Brown wrote more majority opinions than any other justice of that court.

In 2003, President George W. Bush nominated her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, from which more justices go on the Supreme Court than any other circuit. Even though Brown had majority support in the Senate, Sen. Biden filibustered her nomination. According to columnist Robert Novak, Biden’s obstruction represented “the first full-scale effort in American history to prevent a president from picking the federal judges he wants.”

Bush renominated her and she was finally confirmed, with Biden again opposing her confirmation. Months later, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor retired, and Brown was reportedly on the short list to replace her. But Biden appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation” and threatened to again filibuster a Brown nomination. Bush backed down.

Consider this exchange during Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearing:

Sen. Lindsey Graham: Do you know Janice Rogers Brown?

JACKSON: Yes, I do know her.

GRAHAM: How do you know her?

JACKSON: She was a judge on the court that I now serve. … I know of her, yes.

GRAHAM: What do you know of her? What’s her reputation?

JACKSON: I know that she’s a very well-respected judge on my circuit.

GRAHAM: OK. And in terms of family issues, the daughter and granddaughter of sharecroppers, she was raised in Alabama under Jim Crow. Despite this adversity, she threw herself into law school as a single working mother. That’s pretty impressive, isn’t it?

JACKSON: Yes, Senator.

GRAHAM: Your background is very impressive. You seem to have a great family. If family mattered, we would not have done to her what was done to her here in the United States Senate. Do you realize that she was filibustered for two years when she was appointed to the D.C. Circuit?

JACKSON: I didn’t know that.

GRAHAM: Did you know that Joe Biden actively filibustered Janice Rogers Brown?

JACKSON: I did not know that.

GRAHAM: Did you know that he told “Face the Nation,” if Bush nominates her for the Supreme Court, “I can assure you that would be a very, very, very difficult fight and she probably would be filibustered.” Is that news to you too?

JACKSON: Yes.

GRAHAM: OK. Now that you know that, how do you feel about it?

JACKSON: Senator, I can’t speak to something that I just learned two seconds ago in your conversation to with me.

Were it not for Biden, who now considers the filibuster “a relic of the Jim Crow era,” Hostin could have been “crying with pride” 20 years ago.

The debate tone was set with the first question. Debate co-moderator David Muir, ABC’s news managing editor, asked Vice President Kamala Harris: “I want to begin tonight with the issue voters repeatedly say is their No. 1 issue. … When it comes to the economy, do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago?”

It is not just a simple question. It is THE central question of the race given that most voters cite the economy as their No. 1 issue. Harris failed to answer directly. Instead, she talked about her “plan” to deal with the economy. Former President Donald Trump should have pounded. That was a gimme, a layup. But Muir asked no follow-up.

And this was just the beginning. Muir and co-moderator Linsey Davis often “fact-checked” Trump or asked him to clarify when dissatisfied with his answer. Harris received markedly different treatment.

Before the debate, the conservative Media Research Center accused ABC of having the most biased of the three big networks’ nightly news programs. MRC wrote: “MRC analysts reviewed all 100 campaign stories that aired on ABC’s World News Tonight from the day Harris entered the race (July 21) through Sept. 6, including weekends. Our analysts found 25 clearly positive statements about Harris from reporters, anchors, voters or other non-partisan sources, with zero negative statements – none. That computes to a gravity-defying 100% positive spin score for the vice president.” Trump stories weighed in at 93% negative.

Harris’ debate lies include Trump’s alleged support for Project 2025, to which she referred several times. Project 2025 is a 900-page set of policy proposals by the conservative Heritage Foundation. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., at the Democratic National Convention, claimed Trump “wrote” it. A CNN fact-checker called this “false.” A Newsweek fact-checker wrote that an Aug. 26 post by the Oversight Committee Democrats said: “Don’t be fooled by Republican lies. Project 2025 was handcrafted by former Trump officials and cronies and ‘blessed’ directly by Trump.” Newsweek wrote: “While we cannot be certain about Trump’s feelings on Project 2025, the ‘blessed’ comment appears to have been misattributed.” No pushback.

On abortion, Davis asked Trump: “Vice President Harris says that women shouldn’t trust you on the issue of abortion because you’ve changed your position so many times. Therefore, why should they trust you?”

Trump replied: “Well, the reason I’m doing that vote is because the plan is, as you know, the vote is, they have abortion in the ninth month. They even have, and you can look at the governor of West Virginia, the previous governor of West Virginia … He said the baby will be born and we will decide what to do with the baby. In other words, we’ll execute the baby.” (Trump meant a statement made by then-Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam about a failed abortion.)

Davis, after Trump’s response, said: “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born.” Breitbart wrote: “It is illegal everywhere to kill a child, or to decide to have an abortion after a healthy birth, but it is not illegal in some states to allow a baby to die after a delivery induced for medical reasons.” When Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, signed a “reproductive rights” bill, Patch.com posted an article with the following headline: “Tim Walz Repealed MN Law Protecting Babies Born After Failed Abortions.” The subheadline continued: “Five babies died in Minnesota after they were born alive due to a failed induced abortion in 2021.”

Harris falsely claimed that Trump, about Charlottesville, said there were “fine people” (referring to white supremacists and neo-Nazis) on both sides. She repeated the Trump-said-there-would-be-a-“bloodbath” lie. She repeated the Trump-said-he-would-be-a-“dictator” lie. She claimed Trump presided over “the worst unemployment since the Great Depression” and that the Trump tax cuts only benefited the rich. No pushback.

So, the question remains: To the family of four spending $1,200 a month more for the same goods and services as four years ago, and to those concerned about the millions of illegal aliens allowed to enter the country under Biden-Harris, “Are you better off?”

Once upon a time, journalists demanded “access” to presidential candidates. Suddenly, Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris’ calculated refusal to do a solo sit-down interview becomes a non-issue. Harris served as President Joe Biden’s co-pilot and cannot credibly distance herself from the 40-year high in inflation, from gas prices 50% higher than four years ago and from the nearly 12 million illegal aliens who have entered the country in the last four years, so her media avoidance is tactically smart.

The Trump-hating, pro-Democrat media and pundit class are perfectly OK with this. Rather than face blistering criticism for ignoring or disowning the many radical positions Harris has taken in the not-so-distant past, she is being praised. Former President Donald Trump, for example, denounced the Harris-Tim Walz interview as “boring.” MSNBC’s opinion editor wrote: “(Trump) wasn’t wrong about that. But I think Harris is banking on voters’ choosing boring over the drama – no, let’s be real and call it the chaos – that Trump inevitably brings.”

About Harris’ vacuous politics of joy and good vibes, CNN presidential historian Tim Naftali said: “It has been effective in American history. Franklin Roosevelt ran on the New Deal. Of course, he was running at a time of economic collapse, and he was running against an incumbent. But he didn’t actually say what the New Deal was. … John F. Kennedy ran promising to make the country move again. Well, how vague is that? He ran a vibes campaign for the most part in 1960. Richard Nixon in 1968 promised to end the war in Vietnam, but didn’t say how we would do it. … And 2008, Barack Obama promised change. He did promise some policy changes, of course, but he was basically saying, ‘We’ve had enough with the Bush administration. We’ve had enough with its wars.’ So historically, a vibes campaign can be very effective.”

Did Roosevelt, Kennedy, Nixon and Obama treat the media like an infectious disease? So, Harris’ agenda of “joy” and “vibes” should soothe the two-thirds of Americans who consider the nation on the “wrong track”? This silliness works because the media are complicit. They cannot abide Trump’s “lies.” But Biden and Harris can lie with impunity.

In a July interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, Biden again pushed the Trump-Charlottesville “both sides” lie. No pushback from Holt.

Harris told CNN’s Dana Bash that Trump bushwhacked “a conservative border bill.” Bash failed to point out that several Republicans spoke out against the bill before Trump did; that this “tough” border bill, among many problems, permits an annual floor of 1.8 million new illegal entrants; and, most importantly, Trump secured the border without any congressional action – and Biden could do likewise by simply reinstating the Trump policies he started reversing on his first day as president.

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer recently allowed not one but two guests in the same segment to refer falsely to Trump as a “convicted rapist.”

Biden and Harris brag, with no media pushback, about “creating 16 million new jobs.” Never mind that 10 million of these “new” jobs were bounce-backs from COVID and that the economy was recovering well before Biden-Harris took over and unnecessarily spent trillions, triggering the inflation that peaked at 9%.

Television journalists routinely allow guests/pundits/politicians/surrogates to call Trump “fascist.” But isn’t it fascist for government to pressure social media platforms into suppressing dissent about COVID; for government to pressure social media platforms into restricting the Hunter Biden laptop story; and for Harris to propose price controls?

About Harris’ “flip-flopping” on fracking, former New York Times columnist Anand Giridharadas on MSNBC said: “I think sometimes we in journalism shame people kind of figuring out a different view that they might hold and call it flip-flopping and try to kind of catch people in it when, in some ways, on some issues, that’s a measure of progress. … She’s in a general election against an American fascist, Donald Trump.”

A 2023 poll by Syracuse University found just 3.4% of reporters are Republicans. According to the Media Research Center, the ABC/NBC/CBS recent news coverage of Harris-Walz has been 84% positive, while that of Trump-Vance is 89% negative.

Welcome to modern journalism. Water is wet. Sky is blue. Trump is a fascist.

On March 30, 1981, a 30-year-old man named John Hinckley Jr. tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan. After giving a speech at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C., Reagan was returning to his limo when Hinkley shot him and wounded three others. Reagan’s press secretary, James Baker, was struck in the head and became permanently disabled.

As Reagan was waving to a crowd, a bullet ricocheted off his limo, struck him under his left arm, broke a rib and caused massive internal bleeding. His injuries were far more serious than first thought. In fact, some initial reporting claimed Reagan was “unharmed.” In fact, Reagan almost died. The would-be assassin was wrestled to the ground.

At the hospital, Reagan reportedly said to first lady Nancy, “Honey, I forgot to duck.”

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As Reagan was wheeled to the operating room, Reagan said to his doctors, “Please tell me you’re Republicans.”

About the would-be assassin, he said, “Does anybody know what that guy’s beef was?”

When Reagan regained consciousness from anesthesia, he wrote a note saying, “All in all, I’d rather be in Philadelphia.”

He wrote in another note, “Send me to L.A., where I can see the air I’m breathing.”

In yet another note to his medical staff, he wrote, “If I had this much attention in Hollywood, I’d have stayed there.”

After a nurse praised his recovery by saying, “Keep up the good work,” Reagan said, “You mean this may happen several more times?”

When a top aide told him the government was continuing to perform normally, Reagan said, “What makes you think I’d be happy about that?”

On July 13, 2024, a 20-year-old man named Thomas Matthew Crooks tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump. As Trump stood on an outdoor stage at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Crooks, from a nearby rooftop, fired eight rounds. He killed one audience member and seriously wounded two others. A bullet struck Trump in his upper right ear. As agents surrounded him and escorted him off stage toward his SUV, the bloodied former president thrust his right fist in the air, pumped his arm and shouted, “Fight! Fight! Fight!” He was taken to a hospital, treated and released the same day.

The day after the assassination attempt against Reagan, The New York Times wrote: “(M)ost (members of Congress) wore the glazed expressions and had the subdued manners of those in shock. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, took the floor, after initial reports were received, and declared: ‘My family has been touched by violence. Year after year in recent times we have seen violence in this country: My brother John Kennedy and my brother Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, George Wallace, Al Lowenstein, Vernon Jordan, the attack on President Ford, and now the attack on President Reagan. All of us who care about this country and who care about our fellow citizens bear an important responsibility in whatever way we possibly can to rid this society and to rid this country of the kind of violence and hatred that we have seen.'”

Reagan’s approval ratings jumped 8 points to nearly 68%.

President Joe Biden, two days after the Trump assassination attempt, gave a brief address from the White House and urged Americans to “lower the temperature in our politics.”

A Florida Atlantic University/Mainstreet poll conducted after the assassination attempt found a “small bump” in favor of Trump, but nothing like the 8-point increase Reagan experienced. One survey of Democratic voters found that one-third agreed with the following statement: “I wish Trump’s (would-be) assassination hadn’t missed.”

Reagan had many detractors. A Democratic member of the House, for example, accused him of “trying to replace the Bill of Rights with fascist precepts lifted verbatim from ‘Mein Kampf.'” Trump detractors include first lady Jill Biden who, five days before the assassination attempt, pronounced Trump “evil.” Trump’s detractors include Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, who three weeks after the assassination attempt called Trump supporters “fascist.”

Reagan’s critics disliked Reagan. Trump’s critics hate Trump.

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President Joe Biden, at the Democratic National Convention, said, “Donald Trump and the Republican friends, they not only can’t think; they can’t read very well. Seriously, think about it. Look at their Project 2025.”

OK, let’s take Biden up on his offer “seriously” to think about those who “can’t read very well.”

The convention is in Chicago, the adopted hometown of former President Barack Obama and the hometown of former first lady Michelle Obama. They spoke at the DNC about “hope” and about the importance of everyone living up to his or her potential. For many Chicagoans, that’s a tall order.

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In 2022, according to the Illinois State Board of Education, there were 53 Illinois public K-12 schools, mostly in Chicago, where 0% of the students could do math at grade level. There were 30 public schools, mostly in Chicago, where 0% of the students could read at grade level.

According to Wirepoints, an Illinois research nonprofit, there are “622 schools where only 1 out of 10 kids or less can read at grade level. That’s a whopping 18 percent of the state’s 3,547 schools that tested students in 2022. And only 1 out of 10 kids can do math at grade level in 930 schools.”

Do not blame lack of money. In 2019, Illinois had enough K-12 money to spend $18,000 per student. In 2021, it came to $24,000 per student. And in 2024, the total amount is about the same, $24,000 per student.

Despite these results, schools that by any normal standard should be considered failing are rated by the Illinois State Board as “commendable,” the second-highest rating. Wirepoints wrote: “Take Collins Academy High School on Chicago’s West Side. With 219 students and 55 employees, Collins spends $27,163 per student. The Illinois State Board of Education declares the school ‘commendable’ … Not a single student tested was proficient in reading or math in 2023. And yet 79% of students there graduated.”

The Obamas’ daughters attended a private elementary school run by the faculty at the University of Chicago, where Barack Obama taught as a lecturer in the law school. When the Obamas moved to Washington, the girls attended an expensive private school.

Young Barack Obama lived in Indonesia with his mom and stepfather, an executive with an oil company. There Obama attended a private school run by the company. Obama’s mother then sent him to Hawaii, where he lived with his grandparents and attended the finest prep school in Hawaii.

As for Michelle, she attended a public high school in Chicago, but it wasn’t the school closest to her home. Her parents considered that school inferior. So, Michelle rode a bus some distance from home to attend a better school. Today, we call that school choice. But the Democratic Party, beholden to the teachers union, opposes school choice.

Where do public school teachers send their own school-age kids? The Daily Signal writes: “Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates and Illinois Education Association official Sean Denney send their kids to private schools while devoting their time to fighting against poorer parents’ rights to send their children to similar schools.”

In Chicago, DNC speaker after speaker gleefully attacked former President Donald Trump, that is, when they were not advocating “mutual respect.” Given the festive nature of the convention, one almost forgets that two-thirds of Americans consider the country on the “wrong track”; that inflation hit a 40-year high, which translates into grocery prices 20% higher than they were three and a half years ago; that last year, according a Payroll.org survey, 78% of Americans lived “paycheck to paycheck,” up 6% from 2022; that 80% of Americans consider eating at a fast-food restaurant a “luxury”; and that the average family of four spends roughly $1,200 a month more for the same goods and services it bought three and a half years years ago.

Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris says her goal of “equitable treatment means we all end up in the same place.” That’s quite a hurdle, particularly when many urban kids the Democrats purport to care so much about cannot read.

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Politicians, of course, misspeak and say wrongheaded things, whether it’s President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump. Now that Vice President Kamala Harris is the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, let’s review:

“So, there’s a big difference between equality and equity. Equality suggests, ‘oh everyone should get the same amount.’ The problem with that, not everybody’s starting out from the same place. So, if we’re all getting the same amount, but you started out back there and I started out over here, we could get the same amount, but you’re still going to be that far back behind me. It’s about giving people the resources and the support they need, so that everyone can be on equal footing, and then compete on equal footing. Equitable treatment means we all end up at the same place.” – November 2020

“We invested an additional $12 billion into community banks because we know community banks are in the community, and understand the needs and desires of that community as well as the talent and capacity of community.” – September 2022

“It’s time for us to do what we have been doing, and that time is every day. Every day it is time for us to agree that there are things and tools that are available to us to slow this thing down.” – January 2022

“I think that, to be very honest with you, I do believe that we should have rightly believed, but we certainly believe that certain issues are just settled. Certain issues are just settled.” – July 2022

“The brilliance of this inaugural class and its leaders is the ability to see what can be, unburdened by what has been, and then to make it real in a way that will be replicated around our country.” – February 2024

“So, Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country. Russia is a powerful country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine. So, basically, that’s wrong, and it goes against everything that we stand for.” – March 2022

“But we all watched the television coverage of just yesterday. That’s on top of everything else that we know and don’t know yet, based on what we’ve just been able to see. And because we’ve seen it or not doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened.” – March 2022

“The significance of the passage of time, right? The significance of the passage of time. So, when you think about it, there is great significance to the passage of time.” –March 2022

“You know, when we talk about our children – I know for this group, we all believe that when we talk about the children of the community, they are a children of the community.” – May 2023

“This issue of transportation is fundamentally about just making sure that people have the ability to get where they need to go.” – July 2023

“I think the first part of this issue that should be articulated is AI is kind of a fancy thing. First of all, it’s two letters. It means artificial intelligence, but ultimately what it is, is it’s about machine learning.” – July 2023

“So, I will say what I know we all say, and I will say over and over again: The United States stands firmly with the Ukrainian people [and] in defense of the NATO alliance.” (Ukraine is not part of NATO.) – March 2022

“Let’s start with this: Prices have gone up, and families and individuals are dealing with the realities of – that bread costs more, that gas costs more. And we have to understand what that means. That’s about the cost of living going up. That’s about having to stress and stretch limited resources. That’s about a source of stress for families that is not only economic but is on a daily level something that is a heavy weight to carry. So that is something that we take very seriously, very seriously. … So it’s a big issue, and we take it seriously, and it is a priority, therefore.” – November 2021

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Bravo to former President Donald Trump for taking hostile questions from reporters at the Chicago convention of the National Association of Black Journalists. Vice President Kamala Harris also received an invitation but declined. Some members protested Trump’s invitation and acceptance. Think of it. Trump is often described by members of the media, particularly the black media, as an anti-black “racist.” But some black journalists did not want to hear him defend himself against this slur.

One reporter attacked Trump for what she considered demeaning comments Trump made about black politicians and black reporters. Why, she asked, should blacks vote for you? Never mind the number of demeaning comments Trump made about white politicians and white reporters. Is he supposed to refrain from criticizing black politicians and black reporters because they are black? That’s quite a form of patronizing bigotry. What are they? Snowflakes of color?

Trump said Harris, in the past, referred to herself as Indian American and then “she became black.” Not too surprisingly, this did not go down well. But it is true that, at times in Harris’ political career, she identified as Indian American. Consider a video in which Harris and actress Mindy Kaling are cooking Indian dishes:

Kaling: “So, what we’re going to cook today is an Indian recipe because you are Indian.”

Harris: “Yes. Yes.”

Kaling: “And I don’t know that everybody knows that.”

Harris: “Yes. Yes …”

Kaling: “So, we’re both Indian. But, actually, we’re both south Indian.”

Harris: “Yes. You look like the entire one half of my family. You do.”

Now, if one takes pride in oneself and in one’s heritage, does it make any difference what Trump, or any other person, thinks about how one describes her racial identity? Studies going back decades have determined that blacks have higher self-esteem than whites. So why are the reporters at this conference so offended about what Trump thinks about Harris’ self-identification as black? What is the real-world effect?

Trump did not say, as did Biden, “If you don’t support me, you ain’t black.” He did not falsely claim, as has Biden, that he was raised in the black church, got arrested trying to visit Nelson Mandela or as a young man he desegregated restaurants and movie theaters. He did not say about Barack Obama, as did Biden, “I mean, you got the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” He did not say, as did Biden, “Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.” He did not say, “They goin’ put y’all back in chains.”

However Kamala Harris identifies herself, the Biden-Harris policies have caused the average family of four, no matter its race, to pay $1,200 per month more for the same goods and services as that family bought nearly four years ago. The reporters showed little concern about the rising cost of living.

A reporter hammered Trump for calling Harris a “DEI hire.” But it was 2020 candidate Joe Biden who, when asked about his choice for VP, said, “I commit that I will, in fact, appoint a, pick a woman to be vice president.” And it just so happened that several of Biden’s VP finalists were black females. So, what does that make Harris?

There was not one question about how 85% of black eighth graders nationwide can neither read nor do math at grade level. There was not one question about how over the Fourth of July weekend, in Chicago, 109 people were shot, 19 fatally, mostly in black neighborhoods. There was not one question about the over 50 urban Chicago public schools where 0% of the students can do math at grade level. There was not one question about the nearly 70% of black children who enter the world without a father in the home married to the mother, which leads to higher rates of poverty, of dropping out of school and of ending up in prison. These reporters had absolutely no interest in those issues.

But, hey, let’s talk about the absolutely, positively critical matter of what Trump thinks about what Harris calls herself.

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