"If conservatives want to win elections, they don't need to rile up the base, they need to convince independents to say in public what they believe in private -- that they agree with conservatives on most issues and that Democrats are the wildly out-of-touch extremists.

"That, at least, is one way to read a fascinating new survey from Populace, a non-partisan think tank in Massachusetts, which figured out a way to discern what 20,000 Americans think privately and compare that to what they are willing to say publicly.

"It turns out that there are often wide gaps between the two, which Populace calls the 'Social Pressure Index.' People tend to avoid stating their views if they think they're in the minority.

"But here's the really interesting finding: On a host of bellwether issues, independents are, in private, far more conservative than they will admit to pollsters."

Read the entire article here.

"Political campaigns are symbolic ventures, designed to drive attention to certain issues and to marshal facts, language, and emotion to deliver a material advantage. From Cicero's campaign for the consulship to Kamala Harris and Donald Trump's campaigns for the presidency, it has always been thus.

"This is a useful lens through which to view the current immigration debate. For several weeks, two migrant-related stories have dominated national attention: Venezuelan gang members apparently seizing apartments in Aurora, Colorado, and tensions resulting from large-scale Haitian migration in Springfield, Ohio. Beneath the surface of their rhetorical heat, the controversies point to three key questions of immigration policy: who, how, and how much."

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"In 1980, the Boston Globe put a place-holding headline on an editorial about a speech by President Jimmy Carter.

"'Mush from the wimp,' the headline read -- and and it appeared in more than 150,000 copies of the paper before editors caught their error and removed it.

"I thought about that headline as I watched Joe Biden's UN speech Tuesday.

"The similarities go far beyond another mushy speech from another wimpy president.

"Biden now rivals Carter as the worst American president of the modern era -- and maybe of all time."

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"Then-President Donald Trump gave clear instructions to Pentagon brass days before the Jan. 6 riots to 'do whatever it takes' to keep the U.S. Capitol safe, including deploying National Guard or active-duty troops, but top officials did not comply because of political concerns, according to transcripts of bombshell interviews conducted by the Defense Department's chief watchdog that shine new light on government disfunction ahead of the historic tragedy.

"Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff, confirmed to the Pentagon inspector general three years ago that during a Jan. 3, 2021, Oval Office meeting Trump pre-approved the use of National Guard or active duty troops to keep peace in the nation's capital on the day Congress was to certify the results of the 2020 election.

"Milley's interviews were among several key to transcripts obtained by House Administration Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., and shared with Just the News."

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"Every honest commentator, and even some dishonest ones, acknowledges the supreme oddity of Kamala Harris's presidential campaign.

"As has been oft remarked, the oddity begins with the campaign's origin. Exactly how is it that Kamala Harris even became the candidate? By what process was Joe Biden, the undisputed winner of the Democratic primary, ousted, eliminated and defenestrated from contention? The rumors and stories are plentiful, but the actual facts -- to say nothing of the dramatis personae behind the facts -- remain obscure.

"But somehow, exactly two months ago, Joe Biden raised his sleepy head in Rehoboth Beach and announced his departure from the campaign but not, pointedly, from the presidency. (Will that happen before January 20, 2025? I wonder.)

"No sooner had the public begun to get its head around that surprise than they were hit with an even bigger one: Biden's replacement would be Vice President Kamala Harris. How did that happen? Who voted for her? Shhh! Some questions are mood breakers, and it was clear from the get-go that the Harris campaign was going to have to depend heavily, some experts say nearly exclusively, on mood."

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"While California Governor Gavin Newsom touted California’s fast food jobs growth in a Fox News opinion column Wednesday, seasonally adjusted federal employment data contradicts the governor’s claims, finding that overall fast food employment is down since the start of the year. The $20 per hour fast food minimum wage is credited by businesses as driving cuts on available shifts and employment, and even store closures.

"'Since the law was enacted, California has added 11,000 new jobs in the industry. As of July, our state boasts a historic 750,500 fast-food jobs,' wrote Newsom in his Fox News column.

"Using the most accurate, business-reported employment data from the time the governor signed a $20 per hour fast food minimum wage law at the end of September 2023, until March of 2024, the most recent point for which federal, finalized payroll survey data is available fast food employment is down by approximately 6,000 jobs, says the Employment Policies Institute, an organization that seeks to limit labor regulations."

Read the entire article here.

"Crime is a major issue in this year's election, yet major media ignored the release of a significant new government report showing a surge in violent crime. The increase in violent crime during the Biden administration is a record increase.

"The latest data released last Thursday from the Department of Justice's National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) reveal a sharp increase in violent crime under the Biden-Harris administration compared to when Trump left office.

"During the debate, Mr. Muir noted: 'President Trump, as you know, the FBI says overall violent crime is coming down in this country.' But Mr. Muir would have been much more accurate if he said that the number of crimes reported to police fell, which isn't the same as total crime. He might also have conceded, as Trump pointed out in his response, that fewer than half of police departments reported complete data to the FBI in 2022."

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"Gov. Chris Sununu, R-N.H., signed a no-excuse voter identification and proof-of-citizenship bill into law last week, but it will not go into effect until six days after this year's election.

"The law, which passed the state's Republican-majority House and Senate earlier this year, will require New Hampshire voters to provide proof of citizenship to apply for registration, as well as a photo ID when casting a ballot. In the event a person can't show a valid ID, the supervisor may 'review the voter's qualifications and determine if the voter's identity can be verified.'

"'If the supervisor of the checklist determines that the voter's qualifications and identity have not been established, the voter shall not be allowed to vote,' the law clarifies.

"Current law allows people to show up to the polls without an ID, cast a ballot, and sign an affidavit promising that they are who they claim to be. It does not require voters to produce documentation until seven days after an election."

Read the entire article here.

"Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is at a critical crossroads in the charged debate over federal spending, confronting few options to prevent a government shutdown -- and all of them with risks.

"The funding fight is the last major legislative challenge facing Johnson before this year's elections, but it's been snarled not only by the internal tensions within his own feuding conference, but also his sometimes-competing goals of thwarting a shutdown in two weeks, winning control of the House in November and keeping the Speaker's gavel next year.

"Johnson's initial strategy of passing a conservative stopgap spending bill through the House, as leverage in the coming negotiations with Senate Democrats, dissolved quickly last week when GOP leaders failed to rally enough Republican support to pass it."

Read the entire article here.

"It is the biggest question of the election and the first question of last week's presidential debate. Vice President Kamala Harris refused to answer it. But the U.S. Census Bureau just did.

"'When it comes to the economy, do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago?' ABC News host David Muir, one of the debate moderators, asked last week.

"Harris responded with her bromide-sprinkled world salad about her 'opportunity economy.'

"But there is no avoiding the data in the Census Bureau's latest American Community Survey, which show that, thanks to inflation, the average household is poorer today than it was four years ago.

"In the most recent data released this week, the median household income was $80,610 in 2023 compared to $81,210 in 2019. By contrast, the year before former President Donald Trump took office, the median household income was $71,000, which means that in the three years he was president before COVID-19, median household income rose more than $10,000. All of these totals are in inflation-adjusted 2022 dollars."

Read the entire article here.