FLASHBACK: Lifetime Pennsylvania Democrats are becoming Republicans.

Shirley Hall has always lived in this charming Blair County borough, located a few miles from the big city of Altoona and once the home of booming coal and paper mill industries. She has also been a Catholic all of her life and for most of it a registered Democrat, two attributes she says are, or at least were, a profound part of her identity.

She is still a Catholic, faithfully so, but last week when watching former President Donald Trump walk into the convention hall in Milwaukee just two days after being shot, she changed her voter registration on the spot.

In short, she is not just a Democrat voting for Trump come November, but she is now a Republican and will be voting so up and down the ballot. How solidly Democrat was Hall? The retired administrator for a local Catholic church voted for Barack Obama twice and Hillary Clinton in 2016 and did not vote for Donald Trump in 2020.

“I didn’t vote for Biden either. I just didn’t vote for either man that year,” Hall said.

Hall said a number of things led to her pivotal decision last week. “The last three years had really disheartened me in how my party had handled inflation, never recognizing that it is really impacting people’s lives, but also the border and how that has made accessing drugs even easier for people,” she said.

That’s a Salena Zito story from July.

Today:

Even a reversal of these numbers in Pennsylvania would be very, very bad for Harris. https://t.co/2QEqxmHLDR

— Avi Woolf, Wilderness Conservative🐺 (@AviWoolf) September 19, 2024

I don’t like how needlessly close this race is — and I let it get me crabby yesterday — but there are unprecedented undercurrents in this race that I’m not sure pollsters have figured out how to account for.

SHE PRETTY MUCH SUCKS AT EVERYTHING: FCC Commissioner Just Scorched Harris for Her $42 Billion Fail.

BECAUSE IT HELPED ESTABLISH A DESIRED NARRATIVE. NEXT QUESTION? Why did it take four years to debunk the black baby study?

A study published this week in a prestigious journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, makes a claim that’s almost unheard of on the pages of leading medical journals: systemic racism and implicit bias are not the self-evident explanations for a pervasive racial disparity. To be precise: black newborns aren’t dying at higher rates when they’re treated by white doctors.

The study, conducted by a Harvard economist and a Manhattan Institute researcher, purports to debunk a widely circulated 2020 study, also published in PNAS, which concluded that black newborns attended by a white physician suffer a “mortality penalty” and are twice as likely to die. That study garnered incriminating headlines in USA Today, CNN, Science News, NPR, and The Washington Post. It was also so influential that it was cited by Supreme Court Justice Brown Jackson in the high court’s 2023 affirmative action case, in which the American Medical Association and 44 other parties declared in their amicus brief: “For high-risk Black newborns, having a Black physician is tantamount to a miracle drug.”

How could two teams of researchers look at the same data — 1.8 million childbirths in Florida between 1992 and 2015 — and reach diametrically opposite conclusions?

This time around, the researchers added one key variable that the 2020 researchers had overlooked — low birth weights — and the whole thing collapsed. The research design contained a fatal flaw, overlooking the fact that severely underweight babies, who have very high mortality rates to start with, tend to be treated by white doctors. Physicians who handle the most serious medical cases tend to see higher death rates.

No matter; the narrative is firmly established.

SATIRE, REALLY?

Biden Promises Next Trump Assassin Will Be A Woman Of Color https://t.co/4r1F4CXAEm pic.twitter.com/4jeuKDgFot

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) September 19, 2024

THAT’S NICE. WHEN DO WE GET AN APOLOGY FOR WALTER DURANTY? New York Times apologises to furious Scottish readers after calling Baby Reindeer star Richard Gadd’s Emmys sporran a ‘black fanny pack.’

SOME THINGS NOT EVEN THE MEDIA CAN DENY: Liberal Media Admits Teamsters’ Snub of Kamala Harris a Major ‘Win for Trump.’

CHRISTIAN TOTO: CNN’s ‘News’ Mocks Trumps, Joke Implodes on Cast.

Host Wood, passed over for “The Daily Show’s” hosting gig earlier this year, asked the panel, “What was the fake name of the head of the Taliban that Donald Trump cited during the debate.”

The answer? Abdul.

“He picked the most obvious name to make up for the head of the Taliban,” Black cracked as his fellow panelists cackled in glee. The show’s official X account pushed the clip out, secure in its comedy mileage and accuracy.

Except they got it wrong.

So just like CNN’s actual news shows then.

VOTES: This Is What Trump’s Crypto Play Is Really About.

WITH MALICE AFORETHOUGHT: How Facts Get Misrepresented to Push Anti-Gun Narrative.

DON’T GET COCKY: This Blue State Shouldn’t Be Competitive… But It Is.

WELL, SHE IS: I Want to Be Perfectly Clear Here: Kamala Harris Is a Monster.

She’s monstrous in so many ways; it’s almost like a demented form of talent.

We ll know she’s an inarticulate puddle of goo when she’s let off the scripted hook. But her instincts are so base, so vile, and so authoritarian that sometimes it doesn’t matter what argle-bargle dribbles out in the end. What she’s done or is planning to do is so ghastly that you barely hear the words.

And then she has the unmitigated gall to pretend none of it happened. Or, as Bernie said, she’s playing the pragmatic politician to win.

Lying with a sincere and empathetic straight face.

What follows is a nearly complete takedown of Harris’s monstrousness.

SCOTT PINSKER: What the Media Aren’t Telling You About Israel’s Ingenious Strike Against Terrorist Pagers.

OUCH: Ukrainian drone attack triggers earthquake-sized blast at arsenal in Russia’s Tver region.

A large-scale Ukrainian drone attack on Russia triggered an earthquake-sized blast at a major arsenal in the Tver region on Wednesday, forcing the evacuation of a nearby town, war bloggers and some media reported.

Unverified video and images on social media showed a huge ball of flame blasting into the night sky and multiple detonations thundering across a lake about 380 km (240 miles) west of Moscow.

NASA satellites picked up intense heat sources emanating from an area of about 14 square kilometres (5 square miles) at the site in the early hours and earthquake monitoring stations noted what sensors thought was a small earthquake, opens new tab in the area.

“The enemy hit an ammunition depot in the area of Toropets,” said Yuri Podolyaka, a Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger. “Everything that can burn is already burning there (and exploding).”

It’s over 300 miles from Tver and to Ukraine’s nearest border, so nice shooting.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: They Don’t Just Want to Kill Trump, They Want to Kill You Too. “Readers here know that we need to be vigilant. November 5, 2024 will be the biggest red line ever drawn in the sand. There won’t be a lot of hugs across the aisle.”

HMM: Inducing a Sino-Russian Split Through Ukraine.

How, then, can Washington engineer a Sino-Russian split? The answer lies in creating a proper incentive structure. To paraphrase Yale historian John Lewis Gaddis, to expect concessions to Moscow on Ukraine today to be reciprocated with Russian concessions on China is naive: Putin’s strategy will not change until the Kremlin has encountered a sufficiently long string of failures to convince his successors that Russia’s current alignment with Beijing will fail to advance its interests. Or, to borrow from Kennan, Washington must embrace “a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies” to punish Russian alignment with China.

The aim, therefore, ought to be a demonstration to both Russia and China that their partnership will bring more costs than benefits. An extended period of confrontation whereby U.S. actions make it impossible for Russia to further its interests, and where Chinese alignment with Russia harms its wider economic and political interests, will then enable the aforementioned tensions in the partnership to fester. Then and only then will their contradictions be ripe for exploitation.

It is worth noting that there exists a historical precedent for such a strategy. During the Cold War, to break the Sino-Soviet partnership crafted by Mao’s “tilt” to the Soviets, Eisenhower pursued a policy aimed at generating tensions between Moscow and Beijing by making China more dependent on the Soviet Union through dogged political and economic confrontation.

This policy helped create the conditions for Nixon’s opening.

An interesting read and probably worth your time.

UM, PHRASING: Harris Tosses Fresh Word Salad, and It’s Tasty.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: U.S. Importers Are Pulling in Goods Early as Possible Port Strike Draws Closer.

U.S. importers are rushing in millions of dollars’ worth of electronics, holiday goods and industrial materials to get ahead of a possible strike by dockworkers in less than two weeks that threatens to lock down major ports and hammer the American economy.

The drive has gained urgency as a walkout by 45,000 dockworkers at ports from Maine to Texas has grown more likely, swamping West Coast ports with big cargo volumes as companies redraw their supply chains to get away from the looming labor turmoil.

“I have huge concerns about the potential strike or labor slowdown,” said Mac Harman, chief executive of Balsam Hill, a Redwood City, Calif., company that has diverted tens of thousands of artificial trees, wreaths and garlands that would usually land at the Port of New York and New Jersey to Oakland, Calif.

Balsam Hill still has millions more items to ship and faces a financial toll if it can’t get its goods to retail markets ahead of the holiday shopping season. “A strike will have a significant negative impact on both our ability to serve our customers and on our financial performance,” Harman said.

The International Longshoremen’s Association, which represents the dockworkers at East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, is warning that its members will strike if they don’t secure a labor deal before their current contract ends on Sept. 30. A walkout would hit major seaports including New York-New Jersey, Savannah, Ga., Norfolk, Va., and Houston.

The union, which is seeking a 77% wage increase over six years, and port employers haven’t met at the bargaining table yet and no negotiations have been scheduled.

Maybe because 77% over six years is a bit much, even for an opening negotiation position.

UNION GUYS LOVED REAGAN, TOO: Teamsters’ Rank and File Favors Trump, but Union Announces ‘No Endorsement’ for President.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: Underappreciated Albums: Queen of Pain.

THE MULLAHS’ CHOICE! Iran attempted to pass hacked Trump campaign info to Biden campaign.

ARREST ME: I Just Broke Election Law in California With this AI Image.

UPDATE (From Ed): America’s Newspaper of Record “has obtained this exclusive, official, 100% real Gavin Newsom election ad:”

BREAKING: The Babylon Bee has obtained this exclusive, official, 100% real Gavin Newsom election ad. https://t.co/nicrnKF5Ji pic.twitter.com/iksPVxltzI

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) September 18, 2024

LAUGHING WOLF: A big BRAVO to whomever did the pager op, and a rundown of why.

First, it was fairly precise targeting, which limited (nothing can eliminate the possibility of) “civilian” casualties. Limiting the explosive to one or two ounces helped guarantee limitation of collateral damage. Those who are screaming otherwise, and that it was against the rules of war, are both wrong and far more upset that their favored side was hurt and that the Jews dared defend themselves instead of just lining up for the slaughter. By their words and actions, they reveal who and what they are. Make notes.

Second, if they could intercept and do this to THOUSANDS of pagers, do you think they wouldn’t be able to also use those devices to track locations, monitor communications, and more? Months of data, and just the location data alone would have revealed locations and more. Where did they meet? With whom did they meet? Where did they go when things got hot? The so-called meta data on this is tremendous on its own. If they literally did get inside their coms and were reading the mail…

Third, most interesting that the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon had a Hezballess-issued pager.

Much more at the link from one of my favorite milbloggers.

KDJ: Hey Democrats, Stop Trying to Kill Our Guy. “If the Democrats, deep state, and uniparty are so secure with their candidate, why do they want to kill Trump? Because they know they are losing. Also, communists believe assassinating Trump is not only acceptable but virtuous.”

THAT’S ABOUT RIGHT:

The economy is so great, it needs an crisis-level rate cut 2 months before the election

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 18, 2024

If nothing else, I suppose we’ll find out whether Bidenflation is well and truly squelched.

JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE ENTERS THE CHAT: Elon Musk’s Starlink Satellites ‘Blocking’ View Of The Universe: Report.

It isn’t that astronomers don’t have valid concerns because they do. But Earth-based astronomy is slowly going the way of the geocentric model of the universe.