Vote 'No' on Amendment 3

(Excerpt)

If Amendment 3 passes, the Legislature would lose the ability to approve any further expansion of casino-style gambling in Florida, including sports betting. There are some big names behind this amendment. Disney Worldwide Services, the political arm of the mammoth Walt Disney Company, has opened its coffers in support.

There are reasons, however, to approach a sweeping prohibition like this with caution. One of them is swirling toward the Gulf of Mexico right now. With big storm after big storm battering Florida, it's easy to foresee a time when lawmakers run out of options — and money — to meet the state's most critical needs. This takes a big opportunity off the table. Gambling already generates hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the state, including $280 million this year from the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which operates six casinos across the state.

The relationship between the tribe and the state is best summed up as “complicated.” For years, the tribal gaming compact was seen as a gentleman's agreement between Seminole leaders and lawmakers — if the Legislature didn't push for other forms of gaming, the tribe would continue to be generous with payments.

But if Amendment 3 passes, “there's nothing left to negotiate for,” says Mike Scudiero, an Ormond Beach based consultant who has worked on gaming issues. This amendment is likely to give the tribe a near-monopoly on games of chance in the state, while shutting down the possibility of negotiating other forms of gambling for anyone. On balance, it's not hard to see why the Seminole Tribe is enthusiastically, though quietly, backing Amendment 3.

The idea of voter control sounds attractive, and there are sound public-policy arguments against expanding gambling. But Amendment 3 won't make gambling go away; it's already here. Approving this prohibition would require voters to roll the dice that harder times will never force lawmakers to make tough choices like expanding gambling — and that the Seminole Tribe's generosity won't be affected if it gains such a clear upper hand in negotiations. That makes it a bad bet for Florida.

Editorial - 10/9/18 edition

The 2010 United States elections were held on Tuesday, November 2, 2010, in the middle of President Barack Obama's first term. Approximately 82.5 million people voted. The Democratic Party suffered massive defeats in many national and state level elections, with many seats switching to Republican Party control. Although the President's party usually loses congressional, statewide and local seats in midterm elections, the 2010 midterm election season featured some of the biggest losses since the Great Depression.

The Republican Party gained 63 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, recapturing the majority, ousting Nancy Pelosi as Speaker, and making it the largest seat change since 1948 and the largest for any midterm election since the 1938 midterm elections. The Republicans gained six seats in the U.S. Senate and also gained 680 seats in state legislative races.

See: 2010 RED WAVE

SO HOW IMPORTANT IS VOTING?

(Excerpt)

The Kavanaugh nomination turned on two events. First, as I discussed here, Kavanaugh chose to fight. He wasn't going to quietly and gently absorb all of the false, outlandish accusations. Trump's speech October 2 in Southaven, Mississippi, was the second event that drove Kavanaugh toward confirmation. Trump rehashed Christine Ford's testimony.

"How did you get home? I don’t remember. How did you get there? I don’t remember. Where is the place? I don’t remember. How many years ago was it? I don’t know. I don’t know. I don't know."

Trump wasn't mocking Ford, he was transcribing her. It turns out Trump's transcription made the difference. He accomplished in 36 seconds what took Senator Susan Collins nearly an hour to do — shine a 100,000 megawatt spotlight on the failure of Ford to convince us that Brett Kavanaugh did anything to her.

Some will be slow to absorb this. The Woman is Always Right crowd probably never will. The ones in most need of schooling, however, are the establishment Republicans who are filled with animosity toward Trump and his tactics. Times have changed, and the Left is seeking to forever transform the country using tactics that the Old Ways can't combat. We saw it these last three weeks. Trump understands it. Matthew Continetti puts it this way:

He brags, he intimidates, he pouts, he jokes, he insults, he is purposefully ambiguous, and he leaves no criticism unanswered. He is frenetic and polarizing, a showboat and a salesman. His methods are over-the-top, combative, and divisive. Where others mindlessly repeat politically correct clichés, Trump unequivocally challenges them. He is president of a country that is wilder, zanier, and more unpredictable than before. It is also stronger.

By J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS - Read it all @ FIGHT BACK  

UNEMPLOYMENT LOWEST

SINCE 1969

Hispanic Unemployment Record Low... 
Manufacturing confidence all-time high... 
16,000 Govt Jobs Cut Since Trump... 
Construction hiring booming -- and many available jobs... 

POLL: PRESIDENT APPROVAL 51%... 

Dems: ‘Give in to Our Worldview or to Hell With You’

(Excerpt) 

The Democrats blatant disregard of due process displayed in the Kavanaugh hearing, and their zeal to crucify his career and hang his reputation upon flimsy accusations .. returns civic discourse to the age of the Salem Witch Trials.  

The Left’s efforts, now embodied by groups such as Antifa and an increasing number of Democratic elected officials, to demonize and redefine words and concepts are not about defending their positions on policy or winning specific elections. Instead, the Left as a whole seeks to control and redefine the institutions it can, and destroy the institutions it cannot. 

The Left is challenging foundational and fundamental aspects of the country that make it viable. If Democrats succeed in redefining concepts such as justice, borders, sovereignty, and what constitutes rights, the country will no longer be recognizable.

We need to cease being polite and intellectually lazy in countering the Left’s strategy at redefining American institutions. If we do not succeed in doing this, what happened to Brett Kavanaugh will become the norm rather than the exception. 

Read it all @ THE LEFT AT WAR WITH U.S. - By Robert Miller - 

#1 .. VOTE

#2 .. BRING A FRIEND

(Excerpt)

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House has a message for vulnerable House Republicans tiptoeing around President Donald Trump: Get on board or start packing.

The warning comes in a memo from White House political director Bill Stepien, who argues that GOP candidates who try to distance themselves from the president are only doing themselves harm in the upcoming midterm elections.

Trump has used campaign rallies in an effort to boost Republican turnout, encouraging the voters he drew to the polls in 2016 to support more staid traditional lawmakers. Both parties largely view the 2018 contest as a race to turn out party faithful rather than an effort to attract new voters. At a rally in Southaven, Mississippi, on Tuesday, Trump told voters: “Pretend I’m on the ballot.”

He added: “This is also a referendum about me and the disgusting gridlock they’ll put this country through.”

“Watch closely where the president has and will campaign; you will see the president aggressively campaigning in districts with candidates who enthusiastically embrace the policies that have put America on the pathway to prosperity,” the memo states. “President Trump continues to be ready, willing and able to put the power and force of his coalition to work for the candidates with whom he stands, and those who stand with him.”

Read it all @ B-4 TRUMP or B-GONE

Bill Nelson is the DC swamp. 

New ad. Click to watch

DEMOCRATS

Time for Rick Scott.

Can you guess the kind of justices

Governor Gillum will appoint?

(Excerpt)

A highly contentious legal and political battle surrounds the three seats, held by justices Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince. All three must depart in January because of a mandatory age 70 retirement limit. Lewis and Pariente were appointed by Florida’s last Democratic governor, Lawton Chiles. Quince was jointly chosen by Chiles and his successor, Jeb Bush, shortly before Chiles died in December 1998 near the end of his second term.

All three justices have issued decisions in major cases in opposition to the Scott administration. 

“Governor Scott intends to follow this precedent and will invite the governor-elect to conduct his own interviews of the nominees following the general election,” Scott’s statement said. “The governor’s expectation is that he and the governor-elect — like Governor Chiles and then Governor-elect Bush — will agree on the selection of three justices who will serve with distinction.”

That could get interesting if Gillum, a staunch progressive who once got into a spat with Scott about Tallahassee’s response to Hurricane Hermine, gets elected. 

Geoff Burgan, Gillum’s campaign spokesman, implied in a statement that Scott is overreaching. “In our understanding of the Constitution, the next Governor will appoint the next three Supreme Court justices.” 

Meanwhile, DeSantis’ campaign said in a statement that he “looks forward to working with Governor Scott” to appoint justices who aren’t “judicial activists who legislate from the bench,” a common talking point throughout his campaign. DeSantis has often compared these three appointments, which have the potential to dramatically alter the philosophical makeup of the state’s highest legal authority, to the national drama surrounding President Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court nominations.

But that national spectacle could be replicated in Florida. “Rick Scott expects the next governor to cooperate because he expects the next governor to be Ron DeSantis,” said Steve Vancore, a Democratic pollster and consultant.

“If Gillum is elected this will be huge. It will be defining of the next governorship.” Vancore predicted that if Gillum wins, he will challenge Scott in court and use this as an “opening salvo.”

Read @ FL. SUPREME COURT- Emily Mahoney / Steve Bousquet - Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau

.

Could the stakes be any higher for Florida?

By Medha Singh

(Excerpt)

(Reuters) – Wall Street was set to open higher on Monday after the United States and Canada clinched a last-minute deal to save NAFTA as a trilateral pact with Mexico, raising hopes for progress in talks with other countries at the start of the fourth quarter.

The relief lifted world markets after the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) rescued a $1.2 trillion open-trade zone on Sunday.

U.S. President Donald Trump coerced Canada and Mexico into accepting more restrictive commerce with their main export partner in a deal that will make it harder for global auto makers to build cars cheaply in Mexico and aims to bring more jobs to the United States

Read it all @ AMERICA FIRST  

SAVE OUR GOP MAJORITY IN CONGRESS

(Excerpt)

One of the strange outgrowths of the feeding frenzy over the Kavanaugh hearings is that there are important news stories lost in the shuffle that, on another day, might have been the lead item on the cable news shows.

This might have been the case with the House voting to make the GOP tax cuts passed last year permanent.

Many provisions of the tax cut legislation were set to expire in 2025 -- some even sooner. But by locking in cuts in individual and corporate tax rates, the positive effects those tax cuts have had on the economy will continue.

That is, as long as the Senate votes to extend them as well. And while that won't happen until at least next year (assuming that Republicans still control the upper body), the promise of permanence allows businesses to continue their expansion.

The question is what effect -- if any -- will making the tax cuts permanent have on the midterms? Some Republican members were buoyed by the vote, believing that GOP voters would reward them at the polls. In fact, polls show that while most of the country is shrugging its shoulders at making the tax cuts permanent, Republicans favored it overwhelmingly.

Anything that will boost turnout of your own voters on Election Day has to be seen as a positive.

READ IT ALL @ TAX CUTS  - By RICK MORAN  

TIME TO RALLY

(Excerpt)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday kicks off a week of rallies in five friendly places around the country. Republicans are at risk of losing control of Congress in the Nov. 6 elections, which could impede Trump’s goals to clamp down on immigration, cut taxes, approve new bilateral trade deals, and invest in infrastructure.

Trump travels first to Wheeling, West Virginia on Saturday, where Republicans are trying to unseat Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, one of a handful of senators seen as key swing votes that will determine Kavanaugh’s appointment.

Trump will then hold evening rallies in Johnson City, Tennessee on Monday; Southaven, Mississippi on Tuesday; Rochester, Minnesota on Thursday; and Topeka, Kansas next Saturday.

“Control of Congress is so critical for his agenda that the president will travel to as many states as possible as we head into the busy campaign season,” a Trump campaign spokesman said. 

A third of the Senate and all House seats are in play. Power could shift if Democrats gain two Senate seats and 23 House seats.

Read it all @ Time to Rally - By Roberta Rampton - 

Here's a rundown of how bad she was:

1. Feinstein got a letter from a constituent alleging sexual harassment by Judge Brett Kavanaugh during his high school years.  She sat on it for 60 days, only to bring it up after hearings were concluded, obviously for some political bang, following the news that Kavanaugh would likely be confirmed without incident.

2. Asked about it at the time, Feinstein said she had questions about whether it was 'truthful.'  That was her argument and stayed her argument, until Ford became politically useful.

3. Then Feinstein, or someone on her staff obviously leaked the letter to the press, following Feinstein's promises of confidentiality to the writer, effectively outing her, and forcing her to come forward as a named witness whether she liked it or not.  That backed the witness, Christine Blasey Ford into a corner, forcing her to come forward with her allegations in testimony under oath, which, given the perjury trap it was for her, were quite vague.  Ford herself said she believed she was betrayed and outed by someone on Feinstein's staff.

4. That was obvious enough when Feinstein was instrumental in getting Ford a leftwing lawyer to do the media grandstanding.

5. After that, Feinstein was confronted about her political opportunism by Sen. Ted Cruz, and tried to brush the whole thing off, begging his question about how the letter was leaked by saying reporters were the problem, not leakage.  Pressed by another senator, she said she asked their staff and they said no – as if Feinstein, who employed an utterly untrustworthy Chinese spy on that same staff for 20 years – should just take their word for it.  Sneaky leakers would never lie, now, would they?

It's bad stuff, political manipulation of the worst sort, and both sides have been right to call her out on it.  Her denials are pathetic, failing to address any of the issues at hand, whether of legislative duties, leaks, or admitting blame.  She's obviously put political gain ahead of doing her job, and she stands now as an unfit member of the Senate.

Read it all @ Unfit to Serve - By Monica Showalter - 

click to watch 

Welcome to HELL

PORN LAWYER FINDS WOMAN WILLING TO PERJURE HERSELF FOR THE LEFTIST CAUSE

(and he can likely find many others to do the same, if given more time)

THIS SICK SPECTACLE IS BEING INFLICTED ON U.S.

BY THE DEMOCRAT PARTY

Join the Fight ..

"Nothing that the confirmation process had to offer was relevant to these senators because they already had the one piece of information, the one word, that really mattered: Trump. They would oppose the nominee because he or she would be Trump’s nominee. Period"

(Excerpt)

On July 9, within minutes of President Donald Trump’s announcement of Judge Brett Kavanaugh as his Supreme Court nominee, Schumer vowed to “oppose Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination with everything I have.” When he said everything, he meant it.

I can’t prove it, but if I were a betting man, I would wager that Schumer’s statement was written ahead of time, leaving a blank for the nominee’s name. Other Senate liberals, such as Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, actually announced their opposition nearly two weeks earlier, without even knowing who the nominee would be.

In 2009, Schumer said that a judicial record is the “best way to evaluate a nominee” and even more important than the confirmation hearing. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., agreed that “looking at what kind of judge a nominee has been means we do not have to speculate about what kind of a justice” he will be. Neither one of them is interested in Kavanaugh’s judicial record today.

Schumer and Leahy have said that the American Bar Association’s rating is the “gold standard” for evaluating nominees. The ABA unanimously rated Kavanaugh well qualified, which means, the ABA explains, that he meets “the very highest standards of integrity, professional competence and judicial temperament.” That no longer matters either.

Partisan double standards, ignoring what really matters, smears, turning basic notions of fairness on their head—that is what it means to use “whatever means necessary.” Schumer is keeping his promise of opposing Kavanaugh with everything he has. It won’t be enough.

Read it all @ Enemy - by Thomas Jipping 

Pres. Trump fired off two tweets late Monday night with one defending his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh against last minute uncorroborated charges of sexual assault being orchestrated by Senate Democrats and the other imploring his supporters to, “REMEMBER THE MIDTERMS!”

View of the line outside Las Vegas Convention Center of those waiting to get into the #MAGA rally.

.

We must see lines like this on November 6

After the public assassination of Judge Kavanaugh’s character .. there can’t be many left in the GOP who will still dispute former Breitbart CEO Steve Bannon’s assertion that politics is warfare and Trump is thus justified in anything he does to combat his opponents….

It also brings back what I said in The value of Trump to the Trump voter is that he stands between them and #TheResistance:

Right now the value of Trump to the Trump voter is he is all that stands between them and the people who hate them every bit as much as they hate Trump.

Trump voters are berated and belittled with the same ferocity as directed at Trump himself. #TheResistance doesn’t distinguish between Trump and his voters. We all understand that what is being done to Trump is simply a continuation of the attempt to unwind the 2016 election.

The answer is to get out and vote. Get your friends and relatives out to vote. 

Read it all @ WAR ON US - Posted by William A. Jacobson

"We are standing up for your values. We are standing up for our national anthem. To continue this momentum, you need to get out and vote Republican. Together we are taking back our country."

President Trump at his 9/20/18 rally in Springfield, Missouri.

(Excerpt)

Vice President Mike Pence had a message for former President Barack Obama at the Values Voter Summit Saturday: the American economy is booming because the Trump administration is rolling back Obama administration policies.

“It’s been two years of promises made and promises kept, and we’re just getting started,” Pence told the conference audience in Washington, DC. He cited more than four million jobs created since President Donald Trump took office, record low black and Hispanic unemployment, wages rising at the fastest pace in a decade, and the highest middle class income in recorded history.

Vice President Pence then launched into what he said was a message for former President Obama:

President Obama, you presided over the weakest economic expansion since the Great Depression. When we took over this economy, it was growing by less than two percent, and now it’s growing by more than four percent. This economy isn’t booming because of your policies; it’s booming because we’ve been rolling back the failed policies of your administration since day one.

Near the close of his speech, Pence strongly encouraged the audience to vote in the midterm elections. He also told them to tell their friends what the Trump administration has accomplished and to encourage them to vote also.

Read it all @ America is Back  by Michelle Moons  

Sept. 21, 2018 - AP:  In Minnesota, the first votes of the 2018 midterm elections are being cast. Voting machines are set up inside city buildings. A series of get-out-the-vote rallies is scheduled. And each party is spending millions of dollars to push its supporters to the polls.

While Election Day 2018 is technically Nov. 6, Minnesota law allows in-person voting to begin Friday — a full 46 days early — making it the first battleground state to begin casting actual votes in the broader fight for control of Congress.

Voters in every corner of the nation will soon follow. South Dakota also opens early voting on Friday, and four more states follow in the next six days, including key states including New Jersey and Missouri. California, Montana and Arizona are among seven others that allow early voting in the subsequent two weeks.

It may feel early, but make no mistake: The final phase of the 2018 midterm season has begun.

NARAL (and Planned Parenthood) have endorsed Nancy Soderberg.

One of the Left’s favorite special interest groups, the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL), is calling on Judge Brett Kavanaugh to rescind his nomination to the Supreme Court. This demand from the pro-abortion group, which has lead the anti-Kavanaugh, outrage charge, comes amidst a letter alleging that Judge Kavanaugh was involved in sexual misconduct.

Read it all @ NANCY & NARAL  

Sept. 20, 2018: Former French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, who is head of the former National Front party – now National Rally - revealed on Twitter her shock and anger at being ordered to undertake a psychiatric assessment. The unusual summoning is in relation to Le Pen having tweeted out gruesome propaganda images from terror group ISIS that showed the bodies of people having been executed by the Islamic State. 

Marine Le Pen posted the ISIS pictures just a few weeks after the Paris terror attacks in November 2015 in which 130 people were killed. The images included a photo of the decapitated body of US journalist James Foley. "Daesh is this!" Le Pen wrote in a caption, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.

In March, Le Pen was charged with circulating “violent messages that incite terrorism or pornography or seriously harm human dignity” and that can be viewed by a minor. The crime is punishable by up to three years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros ($91,000). And as part of their investigation magistrates in Nanterre near Paris have ordered Le Pen to visit a psychiatrist for an expert assessment. 

Read it all @ CONTROL - 

This is the same way the old Soviet Union used to handle inconvenient citizens.

Posted by Chad Selweski | Dec 5, 2016 

“When you really drill down on this election, change the vote in five counties, four in Florida, one in Michigan, we’d be having a totally opposite conversation right now,” said pollster Tony Fabrizio at a Harvard University forum.

“For all the money that was spent, for the all the effort that was made, literally four counties in Florida, one county in Michigan puts us at 261 [electoral] votes and makes Hillary Clinton the president. So, remember that.”

Those who have studied the election tallies closely say that he almost certainly was referring to Macomb in Michigan. Macomb is an obvious conclusion because the county gave Trump a 50,000-vote edge while the billionaire businessman pulled off his upset victory in the state by just 10,000 votes

In Florida it was a reference to four of these five: Lee County (Fort Myers), Pasco (Dade City), Polk (Bartow), Pinellas (Clearwater) and Volusia (Daytona Beach) - all areas that were key in delivering his 1.2 percent margin of victory.

Read it all @ Close Race

Donald J. Trump (REP)  . . . . 143,007 

Hillary Rodham Clinton (D) . 109,091

Trump won Volusia +33,916

Trump won Florida +112,911.

Volusia County's margin of victory represented 30% of the total Trump margin of victory in FL.

Internal RNC Poll: Complacent Trump Voters May Cost GOP Control of Congress

A leaked survey conducted for the Republican National Committee (RNC) found that a majority of President Trump’s supporters don’t believe that Democrats have a chance to win back the House during November’s midterm elections.

Bloomberg Business on Tuesday published the survey, completed by Public Opinion Strategies polling firm on Sept. 2. The results are likely to augment GOP fears about Trump's base not showing up for the midterms, when the president himself will not be on the ballot but House and Senate majorities are in play.

A number of election forecasters project that Democrats have an excellent chance of netting more than the 23 seats they need to take over the House majority, but half of self-identified Republicans told the poll they didn’t believe in the “blue wave.”

A report on the poll was sent to RNC officials urging them to convince Trump supporters that the threat from Democrats was real and that they needed to show up to vote in November. 

Read it all @ GOP Voters Asleep - By Joshua Green -

(Excerpt)

A month after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro imposed a mandatory 60-fold wage increase (the fifth such increase this year), nearly 40 percent of all Venezuelan stores have closed. Furthermore, businesses in Venezuela cannot offset the wage increases by raising prices because Maduro’s socialist regime has also imposed price controls, arguing that price increases are not necessary.

“These decisions are leading many business people to say, ‘No, I can’t do it any more,’” Maria Carolina Uzcategui, president of the National Council of Commerce and Services of Venezuela, was quoted by Miami Herald reporter Antonio Maria Delgado as saying.“

And anyone who protests against these measures runs the risk of going to jail, without the right to appeal, without the right to anything, simply because the official whose turn it was to inspect the store just felt like arresting you. He did it, and that’s all,” Uzcategui continued.

Read it all @ SOCIALISM - Written by  Warren Mass - 

Click on the 

2018 Midterm Elections Countdown Clock

It's Time

We don't need any more Democrats in office. They just make everything worse for U.S. Please vote ..