Free Republic

After President Joe Biden's electoral romp on Super Tuesday and his subsequent State of the Union address, his campaign quickly eased into its general election posture, with the commander in chief visiting key battleground states, including Georgia and Michigan. But it was an ad entitled "For You" released earlier this month that took on one of the 81-year-old Biden's biggest challenges ahead of the election: addressing voter concerns over his age. As he spoke in front of a camera, Biden had a distinctly sunny disposition. He quickly gets to the heart of the matter.

With the 2024 presidential election less than a year away, supporters of President Biden are worried that his popularity rating is stuck around 40 percent with his handling of the economy the principal reason cited. A recent Times/Siena College survey of voters is especially concerning: It showed Biden trailing Donald Trump in five of six key battleground states with support fraying from demographic groups — Blacks, Hispanics and younger voters — that backed him by wide margins in 2020.

Dr William Makis has reviewed 8 published papers that clearly show the techniques employed by governments world wide to ensure vaccine uptake. From punishments and threats to employment and reputation, to rewards for complying, studies show that the Covid vaccine rollout was aided by the the greatest psychological fear campaign in human history using tried and tested brainwashing techniques.Propaganda Series – Brainwashing Techniques Used to Increase COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake – 8 papers reviewed, looking at the psychological manipulation of the massesThis article originally appeared on makismd.substack.com by Dr. William MakisPapers Reviewed:2023 Jun – Steffens et al – “Testing persuasive messages...

CNN — Republicans are hammering away at President Joe Biden over his economic record. Despite good news that has been reported in recent weeks, including low unemployment, a revived stock market and apparently receding inflation, the GOP is attempting to deny Biden any credit for the economy in the 2024 presidential campaign. On the same day that fresh inflation data showed that prices continued to cool down, Republicans seized on the headline that the Consumer Price Index rose 3.2% in July compared to where it had been last year, the first time there had been an uptick in 13 months....

Amid the restructuring of the global order that has been accelerated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the evolving position of China had been lost in the fog of war. The heads of the UK’s security service (MI5) and US Federal Bureau of Investigation sought to disperse this fog with a rare joint press conference warning of the “immense threat” from China.For China, the invasion of Ukraine has provided substantial intelligence about how the west would respond militarily, economically and politically to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan: they know that the western response will entail a large package of sanctions, cyber...

President Joe Biden, who will meet Pope Francis at the Vatican on Oct. 29, is Catholic. The country’s first Catholic president, John F. Kennedy, visited the Vatican, too. But meetings between U.S. presidents and popes have been a staple of politics since the Kennedy era, whether the president was Catholic or not. Woodrow Wilson was the first sitting president to meet a pope, visiting Pope Benedict XV amid peace negotiations after World War I. Dwight Eisenhower met John XXIII as part of an international goodwill tour. Lyndon Johnson first met with Paul VI when the pontiff came to New York...

From the Sunrise Action Guide.... We know that Trump has sown lies about the legitimacy of mail-in voting, and that the right wing media is painting the left as instigators of violence. We know that establishment democrats lack the principles to confront the GOP about their dishonest and disruptive tactics. We know that the Green New Deal can’t pass while Trump is in office, and waiting four more years will amount to catastrophic consequences for our communities. But we also know that this will be a narrative battle, rooted in credibility and legitimacy in the public’s eyes. We can take...

The basic formula for every breaking Trump/Russia story is essentially as follows: 1. The New York Times or Washington Post releases an article that at first blush appears extremely damning. 2. Anti-Trump pundits and Democrats react reflexively to the news, express shrieking outrage, and proclaim that this finally proves untoward collusion between Trump and Russia — a smoking gun, at last. 3. Aggrieved former Clinton apparatchiks *connect the dots* in a manner eerily reminiscent of right-wing Glenn Beck-esque prognostication circa 2009. 4. Self-proclaimed legal experts rashly opine as to whether the new revelation entails some kind of criminally actionable offense. (Recall the...

Document at link (via reddit.com/r/the_donald).

Washington Press Club Foundation's 72nd annual Congressional Dinner: "As great as it is being Speaker, there is a lot of stake this November. And I think the best thing for me to do right now is to confirm that those rumors out there are actually true. People (many) have approached me about seeking a higher office. It's not a job that I ever sought. (but) This is a very dire moment, and if there's a way I can be a unifying figure, bring some needed stability and protect an institution that means so much to our country, then I am...

A Republican Playbooker who lives in D.C. is back home in New Hampshire for the week: "Driving around the state's capital [Concord] (which is more heavily Democrat than Republican) ... you notice ... lots of visible support for Bernie: lawn signs and bumper stickers. There are signs of support for Hillary too, but Bernie appears to be winning the passion race, if nothing else. A smattering of Ben Carson signs placed only at busy intersections. More paid media from Right to Rise than anyone. "I asked my folks, all longtime supporters of establishment Republicans, who they're backing: Trump. When you...

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday fiercely resisted calls to follow his police superintendent in stepping down, even as the city continues to roil over the dashcam video released last week showing 17-year-old Laquan McDonald being shot by police. Asked at a POLITICO Playbook event whether he planned to resign, the notoriously brazen Emanuel sneered and made light of the question. “No, because I really so much look forward to this interview and I wanted to have it. I just felt so good saying that to you,” Emanuel said, explaining that Chicago voters already put their faith in him. ~SNIP~...

Washington State: Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility (WAGR) is using a "guide to waging a politically-savvy gun control campaign" – produced in part by Washington, D.C. consultants - to lobby for gun control. It's entitled “Preventing Gun Violence Through Effective Messaging.” ... For example, the guide addresses Stand Your Ground laws and counsels the use of provocative substitute phrases including “Shoot First” and “Kill at Will,” asserting that these terms are “more accurate and persuasive.”... A “key point" on how to frame an effective message pushing the gun control agenda: “The core frame should be personal and emotional—centered on ‘people’...

White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said Wednesday that the prominent Drudge Report website "hurts" the White House's message because of its dominating effect on the news cycle. Pfeiffer said that he was "ambivalent" to what Matt Drudge links to on his website, but he lamented that the site led to a "Pavlovian response" from reporters. "Anyone saying anything can get caught up in the spin cycle in a way that is very damaging," Pfeiffer said at a Politico Playbook breakfast with Mike Allen. "It hurts what we’re trying to do, but then it is very damaging to that individual...

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc is expected to launch its long-awaited tablet computer on Wednesday, sporting a low-enough price to give Apple Inc's iPad some serious competition for the first time. At a news conference Wednesday morning in New York, Amazon will likely unveil a seven-inch tablet that will let users read e-books, download digital music and video games and stream movies and TV shows. Analysts expect the tablet to be priced around $250, roughly half the price of Apple's dominant iPad, which starts at $499. "If Amazon prices the Kindle Fire at $250, it has the potential to become the...

TAMPA — Every year on every NFL team, the Turk nervously ambles next to players in the locker room, dorm room or cafeteria, his role a designated dream killer whose only job is to signal the death knell to somebody's career. He delivers two messages: The coach wants to see you, and bring your playbook. Well, never again in Tampa Bay. Instead, he'll ask them to bring their iPad. That's because rather than producing thick periodicals the size of the Yellow Pages, the Bucs have downloaded their playbooks on iPad 2s and distributed them to each of their 90 players....

Hillary Clinton says Barack Obama can rebound by taking page from Bill Clinton's playbookBy Richard Sisk DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU Tuesday, November 9th 2010, 7:56 PM Secretary of State Clinton predicted today that President Obama will tame the new crop of Republican flamethrowers coming to Congress by taking a page from her husband's playbook. Clinton, who has proclaimed loudly and often that she's out of politics now, got back into the game briefly to opine that Obama's strategy will look a lot like what former President Bill Clinton did after the Dems got thumped in the 1994 midterms. "I’m absolutely...

With the California primary out of the way, it’s time for Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., to begin her campaign in earnest against Republican challenger Carly Fiorina. With stagnant general election numbers in the mid-40s, and facing a well-funded opponent, Boxer is now operating out of the David Plouffe playbook, running on the stimulus package. This is from the email she sent earlier today: I am proud of my record of fighting to create jobs for California. I have met construction workers, law enforcement officers, teachers, scientists, and many other hard-working Californians who are working because of the Recovery Act —...

It was decided at the Communist Party, USA's recent national convention that the Party will continue to mobilize primarily in order to combat the efforts of the ultra-right. This article is meant to illustrate the basic reasoning behind two ideologies most exhibited by the modern right-wing. It is not meant to address specific issues with which one differs from the right, but to assist in responding to such issues by summarizing the right's ideological foundations. The ideologies of the right may seem non-sensical to those who do not count themselves among the conservative camp, but their ideological systems are actually...

~ EXCERPT ~ Throughout Barack Obama’s campaign for the White House, he never tired of referring to the three years he spent as a community organizer on Chicago’s South Side and its relevance to his life since then. However generic the term may sound to the average ear, it had a very specific meaning to young Barack Obama. It was a term of art used by the self-described Marxist tactician Saul Alinsky, author of “Rules for Radicals” and erstwhile mentor of Obama. As an organizer with the Developing Communities Project in the mid-1980s, the young Obama learned Alinsky’s tactics, and...