Election

Wall Street Is Bracing For A “Nightmare Scenario” To Unfold On November 3rd…

Did you watch the presidential debate?  All over America people are still buzzing about it, because it was definitely unlike any presidential debate that we have ever seen before.  But despite all the chaos, the debate gave us tremendous clarity on one very important issue.  Unless there is a blowout of historic proportions, it is exceedingly unlikely that either side will be willing to concede on the night of the election or any time shortly thereafter.  In other words, the winner of the election may not be known until a long time after November 3rd, and this is being called “the nightmare scenario Wall Street wants to avoid”…

The winner may not be known for days or weeks — and even then, the election could be contested. That’s the nightmare scenario Wall Street wants to avoid.

“It was chaos,” Kristina Hooper, chief investment strategist at Invesco, said of the debate. “I walked away from last night thinking there is an even greater chance of a contested election.”

The election of 2016 was very close, but Hillary Clinton conceded fairly rapidly because enough votes had been counted to make it clear that she was not going to be able to get enough electoral votes to win.

But this time around it is being projected that up to 40 percent of the population will vote by mail, and counting votes that are sent in by mail is a very slow process.

And many of the votes that are sent in by mail will not even be received until a number of days after the election, and that will just prolong the period of uncertainty that we are potentially facing…

One of the major uncertainties is how long it will take to count the surge of mail-in ballots that is expected because of the pandemic. Some states don’t even begin that process until Election Day. Others accept mail-in ballots received after Election Day if they are postmarked by a certain date.

Both sides have recruited vast armies of lawyers, and it is very difficult to imagine either President Trump or Joe Biden rushing to concede the race.

Instead, it is much more likely that what we will go through will be “Bush v. Gore on steroids”, and many on Wall Street are anticipating a violent stock market decline if that happens.

But of much greater concern is what is happening to the real economy.  It appears that a new wave of corporate layoffs has begun, and that means that it will be a very bitter holiday season for millions of Americans.

At this point, even some of our most monolithic institutions are letting people go.  When I heard that Goldman Sachs was eliminating 400 jobs, I thought that there must be some mistake.

But there is no mistake.  They are making cuts because times are hard and will only be getting harder.

If even “the Vampire Squid” is laying workers off, what hope is there for the rest of us?

On Wednesday we also learned that approximately 9,000 employees of Shell will be losing their jobs…

Royal Dutch Shell announced on Wednesday plans to cut up to 9,000 jobs, or over 10% of its workforce, as part of a major overhaul to shift the oil and gas giant to low-carbon energy.

Shell, which had 83,000 employees at the end of 2019, said that the reorganisation will lead to additional annual savings of around $2 billion to $2.5 billion by 2022 beyond cost cuts of $3 to $4 billion announced earlier this year.

If the U.S. economy really was in the process of “turning around”, would we be seeing layoff announcements like this day after day?

I don’t think so.

And it is those at the bottom of the economic food chain that have been hit the hardest…

The economic collapse sparked by the pandemic is triggering the most unequal recession in modern U.S. history, delivering a mild setback for those at or near the top and a depression-like blow for those at the bottom, according to a Washington Post analysis of job losses across the income spectrum.

Recessions often hit poorer households harder, but this one is doing so at a scale that is the worst in generations, the analysis shows.

Prior to this crisis, most Americans were living paycheck to paycheck, and many of them have families to support.

So what do you do when your income is gone but the expenses are still there?

Yesterday, I discussed the fact that 100,000 airline industry employees could soon lose their jobs.  One of those employees that is on the verge of being laid off is 41-year-old Toni Valentine…

Toni Valentine, 41, a United reservations agent in Detroit who has been with the airline for 15 years, has been told she’ll be laid off this week. She has six children ranging in age from 2 to 22, and her husband can’t work because he’s recovering from a massive stroke.

“Knowing that I may not have insurance benefits, I feel like I have failed,” she said on a conference call set up by the Machinists Union. “I’m the primary breadwinner in this family.”

Can you imagine what it must be like for her right now?

She has been a faithful employee for 15 years, and now everything that she has worked for is about to be taken away.

51-year-old Tiffany Burgin is another woman that has had her career rudely interrupted by this pandemic.  She had worked her way up to become an assistant manager at a restaurant in the French Quarter of New Orleans, but now she fears that her job may be gone permanently if the tourists never return…

“The writing is on the wall. I don’t think my owner is going to make it,” said Tiffany Burgin, an assistant manager of a restaurant in the French Quarter of New Orleans that remains closed. “It’s a 100% tourist-driven economy here. Until the tourists come back, we’re screwed.”

Burgin, 51, never got a college degree. She climbed her way up the ranks of New Orleans’ booming restaurant industry, serving entrees and tending bar for years before becoming a manager. But she has not worked since mid-March, after a mass of tourists caught the coronavirus following Mardi Gras celebrations. Many establishments in the French Quarter are still boarded up.

The only way that tourism will return to previous levels is if this virus goes away, but at this point it has become clear that is simply not going to happen.

So she will continue to have to try to survive on her meager unemployment checks, and that certainly is not easy…

“I get $247 a week in unemployment,” Burgin said. “Who can live on that? Who? Nobody I know. I haven’t been this poor since I was a teenager.”

I wish that I had some good news for workers such as Burgin and Valentine, but I don’t.  In fact, economic conditions will eventually get a whole lot worse.

But in the short-term, the country is fixated on the upcoming election, and every day we see more evidence that both sides are bracing for a very long battle.

I know that there are supporters of both candidates that believe that a “nightmare scenario” can still be avoided because they are convinced that their guy is going to blow the other candidate out of the water on election night.

We shall see what happens, but I don’t think that it is going to work out that way.

Instead, I believe that we are headed for a horror show, and I don’t think that America will ever be the same again after this.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  By purchasing the book you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

The Stage Has Been Set For The Most Chaotic Election In U.S. History

If you are deeply concerned about what is going to happen in November, you are definitely not alone.  Experts on both sides of the political spectrum have been warning that it is very likely that we will not know the winner of the presidential election until well after November 3rd, and everyone pretty much agrees that the period of uncertainly that we will be forced to endure will not be good for our nation.  Those of us that are old enough clearly remember the pain that the election of 2000 caused.  The outcome hinged on the results from the state of Florida, and the endless recounts were finally brought to a conclusion after 36 very stressful days with George W. Bush up by just 537 votes.  Unfortunately, some are saying that we are potentially facing “the 2000 election on steroids” because vote counting will be going on in multiple swing states long after election night is over.

The big reason why this election is going to be so different from previous elections is because so many Americans are going to be voting by mail.  According to one recent survey, a whopping 37 percent of all voters plan to cast their votes by mail this time around…

Thirty-seven percent of registered voters said they are likely to vote by mail in the November election, by receiving a mailed ballot and either mailing it back or returning it in person, according to a new survey released Tuesday by the Democracy Fund + UCLA Nationscape project.

Other estimates put the number as high as 40 percent, and it could go even higher than that because some states are promoting mail-in voting extremely aggressively.

In fact, as I detailed yesterday, one of my readers told me that he and his wife “have received three requests each for mail in ballots” over the past five weeks.

We are also being told that Democrats are far more likely to vote by mail than Republicans are.  According to the same survey that I quoted above, supporters of Biden are more than twice as likely to vote by mail than Trump supporters are…

Among them, 48% of voters who plan to vote for Democratic presumptive nominee Joe Biden said they are likely to vote by mail, according to the survey. That’s more than twice the 23% of voters backing President Donald Trump who said they are likely to vote by mail.

It takes a lot of time to open and count ballots that have been mailed in.  If that work could be done in advance, that wouldn’t be that much of a problem.

Unfortunately, there are 14 states where it is prohibited by law to count mail-in ballots before Election Day, and that includes some of our most important swing states…

Tens of millions of Americans will try to vote by mail because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But officials in 14 states are prohibited from processing mail-in ballots until Election Day; counting them could take days or weeks.

Those states include Pennsylvania and Michigan, battlegrounds that could decide the election.

It should deeply alarm all of us to hear that it “could take days or weeks” for some of these states to finally count every single ballot.

And that is just the first count.  I am not even talking about any potential recounts.

At this point, many Democrats are warning of a possible “red mirage” on the night of the election.  Many of them believe that it will look like President Trump is winning on election night, but that Joe Biden will ultimately win once all of the mail-in votes are finally counted.

As evidence, they point to the fact that there has been a “blue shift” in all national elections going back to 2004…

Since 2004, mail-in ballots have been disproportionately Democratic, a phenomenon known as the “blue shift.”

So, barring a landslide, we could see a “red mirage” on Nov. 3, an election-night count of in-person votes that suggests that Trump has won — even though millions of votes for Biden are waiting to be tabulated.

Personally, I do believe that it is very likely that President Trump will be leading on the night of the election, but what is really going to matter is what happens during the days that follow.

If a Trump lead evaporates and Biden is eventually declared the winner, there will be widespread allegations that the election was stolen, and that could cause tremendous explosions of anger.

And the big tech companies are already preparing for post-election chaos.  In fact, Facebook has openly announced that they will purposely “restrict the circulation of content” in order to try to control civil unrest…

Facebook announced this week that it may restrict certain aspects of its platform following November’s general election as part of a larger effort to limit social unrest. A spokesperson for Facebook suggested that executives including Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Zuckerberg may censor specific information if they believe it is likely to heighten political tensions following the election.

According to a report by the Financial Times, Facebook announced this week that it will “restrict the circulation of content” following November’s election to curb violence and social unrest. The announcement follows efforts by Facebook to address concerns from those who have alleged that the platform aids in voter suppression and promotes election-misinformation.

What is this country going to look like if it takes weeks or even months to officially declare a winner?

No matter who ends up winning, I believe that the process is so flawed that it is going to tear the country apart.

And no matter what the final result is, a large percentage of the population will never accept the outcome as being legitimate.

This is already one of the most difficult chapters in U.S. history, and a bitterly contested election result will only make things even worse.

At this point, even the mainstream media is admitting that we are heading into “wild” times.  The following comes from CNN…

Ask anyone about the next six weeks and they will likely give you some version of this as a response: Whoa boy. It is going to be wild.

Which it is! The last 42 days of a presidential election are always filled with unpredictable storylines, big moments and, more than anything, uncertainty.

Just about the only way that we can avoid the type of scenario that I have described is if there is an overwhelming landslide on election night.

Wouldn’t that be nice if that actually happened?

It would be wonderful if one of the candidates conceded on November 3rd or November 4th and we could avoid weeks or even months of endless national strife, but I don’t think that is going to happen.

Instead, I believe that both sides are going to fight to the bitter end, and the end will definitely be very bitter indeed.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  By purchasing the book you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

Is There Evidence That The 2020 Election Could Be Stolen Using Mail-In Ballots And Counterfeit Driver’s Licenses?

The integrity of our elections is of paramount importance, because without fair elections we would lose the ability to choose our leaders.  This is something that should transcend politics, because Republicans and Democrats should both be able to agree that anyone that attempts to fraudulently alter the outcome of an election is committing a crime against all of us.  Unfortunately, we are already witnessing some suspicious activity that is raising red flags.  It is well known that China wants President Trump to lose in November, and U.S. officials say that they have intercepted thousands upon thousands of counterfeit driver’s licenses which are being shipped into the United States from China.  Of course a license is the most common form of ID used on voter registration forms, and most states now allow voters to register and vote by mail.  If a potential voter never has to come face to face with anyone, that opens a door for all sorts of abuse.

In 2016, Trump won the swing states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan by razor-thin margins.

Trump won Pennsylvania by just 68,236 votes.

Trump won Wisconsin by just 27,257 votes.

Trump won Michigan by just 11,837 votes.

If Hillary Clinton had won those three states, she would have won the election.

And if Joe Biden wins those three states in 2020, he will definitely defeat Trump.

So the integrity of the vote is particularly important in those three states, and each of those states recently made it easier for voters to cast their votes by mail…

Michigan: All registered voters in Michigan are eligible for mail-in voting. Last month the state invested $4.5 million in sending 7.7 million registered voters mail-in ballot applications ahead of the August primary and November general election. 

Pennsylvania: The state legislature passed a law allowing anyone who votes by mail in the primary to easily request a mail-in ballot for the November election.

Wisconsin: Voters in Wisconsin are eligible for mail-in voting without having to provide an excuse. In May, the Wisconsin Elections Commission approved a plan to send absentee ballot applications to more than 2.7 million registered voters, whether or not they requested one.

When there are millions of mail-in ballots floating around out there, it is just so easy for bad things to happen.  In a recent piece, Hans von Spakovsky of the Heritage Foundation explained why so many people are concerned…

All 50 states have bans on electioneering in and near polling places. By contrast, there are no prohibitions on electioneering in voters’ homes—which is what happens all too often with absentee ballots and voting by mail. This makes voters vulnerable to intimidation and unlawful “assistance,” as well as pressure by candidates, campaign staffers, political party activists, and political consultants—all of whom have a stake in the outcome of the election—to vote in the campaign’s interests, not their own. Absentee ballots are also more vulnerable to being misdirected, stolen, forged, and altered.

In addition, mail-in voting could potentially be a golden opportunity for foreign governments that are seeking to alter the outcome of our elections.

By now, it is well known that China wants Trump out.  And so when I saw that Zero Hedge had reported that U.S. officials were intercepting thousands of counterfeit driver’s licenses coming in from China, that immediately got my attention…

China could also be attempting to undermine the election by sending counterfeit driver’s licenses to the U.S. So far, the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers working at Chicago O’Hare International Airport have intercepted close to 20,000 counterfeit U.S. driver’s licenses shipped from China this year, reported FOX 5 New York.

Hidden within contents of packages arriving via international cargo, the counterfeit driver’s licenses were shipped mainly from Hong Kong and mainland China. Other shipments came from South Korea and the U.K.

If CBP officers were able to intercept “thousands” of fake licenses, how many more were they not able to intercept?

And please keep in mind that this number is for just one airport.

How many other counterfeit driver’s licenses are coming in from China through other channels?

Even more frightening is that many of the counterfeit driver’s licenses there were intercepted were for swing states such as Michigan.  And according to CBP, “the barcode on the fake Michigan licenses actually worked”…

Many had the same photo but different names. But one alarming discovery was that the barcode on the fake Michigan licenses actually worked, CBP said.

I don’t know about you, but that really chilled me when I read that.

Of course President Trump is not stupid, and he has been trying to sound the alarm about mail-in voting for quite some time.  The following comes from CNN…

Meanwhile, the President has begun laying the groundwork for the doubt and suspicion he could cast on election results if counting mail-in ballots ultimately delays the declaration of a winner.

“I want to have the election. But I also don’t want to have to wait for three months and then find out that the ballots are all missing and the election doesn’t mean anything. That’s what’s going to happen,” Trump said Thursday at a news conference, during which he also called vote-by-mail a “disaster” and argued people should have to cast their votes in person.

Whenever Trump brings up his concerns, the mainstream media goes to great lengths to dismiss them as delusional.

But after doing a little digging, I have come to the conclusion that Trump is not sounding the alarm loudly enough.

Because our election laws have become so loose, the potential for election fraud is enormous.  When you don’t have to actually talk to anyone to either register or vote, that is going to tempt bad people to try to do bad things.

If the 2020 presidential election ends up being very close, the losing side is inevitably going to cry foul, and we could ultimately see the outcome decided by the courts.  That would almost certainly cause more chaos in the streets, and I have been strongly warning about the great civil unrest that is coming.

What is really tragic is that we may never even know the legitimate winner of the 2020 election.

No matter what they ultimately decide, I believe that the American people should get to choose the next president, but thanks to our absurd election laws that may not happen this time around.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  By purchasing the book you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

No Matter What Happens, We Won’t Know Who The Next President Will Be Until December 19th

what-public-domainMost Americans assume that their votes decide who the next president will be, but that is actually not the case.  It is the Electoral College that will elect the next president, and they don’t meet until December 19th.  And the truth is that all of the members of the Electoral College never meet in one place.  Rather, electors gather together in all 50 state capitals on the second Wednesday in December, and it is at that time that the next president and vice president are officially elected.  Of course members of the Electoral College have voted according to the will of the people about 99 percent of the time throughout our history, but with how crazy this election has turned out to be you never know what might happen.  For example, later on in this article you will see that one elector in Washington state has already publicly stated that he will not cast his vote for Hillary Clinton.  If other “faithless electors” emerge, that could potentially change the entire outcome of the election.

If you are not familiar with the basics of how the Electoral College works, here is a pretty good summary from Wikipedia…

Even though the aggregate national popular vote is calculated by state officials, media organizations, and the Federal Election Commission, the people only indirectly elect the president, as the national popular vote is not the basis for electing the president or vice president. The President and Vice President of the United States are elected by the Electoral College, which consists of 538 presidential electors from the fifty states and Washington, D.C.. Presidential electors are selected on a state-by-state basis, as determined by the laws of each state. Since the election of 1824,[35] most states have appointed their electors on a winner-take-all basis, based on the statewide popular vote on Election Day. Maine and Nebraska are the only two current exceptions, as both states use the congressional district method. Although ballots list the names of the presidential and vice presidential candidates (who run on a ticket), voters actually choose electors when they vote for president and vice president. These presidential electors in turn cast electoral votes for those two offices. Electors usually pledge to vote for their party’s nominee, but some “faithless electors” have voted for other candidates.

A candidate must receive an absolute majority of electoral votes (currently 270) to win the presidency or the vice presidency. If no candidate receives a majority in the election for president or vice president, that election is determined via a contingency procedure established by the Twelfth Amendment. In such a situation, the House chooses one of the top three presidential electoral vote-winners as the president, while the Senate chooses one of the top two vice presidential electoral vote-winners as vice president.

In an attempt to make sure that their electors vote according to the will of the people, 29 states have passed laws that impose penalties on “faithless electors”.  In many cases the punishment consists of a fine, but that may not be enough to keep some electors in line this time around.  According to ABC News, one elector that was supposed to be committed to Hillary Clinton has already announced that he is refusing to vote for her despite the fact that he will get hit by a $1,000 fine…

One elector has already said he won’t vote for Clinton, despite a fine. Robert Satiacum, a member of Washington’s Puyallup Tribe, says he believes Clinton is a “criminal” who doesn’t care enough about American Indians and “she’s done nothing but flip back and forth.”

Satiacum faces a $1,000 fine in Washington if he doesn’t vote for Clinton, but he said he doesn’t care.

“She will not get my vote, period,” he told The Associated Press.

And there are 21 states that do not impose penalties on “faithless electors” at all.

So while it is true that over 99 percent of all Electors throughout our history have voted the way that they were supposed to, that may not happen in 2016.

There is also the possibility that the winning candidate could die or become incapacitated between Election Day and December 19th.  If that happens, the electors that are supposed to be committed to the winning candidate would be free to vote for someone else.  The following comes from archives.gov…

If a candidate dies or becomes incapacitated between the general election and the meeting of electors, under federal law, the electors pledged to the deceased candidate may vote for the candidate of their choice at the meeting of electors. Individual states may pass laws on the subject, but no federal law proscribes how electors must vote when a candidate dies or becomes incapacitated. In 1872, when Horace Greeley passed away between election day and the meeting of electors, the electors who were slated to vote for Greeley voted for various candidates, including Greeley. The votes cast for Greeley were not counted due to a House resolution passed regarding the matter. See the full Electoral College vote counts for President and Vice President in the 1872 election.

As to a candidate who dies or becomes incapacitated between the meeting of electors and the counting of electoral votes in Congress, the Constitution is silent on whether this candidate meets the definition of “President elect” or “Vice President elect.” If the candidate with a majority of the electoral votes is considered “President elect,” even before the counting of electoral votes in Congress, Section 3 of the 20th Amendment applies. Section 3 of the 20th Amendment states that the Vice President elect will become President if the President elect dies or becomes incapacitated.

If a winning Presidential candidate dies or becomes incapacitated between the counting of electoral votes in Congress and the inauguration, the Vice President elect will become President, according to Section 3 of the 20th Amendment.

Our Constitution really should be amended to deal with a situation where a winning candidate dies between Election Day and the Electoral College vote, but up until now that has not happened.

So the cold, hard reality of the matter is that we will enter a period of great uncertainty between November 8th and December 19th.  Even though the American people will have spoken, we will not have a “President-elect” yet, and if something happens to the winning candidate that could throw us into an unprecedented constitutional crisis.

And of course if the election results are very tight and a few “faithless electors” throw the election in the opposite direction on December 19th, that could create an enormous constitutional crisis as well.

Following the vote of the Electoral College on December 19th, a joint session of Congress takes place on January 6th of the following year to formally declare the winner…

The Twelfth Amendment mandates that the Congress assemble in joint session to count the electoral votes and declare the winners of the election.[53] The session is ordinarily required to take place on January 6 in the calendar year immediately following the meetings of the presidential electors.[54] Since the Twentieth Amendment, the newly elected House declares the winner of the election; all elections before 1936 were determined by the outgoing House.

Two weeks later, the winning candidate will be inaugurated on January 20th, and at that point the next president will begin to serve.

It would be a whole lot simpler and more rational to just allow the American people to directly elect the president, and it would probably take a major crisis in order to get the kind of constitutional amendment that is needed to do that.

But for now the system is what it is, and that means that the election is not over until it is over.

So November 8th is definitely not the end of the story, and the craziest chapters of this election season may still be yet to come.

Early Voting Results In Key Battleground States Appear To Favor Donald Trump

vote-button-public-domainIf you want Donald Trump to win the election, then you have got to be encouraged by what you are seeing so far.  Early voting has already been going on in a number of the most important battleground states, and up to this point the numbers seem to support the theory that Donald Trump is doing significantly better in key swing states than Mitt Romney did in 2012.  As you will see below, the latest numbers released by Florida, North Carolina, Colorado and Arizona all have good news for the Trump campaign.  Without a doubt, I still have an ominous feeling about what is going to happen tomorrow night, but so far at least there are some encouraging signs.

Florida

Early voting has become extremely popular in Florida, and at this point close to half of all voters in the state have already cast their ballots.

Donald Trump cannot win the election without Florida’s 29 electoral votes, and so to say that this is a “must win” for the Trump campaign would be a massive understatement.

Fortunately, the Trump campaign appears to be doing much better in Florida than the Romney campaign did in 2012.  The following comes from Politico…

Florida Democrats increased their lead over Republicans in casting pre-Election Day ballots to nearly 33,000 as of Sunday morning, but the sheer number of new voters and independents makes it tougher than ever for experts to say whether Hillary Clinton has a clear advantage over Donald Trump in the nation’s biggest battleground state.

Of the record 6.1 million in-person early votes and absentee ballots cast, Democrats have an advantage over Republicans of only 0.5 percentage points, with each party casting roughly 39 percent of the ballots. Though it’s a lead for Democrats, they’re not going to match their 3.7-percentage-point lead in early votes by Election Day they enjoyed in 2012. And Republicans tend to outvote Democrats on Election Day in Florida.

On Monday, updated numbers for Florida were released, and we found out that the Democrats had increased their lead to about 87,000 votes.  But Trump is still doing much better than Romney was at this stage.

And the Trump campaign also has to be happy about the fact that first-time voters account for 25 percent of all the votes cast so far.  Throughout this election cycle Trump has shown that he can bring out people that have never voted before, and so officials in the Trump campaign have to be smiling about this.

However, one sign of trouble for the Trump campaign is the fact that there has been a 100 percent increase in early voting by Hispanics in Florida compared to 2012, and this appears to be fueled by dislike for Trump.  The following comes from the Miami Herald…

Through Saturday, 565,000 Hispanics had completed early in-person voting in Florida, a 100 percent increase over 2012, according to an analysis by Dan Smith, a University of Florida political science professor who tracks voting data.

Including absentee ballots, 911,000 Hispanics have voted — more than a third of whom did not vote in 2012. “We’re witnessing explosive early voting turnout of Hispanics — both those newly registered to vote as well as those who sat on the sidelines in 2012,” Smith said.

As discussed above, Republicans tend to outvote Democrats on Election Day in Florida, so the key for the Trump campaign will be to have the same kind of Election Day turnout that the Romney campaign had in 2012.

If Trump wins Florida, he will have a legitimate shot at winning the election, but if he loses the state it will be virtually impossible for him to make up those 29 electoral votes elsewhere on the map.

North Carolina

Another state that the Trump campaign desperately needs is North Carolina.  Mitt Romney won this state back in 2012, and according to the Drudge Report the Trump campaign is doing even better than the Romney campaign did during early voting…

Another dramatic turn of events is being reported out of North Carolina this afternoon: Donald Trump has jumped past all expectations in early voting!

In 2012, Romney hit Election Day down 447,000 votes, based on early ballots. He went on to win the state by 97,000 votes.

Now, the DRUDGE REPORT can reveal, Trump opens Election Day down 305,000!

North Carolina is another of the key battleground states that is going to help decide the election.  While not as important as Florida, the truth is that Donald Trump pretty much has to have it to have a legitimate shot.

Colorado

All along, most of the pundits have pretty much assumed that Hillary Clinton was going to win Colorado.

Unfortunately for her, the Denver Post is reporting that the number of Republicans that have voted so far exceeds the number of Democrats that have voted…

Republicans took the lead in early voting in Colorado at the end of the day Friday and held the advantage through the weekend despite robust Democratic get-out-the-vote efforts.

The latest early voting numbers released Monday morning show registered Republicans cast 652,380 ballots compared to 645,020 registered Democrats — a 7,360 vote GOP advantage. The breakdown looks like this: 35.2 percent Republican, 34.8 percent Democrat and 28.5 percent unaffiliated.

If Donald Trump could find a way to actually win Colorado, that would definitely lessen the pressure of having to win Nevada where he is not doing nearly as well so far.

Arizona

The state of Arizona used to be considered “deep red” territory, but during this election cycle it has been considered a battleground state.

Fortunately for Trump the poll numbers in Arizona have shifted in his direction in recent days, and the early numbers coming out of the state look very good for him…

The Republican lead in absentee ballots returned is 95,000. Bill Dunn, the party’s director of early and absentee voting, said Republicans lead with 36.5 percent of absentee ballots requested but have an even greater advantage in absentee ballots returned, at 40 percent of the total.

In the waning days of the campaign Donald Trump has been criss-crossing the country, and he continues to draw absolutely enormous crowds.  Conservative voters are far more enthusiastic about Trump than they were about Romney, but will it be enough?

Some Republican strategists are convinced that it will not be enough.  In fact, one of them told CNN that he believes that Hillary Clinton is going to win by “an electoral landslide”…

Hillary Clinton will win in an electoral landslide on Tuesday, but the political baggage she has accumulated over the past year-and-a-half will dissuade congressional Republicans from working with her administration, says longtime Republican political strategist John Weaver.

“I believe she’s going to win in an electoral landslide and be the most unpopular president in electoral history, which is quite the paradox,” Weaver told David Axelrod on “The Axe Files” podcast, produced by the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN.

And ultimately it could be the establishment Republicans and the “never-Trumpers” that make the difference and deliver the election to Hillary Clinton.  If you can believe it, some establishment Republicans are actually publicly announcing that they have voted for Hillary Clinton and are encouraging others to do the same.

If they can get just five percent of Republicans to follow them, they could completely alter the outcome of the election.  So let us hope that does not happen.

On a positive note, on Monday we learned that Hillary Clinton has canceled her celebratory fireworks for Tuesday night.  No reason was given for why the fireworks were canceled, but many are taking this as a sign that the Clinton campaign may not be as optimistic as they were previously.

In any event, we don’t have long to wait now until we find out who wins and who loses.

If you want Donald Trump to win, please go vote, because America may never be faced with this kind of a choice again.

I am absolutely convinced that this is a pivotal moment in American history, and on Tuesday night we find out what happens.

May God have mercy on the late, great United States of America.

If Donald Trump Wins, He Will Be 70 Years, 7 Months And 7 Days Old On His First Full Day In Office

donald-trump-accepts-the-nomination-public-domainA couple of weeks ago, it looked like Hillary Clinton was all set to cruise to victory, but now the FBI has delivered an election miracle in the nick of time.  A few of my readers had criticized me for suggesting that Trump might lose, but I don’t know who is going to win the election, and so all I had to go on was the cold, hard numbers.  And a couple of weeks ago the cold, hard numbers were telling me that Hillary Clinton was going to win.  Of course it is entirely possible that the national polls might have been seriously wrong, but even the state polls in the most important battleground states consistently had bad news for Trump.  So things didn’t look good for Trump at the time, but now that the FBI has renewed their investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails the poll numbers have shifted dramatically in Trump’s favor.

As I write this article, the national polls have really tightened up.  In fact, the latest ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll puts Trump 1 point ahead of Clinton.  Trump has all of the momentum at the moment, but that does not mean that he is going to win.  As we have seen already in this race, one day can literally change everything.

And as I noted yesterday, more than 23 million Americans have already voted, and most of that voting was done during a period of time when Hillary Clinton was doing very well in the polls.

So we shall see what happens.  But if Trump does win on November 8th, there is a fact about his birthday which will start to get a lot of attention.

Donald Trump was born on June 14th, 1946.  If you move ahead 70 years from that date, that brings you to June 14th, 2016.  Moving forward another 7 months brings you to January 14th, 2017, and moving forward another 7 days brings you to January 21st, 2017.

And if Donald Trump wins the election, January 21st will be his first full day in office.

Of course Trump would be inaugurated on January 20th, but he would only be president for part of that day.

So that means that Donald Trump would be 70 years, 7 months and 7 days old on his first full day as president of the United States.

And this would happen during year 5777 on the Hebrew calendar.

These amazing “coincidences” were first pointed out on Facebook by a user named Alyson Kelly.  Some may take these numbers as a sign that Donald Trump is supposed to become the next president, but I want to make it exceedingly clear that I do not know what is going to happen, nor am I making any sort of prediction about what is going to happen.

I just thought that this information was “interesting” and so I thought that I would share it.

Someone that does believe that Trump is going to win is Glenn Beck.  He was been virulently anti-Trump throughout this campaign, but now he is convinced that Clinton will be unable to overcome this new email scandal, and he is calling this renewed investigation by the FBI “the greatest gift given to any candidate of all time in the history of America.”

Beck also says that if Clinton wins now it will be evidence that “magic exists”, and he is currently projecting that Trump should win the national vote by 5 points…

“Let’s just say he was 8 points, that was fair to say, 8 points behind last week,” Beck said, according to a transcript posted on his website. “He should win by 5 points.”

Beck later added: “How can the next president face a possible collapsing economy, possible war with Russia, and a current war with ISIS? Oh, and also, be under FBI investigation and indictment? Can’t. Can’t.”

The conservative personality called the latest FBI revelation “the greatest gift given to any candidate of all time in the history of America” and added that if Clinton still managed to win, it would be akin to proof “magic exists.”

Hopefully Glenn Beck is right, because none of us should want to see Hillary Clinton in the White House.

She is the most evil, corrupt and scandal-ridden politician of this generation, and I can’t understand how any American in their right mind could possibly vote for her.

And the hits just keep on coming.  Wikileaks has just released an email in which John Podesta told Clinton “fixer” Cheryl Mills that they were “going to have to dump all those emails so better to do so sooner than later”…

wikileaks-podesta-wikileaks

It was not entirely clear what Podesta meant by that phrase, but it could potentially be smoking gun evidence of obstruction of justice.

Back in 2008, Barack Obama was new, intriguing and mysterious.  We didn’t know a lot about him, and so one can almost understand how the American people could have been fooled by him.

But in 2016, Americans know more about Hillary Clinton than they have ever known about any candidate in modern American history.

The Clintons have a history of crimes and scandals that goes all the way back to the 1980s, but about half the country is choosing to ignore all of that history and vote for her anyway.

I believe that this election is America’s final exam.  Originally there were 17 Republicans and 5 Democrats running for the presidency.  When you throw in the major third party candidates, that brings us to a total of approximately 25 people that the American public could have chosen from.

If the American people willingly choose the most wicked candidate out of all of them after everything that has been revealed, I don’t think that anyone will be able to say that we don’t deserve the bitter consequences that follow that decision.

The time for talking is almost over, and shortly we shall find out which path the American people have chosen.

If that choice turns out to be Hillary Clinton after everything that we have seen during this election cycle, I truly believe that we will have reached the point of no return as a nation.

Thank You FBI: The Clinton Email Investigation Has Shifted The Poll Numbers Significantly In Trump’s Favor

donald-trump-rally-photo-by-michael-candeloriDonald Trump has all the momentum now.  Will it be enough to propel him to victory on election day?  Trump’s poll numbers were improving even before we learned that the FBI had renewed its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails, and the new survey results that came out over the weekend and on Monday make it clear that Clinton’s “certain victory” is not so certain after all.  Unless something changes, Americans are going to go to the polls on November 8th with an FBI criminal investigation hanging over the Clinton campaign like an ominous cloud, and that is very good news for Trump.

The Clinton campaign was hoping that this renewed investigation would not “move the needle”, but unfortunately for them that appears not to be the case.  Hillary’s unfavorable rating just hit an all-time high, a whopping 45 percent of all Americans believe that this scandal is “worse than Watergate”, and a Rasmussen survey has found that 40 percent of all undecided voters that are leaning toward voting for Hillary Clinton are still open to changing their minds before election day.

And even before this story broke on Friday, Clinton was having a difficult time getting her voters to the polls.  According to the New York Times, early voting among young adults and African-American voters is significantly down compared to 2012, and those are demographic groups that Clinton desperately needs to turn out in large numbers.

But of course the key to winning the election is getting to 270 electoral votes, and poll numbers appear to be shifting in the key swing states that Trump and Clinton both desperately need.  For a moment, I would like to examine what the numbers currently look like in some of the most important states…

Florida

Without Florida, Donald Trump has absolutely no chance of winning.  This is something that even the Trump campaign has admitted.  That is why it was so alarming that most of the polls in October had Hillary Clinton leading in the state.

Fortunately for Trump, a new survey that was conducted on Sunday shows him leading in Florida by four points.

Georgia

Georgia wasn’t supposed to be a problem.  Georgia has traditionally been a deep red state, but polling throughout this election season had shown a very tight race.  This had Republicans deeply concerned and the Clinton camp very happy.

But now the momentum has seemingly shifted and the latest poll has Trump up by seven points.

North Carolina

Mitt Romney won North Carolina in 2012, and Donald Trump very much needs to win it if he hopes to be triumphant on November 8th.  Hillary Clinton was shown to be leading in the eight most recent polls before the email story broke, but in the first major survey conducted afterwards she is now down by two points.

Ohio

No Republican has ever won the presidency without Ohio, and Trump knows how important it is to his chances.  The three most recent polls conducted before the FBI renewed the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails all showed a tie, but now the very first survey conducted afterwards shows Trump up by five points.

Colorado

Hillary Clinton has consistently been in the lead in Colorado throughout this campaign, and most experts didn’t give Trump much of a chance in the state, but the latest survey shows that Clinton’s lead has been whittled down to just one point.

Arizona

A survey that was conducted in mid-October showed Clinton having a five point lead in John McCain’s home state, but now the latest major poll has Trump up by two points.

Nevada

One of the most important swing states out west is Nevada, and most surveys showed Hillary Clinton with a strong lead throughout the month of October.  Unfortunately for her, a poll that was conducted on Sunday shows Donald Trump with a four point lead.

Clearly Trump has the momentum at this point, and it will be very interesting to see how the numbers change over the next few days.

And as we learn more about what is in these newly discovered emails, will her fellow Democrats stick with her?  Already, some are publicly wavering.  The following example comes from WND…

Longtime Clinton confidante and former Democratic pollster Doug Schoen told Fox News the newly renewed FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server is forcing him to “reassess” his support for the Democratic nominee for president.

Schoen, a Fox News contributor, made the comments to host Harris Faulkner during a live television appearance Sunday night on “Fox Report Weekend.”

Public opinion is shifting quickly, but the bad news for Trump is that more than 23 million Americans have already voted.  So millions upon millions of Americans cast their votes before they even learned of this new FBI investigation.  If the race is very close, that could end up making the difference.

And of course the race could dramatically change once again if the FBI comes to some sort of resolution about these new emails prior to November 8th.  On Monday, CNN reported that a resolution before election day did not appear to be likely…

FBI officials are unlikely to finish their review of new emails potentially related to its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private server before the November 8 election.

The initial work of cataloging top Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s emails found on her estranged husband Anthony Weiner’s laptop could be done in the next few days, US law enforcement officials told CNN.

But the investigators are expected to spend more time doing other work, including likely working with other federal agencies to determine what — if any — classified materials are in the emails. This makes it unlikely there will be a resolution prior to the election.

However, late on Monday evening the Drudge Report reported that the L.A. Times has learned that investigators may have a “preliminary assessment” completed “in coming days”…

LA TIMES TUESDAY: FBI Investigators had planned to conduct new email review over several weeks. It now hopes to complete ‘preliminary assessment’ in coming days, but agency officials have not decided how, or whether, they will disclose results publicly… Developing…

Whether good or bad, I do believe that the American people deserve to hear something conclusive about these emails before November 8th.

If nothing is found to implicate Clinton, the American people should be told that.

And if evidence of very serious crimes is discovered, there is no way in the world that should be held back until after the election.

Even if it throws the election into complete and utter chaos, the American people deserve to know the truth.

But will we get it?

Stay tuned, because I think that this is going to be a crazy week.

Apostate Evangelicals Are Poised To Become The Deciding Factor In A Hillary Clinton Election Victory

crowd-concert-music-public-domainIf you look at the numbers, there is no way that Hillary Clinton could possibly win the election without the support of a substantial percentage of evangelical Christian voters.  In fact, if evangelical Christians stuck together they could pretty much elect whoever they want as president.  According to the Pew Research Center, 35 percent of all adults in the United States identify themselves as “evangelical” or “born again”, and it has been estimated that there are  94 million evangelical Christian adults in this country.  If evangelical Christians acted as a single voting block they could determine the outcome of every single presidential election.  Unfortunately, that simply is not going to happen.

A survey that was recently conducted by LifeWay Research found that only 45 percent of Christian evangelicals plan to vote for Donald Trump and 31 percent of Christian evangelicals plan to vote for Hillary Clinton.

That same survey discovered that moral issues are becoming increasingly unimportant to evangelical voters…

Overall, the economy is the top concern for Americans regardless of religious affiliation (30%). National security (17%) and personal character (17%) also are significant issues. Supreme Court nominees (10%), immigration (5%), religious freedom (2%), and abortion (1%) are less important.

“For churchgoers and those with evangelical beliefs, their pocketbook and personal safety are paramount,” said McConnell. “Moral issues aren’t a priority for many of them.”

I don’t know how in the world abortion could come in at only 1 percent.  Even if you add “Supreme Court nominees” and abortion together, you still only get a total of 11 percent.

This just shows that evangelicals in America have their priorities way out of order.

And unfortunately for Donald Trump, he is getting a lot less support from evangelicals than other recent presidential candidates received.  According to the New York Times, previous candidates have generally received about 80 percent support from white evangelical voters, but Donald Trump is only getting about 65 to 70 percent support, and his numbers among non-white evangelicals are absolutely dismal.

If you are an evangelical Christian and you have reservations about Donald Trump, I can respect that.  But there will be other names on the ballot and you do not have to vote for Hillary Clinton.  As I have said before, a vote for Hillary Clinton is an act of unmitigated wickedness.

Hillary Clinton has made support for abortion one of the central pillars of her long political career.  In fact, I don’t know if there is any politician in America that is more associated with abortion than Hillary Clinton.  Since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, more than 58 million babies have been murdered in the United States, and Hillary Clinton’s hands are drenched with their blood.

If you vote for Hillary Clinton, your hands will be drenched with their blood too.

Needless to say, I am absolutely horrified that so many prominent evangelical leaders have come out in support of Hillary Clinton during this election season.  For example, a group that represents over 6,000 Latino evangelical churches has just announced that they are endorsing Hillary Clinton…

An organization representing more than 6,000 Latino evangelical churches in the U.S. is endorsing Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump.

In a statement Thursday, the group OPEN USA says Clinton has proven her willingness to engage in difficult conversations, listen to contrasting opinions and engage faith leaders.

Meanwhile, 75 evangelical leaders recently signed a petition on Change.org that strongly denounces Donald Trump…

We, undersigned evangelicals, simply will not tolerate the racial, religious, and gender bigotry that Donald Trump has consistently and deliberately fueled, no matter how else we choose to vote or not to vote.

One of the truly alarming trends that we have been seeing this election season is the number of prominent women in the evangelical movement that are openly rejecting Donald Trump and embracing Hillary Clinton.  The following is a short excerpt from a recent Washington Post article that examined this phenomenon…

When Jen Hatmaker speaks to stadiums full of Christian women, she regales them with stories about her five children and her garden back in Austin, Tex. — and stays away from politics. But recently she took to Facebook and Instagram to blast Donald J. Trump as a “national disgrace,” and remind her legions of followers that there are other names on the ballot in November.

And Christianity Today recently published an editorial from one of the top female evangelical leaders in the entire country in which she publicly endorsed Hillary Clinton.  According to Christianity Today, Deborah Fikes is “the former Permanent Representative to the United Nations for World Evangelical Alliance, which represents a constituency of 650 million with alliance offices in 129 countries.”  Fikes says that she stepped down from some of her leadership positions so that she could openly advocate for Clinton…

My recent resignations from evangelical leadership positions to endorse Hillary Clinton speaks volumes of how important I believe it is that she is elected in November. The toxic tone and atmosphere that surrounds Mr. Trump and is fueled among his supporters has done irreparable damage to not only our country and the future of the GOP but also to the public witness of evangelicals in America who are seen as some of his biggest supporters.

There is no question in my mind or spirit that with the overwhelming challenges the next American president will face, Hillary Clinton is the most qualified person who has ever run for the Oval Office. On the issues of our national security, economic stability, seeing that healthcare reform continues to move forward, and tackling domestic challenges of poverty, inequality, and racism, we need her to be the person occupying this office.

A lot of these women seem to think that abortion shouldn’t be a major issue in this election, but that is like saying that the Holocaust shouldn’t have been a major issue in Nazi Germany.

Look, you don’t have to vote for Donald Trump or anyone else to be a good Christian.

But if you cast a vote for Hillary Clinton, you are casting a vote for the most evil, wicked and corrupt politician that this nation has possibly ever seen, and you are publicly endorsing the sinful positions that she is proud to stand for.

I know that I have been writing about the election a lot lately, but I feel that it is very important that I do so.  Most of the media coverage has focused on Donald Trump, but I feel that this election is far more about Hillary Clinton.  The things that her and her husband have done have been well documented, and if the American people willingly choose her they will know exactly what they are doing.

Unfortunately, not even Christians are standing united against the Clintons.  The political divide in the evangelical Christian world has grown so deep that it has even reached Liberty University.  The following comes from the Atlantic…

That’s why it was such a big deal when, two weeks ago, a group of Liberty students put out a letter explaining why they’re standing against the Republican presidential nominee. Jerry Falwell Jr., who has run the school since his father died in 2007, announced his support for Donald Trump back in January, and he has since spoken on the candidate’s behalf in interviews and at events. “We are Liberty students who are disappointed with President Falwell’s endorsement and are tired of being associated with one of the worst presidential candidates in American history,” the students wrote. “Donald Trump does not represent our values and we want nothing to do with him.”

Thousands of people signed onto the letter, including, the students said, roughly 2,000 students or alumni with liberty.edu email addresses. Dustin Wahl and Alex Forbes, two of the letter’s authors, were featured on MSNBC and CNN. They said they received supportive emails and tweets from Russell Moore, the head of the political arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Erick Erickson, the conservative radio-show host.

And the support for Clinton is particularly strong among young adult evangelicals.  When I read the following paragraph on the website of the New York Times, I was absolutely astounded…

Kate Shellnutt, 30, the online editor of Christianity Today and editor of the CT Women section, said she had observed that “the millennial generation has a lot less patience for Trump.” Of the 33 influential millennial evangelicals she profiled for a cover story two years ago, she says she can now find only one, Lila Rose, who is pro-Trump, and even she has been publicly critical of him. Several have been using the hashtag #NeverTrump, Ms. Shellnutt said.

The frightening thing is that this election might be the last chance for evangelical Christians to shape the political direction of this nation, because the truth is that demographics are rapidly shifting, and this includes the demographics of the evangelical community…

As Robert Jones has expertly documented in his recent book The End of White Christian America, the number of older, conservative, white male evangelicals is shrinking each year. Meanwhile, the number of younger evangelicals of all ethnic backgrounds — whose moral and political views extend far beyond positions on gay marriage and abortion — is on the rise.

If you follow my work regularly, then you already know that I have very little hope for the future of America.

But if Hillary Clinton is elected, there will be exactly zero hope.

If evangelical Christians stood united, they could stop her, but at this point it appears that is not going to happen.

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