Battlegrounds Watch is a collection of stories and topics in today’s news Chuck & Sam are tuning in to
AMERICAN MIND: Unrigging our elections
Claims of elections fraud and vote stealing aren’t exactly on target, but they aren’t wrong, either. The issue is far more complex than public discourse and disaffected candidate proclamations suggest, and the machine Democrats have built using billionaire bucks, big-tech, and media lapdogs is going to be hard to overcome, skewing results against GOP candidates in every single election going forward. Smart action is needed, starting with a Republican commitment to match the electoral gamesmanship of the left.
“The more likely explanation for these results is that Democratic ballot harvesting operations have reached such heights of sophistication that they can parachute into decisive battlegrounds and scare up enough votes among ignorant and unmotivated citizens to overcome the natural enthusiasm of informed and self-motivated voters.
At the same time as these ballot harvesting operations have been ramping up, there has also been a lot of talk about “voter fraud” on the Right. While there’s evidence voter fraud is a bigger problem than anyone wants to admit, it’s also true that the focus on voter fraud to explain GOP failures is often just an unhelpful cope. It distracts people from the fact that they’re getting outspent and out organized.”
CNBC: Manufacturers betting on silicon-anode batteries
Better, higher performing batteries that cost less and use fewer rare materials in their production (and are less toxic to dispose of) are the only way to make the current EV and electrify-everything movement make sense. So far, the technologies haven’t evolved the way manufacturers and environmentalists have hoped, for a variety of reasons. Now, several manufacturers are counting on a new technology to achieve what others so far have not…
WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Youngkin calls for ‘American Revolution’ to wean country off China
Fans of our radio show know this is one of our recurring themes, and we are grateful to see more elected officials across the country stepping up, recognizing the risks of outsourcing critical manufacturing and production, and seeking to take action to protect our citizens. Virginia, under Youngkin, has moved aggressively to limit Chinese land purchases and protect American industry from Chinese predation.
““We need to bring semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, automotive supply chains here to the United States, and we must strengthen our business and diplomatic ties with friends and allies. The stakes are high, and the consequences couldn't be greater,” he said in the visionary address, part of the Reagan Library’s “A Time for Choosing” speech series.”
NEWSBUSTERS: Scarborough, media ignore Sotomayor news to focus on Thomas
Clear evidence now exists that the current accusations against Justice Clarence Thomas are complete bunk. Meanwhile, a new story emerges showing that Justice Sonia Sotomayor repeatedly ruled on cases favoring a publisher who has paid her millions of dollars, refusing to recuse herself when even other liberal justices have done so. So, naturally, the mainstream media is continuing their attacks on Thomas, and assiduously ignoring the revelations about Sotomayor…
Birmingham News: Bud Light offers free beer in response to sales drop
The Bud Light Boycott is working, Budweiser is reeling, and you can bet your bippy the corporate world is taking note. Conservatives have threatened boycotts of other companies and products that are going woke, but the truth is none of those boycotts have ever amounted to much. Likewise, the gleeful cheering at temporary, minor drops in the stock prices of those companies. This one is different. Bud Light sales are down, and the drop is holding. Sales of their competitors have climbed, and there doesn’t appear to be much of a letdown in the intensity of the boycott weeks later. It certainly helps that Bud Light has numerous competitors that most people would be totally unable to differentiate in a taste test, but American consumer brand-loyalty is a big deal, and once broken tends to be lost forever.
CATO: How nimble environmental technologies can solve planet’s biggest problems
You don’t have to be a rabid left-orthodox environmentalist to believe that we need to protect our planet and ensure generations to come have clean air to breathe and water to drink. You also don’t need to follow the left’s proscribed climate “solutions” which are proving to reliably be little more than green scams run by politically-connected insiders. Cato explores the many ways that market-based, publicly-driven, small-scale solutions can have a dramatic effect on reducing the environmental impacts from human activity.
MONMOUTH: Polling shows half of Americans don’t believe Middle Class benefitting from Biden
Breaking Battlegrounds will never share a poll with you unless the source has a clear and easy link to the raw data and crosstabs. After years of working in politics, Chuck and Sam don’t believe there’s any such thing as perfect polling. They are snapshots often distorted by badly written questions and poor framing, and frequently end up with demographic tilts that skew the results. There can also be huge differences in outcome depending on the target universe (likely voters vs registered voters vs citizens vs residents all tend to generate different results). When we see these distortions, we will alert you, but we will often share results anyway when – even if skewed – we feel that there is worthwhile info encapsulated in the results.
This poll, for example, over-weights Independents and Democrats. That means there are probably a higher percentage of people who don’t believe Biden is helping the middle class than this poll shows. But look closer and you can see some important trends underlying the concern with Biden’s economy: the percentage of people concerned with their ability to put food on the table has doubled in the last year and the number whose top concern is the economy has increased by a third. Those are, historically, very bad indicators for a sitting President in an election year.
NATIONAL REVIEW: TikTok suspends libertarian think tank that posted about HK activist Jimmy Lai
China’s authoritarian Communist government isn’t interested in competition, fair elections, or fostering an educated electorate. For obvious reasons. (Sadly, the pseudo-liberal governments of the West are watching China’s censorship regime with equally obvious envy)
“TikTok suspended the account of the Acton Institute after the libertarian think tank promoted multiple videos about Hong Kong pro-democracy icon Jimmy Lai and the Chinese Communist Party’s crackdown in the city, one of which racked up 2.3 million views. The suspension follows the temporary removal of a video that featured a former senior State Department official.”
Daniel Horowitz via Conservative Review: Why Battle Against mRNA mass vaccination is not over, despite end of covid measures
At Breaking Battlegrounds we want to be clear: we are not anti-vaccine. At all. We highly encourage people to get appropriate vaccinations, and ensure their children do as well. However, we are data-driven, and the data in the case of mRNA immune boosters is seriously concerning. There does appear to be a benefit for high-risk older adults from the Covid shots, but not for younger, healthier people, for whom the data shows higher risk from the vaccine than the disease. The data on the RSV mRNA treatment currently in (limited, rushed) testing is far more concerning…
"Let’s just take their efficacy data at face value for a moment. Moderna’s numbers show that for each RSV infection prevented, the shot caused 200 side effects, including 10 severe side effects. Among the total participants in the trial, those receiving the vaccine incurred an extra 10,156 side effects, including 455 rated Grade 3 or higher, in return for contracting 46 fewer cases of RSV."