Well of course she did — by definition, a synthetic candidate requires fake supporters

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Axios wet its panties a few days ago when the Harris campaign fed it this “exclusive”:

Sep 24, 2024 -Politics & Policy

Scoop: Harris courts rural Trump voters in Pennsylvania

Vice President Kamala Harris is launching a targeted effort to court Republican voters in rural Pennsylvania.

Why it matters: It's a sign that the Harris campaign is not only aiming to surge Democratic turnout in vote dense Philly and Pittsburgh but also trying hard to blunt former President Trump's margins in swing or red counties across the commonwealth.

What we're watching: The Harris campaign is launching a 30-second ad on Tuesday featuring two two-time Trump voters who plan to vote for Harris.

  • "I voted for him twice. I won't vote for him again," says Bob Lange, a family farmer from Malvern, Pennsylvania, of Trump in the ad that was first obtained by Axios. "Never thought I'd say this, but the Democrats are the party of common sense."

  • The ad will run on 130 rural radio stations including talk radio, classic rock, oldies, and country radio — collectively reaching an estimated 500,000 likely voters outside of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and suburban counties.

  • The new radio ads are a part of a larger effort from the campaign to go after rural GOP voters using Republican voices.

Wow! This will really put the nail in the Orange Man’s coffin, for sure! But alas, then this happened:

'Former Trump Voters' in Harris Ad Outed as Democrat Actors

Talk about a killjoy!

Lest the rest of us forget, as the media has (tried to)

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It reminds me of the time on that fishing trip — I forget where — when all my guns fell overboard and were lost forever

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Well gol' darn it!

Accessing Adams’ locked cell phone will be ‘monumentally difficult’ for feds: experts

Cracking into Mayor Eric Adams’ encrypted cell phone is going to be an uphill battle for federal authorities, experts told The Post. 

Hizzoner changed his cell phone password just one day before the FBI seized his electronic devices on Nov. 7 — claiming he did so in order to “preserve the contents of his phone due to the investigation.” He says he then forgot the new passcode, which left the phone locked, according to the bombshell federal indictment unsealed Thursday.

I hate when that happens!

Another Austere Scholar Gone

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Our national media: this is who they are, this is what they do.

UPDATE: Bezos’ Washington Post is still praising these people, because love means never having to say you’re sorry.

This is no accident

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the joy of travel

ICE provided the new data to lawmakers this week

Remember when people called Trump racist for saying other countries are sending their rapist and murderers across the border?

7.4 million (!) on removal docket; they ain’t going nowhere, and there are another 23 million or so that aren’t even on the removal waiting list. I was relieved, however, to see that our Border Czar went down to Arizona yesterday to pose against what’s left of the Trump Wall and vow that, if elected, she’s gonna buckle down and do something about undoing what she’s wrought. Hooray!

Maybe we should ask the Israelis to help

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under the protection of rainbow power

US warships come under attack in Red Sea as nearly two dozen incoming missiles and drones shot down

We have neither the will nor the capability to do anything about the Iranian proxys. the Houthis, who have shut down the red Sea and forced 90% of Suez-bound cargo traffic to forego the Canal and divert around the tip of Africa instead.

We know about the Harris/Biden/Blinken triumvirate’s refusal to wipe out the Houthi missile sites for fear of offending Iran, but we couldn’t do much about it even if we wanted to, because of the miserable shape of our navy.

It’s a shame that the Navy’s only refueling tanker in the Middle East ran aground three days ago and we have no replacement, but not to worry, our military’s on top of things and is looking for a commercial vessel as a substitute. Once located, only a few weeks of retrofitting will be needed before it’s ready to be put in use.

Compounding the problem is the fact that the Big Horn is the only oiler the Navy has in the Middle East. One shipowner told gCaptain that the Navy is scrambling to find a commercial oil tanker to take its place and deliver jet fuel to the USS Abraham Lincoln.

If the Navy resorts to using a commercial oil tanker as a temporary replacement, it would need to install a Consolidated Cargo Handling and Fueling (CONSOL) system for underway replenishment operations. This system includes specialized refueling rigs, tensioned fueling hoses, and high-capacity fuel pumps—all essential for safely transferring fuel to warships at sea. The tanker would also require robust communication and control systems to ensure precise coordination during refueling maneuvers.

Call in the IDF.

If I were a client of Deloitte Haskins, I'd be concerned about what other political-activist partners breach their clients' confidential information (UPDATED)

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BURN NOTICE: Leaker of JD Vance Private Communications Revealed

In an exclusive story published Friday, Breitbart's Matthew Boyle has revealed the name of the person who leaked private communications between the private citizen and now Senator and Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance and an until-now unnamed person, which included uncomplimentary comments Vance made in 2020 about then-President Donald Trump. The leaker, named Kevin Gallagher, is a consultant for Deloitte, a financial services firm. The Washington Post originally broke the story about the leaked messages but did not release the name of the person with whom JD Vance was messaging. Boyle wrote:

But what the Post did not do is tell its audience who Vance was communicating with in these messages, or provide the full context of the conversation, since it only reported part of one side of it. The Post argued it granted the source who provided these messages anonymity “because of concerns about retaliation,” but Breitbart News can reveal the person’s identity here for the first time as a well-connected Deloitte consultant.

Here's where Breitbart News spills the goods on the leaker:

The Deloitte consultant, whose identity the Washington Post’s Peter Jamison hid from the newspaper’s readers, is named Kevin Gallagher. Deloitte’s website lists Gallagher as a “principal” with the firm, based in Connecticut. Breitbart News has seen a screenshot of messages that Vance sent to Gallagher—the other side of the conversation is not available, because Gallagher had deleted his account, thereby deleting the messages—confirming that Gallagher is in fact the recipient of these.

A "principal" generally means a person highly placed in the firm. Deloitte, among other areas, provides services to various levels of government. For now, anyway. Should the Trump/Vance ticket win the election in November, this debacle may well end up costing Deloitte some significant government contracts. A company, after all, that does business with the United States government should be expected to maintain some degree of control over the unauthorized release of information; in this, Deloitte is not doing so well, a source told the publication:

A source close to Trump’s family told Breitbart News that the Trumps are watching this episode with horror. “The entire government affairs team at Deloitte should be fired,” the source close to Trump’s family said. “If they’re too dumb to understand how this is going to affect Deloitte’s access to a Trump administration then they have no business working in government affairs.”

Kev’s a Yale graduate, of course; Deloitte only hires the best.

UPDATE: That was fast — clicking on Mr. Gallagher’s Deloitte page now produces the following message:

A modest price cut at Andrew Kissel's old place on Quaker Lane

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38, 48, and 58 Quaker Lane has been dropped from $35 million to $11 million, or buy individual lots separately, $3.75M for lot 38-48, $7.25M on Lot 58, $11M for both I wrote about this property in August after the broker had despaired of selling the full parcel for $35 million and offered the one with the house on it for just $20 million; good thing you waited.

The listing now says that the lots will be sold in toto or individually via an auction that begins today and will end October 10, and the listed prices are intended to be “starting bids”. Great expectations are not always fulfilled.