Top Five - Free Speech sleeper issue, turn out graphics, and cell phone ban working!
U2 - Pride, Neil Diamond America, Kiggans/Cotter Smasal and Peruvian Chicken
Quote of the Day
Picked this one up around 6am at my local Starbucks -from former college coach and Boston Celtic assistant, Kevin Eastman, when they won the NBA Finals in 2008 on what makes champions:
Why - is the secret sauce. The great ones know their why.
Coach Eastman is an early AM regular - you’d be surprised how many amazing people walk right past you every day. Stop and get to know folks.
Trending - Comparing Cycles
Yes, President Trump is doing better historically but that does not mean the closing will be the same as 2016 and 2020. Pollsters might just have gotten better. #NeverKnow
Top Five
Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) POLL: Free speech a top concern for Americans in 2024, more important than crime, immigration, and health care
A new FIRE/NORC poll finds two out of three Americans rate free speech as very important to their vote in 2024, second only to inflation.
Republicans are more likely than Democrats to rate free speech as a “very important” concern, but 90% of both parties rate it at least “somewhat important.”
Democrats and Republicans both express very low confidence the opposing party will respect their free speech— and Independents don’t trust either party.
2016 had Shy Trump voters (actually, they were not shy), is this the Shy Issue of 2024?
The Free Press - Chris Arnade The World Is in Love with America It’s become fashionable to claim that other countries hate the U.S. Having traveled the globe for three years, I can tell you: That’s absurd.
The world’s love of America is not being manipulated into being by some sinister alignment of the television industrial complex, and capitalism, and neo-imperialism, or whatever buzzwords the cynics toss around. It’s simpler than that. Someone in Mongolia hears hip-hop and wants to write their own version of it. Someone in the Faroe Islands watches an episode of Friends and becomes obsessed with New York. Someone in Indonesia listens to Maroon 5 and wants to know every lyric.
That’s how people fall in love with America.
Some of my favorite Uber driver moments come when I learn that the reason he/she is in America is because they had won a literal lottery in their home country to come to America.
In 1649, Christian Sachsmann left Baden-Württemberg - present day South West Germany - hopped a boat in Rotterdam, Holland and landed in Philadelphia. He was 16. Bet there is a great story in that adventure. So, I’m German? Kind of - over 50% Irish. #23andMe #America #AlsoJewish
School Superintendent: OPINION | DEBBIE JONES: Set the limit Schools should be cell phone-free
The effect is remarkable. Verbal and physical offenses at the high school dropped by more than 50 percent, as did drug-related offenses. Some 86 percent of teachers reported a positive impact.
There are less quantifiable impacts, too. Students walk the hallways with their eyes up, not peering down on their phones. In the library, students no longer gather in the corner with their hoodies around their faces, huddled around phones.
At the program's onset, a few students asked, "What are we supposed to do?" Their librarian responded, "Talk to one another."
I taught for four years - there is NO WAY in h#ll I would have allowed phones in my class. #FireMeInstead #ThisAin’tRocketScience
Karl Rove in WSJ Three Types of Voters Who’ll Decide 2024
We’re in the final few days of the most astonishing campaign in modern American history. So much has happened, yet so much has stayed the same. The campaign ends next Tuesday, but unfortunately the deep divisions that created this chaos won’t.
#1 question I get these days - what will happen to America AFTER this election? Good question.
Virginia Early Vote turnout by metro regions (thanks to VPAP)
You seeing what I’m seeing? There is a reason VP Kamala Harris is campaigning in Charlotte and Atlanta.
As of Wednesday, Black voters make up 18 percent of the electorate in early voting, and some Democratic operatives said they must bump that up to about 20 percent for Harris to be competitive statewide. In 2020, Black voters were 19 percent of the electorate, when Donald Trump narrowly won the state. And Democrats acknowledge that without a swing in their favor in the last days of early voting or on Election Day, it may not be good enough.
And just announced - Harris spending Election Night at Howard University in Washington DC. Howard is her alma mater, but at an HBCU inside the Beltway?
Harris is also spending the last day of the campaign in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
Recipe of the Day!
Peruvian chicken and green sauce
The key to good cooking is a good recipe and this is one of our favorites. It really scores on the annual alligator hunting trips in South Louisiana. Yeah, even the Cajuns like it. You can do whole chickens, quarters, halves, or boneless/skinless thighs skewered. NEVER misses. I dial back the jalapeños in the green sauce. Other than that - follow the recipe! That green sauce can go on just about ANYTHING.
Videos
Neil Diamond’s America
1988? One man come in the name of love…
I was honored to moderate the only debate between Congresswoman Jen Kiggans and challenger Missy Cotter Smasal. No, I did not fact check or interject.
That’s the job of the candidates and campaigns.
Yeah, looking at you ABC and CBS…