2020 Election

Federal Authorities Have Already Documented Two Cases In Which Votes Have Been “Discarded” In Key Swing States

The integrity of our elections is of paramount importance, because if our ability to choose our own leaders is compromised that undermines everything that our system of government is based upon. So every American should be hyper-sensitive to any allegation that our votes are being tampered with, because any attack on the voting process is an attack on all of us. This is one issue that should be able to unite Republicans and Democrats, and hopefully people across the political spectrum will report anything suspicious that they notice over the coming weeks. And as I become aware of troubling incidents, I will share them with my readers, because the integrity of our elections is definitely one of my hot button issues.

When I heard that some military ballots in Pennsylvania had been tampered with, that immediately set off alarm bells. Federal officials are telling us that they recently discovered that nine military ballots in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania had been “improperly opened” and “discarded”…

According to a letter from U.S. Attorney Freed to the county elections director, the inquiry into Luzerne County’s ballot handling began Monday, and found that nine military ballots had been “improperly opened” by elections staff and “discarded.”

He wrote that “the majority” of the recovered ballots and envelopes were found in an outside dumpster — seven of the nine ballots outside their official envelopes, and two that elections staff had apparently recovered and sealed back in their envelopes. He said investigators also found four “apparently official” absentee ballot envelopes that were empty.

It appears that someone wanted to get rid of those votes permanently. After all, you certainly don’t put votes in a dumpster for safekeeping.

Members of the U.S. military sacrifice so much to defend our nation, and so any tampering with their votes is especially grievous.

According to law enforcement authorities working on the case, seven of the votes “were cast for presidential candidate Donald Trump”, and the other two votes are unknown because they had been resealed.

Since Monday, FBI personnel working together with the Pennsylvania State Police have conducted numerous interviews and recovered and reviewed certain physical evidence. Election officials in Luzerne County have been cooperative. At this point we can confirm that a small number of military ballots were discarded. Investigators have recovered nine ballots at this time. Some of those ballots can be attributed to specific voters and some cannot. Of the nine ballots that were discarded and then recovered, 7 were cast for presidential candidate Donald Trump. Two of the discarded ballots had been resealed inside their appropriate envelopes by Luzerne elections staff prior to recovery by the FBI and the contents of those 2 ballots are unknown.

It is extremely suspicious that all of the votes that had been “discarded” were for only one candidate.

Hopefully federal authorities will nail whoever was responsible for this, because throwing actual votes in the trash is a major offense.

And considering the fact that Pennsylvania is such an important swing state, those votes could actually help to determine who becomes the next president of the United States.

Speaking of swing states, discarded ballots have also been found in Wisconsin.

In fact, officials say that three trays of mail that included absentee ballots were recently discovered sitting in a ditch…

The U.S. Postal Service is investigating how three trays of mail, including absentee ballots, ended up in a ditch line in Wisconsin, a swing state whose voters could prove crucial in the upcoming elections.

The Outagamie County Sheriff’s Office said the mail was found around 8 a.m. Monday morning near the intersection of highways 96 and CB, near the Appleton International Airport.

How in the world do ballots just happen to end up in a ditch?

This is just one of the reasons why I very much prefer the way that we used to do things. When we require the vast majority of the population to vote in person, there is much less of a chance that votes will end up in a ditch or in a dumpster.

Unfortunately, times have changed, and in some states an extremely high percentage of voters will cast their votes by mail in this election.

In Wisconsin, the percentage of absentee votes used to be in the single digits, but thanks to the pandemic that we are currently experiencing things have dramatically changed…

Prior to the pandemic, just 6% of Wisconsin voters cast absentee ballots by mail – however during the state’s April primaries, that number jumped to 60%, when 1.1 million out of 1.55 million votes were conducted through the postal service. During the August partisan primary, Wolfe said that 82% of the 867,000 votes cast were via absentee ballot.

During said primaries, thousands of voters across the state complained that they never received the absentee ballots they requested. In one case, a Milwaukee postal worker said that three bins of absentee ballots had never been delivered.

Overall, tens of millions of Americans will vote by mail in 2020, and that makes me very nervous.

There are just so many opportunities for things to go wrong, and that would be true even if everyone was trying to do the right thing.

Sadly, there are always people that try to cheat, and four of them were just arrested by authorities in Texas…

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced four arrests Thursday on dozens of felony charges in connection with an alleged vote harvesting scheme during the 2018 Democratic primary elections in Gregg County.

Those four individuals could be going away for a very long time, because collectively they are facing a total of 134 felony charges…

Gregg County Commissioner Shannon Brown, Marlena Jackson, Charlie Burns and DeWayne Ward face 134 felony charges in total, according to Paxton’s office. The allegations include election fraud, tampering with a governmental record, mail-in ballot fraud and more.

“To increase the pool of ballots needed to swing the race in Brown’s favor, the group targeted young, able-bodied voters to cast ballots by mail by fraudulently claiming the voters were ‘disabled,’ in most cases without the voters’ knowledge or consent,” Paxton’s office alleged.

Incidents of vote tampering and election fraud really do happen, and we should be very thankful when authorities are able to catch those that are responsible.

Those that follow my work regularly already know how deeply concerned I am about the future of our nation. Decades of exceedingly foolish decisions are catching up with us in a major way, and yet we just continue to steamroll toward oblivion.

But even though I am absolutely disgusted by so many of our “politicians”, I very much want the American people to be completely free to pick whoever they want each and every election.

Without free and fair elections, there is no way that our Republic would be able to work. So let us be extremely diligent in guarding the integrity of our votes, because if we lose that we lose any hope of ever turning things around politically.

***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.

An Obscure Law In Pennsylvania Could Result In 100,000 Mail-In Ballots Being Thrown Out Without Ever Being Counted

We are still more than 40 days away from the election, and already we are seeing huge red flags regarding the integrity of the voting process in some states. No matter who you support, you should want the upcoming election to be fair. Every American should be able to vote, all of those votes should be counted, and the decision that the American people make should be respected. Unfortunately, it appears that this is likely to be the most chaotic election in modern American history, and wrangling over what votes should be counted and what votes should not be counted is likely to persist long after election night is over. In the end, it would not be surprising to see the outcome of the election end up at the Supreme Court, and that is a scenario that none of us should want to see.

Let me give you an example that shows why I am so concerned. In Pennsylvania, a recent legal decision requires officials to throw out mail-in ballots without counting them if voters do not return them in “secrecy envelopes”…

Philadelphia’s top elections official is warning of electoral chaos in the presidential battleground state if lawmakers there do not remove a provision in Pennsylvania law that, under a days-old court decision, requires counties to throw out mail-in ballots returned without secrecy envelopes.

This is a very big deal, because large numbers of votes could be voided in one of our most important swing states.

According to the Washington Times, it is being estimated that “more than 100,000 mail-in ballots” could potentially be thrown out…

Some 30,000 to 40,000 mail-in ballots could arrive without secrecy envelopes in Philadelphia alone in November’s presidential election, Deeley estimated, and the state Supreme Court’s interpretation of current law forces election officials to throw them out.

Statewide, that could mean throwing out more than 100,000 mail-in ballots in the Nov. 3 presidential election, according to some estimates.

In 2016, President Trump won the state of Pennsylvania by just 44,292 votes.

So eliminating 100,000 votes could potentially swing the outcome from one candidate to the other.

And if the national results are very close, whoever wins Pennsylvania could ultimately determine who wins the White House.

Sadly, this is not the only reason to be deeply concerned about the integrity of the vote in Pennsylvania. Last week, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania decided that the deadline for mail-in ballots will be “the Friday after Election Day”…

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued three rulings on Thursday, extended the deadline for mail-in ballots to the Friday after Election Day, ruled voters could use dropbox to return mail-in ballots, and removed the Green Party’s presidential ticket from the ballot.

So does this mean that countless numbers of voters in the state could potentially cast votes after election day and still have them counted?

I am just imagining a scenario where one party is barely behind in the state on election night and then makes an all-out push to have more people vote by mail on Wednesday and Thursday. If the party that is in the lead does not match that late push, that could also be something that flips the outcome of the election.

There are so many things that could go wrong, and I believe that we are headed for a giant mess no matter who wins.

Signs of trouble continue to pile up in other states as well. In Wisconsin, a federal judge just decided that absentee ballots “can be counted up to six days after the Nov. 3 presidential election”…

A federal judge ruled Monday that absentee ballots in battleground Wisconsin can be counted up to six days after the Nov. 3 presidential election as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.

The highly anticipated ruling, unless overturned, means that the outcome of the presidential race in Wisconsin might not be known for days after polls close. Under current law, the deadline for returning an absentee ballot to have it counted is 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Wisconsin is another one of the most critical swing states, and so this is very troubling news.

In so many states, we are going to have to wait for a long time after the election before we get final results, and that period of uncertainty is going to be very bad for our nation.

I just have such a bad feeling about what is going to happen in November. It is being estimated that up to 40 percent of the population will vote by mail, and that number is far, far higher than anything that we have ever seen before.

And we also have millions and millions of people registering to vote without ever having to come face to face with anyone. In fact, Facebook has announced that they have “already registered 2.5 million Americans to vote”…

Facebook says it has already registered 2.5 million Americans to vote in the upcoming presidential election, with a goal of registering 4 million total before Election Day.

In a blog post in advance of National Voter Registration Day on Tuesday, the social-media giant touted its combined registration figures from Facebook, Instagram and Messenger, extrapolating from conversion rates from several states.

Seriously?

We all know that Facebook has millions of fake profiles. In fact, I get friend requests from fake profiles constantly.

So who decided that it would be okay for them to register “millions of people” to vote?

And the way that some states are aggressively promoting mail-in voting is making a lot of people really upset. One of my readers that intends to vote in person told me that in the past five weeks “my wife and I have received three requests each for mail in ballots!”

Another one of my readers has been very confused by the forms that she has been getting in the mail, because they make it seem like voting by mail is not optional…

“A few weeks ago I got a form in the mail about voting by mail. Days later I asked a neighbor about it because I want to vote in person and they said that we can vote in person. In today’s mail I received a letter from my secretary of state asking me why I had not begun the process yet. It doesn’t say that it’s optional, they are just leading us to believe it’s the only way we are going to be allowed to vote.”

This enormous push for mail-in votes is going to create an unprecedented mess, and the outcome of the presidential election is likely to be contested no matter who is ahead on election night.

Needless to say, a contested outcome is likely to spark even more civil unrest, and that won’t be good for our country at all.

This is such a critical moment for America, and the voice of every American should be respected.

But if the integrity of our voting process is compromised, that could result in someone winning the election that the American people did not choose, and that is something that none of us should want.

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

Why We Are Facing The Biggest Election Nightmare In Modern American History No Matter Who Ends Up Winning

It looks like we are headed for the most chaotic presidential election in modern U.S. history. According to some estimates, somewhere around 40 percent of all U.S. voters will vote by mail this year. That means that tens of millions of votes will be going through the postal system, and that has the potential to create all sorts of problems. For one thing, it is going to take a lot of extra time to open those ballots and count them. For states that allow mail-in votes to be counted in advance, that shouldn’t delay final results by too much, but in other states we are facing the possibility of a nightmare scenario. There are certain states that are not allowed to start counting any ballots until the polls close on election day, and that includes key swing states such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania…

In several states not accustomed to high volumes of mail-in voting, including Rust Belt swing states Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, election officials cannot start counting ballots until voting ends on election night. Other swing states, such as Minnesota, allow absentee ballots to be postmarked up to Election Day.

So as we all watch the election results come in on the night of November 3rd, what we will be getting will only be partial results.

And at this point the mainstream media is assuming that the votes that are cast in person will heavily favor President Trump, and so they are warning us that there could be a “red mirage” scenario in which it appears that Trump is easily winning an election that he has actually lost.

Of course if Trump builds a huge lead on election night, he is likely to declare victory, and Facebook has already stated that they intend to “flag” any such attempt…

Facebook plans to flag any attempt by the Trump campaign to declare a premature victory in the presidential race on the platform, the company announced on Thursday.

The social media giant, which has come in for heavy criticism for failing to police foreign and domestic elections propaganda on its network, also said it would not accept any new political ads in the final week of the 2020 presidential race.

This is one of the reasons why I have always been strongly against mail-in voting. Our nation is likely to be thrown into a state of chaos in November because it is going to take so long to count all the votes. President Trump and his supporters will be absolutely convinced that they have won the election if they have a big lead on election night, and Joe Biden and his supporters will be absolutely convinced that they will be victorious once all of the mail-in votes are finally counted. And then no matter what the final result is, about half the country will not be willing to accept it as legitimate.

This is going to be such a disaster, but nobody can do anything about it now. All we can do is watch this slow-motion train wreck play out.

Biden supporters are already pointing to a recent poll which shows that Biden voters are far more likely to vote by mail than Trump supporters are…

Forty-seven percent of voters who plan to vote for Biden say they are likely to vote by mail, according to a USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll released Wednesday. That’s more than double the 21% of voters backing Trump who say they are likely to vote by mail. The poll found 56% of Republicans say they intend to vote on Election Day, compared with 26% of Democrats.

If all of the votes were counted and released at one time, this wouldn’t be so much of a problem.

But instead most of the results that we will get on election night will be from in-person voting, and most of the mail-in votes will be counted some time later.

At this point, everyone should be able to see that this is almost certainly not going to end well.

So many Trump voters prefer to vote the old-fashioned way, while many Democrats are very eager to vote by mail, and this has created a huge disparity in ballot requests in some of the most critical swing states. Just check out these numbers…

In Pennsylvania – a state Trump won in 2016 but where polling shows him behind – nearly 900,000 Democrats have requested a mail ballot for the election, more than twice the 347,000 Republicans who have done so. In North Carolina, another state Trump won in 2016 but where he and Biden are in a close race, nearly 313,000 Democrats requested mail ballots compared with nearly 93,000 Republicans.

We are seeing similar numbers in other states, and this is one of the reasons why Joe Biden will not concede no matter how large Trump’s lead on election night is.

This thing could end up dragging out for an extended period of time, and that is extremely unfortunate.

And the truth is that we may never even know the true winner of the 2020 election. Voting by mail opens up so many opportunities for fraud, and large numbers of ballots never even get delivered to the intended voters in the first place. As Breitbart has reported, 17 percent of the ballots that were sent out to registered voters in Nevada for their primary in June came back as “undeliverable”…

Last month, the Trump campaign filed suit against Nevada for their universal mail-in voting plans that would allow votes submitted after election day to count for the election. More than 223,000 mail-in ballots sent to registered voters in Las Vegas, Nevada, for their June primary bounced as “undeliverable” — 17 percent of the total 1,325,934 mail-in ballots that were sent out in the county.

Over the next couple of months, tens of millions of ballots are going to be floating around out there, and many will end up in the hands of people that should not have them. For example, Hulk Hogan says that one of his friends just received a ballot that was addressed to his dog…

Crazy stuff, a friend of mine just got a mail in ballot for his dog Nugget? Now even dogs can vote!

How does something like that happen?

Another thing to watch out for is “ballot harvesting”. Democrats have become masters of this practice, and they used it with devastating effectiveness in California in 2018. Now they are deploying this tactic all over the nation, and very alarming incidents of abuse are already being reported…

Furthermore, a citizen journalist reported that Democrats were harvesting mail-in ballots from nursing homes in Texas by fraudulently submitting ballot applications in bulk.

The journalist said that at least 32 applications supposedly from elderly voters were all submitted with the exact same handwriting, and were all submitted using the same pre-printed envelope with the same-style stamp.

In the end, we should all want a legitimate outcome. The integrity of our elections is of paramount importance, and the will of the American people should be respected.

But I don’t think that any of us will ever be able to feel good about the outcome of this election no matter who ends up winning.

Needless to say, the losing side is likely to be absolutely enraged over an election that they feel has been stolen from them, and that is likely to make the current chaos in our streets even worse.

At this point, even the Washington Post is warning that this election is likely to end “catastrophically”…

Perspective: The election will likely spark violence — and a constitutional crisis.

In every scenario except a Biden landslide, our simulation ended catastrophically.

For once, I actually agree with the Washington Post.

I have a hard time trying to imagine how this election could possibly end well.

Right now, Trump and his supporters are convinced that Trump will win, and Biden and his supporters are convinced that Biden will win.

One side is going to be bitterly, bitterly disappointed, and they will almost certainly feel like the election was not won legitimately.

There is going to be so much anger, and when it explodes it is going to be very frightening to watch.

This is already such a dark chapter in American history, and this election is going to take things to an entirely new level.

Sadly, I believe that after November 2020 nothing in this country will ever be the same again.

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

2020 Election Nightmare: Armies Of Lawyers Are Ready To Fight A Long Legal Battle Over The Election Results

Armies of lawyers have already been recruited, reasons to question the legitimacy of the 2020 election results are already being floated, and top politicians on both sides are already urging a fight to the bitter end. Initially, it appeared that we might avoid this sort of a scenario. For several months Joe Biden had a large lead in all of the major national polls, and some people were even discussing the possibility of a “landslide”. But now the polls are tightening up, and this is especially true in the swing states which will ultimately decide the outcome of the election. If the race is quite tight once we get to election night, it is likely that neither side will be willing to concede until every conceivable legal challenge is completely exhausted. That could mean an extended legal battle lasting for months, and that is something that none of us should want to see.

But it appears that such an outcome could be quite likely. In fact, former FEC chair Michael Toner is warning that the 2020 election could potentially be “Bush v. Gore on steroids”…

The November presidential election is poised to become the most litigated vote in recent U.S. history, according to a former federal election honcho.

“The 2020 election might be Bush v. Gore on steroids,” said Michael Toner, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission and former chief counsel at the Republican National Committee.

I don’t like the sound of that at all.

When that election happened, I was actually going to law school down in Florida, and it was complete and utter madness.

In the end, Bush’s legal team was superior to Gore’s, and that may have made all the difference.

This time around, both sides have recruited “armies of volunteer lawyers” in the key battleground states…

President Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Joseph R. Biden’s campaigns have enlisted armies of volunteer lawyers in battleground states and swing districts to fight out close calls on Election Day. Both sides have already filed multiple lawsuits.

The Biden campaign has been particularly aggressive in rounding up lawyers. At one point, Biden bragged that his campaign had already recruited 600 lawyers…

Joe Biden’s campaign is assembling hundreds of lawyers nationwide to monitor potential voting issues as part of its extensive voter protection efforts heading into the general election.

Speaking at a virtual fundraiser Wednesday, the presumptive Democratic nominee said his team has organized 600 lawyers and others across the country to “try to figure out why the chicanery is likely to take place.”

One of the fastest ways to ruin anything is to get lawyers involved.

I was once a lawyer, and so I know what I am talking about.

And I have a feeling that this election will end up in the hands of the lawyers after election night. I do not believe that either side is going to be willing to concede if the results are remotely close, and earlier this week Hillary Clinton actually said that Joe Biden should not concede “under any circumstances”…

“Joe Biden should not concede under any circumstances because I think this is going to drag out, and eventually I do believe he will win if we don’t give an inch and if we are as focused and relentless as the other side is,” Clinton said in an excerpt posted Tuesday.

That certainly sounds quite ominous.

On multiple occasions, President Trump has also indicated that he may challenge the outcome of the election, and one of the biggest things that he is concerned about are mail-in ballots. The following is what he told “Fox and Friends” not too long ago…

“Now with that being said, I have to tell you that if you go with this universal mail-in, where you send millions of votes–in California tens of millions of ballots being sent to everybody and their dogs, okay? Dogs are getting them, okay? People that have been dead for 25 years are getting them–you have to see what’s happening. Then you’re never going to have a fair election.”

In this case, I think that Trump has a very legitimate point.

In some states, millions of mail-in ballots are being sent out to voters whether the voters request them or not. That opens a door for all sorts of potential vote fraud, and this is something that alarms me greatly.

In this election, every single vote in the battleground states is going to matter, and the integrity of the voting process is of paramount importance.

At first, Joe Biden had built up impressive leads in many of the most important swing states, but now those leads are deteriorating. Just check out the following numbers that pollster Frank Luntz just posted on Twitter…

Swing state polls on August 25th:

Pennsylvania

• 2016: Hillary +9.2

• 2020: Biden +5.7

Michigan

• 2016: Hillary +9.0

• 2020: Biden +6.7

Wisconsin

• 2016: Hillary +11.5

• 2020: Biden +6.5

Florida

• 2016: Hillary +2.9

• 2020: Biden +4.8

Those numbers should definitely set off alarm bells for Democrats.

And today Real Clear Politics has posted four new battleground polls that show how much the race is shifting. One poll shows Biden up by only 3 points in Florida, another has him up by only 2 points in Arizona, a third has him up by only 1 point in North Carolina, and a fourth poll actually has Trump up by 1 point in Wisconsin.

Trump was definitely not supposed to win Wisconsin this time around, and so that should definitely be freaking Democrats out.

So why are the polls moving in Trump’s direction?

Well, it appears that all of the violence that is going on around the country is backfiring on the Democrats in a major way. Trump is perceived to be the “law and order candidate”, and Biden is making a massive political mistake by not strongly speaking out against the riots that are happening on a nightly basis.

According to one recent survey, 59 percent of voters say that violent crime is a “very important” factor in deciding who to vote for…

The bedlam is now reflected in the polls, with Americans becoming increasingly concerned about law and order.

“A sizable 59 percent of voters in the survey indicate that violent crime, which President Trump has framed as happening in Democrat-controlled cities, is a ‘very important’ factor in casting their ballots,” writes Rusty Weiss.

And Zogby Analytics has just released new numbers that seem to show that the chaos in our major cities is helping Trump significantly…

“As violent protests and violent crime continue to spike in cities like Chicago, Milwaukee New York City, and Portland, Trump’s standing with urban voters in large cities (59% at least somewhat approved/38% at least somewhat disapproved), and small cities (51% at least somewhat approved/49% at least somewhat disapproved) continues to climb higher.”

It truly is ironic what we are witnessing. All of these protesters think that they are promoting the cause of “social justice”, but their actions may be giving us four more years of Trump instead.

At this point, even CNN’s Don Lemon is realizing that Joe Biden’s inaction on these issues is moving the poll numbers…

“That’s all you. This is where I come in. We’ll get to that. But when you said it’s too little too late, I don’t know about that. I mean, we still have a lot of time left until election day. I do think that this —what you said was happening in Kenosha is a Rorschach test for the entire country. I think this is a blind spot for Democrats. I think Democrats are hoping this will go away, and it’s not going to go away.”

“I think maybe Joe Biden may be afraid to do it. I’m not sure. Maybe he won’t, maybe he is. He’s got to address it. He’s got to come out and talk about it. He’s got to do a speech like Barack Obama did about race. He’s got to come out and tell people that he’s going to deal with the issue of police reform in this country, and that’s what’s happening now is happening under Donald Trump’s watch. When he is the president, Kamala Harris is the vice president. Then they will take care of this problem. But guess what? The rioting has to stop. Chris, as you know, and I know it’s showing up in the polling, it’s showing up in focus groups. It is the only thing right now that is sticking.“

If the election had been held a couple of months ago, Joe Biden probably would have won by a large margin, but now everything is changing.

At this point it appears that we could have a very tight election with legal challenges that could last for months afterwards. If such a scenario plays out, that could definitely set the stage for the sort of civil unrest that I warn about in my new book.

Could you imagine the national temper tantrum that we would see if Trump has a very, very narrow lead after election night?

Of course the left will pull out every legal trick in the book in order to try to deny Trump a second term, and Trump has his own army of lawyers ready to fight back.

I have a feeling that things are going to get very, very ugly, and that is extremely unfortunate.

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

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.***

Primary Voting Results Clearly Show Which Direction America Is Heading

Elections have consequences, and the results that have been coming in from all over the country during this primary season are making it very clear where both major political parties are heading. For the Democrats, we have seen a number of progressive candidates win extremely impressive victories lately, and that includes knocking off a couple moderate Democrats that had been serving in Congress for a very long time. On the other side, conservative challengers have been soundly defeated by moderate Republicans over and over again. As funny as this may sound, both parties appear to be moving in the same direction at this point. Both parties appear to be moving to the left, and that has fundamental implications for the future of this nation.

This week, we witnessed a couple more examples which demonstrate how powerful the progressive movement has become. In 2018, radical leftist Rashida Tlaib squeaked out an incredibly close victory over moderate Democrat Brenda Jones in a primary contest in Michigan, but things were completely different for this year’s rematch.

With about 90 percent of the vote in, Tlaib had almost twice as many votes as Jones did…

Ms. Tlaib, 44, defeated Brenda Jones, 60, the president of the Detroit City Council, The Associated Press reported on Wednesday morning. With 90 percent of votes counted, Ms. Tlaib had 66 percent of the vote to Ms. Jones’s 34 percent.

Frankly, I was stunned by her margin of victory.

After all of the outrageous things that Tlaib has done and said over the past couple of years, it boggles the mind that there are so many people that would be willing to vote for her.

But this is where America is headed.

And considering the fact that she is in one of the most liberal districts in the country, there is absolutely no chance that Tlaib will be defeated in the general election.

Meanwhile, we just witnessed a progressive candidate pull off an absolutely spectacular upset down in Missouri.

Representative William Lacy Clay has served 10 terms in Congress, and prior to that his father had held the same seat going all the way back to 1969. But on Tuesday, Missouri voters decided to send a radical political activist named Cori Bush to Congress instead of him…

Cori Bush, a onetime homeless woman who led protests following a white police officer’s fatal shooting of a black 18-year-old in Ferguson, ousted longtime Rep. William Lacy Clay Tuesday in Missouri’s Democratic primary, ending a political dynasty that has spanned more than a half-century.

I don’t know how that could have possibly happened, but it did.

Bush’s victory is being compared to another stunning upset which happened last month in New York’s 16th Congressional District. Somehow, progressive Jamaal Bowman was able to defeat Representative Eliot Engel, and that result sent shockwaves through the Democratic establishment in Washington.

Engel has served in Congress for 16 terms, and he probably thought that he would hold on to that position for as long as he wished.

But the progressives came after him, and they were able to take him down.

And next week the progressives will have a couple more opportunities to score big wins…

Next week, squad member Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota will face a challenge from a well-funded opponent, Antone Melton-Meaux. On Sept. 1, progressive Alex Morse, the 31-year-old mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts, will try to knock off Rep. Richard Neal, one of the most powerful House Democrats.

On the Republican side, we just witnessed another strong conservative go down in flames.

On Tuesday, Roger Marshall crushed former Secretary of State Kris Kobach to win the Republican Senate primary in Kansas.

Kobach is deeply hated by the liberals in the media because of his firm stance against illegal immigration. During his time as Secretary of State, he pushed for a law “requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote”…

Kansas quietly filed its petition last week with the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate Kris Kobach’s signature policy requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab’s office announced in June their plans to file the petition with the high court after a federal judge struck down the law in 2018. That decision was upheld by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals this year.

What is wrong with that?

Doesn’t it just make sense that people should be able to prove that they are eligible to vote before they are allowed to vote?

But that got him on the bad side of a whole lot of people, and now his political career is probably done for good.

What happened to Kobach wouldn’t be so bad if conservatives were winning elsewhere, but that just isn’t happening, and the number of true conservatives in Congress has dwindled to a depressingly low number. At this point there is Rand Paul and a handful of others, and they are vastly outnumbered by the “moderates” in the Republican Party.

Of course there are plenty of Republicans that still use the term “conservative” to describe themselves, but their voting records suggest otherwise.

Just look at what has been going on during this COVID-19 pandemic. Republicans and Democrats have worked together to authorize all sorts of radical socialist programs, spending trillions of dollars and exploding the size of the national debt in the process. Meanwhile, yet again this year both parties voted to shower Planned Parenthood with hundreds of millions of dollars and to fully fund a whole host of other radical social engineering programs which promote the agenda of the radical left.

Just about every single bill that gets through Congress is an abomination. The reason why Ron Paul earned the nickname of “Dr. No” before he retired was because there were very, very few bills that he could actually vote yes on.

If those representing you in Congress vote yes on most of the bills that get approved, that is a clear indication that they need to be voted out as soon as possible.

Because if America stays on the path that it is currently on, there isn’t going to be an America.

Sadly, voices like mine are in the minority, and there is so much passion and energy on the left these days.

Americans seem to have decided on the direction that they would like to see this country go, but that road certainly does not lead anywhere good.

***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.***

46 Minutes Of Joe Biden Talking

The GOP has released a compilation of Joe Biden’s “greatest hits”, and I must admit that it is quite a powerful video.

Even many on the left believe that it was a huge mistake for Democrats to nominate Biden, because his cognitive skills are definitely not what they once were.

Joe Biden Is About To Pick His Running Mate, And That Choice Could Have Extremely Serious Implications For Our Future

Originally, I wasn’t going to write about Joe Biden’s search for a running mate, but I changed my mind. Most of the time running mate picks are of relatively little consequence as far as the election outcome is concerned, and many of those on tickets that do not ultimately win end up being forgotten by the public fairly rapidly. If you doubt this, just try to name the running mates of failed presidential candidates Bob Dole, Michael Dukakis and John Kerry off the top of your head. In fact, many of you that are reading this article probably cannot name Hillary Clinton’s running mate without looking it up. But this time is different.

In 2020, Joe Biden is very likely picking someone that will become the president of the United States.

And I am not talking about in eight years either. Over the past couple of years, Joe Biden has frequently made comments that indicate that he may not serve more than one term. The following comes from the Detroit News…

In an effort to ease concerns about his age, the 77-year-old presumptive Democratic nominee has said he wouldn’t seek reelection if his mental or physical health declined. He has also referred to himself as a “transition candidate,” acting as a bridge to a younger generation of leadership.

Biden is rarely known for sticking to a script, and the comments are evidence of his candid style. But they’re also contributing to intense speculation about who is best positioned to lead the party after him.

And considering the fact that he is currently 77 years old, there is absolutely no guarantee that he will even make it through a single term.

Of course the Biden campaign has been saying all of the right things about his health, and a recent three page health assessment described him as “healthy” and “vigorous”…

Dr. Kevin O’Connor of The George Washington University released a three-page medical summary of Biden’s health on Tuesday at the request of his patient, in which he described Biden as a “healthy, vigorous, 77-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief.”

But everyone can clearly see that the Joe Biden of 2020 is definitely not the old Joe Biden.

I was on YouTube recently and a Joe Biden fundraising ad popped up before the video I was going to view, and out of curiosity I decided to watch it. As I watched his pitch, I was stunned by his inability to get the words out. This was a recorded ad, so his team could have redone it over and over again until they got it perfect, and apparently the version that I saw was the best that they could come up with.

Of course there isn’t anything wrong with declining in our capabilities as we get older. It happens to every generation, and it is going to happen to all of our leaders eventually.

But with Joe Biden at such a clearly advanced state of decline, many believe that it was a huge mistake for the Democrats to nominate him. On his podcast, Joe Rogan made this point very bluntly earlier this year…

That’s the problem the Democratic Party is having right now with that Joe Biden guy. You guys have to be able to call it out. You can’t let this slide, because everybody else sees it, and Trump is going to eat him alive,” Rogan said. “He’s going to eat that guy alive.”

“The guy can barely remember what he’s talking about while he’s talking,” Rogan said. “I’m looking at this like a medical condition.”

If the election was held today, the polls indicate that Joe Biden would have a really good chance of beating Donald Trump.

And if Biden wins and he can’t make it through the next four years, that would mean that his running mate would become the next president of the United States.

In fact, there are some people that are speculating that there is a possibility that Joe Biden may not even make it to election day in November.

So whoever Biden picks as his running mate may have to fill his shoes sooner rather than later.

At this point, it appears that Kamala Harris, Karen Bass and Susan Rice are the three leading contenders. The following comes from CNN…

In more than two dozen interviews with CNN in recent days, members of Congress, top Democratic donors, Biden allies and others close to the vice presidential vetting process said California Rep. Karen Bass, the 66-year-old chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, has gained real traction in the late stage of the search. Amid furious last-minute lobbying and speculation about Biden’s historic decision, California Sen. Kamala Harris and Susan Rice, Barack Obama’s former national security adviser, are also believed to be among the most serious contenders.

Personally, I think that the choice is going to be either Harris or Bass based on the buzz that I am hearing.

Harris has been widely viewed as the favorite throughout this process, but Bass seems to have picked up a lot of momentum right here at the end.

In either case, Biden is going to face a lot of criticism for his choice. The previous remarks that Bass made about Fidel Castro are starting to get a lot of attention, and her links to communist organizations go back for decades.

As for Harris, her big problem is that a lot of people just don’t like her. “Likability” is one of the most important traits that a politician in America can have today, and that is one area where she really comes up short. It is the big reason why her presidential campaign completely flopped, and it is definitely a factor in why so many top Democrats have been publicly lobbying against her.

If for some reason Biden was not able to make it to election day, all of a sudden either Harris or Bass would be Trump’s opponent, and needless to say that would dramatically shift the outlook of the race.

On the other hand, if Biden does make it to November and he is able to win, there is a very good chance that he will not make it all the way through his first term.

And that would mean that “Vice-President Harris” or “Vice-President Bass” would become the leader of the free world.

The last time a vice-president ascended to the presidency without being elected was when Gerald Ford replaced Richard Nixon in 1974.

We could soon see it happen again, and considering the fact that our nation is moving into extremely troubled times, such a transition could occur at a very critical moment in our history.

This choice by Joe Biden could have extremely serious implications for our future, and from what I am hearing his pick is coming very soon.

***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.***

When Pelosi Ripped Trump’s Speech In Half, Was It A Harbinger Of What Is About To Happen To America During This Election?

It is a rare thing to witness a truly iconic moment happen on live television, but that is precisely what tens of millions of Americans had the opportunity to do on Tuesday night. At the conclusion of President Trump’s State of the Union address, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped her copy of Trump’s speech in half in front of a nationwide audience. We have never seen anything like that before in the entire history of this country, but of course so many unprecedented things have taken place during Trump’s presidency. Pelosi is claiming that she did not plan in advance to rip the speech in half, and at that moment she probably wasn’t doing much thinking at all, but it is a moment that will live in all of our memories for the rest of our lives. Pelosi shocked the entire nation by tearing the speech in two, but more importantly I believe that her action was a perfect metaphor for what is about to happen to America. We are more deeply divided than we have ever been, and during this election season I believe that we will see very frightening eruptions of anger and frustration all across the United States.

Nobody expected Trump and Pelosi to be friendly with one another on Tuesday night, and Trump immediately made national headlines when he refused to shake Pelosi’s hand…

Pelosi omitted the customary language about it being a high privilege and a distinct honor to introduce the president. Trump then handed the traditional copies of his speech to Vice President Mike Pence and to Pelosi, but when she reached out to shake his hand, he turned his back on her.

If you have not seen video of that moment yet, you can watch it happen right here.

Considering the fact that Pelosi has been leading the charge to impeach Trump for the last several months, it really wasn’t a surprise that he didn’t want to shake her hand.

But when Pelosi ripped up Trump’s speech in front of the entire nation right after Trump concluded his remarks, it surprised everyone. The following comes from USA Today…

In a remarkable display, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tore up the text of Trump’s speech and tossed it aside before Trump had left. Pelosi later waved the ripped pieces in the air, and audience members left in the chamber and public-viewing gallery could see Trump’s prominent signature.

WATCH: At the end of President Trump’s State of the Union address, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tears up her copy of the speech. #SOTU pic.twitter.com/sDEkNBD0DW

— PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) February 5, 2020

I think that Pelosi will later deeply regret doing that, but I also believe that it will go down as one of the most iconic moments of 2020.

Following the speech a reporter asked her why she ripped Trump’s speech in half, and this was her reply…

“Because it was the courteous thing to do… It was the courteous thing to do considering the alternative.”

So precisely what would “the alternative” have been?

I wish that somebody would have asked Pelosi that question.

Subsequently, the official White House Twitter account harshly criticized Pelosi for her unprecedented gesture…

Speaker Pelosi just ripped up:

One of our last surviving Tuskegee Airmen.

The survival of a child born at 21 weeks.

The mourning families of Rocky Jones and Kayla Mueller.

A service member’s reunion with his family.

That’s her legacy.

Of course the left was absolutely thrilled by what Pelosi did, and they can’t say enough good things about her right now.

Sadly, this is yet another example of how deeply divided we are as a nation.

When Pelosi tore those pieces of paper in half, I believe that it was symbolic of what will happen to our entire country.

In other words, I believe that it is possible that we may have just witnessed what is known as a “harbinger”. The following is how that word is defined by Merriam-Webster’s dictionary…

: something that foreshadows a future event : something that gives an anticipatory sign of what is to come

During the 2020 election season, America is literally going to be torn in half. Right now, many Democrats absolutely hate President Trump, his family and his supporters, and that hatred is only going to intensify as we get closer to next November.

On the other side, many Republicans absolutely hate Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and all of their supporters, and that hatred will also intensify as we get closer to next November.

No matter who wins the election, the coming months are not going to be pretty. In fact, I believe that we are about to witness the most chaotic election season in American history.

And once the election is over, a large portion of the country will not be willing to accept the result. So I actually expect the aftermath of the election to be even worse than the election season itself. We are on a very dangerous path, and I cringe when I think about what is coming.

To get an idea of where we stand at this moment, just consider the results of a recent Gallup survey…

According to Gallup, the 82-point partisan gap between Republican approval of the job Trump is doing (89%) and Democratic approval (7%) is the largest in the 74-year history of the poll. That gap breaks the previous record of 79 points that Trump set in his second year in office, in 2018. (Trump’s first year in office, 2017, was the sixth most partisan in history.)

But of course this trend did not begin when Trump entered the White House.

In fact, Gallup says that the “10 most partisan years in history” have all been within the past 16 years…

The 10 most partisan years in history have all occurred in the last 16 years, as measured by Gallup. Those 10 years include years from the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama as well as Trump.

“There have always been partisan gaps in ratings of president, just not to the degree seen over the past two decades,” wrote Gallup’s Jeffrey M. Jones in an analysis of the data.

No matter who wins next November, it isn’t going to heal this very deep divide.

Instead, we are about to see America ripped apart like never before.

So even though Nancy Pelosi didn’t even realize what she was doing, I think that she perfectly foreshadowed what is about to happen.

Very dark days are approaching, and the United States of America will never be the same again.

About the Author: I am a voice crying out for change in a society that generally seems content to stay asleep. My name is Michael Snyder and I am the publisher of 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 have written four books that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing those books you help to support my work. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but due to government regulations I need those that republish my articles to include this “About the Author” section with each article. In order to comply with those government regulations, I need to tell you that the controversial opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the websites where my work is republished. This article may contain opinions on political matters, but it is not intended to promote the candidacy of any particular political candidate. 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. Those responding to this article by making comments are solely responsible for their viewpoints, and those viewpoints do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of Michael Snyder or the operators of the websites where my work is republished. 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.

A New Survey Has Found The Upcoming Election Is A “Significant Source Of Stress” For 56% Of U.S. Adults

This is definitely going to be an election season to remember. For most Democrats, four more years of Donald Trump in the White House is a scenario that is absolutely unimaginable, and they will be fighting like mad to keep that from happening. But of course Trump supporters are equally determined to keep him in power, and many of them are not even willing to consider the possibility that a Democrat could potentially win. If you thought that the last election was contentious, just wait until you see what happens this time around. In the end, close to half the country is going to be bitterly, bitterly disappointed, and they will be in no mood to be governed by whoever ultimately wins. Of course the mainstream media and many of our national leaders will be gleefully stirring the pot the entire time, but when things finally explode they won’t take any responsibility. We have never seen this much anger, frustration and hatred in our political process, and there is no way that this is going to end well.

To illustrate the points that I just made, I would like to share a couple of recent surveys with you.

The first comes from the American Psychological Association. According to their survey, the upcoming election is a “significant source of stress” for 56 percent of all U.S. adults…

According to the annual “Stress in America” survey from the American Psychological Association, 56% of U.S. adults identified 2020 as a “significant” stressor.

That is an increase from the contentious 2016 match-up, when respondents were asked the same question just three months before the election, and 52% of adults reported that the presidential election was incredibly stressful.

A couple of decades ago, most of us wouldn’t even be thinking much about presidential politics at this point.

But these days covering politics has become big business for the major news networks, and that has especially been true since Trump entered the White House.

And considering how much negative coverage there is of Trump, it probably shouldn’t be surprising that the survey also found that Democrats are far more stressed about the upcoming election than Republicans are…

According to the poll, the topic of the upcoming election is proving to be more stressful for survey respondents who identified as Democrats, compared to those who identified as Republicans, by nearly 25%.

To many on the left, it will literally feel like the end of the world if Trump wins again, because they are constantly being prompted by the mainstream media to feel such negative emotions about Trump.

One other thing that the survey discovered is that over half of the respondents felt “that this is the lowest point in U.S. history they can remember”, and my guess is that it was mostly Democrats who responded that way.

But it isn’t just the politicians in Washington that we don’t like. A different survey found that Americans increasingly consider those that belong to a different political party to literally be evil…

“For example, 55% of Republicans say Democrats are ‘more immoral’ when compared with other Americans; 47% of Democrats say the same about Republicans,” Pew reports. “Majorities in both parties say those in the opposing party do not share their nonpolitical values and goals.”

That echoes language from a paper published earlier this year that found over 40 percent of Americans say the political opposition is “downright evil.” Against such evil opponents, “violence would be justified” if the opposing party wins the 2020 presidential election, according to 18 percent of Democrats and 13 percent of Republicans.

Yikes!

Numbers like that should send a chill through you, because they have very ominous implications for our future.

The ironic thing is that our politicians in Washington are mostly moderates near the middle of the current political spectrum. In most cases, they are more alike than they are different, but it is true that the two parties really do seem to enjoy fighting with one another.

But in most cases they are not actually fighting over deep ideological issues. It is very rare for any of our politicians to take a truly principled stand, and most of them that attempt to do so usually end up folding rather quickly.

Yes, the fighting has gotten a lot more intense in recent years, but all this time the actual results that we have gotten out of Washington have stayed pretty much the same.

Unfortunately, most Americans don’t realize this, because they are so caught up in the strife, bitterness, discord and resentment that they see on camera. All of the drama can be quite entertaining at times, but it is not productive.

Those on the left are systematically being trained to hate those on the right, and those on the right are systematically being trained to hate those on the left.

But whatever happened to “loving your enemy” and “praying for those that persecute you”?

I am not suggesting that we should ever compromise on our most important values or that most of those “representing” us in Washington deserve to be there.

However, if we do not learn how to love those that disagree with us we are never going to make it.

For those of you on the right, can you honestly say that you love Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?

And for those of you on the left, can you honestly say that you love Donald Trump, his family and his supporters?

The Democrats are constantly preaching against “hate groups”, but the ironic thing is that they have become one giant hate group.

I am reminded of a dream that I recently had. In this particular dream, I was seeing things from the perspective of a member of the Trump family…

In my dream I was a member of the Trump family. I do not know which member of the Trump family I was, but I clearly understood that I was related to President Trump somehow. Obviously I am not a member of the Trump family in real life, but for the purposes of this dream I was given that unique perspective. I do not know if I was a member of the nuclear family or a member of the extended family, but Trump was in my dream and he was among the members of the Trump family that was listening to my message. In my dream I also understood that I did not have as much favor with Trump as other members of the family, and so while it was true that he listened to my message, it was also true that he was not overly receptive to it.

Quite a bit happened in the dream, but the thing that stood out to me more than anything else was how hated we were. It really had an impact on me emotionally, because I was stunned by how much people hated Trump and his family. Here is more from the dream…

Prior to receiving the warning, my dream had been mostly about interactions between Trump’s family and members of the city. I don’t remember the things that were said, but I don’t think that they were that important anyway. What I came away with was an extremely clear impression of how hated we were. I am sure that there must have been some people out there that loved us, but in the dream I did not experience that. Instead, I felt overwhelming rejection and hatred to such a degree that it really stunned me.

Do Democrats really believe that they are going to heal America by greatly hating Trump, his family and his supporters?

And do Republicans really believe that hating those on the left will turn our country in the right direction?

In the end, what we really need is a whole lot more love. Unfortunately, that is not the direction that both sides of the political spectrum are currently heading.

They Said What? Here Are The 13 Nuttiest Quotes From Wednesday’s Democratic Presidential Debate

Are these really the best and brightest that the Democratic Party has to offer? It was going to take a monumental effort to top Marianne Williamson’s level of craziness on Tuesday night, but on Wednesday there were several Democratic contenders that gave it their best shot. Kirsten Gillibrand and Jay Inslee were particularly unhinged, and Joe Biden “repeatedly stumbled over numbers and phrases” during an incoherent performance that will be remembered for a long time to come. The Democrats may have more than 20 candidates running, but none of them looks like a president at this point. Perhaps that will change, or perhaps a stronger candidate will enter the race eventually, but right now Democratic strategists cannot be feeling too good about their chances of winning the 2020 election. Of course Republicans are facing some very serious challenges of their own, but at least they don’t have to worry about a powerhouse candidate on the other side.

After what we witnessed on Wednesday night, there are several candidates that should simply pack up and go home, because their performances were downright embarrassing. The following are the 13 nuttiest quotes from Wednesday’s Democratic presidential debate…

#13 Kirsten Gillibrand: “The first thing that I’m going to do when I’m president is I’m going to Clorox the Oval Office.”

#12 Jay Inslee: “Our house is on fire. We have to stop using coal in ten years and we need a president to do it or it won’t get done. Get off coal. Save this country and the planet.”

#11 Joe Biden: “Obamacare is working.”

#10 Julian Castro: “I don’t want to make America anything again. I don’t want us to go backward. We’re not going back to the past. We’re not going back where we came from. We’re going to move forward.”

#9 Andrew Yang: “We need to do the opposite of much of what we’re doing right now and the opposite of Donald Trump is an Asian man who likes math.”

#8 Kamala Harris: “What we need is someone who is going to be on that debate stage with Donald Trump and defeat him by being able to prosecute the case against four more years. And let me tell you we’ve got a long rap sheet.”

#7 Cory Booker: “We have a real crisis in our country, and the crisis is Donald Trump — but not only Donald Trump, I have a frustration that sometimes people are saying the only thing they want is to beat Donald Trump. Well, that is the floor and not the ceiling.”

#6 Bill de Blasio: “If we’re going to beat Donald Trump, this has to be a party that stands for something. The party of labor unions. This has to be the party of universal health care. This has to be the party that’s not afraid to say out loud we’re going to tax the hell out of the wealthy. And when we do that, Donald Trump right on cue will call us socialists. Here’s what I’ll say to him: ‘Donald, you’re the real socialist.'”

#5 Jay Inslee: “And number two — number two, we have to make America what it’s always been, a place of refuge. We got to boost the number of people we accept. I’m proud to have been the first governor, saying send us your Syrian refugees. I proud to have the first governor to stand up against Donald Trump’s Muslim ban. I’m proud to have sued him 21 times and beat him 21 times in a row. I’m ready for November 2020.”

#4 Andrew Yang: “Raise your hand in the crowd if you’ve seen stores closing where you live. It is not just you. Amazon is closing 30% of America’s stores and malls.”

#3 Cory Booker: “There’s a saying in my community that you’re dipping into the Kool-Aid and you don’t even know the flavor.”

#2 Kirsten Gillibrand: “I think as a white woman of privilege who is a US senator running for president of the united States, it is my responsibility to lift up those voices that aren’t being listened to. And I can talk to those white women in the suburbs and explain to them what white privilege actually is.”

#1 Jay Inslee: “We have one last chance. When you have one chance in life, you take it. Think about this. Literally the survival of humanity on this planet in civilization is in the hands of the next president. And we have to have a leader who will do what is necessary to save us. That includes making this the top priority of the next presidency.”

Sadly, it is quite likely that one of these individuals will be the next president of the United States. That is quite a depressing thought, especially when you consider the path that this country is currently on.

Perhaps the most interesting moment of the night came when a group of protesters attempted to interrupt the debate…

Protesters hit night two of the second Democratic presidential debate with a group of them removed Wednesday night after they demanded New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio fire Daniel Pantaleo, the officer who put Eric Garner, an unarmed black man, in a deadly chokehold in 2014, and a woman interrupted Joe Biden to chant about immigrants being deported.

‘Stop all deportations on Day One,’ read the large banner the woman unfurled in the hall of the Fox Theater while Biden and Julian Castro were debating immigration policy.

I think that we are going to see much more of this sort of thing in the months ahead, because anger and frustration are reaching a boiling point all over America right now.

This is likely to be the most chaotic election cycle that we have witnessed since at least 1968, and it isn’t going to be pretty.

I wanted to mention one last thing before I end this article. Once again, we had a debate where Joe Biden got significantly more talking time than anyone else and Andrew Yang received the least. The following comes from CNN…

The second night of CNN’s 2020 Democratic debate just wrapped, and by the end of the night, former Vice President Joe Biden had the most speaking time, with 21 minutes and 1 second.

Sen. Kamala Harris spoke for 17 minutes and 43 seconds. Meanwhile, businessman Andrew Yang had the least amount of talking time, with 8 minutes and 38 seconds.

It probably won’t ever happen, but it would be nice to see at least one debate where there is a level playing field for all the candidates.

Certain candidates are clearly being pushed to the forefront, and others are clearly being marginalized, and we are just supposed to pretend that it isn’t happening.

Our political system is deeply, deeply broken, and it is getting worse with every election cycle.

About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.

Pete Buttigieg Is Drawing The Same Sorts Of Crowds That Barack Obama Did During His First Presidential Run

When I originally heard that a small town mayor named Pete Buttigieg was running for president, I truthfully didn’t think that he had a prayer of actually being a serious contender for the Democratic nomination. And yet here we are just a few months later, and he is making it happen. It is expected that eventually there will be at least 20 Democrats running for president, but right now Buttigieg is creating more buzz than anyone else. Without a doubt, progressives are excited that he is the first openly gay man to ever run for president, and that is definitely helping him with those on the left. But in order to be a serious contender for the presidency, more is required than that, and Buttigieg appears to possess some very keen political instincts. He also appears to have a unique ability to deeply connect with people, and that should be very frightening for those that wish to keep him out of the White House.

Buttigieg is only 37 years old, but over that short period of time he has put together a resume that will serve him well on the campaign trail. He was a Rhodes scholar, he served in the Afghanistan war, he speaks seven languages, he owns two rescue dogs and he even plays the piano.

Of course not too long ago it would have been unthinkable for someone like Buttigieg to run for president, and this is yet more evidence that demonstrates how dramatically things have shifted in this country.

And he is drawing crowds that are reminiscent of the sorts of crowds that Barack Obama was drawing during his first presidential run.

For example, on Tuesday night the Buttigieg campaign was expecting about 50 people to show up for a town hall event in Iowa, but 1,650 showed up instead…

The momentum of presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg’s campaign forced a Tuesday night town hall outdoors in Des Moines, Iowa, to accommodate a much larger than expected crowd.

The campaign expected about 50 people for its town hall at the gymnasium at Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in Des Moines. The school estimated 1,650 people showed up.

Needless to say, many of his Democratic rivals would kill for that kind of enthusiasm.

And at an event in New Hampshire in early April, the parking lot was half filled with people that couldn’t get in the door…

By the time Pete Buttigieg arrived at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire, on the night of April 5, the space was at capacity and the crowd had swelled to fill half the parking lot. It was drizzling, but word quickly spread that Buttigieg would speak before heading inside, so those denied admission stayed put, preparing to lift up their phones to document this moment in the twilight, when the suddenly famous mayor of a small city in a state they’d probably only ever visit by accident or under force would make the case for his campaign to be the savior who delivers America from President Donald Trump.

Initially, “Mayor Pete” was polling at less than one percent nationally.

But in recent weeks the numbers have really been moving. He is still only in the high single digits nationally, but he came in third in the most recent national poll.

Perhaps even more importantly, he is raising an impressive amount of money for this stage in the game…

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg raised an astonishing $7 million in the first quarter of his long-shot presidential campaign, he revealed on Monday.

‘This is just a preliminary analysis, but our team’s initial report shows we raised over $7 million dollars in Q1 of this year. We (you) are out-performing expectations at every turn. I’ll have a more complete analysis later, but until then: a big thank you to all our supporters,’ he wrote on Twitter.

Some are criticizing Buttigieg for being too far to the left, but the truth is that you could say that about every other Democrat that is running for president too.

Ultimately, our leaders are a reflection of who we are as a nation, and all of the numbers indicate that America has been moving left for a very long time.

Let me give you just one example. Back in 2006, a survey found that just 43 percent of all Americans would be either “enthusiastic” or “comfortable” with an LGBT candidate for president, but today that number has shot up to 68 percent…

That year, just five percent said they’d be enthusiastic about an LGBT candidate, according to an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. An additional 38 percent said they’d be “comfortable.”

These days? A majority of Americans say they’re just fine with a gay candidate.

A combined 68 percent are either enthusiastic (14 percent) or comfortable (54 percent) with a candidate who is gay or lesbian.

Needless to say, you can win a presidential election with a whole lot less than 68 percent of the vote.

Everywhere you go, people are having conversations about “Mayor Pete”, and this even includes many of our churches…

“I like Mayor Pete because the way he talks about being openly gay shows strength of character.”

I heard this comment not at a political rally or an informal gathering of the like-minded, but in church. At my church, to be precise, during coffee hour following the weekly service. When the congregants sitting around the table in our church basement heard this opinion about the Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, they all nodded in agreement.

Right now, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden are the front-runners, but Pete Buttigieg is gaining on them.

It is shaping up to be a very interesting election cycle, and pro-Trump forces will have quite a battle on their hands if “Mayor Pete” ends up being the Democratic nominee…

Again? Establishment Democrats Are Plotting To Sabotage Bernie Sanders Because They Are Scared Trump Would Beat Him

Bernie Sanders is on a roll, and this is absolutely terrifying many establishment Democrats. He has raised far more money that any of the other Democratic candidates, he just took the lead in a major national poll, and a Fox News town hall featuring Sanders was just watched by nearly 2.6 million viewers. You would think that the Democratic establishment would be thrilled to see such enthusiasm for one of their presidential candidates, but instead they are totally freaking out because they don’t want him to be the nominee. On Tuesday, the New York Times published an article entitled “‘Stop Sanders’ Democrats Are Agonizing Over His Momentum”, and in that article we are told that “his critics are chiefly motivated by a fear that nominating an avowed socialist would all but ensure Mr. Trump a second term”. And of course those critics are right. If Sanders is the nominee, that will give Trump the best chance of winning again in 2020. It would be a complete and total nightmare for the Democratic Party, and so in order to avoid that scenario some Democratic operatives are already plotting how to sabotage the Sanders campaign.

Right now there are 17 Democrats running for president, and it looks like Joe Biden will jump into the race very soon.

But most of the other candidates have not gained any traction at all, and a brand new poll that just came out actually shows Sanders beating Biden…

Sen. Bernie Sanders finished ahead of Joe Biden in the first major national poll of the year that did not find the former vice president leading the pack of potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidates.

When asked whom they would support from a list of 20 candidates – including “someone else” – 29% named Sanders, and 24% named Biden in an Emerson College poll released Monday. They were trailed by South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who was the pick of 9% of likely Democratic primary voters.

What is even more important is the trajectory of the support for the two candidates. Biden’s support appears to be dropping because of his history of “inappropriate touching”, and support for Sanders has risen 12 points since February…

“Biden has seen his support drop. In February, he led Sanders 27% to 17%, and in March, the two were tied at 26%. Now, Sanders has a 5-point lead,” said Spencer Kimball, director of Emerson Polling.

If Biden ends up flopping as a candidate, establishment Democrats are going to be in quite a quandary because nobody else is even polling in double digits at this point. Perhaps someone like Pete Buttigieg will end up catching fire, but there is no guarantee that will happen.

As it stands today, there is a very good chance that Bernie Sanders could be the Democratic nominee, and many establishment Democrats are trying to figure a way out of this mess…

From canapé-filled fund-raisers on the coasts to the cloakrooms of Washington, mainstream Democrats are increasingly worried that their effort to defeat President Trump in 2020 could be complicated by Mr. Sanders, in a political scenario all too reminiscent of how Mr. Trump himself seized the Republican nomination in 2016.

How, some Democrats are beginning to ask, do they thwart a 70-something candidate from outside the party structure who is immune to intimidation or incentive and wields support from an unwavering base, without simply reinforcing his “the establishment is out to get me”’ message — the same grievance Mr. Trump used to great effect?

Of course if Sanders supporters get the impression that the nominating process is being rigged against their guy again, that could cause a full-blown civil war in the Democratic Party.

Needless to say, Republicans would absolutely love that.

But despite that danger, establishment Democratic operatives such as David Brock are publicly talking about sabotaging Sanders…

“There’s a growing realization that Sanders could end up winning this thing, or certainly that he stays in so long that he damages the actual winner,” said David Brock, the liberal organizer, who said he has had discussions with other operatives about an anti-Sanders campaign and believes it should commence “sooner rather than later.”

Once this New York Times story came out, it was inevitable that there would be a tremendous amount of backlash from Bernie supporters.

For example, Bernie supporter Katherine Krueger very quickly released a response piece entitled “I’m Going to Have a Rage Stroke Over This Story About Dem Elites Trying to Take Bernie Out”…

I’m spent. I want nothing from these people; in fact, I’d prefer they retire from politics entirely for their role in losing what was arguably the most winnable presidential election in modern history. Neera Tanden might punch me in the chest for saying this, but that’s OK!

It’s insanely telling that the people featured in this story—who call themselves “progressives,” despite being wedded to deeply middle-of-the-road centrist policies—are so threatened by a candidate who, after being screwed by them in 2016, isn’t inclined to make concessions to the vast, useless apparatus of consultants and donors that they represent. Of course they want to stop Sanders. He’s sworn off big money, has actual progressive policy ideas, and is thumbing his nose at scolds like Tanden and her cronies! If the voters choose Bernie, he should be the nominee. End of story. If you’re the kind of person who would tack a “but,” onto the end of that sentence, you’re probably more wedded to rewriting the perceived wrongs of 2016 than actually taking back the White House in 2020.

The fact that Bernie Sanders has so much support shows how much America has moved to the left in 2019. He represents just about the opposite of everything that our founders believed in, but a large percentage of the nation is embracing him anyway.

But could a self-described socialist actually go all the way and win the entire thing?

Probably not, and that is why establishment Democrats are so freaked out right now.

There is still plenty of time, and a lot can change in the coming months. But at this moment, many are describing Sanders as the front-runner…

“Right now, he is the front-runner,” said Karine Jean-Pierre, the chief public affairs officer for MoveOn, a progressive group. “He is leading in the fundraising. He is leading in the polling — except for Biden, who has not jumped in yet. … Bernie’s start has been impressive. Clearly his base is still with him and still excited.”

Of course there is one Democrat that would beat Bernie very easily, but she has insisted over and over that she is not running.

However, the stronger the Sanders campaign gets, the louder the calls for her to run will become.

Mark Zuckerberg, The Rock, Katy Perry And Oprah Winfrey Are All Thinking Of Running For President

Donald Trump has proven that you don’t have to be a career politician to successfully run for president, and so now a number of top celebrities are actually seriously thinking about running against him in 2020. Unless Hillary Clinton runs again, the Democrats really don’t have an obvious choice, and so this next election cycle presents a unique opportunity for outsider candidates that may want to test the political waters. In politics, timing is everything, and for celebrities at the peak of their popularity the 2020 election may be their best and only shot at the highest office in the land.

One name that keeps coming up over and over again is Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. As Salon has detailed, he is already behaving very much like a presidential candidate…

Zuckerberg recently started his “personal challenge for 2017,” which is focused on meeting individuals in every state. Just last week Zuckerberg visited a Ford factory in Michigan and made an unexpected visit to Ohio where he was hosted by a family of Democrats that voted for Donald Trump, according to the Guardian. A few days later Zuckerberg was on the move to Indiana where he met with members of a fire department in Elkhart, and then he finished his trip in Wisconsin. He said he needs to visit about 30 states to complete the challenge by the end of the year.

David Plouffe, who served as campaign manager for Barack Obama, “joined the philanthropic Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, to lead policy and advocacy. Other politicians from both parties have also joined the organization,” according to Vanity Fair.

Zuckerberg also recently backtracked on his stance as an atheist. “I was raised Jewish and then I went through a period where I questioned things, but now I believe religion is very important,” Zuckerberg said. Of course, it’s quite difficult for someone to run for president and not believe in a God.

Because Facebook has become so immensely powerful, there are some that would suggest that going to the White House would actually be a step down for Zuckerberg.

So far, he seems to be the most serious of the “celebrity candidates”, but another that is getting quite a lot of attention right now is “The Rock” Dwayne Johnson. During a recent interview with GQ, he said that a run for president was “a real possibility”…

So, after all that consideration, Johnson doesn’t hesitate when I ask him whether he honestly might one day give up his life as the highest-paid movie star on earth—which is unquestionably easier, more fun, and more lucrative than being president of the United States—in order to run for office. “I think that it’s a real possibility,” he says solemnly.

And this is not the first time he has made such a statement. Even before the 2016 election, Johnson was openly talking about a political career…

Last summer, Johnson, who was the highest paid actor of 2016, bringing home a whopping $64.5 million, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” co-host Michael Strahan that a political career is “very real” to him.

The “Baywatch” star said the idea of him becoming commander in chief “has become a legit thing to some people.” He said he will take the “temperature of the American people” as “time goes on.”

“If it is a very real, overwhelming, positive, strong, ‘We want you to run for president,’ and if I felt that I can step up to the plate and become a tremendous leader for our country and make a real difference and make change, I would do it,” he said at the time.

Of course if he continues to make more than 60 million dollars a year, it may be difficult to throw all of that away for the world of politics.

Katy Perry is another name that Democrats are throwing around right now. She was more involved in Hillary Clinton’s campaign than just about any other major celebrity, and a message that she posted on Instagram has many of her followers wondering if Perry might step up to the plate herself in 2020…

Perry was a constant presence on the campaign trail with Hillary Clinton, campaigning for the eventual Democratic nominee before the primaries began.

And perhaps all that political chatter got her thinking — why don’t I run for office myself? In July 2015, she posted an Instagram with Bill Clinton and George W. Bush with the caption “42, 43, 46?!”

If Perry were to run for president, one thing is quite likely: She’d run on a pro-Planned Parenthood platform. The singer donated $10,000 to the organization after the 2016 election.

Many liberals would love to see “the first female president” in 2020, and a lot of them are suggesting that Oprah Winfrey would be an ideal candidate. In fact, Michael Moore suggested that she would be an excellent candidate just one week after the election…

“Democrats would be better off if they ran Oprah or Tom Hanks … why don’t we run beloved people?” Moore told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

“We have so many of them,” he said. “The Republicans do this — they run Reagan and the Terminator and other people.” It was a reference to former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as former President Ronald Reagan.

“Why don’t we run somebody that the American people love and are really drawn to, and that are smart and have good politics and all that?” Moore said.

And remarks that Oprah made during an interview with Bloomberg’s David Rubenstein did nothing to dampen speculation about 2020…

RUBENSTEIN: Have you ever thought that given the popularity you have—we haven’t broken the glass ceiling yet for women—that you could actually run for president and actually be elected?

WINFREY: I actually never thought– never considered the question, even the possibility. I just thought, oh, oh.

RUBENSTEIN: Because it’s clear you don’t need government experience to be elected president of the United States.

WINFREY: That’s what I thought. I thought, ‘Oh gee, I don’t have the experience, I don’t know enough.’ Now I’m thinking oh, oh.

But of course you don’t have to run for president to get involved with national politics. Just this week we learned that actor Antonio Sabato Jr. has decided to run for Congress as a Republican…

Actor Antonio Sabato Jr has decided to run for Congress after claiming he was blacklisted by Hollywood producers for his public support of President Donald Trump.

Sabato, 45, will challenge US House Representative Julia Brownley, a Democrat representing the Westlake Village area in California, in the 2018 election according to documents filed with the Federal Election Commission on Monday.

His choice to run was confirmed by Republican strategist Charles Moran, according to the Los Angeles Times.

If they can do it, why can’t we?

Is there still room for ordinary citizens to step forward in this day and age, or do you have to be wealthy and powerful to run for office?

We can’t just sit back and wait for someone else to change the direction of our nation. If we truly want to make a difference, now is the time for good men and good women all over the country to step up and take action.

(Originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog)