Close Race?

Nope. Not really. Donald Trump is about to suffer a humiliating defeat — an ass kicking his own people must surely see coming. No? I know what you must be thinking: The polls say the race is neck and neck!

But this is not true.

All media outlets are owned by major corporations that exit for the sole purpose of extracting wealth from the American people — the only reason corporations exist. They also happen to own the same polls they are pointing to as though they are independent, objective, non-partisan numbers. They are not.

Presidential elections are an even more profitable media event than Christmas for the networks, so making sure you believe the race is close keeps you anxiously watching the news. If the race is lop-sided, why would anyone bother watching? They want a close horse race, and that’s what they will present, whether it’s true or not. They will keep telling you the horse race is close, while continuously presenting polls to convince you that it really is. The numbers they will show you will be close enough to be semi-believable, lest you suspect their lies. Close, but always showing the incoherent Trump slightly ahead in carefully selected states. Personally, I am convinced Ms Harris is ahead by ten to fifteen percentage points with people who are certain to vote …and that would be me: I have already voted in thirteen presidential elections and will make my vote for Kamala Harris number fourteen. Am I saying that the polls are juiced?

Damn right I am. If you’ve ever taken a college-level statistics course, you know that pollsters frame their questions in such as way as to yield whatever answers they want to see. The talking heads will present a disingenuous reading; but behind closed boardroom doors, the corporations will always support an authoritarian strongman like Donald Trump they can manipulate or buy outright. No regulations or taxes? Is that good for corporate profits? Duh.

So if you wonder about the veracity of the news polls, ask yourself: Can media personalities like Steve Kornacki actually solve conditional inferential statistics problems? Could Mr. Kornacki apply partial differential equations with linear algebra passages, imaginary numbers (i), or confidence analysis like a real statistician could? I doubt it. Is polling math really that difficult by comparison? I doubt it. But even if the news anchors can, you and I both know that they are going to read whatever script they are handed him before the show — it will be the corporate party line. That’s what passes for journalism these days. So here’s my own party line:

I predict a landslide for Ms Harris in spite of the media polls. I am going to vote to help make that a certainty. If we can also manage to rid our country of a dangerous cancer like the so-called “Freedom Caucus” at the same time …so much the better. The weasels on the far-right edge of the radical Republican Party — whose members, I suspect, are funded by offshore shell company accounts funded by foreign governments — could be swept away in a single election cycle. If that happens, there is reason to be optimistic about America again. If they lose this one, I don’t expect the Republican party to exist after 2029.

Cross your fingers and vote!