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With the coronavirus second wave daily cases reach 126,000 in the U.S. on November 6. States recording highs include Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Utah. Illinois had 20,000 cases in 2 days.

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Independents make up the largest voting bloc in Arizona. Mr. Biden swung 60 precincts to win by 10,000 votes in 2020, and did well with independent voters. NYT looks at the situation in Arizona for 2024. Much depends on Maricopa county which includes Phoenix. About 60% of Arizona votes are in Maricopa county. Other states which are closely contested are Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia.

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WSJ's Clare Ansberry looks closely at life in St Paul's Lutheran Church in Doyleston, Pennsylvania, what congregations are thinking and pastors are thinking. Only 20% of 450 pastors in Barna Group Survey feel confident that they are equipped to lead on politics and civic engagement. At Holy Trinity Catholic Newman Center in Flagstaff, Arizona, parishioners are college students or local residents. Rev. Matt Lowry of the Center says most congregants want nothing to be said about politics, just that God is in control.

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Patrick Ruffini looks at 21 microcommunities in US states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, that would determine the results on November 5, 2024. This is a detailed look at it by cities, towns and counties with maps and an understanding of each microregion within a state. Some points. The margin of error of three percentage points itself when it swings in one or the other direction itself could lead on the contrary to a decisive result. The hard work, the hard slog, with a method, and who works the hardest and consistently with a clear message matters. These are the key counties that matter most with the cities in the county in brackets. Can you connect them with the US state? Nash County (Rocky Mount), Wilson County (Wilson) Northampton County (Bethlehem), Erie County Brown County (Green Bay), Outergamie County (Appleton), Winnebago County (Oshkosh) Maricopa County (Phoenix) Answer- North Carolina Pennsylvania Wisconsin Arizona   ...

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This title is what Post readers have in mind about the Post itself turning into social media. Only 28 Democrats in Congress out of 264 and most in districts that are not safe or borderline which is not unusual are the issue. Taking out the Independents 91% of congressional Democrats support the president for 2024, and of the swing states maybe just 5 Democrats with none from Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Georgia.

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Cost of driving depends on where you live in the US- California (taxes and climate change fee), and mountain states (no inland supplies in West), Illinois taxes are much higher compared to the South and South East (close to refineries no taxes). Specific formulations add extra on the Eastern seaboard states  from New Hampshire to Virginia, and in the West California have requirements to reduce smog and pollution. At one time in the 1980's in Pasadena the smog would be so bad you could not see the green color on the leaves clearly. For most of the US gas prices on April 22, 2026 are around $3.62 or lower compared to $3.92 on average in March for the whole US and $5.83 in California, $5.00 in Oregon, $5.38 in Washington. Texas, Alabama, North and South Carolina at around $3.62 and Florida at $4.00. In Virginia to Maine in the North East it is around $4.00. A look at the map shows that talk of $5.00 gasoline hurting the Republicans in the midterms for Congress is incorrect because the Democrats are likely to hold on to California, Washington Oregon, their base with gas at close to $6.00 the very opposite of what they are saying. Much of it because of state policies against oil refining and climate change taxes, formulations of gasoline that cost more to address smog. The head of the distribution channel for gasoline in the US, Scott Berhang, head of fuel wholesalers marketing group Sigma says- “At some point, [the war] could translate into supply shortages. That could happen. But we’re not really there yet. I talk to my members all over the U.S. They’re not seeing any supply issues. There’s no problem getting fuel. Everything is normal.” State taxes can be as low as 9 cents in Alaska and 71 cents in California, 66 cents in Illinois. The price of gas in swing states Arizona $4.59, Pennsylvania $4.11, Michigan $3.78, Wisconsin $3.69, North Carolina $3.75, Georgia $3.57. If we use $3.61 price of Texas and most of South and close to this in all but mountain states and western states then we are slightly above the same price gasoline was sold at the pump in 2011-2014 of $3.51 per gallon. This is a significant fact considering the media talks about gasoline prices in the US as a significant cost of living issue. Which means saying Iran War is "crippling" US consumers at the pump is farfetched and totally incorrect.  ...

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How third party candidates in 2016 put Trump in the White House is shown in graphs in the WSJ. Since 2000 about 2% of the vote goes to third party candidates such as Greens, Libertarian, and others, in 2016 this reached 6%. It hurt Clinton the most as the Trump lead in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin was merely 5-10% of 200,000-300,000 votes for independent candidates in Wisconsin,  in Michigan and in Pennsylvania. Hillary Clinton lacked clear focus in her campaign and her years as overseas traveling foreign minister left her out of touch with the alienation of the working class and fragmentation as Silicon valley tech and financial interests intruded into the Democratic party. This had the effect of muddying the focus on the Democrats FDR/Truman working class base and also with America's rural voters suffering from a toxic mix of problems. In 2024 the Kennedy candidacy takes as many or more votes from Mr. Trump says the WSJ. The Biden focus on workers and families gives the Democrats a clear direction along with wage gains by union labor and a resilient economy with low unemployment. This suggests that the independent candidates may not find more traction than the 2% of previous elections since 2000. ...

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A red wave fails to appear, says this report in The Guardian of the US 2022 midterm elections for the US Congress. A key Senate seat in Pennsylvania goes to Democrat Fetterman. Other races are tight and the final results will take time. Ron De Santis wins Florida as a Republican with a wide margin and is seen as looking for the Republican nomination for president in 2024. The Georgia Senate seat looks to be headed for a runoff.

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DJT appeared on Oz's health show in 2016 as a presidential candidate, and sees OZ as a fellow tv show host, a kindred spirit with a passion for what he is doing. As head of Medicare and Medicaid after afailed effort for a Senate seat from Pennsylvania, Oz is still someone whit a keen sense for the politics as well as what is good for the healthcare of Americans. He shares apassion for good health as a goal for America that was held up by JFK, and his nephew Robert Kennedy Jr who now leads the Make America Health Again movement. Oz fervently believes the time for healthy America is now after many wasted years under Clinton/Bush/Obama when national interests were neglected for places like Bosnia in a historical conflict of Turks and Serbia that goes back centuries (Clinton), in the deserts of Iraq (older Bush), in the mountains of Afghanistan that claimed Brezhnev as a victim the younger Bush followed, two wars prolonged by Obama and closed by DJT and Biden. Something as basic as health and pharmaceutical prices was allowed to get as bad as it is in 2026 with prices through the roof. DJT's plan is to get the pharmaceutical companies to commit to certain prices, to the lowest price they sell the same medicine in Europe. This is what Dr Oz wants to see not just for the next 3 years but put into established practice for the future years.  Oz says about presenting the DJT plan on healthcare to Congress and the Nation- “We didn’t demand that they do it. We said, ‘This is something that is very popular and highly achievable.’ ” Healthcare costs, gas and automobile costs, energy costs, housing costs are all part of the 4-5 costs that are the key elements in the cost of living crisis or affordability crisis that is uppermost on the minds of Americans. Already the Medicare payments to insurers are going to be flat for 2026 compared to 2025, as part of policy to get costs down, push pharmaceutical costs down. ...

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The Democratic Party's better performance in the midwestern states of Michigan, and Wisconsin, and in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia,in the 2018 midterm elections.  These states are crucial to win in the presidential election of 2020.

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During the Republican Senate campaign in 2022 to replace Pat Toomey, both candidates Oz and McCormick had assets over $100 million according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. This seat was won by Dan Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania. The contrast between the wealthy and the middle class candidates and their distance from average Americans struggling to make a living was very clear, almost similar to the billionaire former president and the Harris-Walz Middle class candidates vowing to rebuild the American middle class atrophied from outsourcing of jobs overseas and wages falling behind cost of living for ordinary workers.

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The bonds developed between Kamala Harris as AG in the settlement with the banks for faulty mortgages with other AG's is shown here in NYT. Roy Cooper of North Carolina was one of the AG's Kamala had a lot of contact with in Washington and in Durham. Roy, 67 years, was elected governor twice in North Carolina. Beshear, 49 years, was AG in Kentucky at the time. He was elected governor of Kentucky, a Democrat in a state voting Republican. Roy took on the banks "for relief for homeowners who were wrongfully foreclosed upon,” Mr. Cooper said.  “I admired her tenacity then as I do now.” Mr Hood AG for Mississippi says Kamala was the fun AG with a sense of humor, and Roy Cooper was the affable low key guy, the gentleman lawyer who never raised his voice, and yet built coalitions and was effective. The AG of Pennsylvania who was elected as Kamala left office as AG and ran for the US Senate, is Ben Shapiro, 51 years. Shapiro came in as AG when Kamala left the AG office to run for the US Senate. He came to know Kamala when he was State Rep. and has stayed in touch over the years. He led a multistate effort that led to the Opioid settlement, and is popular in Pennsylvania with 61% approval and won the governor's office with help from the suburbs and rural counties in 2020. ...

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In 2023 there are 4.3 million electric vehicles on American roads and 150,000 public charging ports. President Biden's goal is for 50% of cars to be EV's by 2030 with 500,000 public charging ports. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory affiliated with DOE forecasts need for 1 million charging ports. Ohio and Pennsylvania are leading the way in a slow start with other states joining in. A single public charging port can cost about $150,000. It will cost $31 billion to $55 billion to build the public portion of a national charging network. About $24 billion is planned investment.

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The Laken Riley Act has as its sponsor Katie Britt of Alabama, and cosponsors Democrats Ruben Gallego of Arizona and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. It is expected to get over 60 votes 61-35 to overcome Senate rules and be on the presidents desk. No amendments were made.  It will require the Department of Homeland Security to arrest undocumented immigrants for theft related offenses and increase the power of states to challenge immigration decisions.

Kristi Noem at Homeland Security and Tom Homan Border Chief will lead the push on the Border with DJT declaring a national emergency that will generate funds from the Defense Department.

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Jobs in the fracking industry replaced the old steel industry that went into decline in Pennsylvania. The county in the area around Pittsburgh depends on jobs in fracking in the oil and gas industry, and in Pittsburgh itself by contrast jobs have shifted to high tech. The fracking industry has emerged as an alternative for jobs after its rapid growth and the U.S. emergence as an exporter of oil and gas for many who do not have the backgrounds suited for high tech jobs.

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It is OK to haggle in this economy says this report in WSJ, and shows how to do it. Because retailers are increasing their profit margins significantly. Here is advice. From an expert at the University of Pennsylvania - try practicing with a script and always show respect.  An expert at Carnegie Mellon University says if you never hear no then you have not been assertive enough. Food prices are up  5-10% in the US, 15-20% in Europe. Car prices are up significantly in US, so are airline prices. Prices of all kinds of products are up out of line with anything that happened in the past.

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See president Biden's address to the nation on July 14, 2024. Biden called on the nation to heal and avoid violence, to settle the future of the Nation not by violence- and he cited a train of events that led up to the shooting at the Pennsylvania rally yesterday- but at the ballot box. This is the way Americans have sought to tackle the wide difference in what the future of the nation should be. The vigorous and sincere words of president Biden on the way to set the nation's future and the need to unite, to lower the tone and step back, to reflect, come from the best in America.

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Winfield House in  central London where DJT spent the night on his state visit to the Royal family. Compare this to Blair House in Washington DC home of the publisher Preston Blair during the 1830's which serves as the residence of foreign guests to the US. Winfield House sits on many acres compared to Blair House near the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue in its modest appearance on the street itself. A contrast between two nations. Winfield House is used as ambassador's residence by the US Ambassador and has 35 rooms compared to the few rooms in Blair House. Blair House has more historic significance as residence of Harry Truman, and it is where Blair as Lincoln's emissary offered Robert Lee the command of the Union Army after Fort Sumter surrendered, marking the start of the Civil War.

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Biden's father, Joe Sr. grew up in Maryland during the years of the Great Depression.  Biden on the campaign trail often reminded people that he could connect with people who faced unemployment or economic difficulties because of the experience of his father in the years he was growing up in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Biden's early experience has shaped his views on America, on Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal that helped America get back on its feet during the Great Depression. This is also the driving conviction behind his $2 trillion Families and Workers Plan to get America back on its feet after decades of neglect of working class Americans and the effects of the pandemic. 

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Marc Thiessen in The Washington Post says to halt the problems at the border when last week migrant encounters hit 12,000 a day Democrats need to work with Republicans to get the votes in the Senate and House for needed legislation. This means losing some votes from factions within the Republican and Democratic parties and still getting it passed. It would be good for the country and good for Biden, says Thiessen. He says to get some idea on what the 12,000 figure means even 1000 migrants was a high number that would overwhelm the system in 2019. He cites John Fetterman, Senator from Pennsylvania, who says that honestly this happening at the border is astonishing, essentially seeing Pittsburgh at the border.

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In the closing days of the Harris vs Trump election campaign in October 2024, Trump attends a rally in Madison Square Garden in New York city. Harris visits a Baptist church in Philadelphia, and talks to young black men at a barber shop, visits a Puerto Rican restaurant in Philly. The visit to the Puerto Rican restaurant comes as a comedian at the Trump Madison Square Garden rally makes racist remarks about Latinos, Blacks and Jews, and calls Puerto Rico an "island of garbage." About 579,000 Latinos and Puerto Ricans make up the voting public in Pennsylvania. Latino stars put up video clips of the comments on Latinos on social media expressing their disapproval.

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Yes millions of jobs created under Biden in 4 years- 19 million jobs. Yet the growth in jobs is uneven across counties and states in the US. A full 43 percent of counties have not fared as well with jobs not reaching 2019 prepandemic levels by the beginning of 2024. This includes Michigan with Wayne County having 2% less from 2019 levels. It includes Pennsylvania and the Pittsburgh area. It includes Wisconsin. Western and southern states did better with Arizona and Nevada going in opposite directions one gaining from investments in electric cars and green energy, and the other Nevada suffering from the hit taken by workers in hotels and hospitality.  NYT shows in graphical detail the situation today.

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With leading Republicans supporting Harris during campaigning in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania Harris asks people of America to choose country over party, saying-

“The coalition we have built has room for everyone who is ready to turn the page on the chaos and instability of Donald Trump. And I pledge to you to be a president for all Americans."

As leading Republicans campaigned with Harris in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Harris said she would go across the aisle to move forward America's national agenda and appoint Republicans to her cabinet for the Way Forward.

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Jos Biden loves to talk about his Irish ancestors. This Times report takes an in depth look at Irishmen in America and how Biden uses his Irishness to activate his progressive base. For many years in the twentieth century Irishmen were active in American Catholic progressive politics. Many states in the northeast of the country have large Irish populations including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Delaware, and New York. About 10-15% of the population in these states being Irish. About 34 million people having Irish ancestry in the US. forming a significant voting bloc. Biden carries an appeal to this bloc of voters that overrides local politics. Only John F. Kennedy, another president with Irish grand parents had this kind of appeal in American politics.