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By now, most Americans are probably aware that earlier this week, the New York Post tried to publish a series of stories based on emails and photos allegedly obtained from a laptop dropped off at a computer repair shop owned by a supporter of President Trump. Once the shop owner saw what was on the hard drive, he reportedly got “spooked” and contacted the FBI, which confiscated the hard drive – but not before the repair shop owner made a copy of it.

After the first story hit, Facebook and Twitter stepped up to suppress the story, barring users from sharing the link, and temporarily suspending those – including the president’s press secretary – who managed to do so anyway (Twitter even shut down a twitter account associated with the Senate Judiciary Committee after it shared a copy of the story reposted to its website).

During the chaos, a smattering of GOP lawmakers sent letters to Twitter and Facebook demanding and explanation; Sen. Ted Cruz said earlier that he would be happy to subpoena Mark Zuckerberg over what Cruz described as “transparent election interference” by America’s largest social media titans. The Judiciary Committeee is already preparing to vote Friday Oct. 23 on whether to subpoena Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

Earlier in the week, Jack Dorsey offered a non-apology apology by saying he regretted the breakdown in communication as Twitter moved to suppress the story and punish those sharing it without offering any kind of explanation.

But now that lawmakers are stepping up the pressure, the CEO has returned Friday morning with another more thorough apology, where he acknowledged that the company was “wrong” to ‘straight up block the url’ or urls associated with the sensitive NY Post stories.

Straight blocking of URLs was wrong, and we updated our policy and enforcement to fix. Our goal is to attempt to add context, and now we have capabilities to do that. https://t.co/ZLUw3YD887

— jack (@jack) October 16, 2020

Dorsey retweeted a thread from the company’s top legal and policy executive, Vijaya Gadde, outlining the changes. Read the whole thread below.

Over the last 24 hours, we’ve received significant feedback (from critical to supportive) about how we enforced our Hacked Materials Policy yesterday. After reflecting on this feedback, we have decided to make changes to the policy and how we enforce it.

— Vijaya Gadde (@vijaya) October 16, 2020

Most importantly, Gadde said that Twitter will no longer remove hacked content unless the content has been “directly shared by hackers or those acting in concert with them.” And said the company will “label Tweets to provide context instead of blocking links from being shared on Twitter.”

Here’s the full statement (source: @vijaya)

Over the last 24 hours, we’ve received significant feedback (from critical to supportive) about how we enforced our Hacked Materials Policy yesterday. After reflecting on this feedback, we have decided to make changes to the policy and how we enforce it. Why the changes? We want to address the concerns that there could be many unintended consequences to journalists, whistleblowers and others in ways that are contrary to Twitter’s purpose of serving the public conversation.

We put the Hacked Materials Policy in place back in 2018 to discourage and mitigate harms associated with hacks and unauthorized exposure of private information. We tried to find the right balance between people’s privacy and the right of free expression, but we can do better. We’ve recently added new product capabilities, such as labels to provide people with additional context. We are no longer limited to Tweet removal as an enforcement action. We believe that labeling Tweets and empowering people to assess content for themselves better serves the public interest and public conversation. The Hacked Material Policy is being updated to reflect these new enforcement capabilities. So, what’s changing?

1. We will no longer remove hacked content unless it is directly shared by hackers or those acting in concert with them

2. We will label Tweets to provide context instead of blocking links from being shared on Twitter All the other Twitter Rules will still apply to the posting of or linking to hacked materials, such as our rules against posting private information, synthetic and manipulated media, and non-consensual nudity. I’m grateful for everyone who has provided feedback and insights over the past day. Content moderation is incredibly difficult, especially in the critical context of an election. We are trying to act responsibly & quickly to prevent harms, but we’re still learning along the way. We will continue to keep you all updated on our progress and more details as we update our policy pages to reflect these changes in the coming days.

* * *

The mainstream press has continued to insist that the documents reported by the NY Post were “hacked”, despite there being zero evidence of this. Earlier theories about the documents and photos being forged were shot down when the Biden Camp left open the possibility that Biden may have briefly met with an executive of Burisma during his time as VP – despite repeatedly insisting that he never discussed business with his son Hunter Biden.

But that won’t stop liberals from tearing into Dorsey over the decision as the notion that conservative political speech should be suppressed remains firmly entrenched in mainstream political discourse.

While the rapid deterioration in diplomatic relations between the US and China has been put on hiatus until after the election, at which point Beijing hopes that a Biden administration would promptly restore amicable relations between Beijing and DC, trade relations within the Pacific Rim region are getting worse by the day, with nobody getting more impacted by China’s desire to flex its muscles than Australia: escalating bilateral tensions have resulted in China’s “unofficially” asking cotton and ore traders to stop buying products from Australia.

As Rabobank’s Michael Every writes this morning, the “Australian press claim China is now no longer taking Australian cotton. It’s been all of a few days since we heard the same thing about Aussie coal, and weeks since we heard it about wine and dairy and beef and barley.”

This was confirmed by the SCMP later on Friday, which reported that The Cotton Australia and the Australian Cotton Shippers Association, in a joint statement on Friday, said that China’s National Development Reform Commission has been recently “discouraging” their spinning mills from using Australian cotton.  Earlier, Beijing had also reportedly suspended ore imports from Australia.

While Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison recently said: “It’s not uncommon for China to suspend coal imports,” Canberra is probing the latest moves by Beijing.

Adding some complexity to the passive-aggressive trade war escalation is that there has been no official confirmation from the Chinese side over the issue. Also, the bilateral tensions triggered separate investigations by Beijing into Australia’s wine export and dumping allegations.

China is one of the most important destinations for Australia’s ore and wine, while total two-way trade between China and Australia was worth around A$240 billion (US$170 billion) between July 2019 to June 2020, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The ongoing tensions were triggered after Canberra started seeking a probe into the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the coronavirus which a Chinese whistleblower has now confirmed was created in Wuhan. Similar demands have been made by the US and other western allies of Canberra, frustrating Beijing.

The demand led the Chinese diplomats in Australia hinting at “economic coercion” of Australian goods by Chinese companies.

“The Chinese public is frustrated, dismayed and disappointed with what Australia is doing now,” Chinese Ambassador Jingye Cheng had said early in April, responding to a question on Canberra’s probe push. The Cotton Australia and the Australian Cotton Shippers Association, however, asserted that their relationship with China “is of importance to us”.

“The Australian cotton industry will continue having meaningful conversations with stakeholders to fully understand this situation, and we will continue working with the Australian government to respectfully and meaningfully engage with China to find a resolution,” the statement added.

Finally, as Every concludes, “Iron ore is still safe for now, of course: but let’s see what happens when the new mega mine in Guinea comes on-line.”

By Michael Every of Rabobank

The free speech vs. censorship issue that erupted again this week in the US ——- has ——- ————- for ——-. Markets might not want to admit that fact, but it does. Aren’t market trading decisions supposed to proceed in an environment in which we have full ———— about what is going on? ———— not. Good luck making —– ———- about what to — and what to —- when you don’t know —- — —– –. Meanwhile, here is what we are allowed to talk about.

In the US, the head of the FCC has stepped in to say he is going to rule on Section 230, which allows social media to be platforms, and so immune to liability for anything posted on them, while also now acting as censors. Logically, this suggests either a ruling reaffirming no such censorship can take place without breaching the ‘publisher’ red line; or that this line must be breached, but at enormous cost, as all posts will have to be monitored at all times. An example raised by the White House press secretary, currently banned from Twitter(!), is that perhaps if a certain Middle Eastern country tweets it wants to destroy another, it might not get the legal clean pass from the publisher/platform that it does at the moment. There are obviously a myriad of others.

In the world of markets, which rely on (expensive) news-feeds, all this seems ———–. Which it really isn’t. Where we do have news today, trade and stimulus still predominate:

Australian press claim China is now no longer taking Australian cotton. It’s been all of a few days since we heard the same thing about Aussie coal, and weeks since we heard it about wine and dairy and beef and barley. Can one spot a pattern? Iron ore is still safe for now, of course: but let’s see what happens when the new mega mine in Guinea comes on-line. This is also just after the RBA governor gave a speech that suggested they are about to cut rates to 0.1% and do some more serious QE to see bond yields move lower all along the curve and not just out to 3-years. AUD seems to think both of these things are happening in a different country: or perhaps it is getting headlines like this ‘——- — ——— ——–‘?

We have also heard the US threaten to —— —— (which a VPN lets me see means ‘strike harder’) on sanctions against the EU if Europe proceeds with USD4bn in tariffs on it. Is this bullish EUR?

And today is apparently Brexit decision day for PM Johnson, who just as he locks down much of the country due to —— (as you have to call it if you want to publish any video on ——) has to decide if he will also lock down trade talks after mexed missages from the EU. These had prompted the UK Brexit negotiator to say he was “surprised” and “disappointed” on Twitter, which hasn’t blocked him yet.

Bloomberg reports, cleared by the censors, say that BoJo is going to make up his mind today whether to Keep Calm and Carry on Talking or not. Will he buckle and look soft? Will he walk away and look tough? Whichever option he chooses, at least half the country will be furious at him over something other than —— for once. GBP will watching for white smoke with intent.

In trade terms, both Singapore and Korea saw encouraging export data, suggesting the key electronics sector might be recovering. However, we do still have the EU-moving-slowly-back-towards-lock-down thing weighing on global consumer sentiment.

Meanwhile, on the fiscal front it is still all quiet. Trump is prepared to offer more than USD1.8 trillion and to cajole Senate Republicans; Pelosi says stimulus can’t wait until January; and maybe things will move as initial claims jobless data move higher again. Unless pre-election political posturing and blame-shifting wins the day again, that is, because it is getting very late to swing votes towards anyone: to swing away is easier, perhaps. Yet could a compromise on at least extended unemployment benefits be found post those claims data(?) USD will swing on that.

On other fronts, ——- ——– ———– ———– –. ——— ———- ——- ———–. It is —— ————— ———- ————– ———– regrettable. —– ——- —- – —– ——— —— ————- —————- ——– —-. Winners —— ———– —————- ——– ——– —- -. ———- —- – ———- —-. Losers —— ——– ——— ——- ——–. Who ———- ———- ——— —— knows ——– ———- ——- —–.

Can —— ——— ——– ———- you ——- ———-. Spot —— ——— ——- ——- —– a ——– ——-. Hidden ———- ——— —————- ——– ———- message —— ——-. ——– ——— ————– ——- ——— —.

—– ——– —-send ——– —– money ——- ——————— —————–now —————- ——————-.

Now go be an efficient market, market people!

After slowing its rebound dramatically in August, analysts expected another small lift in September, but Industrial Production disappointed gravely, falling 0.6% MoM (against expectations of +0.5%)…

Source: Bloomberg

The big driver of the plunge in industrial production was utilities (plunging 5.6%) as demand for air conditioning fell by more than usual in September. Mining production increased 1.7 percent in September; even so, it was 14.8 percent below a year earlier….

US manufacturing also dropped in September, sliding 0.3% MoM (against expectations for a 0.6% rise)…

Source: Bloomberg

This leaves US Industrial Production unchanged since May 2006…

Source: Bloomberg

The “V” is over!

Summary:

• Midwestern outbreak hits new records
• Europe tops US in new cases
• Global cases top 400k in a day for first time
• Deaths reported yesterday: 6,189
• North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin lead infections/per 1,000 residents

* * *

A series of new social distancing restrictions have been imposed across Europe this week as the Continent saw its daily number of new COVID-19 cases rocket past the US this week. But on Friday, our attention swings back to the US, where an outbreak in the Midwest has continued to accelerate; fresh daily records for new cases were recorded in Illinois, Wisconsin and North Dakota on Thursday.

The resurgence has brought the number of new cases reported across the world to record highs nine months in a pandemic that has already killed more than 1 million people around the world.

Source: JPM

Since the start of the pandemic, investors have increasingly turned to high-frequency indicators to try and measure fluctuations in economic activity in real time. One agglomeration of high-frequency data covering topics, including overall movement, petroleum demand at the pump, new business applications, TSA checkpoint numbers and department-store sales, from JPM shows that activity has generally fallen since a summer peak, when US daily case numbers and deaths were at their lowest, and states across the US were dialing back restrictions on business activity and socializing.

Source: JPM

According to Bloomberg, this latest outbreak in the Midwest started in Wisconsin, and spread to other more populous states nearby.

Source: Bloomberg

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said Thursday he’ll challenge a decision from earlier in the week handed down by a Wisconsin court blocking the governor’s order limiting capacity in bars, restaurants and other public places. WI recorded a record 3,747 cases Thursday.

By 0800ET, the global tally of COVID-19 cases had hit 38,998,580, leaving the world on track to top 39 million cases before Saturday morning. The world reported a second straight daily record on Thursday, topping 400,000 for the first time (the exact total: 406,660.

Deaths, meanwhile, were relatively steady at 6,189.

Another interesting trend: as the Midwest becomes the locus of the American COVID-19 outbreak, the divide between rural and urban infections has decidedly tilted toward ‘rural’ for the first time.

Source: Bloomberg

In overall viral prevalence, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin are currently leading the country. Though while the mainstream media likes to play up this phenomenon, it’s largely a function of the sparsely populated nature of the states, where workers come together in factories and meatpacking plants, often serving as the center of outbreaks.

Source: COVID Tracking Project

Meanwhile, in NYC, Mayor de Blasio is claiming that outbreaks in ‘hot spots’ around the city have been contained.

However, statewide hospitalization numbers have been creeping higher.

The contrast could not have been greater – “under great pressure” from the great-and-good of liberal media to ‘resist’, NBC’s Savannah Guthrie came out swinging in the so-called “Townhall” with President Trump, interrupting, interjecting, and intervening his responses with the first actual ‘American voter’ question relegated to 20 minutes into the ‘discussion’; whereas George Stephanopolous gave Joe Biden as long as he wanted to answer questions, leaving lies unchallenged and controversies unaddressed.

Behind the scenes of the NBC News Townhall, there was anger, even before the first question, but this time it wasn’t from President Trump.

As RealClearPolitics’ Philip Wegmann details, NBC employees seethed that they had agreed to host a Trump townhall in the same hour that ABC was hosting a similar Biden event. It was counterprograming, they complained, a clear attempt by the incumbent to force a split-screen moment and pull the eyeballs of the electorate away from the Democratic challenger.

They were not alone, and others went public with that sentiment. Actors and producers and on-air talent put their frustration to paper in an open letter to NBC asking the network to “air the president’s town hall either before or after Joe Biden’s so that American voters can have the opportunity to watch both.”

NBC executives didn’t budge. But while Trump got half the national spotlight, Savannah Guthrie made sure he paid for it with sharp questions that kept coming, one after the other.

Did he have any remaining COVID symptoms? Did he ever develop a case of pneumonia? Did he take a coronavirus test before the debate with Biden as required by the Commission on Presidential Debates?

Trump said he is symptom-free at the moment, said he didn’t “do too much asking” about his chest X-rays while a patient at Walter Reed medical center, and said he wasn’t sure if he had or hadn’t tested before the debate: “The doctor has very accurate information — if you are president, you have a lot of doctors you’re surrounded by — I was in great shape for the debate, and sometime after the debate, I tested positive.”

Why hadn’t he condemned white supremacy on the debate stage?

Trump said he did condemn white supremacy on stage and always has “denounced white supremacy” and then complained that the press “always starts off with the question.” Interrupting as Guthrie tried a follow-up, the exasperated president asked, “Are you listening? I denounce white supremacy!”

Why won’t he condemn Q-Anon for spreading a conspiracy theory about satanic cult of pedophiles controlling the Democratic Party?  

Trump said three times that he didn’t know about the group before adding that the only knowledge he had was that they were “very much against pedophilia” and that “they fight it very hard.” The president expressed frustration that Guthrie didn’t ask him about antifa and that the press had not asked Biden about antifa.

She said it was because Biden wasn’t there, a not-so-subtle reminder to the audience about why the two presidential candidates weren’t together on stage.

”How cute,” he replied.

Why did he retweet an article claiming that Navy SEALS killed a body double of Osama bin Laden, while secretly capturing the real bin Laden, and that former President Obama may have had the SEALS killed to hide the plot?

The commander-in-chief replied that it was “an opinion of somebody” and that it “was a retweet.” While he didn’t endorse the idea, he added, he was simply putting it “out there.”

At this Guthrie responded, “I don’t get that. You’re the president, not like someone’s crazy uncle who can retweet whatever.” Trump said he does a lot of retweets because “the media is so fake and so corrupt” and that without social media he “wouldn’t be able to get the word out.”

The grilling went on like this for 20 minutes without a single question from the audience. At the first commercial break, White House Communications Director Alyssa Farah hurried over to the president. Three other aides quickly followed. And although voters finally got their chance to ask questions when programming returned, Guthrie did her best to keep Trump on the ropes with her own follow-ups.

The evening was not supposed to go this way. It was supposed to feature a second presidential debate – moderated by C-SPAN’s Steve Scully with a townhall format — but was cancelled after the debate commission insisted on a virtual event and Trump refused to participate. Without a Democrat to attack, the Trump campaign returned to familiar form. They went after the moderator. And vice versa.

“Even though the commission canceled the in-person debate that could have happened tonight, one occurred anyway, and President Trump soundly defeated NBC’s Savannah Guthrie in her role as debate opponent and Joe Biden surrogate,” Trump spokesman Tim Murtaugh said at the end of the night.

Others were delighted with the journalist’s performance. The liberal website Vox crooned that “Guthrie delivered the Trump interview we’ve been wanting for years.” Barack Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau wished she would moderate a townhall with Trump “every night between now and election day.”

To Trump loyalists, Guthrie’s adversarial attitude, and the cheering section it engendered, merely confirmed the president’s oft-stated view that the media has taken sides in this election. But, in their view, the night was not at all a waste.

“Obviously, she was trying to placate liberal critics who attacked NBC for giving Trump a platform at all,” a conservative operative close to the campaign told RCP. “Savannah’s decision to aggressively debate Trump instead of interview him or allow voters to speak at the townhall allowed Trump to appear the optimist and turned the studio audience to his side.”

This was particularly true over the left shoulder of the president. Throughout the night one woman nodded with enthusiastic agreement and gave thumbs up regularly when he spoke, earning her both online gratitude and infamy.

The hero we all needed today! 👇🏻#NoddingWoman pic.twitter.com/hglTFn8YEb

— Dan Bongino (@dbongino) October 16, 2020

Conservative corners of the Internet heralded her as “the hero we need right now,” while liberal social media users suspected a plant who was pulling off “a psychological trick.” Perhaps that reaction encapsulates the entire evening – and even the Trump presidency itself. Although aggressive, the questioning from Guthrie was nothing Trump hasn’t faced before. And after four years, the nation has grown accustomed to a president who pushes back equally hard.

Did the Republican win a strategic victory then by drawing attention away from the Democrat? “Definitely,” the conservative operative explained. “That’s why liberals were up in arms in anger against NBC, knowing Trump is must-watch and Biden is a snooze-fest.”

When the night was finally over and Guthrie was out of questions, Trump press aide Dan Scavino shared a “behind the scenes” video of the night on Twitter. The president was working over a delighted crowd. As MSNBC returned to regular programming, Rachel Maddow tried distancing her cable network from parent company NBC.

“Well, that happened,” the liberal talk show host said to start her show. Guthrie’s question were fine, she added. NBC, not MSNBC, she sighed, had produced what “was a strange replacement for what was otherwise supposed to be the second presidential debate of this general election season.”

Meanwhile, on ABC, Democrats embraced their presidential nominee as a reassuring Mr. Rogers.

As RealClearPolitics’ Susan Crabtree reports, the switch from debate to townhall turned out to be a net positive for Biden when it comes to displaying his skill at talking calmly with voters – even those expressing differences with him. But it wasn’t a slam dunk by any means. His performance was also marred by some wildly uneven moments and windy responses from him, along with an outright refusal to answer whether he supports packing the Supreme Court — though promising he would do so before Nov. 3.

Throughout the dueling forums, Twitter lit up with Biden supporters’ sharply contrasting the calm and collegial tone of the ABC townhall hosted by George Stephanopoulos with the combative faceoff between Trump and NBC host Savannah Guthrie before she turned to voters in the audience for questions.

As the Biden forum wrapped up, “Mr. Rogers” was trending on Twitter after Mercedes Schlapp, a senior adviser for President Trump’s reelection campaign, compared the Democratic nominee’s performance to the long-running children’s show aimed at preschoolers.

“Well @JoeBiden @ABCPolitics townhall feels like I’m watching an episode of Mister Rodgers Neighborhood,” she tweeted, misspelling Fred Rogers last name.

Conservative critics were irate over Guthrie’s grilling of Trump for nearly 20 minutes during a format supposedly dedicated to questions from voters. They also took issue with Stephanopoulos’ light touch with Biden.

Biden’s supporters eagerly embraced the Mr. Rogers analogy, arguing it was a “self-own” for Team Trump because Rogers was known for his soothing, patient and kind demeanor.

“Pretty telling that this crew thinks Mr. Rogers is the bad guy,” tweeted Democratic strategist Zac Petkanas.

Meanwhile, during the same hour, Fox News host Tucker Carlson was revealing purportedly new Hunter Biden emails resurrecting a narrative that Biden, while vice president, demanded the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor because he was investigating energy firm Burisma, for which Hunter worked as a highly paid board member. Twitter and Facebook for the prior 48 hours had prevented their users from tweeting or posting a New York Post story about the emails and calling into question previous assertions from Biden that he knew nothing about his son’s lucrative business deals in Ukraine and China. Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, over the same two days has slammed the presidential nominee as the head of the “Biden Crime Family” over the lucrative contracts. Giuliani provided the emails to the New York Post, which he said were obtained from a laptop Hunter Biden dropped off at a repair shop last year and never picked up.

Throughout the 90 minute-townhall, interrupted for commercials, Biden fielded audience inquiries but received none from Stephanopoulos, nor the audience, about the propriety of Hunter Biden’s overseas deals and any links to his father.

Holding his mask in one hand and prepared notes in the other, Biden took a soft, measured approach to the questions. Though he often droned on with lengthy responses, he never raised his voice or grew testy.

Kelly Leigh, an undecided voter, asked if he would take the vaccine that Trump has so often touted will soon be available, considering that Kamala Harris, his running mate, said she wouldn’t if Trump alone were to endorse it. Biden responded that he would take such a vaccine, but also pointed to some of Trump’s more bizarre statements about remedies – some of which the president has brushed off as sarcasm.

“No. 1: President Trump talks about things that just aren’t accurate about everything,” Biden said. “The point is that if the scientists, if the body of scientists, say if this is what is ready to be done, been tested, gone through the three phases, yes, I’d take it, encourage people to take it. President Trump says things like everything from crazy stuff he’s walking away from now, ‘Inject bleach in your arm and that’s going to work.'”

Throughout the townhall, Biden spent so much time on policy minutiae that the questioners often looked nonplused. One of those moments came when Cedric Humphrey, a young black man, asked, “What do you have to say to young black voters who see voting for you as further participation in a system that continually fails to protect them?”

At first, Biden said young black voters would have the power to determine the outcome of the election if they would only exercise their right to vote. Then, he dove off a policy cliff, leaving Humphrey staring at him with a blank expression. Along with spotlighting criminal justice reform as a way to help the black community, Biden delivered a mini-dissertation on how black Americans would be helped by his administration to “gain wealth.”

When it comes to violent protests demanding justice for black men and women killed by police, Biden said the solution isn’t defunding the police, and argued he would give law enforcement new tools without diminishing their budgets.

“Cops are kind of like schoolteachers now,” he said. “You know, a schoolteacher has to know everything from … how to handle hunger in a household, as well as how to teach how to read,” Biden said. “Well, cops don’t have that breadth.”

Pressed again on whether he would pack the court, Biden rambled, repeating that he has never been a fan on doing so, but now, depending on how the Senate handles Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to fill the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat, he may change his mind. Her confirmation next week is considered a fait accompli.

“It depends on how much they rush this,” Biden said. When Stephanopoulos asked whether he believes voters “have a right to know where you stand,” he answered, “Yes,” but then quickly followed with the caveat, “depending on how they handle this.”

Biden also continued to insist that he would not ban fracking – a major industry in Pennsylvania and other Rust Belt battleground states – despite previous repeated claims that he would. He added that investing in renewable energy would produce better environmental results and more jobs. Biden argued that 128,000 people could be hired to fill oil wells, “and get a good salary doing it.”

One final note, from PJMedia’s Jeff Reynolds, even with about three times as many breaks, Biden showed significant signs of fatigue and a lack of focus toward the end, calling into question his capacity to handle the job of POTUS.

This worked to prove my premise after the first debate, that Trump getting him worked up and angry kept Biden engaged and on point for the entire evening. Tonight, without the constant adrenaline rushes of having to face attacks from Trump, Biden slowly faded away. In doing so, he proved what many suspect, that 77-year-old Joe Biden’s faculties are in decline.

*  *  *

In summary, we suspect Trump consolidated his base but did nothing to persuade fence-sitters (if there is such a person in America), whereas Biden likely alienated some of the more progressive leftists in his base, but picked up some ‘undecideds’. Biden won the night, helped by the media.