Did Democrats steal Orange County?

Monica Showalter  . . . "It's an interesting circumstantial case, because it was funny how so many "found" ballots showed up for so many House seats after the election was done, with all of them favoring the same party, which just happened to be the direction of the one-party state that was counting the ballots.  Funnier still, it's amazing how all of those found ballots, in each and every case, amounted to just enough to tip the congressional seat to the Democrats.  The coincidences seem just a little too strong. 

"Fischer is right that all of the press attention seemed to be on the east coast, where judges were brought in to restore order.  There were no such challenges of that kind in California.

"In fact, the strongest of the Orange County Republicans, Young Kim, who had a large-margin three-point victory on election night, same as Democrat Katie Hill, who defeated Republican Steve Knight uphill in the nearby Santa Clarita vicinity, somehow lost that entire lead in the continuous counting, while Hill's margin by contrast didn't make a dent.  Funnier still, the newspapers, though they insisted that 100% of the votes were counted, never acknowledged that Young Kim had won when it seemed as though she had on election night.  It was like some kind of fix was in.

"One other thing that makes me suspicious is that the secretary of state, Alex Padilla, pretty well asked voters to certify only that they were residents of the state on the mail-in ballot form, not that they were citizens. " . . .

Then there is Florida...3000 Votes 'Disappear' From Florida Recount Tally

Vice Is Just More Anti-Conservative Vitriol

"The same Left that despises President Trump despised George W. Bush long before him."

National Review

"President Dick Cheney, the Left’s all-purpose nefarious bugaboo during the Bush years. The film isn’t unique: It follows W, starring Josh Brolin, a box-office failure; Truth, another box-office failure starring Robert Redford about Dan Rather’s attempt to take down George W. Bush with a fake letter about his military service; and You’re Welcome, America, starring Will Ferrell, which aired on HBO. None of these films raked in the cash. But that’s not stopping Adam McKay, producer of HBO’s Succession, from taking on a president who left office a decade ago. 

"What’s driving McKay? The need to live out his anger against Bush. McKay recalls attending the victory party for John Kerry — who, needless to say, did not win. “Everyone you could imagine was there,” McKay describes, including Tom Hanks, Nicole Kidman, and Ferrell. “Once again, we’re like, ‘Oh, they’re going to lose.’ There’s no way you’d reelect these guys after the disaster we just had. I remember Frank Rich was on the phone, and he’s like, ‘It’s over.’ And within two minutes, the entire party had cleared out.”

"McKay turned away from political projects until The Big Short. But now he’s back, and he’s betting a $60 million budget that Americans are desperate to see Christian Bale put on 45 pounds and play Cheney as a Machiavellian devil hell-bent on sending American troops into battle for no good reason. The cast is massive and includes Sam Rockwell as W., Steve Carell as Donald Rumsfeld, and Tyler Perry as Colin Powell. According to McKay, Cheney was far more powerful than W. " . . .

Trish Regan takes on Kamala Harris over her attack on ICE

100%FedUp  "Senator Kamala Harris was just called out by Fox’s Trish Regan! Harris has met her match!
"Regan made commentary about Harris comparing ICE to the KKK (see below) then Harris made a claim that Fox News was distorting what she said during a hearing. Trish Regan wasn’t taking this sitting down and called Kamala Harris out on her attempt at claiming she didn’t compare ICE to the KKK.

Sen. Kamala Harris has an issue w/ my commentary where I criticized her for saying there's a perception that #ICE is somehow akin to the KKK. She claims Fox is using distortion tactics & that Fox is manufacturing outrage. No Senator, YOU ARE! #TrishRegan #TrishIntel

"Watch below where Regan lets Harris have it: Go Trish!"  
"In case you missed Senator Kamala Harris totally disrespecting ICE, this will make your blood boil. This is what Trish Regan was calling Harris out on:

"Several Democrats recently called for ICE to be abolished. The narrative has continued with the grandstanding the morning from Senator Kamala Harris who is trying to appeal to the millennials with her assertion that ICE is like the KKK:

"Democrat Senator Kamala Harris compares ICE to the KKK and appears to suggest that they are a terrorist group during a Senate hearing to consider the nomination of Ronald Vitello to be the director of ICE.

CNN, the most (fill in the blank) name in news

Brian Stelter?

Thomas Lifson: CNN media critic attacks White House ground rules for press conferences  "CNN seems to have forgotten the old adage, "Be careful what you wish for."  After filing suit over the revocation of Jim Acosta's hard pass to the White House and winning, that network's media beat reporter is upset.  Speaking on CNN's Newsroom, Brian Stelter seems certain that danger lurks in the new open and transparent rules provided by the White House in response to the judge's demand for due process on decisions over revocation of access to press conferences or the White House." . . .

Brian Stelter?

"This new letter, laying out the explicit rules, will help maintain decorum.  Stelter may not be able to admit it, but his colleague Acosta has been way out of line, and only anti-Trump solidarity among the media (a huge problem that the media won't admit) has prevented public shaming of Acosta by his colleagues, many of whom deeply resent him.

"Stelter has just reinforced President Trump's view of CNN as reflexively opposed to him no matter what he does.

"CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta’s carnival-barking"

CNN: All Pro-Trump White Women Are 'Racist,' Benefit from 'White Supremacy'
Video

Dallas Cowboys former head cheerleader Cindy Villareal released a movie about the Cowboys squad in the 80s. Cheerleading has changed. Americans love to watch beautiful women in tight sweaters who cheer for one side or the other, the difference is, today they do it as cable news anchors.  Comedian Argus Hamilton 

 CBS' White House Correspondent: There's a Level of Decorum Expected of White House Press Pool

“Some of my colleagues might say ‘what did you do that for? You had the microphone. You have a voice. Speak.,'” Garrett explained. “The President of the United States said, 'Not you.' So my way of thinking [is] that's enough. The President said, 'I didn't call on you. I called on someone else.' Alright then. Some might say you laid down and were too deferential, I don’t feel that way…I deferred hoping he might call on me again, he didn’t, that’s how I orient myself to the institution…and I respect the institution and the country’s choice.”

Jim Acosta Will Only Behave When There's A Democrat In The White House  . . . 
. . . "Reporter[s] rarely, if ever, interrupted Obama while he gave long, meandering answers.

"These were the same reporters, mind you, who'd just spent eight years hounding President Bush. Back then it was NBC News' David Gregory who played the Jim Acosta role, repeatedly sparring with Bush and his press secretary. Gregory's reward for showboating was a coveted spot as anchor of "Meet the Press.' " . . .

Gregory was one of those who asked Mr. Bush if he would apologize for the attack on Iraq. He called Bush a "failed president" in another interview, completely intimidating the president.

Ian Macfarlane

Vile Michelle Wolf has killed off the comedy feature at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner

Well, for me it all began with the celebriweasel Stephen Colbert and his bullying of George Bush at this same affair. TD

Thomas Lifson  "Purported comedian Michelle Wolf, whose vile attacks at the last White House Correspondents' dinner caused open reactions of dismay from the audience, has induced the group to cancel the custom of featuring a comic at its gatherings.  She has managed to diminish laughter, which is in keeping with the thrust of her unfunny, hate-filled work.  Cancelation is the current theme of her career: her Netflix series lasted three months before getting the axe.  Her reliance on shock and grotesquerie – in place of actual humor based on wit – is at the level of a three-year-old saying "poo-poo head" at the family dinner table, expecting a reaction.  The WHCA demeaned itself by featuring her, and the group seems to have figured that out.

"In a press release, the group touted its choice of Ron Chernow as featured speaker at the next dinner.

"I'm delighted that Ron will share his lively, deeply researched perspectives on American politics and history at the 2019 White House Correspondents' Dinner," said Olivier Knox, Chief Washington Correspondent for SiriusXM and president of the WHCA.  "As we celebrate the importance of a free and independent news media to the health of the republic, I look forward to hearing Ron place this unusual moment in the context of American history."

"The White House Correspondents' Association has asked me to make the case for the First Amendment and I am happy to oblige," Chernow said.  "Freedom of the press is always a timely subject and this seems like the perfect moment to go back to basics.  My major worry these days is that we Americans will forget who we are as a people and historians should serve as our chief custodians in preserving that rich storehouse of memory.  While I have never been mistaken for a stand-up comedian, I promise that my history lesson won't be dry."

Sarah Sanders being attacked by
"The Voice"

"I have never heard Chernow speak, but I have read some of his first-rate work.  Almost certainly, the WHCA is looking to contrast the current POTUS with practices of the past, but such is Chernow's standing as a serious and fair scholar that he has every incentive to avoid cheap shots.  The biggest danger he faces is speaking over the (air)heads of the journalists assembled.

"The correspondents have taken to calling their fashion-show-cum-laugh-fest the "nerd prom" – as if they had the intellectual standing to merit the term "nerd."  With Chernow attending, the title may become justified.  

"No doubt, there are hopes that President Trump will attend next year's dinner, appeased by the assurance that he will not be roasted by a professional comedian.  But with the WHCA promising to disregard the new guidelines offered by the White House in response to the court-ordered "due process" for removing press passes, it will take some further developments for Trump to risk making himself a target of a group that generally hates him and wants him out of office. "

Bring Out Your Dead

American Digest  "Every night at 6 PM the Sherriff of Butte County reveals the grim count of the dead discovered, so far, in the ashes of Paradise. He also reveals the latest number of known missing persons who cannot be located by family or friends.  Finally, there is the list of homes and businesses destroyed. The raging fires that destroyed Paradise utterly have passed (for now) but the search for the dead is only beginning.

"Last night’s official tally was:

DEAD: 71 (all but one found inside a home.)MISSING: 1,100HOMES DESTROYED: 9,740 (only about 5% have been search so far)BUSINESSES DESTROYED: 336 . . .

. . . "In the ravines and forests of Paradise, cell reception was so spotty that AT&T gave me my own personal internet driven cell-phone tower. If those off the grid in Paradise actually owned cell phones they would have been lucky to get an alert. But most of those did not own cell phones, and landlines didn’t run that deep in the woods. When the fire closed over them they would have had no warning. No warning until the trailer melted around them. And then there was, out behind but still close to their trailer, their large propane tank.

"How many bodies will be found in the pyre of Paradise? Right now nobody knows for sure.  Nobody will ever know for sure. In five years from today, somewhere in the reviving forest of Paradise, some hiker is going to step on a skull. He won’t be the only one."