Brenda Snipes: Florida’s Shame, and Ours

National Review

It’s time to hold Broward County elections supervisor Brenda Snipes accountable

Conspiracy theories are bad for civic life. So are conspiracies

"I wonder if there is one mentally normal adult walking these fruited plains — even the most craven, abject, brain-dead partisan Democrat — who believes that what has been going on in Broward County, Fla., is anything other than a brazen attempt to reverse the Republican victories in the state’s Senate, gubernatorial, and (not to be overlooked) agriculture commissioner’s races. I cannot imagine that there is, but it is really quite something to see partisan Democrats — the same people who pretend to believe that the 2016 presidential election was invalid because Boris and Natasha posted something on Facebook — watch not only utterly contented but with joy in their hearts as the rolling crime wave that is Broward County elections supervisor Brenda Snipes and her co-conspirators try to actually steal an election or three.

"Boxes of ballots magically showing up in the trunks of rental cars in the Fort Lauderdale airport — cars last rented by Democratic operatives? What is this, a Coen Brothers movie? At least Saddam Hussein had the good taste to be amusing when he was stuffing the ballot boxes. That voting fraud that our Democratic friends insist never happens happens quite a lot under Snipes’s watch." . . .




Broward Election Supervisor Will Likely Be Forced Out of Office
. . . "Snipes, who has twice been found guilty of violating election law in the past two years alone, has come under scrutiny in the wake of the midterm elections for refusing to disclose the number of absentee ballots received by her office and for contaminating some 200 valid provisional ballots by mixing in 22 rejected ballots.

“ 'This is not just the most troubled elections office in the state, it’s the most troubled elections office in the nation,” said Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who has argued Snipes should be removed from office immediately after the ongoing recounts in the Senate and gubernatorial races are complete.

“ 'She has shown she’s incapable of conducting a large and important election in a way that inspires public confidence and trust,” Rubio said. “She’s been found to have destroyed ballots, in violation of the law. Opened absentee ballots early, in violation of the law. Misprinted ballots that have gone out.”'  . . .

Fear The Voting Dead – End Stolen Elections Like Florida Through Voter ID

"Enough is enough. Election after election boxes of Democrat ballots show up in counties run by Democrat election supervisors to benefit Democrat candidates who, once they steal their opponent’s election night victory, will join the chorus warning of Russian interference in our elections. Last time I checked, there were no Russian election officials in Palm Beach or Broward counties in Florida.

"Democrats have long pushed for voting ease at the expense of voting integrity, pushing measures from voting by mail, to Motor Voter laws, to same-day registration while opposing voter ID laws which requires people to show up on election day with proof they are who they say they are. They claim Voter ID laws are designed to disenfranchise voters. So does the sudden appearance of mystery ballots days, even weeks, after elections without a documented chain of custody or certainty that other ballots weren’t destroyed or that the ballots found were cast by real, live American citizens.

Why is the White House wasting its time with Jim Acosta?

Silvio Canto, Jr.  "CNN is considering suing the Trump administration over Jim Acosta.

I’ll leave this legal issue to our AT friends who understand the law.  

"My larger point is simple:  Why get into a fight with a network that few people watch?  

Honestly, I only hear about Jim Acosta when he does something stupid and Fox News tells us about.  

It reminds me of the story about then candidate Governor Howard Dean.  He used to attack Rush Limbaugh all of the time hoping for the counterpunch and the audience that came with it.  

"Don't get me wrong.  I am not a fan of Jim Acosta.  

"My friend Orlando Avendaño, a columnist from Venezuela, got it right this week:   

What I have criticized Trump most are his authoritarian gestures before the press: his constant attacks on the media, even though they may be biased and partial. It is the most dangerous thing about the Republican president because, as CNN rightly says, the free press is vital for the healthy functioning of societies. 

This is essential. And every time it is necessary to quote Tocqueville, John Stuart Mill, or Thomas Jefferson himself, who said: “Our freedom depends on the free press, and that can not be limited without losing it.” 

But I cannot defend Jim Acosta. Wednesday’s attacks by Trump were not against “freedom,” the greatest value, but against the crude and discourteous gestures of the CNN journalist.

It was not appropriate behavior for a presidential press conference. He stood up and tried to take the floor, even without the microphone. 

"He did not hand it over, he roughly removed it from the woman doing her job. 

Press conferences are for questions, not for contrasting opinions. It was not a debate. " . . .  

The Great War’s Great Price

Rich Terrell

National Review

Revisiting the wreckage, on the centenary of the armistice

"There is no monument to the First World War on the National Mall. Along the two-mile carpet of memory we have created between the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial, we honor the Civil War, the Vietnam War, the Second World War, and the Korean War. But nothing there memorializes the other great American war of the 20th century, which we entered in April 1917 and saw to its conclusion the following November. This is peculiar, since no other modern war was waged by Americans with such outstandingly pristine expectations. It was, as President Woodrow Wilson intoned, to be “the war to end all wars,” the war to “make the world safe for democracy,” the war to establish a world order of “open covenants of peace, openly arrived at.” Measured against those slogans, no other 20th-century war produced such meager results, either, which is the principal reason Americans have chosen to forget World War I so completely.

"And not just on the National Mall. No American combatants produced memoirs of wartime as powerful as Robert Graves’s Goodbye to All That (1929) or Ernst Jünger’s Storm of Steel (1920). Not even the most heralded of American fiction about the Great War, Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms (1929), is a serious match for Erich Maria Remarque’s  (1928) All Quiet on the Western Front. The one anniversary the war acquired on the public calendar, Armistice Day, was homogenized into Veterans’ Day in 1954. And no wonder: Fully half of the 4.7 million American soldiers mobilized for the war never even made it to the scenes of combat in France before the armistice was declared." . . .

Florida's chronic electile dysfunction

How ironic that both cartoons added by TD are from Florida 2000.

President Trump warning that he will be "watching closely."

Newt Gingrich: As Democrats try to steal elections, their dishonesty threatens the very fabric of our country "The Democratic supervisor of elections for Broward County, Florida, Brenda Snipes, has a consistent record of breaking the law and trying to steal elections." . . .

Broward Elections Supervisor Mixed Good and Bad Provisional Ballots . . . "Snipes, who has previously been found guilty of violating Florida election law on two separate occasions, initially refused to disclose the number of mail-in absentee ballots that her office received but was ordered to do so on Friday night by a Florida judge. 

"As the polls closed on Tuesday night, Scott was leading incumbent Democratic Senator Bill Nelson by more than 50,000 votes, but that margin has since narrowed to roughly 10,000 votes as Broward and Palm Beach County have continued to report absentee ballots.

"The lack of transparency has invited allegations of corruption by prominent Republicans, including Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and President Trump." . . .

Here we go: Rick Scott files third lawsuit to ‘IMPOUND’ Broward, Palm Beach voting equipment

The media can’t stop making ridiculous accusation of racism against Trump

Nakamura’s piece suffers from the same defects as Farhi’s. He ignores the fact that Trump told Ryan to sit down only after she persisted in interrupting his attempt to take a question from another reporter.

Power Line  "Members of the Washington Post’s large stable of Trump haters keep making fools of themselves in the attempt to paint President Trump as a racist. The latest effort, typical of the others but probably even sillier, comes from the Post’s media critic Paul Farhi.

"Farhi notes that Trump has “singled out three African American women who are journalists” for abuse ” just for asking him questions.” He then accuses Trump of “reserving special nastiness” for African-American women.

Ryan

"But, as anyone who has been paying the slightest bit of attention knows, Trump is an equal opportunity abuser of journalists (and anyone else) he believes are unfair to him. He’s indiscriminate. Indeed, at the same media event in which Trump allegedly “singled out African-American women” he went even harder after Jim Acosta, a non-black male.

"Let’s look at what went down between Trump and the three black journalists Farhi cites. One is Abby Phillip, formerly of the Post and now with CNN. She asked Trump whether he hoped Matt Whitaker, the newly appointed acting attorney general, would “rein in” the Mueller investigation.

"Trump responded, “What a stupid question.” He also noted what he considers Phillip’s propensity to ask stupid questions.

"Phillip’s question about Whitaker is, indeed, stupid. If Trump answered it affirmatively, he would be opening himself up to new accusations of obstructing justice.

"There’s no basis for concluding that Trump answered as he did because Phillip is black. Trump frequently denounces questions and questioners who ask questions that are stupid or that he doesn’t like. Phillip’s question fit both categories. And Trump didn’t attack her for “just asking a question.” Farhi is dishonest to make this claim." . . .

The second reporter Farhi cites is April Ryan. Ryan is an embarrassment. She runs a close second to Acosta in the anti-Trump obnoxiousness sweepstakes and seems eager to close the slight gap between the two.

Florida: another instance of Democrats making America a banana republic

American Thinker

The shame of south Florida rigging elections is now evident.  . . . "Note the phrase “lawyers and party activists raced to Broward and Palm Beach Counties” as the NYT and many in both the MSM and cable news shows breathlessly report ad nauseam the linear trajectory of a recount process. In other words the famous quote about “generals fighting the last war” will play out. But is 2000 truly “a last war” moment?

"The Republicans should not give enhanced credibility to a corrupt process because this time the judiciary has already given President Trump due process and 4th Amendment top cover." . . .

. . . Rule 3: Start immediately arresting people in Florida-TODAY.
Immediately, arresting identified criminals will totally change the linear narrative established by those currently engaged in or reporting on those fighting “the last war.” . . .

Confronting Broward County Election Official Brenda Snipes "Jeff Weinsier from Florida station WPLG confronted Brenda Snipes, the Broward County Board of Elections Supervisor."
Florida Democrat Lawyers Wanted Non-Citizen Votes Counted

Election Time in the Banana Republic of Florida"Considering what's going on for the umpteenth time in the República Bananera de Florida, the caravans of how many thousands making their way from Central America to our Southern border should be going in reverse.

"We're Honduras now.

"No Banana Republic -- past or present -- could really outdo Florida when it comes to electoral corruption.  After all, the population of the Sunshine State is roughly the same as the populations of Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua combined.  It's also larger than the population of Guatemala by itself." . . .

Where have these GOP pols been for the last several decades?  This is nothing new.  Voter irregularities are as common in Florida as hurricanes -- and probably more toxic in the long run. Why, for godsakes, does the woman in Broward still have that job?

 FL Election Worker Chelsey Smith Signs Sworn Legal Statement Alleging Broward County Elections Staff Were Filling in Ballots

. . . "When the Florida Broward County Elections staff member reported that she saw elections staff committing crimes by filling out of blank ballots, she was fired and told not to come back!" . . .
Earlier today the attorneys for Chelsey Marie Smith released her sworn statement today alleging voter fraud.

Florida Vote Scandal Coverage Shows Media-Democrat Complicity. Again.

. . . "To make sure that votes aren’t being invented or destroyed to effect an outcome, one of the first priorities of any election supervisor is to announce how many ballots are in the possession and how many remain to be counted. To fail to do this, as the Broward County and Palm Beach County Supervisors had, is to open themselves up to the accusation of massive vote fraud.

"Citizens can not have confidence that ballots are not being destroyed, or created, when supervisors fail to immediately announce how many ballots are on hand." . . .

Via Doug Ross Journal

Visit by Adolf Hitler, June 1940 to his old battlefields of WW1

Dixmude Trenches of Death

WW2 Gravestone  "A local man from Wytschaete, south of Ypres, who was a young boy at the time, recalled the impression it made on him suddenly to see a convoy of big black cars and lots of German officers in their grey uniforms driving near his family’s farmhouse. He hid in the wood owned by his family and watched Adolf Hitler walking nearby with his entourage of officers. In the First World War Hitler had served with the Bavarian Reserve-Infantry-Regiment 16. "

 WW2 in color: "Hitler visiting the old WW1 front line trenches of his Bavarian 16th Reserve Regiment near Fromelles, France. He was wounded around this area during the Battle of the Somme (November 7 or 8, 1916). Photo taken in 1940, after the armistice."

Archaeologists find the bodies of 21 tragic World War One German soldiers in perfectly preserved trenches where they were buried alive by an Allied shell  Fascinating photos in here:  . . . "Many of the skeletal remains were found in the same positions the men had been in at the time of the collapse, prompting experts to liken the scene to Pompeii.

"A number of the soldiers were discovered sitting upright on a bench, one was lying in his bed and another was in the foetal position having been thrown down a flight of stairs." . . . 

. . . Archaeologists also uncovered the wooden sides, floors and stairways of the shelter.

"The dead soldiers were part of the 6th Company, 94th Reserve Infantry Regiment.

"Their names are all known - they include Musketeer Martin Heidrich, 20, Private Harry Bierkamp, 22, and Lieutenant August Hutten, 37, whose names are inscribed on a memorial in the nearby German war cemetery of Illfurth."

More on the trenches of WW1

WW1: Aerial Trench Ghosts Part 1 - Invisible Works

In Flanders Fields: PASSCHENDAELE AERIAL GHOST – LATE 1917

"It didn’t exist…"

"Nor did any trench lines, at most men stood in shellholes up to their waists in mud. Again the only vaguely recognisable elements in this flyblown muddy graveyard are the church, a scar of powdered stone and the remnants of roads." . . .

More here.

The 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month—100 Years Ago

Victor Davis Hanson  . . . "One ironic result was that the victorious but exhausted Allies announced to the world that they never wished to go to war again. Meanwhile, the defeated and humiliated Germans seemed all too eager to fight again soon to overturn the verdict of 1918.

The consequence was a far bloodier war that followed just two decades later. Eventually, “the war to end all wars” was rebranded “World War I” after World War II engulfed the planet and wiped out some 60 million lives.
"What can we learn from the failed armistice of 1918?
"Keeping the peace is sometimes even more difficult than winning a war."For an enemy to accept defeat, it must be forced to understand why it lost, suffer the consequences of its aggressions—and only then be shown magnanimity and given help to rebuild."Losers of a war cannot pick and choose when to quit fighting in enemy territory.
"Had the Allies continued their offensives in the fall of 1918 and invaded Germany, the peace that followed might have more closely resembled the unconditional surrender and agreements that ended WWII, leading to far more than just 20 years of subsequent European calm.

"Deterrence prevents war." . . .

In Texas the Irishman lost to the Hispanic

Journalism morphs into propaganda

American Thinker

Acosta Is a Symptom of Dead Left-wing Journalism  "Let’s be clear. Journalism has been ruined for some time now, decades in fact. The American legacy media has left-wingers who have failed to put their political feelings aside when reporting facts. They use word gymnastics to create a false narrative and sway public opinion. Our Founding Fathers wanted a free press to keep the government in check, but the liberal media destroyed their intention. "
. . . "The left kills anything it touches, and journalism is no different. Leftist journalists have destroyed their reputation and most likely will never recover from the self-inflicted damage."
"No president before Trump ever pushed back on the media. They were often afraid of bad coverage, but they received negative results regardless. However, Trump is not a typical Republican politician. He calls the mainstream media out for their biases and pushes back when necessary." . . .

Jim Acosta’s Self-Important Martyr Routine Is Growing Stale  . . . "But this claim that Trump’s harsh words towards Ryan were somehow racially motivated is insane if you watch the clip. At the briefing, Ryan interrupted Saagar Enjeti, an Indian-American who is the White House correspondent for The Daily Caller, before he could ask a question after being called upon. President Trump scolded her for being rude and interrupting Enjeti, then proceeded to take a question from him and answer it." . . . Also here.

Doesn't Anybody Here RESPECT Us Journalists?  "The snowflake disease is catching. Donald Trump, of all people, tried to teach a couple of White House reporters a little needed manners this week and you might have thought he had repealed the First Amendment with an executive order.

"Several of the snowflakes, who make their living by posing embarrassing when not rude questions to nearly everyone they talk to in pursuit of a day’s work, took to the fainting couches in the White House press lounge after the president returned shot for shell.

"Yamiche Alcindor of National Public Radio asked the president why he calls himself a “nationalist” when he should know that the word has been twisted into a meaning it once never had.

“ 'Mr. President,” she said, “on the campaign trail you called yourself a ‘nationalist,’ and some heard that as emboldening white nationalists. There are some people that say the Republican Party is seen as supporting white nationalists because of your rhetoric. What do you make of that?' ” . . .

"This is the classic ‘when-did-you-stop-beating your wife’ question. To answer it is to accept the premise, that a nationalist is a racist and bigot simply because “some people” say so, and that “the Republican Party is seen as supporting white nationalists because of [the president’s] rhetoric.” She apparently never learned that “some” is not a legitimate source." . . .

Incoming Democrat Chairman: Dems Will Go ‘All-In’ On Russia, Impeach Kavanaugh For ‘Perjury’

Mollie Hemingway

Also laments that elite Republicans are joining Democrats.

"Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., revealed plans for House Democrats to investigate and impeach Justice Brett Kavanaugh for alleged perjury and investigate and impeach President Donald Trump for alleged treasonous collusion with Russia.

"In post-election chats with various callers while riding the Acela train from New York to Washington, Nadler gave advice to a newly elected representative and discussed potential 2020 Democratic presidential nominees with another. He also lamented identity politics and the thriving economy and worried about Democrats losing working-class voters while gaining elite former Republicans and suburban women.

"Nadler was headed to DC for a two-day planning session with his staff and Judiciary Committee staff. “We’ve got to figure out what we’re doing,” he explained in a phone call with a friend. Nadler requested that the friend’s name be concealed on the grounds he is a private citizen.

"The two discussed two routes for investigating new Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh. The first is to go after the FBI for how they handled the investigation into unsubstantiated claims he sexually assaulted women. “They didn’t even do a half-ass job,” he said. “They didn’t interview 30 witnesses who said ‘Interview me! I’ve got a lot to say!'” he said, while mimicking people waving their hands to be called on.

"His other plan is to go after Kavanaugh because “there’s a real indication that Kavanaugh committed perjury.” He claimed that The Atlantic published an article about the allegations of a third woman. Then he claimed that when Kavanaugh was “asked at a committee hearing under oath when he first heard of the subject, he said, ‘When I’d heard of the Atlantic article.’ But there is an email chain apparently dating from well before that from him about ‘How can we deal with this?'” Nadler told the caller." . . .

The Carlson home attack: when poor education and the internet meld together

So much for being stewards of the American Republic.

. . . "The Twitter and Facebook accounts used to coordinate this assault and others are called “Smash Racism DC” and show that the claims Twitter and Facebook make about “community standards,” etc., are simply bullsh** window dressing to suppress conservative voices. There is no way a rightwing account that existed in order to dox leftwing celebrities and organize mob violence would have survived. But it took a near-home invasion of Carlson’s house to get Twitter to act. More evidence that these companies must start being held legally liable, as they clearly allied with one side in this drift to ritualized political violence." . . .  RedState

WATCH: ‘Knock Knock Tucker’: Leftists Protest Tucker Carlson at His Home  . . . "Tweets from the account that shared the videos claim Carlson has ties to white supremacists and states, “You can’t hide from those you hurt, Tucker.”

"The group also chanted, “No borders! No walls! No USA at all!' ”

Vox co-founder Matthew Yglesias blames Tucker Carlson for the mob that attacked his home . . . "While a number progressives have spoken out against the mob that terrorizedTucker Carlson’s wife when she was alone in the Northwest DC house, other people who should know better are throwing their support behind the mob.

"Matthew Yglesias, the co-founder of Vox issued a series of tweets yesterday blaming Tucker Carlson for the mob that attacked his house." . . .

DC Police investigating Antifa mob attack on Tucker Carlson’s home as ‘hate crime’
. . . "Since this was an attempt to instill fear and change behavior with threats of violence, it seems to me that it falls under the definition of terroristic threat, which, I believe, is a more serious crime:

A terroristic threat is a crime generally involving a threat to commit violence communicated with the intent to terrorize another, to cause evacuation of a building, or to cause serious public inconvenience, in reckless disregard of the risk of causing such terror or inconvenience. It may mean an offense against property or involving danger to another person that may include but is not limited to recklessly endangering another person, harassment, stalking, ethnic intimidation, and criminal mischief.

"It may fall under federal jurisdiction:" . . .

Press silent about mob attacking Tucker Carlson's wife . . . . . . "This silence also gives license to the same mob to go after commentators who do not hate President Trump enough.
"The Bill of Rights is a pact between the two sides of the political spectrum. The agreement is one of mutual respect for rights. Once broken, we enable violence.
"I urge every talk show host on cable to condemn the mob, if only for self-preservation." . . .