Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Does Catherine Herridge Leaving for CBS News Portend a Left Turn for Fox News?

Peter Barry Chowka  

. . . "It’s now thirteen years later, and Herridge has two teenage children including a son, now thirteen, who at one time was gravely ill. Her schedule at Fox News recently has been grueling, including not only on camera news reports during the day but live appearances well into the evening hours on prime-time opinion programs like Hannity, Tucker Carlson Tonight, and the Ingraham Angle. One possible explanation for her leaving Fox News is that a less-demanding job at CBS News – which like the other alphabet channels rarely covers breaking news anymore – will afford her a more flexible and less demanding work schedule.
"People outside of the breaking news business often fail to realize the exhausting nature of reporting the news today – really reporting, that is, which has been Herridge’s stock in trade. This is why most of the reporters you see on the cable television news channels are young, and not only for their youthful good looks; it tends to be a young person’s game.
"So, it’s entirely plausible that Catherine Herridge, after almost four decades in the trenches reporting breaking news, has reached a point in her career of wanting to wind it down a notch or two. One is hard pressed in these times to maintain one’s job on the day-to-day, crazy news cycle schedule forever. And not only that. As essentially a mainstream, non-ideological news person, Herridge might understandably at this point be looking to spend the next few years in a media environment that is perceived as less controversial and ideologically-driven. The facts, of course, are that Fox News is, in fact, the most fair and balanced mainstream news media source but that is far from the almost universally skewed perception of it in major media and academic circles.
"A tenure at CBS News, which is part of what used to be called the “Tiffany Network,” will likely burnish or restore Herridge’s reputation as a mainstream reporter of the top tier, positioning her for a rewarding post-broadcast future in academia, writing, public speaking, or serving on corporate boards.
"CBS News No Longer Murrow’s and Cronkite’s Boys’ Club
"The long-running era of CBS News as the stomping ground for Edward R. “Murrow’s Boys” and their decades of male successors, including in top management positions, is no more.
"A more hospitable and welcoming environment for a female news person than CBS News would be hard to find today. Under its current management, CBS News has become an especially friendly shop for women. " . . .

She's running: Hillary Clinton finally notices the electoral college matters

Monica Showalter  "After years of deriding the electoral college and touting her own success in winning the popular vote, Hillary Clinton is talking another story.
"According to a report in The Hill:
Hillary Clinton on Monday urged Democrats to choose a nominee who can win the Electoral College in 2020.
 "We have to hope that whoever ends up nominated can win the Electoral College," she said at a discussion of her book, "The Book of Gutsy Women," in Denver.
 "I think several of our candidates could win the popular vote but as I know ... that's not enough," added the 2016 Democratic nominee. 
 "I don't think we have a choice; we have to win" in 2020, she said, speaking alongside her daughter and co-author Chelsea Clinton at a sold-out event. 
"That intense focus on doing what it takes to actually win an election, instead of just count on solid-blue cities and states to carry the tally and yell victory, which she did earlier, insisting the whole thing was proof she really won the 2016 election, does signal some kind of change in thinking. As recently as Halloween, she was touting the importance of the popular vote. Something happened in the last five days while she's been out on book tour, touting some dreary book called "Gutsy Women about the importance of being left wing seems to have seeped into her frame of mind.
"Might it be that Joe Biden is flailing in the general election, the ooze of corruption from his son Hunter's doings, seeping closer and closer to Biden's own podium? Might it be that Wall Street is giving a Bronx cheer to the Democrats' reportedly best hope, Elizabeth Warren? Hillary Clinton never had problems shaking down that crowd. Might it be the spirited rallies and extreme enthusiasm seen at Trump rallies, way out in the deplorable flyover country, that place Clinton has long derided as not quite as good as her beloved blue cities? Most every hard-nosed observer of the political scene thinks Trump can beat every face on the Democrats' remaining roster. It could explain her sudden awakening to the importance, if not value, of the electoral college. 
"In any case, as her convenient book tour goes on, it appears she's getting warmer to the idea of running for president again. She's obviously convinced she could do it because she's now looking at practical ways of winning, the ones she ignored back when she was refusing to go to Wisconsin. Townhall has a pretty good writeup with some choice tweets here.
"She's running. Ready for Hillary, again?"

Clinton Unites Democrats — Against Her  
. . . "Hillary Clinton keeps flirting with running for president again, and the Democrat Party keeps rejecting her advances. You cannot blame Democrats for dismissing a candidacy the only rationale for which is hubris. And you cannot blame Republicans for desiring a candidacy that would take Democrats’ current chaos to another level.
"Welcome to the Clinton conundrum. On one hand, Hillary’s ominous omnipresence would signal an impending run if she were anyone else. On the other, Hillary’s two national election losses would signal a permanent retirement if she were anyone else.
"As they have been for almost three decades, Democrats are still trying to solve the Clinton riddle. Currently, they have their hands full with a fractured field that refuses to yield clarity. Four months in, and no closer to choosing next year’s nominee, the nominee from three years ago resurfaces." . . .

Monday, November 4, 2019

How Big-Government Regulation Contributed to California's Wildfires


American Thinker  . . . "If, according to the proponents of big government at the Sacramento Bee, a random explosion at a fertilizer plant in West must signify the failures of small-government policies and low regulation, why do the persistent catastrophic wildfires in California's forests not represent the failures of comparably big-government regulation?
"In truth, there was nothing, then or now, to suggest that more regulations upon industry at the federal or state level might have prevented the calamity in West.  It was, in fact, later determined to have been caused by a criminal act, therefore it was a horrifying anomaly.  There is, however, plenty to suggest that the irresponsibility of bloated federal and state government bureaucracies' impositions of regulations has led to the destructive extent of the wildfires in California.
"Fires are nothing new in California, and there's something of an interesting history to them that used to not be nearly as tragic as we see today.  Chuck DeVore, vice president of national initiatives at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, reminds his readers at Forbes that as "a citizen soldier in the California National Guard for two decades, I often heard the gallows humor that California's four seasons were: flood, fire, earthquake, and riot."
"DeVore takes to task the editorial board at the Sacramento Bee for their commentary around the Carr Fire of 2018, in which they suggested that the recent fires are the result of "climate change, for real and in real time." . . .

"Excused from this conversation? Who the heck talks like that?"
         Gavin Newsom


You don’t believe in climate change. You are excused from this conversation. https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1190995034163892226 

. . . "What the reply served to tell Trump was that Newsom wasn't prepared to defend his bad policy positions, probably because he was still feeling the voter heat. Instead of defend himself, he told Trump to shut up. He apparently knew that anything of substance that he might say would be held against him by the state's angry voters. If he tried to blather on about global warming while his constituents' houses were burning, he'd be in a world of trouble." . . .











If the press will not serve us, where do we go to learn what takes place in our nation?

How the anti-Trump press would have covered his Gettysburg Address:

Sharyl Attkisson: Al-Baghdadi’s death, 3 Washington Post headlines  . . . "There was confusion and outrage surrounding three Washington Post headlines after the raid on the leader of the Islamic extremist terrorist group ISIS, al-Baghdadi.
"The first headline called al-Baghdadi a “terrorist in chief”: “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Islamic State’s ‘Terrorist in Chief,’ dies at 48.”
"That headline was mysteriously replaced by one that changed al-Baghdadi from a terrorist to a scholar. It read, “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, austere religious scholar at helm of Islamic State, dies at 48.”
"That ignited a firestorm of criticism and prompted yet another headline change. This one read, “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, extremist leader of Islamic State, dies at 48.” . . . 
Well, he only murdered thousands of men, women, and children; It's not as if he ridiculed Democrats in his tweets. 
Newsweek Buys Into Impeachment Hype, Publishes 'President Pence' Issue
"Newsweek magazine appears to have gone all-in on the impeachment narrative against President Donald Trump, publishing a cover floating the idea of Vice President Mike Pence (or even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi) taking over the highest office in America.
"A picture of the issue, dated Oct. 25, was posted on Twitter by actress Kristy Swanson.
“ 'Seriously? And what is that line under PENCE,” Swanson wrote. “What’s that supposed to mean exactly?” . . .

Rand Paul: 'Media, Do Your Job,' Reveal Whistleblower

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Shifty: appearing deceitful or evasive. "a shifty, fast-talking lawyer"

http://www.terrellaftermath.com/
Schiff's Impeachment Train to Nowhere  "Like the expensive California fast train to nowhere, Schiff’s funhouse impeachment hearings are a useless waste of time and money, and subject him to well-deserved ridicule. They are certain not to prevent President Trump’s reelection in 2020 and may well cost the Democrats their majority in the House. With a pack of losing candidates and a series of “now we got him” flops ahead of them, this is a losing desperation ploy." . . .

Why will no Democrat pull the plug on Schiff?  "One would think that by now  that there would be one or two sentient Democrats who realize the terrible damage that Adam Schiff is doing to their party.  But, with the possible exception of the two Democrats who voted against Pelosi's stupid "impeachment resolution," Reps. Jeff Drew and Collin Peterson, they all seem to be captive to Nancy Pelosi's and Adam Schiff's pathological moonbattery.  Not one other of them has the courage to stand up for what is right and true; that Trump committed no impeachable crimes, not even close.  He's the most transparent, most investigated president in U.S. history.  The Democrats all know this!  They know Trump is not guilty of any offense, let alone one that is impeachable.  They surely know that Schiff is certifiably insane and yet they stand by and let him make fools of their party.  They stand by and let him conduct his anti-democratic Star Chamber that is running roughshod over the Constitution.  And they all know that what he is doing is wrong, very, very wrong.  If this were being done to one of theirs, they would be screaming from the rooftops of their luxurious D.C. abodes. " . . .

Who in their right mind would share lies from a liar two days after confirming the liar was a liar?  "Adam Schiff lied about when he met the supposed whistleblower who claimed he had dirt on President Trump.  This shocking claim which comes after Schiff was on the news claiming multiple times that he didn’t meet the whistleblower, was released by the New York Times on October 2nd, 2019 " . . .

Trump Is Serious About Carrying Minnesota, the One That Got Away in 2016

NY Times

Supporters of President Trump rallied for him across the street from protesters, outside an event he attended in April in Burnsville, Minn.
Supporters of President Trump rallied for him across the street from
 protesters, outside an event he attended in April in Burnsville, Minn.
"A Republican presidential candidate has not won the state of Minnesota since Richard M. Nixon’s victory there in 1972. But President Trump has long viewed it as the one that got away.
"Mr. Trump barely set foot in the state during his 2016 campaign, and his field organization on the ground was nonexistent: The lone Trump campaign staff member working the state was moved to Colorado before Election Day. But Mr. Trump lost Minnesota to his former rival Hillary Clinton by 1.5 percentage points, or less than 45,000 votes.
“We almost won it,” Mr. Trump said during a visit this year to a trucking company in a Minneapolis suburb. The difference between a victory and a loss, he said, would have been coming to the state to give “one more speech.' " . . .

Bye-bye Beto. If all the silly Democrats drop out, the 2020 race may get tough

Because it sums up the creep's unfitness for anything. Bottom line, this was an childish, immature reprobate who had no business running for presidential office. Imagine this guy with a nuclear button or a security clearance. Monica Showalter
Skateboarding hacker poet pervert with drunk driving and burglary raps drops out of presidential race "Which is probably good news for Democrats even as it's less entertaining for us. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, see, has gone on record to say that Democratic presidential candidates need to stop acting like raving lunatics.
"Beto certainly was part of the problem, having gone unusually crazy in his last miserable days of campaigning with toxic proposals. The wannabe Latino candidate from El Paso vowed to tax churches, expropriate guns, jail all sorts of people but amnesty illegals, which didn't wash even with many Democrats. No wonder his polling numbers went to around 1% or maybe zero.
"Which raises questions as to why the heck this guy was out there. Who took him seriously other than the media. Power Line's John Hinderaker has an ace observation about that one:" . . .

Low-Polling Beto Ending His Presidential Campaign  . . . "Coons also told CNN that he did not support O’Rourke’s pledge. He believes the majority of people in Congress don’t like it either.
"O’Rourke received more criticism from both sides when he said he wanted to strip churches of their tax-exempt status if they did not support same-sex marriage.
"He made that declaration at the October debate. Guess what? It did not help his polling numbers. He only polled 2% nationally.
"Like the rest of the left, O’Rourke wanted to throw money at other problems like $5 trillion to fight climate change or $500 billion to address something called “education inequality.' ” . . .  More...

Saturday, November 2, 2019

Schiff's circus and his talk show extras


John Brennan Praises CIA Whistleblower: ‘Thank Goodness’ Intel Community Is Fighting the Fight

Impeachment Is Serious Business . . . That Just Ends Up Being Joked About with Colbert  
. . . "In ideal circumstances, the Speaker of the House wouldn’t choose to appear on Stephen Colbert right after the vote to start the inquiry, and joke that she’ll schedule the hearings to best fit the timing for the writers of Colbert’s nightly monologue. (You can actually see Pelosi start to get uncomfortable when Colbert asks if she’s confronting Kevin McCarthy with ‘do you feel lucky, punk?”)  Ideally, Nancy Pelosi wouldn’t have asserted, “Nobody comes to Congress to impeach a president.” Er, Rashida Tlaib announced specifically that with profane clarity. Tlaib was selling T-shirts about it." . . .


Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman ignored a direct order from the commander-in-chief. A court may decide whether Vindman broke the military code of justice.
. . . "The story also said, "It comes down to whether Trump’s order was lawful, he said. If Trump was trying to prevent Vindman from sharing sensitive information, it could be. If he was trying to prevent testimony, period, it’s not.
" 'The Military Whistle Blower Protection Act prohibits government officials from interfering with a member of the military in communicating with Congress or an inspector general. Adding to the complexity is that the president gets to determine what is and isn’t classified."
"But was he a whistle blower or a spy?
"He did not report any wrongdoing. He did not follow the chain-of-command with his reporting." . . .

Surber quotes a series of tweets made by a Lt.Col who served alongside Vindman:
"A retired LTC speaks out that Vindman mocked Americans during multinational exercises."
. . . "...Russian Soldiers, as well as the young Officers & GS Employees about America, Russia, & Obama. He was apologetic of American culture, laughed about Americans not being educated or worldly, & really talked up Obama & globalism to the point of uncomfortable. He would speak...
...w/the Russian Soldiers & laugh as if at the expense of the US personnel. It was so uncomfortable & unprofessional, one of the GS employees came & told me everything above. I walked over & sat w/in earshot of Vindman, & sure enough, all was confirmed. One comment truly..
...struck me as odd, & it was w/respect to American's falsely thinking they're exceptional, when he said, "He [Obama] is working on that now." And he said it w/a snide 'I know a secret' look on his face. I honestly don't know what it meant, it just sounded like an odd thing to..






US succeeds in eliminating ISIS chief; Schiff, Pelosi cry “we were not informed”

What’s On Politics.  International community lauds the US for the death of ISIS chief

"Saudi Arabia lauded the US for destroying the ISIS founder, which it accused of “distort[ing] the image of Islam.”

“The Saudi government appreciates the great efforts of the US administration in pursuing the members of this dangerous terrorist organization, which distorted the true image of Islam and Muslims around the world and committed atrocities and crimes that contradict the most basic human values in many countries including the Kingdom,” the official Saudi Press Agency said in a statement.

"Southeast Asian countries Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia, home to some of the most organized ISIS-linked fighters, also welcomed the news but expressed worry that the death of al-Baghdadi will ignite rebellion among his followers.
"Back home, the success of the operation also drew cheers." . . .

Schiff, Pelosi: We we’re not informed about the operation

  "But his staunch critics in the House of Representatives didn’t seem fully pleased. And they actually found a way to share the spotlight.

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff decried how they were not informed  before Pres. Trump gave a go-signal for the al-Baghdadi operation.

“ 'My understanding [Pelosi] wasn’t [told],” Schiff told ABC’s “This Week”. Although he also agreed that the death of the terrorist leader is a “good riddance.”

“ 'The reason for notifying the Gang of Eight is frankly more important when things go wrong … had this [operation] escalated, had something gone wrong, had we gotten into a firefight with Russians, it’s to their advantage to be able to say that ‘we informed Congress we were going in. They were aware of the risks, we at least gave them the chance to provide feedback’ that wasn’t done here. I think that’s a mistake,” Schiff said.

Baton attack during June protests in downtown Portland lands man in prison for nearly 6 years

From the Police Reporter  His arrest record

Oregon Live
Breaking: Antifa militant Gage Halupowski sentenced to nearly 6 years in prison for striking a man on head from behind w/a baton during riot. He was masked at the time & assaulted an officer while trying to escape. His lawyer says sentence is too severe.

Adam Kelly, Halupowski's victim
. . . "A 24-year-old man who hit another man over the head with a baton in June during dueling downtown Portland demonstrations was sentenced Friday to nearly six years in prison.
"Gage Halupowski pleaded guilty to second-degree assault in connection with the June 29 attack on Adam Kelly outside The Nines Hotel along Southwest Morrison Street. Halupowski was identified as one of several masked, black-clothed demonstrators seen on video hitting and pepper-spraying Kelly after he appeared to come to the aid of another man who’d been attacked during the protests, authorities said.
"Kelly, a right-wing protestor at the demonstrations, wrote on Facebook at the time that the blows to his head led to him suffering a concussion and needing 25 staples to close the wounds.
"Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney Melissa Marrero said Halupowski hitting Kelly in the back of the head with an expandable baton was “completely unexplainable, completely avoidable and didn’t need to happen.”
"She said Kelly and Halupowski both were lucky that Kelly survived his injuries.
"Defense attorney Edward Kroll said Halupowski made “a really terrible decision” and that Kelly didn’t deserve what happened to him, but the attorney believed the agreed-upon 70-month prison sentence was “one of the harshest sentences I’ve seen for someone with no criminal background and young age.' ”   Keep reading…

Brit Hume Points Out A Big Problem With Vindman

Weasel Zippers
Britt Hume: "This from the article: “he was deeply troubled by what he interpreted as an attempt by the president to subvert U.S. foreign policy...” There is a huge fallacy in this. Anyone know what it is?"

Actually, it’s the fact that the president is the constitutional author of foreign policy, so the idea he is “subverting” it is illogical.

'He thinks he still has Mike Pence's job!' Joe Biden boasts in Iowa about tax credits 'the president and I' want . . .

Isn't this called "passive-aggressive"?

UK Daily Mail  "Former Vice President Joe Biden suggested Wednesday in Iowa that he thinks he's still current Vice President Joe Biden, telling an Iowa reporter about environmental tax credits that 'the president and I' jointly want to put in place.
"Rattling off a litany of green initiatives he wants to see rural America embrace, Biden said offering federal tax incentives would help nudge the nation toward a carbon-neutral future.
" 'It would also help people with housing, if you were able to continue to have what we propose, and I propose, what the president and I—' he said, before stopping himself. 
"He continued a second later, saying Americans should 'have, you know, tax credits for insulating homes, tax credits for making all businesses – all buildings, you know – energy contained, et cetera.'
"A Republican operative in Iowa reacted Friday afternoon, saying: 'Poor Joe. He thinks he still has Mike Pence's job! He's definitely not getting Donald Trump's.'  " . . .