CNN President Jeff Zucker Faces What Might Be His Last Lap

  MarketScreener    "CNN president Jeff Zucker survived plenty of corporate intrigue since telecom giant AT&T swallowed up the cable network's parent company two years ago.

Donkey Hotey

"Now that is changing, leaving Mr. Zucker frustrated and his future at the cable news network in doubt.

"Mr. Zucker, who has overseen CNN for seven years, felt blindsided by a recent restructuring carried out by parent WarnerMedia, and has had friction with its chief executive, Jason Kilar, according to people familiar with the situation.

"The 55-year-old's contract expires next year and he hasn't committed to extending his deal in meetings with WarnerMedia brass and communications with CNN employees, the people say.

"Asked about his future in a town hall video chat on Wednesday, Mr. Zucker said he loves his job, but added, "The industry is changing, our company is changing, so I have a lot to think about," according to a recording of his remarks. He added, "I'll do that at the right time."

"Mr. Zucker said he won't make a decision on whether to stay at CNN until after the election.

"If this election is Mr. Zucker's last ride, he would leave CNN after transforming its role in the cable news landscape and becoming one of the most polarizing figures in media in the process. On his watch, the network, once accused of giving Donald Trump too much airtime during his first presidential run, has become a critic of the administration.

"CNN, like its rivals in cable news, has enjoyed a major ratings lift during the controversies of the Trump years, especially in election season. The network's ratings have increased about threefold compared with where they were at the start of 2015, reflecting similar gains at Fox News and MSNBC. CNN has been second in the ratings for most of the year among viewers 25 to 54, the key news demographic for advertisers, but trails rival MSNBC in total viewers and is well behind ratings leader Fox News." . . .

Christiane Amanpour Gives The Game Away On Media Blackout Of Biden Scandal

Issues & Insights

"Anyone who is still clinging to the notion that the mainstream press isn’t a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party needs to watch the exchange between premier journalist Christiane Amanpour and Republican National Committee spokeswoman Liz Harrington.

"As the troubling Hunter Biden story has developed, the press’ reasons for not covering it shifted. At first, the media said they wouldn’t cover it because the veracity of the laptop and the smoking gun emails hadn’t been “verified” and speculated that it was all part of another Russian effort to get Trump elected.

"After the authenticity of the laptop and at least some of the most damaging emails and texts were shown to be legitimate, and after the attempt to portray it as a Russian hoax was demolished, the press decided that it wasn’t a big enough scandal to warrant coverage, that it was just “a distraction.”

"Asked about NPR’s lack of coverage of the scandal, for example, NPR Managing Editor for News Terence Samuel, said that “We don’t want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don’t want to waste the listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions. And quite frankly, that’s where we ended up, this was … a politically driven event and we decided to treat it that way.”

"(Websters should add this definition to “distraction” – n: in media parlance, a scandal that involves a Democratic politician.)

"National Review had it almost right when it said in an editorial that “Too many journalists seem to live in terror of being blamed for reporting stories that might influence voters to reelect Donald Trump.”

"Seem to live in terror? Why qualify it? There is no question that the press, which has done anything and everything to ruin Trump’s presidency, will do anything and everything it can to get him out of office, including burying a big scandal involving his opponent. Nor should there be any doubt that a mainstream journalist perceived to have helped Trump would see his or her career immediately canceled.

"It was Amanpour, however, who revealed the deeper reason behind the media blackout of the Biden scandal, which goes beyond hatred of Trump.

"Talking with Harrington, Amanpour, at her sneering best, tries to dismiss the laptop story by once again suggesting that it’s some sort of Russian ploy. The two go back and forth about that for a while.

"Then, Amanpour says this: “As you know perfectly well, I’m a journalist and a reporter and I follow the facts. And there has never been any issues in terms of corruption,” referring to the Bidens. Here is what follows:" . . .

Social Media Erupts Over Woman Who Focuses On Getting Her Dad To Vote For Biden While He Is Dying

Daily Wire  "Social media erupted on Sunday over a TikTok video that was posted to Twitter showing a woman holding up note cards that explained how she got her terminally ill father, a supporter of President Donald Trump, to vote for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

" 'My 55-year-old conservative dad has never voted Democrat in his LIFE,” the note cards said. “He’s dying of Aplastic Anemia. We’ve had some intense exchanges about him voting for Trump this year, which has been painful, since we’ll almost certainly lose him in the next few weeks/months.”

" 'He has six daughters who love him dearly,” the cards continued. “Yesterday, he was so excited to tell me he’d just voted for BIDEN/HARRIS 2020!!!! Because ‘It matters to my girls and my girls matter to me.’ Vote for the guy who respects women! If my VERY Republican dad can… SO. CAN. YOU.”

"The woman’s insistence that Biden is the candidate “who respects women!” comes after he has been repeatedly accused of inappropriately touching women and has been accused of sexual assault." . . .

The Trump campaign is creating catchy, powerful ads

Andrea Widburg

. . . "Scott Adams made swift work of the Biden campaign’s decision:

"Meanwhile, Trump keeps up his peripatetic schedule, putting in up to three campaign appearances a day before wildly enthusiastic crowds. So, again, it’s not surprising that Biden has elected to advertise heavily. Trump, though, is advertising wisely. His videos are funny, powerful, or pointed, depending on the line of attack. Given the way the television and online markets are fragmented so that a person can channel or internet surf for days without watching ads, I thought I’d share with you some of the best Trump campaign ads."

Numerous TV ads here, but we selected this Halloween-themed ad for your viewing pleasure

President Trump makes a bold move to weaken the Swamp’s power

When the Founders ratified the Constitution, they envisioned only three branches of government: The Executive, the Legislative, and the Judiciary branches. However, as America grew, a bureaucratic class grew along with it.

Andrea Widburg    "Thanks to President Trump’s latest executive order, there’s got to be a sense of panic across every administrative agency in Washington. Last week, President Trump issued an order bearing the innocuous title, “Executive Order on Creating Schedule F In The Excepted Service.” Behind that title lurks an earthquake that may finally break the permanent bureaucracy’s stranglehold on federal politics and bring more accountability to the American government."

. . . 

"The same WaPo article argues that the executive order makes the bureaucracy a partisan organization, rather than a pure and nonpartisan workforce:

Still, the order, coming less than two weeks before the election, represents a stunning effort to reshape large parts of the nonpartisan government, which is supposed to serve as a cadre of subject-matter experts for every administration.

"That’s a laugh. There’s nothing nonpartisan about the Swamp. Trump’s order finally gives the President – who is, after all, the boss – the power to get rid of employees who actively resist a president’s policies. This power matters because the American people have selected their president because of his policies. Those employees who “resist” implementing his policies should be fired.

. . . "However, if Biden is elected, he will immediately rescind this executive order. You can then expect the Swamp to grow even more powerful in an administration that has as its primary goal expanding the government into every area of American life."

This is insane.

Every single rioter committing violence (including shooting fireworks at innocent people) should be arrested immediately, prosecuted & sent to jail.

Dem politicians refuse to do so. https://t.co/TMPDiWdMQd

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 6, 2020

Post-election 2020: Two studies say all hell to break loose

Meme Gallery

Bill Livingstone   "Two recent reports, when combined, paint a dark pathway for America in the coming weeks, a nation set on fire by multiple contentious court battles and widespread daily protests. 

The 79 Days Report, by the Claremont Institute and the Texas Policy Foundation, illuminates possible election legal battles on the horizon and how they might play out in the courts.  The bottom line?  The litigation will be time consuming and combative.  There’s no fast forward button to speed up the process.  It concludes:

• On election night, the winner will not be known “due to millions of uncounted mail-in ballots in 6 battleground states.”
• Given there’s no clear victor, “intense court fights” can be expected that could result “in a struggle right up to the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress.  Uncertainty could extend even beyond this as decisions for both the presidency and vice presidency are battled out in Congress and before the U.S. Supreme Court.”

. . . "The Hold the Line report posits an election outcome that’s fraudulent, where all the votes are not counted and irregularities remedied. Given this scenario, it calls for “another form of power to correct the balance,” an all-out revolution, in which large numbers of people participate in strikes, boycotts, protests, and other nonviolent actions,” until a democratic and accountable government is restored.” 

"In other words, they want to shut down society until President Trump is forced from office, not unlike the 28-Days of Resistance in Tunisia that toppled President El Abidine Ben Ali and the 25 January Revolution in Egypt that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. 

"Such an event seems highly implausible. But if Trump is reelected, no matter what happens, the left will claim the election was stolen, not unlike 2016, opening the curtain to four more years of protests and attacks on his presidency."

Tony Branco

Homeowners with Trump Yard Signs Receive Ominous Warning

 National Review

Menacing notes are just the latest example of the threats, theft, and electoral shenanigans surrounding the final days of campaign season in New Hampshire.

"Menacing notes are just the latest example of the threats, theft, and electoral shenanigans surrounding the final days of campaign season in New Hampshire. 

"Not so in 2020. State and federal law enforcement are investigating the letters, which were sent through the U.S. Postal Service to three homes in Milford and two in Brookline.

"Norm Silber, a Republican running for the state House of Representatives, also had one of his signs stolen off public property in his hometown of Gilford in June. “The grandson of one of my supporters saw it happen and wrote down the license plate,” he said. “So I reported it to the police, they ran the plates, called the registered owner, whose name is James Babcock, and he confessed!” 

"Babcock has been charged with theft by unauthorized taking and an election-law violation of tampering with an election sign. However, there has been no trial, said Silber, because the court has been closed due to COVID. That leaves him fuming. “I find that people on the Left are much more willing to engage in this kind of behavior than the Right,” said Silber." . . .

Well, they do tend to loot and burn businesses, kick injured, prostrate Trump supporters in the head, and pull down monuments to American history...

California's governor takes on Thanksgiving

Big Brother stomps on Thanksgiving in California  

This election, don’t stay home and pretend it can’t happen here. California shows that it can happen here, and it will happen across America if Progressives gain control.

. . . "Biden and Harris have already indicated that their policies are California’s policies: They will open the border, decriminalize a host of “quality of life” crimes, end all fossil fuels, lockdown America indefinitely because of the Wuhan virus, and engage in extreme gun control. If they win the White House (which means they’ll win Congress too), what you already see in California is what you will see across America."

And if Newson's thumb on this state wasn't bad enough: Meanwhile, Not so Golden State to Cut off Power to One Million People to Avoid More Wildfires

. . . As Fox reported, Red Flag Warning conditions can include wind gusts up to 35 mph, which could whip sparks through miles of brush and forestland — which could result in devastating wildfires. On the flip-side, even a couple of days without power can mean a live-or-die difference for small businesses already suffering from Newsom’s draconian COVID-19 lockdowns and other restrictions, as reported by RedState’s Jennifer Van Laar. . . .

 Comments to this post:  "I'm hosting my entire extended family at my house for some roast beast on Thanksgiving. It is a peaceful Turkey protest! We will probably put a burned out car in the front yard as a liberal prop. Comrade Newsom will not bother us at all.

"Go away Newsom. We are going to do what we want irrespective of what you say. Period."

More comments pro and con.

Megyn Kelly Rips Newsom’s Thanksgiving Restrictions: ‘Insanity’  "On Sunday, Megyn Kelly slammed California Democrat governor Gavin Newsom and the California Department of Health’s restrictions on private gatherings that would affect Thanksgiving, tweeting, “CA Gov’s Thxgiving insanity: Must be held *OUTSIDE*; Guests may use bathrm inside if sanitized; Masks on while not eating; Singing ‘strongly discouraged;’ Max of two hours together; 6 feet *mandated* in all directions b/twn all at table & otherwise.”

And Kelly liked Mr. Trump's debate performance, by the way.

Trump To ‘Immediately Fire’ Three Top U.S. Officials If He Wins Re-Election: Report

 Daily Wire   "President Donald Trump will reportedly move to “immediately fire” three top U.S. officials if he wins re-election next month, and has additional planned replacements after those three are gone.

"The three officials who Trump wants to immediately remove include FBI Director Christopher Wray, CIA Director Gina Haspel, and Defense Secretary Mark Esper, according to Axios. Wray and Haspel are reportedly “despised and distrusted” by the administration, and the president would have already fired both—starting with Wray—if not for politically damaging headlines in the run-up to next month’s elections.

“ 'The view of Haspel in the West Wing is that she still sees her job as manipulating people and outcomes, the way she must have when she was working assets in the field,” a source told Axios. “It’s bred a lot of suspicion of her motives.”

"Fox News host Tucker Carlson reported last month that Haspel was blocking the release of documents critical to understanding the origins of the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign in 2016. Multiple sources have told The Daily Wire the same thing.

"The news comes as Trump signed a new executive order last week that will make it significantly easier for the administration to remove individuals in the Federal service that are “constraining him from enacting desired policies or going after perceived enemies,” Axios added.

“Separating employees who cannot or will not meet required performance standards is important, and it is particularly important with regard to employees in confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating positions,” the executive order said. “High performance by such employees can meaningfully enhance agency operations, while poor performance can significantly hinder them. Senior agency officials report that poor performance by career employees in policy-relevant positions has resulted in long delays and substandard-quality work for important agency projects, such as drafting and issuing regulations.' ” . . .

The Big Guy Strikes Out

PJ Media

If the top strategists knew what lay buried in the Biden family’s economic dossier, they committed political malfeasance when they tanked Bernie and elevated Biden.

"You can think long and hard about who might have been a better candidate for the Democrats, but as bad as Biden is, and as badly as he got beaten in Thursday’s debate, you’ll come up empty.

"Biden was their only chance. Joe Biden’s installation by the Democrat establishment places into stark relief the absolute glut of losers currently parading the Democrat Socialists into electoral perdition. Now, with the Biden corruption meter falling hard into the danger zone, it must be asked: What did the Democrat strategists who foisted this fading senior citizen into the top slot know and when did they know it?

"The calculation was that Bernie Sanders, an organic socialist who legitimately inspired enthusiasm in the increasingly far-left ranks, could not win. The calculation was correct, he never could. As Rush Limbaugh has said for years, most Americans don’t like it when so-called progressives honestly divulge their vision for the nation. It is always necessary for them to package their true intent in an unmarked brown box of moderation.

"Biden was packaged as that brown box. He actually is that brown box. But while Biden himself might be an empty vessel representing do-nothing political corruption, the box is not empty. It is filled and festering with radicals.

"The question becomes: While the top Dem strategists were divining Bernie’s capitulation and grooming next-in-line Joe for the top of the ticket, did they have any clue about the bombshell information that has driven the former VP into Groundhog Day mode, and threatens to collapse the best laid plans of the contemporary antecedents of people like Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Terry McAuliffe and  James Carville? Did these people have any idea of the extent of how  inextricably the Biden family is on the take from foreign governments that were supposed—in the mainstream media narrative—to be vested in assisting and reelecting President Trump?" . . .

Forget the Hunter Biden sex tapes. The real news is much bigger than that.

What is scary is the success of Chinese imperialism and subversion. Our best hope and the best hope for the Chinese people is the reelection of Donald Trump. Norman Rogers

 
 

Andrea Widburg  "GTV, a Chinese dissident billionaire’s Taiwan-based media outlet, is releasing sordid, depressing videos and photographs of a person purported to be Hunter Biden engaging in sex and seemingly smoking crack. That’s not the big news. The big news is that the same outlet claims that (a) Communist China owns Joe Biden; (b) Joe Biden sold out CIA assets in China who were then executed or imprisoned; and (c) GTV has millions of images showing other presumably influential people in comprising positions. If all this is true, we may see a complete realignment in Western politics.

"The Hunter Biden videos and images are at GTV’s video site. I won’t give the link here because the material is pornographic. However, the following are two cropped pictures. In both, the person appearng to be Hunter is naked and with a woman. In the second picture, Hunter appears to be lighting a crack pipe while engaged in sexual activity with the woman:" . . . 

"Again, merely because Guo’s outlets have been accurate about some things does not mean that the above allegations are true. However, the following three allegations, if true, are earth-shaking:

"First: China has long owned Biden thanks to its having compromising information about his family (and possibly about him too).

"Second: Biden identified CIA assets in China. The back story is that, between 2010 and 2012, China executed or imprisoned 18 to 20 assets who had bravely worked with the CIA, destroying a critical intelligence network.

"Third: Guo’s outlets have “millions of videos and photos” of people who have worked with the Chinese against their own countries. If true, this implies that Guo managed to get into China’s “blackmail” database and can release that information.

"If you thought Epstein’s secrets were big, these new claims, if true, could blow everything out of the water. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that this information – again if it’s true – could realign politics in America and elsewhere."

Joe Biden Is an Honest and Forthright Man (But beware the man behind the mask.)

Less understandable than the whitewashed marriage creation story, Biden presented the biography of Neil Kinnock as though it were his own in 1987. Kinnock talked about being the first member of his family to graduate from college and his relatives’ eight-hour days slaving in coal mines only to emerge to play (European) football. Biden talked about being the first member of his family to graduate from college and his relatives’ 12-hour days slaving in coal mines only to emerge to play (American) football.

Politically Incorrect Daily

 The American Spectator   " 'The first president could not tell a lie. The 46th cannot tell the truth.

"Joe Biden fibs about birth, family, school, work, marriage (just a few of the minor aspects of life). Even his hairline tells a lie.

" 'It looks a little bit like plagiarism,” Vice President Mike Pence said in Thursday night’s debate regarding the Democratic candidate’s plan to tackle COVID-19, “which is something Joe Biden knows a little bit about.”

"Biden, of course, famously plagiarized speeches by Hubert Humphrey, John F. Kennedy, and Robert Kennedy (Pence should watch out for the Democratic nominee recycling his plagiarism line in the next debate). In law school, Biden flunked a class for inserting five pages from a law journal article into his paper.

"He provided a different account of his academic career on the campaign trail in Claremont, New Hampshire, in the spring of 1987. “I think I have a much higher IQ than you do,” he responded to a stunned Democratic voter asking about his credentials. He boasted of winning “the outstanding student in the political science department” at the University of Delaware, from which he “graduated with three degrees,” and then “went to law school on a full academic scholarship,” where he “ended up in the top half” of his class.

"Biden didn’t win an “outstanding student” award at the University of Delaware, where he had performed poorly. He actually graduated from the school with one, and not as he claimed three, degrees. He received a partial scholarship based on need to Syracuse Law, where he graduated in the bottom fifth of his class. Biden conceded, “I exaggerate when I’m angry” (and understates when he apologizes).

"Surely he was furious when he described how he met his wife.

"Joe says he became smitten with Jill upon seeing her in an airport advertisement in 1975. It just so happened that Biden’s brother knew the woman and offered to set up a date, in which they went to see A Man and a Woman, a movie about a widower given a second chance at love. Jill Biden’s first husband remembers their courtship differently." . . .