Florida Governor Rick Scott suspended Brenda Snipes on Friday, so on Saturday she UN-resigned!

A lot of moolah is involved.

This woman is in the top 2.7% of all earners nationally making $178K, in a government job. The governor only makes $130K.

And as if that's not bad enough, she's been in this job just 15 years and expects to pull in a $71K/year pension at taxpayer expense.

What job in the private sector pays that kind of deal?! And for chronic INCOMPETENCE?!

I could just scream.

Brenda Snipes says she'll fight suspension by Gov. Scott, and rescinds resignation:

The governor Friday replaced Snipes with Republican Peter Antonacci, president and CEO of the state’s business-recruitment agency Enterprise Florida. ...

After the November election, which brought unflattering national attention to her operation, Snipes submitted a letter of resignation that was to take effect Jan. 4, a date that likely would have kept the current governor from selecting her replacement. Scott was elected to the U.S. Senate and will be sworn in on Jan. 3. ...

Snipes was set to receive $71,000 a year pension from her time in the elections office. The job itself paid $178,865 annually. But the suspension could cost Snipes that pension, Norris Weeks said. She said Snipes was unable to get answers to her questions about the pension but intends to fight for it.

AP rescinds two called races for the Republicans in NC-9 and CA-21, Democrats could finish with net pickups of 41 in the US House

North Carolina House race too close to call amid fraud inquiry:

The Associated Press has uncalled the race, as state authorities examine allegations against Republican Mark Harris' campaign. ... The North Carolina contest marks the second time this week the AP has rescinded one of its election-night race calls. On Monday night, the wire service — which supplies election results and projections to news organizations all over the country — said it no longer considered Republican Rep. David Valadao the winner of a congressional race in California’s Central Valley, after his Democratic opponent, TJ Cox, inched ahead of Valadao in the state’s protracted vote count. As of early Friday, Cox’s lead in the California race stood at 591 votes, with the counties planning to certify their results next week.

Meanwhile NY-22, as expected, became a Democrat pickup as did UT-4. The GOP held on in TX-23 and GA-7.

Real Clear Politics still shows NC-9 today as a GOP hold giving Republicans 200 in the new House, which is incorrect, so the math should show the new House at Democrats 234, Republicans 199, with CA-21 and NC-9 to be re-adjudicated.

So far, Democrats have picked up 42 seats, Republicans 3 seats, for a net Democrat pickup of 39 (so also Real Clear Politics).

Year of the paper tiger: One term president blinks on tariffs

US will hold off on raising China tariffs to 25% as Trump and Xi agree to a 90-day trade truce

The French government of Macron raised the fuel taxes causing the protests, socialist interior minister blames Marine Le Pen and the far right

Typical projection. Antifa in the US has been in constant violence mode since 2015 stirring up trouble and attacking Trump supporters and destroying property but everywhere you turn it is Trump and the far right which is said to be the cause of all the violence. These left wing lunatics are the same everywhere.

'This is the start of a revolution': Paris rioters steal police assault rifle, torch dozens of cars and vow to 'stay in the streets until Christmas' as fuel protests continue into the night and spread across France - and even to Holland:

Christophe Castaner, France's Interior Minister, said there would be identity checks and bag searches for all pedestrians in the Champs-Elysees area. 

Mr Castaner has blamed Marine Le Pen, leader of the Far Right National Rally party, for encouraging unsavoury elements to get involved in trouble. ... 

The movement, organised through social media, has steadfastly refused to align with any political party or trade union but has grown into a mass movement amid frustration at Macron's presidency. The 'yellow vests' include many pensioners and has been most active in small urban and rural areas where it has blocked roads, closed motorway toll booths, and even walled up the entrance to tax offices. Chantal, a 61-year-old pensioner who came from an eastern Paris suburb, said she was avoiding the 'hooligans' but was determined to send President Emmanuel Macron a message on the rising costs of living. 'He has to come down off his pedestal,' she said under cold rain on the Champs Elysees. 'Every month I have to dip into my savings.' The immediate trigger for the protest wave was Macron's decision to raise tax on diesel fuel in a move to encourage the driving of less-polluting cars.

CNBC/Reuters can't decide if the socialist spokesman for France's government is a man or a woman

How does anyone think someone named Benjamin is a woman, especially when he clearly needs a shave?

France mulls state of emergency after Paris riots, won’t change policy:

“We have to think about the measures that can be taken so that these incidents don’t happen again,” government spokeswoman Benjamin Griveaux told Europe 1 radio. ... When asked about imposing a state of emergency, Griveaux said it would be among the options considered on Sunday. “It is out of the question that each weekend becomes a meeting or ritual for violence.” Griveaux urged the yellow vest movement to disassociate itself from the radical groups that had instigated the violence, organize itself and come to the negotiating table. However, he ruled out a change in government policy. “We won’t change course. It’s the right direction. We are certain of that,” he said.

Après nous, le déluge

Rush Limbaugh joins the "No Labels" crowd, now eschews "conservative", Geno from the Bronx tells him off

Mark Levin responded unfavorably to the idea on his show last night, advocating that we still embrace the label, and now an angry Geno from the Bronx has blasted Limbaugh for his shapeshifting, saying what a lot of us have been thinking for years.

It'll do no good, Geno. The guy's unreachable. But good show bro!

Try Labeling Conservatism as “Solving Problems”:

So I would suggest to you, when you’re out and about and if you run into an occasion where you have the opportunity to talk politics, people that don’t agree with you, do not use the word “conservative.”

Do everything else, but don’t call yourself that, don’t promote it, don’t reference it, just talk about we need to solve problems and tell people how you would do it. Leave the label out of it. We’ve got a brand problem. I hate it. I hate having to admit it. But there are too many mind-numbed, brain-dead robots who have a totally incorrect and blasphemes opinion of the word “conservative” and “conservatism” that it’s just — get rid of it. Stop calling yourself that. Just be one. Just talk to people as one.

When you talk to people about issues, refer to them as problems that need to be fixed. Don’t say you’ve got a conservative idea or conservative philosophy. Just articulate it but don’t label it. And my point is I think you’ll have a far better chance of being persuasive if you don’t use the term. And after all, what’s the objective? 

They’ve Destroyed the Conservative Brand. We’re Problem Solvers, Geno!:

RUSH: To the Bronx up next. Geno, great to have you on the EIB Network. Hi.

CALLER: Rush, I’m very disappointed in you and in fact, quite honestly, I’m angry with you because of what you told that lady two days ago and what you told the other call today earlier today in the program. You’re advising us, your loyal audience for 30 years, that have stood by you and that have made you the Moses of conservatism. You are now telling us that we should call ourselves “problem solvers” rather than conservatives so that we can try to get the political power that we need. I’m here to tell you it’s time for you to go back to the way you were and take back what you said today! Because I’m gonna give it to you straight. I live in the Bronx. I’m on the front lines. I every day have to confront left-wing lizards and brain-dead Bolsheviks! And they give me a hard time every day, but I get right back in their face and I tell ’em, “You go to hell!” Because I don’t want my country, I don’t want what my parents and my family and everybody I’ve ever known in my life to surrender to these brain-dead idiots that are gonna destroy our country. And now you gonna tell me that I should back down and that I should somehow say, well, I’m not a conservative, but I’m a problem solver because I should fear these fools that are out there. No, Rush. It’s time for you to get back to basics. You gotta be the same person you were 30 years ago that had my loyalty up until today. You have to be the Johnny Carson that you have been for the last 30 years and say “no!” You get in people’s faces! You tell them no! You’re an imbecile, you’re an idiot, you’re a jackass and you’re gonna help destroy our country from within, if we listen to the crap that you’re trying to tell us. There is no such thing as being transgender, you’re either male or female. There’s no such thing as 37 different flavors of sexism. No. You’re a man or a woman and the same with the abortion issue. You gave that up a long time ago, and so did your other brethren on conservative talk radio, which I don’t even call conservative anymore. Millions of Americans have died because of the schmucks that we have to pay attention to and the scum in the media that have turned everything that’s bad and unholy into what is righteous and it’s completely wrong. So I’m gonna give you an opportunity right here and now, Rush, on your own show to take back what you said to that lady yesterday and earlier today, otherwise what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna come and I’m gonna take that microphone away from you and gonna be the Jay Leno to your Johnny Carson! And I’m gonna be the one that’s gonna be the leader of the new conservative movement. It’s either that or I go to the Trumpster and I tell him to stop giving you interviews and that’s it. It’s gonna be Mark Levin and a handful of others because now it seems to me that you have gone soft and you’ve gone weak-willed. The same way you criticize Republican slobs like Jeff Sessions and the other mutants who stab us in the back every time and you don’t bust their chops anymore, I noticed that recently. Now I’m gonna do that to you and I’m gonna go every other radio program until and unless you take back what you said that we should not say that we are conservatives anymore but that we’re problem solvers. That’s wrong! Admit you’re wrong and do it right here, right now.

RUSH: I never said back down, and I never said not to get in their face. I simply said do not use a term to describe yourself that makes it impossible to have any kind of solution with these people. That’s all. I’m not saying don’t be a conservative.

CALLER: (shouting)

RUSH: Wait a minute, Geno. I didn’t tell you not to be a conservative. I didn’t tell you to back down. I didn’t tell you to tell these scum to go soft or any of that. None of that at all. Do you not…? Let me ask: Do you not agree that just the name conservative has a little bit of a PR problem right now?

CALLER: That PR is because left-wing maggots in the media have made it that way, but when we confront them, then they back down. That’s the thing that you should be reemphasizing like you did 30 years ago. You were my hero for the last 30 years, and now all of the sudden you have backed down because you have become weak-willed —

RUSH: I’m not backing down, Geno, and I haven’t —

CALLER: — thinks that you gonna (unintelligible) and escape from these problems. I want to save America, if you don’t step aside and I’ll do it for you.

RUSH: You have drawn a whole lot of conclusions here that are nowhere near true. I have not backed down from anything. I’ve never backed down from anything. I’m not advocating that you back down. I’m not telling you to stop talking about them the way you want to talk about them. I’m not telling you not to get in their face and if you think they’re a bunch of reprobate rats, tell ’em so. That’s all. I’m just talking about the label. I’m not telling you to not be conservative, Geno.

CALLER: But you said we shouldn’t admit to it. That’s an act of cowardice —

RUSH: No, I did not say you shouldn’t admit to it! I did not say —

CALLER: (shouting)

RUSH: I did not —

CALLER: (shouting)

RUSH: Don’t change anything. Don’t change your behavior, don’t change your technique in persuading. None of that.

CALLER: Bolsheviks will get in your face. You should get in their face and stand up to them. Otherwise they take over, we all lose, and America falls by the wayside like it did for my ancient ancestors 1,500 years ago.

RUSH: What do you think I do here every day?

CALLER: Well, you tell me. You tell me that why we shouldn’t be calling ourselves conservatives anymore. To me it’s an act of cowardice.

RUSH: I’m simply talking about the label. I’m putting it out there as an idea. I’m not talking about strategy. I am talking about strategy. I’m not talking about the actual ideologue belief system. I’m not saying you should abandon anything.

CALLER: Sorry, Rush, you’re not buying me on this one. I hate to say this, but after 30 years my loyalty now for you is gone and that chicken parmesan dinner that I was supposed to cook for you and your wife you identify, you can forget that deal, Mr. Snerdley will get it before you do. You’ll have to pay for that dinner.

RUSH: I wasn’t aware that you were gonna fix me a chicken parmesan.

CALLER: Well, that was three years ago when I last called in when you gave the speech about Hildebeast and why we should vote for the Trumpster. Remember?

RUSH: Well —

CALLER: Apparently you forgot because, again you know, you’re too fat and happy now —

RUSH: You think I was for the Hildebeast? You think I spent the last two years ago advocating for the Hildebeast?

CALLER: You have… You’re basically what you’re doing is telling us we should surrender our title as conservatives.

RUSH: I am not telling you anything of the sort.

CALLER: — beat the evil empire. That’s what you’re backing down on.

RUSH: No, I’m not backing down at all. I’m not backing down —

CALLER: If you lived here in the Bronx, trust me, you would feal —

RUSH: Geno, I am surrounded by a bunch of left-wing liberals here that are brain-dead, judgmental, mean-spirited, superiorist little butts. I’m surrounded by ’em. You can’t avoid ’em everywhere you go.

CALLER: But then you’re telling us that we shouldn’t even identify as conservatives. Why, because some schmuck on CNN is gonna give us a hard time?

RUSH: No!

CALLER: We give them a hard time! We take Jim Acosta, take him out and giving us a beating if we have to. We do everything that you used to tell us 30 years ago but apparently now you’ve gotten a little too soft Rush. It’s time for you to step aside. Let me take the microphone from you for a few days. And I’ll straighten out your audience.

RUSH: I’ll tell you what, Geno. Why don’t we do that. You can have this microphone starting tomorrow. I haven’t taken a vacation this year. You can come down here tomorrow, you can take the microphone and you can deal with it however you want.

CALLER: More than happy to do that, and then I’ll reinstate your chicken parmesan with you and your wife.

RUSH: Okay. Well, I don’t like chicken parm.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: That’s what happens when the Red Sox beat the Yankees. It’s tough out there. We’re all surrounded by these “commie bastards” out there, Geno.

James Pinkerton for The American Conservative completely falls for Hillary's "new" immigration views

Hillary Clinton: Conservatives Were Right on Mass Migration:

[H]ere in the U.S., conservatives—as distinct, of course, from libertarians—are now able to say, “Even Hillary Clinton and John Kerry agree on the need for border enforcement.” And in political terms, that’s not a small victory.

 Commenter Blitzkrieg spoke for many when he opined that Pinkerton "missed the point entirely".

When the opposition's blindness blinds you into thinking a top priority is the only priority

Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina sinks confirmation of Thomas Farr to US District Court in this congress, but cocaine Mitch may have another plan

Sen. Tim Scott announces opposition to judicial nominee Thomas Farr, effectively dooming confirmation:

South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott announced Thursday he will oppose embattled judicial nominee Thomas Farr, in a reversal of his position a day earlier that seemingly ends the nominee's chances for now amid fierce criticism by civil rights groups. ...

Farr was first nominated to the federal court in the Eastern District of North Carolina by former President George W. Bush in 2006, but never received a confirmation vote. ...

Prominent Democrats immediately applauded Scott's decision Thursday to oppose Farr, and attacked President Trump for doubling down on Bush's nomination. ...

Top Republicans had also stood behind Farr this week. It remains unclear whether the Senate's GOP leadership will try to reconsider Farr when the new 53-47 Republican majority -- sans Flake -- is seated in January.

“The American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary -- a body that's frequently been held up by my Democratic colleagues as the ‘gold standard’ -- has awarded Mr. Farr its highest possible rating: unanimously well qualified,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Mao's struggle sessions literally come home: Surplus Chinese communists placed in Muslim homes to convert Uighurs to Han secularism

China’s Uighurs assigned ‘relatives’ who report to the state:

The old woman was a spy, sent by the Chinese government to infiltrate his family.

There are many like her. According to the ruling Communist Party’s official newspaper, as of the end of September, 1.1 million local government workers have been deployed to ethnic minorities’ living rooms, dining areas and Muslim prayer spaces, not to mention at weddings, funerals and other occasions once considered intimate and private.

All this is taking place in China’s far west region of Xinjiang, home to the predominantly Muslim, Turkic-speaking Uighurs, who have long reported discrimination at the hands of the country’s majority Han Chinese.

While government notices about the “Pair Up and Become Family” program portray it as an affectionate cultural exchange, Uighurs living in exile in Turkey said their loved ones saw the campaign as a chilling intrusion into the only place that they once felt safe.

They believe the program is aimed at coercing Uighurs into living secular lives like the Han majority. Anything diverging from the party’s prescribed lifestyle can be viewed by authorities as a sign of potential extremism — from suddenly giving up smoking or alcohol, to having an “abnormal” beard or an overly religious name.

Under Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Uighur homeland has been blanketed with stifling surveillance, from armed checkpoints on street corners to facial-recognition-equipped CCTV cameras steadily surveying passers-by. Now, Uighurs say, they must live under the watchful eye of the ruling Communist Party even inside their own homes. ...

The Xinjiang United Front Work Department said in February that government workers should live with their assigned families every two months, for five days at a time.

The United Front, a Communist Party agency, indicates in the notice that the program is mandatory for cadres. ...

A February piece on the Communist Party’s official news site said: “The vast majority of party cadres are not only living inside villagers’ homes, but also living inside the hearts of the masses.”

Overseas Uighurs said the “visits” to their relatives’ homes often lasted longer than five days, and they were closely monitored the whole time. The cadres would ask their family members where they were going and who they were meeting whenever they wanted to leave the house. ...

All government employees in the region are required to conduct such visits in order to better understand villagers’ needs, according to Gu: “Because we’re always sitting in our offices, we don’t know what they really need. Only through penetrating the masses can we truly serve them.”

Like Hillary vs. Trump, Beto O'Rourke outspent Ted Cruz and lost, but some Democrats think he's their guy in 2020

But not Rahm Emanuel.

Rahm Emanuel rejects Beto O'Rourke 2020 buzz: 'You don't usually promote a loser':

"If Beto O'Rourke wants to go and run for president, God bless him, he should put his hat in and make his case. But, he lost. You don't usually promote a loser to the top of party," Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Thursday on MSNBC, becoming the highest-profile Democrat yet to air doubts about the excitement swirling around El Paso congressman. ...

One reason Democrats see potential for O'Rourke in a crowded presidential field is that he displayed a rare gift for inspiring donors nationwide.

He smashed through all fundraising records for any Senate candidate anywhere ever. He had a $38 million haul in one three-month period alone on his way past the $70 million mark. A final post-election disclosure due next week will push the total even higher. He outspent Cruz roughly 3-1. 

In Democrats' current short list for 2020 Beto runs third behind Lunchbox Joe and Bernie Sanders. Hillary's not on the list. Methinks Rahm would like to be.

Real Clear Markets: Why Victoria's Secret Is Struggling To Stay Relevant by Amy Odell, TIME

There is no business model for remaining relevant in a world gone mad.

Dateline Trump World Golf Club Dubai: President offers to resign if he can keep Air Force One

"Easy mark" is the flipside of "paper tiger"

VP Mike Pence overcomes Republican Jeff Flake alliance with Democrats to advance nomination of Thomas Farr to NC US District Court post vacant since 2005

Trump judicial nominee clears hurdle after Pence breaks tie

The judgeship is just one of 136 current federal court vacancies. Authorized positions in 2018 are north of 860.

Senators typically veto nominees they don't like in their jurisdictions by returning a negative blue slip on the individual.

North Carolina is a playground for Supreme Court intervention in representation decisions involving race through the 1965 Voting Rights Act, making judicial appointments there radioactive. Both US Senators from North Carolina have been Republicans since 2014 when Tillis defeated Hagan. Burr was re-elected in 2016. 

Barack Obama lets one go: "Suddenly America's like the biggest . . . gas, that was me, people"

Here.

Whooooooweeeeee, that one smells:

CNN, December 1, 2010: Obama bans eastern Gulf drilling for 7 years

House Committee on Natural Resources, Washington DC, November 8, 2011: Obama Administration Imposes Five-Year Drilling Ban on Majority of Offshore Areas 

Investor's Business Daily, October 16, 2012: Gas Prices Doubled, Obama Locks Up National Reserve

House Committee on Natural Resources Timeline: AMERICAN ENERGY ROADBLOCKS BY THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION 2009-2013

Climate Change News, January 27, 2015: Obama bans oil drilling in 9.8 million acres of Arctic ocean

WaPo, March 20, 2015: Obama administration tightens federal rules on oil and gas fracking

NYT, June 22, 2016: Obama Fracking Rule Is Struck Down by Court:

The blocked rule would not have affected most fracking operations in the United States, since it would have applied only to fracking on federal lands. The vast majority of fracking in the United States — almost 90 percent — is done on state and private land and is governed by state and local regulations. The rule was unlikely to have stopped most new fracking on public lands, although oil and gas companies complained that it could have slowed operations by creating burdensome paperwork.

BBC, December 21, 2016: Obama bans oil drilling 'permanently' in millions of acres of ocean

NYT, October 27, 2018: Driven by Trump Policy Changes, Fracking Booms on Public Lands

I'm guessing the Broward County election results upset her stomach

Woman passes gas in store, then pulls knife on an offended customer, cops say:

Wilson allegedly pulled a small “lock back knife” from her purse, “opened the knife and told the victim she was going to ‘gut’ him,” the police report said.

While doing so, she pulled back her right hand with the knife as if she was going to attack the victim with it, the report read.

Why blacks didn't turn out for Hillary in 2016: They all look alike

Here.

Arkansas still votes Republican.

I'll bet it didn't taste very good after that

Bill Gates drove at high speed through the dessert.