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Friday, November 16, 2018

Democrat Wins Congressional Election in Maine After Algorithm Decides Race!

Democrat candidate Jared Golden was just announced the winner of Maine’s 2nd Congressional district after an algorithm decided the race.

As previously reported, Republican Congressman for Maine’s 2nd district, Bruce Poliquin filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against Maine’s Secretary of State to stop an algorithm from deciding the election in his race against Democrat opponent Jared Golden.

Congressman Bruce Poliquin pointed out that Maine has a long history of plurality winners in its elections.

Poliquin also argued against an algorithm deciding the Maine election in a Facebook post Tuesday

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Trump Accuses Mueller Team Of Being ‘Gang Of Democratic Thugs’

President Donald Trump opened a broadside attack against special counsel Robert Mueller as his legal team weighs how to respond to outstanding questions regarding the 2016 presidential election, in a series of tweets.

The president referenced the fact that Mueller was not confirmed by the U.S. Senate to his position as special counsel, telling The Daily Caller in an exclusive Oval Office interview Wednesday that “he’s heading this whole big thing, he’s not Senate confirmed.”

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Anti-Pelosi Dems Urging Marcia Fudge to Run for Speaker

Democrats opposed to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) are reportedly urging Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) to challenge Pelosi for House Speaker.

“People are asking me to do it, and I am thinking about it,” Fudge told the Cleveland Plain Dealer on Wednesday. “I need to give it some thought and see if I have an interest. I am at the very beginning of this process. It is just in discussion at this point.”

Fudge is reportedly one of 17 Democrats who signed a letter pledging not to vote for Pelosi on the House floor, which would complicate Pelosi’s efforts to get the 218 votes needed get back her Speakership. Pelosi’s allies are reportedly trying to convince anti-Pelosi Democrats and perhaps even some Republicans to vote “present” on the House floor to lower the number of votes she would need to win. Since Pelosi just needs a majority of Democrats to be nominated for Speaker, her nomination is hardly in doubt.

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Californians Flock to Gun Store

There’s a single, solitary gun store in Thousand Oaks, California.

Since the deadly events at the Borderline Bar & Grill, though, it’s been a busy place. While I do expect it’ll get picketed at some point, and people will likely say that it remaining open is somehow insensitive, that’s not why it’s busy.

No, it’s busy because a number of Californians are waking up to the fact that the police can’t protect you and gun control laws won’t stop these kinds of things from happening, but being a good guy with a gun might give you a fighting chance.

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Maine Republican loses seat to Democrat after ranked-choice votes counted

Republican Rep. Bruce Poliquin has lost his seat to Democratic challenger Jared Golden through ranked-choice voting for Maine's 2nd District House race, Maine’s Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said Thursday.

“It looks like Jared Golden is the apparent winner of the ranked-choice election,” Dunlap said, noting that Golden received 50.5 percent of the votes and Poliquin won 49.5 percent.

Just hours before Dunlap’s announcement, a judge had rejected Poliquin’s request for a temporary restraining order to halt the ranked-choice voting process and claimed ranked-choice voting is unconstitutional.

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Judge rules Georgia counties must count absentee ballots with missing or incorrect date of birth

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Georgia counties have to count absentee ballots that are either missing or have an incorrect date of birth — a move that could prove instrumental to the close race for governor of the Peach State.

U.S. District Judge Steve Jones' decision prevents Georgia from finalizing the election results until these votes are counted, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

Despite the good news for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who trails Republican candidate Brian Kemp, not all rejected ballots are to be reinstated, as Abrams sought in a lawsuit.

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Chicago PlayStation Users Furious They Must Now Pay A 9% "Amusement Tax"

When they powered up their Playstations on Nov. 9, Gamers in the Windy City were furious to learn that they will now need to fork over a 9% levy to the city every time they pay for any of a suit of online services as Chicago steps up enforcement of its supremely unpopular Amusement Tax, which was expanded in 2015 to cover video games, streaming services and other digital-entertainment mediums. While some companies have resisted what they have decried as an overreach by city tax collectors, who are desperately trying to plug a massive budget hole while supporting some of the most under-funded public pensions in the country, Sony has become the latest video gaming company to acquiesce to the city's demands. Meanwhile, Nintendo and Microsoft (which owns Xbox) have been collecting the levies since 2015.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the city’s amusement tax once only applied to concerts and sporting event tickets, but several streaming companies like Netflix and Hulu have bowed to the city's demands since the levy was first expanded. Apple, on the other hand, filed a lawsuit against the city back in August alleging that the tax on its streaming service was "illegal and discriminatory". The company isn't paying the tax while the case works its way through a Cook County court.

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Arizona GOP Announces Independent Audit of Maricopa County Recorder

The Arizona Republican Party announced Thursday it will conduct an independent audit of the Maricopa County Recorder's Office after legal issues and other complaints arose in the days-long count to decide Arizona’s next senator.

After Election Day, about 650,000 votes were not yet tallied in counties across Arizona, but the lion's share of those outstanding ballots resided in Maricopa County, the fourth-largest county in the country.

The vote count in the race between Martha McSally (R.,) and the eventual winner Kyrsten Sinema (D.,) went on for six more days beyond Election Day, in which time the GOP sued Maricopa County questioning how long the county could "cure" ballots where the signature on the ballot was not a good enough match to the voter's signature on file.

In instances such as this, the recorder's office may contact the voter to verify the ballot. However, some recorder’s offices stopped this "curing" process when polls closed at 7 p.m. local time on Election Day, while Maricopa County continued to cure ballots beyond that.

Days after the suit was filed and before the senate race was called, a settlement was struck allowing Maricopa to continue curing ballots up to an appointed time, but it also gained assurances that other counties would have the same time to cure all of their signature-flagged ballots as well.

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Hirono: GOP Investigating Hillary Is Like Beating a 'Dead Horse'

Thursday on CNN’s “Right Now,” Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) said if the Republican Party tries to investigate Hillary Clinton, it would be like beating a “dead horse.”

Hirono clarified she was referring to the investigation, not Clinton, as a dead horse.

Partial transcript as follows:

KEILAR: I want to ask you another question about the committee. Your Republican chairman, Chuck Grassley, is thinking about stepping down. Lindsey Graham is thinking about replacing him and he said he would immediately call for investigations of Hillary Clinton. What do think he is trying to do there?

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Maryland Files Notice of Appeal in Benisek v. Lamone

BALTIMORE, MD – The Office of Attorney General today filed a Notice of Appeal with the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in Benisek v. Lamone, requesting a hearing before the Supreme Court. The Office also filed a Consent Motion to Stay and requested an expedited briefing to allow time to implement the Court’s decision in the event of an adverse ruling.

Court Rules Hillary Clinton Must Answer Key Questions About Her Private Server!

Once again Judicial Watch is doing the heavy lifting.

Judicial Watch appeared in a DC federal court Wednesday on a motion to compel more testimony from Hillary Clinton as well as to make public video recordings of depositions of top Clinton aides such as Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills.

The court ruled that Hillary Clinton must answer more questions about the setting up of her private server.

Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said that the court denied their request to unseal the video depositions of Clinton’s aides.

TOM FITTON: Breaking: Court rules late today Hillary Clinton must answer more email questions — including key q’s about the setting up of her email system. Court denied our request to unseal vid depositions of Clinton aides. Great work by Michael Bekesha!

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GOP Lawmakers Shun Voters, Choose Kevin McCarthy as Minority Leader Over Jim Jordan!

The GOP elite shunned voters Wednesday and chose Kevin McCarthy as House Minority Leader over conservative favorite Jim Jordan.

McCarthy had the backing of the GOP elite and outgoing RINO House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Jim Jordan had the backing of his fellow members and Trump supporters in the Freedom Caucus.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) was chosen to be GOP conference Chairwoman.

Fox News reported:

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Trump Warns Antifa — You Could Be In Big Trouble

President Donald Trump warned violent leftists and Antifa members that an opposition to them may “mobilize,” and it would mean “big trouble” for the leftist group.

“They better hope that the opposition to Antifa decides not to mobilize,” the president told The Daily Caller in an exclusive Oval Office interview Wednesday.

“These people, like the Antifa — they better hope that the opposition to Antifa decides not to mobilize. Because if they do, they’re much tougher. Much stronger. Potentially much more violent. And Antifa’s going to be in big trouble. But so far they haven’t done that and that’s a good thing,” he continued.

Trump was asked by The Daily Caller about the recent wave of political violence during his administration, beginning with violent Antifa riots on his inauguration day.

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Wicomico County Community Members Trained and Equipped to Save a Life

With more and more Marylanders dying everyday from opioid-related overdoses, learning how to save a life and becoming equipped with the proper tools do so is now more important than ever. The Maryland Department of Health indicated in its second quarter Unintentional Drug- and Alcohol-Related Intoxication Death report that opioid related deaths in Maryland have increased by nearly 12% in the first six months of 2018, compared to the same time period in 2017. Although the state is seeing an overall increase, Wicomico County is seeing a reduction in lives lost, dropping from 19 to 17 for that period.

The medication Naloxone, also known by the name brand Narcan, aids in reducing the death rate because it reverses opioid overdoses, saving lives. More than 2,700 Wicomico County residents have been trained to administer this life saving medication. Since the initiation of the Opioid Response Program in 2015, the number of individuals trained has grown each year, with more than 1,000 Wicomico County residents being trained from July 2017 through June 2018.

The training instructor not only teaches an individual how to administer the medication, but also provides them with a kit for their personal use should they encounter an opioid overdose in the community. Jessica Taylor, Program Coordinator for the Local Behavioral Health Authority, states, “similar to CPR, you can become equipped to potentially save the life of an individual in our community.”

Free Naloxone trainings are offered every second Tuesday of the month, 6:00-7:00 pm at the Wicomico County Public Library. In addition to these trainings, community members can contact the Wicomico County Health Department to schedule a free training at their agency or business. Call Wicomico County Opioid Coordinator Christina Bowie-Simpson at (410) 219- 3956 to find out more or to schedule a training.

If you or someone you love is struggling with a substance use disorder, you can find help at BeforeItsTooLateMD.org or by calling 211 and pressing 1. You can also contact Wicomico’s Community Outreach Addictions Team (COAT) at 443-783-6875.

Well, Do You?


Why President Trump ‘Doesn’t Owe Anyone a Free Pass’ to the White House Briefing Room

A federal judge has just ordered that the White House must return — immediately and temporarily — the press pass of CNN’s Jim Acosta, Fox News reported.

A hearing is still ongoing; the network reported the breaking news at 10:30 a.m. Friday morning.

“The order to restore Acosta’s access came from Judge Timothy Kelly, appointed a year ago to the federal district court in Washington, D.C., by President Donald Trump,” as NBC News also noted. “He said the White House must give the credential back temporarily in order to give Acosta a chance to persuade the administration that he should be allowed to keep it.”

Acosta himself made a brief statement to the media and thanked others for their support. (Fox News had sided with CNN.)

Yet New York Times best-selling author Brigitte Gabriel, even before Friday morning’s action from the judge, strongly believed and still believes that President Donald Trump does not owe anyone a free pass to the White House briefing room.

In a chapter of her new book, “RISE: In Defense of Judeo-Christian Values and Freedom,” called “Lamestream Media,” Gabriel writes that the mainstream media as an institution are riddled by group-think — and that one radical leftist ideology controls the news. The book was published on September 11 by FrontLine, an imprint of Charisma House.

“CNN’s lawsuit over the revocation of Jim Acosta’s White House press pass displays clearly just how clueless the Left is about the Constitution, as well as how readily willing they are to throw a childlike fit when they don’t get their way,” Gabriel said in a statement shared with LifeZette about the ongoing legal battle.

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Chuck Schumer’s Recount Reversal

Dem senator no longer believes conceding defeat is 'gentlemanly thing to do'

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) says Florida's recount should go on beyond the Sunday deadline if needed, a reversal from 2006 when Schumer slammed Republicans for demanding a recount and argued conceding the election would be the "gentlemanly thing to do."

Schumer entered the recount fight between incumbent Democratic senator Bill Nelson and Republican Rick Scott on Tuesday during a joint press conference with Nelson. He argued that election supervisors "should have all the time they need" for the recount, "even if the vote count has to go beyond" the legally set Sunday deadline.

Schumer's stance on lengthy recounts was different a bit over a decade ago, when it was a Republican incumbent, former senator George Allen (Va.) considering a recount after narrowly losing his reelection bid to Democrat Jim Webb. Allen was behind Webb by less than half a percentage point, which in Virginia entitled him to a recount.

Schumer thought it would have been a bad idea.

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Sherrod Brown Goes Off: 'If Stacey Abrams Doesn't Win in Georgia, They Stole It'

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) declared Wednesday that if Democrat Stacey Abrams doesn't win the Georgia governor's race, the Republicans "stole it."

Speaking in front of the left-wing advocacy group National Action Network, Brown said he would "never give in on voting rights" and accused Republicans of illicitly winning the contentious governor's race in Georgia. Republican Brian Kemp leads Abrams by nearly 60,000 votes and hasrepeatedly called on her to concede the race.

"If Stacey Abrams doesn't win in Georgia, they stole it," Brown said. "It's clear. I say that publicly. It's clear."

Brown railed against "voter purging" in Ohio, and he also accused Georgia of closing rural precincts to disenfranchise blacks, although local elections officials say the methods were meant to save taxpayer money.

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Saudi Arabia calls for death penalty in Jamal Khashoggi killing

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia’s top prosecutor is recommending the death penalty for five suspects charged with ordering and carrying out the killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi.

Saudi Al-Mojeb told journalists in a rare press conference in Riyadh on Thursday that Khashoggi’s killers had set in motion plans for the killing on Sept. 29, three days before he was killed inside the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.

The prosecutor says the highest-level official behind the killing is Saudi former deputy intelligence chief Ahmad al-Assiri, who has been fired for ordering Khashoggi’s forced return.

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God Bless Ronald Reagan & His Humor After Balloon Pops

Stan Lee's Cameos

My family escaped socialism, now my fellow Democrats think we should move the party in its direction

Cuba’s socialist revolution was supposed to work for workers — like my grandparents who lived in Miami during Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorship. In January 1959, just two weeks after Fidel Castro seized power, they returned to the island to care for my grandmother’s ailing mother. For the next 20 years, they remained prisoners in their own country.

As Cuba’s political and economic situation worsened, my grandfather told a friend he wanted to return to the United States. Someone overheard the conversation and reported him to the authorities. For this, the Castro regime threw him in jail. He was later stripped of his job and salary as an accountant and assigned to feed zoo animals. In addition to the emotional distress it caused, this made my family’s financial circumstances even more precarious.

To understand my grandparents’ desperation to flee socialism, imagine leaving everything behind and starting anew at almost 60 years old.

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I Don't Look Good Naked Anymore

Florida Democrats Urged Voters to Submit Absentee Ballots After Election Day Using Altered Forms

Florida Democrats urged voters to submit absentee ballots after Election Day, using an official form that had been altered to make it look like they were doing so within the legal deadline, hoping a judge would later allow the votes.

That attempt to add Democratic votes, which critics say is possible election fraud, wasreported Thursday morning by Ana Ceballos of the Naples Daily News, who notes the scheme has already been reported to federal prosecutors.

A day after Florida’s election left top state races too close to call, a Democratic party leader directed staffers and volunteers to share altered election forms with voters to fix signature problems on absentee ballots after the state’s deadline.

The altered forms surfaced in Broward, Santa Rosa, Citrus and Okaloosa counties and were reported to federal prosecutors to review for possible election fraud as Florida counties complete a required recount in three top races.

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Democrat apologizes for calling Tennessee racist and some voters 'uneducated' in Facebook video

A Tennessee Democrat newly elected to the House of Representatives has apologized for saying the state is racist and most residents who voted Republican are uneducated.

London Lamar, who ran uncontested in Tennessee's House District 91, made the remarks in a 15-minute video posted to Facebook after last week's midterm election.

'Tennessee's racist. Period. Period. Like, Tennessee is racist,' Lamar, a black woman, said in the since-deleted video.

She added: 'Most of the Tennesseeans who voted Republican are uneducated.'

The video was posted on Wednesday and taken down by Friday, but not before being widely shared and captured in full by local news outlets.

Lamar's comments were not well-received by many constituents in the Democrat-leaning district, which includes Memphis.

The congresswoman-elect offered a partial apology on Monday, saying: 'We want to make sure we don't over-generalize groups of people,' while maintaining that race played a role in elections across the 'polarized state'.

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WATCH: Christian Musicians Boldly Declare Jesus At The White House

A delight to see the name of Jesus Christ lifted high in America's most historic building!

Worship leaders and Christian artists from around the USA gathered at the White House yesterday to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ over the country! Then, following their “Faith Briefing” the musicians posted footage of their spontaneous praise and worship session.

In a clip posted by Christian artist, Tauren Wells on Twitter, the group can be seen singing the song, “What A Beautiful Name” by Hillsong Worship.

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Progressives Zero-In On Exit-Tax On Illinois Wealth

Eureka! They figured out a way to tax wealthy folks trying to flee Illinois: A progressive real estate transfer tax, and the idea seems to be getting popular.

An Op-Ed yesterday in the Chicago Sun-Times by Daniel Kay Hertz of the Center for Tax Budget Accountability and Marisa Novara of the Metropolitan Planning Council made the case for it in Chicago. Evanston already voted in favor of it Tuesday.

Chicago today has a real estate transfer tax of $5.25 per $500 of property value, but the city should stick pricey homes with a higher rate, say the authors.

They weren’t specific about what rates they favor, but the ballot measure passed in Evanston, as Crain’s reported, calls for a transfer tax increase of 40 percent to establish a new rate of $7 for every $1,000 of value for sales between $1.5 million and $5 million and an increase of 80 percent to establish a new rate of $9 for every $1,000 of value for sales over $5 million. Evanston’s current rate is $5 for every $1,000 of value.

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Viral story about couple that raised $400K for homeless man was made up, say investigators

Every person who made a contribution to a GoFundMe page for a homeless man who spent his last $20 to help a stranded woman will get their money back after it was revealed that the story was fake, according to prosecutors.

Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina said Mark D'Amico, Katelyn McClure and Johnny Bobbitt concocted the story that Bobbitt spent his last $20 to help McClure after she ran out of a gas in New Jersey in November of 2017.

Within an hour of posting the story on a GoFundMe page, Coffina said McClure sent a text message to another person that reportedly admitted the entire story was made up.

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Graham: If Dems Look Backward, 'We're All Going to Look Backward'

When it comes to investigations of things past, two sides can play that game. That's the message from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who is expected to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee in the next Congress.

Earlier this week, Graham said yes, he "totally" will investigate how the FBI handled the Trump-Russia investigation as well as the way the Obama Justice Department and the FBI handled the Hillary Clinton email investigation.

Graham elaborated Wednesday night, when he appeared on Sean Hannity's show:

"You know, to my Democrat friends, if you want to look backward, we're all going to look backward..."

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Thomas Gallatin: Socialist Family Feud Over Amazon HQ2

Ocasio-Cortez blasts Amazon as the e-commerce giant announces its location for its new headquarters.

Amazon’s long-anticipated decision for the location of its new “HQ2” headquarters was announced with an unexpected twist — the new headquarters will be split between two cities: Queens, New York, and Crystal City, Virginia (a DC suburb). In the end, the reasoning behind this decision is obvious: direct access to the levers of financial and political power in two high-profile leftist enclaves. Instead of locating the new headquarters in the most business-friendly states and environments, Amazon chose leftist power centers knowing that the company will be able to seamlessly pass on any higher costs to consumers. And the tax benefits to Amazon work out to almost $50,000 per job created. Cronyism at its finest.

But there was another reason behind Amazon’s new headquarters’ “search.” In all likelihood, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos had made up his mind on the new locations when the search was first announced. As Reason speculates, “[Amazon’s] HQ2 search was not about HQ2: it was about market research. The mayors and governors and councilmen and commissioners and local developers of America handed priceless information about their plans, investments, and reserve prices to Jeff Bezos for free. … Amazon is now privy to information about where different municipalities are going to direct investment and infrastructure in the near future. The company can exploit this information.”

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FL GOP Candidate Caldwell: Only 30,000 Votes Could Have Possibly Come in After Election Day - Snipes Found 83,000 Votes

Democrats are stealing the the election in Florida.

Since the election Broward County has mysteriously manufactured over 83,000 votes in Broward County and they refused to report how many more votes they have yet to count.

A judge last week found Broward County in violation of the Constitution and ordered Broward County Election Supervisor Brenda Snipes to allow ballot inspections immediately during an emergency hearing on Friday.

BUT SNIPES DID NOT TURN OVER THE BALLOTS ON FRIDAY NIGHT — She released numbers of Saturday.

And now a recount is taking place.

Republicans have already lost at least one race in Florida since election night.

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Two Radical Obama-Appointed Judges Rule in Favor of Stacey Abrams in Her Attempt to Steal Election!

Two Obama-appointed judges ruled in favor of Stacey Abrams on Tuesday in her attempt to steal the Georgia governor’s race.

Judge Amy Totenberg is a United States District Judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. She was born in New York and was appointed by Barack Obama.

Another Obama-appointed leftwing judge ruled ballots should be accepted with an incorrect or omitted birth year.
This is today’s Democrat Party.
Anything to win — no matter what.

The Daily Mail reported:

A Federal Judge has ordered Georgia to wait until Friday to certify the results of the midterm elections amid concerns about the state’s voter registration system and the handling of provisional ballots.

US District Judge Amy Totenberg ruled late Monday that Georgia must not certify the election results before Friday at 5 pm, which falls before the November 20 deadline set by state law.

Totenberg also ordered the secretary of state’s office to establish a hotline or website where voters can check whether their provisional ballots were counted.

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President Trump Calls For Brenda Snipes To Be Fired

President Donald Trump believes that embattled Broward County Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes is a “disgrace” and should be fired.

The president spoke to The Daily Caller in an exclusive, wide-ranging interview Wednesday at the White House. The president did not mince words when asked about Snipes and the Florida recount.

Snipes has come under fire by media and elected Republicans for multiple irregularities in her vote reporting. After the Florida Senate race was called for Republican Gov. Rick Scott on election night, election supervisors in Broward and Palm Beach counties were still adding votes to their tally, in violation of Florida reporting law. In the subsequent days, Snipes defied a judge’s order to submit “over-voted” and “under-voted” absentee ballots for public review and admitted to “accidentally” mixing illegal ballots in with good ones. The illegal ballots “cannot be identified” now, according to Snipes.

TheDC asked the president specifically if he considers this behavior illegal and what Snipes’ future in her role as an election official should be.

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UN Committee Wants to Make Abortion and Assisted Suicide a ‘Universal Human Right’

The United Nations Human Rights Committee drafted a memo saying that abortion and physician-assisted suicide should be universal human rights.

The memo, or “general comment” on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, calls for abortion to be decriminalized everywhere. Nations and states should “not introduce new barriers and should remove existing barriers [to abortion] … including barriers caused as a result of the exercise of conscientious objection by individual medical providers,” it said, Crux Now reported Thursday.

The committee that put forward the draft is headed by former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, according to Crux. Aborting an unborn baby was illegal in Chile until August 2017 when the nation’s lawmakers ruled to decriminalize abortion in the cases of rape, fatal fetal abnormalities, and when the mother’s life is in danger.

Young people should have access to contraception as well as guaranteed access to post-abortion health care “in all circumstances, and on a confidential basis,” the draft also said, Crux reported. Stigma against abortion should also be discouraged, the draft noted.

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Google Cloud is Busted by Russians and Chinese

Perhaps it is a good thing that Google employees convinced their management not to do business with the Pentagon, thereby pulling out of participating in a $10 billion cloud computing contract called JEDI (Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure).

On November 12th, Google's services were hit by a massive hack allegedly carried out by Russians, Chinese, and Nigerians. The hack redirected all of Google's search, business, and cloud computing operations through servers run in these countries using a hack called the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). This gave the hackers unprecedented access to extremely sensitive information on users and direct access to any data that was not independently encrypted (one presumes that the typical computer network security protocols were automatically compromised by being run through servers that did not belong to Google). Even more critically, it gave the three countries complete control over all of Google's operations and data. While the hack only lasted about an hour and a half, it demonstrated in clear terms just how vulnerable computer networks are and showed that the critical infrastructure could have been taken down, had the hackers wanted to do so.

For the record, the Google Cloud and Google's G-Suite business services have good security practices, and the Google Cloud in particular has some security features that are quite advanced. But that did not stop the BGP hack, because BGP hacks exploit the IP addresses and information routing addresses that are built into the modern internet. Worse yet, computer experts say that current technology can't stop a BGP hack.

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68 per cent of Americans have either quit or taken a break from social media

On the evening of Sept. 26, Bailey Richardson logged in to Instagram for the last time.

"The time has come for me to delete my Instagram," she wrote to her 20,000 followers, using her white pants as a canvas. "Thanks for all the kindnesses over the years."

Richardson's decision isn't novel: 68 percent of Americans have either quit or taken a break from social media this year, according to the Pew Research Center.

But Richardson isn't a bystander reckoning with the ills of technology: She was one of the 13 original employees working at Instagram in 2012 when Facebook bought the viral photo-sharing app for $1 billion. She and four others from that small group now say the sense of intimacy, artistry and discovery that defined early Instagram and led to its success has given way to a celebrity-driven marketplace that is engineered to sap users' time and attention at the cost of their well-being.

"In the early days, you felt your post was seen by people who cared about you and that you cared about," said Richardson, who left Instagram in 2014 and later founded a start-up. "That feeling is completely gone for me now."

The catalyst for Richardson's decision to quit Instagram came when its co-founders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, unexpectedly announced that they were leaving the company. With their exit, Richardson and other former Instagram employees worried Facebook would squash whatever independent identity the company had managed to retain.

She sent her goodbye to Instagram the next day.

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Just A Kid In The Car Absolutely Destroying 'Smooth Criminal' On His Ukulele

Mob That Stalked Tucker Carlson Is Already Back On Twitter

Smash Racism DC, the group that organized a mob outside of Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s home last week, broke Twitter policy to create a new account after they were suspended by the social media platform.

Twitter suspended Smash Racism DC, which was previously operating under the handle “@SmashRacismDC” after they posted tweets containing Carlson’s address and video of a mob screaming threats outside of Carlson’s home. The account was later suspended again for ban evasion.

Carlson, also a Daily Caller co-founder, said his wife was home alone at the time and thought she was the victim of a home invasion.

Twitter did not initially take action against Smash Racism DC until The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out for comment on the threatening and doxxing posts.

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Gingrich Slams Democrats for ‘Long Tradition of Stealing Elections’

“The Department of Justice must move under the Voting Rights Act to do a full investigation of what happened, not only in Florida … but [on] what happened in Arizona,” said host Laura Ingraham on “The Laura Ingraham Show” on Wednesday morning.

She summarized the “bizarre scenario” that unfolded in Arizona, in which the governor was elected handily by double digits, yet at the 11th hour the Republican senatorial candidate, Martha McSally, lost by a razor-thin margin to one of the most left-wing senatorial candidates in the state’s history, Kyrsten Sinema.

Curiously, McSally — who lost amid the existence of emergency polling stations that only one party was aware of as well as bizarre attempts to “cure” ballots contrary to state law — appears unwilling to take Democrats to task on this highly suspicious “win.”

“Democrats will go to any lengths to win,” Ingraham charged.

Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House and former GOP lawmaker from Georgia, wholeheartedly supported Ingraham’s contention that Democrats must be held accountable for any illegal or unethical actions in which they appear to have engaged with respect to the midterm elections.

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Virginia Will Help Amazon Fight FOIA Requests

As part of its deal with Amazon, which has based one of its new headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, the state will give Amazon two days notice of any Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed against it “to allow the Company to seek a protective order or other appropriate remedy.”

According to the Washington Examiner, “The Commonwealth agreed to give Amazon a two-day notice prior to the release of any materials submitted as part of the agreement between the two parties under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act to allow the tech giant to ‘seek a protective order or other appropriate remedy.'”

“The government will also work with Amazon on record requests to redact portions of the materials to ‘the maximum extent permitted by applicable law,'” the Washington Examiner continued, adding that helicopter access was also part of the deal, so Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos can fly into the headquarters.

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Chris Cuomo Actually Gives Hard Interview to Brenda Snipes

If you were wondering what a train wreck Broward County elections supervisor Brenda Snipes is, even CNN hack Chris Cuomo isn't buying her garbage. Not known for giving any Democratic official a rough time, Cuomo didn't let up on Snipes, who rambled a lot and said things like, "I have been a Democrat all my life. In this position, I have been very focused on party, because I want to treat all of the voters in Broward County the same."

Got that? She's focusing on "party" (singular) so that everyone gets fair treatment.

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Thank God Its Friday 11-16-18

What will you be doing this weekend?

Hillary Henchwoman Heads Mueller’s Probe of Stone

Clinton’s personal lawyer sets sights on Roger Stone and associates

While the Democrats are raising hell over acting Attorney General Whitaker’s past political activities, the woman leading the potential Special Counsel’s potential prosecution of long-time Trump political advisor Roger Stone is Hillary Clinton’s personal attack dog lawyer Jeannie Rhee.

Rhee has questioned multiple witnesses about Stone before the Grand Jury including Stone’s attorney Tyler Nixon who testified before the Mueller Grand Jury ten days ago.

Stone has insisted consistently that he has no advance notice of the source or content of the Wikileaks disclosures about Hillary that rocked the 2016 presidential race. Stone also says his statement and testimony to the House Intelligence Committee last September was truthful. At the direction of his lawyer, Bruce Rogow, Stone took two polygraph tests administered and analyzed by two of the nation’s leading experts. The test results were made available to the media.

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About-To-Be-Misallocated Maine Election Is A Warning for Massachusetts

Two-term U.S. Representative Bruce Poliquin, the only Republican member of Congress in New England, got about 2,000 more votes than his nearest competitor, a Democrat, on election day last week.

So he won re-election, right?

Actually, probably not.

Maine two years ago adopted a ranked-choice voting system that asks voters to pick not only the candidate they want to win, but also their second choice. (And third choice, and fourth choice …)

It’s used as a sort of tie-breaker, if no candidate gets an outright majority of votes cast. Except that it’s not really a tie-breaker, since the top two candidates aren’t tied – one of them got more votes than the other, but could still lose. So really, it’s an election flipper.

That’s because in Poliquin’s race two independent candidates who got tiny fractions of the vote will determine the outcome. Or rather, their supporters will, from a kind of immediate second-chance voting.

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Tourism Spending Grows in Maryland

Visitors Spent More Than $17 Billion In 2017, Generated $2.4 Billion In State, Local Taxes

ANNAPOLIS, MD –
Visitors to Maryland spent more than $17 billion in calendar year 2017, up 2.1 percent from the previous year, officials announced today at the Maryland Tourism and Travel Summit. The study, conducted by Tourism Economics, also showed that $2.4 billion in state and local taxes were generated by visitors, which saved every Maryland household $1,100.

“Maryland has so much to offer, it’s no surprise that tourism is one of our most important economic generators and job creators,” said Governor Larry Hogan. “Our goal is to give each and every visitor, whether they are here for vacation or business, the best possible experience so travelers return again and again. Maryland tourism is open for business!”

Tourism is Maryland’s 10th largest private sector employer. The study showed that there was a 2 percent increase in employment to 149,000 in 2017 and a 4 percent increase in wages to $6.3 billion. While overall visitation decreased slightly to 41.5 million in 2017 from 42.1 million the previous year based on a report by DK Shifflet and Associates, there was a significant increase in visitors from targeted markets. Starting in 2015, the Maryland Office of Tourism Development began promoting Maryland as a travel destination to a number of states and cities in the region, and last year reported visitors from New York have increased 10 percent, with visitors from Pittsburgh up 4 percent, and visitors from Washington, D.C. up 3 percent.

“Our marketing strategy of promoting Maryland as a tourism destination in key markets is paying off, with increases in spending on food and beverages, as well as lodging and vacation rentals,” said Maryland Commerce Secretary Mike Gill. “We are continuing to work on enhancing the visitor experience, with a number of new tours like the Frederick Douglass Driving Tour and the Great Chesapeake Bay Loop, which celebrate our rich history and connection to the Chesapeake Bay.”

The Maryland Tourism Development Board and the Maryland Office of Tourism recently released its annual marketing plan, which can be found here. The plan will continue to build on the four strategic objectives that focus all activities on growing revenue to the state through: leveraging partnerships, maximizing opportunities, market expansion, and transactional opportunities.

Poplar Hill Mansion hosts Yuletide Open House Dec 2

Come to Poplar Hill Mansion for our annual Yuletide Open House on December 2, 2018 from 1:00-4:00 and get in the holiday spirit. See the beautiful floral decorations by the Four Seasons Garden Club throughout the first floor of the Mansion. Visit the second floor to see a Christmas Tree with over 1,500 ornaments, Christmas Village with trolley, and our Nutcracker Nursery featuring over 100 nutcrackers. Hear festive live Christmas music with local harpist Kara Dahl Russell and enjoy light refreshments. Please consider bringing a non-perishable item for Joseph House. This is a free event, but donations are greatly appreciated and all proceeds go towards the preservation of Salisbury's Oldest House, Poplar Hill Mansion, a 501(c)-3. Call 410-749-1776 for more information.

WWE Champion Ronda Rousey Smacks Down Millennial Men

They call her the Baddest Woman On The Planet. Former UFC champion Ronda Rousey has taken the WWE by storm since making her professional wrestling debut earlier this year.

Rousey has taken on and taken out the likes of Stephanie McMahon, Nia Jax, Alexa Bliss, and the Bella Twins, all while paying homage to the late great Roddy Piper. Rousey not only dresses like the Hall Of Famer on her way into the ring, she’s even inherited Piper’s “Rowdy” moniker. She has lived up to it all. Piper would be proud.

Rousey fights with the spirit of Piper. She likes to get rough. She likes to throw a flurry of blows at her opponents from all angles. But while Piper was more of a street fighter, Rousey is all that and a supreme technician at the same time. She’s masterfully adapted her skills from Judo, a sport in which she won an Olympic medal, and her MMA talents into a repertoire of pure devastation. Rousey has stood up to every woman and even some men (Triple H, Kurt Angle, Baron Corbin) that have stood in her way.

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GOP, transform lame-duck Congress into working-duck session. Do it NOW!

Democrats will stop the GOP. Pelosi, or whoever becomes speaker, will convert the House into a giant rubber stamp that says, “HELL NO!”

Aside from an infrastructure bill, anything that slips past filibustering Democrats and passes the GOP Senate will be machine-gunned the second it reaches the House. The Trump/GOP legislative agenda, as such, dies in two months.

Instead, the Democrat House will launch big-government measures (even if they sink in the Senate), probe every curve of the Trump Administration, and possibly impeach President Donald J. Trump for the high crime of defeating Hillary Clinton, even though there is zero chance that 67 senators would vote to convict him.

House Democrats cynically will assure that nothing Trump wants goes anywhere. Then, come 2020, they will slam him as a do-nothing president. There is no bottom to the Democrats’ craftiness.

Facing these facts, Republicans should lead the mother of all lame-duck sessions. In fact, they should call it the working-duck session.

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Statement from Governor Larry Hogan on Amazon HQ2

Decision to Locate in Northern Virginia 'Tremendous Win' for Region

ANNAPOLIS, MD –
Governor Larry Hogan today issued the following statement following Amazon's announcement that locations in Northern Virginia and New York have been selected for headquarters facilities:

“Amazon’s decision to locate one of its new headquarters facilities in Northern Virginia is a tremendous win for the entire Capital region. Collectively, we will not only gain 25,000 corporate-level jobs, but also many businesses that are part of Amazon’s supply chain. I want to thank County Executive Ike Leggett and all of our partners in Montgomery County for working with us to put forth a strong proposal that highlighted the outstanding advantages of doing business in Maryland. I look forward to working closely with Governor Northam and Mayor Bowser to welcome Amazon and meet the opportunities that lie ahead.”