It’s Monday, November 12th, 2018…but before we begin, we take a moment to honor our Veterans, past and present, for their service in the cause of Freedom.

Now, here’s The Gouge!

First up, Fort Lauderdale’s Sun-Sentinel offers an article which tells you all you need know about Broward County Election Supervisor Brenda Snipes:

A look at Broward elections chief Brenda Snipes’ long history of trouble

…Gov. Jeb Bush removed Snipes’ predecessor, Miriam Oliphant, in 2003 after a disastrous 2002 election in which polls opened late and closed early after experienced senior staff had been fired by Oliphant and replaced by friends and acquaintances with little or no experience.

Bush named Snipes to replace Oliphant…

…The removal of Oliphant had been a political firestorm, with a Republican governor removing Broward’s only countywide black Democratic official. Bush replaced her with another black female Democrat, possibly defusing some of the tension…”

So after firing the Election Supervisor in the crookedest county in Florida, in part for hiring inexperienced friends and acquaintances to staff her department, Jeb hires a replacement whose only qualification for the position was her skin color.  The Bush family really is the gift that keeps on giving…provided you’re a Dimocrat!

Next up, writing at NRO, Andy McCarthy recounts how…

“As I write on Friday, the restraining order hasn’t come down yet. But it’s just a matter of time. Some federal district judge, somewhere in the United States, will soon issue an injunction blocking enforcement of the Trump administration’s restrictions on asylum applications.

The restrictions come in the form of a rule promulgated jointly by the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, and a proclamation issued by President Trump. In conjunction, they assert that an alien who wishes to apply for asylum in the United States must act lawfully: An alien who is physically present here and wishes to apply must be in the country legally; an alien outside the country who wishes to apply must present himself at a lawful port of entry — not attempt to smuggle his way in or force his way in as part of a horde (i.e., no invasions by caravan). Of course, what used to be assumed is today deemed intolerable. It is no longer permitted to expect of non-Americans what is required of Americans — adherence to American law while on American soil.

Therefore, the fact that the administration’s action is entirely reasonable will not matter. No more will it matter that, contrary to numbing media repetition, the rule and proclamation derive from federal statutory law. Nor will it make any difference that, in part, the president is relying on the same sweeping congressional authorization based on which, just four months ago, the Supreme Court affirmed his authority to control the ingress of aliens based on his assessment of national-security needs.

Just two things will matter. The first is that the asylum restrictions represent a Trump policy that reverses Obama policies — specifically, policies of more lax border enforcement, and of ignoring congressionally authorized means of preventing illegal aliens from filing frivolous asylum petitions (with the result that many of them are released, evading further proceedings and deportation). The second is that, precisely to thwart the reversal of Obama policies, President Obama made certain that the vast majority of the 329 federal judges he appointed were progressive activists in the Obama mold.

The media-Democrat complex will tell you this is “the rule of law.” In reality, it is the rule of lawyers: the Lawyer Left on the front line of American decision-making, a line that runs through courtrooms, not Capitol Hill…”

In a related item also courtesy of NRO, Kyle Smith details how Progressives continue to channel the…

“Why can’t the United States build or repair infrastructure on a par with countries in Europe or Asia? Why can’t we have all the nifty new airports, bridges, and trains that seem to spring up overnight in other parts of the world? The answer, in one word, is Democrats. Two groups that are virtually owned-and-operated subsidiaries of the Democratic party retard infrastructure progress here. One is labor unions, and the other is environmental activists.

The latest example of the absurd reach of the latter is to be found in the U.S. district court of Montana, where Obama-appointed Judge Brian M. Morris halted completion of the Keystone XL pipeline once again, ruling that President Trump’s permit to grant the bid by TransCanada Corp. to finish the pipeline that would transport oil from Alberta, Canada, to Nebraska “hadn’t considered all impacts as required by federal law,” the Wall Street Journal reported.

The first “final environmental review” approving construction was released by Hillary Clinton’s State Department seven years ago, concluding the impact on global warming would not be severe. Another “final environmental review,” also approving the project, was released in 2014 by John Kerry’s State Department, which also foresaw little impact on global warming. Floundering for any excuse to block the pipeline, Judge Morris concern-trolled members of the energy industry by wondering whether the project would be profitable enough given fuel prices. That is for oil guys to worry about, not judges. One interested party observed that Keystone would have “very little impact” on U.S. gas prices. That observer was the person who gave Judge Morris his job, Barack Obama. (And who can argue with the Smartest Man in the World…at least the Smartest Man in the World to never release his college transcripts!)

The problem is larger than the endless delays on Keystone, though. Because of what Robert Kagan dubbed “adversarial legalism,” routine public improvements are tied up like Gulliver by the Lilliputians with a thousand environmental reviews. In a given year, some 350 Environmental Impact statements and 50,000 Environmental Assessments are being produced by the federal government. Meanwhile individual states and municipalities duplicate these requirements by slathering on their own regulations. Let it not be said that the U.S. doesn’t produce anything: We are the masters of paperwork. Progressive columnists keep wondering why we can’t be more like China and get things done; then they go out to brunch with their human-roadblock friends, all those litigators from the NRDC and Greenpeace and all the other economic reactionaries who spend their lives on lawsuits to stop American progress.

…European and Asian governments usually don’t have these redundant layers of city-state-federal bureaucracies. Their ideas get proposed and approved and built in the time it takes us to mull the environmental impact. And their stuff gets built much more cheaply. A 2011 study by Israeli mathematician Alon Levy found that a mile of subway track in Japan or continental Europe typically costs $200 million to $450 million per mile. In Vancouver, the Canada Line, a 40-percent underground rail system, in a densely populated area with more than one station per mile, cost $130 million per mile.

…In New York City, the Second Avenue Subway, a two-mile, three-station extension of an existing line, took ten years and cost $2.4 billion per mile. I can’t stress that b hard enough. It costs ten times as much to build subway track here as it does in some other rich countries. Yet the story gets worse. The East Side Access project, built to spare Long Island residents wishing to travel to the East Side of Manhattan the arduous chore of traveling one mile from Penn Station to Grand Central, cost an astonishing $3.5 billion per mile, according to the New York Times, which calls that “seven times the average cost in other cities across the world.” Construction began in 2007 and hopes to wrap up in 2022. (It won’t.)

The American infrastructure policy is: Work slowly and charge more. New York City’s Sandhogs union, which is critical to such projects, costs an astounding $111 per hour in wages and benefits according to the Times investigation. A task that could be done in Madrid with nine workers requires 24 in New York City, according to an estimate by Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s head of Capital Construction, Michael Horodniceanu. An investigation of East Side Access construction found that roughly 200 of 900 workers on the underground project were being paid to do nothing.

…Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats say they want an infrastructure bill. President Trump seems amenable, but Republicans in Congress traditionally are hesitant to approve gargantuan spending. Let any infrastructure bill be contingent on cost-cutting reforms such as public-private partnerships. Otherwise the next one will have as little to show for its price tag as President Obama’s infamously non-shovel-ready 2009 stimulus.“

And remember, it’s all on the taxpayer’s tab!!!

Moving on to The Left’s continued assault on Conservatives, as Breitbart.com reports, a Charlottesville, VA…

Country Club Bars Man After Calling Tucker Carlson’s Daughter a ‘C*nt,’ ‘Whore’

“A Virginia country club revoked the membership of a man accused of verbally accosting Tucker Carlson’s teenage daughter last month, according to the Fox News Channel host. Conversely, the man referred to as Juan alleges Carlson assaulted him and is purportedly being represented by television lawyer Michael Avenatti.

Carlson provided a lengthy statement to The Hill’s Joe Concha Saturday, detailing the eyebrow-raising incident that reportedly involved the unnamed man, Carlson, and two of his children.

“On October 13, I had dinner with two of my children and some family friends at the Farmington Country Club in Charlottesville, Virginia,” Carlson’s statement begins. “Toward the end of the meal, my 19-year-old daughter went to the bathroom with a friend. On their way back through the bar, a middle aged man stopped my daughter and asked if she was sitting with Tucker Carlson. My daughter had never seen the man before. She answered: ‘That’s my dad,’ and pointed to me. The man responded, ‘Are you Tucker’s whore?’ He then called her a ‘f*** c***.’ ”

Carlson said he notified the staff at Farmington Country Club immediately following the incident, prompting a three-week investigation by the management. Juan’s club membership was annulled last week, the prime-time newsman told Concha…

…Carlson’s statement came after Avenatti announced on Twitter Saturday afternoon that he is “investigating” an alleged assault on a “gay latino immigrant” by Carlson and “members of his inner circle.”…”

As always, we report, you decide.  To aid you in your decision, here’s Juan Manuel Granados’ version of events as relayed by Michael Avenatti…a proven liar:

“…In a statement released via Avenatti, Granados said, “I NEVER called any member of his family any names. I never attacked his daughter as Tucker claims. I never called his daughter or son a “cunt” or a “whore” or anything approximating that. I certainly never apologized for using those words or admitted to saying them because I never said them. Many witnesses support this fact. Tucker has created this story out of thin air— it never happened.”…”

Let’s approach this logically.  To believe Mr. Granados, one must conclude Tucker Carlson and his son deliberately interrupted their dinner to confront, without provocation, a total stranger at the bar of the Farmington Country Club with fabricated charges of verbal assault, then dumped a glass of red wine on his head.

One must also conclude, after a three-week investigation which surely took into account eyewitness testimony from the “many witnesses” Juan Manuel mentions in his statement, the Farmington Country Club revoked GRANADOS’ membership, NOT Carlson’s.

Furthermore, though Carlson and his son are specifically cited as targets of Granados’ “intended” lawsuit, the absence of the Farmington Country Club, which revoked his membership despite his assertion of innocence, as a defendant speaks volumes.  After all, history indicates Mr. Granados certainly isn’t hesitant to file suit against those he feels have wronged him, his ethnicity or his homosexuality.

And hiring Michael Avenatti as his lawyer?!?  That’s just sauce for the goose!

Sorry, this is one tall tale which has our bullsh*t meter…

…pegged!!!

Which brings us, appropriately enough, to The Lighter Side:

Then there’s this series of memes forwarded by Balls Cotton:

Finally, we’ll call it a day with an amazing video which demonstrates the awful power of nature:

If there are no atheists in foxholes, neither are there in forest fires.  Our thoughts and prayers are with all those impacted by the conflagrations in California.

Magoo