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Author: Mary Chastain

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Mary Chastain

Mary is the resident libertarian. She covers stories in every vertical, but her favorite thing to do is take on the media. She saw its bias against the right when she was a socialist.

Mary loves the Chicago Cubs, Chicago Blackhawks, tennis, cats, Oxford comma, Diet Coke, and needlework.

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 15, 2018 8 Comments
The Florida recount drama continues as Palm County Beach missed the 3PM ET deadline due to faulty machines. Broward County managed to make the deadline at the last minute. Florida has posted the results. It looks like Republican Ron DeSantis will win over Democrat Andrew Gillum, who refuses to concede. The race between incumbent Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson and Republican Rick Scott fell at the 0.15% margin so the state has ordered a hand recount.

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 15, 2018 25 Comments
I'd say I can see Sen. Kamala Harris's (D-CA) 2020 presidential aspirations go down the drain, but something tells me this won't affect her. During the confirmation hearing for Ronald Vitello, the acting ICE director, to become the permanent director, Harris asked him if he sees any parallels between ICE and the KKK after she cited a tweet he sent in 2015 where he claimed "the Democrat Party was comparable to a 'liberal-cratic' or 'neo-Klanist' entity."

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 15, 2018 20 Comments
You think it's chaos in Florida, but have you looked at the Georgia governor race? If Republican Brian Kemp defeats Democrat Stacey Abrams, you can expect a war. The Democrats have prepared to scream STOLEN ELECTION if Kemp wins. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has added fuel to this fire along with failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ). All of this has come to light after a judge ruled on an Abram's lawsuit that favors both candidates, which caused both campaign's to yell victory.

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 14, 2018 26 Comments
Filmmaker Ami Horowitz traveled to Mexico and mingled inside the caravan headed to America. He revealed his findings to Tucker Carlson (emphasis mine):
“What we do know is this thing cost millions and millions of dollars. The mainstream media, and there are so many layers [of] onions to peel back, it’s hard to know where to begin. One of the lies the fake news if you will, media is trying to propagate is the fact that all this weird organic thing and all the water and the food and medicine, all dropped from … manna from heaven. It’s bologna. It’s all highly organized. It’s paid for by a number of organizations, we don’t know exactly where the money is coming from.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 14, 2018 29 Comments
The Department of Justice has ruled that acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker can serve in the position. Whitaker came under criticism after President Donald Trump appointed him when Jeff Sessions stepped down. Whitaker served as Sessions' chief of staff.

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 14, 2018 32 Comments
Why, Florida? WHY?! Just when it looked like Palm Beach County had better sailing than Broward County, news comes out that aging equipment has overheated and caused mismatched results. From The Miami Herald:
The county’s decade-old ballot-counting machines overheated and gave incorrect totals, forcing the county to restart its recount of about 175,000 early votes, supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher said Tuesday night.

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 13, 2018 22 Comments
A judge has extended the recount in Palm Beach County to November 20. The original deadline was this Thursday. From The Palm Beach Post:
The order would include extending the recounting of votes in the U.S. Senate race between incumbent Bill Nelson and Gov. Rick Scott, the governor’s race between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum, the race for agriculture commissioner between Democrat Nikki Fried and Republican Matt Caldwell, and the race for state House District 89 between Democrat Jim Bonfiglio and Republican Mike Caruso.

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 13, 2018 15 Comments
I detailed yesterday how the recount in the Florida senate and governor races have become messy, especially in Broward County. Now it looks like election officials may have to recount votes by hand instead if the results are too tight. Incumbent Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson has also demanded that his opponent Governor Rick Scott recuse himself from the recount.

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 13, 2018 28 Comments
On November 5, Common Cause Georgia filed a lawsuit that accused Georgia governor candidate Brian Kemp, who held the office of secretary of state until he resigned last week, "of acting recklessly after a vulnerability in Georgia’s voter registration database was exposed shortly before the election." The organization claimed that Kemp's "actions increased the risk that eligible voters could be illegally removed from the voter registration database or have registration information illegally altered." Judge Amy Totenberg of the Federal District Court in Atlanta ordered officials to wait until Friday to certify the governor's race and do all they can to protect provisional ballots.

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 13, 2018 16 Comments
President Donald Trump made a promise on the campaign trail that he would reform our beleaguered Department of Veterans Affairs. The latest reform puts an and to official time within the department, which means that medical employees at the VA will not receive taxpayer money while doing work for the unions. From the VA news release:
“It’s common sense,” VA Acting Assistant Secretary for Human Resources and Administration Jacquelyn Hayes-Byrd said. “Allowing health care workers to do taxpayer-funded union work instead of serving Veterans impacts patient care negatively. President Trump has made it clear – VA employees should always put Veterans first. And when we hire medical professionals to take care of Veterans, that’s what they should do at all times. No excuses, no exceptions.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 12, 2018 37 Comments
The recount in Florida has to finish by Thursday, November 15, but officials in Palm Beach County claimed that the recount cannot possibly end by then. It doesn't help that President Donald Trump has demanded officials halt the recount while both sides continue to demean each other, especially in Broward County, whose recount has turned into a massive dumpster fire. Republican Gov. Rick Scott still leads incumbent Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson by 12,562 votes (.15%). Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis leads Democrat Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum by 33,684 votes (.41%)

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 09, 2018 11 Comments
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) wants to become Speaker of the House again, but quite a few Democrats in the House do not want her to become their leader. Eight representatives have already voiced their opposition while two more that won on Tuesday said on the campaign trail that they will oppose her .

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 09, 2018 47 Comments
The Florida elections remain a mess. The heat has turned up even more since Governor Rick Scott announced last night he and the National Republican Senatorial Committee have decided to sue Broward County and Palm Beach County. Scott is in a tight race with incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson. Now it looks like Nelson has decided to sue "to extend the deadline for local election offices to turn in vote counts."

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 09, 2018 4 Comments
Lakeisha Sorey at Miramar Elementary School in Broward County found a provisional ballot box inside a closet. Sorey did not touch it in order to avoid tampering. She phoned state Rep. Shevrin Jones (D) and the Broward Supervisor of Elections Office. The woman at the office told Sorey the box probably contained blank ballots, but Sorey mentioned the box is locked.
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