Wildfire: The “Camp” fire in northern California has now tied the death toll of the infamous 1933 Griffith Park fire in Los Angeles which killed 29 people.

More bodies were found in the area of Paradise, Calif. over the weekend. Yesterday, five were found inside homes and one in a burned car. Much of the ground is still too hot for cadaver dogs to search.

To the south, the fire that burned from Thousand Oaks on the 101 Freeway and travelled all the way to Malibu on the coast has covered more than 85,000 acres. At least a quarter million people have evacuated. Actor Gerard Butler and singers Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke lost homes. The set of the HBO series “Westworld” also burned.

The Missiles of November: Despite President Trump’s claim that the North Korea nuclear threat is over, the Hermit Kingdom is moving ahead with development of missile bases, The NY Times reports.

“North Korea is moving ahead with its ballistic missile program at 16 hidden bases that have been identified in new commercial satellite images,” the paper says. The story says the North offered to dismantle one major base while continuing to improve others.

Trump seems to dismiss what appears to be a growing threat. “We are in no rush,” he said at a news conference last Wednesday, “The sanctions are on. The missiles have stopped. The rockets have stopped. The hostages are home.”

Palace Intrigue: Saudi intelligence agents began considering murder and assassination as a tool of government policy at the beginning of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s rise to power more than a year ago, The NY Timesreports. The prince is suspected of having ordered the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul.

Intelligence agents last year held a meeting with businessmen about using private companies to kill Iranian officials considered enemies of the Kingdom. The Saudis have blamed their Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri for the Khashoggi killing, but he was present for the meeting in March 2017 in Riyadh where the businessmen pitched a $2 billion plan for the use of private intelligence operatives, the paper reports.  At that meeting, the discussion turned to killing a top leader of Iran’s revolutionary guard.

The Times storycomes just after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that he gave an audio recording of the Khashoggi killing to five countries, including the US. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his intelligence services have listened to the recording but he has not heard it himself.

President Trump promised consequences if the murder was an act of state, and so far he has done nothing.

The Trumpster Fire: President Trump is claiming this morning that there’s fraud in the Florida elections and the races should be called in favor of the Republican candidates.

He tweeted, “The Florida Election should be called in favor of Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis in that large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged. An honest vote count is no longer possible-ballots massively infected. Must go with Election Night!”

The law calls for every ballot to be counted.

On the international front, Trump is complaining about his European allies and essentially threatening to pull out of NATO. “We pay for LARGE portions of other countries military protection,” he wrote,“and we get nothing but Trade Deficits and Losses. It is time that these very rich countries either pay the United States for its great military protection, or protect themselves…and Trade must be made FREE and FAIR!”

Nobody Home:For years now, China has been undergoing a housing boom and people have been sinking their newfound wealth into buying apartments. It’s considered a safe investment.

There’s just one thing though. They don’t move in. Bloomberg News reports that 22 percent of China’s urban housing stock is unoccupied. They estimate that 50 million homes are empty. It’s definitely a bubble waiting to pop.

Altered Reality:When CNN  White House correspondent Jim Accosta was 86ed after asking the President tough questions and refusing to surrender the microphone, the White House justified its action by posting a video of the event.

A White House intern had tried to grab the microphone and while the two seemed to have some physical contact, it wasn’t much. But the video supplied by the White House had been altered by the conspiracy website Infowars  to make it look like Accosta was aggressive with the intern,his arm swiftly coming down on the arm of the young female intern. Cut from the clip was Accosta saying, “Pardon me, ma’am.”

Yesterday on Fox News, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said the video was not really altered. “But by that do you mean sped up?” Conway asked. “Oh, well that’s not altered. That’s sped up. They do it all the time in sports to see if there’s actually a first down or a touchdown.”

When you speed up video, a touch can look like a punch so yes, the tape was altered.

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