Wednesday, August 16, 2017

In the news, Wednesday, July 26, 2017


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JUL 25      INDEX      JUL 27
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Information from some sites may not be reliable, or may not be vetted.
Some sources may require subscription.

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from The American Conservative

What You Actually Spend on the National Security State
Hundreds of billions of dollars outside of the official Pentagon budget.

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from Asia Times Online

China converting SOEs to joint-stock firms by year’s end
Move to finish reforms underway for years keeps government in control. Beijing is making a big push to deepen state-owned enterprise (SOE) reform this year, announcing on Wednesday that all firms owned by the central government will be converted to limited liability companies or joint-stock firms by the end of this year.

Russian lawmakers react to US sanctions bill

Moscow should prepare response that’s “painful for the Americans”

Duterte renews his anti-West, pro-China views

The Philippine leader's annual national address resurrected his frustrations with the US, UN and EU while heaping praise on his Beijing ally. What began as a relatively mellow and well-scripted speech quickly escalated into an impromptu tirade against the United Nations as well as Western partners.

CIA analyst: Beijing poses a greater threat than Russia

A senior CIA analyst has offered a rare public glimpse into American intelligence analysis of China. Michael Collins, deputy assistant director and head of the agency’s East Asia mission center, believes more attention should be focused on China and that recent public angst about Russia is distracting America from the threat posed by China. In an unusually candid talk, Collins said China's growing confidence and resolve – fueled by inaction against Chinese hegemony over the past several years – are a worry. 

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from The Blaze (& Glenn Beck)
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

Trey Gowdy schools Erin Burnett on the Constitution and Christianity
CNN’s Erin Burnett seemed to be trying to gin up some controversy over President Trump’s recent statement about his faith, but Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) just calmly explained the constitutional protections of expressions of faith, even for the president. “You’ve heard me say it before on the campaign trail,” Trump said in a recent rally, “and I’ll say it again tonight. In America, we don’t worship government, we worship God.”

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from Columbia Basin Herald (Moses Lake)

A GIANT EFFORT TO SAVE A TINY RABBIT
The last pure-bred Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits died a decade ago. The species is currently viable because they have been crossbred with pygmy rabbits from Idaho and been carefully tended in these breeding enclosures and at the Portland Zoo.

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from Conservative Intelligence Briefing

Heller Votes No on Obamacare Repeal; Nevada Republicans Are Searching for His Replacement
Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev, voted no on the clean repeal of Obamacare today. Many conservatives and supporters of President Trump are furious that Heller has voted against a common-sense repeal of Obamacare, and for standing in the way of the President’s agenda.

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from Country Living Magazine

This Is How Long the Average Couple Dates Before Getting Married
Hint: It's a lot longer than it used to be. It's no secret that marriage traditions are changing. People are getting married later in life, spending more money on weddings, and, according to a new study, they're spending more time getting to know each other before tying the knot.  In fact, the average bride and groom in the UK date for 4.9 years before getting married.

Anyone Can Build This Low-Cost House
Seriously, the firm is giving the plans away for free. A nearly 1,200-square-foot home and detached garage that's simple, affordable, and specifically intended to heat and function as efficiently as possible.

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from Daily Kos
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii was just doing her job as a good politician, voting not to repeal the ACA so as to protect her constituents.  She has Stage Four kidney cancer — that means scarce chances of survival — is recovering from a second surgery to remove part of a rib, and made sure she got to her seat in the Senate Chamber to vote “no” to whatever Republican wealth-care crap was thrown at her.

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from Daily Mail (UK)
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

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from The Daily News (TDN) (Longview, WA)

House failed to solve water, capital budget issues
I am bitterly disappointed in the decision by House Democratic leaders to stonewall common-sense solutions on water rights and the capital budget after achieving several milestones in other areas such as mental health treatment and education funding.

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from The Guardian (UK)
[Information from this site may be unreliable.]

Rule that patients must finish antibiotics course is wrong, study says
Telling patients to stop taking antibiotics when they feel better may be preferable to instructing them to finish the course, according to a group of experts who argue that the rule long embedded in the minds of doctors and the public is wrong and should be overturned. Patients have traditionally been told that they must complete courses of antibiotics, the theory being that taking too few tablets will allow the bacteria causing their disease to mutate and become resistant to the drug. But Martin Llewelyn, a professor in infectious diseases at Brighton and Sussex medical school, and colleagues claim that this is not the case.

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from Haaretz.com

Archaeologists Find Destruction Left by Babylonian Conquest of Jerusalem
A thick destruction layer featuring storage jars with marks typical of sixth century B.C.E., and a remarkable ivory statuette of a nude woman, were unearthed beyond Jerusalem city walls
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium-1.803529

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from The Hill

GOP senator forces Dems to vote on single payer
Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) wants Democrats to show their cards on single-payer healthcare. The GOP senator has filed an amendment to implement a government-funded healthcare system in a political maneuver aimed at forcing Democrats to say whether they support the concept that is picking up steam on the left. A vote on the amendment has been scheduled for Thursday. It's almost certain Daines doesn't support a single-payer system.

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from Indian Country Today Media Network
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

The Coast Salish Spirit Abides at Tribal Canoe Journey
80 canoes continue their journey towards We Wai Kai Nation in British Columbia

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from The Living Church

JOHN CALVIN ON JOB: SERMONS OF A PASTOR
One of the refreshing parts of these sermons and Calvin’s approach to Scripture in general is his existential realism — he has a thorough appreciation of the Pauline doctrine that all are sinners, and so he is not afraid to see the heroes of the Bible as alloyed with sin and weakness alongside their better qualities.

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from Mises Institute
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

In recent years, numerous states have been passing new reforms of the long-abused civil asset forfeiture in which police agencies seize private property without any due process. As states increasingly resist federal mandates on guns, drugs, and immigration, Jeff Sessions in DC has announced it's full speed ahead.

Why Some People Are Poorer than Others
Throughout history, until about the middle of the 18th century, mass poverty was nearly everywhere the normal condition of man. Then capital accumulation and a series of major inventions ushered in the Industrial Revolution. In spite of occasional setbacks, economic progress became accelerative. The real problem of poverty is not a problem of "distribution" but of production. The poor are poor not because something is being withheld from them, but because, for whatever reason, they are not producing enough. The only permanent way to cure poverty is to increase their earning power and productivity.

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from New Statesman
LEFT BIAS: "The leading voice of the British left, since 1913."

Nigel Farage's love for Dunkirk shows how Brexiteers learned the wrong lessons from WWII
Film has given Britain a dangerously skewed perspective on World War II.

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from The Olympian

He wants ‘to highlight just how ridiculous things are getting’ at Evergreen, suggests new name
An Olympia man has filed a proposed initiative to the Legislature to rename The Evergreen State College “The Evergreen State Social Justice Warrior PC Indoctrination Compound.”

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from Orthodox Christianity

RUSSIAN CHURCH RELEASES DRAFT CATECHISM INCLUDING SECTION THAT “CONDEMNS” OPPONENTS OF ECUMENISM
With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the Synodal Biblical-Theological Commission has published a draft version of the Catechesis of the Russian Orthodox Church for Church-wide discussion, reports patriarchia.ru. The final section on the Russian Church’s attitude towards the non-Orthodox has caused some consternation.

ATHEISTS DROP FROM 26 TO 13% IN RUSSIA IN 3 YEARS
The percentage of Russians identifying themselves as atheists has fallen from 26 to 13% in the past three years, while those identifying themselves as “religious people” has risen from 35 to 53%, according to new research from the Moscow-based Levada Analytical Center.

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from Pamela Geller (Atlas Shrugs)

Rep Steve King: Democrat Muslim IT spy ring is “an enormous act of treason, a lot of people complicit” had access to “all the communication of the Foreign Affairs Committee”
There is a reason the fake newsmedia is filling the airwaves with Trump/Russia bunk. It’s the old sleight of hand. Don’t look there, look here? Where’s Jeff Sessions? Where the hell is everyone? The scandal goes all the way to the top – Clinton and Pelosi. The list of those reportedly employing the Awans and their associates includes these 23 current or former Democrats in Congress, including: Andre Carson, Luis Guiterez, Jim Himes, Terri Sewell, Jackie Speier, Mike Quigley, Eric Swalwell, Patrick Murphy, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Joaquini Castro, Lois Frankel, Ted Lieu, Robin Kelly, Tammy Duckworth, Mark Takano, John Sarbanes, Diana DeGette, Cedric Richmond, Charlie Crist, Jacky Rosen, Sandy Levin, Karen Bass and Marcia Fudge.

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from Reason Magazine
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

NYC Government Spends $2 Million on a Park Bathroom
Overspending is what government does.

Jeff Sessions Lets Cops Be Robbers
The attorney general revives a program that invites law enforcement agencies to evade state limits on asset forfeiture.

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from The Spokesman-Review

Lawmakers need firm water-well deal
Who could’ve guessed that a state Supreme Court ruling that wasn’t about education would keep lawmakers at work deep into July. Now it’s the $4 billion capital budget caught in a legislative impasse. The case is Hirst v. Whatcom County, and in a technical ruling issued in October, the court said counties could no longer rely on state Department of Ecology assessments for water availability when signing off on building permits. They must conduct their own analyses, the court said. Most counties don’t have the resources, so they stopped issuing the permits landowners need to drill wells. Senate Republicans have a point: The Legislature needs to solve this problem now, because it will be too easy for urban-centric lawmakers to ignore it in the future.

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from Sputnik
(Russian government-supported propaganda channel)

US Lawmakers Overwhelmingly Pass New Sanctions on Russia
The US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a new round of sanctions on Iran, Russia, and North Korea. The bill also limits the president’s ability to unliaterally lift sanctions, forcing him to seek Congressional approval.

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