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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 Anglican Communion News Service
The global oil giant ExxonMobil have finally caved in to shareholder demands – led by the C of E’s Church Commissioners – to set out how the business will be affected by efforts to halt climate change. The announcement came two years to the day after the breakthrough Paris agreement on climate change.
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from Capital Press
The West's Ag Website
Democrats outlined a plan Tuesday to help fish while curtailing withdrawals from new rural wells, redistributing water in the wake of the state Supreme Court’s Hirst decision. The proposal could allow more farm families to drill wells for homes. But it would limit withdrawals to 350 gallons a day, as opposed to the current cap of 5,000 gallons. The plan also would impose a $1,500 fee on new wells and set the stage for metering wells.
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from CNSNews.com (& MRC & NewsBusters)
RIGHT BIAS
Pathetic: Newsweek Blames Trump for Anti-Semitic Violence in Europe: 'Because of Trump...'
The every-more radical Newsweek’s blame-Trump-for-everything philosophy reached a nadir Monday afternoon, with the headline “Because of Trump, People Are Burning Israeli Flags and Attacking Jews.” Sadly, Jews have been attacked in Europe long before Donald Trump arrived on the political scene. A more accurate would read: “Because They Hate Jews, Radical Muslims Are Burning Israeli Flags and Attacking Jews.” Extremists hardly need Trump as an excuse to be hateful and violent, after all. But for the Trump-obsessed media, the man is the source of all evil.
Pathetic: Newsweek Blames Trump for Anti-Semitic Violence in Europe: 'Because of Trump...'
The every-more radical Newsweek’s blame-Trump-for-everything philosophy reached a nadir Monday afternoon, with the headline “Because of Trump, People Are Burning Israeli Flags and Attacking Jews.” Sadly, Jews have been attacked in Europe long before Donald Trump arrived on the political scene. A more accurate would read: “Because They Hate Jews, Radical Muslims Are Burning Israeli Flags and Attacking Jews.” Extremists hardly need Trump as an excuse to be hateful and violent, after all. But for the Trump-obsessed media, the man is the source of all evil.
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from Daily Wire
RIGHT BIAS, MIXED, American news and opinion website
WALSH: No, We Aren't 'Stealing From The Poor' By Allowing The Rich To Keep More Of Their Own Money
When liberals claim that the Republican tax plan will "steal from the poor" and "give to the rich" what they mean is that the rich will be getting a tax break and the poor and middle class will not. This is untrue even when phrased correctly. The middle class will, in fact, receive a tax break that isn't any smaller, proportionally, than the break given to "the rich." But let's put that to the side for the moment and examine this notion that we are somehow "giving" to the rich by not taking what is already theirs.
WALSH: No, We Aren't 'Stealing From The Poor' By Allowing The Rich To Keep More Of Their Own Money
When liberals claim that the Republican tax plan will "steal from the poor" and "give to the rich" what they mean is that the rich will be getting a tax break and the poor and middle class will not. This is untrue even when phrased correctly. The middle class will, in fact, receive a tax break that isn't any smaller, proportionally, than the break given to "the rich." But let's put that to the side for the moment and examine this notion that we are somehow "giving" to the rich by not taking what is already theirs.
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from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, non-profit organization
China Is Moving in the Right Direction on Tariffs
While U.S. trade policy under the Trump administration has become a confusing mix of bluster, posturing, threats, and uncertainty, China has gone in the other direction, at least incrementally by lowering some of its tariffs unilaterally. On November 24, China’s Ministry of Finance announced that it would cut tariffs on 187 consumer products. The lower duty rate took effect on December 1, so Chinese consumers are now benefitting from more competition and lower prices. As noted in the announcement, the average tariff on the covered products will be brought down from 17.3% to 7.3%.
Charlotte's Web Is Full of Economic Wisdom
As much as economists love Adam Smith, Charlotte’s Web is a better way for kids to learn basic economic truths. Charlotte’s Web is a story about a pig named Wilbur who is friends with a spider named Charlotte. The friends grow close while living in the barn. Charlotte tells Wilbur stories while she waits for flies and he lies in a pile of manure. Wilbur’s life is idyllic, but eventually one of the older sheep tells Wilbur what happens to pigs once the weather gets cold. Charlotte, being Wilbur’s friend, promises that she will save his life. The story is simple, but it contains a lot of social science, especially economics.
This Bloodsport Needs to End
The left is getting nuttier, the hard right is getting scarier, and the entire enterprise of political control seems ever more outmoded. Now that the special election is over, the mainstream press can stop reporting on Alabama as if it were Mars. Have some sympathy with the voters in this state, please. Not for the first time, a populist demagogue snagged the Republican nomination. His opponent had all the predictable views of the Democrats, which is to say similarly attached to an old-world model of political control.
What Biologists Don't Get About Cooperation and Capitalism
Competition is an essential part of a capitalist economy. It drives businesses to innovate and to provide consumers with cheaper and better products. If businesses fail to innovate, they go under. The marketplace can be a brutal place – just think of the way in which Netflix disposed of Blockbuster. “Capitalism without failure is like religion without sin,” as the American economist Alan H. Meltzer once put it. “It doesn’t work.” But capitalism is also one the most cooperative of human endeavors. Goods and services are traded among strangers and across vast distances, guided – to a great degree – by the price mechanism and by the reputation of the trading parties.
Consumer Protection Doesn't Require Government Intervention
There are always people who will try to dishonestly get what others have but consumers need not be deceived. Capitalism is a wondrous human institution for the mutual betterment for all in society. Yet, critics often insist that market systems enable sellers to take advantage of buyers. However, market competition generates the incentives and opportunities to earn profits precisely by not misinforming or cheating the buyer.
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from The Heritage Foundation
RIGHT BIAS, MIXED, think tank in Washington, D.C
Our Special Operations Forces Are Stretched Too Far
America is rightly proud of the incredibly capable and effective special operations forces that serve as the literal point of our military spear. The Army Rangers, Army Special Forces (Green Berets), Navy SEALs, Special Operations Aviation, and other elements are the best in the world. No mission is too tough for these spectacular men and women, it seems. The question today is, do we love them too much? The current mission load of our special operations forces should be reviewed and scrubbed to remove all tasks that are not essential to the vital national interests of America.
Rebuilding the Military Comes With a Price Tag. But the Price of Waiting Is Higher.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that it will cost an additional $295 billion over the next four years to execute President Donald Trump’s plans to rebuild the military. Their calculation was done by comparing the current Budget Control Act defense caps with the Trump budget outline. Those budget caps, established in 2011, limit how much Congress may appropriate for defense and non-defense discretionary spending through 2021, regardless of need or strategy. We need to start rebuilding our military in 2018. Delaying will only make the price tag higher.
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Our Special Operations Forces Are Stretched Too Far
America is rightly proud of the incredibly capable and effective special operations forces that serve as the literal point of our military spear. The Army Rangers, Army Special Forces (Green Berets), Navy SEALs, Special Operations Aviation, and other elements are the best in the world. No mission is too tough for these spectacular men and women, it seems. The question today is, do we love them too much? The current mission load of our special operations forces should be reviewed and scrubbed to remove all tasks that are not essential to the vital national interests of America.
Rebuilding the Military Comes With a Price Tag. But the Price of Waiting Is Higher.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that it will cost an additional $295 billion over the next four years to execute President Donald Trump’s plans to rebuild the military. Their calculation was done by comparing the current Budget Control Act defense caps with the Trump budget outline. Those budget caps, established in 2011, limit how much Congress may appropriate for defense and non-defense discretionary spending through 2021, regardless of need or strategy. We need to start rebuilding our military in 2018. Delaying will only make the price tag higher.
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from New York Times
Newspaper in New York
Clarence Beavers, Last of a Black Paratroop Unit, Dies at 96
Obituary: Clarence Beavers, the last surviving member of a groundbreaking group of black paratroopers deployed during World War II against what were described as the world’s first intercontinental-range airborne weapons — giant bomb-laden balloons launched from Japan and aimed at North America — died on Dec. 4 at his home in Huntington, N.Y. He was 96. Mr. Beavers was one of 17 soldiers who formed what became the Army’s first all-black paratroop unit, the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion. The paratroopers were nicknamed the Triple Nickels (the 555th conjured up the five-cent coin). The unit was trained for combat but they also became known as the Smoke Jumpers after being dispatched in 1945 to the American Northwest fight fires ignited by Japanese balloon bombs.
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from Orthodox Christianity
Organization in Moscow, Russia
His Holiness Patriarch Irinej of Serbia has reportedly expressed his bewilderment at the Bulgarian Orthodox Church’s (BOC) decision to present the case for the canonicity and autocephaly of the schismatic Macedonian Orthodox Church (MOC) to the other canonical Local Orthodox Churches. The decision has caused anxiety among the Serbian hierarchy, according to the Bulgarian site 24 Hours, citing the Serbian newspaper Politika.
A group of people from the ultranationalist youth organization Alperen Hearths recited the Muslim call to prayer and performed Mulsim prayers inside Constantinople’s Hagia Sophia on Monday, in response to President Donald Trump’s recently-announced decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, reports the Hurriyet Daily News. The group is linked to the right-wing nationalist Great Union Party. Their act comes a few days after Justice and Development Party deputy Şamil Tayyar called for Hagia Sophia to be reconverted into a mosque, in retaliation for Trump’s decision. “If you say so, let Hagia Sophia be opened to prayers. We should start holding Friday prayers at Hagia Sophia,” Tayyar tweeted on Dec. 6. The former cathedral has officially been a museum since the 1930s. The ruling Justice and Development Party has been talking of turning the museum into an active mosque again since 2013. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan , who has referred to the time of the Christian Byzantine Empire as “a dark chapter” in history, publicly announced that he would read Muslims prayers in Hagia Sophia on Holy Friday this year. He also claimed that Kemal Ataturk’s order to transform Hagia Sophia from a mosque into a museum is a fake. Although the president did not read the prayers in the end, the movement for making Hagia Sophia a mosque continues to gain momentum.
A hierarch of the Greek Church, His Eminence Metropolitan Nicholas of Fthiotida, has commented on state policies resulting in the sharp decline in the number of parish clergy in Greece, which he argues is deliberate, reports AgionOros.
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from The Roman Anglican blog
Celebrating God's light in Rome.
As Christians, our roots lie in Judaism; very few people know that the oldest Jewish community in Europe can be found in the Eternal City, dating back to before Christianity, it even pre-dates it as the longest continuing religion of Rome, for example, the first catacombs in Rome were Jewish, testimonies of Judaism in Rome can be found anywhere, in Ancient Rome, Jews generally had enough freedom, Caesar even granted them the possibility of keeping Shabbat, however, in 70 AD the Romans sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple, they stole the Menorah, that moment still lives on a relief on the Arch of Titus in the Forum. A community so old, that is neither Ashkenazi or Sephardi, but simply Roman, so old that it is Roman cuisine that was influenced by their cuisine, and not viceversa. Rome might be the historical home of the Vatican, but Judaism was here before, long before there was even a Christianity, and it is fascinating that this Festival of Lights, this feast of God's Light is still celebrated along Christmas.
Celebrating God's light in Rome.
As Christians, our roots lie in Judaism; very few people know that the oldest Jewish community in Europe can be found in the Eternal City, dating back to before Christianity, it even pre-dates it as the longest continuing religion of Rome, for example, the first catacombs in Rome were Jewish, testimonies of Judaism in Rome can be found anywhere, in Ancient Rome, Jews generally had enough freedom, Caesar even granted them the possibility of keeping Shabbat, however, in 70 AD the Romans sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple, they stole the Menorah, that moment still lives on a relief on the Arch of Titus in the Forum. A community so old, that is neither Ashkenazi or Sephardi, but simply Roman, so old that it is Roman cuisine that was influenced by their cuisine, and not viceversa. Rome might be the historical home of the Vatican, but Judaism was here before, long before there was even a Christianity, and it is fascinating that this Festival of Lights, this feast of God's Light is still celebrated along Christmas.
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from SmartBrief, Inc.
Media in Washington, D.C.
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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
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from The Wall Street Journal
Fusion DoJ
It’s getting hard to tell where the Clinton campaign ends and the federal law enforcement apparatus begins. Is animus toward President Donald Trump a prerequisite for landing a job with special counsel Robert Mueller ? Recent revelations in Washington also raise again the question of what former President Barack Obama knew about the decisions of his FBI Director James Comey to exonerate Hillary Clinton and investigate Mr. Trump in 2016.
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from Zero Hedge
CONSPIRACY-PSEUDOSCIENCE, MIXED, financial blog with aggregated news and opinion
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