Thursday, June 29, 2017

In the news, Friday, June 16, 2017


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JUN 15      INDEX      JUN 17
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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 Breitbart

Paul Nehlen Launches Another Bid Against Anti-Trump Speaker Paul Ryan
Paul Nehlen, a Republican businessman from Wisconsin’s first congressional district, has just launched his 2018 congressional campaign against the anti-Donald Trump House Speaker Paul Ryan. This is the second time Nehlen is challenging Ryan, after coming up short in the 2016 GOP primary in Wisconsin’s first congressional district. “Speaker Ryan didn’t help Mr. Trump defeat Hillary Clinton, and even pledged not to defend the president,” Nehlen said in his announcement. “But I have a message for Speaker Ryan: The American people are not done fighting for President Trump’s good agenda. That’s why I am announcing my second challenge to Paul Ryan for the nomination in Wisconsin’s first congressional district.”

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from CBS News (& affiliates)

Could Illinois be the first state to file for bankruptcy?
A financial crunch is spiraling into a serious problem for Illinois lawmakers, prompting some observers to wonder if the state might make history by becoming the first to go bankrupt. At the moment, it's impossible for a state to file for bankruptcy protection, which is only afforded to counties and municipalities like Detroit. Ratings agency Moody's Investor Service earlier this month downgraded Illinois' general obligation bonds to its lowest investment grade rating, citing the state's growing pile of unpaid bills and its mounting pension deficit. Illinois, by the way, has the lowest credit rating of any state. Lower ratings mean higher borrowing costs, since lenders view such borrowers as riskier bets.

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from Competitive Enterprise Institute

New Study Finds Carbon's Private Benefits Exceed Social Costs
While regulators harp on the danger of carbon and other fossil fuels, they overlook the necessity of affordable energy for average Americans. “The private benefit of carbon is large and, in most cases, much larger than the social cost of carbon,” concludes University of Sussex economics professor Richard Tol in “The Private Benefit of Carbon and Its Social Cost.” Indeed, private benefit exceeds social cost by anywhere from about 4:1 to 34:1, as I read Tol’s paper.

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from First Things

IS CALVIN AMONG THE LIBERALS?
The challenge for someone who wants to enlist Calvin in a defense of liberalism is Calvin himself.

PROTECTING THE PUBLIC SQUARE
Jane Jacobs knew that, without ordinary people, their ordinary loves, and their often-extraordinary faith, the public square is an inhospitable and even dangerous place.

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

'Depths of sorrow' are testing British people, says Justin Welby
Archbishop of Canterbury conducts service at Southwark Cathedral for those involved in London Bridge terror attack, remarking on sense of community. He added: “I think the depths of sorrow we’re seeing test the resources of all of us. Yet what is so extraordinary – up at Grenfell Tower, here, around Westminster – is this overwhelming depth of community that I think most of us didn’t really believe existed, and has somehow been revealed in these tragedies. You’ve got Muslims coming into churches to help with relief and support, all faiths, no faiths, everyone just being with one another. I can’t remember London like this.”

Britain's strictest school gets top marks from Ofsted
Katharine Birbalsingh’s ‘no excuses’ Michaela school praised by inspectors for behaviour policy and exemplary attitudes to learning among pupils.

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from The Heritage Foundation
[Information from this site may be unreliable.]

Supreme Court Shouldn't Delay Action on Travel Ban Case
The travel ban has already been struck down by two courts of appeals - the Fourth and Ninth Circuits -but those were political decisions, not legal ones. The U.S. Justice Department filed a petition for certiorari with the Supreme Court, asking the justices to review and overturn the Fourth Circuit's decision. The Supreme Court needs to take this case and issue a decision as soon as possible on the merits of the president's executive order.

What the Treasury’s New Recommendations Would Mean for Financial Reform
The report identifies policies that would improve federal financial regulation in a manner consistent with the Trump administration’s seven core principles. This is a positive step toward strengthening financial markets, ending bailouts, and protecting taxpayers.

Steel Imports Do Not Threaten National Security
Imposing tariffs under Section 232 would increase the cost of one of the most crucial intermediate goods for two major American industries. In most cases, there is far greater benefit from imports than there is risk—and the same is true for steel. Products that are neither scarce nor technologically sensitive do not pose a threat to national security and do not warrant these industry protections.

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from Herman Cain

Report: 760,000 tuned out mainstream TV news in the first quarter alone
Enough of the negative crap already. "Conventional sources of television programming lost 760,000 in the first quarter." - Leichtman Research Group. Although this statistic is not overwhelming, it shows the trend that people are sick and tired of all the negative coverage of President Trump.

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

Fractional-Reserve Banking and Money Creation
According to traditional economics textbooks, the current monetary system amplifies initial monetary injections of money. Private banks are important drivers in the creation of unbacked money. But, they'd be far more constrained in this were it not for central banks.

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from Orthodox Christianity

THE ORTHODOX CHURCH AND NON-CHALCEDONIANS, PART ONE CHRISTOLOGY/ECCLESIOLOGY
Recently there was a bombing in which Coptic Christians were killed in their church. Our Orthodox people have shown a lot of sympathy, and in some parishes, priests remembered these deceased during the services. All this is fine, but the problem that has occurred, is that the Coptic Christians were presented as though they are also Orthodox. We do have clergy in the Orthodox Church who believe this. And, I have been told, internet discussion concerning these killings, shows that a number of Orthodox are expressing this opinion. How can this be since the Coptic Christians have been separated from the Orthodox Church since the Fourth Ecumenical Council, in the fifth century?

Ekaterinburg mayor Evgeny Roizman has sent an invitation to members of the British royal family to attend events commemorating the centenary of the martyrdom of the last Russian royal family, which will be celebrated in 2018, reports Interfax-Religion. The invitation was delivered through the British ambassador in Russia Laurie Bristow. “Inasmuch as the British and Russian crowns were bound by blood, Roizman conveyed through the ambassador an invitation to the members of the British Royal Family to attend the ‘Royal Days’ events in the Ural capital,” reads a message on the mayor’s site.

In his first years as a Christian, American writer and journalist Rod Dreher received an invitation from a Catholic colleague to volunteer at a local soup kitchen. Dreher took her up, spending the day prepping food and cleaning the kitchen. But at the end of the day he concluded that the project wasn’t for him — and that his time was likely better spent reading theology books. Over the next dozen years, Dreher left the Catholic Church, his cynicism over covering the sex abuse trials the primary driver. “I realised upon reflection, that if I had spent as much time working with my hands in the soup kitchen as I did reading, my faith might have been stronger,” said Dreher. “Instead, my faith had remained something that was mostly cerebral and it did not have the strength to withstand being put to the test.”

On the Search for Faith, Holy Mount Athos, Elder Ephraim of Philotheou, and Orthodoxy in the U.S.

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

Freedom Caucus Conservatives Break from Trump, Want More Surveillance Reform
Some legislators want more privacy protections from unwarranted snooping of U.S. citizens.

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from The Spokesman-Review

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from uCatholic

Can’t Live Without Coffee? Thank This Pope.
Coffee is one of the most consumed drinks in the world, second only to water, enjoyed by millions every day. The drink was not always so ubiquitous, only becoming popular relatively recently during the 16th century. If you can’t start the day without first having your morning cup of coffee, then you should probably thank Pope Clement VIII.

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In the news, Thursday, June 15, 2017


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JUN 14      INDEX      JUN 16
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from Alex Jones (INFOWARS.COM)
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

TRUMP’S WITHDRAWAL FROM PARIS CLIMATE TREATY COULD DAMAGE GEOENGINEERING AGENDA
Historic decision could remove US from risky environmental manipulation

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from CNSNews.com (& MRC & NewsBusters)
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

MRC’s Brent Bozell Slams Reckless, Error-Filled New York Times Editorial on Attempted GOP Massacre
Media Research Center President Brent Bozell on Thursday issued the following statement blasting the New York Times Editorial Board for their intentionally fallacious editorial on the Alexandria shooting.

Trump Attorney on WaPo Report: ‘The Leak of This Information Is a Crime’
“This Russian investigation has gone nowhere, so they’re coming up with new charges,” said Jay Sekulow, one of President Trump’s attorneys.

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from Conciliar Post

This is the third in my “In Defense of” series. In order to show the value of asking the saints for prayer, it is necessary to look at its biblical support, its place in Church tradition, and its underlying theology. There are a few verses that may not directly support the practice of invoking the saints, but from which one can draw premises that support it. There are three main places to turn: Hebrews 12:1; and Revelation 5:8; 8:3-4. Invoking the saints is not a mandatory practice for Christians. It does not demarcate an orthodox Christian from an unorthodox one. However, one’s position on this issue says something about our theological orientation. It is not essential but it is important.

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from Counter Current News
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

Radioactive Waste Flowing Freely Into Columbia River Because There’s No Money To Stop It
A member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently informed the public that radioactive waste from the decommissioned Hanford nuclear power plant is ‘flowing freely’ into the Columbia river.

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from First Things

PACK YOUR BAGS
Preparing for death requires much more than putting financial affairs in order. When you’re sick and know you’re going to die you do what’s called putting your affairs in order. The phrase calls to mind matters financial. More often, however, the ordering of affairs involves repairing personal relationships and hurriedly inflating spiritual life rafts.

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

Tilos, Greece: the first island in the Med to run entirely on wind and solar power
Tiny Tilos, in the Dodecanese, is a pioneering nature reserve. Now, Greece’s ‘green island’ is set to be powered by renewable energy.

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from The Heritage Foundation
[Information from this site may be unreliable.]

Why Economic Freedom and Peace Go Hand in Hand
Evidence clearly shows that the more prosperous countries are also more peaceful. In national contexts, peace and economic freedom often feed into one other, creating the conditions for long-term prosperity and stability.

Cutting Red Tape: Four Higher Education Regulations that Should Be Eliminated
Higher education regulations have had a disproportionate impact on for-profit institutions and have generally stifled post-secondary innovation. Either the Department of Education should repeal four particular regulations or Congress should abolish them through legislation.In a time when Americans owe $1.3 trillion in student loan debt, federal policy should not limit innovation and alternatives that provide access at lower costs.

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

What If Taxpayers Could Choose if Taxes Went to the State Level or Federal Level?
In recent years, we've examined any number of ways of decentralizing the American political system. These step-by-step moves can include decentralizing the monetary system, decentralizing the military, decentralizing immigration policy, and decentralizing elections. Most recently, we looked at decentralizing the welfare state, and found that each US state is more than wealthy enough and big enough to run its own welfare state at the state level without any need of planning or centralization through Washington, DC. Whether or not one thinks a welfare state is a good or necessary thing, the fact remains the US government is not an essential part of the equation.

Terry McAuliffe's Fuzzy Math on Gun Homicides
Terry McAuliffe's Wednesday press conference on the Alexandria shooting offers an instructive lesson on what passes for quantitative analysis among politicians. Asked about the shooting, in which as left-wing activist opened fire upon a group of GOP politicians, Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe opined that the real problem is that there are "too many guns" in the United States, and that gun violence claims the lives of "93 million" Americans every day. He then restated the total a few minutes later, but when asked twice about this number by reporters, McAuliffe eventually decided he meant "93 individuals" per day. Consulting the Center for Disaese Control's most recent report on "National Vital Statistics" we find that (in 2014) there was a total of 15,872 homicides. That's total homicides committed with any type of weapon. Converting this to a "per day" figure we come up with 43 persons per day. 43 is not even close to 93. In fact, McAuliffe's figure for gun violence is more than twice the total number of homicides overall. 

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from The Spokesman-Review

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from The Washington Post

The surprising number of American adults who think chocolate milk comes from brown cows
Seven percent of all American adults believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows, according to a nationally representative online survey commissioned by the Innovation Center of U.S. Dairy. If you do the math, that works out to 16.4 million misinformed, milk-drinking people. The equivalent of the population of Pennsylvania (and then some!) does not know that chocolate milk is milk, cocoa and sugar. Many people are agriculturally illiterate, researchers say. They blame the industrial food system.

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In the news, Wednesday, June 14, 2017


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JUN 13      INDEX      JUN 15
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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 BBC News (UK)

London fire: Six killed as Grenfell Tower engulfed
At least six people have died after a huge fire raged through the night at a west London 24-storey tower block, and police expect that number to rise. Eyewitnesses described people trapped in the burning Grenfell Tower, in north Kensington, screaming for help and yelling for their children to be saved.

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from CNSNews.com (& MRC & NewsBusters)
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

Gov. McAuliffe on Virginia Shooting: 'There Are Too Many Guns on the Street'
Commenting on today's shooting in Alexandria, Va., in which at least one congressman and one aide were shot, Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe said "we need to do more to protect" people, and added that there are "too many guns on the street."

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from Competitive Enterprise Institute

Government Documents on EPA-VW Settlement Highlight Need for Congressional Oversight
Readers of this blog are aware that CEI has long objected to a judicial settlement reached by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Justice Department, and Volkswagen in order to partially resolve Clean Air Act violations related to the automaker’s defeat device scandal. Our objection pertains to a stipulation in the consent decree requiring VW to spend $1.2 billion on an electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure program subject to plenary and pervasive federal oversight. Industrial policy is a bad idea in general, but this is an especially awful example of the practice.

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from First Things

OPENING UP THE WORLD
Secularism has divorced education from faith. Academic dogma casts religiously inspired critique as narrow and bigoted, but my experience has been the opposite.

WAY BEYOND THE NEW ATHEIST NONSENSE
New Atheists are wrong. History shows that faith and reason are not only compatible—they're inseparable. Some of the great fathers of modern science were Catholic priests—proof that faith and reason can exist in harmony, as they still do today.

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

Supreme court rules UK system for deporting foreign criminals unlawful
Ruling likely to ‘very heavily limit, if not entirely curtail’ use of ‘deport first, appeal later’ power

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from The Heritage Foundation
[Information from this site may be unreliable.]

The Sessions Inquisition Comes Up Empty: Trump Unscathed After Attorney General's Testimony
Sessions was passionate in defending himself and his work as the attorney general. It turned out that Comey’s claim last week that he had not received any information from the Justice Department on the details of Sessions’ recusal was false. Sessions’ testimony demonstrated that those who have tried to make these meetings look as if they were something nefarious have just made themselves look foolish.

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from The Spokesman-Review

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In the news, Tuesday, June 13, 2017


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JUN 12      INDEX      JUN 14
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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 Allen West
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

Countries remaining in Paris climate agreement issue OMINOUS threat
When President Trump pulled out of the Paris climate accord last week, his critics — including former President Barack Obama — said he was turning his back on the future and joining only Syria and Nicaragua in refusing to take part. But for many that remain in the accord, the demands for cash are fueling the argument that the Paris agreement, at its core, is as much about redistributing international wealth as it is about saving the planet from climate change. Supporters of the deal routinely point out that 193 countries have signed on. Although that is technically true, the vast majority of commitments offered in Paris would result in emissions increases or would require billions of dollars in funding — or, in many cases, both. “Claiming that 193 countries signed on is a meaningless statement, which is likely why it’s made. The meaningful way to view it is that 193 countries agreed that the U.S. should harm itself and to gladly pay on Tuesday for the U.S. to harm itself today,” said Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and a leading critic of the Paris pact.

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from Bloomberg
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

Russian Cyber Hacks on U.S. Electoral System Far Wider Than Previously Known
Russia’s cyberattack on the U.S. electoral system before Donald Trump’s election was far more widespread than has been publicly revealed, including incursions into voter databases and software systems in almost twice as many states as previously reported.

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from CNSNews.com (& MRC & NewsBusters)
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

CNN's Cillizza Demands Examples of Fake News, Tidal Wave Ensues
There are people who appear to live in hermetically sealed bubbles, and then there's Chris Cillizza, formerly of the Washington Post but now at CNN. On the apparently safe assumption that he really thought President Donald Trump and the public would have a hard time coming up with answers, Cillizza challenged the Commander in Chief and, and in effect the Twitterverse, to "name a (news) story that is 'fake' or 'incorrect.'" A tidal wave of specific responses arrived in short order.

Bozell & Graham Column: Comey Flunks The New York Times
Liberal media outlets like The New York Times have a political objective driving their coverage: ruin President Trump. This is why the “news” producers treated former FBI director Jim Comey’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee as a Watergate Moment, a first impeachment hearing to be broadcast live on every “news” channel on television. Liberals in Washington took the day off and went to bars to celebrate the Beginning of the End. The media celebrated the celebrations. So when Comey admitted that he was a leaker, using a law-professor buddy to send his “Dear Diary” worries on President Trump to The New York Times, we at last had a poster boy for the Trump-haters who were anonymously directing the narrative that dominated the media.

False Tweet Sends Media Into Overdrive on Warriors' Boycott of Trump White House
Today will not go into the annals of "Great Days in Journalism History." It's a day of shame for much of the left-stream media, which proved that a lie travels halfway around the world before the truth puts on its boots. The day started with Josh Brown, a commentator on CNBC, spinning a big fib in a Tweet to his 721,000 followers about how the newly crowned NBA champion Golden State Warriors had unanimously decided to boycott the Trump White House, "per reports."

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from Competitive Enterprise Institute

Law Enforcement Joins Coalition to End Sports Gambling Ban
A new coalition which includes many former law enforcement officials have come together for one mission: to end the unconstitutional ban on legal sports betting. For the last 25 years Americans have been breaking the law; spending hundreds of billions of dollars gambling on sports illegally. The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), which was intended to protect the integrity of our nation’s sporting events and consumers from the evils of gambling, has clearly failed. Instead, it created an enormous black market that has left consumers vulnerable to crime and stripped the states of their right to regulate and tax this type of commerce within their own borders. This week, the American Gaming Association (AGA) launched a new coalition with one mission: end the unconstitutional ban on legal sports betting.

Exiting Paris Should Weaken Carbon Tariff Threat
Pulling out of Paris should induce other countries to reassess their relationship to the Paris Agreement, especially developing countries that joined in hopes of receiving hundreds of billions of dollars from the United States in “climate finance.” In short, pulling out of Paris should diminish the prestige, momentum, and cohesion of a treaty adopted in part to facilitate policy coordination by large numbers of nations to penalize U.S. energy-intensive products in global trade.

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

Yup, There's Voter Fraud. Here It Is – From Democrats.

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from The Economist

The resurrection of Winston Churchill
At odds with Europe, Britain pines for a strong and stable leader. In a country led by lightweights, a hulking figure from the past looms larger than ever. We will quote him in our speeches.

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from EUobserver

Hungary's NGOs to fight crackdown law
Dozens of civil society groups in Hungary pledged to fight a controversial legislation passed by parliament on Tuesday (13 June) and is seen as a crackdown on foreign-funded NGOs. The new law, passed by 130 Yes votes, and 44 No votes, will force NGOs that receive more than €24,000 in a year from a foreign donor to register as a “foreign-funded organisation”, otherwise they will be forced to closed down.

UK clearing houses could be moved to EU
The European Commission has proposed the EU should be able to force important clearing houses to be based on its territory.

Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland face EU sanctions on migrants
The European Commission is launching sanctions against the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland over an EU asylum scheme. EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told reporters in Strasbourg on Tuesday (13 June) that all three states had neglected their legal obligations to take in asylum seekers from Italy and Greece.

UK set for joint rule with Northern Irish zealots
The British government is preparing to share power with a Northern Irish party, that is known, if at all, for its anti-gay views and for its links with sectarian killers. A coalition deal with the Democratic Unionists Party (DUP) is the only way for British prime minister Theresa May and her Conservative Party to stay in power after she haemorrhaged support in last Thursday’s (8 June) snap election.

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from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

On Moral Education
Bear constantly in mind the truth that the aim of your discipline should be to produce a self-governing being; not to produce a being to be governed by others. Were your children fated to pass their lives as slaves, you could not too much accustom them to slavery during their childhood; but as they are by and by to be free men, with no one to control their daily conduct, you cannot too much accustom them to self-control while they are still under your eye.

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from The Heritage Foundation
[Information from this site may be unreliable.]

The Bureaucrat Behind the Curtain
The federal government is rife with people who do their jobs away from the spotlight, wielding a measure of influence that can even outweigh that of their bosses. You may be aware that its current administrator is a man appointed by President Trump, Scott Pruitt. But there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of Francesca Grifo. If President Trump wants to make any headway at the EPA and other federal agencies, he needs to do more than appoint good people to run them.

Sanders’ Religious Test Goes Against Founders’ Vision
Sen. Bernie Sanders launched an aggressive and bizarre attack on Russell Vought's Christianity during a Senate hearing. It was an eye-opening display for most people, who may not have realized the level of contempt many liberals hold toward Christians.

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from The Hill

Congress has a pathological spending problem
This week, Nancy Pelosi and Steven Mnunchin are both advocating for a “clean” debt ceiling hike. Sounds good, right? Clean must be better than dirty. Wrong. This is just more misdirection from politicians. There is no virtue in a “clean” debt ceiling increase. In fact, anytime a politician is advocating for a “clean” piece of legislation, chances are, he or she is trying to avoid the hard work of change.

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

Trump's $1-trillion infrastructure spending plan continues to be one of his less controversial proposed policies. In Washington, and even among many in the general public, there is a consensus that government spending on more roads and bridges is always necessarily a slam dunk for the economy. Unfortunately, they're often wrong.

Mobility and Nobility
In this review of two new books on social class, Theordore Dalrymple examines some of the realities that frustrate the efforts of the egalitarians. A few years ago, I was taken to lunch in a grand New York club by some very rich men. They gave me the benefit of their opinion on Britain’s rigid class system.  They appeared not to notice that, at that very moment, they were being served by a flurry of obsequious men, whose grovelling was certainly the equal of any that I had seen anywhere in the world. 

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from The Register
Sci-Tech News website for the World

PCIe speed to double by 2019 to 128GB/s
The Peripheral Component Interconnect Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG) has revealed a roadmap for PCI 5.0 to debut in 2019 at 128GB/s. And that's before it finalises PC 4.0 at half that speed.

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from The Spokesman-Review

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In the news, Monday, June 12, 2017


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JUN 11      INDEX      JUN 13
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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 CNSNews.com (& MRC & NewsBusters)
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

Washington Post Agrees With Clinton: She Lost Because She's a Woman
In Monday’s Washington Post, the media’s pathetic attempt to blame everyone but Hillary Clinton for her election loss trudged on. Today’s paper highlighted a study by two professors at the University of Texas at Dallas, that surveyed what voters felt about women in the workplace, and whether or not their answers fit into a “traditionalist” or “progressive” mindset.

Charlie Daniels: What Would Happen If Liberals Got the World They Wanted Here on Earth?
I sometimes wonder how the mainstream media, judicial system, sanctuary cities and liberal politicians would fare in the kind of world they are trying to bring about: a world without borders, a world without morals, a socialist society ruled by an all-powerful, central government that would control the distribution and quality of health care, the parameters of abortion, the length of people’s lives through euthanasia and the population’s practice of religion.

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from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

Automation Is Not "Different This Time," and That's a Good Thing
A video bemoaning the rise of automation and machinery went viral the other day. The video suffers from two fatal errors. First, it attributes more weight to that which is seen than to that which is unseen. It's easy to talk a lot about the jobs mechanization will destroy. It’s easy because we see the jobs disappearing. But it’s very difficult to talk about the jobs that will appear. That requires imagining new products, industries, and circumstances that don’t yet exist. The second fatal error is the confusion of work and consumption. Some people enjoy and derive fulfillment from their jobs. To that extent, jobs are good. But to some degree – and in some cases, it’s a large degree – the only reason people do their jobs is that they are paid. To that extent, jobs are a bad thing. Personal fulfillment aside, jobs are a means to an end – and that end is consumption.

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from First Things

American couples are combatting loneliness with open marriage instead of friendship and childbearing. Marriage can be strengthened by openness—not to novel sexual partners, but to friendship and children.

The Abortion–Breast Cancer Link
Recent Trump appointee Charmaine Yoest has stated on previous occasions that abortion increases the risk of breast cancer, a position supported by science and denied by the mainstream media.

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

Rural Appalachia is facing a healthcare crisis. I fear it's going to get much worse
If the Republican party throws up its barriers to Medicaid, there will be many victims of that decision.

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from The Heritage Foundation
[Information from this site may be unreliable.]

President Trump, Don't Forget About Tibet
President Trump’s proposed 2018 budget would zero out funding critical to advancing freedom in Tibet. Defunding efforts to empower Tibetans sends the signal that the U.S. no longer cares about advancing liberty in places like Tibet and Xinjiang. The last two U.S. administrations affirmed the Middle Way approach policy, but it remains to be seen whether it will be supported by the Trump administration.

Good Riddance to the Paris Accord
The Paris Protocol was a losing proposition for American taxpayers and households and businesses that rely on affordable, reliable energy. Business leaders fail to consider what Paris would (or wouldn’t do) to affect global temperatures. Energy poverty is a clear, immediate concern, and the role that fossil fuels have played in making peoples’ lives easier, healthier and cleaner is undeniable.

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

Family Tree Shows Senator Jeanne Shaheen is Direct Descendant of Pocahontas
Senator Jeanne Shaheen claim during a CNN interview that she is a descendant of Pocahontas supported on public Ancestry.com records

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

Fed Officials Can't See What's Right In Front Of Them
While the Federal Reserve has an explicit dual mandate to keep prices stable and maintain full employment, they have unofficially taken on new goals like maintaining financial stability. If central bank policy is responsible for creating bubbles, then how could a central bank official say that spotting and preventing bubbles is “really hard”? It’s like a detective admitting he’s stumped about who is starting all of these fires around town, while he’s holding a container of fuel, a matchbook, and a book titled Arson for Dummies.

Could Donald Trump Save the Internet?
The internet is an incredible tool that has radically changed human society, with the potential to do even more. The last thing we should ever want to do is treat that power like a public utility.

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from Orthodox Christianity

Divorces are a real disaster of our times. Statistics indicate that every second marriage ends in divorce, while ten years ago only every third marriage failed. And even couples who married in the Church now divorce more often. Broken lives, the loss of any hope of building personal happiness, unhappy children who are very likely to imitate the behavior pattern of adults, the inevitable diminishing of the role of family and family values in the society—these are the most evident consequences of divorces.

CANONICAL UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH IS MOST INFLUENTIAL IN UKRAINE ACCORDING TO MINISTRY OF CULTURE
A third of all clergy, two thirds of all Orthodox parishes, three quarters of all seminary students, and nearly all Orthodox monasticism belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), the only canonical Church in Ukraine.

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from The Spokesman-Review

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from Sputnik
(Russian government-supported propaganda channel)

Iran Dispatches Warships to Oman Amid ‘Controlled Insecurity’ in the Gulf
A flotilla of Iranian warships departs for the Gulf of Oman amid an ongoing diplomatic crisis on the Arabian Peninsula. 

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from UPI News Agency - United Press International

Study: Vegetarian diets twice as effective at weight loss
Vegetarian diets help with muscle fat loss, which improves glucose and lipid metabolism to help people with metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.

Montana congressman Gianforte sentenced for assaulting reporter
The newest member of the U.S. House of Representatives pleaded guilty Monday to assaulting a reporter and must now undergo anger management counseling. "It was not my intention to hurt him," congressman-elect Greg Gianforte said in court. 

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In the news, Sunday, June 11, 2017


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JUN 10      INDEX      JUN 12
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Information from some sites may not be reliable, or may not be vetted.
Some sources may require subscription.

________

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

Donald Trump's state visit to Britain put on hold
US president told Theresa May he did not want trip to go ahead if there were large-scale public protests. A Downing Street spokeswoman said it would not comment. “We aren’t going to comment on speculation about the contents of private phone conversations. The Queen extended an invitation to President Trump to visit the UK and there is no change to those plans.” The White House said in statement: “The President has tremendous respect for Prime Minister May. That subject never came up on the call.”

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from The Heritage Foundation
[Information from this site may be unreliable.]

United's Lousy Service is a Reason for More Competition, Not Regulation
Frequent flyers have become accustomed to being prodded, gawked at, delayed, forced off planes, and generally hassled on their travels. United’s problem is that it chose another anti-consumer option for dealing with its shortage of seats. Allowing airports to employ cash incentives and new business models would further enhance their ability to attract new carriers and support novel routes.

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from POLITICO
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

Democrats begin to turn on DHS chief
John Kelly, a retired Marine general, was expected to temper Trump's immigration policies. Instead, Kelly has moved to impose those policies with military rigor.

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from Redoubt News
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

Disappointment with Scotchmans Peak Wilderness
It appeared the Friends of the Scotchmans Peak Wilderness, along with the Forest Service and Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce had collaborated to put together the visual presentation which only showed one side to this controversial issue.

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from The Spokesman-Review

Property valuations delayed because of staffing shortage in Spokane County Assessor’s Office
Property valuations will be more than four months late this year because of a staffing shortage in the Spokane County Assessor’s Office. Assessor Vicki Horton said her office saw six appraisers retire last year, taking with them decades of experience and familiarity with Washington rules and regulations. And refilling those positions has proved difficult because county appraiser salaries haven’t kept pace with those in the private sector, Horton said, calling the pay gap “significant.”

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from Sputnik
(Russian government-supported propaganda channel)

Montenegro Resorts to 'Russian Threat' to Prove 'NATO is Paradise' to Its People
On June 5, Montenegro officially became a member of NATO during a ceremony in Washington. The accession ceremony was marked by the handover of an instrument of accession from Montenegro’s Foreign Minister Srdjan Darmanovic to United States Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon. 

At Least 9 Injured in PKK Shelling of Turkish Southeastern Hakkari Province
Nine people were injured the shelling by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) of the Turkish district of Cukurca in southeastern Hakkari province, local media reported Sunday. The shelling by PKK from Iraq's territory wounded six military personnel and three guards from one of the district's villages who were on duty searching for mines, Dogan News Agency reported, adding that all of the injured were hospitalized. Turkey considers the PKK as terrorist organization. After the ceasefire between the parties broke down in 2015, Ankara started a military operation against the Kurdish militants. On Sunday, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said that around 1,068 PKK members were killed, 27 wounded and 369 captured alive by the Turkish authorities over the last nine months while 289 PKK members surrendered to Ankara.

'Very Cowardly!': Trump Lashes Out at Comey Over Leaks, Questions Their Legality
Donald Trump lashed out at former FBI Director James Comey over leaking his memo of private conversations with the US president. Former FBI Director James Comey testified on the Trump-Russia probe at the US Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday. It was the first public appearance of Comey since his firing in May. During his testimony, Comey said that he asked a "close friend" of his to leak the record of his conversations with Trump. "My judgement was, I needed to get that out in the public square, so I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter… because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel," Comey said.

Poroshenko's Claims on Ukraine 'Independent From Russia' Shattered by Reality
On Sunday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced that a visa-free regime with the European Union for Ukrainian citizens has come into force. On May 17, President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani and Malta's Interior Minister Carmelo Abela, presiding at the Council of the European Union, signed a document on amending the bloc's legislation to grant Ukrainians the 90-day visa-free regime, which entered into force at midnight local time on Sunday (21:00 GMT on Saturday). Speaking at an event in Kiev, Poroshenko said that it was symbolic that the visa-free regime was enacted on the eve of June 12. On this day, Russia celebrates Russia Day, a national holiday commemorating national independence and sovereignty. "We [Ukraine and Russia] finally became independent from each other, including politically, economically, energetically and mentally," Poroshenko stated.

'If Qatar Loses Its Clout in the Middle East, So Will Turkey'
The current crisis over Qatar is just the tip of the iceberg of the ongoing struggle for influence in the Sunni world, Lebanon’s ex-parliamentary speaker Ili al Farzali told Sputnik. “I see this conflict around Qatar also as a war against Turkey in the Sunni world. Assuming that Qatar is indeed a sponsor of terrorism, namely the Muslim Brotherhood, which is the most influential Sunni party both in and outside the Arab world. If Qatar stops supporting it, this would also have a negative impact on Turkey, which has until now been building up its influence in the Arab world,” Ili al Farzali said.

'Collective East': Why Russia is Reinforcing Its Military Bases in Central Asia
“If the collective West is unable to leave its differences behind and form a common front against international terrorism, maybe the collective East will be able to do the job?” Russia is reinforcing its military bases in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan with modern weapons in a bid to prevent the import of terrorism from Afghanistan into Central Asia, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said when meeting with his colleagues from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the Kazakh capital Astana on Wednesday.

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from War History Online

The Gulf of Tonkin – How The US Worked Its Way Into The Vietnam Conflict
Ten years after the disastrous defeat of the French Army in its former Asian colony of Indochina, the divided Vietnam once again captured the world’s attention. While the US was openly supporting the South Vietnamese government, the North, supported by the Soviet Union and China, was posing as an open threat to US interests. What started as a proxy war between military superpowers turned into a US-led intervention after a suspected false flag operation referred as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident which occurred in August 1964.

We Examine The Key Facts About The Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was also known as the Second Indochina War. In Vietnam, it was called Kháng chiến chống Mỹ which translates as the “Resistance War against America,” usually shortened to the “American war.” As the US did not actually declare war on Vietnam but instead intervened and became the major player in a war that was already ongoing it should, strictly speaking, be referred to as a conflict rather than a war. But to most, it remains best known as the Vietnam War.

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