Friday, August 25, 2017

In the news, Friday, August 11, 2017


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AUG 10      INDEX      AUG 12
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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 Aeon
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from Ellensburg Daily Record (WA)

Kittitas County to get boost of state funding via WDFW lands
Kittitas County and other Eastern Washington counties will see a boost of state funding next year thanks to a coalition of groups that sought compensation for state land. Local officials have been seeking a larger share of payment in lieu of tax funding for several years for Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife land, according to a news release from Kittitas County. Because the lands are managed by the state for habitat and recreation, local governments are unable to collect local property tax for government services and schools. This year, the Legislature agreed to increase the payments statewide by a little more than $1 million per year beginning in 2018. Prior to this year, the payments had not increased in the state’s budget since 2009.

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

15 Common Arguments against Immigration, Addressed
Most arguments against immigration have been around for decades. “Immigrants bring with them their bad cultures, ideas, or other factors that will undermine and destroy our economic and political institutions.  The resultant weakening in economic growth means that immigrants will destroy more wealth than they will create.” This is the most intelligent anti-immigration argument and the one most likely to be correct, although the evidence currently doesn’t support it being true.

The Great Opium War Revival
History buffs have been weirded out that the political culture seems like the 1930s all over again. Well, if you are fed up with that, how about we try the 1830s instead? Let’s revisit the Opium Wars, as Donald Trump is determined to do. Then, like now, the drug problem – one that roiled world politics and led to massive political upheaval in China – traces to government action in response to some people’s desire to get high. China’s problem with opium began in the late 18th century during a period of territorial expansion and population increases. Trade routes grew and became more profitable with better sailing and shipping technology. Opium began to pour into China from many foreign countries, most notably with the sponsorship of the UK. The Americans got in on the action too.

Would-Be Tyrants Capture Language to Control Thought
Today’s counter-revolution against liberty is being fought on a number of fronts in American society. One is on college and university campuses across the country, where the ideology of “political correctness” is strangling freedom of speech and smothering intellectual controversy and debate. Critical to this campaign is the capture of language.

There Are Consequences for Eliminating Free Play
In the accelerating quest toward early academics, organized activities, and purposeful play, we may be losing sight of the innate and time-honored benefits of free, unstructured childhood play.

It's Literally Insane to Unleash Government against Opiates
The definition of insanity is trying the same thing, in the same manner, over and over again and expecting different results. We have already gone down the "law and order" path. We know the destruction these strict policies have on the actual addict. Why then, should Americans view Trump’s new stance as anything more than an insane attempt at solving the opiate epidemic.

Environmentalists Are (Half) Right About Energy Subsidies
Sometimes progressive environmentalists have a point. For instance, they argue that oil subsidies are wasteful and should be abolished. Unfortunately, they typically pollute their sound arguments with gross inconsistency and unwarranted alarmism.

This is the Real Reason Your iPhone Cables Break
What has Apple accomplished with their PVC ban? Their reputation for making quality accessories has been ruined. Billions of broken Apple cables have been prematurely sent to the landfill. Billions of replacement cables will be sent to landfills when the gadgets they charge become obsolete. While Apple no longer uses PVC in their cables, many people now rely on cheap third party cables from China, which may use toxic chemicals like lead, arsenic, mercury, and brominated flame retardants.

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

Why FEMA Must Be Reformed Before Disaster Strikes
FEMA is currently stretched way too thin across local disasters that would be better handled by states. FEMA is tasked with leading the response to these devastating disasters, but since the 1980s, its involvement in small, local disasters has been on the increase. Under President George H.W. Bush, FEMA declared 174 disasters, amounting to an average of 43.5 per year. Under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, declarations rose substantially to 716 and 1,037 respectively, averaging 89.5 and 129.6 per year. Under President Barack Obama, declarations remained high with 854 total alerts being issued, or 106.8 on average per year.

Is the Conservative-Libertarian Alliance Worth Preserving?
The answer to this important question ultimately hinges on what one thinks is the most serious threat confronting the country. Marked differences remain on important questions, from immigration, to foreign policy, drugs, and marriage.

Tillerson Is Trying to Replicate Jim Baker's State Department
These have been busy times over at the State Department. Tillerson’s methods might be debatable, but his goal seems right. If he perseveres, the results will speak for themselves. It will take time to tell if Tillerson’s way pays off. Let’s hope it does. We need better statecraft than we have had in the past.

North Korea Nuke Progress Overshadows Sanctions Win
Last weekend, the U.S. State Department secured unanimous support for a U.N. Security Council resolution which slaps punitive economic sanctions on North Korea. The euphoria over our diplomatic win at the U.N. was short lived. If there’s one thing that dictators really care about, it’s the survival of the regime — and attacking us would severely put those prospects at risk for Pyongyang.

How Foreign Governments Influence What Americans Learn In College
A New York congressman is demanding an investigation into whether Iran is following suit and funneling money to the Ivies. Radical professors have created a woefully misinformed generation of Americans who know little about the Constitution and what it takes to maintain a republic. China’s attempt to influence how Americans think takes a multitude of forms.

McCain-Reed Proposal Would Help Reform the Military’s Infrastructure. Here’s Where It Still Needs Improvement.

NAFTA: Making a Good Deal Even Better
NAFTA has given a boost to our economy. Since it took effect in 1994, U.S. manufacturing output has risen by more than 80 percent and 30 million new jobs created. But that doesn't mean we can't make a good deal even better. In all trade negotiations, the US Trade Representative's goal should be to increase Americans' freedom and prosperity, instead of seeking to right imaginary wrongs.

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from Liberty Writers
[Information from this site may be unreliable.]

This week, Donald Trump focused all his energy on addressing the opiate crisis. Calling for enhanced “law and order” tactics, Trump promised to use the very same methods that have already proven themselves to be useless in fighting drug consumption. “Strong law enforcement is absolutely vital to having a drug-free society,” Trump said on Tuesday. “I’m confident that by working with our health care and law enforcement experts we will fight this deadly epidemic and the United States will win.” It would appear that Trump has been living under a rock for the past 30 years. As anyone who has paid any attention to the government’s failed war on drugs would know, the “law and order” approach simply doesn’t work. If it did, the opiate epidemic would have never happened in the first place. All terrible government policies have unintended consequences. When it comes to the war on drugs, the blowback has come in the form of the opiate crisis.

Trump Declares Opioid Crisis a National Emergency
President Trump has made good on a campaign promise to devote national resources toward addressing the opioid crisis ravaging the nation. Late Thursday, the White House announced the president will declare the epidemic a national emergency.

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from The Living Church

THE FUTURE OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH’S CLERGY
Only 20 percent of full-time clergy younger than 45 equals 100 percent of a problem for a denomination struggling to grow and thrive in the decades to come.

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from Miami Herald

People have been complaining about me name calling that guy in the White House. Here's my response: The short answer is Yes. The longer answer goes like this: As a general rule, I’ve always tried to avoid name excessive calling in this space, particularly of the chief executive. The one big exception was back during the Lewinsky scandal, when I dubbed Bill Clinton a “human oil slick,” “manipulative slime,” “Gomer,” and “President Hefner.” There is a simple reason — beyond decorum, I mean — for not going to that level too often. You see, two things happen when you call someone names. The first is that you signal your lack of respect. The second is that you foreclose any possibility of engaging that person in a substantive manner on whatever the point of contention might be.

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

Employment Is Not the Key to Economic Growth
The US unemployment rate stood at 4.3% in July against 4.4% in the month before. The number of unemployed stood at 6.981 million – an increase of 4,000 from June. A relatively low unemployment rate is considered by most experts as an important factor for economic growth. This way of thinking based on the view that a reduction in the number of unemployed means that more people can now afford to boost their expenditure. As a result, economic activity follows suit. If unemployment is an important driving force of an economy then it is valid to conclude that changes in unemployment are an important causative factor of real economic growth. In truth, the main driver of economic growth is an expanding pool of real savings rather than the state of unemployment. Fixing unemployment without addressing the issue of real savings cannot lift the pace of economic growth as such.

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

Talk of a new party ignores the real obstacle to stopping Brexit
At the moment, there aren't the numbers in parliament or the country for a gentler exit. What are the obstacles to a softer exit from the European Union – or no exit at all? They are, in descending order of importance: public opinion, Labour MPs in the West Midlands and Yorkshire, Eurosceptic Conservative MPs, the question of whether or not Article 50 is reversible, and Jeremy Corbyn’s Euroscepticism.

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from The Spokesman-Review

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from The Telegraph (UK)

DNA project reveals half of residents tested in Cotswold village are related
When they agreed to take part in a unique DNA project, residents of a close-knit Cotswolds village thought they might, at best, discover a far flung relative in an exotic location. In fact, more than half of participants, who included the pub landlord, a local artist and a farmer, learned they were instead related to each other. The landmark project that involved testing the DNA of a Gloucestershire community also revealed that despite being overwhelmingly white British, the average resident was just 42 per cent Anglo Saxon.

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In the news, Thursday, August 10, 2017


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AUG 09      INDEX      AUG 11
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Information from some sites may not be reliable, or may not be vetted.
Some sources may require subscription.

________

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

Illegal Immigration is Way Down, Should We Thank Trump?
Illegal immigration is at its lowest point since the Great Depression. President Trump has claimed success, but nearly all of the decrease occurred under prior administrations.

Where Do Prices Come From?
Many people think that haggling is a game of psychological manipulation, and it is certainly is that, but more importantly, it reflects the disinformation between buyer and seller. The seller knows his cost, and more importantly, the going market rate, but the buyer usually does not. Haggling is, therefore, a way of indirectly surveying the price the seller thinks the market will bear. Sometimes the price depends on the cost of a good to the seller, but it just as likely may not. A fashion retailer will sell out of fashion clothing far below cost, and a hot, imported gadget may sell for several times what it cost the seller to acquire.

Soft Despotism Is the Unique Threat to American Liberty
Contrary to partisan and doomsayer laments, the United States remains exceptional, even in regard to its unique despotism.

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from First Things

RETURN OF THE VOCATIONS CRISIS
The recovery in priestly vocations seems to be over. Between 1978 and 2012, after the great crisis of the 1970s following Vatican II, seminaries around the world enjoyed a season of growth. The growth was not constant, nor was it uniform across countries and continents. But the trend was clear. Numbers revealed recently by the Central Office of Statistics of the Holy See show that in the past five years, the vocations crisis has returned. 

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

Amazon paid just £15m in tax on European revenues of £19.5bn
Online retailer’s UK warehouse and logistics operation more than halved its corporation tax bill from £15.8m to £7.4m.

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

The U.S.–China Economic Relationship: Time for a Change in Tone
U.S. and Chinese officials recently met for the inaugural Comprehensive Economic Dialogue (CED) following a 100-day plan to jumpstart bilateral economic relations. Several notable outcomes, such as a commitment to allow beef exports to China, have been celebrated as successes. Moving forward in U.S.–China economic relations, the Trump Administration and Congress should maintain national security interests, play down future dialogues, take targeted action against intellectual property theft, and protect America’s free-market principles.

Impact Aid Program: A Path toward Educational Freedom for Military Families and Other Federally Connected Children
Transitioning Impact Aid into a system of education savings accounts (ESAs) beginning with children attending school in heavily impacted districts and those living on tribal lands represents the bulk of spending under Impact Aid. The Department of Defense should also transition funding for children who attend schools on base into a system of parent-controlled ESAs. Other students who generate Impact Aid funding should also be able to direct their dollars toward options that work for them. However, the lower per pupil amount provided to students who do not fall under one of these three categories necessitates a federal-state choreography where state and local leaders also establish robust school choice options. States should create ESAs for military-connected children and should ultimately move toward universal ESAs for all children.

Why the Crisis in Yemen Matters to the United States
What happens in Yemen could negatively affect regional stability and be disastrous for U.S. interests. It is vital to U.S. interests that Iran’s influence be contained.

President Trump is turning up the heat on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to get back to work and deliver on the promises Republicans made to the American people. “The House is at least putting things across the finish line ... the Senate is just way behind,” says Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va.

Vice President Pence should use his upcoming trip to Latin America to highlight important partnerships and reaffirm the U.S. commitment to this region. Specifically, the Vice President should confirm U.S. commitment to security and prosperity in Central and South America, U.S. support for a responsible implementation of the Colombian peace process, and U.S. commitment to addressing the crisis in Venezuela. While there are significant security and economic challenges in the region, the Trump Administration has a unique opportunity to capitalize on positive political dynamics.

Chicago suffered nearly 800 homicides last year, and that’s only part of the picture. Emanuel announced last weekend that Chicago would sue the Department of Justice over its guidelines concerning sanctuary cities and federal grant money. The grant requirements that he is fighting concern only illegal aliens already in jail for committing crimes on top of entering the country illegally.

As the United States, Canada, and Mexico prepare for next month’s North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations, several environmental and labor groups have slammed the agreement, calling for an overhaul of NAFTA priorities. Environmental groups claim that NAFTA has contributed to pollution in member countries. Meanwhile, union groups reject NAFTA, claiming the agreement has depressed wages.

Merkel reaffirmed that Germany will put no limit on the number of refugees it is willing to accept. Such large numbers of newcomers quickly present huge societal challenges, not to mention serious security concerns. And no European nation is more endangered by this than Germany.

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from The Hill

America desperately needs to modernize its nuclear weapons
Congress and the Trump administration must not waver in their support for the U.S. nuclear modernization program.

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from Living Lutheran
Magazine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Commemorating 500 years with Martin Luther
100 years ago, in 1917, any celebration in the United States of the 400th anniversary of the Reformation was tinged with questions about Martin Luther’s German-ness, given that we  had just entered into World War I against the Prussian kaiser. Today, the country has replaced anti-German sentiment with other bugbears, and yet the question of how to remember the Reformation after 500 years still puzzles U.S. Lutherans.

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

Central Banks Are Hiding the True Price of Risk
If you invest your money, you will have to deal with numerous risks. For instance, if you buy a bond, you run the risk of the borrower defaulting or being repaid with debased money. Risk premiums determined in an unhampered market align the interests of savers and investors. When central banks interfere with this, trouble results.

The End of the Nation-State
Mankind has, so far, gone through three main stages of political organization since Day One, say 200,000 years ago, when anatomically modern men started appearing. We can call them Tribes, Kingdoms, and Nation-States. The problem is that government is based on coercion, and it is, at a minimum, suboptimal to base a social structure on institutionalized coercion.

The Google Manifesto – and What it Means
It seems that anyone on Planet Earth with a pulse now is familiar with the situation at Google in which a male engineer sent a 10-page memo over the company’s internal listserv in which he questioned some of Google’s “diversity” policies. As most of us expected when the story became public, Google fired the employee, citing “incorrect” thoughts about “gender” as its justification. Google can concentrate on innovation and profits — or it can focus on bureaucratic rules against thought crimes. Google has apparently chosen the latter.

A Flat Tax Is Not More "Efficient" Than a Tax System with Loopholes
A frequently repeated claim is that loopholes in the tax code are “inefficient.” A more efficient tax, economists say, is a flat and all-encompassing tax that is inescapable. Why? Because this means no one will waste resources on tax planning and thus tax avoidance. In other words, more resources will be used in production, which is better for the “economy.” Leaving the moral and ethical argument about tax avoidance aside, the efficiency argument too is completely wrong. It shows how much economists have deviated from understanding what they supposedly try to learn about: the market. The loophole inefficiency argument is based on the view that seemingly unproductive uses of resources are a waste because they don’t contribute to the overall economy. But this is a backward argument, and in fact the same argument as that against “hoarding” of funds. And it assumes that people (or, more specifically, their owned resources) are for the economy, rather than the economy for people. If we want taxpayers to be more efficient, we should be giving them more tax loopholes. Closing loopholes has the opposite effect.

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

A 21st century workhouse or a second chance? My life as an Emmaus Companion
Homelessness charity Emmaus takes in the desperate. But does it show them a way out again?

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

A Campus Sexual Assault Proceeding Gets Political and a Student Sues
A male student at the University of Texas at Austin is suing the University of Texas at Austin after the school suspended him for five semesters following a Title IX hearing. The student, known as John Doe, claims UT President Gregory Fenves unfairly intervened in his sexual assault proceedings––perhaps because the alleged victim is the daughter of a wealthy donor, according to the lawsuit filed Monday.

Cops Dig Desperately for a Picture That Can Send a Harmless Old Man to Jail
Prosecutors say the former professor poses no threat but should be locked up anyway.

Lawsuit Says Seattle's Income Tax Illegal, Unconstitutional
Washington state laws, courts, and voters have a long history of rejecting income taxes.
Seattle's "almost certainly illegal" income tax, passed last month, is already the subject of three separate lawsuits charging that it is, well, illegal.

ACLU Sues D.C. Metro for Rejecting Ads, Including One With Text of the First Amendment
A dumb government rule to protect subway riders from controversial ads gets predictable results. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing the D.C.'s dysfunctional and much-loathed transit authority for rejecting subway ads the government deemed too controversial, including one that contained the text of the First Amendment.

Does the Federal Government Have a Role to Play in Combatting Bad State Licensing Laws?
Yes, but only because states have abdicated the responsibility themselves. It's still illegal to sell flowers in Louisiana without being a licensed florist. You're still not allowed to sell caskets in Virginia without being a licensed funeral director. Those are outliers inasmuch as most states don't require licenses for those activities. But they're typical in that, like many licensing laws, they don't protect the health and safety of the general public. All they really do is restrict economic freedom by unfairly limiting competition in certain professions.

New York City to Dismiss Hundreds of Thousands of Old Warrants for Minor Crimes
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio may continue to defend "broken windows policing," but prosecutors in his town are increasingly ill at ease with the long-term consequences when police constantly cite citizens for low-level, nonviolent crimes. This week, prosecutors from Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, and Queens announced they were moving to dismiss nearly 650,000 old warrants for unpaid citations from things like public drinking to violating park rules. According to The New York Times, prosecutors have been hammering out this plan for three years.

Why Republicans Didn't Repeal and Replace Obamacare
The GOP's intra-party war continues, with Donald Trump blaming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for the failure of the Obamacare repeal effort. On Twitter, Trump wrote, "Senator Mitch McConnell said I had 'excessive expectations,' but I don't think so. After 7 years of hearing Repeal & Replace, why not done?" It's a fair question. Part of the answer is that elected Republicans failed for years to seriously engage with the question of how to replace the health care law they campaigned so adamantly against. But it's also an exercise in calculated blame shifting, one that demonstrates how little the president understands about the policy process. In other words, it's the entire party's fault.

The Google Memo Exposes a Libertarian Blindspot When It Comes To Power
It's not just the state that wields power and squelches good-faith debate. The "Google Memo" raises at least two big questions from a specifically libertarian perspective: When does an employer have a right to fire an employee and how do social pressures work to shut down speech that makes powerful people uncomfortable?

Trump Administration Blocks an Obscure Regulation, Hysteria Ensues
The regulatory deep state is fighting tooth and nail to preserve and expand its power in the face of Trump's deregulatory push. Witness the fevered reaction to the Trump administration's decision to drop mandated screenings for sleep apnea—a disorder that can interrupt sleep and contribute to fatigue—among train engineers and truck drivers.

The Planetary Protection Racket
It isn't just another useless, overpaid bureaucrat, but a crippler to any mission to Mars. The request by NASA for a new "Planetary Protection Officer" salaried at $187,000 per year has provoked some hilarity, but the problem is much greater than the hiring of another useless overpaid bureaucrat. In fact, NASA's planetary protection program serves no function but to cripple the space program at a cost to the taxpayers of billions of dollars. The program calls for protecting Mars and Earth from "contaminating" each other, but there is not one shred of evidence to support the notion that life of any kind, let alone pathogens of macrofauna or macroflora, or free-living microbes with superior adaptation to the terrestrial environment than native species, exists on the Martian surface.

Shutting Out Foreign Workers Would Cost American Jobs
History suggests that if the government chokes off the supply of foreign labor, American workers won't step in to reap rewards. When people come here from Mexico or China or Nigeria to work, they don't take jobs from Americans; they create jobs for Americans.

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

A Mountain of Misdirection: Discovery in the Bundy Case
“Discovery” in the Bundy Case is reportedly so vast that it contains the texts of entire novels, and hundreds of pages of apparently irrelevant medical records, but did not reveal that FBI agent Charles Johnson was arrested last year, that Dan Love was under investigation, or that Greg Burleson was an FBI informant. As in many cases, defendants and their lawyers are told they must keep the discovery secret from the public—upon penalty of contempt of court.  This is true even though the discovery is said to contain public documents and records.  At least two news organizations, Battle Born Media and the Las Vegas Review Journal, have filed petitions to have some access to the secret discovery; but the court has denied each request.

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from The Spokesman-Review

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from The Telegraph (UK)

Sarahah: Why everyone is talking about the 'honesty first' secret messaging app
A new messaging app focused on privacy and trust has soared in popularity since its release in June. The Sarahah app, which lets users send one another anonymous messages, has millions of users and has been at the top of Apple's App Store for weeks in dozens of countries.

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In the news, Wednesday, August 9, 2017


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AUG 08      INDEX      AUG 10
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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 Gem State Patriot
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

Secretary Zinke Requests Public Comments on all DOI Regulations
This is a huge opportunity for the public to provide feedback on regulations that are destroying the way we live. On March 28, 2017 President Trump signed an Executive Order rescinding several Obama memorandums and executive orders. The President then instructed agency heads to identify existing agency actions that occurred as a result of the now rescinded executive orders and memorandums.

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from Government Executive
Media/News Company in Washington, D.C.

A contractor providing intelligence and training services to the Defense Department billed luxury cars to the government, sought reimbursements for the salaries of well-connected secretaries who did little in the way of actual work and exceeded statutory caps for executives’ pay, according to a new audit. All told, the Defense Contract Audit Agency questioned $50 million the British company New Century Consulting billed to the Pentagon, according to a report summarized in a letter from Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

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from The Guardian (UK)
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

Forget ‘the environment’: we need new words to convey life’s wonders
If Moses had promised the Israelites a land flowing with mammary secretions and insect vomit, would they have followed him into Canaan? Though this means milk and honey, I doubt it would have inspired them. So why do we use such language to describe the natural wonders of the world? There are examples everywhere, but I will illustrate the problem with a few from the UK. On land, places in which nature is protected are called “sites of special scientific interest”. At sea, they are labelled “no-take zones” or “reference areas”. Had you set out to estrange people from the living world, you could scarcely have done better. 

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

How the Latest GOP Health Care Bill Stacks Up
After last month’s disappointing failure to roll back Obamacare’s damage, senators are now reflecting on how best to proceed. Relief from Obamacare includes three major elements: regulatory relief, financing reform through tax cuts, and Medicaid reform.

Free Trade Must Remain a Bipartisan Issue
U.S. presidents of both political parties supported free trade throughout the mid- to late-20th century. Fortunately, conservatives in Congress still understand the benefits of trade.

Updating the American Business Tax System: American Attitudes toward Corporate Tax Reform
Tax reform is likely to become a key issue on both the individual and corporate sides in 2017. President Donald Trump released a plan that called for significant changes on both levels. Congress anticipates taking up the issue once health care and budgeting have cleared the deck. Americans see a strong need to update the tax system with minor or even major reforms. However, most Americans think more of reform on the individual side than the business side. Moreover, Americans hold differing ideas of what reform should look like, and even the ultimate goal of tax policy as a whole. Although divided on specifics, Americans are united in their concern that corporate tax rates be competitive in the global economy and benefit workers and consumers domestically through job creation and low prices. Emphasizing these themes and educating Americans on the actual rates that currently burden businesses can help unify and build support for lower, more competitive rates.

The FAA Could Follow the EPA in Overreaching Its Authority
Even as conservatives cheer the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to rescind its overreaching WOTUS rule, another expansion is taking shape. Call it the “Airspace of the United States” rule. Congress should reaffirm FAA authority to safeguard the national airspace, but respect local authority to secure public safety and individual liberty.

Strong International Action Required to Address Venezuela’s Dictatorship
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s alarming power grab has turned Venezuela into a dictatorship. U.S. leadership and regional cooperation is needed to reverse Venezuela’s imminent collapse. At a minimum, the U.S. should develop a comprehensive sanctions regime targeting Venezuelan government officials, mandate strong standards for any dialogue with the Maduro regime, and conduct a detailed assessment on how an oil embargo against Venezuela would impact the U.S. economy (as well as develop a contingency plan to mitigate the impact if such sanctions become necessary).

A Powerful Federal Reserve Reform: Flexible Open Market Operations
The Fed will shrink its balance sheet and end unconventional monetary policy. But the central bank’s procedure for open-market operations still need an overhaul. The Fed’s primary dealer system hurt the Fed’s ability to maintain system-wide liquidity during the 2008 crisis. Yet, the Fed has chosen to keep the system intact. At the very least, the Fed should update its own 2002 study to elaborate on its own experiences during the 2008 crisis.

Is College Education Worth It?
August is the month when parents bid farewell to not only their college-bound youngsters but also a sizable chunk of cash for tuition. More than 18 million students attend our more than 4,300 degree-granting institutions. A question parents, their college-bound youngsters, and taxpayers should ask: Is college worth it?

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from KIRO 7 Eyewitness News (CBS Seattle)

Old law prevents Washington state from preparing for nuclear disaster
As North Korea considers a strike against the U.S. territory of Guam, KIRO 7 is looking into the plans to protect Washington residents. We found a little known 1984 state law which says "Comprehensive Emergency Management" does not mean preparation for emergency evacuation or relocation of residents in anticipation of nuclear attack. That law actually prevents Washington State Emergency Management from planning for a nuclear strike.

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from The Liberty Review
[Information from this site may be unreliable.]

How Capitalism Makes Us Less Wasteful
It has always bothered me to go to a sporting event or get on a plane and see lots of empty seats. The marginal cost of an additional spectator or passenger is basically zero; anything additional someone would pay to the airline or stadium for the privilege of attending or flying would be pure profit. Isn’t there a way those seats could be filled by people who would place more than zero value on the experience? People are earning tidy livings by reducing transaction costs. Like most academics, I simply lament this reality and go on with my life. Fortunately, some people and firms are actually doing something about it.

How Legal Activism Stopped the Market from Abolishing Segregation
When I ask non-lawyer friends what Supreme Court cases they have heard of, two invariably arise: that of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka and Plessy vs. Ferguson. It is probably no coincidence that they remember these cases together. Brown undid the racial interpretation of the Constitution made under Plessy, removing the “separate but equal” standard that had been the law since 1896. Brown was also highly controversial in its time — a period that is associated with racial division, Jim Crow, and the birth of the Civil Rights movement and which also paved the way for further civil right cases.

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from Military Times
and Air Force Times, Army Times, Marine Corps Times, and Navy Times

North Korea dismisses Trump's threat, warns of 'absolute force'
North Korea on Wednesday officially dismissed President Donald Trump’s threats of “fire and fury,” declaring the American leader “bereft of reason” and warning ominously, “Only absolute force can work on him.” In a statement released on state media, Gen. Kim Rak Gyom, who heads North Korea’s rocket command, also said his country was “about to take” military action near the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam. He said the North would finalize a plan by mid-August involving mid-range missiles hitting waters 30 to 40 kilometers (19 to 25 miles) away from the island.

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

The Trump administration is considering a new scheme for the War in Afghanistan. The American taxpayers are unlikely to see any benefit. Any time we hear the term "privatize" coming from the usual suspects in Washington, DC we should immediately be suspicious. When this word is used, there's usually precious little actual privatization going on. Thus, we should regard the Trump administration's proposed plan to "privatize" the war in Afghanistan with extreme amounts of skepticism.

It's Not Urban vs. Rural — It's Suburban vs. Urban
Rural America continues to be a topic of political conversation. For many journalists and pundits, this focus comes out of a belief that rural America is the primary driver behind Donald Trump's political base. That's all well and good, but the rural population in the United States is only a small and shrinking part of the coalition that put Donald Trump in the White House. Moreover, the rural population today comprises only 14 percent of the US population nationwide.  Although the the media has become obsessed with rural Trump voters, the fact is suburban voters and taxpayers are far more important.

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from The Nation

A New Report Raises Big Questions About Last Year’s DNC Hack
Former NSA experts say it wasn’t a hack at all, but a leak—an inside job by someone with access to the DNC’s system.

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from New York Times

We’re Choking on Smoke in Seattle
The weather forecast for Seattle on Wednesday reads “89 degrees, smoke.” We first noticed the smoke, drifting down from wildfires still burning in British Columbia, around Aug. 2, just as a heat wave sent temperatures spiking well into the 90s (the historical average for that week is 77) and the ubiquitous Pacific winds dwindled to a standstill. “Nature’s air-conditioning is broken,” the National Weather Service told the Seattle Times. The city’s brown skies feel like a preview of what’s to come for everyone if we don’t address climate change.

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

Even Atheists Think that Atheists Are More Likely to Be Immoral Than Believers
"Our findings reveal widespread suspicion that morality requires belief in a god."

Groups Sue Over Trump's Plan—If He Actually Has One—to Boot Transgender People Out of Military
The lawsuit says that the plaintiffs disclosed their transgender status to the military with the understanding that doing so would no longer threaten their careers, and therefore they're asking the federal courts to block a reversal of that promise. Five members of the military disclosed their status. Now they're worried they'll get kicked out. It's still not clear how or even really if the military's transgender ban will proceed, but two legal organizations are nevertheless suing to try to stop it. President Donald Trump infamously declared on Twitter in July that he was going to reverse the policies started under President Barack Obama to accommodate transgender troops. Trump indicated a complete reversal—no more transgender troops would be allowed to serve at all.

Trump Needs Congressional Authorization for Pre-Emptive Strike on North Korea
But Congress has to assert its role if that's to mean anything.

Trump Wants to Arrest His Way Out of the Opioid Overdose Crisis
The president lacks subtlety or substance over a chronic public health problem—go figure.

Police Serve Warrant to Wrong Address, Kill Man Who Lives There
Ismael Lopez awoke to a commotion outside his front door on July 23rd, shortly before midnight. Moments later, he was dead. A police officer shot Lopez after he allegedly refused to put down the gun he was holding when he answered the door. Police were looking to serve an arrest warrant for an assault that had occurred earlier that day. Only after Lopez had died did they realize their mistake: they had gone to the wrong house.

Cooler Foreign Policy Heads Than Trump Have Been Calling for North Korea Regime Change for Years
As people rightly freak out over a president invoking nuclear war, a trip through recent history shows widespread support for preemptive bombing. Like most intractable-seeming policy challenges, North Korea's nuclearization is damnably hard to fix. And like many global crises, the urge to locate some kind of special problem-solving button in Washington may well be making things worse.

No, Donald Trump Wasn’t Elected Because We Ended the Military Draft
Nothing builds social cohesion like being condemned to die in a conflict you don't support, argues Damon Linker in a misguided attempt to explain Trump.

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

Navarro’s Counterfeit Court – Bunkerville Retrial

Navarro has ruled that all bad acts by the BLM, or any other law enforcement, will not be presented on the record. She feels that there is nothing relevant about showing this. She has stated that, “The law does not recognize self defense against law enforcement officers.” This is not a trial. This is a grand jury hearing where no defense is even allowed to be presented. The defendants have been thrown to the wolves by their own government.

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from The Spokesman-Review

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from Washington Policy Center (State)

More lawsuits filed against Seattle's illegal income tax
Three separate lawsuits have now been filed against Seattle's illegal income tax. The first lawsuit was filed on July 14. Today two more lawsuits were filed, one by the Freedom Foundation and one by the "Opportunity for All Coalition" represented by former Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna, former Supreme Court Chief Justice Gerry Alexander, former Supreme Court Justice Phil Talmadge, and Dan Dunne, a litigation partner at Orrick Herrington. Of note in the McKenna legal brief is the fact current Attorney General Bob Ferguson declined a request to take action against the illegal Seattle income tax.

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from Zero Hedge
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

Car Rams Into Group Of Soldiers In Paris; Six Injured In "Deliberate Act Of Terrorism"
In the latest car-ramming terrorist attack in France, at least six French soldiers were injured, three of them seriously, after being rammed by what was described as a black BMW in a Paris suburb, French Armed forces confirmed, adding that the police were searching for the driver in what prosecutors are treating as the latest act of terrorism.

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In the news, Tuesday, August 8, 2017


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AUG 07      INDEX      AUG 09
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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)

Chantek, the orangutan who used sign language, dies at 39
An orangutan who was one of the first apes to learn sign language has died in Atlanta, Georgia, aged 39. Chantek lived with an anthropologist in Tennessee for about nine years and learned to clean his room, make and use tools and memorise the route to a fast-food restaurant. He spent his later years in Zoo Atlanta where he was treated for heart disease.

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

Pat Robertson has ominous warning about Fox, Eric Bolling — and who he thinks is behind a conspiracy
Pat Robertson — longtime televangelist who founded the Christian Broadcasting Network and former presidential candidate — weighed in Monday night on the recent allegations of sexual harassment levied against Fox News Network’s Eric Bolling. Defending Bolling, Robertson suggested that a liberal conspiracy was at the heart of those bringing such allegations against those at Fox News.

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from Great Falls Tribune (Montana)

An angler stumbled upon a fairly complete Columbian mammoth near Broadus last summer; experts hope the animal can help tell the story of how they lived and died. Lee Randall had unearthed the bones of dead bison on his property before, but nothing this big.  Last weekend, Randall announced he and a crew of paleontologists had excavated a Columbian mammoth, estimated between 20,000 and 10,000 years old, from the banks of the Powder River meandering through his property near Broadus.

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

In NAFTA Negotiations, Trump Must Ensure Protection of US Property Rights
The Trump administration has called for an “America first” trade policy. Elizabeth Warren assumes that legal systems in other counties are perfectly able—and willing—to protect the property rights of American citizens. An “America first” NAFTA should continue the practice of providing unbiased referees for trade and investment disputes.

$15 Minimum Wage Would Wreak Havoc on One of America’s Richest Counties
Montgomery County, Maryland, would have passed a $15 minimum wage if is wasn’t for County Executive Ike Leggett. Leggett called for a comprehensive study of how such a policy would affect the county. This study should serve as an example to other policymakers of the right way to legislate: by seeking information and analysis before enacting monumental legislation.

Congressman’s Bill Would Make It Too Easy to Prosecute Innocent People
Although well-meaning, the bill is duplicative and unnecessarily adds to the ever-growing list of federal crimes. The fight against legitimate social ills should not overly risk punishing morally blameless or socially productive behavior.

Toward a Tax System Designed on Purpose
Job No. 1 for Congress is repealing Obamacare. But cutting taxes is a close second. Our business tax system is particularly bad. American corporations face one of the highest tax rates in the world. Unfortunately, pro-growth tax reform will face an uphill battle in the Senate, where a 60-vote threshold is necessary for passage.

How States Can Get Exemptions from Obamacare’s Rules
The Senate’s failure to pass even a watered-down version of health care reform was compounded by its decision to leave Washington rather than finish the job.

Should Transgender Americans be Allowed in the Military? Not So Fast: Military Readiness Has to be First Concern

TSA Screeners Are an Easy Candidate for Privatization
The Transportation Safety Administration has consistently failed tests of its security at airports. Several years ago, it failed 95 percent of the time. There is no need for the TSA to manage a fully federalized aviation security workforce. Rather, the agency should be responsible only for setting security rules. Focusing the agency on threats and oversight would enhance security, save money and leave travelers far happier.

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from The Living Church

FELLOWSHIP WITH THE UNORTHODOX? SOME THOUGHTS ON A RECENT CONTROVERSY
In recent days, there’s been a discussion of the boundaries of orthodoxy in some corners of the evangelical blogosphere. James K.A. Smith, the prolific writer and professor of philosophy at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, kicked off the discussion. Smith’s concern is that speaking of traditional Christian sexual ethics as orthodox (as opposed to calling them biblical or traditional) is not only a category confusion but a potentially dangerous one: If we decouple orthodoxy from its conciliar definition, who knows what content might arise to fill it out? As much as lies within me, until I have good reason to believe otherwise, I want to assume that my interlocutors who affirm same-sex marriage and who say the same creed with me each Sunday do so in good faith, and deserve to be answered on the basis of the orthodox Christian theology they profess.  Insofar as this is what Smith’s post was aiming at, I’m with him 100 percent.

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from Miami Herald

Leonard Pitts Jr.: How much longer will GOP be the party of mean and vicious?
In his new book, Sen. Jeff Flake, himself a Republican, condemns conservatism for its role in a “culture of vicious dehumanization,” not to mention its sins of incoherence, rejection of empirical fact and plain hypocrisy. Writing of the rush by the conservative party, i.e., the GOP, to embrace the regrettable Donald Trump during the last election, the author is blunt and unsparing. “Never has a party so quickly or easily abandoned its core principles …”

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

Why Government Has a Dangerous Obsession with Statistics
In a free market, businesses have little need of economy-wide statistics. They are, however, desperately needed for any sort of government planning.

The Rise of Zombie Companies — And Why It Matters
The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) has warned again of the collateral damages of extremely loose monetary policy. One of the biggest threats is the rise of “zombie companies.” Since the “recovery” started, zombie firms have increased from 7.5% to 10.5%. In Europe, Bof A estimates that about 9% of the largest companies could be categorized as “walking dead.” What is a zombie company? It is — in the BIS definition — a listed firm, with ten years or more of existence, where the ratio of EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) relative to interest expense is lower than one. In essence, a company that merely survives due to the constant refinancing of its debt and, despite re-structuring and low rates, is still unable to cover its interest expense with operating profits, let alone repay the principal.

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from naked capitalism

It’s so routine for private equity firms to run roughshod over the law that industry publications don’t even bother pointing out the misconduct. An example is a new article in PE Hub, Why PE firms are buying orthopedic and ophthalmology practices . Mind you, private equity firms buying up medical practices is hardly new. For instance, some private equity firms were acquiring outpatient surgery centers years ago. Roy Poses at Health Care Renewal pointed out in 2015 that private equity was targeting primary doctors’ practices.

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

We're asking the wrong questions about the Google “anti-diversity memo”
Which sex is better at what skills is less important than which skills we value in the first place. 

A pineapple in your sock drawer: how surprise is key to unlocking the secrets of autism
A new study has shown how those with autism are more likely to expect the unexpected.

How Mail Online reduced Sinead O'Connor's desperation to entertainment
Yes, a sobbing celebrity released a video. But should she be turned into a gif? 

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from Orthodox Christianity

TURKEY TAKING STONES FROM ANCIENT ARMENIAN CHURCH TO MAKE MOSQUE
Turks are gradually dismantling an ancient Armenian church of the Varagavank monastic complex on the slopes of Mt. Varag, in Yukarı Bakraçlı in Eastern Turkey, using its stones to construct a mosque, reports the newspaper Yeni Özgür Politika. The church was initially constructed in the 7th-8th centuries. During the period of the Armenian Kingdom, it was the place of residence of the Archbishop of Van. The monastery was abandoned after the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Kingdom in 1915. The head of the Union for the Protection of the Environment and Cultural and Historical Monuments of Van Ali Kalçık noted that the ancient church is on the verge of complete destruction.

ODESSA CLERGY PETITION MAYOR TO BAN GAY PRIDE FESTIVAL
Heads and representatives of various Christian confessions in Odessa have joined together to address Mayor Gennady Trukhanov with a request to ban the city’s festival of gay culture “Odessa Pride 2017,” scheduled to take place today through Sunday, reports the Religious Information Service of Ukraine. “We categorically do not accept and do not support the imposition of false ‘values,’ which are pushed by some media and public figures under the guise of European integration. A striking example of such imposition is the propaganda of sexual perversion, including the aforementioned event,” the address reads. The authors of the address note that apostasy from God always triggers deep political, economic, and social crises in any country.

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from The Paris Review
Literary Magazine

Against Argument
“Placelessness was my idea of a utopia.” A letter from our London editor.

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

No, Donald Trump Wasn’t Elected Because We Ended the Military Draft
Nothing builds social cohesion like being condemned to die in a conflict you don't support, argues Damon Linker in a misguided attempt to explain Trump. By now, every political commentator has offered a suggestion for how Donald Trump ended up as president of these United States. Few have missed their targets as badly as Damon Linker's most recent offering, which suggests that we could have avoided President Trump if only the government had remained committed, for the past 40-plus years, to a policy that forced young Americans to die in foreign wars. Linker, a senior correspondent at The Week, suggests that historians will ultimately trace the rise of Trump to the decline in social cohesion that began, yes, with the abolition of military conscription in 1973. Ending the draft, Linker says, was a "catalyst for some of the most pernicious tendencies in our politics" over the past few decades, leading to a rise in individualism and a decline in social togetherness.

Two Chatbots Disappear From China's Biggest App Store After Committing Thought Crimes
Chinese chatbots dream of moving to America. Early this month, China's largest messenger apps put the kibosh on two chatbots that offered insufficiently patriotic answers to user questions about communism and Taiwan.

Forced Coal Divestment Robs California Pension Fund of Revenue
Millions lost when political influence overrules financial acumen.

Americans Increasingly Open to War With North Korea, Even As Distrust of Trump Hits Record Highs
Lessons about U.S. interventionism fast forgotten. How many "kinetic military actions" will it take for war skepticism to stick with the American public? A new poll by the Chicago Council of Foreign Affairs (CCFA) finds that 75 percent of Americans believe that North Korea—a hermit kingdom thousands of miles away that is unable to keep its people from starving, a country whose military budget is a 60th the size of America's—presents a critical threat to the United States. That's up from 55 percent two years ago.

A New Tax Is No Solution to New York's 'Summer of Hell'
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio's proposed tax will not address the root problems of his city's transit crisis.

The Administrative State Strikes Back: Federal Climate Change Draft Report Leaked
It would be ridiculous for the Trump Administration to try to suppress it now.

The Price of Protectionism: More Expensive Beer
The White House will force American can makers to "buy American," driving up prices and costing jobs—without doing anything to help American workers.

Local Governments Spend Big On Lobbyists
In many states, local governments spend more on lobbyists than both business and unions. Local governments are spending taxpayers' money to lobby for more power over taxpayers.

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

Is the Prosecution Case Collapsing?
The Bunkerville retrial in Las Vegas has several interesting updates today. The prosecution has stated that they have finished presenting their witnesses, however they will not formally rest their case until the next time they see the jury, which is expected at 9am Thursday morning. The jury questions for the final witness, Special Agent Willis, were very interesting and seemed to show that the jurors are getting a bit annoyed at the behavior of the judge. Some examples of the jury questions include a juror wanting to know why the FBI was involved in this case at all, since it was a BLM operation. Judge Navarro refused to ask that question in open court and told the jury that it was not relevant for them to know the answer. Navarro is making every attempt to shut down the defense before they start.

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from Shift Washington

Jay Inslee: The Most Uninterested Guy in the World
Look, nobody is going to accuse Gov. Jay Inslee of being the hardest-working man around. His frequent late arrivals to the office and large blocks of “workout time” on his calendar attest to that. But maybe Inslee might want to start putting a little more work into his work week. His accomplishments this year in the Legislature could charitably be described as “light.”

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from The Spokesman-Review

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from Zero Hedge
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

'Aspiring Pastor' Hillary Goes From Seances And SpiritCooks To Bible Thumping
According to deep state’s department of brand management & optics, Atlantic division, the ever-pious Hillary Clinton wants to become a pastor – a move which is sure to bring religious rust-belt swing voters back to the blue side for any future political endeavors. While Hillary has apparently been in the closet for decades over her desire to preach, she turned heads in the 90’s when investigative journalist Bob Woodward wrote in his book ‘The Choice,” that Clinton “held imaginary conversations with Eleanor Roosevelt and Mahatma Ghandi as therapeutic release.” When an advisor suggested that she communicate with Jesus Christ, she declined, saying it would be “too personal.”

US "Confirms" N.Korea Has ICBM-Ready Nuclear Warheads
First thing this morning we reported that according to a 500-page report by the Japanese Defense Ministry, North Korea may now be in possession of a miniature nuclear warhead. That said, the report did not move the market because the Japanese report was largely inconclusive and did not claim with certainty that this is the case. Now, moments ago, the exact same narrative escalated when the WaPo echoed what Japan said, only it now "confirms" that North Korea has successfully produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead that can fit inside its missiles, "crossing a key threshold on the path to becoming a full-fledged nuclear power, U.S. intelligence officials have concluded in a confidential assessment."

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