________
________
________
from CNN
Mueller's report looks bad for Obama
The partisan warfare over the Mueller report will rage, but one thing cannot be denied: Former President Barack Obama looks just plain bad. On his watch, the Russians meddled in our democracy while his administration did nothing about it. The Mueller report flatly states that Russia began interfering in American democracy in 2014. Over the next couple of years, the effort blossomed into a robust attempt to interfere in our 2016 presidential election. The Obama administration knew this was going on and yet did nothing. In 2016, Obama's National Security Adviser Susan Rice told her staff to "stand down" and "knock it off" as they drew up plans to "strike back" against the Russians, according to an account from Michael Isikoff and David Corn in their book "Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump".
________
from Competitive Enterprise Institute
On Wednesday, I submitted comments on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal to rescind its justification for the 2012 Mercury Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule. MATS established first-ever maximum achievable control technology (MACT) standards for mercury and other hazardous air pollutant (HAP) emissions from coal- and oil-fueled power plants. MATS is among the most expensive regulations in the history of the Clean Air Act. The Edison Electric Institute, which supports the rule, estimates that since 2012, owners and operators of coal and oil power plants have spent more than $18 billion to comply. The EPA is not proposing to remove power plants from the list of stationary sources subject to MACT standards, nor to rescind the MATS rule or its emission standards. Rather, the agency proposes to revoke its determination, first made in 2000 and later affirmed in 2012 and 2016, that MACT regulation of power plants is “appropriate and necessary.” The EPA now believes such regulation is not “appropriate” because the costs are out of all proportion to the benefits.
Blocking the T-Mobile-Sprint Merger: Competition, Rent-Seeking, and Uncertainty
Nationwide 5G networks are coming. They will expand possibilities for everything from smartphone applications to GPS to streaming video, and will enable new technologies that have not yet been invented. President Trump wants the U.S. to be a world leader in 5G adoption. But his Justice Department’s antitrust division might hinder that goal by blocking the proposed merger between Sprint and T-Mobile. The antitrust division’s rationale is that the deal would decrease the number of major wireless carriers from four to three. But my colleague Jessica Melugin argues that without the merger, the number of carriers might actually be two: “T-Mobile and Sprint will [need to] be able to combine their resources [in order to] stay competitive with Verizon and AT&T, and hopefully help the mobile communications industry in the United States win the race to build the first 5G network.” Together, they might survive. Apart, both might go under.
________
from Conciliar Post
Last month I wrote a post called the “The Necessity of Contingency.” It was largely a response to an earlier post by AJ, though I also addressed some other issues surrounding the label of “Calvinism.” My basic argument, however, was that Reformed theology, properly understood, does not espouse determinism, and that the idea of real contingencies are essential to the Reformed conception of God’s sovereignty and man’s freedom.
________
Nonprofit Organization in Stanford, California
“Hail Caesar!” Again And Again
By his own account, Julius Caesar was a brilliant soldier, and his masterful prose obscures his later misrule. Brutus didn’t draw his dagger because he was having a bad-toga day. In his time, Caesar set the pattern for repeated—all but countless—military moves against the Roman state and, consequently, rule by ill-suited emperors, with here and there a blood-sustained triumvirate or a doomed duopoly inserted between one-man reigns. The Roman Empire was not destroyed by barbarians, but by soldiers determined to fix it. That pattern may be Rome’s most-relevant legacy.
________
from HumanProgress.org Education Website
Heroes of Progress, Pt. 16: Abel Wolman and Linn Enslow
Introducing the men who discovered how to safely use chlorine to purify water, Abel Wolman and Linn Enslow.
________
from Intellectual Takeout
Nonprofit Organization in Bloomington, Minnesota
Larger Schools May Be Driving Teen Suicide Rates Higher
Suicide was the second leading cause of death for teens in 2016, and the teen suicide rate jumped 70 percent over the previous ten years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There are many reasons one could find for the nation’s increased teen suicide rate. These include the decline of religion and community, the increasing number of broken homes and the lack of family support, and the harsh and divisive community substitute that many teens turn to through social media. But there’s another possibility many of us overlook: school size.
Larger Schools May Be Driving Teen Suicide Rates Higher
Suicide was the second leading cause of death for teens in 2016, and the teen suicide rate jumped 70 percent over the previous ten years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There are many reasons one could find for the nation’s increased teen suicide rate. These include the decline of religion and community, the increasing number of broken homes and the lack of family support, and the harsh and divisive community substitute that many teens turn to through social media. But there’s another possibility many of us overlook: school size.
________
from Media Research Center (MRC)
(& CNSNews.com & NewsBusters) RIGHT BIAS, MIXED
nonprofit media watchdog for politically conservative content analysis based in Reston, Virginia
Tina Fey Contradicts Her Criticism of SNL's 'Ugly Political Climate' by Admitting Not Wanting to be On-Camera with Sarah Palin
The Hollywood Communistic Cult is so full of hypocrites that it begs the question of whether they — people whose job it is to literally persuade everyone that they’re someone they’re not — recognize the word “hypocrite” anymore. It’s almost as if they swear by the mantra of, ‘Do as I say, not as I do.’ Former Saturday Night Live (SNL) writer and cast member Tina Fey did an interview earlier this week with podcaster David Tennant, according to an article by The Hollywood Reporter, in which she claimed that she’s “glad” and “relieved” that she’s not on SNL anymore because “culture” and the “political climate” are so “ugly.” The problem for Fey comes in later in the interview when the topic of her portrayal of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin came up. While Fey was critical of the current political climate affecting her former show, she intimated that she didn’t want to be on camera at the same sketch, at the same time as Palin when she visited SNL during the 2008 election cycle.
(& CNSNews.com & NewsBusters) RIGHT BIAS, MIXED
nonprofit media watchdog for politically conservative content analysis based in Reston, Virginia
Tina Fey Contradicts Her Criticism of SNL's 'Ugly Political Climate' by Admitting Not Wanting to be On-Camera with Sarah Palin
The Hollywood Communistic Cult is so full of hypocrites that it begs the question of whether they — people whose job it is to literally persuade everyone that they’re someone they’re not — recognize the word “hypocrite” anymore. It’s almost as if they swear by the mantra of, ‘Do as I say, not as I do.’ Former Saturday Night Live (SNL) writer and cast member Tina Fey did an interview earlier this week with podcaster David Tennant, according to an article by The Hollywood Reporter, in which she claimed that she’s “glad” and “relieved” that she’s not on SNL anymore because “culture” and the “political climate” are so “ugly.” The problem for Fey comes in later in the interview when the topic of her portrayal of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin came up. While Fey was critical of the current political climate affecting her former show, she intimated that she didn’t want to be on camera at the same sketch, at the same time as Palin when she visited SNL during the 2008 election cycle.
________
from Mises Institute
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED
Hysteria Over School Safety Won't Keep Us Safe
The #NeverAgain movement that arose after last year’s Parkland shootings ignores how government officials cannot be trusted to behave honestly or responsibly to save student lives.
from Mises Institute
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED
Hysteria Over School Safety Won't Keep Us Safe
The #NeverAgain movement that arose after last year’s Parkland shootings ignores how government officials cannot be trusted to behave honestly or responsibly to save student lives.
________
Putin Ally to Ukraine's Probable New Leader: Do Deal and Get Territory Back
Ukraine's new president could regain control over the separatist-controlled east of his country within months and get cheap gas and major investment from Russia if he repairs ties with Moscow, the Kremlin's closest ally in Ukraine said. Viktor Medvedchuk, a prominent figure in Ukraine's Russia-leaning opposition, outlined the prospect in an interview before a presidential election runoff in Ukraine on Sunday which polls show political novice Volodymyr Zelenskiy should easily win. If pro-Russian separatists handed Donbass back to Ukrainian government control, some EU countries have suggested they would be ready to lift sanctions on Russia, though other countries only favor sanctions relief if Moscow returns Crimea as well.
from The Moscow Times (Russia)
Putin Ally to Ukraine's Probable New Leader: Do Deal and Get Territory Back
Ukraine's new president could regain control over the separatist-controlled east of his country within months and get cheap gas and major investment from Russia if he repairs ties with Moscow, the Kremlin's closest ally in Ukraine said. Viktor Medvedchuk, a prominent figure in Ukraine's Russia-leaning opposition, outlined the prospect in an interview before a presidential election runoff in Ukraine on Sunday which polls show political novice Volodymyr Zelenskiy should easily win. If pro-Russian separatists handed Donbass back to Ukrainian government control, some EU countries have suggested they would be ready to lift sanctions on Russia, though other countries only favor sanctions relief if Moscow returns Crimea as well.
________
from Orthodox Christianity – orthochristian.com
Religious Organization in Moscow, Russia
Although the outgoing Ukrainian government is continuing its practice of actively persecuting the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the seized churches will be returned to the Church and the radicals who seize them will be brought to justice, People’s Deputy Vadim Novinsky of the Opposition Bloc is sure. The practice of physically seizing churches, with falsified re-registered church statutes, continues especially in the western Ukraine, Novinsky noted in recent televised comments.
________
from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
Shawn Vestal: Years of citizen effort has brought Expo ’74 butterfly back to Riverfront Park
The butterflies are back. One of them, anyway. For the first time in decades, a steel-framed butterfly towers above the north-bank entrance to Riverfront Park, near the Flour Mill and Spokane Arena where Mallon Avenue curves north onto Howard Street. In a few days, wings of lilac fabric will be attached, which should allow the butterfly to lift and spin and flutter in the wind, and the return of the Lilac Gate – the name of that butterfly-marked entrance during Expo ’74 – will be complete.
________
Shawn Vestal: Years of citizen effort has brought Expo ’74 butterfly back to Riverfront Park
The butterflies are back. One of them, anyway. For the first time in decades, a steel-framed butterfly towers above the north-bank entrance to Riverfront Park, near the Flour Mill and Spokane Arena where Mallon Avenue curves north onto Howard Street. In a few days, wings of lilac fabric will be attached, which should allow the butterfly to lift and spin and flutter in the wind, and the return of the Lilac Gate – the name of that butterfly-marked entrance during Expo ’74 – will be complete.
________
No comments:
Post a Comment