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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 Asia Times Online
The Turkish president finds himself increasingly at odds with the rest of the world. It is possible that Erdogan has overreached and made too many enemies to handle at one time.
French voters abstained or cast blank ballots more than in any election in almost 50 years. Before the French election, a wide coalition of interests, stretching from Beijing to Washington, feared the consequences of a Marine Le Pen victory,
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from Breitbart
Donald Trump Holds Surprise Meeting with Henry Kissinger on Syria
President Donald Trump met with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, surprising reporters as the meeting was not on the schedule for Wednesday. “We’re talking about Syria and I think that we’re going to do very well with respect to Syria and things are happening that are really, really, really positive,” Trump added. “We’re going to stop the killing and the death.”
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from CNN
After President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, questions immediately arose about the President's motivations for his dismissal -- and for the recent firings of two other then-President Barack Obama-appointees who were in the middle of conducting investigations linked to Trump. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Comey's firing was part of a "deeply troubling pattern from the Trump administration," that appears to be linked to two other high-profile dismissals.
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from CNSNews.com (& MRC & NewsBusters)
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]
Maddow Claims Trump Firing Comey 'Unprecedented', Just Before She Cites Precedent
Leave it to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow to beclown herself right out of the gate last night in describing President Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey.
Maddow Claims Trump Firing Comey 'Unprecedented', Just Before She Cites Precedent
Leave it to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow to beclown herself right out of the gate last night in describing President Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey.
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from EUobserver
EU wrong to block anti-free trade petition, court says
The EU Court of Justice ruled on Wednesday (10 May) that the European Commission lacked legal basis when it refused to register a European citizens' initiative called “Stop TTIP", signed by more than three million people.
What is all the EU-Turkey uproar about?
The official end of Turkey's EU accession negotiations seems not to be a question of 'if', but instead 'when'. Turkish leaders take every opportunity to disregard European norms, values and principles in order to claim Turkey’s singularity, if not superiority. This trend has accelerated since the 15 July 2016 coup attempt, after which the ruling regime happily took the opportunity to suppress all meaningful dissent. Centuries-old anti-Western sentiment in Turkish politics is now riding the wave, and Europe-bashing is the favourite topic of endless Turkish electoral consultations.
US ignites debate on Russia's role in Macron hack
The US said Russia was behind the Macron hack, one cyber expert was less sure, but said German elections and EU journalists were in Moscow's crosshairs.
Macron to present plan for a 'forward marching' Europe
The new French president will meet the German chancellor and other EU leaders to discuss proposals for a "stronger" and more protective Europe.
Trump delays climate decision
The White House said it would take more time to decide if the US should remain part of the Paris climate agreement, while talks are underway in Bonn.
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EU wrong to block anti-free trade petition, court says
The EU Court of Justice ruled on Wednesday (10 May) that the European Commission lacked legal basis when it refused to register a European citizens' initiative called “Stop TTIP", signed by more than three million people.
What is all the EU-Turkey uproar about?
The official end of Turkey's EU accession negotiations seems not to be a question of 'if', but instead 'when'. Turkish leaders take every opportunity to disregard European norms, values and principles in order to claim Turkey’s singularity, if not superiority. This trend has accelerated since the 15 July 2016 coup attempt, after which the ruling regime happily took the opportunity to suppress all meaningful dissent. Centuries-old anti-Western sentiment in Turkish politics is now riding the wave, and Europe-bashing is the favourite topic of endless Turkish electoral consultations.
US ignites debate on Russia's role in Macron hack
The US said Russia was behind the Macron hack, one cyber expert was less sure, but said German elections and EU journalists were in Moscow's crosshairs.
Macron to present plan for a 'forward marching' Europe
The new French president will meet the German chancellor and other EU leaders to discuss proposals for a "stronger" and more protective Europe.
Trump delays climate decision
The White House said it would take more time to decide if the US should remain part of the Paris climate agreement, while talks are underway in Bonn.
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from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]
Don't Fall Into the Low-Growth Trap
Open trade is crucial to economic growth for it gives workers a raise every single day, but of greatest importance, a globalized division of labor increases the odds of the individual specialization that powers productivity and rampant growth.
On the Rio Grande, Commerce Survives by the Honor System
Immigrants, even illegal ones, contribute to the economy in a big way. In the southern corner of the park lies an abandoned health resort that has decayed over time, though the geothermal hot springs remain in use. Along the winding trail that leads to the hot springs, there are crafts for sale made by Mexican artisans and a small jar to collect the money. Nobody attends the booth in the daytime, as it would be illegal for someone to cross the river and enter the country without going through proper channels (in fact, it’s unlikely that these artisans have passports). The jar collects money via the honor system, expecting patrons to contribute based on the price tags affixed to the artisan goods.
How to Get Ahead when You Have Nothing to Offer
The biggest mistakes young people make are focusing way too much on qualifications and accruing the wrong kind of capital. They prioritize the job that will pay them the most money now rather than the one that will open the most doors.
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from Miami Herald
The stench that rises from President Trump’s firing of James Comey is unmistakable, the reek of power abused and justice obstructed.
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from Mises Institute
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]The UK should stop letting itself be blackmailed by the EU, and should simply embrace unilateral free trade. In an address to the German parliament on April 27, Chancellor Angela Merkel had tough words for the British government. The European Union’s most powerful leader told the Bundestag that the United Kingdom, “cannot and will not have the same rights” after it leaves the union. In other words, the British government should expect European leaders to refuse to negotiate and grant total access to the European market.
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from New Statesman
"The leading voice of the British left, since 1913."
Who most deserves to wander lonely as a cloud, in this hopelessly overcrowded land of ours?
When we want to measure the economic activity of a country, we tend to reach for the gross domestic product, or GDP. This may be an imperfect measure, but it does allow us to track where the money comes from for every item bought and sold. It tells us whether we worked to earn it through wages, or whether it came from capital income – including stock dividends, rents and capital gains on assets such as housing. The person who can make a living from his capital income is certainly no average Joe.
from New York Times
Newspaper in New York
A Baffling Brain Defect Is Linked to Gut Bacteria, Scientists Say
Scientists increasingly suspect that the body’s vast community of bacteria — the microbiome — may play a role in the development of a wide variety of diseases, from obesity to perhaps even autism. The new study, published on Wednesday in Nature, is among the first to suggest convincingly that these bacteria may initiate disease in seemingly unrelated organs, and in completely unexpected ways.
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A Baffling Brain Defect Is Linked to Gut Bacteria, Scientists Say
Scientists increasingly suspect that the body’s vast community of bacteria — the microbiome — may play a role in the development of a wide variety of diseases, from obesity to perhaps even autism. The new study, published on Wednesday in Nature, is among the first to suggest convincingly that these bacteria may initiate disease in seemingly unrelated organs, and in completely unexpected ways.
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from Reason Magazine
Washington Is Never Going to Get Healthcare 'Right'
Obamacare was bad, and its replacements look like a dog's breakfast. Americans simply don't want to face the harsh reality that, like any other good or service, health care is finite and must be rationed. If it is not rationed through prices set by the marketplace, it will be rationed through rules set by the bureaucracy.
Here's What Libertarian Legal Scholars Think About Comey's Firing
And why they're worried about what might come next. Did President Trump have the authority to fire James Comey out of the blue like that? What happens next? Is this a constitutional crisis? Some of the nation's top libertarian legal scholars weigh-in and offer their assessment of this whole, wild situation.
Rand Paul Doesn't Want a Special Prosecutor on Russia
"I think a lot of the uproar is concocted," the libertarian senator tells CNN. "There's a lot of hypocrisy going around."
Frustration with Political Correctness Was a Huge Predictor of Whether You Voted for Trump
After party affiliation, nothing pegged Trump voters as well as opposition to P.C. culture. Nowadays, as the right sees it, the left has won the culture war and controls the media, the universities, Hollywood and the education of everyone's children. Many of them think that they are the victims, they are fighting back against powerful and oppressive forces, and their animosities are related to that worldview.
The AHCA Waivers Could Bring the Toxic Politics of Health Care to Every State Capitol
They might not reduce premiums and won’t fix the problems plaguing the individual insurance exchanges, but they will spread the political pain.
After Comey Firing, Congress Gives Up on Checks and Balances
It's time to bring back meaningful Congressional oversight of the executive branch.
Freedom Caucus Republicans Criticize the Obamacare Revamp They Voted for
Justin Amash, Mark Sanford, and a half-dozen others describe AHCA as a "marginal" win that will hopefully be improved in the Senate. All it took for a group of notorious "hardliners" to abandon many of their long-held principles was a little carrot-stick action from Donald J. Trump.
Maybe Donald Trump Isn't Actually a Master Media Manipulator
Donald J. Trump isn't playing 13-dimensional chess; he's playing 13-dimensional 52 card pick-up. When the president reprised his you're-fired shtick last night, this wasn't the outcome he expected.
The Tyranny of 'Reproductive Freedom'
Accommodating religious objections to Obamacare's contraceptive mandate does not violate anyone's rights. A system in which you can force other people to subsidize your choices, even when it means violating their religious convictions, looks a lot more like tyranny than freedom.
Firing the FBI Director Is Not a 'Constitutional Crisis'
Democrats should take a deep breath. Since Donald J. Trump has the legal authority to dismiss the head of the FBI for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason at all, talk of a constitutional crisis is more than a little premature.
Jeff Sessions' Defense of James Comey Contradicts His Justification for Firing Him
Actions by the FBI director that the attorney general recently described as unavoidable are suddenly grounds for dismissal.
from ScienceAlert
Quantum communication is a strange beast, but one of the weirdest proposed forms of it is called counterfactual communication - a type of quantum communication where no particles travel between two recipients. Theoretical physicists have long proposed that such a form of communication would be possible, but now, for the first time, researchers have been able to experimentally achieve it - transferring a black and white bitmap image from one location to another without sending any physical particles.
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from The Spokesman-Review
Spokane family donates 1926 Star sedan to Spokane Community College automotive program
In the winter of 1880, an adventurous 26-year-old named Samuel Leonard Brown left his family’s homestead in rural Iowa and set his sights on Washington Territory. A black and blue 1926 Star sedan, purchased by Palouse homesteader Samuel Leonard Brown and kept in his family for the last nine decades, has been donated to the Spokane Community College automotive program.
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