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Saturday, July 21, 2018

New Jersey dad infected with flesh-eating bacteria while crabbing to lose fingers, some toes

A New Jersey father who contracted a flesh-eating bacteria while crabbing at Matt’s Landing in Maurice River in early July will reportedly need to have his fingers and some toes amputated in order to prevent the spread of infection — and his family hopes the loss of body parts ends there.

Angel Perez, 60, has remained in critical condition at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, ever since he started experiencing symptoms after his July 2 crabbing trip. A day after being on the water, Perez noticed his skin was blistering and all four limbs had begun to swell and change color.

Doctors believe Vibrio bacteria, which is often found in warmer waters where the river meets the sea, is behind the aggressive infection. And it's even more dangerous for Perez, who has a weakened immune system due to Parkinson’s disease.

So far, both Perez and his family have been staying positive.

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http://www.foxnews.com/health/2018/07/19/new-jersey-dad-infected-with-flesh-eating-bacteria-while-crabbing-to-lose-fingers-some-toes.html

Groups Linked to George Soros Behind Campaign to Repeal Trump Tax Cuts

Left-wing financier George Soros figures prominently in a campaign by progressives to repeal the Trump tax cuts, according to a review of the campaign’s allied organizations and their tax records by The Daily Signal.

The campaign, called “Not One Penny,” first came together almost a year ago with what The Washington Post reported was “a seven-figure ad buy in eight Republican-held congressional districts.”

All of the districts, the Post reported, include “large numbers of white voters without college degrees, who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 but have not historically been passionate about tax cuts.”

The “direct action and activism” of the Not One Penny campaign, the Post reported, closely model the Tax March held April 15, 2017, and successful efforts to block repeal of Obamacare in the Senate.

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Concealed Carry Holder Vet Shoots Attacking Pit Bull, Saves His Service Dog

A Fernandina Beach, Florida veteran used his concealed-carry weapon to shoot and kill a pit bull that was attacking his service dog Wednesday morning.

“It was self-defense pure and simple,” Jim Strickland told First Coast News. “That dog would have killed my dog. No question.”

Strickland and his wife had taken their dog, Betty Boop, to the Fernandina Beach Animal Clinic get its nails cut. While his wife went inside the clinic to check in, Strickland took his dog to a wooded area for a “little break.”

“[The other dog] ran 35 feet across a parking lot to the wooded area where Boop and I were taking a little break, and he attacked her,” said Strickland.

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Brian Griffiths: Jealous breaks the mold for Maryland Democrats, but ultimately will fail

Maryland voters are about to experience a once in a generation election this fall.

When the Maryland Democratic Party nominated Ben Jealous for governor during the Primary Election on June 26, the Democrats made a break from the past in a number of different ways.

First, the Democratic tradition of choosing the establishment candidate was not followed. For 40 years, the Democratic machine in Maryland made sure that their candidate was the one that survived the primary and the outside candidate lost.

It didn’t matter how they made it happen, from begging William Donald Schaefer to run in 1986 to stop Stephen Sachs to Doug Duncan’s withdrawal from the 2006 race, the machine made it happen. The establishment did what they could to pull Rushern Baker across the line, but Ben Jealous still won.

Second, Democrats eschewed the traditional profile of a Democratic nominee. Over the last 40 years, the Democrats have nominated so-called “good government” liberals. These have been machine politicians that have extensive experience in elected office with pushing typical Maryland Democratic policies that raise your taxes, increase the size of government, and reduce liberty at the margins. From Schaefer to Anthony Brown, this has been their playbook.

Ben Jealous breaks that mold in quite a few ways.

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Trump Slams Interest Rate Hikes, Ignoring Hands-Off Tradition Toward Fed

The Federal Reserve got a rare piece of advice from the president Thursday. The central bank is an independent agency and presidents usually don't comment directly on Fed policy.

But President Trump broke with that tradition, saying in a CNBC interview, "I'm not thrilled" about the Fed's interest rate hikes. "Because we go up, and every time you go up, they want to raise rates again. I don't really — I am not happy about it. But at the same time, I'm letting them do what they feel is best."

Trump also said Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, whom he nominated, is "a very good man."

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Washington, D.C., Is Counting All Its Cats. It Will Take 3 Years And $1.5 Million

Counting cats, much like herding them, is a complicated proposition.

But a coalition of groups in Washington, D.C., is giving it a shot.

PetSmart Charities, the Humane Society, the Humane Rescue Alliance and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute are collaborating on a project called the D.C. Cat Count, which aims to create a more accurate estimate of the city's entire cat population — both feral cats and pet cats.

The project is anticipated to take three years and cost $1.5 million. The groups hope the data will help improve efforts to manage the cat population.

As Jacob Fenston of member station WAMU explains, "cats are controversial. ... felines have long been blamed for killing wildlife like birds and small mammals."

In some cases, as The Washington Post reports, cats threaten protected or endangered species. But in other cases, they can be helpful at reducing pest populations, like rats.

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California Supreme Court Squashes Bid To Split State Into Three

California will be staying in one piece, at least for now, after the state's supreme court ruled that a proposal to divide California into three cannot be placed on the ballot in November.

Tim Draper, a wealthy venture capitalist, has spent years arguing that the Golden State would be better off as several smaller states. He says California is too large to be governed effectively and that splitting up would result in "better decision making and real solutions closer to home." This year, he got enough signatures to put it before voters — although experts said that even if the proposal passed, it would face a range of daunting legal and political hurdles.

Then the Planning and Conservation League (PCL), a nonprofit environmental group in California, filed a lawsuit to block the measure from getting to a vote.

The PCL says the proposal amounts to a change in the state constitution, which must be decided by the Legislature before it goes to voters, The Sacramento Bee reports.

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How Luxury Hotels And Restaurants In Developing Countries Fight Food Waste

If you've never considered what happens to the remnants of the fully loaded plate of enchiladas, chips and salsa you grab from the buffet at an all-inclusive Mexico resort, you might be in for a shock.

Mexico's Velas Vallarta produces a veritable ton of food waste each day, but rather than dumping it into the trash, the Puerto Vallarta resort delivers roughly 700 pounds of it, each morning, to a hog farmer down the road to use as feed.

Much of what doesn't go to the pigs is composted on site and then used to fertilize the resort's verdant gardens. Ultimately, the combo of food waste, leaves, and grass trimmings are returned to the soil, while diverting waste from Mexico's overloaded landfills. Compost is also shared with staff, for use at their homes.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that nearly a quarter of food purchases in hotels and restaurants are simply thrown away. While food waste is a hot topic in the U.S., it's a particular challenge in low-income nations where food is sometimes a scarce resource to begin with. Some resorts are doing their part to address it — even when governmental regulations and a general lack of awareness make that difficult.

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Liberals PUBLICLY CHEER Attack on Teens for Wearing a MAGA HAT

Do you think someone should be punched in the face for wearing a Hillary Clinton t-shirt? Should people who support abortion have drinks thrown on them in restaurants? Should Republicans harass Michelle Obama and her children when they see them in public?

Even though conservatives feel just as strongly about politics as liberals, I would hope the answer to those questions is still “no.” In a country with very divergent political views, we need to be able to live with each other. That means we need places where politics are set aside. That means having a certain amount of tolerance for people with differing views. That means an acceptance that every person who disagrees with you is not a Nazi.

This is a hard concept to grasp for liberals, who seem to be quite literally saying in large numbers that people who openly support Donald Trump deserve to be harassed or even attacked in public.

If you want to see how off the rails the Left has gone on this front, the Kino Jimenez case is a perfect example. Jimenez stole a MAGA hat from a teen at a Whataburger and threw his drink in his face.

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Breaking News: The Trump administration released secret records at the center of a partisan clash over the wiretapping of a former campaign aide

The Trump administration has disclosed a previously top-secret set of documents related to the wiretapping of Carter Page, the onetime Trump campaign adviser who was at the center of highly contentious accusations by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee that the F.B.I. had abused its surveillance powers.

Democrats in February rejected the Republican claims that law enforcement officials had improperly obtained the warrant, accusing them of putting out misinformation to defend President Trump and sow doubts about the origin of the Russia investigation. But even as Republicans and Democrats issued dueling memos characterizing the materials underlying the surveillance of Mr. Page, the public had no access to the records.

Late on Friday, those materials — an October 2016 application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to wiretap Mr. Page, along with several renewal applications — were released to The New York Times and several other news organizations that had filed Freedom of Information Act lawsuits to obtain them.

Opinion: One FBI text message in Russia probe that should alarm every American

By John Solomon
Opinion Contributor

Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, the reported FBI lovebirds, are the poster children for the next “Don’t Text and Investigate” public service ads airing soon at an FBI office near you.

Their extraordinary texting affair on their government phones has given the FBI a black eye, laying bare a raw political bias brought into the workplace that agents are supposed to check at the door when they strap on their guns and badges.

It is no longer in dispute that they held animus for Donald Trump, who was a subject of their Russia probe, or that they openly discussed using the powers of their office to “stop” Trumpfrom becoming president. The only question is whether any official acts they took in the Russia collusion probe were driven by those sentiments.

The Justice Department’s inspector general is endeavoring to answer that question.

For any American who wants an answer sooner, there are just five words, among the thousands of suggestive texts Page and Strzok exchanged, that you should read.

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Trump: ‘Ready to go’ with $500 billion in tariffs on China

President Trump in an interview that aired Friday said that he’s “ready to go” with $500 billion in tariffs on China after already slapping the country with a series of tariffs.

Trump said in an interview with CNBC that the U.S. is “down a tremendous amount” in terms of trade with China saying that China “can’t match us because otherwise we’re always going to be behind the 8-ball.”

“I’m not doing this for politics. I’m doing this to do this right thing for our country. We have been ripped off by China for a long time and I told that to President Xi,” Trump said.

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How Socialism Can Ruin Your Life

“The startling truth is that nearly all of human progress has taken place in the last three hundred years (and for many of the billions of non-Westerners lifted out of crushing poverty thanks to capitalism, it’s happened in the last thirty years)….Capitalism is the most cooperative system ever created for the peaceful improvement of peoples’ lives. It has only a single fatal flaw: It doesn’t feel like it. The market system is so good at getting people—from all over the world—to work together that we barely notice how much we’re cooperating.” – Jonah Goldberg

“There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” – Anonymous

In America, especially on the Left, socialism has begun to rehabilitate its well-deserved horrible reputation. In a poll last year, 37 percent of all Americans and 54 percent of liberals preferred socialism to capitalism. Another poll from last year had 44 percent of millennials saying they prefer to live in a socialist society while only 42 percent prefer to live in a capitalist society.

Given that America became the most successful economy in the world because of capitalism and because there are many horror stories about socialist countries, it may be hard for some people to understand why socialism would have any appeal. However, there are three factors you have to consider.
1. Socialism SOUNDS really good

Socialists promise all sorts of “free” things, but never discuss the true cost. Capitalism is Microsoft, Apple, and Exxon. Socialism is Santa Claus.

2. The successes of capitalism are taken for granted

We live in the richest, most successful, most prosperous society in human history and like the trust-fund kid who grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth, we assume this is just HOW IT IS and assume that becoming a socialist nation wouldn’t change it. (Spoiler Alert: It would.)
3. There are no purely capitalist or socialist economies

The 30 Best Thomas Sowell Quotes

Thomas Sowell is a prolific author and brilliant economist and he is about as good at distilling conservative wisdom into pithy quotes as anyone you will ever read. If you think there’s not enough extraordinary brilliance left in the world, let me introduce you to Thomas Sowell, one of the greatest minds of our generation….

30. “The problem isn’t that Johnny can’t read. The problem isn’t even that Johnny can’t think. The problem is that Johnny doesn’t know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling.”

29. “One of the consequences of such notions as ‘entitlements’ is that people who have contributed nothing to society feel that society owes them something, apparently just for being nice enough to grace us with their presence.”

28. “Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late.”

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25 UFO Sightings Reported In Maryland During 2018 So Far

Here's where you're most likely to see E.T.'s shiny ride. Did you see any of these UFOs in Maryland skies?

ANNAPOLIS, MD —
UFOs and the notion that aliens from another galaxy could be sending emissaries to check things out on planet Earth have captivated Americans for decades, including in Maryland. The state ranks 44th in the country for unidentified flying object sightings, according to a new report. The last sighting in Maryland was July 11 in Silver Spring, where someone reported seeing a dancing light in the sky.

From 2001-2015 there have been 1,646 total UFO sightings in Maryland, according to the financial news and opinion site 24/7 Wall St. That's 27.4 sightings per 100,000 people. According to the National UFO Reporting Center, there have been 25 reported UFO sightings so far in Maryland this year.

Sightings were reported in Catonsville, Frederick, Clarksburg, Mechanicsville, North East, Manchester, Butler, Halethorpe, Owings, Germantown, Annapolis, Lutherville-Timonium, Hagerstown, Nottingham, Waldorf, Williamsport, Bel Air and Sharptown so far this year.

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Democrats Don't Fear Brett Kavanaugh. They Fear the Constitution.

Sure, some of the anger aimed at President Donald Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court is partisan bluster meant to placate the activist base.

Still, most Democrats were going to get hysterical about any pick, because any conservative pick was going to take the Constitution far too literally for their liking.

For those who rely on the administrative state and coercion as a policy tool—forcing people to join political organizations, forcing them to support abortion, forcing them to subsidize socially progressive sacraments, forcing them to create products that undermine their faith, and so on—that’s a big problem.

Some, such as former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, indulged in the histrionic rhetoric we’ve come to expect in the Trump era, claiming that Kavanaugh would “threaten the lives of millions of Americans for decades to come.” But almost none of the objections coming from leading Democrats have been even ostensibly about Kavanaugh’s qualifications as a jurist or, for that matter, his interpretation of the Constitution.

“Specifically,” prospective presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., argued, “as a replacement for Justice Anthony Kennedy, his nomination presents an existential threat to the health care of hundreds of millions of Americans.” Surely, the former attorney general of California comprehends that “health care” is not a constitutional right but rather a policy concern whose contours are still being debated by lawmakers—and probably will be for decades.

What Harris probably meant is that Kavanaugh is an existential threat to the practice of forcing Americans to buy products in the private marketplace against their will. Kavanaugh, incidentally, upheld Obamacare as an appellate judge for jurisdictional reasons even though it displeased him on policy grounds. (He wrote that the law is without “principled limit.”) He did this because he has far more reverence for the law than Harris does.

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Will Insurance Be The Next Anti-Gun Weapon Deployed?

Anti-gunners are getting creative. This year, they’ve used financial institutions to try and undermine the Second Amendment. After all, if they refuse to do business with any gun manufacturer or gun store, they can effectively destroy the gun culture without the first bit of legislation.

Now, it seems they might be deploying another weapon. Insurance.

Kristen Moore is an associate professor of Mathematics at the University of Michigan. She co-authored a piece for The Actuary Magazine exploring how the insurance industry treats the risk of firearms.

“Actuaries use math, statistics, and finance to figure out the cost today of uncertain risky things in the future,” explained Moore.

So, if you apply for health insurance, an actuary will assess your behaviors – like whether you exercise, are overweight, or engage in risky sports like rock climbing – to determine the likelihood and cost of you getting sick.

Yet, despite the potential risks of injury and death from firearms, Moore found very little evidence that insurance companies consider gun ownership when determining the cost of coverage.

“There’s not a lot in the literature about how firearm risk compares to scuba diving or private aviation,” said Moore. “To the best of my knowledge, it has not been studied.”

That doesn’t mean that gun ownership is risk free.

According to Moore’s research, death rates are higher for gun owners than they are for scuba divers. In fact, Moore found that gun owners would see changes in several kinds of insurance policies, including life, health, homeowners, commercial liability, and disability, if actuaries calculated gun ownership risk.

Of course, her research shows that.

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Trump: Biden Would Be My 'Dream' Opponent in 2020

President Donald Trump said in an interview aired Thursday morning that his "dream" opponent in 2020 would be former Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden, who considered running for president in the 2016 election, recently said he would decide if he will run in 2020 by January 2019.

CBS News anchor Jeff Glor asked Trump about a few potential Democratic candidates, including Biden, he could end up facing in 2020. Trump said Biden would not be able to amount to much of a challenger on his own and only succeeded at becoming vice president because of his running mate, President Barack Obama.

"Let me ask you about 2020. Who do you think your Democratic opponent will be?" Glor said. "Joe Biden says he'll make a decision by January. Tough opponent?"

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Firing a Bad Federal Employee May Get a Little Easier

Holding federal employees accountable is essentially impossible. They have the highest job security of any sector of the economy. In fact, out of a federal non-military workforce of 2.1 million, only 11,046 persons—or 0.5 percent—were fired in 2017.

One reason for this is the cumbersome process managers must endure to fire a single employee. Multiple appeals involving as many as four separate agencies, as well as union representatives, are not uncommon. This process can last years even in the most cut-and-dry cases.

Faced with such obstacles, federal managers often let misconduct go unaddressed.

But two bills moving through Congress now would make it much easier for federal managers to take action when an employee is simply not getting the job done. The Modern Employment Reform, Improvement, and Transformation (MERIT) Act and the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) Reauthorization Act would strip away several layers of red tape that insulate federal employees from accountability.

How 2 Bills Would Fix the Problem

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The Media Finds Conservative Leaders Guilty Until Proven Innocent

First it was Republican Congressman Jim Jordan. Now it’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

These men are considered guilty by association for being in proximity of wrongdoing that took place almost 30 years ago.

Allegedly, Jordan took no action as a young assistant wrestling coach regarding sexual misconduct of the team’s doctor. And Kavanaugh was a law clerk for a judge later accused of sexual harassment.

There will be questions to Kavanaugh during his confirmations hearings, which will relegate these absurd insinuations to the trash where they belong. But Jordan is an influential conservative congressman, and he is being hurt.


Why is it so easy for the media to inflict damage at what appears to be so little cost to them?

I’m reminded of the Duke University lacrosse team rape-case fiasco in 2006, where a corrupt prosecutor with an agenda and an all too willing left-wing press and university administration were ready to convict young men—with no facts.

It was just too beautiful a story for the left: young white athletes raping a black woman that they hired to strip at their team party house.

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Female Colleagues Defend Kavanaugh Against Feminist Group’s ‘Smear’

Former female colleagues and employees of federal Judge Brett Kavanaugh are defending him against an attack by a liberal feminist group calling for an investigation of whether he knew about the bad behavior of a former boss.

In the early 1990s, Kavanaugh—now President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court seat of retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy—clerked for 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Alex Kozinski. Kozinski retired in December after 15 women, including former clerks and another judge, made sexual harassment allegations against him.

In May 2006, Kozinski spoke in support of Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation for a judgeship on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The liberal group UltraViolet demanded that the Senate Judiciary Committee investigate what Kavanaugh might have known about Kozinski more than 25 years ago.


“Judge Kozinski’s office had a long history of being a toxic and dangerous environment for women,” Karin Roland, chief campaigns officer for UltraViolet, said in a statement. “The American public deserves to know what Kavanaugh saw and heard, and if he did witness or hear about any harassment, what he did or could have done to report it.”

Leslie Fahrenkopf Foley, who was a summer extern in Kozinski’s chambers while Kavanaugh served as a law clerk, defended the high court nominee.

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Benghazi Warrior UNLOADS On Hillary After She Scolds White House For Hesitating ‘To Defend A Diplomat’

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday night received a pointed tongue lashing from Benghazi warrior Kris Paronto after Clinton audaciously scolded the White House for not defending a U.S. diplomat to her liking.

Paronto is a former Special Forces officer, a surviving member of a six-man security team who claims he was given a "stand down" order from a top CIA officer following distress calls from the State Department concerning a terrorist attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, as noted by Politico. Four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were murdered during the attack; Hillary Clinton was serving as Secretary of State at the time.

Hillary was reacting to White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders' remarks regarding the president and former U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul. "McFaul has been listed by the Russian government as a person of interest in the Bill Browder/Russia financial scam, and President Trump allegedly told President Putin on Monday that the U.S. would consider sending McFaul and Browder to Moscow for 'questioning,'" reports Real Clear Politics.

"Ambassador [McFaul] is a patriot who has spent his career standing up for America. To see the White House even hesitate to defend a diplomat is deeply troubling," wrote the twice-failed presidential candidate in a tweet.

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Andrew Cuomo throws cash at CBS, NBC to keep late night shows

Gov. Andrew Cuomo promised NBC and CBS tens of millions of dollars’ worth of taxpayer-subsidized incentives to keep the kings of late-night TV in the Big Apple.

And, like many of the jokes by Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert, the money is nothing to laugh at.

CBS scored up to $16 million in tax credits and cash to keep “The Late Show” broadcasting from Manhattan after the May 2015 retirement of longtime host David Letterman.

That included $5 million just to renovate CBS’s Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway at West 53rd Street.

Cuomo claimed the funding from Empire State Development would preserve 200 local jobs.

But CBS has made out like a bandit during late night, thanks in part to President Trump taking office.

Colbert’s relentless jabs at Trump propelled his show ahead of the late-night competition last year after consistently trailing Fallon’s “Tonight Show,” and Colbert holds a 1.2 million-viewer edge in this season’s ratings.

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Trump: 'Obama Was A Patsy For Russia,' And Here's Proof

On Thursday, President Trump announced that he has invited Vladimir Putin to the White House this fall, but made sure to underscore to critics that if things went south, he was willing to punish Russia, as he's already demonstrated. In an interview with CNBC that aired in full Friday, Trump described himself as being "far tougher" on Russia than his predecessors — particularly compared to Barack Obama, who was a "total patsy" in his handling of the aggressive regime.

Speaking with CNBC's Joe Kernen for an interview that aired on "Squawk Box" Friday morning, Trump said if the relationship between the U.S. and Russia doesn't "work out," he'll be Putin's "worst nightmare."

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Kunstler On The Resistance's Displacement-Projection Syndrome

The Resistance sure got a case of the vapors this week over Mr. Trump’s failure to throttle America’s arch-enemy, the murderous thug V. Putin of Russia, onstage in Helsinki, as any genuine Marvel Comix hero is expected to do when facing consummate evil. Instead, the Golden Golem of Greatness voiced some doubts about the veracity of our “intelligence community” — as the shape-shifting Moloch of black ops likes to call itself, as if it were a kindly service organization in Mr. Rogers neighborhood, collecting dimes for victims of childhood cancer.

If I may be frank, the US Intel community looks like a much bigger threat to American life and values than anything Mr. Putin is doing, for instance his alleged “meddling” in US elections. This word, meddling, absolutely pervades the captive Resistance news outlets these days. It has a thrilling vagueness about it, intimating all kinds of dark deeds without specifying anything, as consorting with Satan once did in our history. The reason: the only specific acts associated with this meddling include the disclosure of incriminating emails among the Democratic National Committee leadership, and a tiny gang of Facebook trolls making sport of profoundly idiotic and dysfunctional American electoral politics.

The brief against Russia also contains vague accusations of “aggression.” It is hard to discern what is meant by that — though it apparently warms the heart of American war hawks and their paymasters in the warfare industries. They allege that Russia “stole” Crimea from Ukraine. Consider: Crimea had been a province of Russia since the 1700s. Ukraine itself was a province of the USSR when Nikita Khrushchev put Crimea under Ukraine’s administrative control in 1956, a relationship which became obviously problematic after the breakup of the soviet mega-state in 1990 — and became even more of a problem when the US State Department and our CIA stage-managed a coup against the Russia-leaning Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. Crimea is the site of Russia’s only warm water naval bases. Do you suppose that even an experience American CIA analyst might understand that Russia would under no circumstances give up those assets? Please, grow up.

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Breaking: More Evidence Uncovered Shows Obama Spied on Trump Illegally as Early as 2015

More evidence uncovered that shows that Obama team illegally spied on the Trump team as early as 2015.

As we reported previously, in early June the US Senate released over 500 pages of information related to the Spygate scandal. Hidden in the information were unredacted Strzok – Page texts that show the FBI initiated actions to insert multiple spies in the Trump campaign in December 2015.

Also, according to far left LA Times, Comey stated in March of 2017 under oath that the FBI investigation into the Trump – Russia scandal started in July 2016. But Comey appears to have lied about this.

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Democrats become the party of tax cuts for the rich

This week, the attorneys general of four high-tax Northeastern states, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Maryland, brought a lawsuit against the Treasury Department alleging that a tax provision of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 is unconstitutional. The issue in question is a new $10,000 limit on a taxpayer’s ability to deduct state and local taxes.

Others, such as Joe Henchman at the Tax Foundation, have deconstructed the frivolous natureof this case from a legal perspective. It goes without saying that no state has a “right” for its residents to be able to deduct their state and local taxes on their federal income tax returns. It follows that Congress can provide any such deduction as it pleases, from no deduction whatsoever all the way up to a full deduction for everyone, or any deduction rules in between. The $10,000 limit on the state and local taxes, or SALT, deduction is entirely constitutional and well within Congress’ power to set income tax rules.

What is more interesting about this uphill fight that four blue-state politicos have picked is how it reveals the extent to which the modern Democratic party has come to be dominated by rich, coastal elites. Any reasonable analysis, including by left-of-center tax experts, conclusively demonstrates that uncapping the SALT limit would be a massive tax cut for the rich.

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REPORT: Obama’s Corrupt AG Eric Holder Mulls 2020 Presidential Bid

The Democrats are scrambling to choose a viable candidate to run against President Trump in 2020.

Rumors of Senator Kamala Harris throwing her hat into the 2020 ring have been swirling for over a year as she has been spotted at many high profile Dem fundraisers.

Other names such as Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and even Hillary Clinton have been thrown out there as options.

Eric Holder told reporters in June he was actively considering running and now he’s seriously considering going up against President Trump.

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Joe Bastardi: The Past Is a Reason to Worry About High-Impact East Coast Hurricanes

I am making no secret about my East Coast hurricane worry this year. The more I look at the setup, the more concerned I am that, in spite of lower accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) overall, the East Coast is vulnerable to a major hit.

The history of Rhode Island hurricanes is one that any weather-loving native Rhode Islander knows much about. Not everyone from Rhode Island loves the weather, and the generation that experienced 1938, 1944, 1954 and 1960 — just like the generation that went through the 1940s in Florida — is fading away. But after repeated hurricane hits between 1938 and 1960, Rhode Island and Massachusetts built dams for protection. South-facing coastal cities were hit by repeated storm surges that resulted in devastation. Of course, if you’re unaware of this, or chose to ignore it, you have a different perspective and you are vulnerable to claims that it’s worse now than ever before.

There are no words to describe the weather in the 1930s in this country. The nation’s midsection had sustained heat and drought summer after summer, which has never been matched again decadally The attacks from the tropics and the legendary cold that visited at times set up extreme swings that, if not for my study of the past, I would not have believed could even happen. As far as the 1938 hurricane is concerned, you have to read about it to believe it.

Obviously, things were worse then. But it wasn’t only 1938. As mentioned above, there was so much fear (and rightfully so) that man was forced to adapt. But you never can beat nature. You may stop her in one place, but she will show up in another. I am not going to deal here with the agenda-driven use of events we see today. Instead, I will simply remind the reader of this: If what happened before happens again, there will be trouble.Moreover, if it happened before, why can’t it be even a bit worse due to natural variation?

Providence, Rhode Island, is now “protected” from the surge by a dam. I wrote in 2004 on how the ports of Wilmington and Philadephia could suffer if an Isabel (2003) struck just 150 miles further up the coast.

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Houston man shoots would-be intruder to protect wife

Police say a Houston man shot one of two would-be home intruders who grabbed his wife's purse in the driveway of their home and was trying to force her inside.

Police Lt. Larry Crowson said the man heard a commotion going on outside and then heard his wife screaming.

He grabbed his gun as the men were holding the woman at gunpoint and witnessed her being attack right outside the front door to their home in southeast Houston on Tuesday night.

The husband confronted the intruders outside as they tried to push and drag his wife into the house.

There was an exchange of gunfire and one of the suspects was shot in the head.

The man is now in serious condition in hospital and has been taken into surgery. Authorities say the suspect is 22-years-old.

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Give Trump credit for this one thing he refused to do

Donald Trump may have drawn hundreds of thousands of demonstrators; he may have made a cardinal error by attacking British leader Theresa May before he met her. He may have thought Ireland was in the UK and Scotland was not.

But he got one important thing right on his visit to Britain. He refused to bow his head when meeting the Queen, and Melania did not curtsey.

Call me old fashioned, but I believe in this Republic and what it stands for -- equality for all. Our constitution was written so that foreign kings like George 111 would never hold sway over our land.

That means no bowing and scraping to monarchs.

The British tabloids of course got their knickers in a twist. They explained the rules and what actually happened.

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Wells Fargo Caught In Yet Another Scandal

Given the seemingly unceasing stream of scandal that has flowed out of Warren Buffett's favorite bank, Wells Fargo, it's hardly surprising that after doing everything from illegally repossessing the cars of American soldiers to fraudulently "cross-selling" credit cards and other products to millions of customers, the bank is now being called out for adding opaque products to the accounts of hundreds of thousands of customers - for services like pet insurance and legal services - without first explaining how to use them.

And in the latest sign that Trump appointee Mick Mulvaney is keeping the pressure on, the CFPB is investigating how Wells collected fees for these so-called "add-on products", and recently prompted it to refund millions of dollars to customers. News of the bank's latest scandal comes just days after Wells took a $619 million charge in the second quarter to refund customers for overcharging in its foreign-exchange, wealth management and auto- and mortgage-lending units. The bank also agreed to a $1 billion settlement with the CFPB in April - the largest ever levied by the agency - over its failure to manage risk.

Unsurprisingly, the bank has been aware of these issues for some time:

Wells Fargo has known there could be problems with add-on products for some time. The bank received a consent order from the OCC focusing on add-on products in June 2015, according to people familiar with the matter. Other large U.S. banks, including Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. , paid more than $700 million each in regulatory settlements related to add-on products in 2015 and 2014, respectively.

Wells Fargo disclosed in an August 2017 securities filing that it was reviewing add-on products, such as identity theft and debt-protection products, and said it had "begun remediation efforts where we have identified impacted customers."

The add-on product issues are in some ways similar to problems Wells Fargo has had with so-called aftermarket products sold to auto-loan customers through third-party firms.

The bank disclosed in May remediations and cash adjustments for improper charges to auto-loan customers have risen to around $188 million. All told, the refunds related to add-on products could exceed that amount, according to people familiar with the matter.

In 2017 the bank hired Ernst & Young to review around 15 to 20 products out of the roughly 85 different add-on products Wells Fargo offered, some of the people said. The firm examined the level of customer complaints related to products, claim levels, the ease with which coverage could be started and stopped and their transparency, one of the people said.

Some add-on products—certain types of homeowners insurance or auto insurance—were deemed appropriate, the people said. Others, like pet insurance or products related to home warranties, fell into a gray area, the people added.

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WashPost: First Va. Resident Dies From Flesh-Eating Vibrio

A Virginia resident has died after becoming infected with a flesh-eating Vibrio bacteria, the first such fatality this year, The Washington Post reported.

The state's Department of Health officials did not release the person's name, or any other details about the death, but said it occurred in the department's eastern region, which includes Hampton Roads, the Post reported.

Twenty-three people in Virginia have contracted illnesses tied to Vibrio, but the fatality is the first this year in the state, the Post reported.

According to the Post, Vibrio is a naturally occurring bacteria found in brackish or warm salt waters.

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Corn Hole Tournaments Coming Soon To OC Billiards @ Trader Lee's

Darts, Pool Tables, Live Music and now Corn Hole. Come join us for a great time. Rt. 50 & Rt. 611 in West Ocean City.

Woman Charged With Assault On Three Boys In Play Area

OCEAN CITY — A Keedysville, Md. woman has been formally charged after allegedly assaulting three young boys playing cornhole in a restaurant play area earlier this month.

Brooke Ann Spiker, 23, was charged with three counts of assault on three young boys, including two 9-year-old twins and a 6-year-old, on Thursday, July 5. After police interviewed the alleged victims’ mothers and reviewed surveillance video from the restaurant, a warrant was issued last Saturday for Spiker, who has been charged with three counts of second-degree assault stemming from the incident.

Around 7:55 p.m. on July 5, Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) officers were dispatched to the restaurant at 82ndStreet for a reported assault that had occurred. OCPD Communications alerted the responding officers a member of the victims’ family was attempting to follow the suspect, later identified as Spiker, through an adjacent neighborhood.

Upon arrival, OCPD officers met with the victims’ mother, who said her sons were back at the restaurant with friends and that she and her husband were following the suspects so they did not get away. The victims’ mother told police a witness came up to her in the restaurant and told her a woman, later identified as Spiker, was inappropriately touching her children and assaulting them at the cornhole game in the play area.

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240% spike in young adults dying of alcohol-related liver disease

Young adults are drinking themselves to death by causing irreversible damage to their livers, a new study has found.

Researchers say that deaths due to cirrhosis - or damage that leads to scarring of the liver or liver failure - increased across the US by 65 percent since 1999.

The team, from the University of Michigan Medicine, were shocked to find that the biggest increase was among 25-to-34-year-olds, rising 10 percent every year - an overall 240 percent increase.

They admitted their findings are way beyond what they expected and are calling upon lawmakers to implement policy changes - such as rising the minimum price ofalcohol - that might help drive down the staggering number.

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Wicomico Closes In On New Animal Control Ordinance

SALISBURY – An animal control ordinance more than a year in the making will go before the county council for introduction.

In a work session on Tuesday, the Wicomico County Council concluded a months-long discussion on a new animal control ordinance.

In years past, the county established a Dog Ordinance Review Committee after a dog mauled and injured a young man in Willards. Committee members at the time were tasked with providing recourse and rules that would protect residents from further dog attacks. However, when 300 neglected dogs were found on a Wicomico County farm in 2016, the council identified the need to address animal rights. To that end, the Animal Ordinance Review Committee was formed.

Since last March, the committee has worked closely with council staff to draft an ordinance that would better promote the safety and welfare of Wicomico County citizens and domestic animals. After more than a year of discussions and amendments, that ordinance will now be brought before the county council for introduction.

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The Left Is Undermining the Legitimacy of Elections

RUSH: You know, in addition to all of the stuff going on that the Democrats are trying to do to paralyze Trump and his presidency and to disqualify it, to cast aspersions and clouds over it, and in the process really do great damage to the overall integrity, do you realize, as far as many Americans are concerned, every election going forward is now gonna be tainted, depending on who wins and loses it?

If the Democrats win, everything’s gonna be fine, you’ll never hear a word about tainted elections. In fact, the next time the Democrats win the House or win the Senate, pray tell the White House, you’re probably gonna hear one of two things. “Yeah, the Russians were still trying to help the Republicans, but we found out about it this time, and we were able to overcome it. And the Russians are gonna be trying in every election. But we Democrats have found a way to beat ’em back. Vote for us. We can control the Russians. We’re not in bed with ’em,” blah, blah.

The other possibility is that the Democrats win an election then that’s gonna be it; there won’t be any talk of the Russians meddling or colluding whatsoever. We won’t even hear a word about it. But when they lose, when they lose, it can’t be because they have been rejected by voters. No, there has to be some nefarious reason. There has to be tampering. There has to be meddling. There has to be collusion. And in the process, they have done a great job of making so many millions of Americans question the integrity of elections now.

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Minnesota inmate's bloody past comes to light after allegedly killing corrections officer

A one-eyed inmate accused of killing a Minnesota corrections officer on this week has a history of violence — though his recent “good behavior” allowed him access to tools and an industrial building where the officer was killed, authorities said Thursday.

Edward Muhammad Johnson, 42, attacked and fatally injured Officer Joseph Gomm with a weapon, authorities said. While authorities didn’t name the type of weapon, reports say it was a hammer. A preliminary autopsy showed Gomm died of blunt force trauma.

Gomm was killed in the prison’s industry building, where eligible prisoners can participate in welding and carpentry programs, said Department of Corrections Commissioner Tom Roy. Johnson had access to the building because he hadn’t been disciplined since 2016.

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http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/07/20/minnesota-inmates-bloody-past-comes-to-light-after-allegedly-killing-corrections-officer.html

Rep. Harris Issues Statement on Amendment Authorizing Planting of GMO Seed

WASHINGTON, DC: On July 19, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 6147, the Department of the Interior, Environment, Financial Services, and General Government Appropriations Act for 2019. Included in this legislation is an amendment to authorize the planting of genetically-modified (GMO) seed on National Wildlife Refuge land. Congressman Andy Harris, M.D. (MD-01) issued the following statement in support of this amendment:

“In 2014, the United States Fish & Wildlife Service banned the planting of genetically-modified seed on National Wildlife Refuge land, without scientific cause. The crops planted on NWR lands, like the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Dorchester County, are a key component of the ecosystems in which they are planted, providing cover and food for wildlife. Genetically-modified crops are scientifically safe and more sustainable than non-GMOs. GMO crops are more likely to withstand harsh weather, and are critical to increasing the population of ducks, geese, and other waterfowl inhabiting these lands. I applaud my Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives for reversing the Fish & Wildlife Service’s scientifically unsound policy.”

Rep. Harris Issues Statement on Passage of FY19 Interior Appropriations Bill

WASHINGTON, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 6147, the Department of the Interior, Environment, Financial Services, and General Government Appropriations Act for 2019. Congressman Andy Harris, M.D. (MD-01) made the following statement in support of the bill’s passage:

“Today, the U.S House of Representatives approved $73 million in funding for the Chesapeake Bay Program. This funding allows ongoing Bay cleanup efforts to continue through next year, and will keep the Bay healthy for fisherman, oystermen, crabbers, and recreational activities. This legislation also addresses the proposed 86 offshore wind turbines to be built off the coast of Ocean City, by urging the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to work with other federal agencies, the State of Maryland, and the people of Ocean City to come to a consensus on the wind turbines’ height and distance from the shore before any construction and operations plan (COP) is approved. Offshore wind is a critical issue for the people of Ocean City, and the federal government should not override the will of the local community on this issue. I commend my Republican colleagues in the House for their continued support of the Chesapeake Bay Program, and for their attention to the issue of offshore wind.”

Ron Paul: Secret Government” Responsible For Fanning Russia Hysteria

Says deep state paranoid about its own foreign meddling being revealed

Former Congressman Ron Paul blamed the “secret government” for fanning the flames of hysteria over President Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin.

Asked why the legacy media was so irate with Trump over his confab with the Russian President in Helsinki, Paul said that the hand of the shadow government was at work.

“It’s hard to say, but we usually describe that there is a secret government that likes to control things and most people know what we talk about when we talk about the ‘deep state.’ And they do have a lot of clout, they are very much involved in the media and the leadership of both parties, so both parties and the media are very, very, annoyed with Trump [being so] independent,” said Paul.

The former Congressman also made the point that the deep state is paranoid about how much will be revealed about its own meddling in the affairs of foreign countries if Trump and Putin continue the dialogue.

“I guess it would come out on how much we’ve been involved when we shouldn’t be involved, for instance in Ukraine, and how that occurred,” he said.

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